Veria and the tomb of Phillip II

Thursday, March 22nd I probably should have started all my blogs with the date, but I didn't think of that until now. I guess that's what happens to you when you type the blogs late at night after a long day of travel. Today we woke up again in Thessaloniki and I decided to not even attempt going into the breakfast area. I sat in the lobby and got on my computer. I have to take advantage of the wifi when I can. My breakfast consists of Colorado bought granola bar. We leave and head north for Veria (Biblica Berea). We arrive in this cute little town, with narrow streets and little parking and Christos parks the bus on the sidewalk! We were all laughing at where he parked. He pulled right up to the wall. I got a picture of his parking spot. We walked towards the ancient city and saw some remains of the former city. We walked down the streets and saw a Jewish Synagogue that was re-finished. Rick made a great joke at this point. Rick said, "I want to share something with you all here that you probably don't know. Even you, Coastes, you probably didn't know that Bigfoot made an appearance here about 4 century AD." And then he pointed to a spot of the side of a building where the paint had chipped away into the shape of huge footprint. It was hilarious. As Rick began talking, I was thinking to myself, "What in the world is Rick going to tell Coastes that he doesn't know?" We then walked to another monument in the city. On the way we passed fruit markets and street vendors. We stopped to look at the fruit and couldn't pass up the basket of nice, ripe strawberries for 2.50 Euros. Rick bought a big pastry to share with the group to share. I was trying to find food wherever I could, so the strawberries were really great! At the next monument I spotted another picture of Jesus and one of Paul. At this point, I noticed again many of the same symbols around Jesus that I saw in previous places, such as the monasteries, the Church of St. Demetrius, etc. The question I kept forming in my mind was how people from so many different places, years paint Jesus relatively the same and with the same symbols. For symbols I mean, how he held his hand, the Greek letters around his head - meaning I am or The Being. So I was finally able to ask Coastes about it. He said that it was because of the time period, I think the Bezeytinne time period. Those were identifying marks that people did to know it was Jesus. Coastes said he knows who both the men are, simply because of the symbols. Paul was holding scrolls which stood for the gospel and a sword. I can't remember what the sword stood for. After this brief stop, we went further into the city and stopped at Phillip II tomb. What's interesting about a group tour is that because I didn't really pay too much of attention to the internary now that I'm here, it's always a surprise when I step off the bus. Showing up at Phillip's tomb was a nice surprise to me. We pulled up to hill mound and a gated area. Of course, some impromptu vendors were set up across the street. I visited the bathrooms or water closets before the tour. On my way back I spotted a little cafe that sold slushies. I spied an orange slushy and had to have one. For only 3 Euro I was sold. Before I begin explaining what the tomb was all about, it's important to note that the discovery of the tomb is the greatest discovery of Greek Antiquity in the 20th century. Our next stop was actually going in to the museum or tomb area. I didn't know we were going into a museum next and I had hardly drank any of the slushy. I couldn't throw it away already, so I did what any starving person would do - hide it behind my purse. Thank you Vera Bradley! I am proud to say that I hid my slushy from all the museum guards throughout the whole tour and I even drank the rest of it! I am like James Bond! Hiding a slushy in a museum that had treasures in it that probably ranked as some of the most valuable in the world is quite an accomplishment. Ok, back the history stuff. There were three tombs that were found. I'd have to read my book again to remember how they were found, because everything was buried so much it just appeared to be a hill. One of the tomb's belonged to Phillip II - the most famous one. Phillip was the son of Alexander the Great. The museum was underground in the hill, so everything was dark (part of the reason why I could hide my drink). We couldn't take any pictures at all, so I bought a book afterwards because the artifacts and tombs were amazing! We saw a diagram of the hill and how they cut away the hill and found the tombs. When the archeologists found the tombs, they climbed in the top of the tomb so they only had to remove one stone. At the end of the tour, we saw a picture of the archeologist that found the tombs and a few quotes about how he felt. It was amazing reading about what he was thinking - it was a real Indiana Jones moment. There were little diagrams of what the tombs looked like when they were found and then all those artifacts were on display. The tombs were in perfect condition as were the artifacts. Since they were underground, nothing could destroy them. Unlike many other ruins where cities were built on cities, this place was completely untouched for thousands of years. We saw silver pots that were still silver, they looked completely new. But the most amazing artifacts were gold crowns! The details on the crowns were so detailed. One had little lady bugs on them. And the gold crowns looked again brand new, like nothing had ever touched them. The crowns were all gold leaves that were made to look like an olive leaf crown, similar to the ones given to winners of Olympic races in Athens Games. Once I saw these gold crowns, I began to realize the magnitude of this archeological discovery and then noticed the thick, fortified doors. Keep in mind, I snuck an orange slushy through the Fort Knox of Greece. (hehe) :-) When we finished touring the museum, I went to the bathroom again, which cut into my shopping time at the gift shops across the street. I went in to the shops with Echo and found a nice book about Paul and then a book on Veria so I would have pictures of all the artifacts from the museum. I debated about buying a nice golden replica crown that was framed, but then Rick said, "You have two minutes." Pressure! He said every minute that we spend longer in Veria makes our time in Athens shorter. I was looking forward to getting back to Athens, since we really hadn't seen much yet, but I wanted to shop too! Shopping is part of the travel experience, but Rick's a guy; he doesn't understand that. So instead of buying the 80 Euro golden crown, I decided on a gold bracelet that looked very Greek for only 12 Euros. I needed more time to decide to make a purchase that big. I wanted to buy something gold in this place, since gold was so prominent in the tombs. So then I get in line. This is where the frustration really set in. My pastor is standing outside the store, willing us to get through the line. I am the last in line behind Don. Rick sent Echo on ahead so she could slowly walk up the hill to the bus. During this time a school field trip of 4-5 graders come in and they start buying magnets and postcards. But remember I was already in line. Well........that didn't exactly matter. A girl started out behind me, than in front of me, than in front of Don, then to the front. She did all of this very deliberately and could care