Photos - Day 17 - Athens to Istanbul

Day 17 - June 29th - Athens to Istanbul

Day 17 – Monday July 29^th – Athens to Istanbul

We were somewhat sorry to leave Greece. Most of our group had already departed. We enjoyed the slow start to the day, and a very late (sumptuous) breakfast, which we shared for a final time with our long time friends Lynn and Glenn.

The taxi arrived on time at 11:15am for the 40min drive to Athens airport. The traffic was heavy getting out of the city centre, and the time passed rather slowly. The driver could not speak English, but at least we were able to secure the agreement for the maximum charge of 35Euro for the trip (we were advised by the Hotel that if they tried to charge anymore, to call the Police immediately. The driver was a gentleman though, and we were happy to give him almost 5Euro as a tip, which in these tough economic times for Greece, would be greatly valued.

We met some young Tasmanians who were on the same flight as us, who had been to at least eight ATM’s in Athens the previous evening in order to get cash – all unsuccessful. We thought of it a few hours earlier, and had no problems at the first ATM we tried, but it seems that within hours most ATM’s were out of cash. We had been hearing on the radio that the Greek banks were to be closed all week, and to expect large queues at ATM’s. We love Greece and feel very sorry for their predicament, but it seems we were leaving just at the right time.

Julie was comfortable with carrying her back pack on her bag and her smaller one on the front. For the first time, I carried mine on my back – it was heavier than Julie’s but surprisingly comfortable. It helps when walking stairs, or getting from the taxi into the airport. Having both arms free is also a bonus.

We managed to check-in smoothly, and then wait at our gate. Athens airport is quite large and very busy. The plane was a airbus A321 and very full. We could hear the accents of other Aussie travelers. We landed later than expected (closer to 4pm). Flying in over Istanbul was an amazing sight from the air – it is such a large city (apparently 17 million people) and spread out as far as the eye could see. We were told at the airport that Turkey is building a new Istanbul airport which will apparently be the largest airport in the world.

We eventually got our bags, and now both of us were loaded front and back – a pair of ‘granny’ back-packers! We came out through customs and took a while to find our waiting driver – it was very confusing, but he had our sign (and a few others) but we quickly learned that he was just collecting a group of us for our respective waiting vehicles outside. We were soon in a van all to ourselves, on our way to the Basileus Hotel in the heart of the old city of Turkey.

The Turkish people are extremely hospitable. They were waiting for us outside the Hotel, and took great courtesy with us. They had previously advised us that although we had booked for four nights, they could not accommodate us on the first night. Instead, they had arranged a room at the Hotel ‘down the street’. They say us down and the manager took time to explain things to us, and explained how we could best use our four days. He then had two other colleagues waiting outside, to carry all our bags for us for the walk to the Hotel up the street, and handing us over to the manager, who also sat us down and went through a lovely, gracious routine of welcome for us. We actually loved this Hotel.

It was now about dinner time. We went for a stroll though just to orient ourselves, up the cobbled narrow street to the Blue Mosque, enjoying the sounds and sights, the voices of stall holders who wanted our attention, and the vision of so many Turkish families who were all coming out at this time to spend family time together in the open plaza area outside the Mosque. It is Ramadan, so they were probably all waiting until sunset (8:58pm as one of them indicated!) so they could break their day long fast!

It was lovely just strolling in the early evening, and we couldn’t wait for the day to dawn tomorrow. We returned to our lovely ‘Erguvan Hotel’ for dinner. The restaurant is on top of the roof of the Hotel, with sweeping open views of the lower city and out into the channel. We enjoyed dinner, but the magnificent sunset even more, as the day came to a fitting close. The beautiful red sunset against the city skyline, with a dominant minaret a lone, standout feature.

We have three full days in Istanbul, and plenty of places to walk and many features to see. It was an early night for this grey haired pair of back-packers, pleased to know there would be no early morning call, and no bus waiting with a running engine at 8am!

