Delfini Hotel Patras

By far the easiest entry into a country that I’ve encountered so far, and I don’t even know the alphabet here! What I had been expecting with every country so far, yet had been sorely disappointed not to find, was here! Getting off the boat and driving a bit down the street there was a tourist information office and a great store selling a map of the country. Two things I thought would have been ...

... was taking me through lovely greek villages and wonderful senery.<br><br>Arrived at Patras, the third ferry brings me overnightly to Brindisi, Italy, to arrive there at next morning. As usual: A night in my sleeping bag somwhere at deck on the floor to sleep.<br>

Having arrived in Athens at 6 in the morning with hardly any sleep, we had to make it to the next port. We had just missed our train so had to wait 50 minutes for the next one. Great stuck in Athens. Even for 50 minutes was to much for Dino. After an hour and a half on the train we had to switch to a bus which took another couple of hours (but the good thing was we didn't pay for the bus, whether it was free or not is still something we are ...

... br>Me: "How much?"<br>Dude: "37.50"<br>Me: "Here."<br><br>And that was that. Dude sold me his ticket and now, I'm typing this in the information centre as i eagerly await, 2 hours prior to departure to get the **** out of greece. I don't know how many times i have been brushed away and just rudely told to leave...i know what pusha malak means, now. Even, today, i went to buy tomatoes and some dude just got all mad at me cause i touched the tomatoes and i wanted to pick ...

... been abandoned. Joao says the students here are all like activists, thus there is spraypaint on lots of walls and posters everywhere. Apparently, they like to go on strike for just about anything. He says that nobody of authority every comes by. The buildings are always open to anyone, and during the school year the cafeteria is free...for anybody (including locals and even bums!). There are also dogs that just live here and everyone knows ...

... of the museum kind of turned us off. We had taken a picture the night before so I guess we'll have to live with that. Very disappointing but much safer I think.<br><br>We checked out at 11:00 and took the Metro to Piraeous the port for Athens. We found a nice air conditioned coffee bar where they looked at me strangely when I asked for hot water with my expresso and they didn't understand so I just had the expresso and Jen had wonderful fresh orange juice, a sandwich and an apple ...

... we actually saw the mobs of people coming towards us.  There were three large groups of people protesting in the streets.  After asking around about what they were protesting, we heard several explanations.  The groups were representing three different political factions: the Communists, the Socialists, and the Extreme Liberals, and they were protesting work pensions and teacher salaries among other things.  To be honest, Scooter and I had a sick ...

... the ancient churches in the countryside- they are absolutely amazing in construction and make for THE best accoustics (Alex, Will, and Michael- yall need to do a concert in one of these). We got to Corinth at 2 and caught a bus out to the site of the ancient ruins and BARELY made it by closing time... We had, literally, 20 minutes to tour the museum AND the ruins where Paul spent so much of his prayer and missional efforts. We walked the ...

From Delphi we headed to our hotel but drove a few hours, we stayed in Patmos on the Ionian Sea. The views during the drive were fantastic I couldn't stop taking photos the entire time. There were many people reading, or playing games, or sleeping, but I feel like if I hadn't of been paying attention to the views ...

... and it occured to me that it would be possible to go there. I looked at the distant honey blue so attractive, and felt an adrenaline rush in me that said I could go fly up there if I just willed it. I guess the moral of this is: people who meditate are weird. Douglas Adams and his "Hitchhiker's Guide" books had gone on to say that if you're falling towards the Earth and you suddenly meet a distraction so shocking so as to make you momentarily forget you're falling ...