less about the line. I tapped her on the shoulder when she passed me and told her there was a line, but she ignored me. When she was standing in front of Don, he asked me, "Where did she come from?" So now, I'm getting further and further back in the line and Rick can't wait to go, like an eager husband wanting to leave the mall and watch the basketball game. I was feeling the pressure. I didn't want to make Rick made, but I needed to buy these souvenirs. Ahhh the dilemma. Eventually the whole school group was buying their souvenirs with one cashier and us Americans were left to another sloooooooooww cashier. Once I made it through the line, I quickly walked up the hill and caught up with Echo. All was well again. Now we settled in for our long bus ride. From Veria to Athens, we rode for about 7 hours. At this point in the typing, I really don't remember what I did those 7 hours. I'm sure I slept for some time, which was the only good thing about the long bus rides, was that I could always get in a nice nap. We stopped for lunch along the way. We stopped at a restaurant that was deserted, but then both of our groups showed up and there were 80 people in there. The food again was not exactly what I felt like eating. I ate some sort of pasta/lasagna looking stuff. It was weird, but I ate it. Of course I also ate the bread. We sat with Jim and Cindy, and Diane. Most of our lunch conversation was around Diane's scuba diving adventures. She's been to Asia to scuba dive! What amazing stories. Let's just say the conversation was way better than the food. We got to Athens at about 7:15pm. Traffic was a little slow in the city, but we arrived about on time. We decided to spend the evening, first, not eating the buffet at the hotel and second, taking a tour of the new Acropolis Museum. We asked Coastes if we'd be visiting it and he said we weren't. He said the museum was fabulous and it has the most extensive collection of classical art, but it was only open until 8pm. So we hurried to our room and put our bags down. We made it to the museum at about 7:25 (it's a close walk from our hotel). We were hoping that the museum was open later than 8, but Coastes is not wrong very often (or ever that we know). We had to pay full price of 5 Euros each and then we practically ran through the exhibits. We started on the third floor and saw the frieze designs that were around the museum. The Acropolis Museum is new and built on the exact same scale and parallel lines as the real Parthenon. There are even columns in the museum where there are columns and there was an inner section that went around the inside just like on the Parthenon. On either end were what's left of the pediment statues. The statues were huge and amazing! They had them placed where they believe them to be in the pediment. We were racing through at this point, taking as many pictures as we could. We went down another floor and then finally the first floor. Dad took a picture of scale model with a flash and a security guard came over. We apologized for the flash, but then he said there's no pictures on the first floor. We thought it was weird how we could take pictures on the third floor but not the first. Well come to think of it, maybe we weren't allowed pictures on the third floor but no one caught us. So since the guard was next to us, scolding us about the pictures, he then said, "It's time to leave, the museum is closing." But we still had ten minutes. Arrrggggh! I'm not getting time at any place today. No time to shop, no time to view the museum for the entire time we paid for. We expected at least 30 minutes of viewing, but we actually got around 20 for full price. What a bummer. But at least we were able to get in and see the artifacts. We were really glad that we went but bummed we didn't get to see too much. So we slowly walked about of the museum and then spent some time at the front, before we walked up to the Plaka where we literally ran in to Gary, Christine, Michelle and Marv and Don and Echo. What great timing! I guess it was ok that we got kicked out early. So we joined them and went to find some dinner. We walked down a few streets until we found some gyros, which is what the group was looking for. A guy on the street said, "Come up to our roof top dining with view of the Acropolis." Sold! And then had gyros. The view was spectacular. We had a nice dinner on the top of the building and enjoyed the conversation. The NCAA basketball games were going on and Dad was checking the scores on his phone. We asked if they could get the games on the bar TV, but the waiter had no idea what we were talking about. After dinner we walked up the street a little more until we found a nice gift shop. Most of the shops were open until 11pm, so we had a little more time to do some shopping. Dad and I found a lot of nice stuff in there. Stuff for Jonathan, Dad, my friends, and family. The workers in the store were really nice. We were looking at a Sparta shirt for Jonathan since he likes that movie, 300, which then struck up a conversation with the store clerk about American movies. He said he mostly watches American movies, since Greece doesn't really make many movies and they don't compare to the American ones. All the movies have subtitles, but most can understand English over there. Spartan souvenirs are really popular with the movie 300, which I still haven't seen. We also were able to visit with the owner who told us a little history of Greece and some neat stories. He was nice. The rest of the group then joined us and judging by the noise level, they had a little bit to to drink. Echo was practically giggling and she was a hoot in the store. There were some very 'inappropriate' male shaped bottles of Uzo that Echo picked right up and decided to needed to buy it. She said she was putting it in her bathroom. We were all laughing like elementary kids. Everyone did a bunch of shopping and found great gifts in the store. Echo was even picking through Christine's basket taking stuff out of it, until I told her that wasn't a display, but Christine's shopping basket. Echo said she picked out all the good stuff and then she can pick out from her stuff. It was funny. As we left the store under strings of flags, someone reminded Don what he said about the store. He told Echo not to go in there, that she won't find anything. Don was carrying a full bag in each hand. That was great night with friends in Athens, even with the limited amount of time there. When we got back to our room, it was really hot! The thermostat was working, so Dad went down to the lobby to get some help, but not being taking a picture of the thermostat so he could accurately explain the problem. He was going to draw a picture, but realized that a picture would be quicker. At least he was using technology! The bellman came up to our room, right away and just opened the balcony door. He said the air conditioner isn't on yet. The weather seemed to be unseasonably warm, so as a result so was the room. When the bellman opened the door, then we saw the view! We were facing the Acropolis! Amazing! We were shocked. Since we went to our room so quickly and then left for the museum, we never looked out the window. And since we were getting to our room late, we might not of even looked out the window and might have missed this beautiful site. So that was a blessing. I worked on the blog a bit and then went to bed. We board the cruise boat in the morning.

