Greece

What a beautiful country!

Day 1 - Arrival in Thessaloniki
Greece is gorgeous!  As we approached, we saw out the window a mysterious rippled plateau of water stretched like a bank of clouds, a gray-green expanse interrupted by dark islands.  I sat next to Frank on one side and a Greek Orthodox cleric from northern Greece who now lives in Jaffa at the St. Michael church.  Behind us, Amanda and Emily read Percy Jackson novels for much of the two-hour flight.  As landing drew nearer, the plane seemed headed for a splash down but at the last second, the twinkling lights of land appeared out of nowhere.

We were welcomed by cool weather and our guide Gabriela.  Gabriela is half Polish, half German, raised in London, now living in Greece.  She met us at the airport and led us to a comfortable bus.  The other class was led by Lena, who remembered Lisa from a trip 3 years ago.

Home for the first two nights was a hotel in Thessaloniki.  We ate dinner then walked around looking for interesting sites and an ATM.

  We walked past Aristotle Square, the boardwalk by the Aegean Sea, dozens of pharmacies with their green cross signs, and hundreds of cafes, sweet shops, bars, and restaurants.  Day 1 ended with family scripture study, rice cake snacks, and firm mattresses.

Day 2 Phillipi, Kavala

Today was predicted to have a 100 percent chance of rain.  And it did not disappoint!

After breakfast (yes, there was bacon, but it was just barely cooked), we loaded into buses and rode to Philippi.  The route went along the ancient Ignatian Way, through hilly tile-roofed cities, canyons that opened into valleys with lakes, almond and olive groves, roadside shrines and ancient churches.

The ancient site of Philippi has lots of ruins from a Roman city, and remains of several Christian churches, one built near a former cistern which had been venerated as the possible prison of Paul.  Dan Belnap taught a nice devotional about being one in Christ, which starts with determination, and requires a knowledge of who we are and who Christ is.

Mosaics from one of the churches dedicated to St. Paul in Phillipi

Right behind us is the cistern/prison

 As rain began in earnest, we stopped at a peaceful site commemorating Lydia's baptism in Acts 16.  A church and later a pavilion sheltered us from the storm as Frank's taught us about the devoted female followers of the Savior and their many unheralded acts of service.

After the devotional, we heard about one of our JC students helped a visitor a few weeks ago back in Jerusalem.  The tourist had been wounded and bleeding, and the student had enough medical training to helped dress the wound and recommend further medical attention. The tourist followed the advice, and later emailed the president of BYU to pass along his thanks to the unnamed student, who turned out to be Ari Hueber.  She was embarrassed by the attention, but both Ari and the tourist felt like she was truly inspired to be in the right place at the right time.

This is Lydia McGill at the site of Lydia's baptism.

We visited ancient Neapolis/ modern port of Kavala to see a double-decker aqueduct, an old fortress (with some steep dangerous ledges which students seem unable to resist despite pleas and warnings) and a beautiful view of the Aegean Sea - cloudy, sunny, rainy all in a row.

Kavala harbor

Dinner at the hotel in Thessaloniki.

Day 3 Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki has remains of an upper city fortress and walls; these are a composite of wide, flat masonry tiles, like skinny bricks, stacked with irregular stones in cement. Many lower city walls had been demolished already, but several towers of various shapes dot the city.  Our driver Stavros squeezed the 14 meter long bus between shops and cars as gracefully as a tightrope walker, or a surgeon?  Think Hunt for Red October underwater maneuvers.  We watched with concern, but Stavros was cool as a cucumber!

The view from the upper city of Thessaloniki was amazing!

The Basilica of St. Demetrius (a local martyr) is huge and beautiful, despite having been renovated many times over the centuries. It has 5 aisles rather than the typical three, but otherwise has the usual icons, iconostasis, murals, and mosaics we saw in most of the churches here.

Mosaics in the entry hall show the journeys of Paul.

The rotunda of Valerius was closed, but impressive on the outside.

