Kostis Zafirakis – THE CULINARY GUIDE

Kostis Zafirakis has taken hundreds of visitors on culinary tours of Thessaloniki; his favorite walk starts in his own childhood neighborhood, the area of the Church of the Holy Apostles and of Olympou Street. “It’s a long road, not a major avenue, linking two very special monuments: the church and the Rotunda,” he says. “It’s also associated with dozens of fascinating stories and personalities, from Roman and Byzantine emperors to the urban planner Ernest Hébrard, the poets Yiannis Ritsos and Manolis Anagnostakis and people like us who are helping to shape its current character. Olympou is more than a street; it’s a chapter in a historical drama.”

History, however, isn’t the star: Zafirakis’ tours are all about delicious flavors. “If you’ve never tasted local delicacies like pastourma (air-dried cured red meat), parcharotyri (a smoked aged cheese), Macedonian pies or tsipouro (a pomace brandy),” he says, “you’re missing out. My tour participants head back to their hotels intoxicated by the aromas and flavors, with smiles from ear to ear. I remember a man from Hawaii who just couldn’t get enough of our Pontic food; an impromptu party with a group of Germans when one guy was celebrating his birthday and we stuck candles in a galaktoboureko (a syrupy custard-filled pastry); and an American bunch, with whom we ended up singing the classic love song ‘Frangosyriani’ while eating San Michali cheese from Syros. Every walk is like a street performance; that’s how I see it.”

HIGHLIGHTS: The Kapani and Athonos food markets and their environs, and a tour of “bygone” Thessaloniki that takes in the legendary Bank of Thessaloniki and Edessis Street, with its beautiful buildings.

www.thessalonikiwalkingtours.com, [email protected]

Evi Karkiti – THE CULTURAL WALKS GUIDE

Evi Karkiti, founder of Thessaloniki Walking Tours, often receives touching feedback from her tour participants. One local man, for example, thanked her for helping him “really see” the street he’d lived on for 20 years of his life. A German visitor said that he’d never seen anything so alive as when they walked around the port area. She quotes a third, because his words were particularly poignant: “You made my day so much more beautiful and rewarding.”

Karkiti believes Thessaloniki is the tour guide’s ideal city, thanks to its many layers of history and all the human stories that are interwoven among them. “These small stories allow you to delve deeper and see the bigger picture more clearly; they create a bond between people from disparate backgrounds, which is so much more powerful than mere communication, by making them feel they have a shared experience,” she says.

“This is what we were aiming for from the start. We didn’t want to just describe a monument or visit a spot with a lot of history. We wanted to root out the human stories behind these things, to explore the city’s streets, neighborhoods and public squares, to redefine all these things that we walk past every day without noticing, even things hidden from view. This is the idea around which we’ve been building our company for the past five years.”

An accomplished journalist, Karkiti recently created the Literature Walk, a “tour that is constantly being enriched with my own research and with revelations from poets, writers, critics and other personalities who have played a key role in the city’s cultural life for many years.” 

HIGHLIGHTS: Casa Bianca, a splendid example of eclectic architecture in the area once known as “Exoches” (lit. “countryside”), holds a great many stories of its erstwhile residents, not all of them happy. You can almost hear their voices on the tour. The building is also home to the Municipal Gallery, an important showcase for the city’s history.

www.thessalonikiwalkingtours.com, [email protected]

Constantinos Sfikas – THE VIP GUIDE

Constantinos Sfikas quit his bank job a few years ago so he could study at Thessaloniki’s School of Tourist Guides, where he went on to teach after graduating. “It was the most important decision I’ve ever made,” he confesses as we walk along Mitropoleos Street in the autumnal chill. “I knew this career would suit me to a tee. It is, after all, one of the oldest jobs in the world; at ancient Delphi, the ‘exigites’ would act as spiritual guides for the sanctuary’s visitors. With this job, I’ve found my calling.”

Sfikas and a group of his former students have so far put together 26 themed tours around the six districts that make up the municipality of Thessaloniki. The initiative has been a success, with participants – both locals and visitors – learning to pay closer attention to the city and to value it more, which is what the endeavor is all about. “I’ll never forget one local resident who said that in 40 years she hadn’t appreciated her own city as much as she did on our tour of Palaiologian-era Byzantine churches in the Ano Poli district. What could be more gratifying than that?”

Sfikas also works with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, taking many of its special guests on city tours. “I remember Jim Jarmusch expressing surprise when I showed him around the castles: ‘Well, I didn’t expect that,’ he said. Also, I won’t forget Oliver Stone standing in front of the statue of Alexander the Great, saying: ‘I feel more complete as an artist here; like a Macedonian.’” The list of film greats he has accompanied on tours is impressive and includes Wim Wenders, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Werner Herzog, and John Sayles. “I enjoy every tour I give, but showing around people you idolized as a teen is something you remember forever,” says Sfikas.

HIGHLIGHTS: The panoramic views of the city from high up on the Trigonio Tower, as well as the palimpsest of history revealed by the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Jewish monuments. The Bit Bazaar flea market, with its antique shops and cool restaurants, and, of course, the city’s coastal promenade, which always makes an impression.

 www.expertguides.gr, [email protected]

Alexandros Myroforidis – THE CRIME GUIDE

Alexandros Myroforidis has spent more than a decade in the field of interactive and live games, exploring alternative ways to promote Thessaloniki’s rich historical heritage. He created his “Crime Tours” in 2013, focusing on the city’s violent past.

“Thessaloniki, unfortunately, holds something of a record in politically motivated crimes, in addition to countless acts of violence motivated by passion or greed. From its liberation from Ottoman rule to World War II, and through the Greek Civil War to more recent events, the material is infinite,” he says.

Each walk is not just a tour, but also an investigation into every aspect of the crimes in question. “I’m surprised by the incredible level of interest that’s been shown by residents of Thessaloniki, but perhaps I shouldn’t be: the theme of crime is undisputedly a part of modern pop culture. Visitors are interested because the tour’s different and original, and locals like it because they get so much information concentrated in one tour,” says Myroforidis.

HIGHLIGHTS: The Crypt of the Macedonian Struggle, located in the bowels of the Metropolitan Church, near the museum dedicated to the same subject. There’s a feeling of stepping into history as you enter this space, used by the resistance to store weapons and ammunition right under the noses of the Ottoman rulers. Another highlight is the State Conservatory building, formerly home to a branch of the Ottoman Bank; the branch was put out of commission after dynamite placed in a tunnel beneath it was detonated in what was the most audacious resistance attack carried out in early-20th century Thessaloniki.

www.gamecraft.gr, [email protected]