Traces of Paul in Athens

On Sunday we woke up early to a windy morning in Santorini. We had some breakfast and then caught a cab to the airport on the back half of the island. As we drove to the airport we passed four buses coming up the hill from the three cruise ships in the harbor. On Saturday there were no cruise ships, and all of the streets and restaurants were almost deserted. Our cab driver told us that in the summer there are as many as eight cruise ships in port at the same time, and that Oia is absolutely crazy. Glad we missed that.

The Santorini airport was pretty informal, and the flight to Athens took less than an hour. I had started to feel a little queasy before we left, and the bumpy plane trip didn't help. Fortunately, Frank and Suzie Gonzales, friends of ours working for Calvary Chapel in Athens, picked us up at the airport, so we didn't have to navigate all of the ins and outs of finding our way to the hotel.

On the way to the hotel, we stopped for some lunch (which actually helped me to feel a little better and settled my stomach). It was so good to sit and talk with them and hear how the Lord is using them here in Athens, especially with the current migrant crisis. (Frank is really good at taking selfies; I need to take some lessons.)

By the time we got to our hotel, I was feeling poorly again, so I left the unpacking to Kathy and went straight to sleep. When I woke up a little after 6:30 PM both my nausea and headache were gone, so Kathy and I headed out to walk around the local neighborhood. This is what we found when we walked two blocks: the Acropolis!

The ticket office was still open so we bought tickets for tomorrow and started walking around the base. On the far side, we found a rock outcropping with a lot of tourists standing on top of it. (It sort of looked like the rocks at Pirates Cove in Corona del Mar.) There was a steel staircase and so we climbed up with them and got this great shot of the Parthenon under an almost full moon.

Later, we walked through the back lanes of the Plaka, and found a great place for dinner. I wasn't feeling 100% so we just ordered an appetizer assortment and a Greek salad. It just hit the spot. (It was such a lovely scene, with all of the tables spilling out into the lane, that I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture.) As we were eating dinner, I got out my guide book and looked for the hilltop place we had been standing. It was Mars Hill, where the Apostle Paul preached his famous sermon to the Athenian Philosophers in Acts 17!

Monday at the Acropolis

On Monday morning we walked up to the Acropolis and took the "Rick Steves Walking Tour" with my iPhone and a single set of earbuds shared between us. I bet we looked kind of funny walking around in sync so that the earbuds wouldn't pull out. The restoration work that has been going on for more than 20 years is a little disconcerting but impressive. Those white patches on the columns are not merely stucco or Bondo, but are actually marble patches cut from the same type of marble as the original columns. Eventually, the columns will weather to the same ivory color.

The audio guided tour took about two hours, and was very informative. We learned a lot about the history and the design of the temples on the Acropolis, but also did a lot of walking. Every time we sat down, getting up again became an open question.

Because of the damage done by the Venetians and the Ottomans during the war in the 1600s, the temples weren't in as good shape as those elsewhere in the city. This is the west side of the Erechtheion, the only other main temple on the top of the Acropolis, shared between Poseidon and Athena.

Of course most of you are probably more familiar with the east side, which features the famous Porch of the Caryatids. We had arrived early at the Acropolis (around 8:30 AM), but by now (10:30) the tour groups were arriving and so we left to see the Ancient Agora which was the center of commercial Athens during its heyday.

This is where, in Acts 17:17, it says of the Apostle Paul that:

...he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

It was while he was here in the marketplace (the Agora) that he encountered a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who

...took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean."

 The Areopagus was the group of local leaders who ruled Athens, and met on this hill (which we know by its English name of Mars Hill). It was really quite an honor to be called to address them. In the picture above, Kathy is standing in front of the Agora where Paul would have preached. The lower left shows Mars Hill as it appears from the Acropolis. On the side is a plaque containing (so we've been told) the Greek version of Paul's speech to the Athenians.

There are few other sites in the Agora, but the temple of Hephastos certainly stands out. It's not as large as the Parthenon, but it's much better preserved. During the middle ages this was converted to the Church of Agios Georgios and was allowed to remain a church during the Ottoman occupation. Looking at the temple you can imagine what the Parthenon would look like today if it hadn't been blown up.

There was also one Christian church on the site-the Church of the Holy Apostles-built in 1000 AD to commemorate the Apostle Paul's ministry in Athens. This Church became the prototype for later Athenian churches with it's Greek Cross shape (as opposed to the typical Roman Cross pattern used throughout much of Europe). This picture is looking up at the dome.

After our walk, I wanted lunch and Kathy wanted to look at the flea market in the Monastiraki area. We compromised by walking through the flea market and getting some lunch on the far side. This is Greek salad with lamb and beef kebabs and grilled tomatoes (at Thanasis which is famous for its traditional recipe.)

After lunch we headed over to the Central Market, where Kathy was grossed out by the meat carcasses and the fish market that is a little more raw than the one in Pikes Place. After that, back to the hotel for a nap.