The arch of Valerius was amazing, with carvings of marble mixed with rock and brick composite which is common all over the city.  A lot of pigeons called it home.

We visited the Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") church next; it has a blocky exterior, but inside there was a cross-shaped floor plan with a dome.  Apparently this was a transitional style between a basilica floor plan and the later cross-shaped plan.

Extra fancy Corinthian capitals!

Waiting for students to gather, three administrators: Tawfic Alawi, Eran Hayet, and Tarek Safadi.  They get along extremely well, despite what this

After lunch we spend a little time in the museum of Byzantine Culture where we learned a bit about textiles, pottery, funerary customs, and mosaics.  I could have spent a lot more time there.

Here is an early sculpture of a shepherd; we were told he was bringing his sheep to the altar for sacrifice.

We had a boat ride around the harbor in a pirate ship whose captain dressed up like Jack Sparrow.  Arrrgh, matey!

Day 4 Berea, Vergina, Kalambaka

In New Testament times, the apostle Paul was hurriedly evacuated from Thessalonica to Berea (Acts 17:10-15) and we retraced his route to a lovely mosaic monument in Verea ("vair-AY-ah"; in modern Greek β is pronounced "v").  The monument depicts Paul's vision in Troas and also his preaching in Berea, with a half dozen attentive listeners.  Frank taught a nice devotional there.

Lunch in Thessaloniki--yum!  Most lunches and dinners were delicious but heavy, with fries or phillo pastry, meatballs or chicken, and cakes soaked in honey syrup.

Near Verea is the town of Vergina (with a hard G-- "ver-Geen-a").   Vergina is the site of a subterranean museum which preserves the Macedonian burial mound of Phillip, father of Alexander the Great.  A funny moment occurred after we got off the bus:  Dan Belnap said to the group of students, "Bathrooms over here!" and led the way.  Half of the group started walking that way, the others didn't hear what he said but followed along, anyway.  So all 98 people followed like sheep to the bathrooms.  Which by the way are not the highlight of this tour, I mean the bathrooms,  we didn't see very many sheep.  A few goats, lots of cats, and dozens of stray dogs.  They were well behaved and citizens fed them and petted them.

Anyway, back to the Macedonian tombs.  Lots of treasure: gold, ceremonial armor, silver tableware, ivory carvings...  How they could be wealthy enough to bury all these costly and useful items is a mystery to me.This is a crown made out of gold with delicate acorns and oak leaves.  It was found resting on an urn containing the remains of Philip of Macedonia (or maybe his wife, I forget).

Here is a model showing what the tomb would have looked like originally.  It is all underground, buried in an artificial mound of earth.

Paul went from Berea toward Athens by boat.  We were lucky enough to go by bus over the mountains. It is usually hard to stay awake on the afternoon bus rides, but this one was gorgeous!  Like New England states in autumn!  Photos just cannot do it justice.  We wound our way southwest through picturesque valleys and yellow-leafed mountains to Kalambaka.  (Btw, Greek doesn't really have a letter that says "b," so they often spell the "b" sound with "mp".)  Anyway, however you spell it, Kalambaka is the village famous for the Meterora monasteries, which perch on the tops of cliffs.

We got to do some cliff-perching photos as the sun set (students were pretty good about heeding reminders and being safe) then drove to Kalambaka for dinner and sleep.  Like most nights, we  were given free time to go explore the surrounding cities or villages, which has been fun.

We ran into the parents of a student who had been on the program with us years before.  The student is Sammi Lou, and her parents were in Greece for the Athens Marathon on Sunday.  Mr. Lou has run 93 marathons so far!

Day 5 Meteora to Delphi
We spent a rainy morning exploring the clifftop monasteries of Meteora, enjoying the views, the feats of engineering, and the intricate artwork in the chapels.  There were a total of 24 monasteries built since the 9th century, only 6 are still inhabited. We visited 2. The first could be reached by bus and a short bridge and had a small but impressive domed chapel with many icons and paintings of important saints.  The outer room was decorated with graphic depictions of martyrs meeting their bitter ends.  Monastic life was seen as a form of voluntary martyrdom.  One lesson in these martyr murals is that even though obedience brings blessings, it doesn't guarantee a life free from trials or persecution.

