-Where In The World Is Shay?-
Music becomes a comforting thing while traveling, especially abroad. It seems that whatever you have on your iPod is some of the only english you will hear for a long time. As I was drifting in and out of sleep on our late flight to Italy yesterday, I woke up to the song "Home" by Michael Buble. Its opening words are "Another summer day, has come and gone away, in Paris and Rome, and I want to go home". After being through Paris and Rome, this song hit me hard. Its been almost a month and a half and so much of that has been traveling, studying, and trying to find someone who speaks english. I'm ready to be back where I can drive, sleep as late as I want, have free refills and talk in my native tongue. OK, enough complaining. As I type these words, I'm in my hotel in Italy. This is simply a rest stop before we head out to Spain tomorrow. Since Thursday, I have been in Greece. I must say, the Greeks caught me off guard. Although this will be no 300 tale, let me share my thoughts of my own Greek odyssey...
After problems with baggage in the London airport, a delayed flight and problems in the Athens airport, we were able to communicate with a cab driver and got to our hotel in downtown Athens. The next morning, we went and visited the famous Acropolis. Atop the Acropolis is the Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Erechtheion as well as other temples. The view from the Parthenon was mind blowing. This temple was dedicated to the goddes
s Athena and was built in the second half of the 5th century BC. I have personally always been a fan of ancient Greek history and coming to Greece was the one place I have wanted to travel more than anything. Atop this hill and next to the Parthenon was all I could ask for. After seeing movies like 300, The Odyssey and many other Greek history films, it was so incredible to see the ancient structures that have been talked about for centuries. The Greeks are a proud race and an incredible past. Seeing and reading about things like the Parthenon gave me a taste of their life. After we made our down from the hill, we went to the old Olympic Stadium from 2004. It was eerie as we walked through th
e Stadium because it was bare. It was as if we were the only people on the planet at the time. Everything was forgotten about and you could tell by the way things were kept. Although it was empty, you could picture how impressive the stadium was and feel the history in the place, being that the Olympics originated in Greece. We were able to see the pool where the swimming happened as well as the indoor track for biking. Shortly after, it started raining and we gladly took the metro back to our hotel and had an early night. We had an olympic mount of Greek history swirling around in our heads and it made me want to crash. The next morning was July 4 and we had a little celebration in mind...
Sunglasses, suits and bags in hand, we boarded a ferry for the Greek island of Ae
gina. It took about an hour and we were able to view other islands along the way as well as water 
that rivals the blue of Hawaii. For most of the day, we walked around the town and went to a secluded beach with incredible views of distant islands and water so clear you could see many feet down. Although there were no fireworks and nobody else around to celebrate the U.S.'s independence, myself, Michael, Lacy and Megan were able to relish the fact that we were on a beach in Greece and celebrating our own way. Once again, another incredible experience to chalk up and another place to view God's beauty.
The next day, I awoke early and had a plan in mind. Being that it was a Sunday, I decided to venture out by myself and find Mars Hill, which is where the apostle Paul converted many Athenians. After 2 hours of walking around aimlessly, hiking up the wrong hill, getting chewed out by an elderly greek and sweating buckets, it ended up being a five minute walk
from my original point of starting. Why does it seem that when you are looking for something, it always seems to be in plain sight? After a stressful morning of walking around lost, being atop this hill with a view of Athens put me in the right mindset to thank God once again for my life and this experience. I must say, it was pretty cool being on the Aeropagus (what the Greeks call it) knowing that Paul himself was there. After reflecting back on some scripture and one last look at the ancient city of Athens, I made my way back to the hotel and packed up with Michael and made our way to the airport for Italy.
Greece has been the number one place on my map of places to go in the world. It was a
mazing to be able and be there, but I underestimated the communication barrier. Not only do they use Greek and hardly NO english, their language consist of symbols as well as letters which makes it even harder. The island was incredible, the Acropolis and famous monuments were a blessing, but I must say I was somewhat relieved to leave.
Our stay in Italy is nothing more than a day trip. We had planned on venturing down to Florence for the day, but it is too far out of the way and will save us some money of course by not going. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM, we depart for Barcelona, Spain. We will have all of Tuesday and Wednesday to be in the city and hit up the beach. Late Wednesday, we make our way by train to Pamplona and enjoy the festival that goes on all night. We have a hotel, but I've been told that you won't get any sleep due to the constant partying. The plan is to be in the street where the bulls run by 6:30 AM and wait and watch everything until the first bull slams into the corner at 8:00 AM. It's nothing but a dead sprint for half a mile where you then run into a stadium packed full of people cheering and the bull fights start. It's 3 days and counting. Agility and swiftness have been the main points of thought. We are about to watch a 007 movie here in our hotel room, so I'm going to end it here. As always, for the few of you that are left, I thank you for tuning in. We are coming to a close here and once I get to Spain, it is going to be rapid. A dear friend of mine used to make fun of the Dodge commercials while he would grab a steer by the horns at a camp we used to go to. Well my friend, I am literally going to be running from those horns in a short while, but still grabbing life to the fullest. Hang in there guys. The night is always darkest just before the dawn, and the dawn of going home quickly approaches.
