Northern Greece
March 10, 2003
Today we woke up bright and early for our trip to Northern Greece.  On the way to Kalambaka, we stopped for a short time at the plain of Thermopylae, where we saw the huge statue of Leonidus, the Greek king/general who in 480 BC made a valliant stand against the storming Persians.  Led by Xerxes, the Persians were flooding into Greece and the 300 Spartans, led by Leonidas, fought them off to the death, effectively slowing the progress of the invading army of thousands.  The statue, which depicts the Spartan warrior brandishing a shield and spear, had special significance to me, since it is the very same statue I used as a reference in designing my high school's mascot.  I had seen it in books before, but it was even more incredible in real life.
     Anyway, after a total of 4 hours on the road, we arrived in Kalambaka.  There, looming high above the city, are the world famous monasteries of Meteora.  The rock formations are like nothing I have ever seen and remind me of the Badlands of the United States.  The mountainous towers of rock jut out from the earth and some rise up to 1,500 feet in height!  The amazing thing, however, is that perched atop the rocks is a collection of monasteries, which have been ingabited for hundreds of years by monks and nuns.  The idea of monastic living started to really emerge in the area in the 14th century and in Meteora this originally took the form of cave-dwelling in the cavities on the sides of the rocks.  The coolest part to me was the fact that before roads, the monks had to be raised and lowered from the monasteries by means of a giant basket!  Quite a drop, if the rope broke...  We had a chance to visit a few of the monasteries, but they weren't really anything we haven't already seen this semester.  It's amazing how every single one of the Greek Orthodox churches has to look almost exactly the same.  They follow the design and code to a 't'.  Inside the main room, the vaulted ceilings and walls were completely covered with paintings of martyrs of the church, the apostles, Jesus, and of course, Mary.  Not sure what's with their obsession with her and where they get some of their ideas about the "mother of God", because I sure haven't seen much of it in the Bible.  Frankly, I am getting a little sick of all of the Mary and idol worship so prevalent in the churches we've visited.  While we were in one monastery, people kept coming in and kneeling before the icons on the walls and kissing a little case which housed skull fragments of one of the church fathers...too freaky for me.
     Anyway, after our visits to the monasteries of Meteora, we came back down to our hotel in Kalambaka and after dinner were free for the night.  We explored the town a little, which had a great fountain and a pretty spectacular view of the looming mountains above.  The hotel was nice too, and the adjoining balconies made it pretty fun to hang out with everyone outside.  That pretty much wraps it up for today, time to get some sleep for our trip tomorrow...
March 11, 2003
This trip is largely composed of driving long distances every day, so today we again woke up early for another long morning on the road.  After a couple of hours in the Mercedes bus, we stopped at a medieval castle left over from 1204 AD.  The fortress was built overlooking the coast and had a very distinctive polygonal tower behind trademark castle walls.  The castle didn't have much significance, but it did give us a chance to walk around and stretch our legs, and provided a pretty good photo-op for a Knights picture...  So, we got back on the bus and continued our drive toward Thessaloniki, the 2nd most populated city in Greece.  After stopping for lunch, we visited the archeological museum, which turned out to be pretty crappy.  Filled with only a bunch of small trinkets gilded in Gold, the one-floor museum's only highlight for me was display containing 5 playing dice.  Remarkably, they looked just like dice of today and may very well have been the first ever game of Yahtzee!
     After the "museum", we headed up to the highest part of the city, which gave us a panoramic view of the land where Paul visited in 49 AD as he traveled by horse from Philippi and stayed three months.  There, among the ancient walls of the city, we had a short devotional and scripture reading from Acts 17, which tells of Paul's tripto the city and his preachings in the synagogue, where many prominent Greeks believed.  The city today is very large and commercialized and the view from above allowed us to see all of its buildings against the sea port in the distance.  This ended our day of visits (seven hours of driving, one and a half of actual sites...) and we proceeded to our hotel in downtown Thessaloniki, the "Hotel Vergina"...no, that's not a typo, it's actually the name of our hotel! 
     The evening was on our own, so we explored the city and Daniel and I each had two of the largest gyros ever made--they were so large that we were too full to eat the 3rd that we had ordered and actually had to throw them away!  The two gyros put us both close to 40 for the semester, so we are well on our way to a predicted 75 by the end.  In the back of my mind as we were walking around the city, I couldn't help but think about the world situation.  Bush is giving Sadaam Hussein until monday to disarm or leave Iraq, so maybe there will be a war within the week...  I am so proud of my president and the job he is doing.  I know that God will continue to bless him as long as G.W. seeks to do His will in all situations.  Crazy times, we'll just have to see what happens...
March 12, 2003
Today, after waking up and getting some continental breakfast, we headed out to Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia and birthplace of Alexander the Great.  The architectural style of the ancient city, "Hippodamean", came from Hippodemos, and architect from Asia Minor who was responsible for many of the Greek cities in the 4th century BC.  We walked around what was left of the ancient city, which was mainly laid out in squares and courtyards, with wide streets and many mosaics on the floors.  The neatest thing we saw was the remains of their top-notch water piping system, which included a flitration measure.  The water would enter through a pipe at the top of a large urn, filter through a collection of pebbles, and continue on through a pipe at the bottom, completely purified.  Not much else remains at the site, but the archeological museum across the street retains many of the mosaics, statues and pottery of the ancient Macedonian capital.
     From Pella, we traveled to Vergina and the tomb of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great.  Vergina was likely the first capital of Macedonia and the tomb there has been completely converted to a museum housing the findings from Philip's burial treasures.  Philip had eight wives, the last of whom was of the line of Cleopatra, and he was assassinated in 336 BC.  Many of the exbibits were gilded in solid gold and included funerary gifts and golden chests which were used to hold the cremated remains of the dead.
