Sunday, April 29, 2012
Home again home again
I'm home safe and sound! I actually got back on Thursday night around ten pm- and its been a weird couple of days since then :) I'm hopefully going to finish writing the posts for the last few days of my trip and then collect my thoughts about the whole experience in general, but we'll see when that actually happens :) love all you guys and thank you so much for all the prayers!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Day 14
Ah i love that my mom's been posting pictures for me :) all the ones you see of me are from my grandpa- photographer extraordinaire! But that's why there are multiple posts for each day, she adds the photos she gets and then I add my own comments :)
Day 14 was yet another travel day! We started out later than normal- nine o'clock bus departure! We went to Delphi in the morning and I touched the navel of the earth! I was so excited to be in Delphi I almost couldn't handle it at first. That and the acropolis in Athens have been the two sites I've always looked forward to seeing since I was about ten :) So I was pretty excited to say the least. I took about a bazillion shots of the mountains and the pillars and just everything. So great :) we had story time again in the agora of Delphi and then our guide gave us almost an hour to just explore the site. A couple of the other girls and I found a little tunnel and for whatever reason the two of them explored it. Once I realized it was safe and actually ended up somewhere I joined them! I'm surprisingly adventurous out here, it's a little off-putting actually :) we spent some time at the delphi museum ad well- there are so many groups of kids all of a sudden out here... Not sure if they're from school groups or cruise ships. After Delphi we drove for a while AGAIN to Athens, where we get to stay for the rest of our trip- three whole nights! It's do nice knowing we have extra time in the mornings and don't need to spend time each night repacking our bags :) Not to mention its a nice hotel too! We had a few hours before dinner so grandpa and i walked up to the acropolis, just to sat we did. We couldn't actually get in without a ticket, but I felt adventurous and brilliant hahaha :) So so blessed to be out here doing and seeing all these crazy amazing things :)
Day 14 was yet another travel day! We started out later than normal- nine o'clock bus departure! We went to Delphi in the morning and I touched the navel of the earth! I was so excited to be in Delphi I almost couldn't handle it at first. That and the acropolis in Athens have been the two sites I've always looked forward to seeing since I was about ten :) So I was pretty excited to say the least. I took about a bazillion shots of the mountains and the pillars and just everything. So great :) we had story time again in the agora of Delphi and then our guide gave us almost an hour to just explore the site. A couple of the other girls and I found a little tunnel and for whatever reason the two of them explored it. Once I realized it was safe and actually ended up somewhere I joined them! I'm surprisingly adventurous out here, it's a little off-putting actually :) we spent some time at the delphi museum ad well- there are so many groups of kids all of a sudden out here... Not sure if they're from school groups or cruise ships. After Delphi we drove for a while AGAIN to Athens, where we get to stay for the rest of our trip- three whole nights! It's do nice knowing we have extra time in the mornings and don't need to spend time each night repacking our bags :) Not to mention its a nice hotel too! We had a few hours before dinner so grandpa and i walked up to the acropolis, just to sat we did. We couldn't actually get in without a ticket, but I felt adventurous and brilliant hahaha :) So so blessed to be out here doing and seeing all these crazy amazing things :)
Day 13!
We travelled to Vergina and Verea (biblically known as Berea) today. It was about an hours drive from Thessaloniki to our first stop- and I hate to say it but I don't really remember what we did there... My brain is so full of information and experiences that I tend to forget certain things. I'm sure it'll come back to me right after I post this though :) I do remember once we got to Verea we walked through an old neighborhood that apparently was the Jewish side of town until WWII when they all were kicked out. It was adorable! And really neat to see it as it used to be (they restored all of it). We ran into some Evangelical Christians while walking around over there- our guide got super excited and chatted with them for probably fifteen minutes :) we ate lunch in the same town- I had another gyro and it was so delicious! Mary (the wife of Carl, our other leader) suggested we try out the bakery across the street from the gyro place, so of course we had to ;) grandpa and I shared a piece of strawberry cake and each got our own truffle type chocolate. Oh man. They were amazing- we scarfed them down in the first ten minutes of our bus ride. Speaking of bus ride- we spent almost six hrs in the bus that day driving to Delphi. It was a little ridiculous :) but we took plenty of stops and ate plenty of ice cream bars and I took plenty of motion sickness meds, so it was fine. Actually, the views were gorgeous the whole drive. I only got stressed when we started whipping around curves on the switchback roads overlooking steep drop offs :) Our hotel in Delphi was really cute- I think our group were ther only people there again! Which makes it feel like our own private villa or something. I love when you come down for breakfast in the morning and all you see are the smiling faces if the people in our group. Definitely a nice way to wake up! I think my blog posts are all out of order- so I might try to fix it now or just go and change it in a couple days when I'm home :)
Greek words
I'm a little disappointed that I haven't learned more words here on Greece, but here are the ones I've learned so far!
