Greece

I really don't know if I can explain our journey through Greece in a single blog entry. We'll see how I feel after awhile.

So our arrival to Greece was by ferry from Bari. We arrived in the city of Patras, on the NW side of the country. We got off with our backpacks, and made our way to the train station, which, unlike Cherbourg, France, was right next to the ferry port. Way to be smarter then the French!

We had a couple hours or so until the train left for Athens, so we decided to look around the city a bit. This was complicated by a couple of factors:

1. It was like 110 degrees...celsius.


2. It was probably 186% humidity.

3. We were wearing like 50 lb backpacks.

4. The city was built on a mountain cliff.

5. I don't understand a single thing in the greek language.

While all of those are slight exaggerations (even #5), it was pretty cool, and we sure as heck weren't going to waste our time in Greece!!!

So we began to explore the city. I saw a big hill with a fort thing on the top of it and a sign that said in Greek "Patras Fortress" (at least I assume that's what it said in Greek), so I said, hey, let's climb up it! It was a tough hill, but our reward at the top was........





an amazingly beautiful view from the top. As you can see. Stunning.

Let me just say a couple things about Greece. First, the beaches are gorgeous. Not that I've seen a large and varied amount of beaches in my lifetime, but still. Absolutely stunning.

Also, everything, at least the official signs, were in Greek and English. I thought that was kinda wierd. I expected maybe Italian...French...but English? I guess it is the international language...you could also tell, especially in Athens, that they had done a lot to get the city ready for the Olympics. It was pretty nice.

Being in Greece seriously reminded me of the first days of my mission. The feeling of sweat as it starts to appear on your neck. Not understanding anything that's being said, nor any street signs. Fast-moving cars that you don't ever really know where they are coming from. Random really old things in the middle of a modern city. A whole new world ready to be explored. A new fantasic point of view.

While exploring the city, we found this big ancient amphitheater. Turns out it was the second largest odeon, or amphitheater, in Ancient Greece. We would see the largest one the next day in Athens. This was really cool though because we found it ourselves. If we had looked it up in a book, and then gone and found it, it probably we have been an okay sight to see. But the fact that we found it while exploring ourselves made it a real treasure to find. There's another big lesson that I learned on this trip:

Activities, Sights, etc. are more meaningful and exciting when you figure them out on your own.

I'm sure that applies to a lot of areas besides vacationing in Europe, too.

After our adventure through Patras, we got on the train to Kialto. This was the first time I felt as part of a group of backpackers. We definitely were the majority on this train. Instead of being able to be quiet and hear the lively conversations of Greek, we instead were treated to a quiet lull of profanity-laced english. Sad. The train was the most rickety one, moving around from side to side a lot, and it was pretty hot, mostly because I was the one in the sun.

At Kialto we hurried to get on the next train, before someone behind us in english said that it wasn't the correct train, and that we needed to wait for the next one. We decided to wait, while probably about two-thirds of the other backpackers got on anyway. In retrospect that train went to the Airport, while our train went to the main train station. Not a big deal, but whatever. It probably saved us a couple euro of subway tickets.

Either way we showed up at Larissa Station in Athens. This was difficult because I do not speak Greek, their letters are different, and their maps are pretty difficult to read.

We had a hard time finding the hostel, but we did, thanks to some patience and an idea by Torrie. She didn't even get mad at me as we basically wondered around for a little bit! What a patient girl.

More Greece to come!

Walter Cronkite and My Journalism Kick

More stories to come out of Europe. But for now....

I've been on a journalism kick lately. As in, appreciating it. It all started with my graduation from BYU and subsequent move to Seattle. I wanted to continue to learn and to grow. The way I saw it, my learning should continue not only through my years of formal education, but forever. As such I made plans to continue to learn, weather it be through classes, (yeah free education paid for by boeing!) reading, whatever. Must continue to learn. This goes along with a verse of scripture I read the other day:
"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly ...of things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms-That ye may be prepared in all things..."(D&C 88:78-79)

My first book to read was a biography called "A Reporter's Life". It was an autobiography, actually, written by Walter Cronkite. While it started off a little slow (most memoirs usually do), once he began to be a reporter in Europe during WWII and in Post-WWII Moscow, things became very exciting. I would take the book to read at work, stealing a half hour outside my building, enjoying the sun, my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my endeavours through the eyes of Walter.

I think the most important thing I took from the book is the need for unbiased news. Don't get me wrong, I love opinions. My favorite tv show? Pardon the Interruption.

(Yeah, it's about sports, but whatever. I love it because of Tony and Michael's opinions. And I wanted to have a picture in this blog entry.)

I value the opinion of people who I usually agree with...and I really value the opinion of those who I don't agree with (knowing both sides of an issue and really thinking about it..I've changed my thoughts on a couple of things. Oh and as such, I don't hold it against a politician when he or she changes his/her mind. It happens sometimes, I think. At least it happens to me). However, after watching a little bit of tv news (my grandparents watch it every night) and with the little bit of internet surfing I do to find my news...I found myself wanting more. I felt the need. The need for unbiased journalism, but yet intensive enough to go beneath the surface.

I found the answer to my desire one morning while I was trying to put in my iPod on the way to work. My Guster kept cutting out as I drove down the road. Finally, I gave up, turned Candace off. (candace is the name of my ipod) and all of a sudden, a channel came through, crisp and clear. NPR! National Public Radio. That morning they told me about Seattle and some of the local issues with which the city has been dealing. They gave some insights into the Obama presidency. Best of all...it was refreshingly clear of bias. Just the news. Just the facts.

NPR has become sort of a ritual in my car, now. While I still enjoy a good Justin Timberlake on the way to work, and I usually talk to Torrie or the family on the way home...when those aren't going on, I listen to NPR. Today they had an interview with the President of Estonia, and how he was viewing the Georgia-Russia situation (which I know all about, thanks to NPR). His opinion was insightful, being a head of state of another small country that was once under the Soviet umbrella. I came home knowing more than I did before. Thank you, NPR.