Attica and the Northern Greece Convention

Friday, Marios took Sean and me to Attica. Attica is a huge shopping center, comparable to the Harrods in London. It was dark, so I didn't get any pictures, but I will try to get back and take some before I leave. Before I went into Attica, Marios showed me a seven-story bookstore; it was amazing! I bought three books and am very excited to read all of them. Then I went into Attica. First item I saw was a purse for 550 Euros (about $825). Guess who didn't buy anything in Attica? I did go up to all the floors and walked around as much as possible, but eventually, I couldn't stand to be reminded how poor I was, so I went outside to wait for Sean and Marios.


This past weekend was the northern Greece church convention in Ioannina (Yah-nee-nah). It was a two-day, two-service event (Saturday and Sunday). I went with seven other people from the Crossroads Church of Athens, all Sri Lankins. We met on Saturday at noon and headed to the bus station to catch our 1:00 charter. It's about six hours Athens to Ioannina.


The bus ride up was really pretty. I don't really know how to describe northern Greece, but it kind of reminded me of Colorado/New Mexico. The terrain was extremely gorgeous and I tried to take pictures from the bus (when I wasn't reading one of my new books or sleeping), so I apologize that they are a little blurry.

We got to Ioannina just after 7:00. Church started at 7, so we booked it from the bus station to the hotel, where the conference was being held in a meeting room. When we arrived, I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised. I had expected a huge convention of people. I counted 38. But everyone was in good spirits and were grateful to be there, so it was good.





Greece has 13 churches and although Crossroads in multinational with services in English, many of the other churches are Greek with services in Greek. I can now proudly say that I "sang" in Greek (as a side note, they sang all their songs in minor keys, which I enjoyed immensely). The sermons on Saturday were preached in Greek and translated in English.



After church, after having gone the day on a banana and peanut butter and honey sandwich, I accompanied the Strictlands, his parents--also missionaries to Greece and Bro. Roger Buckland, missionary to Czech Republic to dinner.

Sunday, church started at 11. We got to church and sang in Greek some more, I've included a clip for you. Then Bro. Buckland and Bro. Jonathan Strictland preached. It was a very good service and I thoroughly enjoyed the conference.





After church we headed to the bus station to catch our ride back to Athens. We just missed the 3:00 bus, so we had to wait until the 5:15 bus. So we went down and sat near a lake.



We left Ioannina on time and as soon as it got dark, I feel asleep. I woke up when the bus stopped and everyone started reaching for their purses/coat pockets. The police had boarded the bus and were asking to see everyone's passports. Guess who didn't have hers? But I did have my Nebraska driver's license, and that was fine by them.

We pulled into Athens just after 11 pm. My group and I ran to catch the bus; many of the buses stop running at midnight and we still had quite a ways to go from the bus terminal to our homes. The bus that took us out of the terminal dropped us off in a questionable part of town. I'm pretty sure my Sri Lankan friends took me through the "ghetto," but it was still less frightening than some of the American city neighborhoods I've wound up in while traveling.

We managed to catch a bus back to Kifisia and I made it back to the hotel around 1 am, where I immediately crashed. It was a really good weekend and although I spent the majority of the trip on a bus, I'm really glad I got to go.

That brings you up to speed with my life. What about yours? Some of you are neglecting to email...