Day 3 - Athens and Corinth

Yesterday was the first day of the actual pilgrimage. When we arrived in Athens the first thing a few of us did was go out and buy data cards. Mine worked the first day but didn't work yesterday and is not working again today ... You all know how competent I am with technology! Added to my great ability with this sort of thing is the fact that the instructions that came with the data card are all in Greek! Not sure when I'll be able to upload my posts but I will try to keep them up to date and do them as I go.

So ... back to the beginning of the pilgrimage. We had a really full day yesterday. We started off by walking to meet our bus as the street our hotel was on was far too narrow for it to drive through. Once we were on the bus we prayed the Lauds. I found this to be calming and a lovely way to start the day.

On our way to Corinth we stopped for a break at the Corinth Canal. It was an amazing site. We stopped here for about 1/2 hour for a coffee. We then kept going out to Ancient Corinth. I had been here in 2005 on our way to WYD in Colonge. It was far more pleasant and prettier than what I remembered. It was very green and there were hundreds of poppies spotted around the ruins.

During our visit at Corinth we used "Whispers" which are little transistor type things with an ear piece so we could hear Melina, our guide, as she was speaking to us. Of course, mine played up so I listened as carefully as I could without it.

The first ruin we looked at was the Temple of Apollo. We also saw the aqueduct, the market place, the main road in coming up from the port, the West Shops. We had a beautiful Mass under the shade of a tree. Where I was sitting I had the view of the Temple of Apollo and in the foreground the altar at out Mass. The view of this, for a moment, took my breath away. Something so ancient in the background that was a place of worship for the ancient Corinthians and our own beautiful ritual in the foreground. We also saw the Bema. This was from where Paul taught.

We then went back to Corinth Canal for lunch.

After lunch we went to the Port of Isthmia. This is where Paul arrived. It is a beautiful pebbled beach.

We made our way back to Athens and went up to the Acropolis. It was really windy but there were beautiful views of the city. From up at the Acropolis you can see spotted around a number of ancient ruins within the city streets.

While we were there we also stopped at the Areopagus where Paul taught about the unknown God. This is a massive rock. The marble in this rock made it really slippery. Along with the wind you had to really make sure that you always had one foot really well grounded before you lifted the other. It was a long way down! Most of us went up the rock using the same steps that St Paul would have used. The steps were very steep and slippery. I made the decision that coming down the Areopagus I would use the new steps. These were a lot safer!

Once we left the Acropolis an Areopagus we then went to have a look at the site of the Ancient Olympic Stadium which holds 70 000 people. It doesn't look as though it would hold this many people but our tour guide assured us it would.

We then went through the old city on foot. We saw the Parliament House where the guards stand still in national dress (much like those that are at Buckingham Palace). They change guards on the hour every hour. We also saw from the outside only, a Byzantine Church in the main square. We also saw the ruins of the ancient Roman markets and the ruins of the ancient Greek markets; and the Tower of the 8 Winds. I was amazed at how the locals can walk into their homes and the look out of their windows to the best views of the Acropolis. They are living right at the bottom of the hill on which it sits.

There were a few dodgy characters following us around and walking directly through the middle of us. A few of us were on the perimeter of the group and I think we were a lot more aware that we were being watched. We couldn't quite work out if we were going to be targeted or if they were going to meet up with each other for some kind of drug deal. My gut feeling was that it was the former. I also think that once they realised that we were on to them there was less likelihood that they would try anything. It pays to know what is going on around you.

We then walked to The Plaka and had a coffee. It was really strong! From there we strolled back down the street to the hotel we were staying in. We were literally, one or two minutes walk from the Plaka. We had dinner and then went up to the terrace of the hotel to take some photos of the Acropolis lit up at night. It was beautiful!