If you don’t have a scooter in Thessaloniki, it’s like you don’t even exist. Scooters are an essential part of the city’s DNA—they weave through traffic, park anywhere, and defy all known laws of physics and road safety.
It’s fascinating to watch Greeks ride scooters while talking on the phone, smoking, carrying a dog, groceries, and still managing to check out passing Greek girls. But even more fascinating is Street Art in Thessaloniki—because you’ll find it everywhere.
Scooters: The Kings of Thessaloniki’s Streets
Like graffiti, scooters represent independence and freedom in the city. They’re the only way to actually get anywhere—everything else is just organized chaos on wheels.
The golden rule? If you don’t have a scooter, you’re just a pedestrian with an unfulfilled dream of getting places fast.
A scooter in Thessaloniki isn’t just a means of transport—it’s a lifestyle. It’s part espresso machine on wheels, part teleportation device at red lights. Local riders have three superpowers:
- Squeezing through any traffic jam
- Talking on the phone while riding
- Ignoring all traffic laws at the same time
A scooter is basically a magic carpet—it will always get you where you need to be, just with a slight chance of face-planting into reality. Need reliable GPS? Just follow the first scooter driver you see—he’ll definitely find the fastest (and least legal) shortcut.
Sometimes, a single scooter carries more passengers than public transport—I’ve seen four people, two shopping bags, and a dog balancing on one.
Yet, despite the scooter domination, public transport in Thessaloniki is surprisingly decent. Buses run relatively on time, and if you catch one that isn’t overcrowded, the ride can be almost zen-like. That is, until someone next to you decides that your journey won’t be complete without a full political commentary in Greek—and your vocabulary stops at kalimera.
Graffiti: The Unfiltered Voice of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is a city of art. The MOMus Museum alone houses five separate exhibition spaces. But graffiti? That’s a whole different world. It’s the city’s raw artistic subculture, showcased wherever possible.
There’s an unwritten rule here: if a wall has been left clean for more than 24 hours, someone’s failed their artistic duty. Some buildings have so many layers of graffiti that if you started scraping them off, you’d probably find inscriptions dating back to Alexander the Great.
Street Art: Thessaloniki’s Open-Air Gallery
Yes, some walls are just random scribbles. But others? They could easily hang in a modern art museum. Of course, who needs museums when the city itself is a masterpiece?
Like in Rome, Lisbon, Prague, or any major city, graffiti in Thessaloniki isn’t just visual noise. It’s a record of local history, political statements, and—let’s be honest—a few desperate messages to ex-lovers.
Some streets look like an open-air gallery—free entry, unpredictable talent, and a chaotic mix of creativity and complete anarchy.
Tip: The best graffiti-covered walls can be found along the railway fences and harbor areas on the north side of the city.
Thessaloniki is alive—on two wheels, on the walls, and in the streets. You just have to watch, ride, and read between the lines.
