Greece has windmills dotted around. There are not many, but a few. They use solar panels, also. Usually, they are on the top of individual residences and they use them to heat their hot water, I think.
Also, the reason most of the island structures are painted white is that they reflect the sun in hot weather, which they have a lot of.
When we arrive off the coast of most of the islands, except for Crete, we have to board smaller boats to reach the harbor. It's windy this afternoon as we ride our "little" boat in to the harbor below Santorini. If you've ever seen Santorini, you know what I mean. Santorini sits on top of a mountain and the mountain is straight down. No slope. It's breathtaking. As we gaze at our surroundings, I think how beautiful this is and compare it with some of the amazing frescoes that we see in the orthodox churches. You know what? It isn't even close. As amazing as some of the frescoes are, they don't even come close to what the Master Artist can do.
About 14,000 people live on this island. A few days ago, someone asked our tour guide what is the most amazing place, in the world, that she'd ever seen. She said she needed a day to think about it. The next day, she said her answer was Santorini. If you've ever seen it, you know why. It's like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, or Hawaii, The Sea of Galilee, or Lake Tahoe. It's a lot to take in. There are certain places in the world where our Creator really gets our attention. This is one of those places. Look people! Look!
The way this place came to be has a lot to do with an earthquake of vast magnitude. Picture an island that is a circle. The island is elevated, it's mountainous. That's what the island used to look like. Now picture a massive sea monster raising up its head and taking a massive bite out of the circle. That's what the island looks like now. A cookie after the first bite.
One theory says the ancient city of Atlantis was here. Why? Theory goes that the city simply fell into the ocean as a result of the earthquake in 1600 B.C. The island is really high and there is no doubt that a huge chunk of it disappeared as a result of the earthquake. If there was a city there, it fell to the bottom of the ocean.
I mentioned it was windy. When we got to the harbor, it was really hard for them to unload the boats due to the rocking. We finally got off, but it would get windier.
Santorini is monitored regularly and studied daily because off the coast there is still an active volcano. The last major volcano was in 1950 and the last earthquake was in 1956.
It's quite a drive up the mountain from the sea. Switchbacks galore, on a tour bus. Tourism is the industry of the island, for obvious reasons. A lot of people rent 4-wheelers which you can drive around like a car.
No Atlantis has been found, but in 1967, they did make a discovery. A lava covered city on top of the mountain. It is an amazing discovery because the lava preserved everything so well. Think Pompei. In fact, when they dated the drawings on the wall, they discovered that the oldest wall drawings should be attributed to this people, not those buried at Pompei. This ancient city was buried by an earthquake 4000 years ago and much of what can be seen at the archaeological sight is original. Mind-blowing. The current theory is that the people knew a massive earthquake was about to occur and they fled the city with their valuables. The primary reason for that theory is that no bones and no valuables have been uncovered, except for one gold (pure gold) horse left at an alter, in a box. If you go to Santorini, go to this sight. It's a must see. It's a small town, with houses and roads. They even found a bed. Most of the homes were 2-3 stories.
I found two things amazing about this ancient city. First, they had toilets and for the most part they look pretty much like ours. From what I can tell, in the history of toilets, things haven't changed much. A seat with a hole in it. Second, this city has an underground sewer system that carries the dirty water under the streets of the city, out of the city. Not bad technology for 3500-4000 years ago.
We explored the city for a short while but unfortunately could not stay. I highly recommend figuring out a way to spend a few nights in this place. As we approached "All Aboard" time, the quickest way from the town to the "little" boats is by riding a ski-lift down to the shoreline. I rode down at sunset and boarded the "little" boat. After a few minutes, our "little" boat stopped a long ways from the "big" boat. We assumed they were just waiting to unload boats that were ahead of us. Wrong. We learned that the boat that was ahead of us had a very hard time unloading passengers due to the waves and for that reason, the captain of the cruise ship said no more unloading people from the "little" boats. The people still on shore had to wait an extra hour for a ride. The people on the "little" boat still floating around in the harbor, were told to wait. So I waited. It was windy. I did not get sick but I could have if I had wanted to. The cruise ship captain re-positioned eventually and we were able to get off the "little" boat after about an hour. I did not feel like updating my journal. Thank goodness I get back on land tomorrow. I can't wait to take a good shower...
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
May 22-Part 1
We woke up off the coast of Crete, the
birthplace of Zeus. A couple of biblical
references to Crete are as Acts 2:11 and Acts 27:11-21.
We had an excursion planned to some ruins and I don’t
remember the name of them. This morning
I learned a lesson the way I usually do, the hard way. The lesson is, don’t underestimate the value
of a good tour guide. A good guide
brings history to life. Maybe the poor
woman was new but she kept repeating herself and had to consistently keep
thumbing thru the tourist guide book for information. I looked longingly at other tour guides
telling stories and jokes. The people in
their groups looked so happy. We were
not happy. More than once I thought to
myself, “if Jennifer was here right now she would be poking out her own
eyeballs,” It was rough. I’ll admit, I
would have rather been shopping without buying and that’s saying a lot. That being said, I did pick up a few
interesting pieces of information about this really old place.
One thing that was very unique, is that the palace was not
on a high point. I’ve been to quite a
few ruins and I think all of them were strategically located so that the town
could defend itself from invaders. The
people of Crete were peaceful and maybe this is why their ancient palace was
not on a high fortification. In fact, as
I looked around, the location was in the bottom of a bowl. It was surrounded by mountains. The other interesting fact is that the palace
had running water that they obtained by clay pipes from a mountain 10 kilometers
away. Keep in mind this is from a
civilization that exited 3000-4000 years ago.
I bet they had better showers than that cruise ship…
I’ll admit, I was tired.