Phlippi

We started off the morning in Thess. with another 'great' breakfast. Their breakfast spread is so odd here. Who eats deli meat for breakfast? There was lots and I mean lots of bread, like dinner rolls and French bread. Then there were different combinations of eggs and little meat things that looked like miniature hot dogs. Not really what I want to eat. I found some fresh fruit and drank some orange juice. We sat at a larger table with a bunch of LBCC people and then one couple from Kentucky, named Teresa and Eric. They talked a lot about life in Kentucky and the Kentucky Derby. Eric is an engineer so Dad enjoyed talking to him after breakfast. Rick came down to breakfast 'late' or was the last one. He's really not a morning person and despising the early morning wake up calls. We have to have wake up calls because there are no clocks in the room. We boarded the bus and drove about 1.5 hours to Philippi. When Paul came to Philippi he rode a boat to Neapolis. The boats he rode on were larger, commercial type boats that they just stuck people on. It wasn't a person only boat or cruise like we are on now sailing to Turkey. From Neapolis he would have walked to Philippi. In Paul's days, people could walk anywhere from 40-65 kilometers and would rarely ride an animal. Our guide said an animal is just like having another person in your traveling party. You have to feed the donkey, give it rest, water, and a place to sleep. So they would often just walk instead of riding an animal. Once we arrived in Philippi, Coastes bought out tickets. As we were waiting, I noticed a game of soccer going on with boys that were about 9-10 years old. I wanted to jump in the game and play with them. They seemed to be having fun, playing 'football' and I don't know if they are fully aware of how historic the place is where they live. We first saw remains of the ancient city with huge columns and even a few archways still stood. It's amazing to see the archways and how they were made. It seems the stones were precisely stuck together and gravity and force has kept them there. Upon walking further, we found the theatre. While the theatre was a typical theatre of this time period, the underground area was something I'd never seen before. One level below and to the front of the theatre was the staging area for the actors who performed in the plays of the theatre. There were many different 'rooms' and archways down there as well. What was really interesting was where Coastes said the animals were kept that were used in the performances. Coastes mentioned the movie, Gladiator, which I'll have to watch again, but he showed us where they were kept and how they were moved up a platform and practically 'sprung' into the stage area. We envisioned only lions, but they used also tigers that they would get from Africa. We got a group picture taken in the theatre and as we were forming on the ancient steps, a Korean group that we have seen before entered the theatre. They began singing a song and nearly every person had their hands raised to heaven. We obviously couldn't tell what the song was because of the language, but it sounded beautiful. When the finished, we all clapped for them and they were grateful for that. It was really neat to see another group of people, from another country, visiting the same sites and worshiping. The area we had see to this point, was just the theatre and some ruins around the theatre. I guess I thought that was about it, but then we continued to walk and came up to an opening where across a small road down below was a huge city of ruins! I remembered saying, "Wow!" There were very tall ruins and rows of columns that were outlining the ancient agora. I wasn't feeling the best during this part of the tour, so I know some details that Coastes shared with me weren't quite registering. I took lots of pictures and tried to focus on the details of their craftsmanship. All the buildings of Philippi were enclosed by a strong wall and the Via Egnatia passed through the city. Paul probably traveled on the Via Egnatia and if he did he would have entered the city of Philippi by means of the Neapolis Gate. The city's main buildings stood on either side of the Via Egnatia. To the north was a theatre, from the time of Phillip II. On the southern side were the remains of a Roman market, which housed the workshops, warehouses, public speakers, fountains, a library and two small temples. Paul's purpose in visiting Philippi was to share the gospel and many think his first concern would have been contacting the Jews living there. However, there might not have been many Jews living in Philippi because there is no remains that have been found of a Jewish synagogue. We were able to see the 'traditional' site that many believe is the place where Paul and Silas were held in jail. I say traditional because there are many that believe that isn't the correct location. I asked Coastes what he believes and he thinks the jail cell is yet to be discovered next to the administrative offices. I guess during that time the jails were normally kept next to the General's quarters. Makes sense. In Acts 16:16 we read about how Paul and Silas were thrown in to jail. One key part that is missing in the translations between Greek and NIV was in verse 17. A girl was good at predicting futures and followed Paul and Silas around shouting to others that they have 'the' way to be saved. Coastes asked us what was wrong with that. We did think anything. But actually the exact word in the Greek Bible say, 'a' way to be saved. This is why Paul became so troubled with her later and commanded the spirit to come out of her. When this happened, she was no longer able to tell fortunes and the owners of the girl became mad and thus had Paul and Silas thrown in jail. Bob in our group asked a good question about looking for evidence of the earthquake that got Paul and Silas out of jail that night. Coastes said that won't work because the miracle in the earthquake was not that there was an earthquake - they occur often in this area, but the timing of the earthquake. After seeing the jail, we saw a piece of a pediment (which I had no idea what that word even meant). It's an architectual term, so Dad knew what it was. Coastes asked for what this piece of stone way. Dad first guessed it was a sign dial, but that was incorrect. it was actually a shield and a spear, so that meant it belonged to the offices of the Army - the generals. Cool! By the way, the pediment is the triangular top part of the roof facing the courtyard. Learn something new everyday! In Acts 16:13, it mentions Paul and Silas going to the river side to pray. Once they were there, they met a lady named Lydia. Coastes said she was probably from Asia and we don't know her real name. She was probably from the 'Lydia' region of Asia and thus had the name Lydia. She held the gospel message and believed. Paul baptized her in the river they were sitting next to. This rive is now referred to as "Little Jordan" because Lydia was the first person to be baptized on the European contitent. There is a small area erected to mark the site and perform baptisms. It was very peaceful there and I enjoyed city in the structure and listening to Coastes' stories. Lydia's job was to sell purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. Coastes explained that the cloth was made purple from sea shells and he passed around an example. I bought a little jar in the gift shop that I figured was for collecting water from the river. So I filled my little jar with water and screwed the lid on tight. I wish I had water from the Jordan River, but