Panagia Acheiropoietos

The Church of Panagia Acheiropoietos is also located in Thessoloniki. This is dated to 450-470 making it one of the earliest churches in the city. Unfortunately, this one did not have a crypt.

Most of the people staying at the school here flew back home yesterday or today. There are a handful of us left and tonight some of them made fried little fishes similar to sardines, but I don't remember the name. They peer pressured me into eating one. It still had eye balls. I finally did, but I did not enjoy it. We are leaving on Monday morning. I will then be taking a blog break while back in the states for the holidays.

Saint Demetrius

I don't remember any historical details about this church, so I'm going to take those from Wikipedia and hope for the best. What I do remember about this church is it had a crazy cool crypt below it.
The Church of Saint Demetrius is the main sanctuary dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki(where it is located). The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD.
The crypt underneath is the place where St. Demetrios was martyred. Supposedly it was an old bath house in which Demetrios was imprisoned.

The church was so tall I couldn't get it in one camera shot, so this is the top.

Here is the bottom.

inside

down in the crypt

The crypt had many rooms and passages, and there were relics on display.

There was a fountain in the middle of it.

Which appears to now be a sort of a wishing well since this is what I found in the bottom of it.

Today in Athens:
Bob was on a day trip, and I needed to get gift bags and tissue paper for staff Christmas gifts. As I was walking home, I stumbled upon these little fellows.

Bob brought me this bad boy back from his adventures.

Roman Agora in Thessaloniki

The Roman Agora (2nd-3rd century AD) in Thessaloniki has two stoas, two baths, and a small theater that was used for gladiatorial games. What I found to be neat about this site was that it had been constructed on two levels, there was an upper and a lower connected by a stone staircase.

a view from above

another view from above

I think this was the Roman bath

mosaic floor

mosaic floor

theater

tunnel to theater

theater

lower level

field of the Agora

Syntagma Square Christmas Lights

On Friday, Athens celebrated the turning on of the city lights. Tonight I talked Bob into walking to the square to see them. I walked down during the day to get a shot of what the place looks like in the light, so you can compare it with the night shots.

day

night - notice the boat in the center

day 2

night 2

day 3

night 3

I also saw some ducks while I was down there during the day.

a zoom in on the boat

You'll notice the colors of blue and white, which are the colors of the Greek flag. Greek tradition has one decorate a boat with lights instead of a tree. I found two possible reasons for this online.
1) Greece is/was a nation of sailors, where men folk are often away from hearth and home, for long stretches at a time. On spotting the ships returning to harbour, the women would joyfully rush home to celebrate, by decorating small wooden boats, as a welcome to the weary seafarers.
2) Saint Nicholas is Patron Saint of Sailors. Boats are decorated, in Saint Nicholas’s honor, as a sort of insurance for bringing the sailors into port safely.




I also took a few pictures of other decorations on our walk. There aren't really homes to decorate here, but the public areas and stores decorate.

 

This isn't specifically Christmas but it's a red little train that transports people.

While we were walking around the lights, Bob wanted food, so we broke down and finally went to the Greek McDonald's. It is right next to the square and always packed. Bob said it felt like we were in the US again.

Sorry these pictures are blurry, but this area is very crowded, and I felt like a creeper taking a picture.

Bob wants to go back for a McFlurry sometime. Their flavors were Oreo, Twix, KitKat, and Bounty(neither of us knew what this was). Those first three are some of Bob's favorites.