One Week Later
- Posted by on June 19th, 2017 filed in Uncategorized
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One week later and I’m still missing the Greek life. This is a reflection post to try and put into words (and pictures!) what those 20 days in Greece were like. There were so many highlights that I don’t have time to post all of them… but I have listed a few of my favorites below.
Athens
Athens was the place we spend the most overall time in and it was fabulous! Above is pictured the Acropolis with the Parthenon sitting on top. Acropolis comes from “Acro” meaning highest point and “polis” meaning of the city – so Acropolis means highest point of the city. We also visited Mars Hill which is where Paul was preaching in Athens and it had a wonderful view of the city. Our time in Athens was too short because in a city of 6 million people 3-4 days was not nearly enough time to explore it all. We saw a lot of graffiti and stray dogs in the city but overall I still really enjoyed the atmosphere of it all.
Food
The food was absolutely delicious! I basically lived off of gyros and souvlaki both foods I had never tried before. I tried a lot of foods that I would not normally eat also such as octopus from a local store in a fish market in Crete. There was a lot of great dessert too including my favorite, baklava. We were offered a lot of this free desert called loukoumi which uh… me and most people were not the biggest fans of. One of the trip goers describes it as “soap flavored”, but I think I was told it was an acquired taste. Overall though the food was amazing.
Greek Scenery/Views
I can confirm right now that Greece is an absolutely beautiful country. Rolling hills and distant mountains on the mainland, and the majestic Mediterranean and Aegean Seas along the coast. Some of my favorite moments of the trip involved cresting a hill to reveal a picturesque view. I think my favorite view belongs to the Acrocorinth in Corinth. Which gave us a lovely 360 view of the surrounding area. Some other awesome views include the Meteora Monasteries perched up huge stone cliffs, and the blue water beaches of Rhodes.
Faith
We saw some of the most beautiful churches in Greece. The Greek Orthodox churches were decorated with many icons and images of Jesus and the Saints. This imagery would be a constant theme throughout our time in Greece. We did see however a variety of religious traditions including a lot of statues and fresco’s dedicated to the ancient Greek God’s. We visited monasteries in Meteora which had the most intricate paintings and wood carvings I have ever seen.
Everything else?
This was just a very little taste of the Greek experience. I would highly recommend traveling there yourself and maybe getting yourself some great tour guides like we had because they were very knowledgeable about the different sites and the history behind them. We had a really great group and some great professors that helped make the trip very special. Anything else you might want to know about Greece should be experienced firsthand. So go.
~Nathan
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