A booming sound thrummed in his ears. Ren turned in his bed and his eyes jolted open as he landed, arse first, on the floor. He looked around him and once again Ren found his tiny, new flat encompassed in darkness. There was a tremble in his spine and he couldn’t get up. He took a couple of breaths, closed his eyes to recalibrate his sight, and when he opened them again, all his senses returned full force.

The tremble was a bass and the booming was music. He searched for his phone, which informed him it was eleven in the evening. Ren got up and flicked the lights on. The music stirred his insides and made him feel light-headed.

He walked around the flat and found the origin of all evil. The next door neighbours. He hadn’t met them yet, so he didn’t know what to think. And for that reason, plus the fact that he didn’t want them to think he was no fun, he stayed put and tried to get some of the fuzziness of the abrupt awakening shaken off. He fiddled with his tablet and played around on his phone when it notified him Daisy was online.

Exactly who he needed to talk to.

He opened Skype and tapped her username, which was on the most recently used contacts. The app sang the trademark song and a couple of rings later, the call was answered.

‘Ren! Oh, my goodness, where have you been?’ she shrieked.

Ren could see her sitting on her couch washed with a cool bluish light, probably from her TV.

‘Adjusting to the Greek life,’ Ren answered.

‘How is it?’

‘It’s all right so far. I haven’t managed to explore the city yet. But that Greek guy that picked me up from the airport? He and his friends have been lovely. They’ve taken me under their wing and we hang out. I miss you,’ he said.

Daisy, his aunt, had been a rock for him throughout his life. She was always his first point of call, his best friend—perhaps his only friend.

‘I miss you too, honey. Are you all right? You look pale,’ she said and leaned closer into her screen.

‘I’m all right. I was asleep,’ Ren told her.

‘All right,’ she smiled. ‘What’s that noise?’

Ren looked around him pretending he couldn’t hear it. ‘Oh, that? It’s nothing. Just the neighbours having a little party, I think.’

Daisy looked at him from the other end and pursed her lips. She didn’t believe him. Of course, she didn’t. But he wasn’t going to admit to her that he was too scared to walk across the room and ask them to turn it down.

‘Are you going to do any sightseeing?’ she asked.

At the moment he was trying to get used to living in a country where no one spoke his native level of English, but of course, he had all the intention of going around and seeing things. Preferably with Jimmy.

‘Listen, honey, I’ll let you settle in and start your course, and then I think I might pop down and see you. How does that sound?’

It sounded perfect. Ren wanted Daisy there, now. But the near future would have to suffice.

‘Yes, of course. Do you have to ask?’ Ren told her. ‘I don’t have a lot of space, but you’re welcome, anytime.’

She smiled. ‘All right, honey, I’ve got to go now. I’ll let you get some rest. But we’ll talk soon, yeah? Don’t forget us now that you’re breaking hearts in Greece,’ she said.

Ren chuckled and dismissed the notion. Breaking hearts? Hardly. He’d never broken anyone’s heart, in Greece nor England, but he wasn’t going to debate that with Daisy at midnight.

He spent the rest of the night reading comic books on his tablet since the neighbours didn’t have the decency to cease the celebrations until the wee hours of the morning, and by then, sleep was pointless. He needed coffee to keep his eyes open and to start a new day but had no energy to venture out into the world and grab one.

By the time it was bright out, he had read about thirty of his favourite series and was missing his real, tactile collection. The bell chimed. He put his tablet on charge and went to the door. Maybe the neighbours had come to apologise for their indecent behaviour overnight.

Jimmy was standing there with two cups in his hand. He passed one to Ren.

‘Kalimera!’ he said and let himself in.

‘Good morning, Jimmy,’ Ren replied. He might have chosen not to take the language course before his semester—and considering his lack of language skills, it would have ended in disaster but he had picked up a few words, just the basics. Only the words sounded nothing like they had in his head and trying to pronounce any of them was a terrifying task.

‘What are you doing here?’ Ren asked. He didn’t even know what the time was.

Jimmy spun on his heel and looked at Ren. ‘I thought I’d show you the city today. I realised yesterday all we’ve done is take you for food and drinks and not show you any of the actual city. Care to join me?’

Spending time with Jimmy and his friends had been life-saving for his sanity. He would be a fool to pass on the opportunity. He needed to learn the city before his lessons began.

Jimmy gave Ren a couple of minutes to get ready. A quick brush of the teeth and a change of clothes while Jimmy waited downstairs was all Ren needed.

They took the path towards the big, stone, round building they had seen the day before.

‘This is Rotunda, built by Galerius, a Roman Emperor, to be used as his mausoleum. Then another emperor took over and converted it to a Christian church until the city fell under the Ottoman Empire and they converted it into a mosque and added the minaret,’ Jimmy explained. He pointed to a thin tall tower that sat in the corner of the building. His arm stretched out behind Ren’s head, lightly brushing his curls. It almost felt as if Jimmy was making an attempt at hugging him. ‘Now it’s used as a Greek Orthodox church again.’

