Morning Bougatsa and Coffee by the Waterfront

Bougatsa is a Greek pastry — layers of handmade filo encasing a semolina custard filling, dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar — and while it is made throughout Greece, Thessaloniki's bougatsa is considered definitively superior, a matter of local pride that admits no rebuttal. The city's old bougatsa shops (Bantis, Giannis, Christos) open at five or six in the morning and close when the day's production is sold. The correct time to eat bougatsa is between seven and nine, with a Greek coffee, standing at a marble counter looking at the waterfront.

Thessaloniki's waterfront promenade (Leoforos Nikis) stretches from the ancient White Tower along Thessaloniki Bay to the Umberto I waterfront. At eight in the morning, with the market behind it waking up and the bay reflecting the Pierian Mountains to the west, it is one of the most beautiful urban waterfronts in southern Europe, unhyped and uncrowded. The White Tower (Lefkos Pyrgos) — a 15th-century Ottoman fortification now housing a Byzantine museum — marks the eastern end.

Thessaloniki is Greece's great under-visited city. It has Byzantine churches of extraordinary quality (Hagia Sophia, Rotunda, Hosios David), a Jewish heritage of Ottoman depth (the city was 60% Jewish until the Holocaust), the Modiano covered market, and a food culture that Athenians acknowledge with reluctant admiration. The nightlife is centered on the Ladadika district; the kafeneio culture along Aristotelous Square is properly Macedonian. Come for three days and understand why the Thessaloniki residents are so confident.