Today our goal was pretty simple -- get to Greece. And not by air. What fun! Check out the route we would get to enjoy: start at Izmir in Turkey and search for Kavala, Greece. Crossing continents and everything! On trips like this, I love the journey often as much as experiencing the destination. I love watching how the landscapes change slowly, or at times very dramatically. Our journey today began at Izmir, and we drove north along the coast, passing through mountain valleys and climbing up into them even at points. The landscape in Turkey is actually quite eye-opening -- an odd mix of mountains and fertile, flat valleys in between them.
Of particular awesomeness to me was the fact that we drove within a mile or so of the ancient site of Troy! But alas, we didn't have time to stop. The reason: we had to catch a vehicle ferry across the Hellespont! From Asia (where I'm standing in the picture) back to Europe (the other side of the very narrow strait)!
We boarded and said goodbye to Asia for the last time...until who knows when?
We enjoyed lunch in historic Gallipoli, right on the water where we could look back across continents, and then we traveled another hour or so until we got near the border. At this point, we had to do an odd drill: swap out buses with another bus company that is licensed in both Greece and Turkey, and then ride them only until the Greek border, then another little ways, then swap buses again with a Greek tour bus company. Ah, politics is alive and well! :-) As we approached the Greek border, I noticed that suddenly it was getting cloudy -- for the first time on our whole trip. Right at the very moment when we were re-entering the so-called Western world, even the weather changed! It was kind of symbolic somehow. The border itself was very uneventful...
But the products in the duty free shop sure gave us amusement!
Nothing like truth in advertising, eh? :-) Because we had all had a very long and relatively uneventful day riding in buses for upwards of 7+ hours, the leadership decided to boost spirits by spontaneously announcing there at some shops at the border: "MAGNUMS for everybody!" The cheering from the students was so loud and hearty that all the other shopkeepers came out of their stores wondering what on earth had happened! My rasberry and vanilla double-layer ice cream bar was delicious, let me tell you! I was especially glad for that, since I had no idea what the Turkish label said when I grabbed it. :-)
When we finally swapped into our Greek bus for the last time (whoo, that luggage was a tight fit!) we had another hour or so and Dr. J and I took the opportunity to have an on-bus lecture for about the history of ancient Greece (my part) and Greek Orthodoxy (Dr. J's part -- cuz they had a paper on the subject coming up). This lasted us until we reached our first destination in Greece: Kavala. This is the site of ancient Neapolis mentioned in Acts 16 and Acts 20. Many people in our group had been looking forward to getting to Greece for a variety of reasons (some because they were glad to leave Turkey behind, but not me -- I like Turkey a lot, but I've been studying Greece for the last 12 years!), and when we reached Kavala right after sunset, we all knew that we were in for some good times here in beautiful Greece! Voila!
Our fun little hotel was literally two blocks from the Aegean Sea, and we all settled in looking forward to our coming Greek adventures.
On a final note, one of our students has taken very ill with what looks like a rather severe relapse of mono, and she may have to be sent home early. She has been in contact with her parents, so if you haven't heard from your child about any sickness yet, don't worry it's not her. Please be in prayer for this student and the whole situation.
[FRIDAY UPDATE: Becky was sent home today on a special flight, and she is presumably closing in on North Carolina as I type this; this is good as her home doctor can now monitor her. Hopefully this will be the only health complication.]
Please keep praying for us: for unity, for consistency in spending more time in scripture and in prayer, for our attitudes, and for our joy. Thanks to all. Tomorrow -- Philippi and Thessaloniki!
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