I don't. So I now have water from the Little Jordan. We then went into the church that was built there to honor the commitment that Lydia made and eventually her whole family. The church was beautiful and very symmetrical. it was really cold inside, probably because of the marble structure. It was quite refreshing. The church inside wasn't a normal church with pews and an alter. It was a 'in the round' church. We gathered around the octoganal shaped area and listened to Rick share some scripture written in Phillipians about how God is faithful to finish the good work he has started in us. Then Diane had us sing the song that goes with that scripture. We sounded pretty good in the church. After the tour, we had lunch in the courtyard area. This area seemed to be a place where locals would come to play in the park and have lunch as well. It was nice to see so many children around. We ate lunch with Duane and Linda from Colorado Springs. Dad had visited with Duane the day before on the bus and really liked him. Linda is a school teacher and now counselor a high school, so I have things in common with her. They are really nice people. They asked a lot about our family and Dad went talked most of the time. For lunch we got to choose from a 'live menu' as I called it. They just came around with a tray of food and you picked what you wanted. Then they prepared it and brought it to the table. I had a burger with no bun - it didn't come with one and french fries. It was decent. I also ordered a Coke, but no ice. They don't know the luxuries in life they are missing out on! Actually I never considered ice a luxury before. After lunch we boarded the bus for the ride back to Thessaloniki. Before heading directing for our hotel we stopped at an overview to see Neaopolis and get some great pictures from up above. Then we made another off the road stop at Amphilpolis and saw a HUGE lion statue that is along the Via Egnatia. In Acts 17:1, it says, "They traveled by way of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica." It is believed that this statue dates to 2 century BC so Paul would have walked by this statue! The statue is near a cemetary but no one knows for certain who it was erected for. Some believe it was for a general of Alexander the Great, but not for sure. I was really impressed with the size of the state and the completeness of it. It's been there for along time and it's still all together! I just imagined Paul walking along the road and seeing this statue. I wonder what he must of thought of it, if it was normal to see things like that all the time. We got back to Thessaloniki relatively early tonight. It was around 5:30. Dinner was to be served at 7 o'clock, but I am growing very tired of the food. I convinced Dad to venture out into the streets of Thessaloniki in search of American food - or as American as I can get. Dad said, "What do you feel like eating." I answered honestly saying, "Chili's, Taco Bell or PIzza Hut." So we asked the front desk if they knew any Mexican or Italian restaurants. He knew of a little Italian restaurant real close but didn't know the name. He spent some time trying to figure that out. While we were waiting Ken called and wanted to FaceTime. It was perfect that I just happened to be in the lobby with wifi and the call came through. So then I was able to talk to Ken in the lobby for about 20 minutes. It was so great to see him. It was in the morning there and he was sitting in his office. I told him all about the places we'd seen that day and about the lion statue. He googled it and found it after only one try. He showed me the picture via the phone and I said that's the one! Then he was able to read about what I was seeing. Then Dad and I ventured out to find the restaurant. We took a few wrong turns and soon had no idea where it was. Dad went into another hotel and got much better directions and a better map. Then we found it exactly! The Italian restaurant was actually an Italian Wine Bar. We were interested in the wine, but the food. There was only one lady working there (it was a very small place, only held about 20-30 people). She read the entire menu to us and explained what everything was. She was so friendly and made the experience so much better. I had a panini and a little pizza to share with Dad. Dad got to a salad. All the food was really good. It was so nice to actually have a meal that was edible and enjoyable. Oh how I miss enjoying my food and knowing what exactly it is. Then we went back to the hotel. I went to the Mezzanine floor to blog and listen to the Fan. Dad went across the street to the biker bar - yep my dad - with others from our group. I think it was just Don, Echo, Michelle and Marv were there. They all enjoy wine and Dad went for the company. Although I did hear they got a free round of Ouzo shots. Time for bed, wake-up early in the morning.

Meteora and Thessalonica (for real this time)

Ok, so I left off on my last blog with the first monastery and the balcony picture spot. Coastes, our guide always says, "We may stop here so you can make picture." It would sound even better if you could hear it in his Greek accent. A quick note on our guide. He is a very knowledgeable man with history degrees and it seems to me that he has extensive training in languages. He is always talking about the orginis of a word, or the Greek root (makes sense, he's Greek). He probably knows more about the Enlgish language and how it works than we do. So we got to the second monestary and I already mentioned how cute it was. We all took a little bathroom break. Some things I have learned about the bathroom in Europe. 1. They are called water closets. I don't know exactly why. But you search for the letters WC if you want to find a bathroom. 2. You cannot flush toilet paper. I didn't figure that one out for a few days. My apologies to the Greek plumbers. 3. Many toilets here do not have toilet seats. I don't know why that is. When I told Dad that, he thought it was only in the men's rooms. We joked one night at dinner that the lack of toilet seats was the root of the financial crisis in Greece. 4. Men and Women's restrooms are not always seperate. We have been to several WC that have a small wall dividing the two side, so sicne the women's line is longer and goes beyond the men's side, we just turn our heads. Very awkward, but apparentently not for them. So speaking of WC, we encountered our most unique bathroom yet at the nunnery. When I was walking to the bathroom, my Dad was walking out and said, "You must be desperate if you have to pee here." That's not a good sign. I wasn't desperate, but intrigured. So I continued. The women's line was long so I had to time to gather tips from the other well traveled women who have encountered a 'hole' in the ground and two foot holds. My mind was racing with horrible images and I immediately started thinking the worse. I was scared I was going to drop my camera, my sun glasses, my shoe down the hole. I guess sometimes it's best to think the worse, because then it might not be that bad, which was true in this case. The 'hole' was small about a few inches wide (my shoe would haave a hard time fitting down there) and it was all porclein. Pretty nice, I thought. Then it hit me. I didn't ask the ladies which was to face. Forwards or bbackwards. I tried both positions to see which made the most sense. I won't give a play by play here, but it was actually quite easy, especially since I was wearing a skirt. I don't know how it would work if I would have worn pant, but I guess that lesson is for another day. LLet me jsut say, I would take these 'squatty