From our third storey room at the Erguvan Hotel, with views across the city and the harbor, we send our love.

Until tomorrow…

KRA

Photos - Day 16 - Athens Free Day

Day 16 - June 28th - Athens Free Day

Day 16 - June 28^th – Athens Free Day

Today starts a new chapter in our ‘Missions, Monasteries & Monks’ pilgrimage. The ‘Footsteps of St Paul’ tour officially concluded last evening. It was good to wake up this morning knowing we didn’t have to pack and board a bus (although we loved the whole experience).

I was up very early to use the Hotel computer to load my photos for the blog, and to anticipate a very late, quiet breakfast with Julie. Some of our friends had already left for the airport, but for those who remained, most were departing very shortly after breakfast. We gathered for one final time for reflection and prayers together before all saying our final goodbyes.

Julie and I then lingered over a very sumptuous breakfast (Charles and Gemma, I hope you are reading this!), and headed out late morning for our final walk around the city of Athens. The weather had cooled to be quite pleasant. We headed up past Hadrian’s Arch to the beautiful National Garden, a very large park covering many acres in the middle of Athens, which is adjacent to the grand National parliament building. The park is very dense with massive trees, and a myriad of walkways in circular shapes takes you on a journey of discovery of this magnificent treasure.

We heard the strains of a marching band, and assumed it was the changing of the Presidential Guard, so we rushed through the Gardens to the sound of the band. It was fantastic. Here was a procession of the Presidential Guard – there must have been about one hundred, marching in three companies behind a brass band playing delightfully. The Guards were all dressed in centuries old presentation dress with heavy wooden clogs, marching in their very unique style with high leg kicks on every stride. Without exception, they were all at least 6ft 4inches tall, and very sinister looking with their drawn bayonets on the end of their rifles. It was simply spectacular.

We then went to the front of the Parliamentary Palace and watched the two Guards on duty to their routine of marching and guarding for the tourists. It too was mesmerizing and very spectacular.

Time was getting away. We headed into the very old part of Athens nearby, at the foot of the great acropolis with its very narrow cobbled lanes absolutely full with tiny boutique shops. It was a mass of people – obviously the thing to do in Athens on a Sunday. Julie went shopping while I spent time in the Internet café to sort out finally my photos for recent blogs.

We retreated for a while to our cool Hotel room, showered and at 6pm walked to the Panathenaic Stadium to rendezvous with our Australian friends Andrew and Sarah, who were taking us to dinner for our final night in Greece. Andrew is a cyclist from Canberra who also served in PNG during our time there, and Sarah is on staff at the Australian High Commission in Athens. They are wonderful people and we really enjoyed and appreciated their friendship and kindness to us. The dinner was superb and it was sad to finally say our goodbyes. Andrew kindly walked us back through the darkened streets of Athens to ensure we found our way ‘home’.

This brings to a close our time in Greece, a country we have come to love very much, and indeed the people of Greece. The country is very unsettled at present owing to the current financial and economic uncertainties. As I write, the banks have been closed for this week, and ATM’s have a limit of 60 Euro on withdrawals.

Tomorrow begins a new adventure – we fly to Istanbul for a few days before moving on to Romania.

Until then…

KRA

Reflection - Footsteps of St Pul

Reflections on the ‘Footsteps of St Paul – Sunday 28 June 2015

Our ‘Footsteps of St Paul’ pilgrimage has finally come to an end. It was a very full two weeks together. Every day was packed with sights, sounds, history and particularly awe and inspiration. It has been one of the most enriching pilgrimages of our lives.

We followed in the footsteps of the great Christian Apostle St Paul, who started life as a Pharisee within the Jewish faith, and who had committed his early life to the persecution of those of the first generation of ‘Christ followers’ until he himself had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ when he was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus in search of more ‘Christ followers’. As in most Christian conversions, his life and his perspectives were immediately changed dramatically. He became probably the greatest ambassador, a pioneering ambassador for the Christian faith.

