Hi from Thessaloniki

No, really. I forgot to blog about this because I was busy getting ready, but I'm in Greece now, for a conference.

Things about the city:

Some of the curbs are made of marble.

Feral dogs everywhere, mostly napping.

Not everyone speaks English, but every restaurant has at least one waiter who can get by.

The food... oh my God the food. YUM!

Since this is the hometown of my thesis advisor, she put me in touch with an old high school friend of hers, who walked me around a bit last night to see some very old churches (one was 4th century) and an Ottoman bathhouse. She is an architect and very involved in reconstruction and designing archaeological exhibits, so the tour was very informative!

I haven't been sleeping well... plus, I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by a couple trying to get into my room (they had the wrong room number). Today I'm going to skip most of the talks and walk around, and go to some museums. Tomorrow I'm taking a side trip to Vergina, where there are royal tombs that are supposed to be fabulous (actually, my advisor's friend has worked on some of the exhibitions) and on Tuesday I'm off to Athens for a surgical strike visit. Back to Paris on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, they're voting in France...