     After lunch, our next stop was Berea, which was my favorite trip of the day.  Although we weren't there long, we did have a chance to visit the Bema where Paul is held to have preached in Acts 17.  When he arrived in the city, he immediately headed to the synagogue to teach, and as Acts describes it, the townspeople of Berea were, "of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for the received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day..."  While we don't know if the mosaic-decorated platform is where Paul actually stood, it is neat to think that Paul was there in the area, preaching the gospel.  Again, it is uplifting and encouraging to walk where he did and it really brings the story to life that much more.  Berea was our last stop today, so we again just enjoyed the city life of Thessaloniki this evening before heading back to bed.
March 13, 2003
Today was an awesome day, definitely the highlight of our trip so far.  We said good bye to the city of Tessaloniki and made our way to the city of Philippi.  Named in 356 BC for Philip II of Macedonia, the city is one of the main places where Paul worked to establish the Church.  Our first stop was the baptistry of Lydia.  In Acts 16:12ff, the story is recounted of Paul's visit to the river, where he encountered several women praying one Sabbath morning.  There he met and baptized Lydia, a dealer of purple, and her entire household as well.  There on the river, at the spot traditionally held to be the place of her baptism, is a small monument and steps leading into the water.  We spent time in prayer as we reflected on the story and enjoyed the morning sun at the place the apostle Paul visited so many years ago.  Near the river is a small monastery with a great echo inside its domed ceiling.  We sang a few songs inside and after a prayer slowly made our way back to the bus.  It was a very encouraging and uplifting morning.
     After the baptistry, we traveled to the site of ancient downtown Philippi, which reminded me a lot of ancient Corinth.  It was a Roman colony and was situated on the Egnatian Way, which meant that it was a very busy commercial spot.  The city, which at the time was very large, was built by Philip II but was eventually abandoned because of frequent earthquakes.  In the agora of the city lie the toppled remains of the columns that lined the shopping center and large stones with Roman lettering litter the ground.  We saw evidence of games carved into the rock as well, and even saw a large restroom.  Called the Palestra, it was in essence a work out room for atheletes and had enough toilets for 42 men.  The amazing thing was that the ground was sloped such that water always ran through the building, circulating and cleaning out the toilets.  Also, running water circulated in a trough inside which was an ancient bidet of sorts and allowed the men to wash up afterwards.
     Also at the site was a 6th century AD Basillica, which is still partially standing.  The huge structure is one of 6 Basillicas in Philippi.  The construction of it, made with alternating stripes of rock and brick, made it more earthquake-proof and is probably the reason that so much of the building remains today.  However, the most significant portion of the city concerning the early church was across the street.  That is where we found the small prison where Paul and Silas were supposedly held in the second half of Acts 16.  It was there that the two missionaries were freed in the middle of the night by an earthquake, which led to the subsequent conversion of the jailer.  Again, the jail may or may not be the same one found in scripture, but if so it was an amazing thing to see.  The last stop in Philippi was the huge theatre at the site.  One of the largest of its kind, the theatre is still used today during the summer months for stage productions.
     After our visit to Philippi, we made our way to the port city of Neapolis for a fresh seafood lunch.  Neapolis is mentioned in Acts 16:11 as Paul traveled through the city on his way to Philippi.  After lunch we had another long drive ahead of us as we began to make our way back south.  We stopped for the night in the very quiet and very abandoned coastal town of Katerini, and stayed in the most ghetto hotel of the semester...
March 14, 2003
This morning was the last in our visit to Northern Greece.  We woke up with Mount Olympus' snow covered slopes looming above us and after a quick breakfast headed to the ancient city of Dion.  Situated in the foothills of Mount Olympus, Dion was the most sacred city of Macedonia.  Since Olympus was the home of the gods, the town of Dion was a large center for their worship and many sanctuaries have been uncovered at the site, including a sanctuary of Demeter, the goddess of vegetation, and a sanctuary of Zeus, the greatest of all the gods.  Interestingly, there is also a sanctuary of Isis, dedicated to the Egyptian god, which shows the link between the two civilizations that occurred when Ptolemy introduced the Egyptian gods to Greece in the 4th Century BC.  Unfortunately, since much of the area is swampy and flooded, many of the remains of the city are covered over, which prevents tourists from seeing the mosaic floors which cover the city.  The large public bath, however, is uncovered completely and was very impressive.  Built in the 2nd century BC, it looks like rooms filled with dozens of short little pillars, where water was boiled, allowing pressurized steam to enter the bath areas.  The baths, covered in mosaics, really struck me because I never realized that people back then were capable of constructing such things, especially with running water and pressurized steam vents, etc.  At the museum of Dion were still more mosaics of the city, as well as statues that had been pulled from below the earth.  The highlight was an ancient instrument called a Hydraulus, which resembles an organ and makes music when water passes through the bronze pipes.
     After our tour of Dion, we headed home.  We ate on the road and then made the four and a half hour drive back to Porto Rafti.  We arrived back late in the evening, tired from a week spent largely on the bus.  Northern Greece was a good trip in that it provided a nice break from classes.  SOme of the sites were more impressive than others, but the ones that stick out in my mind are the towering monasteries of Meteora and the ancient ruins of Philippi.  The coolest aspect of this week is that we spent so much time traveling where Paul and Silas traveled.  It is amazing to say, even after having spent a semester doing so, and again it is something that I will always remember when I read the Bible...
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