Patience Is A Virtue

While things here continue to go well, I'm experiencing a technical difficulty. No, not that giardia thing. I'm actually feeling pretty decent these days. I really do mean a technical difficulty. Our internet has this weird way of being connected, but not bringing up certain pages. For example, if I want to sign into facebook or hotmail, I have to refresh the page about four or five times before it will even come up for me to sign in. Then, once I sign in, I have to refresh the page four or five more times just to get my account to come onto the screen. It's quite a long process to use the computer for any sort of internet related task right now. It's been acting this way for about a week and a half now and we're hoping it fixes itself because we can't really call and complain. After all, the system will just tell them that we're connected and with the language barrier, the conversation wouldn't go much past that point. So, like I said, we're hoping it just fixes itself. Otherwise, we'll just wait until next week. Pastor arrives early in the week so hopefully at the end of the week he can help us figure out the problem and the solution. He's good with that stuff.

With these internet troubles, I have had extreme difficulty in updating this blog and also adding pictures to my facebook photo albums to link on here. If the page doesn't need refreshing after five minutes, it asks me to login again. I don't know why it needs refreshing or why it automatically logs me out, both without warning. It's quite frustrating because no matter what I write, it gets deleted if I forget to copy everything so I can paste it into the new browser after I've refreshed or logged back in again. So, say a little prayer that I make it to the end of this one. ;) Oh, and for how long it takes to update this, the photo albums on facebook take twice as long, if not three times longer. I have free time, but not that much. And I have patience, but it runs thin with technology. lol

So, while I'm in the mood to keep working at this all afternoon, let me get as much of the Greece story on here as possible.

To continue with the first day's explorations, we headed out right after lunch. We decided to do a walking tour of the smaller sights that we could see in an afternoon. Our walking tour took us to Omonia Square, a main area of the city. The subway is there, buses run through there, it connects to five or six different main roads, and it is a taxi hub as well. Also, it features quite prominently on the map and was close to the hostel, making it kind of impossible to get lost.

My recollection of location names may not be the best because during one of our later cab rides, we left the map that labeled places in the cab. Oops. The only map remains is one that only shows street names. And they're hard to read because they're either in Greek or they're labeled as the English pronunciation of a Greek word, which still isn't always the easiest to read. So while this map was helpful when we were walking around, it's not so helpful now when I need to recall places. However, it is still fun to look at with all the Greek characters marking it. :)

So our walking tour consisted of stopping to see important Greek buildings, such as the National Library, the National Art Museum, and the National History Museum. (I know the first one was correctly named, but I'm not sure about the last two. One really was the Art Museum, but I'm not sure which it was, the second or third one.) We took plenty of pictures at these spots, marveled at the architecture, and raved about the fact that it was the first week of March and we didn't even need to wear coats outside. :)

We continued our walk and stopped at the Parliament building to see the changing of the guards. This was really pretty impressive! They had very traditional outfits on and it was quite the display. There was a security guard there talking to people and making sure no one got in the way of the guards. See, it wasn't roped off or anything. I could've walked right through the middle of the ordeal if I had felt like it. Obviously, I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. Well, maybe I would picture the scene in my head, laugh at the ensuing chaos, and then the thought would leave my mind for good. ;) lol I wouldn't actually ever do something like that. But it was very cool to see and I had a few questions so I just went and asked the security guard. He told me that yes, the men were trained Greek soldiers. He also explained that they change the guards every hour on the hour, every single day of the year. Holidays are no exception. The only thing I can't remember is how many hours each crew "works" a day. I believe he said each crew stands guard for 6 hours of the day. Obviously, not consecutively because they change every hour. But they will work 6 of these one hour shifts every day. Yes, that's right because he said there were 4 crews.

After watching that take place, asking questions, taking pictures, and capturing it on video, we walked through the National Garden which took up the adjacent block(s). It was a nice quiet walk. And on such a sunny day, it was just gorgeous to be outside enjoying a garden. We took plenty of pictures in the garden. Everything on our trip was reason for a photo opportunity. We felt the need to document everything. lol And we sure did! When we combined the pictures and videos all three of us had taken over the 3 days, it took up over 2 GB of space!

