RADAR 6 - Road Trip Publication Date: July 1, 2003 Road Trip: Greece Riding into Thessaloniki, Greece, you notice a theme to the cityscape: density. Where Baltimore has miles of rowhouses, here you see tightly packed concrete apartments, none less than six stories; in place of stoops, each has a balcony. America's building trades were reinvented after our great fires of 100 years ago (ritually reenacted by "scorched earth" development), while Greece's corresponding catastrophe came in 1922, when a military defeat by Turkey forced the instant repatriation of 1.3 million people–a population growth of 20%. They are still dealing with it, too. Yet, it all fits. Under the apartments, a gas station sits next to a boutique, across from a gallery that's next to an appliance store, with swanky clubs, fast food joints, and the occasional Smartcar dealership thrown in. In a town that a friend called "the Baltimore of Greece," the urban texture easily surpasses New York City's for variety. Even the back alleys are jammed with businesses and dwellings. No urban revitalization needed here, where "size matters" means "small." Theatro Amalia, where my group performed Orestes , was on one of these alleys, off a side street, nearly invisible, yet everyone in town seemed to know where it was–and they didn’t lack for full houses. Neither did the even smaller theaters and galleries we found tucked away in this warren of a city. David Crandall