Corinth, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Philippi and Veria, Greece (October 2018)

Before we began the Best of Greece Tour, we traveled to several cities by car.

Corinth

Our trip to Corinth was pretty well covered in the Apostle Paul's Mission Journey blog post. Click here to go to the blog post.

Kavala

Kavala is another port city. As to Apostle Paul's journey, it is covered in another blog post indicated above.

In addition, we visited the Roman Aquaduct, called Kamarea. It reminded me of the Roman Aquaduct we saw in Pont du Gart in France.

We walked around the town to look for St. Nicolas Church and ran into a beautiful coastline.

Philippi

Our visit to Philippi was pretty well covered in the other blog post indicated above.

Veria

Our visit to Veria was quite productive. We visited several landmarks related to Apostle Paul's mission journey as posted on another blog. Click here to go to the blog post.

Thessaloniki

We explored more in Thessaloniki. We walked to Aristoteles Blvd., probably the busiest blvd people gather. For the name's sake, there was a statue of Aristoteles.

It leads to the board walk facing the sea. The sea breeze was cool and a lot of people were strolling on the boardwalk. Along the boardwalk, there are many restaurants and bars.

On this board walk, there are two famous landmarks. One is White Tower and the other is the Statue of Alexander the Great.

White Tower is a watch tower that monitored any foreign attack.

The Statue of Alexander the Great stands pretty prominent and rightly so because he is from this region. The Northern Greeks are proud of the fact that he is from the northern region of Greece.

We took a boat ride to cruise for 30 minutes in the Thessaloniki Bay. It was free as long as we purchased drinks. It was cool and good to see the bird's eye view of the city.

Drove to Kavala... to Lydia's Baptistery... Philippi Archaeological Museum and Site... UNESCO heritage site... I missed the Paul's prison or crypt... Church of St Nicolas... Apostle Paul's Monument... Acropolis... Castle... Drove back to Thessaloniki... Parked for Euro10 per night... Walked over to Extravaganza to dine... glass of wine... calamari with green curry... chicken breast over pumpkin sauce... free desert... Fabulous!

We visited the Castle on top of the hill where we could see the entire city.

Close to the Castle was the Monastery where Apostle Paul was believed to have stayed and preached.

Right behind this Monastery was the North Wall where Apostle Paul escaped the City of Thessalonki to avoid the mob that was chasing him down.

We stopped over at a cathedral that has been named after St. Paul. Its architecture was uniquely beautiful.

Initially, I made an arrangement with a local tour guide for a day trip. But she got sick and cancelled our tour. So we ended up exploring around the city ourselves. We had an extravaganza dinner at a restaurant called Extravaganza based on the savings from the cancelled day tour. The foods were great!

The hotel was minimal and the street was crowded and noisy. Besides, I had to park the car at a garage for 10 euros a night.

Overall, our stay in Thessaloniki was short, but quite productive. - Jeffrey

Trip to Greece in Overview (October 2018)

Greece is a big country to me, perhaps not in size but definitely in significance.

Kristin and I had an opportunity to travel to Greece in October 2018. It was the combination of Best of Greece Tour with Expat Explore and also trip to select cities where Apostle Paul visited during his missionary journey.

We arrived in Athens several days prior to the Best of Greece Tour began. We rented a car to drive to Corinth and stayed over night there. The next morning, we drove back to Athens and took a plane to fly to Thessaloniki. We stayed there for three nights and drove to Kavala, Philippi and Veria, while also exploring Thessaloniki.

Best of Greece Tour was a 12 day tour that covers important archaeological sites, such as Athens, Delphi, Olympia, natural sites of wonder, such as Meteora, and two important Greek islands: i.e. Mykonos and Santorini. I will cover the tour story on each of important sites.

But, this tour does not have any specific interest in Christianity while Greece played an important role in Christianity. In particularly, Apostle Paul's mission journey to Europe began in Greece and it was Greece that called the time out when Roman Catholic was going astray, by starting Greek Orthodox Churches. So I have covered a story on Apostle Paul's Mission Journey in Greece and Greek Christianity, separately.

Thus, our trip to Greece will be structured as follows:

1. Greek History
2. Apostle Paul's Mission Journey in Greece
3. Greek Mythology
4. Greek Foods

Then, I will cover the geographical cities as we visited them. - Jeffrey

Greek Foods (October 2018)

The only Greek food that I knew before I went to Greece was Gyro sandwich on Pita bread. Obviously, there are a lot more than Gyro.

The following are some of the foods we explored while traveling in Greece.

Foods  

In Corinth, we ate Moussaka and Pita Bread after we shared a Greek Salad. Moussaka is one of the signature dishes in Greece. It is made of beef, tomatoes, eggplants plus some more ingredients.  I had another occasion to eat Moussaka and that was it for me.

