Thessaloniki - the International Exhibition Centre

Thessaloniki has been hosting an international fair in the first week of September every year since 1926. It's held at the International Exhibition and Congress Centre, the entrance of which is pictured above.

The Centre is located in the YMCA Square, named like this

because of the iconic YMCA building which is situated across from the entrance to the fair.

The archaeological museum is situated here as well

On the other side of the square MOMus Contemporary is to be found.

The OTE Tower is 76 metres tall, and is located in the centre of the Exhibition Centre. It was designed by Alexandros Anastasiadis and it opened in 1970: the first black and white broadcasts on a Greek television network took place from the Tower in 1971. A revolving restaurant, The Skyline Cafe-Bar, operates on the top floors o that it allows people to get a panoramic view of the city - full rotation takes 60 minutes.

We visited, of course. In fact, we went twice. The first day was a Saturday and it was packed

it was difficult getting a window seat, but we managed it. You get a panoramic view of the city. Our first visity was on our second day so everything was new and exciting.

Our second visit was a weekday and only a few tables were occupied. It was the last day of our visit, we by then, we knew all the landmarks and we were able to identify most of what we saw, so that was very exciting too.

The Archaeological Museum

The sea, the promenade and one of the many green spaces by the promenade

The YMCA building and YMCA Square

the city and the church of Agios Dimitrios dominating the whole

Upper Town, the city walls and Eptapyrgio on top of the hill

zooming in

The International Exhibition Centre - it consists of 17 pavillions, and we can see no. 12 here

The University 

and we are back to where we started from.