Greece – twoOregonians

Destinations, Greece, Landscape Architecture, Musings

Landscape Architecture Footnotes: First Pier and the Thessaloniki Waterfront

July 29, 2012

Pardon me while I nerd out for a moment. I love being a landscape architect, and I love encountering places around the world where people are truly using and enjoying outdoor space.

And I love learning.

That would be me – loving the oh-so-comfy benches on Thessaloniki’s First Pier

Ahead of our one-day visit to Thessaloniki, Greece, I didn’t read up or investigate. I peeked at a map of the city when booking accommodations and otherwise walked in blind, so perhaps it was the absence of expectation or perhaps the atmosphere of pre-sunset light?

Whatever the case, when Ted and I walked down to the waterfront after dinner, I was absolutely enchanted by the First Pier of the Thessaloniki Port. It’s a little slice of urban paradise projecting out into the harbor, and I joyfully sat in the sunshine, people-watching and observing a successful night in the life of public open space. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Greece

An Untitled Day in Greece

July 26, 2012

Shameful it seemed, booking a single night in Thessaloniki, flying out the following day, relegating a city of history and significance to barely more than a transit stop.

How could one day do it justice?

We’d spent time in Greece before; my mom’s an educator who leads students on academic tours overseas, and Ted and I each chaperoned on occasion, visiting historically significant sites like Delphi, the Lion’s Gate at Mycenae, the amphitheater at Epidaurus, the Acropolis, and charming islands off the Peloponnese.

Too, my great-grandpa Xenophone Tringas immigrated to the United States near the turn of the 20th century, and I’d accompanied extended family members in 2006 to visit his little village of Istiaia on the Greek Island of Evia.

Memories of table wine lasting far into the night…of tangling my feet in the left-right-lefts of Greek dance…of finding my favorite silver and moonstone worry beads in a little shop on Hydra and my chunky amber necklace on a neighboring isle…of stepping foot with grandparents, parents, brothers, and cousins on the same front porch that my great-grandpa knew as a boy…these memories all nagged my spirit: “No, 24 hours will seem shallow by comparison. There’s not enough time to appreciate the place or make worthwhile memories that will live up to the past.”

Wrong again. Continue Reading…