Thessaloniki, Philippi, and Kavala

standing in the water at Lydia's Well--the first European convert. This is where she was baptized by Paul!

at the stadium in the ancient ruins of Philippi--this is where the lions, etc. were released

the prison thought to have held Paul when he was in Philippi

the beautiful beach in Kavala where I spent many an hour

Three days jammed packed with all sorts of Greece goodness! My lifelong dream of visiting Greece has officially been accomplished. On Friday, my entire group plus three Macedonian friends piled into 2 vans and drove the 4 hours to Thessaloniki. It would have only taken three hours to Thessaloniki but we got stopped at the Macedonia/Greece border. A guard thought our friend Mafa was an illegal taxi driver trying to take Americans out of Macedonia--that silly guard. After an hour, we finally got our passports back and was able to continue our drive.

Thessaloniki was our first stop. We drove through the heart of the city. The traffic was horrible as we scoured the streets for parking. European cars are so small which leaves no room for big vans to park. We almost side swiped some cars. Eventually we found parking and made our first stop a gyro cafe for lunch. Then, we split into groups and roamed around the city. There are a bunch of churches in the city, but most of them were closed. The girls couldn't have gone in even if we had wanted to. All females must have something covering their shoulders, and no one is allowed to wear shorts--which I think is an unreasonable rule seeing as though no one in their right mind would be wearing pants at this time of the year. It was so hot walking through the city. At one point, a group of 4 of us girls went shopping. One of the stores we went into had a big air conditioner. I pretended to search through the same stack of clothes for 15 minutes just so I could stand near the cool air. The neat thing about Thessaloniki is that it is very modern with a lot of buildings, but archeologists have started to dig up ancient ruins in the middle of the city. Major sections of the streets have been blocked off due to ancient buildings being uncovered. It's modern technology meeting history in a very real way.

Eventually we got tired of the heat and decided to say goodbye to Thessaloniki so that we could drive another 2 hours to Kavala. We stayed at the cutest condominiums. The company is called The Blue. They have a huge lot of apartments to rent along with a cafe and a beach front where we laid out for most of the weekend. They were so friendly! Once we got there and dispersed into our designated rooms, we searched for a restaurant to eat our very late dinner. We ate at this restaurant right on the water. I forget the place, but they had the nicest people. No one in our group speaks Greek and our waiter didn't speak English--but he did speak Italian and so did one of the girls in our group. So, a bunch of Americans ordered our Greek food in Italian.

On Saturday, we woke up early so that we could go to Philippi before it got really hot. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there. Our first stop was actually Lydia's Well. It's a quiet place right next to a church. Someone had build seating around the stream along with a couple bridges and what not. This is the place where Lydia was baptized by Paul. Lydia was the first Christian convert in Europe. A group from North Carolina was visiting the well at the same time we were. They were sitting reading Acts 16 which talks about Lydia. Our group joined their group and we had ourselves an impromptu devotion time. I'm so glad we ran into them, because having that devotional really put that place in perspective.

Once we finished exploring there, we drove on to the ancient ruins of Philippi. Archeologists must have had a field day when they started uncovering these ancient ruins. There is a massive amount of history in this one area. The second picture at the top is of a stadium. We climbed all the way to the top to take a group photo. This is where the gladiators fought. I actually saw where they kept the lions that were released into the stadium. I really wouldn't have wanted to be the person in the front row. It's almost as if you were on the stage fighting the lions!

I learned that several centuries ago there was a plague that wiped out most of the Philippi population, and then there was an earthquake that came along later that really finished off the city. Despite the thousands of years and natural disasters, some of the columns were still standing. We marveled over their technology to build such tall and long lasting columns. I got to see the prison where historians believe Paul was held when he came to Philippi. I also got to see the government court where he was tried and beaten. I have a lot of pictures from this place--most of them are of rocks and rubble--but ask me about them in person and I'll show you the pictures and tell you a bit about them. There's just too much information to try to describe without pictures.

We made it back from Philippi around 1pm. We spent the rest of the day laying on the beach and playing in the Aegean Sea. One of my fondest memories is laying on those blue cushioned beach chairs in the sun listening to the water hit the shore and feeling the warm wind cover me like a blanket--this will forever be my happy place.

On Sunday, my apartment woke up around 9am and were the first ones in our group to make it to the beach. Our goal was to leave for home around 2pm which meant soaking up as much sun as we could before then. Eventually everyone else joined us on the beach. We played with Kayla and Brianna (the Neals' daughters) and tried to get them to like the water--but I think we just traumatized them instead. A group swam out to the island that resided a little ways away from the beach. The rest of us just laid on the beach and soaked up the sun. It was so sad when we had to go. I definitely went reluctantly. I have yet to revisit a country, but I think visiting Greece again is something I will have to do.

This was definitely a quick version of my weekend in Greece. I have many more details of this trip. If you want to know more or learn a bit more about the ancient history, I would love to tell you in person. The four pictures at the top is only a hint of the pictures I took!