In addition to our guide Gabriela, our bus was led by Eran Hayet, Frank, and Dan Belnap.

The second monastery was further down the road.  We got off the bus and walked up a hill, then up stairway after stairway, but at least we had stairs: the first monks used ladders and baskets pulled up by ropes! The second monastery was very small, its chapel only a few meters square but crammed with paintings and icons.  I imagine the monastic leaders painstakingly transporting all those building materials and necessities of life up into the clouds, surrounded by the rugged beauty of nature,  to build an ascetic life for themselves and an ornate sanctuary for  God.

We saw little shrines all along the highways, near orchards, by bridges and holy sites.  This one took the shape of a church.

Buffet dinner in the hotel at Delphi (pronounced "DEL-fee")

Day 6 -- Delphi to Nafplio

Hotel at sunrise.

We toured the site of ancient Delphi, whose oracle gave cryptic advice in poetic form.  We saw evidence of the wealth which people brought to offer, both to thank or influence the gods and also to show their own power and status before other visitors to the city.  

This is the remnant of the Sanctuary of Athena.  It was round.  Cool.

This egg-like stone marked the center of the universe, (the omphalos or belly button.)

Some of us listened to the devotional.

Others of us took photos of snails.

Then we climbed the hill to the arena.

The twisted metal pillar in the background represented intertwined snakes.  This is a replica; the original was taken to Istanbul.

The usual pattern of the fitted stones in this wall was supposedly stronger in case of earthquake.  Delphi was situated on top of a fault line which may have emitted psychotropic gases which could have caused the pythia (female priestess) to enter the euphoric state which resulted in the prophecy.

Beautiful vistas!

Delphi has a very nice museum, small, but containing some real treasures, like this sphinx. 

Here is a fancy omphalos, or navel of the universe.

 This column is surrounded by carvings of three female figures.

The famous charioteer sculpture was spared the fate of many other metal sculptures (being melted and reused in war) because it was buried in a rockslide.

The Delphi inscription preserves the name Gallio, mentioned in Acts 18:12-17.

Griffin heads were popular decor for three-legged iron pots used in the temple.

These helmets were votive offerings to the gods to ask for or say thanks for favorable prophecies. 

Lunch with a beautiful view.

 After lunch we drove to Nafplio, another beautiful drive but so long that most of us slept through at least part of it.

We were divided into two hotels in Nafplio, an lower one near the boardwalk and an upper one built into the cliff side.  This is the entrance to the upper hotel.  It looked like something from a James Bond movie.

Stracchiatelli gelato!

Day 7 Nafplio & Corinth
Those who wanted to hiked to the Palamides Fortress at 6:30 am to see the sunrise.  800 steps!  The view was stunning, and every ten minutes the sun lit up more of the landscape and the colors deepened and changed.  Here's a small taste of the landscape.

Dan and Eran led the way to the top of the fortress.  Some students ran to the top and were on their way back down when I got to the stairs.  Larissa Properzi and I took our time with the students who needed to stop and take photos (or stop and breathe) on the way up.

Even the cactus was sending love notes to the world!

 This view on the walk home is where I was strongly tempted to devote my life to painting!  One of those joy moments which I try to hold in my heart so I can find it and relive it again later when I need a little joy.

 No words!  So beautiful!  I am so grateful to see the splendor of this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for us!  

 We found out when the sun came up that the beautiful mist in the photos above is actually smoke from an olive processing plant.  That tempered my enjoyment of the beauty somewhat...

Here is the view from our hotel room.  Really.

 There were cats everywhere, like in Israel, but even more wild dogs.  They are polite and friendly and hang out in motley packs.  Apparently they are cared for and fed by the locals, even though half have no collar.

 Corinth--where Paul worked and taught people about the Savior.

