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Northern Greece Road Trip

Flight to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. Thessaloniki receives many European flights, it's a good starting point for travelling in Northern Greece.

Thessaloniki is not necessarily a beautiful city for its sightseeings, but it's an amazing place for food, drinks and witness breathtaking sunsets. There are plenty of places to eat. Everywhere I tasted, the food was simply delicious.

Nevertheless, there are things to see as well in the Thessaloniki. We took a walk to check a few of them, like White Tower of Thessaloniki, probably the most famous landmark in the city. Nowdays a museum, but it used to serve as many things in time, including a prison.

Arch of Galerius is a Roman style arch located in middle of town. It gives a bit of that ancient feel like in Athens.

The church Hagia Sophia of Thessaloniki was modeled after the original Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was restored in the last 1900’s after a fire.

Thessaloniki Waterfront is a beautiful street by the water with generous sidewalk. Plenty of trendy bars and restaurants on the way.

Today we rented a car and headed away from the city of Thessaloniki.

But before that we wanted to check a local market. Kapani Market is the local bazaar style market of Thessaloniki.

Took the car and drove to Meteora to visit the fabulous monasteries perched on mountains. Meteora is probably the most visited spot on Northern Greece as the scenery is simply spectacular.

There are six monasteries in Meteora. All of them are open to the public but each monastery closes on one day of the week, different day each other. On weekends it's easier to visit them all in one day, they are all open. Simply drive from one to another.

Our first monastery was Great Meteoron. It's the largest monastery and there is a lot to explore. There are also museums and art gallery at the spot.

The next one was Holy Trinity. You have to climb many stairs to get to the top, but at the end it's a great great view from the top. You can climb on the rocks for a view even more spectacular. Breathtaking scenery.

Our last monastery visited for the day was Varlaam, which is the second largest monastery. It is considered one of the nicest. It also has a museum about the history of Meteora.

Spent a second night in Meteora.

We checked out and went to see the other monasteries today.

Roussanou is a nunnery. It's very pretty and it also has some nice gardens.

It was the last monastery visited. It's actually the smallest one and maybe the least spectacular, but still nice. We did not visit St. Stephen’s Monastery from the six in Meteora.

We headed then towards Zagori Mountains. But first we stopped in Metsovo. It's a picturesque little village in Northern Greece. We had something to eat and walked the beautiful streets of the town for an hour.

At the end of the day, we arrived in Papigo village. Spent the night here.

We visited Papigo. It's a beautiful small mountain village like are many in this part of Greece. It's charming with its cobblestone square, stoned alleys and Zagorian architecture houses. And the mountains "behind" provide a really beautiful scenery.

We had lunch at Astra Inn, ah, very beautiful and shadowy place to eat.

We then drove to see the famous stone bridges in Epirus region of Greece. There are many in the area, we visited a few. Kokkoros is one of the nicest.

The bridges were constructed long ago to enable the crossing of people and horses over the freezing rivers of the area.

Another beautiful stone bridge in the area.

We stopped for lunch at Lithos Restaurant, super delicious food.

Spent another night in Papingo.

Another main attractions in Northern Greece is the Vikos Gorge. It’s the second most deep canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. Absolutely stunning views with the tall vertical walls that end in the valley below. It's a place for hikers as well here.

Oxya Viewpoint is a great spot for a panoramic view over the gorge. There several around, but this one is also accesible by car.

We then drove towards Lefkada for a few days at the beach. The island is accesbible by car, no need for ferry, there's a bridge that connects it with the mainland.

We had accommodation in Nidri.

We wanted to enjoy the last days of our holiday on the beaches, so we just moved from one beautiful beach to another.

The most famous beach in Lefkada. The dramatic mountain behind it makes it spectacular.

In the afternoon we moved to Egremni Beach. It's a white pebbly beach with cliff behind and the water is perfectly blue.

Back to Nidri for the night.

On the last full day here we went to Mylos Beach. To reach it, you mush hike a bit from Agias Nikitas Town. It's a stunning beach, we totally enjoed our time there.

We also checked Megali Petra Beach (it means "big rock"). It's one of the quieter beaches of Lefkada and it's surrounded by greenery and dramatic cliffs.

Back to Nidri for the last night.

And back to