The Quest for a Jersey

Arrianou, Thessaloniki

Stone Lion

Bits of a stone lion outside the Archaeological Museum.

Today was the day without internet. After sleeping in to a satisfying time this morning, I ventured out into the nice day to pick up a few more chocolate filled croissants and some garbage bags. I knocked on Daniel’s door and asked what he wanted to do given that we had a bit of opportunity to explore. He wanted to go to the museums and a particular sports store, but he needed a few more minutes to get ready so I waited in my room, tidying up a bit given that I have to move out sooner rather than later.

So once we were both ready, we headed down towards the museums which we learned closed at 15:00. It was 14:30 when we got there and on top of that Daniel didn’t have his student paso (which allows free entry). Thinking back, I remember that Sarah told me that the museums closed at 15:00, but of course, I didn’t really think about that until afterwards. So we decided that will have to be something we do next Monday and we headed on towards the store Daniel wanted to visit. It just so happened that this store was past Nenad’s place which meant a 30+ minute walk. Not too much of a problem, but it was starting to rain a bit and I didn’t have a jacket, or anything to protect my camera with other than my regular camera bag, which I doubt is very waterproof. But the rain held to a casual sprinkle and we made it to the store without incident. The reason we were going is that Daniel wanted to buy a football jersey—specifically the one that the Greek team used when they won the World Cup in 2004.

Daniel has informed me that the Greek team won the European Cup, not the World Cup. What do I know about soccer/football?

Unfortunately they only had that particular jersey in extra large and anyone who has met Daniel (or any of the Guatemalans) will know that he is not an extra large person. :) So as to not leave empty handed, he did by a very nice Greek baseball cap. At the register the woman asked us where we were from.

Daniel: “I’m from Guatemala and he is from Canada.”
Cashier: “Ah Canada, that would be why he is so white.”
Me: “Actually it’s more because I’m a computer scientist, but you’re right.”

After all that we headed back towards the city centre and decided to look for a place to eat since we were both quite hungry. We were trying to find a place that had a view of the water, and before long we found a nice taverna that was near the water. We couldn’t really see the water and we were inside, but the place was quite nice. It was also a seafood taverna, which I suspected before even seeing the menu given the location and feel of it. But they still had the requisite meat on the menu in addition to massive amounts of seafood, so we were both able to get something to eat along with sharing greek salad and feta cheese. It was quite a satisfying meal but slightly more expensive than some of the regular tavernas in the downtown area that I’ve been to.

Fast forward in time and we are back closer to home and visiting Intersport to see if they have any of the jerseys in the correct size. They did have it in medium, but apparently that was still too big (must be nice) so we headed back home because we didn’t know of any other sports stores to try. Later we met up to grab a late snack, Daniel mentioned that when he went to take out his trash, he went down to Nik, our favourite fast food place and one of the guys there told him of another store he could try. Long story short, he found the jersey in small so he is pleased. We ended up going down towards the water and finding a nice crepe/sandwich shop where we had some dessert crepes and hot drinks. All in all, a very pleasant day considering I didn’t get online. :) Tomorrow we have an organized trip to some archaeological site which should result in another large batch of photos. Cheers.

Written by Colin Bate