The upper fortress was a place of worship to Greek gods and had a reputation for immorality.  Paul's teachings were diametrically opposed to the strongly entrenched culture, but many listened and made great sacrifices to forge a new gospel culture.

 Here on the platform called the Bema, local magistrates made decisions and proclamations.  Paul had a run-in with the locals here.

These columns hint at the might and wealth of this trading city on the isthmus.  

In the museum, you can see a rough inscription marking a synagogue of the Hebrews.

More evidence of Jewish worship in Corinth.

 The Erastus inscription contains a name found in Romans 16:23.

Lunch!

The Corinthian canal--not ancient, but old enough that most modern boats don't actually fit...

With a little bit of hustle and a little bit of luck, we made it to Athens just a bit after sunset.  We watched the sun go down and the Parthenon light up from our vantage point on Philopapos Hill.

Day 8  Athens
Each day we were wondering how it could get any better.  Day 8 was great!  It rained off and on, but we were able to get our instruction and photos and have a little free time.

On Mars Hill, we heard a devotional from Dan Belnap showcasing Paul's intellectual argument before the Areopagos council.  He had kept his testimony simple in other contexts, but here he showed he understood his audience of Stoic and Epicurean philosophers, and bore powerful witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Gyros and pizza for lunch at a tiny restaurant in Athens.

The Acropolis Museum was very impressive!  Naturalistic, lifelike poses and drapery were later innovations.

This was an earlier style, more columnlike.  But the red hair was a real winner!  (originally brown, but the paint  oxidized).

Miniature replicas of the frieze sculptures.

Gotta love the Legos version!

During free time, we found the Church of the Annunciation open and had a look.  

Day 9
National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Grave stele-so sad.

Gold death mask - Mycenean (called the mask of Agamemnon, but it probably wasn't)

Death masks

Astrolabe

Antikythera Mechanism: Reconstruction of a complex ancient tool used to predict movement of sun and moon decades into the future.

Greek sculpture develops from the pillar-like, rigid forms of this Kora (girl) in the Acropolis museum...

...to more realistically rendered musculature and posture but still generic idealized forms with serious faces (this guy would have been holding Medusa's head, but his face looks calm and peaceful.)

And eventually we see the ability to capture motion and emotion, with individualistic facial features.

Notice the horse and jockey both look like they are springing forward, with anxious looks on their faces.

Some portrait sculptures looks like they were all made using the same pattern.  Like early Pixar crowd scenes.  But more sophisticated portrait sculptures show distinct facial features, emotions, even signs of aging or less than idea body types.

Lots of cool pottery!

This may look like a halloween schene, but these are not empty wine bottles, they are lechythoi jars.  For daily use they would have held oil, and in funerary use they could have been an offering to the deceased, or to the gods of the underworld, or some say they were burned when the deceased was cremated. 

Here is a batch of clay lamps gone wrong.













In the next display case the caption explains, "Bad potter being punished." (#4)

 O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede 

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: (Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)

Some things never change...

Here is a huge arm and head of Zeus.  It reminds me of the poem Ozymandius.  A huge head and broken legs remain of a colossal statue.  The pedestal says, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" but nothing else remains in the barren sand.

Sister Lifferth and I were commenting on this mosaic, wondering how we could quilt it as a bedspread.  Then we noticed the snakes coming out of this woman's hair.  Maybe not a bedspread...

Our time with our wonderful guide Gabriela was drawing to a close.

We had some Jimmer fans in our group, and McKenzie Klopfer arranged for Jimmer and Brittney to meet us for an our for a brief testimony, some Q&A, and photos and autographs.  Cool.

Gyros and Souvlaki, cheap and close to the Acropolis Museum!

Time for more gelato!  I found a stevia pistachio gelato--just right!

This sign says, Exodos.  Odos is way, Ex is out.  Literally the way out. Our time in Greece was drawing to a close, and it was nearly time for our exodos back to Jerusalem.

This is how happy they felt at being able to come to Greece!