It's All Greek to Me (Athens)

My four days in Athens and areas around Greece allowed me to see how diverse Greece is. I visited Athens, Piraeus, the Sardonic Islands, and Corinth. I went from a huge modern city, to small slow islands, to a suburban costal town in southern Greece.

Coming to Greece from Islamic countries made me excited to see churches and experience the orthodox side of life. In Crete, I darted towards the first few churches I saw. By now my friends are used to me dashing away unexpectedly towards anything religious that catches my eye, # OZRSS problems (over zealous religious studies student). The acronym is so large it has its own problems.

Anyways, the churches had images with gold, brilliant colors, and dizzying patterns. I thought all these churches were so ornate and beautiful, I expected all the churches to be like that. I was right… and wrong. I was with a few friends on the way back to the ship in Piraeus. We passed a large local church. One of my friends was a Christian too, and even though we were late for dinner on the ship we decided to take "just a quick look". We left our other friend outside watching our grocery bags since he wasn't interested. When we stepped into the church I quickly accepted that "just a quick look" was a total lie. Oh the irony of coming to this realization in a church.

The church was massive. There was so much going on with gold, images, Jesus, patterns, more Jesus, and colorful windows. I had no idea where to look. (btw this church is the last few pictures on the blog). My friend and I tried to hurry but every time I turned to another image I was distracted like a kid in a theological candy store. Too many pictures later we rushed out of the church and I said to our friend outside what any low budget college student who can't miss a free meal says, "you have to go see it". Oh yeah, I am not a normal student I am an OZRSS. We ended up making it for dinner… barely.