And so hobey ho, and off we go
-Shay
After problems with baggage in the London airport, a delayed flight and problems in the Athens airport, we were able to communicate with a cab driver and got to our hotel in downtown Athens. The next morning, we went and visited the famous Acropolis. Atop the Acropolis is the Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Erechtheion as well as other temples. The view from the Parthenon was mind blowing. This temple was dedicated to the goddes
s Athena and was built in the second half of the 5th century BC. I have personally always been a fan of ancient Greek history and coming to Greece was the one place I have wanted to travel more than anything. Atop this hill and next to the Parthenon was all I could ask for. After seeing movies like 300, The Odyssey and many other Greek history films, it was so incredible to see the ancient structures that have been talked about for centuries. The Greeks are a proud race and an incredible past. Seeing and reading about things like the Parthenon gave me a taste of their life. After we made our down from the hill, we went to the old Olympic Stadium from 2004. It was eerie as we walked through th
e Stadium because it was bare. It was as if we were the only people on the planet at the time. Everything was forgotten about and you could tell by the way things were kept. Although it was empty, you could picture how impressive the stadium was and feel the history in the place, being that the Olympics originated in Greece. We were able to see the pool where the swimming happened as well as the indoor track for biking. Shortly after, it started raining and we gladly took the metro back to our hotel and had an early night. We had an olympic mount of Greek history swirling around in our heads and it made me want to crash. The next morning was July 4 and we had a little celebration in mind... Sunglasses, suits and bags in hand, we boarded a ferry for the Greek island of Ae
gina. It took about an hour and we were able to view other islands along the way as well as water 
that rivals the blue of Hawaii. For most of the day, we walked around the town and went to a secluded beach with incredible views of distant islands and water so clear you could see many feet down. Although there were no fireworks and nobody else around to celebrate the U.S.'s independence, myself, Michael, Lacy and Megan were able to relish the fact that we were on a beach in Greece and celebrating our own way. Once again, another incredible experience to chalk up and another place to view God's beauty. The next day, I awoke early and had a plan in mind. Being that it was a Sunday, I decided to venture out by myself and find Mars Hill, which is where the apostle Paul converted many Athenians. After 2 hours of walking around aimlessly, hiking up the wrong hill, getting chewed out by an elderly greek and sweating buckets, it ended up being a five minute walk
from my original point of starting. Why does it seem that when you are looking for something, it always seems to be in plain sight? After a stressful morning of walking around lost, being atop this hill with a view of Athens put me in the right mindset to thank God once again for my life and this experience. I must say, it was pretty cool being on the Aeropagus (what the Greeks call it) knowing that Paul himself was there. After reflecting back on some scripture and one last look at the ancient city of Athens, I made my way back to the hotel and packed up with Michael and made our way to the airport for Italy. Greece has been the number one place on my map of places to go in the world. It was a
mazing to be able and be there, but I underestimated the communication barrier. Not only do they use Greek and hardly NO english, their language consist of symbols as well as letters which makes it even harder. The island was incredible, the Acropolis and famous monuments were a blessing, but I must say I was somewhat relieved to leave.Our stay in Italy is nothing more than a day trip. We had planned on venturing down to Florence for the day, but it is too far out of the way and will save us some money of course by not going. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM, we depart for Barcelona, Spain. We will have all of Tuesday and Wednesday to be in the city and hit up the beach. Late Wednesday, we make our way by train to Pamplona and enjoy the festival that goes on all night. We have a hotel, but I've been told that you won't get any sleep due to the constant partying. The plan is to be in the street where the bulls run by 6:30 AM and wait and watch everything until the first bull slams into the corner at 8:00 AM. It's nothing but a dead sprint for half a mile where you then run into a stadium packed full of people cheering and the bull fights start. It's 3 days and counting. Agility and swiftness have been the main points of thought. We are about to watch a 007 movie here in our hotel room, so I'm going to end it here. As always, for the few of you that are left, I thank you for tuning in. We are coming to a close here and once I get to Spain, it is going to be rapid. A dear friend of mine used to make fun of the Dodge commercials while he would grab a steer by the horns at a camp we used to go to. Well my friend, I am literally going to be running from those horns in a short while, but still grabbing life to the fullest. Hang in there guys. The night is always darkest just before the dawn, and the dawn of going home quickly approaches.
And so hobey ho, and off we go
-Shay
