Livin' la Greeka Loca.

And so the journey begins..

Apologies for not getting some updates up sooner but things have been a little crazy the past couple days!

Amy and I met in Chicago on Sunday morning. Amy had flown into Chicago on Saturday night and met up with some friends and the plan was for me to take the train in Sunday morning and meet them for brunch. I decided that this time was as good as any to master the Chicago rail system (and by "good as any " I mean carrying 70 lbs of luggage, in 25 degree weather with no coat). I ended up getting a leeetle lost (which seems to be a recurring theme during this trip in my life) and spent an hour wandering about before finally finding the right line and meeting up with the girls. We had a great night with friends before catching our flight on Monday afternoon.

Our flights were great (I may or may not have clapped and yelled a little when we discovered that Pitch Perfect was our in-flight movie, I also took this as a sign from God that this trip was right where I needed to be.)  We had a seven hour flight from Chicago to Brussels, a short layover, and another 4 hours flight into Athens. We had no problems catching the train outside the airport that was to take us to our hostel, but as the ride went on, the train got pretty packed and Amy had some trouble getting off with all of her luggage. 

and by that I mean credit cards.

Amy was tag teamed by a pair of trendy asian girls wearing hipster glasses. Ironically Amy was apologizing to them for getting into their way as they stole her wallet. (Sorry dad, her good manners got in the way of your advice to not trust anyone.. we will be much more rude from now on).

We made our connecting train and arrived into downtown Athens just as the sun had set and it was dark. Perfect conditions for finding a small hostel in unfamiliar territory where nobody speaks your language and the street names look like this. 

After getting off the train, Amy went to make a very expensive phone call home to cancel her cards, while I went to ask a woman in a jewelry store about directions to our hostel.  She informed me in Greeklish (this is what language I refer to when who speak Greek tell you they know english, when in fact they do not.) that the street our hostel was on was just one street over.

Feeling relieved, we began our trek. Four blocks and several shop owners later, we were entirely lost. Things seemed like they couldn't get any worse.. until they did.

I accidentally deleted the email with the hostel information off my phone. Luckily I had emailed it to Amy earlier just in case something like this happened. Until she let me use her phone to ask someone for directions and I deleted that too. 

If I was at all scared about the situation before (ya know, wandering in the dark with all my possessions on my back, in a foreign place) it was nothing compared to having to tell Amy what I had done with our last hope of finding a place to sleep that night...

As we stood on the corner, desolate and alone, we were approached by several Riot police decked out with cans of tear gas and shields. While one was legitimately trying to help and enlisted several of his Riot police friends to find the hostel, the other told us we had pretty eyes and asked if we were brothers (obviously he was fluent in Greeklish). Although they weren't able to give us any directions, we were able to use their phones to look up the address to the hostel, and began our search again. We headed to a Western Union office that had a very helpful and english speaking Indian man (this was our second time in there that night) but now that we actually had an address he was a bit more helpful, and even called the hostel for us to try and get directions. We headed off in the right direction, but missed a crucial turn and ended up on another street of shops, but one really stood out.

The store was full of games, and not just any games. Nerd games. Like Dungeons and Dragons, medieval reinactment, Adult Pokemon kinda stuff. These kind of people generally know lots of things, so naturally they were our next choice for directions.  As I approached the counter, the man assured me he knew English (heard that before) and proceeded to try and help me decipher the map. As I began to take in my surroundings of trading cards, and action figures, I realized that a group of middle-aged greek men were playing the role-playing board games in the back. At this point, I didn't even care if he gave me directions, my night had been made.

Amy and I began to wander once again. After standing on the same corner for several minutes, staring at a map while Amy told me for the bajillionth time that if I didn't make a decision and find out where were were going soon she was gonna kill me (that girl was fading fast), I decided to head back to the train station and try to get our bearings. 

And then there it was. Right in front of our faces. I don't think I have ever been so relieved!

And wouldn't ya know it, the hostel ended up being not even a block away from the station. Right where the nice lady in the jewelry store told us it would be... about 2 hours earlier.

We checked in to our room, it is super basic, but seemed like heaven at the time! We both went to bed, knowing the next day was going to be just as hectic as we needed to catch a bus that would take us to our ferry, that would take us to the island, and we weren't exactly sure how that was going to work out yet.

We woke up to torrential downpour and high winds, both dreading having to have lug our luggage through the rain. We packed up and planned to leave after checking with the front desk guy at the hostel to double check our plans for the bus. He made some calls for us, and it turned out that the bus and ferry were both cancelled due to the weather, and we would not be able to leave until tomorrow.

We checked back into our room, watched a movie, and then decided to head back out into the streets since the rain had stopped. 

It was a blessing in disguise that our ferry had been cancelled, as we were able to see the city in the light and appreciate it a bit more. It was so much less scary in the daylight, and it was good to have another day to just adjust to the time change, and rest up from all of our traveling. We grabbed a coffee and explored for a couple hours, before sitting and having dinner outside at a small restaurant. I am pretty sure the wait staff thought we were crazy when we asked to sit outside, because everyone here is dressed for winter in large coats, hats, mittens and scarves, when it is a balmy 55 degrees!

We are back at the hostel now, and gearing up for our travels tomorrow. We should be heading to the farm, and not quite sure when we will have access to the internet next so unsure of any future posts at this time..

We've learned a lot these first couple days, mostly that we would never survive the amazing race as a team, but also that God's protection and provisions are constant and never failing. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts!

Now we are going to go watch sisterhood of the traveling pants and get some sleep, but here are some photos from our trip so far!

 That tiny Western Union sign on the bottom left is where our friend works.. saw him again today and waved.. I'm pretty sure he's surprised we are still alive..

Just your friendly neighborhood riot police..

                                                          Comforting sign.. pretty sure we will be avoiding these "zones" from now on..