John Mark’s Study Abroad

This is the video of or stay in Greece.

Athens Day 1

We arrived to Athens, late in the afternoon, after a day of travel.  After getting situated in the cozy Phaedra Hotel, we all went out for dinner.  The food is in Greece is amazing.  We sat at a table with 8 under some trees and umbrellas listened to live music, drank some wine, and watched the sunset.

That night, we hung out of the roof top of our Hotel, overlooking the Acropolis and Athens. We had wine,  music, and a lot of fun.  This is a picture of Chase and Brett just chillin.

The next morning we got an early start as usual and headed to the Acropolis.  Before heading up we stopped on Mars Hill and learned some of the history of Athens from our Tour guide Catarina.

I also got a chance to get infront of the group and tell them about the specfic construction aspects of building the Parthenon.  But everyone still watched Catarina even when i was speaking… i’m not real sure why?

On the Acropolis we saw all the buildings, in particular the Parthenon.  This was very special for me because I am writing a chapter for the book we are publishing on the Parthenon.

Unfortunately much of the Parthenon is undergoing restoration.  This started in the 1980’s and is not expected to finish until 2020.

The building was magnificent and absolutely fascinating.  I am very excited about continuing my studies of how they constructed this building.  After seeing it makes things come even more to life.  You can view the progress of my chapter at Parthenon.

Another interesting visit was to Mars Hill. Where Paul Preached to the Athenians. Paul was on his journey spreading the gospel.  When he came to Athens he knew they were a very religous city, due to all of their focus on temples.  Paul tried to tell them there was only one God, apposed to many like they used to believe, some beilieved and others asked him to leave. Read about it if you copy and paste…

 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2017:16-34;&version=31;

 Again we had a true Authentic Greek meal that night, and then walked around the city to see the nightlife.

Athens Day 2

Our second day in Athens was a free day, we all got to sleep in a little bit, then took tons of different subways and trams to get a beautiful beach.  The last tram we were on took us along the coast and we got to stop and see each beach, we wound up going to one of the local’s favorites

It was a nice day, a little overcast to keep us cool.  Jep and I bought a mask and snorkel for only a few Euros and went snorkeling.  I think it was a good investment, because we will visit several other beaches on our trip, and the water is always crystal clear.

That night we had “cook-out” on our rooftop, even though we did not really cook.  Everyone just brought a different type of food like wine, cheese, bread, fruit, meat, ect.

Our next stop is Crete, Greece