Calimera- good morning
Calispera- good afternoon/evening
Calinichta- goodnight
Ne- yes
Ochi- no
Calimera- good morning
Calispera- good afternoon/evening
Calinichta- goodnight
Ne- yes
Ochi- no
Monday, April 23, 2012
Day 14- April 23- Delphi to Athens
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| leaving hotel in Delphi |
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| swiss like village at foot of Mt Parnassus |
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| Delphi- naval of the earth- thanks Dave Stotts! |
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| peek-a-boo |
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| a little stroll in Athens |
Day 12
(The internet didn't really work last night- such a bummer but not too bad because I know I'll see everyone pretty soon!)
We travelled to Philippi and Thessaloniki today (which was yesterday- I'm starting to get into a rhythm of writing each post a day late). We woke up at like four am to a big crash and a car alarm. I thought it was a lightning strike and grandpa thought it was a car bomb :) But most likely it was just a crash. I got to watch the sun rise over Kavala and it was gorgeous! But what isn't out here? I've been way more tired lately though- mornings are pretty rough. But the sunrises sure help! So do hot showers :)
I've been thinking lately about coming home- and how nice it'll be to see family and friends again, but at the same time I don't know how I'll handle not being here. Like how do you transition from waking up at six every morning to a sunrise over the Aegean sea and then exploring ancient cities all day long with a huge group of incredible adults and teens each with different stories and personalities than people back home. And staying in a brand new city and hotel every night- showering in the funniest bathrooms and sleeping under some pretty weird blankets :) and seeing mountains and Cyprus or olive or orange or lemon or kiwi trees everywhere! I really have fallen in love with everything over here- especially Turkey :) But being here has really made me realize how good I have it at home and how much I'm loved by all the amazing friends I'm surrounded by- even if I'll miss the group here.
Philippi was great- 70 square acres in all! We got to stand in the agora where Paul healed the demon-possessed girl- which was incredible! We also saw 'lydia's church' which was beautiful :) The weather out there was absolutely perfect, really warm but just enough breeze to keep it cool. After Philippi we drove for about an hour to Thessaloniki where we walked around the modern city and saw a Greek orthodox church- it was an interesting experience, that's for sure.
We also walked down the touristy street and encountered wanna be pickpocketers and some little kids begging. It was sad to ignore them or say no but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do! Lunch was delicious as always and we got into our hotel nice and early :) it was lovely! Crazy to think I'll be home in less than a week
We travelled to Philippi and Thessaloniki today (which was yesterday- I'm starting to get into a rhythm of writing each post a day late). We woke up at like four am to a big crash and a car alarm. I thought it was a lightning strike and grandpa thought it was a car bomb :) But most likely it was just a crash. I got to watch the sun rise over Kavala and it was gorgeous! But what isn't out here? I've been way more tired lately though- mornings are pretty rough. But the sunrises sure help! So do hot showers :)
I've been thinking lately about coming home- and how nice it'll be to see family and friends again, but at the same time I don't know how I'll handle not being here. Like how do you transition from waking up at six every morning to a sunrise over the Aegean sea and then exploring ancient cities all day long with a huge group of incredible adults and teens each with different stories and personalities than people back home. And staying in a brand new city and hotel every night- showering in the funniest bathrooms and sleeping under some pretty weird blankets :) and seeing mountains and Cyprus or olive or orange or lemon or kiwi trees everywhere! I really have fallen in love with everything over here- especially Turkey :) But being here has really made me realize how good I have it at home and how much I'm loved by all the amazing friends I'm surrounded by- even if I'll miss the group here.
Philippi was great- 70 square acres in all! We got to stand in the agora where Paul healed the demon-possessed girl- which was incredible! We also saw 'lydia's church' which was beautiful :) The weather out there was absolutely perfect, really warm but just enough breeze to keep it cool. After Philippi we drove for about an hour to Thessaloniki where we walked around the modern city and saw a Greek orthodox church- it was an interesting experience, that's for sure.
We also walked down the touristy street and encountered wanna be pickpocketers and some little kids begging. It was sad to ignore them or say no but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do! Lunch was delicious as always and we got into our hotel nice and early :) it was lovely! Crazy to think I'll be home in less than a week
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| lunch treats with Grandpa |
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| horses for my sister Lily to enjoy |
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| poppy fields! |
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| amazing wildflowers |
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| delicious dinner! |
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| dome collapsed while being built-church was never used |
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| sunrise over Thessaloniki |
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| story time with Voula in Philippi |
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| Lydia's baptistery |
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| my best friend on the trip...next to Grandpa of course |
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| Philippi |
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| toilet paper vending machine |
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| walls of Thessaloniki...with Grandpa |
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| loving my breads! |
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| love all the flowers here |
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| walls of old city of Thessaloniki |
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| Good Morning! as we left Kavala |
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| our group |
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| baptistery in Lydia's church |
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| Add caption |
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| inside Lydia's baptistery |
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