Opa!

Today is now technically our fourth day in Greece but the days tend to blur together. The seven hour time difference (10 from LA) was rough but the pack of 5 hour energy drinks I brought along are helping. We traveled for nearly 20 hours before we reached Thessaloniki, Greece. We were all exhausted, sleep deprived and at one point or another slap happy. Sammy quoted almost the entire Bridesmaids movie before we even boarded the first plane and hasn't stopped since. Thankfully that movie is fricken hilarious. It's been almost a year since we've seen each other and it's been a blast reuniting with my GBF.


Right now we're in Thessaloniki but tomorrow we leave for Mt. Olympus. It's absolutely beautiful here and the temperature ranges from 70 to what feels like roughly 85 degrees. Most of the places we've visited are outside so I've developed a good ole farmers tan bested only by the nice sunglass line I have across my nose.


Filming has gone more or less smoothly. We've dealt with intense time crunches and more often than not we work through lunch but no one has passed out yet so that's good. I love my position as assistant producer. I have the best of both worlds, I get to help film the documentary but I also get to tag along and listen to the tour guide, take what he says about the Apostle Paul and use that info for the interviews. I get to focus a lot on story and I really enjoy that.


It's mind boggling to see all of the places that I learned about for years in numerous world history classes. To walk along the same road that Alexander the Great and his army marched is almost incomprehensible. There is so much history here everywhere you look and the people are literally living on top of it. Much of the modern cities are built on top of the ancient cities so you will be walking along and all of a sudden a giant church will be sticking out of the ground. The city of Thessaloniki is currently building a subway system but its taking a long time because they have to excavate the city as they dig. Its fascinating to say the least.


Greeks are very hospitable and in my experience so far, quite nice. But then again they could be calling me a dumb American while they smile at me and I wouldn't know the difference. The Greek language is beautiful but very hard to learn. It's more character based than letter based so sounding out words is more or less impossible. For me this has been the hardest part of the trip. Most people know at least a couple words of English, but I don't like that I can't communicate in the native language. It constantly reminds me that I am merely a tourist. To give you some idea of how Greek sounds here are a couple of words I write on my hand every morning. Keep in mind these are how the words sound, not how they are spelled.


Ef-har-isto - thank you
Para-ka-lo - your welcome
Ohie - no
Neh - yes
Kalimara - good morning
Kalispara - goodnight
Anthio - goodbye
Nero - water


A few of us have been lucky enough to meet several local students through Sammy's awesome friend Dimis. They all spoke pretty good English and when I asked Dimis how many languages he spoke he replied, "Spanish, Italian, a little bit of German, and I really want to learn French but its hard." Most Greeks (and from what I understand this applies go a lot of Europeans) speak at least three languages. And to think I am proud to be able to merely get by speaking Spanish.


Tomorrow we will be hiking Mt. Olympus and staying in Hotel Aphrodite. The hiking should be fun, especially with camera equipment in tow, but hey, challenge accepted.

There's nothing to post as I sit safe and sound in northern Indiana, but stay tuned for my hilarious and/or insightful musings about my next month in Greece, Rome, Paris and London!