Greece, Day Three: Philippi Part II

After touring the acropolis, we headed back to the main part of our tour to grab some grub. I had a Gyro without the Pita, which is called something else but still pretty good. However, I like the Pita.

One of my battle buddies treated me to some ice cream. Although I really didn't need it, I couldn't resist the ice creamy chocolatey goodness. And its an american ice cream bar, or something, because it has an American Flag printed on the side. Or maybe its a wannabe american icecream, to capatalize on that which is America.



YOu know, I really didn't need that Ice Cream Bar.



Then we headed back to the Ruins via the Ampatheater again, and I saw these ruins behind me and wanted another picture (complete with Ice Cream Cone thingy)



I just thought this archway was way cool :)


This be the reconstruction effort that is currently underway to restore parts of Philippi, I just thought it was cool and took a picture of it. And its one of the few where I'm not actually in the picture!


I think every time I saw a piece of Philippi sitting there with lettering still etched in the side, I got a picture of me with it. I don't think I could resist, or something


This is a partial greek statue that resides in the northern part of Philippi that still stands, and has weathered over 2 millenia of snow, sleet, rain, the ottoman empire, and tourists.


So what's one more going to do?

I'm sorry, I just looked at this thing and all I could see was CLIMB ME


I think when you think of ancient ruins, you think of pillars. I saw some more, with ruins strown about behind me, and so I took this as a sign.

Um, you might get sick of me posing for pictures, but I'm sorry, I ain't done yet.


This is all that remains of Bascilica B. Just ruins, but these are actually pretty impressive, I saw a drawing of what it probably looked like and I thought that was pretty dang sweet. So anyway, you have this entry way type place and thats pretty much the main gist of Philippi. This place is literally in ruins.


And right before the Bascilica, stood a pillar with something written in Greek on it. I hope I didn't desecrate anything by taking a stand and posing for pictures.


Some more. . .


Behold, the private water closet for the supreme beings that ran Philippi. Unlike the puny underlings, who had to share the public toilet (and a few priveleged folks that had indoor plumbing!) this is where the great ones urinated and defecated! Alexander the Great may have even once stood on this very throne!

Um, hold on for just a moment.


By the way, the following are the public toilets.


I managed to sit on one of those too.

The highlight of my trip, sitting on an ancient Greek Toilet. I think they are better then some of the common european toilets, let me tell you. But thats a post for day Four. (which was the shortest day of them all)


I love these walls. We crawled all over them.


Um, don't mind me, acting like, once again, a dork. I just saw this broken pot and said "that looks like an egg!"


I'm just curious how long these ones have been around.

What, you think I would pass by a perfect opportunity to take advantage of these old pedastel type thingees just laying around?

Just over from under my left foot, the second line. It says Philip. See! Something discussing how Philippi is named for King Philip of Macedonia. Or something. Anybody speak Greek?


Tis ancient coffins. Made out of concrete. Which tells me that unless I want my bones excravated in a thousand years, don't get buried in anything fancy.


Greek Kitty! I'm telling you, cats are everywhere here, man!

A monument simply known, as a three niches. You can sort of make out the left one, but its hard to see.

And I had to climb up into it.

Um, about this time, my camera started freaking out and I thought I had dropped it, or something. Which made me a tad bit frustrated. And as you can see, I took a lot of pictures.

Of course, then we went to the Site of Lydia's Baptism, and for you Christians out there, she is the first European to be baptised into the church as described in Acts 16 as well.

It was a really pretty and quite a relaxing place. It wasn't very far from the ruins of Philippi, only about a mile or so away.

Because my camera was freakin' out, I didn't get any pictures of the site with me in them, but I did manage to get a shot of it.



One of the soldiers even got baptised while we were there. I think it would be pretty cool to be baptised in a place such as this, but being in a religion that believes in Baptism by full immersion, its a bit shallow and that would actually be difficult here.

But still, it was a very neat experience, and I probably would have been a lot more spiritually inclined if I had a functioning camera that I wasn't fretting over. I mean, I seriously thought I had broken it or something.

Turns out, it just ran out of batteries. I put regular Double A's in and discovered this thing chews them up and spits them out with no more thought about it.

