A Greek Odyssey

A Greek Odyssey
I would like to share a recent trip my wife Jo and I went on to Greece. We spent 6 days with Ioannis who runs the Athens centre and some of the students as well as our friend Igor who has moved from Slovakia to Athens to join the centre there to learn to become a teacher.
We went to see some interesting places, like the ruins of temples, we went to an Island and hiking in the mountains, Ioannis even took us to a cave!

It was great to be able to go to all of these different places with people who are interested in the same things and so we were inspired in a similar way and so we talked about spiritual things about the history, mythology, etc. It's not hard in Greece as it seems everywhere we went there was some relationship to the Gods, heroes and great historical moment.

Below I have included some photos of our trip, of the people and places.

Jo, Ioannis and me at the Acropolis

The Parthenon

Temple of Olympian Zeus

A view of the Acropolis from the ruins of an ancient concert hall called the Odeon of Agrippa

Igor standing in front of the Temple of Hephaistos in the Agora area of Athens

Ioannis and Jo approaching the Temple of Poseidon

Sunset
Sunset at the Temple of Poseidon

Getting wet at Delphi- Me, Ioannis, Igor, Yorgos, Ioanna

The temple of Apollo at Delphi

The Ampitheartre above the temple of Apollo

A fragment of the Tholos at the Sanctuary of Athena Prosais
at Delphi with Mount Parnassus in the background

Jo at the site where it is said Hercules Ascended to heaven

Here we are at the beautiful Island of Hydra
from left to right, Jo, Igor, Ioannis, Stathi, Yorgos and Me

Igor becoming stone in a cave by the sea

Smile for the Camera:-)

The beach we visited on Hydra

Camping at Giona mountain with Igor, Yorgos, Eddie, Stathis, Venia, Jo and Me
It was cold and wet but the fire kept us warm.

Viewing the mountain before our climb which was over 1200meters above sea level

Having a breather after some steep climbing

A view of the Summit - Still a lot more climbing to go!

Nearly there Ioannis you can make it!

Yeah at the summit and it is cold!

A view of Mount Giona on our way back to the camp

The brave mountain climbers. Climbing the mountain was a really good way to see egos especially when it became physically difficult. It was also excellent for using concentration since there was a lot of walking and not to mention exercising the awareness. We drank water from the mountain streams and breathed the fresh air, The silence up there was almost overwhelming and was a good help in finding that silence within. It was said the gods had the mountains as thrones in Greece and I really got a sense of that, there is a power you can feel and is so inspiring.

Entering the cave where a bubbling stream was entering, what mysteries await us.....

Here we are in the cave, we did a mantra in the cave which sounded amazing and when the torches were out it was complete darkness. Having your eyes closed was the same as being open.

We made it out of the cave alive, pheew.

Dinner with the Greeks, fantastic!

So there it is our little trip, I really want to thank Ioannis for having us and taking us to so many nice places and to everyone we spent time with and got to know a bit more. It was a trip I won't forget and hopefully it will be the first of many more.

Jason