Thanksgiving Break

November 23-29

Overall, our trip to Greece was relaxing, partly because we stationed ourselves in Athens for the entirety of the week, with trips out of the city on a couple of days. I'm not gonna lie; I was not expecting what I experienced. I didn't anticipate that the Parthenon would be covered in scaffolding or that the street signs wouldn't match the maps. I also wasn't expecting, however, that the food would be so good or that the people would be so kind.

My travelmates were Rebekah, Katherine, Mary, and Kristi, and we stayed at this hostel right in the centre of Athens called Hotel Dioskouros. From there, we were right across the street from the Temple of Zeus and about a 15 minute walk from the Acropolis. Since we stayed in a private room, we got our own bathroom. That also wasn't what I expected it to be: the "shower" was nothing more than a square of porcelain on the floor next to the toilet with a faucet and showerhead/hose. It looked like a water fight happened after anybody took a shower.

Oh, you know how I roll... just chillin' on the Areopagus

Our first full day in town we went up the Acropolis, the huge flat rock with several monuments and temples. That is where the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena are located, among several other structures. (Those ancient Greeks were really dedicated to their gods. MAN.) One of the coolest things up there (well, not exactly... It's not on top of the Acropolis, more like off to the side) is the Areopagus , which is the rock hill on which the apostle Paul gave his sermon about the temple to an "unknown god." For dessert after lunch after we explored the Acropolis, I had Greek yoghurt and honey, which was amazing, but waaay too big!

Traffic in Athens is monstrously frightening. It is a big European city, and along with that comes a lot of cars, buses, trams, and motorcycles. Just in case anyone reading this plans on visiting, a word to the wise: don't trust the crosswalks, even if the green man comes up - vehicles WILL go whenever they please, especially motorcycles!

Another interesting (and much safer) aspect of Athens is the fact that uncovered ruins are sprinkled throughout the city. You will be walking down the street or through the underground station and there will be a preserved and roped off section of crumbling stones that were once some sort of structure. It is very strange and such a clash of the centuries.

Yeah, he's really following us home

A couple of times we had random dogs follow us back to the hostel, because there are so many wandering the streets. There are a lot of cats, too, but many more dogs. I began to take photos of every dog I saw, if my camera was easily accessible. It was like a scavenger hunt I was guaranteed to win.

That's 1 Corinthians I'm pointing to, ready to read

On Wednesday, Rebekah, Mary, and I took a trip to Corinth to see the ruins of Ancient Corinth. We were a little apprehensive about going because everyone had been asking us why we would even want to go there and there weren't any easy ways for us to get there, but we learned that nobody plans travel ahead of time in Greece, so it was a lot easier than we thought it would be (i.e. Bus and coach tickets). It was quite an adventure figuring out how we were going to get from place to place (there were many steps and stops), and we were never quite sure if we would be able to get to where we wanted, but it was a lot of fun and well worth it. We took a ton of photos and spent about an hour and a half just wandering around the ruins of this once great city. We read Acts 18 and portions of 1 and 2 Corinthians. It was bizarre to think that we were in a place where Paul stayed and spread the Gospel and built relationships and bridged gaps between Jews and Greeks.

That night, our friends Josh and Erin flew in from Rome and were staying in the same hostel as us. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had a ton of fun. On Thursday (Thanksgiving!), all 7 of us went on a day cruise to the islands of Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. The islands were all fairly similar to one another, but they were still quite picturesque and the water surrounding them was the most beautiful, clear, turquoise water I have ever seen. The houses and other buildings were pretty, neat, and white. The cruise ride itself was heaps of fun, as having Josh and Erin along adds a lot of excitement (woot woot - Marriage Game! Hahaha). Lunch was included in our payment: meatballs and cabbage/carrot salad for starters, some sort of Greek-style lasagne for the main, and yummy lemon cake of some sort of dessert. On the last island, Aegina, we got to see the sun set over the water. It was gorgeous, absolutely amazing. Combined, we probably took about 300 photos of that alone, haha.

God truly is the greatest artist

On Friday, all of us, minus Josh and Erin, took the tram to Glyfada, which was supposedly a neighbourhood with fairly good beaches. Well, we got there and did not find good beaches, but they were good enough. First, however, we ate lunch at a place called Goody's that we'd been noticing all over the city. It turned out to be a fast food place, but it was, of course, European style: real dishes for eating in. Also, I ordered a meal and with it came a stuffed panda bear! Katherine and Kristi got meals as well, but they got a stuffed dog and monkey. It's so funny! They weren't even kid's meals or anything. Anyway, back to the beach part. We found a pebbly beach, but the sun was hiding behind the clouds intermittently so it wasn't very warm. The water wasn't freezing (only at first), but the pebbles made it hard to stand and wade around. It was really clear water though, yet again, even so close to the big city.

There's this section of Athens called the Plaka, and all it is is shops and restaurants. Well, there was this one road where there are a ton of restaurants, one right after the other on either side, which we dubbed "the gauntlet" because whenever we'd walk through we'd be barraged with insisting waiters trying to get us to eat at their place. They always jumped on us and tried to get us to at least look at the menu, and at first it was really annoying but by the end of the week I found it to be quite humorous. Much to the delight of one of the waiters who we'd passed several times throughout the week to get to and from the grocery store, we gave in to his request and ate at his restaurant on the last day. I enjoyed moussaka (which was apparently what we had eaten for lunch on the cruise but didn't know it) and baklava for dessert. That was the most amazing dessert I'd had in a long time.

The gelato in Greece = YUM. We had our last one (until our next European adventure, whenever that may be) on the last day we were there, Saturday.

I think, honestly, my favourite part about Greece was the people and how helpful and friendly and kind they were. For instance, when we were trying to figure out our way to Ancient Corinth from the modern city Corinth, an older lady started talking to us and told us what to do (she happened to be taking the same bus route that we needed) and we talked to her until the bus came. Before she got off at her stop, she even came up to where we were sitting and made sure we knew when we were supposed to get off for the ruins and how to get back to the city. She was so sweet, and it was amazing that she spoke English (very well, too - she had lived in the US for quite some time earlier in her life).