September 25, 2006 - Monday
September 25, 2006
Today was our second free day. Also, our last free day. We all took a trip to Corinth. I left early with Kerry and Cynthia to Starbucks so they could get some morning coffee. We couldn’t find it right away and got a little bit turned around. Kerry went into another coffee store and asked them where the Starbucks was. I thought that was pretty courageous… “Uh, excuse me, I know you sell coffee here, but I’d like to go to Starbucks instead… can you tell me where that is?”
If I was that store owner, I’d just point somebody in a random direction, because, if they don’t want my coffee, why should I help them get something “better”? ;) But the guy pointed us in the right place and we find it right away. When they were ordering, they bought me a chocolate muffin for coming along with them. I put it in my pocket to eat later.
We met everyone else at the designated waiting place for our tour guide to come pick us up at 9:15. Our tour guide’s name was Vulla, she was a local Greek Christian woman who we were connected with from someone at Helping Hands. We had paid her to rent us a van so that we would not have to take several bus rides there.
Jean Young and I sat up front since we were the ones who got motion sickness the easiest. That turned out great so I was able to enjoy the ride there. Granted, I fell asleep, but only because I was tired, not because I felt sick. It was about an hour or so ride with traffic, not too bad.
We stopped at a small tourist shop/rest area, used the restrooms, and then went and looked at the great Isthmus of Corinth (or whatever it is called), and took many pictures. Our tour guide explained in great detail about every area at which we stopped. We went around another side of the canal and took more pictures. There was a bridge on this side that lowered into the water when a boat needed to pass (as opposed to a normal draw-bridge which has two sides that raise into the air).
We saw roads of the Acient Diolkos which were used in Corinth “back in the day”, you know, like, before somebody invented asphalt. We saw roads and areas mentioned in the Bible where Paul preached the Word of God to the people of Corinth. We went and got some lunch at this local Greek restaurant that Vulla often visits. I think it was called Marinos but I could be wrong. I suppose it does not matter much if you do not plan on going there. I ordered meatballs with rice, simply so that I couldn’t be claimed as “addicted to gyros” (although I secretly may be). It tasted fantastic. The rest of the team ordered similar meals.
After lunch, we headed over to ancient Corinth to see some of the ruins. We saw many great things, took a lot of pictures, etc. After taking pictures, we took some more pictures while our tour guide explained about the history from a Christian perspective. I got very hot out in the sun and thus became very tired and kind of tuned out the conversation. So, I can’t explain much about the things we saw, but I can show you pictures sometime…
We got to see the original Bema (judging/trial platform) that is believed to be the one where Paul was tried. That was pretty cool. Until our tour guide explained what it was, I always thought a “Bema” was what an English person called a BMW car. ;) (Beamer…)
We also stopped in the archeological museum to look at some of the recovered artifacts found in ancient Corinth. Skip and Kerry took a lot of pictures. We finally left around 5pm to head back. Vulla dropped us off right at our street (Kolinous—say coh low new) and we walked in to the guest house to relax after a tiring day of walking. I started downloading everyone’s pictures. We have nearly 2,000 pictures between all 5 digital cameras…. So that should make for an interesting slide show. I won’t use all of them, of course. Maybe only 1,500… ;)
After sitting for a few minutes, I left with David and Erika back to the ARC to check email while they ordered wedding invitations. I posted some more blog entries which I am sure you have read by now. After about an hour there, we left, closed up, and walked to Goody’s for dinner. The food was pretty good but the service was less than delightful. But, I don’t want to say something bad about Goody’s. We got our food as “takeaway” and brought it back to the guest house to eat.
After dinner, we played many games of “Blokus”, which I believe I described to you earlier. I won 3 times in a row. Jean Andersen has vowed to beat me now in a game We will see… Maybe I will let her win just so I don’t have to worry about it…
Tomorrow is another tea house day. Oh yeah and I just finished that chocolate muffin I put in my pocket earlier. It kind of fell apart throughout the day but surprisingly was still fresh.
This is a pretty short entry. Consider yourself lucky.