potties' over the outhouse at the Phoenix Gold Mine anyday. (4th grade team mates, you know what I'm talking about). OOk, since none of you thoguht to youselves, I want to read all about the bathrooms in Greece, I will move on to the more interesting, historical facts. We started in the museum which held some really old documents written on parchment apper. The oldest document was from the 5th century. There were many paintings and Rick pionted out a painting of Jesus hholding his hands in the formation like an OK sign. The only difference was his middle finger connected to his thumb. RRick said this is a reverant sign and the Pope is the only one allowed to do that sign to others. Coastas said it means a few things. One, the cirlce means completition and unity. Two, there are three remaining fingers sticking up,w hich stands for the the trinity - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What's interesting is that latter that day II saw another painting of Jesus doing the same sign with his hand. We then went into the church and talkeda bout the paitings in this church as well. I noticed some similar paintings from the previous monastery which I tought was intersting. I don't know why there were some same pictures, but there was. Coastes taught us about the paint that was used. The first kind of paint was fresca, which was painted on the wet plaster. That was the kind of paint in the first monastery. The second kind, used in the nunnery was tempra, which is a eegg yolk, mixed with vinegar and then the colors (either from berries, or dirt, etc). The last kind of paintings, still used today is oil painting. I could defintiely see a difference in the paint. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside so I won't be able to show you any pictures. I'll have to sit down and try to write more about the pictures later. Once we left Meteora, we drove north towards the city of Thessalonica, sometimes spelled Thessaloniki, which is the second lasrgest city in Greece. Lookingat my notes, Thessalonica was the chief city of Macedonia and the seat of Roman aadministration in the century before Christ. Once we got to Thess. (can I just abbrivated it? It's a long city to type, especailly when I am now typing on my iphone not my ipad - too many technology compliplations). Ok, once we got to Tess. we went straight to the middle of the city and found the middle of the ancient town. I thought it was intersting that the middle of the city 2 thousand years ago is still the middle of the city. Upon first glance, we saw a theatre and a huge large grass area. Starting is verse 5 of Acts 17, we read about the place that we were standing right in front of. Acts. 17:5 "But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place (ag-gora, means marketplace in greek, whci is what the area we wwere looking at is called) formed a mob and started a riot in the city. they rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd." This ag-goa area was fascinating and has much to be discovered. Coastas thinks there are more ruins under the 'box of flats' (apartments) next to the ag-gora. They have built an enteracne to a museum which was to be underground, but with the financial crisis, there was no money to continue to work there. Then we walked towards the St. Demetrios Church above the ag-gora. One really funny thing that happened here was, Coastes was talkikng to us about the church and what we would see inside. Since we had been by some really loud tourist groups earlier int he day at the monastery, Coastes was warning us to stay quiet and nof lash photography if there is a serviec going on. So he said, "When we go in we are going to be quiet." Not a half a second later, the chruch bells went off right above us. GONG BONG GONG! So much for being quiet. It was litearlly hilarious timing. I happened to also see the preist coming out of the church and watched three people say good bye to him and bow and kiss his hand. It was really odd watching that. Then the priest went to his car. That just extended the weridness. For some reaons, I would think a Greek Orthodox priest would not be so modern. I bet he had an iphone in his pocket. When we entered the church there were women and children begging for food at the front of the church. The unemployment rrate is up to 24% now and of the remaining workforce, half of them have seen their salaries cut in half. They just seeme so desperate. It was sad. Theyw ere trying to selling travel size tissue packs. Dad gave one little girl all the cahnge he had, but it was US money. I don't know what if she can do anything with it. Inside the church, they started going the vespers, which is the chanting. There were about 20 people in the congregation and many areas to light candles around the perimeter. You could also write your prayers on a piece of paper and leave them in a bakset. We walked byt he confessional room which had a glass window and we saw a women talking directly to the priest. They were in the same room and there was no divider. Coastes said that long ago when the Orthosox and Catholic church split, each took some different traditions. Either the lady had messed up a lot or hadn't been to confessional lately, because she was reading from a sheet of notebook paper. Interesting. We then boared the bus and went towards our hotel - the Meditteran Palace in Thess, right close to the water. Coastes informed us of our agenda for the next day and it included a wake-up call of 6:30 and be on the bus 7:30. Coastes told us that there was free wifi which prompted Pasotr Rick to stand up and perform a hail mary. It was funny. Us Americans are obsessed with our wifi. DDinner was interesting. We ate a large dinner table 10 other people from our group. We sat next to Chaze and Chelsea and talked to them about the torndo is Joplin and their schooling. Dinner was served in four courses. The appetizer was a flaky pastery with 'cream of mushroom soup' (as one lay put it) over the shell with small mushrooms in it. It was ok. nnext was the salad. It had brown vinergatte dressing,w hcih was disgusting. Dad loved the salad, but then we saw it had pinon nuts on it. He asked the waiter for a new salad and I asked him to get our guide to tell the waiters exactly what he needed. Even though I'm trained in epi-pens, I don't want to use one. I keep telling Dad he needs to add the word, "deadly" to his standard allergic statment. They need to understand they he will die, not just get a rash. Anyway the new salad came and dad ate most of it and then saw another pinon nut at the bottom. URggg! The main course was pork with a mussel cream sauce. It was ok, but I idn't eat it all. I did get dessert, even thought I thought the waiter might not give me any because I wasn't a good eater. It was basically neopolatian ice cream in a sugar cone cup. Small diced apples were on top of the ice cream and it was quite good. The best thing I ate that evening. I typed for my blog in the evening in the lobby/bar area. Many people were still talking about the Manning deal and I had a great time listening to the radio. Tonight. I am typing on the Messazinine level. Something weird is going on with the bluetooth keyboard, so I ended up typing on my iphone and listening to the radion on the ipad. I just had a nice converstaion with Mindy, who ironically went with my youth group to church camp when I was in about 5 grade. Crazy!! I'm hoping for wifi on the bus tomorrow so I can catch up on my blog. I am only one day behind right now. The day after tomorrow we leave on the cruise for Turkey. Pray for wifi on the boat! Love to all reading this!