Anyway, there is a Greek Orthodox Church on the site and we went in there and had a small devotional and sang a couple of Hymns. One I had never heard before, the other turned out to be one of my favorites. (which for the life of me I don't remember, I would have if I wasn't trying to recount these events two weeks later, my feeble mind is fickle on such matters! I guess I shall consult the tape, I video taped us singing a verse within the church.

They had a little shop at the site of Lydia's Baptism where you could buy an assortment of various different items of religious nature and I picked up a little picture of Paul. Since this was a trip about him and his journeys, I thought it was appropriate.

After spending an hour in Lydia, we headed back to the hotel, where we were treated to Dinner. I had chicken, it was good.



Like my hat? I picked it up at Kavala the day before and started wearing it around. We also got back to the Hotel pretty early that day, around fourish, and I spent the evening walking around on the beach and getting into my PTs and diving into the swimming pool. See, I had no swimming suit so I had to make do with what I had.

No pictures. Just a recount in a journalistic fashion.

But this day really was one of the highlights of my time here in the Balkans in general. Philippi was particularly amazing, just to be able to see all of these ancient sites was pretty sweet in my opinion. And it got a traveling bug going within me, see? I really would like to take advantage of my youth and see the world.

I'm doing it little by little!

More Fun With Photoshopping

I should have seen this one coming. . .



I just knew somebody would take the bait on that one, I just knew it! And I posted the picture anyway!

Courtesy of Gadfly :)

Small Break from Greece Trip

You know, things have been going on besides my trip to Greece (which happened over two weeks ago, and I'm still trying to post it) so I thought I would mention some of the other things going on.

Fred Travalena came by the Balkan states to perform a show for us. Though he caters to an older crowd (I had never heard of him) he proved to be entertaining as he is a pretty good impressionist. He had a few people down pretty good. Though he came across as being a conservative, it didn't stop him from poking fun at some previous republican presidents and candidates in harmless jest. I had a pretty good time, I think I need to take more advantage of these USO tours. They have been a nice break from reality from time to time.

Also, Lit had a great interview in the Guardian magazine. Click on the DANCON issue and scroll to page 20 to read it. The author also posted the full interview on his own website, which was cool (they say 'y'know' a lot) They say they're going to talk to some of their buddies about coming up here too.

USO and MWR are definitely doing their part. Can't wait to see what other things they have in store for us.

Greece, Day Three: Philippi Part I

3 down, one day to go. And I took a bunch of pictures in Philippi so I think this one will have to be sectioned off into two parts. And it will likely turn more into a picture show with me narrating now and again.

Wednesday was completely devoted to Philippi. Philippi is in ruins now, but it is quoted extensively in ACTS 16 of the New Testament. Specifically, they talk about two places in Philippi, the Prison and the Lydia's Baptismal font.

I got to visit both, along with some kick butt ancient ruins! I've always wanted to visit ancient ruins, and this was my chance!

We got to Philippi around 9 in the morning, and we first made our way to the ampitheater.

That's my shoddy excuse of putting pictures together to get a panoramic effect. I once did the same thing to my bedroom. (unfortunately I don't know what happened to that image, I think it went down the same time my website crashed last September)

Anyway, here we had a bit of a history lesson, learning about Philippi and what kinds of cool and gnarly things happened here back during the battle of Philippi in 53 BC. Also, Philippi is named after King Philip, who was the father of Alexander the Great.



Of course, I had to get a picture of me in the Ampitheater.



And in various different poses within it.



Ok, a majority of these pictures have me in them. I was constantly passing around the camera for photographs, although I did take a lot of pictures of the surroundings. As well as video. I had my video camera on me, I was constantly tape recording around these parts.


Columns! Actually, I think these columns were recently restored or something, becuase I was looking at pictures of Philippi taken in the past through books and stuff I was looking through and these weren't there. But I still thought they were hella cool!

Philippi provoked a childhood instinct within me. If it was there, Climb it. So I was all over this place exploring. And I saw one or two pillars just standing there asking for me to stand on them and pose. Kind of going in to terms with my Internet Patron War Goddess or something, I couldn't resist.



And then, there was the first piece of architecture directly quoted right out of the Bible.

And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat [them].
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast [them] into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
~KJV : ACTS CH 16 V 22-28

I present to you, Paul's Prison.



Behind me is a mountain, which sits the Acropolis of Philippi. Going back to my motto of the day, if its there, climb it, I headed up the side and started checking out the scenery. It was pretty awesome.


