Time Flies!

It may be cliché – but it’s also true. Time flies when you’re having fun! Time has truly flown since my last post and I apologize for the sporadic nature of my blogging! The past week went quickly and was mostly uneventful – at least comparatively speaking. There were no metro strikes, no riots, no tear gas, no crazy jaunts through Plaka – so mostly uneventful J

However, this weekend was anything but uneventful, in the best way possible! My sister, Brianna, left Denver on Thursday and arrived in Greece on Friday afternoon! I wasted no time in introducing her to Greek culture as we went out for dinner in Plaka. There are people hired by the restaurants whose sole job is to convince you to eat at that restaurant. There was one super nice older gentleman who convinced us that his place was the best and he was true to his word. We had a typical Greek meal – a tomato salad, lamb souvlaki with pita, tzaziki, and tomato, dessert and coffee – and it took about 3 hours!

          Saturday was our day to explore – we headed to Monstriaki and hit up the flea market. It’s basically a giant garage sale with mostly junk – you have to dig for the real treasures! After a coffee, we headed back to the Acropolis and climbed onto the Areopagos rock. This is the rock that St. Peter stood and gave his “Men of Athens” speech found in Acts 17:22-34. Kinda cool, if you ask me. Then, we went to the Acropolis museum and were wowed by the history we saw. The best part was the glass floors that show the excavation of the ancient city below the museum. We also celebrated Halloween a week late with some teachers from ACS. It was an awesome night!

          Sunday was the day for the Acropolis. Words and pictures don’t really do these views justice. We climbed around the site for over an hour and it was just fascinating. The Parthenon was impressive, but my favorite was the Caryatids found on the side of the Erechtheion. The real ones are in the museum, except for the one at the British Muesum. That museum houses a bunch of artifacts from the Acropolis, which the British should really give back already. I’m pretty sure all of Greece agrees with me on that one…

The Caryatids 

         

               We did some shopping in Plaka before catching the Changing of the Guard at Syntagma before Mass. I just love that we can go to Mass here and it’s exactly the same Mass as everywhere else. I guess I didn’t really appreciate the “Catholic” nature of our faith until I attended Mass here. The Lord is sooo good!

The Changing of the Guard

          Brianna and I will be exploring more of Athens this week before heading out to Crete to visit Bryan, Chrisa, and the girls for the weekend. We’re really excited! J I’ll leave you with a picture of me and my city and the reminder to take every day one step at a time!  - just not backwards!