Oh! Before I share more about the National Garden, I should tell you something else. This was funny at the time because it was just out of nowhere and we weren't expecting it so it took us by surprise and then proceeded to get us really excited. We were just walking down the street and--bam! Ancient ruins. All of a sudden there was just an area between a building and the street that was fenced in. We really didn't notice it except that there was a plaque and them Emily said, "Oh, yeah. Look." She said is super casually because she'd seen it already, but Andrea and I were surprised and excited by what was inside the fence. It made Emily laugh. The fenced area had "the fortification of Athens," as the plaque put it. In other words, it was part of the city boundary at some point in the city's history. Being that it just seemed to appear out of the blue as we were walking down a perfectly modern street, we were very surprised and very excited. Total tourists. lol :)

While at the garden, Emily made a friend. There are tons of stray dogs all over the place, but thanks to Andrea, we learned that many cities put collars on them to help identify them. Athens must be this way because every dog we saw during our stay was collared, except for one. So anyway, Emily petted one of these stray dogs. A nice calm black lab looking dog. It followed us everywhere after that. And I don't just mean everywhere through the park. I mean across the busy streets and from site to site. While we looked around, it just stopped to rest or sniffed at something new. As soon as we started to move, it would trot along to catch up. A few times, we even tried to ditch it and would take off running when it wasn't looking. That didn't work so we just gave up and let our new friend follow us. It's funny because we made sure to get a few pictures of him.

After the garden, we walked to the original site and original stadium of the modern Olympic games. "Modern Olympic games" means the games as we know them, where different countries are represented and people must qualify to participate. The stadium is kept up well and is still used for various events. Obviously, since it is still in use, restoration and maintenance are done regularly. But it was so cool to see the beginning of such an incredible world renowned event. I mean, the Olympics are a legendary sporting event no matter where you come from! And I love sports, so the whole time, I was just in awe. :) It was exhilarating! They even used this stadium for the end of the marathon event during the 2004 Summer Olympics which were held in Athens.

Moving on from there we walked past the Temple of Zeus. It was huge! We couldn't go right up to it, but it was still massive. We learned that it was the largest of the ancient Greek temples. There was one huge column that had fallen over, but it was cool because it allowed you to see how they built them in sections and stacked them on top of each other until they achieved the desired height. It was very impressive.

Then we kept walking down that same street. Oh, I should also mention that as we were walking all throughout the city, we kept getting views of the Acropolis. Even from down below, the Parthenon looked impressive. :) Once we got towards the end of that street, we were able to take pictures of the Temple of Zeus from a different angle. We were closer to the fallen column. But there was another photo opportunity here because we were right next to Hadrian's Arch. This is a monument that was built (I don't know when) to mark the boundary between the old and new city. Now it's just in the middle of everything and the arch itself is ancient. It's really big and then there is more to the monument that is built above the arch. But what I thought was the best part of this site was the fact that looking through the arch, you could see the Acropolis. Both sights were incredible, but having one frame the other so perfectly was so much more than picturesque. :)

On the way to these two sights, we'd passed another government building that was quite pretty. We had also noticed that there were benches and areas to sit around this building and that we could reach those areas if we walked back on the main road that went past the arch. As we walked up this new road, all of a sudden we came to an area of the sidewalk that was diverted around an enclosed viewable area. It was more ruins. They were just right in the middle of the city again. It was so crazy to me that there were so many old sights of ancient life right in the middle of our modern present life and times. People can pass these things every day. And the weird part is that they don't even bat an eye at them. Wow! It struck me how quickly and easily things change from extraordinary to ordinary when we are around them constantly. Such a shame that so many things are so easily taken for granted. I know I'm guilty of this. Growing up on the Mississippi River, I don't ever think other rivers are very impressive. I forget that my frame of reference if skewed because the Mississippi is one of the biggest rivers in the world. It was just a good reminder to always appreciate everything.