Meteora and Thessaloniki

We woke up in Kalambaka and and took a short drive to the monasteries of Meteora. Before leaving, I was able to FaceTime with Ken in the lobby, which was great. We had a decent breakfast (chocolate chip muffin again!) and another funny story. Last night, as I unpacked my suitcase, there was a strong smell of sweet pea. My shower gel wasn't closed all the way and spilled everywhere in my bag. I had to wring out my Vera Bradley bag for a good ten minutes. There was a lot of soap! So in the morning, I couldn't pack my Vera bag in my suitcase because it was still a little damp. Dad offered to carry my bag while I FaceTimed with Ken. Well, Dad got teased in the lobby by a bunch of other guys for carrying his "Vera" bag. He said it was mine, but they didn't believe him. It was funny. I later met the guy who made fun of Dad because he lives in Fort Wayne, IN where the Vera plant is located. He said his wife is obsessed with Vera and there is always a package on the front porch for her from Vera. Sounds like I need to meet this girl! Meteora is filled with large rock formations that somewhat reminded me of Garden of the Gods, but there rocks were gray instead of red. What makes this place unique is the monasteries that were built on top of the huge rocks! There were orginally more than 20 monasteries built beginning in the 14th century. Through wars and time, only 6 of these monastaries remain today. Four are inhabited by men and two by women. Each monastery has fewer than 10 inhabitants. I don't know if they all are tourist attractions now, but two are, which we went to. We began at a monstary owned by men. The women had to wear skirts and there were some cloth skirts that the ladies could put over their pants/shorts if they didn't have a skirt. The views were just amazing. I think I have typed that phrase everyday, but it's true. Today, maybe the views were the best of the whole trip. Snow capped mountains in the backgroup, with large rock formations in the foreground. We were able to walk through the church and Coastes gave us information about the paintings that were on the wall. The entire wall, ceiling, everything was covered in paintings. Upon further examination, the paintings seemed to have a theme of martyrs because there were headless men everywhere with blood. Typically men. Many of the paintings had depictions of Christ and the Apostles and stories from the Bible. There were ornate decorations, candles, candeliers everywhere. It smelled of incense and was very dark in the church. We learned about how the monks lived when they practiced at the monasteries. They were pulled up in baskets or nets with a pully system. Sometimes the rock formations could be 1200 feet high! So it wasn't an easy little ride. The ride required a leap of faith and I read somewhere that they only replaced the ropes, "when the Lord lets them break." Tourists were not allowed to test their faith this way. There was a huge wine barrel and I mean huge! It filled the whole room. I guess they drank that more than water, but it was diluted some. They collected rain water to drink. As we left the monastary, we had to cross a wooden bridge over a very big drop. The bridge was very safe and sturdy, but one girl in our group, Jenny was scared of the heigth. Her husband, who is very tall and big, was going to help her across, but she said, "I'm not going with you. You're too big. You'll make the bridge collaspe." I thought that was funny. She did make it across but it took her a while. On the drive to the nunnery, Rick told us a great 'monk' joke. It goes like this: A monk came to live in the monastary and was told that he can only say two words every ten years. So after the first ten years, he came to the priest and said, "Bed hard." Another ten years passed and he came back to priest and said, "Food bad." Another ten years passed and the monk came back to the priest and said, "I quit." The priest responded by saying, "That's fine. All you've been doing since you got here was complaining." We all laughed and someone teased Rick at how long he was waiting to tell that joke. He had to bring us all the way to Meteora to tell that joke. We stopped at what the locals call the Balcony. It's a huge rock that sticks out over the openings and made for some nice pictures. It looked that we climbed a 14er where we were standing, but we just climbed off the bus. Our guide warned us to be careful on these rocks because if we slip, we will be gloried immediately. So that scared Dad enough and he was VERY protective of me and practically held my hand the whole way. He as glad that Jonathan wasn't there so he couldn't tease Dad by going close to the edge. The nunnery was very cute and a similar building to the monastary, but you could immediately notice that everything was more 'cute' than where the men lived. The women seemed to keep everything very neat - not that it was neat at the monastary, but there was a herb garden near the front. A well, a hedge garden, and flower pots decorated the courtyard. All the women noticed that it was just 'cute.' Well, I have only 10% battery left on my ipad and it's 11:00pm. I need to get to bed for a 6am wake up call. I think I will close up the blog for tonight and hope that I can spend more time on this tomorrow night. For some reason, I couldn't get the keyboard to work for a while tonight. I did enjoy listening to 104.3 the Fan and the Peyton Manning press conference while typing this post. Iphones are amazing! I feel like I'm at home.

The Broncos get Manning! And I'm in Greece

So obviously the big news for today, even on the other side of the world is Manning chooses the Broncos. I'm still in shock about that one. My Dad received an email from his office that contain the news and he announced it to the bus. There was a collective groan when everyone heard that. I think we all love Tebow and hate to see him go, even if it means great things for the Broncos. It's just hard to see that right now. Ok, anyway, back to my day. We had a wake-up call at 6am, luggage had to be in the hallway by 6:30 and we had to be on the bus at 7:45am. I guess that's one of the downfalls of traveling with a group - they dictate your schedule. Oh well, there are positives as well. I would say the morning was uneventful and skip right to our first stop, but it wasn't. Apparently neither Dad nor I are very electronic savvy and we messed up. Dad brought an adapter for our electronics, but not a converter. Quite luckily for me, the plug didn't ruin either of our cell phones, or my ipad. But the curling iron was another issue. I plugged it in to the bathroom and then when I went to use it, the light was off. That should have been a sign but it didn't register. Then I plugged the curling iron into the living area and then when I used it, I promptly burnt my hair and singed off a good few inches. What a way to start the morning! My hair immediately starting burning and was burnt off. That was a shock! So my hair was going to look less than beautiful for today. Breakfast was so-so. I'm a picky eater, so this is hard to eat in other countries. I'm just so nervous about trying new food and everything looks so .....well.....interesting. The serve weird things for breakfast. The orange juice was terrible, very bitter. We learned later it's because of the oranges. I ate plenty of canned fruit, which they called 'stewed fruit' and a chocolate chip muffin which was really good. Everything else, not so good. I think this is why my Aunt Jeannie doesn't travel to other countries, she'd starve! LOL. We boarded the bus, all packed up for our next destination. As we drove through Athens traffic