Greek Life...

So because the pictures take so long to upload on this, and because I've already uploaded all the pictures to my facebook... Im just going to explain each day of my trip and then give you the link to facebook for the corresponding pictures :)

SO...

Wednesday September 29...

The day started at 4 AM for our early flight from Palma to Athens, Greece. There were 9 of us total, including Raf and Loretta (pastor / head guy of our school and his wife). We rented a 9 seater van and journeyed up and down Greece for 7 days! We started in Athens and spent 2 days there! We visited Mars Hill where Paul preached and we were able to see the outside of the Acropolis where the temple of Athena, called the Parthenon, stands (since 5th century BC). We journeyed around the city and ate the most DELICIOUS greek salads and Gyros (Pita with lamb, tomatoes, onion, and tzatziki sauce) and of course we had gelato :) Our hotel was in the center of Athens surrounded by a pocket of streets that, for some unknown reason, wasn't under Greek jurisdiction. This means that the Athens police couldnt enter this part of town. You can imagine the plethora of illegal activities that take place there... and THAT was right where our hotel (more like hostel) was located! haha... it was interesting to say the least!


Pictures of Athens: Click here!

Thursday, September 30th...

The second day we began our morning with a cafe con letche at a cute little coffee shop at the bottom of Mars Hill. We toured the Acropolis that afternoon... with the rest of the world who apparently thought it was a good day to visit as well. ha, there was a cruise ship in Athens and all the passengers were touring too... SO many people! Our tour guide was this little old greek man who we ended up loosing during the tour haha... so Loretta, the history buff, lead our tour instead! When we came to a building or statue we didn't know about, we just made up our own history;) We went through the Flea Market of Athens as well as the meat and fish market... THAT was interesting!! 


Later on that day we visited the city of Corinth. We were able to see the Bema seat and tour some cool museums. There is this whole temple/city on a hill that we called Hooker Hill because the temple/city was the home for all women...and all of these women were prostitutes. I cant recall what the actual name of temple was... so for now its Hooker Hill ;) It was beautiful! We hiked to the top of it and the view was BREATHTAKING! 


Pictures of Corinth: Click here!

Friday, October 1st...

We drove 7 hours to Thessaloniki and moved into our new hotel... this time we were in a MUCH better area and we had a Starbucks across the street! The bathrooms are SO small in Europe its crazy. Our shower was just a 4 inch deep hole in the floor and a faucet, the toilet was right next to the shower... and when I say right next to I mean you could sit on the toilet and shower at the same time! We all went out and shopped a bit, watched the sunset, and went to this really hip, modern club/restaurant and ordered dessert! It was a lot of fun...and we took WAY too many pictures. :)

Saturday, October 2nd...

We had devos together as a group and then made our way to a tour bus that would give us a really lame, hard to understand tour of the city haha... so we decided to get off at one of the stops and just tour the city we were in... wherever that was haha...  We went into several different churches and historical domes and buildings. Everything began to look the same so we decided to mix it up by taking silly pictures everywhere we went. Then it began to rain! Which non of us were prepared for, but we made the best of it and you guessed it... took lots of pictures!


Pictures of Thessaloniki: Click here!

Sunday, October 3rd...

We all piled into the car that morning after devos and drove a few hours to the old city of Philippi. It was really neat to see the old pillars and market place of the Romans and the Greeks. We, of course, took a ton of pictures AND video;) We drove about 30 min to the city of Kavala and ate a delicious greek salad and enjoyed the harbor view of the city;) On our way to our next hotel that afternoon we stopped by the Aegean Sea where a few of the brave boys swam around for bragging rights ha... and the rest of us bundled up and TOOK MORE PICTURES.... haha I didnt really realize how often we took pictures until now ha...  but its a good thing... hopefully you feel as if you were there too ;)


That night...after getting lost trying to find a gas station... we were driving on the cold, rainy freeway and all of the sudden we realized there was a man trying to wave down someone to help him with what looked like a flat tire. So after we pulled over and Raf ran across the dangerous, dark, and rainy freeway, he drove the helpless man's car to the other side of the freeway. The guy's car was on the onramp of the freeway and halfway into one of the lanes so it was super dangerous to change a tire there! One of the boys in our van came back from helping Raf and told us that the guy with the flat was deaf and Raf had no clue how to communicate with him. What are the odds that I KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE?! I jumped out of the car and ran out in the rain to the guy and started signing to him... the only bummer was he knew GREEK sign language and I knew AMERICAN sign language. Some of the signs were the same so we were able to communicate to him to not drive over 100 kmph or over 100km in distance. The scarriest thing was that he couldn't hear the oncoming traffic so he would lean way out  into the road to see the tire Raf was changing and I would have to quickly grab his arm and pull him in before he got hit by the oncoming semi-trucks and cars! We exchanged phone numbers with him and gave him a hug and the next day he texted Raf and told us he got a friend to translate his text into english... He was extremely thankful and said "he gives his heart to us forever for what we did" and "wishes us a good life" haha...  God is so good! It was such a miracle we were lost beforehand, who knows what would have happened to him if we didnt get him off the freeway when we did! We got to our hotel that night and it was like the equivalent of a W hotel in the states and it was like right on the water! We had brand new furniture and sheets and clean showers with normal-flushing toilets! 


Pictures of Philippi:Click here!

Monday, October 4th...

This was our last day in Greece and it was BEAUTIFUL! The town of Delphi is up in the mountains and it was breathtaking. The old ruins were great to see, we crawled through this underground tunnel and took pictures... it was scary but fun. The town was quiet and peaceful and the view from our hotel was so great!

Pictures of Delphi: Click here

Tuesday, October 5th...

The trip was amazing and we made a ton of memories! Hopefully this post will catch you all up to date with my life so far... now Im just back in the swing of things with classes and homework! We have the X-treme Hike this saturday that will apparently be 5 hours and incredibly intense... so pictures to follow!

xoxo Sharrah