After reading the plaque we learned that this particular area had been discovered when the subway was being built. Because there is so much wind pushed through the tunnels, they build air vents so that the air can escape up through the sidewalk. You'll see these large grated areas on the sidewalks of any large city with a subway system. But anyway, when they were building the Athens subway, they started digging the air vent in this particular area but had to stop when they came across the ruins. They moved the air vent down the sidewalk a few yards and then excavated this area, enclosed it with a wall, but left it visible to the public. It's pretty interesting because what they uncovered and excavated was an ancient bath house. You can see the different rooms and such and it was sidewalk scene totally unique to that city.

As we continued walking up this street we stopped to get something to drink. All that walking will make a person thirsty. So since we were close to that government building we'd seen that had benches and such, we decided to sit there while we enjoyed the nice day and our refreshments. It was fun to just drink my Coke and take in the city as both locals and tourists passed by. The sounds were just like a US city and not much like Tirana. For example, the traffic and streets follow the same type system as the US. Since there is a very orderly process to driving there as well, there was very little if any honking. Totally opposite of Tirana.

After our little break, we decided to get a taxi to take us up to the highest point in the city of Athens. There is a little church built up on top of this high hill and Emily said the view was pretty impressive. And, of course, Andrea and I were eager to see anything and everything that we could. We took the taxi because the hill is very large and steep to walk up, plus, we weren't exactly close to the bottom of the hill, nor were were certain of how to get there. So the taxi took us up as high as he could and we walked a ton of steps the rest of the way to the visitor area and church on the top.

Emily wasn't kidding about the view! Wow! Athens was massive! It spread out for-ev-er in every direction! It went all the way out to the sea, it went all the way to the mountains, and then it just kept going and going and that's all you could see. It was gigantic! It also afforded some great views of the things we'd just seen up close. We could see the whole plot of land where the Temple of Zeus sat, we could see the original modern Olympic Stadium from an aerial perspective, and it offered incredible views of the Acropolis. We took tons of pictures from up there. It got a bit windy so we went to check out the inside of the little church. It was pretty much the same as the little chapels at the monasteries and fortresses we'd seen in Montenegro. Full of orthodox art, etc. Still the artwork was once again very impressive.

Back outside, we were thirsty again because of the wind and since there were tables to sit at, we sat down to people watch and just take in the views for a bit. We also got some water to drink and because Andrea and I were a bit hungry, we decided to order an appetizer off the menu from the visitor center/cafe to split. We figured it would hold us off until we ate dinner later. Cheese bread was listed as an appetizer so we decided on that since it sounded good. When it arrived, we were quite surprised. It was a grilled cheese sandwich with a side of potato chips. Haha! :) It wasn't a bad surprise though because we liked it. It was good, just not what we were expecting. lol Lost in translation, maybe? Hee hee!

When we decided to leave, we found that they have this little car that carries people down. Not a car like a taxi, more like a train car. It wasn't a full train, just one car with three sections. I'd say each section could fit about 8 people. The car looked more like a bright yellow box on a track though. Hard to describe, but once facebook lets me post photo albums, you'll see pictures of it. We took that down. It was about a 5 minutes ride and took us right to a souvenir shop. How convenient! lol I think I was the only one who bought anything though. Just a little something for someone at home. (No, I will not post hints on here. lol)

Then we decided to walk back since it was still nice out. We were really enjoying the weather and the air. Tirana has very poor air quality because it's quite polluted, sadly. And even though Athens is a big city, we felt it was pretty clean by big city standards. For Emily and I, it really did feel easier to breathe there. So we walked back to Omonia Square where we decided to stop at a little fast food type place to get gyros. Mmm, mmm, good! They were more a combination of gyros and quesidillas, but they were delicious!

After that we went back to the hostel because we were just exhausted! Remember, we'd had pretty much no sleep on the bus and hadn't slept at all during the day to make up for it. So we went back, but then got talking about our bus back on Friday, and thought we'd better take care of that right away. So we walked to the travel agency where our bus would pick us up and made sure everything was set for us in a few days. Once all signs were go, we headed back to the hostel and crashed. And I do me crashed. I was the last one to bed and I was in bed before 9:30pm. lol Call us party poopers for not enjoying the nightlife or making the most of every possible minute, but seriously, if we wanted to enjoy the next day at all, we needed rest and energy! I don't remember the last time I went to bed that early but it sure did help! I woke up the next morning at 8 and actually felt refreshed.

