Thursday, May 01, 2008

Traveling without a guidebook....

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 229
(I love how I look pregnant and balding in this picture, how flattering)


When I was on my flight to Greece, I thought it would be great to travel to Mars Hill (Areopagus). Growing up in the church I read the bible story about Paul the apostle talking with the great philosophers on Mars Hill. I had always wanted to go to that spot.

So when I was in the Athens portion of my trip, touring around with my friend Brooke. I figured we didn't have time to track down this Mars Hill. We went up to the Acropolis though - following signs hiked above the city. Before we were all the way up to the Acropolis we sumbled upon the hill that I am pictured standing on above. Everyone was gathered around taking pictures. I assumed that it was to get the great vantage point of the Acropolis in the background. We stumbled on the stairs up and down.

When we finally got up to the Acropolis we decided not to hire a guide. We did however follow the rules:

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 230

Such as it being forbidden to sing. I didn't sing.

Since we didn't know what we were looking at, we decided to follow around other tours. The upside, there was a few English speaking tours going on. The downside, they were all 80 years old (as most international tours seem to be) so we didn't really blend in.

So we were KINDA able to figure out what we were looking at

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 232

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 243

I felt good about seeing the ancient ruins and all, but I was bummed I didn't make it to Mars Hill.

Well that was last September.

Last night I happened on a blog about traveling through Greece. They talked about Mars Hill, it sounded a little to much like the hill that I had been to right before the Acropolis...a little too much. After a quick Google search I realized I HAD been to Mars Hill.

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 228

Arizona, NW Beach with cousin, Greece 227

What a strange feeling, to find out I had already been somewhere, after thinking I missed out.

Why to travel with a guidebook, or a guide. I should have goggled it on my phone....

I'll leave you know with the portion of the bible in regard to Paul being at Mar's Hill:

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."

...When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

1 comment:

BethInPortland said...

Yeah, we were pretty disappointed to find out that Mars Hill is town where the teen agers go to smoke and make out. It was littered with cigarette butts and other trash. How sad!

 
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