towards, Delphi, Dad noticed solar panels on nearly every building top. Astute observation for someone who sticks his finger in the ice cream bowl (more on that later). Many of the buildings, signs, and bridges were covered in graffiti. So sad. It seems they can't even keep up with cleaning the graffiti, so they just gave up. We contined towards Delphi and saw some breathtaking views. The countryside was just beautiful and very mountainous. There are even snow capped mountains here. The tallest mountain here is about 7200 feet. As we rounded a bend in the road, we drove through the cutest little town, perched on the side of the cliff. I don't think I ever caught the name of the town, but everyone was wanting to stop. There were adorable shops, flowers and plants on every balcony, and the most relaxing looking cafes and resturants. We weren't able to stop, another reason why a group tour was a bummer today. We all wanted to stop, even Pastor Rick said a few times he wished we could have stopped there. The town was so close together and the streets are narrow. Cars are parked on either sides and you wonder how this classifies as a two way street. Well, we were proven that it was a two way street, when around the bend sat another charter bus. We all groaned and thought we were stuck for good. I thought it would take at least 10 minutes to figure our way out of that one. But a shop keeper jumped up, moved a car, another directed the buses and we passed each other (quickly I might add) in no time. We arrived at Delphi around 11:30 am. We bagan by touring the museum located at Delphi. We were given our headsets and Coastes officially began his touring duties. We saw some fascinating pieces of archological finds in this museum. Aparently, a group of archeologists from Germany thought there was something to be found under this city, so they had the city moved and began digging. What they found were the Temples of Apollo, Athena, and a whole little city! Many of the decorative pieces were locaed inside museum. We saw the oldest known written sheet music. Of course, it wasn't written on a sheet, but carved on stone. We saw another stone with a letter carved on it, partially readable still today. The letter states the exact dates when Paul came to Greece. Pretty cool! Then we were able to tour the ruins, which were amazing! I could have spent a lot more time there. We bought this really cool book at the rest stop that was just what I wanted! It's a book that has pictures of the ruins in their current state. Then there is an overlay, clear page that has a drawing of what they think the building looked like. So every part we went to, we looked through the book and found the overlay page. It made the ruins come alive and give us more of an idea what it would have looked like. I took several pictures of the sites with me holding the overlay picture in the foreground. There were several ruins that were still very much intact. I was very excited to see the Temple of Apollo. There was even a 'holy of holies' is Apollo's temple. A huge theatre was further up the hill. We learned later that there was a stadium up the hill further, but we didn't go up there. Instead we got more pictures of the Temple of Apollo. I was bummed we didn't get to go down the road to the Temple of Athena and get some closer pictures. I was at least able to see it and I have the book that I can read all about it. Dad reminded me that I won't be able to see everything and I have to save things for Ken and I to do when we return. :-) We then got back on the bus and went to lunch at a seaside town. We ate right back the Ionia Sea (spelling?). The scenery was beautiful, much more beautiful than the lunch choices. Others seemed to be enjoying the food, it's just me and Echo Owen that are having a hard time with the food. She's a self-proclaimed picky eater too, but she ate calamari for lunch. That just doesn't seem right. Mostly everyone ordered fish or some other Greek dish, I ordered spaghetti. People laughed at my choice, but at least I was able to eat something. We ate at a restaurant that had the seating across the street from the actual kitchen and restroom. So when we ordered our food, it was actually prepared across the street and then carried across the street on trays. It was funny watching the men carry our food across the street while trying not to get hit by a car. So then after lunch, we mostly all went to the restroom at about the same time. The restroom was tiny! Only 2 stalls per gender and there was a SMALL divider separating the men from the women. The girls actually had to turn their heads so they weren't staring at the men. One lady in our group, said NO THANKS! I'll wait until the next stop. I still can't get used to toilets over here - no toilet seats. At least my quads are getting a good workout. We then began our four hour bus trip to the north to Kalambaka. Once again, we traveled through beautiful country-side. The only interesting thing that happened on the four hour bus trip was Dad getting the email about Peyton Manning. We got to our hotel, another Divani chain around 7:30. Dinner was served at 7:45. Dad and I are in room 236. The elevators here are small and we were proud of ourselves for getting six people in it, but then it wouldn't move. The maxiumum number of people said 4. Weird. When we got to the 2nd floor, there were no lights on in the hallways and we had to use our cell phones to our room. Later we were thinking it was because our group was the only one occupying the second and third floor. Dinner was actually.......very good! I had spaghetti for the second time today. I also had chicken, lamb (apparently, I didn't know that when I ate it), rice, bread, and mushy green beans. The dessert was yummy! They had chocolate and vanilla ice cream. So on to the ice cream scooper story. I went with Dad to the dessert table, which looking back was a good move, because I can't leave him by alone. He was trying to get the vanilla ice cream out of the scooper and into his bowl, but it was stuck. So he struggled with it for a while and then finally stuck his finger in the ice cream and pushed it into his bowl. I saw this happen out of the corner of my eye. I said, "You didn't just stick your finger int here did you?" He replied, "Yep, what's the matter with that?" The British lady that is traveling with us made some funny comment, which sounded even funnier because of her accent. Dad was embarassed and I told him quietly at the table that he can't do things like that. He's a world traveler! How does he act when I'm not with him. Agghggh! Then Echo told us about another tourist from China who went down the buffet line and tried each food with the serving spoon. Everyone did a collective gasp and then Dad thought he'd get in on the story telling and told what he did with the ice cream. Everyone responded just the way I did, much to my Dad's surprise. He tought they would say no big deal. I think Dad learned his leason via embarassement. After dinner I learned that wifi only works in the lobby so I am sitting on the couch in the lobby typing away. I got to visit with a nice couple from Kentucky - Dick and Jane. Hard to forget their names. We talked about Kentucky basketball because he wants to know if he can watch the game on my ipad. We also talked about Isreal and teaching. They are also reading The Story, which I find interesting that so many people are reading that at the same time. It's 10:33 and I still haven't talked to Ken yet today. I'll try him again and then check Twitter. I have to see what everyone is saying about Peyton Manning. Tomorrow we are going to see the monistaries. Night, night!