That was day one in Athens. Though my luck with the facebook photo albums has been poor because of our internet issues, I was able to manage posting two albums. One gives the pictures from the first half of our self-guided walking tour in Athens. The second album is pictures from going around and about Tirana with Andrea when she was here. I really will do my best at posting the rest as soon as I can.

In other news, again, I know you're waiting for something exciting, but there really isn't much to report. We've been teaching and having church and Activity Nights and MMM meetings. Class and Activity Nights are going quite smoothly. We're coming up on kind of a Spring Break. We gave oursleves two weeks off, but I'll talk more about that when it comes up. The latest MMM meeting was fun. We painted nails for a girly day. We sort of turned the church space into a small spa for the afternoon. Then we had a devotion about true beauty. I think the girls had a good time. Church has been a little low lately. Attendance hasn't been good. Two weekends ago it was a holiday. This past weekend was another long weekend because today is another national holiday of some sort. So please pray that people keep attending and that our regular attendance gets better or at least back to what it was.

Besides that, the only other things that have happened were more personal or social type things. On Thursday, my back was hurting so bad that it gave me such a migraine that I had to cancel my classes. I know I have back problems and I know that being here, I can't just go to the chiropractor for a good fix. I had talked to my chiropractor before coming here and he said if I started to feel really bad, a massage would be the best thing I could find here. Although it won't put everything back in place, he told me, it would at least loosen up the muscles, relieve some tension, and allow things to shift back a little on their own. So Thursday night I went to the Sheraton Hotel and got myself a full body Thai massage. It wasn't exactly cheap, but it was worth every penny! I feel a million times better than I had that morning, and my back and joints have been feeling good ever since. As if the massage wasn't good enough, I got to shower there afterwards. And, for the first time since I left the states, I got a shower that 1) was hot the whole time, and 2) had the shower head attached to the wall so I didn't have to hold it over myself. It was absolutely divine. Ahhhhhh. Such peace and relaxation....

I haven't had a shower like that because our shower head is broken and doesn't attach to the wall. Even if it did, the water sprays out the sides now because it's kind of broken, so more would go outside the shower than would say inside the shower. And though when it's just the two of us here we both usually get a fully hot shower, when we have guests that can get a little sketchy. And at hostels, it's been luke-warm for me. So I was rejoicing to have a fully working, completely hot, typically rejuvenating shower. A shower has never felt so good!

On Friday night, our friend Lori invited us to her place for some games. We ended up just playing guitar hero, talking, and muching on snacks. It was fun and relaxing. We had two new additions that night as Lori's friend Jen had her sister and brother-in-law visiting. They had a little 6 month old daughter so she was pretty much the entertainment for the evening. Nice change to have a young one in the bunch. :)

On Saturday night we headed to the other side of town to Tim and Helen's house for dinner. That couple is a hoot! We always have a great time when we're with them and I will really and truly miss them when I am home. Aida was there too. It was nice to see her since she's been in Greece for training for her new job for the past month. She left at the very beginning of February and has three 2 or 3 week training sessions there. She was home for a few days before the last training session. All in all it was a great Saturday night. The food was scrumptious, the wine was excellent, the conversation was hilarous and enthralling, and the company was engaging. Definitely a night well spent.

Yesterday and today I've used as work days to prepare for this week and to start working on things I'll need to finish over our two week break. I will only have one of those weeks to work since my friend Beth will be here for a weekend and then we're taking off for Rome during Holy Week. We'll be there for four days and are really excited. It's pretty cool because though Beth is basically a professional globe-trotter, she's never been to Rome either. It will be a great adventure for both of us.

Until next time, please keep our church attendance in your prayers and keep Beth's safe travels in your prayers as well. I miss you all and I thank anyone who continues to read this even though my entries have been less frequent. I can't do anything about the internet troubles, I just have to live with it and work around it. Patience, as they say, is a virtue.