I felt kind of bad for my condemnation of the tour guide. She was probably new and was probably doing
the best she could. Sometimes, I am in
need of a good guide to make my trip more interesting. Sometimes, I’m boring. As the tour finished up, I noticed all the
people taking selfies. No wonder social media is so
popular. Everybody is yelling “Look at
me! Please, look at me!” I should buy stock in Facebook. As I look at people of all nations taking
selfies, I realize this phenomenon isn’t going away.
Maybe I put on the wrong glasses (and ears) this
morning. Some mornings I do that.
I see a man in a red flannel shirt playing an accordion. He has a light mustache. His music sounds like Greece. He smiles at me. He looks happy.
Tonight we go to Santorini.
Saturday- Part 2
Patmos is beautiful.
Only 3,000 people live on the island.
Some really famous people have homes here but aren’t permanent residents
(Clooney, one of the English princes, and some actresses I’ve never heard of
but most everybody else in the world knows them well). Our guide was born here and her mom still
lives here. Her accent was mesmerizing. She sounds like she could do a female Siri
voice if they have one for Patmos.
As we zig-zagged our way up the mountain, we passed the
school. It was “Sports Day” which looked
like what we know as Field Day. The two
biggest sports in Greece are soccer and basketball. We reached the top of the island where a
monastery/church is located. As you
would expect, the name of this one is St. John’s monastery. I’ve noticed that most every island has a
monastery on the highest spot. These
monks have some phenomenal real estate.
After touring the monastery, we made our way down the
mountain a bit, to the traditional sight of John’s cave. There is an orthodox church here that is
built into the cave. It’s very small but
there is no doubt you are in a cave in the side of a mountain. Inside the cave/church, there is an area of
rock that could definitely serve as a writing desk, especially if you were in a
cave. Apparently John was exiled to the
island but his movements were not limited so he could move freely about the
island and the cave was somewhere he went regularly to pray and worship.
Revelations 1:9.
Outside the cave, we held a devotion and it was on the theme
of exile. John had been exiled from
Ephesus for preaching the gospel. It
probably seemed like a bad thing when John was exiled. Times of “exile” aren’t usually very
pleasant. However, some of us got to
talking and it seems that times of “exile” do often turn out fruitful. Afterwards.
Before heading back to the gigantic boat with tiny bedrooms,
tiny beds, tiny showers and unpredictable hot water, we had coffee by the
sea. Clouds gave way to night as we
caught the last boat back to our ship.
Regarding the shower, it is a torture chamber. After a day of hiking and exploring, the idea
of a shower is bliss. And then I get
in. My elbows either hit the wall or the
curtain is brushing up against me which kind of grosses me out. And then I get okay with the tight quarters
and start enjoying the process of getting clean. Just about the time I start relaxing under
the warm water, the temperature unpredictably skyrockets to whatever degree
volcano lava is. There isn’t anywhere to
go because the dang shower is so small.
Just about the time I catch my breath to scream for help it goes back to
being normal temperature again.
I want to keep typing because I’m dirty and I need a
shower. I really don’t want to go back
in there.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Saturday morning in Turkey
We woke up this morning off the coast of Turkey. We left the boat at 7:15 and went into the
seaside city of Kusadasi which is very nice, and modern. I always thought Ephesus was on the sea and I
learned that it used to be. When Paul visited,
the city had a harbor. However, due to
silt buildup, the archaeological remains of Ephesus are now 4 miles from the
Aegean Sea.
Our bus driver, Mr. Hussein, drove us to Ephesus with our
local guide. 98% of Turkey is Muslim and the other 2% are Christian and
Jewish. She was probably about 30 years
old and has visited the United States on several occasions. More on her in a minute.
Acts 19.
The first excavations were launched in 1863 in an attempt to
locate one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Artemis Temple. Needless to say they found it and a whole lot
more. Ephesus is huge and supposedly
they have only uncovered 20% to date. A
good link that’s not Wikipedia is the World Heritage website that hopefully can
be linked to here:
Ephesus marked the end of the spice trading route that ran
all the way to India. Mary, the mother of
Jesus, died here. John was here with
Mary and from here was exiled to Patmos where he wrote Revelations. He was later allowed to return to Ephesus and
died here.
A few interesting notes about Turkey. Turkey is the # 1 producer/exporter of dried
fruits in the world. They have their own
currency, the lira, and the exchange rate is about to 3:1 for a U.S.
dollar. There are over 3400
archaeological sites in Turkey. They
make really nice rugs.
We left Ephesus and toured a rug making place. We saw young women working with large
looms. We watched someone “unroll” a
cocoon into a spool of silk. Then, we
were thrown to the rug salesmen. I’ll
admit, the rugs are amazing. One was
over $30,000. I didn’t buy one.
The highlight of the morning was our devotion in the remains
of the theater. By the way, performers
from all over the world make appearances here due to the amazing acoustics. Anyway, our devotion leader read from Acts 19
after praying and she could barely get through it. Being in Ephesus had overwhelmed her and what
was about to happen overwhelmed anyone who wasn’t already overwhelmed. After reading from Acts we took some time
reflecting on the fact that we were walking around Ephesus. Then, my friend John, suggested we conclude
the devotion time with a song.
Muriel, who had just struggled reading Acts 19, sang along with
the music. Her voice is angelic and she
wasn’t crying anymore. She was “overflowing”
and it was beautiful. We sat on the
steps of the ancient theater and as a group……we wept. It was an amazing experience listening to
Muriel sing that song in this place. It
gets better. Our tour guide, the young
Muslim woman, also cried. She cried a
lot. She was sitting to my left on the ancient
stone steps, and I notieced her.
Everyone in our group noticed her.
She tried really hard to keep it together but that’s a fight she wasn’t
going to win. I’m crying again just remembering
the scene.
It’s only lunchtime.
On to Patmos this afternoon.
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