Eastern Europe officially comes to a close as we finish off this week with our last adventures around Greece.
Monday was my top tier adventure day because Kristos was able to drive us to Philippi! He picked us up at 10:00am, and seven of us gathered in his van to start the hour and a half drive. On our way up there, we stopped at a bakery where they make everything fresh everyday, and we got SO many pastries and different bread. We first walked around where Lydia’s house in the Bible was. There was an octagonal baptist church next to a river where people have been baptized in for centuries. Afterwards, we drove 20 minutes to the historical ruins of the city of Philippi. Kristos took us around the whole city, briefing us on a ton of small details that you never would know just walking around it. We saw the auditorium that performs shows to this day, the city center, and the supposed place where Paul and Silas were put in prison. I’ve grown up not being interested in history, and especially in school I was disinterested, but one thing I’ve learned in Greece is how important knowing and respecting history is. How am I supposed to revere the Bible when I don’t even revere my own country’s history? It was truly eye-opening getting a tour around Philippi, and I’m incredibly grateful for Kristos taking us before we leave. Unfortunately, right when we got home, the second wave of the stomach bug hit another couple girls. Lexi, Jaylynn, Emery, and especially Kat were throwing up throughout the evening. We decided it was the better decision not to go to the refugee center for the last time the next day, which was sad because we didn’t get to say our official goodbyes.
Dad and me ten years apart in the same place 😜
Walking around Philippi with Kristos
Tuesday, since the previous night was rough, we all pretty much chilled for the day. Jaylynn, Naty, and I got to say bye to Antonis and Justin one last time. Afterwards, we went home and cleaned and packed for our travels the next day.
Wednesday morning at 6:00am, we said goodbye to our cute little apartment in Thessaloniki, then Ubered to the train station. 7:00am, we left our city and headed towards Athens. When we arrived at 12:00pm, we hauled our big packs through onto the metro and dragged them through the city. 45 minutes later, we arrived at our cute little Air BNB and went straight for lunch. Afterwards, we took the metro to walk around a cute little market. When we arrived, we laid our eyes on the Acropolis for the first time. SO BEAUTIFUL. We walked around the market, admired the skies and architecture, then we ran into four Americans who we talked to for an hour. Their names were Maria, Ariana, Melodie, and Cole, and they are also Christians! We pretty much just gave them the whole shebang from our trip so far, but they were all so kind to be engaged and asking questions haha. We got gyros, shopped a little more, then headed back to the Air BNB. For the rest of the evening we all just rested.
Thursday, we woke up at 7:00am to go to the Acropolis! We took the metro over there, and began our tour at 8:00am. Not only were the structures beautiful, but the weather today was just perfect again. Once we got to the top next to the Parthenon, you could see the whole city spanning for miles and miles. Greece has a population of 10 million, and 5 million live in Athens. After admiring everything around the acropolis, we walked over to Mars Hill where apparently Paul spoke on one of his missions to Athens! Because of the riots happening in the city the following day, we played it safe and went home to our Air BNB immediately after. I cooked us pasta, bread, and sausage, then we watched Mamma Mia! (Or at least tried to. It kept glitching. 😔)
We packed up our things Friday morning, ordered three Ubers, and drove 30 minutes over to Cosmo Vision Christian Camp where the rest of our squad was! We hugged everyone and ate some breakfast, then settled into our room. It was just BEAUTIFUL here. It reminded me a little bit of Deer Valley Ranch, which was my family’s dude ranch for a couple years. For a while, a bunch of us chilled on the grass watching the sunset and hanging out. There was SO much peace in this camp.
Saturday, even though we found out our flight to Guatemala had been cancelled due to the riots, we all headed to the airport anyway to find a flight. 9 hours later and still no flight, we headed BACK to the camp for one more night. We unpacked our stuff once more, and chilled for the night. This camp’s hospitality was actually insane. It wasn’t at all in our budget, but they still let us stay, and they cooked for us. I’m so grateful we had a place to sleep in a bed instead of on the airport floor.
Sunday, the plan was just to wait and chill for the day, so a bunch of people went out to see the acropolis and walk around Athens. Crazy enough, a random flight showed up and we had to be ready to go by 3:00pm. Thankfully, people still got to go out, and I just stayed back and relaxed before travel. Turns out, instead of having two flights to Guatemala with a layover in Madrid, we had four flights and three layovers. The whole squad left for the airport, and boarded our first flight out of Athens to Cairo, Egypt at 7:30pm. We arrived in Egypt an hour and a half later, and camped out in the airport before our 12 hour flight to New York at 5:00am.
Spoiler, I’m already in Guatemala PRAISE GOD, but that is not where the travel ended haha.
There is a lot to process from these past two months in Greece, but thankfully I’ve had so much time already to get in the nitty gritty and review everything that happened. One thing that I’m really happy about is pretty much every individual goal I had for Greece was fulfilled. God has been soooooo so good.
It was so good to hear more details of your time in Greece. Laura and I LOVED spending time with you and serving alongside you and your squad this last week in Antigua! We love you so much and will never forget our time in Guatemala with you! Love you, Dad