He made a number of long journeys, taking the Christian Gospel to the wider world, across Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and also what is now modern Greece. We followed in his ‘Footsteps’ for his 2^nd journey, only we did it in reverse! It was an inspiration to stand where he stood, to travel something of the roads on which he travelled, and to see and experience the ruins of cities and towns where he preached this new Gospel. Along the way, we took in other experiences as well, such as a visit to Gallipoli (which Paul bi-passed by boat when he crossed from Asia to Macedonia.

St Paul’s great ambition was to finally take the Gospel to Spain, which was basically the furthest reach of the known world of the time. It didn’t quite work out that way. He spent the final years of his life in a prison in Rome. This was certainly not the way he expected his life to pan out. Having taken the Gospel to Asia Minor (modern Western Turkey) and into what is now modern Greece, his vision for his life’s ministry was to culminate in another way, but it seems that God had other plans.

He was arrested on his final missionary journey, and being a Roman citizen, he appealed to Caesar and was then taken to Rome and held captive. It was under the reign of the tyrant Emperor Nero, who unleashed a cruel wave upon wave of savage persecution against followers of ‘the Way’ as the early Christians were called, that St Paul met his premature death.

From his prison cell, however, he was still active. Amongst letters that he wrote, which are contained in the New Testament, was the letter to the young Christian leader Timothy. In this letter St Paul makes a summation of the extent and purpose of his life. Despite his prison existence as the culmination of his life’s ministry for the Gospel, he could nevertheless write by way of triumphant summary “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. He knew the end was near.

For St Paul, the Christian life was likened to a long distance race, the crown given to those who have run the race to the finish. Sitting in his cell, he likely knew the outcome that awaited him. Tradition has it that in about the year 67AD, still under Nero, St Paul was taken from his prison cell, probably bound to a Roman soldier, and led to the Appian Way outside the city of Rome where he was beheaded for his faith, and where a Basilica stands today in memory.

He was strong to the end. In his letter to Timothy, probably his final letter to any human being, he attested to the firmness of his faith despite knowing his imminent fate. He wrote to Timothy ‘So do not be ashamed…..join me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a Holy life…by His grace’.

The Great Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran Pastor who stood up to Hitler and the Third Reich, when taken from his prison cell by the Nazis to the gallows, uttered his famous last words “Now is the end, but for me…the beginning of life!” Death could not extinguish the flame of faith that was the motivation for his manner of life.

And so it was for St Paul – from his cell he wrote to Timothy those famous final words that captured the spirit and motivation for his life – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord….will award to me on that day, but not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7).

Our faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is all the richer for the life, witness and teaching of the Apostle Paul. This two weeks in his ‘Footsteps’ has magnified our appreciation and understanding of something of the challenges he overcame to take the message of the Gospel to the known world, from where it has spread throughout the generations.

His final words – “Grace be with you”. And so it is, in unlimited measure.

KRA

Photos - Day 15 - Corinth

Day 15 - June 26 - Corinth

Day 15 – Sat June 27^th - Corinth

It was nice to be back at the Parthenon Hotel, in the shadow of the great acropolis of Athens. The breakfast is a feast and was well worth anticipating. I was up extra early today to use the Hotel computer to load the blog with photos – my tiny laptop has been giving me no end of frustration – it may be time to trade it in!

Breakfast was at 7am, and the bus was waiting for us at 8am for our departure to the ancient city of Corinth. 

The modern city of Corinth lies about 100k due west of Athens, on the narrow ithsmus that connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the Greek mainland. The ruins of the ancient city lie just west of the modern city. On the way we stopped to admire the Corinth Canal, a massive piece of engineering that has dug a very deep, narrow canal that now connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It is some 7 kms long at least, and several hundred feet deep with sheer sandstone walls, just wide enough (21 metres) at the water level for a reasonable sized boat to scrape through with little clearance on both sides. The idea to dig the canal was first mooted in 600BC but it was beyond the engineering capability of the times. Various Roman rulers since have tried, but belief in the seas higher on one side stopped any progress until Roman Emperor Nero some 2000 years ago, but it took more modern engineering in the 19^th century to finally pull it off. 