-Joe
Today was our second free day. Also, our last free day. We all took a trip to Corinth. I left early with Kerry and Cynthia to Starbucks so they could get some morning coffee. We couldn’t find it right away and got a little bit turned around. Kerry went into another coffee store and asked them where the Starbucks was. I thought that was pretty courageous… “Uh, excuse me, I know you sell coffee here, but I’d like to go to Starbucks instead… can you tell me where that is?”
If I was that store owner, I’d just point somebody in a random direction, because, if they don’t want my coffee, why should I help them get something “better”? ;) But the guy pointed us in the right place and we find it right away. When they were ordering, they bought me a chocolate muffin for coming along with them. I put it in my pocket to eat later.
We met everyone else at the designated waiting place for our tour guide to come pick us up at 9:15. Our tour guide’s name was Vulla, she was a local Greek Christian woman who we were connected with from someone at Helping Hands. We had paid her to rent us a van so that we would not have to take several bus rides there.
Jean Young and I sat up front since we were the ones who got motion sickness the easiest. That turned out great so I was able to enjoy the ride there. Granted, I fell asleep, but only because I was tired, not because I felt sick. It was about an hour or so ride with traffic, not too bad.
We stopped at a small tourist shop/rest area, used the restrooms, and then went and looked at the great Isthmus of Corinth (or whatever it is called), and took many pictures. Our tour guide explained in great detail about every area at which we stopped. We went around another side of the canal and took more pictures. There was a bridge on this side that lowered into the water when a boat needed to pass (as opposed to a normal draw-bridge which has two sides that raise into the air).
We saw roads of the Acient Diolkos which were used in Corinth “back in the day”, you know, like, before somebody invented asphalt. We saw roads and areas mentioned in the Bible where Paul preached the Word of God to the people of Corinth. We went and got some lunch at this local Greek restaurant that Vulla often visits. I think it was called Marinos but I could be wrong. I suppose it does not matter much if you do not plan on going there. I ordered meatballs with rice, simply so that I couldn’t be claimed as “addicted to gyros” (although I secretly may be). It tasted fantastic. The rest of the team ordered similar meals.
After lunch, we headed over to ancient Corinth to see some of the ruins. We saw many great things, took a lot of pictures, etc. After taking pictures, we took some more pictures while our tour guide explained about the history from a Christian perspective. I got very hot out in the sun and thus became very tired and kind of tuned out the conversation. So, I can’t explain much about the things we saw, but I can show you pictures sometime…
We got to see the original Bema (judging/trial platform) that is believed to be the one where Paul was tried. That was pretty cool. Until our tour guide explained what it was, I always thought a “Bema” was what an English person called a BMW car. ;) (Beamer…)
We also stopped in the archeological museum to look at some of the recovered artifacts found in ancient Corinth. Skip and Kerry took a lot of pictures. We finally left around 5pm to head back. Vulla dropped us off right at our street (Kolinous—say coh low new) and we walked in to the guest house to relax after a tiring day of walking. I started downloading everyone’s pictures. We have nearly 2,000 pictures between all 5 digital cameras…. So that should make for an interesting slide show. I won’t use all of them, of course. Maybe only 1,500… ;)
After sitting for a few minutes, I left with David and Erika back to the ARC to check email while they ordered wedding invitations. I posted some more blog entries which I am sure you have read by now. After about an hour there, we left, closed up, and walked to Goody’s for dinner. The food was pretty good but the service was less than delightful. But, I don’t want to say something bad about Goody’s. We got our food as “takeaway” and brought it back to the guest house to eat.
After dinner, we played many games of “Blokus”, which I believe I described to you earlier. I won 3 times in a row. Jean Andersen has vowed to beat me now in a game We will see… Maybe I will let her win just so I don’t have to worry about it…
Tomorrow is another tea house day. Oh yeah and I just finished that chocolate muffin I put in my pocket earlier. It kind of fell apart throughout the day but surprisingly was still fresh.
This is a pretty short entry. Consider yourself lucky.
-Joe
posted by Joe at 11:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home