Day 6 - Meteora to Philippi & Kavala

This morning we were on the bus at 7.00am and started the day with Lauds. We drove past Mount Olympus. This is huge and had a fair bit of snow on it. Our itinerary notes said that the road we traveled along was the ancient route of St Paul via Amphipolis (Acts 17:1) and then on to nearby Philippi.

I was quite amazed with Philippi. Here, we went through the ruins, saw the amphitheatre, the prison Paul and Silas were kept in overnight and the Roman markets and private housing.

Philippi was named after Philip II who was the father of Alexander the Great. It was here that Paul had his first European convert, a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira (Acts 16:12-40). We visited the Baptistery of Lydia. Again, this was beautiful. What was even more beautiful was where we were going to have Mass. Opposite the Baptistery was an outdoor Chapel set within the River Zygaktis. Due to the fact that it may have rained while we were having Mass, we had to move the Mass to the cafe/shop near the Baptistery. We did, however, renew our Baptismal vows at this Chapel by the river. This was a very special moment and one I will always remember. After Mass, Jo Grima and I bought a little bottle for Holy Water from the shop and went back to the river and filled them. We hope to have this water blessed by the Pope if we get the one in a million chance to do so. Otherwise we will ask the Cardinal to bless the water.

Once we left Philippi, which was a difficult place to leave, we got back on to the bus and drove to Kavala which was only about 15 minutes away. The port city of Kavala (ancient Neapolis) was onced named "Christoupolis" after being the first European city to accept Christianity. It was here that St Paul, St Timothy and St Silas first landed from Troas (Acts 16:11). It is said that this was one of the great moments in the history of Christianity. I saw a lot of graffiti and there were clear signs of poverty in Kavala.

We had a bit of free time after arriving so we walked down to the water. It was pretty cold and was raining lightly so I went back to our room and had a little rest. We then had dinner and went back to the room for some sleep.