We then proceeded further west along the ithsmus, through modern Corinth to the ruins of the ancient city of Corinth, which was first inhabited as far back as 5,000BC, and famous for its pottery, and its wealth as a result of having the benefit of a double port, where trading ships came from all over the known world. The trading in Corinthian pottery and also bronze works went as far Spain, Egypt and the Black Sea. It was a strong city-state but not quite the equal of Athens or Sparta (on the Peloponnese Peninsula).

Corinth was occupied by the Macedonians in 338BC (Philip II, father of Alexander the Great) and withstood the advances of the Roman Empire for some time until the Roma General Mummius laid waste to the city in 146BC, killed the male population and sold the women and children into slavery. Julius Caesar re-colonised Corinth with ex-slaves from Rome in 46BC and made it the capital of Achaia. Many Italian business people flocked there, and Corinth flourished and enjoyed freedom and prosperity.

The dominant building was the Temple of Apollo (550BC) of which several prominently tall columns dominate the site). We walked through the remains of the once proud city, its central forum, the promenade with its ‘agora’ (shopping centre much like the souks of modern middle eastern cities). There were a dozen or so shrines to pagan gods (Poseidon, Athena etc) and as many temples including Asclepius the god of healing and his daughter Hygieia.

There was once a large theatre which seated 15,000 people, but no remains visible today, and a population that possibly exceeded 400,000 for part of the Roman period. The city attracted vast numbers of sailors due to the busy shipping trade, which supplied demand for the temple of Aphrodite and its many temple prostitutes, a thriving commercial activity in the days when St Paul walked into this once great city. The city had a reputation for luxury, pleasure and most of all immorality which is reflected in the letters of St Paul to ‘the Corinthians’ in the New Testament’.

 St Paul came to the city on numerous occasions, and certainly on his 2^nd Missionary journey, staying some 18 months and paying his way using his trade as a tent maker. He would most likely have had a small workshop in the ‘agora’ where we stood, making and supplying tents for the many people flooding into the city.

At the centre of the two large main streets was the ‘Bema’, the raised dais of solid stone and marble which was essentially the speaker’s platform from where announcements and pronouncements were made, and from where the Roma Proconsul could address the crowds. It was to here that St Paul was brought before Gallio, the Roman Proconsul in 51/52AD for allegedly disturbing the peace.

Looming over the ancient city is the remains of the citadel and fortress of ‘acrocorinth’, the magnificent acropolis perched high on the mountain that towers above the ancient city. We didn’t climb the mountain, but the garrison fortress was very visible and from our perspective far below, it looked very much intact, the walls at least.

Before leaving Corinth, we walked to the centuries old church of St Mary, which was beautiful inside, with magnificent views across the ancient city and also to the acrocorinth perched high on the mountain behind. It was quite a lovely experience.

With the day now disappearing, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch on the outside deck of a café that overlooked yet another beautiful canal. We enjoyed the luxurious water craft that passed by, mesmerized by the bridge that dropped deep into the waters to allow the boats passage.

In the late warm afternoon we made our way back to the Hotel, always a welcome experience after a long and tiring day. At 6:30pm we gathered together for a final session for reflection. Our ‘Footsteps of St Paul’ had now come to a conclusion. After a final dinner together, we said our goodbyes. By dawn, several couples would already have departed – some going to London for the Salvation Army Congress celebrating 150 years of The Salvation Army. Others were going on yet another bus tour, while a few were heading home to Australia.

As for this couple, we will have a free day in Athens before flying to Istanbul to begin another journey of our own. From our 3^rd story room at the Parthenon Hotel, in the shadow of the great Athenian Acropolis, we send our love.

Until tomorrow….

KRA

Photos - Day 14 - Athens