Day One

Greetings from Greece! We landed about 4 pm local time and now I am typing this latest blog in the hotel room. Let me quickly recap the past day. Our flight left Denver at 1pm. We met at the church at 10am. I was able to drop Houston off at Roger and Gloria's because Ken had a track meet that he was to time at Valor Christian. Dropping Houston off was just as hard as I thought it would be. I think he eventually figured something was up, because I kept hugging and kissing him. He was being a good boy and snugging with me right back. I had tears streaming down my face as I left. The only way I could leave was to distract him with playing outside. At the church we loaded up the vans and drove to the airport. We flew Delta and I tried to be prepared with signing up for a Sky Miles number, downloading the Delta app for my phone, and writing down all the important numbers on my phone as well. I think all that preparation paid off because I was able to check in for the flight on the kisok. I think I was the only one able to do that. For others it wasn't working and they weren't giving boarding passes for the Athens leg because that flight was 'occuring tomorrow.' Silly. We had to stand in line anyway to check our bags. We have I think 32 people traveling in the Life Bridge group. Then Dad and I went and got an early lunch. I ate a taco, some fruit and orange juice. I know weird combination, but it's what I wanted. :-) As we were leaving the table, Dad picked up his cheap, hand-me-down duffle bag and the strap broke. Go figure! So we made a pit stop at the luggage store and fortunately he was able to buy a replacement strap instead of a whole new bag. Althogth the strap probably cost three times what the bag did. On to our flight! We left from gate C38. Dad treated us to some frozen yogurt from TCBY and he promptly spilled the strawberry topping on the front of his pants - the pants that he's to wear for the next day. We laughed about that while he went to clean up in the bathroom. Our first flight was to Minneopolis. We landed on time and had a four hour layover. On the short flight over I was looking at the Delta app and noticed Dad didn't have his Sky Miles number in, so we decided to stop at a kisok to get that taken care of. There was a lady there trying to help others in our party get the Athens boarding pass. Dad asked her to help him enter his Sky Miles number because he would much rather have a human help him than a computer. She was happy to help. She directed him to a kisok where she instructed him to get out his passport. Dad said, "My passport? What do you need that for? I'm just entering my Sky Miles number?" She quickly responded, "Do you want a human to help you or not?" That comment brought down the house. Diane Rusaw laughed and laughed and gave the lady a high five. Dad humbly accepted her help and followed her directions. I then asked her about a tram that goes to The Mall of America. I had heard a guy talking on his phone about tkaing the lightrail to the mall on his layover. So the lady directed us to the lightrail and we were headed to The Mall of America. We had a great time buying the tickets, riding on the lightrail (although it looked like a subway because it wwas under ground. The ride was only 5 stops and we were there. We were only able to spend about two hours there because we wanted to get back in plenty of time for the flight. We walked around the Nickelodoan Theme Park which is in the middle of the mall. That was amazing! Then we found some dinner at Famous Dave's. The only store I really wanted to go to was the Disney Store. I knew that Disney had re-imagined some of their stores lately, and I figured that MOA would be a store they would re-do. I was right! The store was so cool! It was much more interactive although the casual guest might not notice much of a difference. I was finding all sorts of things I could buy Houston, but that's no fun. Plus I don't need to lug Buzz Lightyear to Greece, Turkey, and New York City before I give it him. I needed a more authentic toy. We left the mall with plenty of time to return to the airport. There was no line for secruity, so we breezed right through, except for the cranky comment my Dad just had to give the TSA agent. Dad wanted to put his change and his watch in his shoes (which I think is standard practice for him). This particular TSA agent said his shoes had to be seperate and with nothing in them. He said that was stupid and asked her why all the airports are different and why can't they all be on the same page? He was just venting, but she said, "I'm just trying to protect you. I'm not flying today, you are." Later I joked around with Dad that he's becoming a cranky old man. He's not normally like that. He took the comments in good spirits and laughed. But the women in MSP were really showing my Dad who was boss around there. We left MSP on a Boeing 747. Dad and I sat in the middle seats of the plane, on the middle and aisle seats. I changed into my jammies and took my contacts out. We had a dinner that had substance but not quality. Then I fell asleep. I don't know exactly how long I slept, but I did sleep. It was terrible comfortable, but wasn't the worst plane sleep either. When I woke up, we were served a sort of Egg McMuffin breakfast, juice, and a banana. Dad got an extra banana, because I don't like them. The airport in Amsterdam was cool. All the signs were in English but still had Dutch written on the signs, which we thought was weird, because English was the first language listed. We only had a 50 minute layover, so there wasn't time to really look around or shop. We did stop in a 'football' shop and saw the cutest little Adidasis outfits taht would have fit Houston. They were cute, but 55 Euros. I thought about getting him a little soccer ball, but I didn't . We went through customs and got a stamp in our passport. We had to go through security again, which I wasn't pepared for. I only lost my water bottle. On the way to the game, I saw some really cute magnets and I stopped to buy one. It's minature wooden shoes and it says Holland on it. I wanted to buy Gloria some bulbs (since they are the flower/tulip capital), but I was worrieda bout bringing plants back to America. I slept most of the next flight, which was 3 hours. They served us lunch, but I didn't eat it and neither did Dad because it sait it was a Thai curry wrap and they typically contain nuts. We landed in Athens, right on time. We got our bags from carosel 7 and found our guide, Costas waiting for us. Thy were so organzied and helpfu. We got right on the bus and started driving to our hotel. We passed many interesting places and Costas started telling us about what we were seeing. We did pass the Olympic Stadium, which was awesome. I really hope to get back there to spend some more time there. Our hotel is very nice and modern. We checked in, cleaned up a bit, and then met back down in the lobby. We are traveling with another church from Kentucky, so we met them in the lobby as well. Then we walked to a church where we had a short service with a short message (Rick promised that it would be short), singing, and ommunion. On our walk to and from the church, we saw the life of Athens. So many little vendors and carts. Lots of children in strollers. The most expensive apartments in the city were on this walk and facing the Acropolis. The gates and front doors on some of the apartments were amaizng! We could see the Acropolis from a distance and passed the new museum. On our way back, we bought Houston a litle toy that lots of boys were selling and shotting up in the sky. It's like a little helicopter that lights up. They looked so cool flying in the sky. After we returned to the hotel, we had dinner. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Yes, I'm a picky eater and there were many things I didn't even try, but I found enough food to eat. We sat with Michelle and Merv. Dad wasn't able to eat any of the dessert because of nuts, so they brought him his own special bowl of ice cream. It's about time for bed for me. Dad just got back from his walk. I'm glad that I stayed, got in a shower, and was able to type this whole blog post. That's all for today! Tomorrow, the adventure really begins!