Steps

I'm in Thessaloniki where I'm visiting my sister. She lives in Greece (though on Mamma Mia island, not in Thessaloniki). I'm here for two weeks but the deal for not being in the office is that I've brought loads of work with me, and I'm struggling to fit it in, alongside all the things I'd rather be doing.

The last time the two of us were here was immediately after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. We were curfewed into a hotel in Istanbul for a day, then made a dash for the rail station when we heard there was one international train leaving. It happened to be going to Thessaloniki and we happened to have enough Turkish money for two single train tickets and one cup of tea between us. Then it took two days to get seats on a flight back to the UK because Ipswich was playing Thessaloniki. We had hardly any money then and lived on spanakopita (spinach pies). A bit more variety this time.