Colombia

The logo of Colombia.

Photo taken from: Cafe Colombia Thessaloniki

If you are an erasmus student in the city of Thessaloniki or if you just decide to visit this beautiful city of Greece, which is located on the north part of the country, you should definitely live the experience of going out as a local student.

There are a lot of options to go, all around the city, and specifically in the center of the city, in a neighborhood called ''Rotonda''. This area contains numerous places that provide cheap but good quality wine and all the other kinds of traditional greek drinks, such as ouzo, tsipouro and raki.

One of the most famous and crowded places of Rotonda is ''Colombia''. The name of the place is connected with the beautiful and exotic country of Colombia mainly because of the inside decoration.It is colorful, with vivid and bright colors on the wall, a lot of paintings which are connected to Latin America and of course the latin music that makes you feel that you are far away from Europe.

Colombia is open from early in the morning until late in the night, and sometimes until dawn. You can go there in the morning to taste some kinds of traditional Colombian coffee (hot or cold). Except from colombian coffee, you can find also all the famous kinds of coffee that are consumed in Greece, hot chocolate, hot or cold tea and fresh orange juice.

The inside view of Colombia!

Cafe Colombia Thessaloniki

The best time to visit this 'exotic' place is by night. You can enjoy different kinds of cocktails, which are very famous in Colombia for their very affordable prices. If you are a cocktail lover, you should visit this place when they arrange cocktail parties. All the cocktails cost only 5 euros.

Except the cocktails, "Colombia" provides you some traditional greek drinks. You can drink ouzo, retsina ( traditional cheap white wine which is mixed with coca-cola or sprite, )red or white wine, raki ( traditional drink from the island of Crete, )rakomelo(boiled raki with honey-the perfect drink for the cold winter nights or if you are feeling a little bit sick) and tsipouro. If you want something lighter, you can choose from the big catalogue of beers.

If you are feeling hungry or if you want something to eat while drinking, you can order a toast (with cheese and ham with some chips on the side) or the club sandwich (also with chips on the side).

During the year, Colombia organizes many festivals and theme nights such as: bal masque during the carnival period, beer festival, latin nights, disco nights and as we said before cocktail nights. All these festivals and theme parties have also the advantage of offering small gifts such as key chains or hats.

What I really like about this place, are the people who work there. They are very friendly and make you feel very welcome. They are also very smiley and help you find a seat, when the place is crowded. If you order quite a good number of things, it is very possible that Colombia will offer you some free drinks or shots.

In my opinion, it is one of the most popular place or as they are called here in Greece, 'krasadika'(places with wine). I usually choose to spend a lot of my nights during the week or weekend here. I recommend you to visit it at least once during your stay in Thessaloniki, I am sure you will have such a good time, those are going to be the best memories of your live. We have such a crazy time all the times we go there!

Photo taken from: Odigospolis

One of the most famous festivals that Colombia has organized.

Photo taken from: Cafe Colombia