Meryl Moments: Day 3 in Greece!

Day 3: Early morning rise at 7:30am. Shower, followed by an enormous breakfast buffet. Fruit was not fresh unfortunately and the sausage was odd... sort of breadie tasting, so I didn't eat it. Then, at 10:30am we disembarked at Tessolonica. We boarded our buses and drove to the Catholic Cathedral for Mass. The church was smashed between apartment buildings and off the street. Everything is built VERY closely in Greece. The church was called Immaculate Conception--not the most beautiful church in Europe, but it was pretty.

Then, we drove to the White Tower and took photos. There were really fun looking ships at port that host 'bar cruises'. From there we went to the second tower up the hill of the citadel and close to the Acropolis. We drove past several University campuses, including Aristotle University, which used to be the Jewish cemetery but was destroyed by the Nazis in 1943. We reached the tower which hosted an amazing view of the city and the sea. Mount Olympus was visible across the water. Finally, our amazing bus driver navigated back down the hill to the church of St. Demetrius Martyr. This Byzantine Church is beautiful, adorned with lots of gold, icons, mozaic, and intricate wood carvings. The remains of St. Demetrius are there as well as St. Annysia, who was martyred for her faith.

Our tour guide was very difficult to understand and my jet lag was very bad today, so I'm afraid I did not learn as much as I should. We drove back to the ship where we had a late lunch--I had salmon and cream cheese wrapped in grape leaves with capers, and this GIANT white bean and tomato soup that was absolutely wonderful (seriously, never seen beans that large before). I took a short nap and then attended Mark Brumley's talk on the myths of St. Paul. It was very good, but the jet lag kept causing me to doze off (sorry, Mark...). I made up for it afterward by reading 5 chapters of Pope Benedict's book on St. Paul and then Paul's letter to the Thessalonians.

Eva and I read on the deck of the ship so we could watch it leave port. The ship left port a littler after 9pm. We are headed to Phillipi. I skipped dinner, because I was too full from our late lunch, but then I was hungry 20 mins after the dining area was supposed to close... Tessa convinced me to go in, because there were still people there and she asked a steward if they had food for me. And oooooh did they. They brought me out four courses: cheese, little sandwiches, meatballs and veggies, fruit, tiramisu and some sort of other crazy dessert. I'm gonna be a blimp by the end of this. Another early morning tomorrow!