so..for those wondering how my Greece and Italy trip went..it was, by far, THE MOST AWESOME TRIP EVER. it beats everything. it was seriously wonderful. i wish i could retire there. haha.
we flew into the Thessaloniki airport in Greece, all jet lagged (well everyone but me since 8hours time difference is nothing compared to 13hours), got to our kinda crappy hotel that smelled 24/7 like smoke and gasoline but otherwise was fine. omg Greek food? simply delicious. really! even for me. and i'm picky! we had bread and olive oil every meal as an appetizer..and most meals had some sort of pasta..and all i can say is, thank God we hiked and climbed and walked for hours everyday to burn off the carbs. we seriously walked EVERYWHERE. climbed steep slopes in archaeological sites too. i am so much fitter now. this should be a PE class too. the Greeks and Italians were pretty friendly..sometimes too friendly. we got invited to clubs and parties by random strangers alot. haha. they were really nice though. lots of cute European guys too. :)
so we went to churches, museums, sites filled with ruins in Thessaloniki, Berea, Philippi, Corinth, Athens, Rome, Florence and Vatican City. all i can say is, now when i read the New Testament, the words jump out at me. it's just so much more fascinating now that i've actually been to these places!!!! the Bible comes alive. i love it :) we followed mostly Paul's footsteps in Acts 17-19. so that was really cool. and i got re-baptized at the place where Paul baptized Lydia in Acts!!!! isn't that so cool??? for me it was a really timely rededication of my commitment to follow Christ. we had worship in several ancient churches..had communion at the ruins of Corinth, which was really intense and cool. also visited the church were Paul was beheaded and the place where he and Peter were imprisoned. all i can say is, he is truly a faithful man of God. through all this suffering and persecution he still stood strong and clung on to the Lord. was really encouraging to me.
most of the museums we went to had tons of statues..i think i've seen enough of naked statue guys to last me a lifetime. haha. but there was this one - Michelangelo's famous sculpture of David that we saw in Florence, Italy (as in David who killed Goliath) was SOOOO cool. u could see his veins and muscles and everything! and Vatican City was amazingly beautiful. the buildings and everything..and the Sistine Chapel was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE.
seriously nothing can be more incredible and exquisite than that. there were paintings all over the huge chapel and we weren't allowed to talk/take pics inside. sad. but wow. Michelangelo painted it all in one try and in 7years! who the heck has the patience to do that! but wowee. i must say he had talents in truckloads. sooo beautiful. esp the huge one depicting the saints in heaven with God and other people being thrown into hell. i was just amazed. stood there for like 15 mins craning my neck trying to drink it all in. got a neck ache after that.
our tour guide was american, but his wife was Greek, which was sooo cool. she taught us some Greek. like 'es-ta-ka-loh' (oh my goodness!) haha. Berea was her hometown. amazing. she left Greece to study in college in the States, and she hardly knew any English! admire her. and she got over her homesickness when she met david, her present husband, a month after she got there. so cool huh. why can't i meet a guy like that too???? haha.
we went on a cruise ship (more like a rocky little ship) to visit 3 greek islands on our free day. wowwww. sooo beautiful and untouched by modern infrastructure. they dont even have roads! they travel by donkey! how quaint is that! and they taught us Greek dances on the ship. hahaha. fun. we went on another cruise ship to go from Greece to Italy. 14 hours on the boat to save money on airplane tix. bleh. could feel the ship moving when i was trying to sleep. at least they gave us rooms. :)
shopping was good too. got souvenirs for pple! but will only give them during the summer. haha. have to say i prefer Greece to Italy..Italy was just kinda crazy and the streets were pretty dirty..and 2 rooms in our hotel room in Rome got robbed. and there were annoying bangladesh pple pestering us to buy overpriced tourist things.. Greece was wonderful. we dressed up and went to different cafes along the harbor most nights..and i got to know other taylor people pretty well..so that was cool :) we got pretty crazy rooming together in our hotel rooms too. haha. ooh and we made a new friend in Athens - a big fat dog we named Butters! he followed us around and barked n bit pple who tried to get near us. felt safe with Butters around. haha.
so yeah..it was a pretty awesome trip. i can't believe i went to freakin' greece and italy!! aaahhhh!!! God is so so good! :)
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