I did not know I like grilled calamari that much until I went to Greece. I think I ate it four times. Yikes! But, it was so good!!!

In Thessaloniki, we felt we saved almost $190 because the prearranged tour guide cancelled on me. So we ended up exploring the city ourselves and we decided to dine at one of the fine restaurants. We chose Extravaganza. It was in the airplane magazine. We dined and wined with great pleasure. They served a free desert. It was extravaganza!

 

In Nafplio, we ate the grilled calamari and chicken souvlaki, one of famous Greek foods. Of course, Greek Salad is a common appetizer with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, olive oil.

At this port town, many restaurants displayed the fish in a refrigerated cabinet.

In Athens, I am sure we ate more than the photos we took, but we ate again chickn souvlaki with a slight twist.

One of the famous Greek snacks is Koulouri. It is like fretzel but with sesame put all over. It was bland but good.

In Mykonos, we ate seafood pasta and chicken wrap. On another meal, we tried a pizza.

In Santorini, we ate Pita bread with Tzitzaki sauce, one of Greek signature foods, along with zuchini appetizer. Of course, we ate the grilled calamari again and pasta. With a sunset view, the foods were fabulous!

Drinks

Greek coffee is famous, but it is very very very strong. I had the first hand experience of Greek coffee in Boston in 1982 when I was traveling solo around the world. I entered a Greek restaurant and ordered Greek coffee without any knowledge about how strong it is. Yikes!

Greece is proud of its own beer. Alpha stands out. There are others, but due to foreign ownership, many Greeks adore Alpha beer.

Also, Greeks are proud of Ouzo, a transparent liquor drink.

Deserts

Greeks must have sweet teeth. They have a variety of sweets. Two of the most famous Greek sweets are Kataifi and Baklava. Kataifi looks like it is wrapped with thin threads. It could be messy if you want to eat it only with a fork. Baklava was my favorite, particularly with ice cream. Hmmmm. We tried them for the first time in Meteora, but we ate them whenever possible.

Before we were crossing the longest suspension bridge in the world, we made a comfort stop and the bakery over there was filled with sweets. Oh my goodness! They looked so good, but I had to refrain.

One of the pleasant findings about Greek foods is Greek yogurt. Its soft taste was good enough not only for breakfast but also for desert to any meal.

In addition, there are many other sweets, such as Halvas (really sweet jelly-type desert), Bougatsa (sweet pie), assorted peanuts. A few places we went to served free desert, saying that it is the Greek hospitality. Overall, our food experience in Greece was quite good! - Jeffrey

Greek Mythology (October 2018)

When I went to a shop in Greece, the plastic bag had a line: "The land of gods."

It is so true that Greece has many gods, man-made, from whom ancient people choose to worship. Most likely, the practice was related to seek their greed or to cover their fear. So be it. It was then and there. But what about now and here?

Well, people still get fascinated by the Greek mythology even these days, as evidenced by picking up ideas and concepts from the Greek mythology. For example, Nike was one of the Greek gods who was the goddess of victory. It makes sense that as a sports shoes, apparel and equipment manufacturer, Nike wanted to find the connection with a deity of victory.

The most widely accepted version at the time is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony.

He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Very close to the first verse in the Bible. Genesis 1:1.

Out of void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans - six males, including Cronus, and six females, including Rhea.

With the help of his mother Gaia, Cronus rebelled against Uranus and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife Rhea.

A motif of fathter-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus. Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate.

When Zeus was fully grown, he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children and the stone, which has been sitting in Cronus' stomach all along. Zeus then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.

After the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus.

Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god "greater than he" Zeus swallowed her. She was already pregnant with Athena, however, and she burst forth from his head, fully grown and dressed for war. The current capital city of Athens was derived from Athena.

The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essntially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts." Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities, most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.

Some of the better known gods include:

• Zeus, the king of gods
• Hera, the wife of Zeus
• Athena, the goddess of war
• Poseidon, the god of the ocean
• Nike, the goddess of victory
• Fortuna, the goddess of fortune
• Dynosus, the god of wine and emotions
• Apollo, the god of light
• Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and the childbirth and nature. Her counterpart in the Roman Mythology was Diana. In Ephesus, this goddess was worshiped fervently, and her worshipers chased Apostle Paul out of Ephesus.

The Roman Empire learned from the Greeks and created their own deities. The Roman Mythology had its own story of the gods, but people remember them only by their names, not as well as the Greek gods.

The gods act like human, getting married, loving and hating, fighting. But they were portrayed as the immortal. Many parts of the mythology were similar to the story in the Bible. I am not sure who copied which, but I trust that humans remembered and copied the Jehovah God's story and twisted into the human version of mythology. - Jeffrey