The northern mainland - The Rough Guide to Greece - page 311

Ì Mao Ayíou Nikoláou 10-12 T 2510 831 300. This
lively hangout draws the leftist student crowd and other
mavericks with its murals of the chairman and cutting-
edge recorded and occasional live sounds. Daily
noon-late.

Café Briki Poulídhou 76 T 694 43 33 220. This popular
café-bar is newly converted from a large stone mansion
beside the citadel and provides a chic venue for admiring
the splendid bay view over a coffee or cocktail. Daily
10am-late.

Keramotí
KERAMOTÍ , 46km southeast of Kavála, offers a more frequent, shorter and marginally
cheaper ferry crossing to Thássos (8-12 daily; 40min), especially between September
and April. Keramotí is a small, rather drab village, 9km beyond the Kavála airport
turn-off, with a decent enough beach backed by pines, a few rooms and a half-dozen
hotels which you shouldn't have to patronize.

Thrace
The ethnically diverse Greek province of THRACE (Thráki) was once part of a much
larger region now split between the modern states of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Heading across the Néstos River, the border with Macedonia, the change in population
is obvious: Turkish settlements with their tiled, whitewashed houses and pencil-thin
minarets contrast sharply with modern Greek villages built for the refugees of the
1920s (see box below). The same features are combined in the region's biggest urban
centre, the attractive market town of Xánthi . Of the mountain villages north of Xánthi,
Stavroúpoli stands out as the most worth visiting, while to the south and east a trio of
archeological sites is to be found along the coast near Komotiní . Beyond the service
town of Alexandhroúpoli lies the Évros River, which forms the heavily guarded land
border with Turkey.

4

Xánthi
XÁNTHI is the most interesting point to break a journey in Thrace. There is a busy
market area, good food and, up the hill to the north of the Kendrikí Platía , the main
café-lined square, a very attractive old Ottoman quarter. The town is also home to
the University of Thrace, which lends a lively air to the place, particularly in the

1923 AND ALL THAT
Separated from the Turkish territory of eastern Thrace by the Évros River and its delta, western
Thrace is the Greek state's most recent acquisition, under effective Greek control only since
1920. While Muslims throughout the rest of the country were evacuated by force under the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 (see p.778), the Muslims of western Thrace were exempted and
continue to live in the region in return for a continued Greek presence in and around
Constantinople (Istanbul).
Nowadays, out of a total population of 360,000, there are of cially around 120,000 Muslims ,
about half of them Turkish-speakers, while the rest are Pomaks and Roma. Although there are
dozens of functioning mosques, some Turkish-language newspapers and a Turkish-language
radio station in Komotiní, only graduates from a special Academy in Thessaloníki have been
allowed to teach in the Turkish-language schools here - thus isolating Thracian Turks from
mainstream Turkish culture. Local Turks and Pomaks claim that they are the victims of
discrimination, but despite violence in the past, relationships have improved with each decade
and as an outsider you will probably not notice the tensions. In mixed villages Muslims and
Greeks appear to coexist quite amicably and this harmony reaches its zenith in Xánthi. All
Thracians, both Muslim and Orthodox, have a deserved reputation for hospitality.