.... even though it looks like it! Before I get to the sightseeing we did today, I'm going to go out of order and talk about what we did in the afternoon first and explain why there are no pictures to document that with. The primary purpose of coming to Greece was to explore the programs here and work with mostly Persian refugees (i.e., from Iran, Turkey, and other countries like that). Oftentimes, if they are Christian (or even anything other than Muslim) in their home country, they are persecuted. Many escape in the middle of the night to Greece due to ease of entry/little border control. A handful of them get robbed along the way or sink in shoddy boats. Those that do make it tend to struggle with life here, especially if again, they are not Muslim. We have been working with a few churches in the area and have seen many services tailored to both the Greek and Iranian populations here. I wish I could show you pictures and give you names of the organizations but I have none. The individuals that come over here are continually pursued by those from their home country and by those who are antisemitic or simply just full of hatred. Individuals have been beaten; friends have been harmed. Therefore, while it doesn't seem like we've done much here in Greece, we have; it just isn't documented the same as my past trips.
Now that you have a clear picture of why it looks like we're only sightseeing, let me go into all of our sightseeing (lol)! Today we spent the morning at the Acropolis which is where the Parthenon is located. We got there early (like 10 minutes after they opened) after a quick metro ride. It ended up being a good thing that we got there that early because when we were done later, there was a line wrapped around lots of corners and it was super hot and sunny outside. Here are a few pics from way up there (the rest of the pics are on Facebook):
We saw all of the different ruins and what not being reconstructed up there and then walked down to Mars' Hill, which is behind me in this pic (and yes, I know that I have a farmer's tan in the pic above).
Once we left the Acropolis, we traveled a bit (via metro and bus) to one of the church locations where we had a service where there were over ten nationalities represented. We hung around there for a bit talking to people, finding out where they were from, and getting their back stories. Then, we came back over to another church and spent a few hours sharing stories and witnessing some Iranian men get baptized. When that was done, we decided to head back out to the Acropolis area (it was late but everything is open late here, even on Sunday nights) and we have dinner at a fantastic restaurant. We ate a mixture of things like falafel, gyros, grilled feta, etc. Afterwards, we went shopping for an hour in the surrounding area and everyone picked up some things here and there. We were supposed to meet back at the metro station at 10:00 but of course most of us were late since we're not so good with time management here! We ended up back at the hotel around 10:30/10:45 and most of us skyped and called family or went to bed. Thus concluded the Acropolis day (don't know where to end this post since I'm about to do another one; even though the date says Sunday, I'm really typing this Monday since internet at the hotel has been super sketch).
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