The city of Alexandroupoli is located on the north-eastern part of the mainland, very close to the border with Turkey . It was founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, but the city was not given a good name therefore . Until then the small fishing village was called in the Turkish manner Dedegac, but in the 20th century, going to Greece, was named after King Alexander I . By the way, the king was the son of Grand Duchess Olga from the Russian dynasty of the Romanovs . In the course of the history of Alexandroupoli, like the whole region of Thrace, in which he is located, experienced on himself as eastern and western influences . This is why he is curious for tourists: here to this day, one fancifully mingled one with another .
How to get to Alexandroupoli
In Alexandroupoli there is the international airport Dimokritos, which accepts flights from Athens and Crete, and in summer - charters, including from Germany and Russia. Thanks to the newly constructed high-speed highway it is not so difficult to get to the city from Salonik (about 350 km), but it is much more convenient to use the railway for this.
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- Do not miss the auction in the fish market - or, if you still missed, you yourself still have to go fishing with someone from the local.
- Listen to traditional Thracian music (it is very different from Greek ) and to look at the traditional dances of Western Thrace - "zonalradikos" (a kind of male dance, when dancers hold onto each other's belts), a twin wedding dance "mandilatos" or "karsila" mu "(" face to face "dance)
- Ferry to the wild and beautiful island of Samotraki
- Find a place where we cook corkito - pilaf from buckwheat. It's difficult, but possible ..
A bit of history
Until the last century, the village of Dedegac remained a village . But in the early 20th century a civilization came here in the guise of the first steam locomotives . Railway branches were laid to connect Macedonia with the capital, and Dedegac was on their way . In the war with Russia, the Turks lost the town, and although the Russian conquerors did not stay long here, they strongly influenced the urban planning . This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to find traditional paved roads in Alexandroupoli today lanes, narrow and winding: the streets here are much wider and parallel to each other .
In 1912, the Bulgarians conquered the city and gave it to the Greeks together with the rest of Thrace, but at the beginning of the Second World War, with the generous permission of fascist Germany, they took it back. At the end of the war, the Greeks took possession of Alexandroupoli finally, but today, after half a century or so, it does not at all resemble the traditional Greek cities. The population of Alexandroupoli is about 50 thousand people
Entertainment, excursions and attractions Alexandroupoli
Alexandroupoli can not boast not that the classical Greek architecture, but even, to be honest, at least somewhat unusual . Of the notable buildings, you can note the cathedral and the church of St. Joseph, as well as the building of the Old Customs with three buildings, which is in the harbor, near the water. The city embankment was built in the 19th century, and its promenade becomes quite lively in the evenings. Here one of the symbols of the city towers - the lighthouse, which was built in 1880 by our compatriots. Its height is 17 m.
Ethnographic museum of Thrace is opened in the city, one of the best in Greece. It occupies a neoclassical building built in 1899 and in itself is so good that it is only for its sake that one can visit Alexandroupoli, traveling the region. The items collected here date from the 18th century to the 1970s. And in the Church Museum of the city are collected various exhibits related not only to the Orthodox religion. In particular, here you can see the differences between Orthodox and Western iconography and get acquainted with the process of making icons.
Alexandroupoli is good as a resort, firstly, because there are few tourists here, and secondly - because there are many beaches. Urban - not the cleanest and cute, but there are enough beaches nearby, including the Blue Flag. 4 km west of the city is the sandy beach of Demirali with good sand and many taverns, and a couple of km further away is the even more famous beach of Agia Paraskevi, where there are many clubs and bars. An excellent and relatively untouched place for bathing and resting is Samotraki Island
Cuisine
In addition, Alexandroupoli will be an excellent base for exploring the distinctive Thracian cuisine: the city is large enough so that it is easy to choose a suitable place . Cuisine Thrace is rich in meat and dense dishes: sausages, rolled up with a ring like "Krakow", basturma, traganas (soup with flour and cracklings), yufku (pasta such as tagliatelle) . Thanks to the proximity to the sea, those who prefer light meals can focus on and the seafood and fish - smoked, dried, salted . Rate "miropilafo" - pilaf with mussels or midian Saganaki with feta .
The local desserts are more like familiar oriental sweets: they are a variety of small, but super-sweet cakes like baklava, in which they do not regret hazelnuts, almonds and oils. And thanks to emigrated to Thrace in the 1990s. from the Black Sea region to the Pontian Greeks in local restaurants, you can sometimes find simply unique dishes. For example, buckwheat, buckwheat (yoghurt soup with corn) or smoked and smoked pontic cheese
Surroundings
Surroundings of Alexandrupoli can offer a lot to those who own a car or like to travel "savage" . Localities are known among lovers of alternative and ecotourism . 60 km to the west of the city there is Komotini where the fortifications, including the pre-Christian times . were preserved. If you go further, through km 40 you will find yourself in Xanthi, a small town with a Byzantine fortress and several monasteries th in the hills . And to the north of Alexandrupoli the Rhodope Mountains begin with a lot of beautiful nature reserves and national parks . These places in Thrace are one of the most luxurious in all Europe in terms of feathered fauna . Here are the nests of hundreds of species of birds , of which about 300 species are protected by the state, and trees on the mountain slopes are growing for centuries .
To the east of Alexandroupoli there are Greco-Turkish and Greco-Bulgarian borders, which are naturally marked by the Evros River . With this river were bound fates and ists of the whole nations . The ancient Greeks considered it to be the longest in the world (in fact, Evros is the longest river on the Balkan Peninsula alone) . The river delta where Evros enters the Thracian Sea is a unique biocenosis that inhabit about 3/4 of all species of birds living in Greece . The width of the delta is more than 10 km, there are a lot of fish and other animals . Having time, you can ride along the river to the north (of course, avoiding forbidden to enter the border areas), old mountain villages and settlements alone with wonderful nature .
Alexandrupoli
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