Alexandroupolis Local Custom Tips by Yiannis2000 Top 5 Page for this destination

Western Thrace, THRAKI as we...

<b>Western Thrace, THRAKI as we call the area, has the largest concentration of muslims in Greece. Many villages but also the towns of Komotini and Xanthi (not so much Alexandroupolis) are the home of the most visible minority in Greece. Some of them are ethnic Turks, others Gypsies and Pomaks (Bulgarian muslims), remnants of the multicultural society that inhabited the whole of Greece and Turkey during the time of the Ottoman Empire (before 1920's). In a few villages you can even find people of African descent- the only 'indigenous blacks' in Greece! (I won't tell you exactly where...)
They all have their own ways of dressing, their mosques etc. After several decades of isolation and strained relations to the Greek majority, these rural people (tobacco cultivators) are gradualy being accepted as part of modern Greece.
Visiting their villages, especially in the remote nothern areas of Thraki, would give you a very special and different impression of my country!</b>