Starting the drive

OCTOBER 30, 2022 : Last night, Greece went off Daylight Savings Time and we got an extra hour to sleep. It was much appreciated. On Sundays, the synagogue does not have services, so Mark said morning prayers in our apartment. We ate a quick breakfast, and took our 10 bags (we do not travel light), to the nearby taxi station for a ride to the airport to pick up our rental car.

The email from Avis instructed us to go to Terminal 1 and take the shuttle bus to Avis. The taxi dropped us off at Teminal 1, but no shuttle bus came. After a long wait, we called Avis, and they explained that on Sunday mornings only the Avis office in Terminal 2 is open, and we should go there. Luckily there are free baggage carts at the airport, and with those, we made our way to the other terminal. At Avis, our car choices were a Peugot 308 or a Citroen Cactus. I had earlier researched which car has the largest trunk (needed for all our stuff) and had ordered the Peugot 308 because of the large trunk. We went with that, but then the clerk explained that the Peugot is diesel and the Citroen is gas. At first this sounded good because in the past, diesel was always much cheaper than gas. Due to the war in Ukraine, the diesel here has become even more expensive than gas, so we went with the Citroen.

We took the shuttle to the Avis lot, picked up the car (suitcases don’t fit – need to always put one on the back seat) and started our drive to Kavala. The highway signs usually appear twice, first in Greek and then in English. Traffic was light. We quickly left the city and entered the countryside – a large, mostly flat agricultural area, with mountains in the distance. Google kept adding minutes to our arrival time because we were not driving the speed limit – which is 130 km. We are comfortable with cruise control at 110 – fast enough.

The farther we went, the more spectacular the scenery. Green mountains with a hint of fall colors on one side, and the sea on the other. My only disappointment was that along the side of the highway grew tall vegetation, making it very difficult to photograph the views.

Our destination was Kavala, a sea-side town two hours northeast of Thessaloniki. Today Kavala is an economic center for the region in commerce, tourism, fishing and oil-related activities. In the past, it had a thriving trade in tobacco. Before WW II, there were over 2000 Jews in Kavala, the vast majority of them working in the tobacco industry.  The Jewish community contained several well-to-do tobacco merchants and many poorer tobacco workers.

Their history is a bit different from Thessaloniki, where the Germans occupied the city. Kavala, on the other hand, was occupied in 1941 by the Bulgarians. The Jews of Kavala, feeling that they were Greek, refused to co-operate in any way with the Bulgarians and were hard hit both by the anti-Greek and anti-Semitic measures. On March 3, 1943, the Bulgarians gathered the Jews in the tobacco warehouses and transported them to their deaths.

We knew of two different Jewish Heritage sites to visit in Kavala – the New Jewish Cemetery and a monument in tribute to the Jews of Kavala that were killed in the war. In doing our internet research for Wandering Jew, the photo of the monument was from the 1950’s, and more recent articles said it was vandalized and destroyed. Other articles said it was rebuilt – we were not sure what we would find.

We started at the New Jewish Cemetery. There is an organization called ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative) whose goal is to protect the Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Using drone technology, they have so far surveyed cemeteries in 9 different countries, Greece among them. For each cemetery, they show some photos, give some background information and provide a GPS location. In the past, we have found that their data is very accurate, and the cemetery was exactly where they said it would be. As usual for Jewish Cemeteries, it was surrounded by a wall and a locked gate.

From there, we continued on to the center of Kavala, to the Tobacco museum, since so many in the Jewish community were involved in this industry. There was a sign on the door, that the museum has started winter hours and will be closed on Sundays. We moved on to finding the memorial.

Considering it was the end of October, I thought the town would be mostly closed (like the museum). The opposite was true – the town was full of people enjoying the beautiful weather. Parking was a problem, and we ended up in a lot by the port. The city has a castle fortress on top of the nearby hill, and an aqueduct in the center of town.

The street name we had for the memorial was a street that goes right under the aqueduct. We searched the whole street, from one end to the other, and did not find any trace of what we were looking for. Although we knew it was a long shot, it still was a bit disappointing. The aqueduct on the other hand, was amazing.

We then went to check into our apartment – another disappointment. Although it was listed as a one-bedroom, and the photos make it look roomy, it was a small cramped studio, with kitchen, bedroom, and small sofa all in one compact area. We choose this apartment on the ground floor so it would be easy with the many suitcases, but there were stairs down to the ground floor. Parking was promised, and that turned out to mean parking ½ on the sidewalk, and ½ on the street in front of the house in such a way that Mark needed to squeeze through to the passenger seat to get out of the car. In order to open our suitcase in the apartment, we needed to block the entrance door.

Once we were mostly settled, we headed back into the center of town to visit the castle. We parked at the bottom near the aqueduct, and walk uphill through the old city towards the fortress. We arrived 20 minutes before closing – just enough time to climb to the top of the tower and enjoy the magnificent view. This walk definitely rejuvenated our spirits.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at a bakery. I wanted to taste some kourabiedes. These are shortbread cookies traditionally eaten in Greece on Christmas, but in Kavala they are made year round. They tasted like cookie crumbs mixed with nuts and covered in powered sugar. Delicious, but I did not find a way to eat these without getting the powered sugar all over my clothes.

We then returned to the apartment in time for our weekly Family Zoom meeting. Had some dinner, planned the next day, and then off to sleep. First day with driving, done.

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  1. How many nights must you stay in that studio apartment?
    The views are beautiful.
    Good thing you stopped wearing only black.. It doesn’t go well powdered sugar