Our family was so excited for summer to arrive! The girls finished up Mean Girls on Sunday evening, and then we had Monday to do laundry, pack, and finish up work before we flew out on Tuesday. It was a tight turnaround, but it was worth it. We've been planning this trip for almost two years, and we couldn't wait to get started. We flew out of Atlanta to New York where we had a short layover before heading on towards Athens, Greece. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon thanks to the time change. We headed to the Airbnb where we'd be staying a few days to drop off our things off. It was a wonderful 2 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment. The primary bedroom had a fantastic view of the Acropolis. This is the view that we could see at nighttime from the little balcony.
We knew we had to walk around and stay moving for awhile to help adjust to the time difference. Thankfully we were in a great part of town, so we were able to just start wandering and headed towards the area where we knew there would be ruins. We had bought a city pass to visit multiple different sites. First up was a visit to Hadrian's Library.
We finished up at the museum and decided to explore around the Ancient Agora for a bit too. Here's the view right as we came out of the museum with the Acropolis up on top.
Obviously this is all ruins at this point, but you can imagine it filled with people meeting, selling, and discussing here. It's believed this is where the first discussions of a democracy would have been debated which is pretty incredible to think about.
By this point, we were starting to wear out both from the travel, the time difference, and the heat (around 90 degrees), so we headed over to Bairaktaris Tavern on the recommendation of the Airbnb host. The food was very tasty (lamb for Ryan and me, beef gyro for Lily, and beef kabobs for Mia). They gave Ryan and me shots of Ouzo which is likely the strongest liquor I've ever tasted. It has a an alcohol content rating rating from 75 to 100-proof. They also gave us a delicious dessert that (we think) was a whipped yogurt with mango pieces and slices of a spiced sponge cake. That was really delicious. We headed back to the apartment so we could all shower, cool off, and head to bed. We made it to about 9:30 which was really good!
We all slept well and felt pretty good the next morning. We had booked a tour through Viator called "Footsteps of Paul" which we were looking forward to. Our guide picked us up and took us to Mars Hill at the base of the Acropolis. In Acts 17, we see Paul here talking to the Greeks about their "unknown God," and he proclaims who God is. Some jeer at him but others become believers. It was interesting to stand here and look over the city which had distressed Paul with their idol worship. Turning around the other way, he would have looked up the Acropolis with its huge temple to Athena.
After out time on Mars Hill, we walked back down to meet our guide, and we started the hour of so drive to Corinth. The guide shared history to help us understand what times would have looked like when Paul was alive; he also told us about current day life in Athens which we enjoyed. We first stopped at the port where Paul would have sailed in and out of the city. It's ruins today, but the beach around here is beautiful.
We drove a little further and stopped to view this canal. This area is why Corinth was such an important city. Trade was vital to this area. There's this small area which connected two bodies of water (Gulf of Corinth and Saronic Sea) and seafarers wanted to take this shortcut to avoid having to take a much longer path around. This canal was not actually here in ancient times. Instead there was a pulley-type system set up where slaves would pull boats across the land to get them over to the other side.
From here we drove over to a lovely little church which, I'll be honest, I don't remember why it was important. It was pretty though.
We then drove up to the Castle of Acrocorinth. This was not really Biblically-related which was fine; it was really cool to see. This was one of the largest fortifications in the Peloponnese.
We started to climb up it. Mia and I made it part of the way before deciding the views we were seeing were lovely and high enough for us.
Ryan and Lily decided to keep going. This is our view waving up to them. They're the tiny little people waving back!
They were still only about half-way to the top which is absolutely crazy. We decided to head on back down to keep the tour moving along. We were excited to get on to the ruins of the ancient city. We know that Paul lived in this city for about 1.5 years. He planted a church here, and wrote letters back to the church later on, after he left the city; two of those letters are part of our New Testament. It was really neat to walk through these ruins and imagine what the city must have looked like.
One of the most interesting parts of the ruins to visit was called the Bema, an elevated area where others could watch and hear debates. This is where Paul would have come before the proconsul for judgement as he was accused of illegal teachings.
Eventually a church was built over this site, and at the end was a capstone which quotes 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." What an encouragement that may have been to the church he helped build here.
Of course, there was really good little museum to visit here as well.
After this we stopped for a delicious meal that turned out to be one of our favorites of the trip, and then we did a little bit of shopping. We bought a beautiful vase from a store that's been family run for multiple generations. Each piece is handmade and hand painted, and it's beautiful. It was then time to start our journey back though we did make one other very quick stop to see a beautiful Orthodox church that has been built over the spot that's believed to be Aquilla and Priscilla's home which is where Paul stayed while he was in the city.
Our guide drove us on back to Athens after this. We went out for a bite to eat of dinner, and Ryan and I stopped by a grocery store to buy some breakfast items and treats. I always love visiting grocery stores in other countries; I think it's fascinating to see the products there. We were still adjusting to the time, and it'd be a fun but long day, so we were all ready to call it a night from here.
On our last full day in Athens, we got up and headed over to hike up the Acropolis to see the remains of the Parthenon, the Propylaea, Old Temple of Athena, and other temples and buildings from Ancient Athens. It was fun to imagine what life was like here when this was in its full glory. It's not hard to picture these structures as absolutely beautiful.
We were definitely not the only ones who hiked up today! We did go up on the earlier side, and we thankfully had pre-purchased tickets so our wait was minimal, but there were a ton of people everywhere. It was also incredibly hot (low 90's) with very little shade. Glad we remembered our sunscreen!
We were so high up that we were able to get some great view of the city. This is looking off from the front over Mars Hill into the city.
From the back, you could look and see other famous ruins that we didn't get to go visit, such as the Temple of Zeus and the stadium from the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.
I'm thankful our family has adventures like this together!
After we enjoyed a good bit of time here, we hiked back down and headed over to the nearby Acropolis Museum. We were told by a friend that their restaurant is their favorite in the city, so we thought it would be fun to try it. We all had brunch foods, and it was delicious! We then spent time wandering around the museum; pictures are not allowed throughout though, so you'll just have to trust me when I say there were some interesting items in there. We took our time meandering around the city which was fun. We found our way to a Starbucks which is such a treat at times like this; it provided a much needed break from the sun and heat with cool, refreshing drinks and a yummy little snack. Eventually we made our back to the Airbnb to relax, clean up, and repack our items to leave in the morning. In debating where to have dinner that evening, we remembered that we were across the street from a cute little Argentinian restaurant that appeared to be family-owned. We decided to give it a try, and that was most definitely the right call. It was easy and delicious! Our Airbnb host gave us a key to the roof of the apartment building, so were glad to head up there to watch a beautiful sunset as we ended our time in Athens.
We got a good night's sleep and were ready to head out the next morning.
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