Wow, I'm long overdue for an update, because it's been an eventful few days. On Saturday, Brad and I had a long, somewhat convoluted bus trip to a public beach near Thessaloniki. It was a nice trip, and it involved some very pretty sights, but it also involved a lot of wandering and squinting at bus maps.
(It's funny- Greek people don't read on the bus. In fact, several people have told me that Greeks don't read much, period. I'm a little doubtful about the latter, since there are an awful lot of bookstores around here, but it is true that Greeks don't read on the bus, and I don't know why. )
Anyway, the trip to the beach was followed by a Sunday trip to Vergina, where Phillip of Macedon's tomb still stands, along with several other tombs of unidentified Macedonians. In case you're not familiar with Phillip (When I mentioned the trip to Joe over a distant phone connection he said "Phillip the Mastodon?") he's the father of Alexander the Great. Well, he was the father of Alexander the Great until he was murdered at his daughter's wedding. You can actually see the theatre where the murder happened; there are still two rows of stone seats intact.
Anyway, Phillip was buried with great pomp and circumstance, in a big giant tomb which was inside a tumulus, or a burial mound, that also contained several other tombs. The museum is right inside the tumulus, as a matter of fact, so in order to see all of the elaborate funerary adornments in the museum, you walk on a path straight into the middle of a burial mound.
I didn't actually see Phillip's bones, but I did see the box which held them- it was tiny. Phillip, apparently, was a very small man. The next time someone laughs at my height, I am going to tell them that as a matter of fact, I am taller than Phillip of Macedon.

I had Tuesday morning off this week, and I so I took a long walk through downtown, starting at the White Tower, which is Thessaloniki's Tall Thing With A View. As I've already explained to some of you, I think that pretty much every city has a Tall Thing With A View; in fact, most of them can also be described as Tall Things With Views, High Admission Prices and Long Lines. When I studied abroad in London I did some travelling, and I have a collection of pictures taken from the roofs of these various structures. Of course, the view is never nearly as impressive on film, and so I have a collection of photos of cities that might be London from St. Paul's, or might be Paris from the Eiffel Tower, or might be Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle, or might be a random shot of Detroit that somehow found itself into the picture collection. However, I did take pictures of Thessaloniki from the top of the White Tower, so as soon as I get internet access in my apartment I'll post some of them.
I also went inside Agia Sophia for the first time yesterday, which is quite a beautiful church, named after the one in Istabul. Orthodox churches look very different than other churches- they are obviously much more eastern-looking and often filled with elaborate icons and carvings. I don't have any pictures of Agia Sophia because I wasn't sure if photography was allowed and I didn't want to seem like an obnoxious tourist. Actually, I'm not sure if I was supposed to be wearing a tank top either; I'm not quite sure how strict the dress code is in Orthodox Churches. Of course, Brad tells me that he saw a man in Agia Sofia wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, which makes me feel a little less guilty.
Inside Agia Sophia I entered a small side room and found myself standing in front of an elaborate gold coffin. I don't know who is buried inside it, though there was a small sign in Greek that I was too lazy to decipher. I'll have to do some research on that.