That would be Philippi in the background, or whats left of it.

Still climbing, we got on top of the Mountain and took a good look around, and started taking lots of pictures. To include the buildings behind us, which back in the time of Paul, would have been a kind of look out tower to keep an eye open for the enemy. Or whoever. We just ended up walking up there and goofing off for the next hour and a half, or so.



My next destination, just behind me.



The following picture is the highest point of the acropolis. We had people climbing on top of this thing, yet for once, I didn't heed my motto and maintained a safe altitude within it. I had a shaky grasp and I didn't want to risk falling here. The climb up to this thing wears you out.

But if I get another chance to make it back to Greece (very strong possibility) I'll be sure to have another go and then I will climb on top.

Me and some of my Battle Buddies crawling around the forementioned entrance. They started stripping of their shirts, (to be a guy) yet later they were all pretty red so I didn't feel so bad :)

And you can see somebody in the background climbing around.


Just because I didn't climb to the very top of the Acropolis, didn't mean i didn't climb it!


You see that little tiny window on the picture up there? This is it, and that's me posing in front of it. I look nice, red, hot and sweaty. Ick. It was a warm day.


That is not Philippi in the distance. Just a town that borders Philippi called Krinides. But this is an example of the view. Though it was a bit hazy.


Yes, I conquered this mountain! Me! Take heed in the beautiful view that surrounds this ancient rock!


And down in the distance, sitting on the dome of the rock, is the banner of Greece fluttering in the breeze. My next destination.

They don't seem to have the same etiquette for their flags as we do ours. Still, it is an awesome site!

Flag poles are not exempt from my motto.

Next up: Philippi, Part II, the ruins themselves. To come shortly to a website near you!

Greece, Day Two : Kavala

The second day consisted of a day in Kavala. In previous rotations, this also included a trip to the island of Thassos, but they cut that out because it proved to be rather long and cut out a good portion of the day. See, it took you an hour to get to Thassos, you spent two hours on the island exploring what you could in that two hour time frame, and then you headed back to Kavala which took another hour so WHAM! Four hours out of your day.

I would have liked to visit Thasos, but I was eager to use my limited time to explore Kavala. And check out the souvenir shops. :)


We bussed down to Kavala the old fashioned way. By Bus. This was one of the views off the bus that I had and I just started snapping pictures. It is a very large city, and the roads are not very big and everything is really close together. Very different from the typical American City. I really thought it was cool though.

They had some of the walls plastered in flyers (in Greek of course) that were kind of cool, including a communist one now that I look closer at it, so I asked one of my battle buddies (who actually severely out ranked myself) to take a picture. I kept handing off the camera quite a bit. "here, take my picture! Here, take my picture! Here, take my picture!"

They all knew it would someday land on my blog. I'm known for being the Task Force Blogger. So they didn't really mind. They were all pretty cool about it.



Of course, being in Greece, it wouldn't be proper to go to a Restaurant and not chow down on an authentic Greek Gyro. I've had Gyros before, in Seattle, which was good, but not the same. For one, every Gyro I had before didn't put Fries in it. They seem to always put Fries in the Gyros here. Its an interesting concept.

Everyone was chomping on the Gyros.



Next up, we hit the museum of Kavala. I got a nifty little souvenir ticket of the place (and ended up getting two more identical to it when I went to Philippi the next day and Amphipolis the day after.) I couldn't resist getting my mug with the Greek Pottery. Being a potter of sorts, sort of, (well, how many people do you know that can successfully throw a pot with their friggin' feet?) I have an appreciation for the Potters of old. Besides, I studied this stuff in art school, I couldn't resist being their to witness it in its original habitat of Greece (well, now in a museum, but STILL!)


Of course, being a couple thousand years old, a lot of the statues were of course, missing their heads and hands. Still, very very cool.


That didn't stop me from acting like a complete dork at times.

Yes, that video camera is in my hands. I took lots of video.


Heading back, this is Kavala at its best, most pictures you will see of Kavala will include its Acropolis. Which is that castle type thing in the background over my head. Which was to be our next destination. But first. . .


Greek Boats! Take my picture!


Look! Communists! So they are here, somebody mentioned the Communists to me before.

This is the Aquaduct, which used to span like 3 Kilometers or something and was how they got water to the city. This is the only portion that is left. I don't remember exactly how old it is, it was built sometime in the last millinia from what I understand. But don't quote me on that.