They walked around the iron-gated yard that housed the historical building and Ren saw how everyone passed by without a second glance. He guessed it wasn’t that different to how Londoners treated Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, only there were significant historical differences between the two. They walked South, side by side, on a large paved area with a road on the side and green bushes and benches leading to an arch.

It was about twenty feet high, and there were only two arches that had survived. but according to Jimmy, it used to be bigger.

‘The Arch used to connect Rotunda with Galerius’ Palace all down in a straight line with the road crossing through the main arch. So basically, the arch we see today used to be only part of a square structure and part of many more arches. I think I heard somewhere that in the mid-1900s there was a proposition to change the architecture of the city into something reminiscent of this arch, where you would have a tall building and an arch as its base, but it’s only prevalent in the city centre, in Aristotle Square. The rest of the city remained untouched.’

East of the Arch was another Greek Orthodox church, this one more often used than Rotunda, according to Jimmy. Its style was vastly different to anything Ren had seen in the UK. It was an imposing building with five domes, the ones on the corners smaller than the main one in the middle. Crosses sat on top of each. The whole building was covered in stone tiles with details painted in conservative crimson. The long staircase in the front led to an atrium supported by four pillars. The atrium had three large oak doors, the middle one of which was open.

They continued the way they had gone the day before, when they were headed for the café. Jimmy leaned on railings and showed Ren the main palace, which was down a few subterranean levels and surrounded by metal bars. Ren mimicked him, their elbows touchingly. ‘Thessaloniki is so ancient it has many layers. The further down you dig, the older things you find. Which is one of the reasons our subway is still in the works. There is so many archaeological items in every piece of dirt, they had to bring archaeology students and professors alike to help clear out the excavation.’

‘I didn’t know you had a subway,’ Ren said.

Jimmy squinted and moved around, leaning his back against the railing and looking right into Ren’s eyes. ‘We don’t. It’s been in the works for decades. But when we do, it’s gonna be the best in Europe. Or so they say. It’s been so long, it’s become a running joke for Thessalonians. ‘We might not get to enjoy the subway, but our great-great-grandchildren will certainly have fun riding it when it opens’.’

Ren laughed. That was such an odd bit of culture no book would ever tell him.

‘Anyway, this is Galerius’ palace, which I know very little about, other than it used to be a big complex and there used to be a hippodrome where lots of shops and houses are today.’

The Palace was infested with stray cats, some of which were sunbathing, others chasing and climbing after imaginary prey. They continued further South and towards the sea.

They passed another church, this one a bit less imposing, with a normal tiled roof and only a small dome where the entrance was. It had a glass panel on the side, where people were lighting candles and crossing themselves.

And, at long last, they reached the seaside. Jimmy and Ren walked east along the promenade toward a round tower. It was approximately fifty feet tall and had a turret on the top where a Greek flag waved on a post against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.

‘This is our city trademark. The White Tower. It was used as a prison by the Ottomans. According to history, when the Yenitsaroi that were held prisoners there were ordered dead, the inmates’ blood running through the windows painted the stones red and it got the name the Red Tower. Now it’s a museum of the long history of Thessaloniki and its inhabitants.’

It was a small tower in Ren’s opinion, which only made him curious as to what it contained. He asked Jimmy if it was okay to go in and take a look inside. They didn’t take the audio tour, choosing instead to let Jimmy be Ren’s guide, taking him up the stairs along the outer perimeter of the tower and visiting the many levels in the middle. It had a lot of paintings, photographs, and reconstructions of the city and its many corners and also a lot of interesting parts to read either on projected surfaces or on paper. A fascinating bit for Ren was an installation that took them on a tour around the room on the second floor, describing the changes in the population of the city as well as the changes in religion percentages. Surprisingly so, the 1940s were not the only time that the city saw a big shift in religious population.

They walked out an hour later and walked along the promenade. It was a long, paved area with street merchants selling candy floss and nuts. A few hundred feet from the White Tower stood an imposing statue of Alexander the Great on his horse. The base of the statue had been graffitied, and young boys were skating on the raised platform where the statue stood. Once they reached the statue, Jimmy took Ren back the other way, as there wasn’t much else to see farther down other than the Concert Hall.

Along the promenade on the other side were countless cafés of all styles—hippie, rock, trendy and posh—dotted next to each other. Most of them were packed with people. Others not so much.

‘That’s a lot of cafés,’ Ren said.

Jimmy glanced at them on the other side of the street and nodded. ‘We are a coffee nation. We love coffee. So, what’s the best business to run in this city? Possibly a café. Maybe not that one,’ he said pointing at one that was empty, as opposed to the one next to it.

Ren laughed. ‘Aren’t you guys supposed to be in a recession? How can you afford all this coffee?’

Jimmy stared at Ren, and for a minute Ren thought he’d insulted him. Then Jimmy smiled. ‘You can take the fun out of the Greeks but not the Greeks out of fun. It’s been a rough few years. I remember when I was a kid, we would go on so many holidays with my parents, even as a working class family. Then the recession hit us and it took us some time to adjust. Hell, we’re still adjusting. But don’t ask us to stop drinking coffee. We will take a frappé to our grave if we can.’