While we were heading up to the Acropolis, we acquired a friend. He had actually been hanging out with one of the groups a good portion of that morning. I hear later he got a hold of one of the infamous greek Cats too. I missed it.


It was quite a walk down these narrow roads and passageways to get up to the Acropolis (you can see how high it is) that wound around every which way in that portion of the city. The streets are small and the buildings are really close together, which didn't leave a lot of room for movement with the occasional car. And it was quite a hike.

Most Greek towns close shop for a couple hours around 1330 for religious reasons (most people here are Greek Orthodox) so we took this opportunity to see the Acropolis. Of course, I got my picture taken and then we spent the next hour and a half just crawling all over this thing.

And I took lots of pictures. Or handed off my camera and had somebody else take pictures.

This is a view of the city of Kavala from the Acropolis. You can see how tight the buildings are together.

And I look about 12 in this picture. (no, not complaining mind you, just an observation, I look like a little kid)


A veiw of the Acropolis from the inside, the SouthEastern portion of it at least.


This is me on the roof of that one building, the roof was made entirely out of rock. Very sturdy, and very cool! (I said Very Cool a lot, you should see the video of me narrating. I think I said Very cool every time I turned to shut it off for that clip. Gar! Find a new word!)


Just me in the northwestern more part of the Acropolis, you can see the castley effects of the Acropolis, and theres the Aegean Sea behind me (which you can barely see)


Another shot of me with Kavala in the background. But this time, you can see that I'm indeed in the Acropolis.


That door just begged for me to climb up on it and hang for a moment.


Moving down the street, I thought the buildings and the road were cool, we were headed for the monument of Muhamed Ali (i probably misspelled that, and no, its not the Boxer, I just know its spelled differently then normal)


That would be the statue there, and this is taken by yours truly. For some reason, when I snap the shot myself, I rarely smile.


I discovered an elusive Zebra Elephant! You know, now that i think about it, I think i've seen one of these little bouncy toys before that was that of a Zebra Elephant and I thought it was as funny then as I do now. But I couldn't resist, I hopped on and had somebody take my picture of me playing on a toy that I outgrew about 17 years ago.

EEK! PUPPY!!! Its. . .so. . .darn. . .CUTE!!!

Somebody asked me why I didn't smuggle it back to Bondsteel with me. Er, two reasons. One, pets aren't allowed on Bondsteel (and that's something that I'm supposed to enforce in my position) and Two, the owners are both standing right there.

I just no that I'm suffering from lack of animal contact anxiety. I've always had some kind of pet or critter stinking up my room in the past and I've gone without an animal for nearly four years now. That's a long time.

Must get pet when I get home.

Oh well, if I keep going on Vetcaps, I should have that cured, or at least pacified.

Um, anyway, back to Greece.

I crawled up on a rock at the base of that statue (and the church that accompanies it) and felt another kodak moment coming on.

Somebody else ended up jumping in the water. We all just kind of dawdled along this rock bed for a while and enjoyed ourselves.

I ended up getting a few more pictures taken.

Iraklitsa, which is where I was the day before, is behind me. Of course, you can't make it out, but its there in that land mass, I promise.


Of course, we turn a bit more and there is the sprawling outer parts of Kavala, complete with grafiti on rock.

By this time, the shops were starting to open back up, or at least one in particular who knew we were coming. We came along and gave her lots of business. I went shopping and got a bunch of souvenirs (that I now need to send home.)

Strange, I took no pictures of these souvenir shops. Maybe I took some video?



After walking around a good portion of the rest of the day shopping and doing whatever else, we grabbed some grub at an Italian Restaurant called La Roccos where I ordered a Pizza. I love Hawaiin pizza. But I think back and I think I should have gotten something a bit more traditional Italian. Like Lasagna or something.

We got back to the hotel at around 2100 that evening where we retired to our room and I talked with my roommate and started going through my stuff and showing her what I got (er, I got quite a bit). I was beat, but we had a good time talking until pretty late that evening.

That wraps up Tuesday.

SideNote: from the comments I got from my previous Greece Post, some people seem to think I'm still in Greece. As much as I wish I was, this is a recap of the events that happened last week, not this week. Sadly, I'm back in Kosovo working once again. But its all good. Bulgaria is up for July!