The Land of Milk and Honey....Kind of

So over Memorial Day weekend we had the great opportunity to go to Israel! It was a last minute trip-we had some friends on the previous Sunday say that they were going, we decided to look into it, by Wednesday we had bought tickets to go, and Friday we were on the boat! We did a 2 day cruise which is only offered 2 times a year with the line we went with. It really was a great chance to jump on, given the time of year and the turbulent political climate in that region of the world. So we left Lemosos at 6pm on Friday evening, destined for the Holy land.

The following morning we arrived in Haifa, the major port city of Israel. At 730 am we got on a bus to journey to Jerusalem, the capital city and a major Holy site for the country. The ride took about 2 hours, which was not very fun and pretty smelly given the different ethnic groups represented on our English speak bus. We first got to stop at an overlook of the city (right next to the Mount of Olives) to take pics like this one.....


Next we got off the bus to walk into the city for about 2 hours. Our first stop was the most Holy of sites, the Wailing Wall. This is the only pic I really have of it since you're not supposed to take pictures of the wall itself and I felt that it would have been disrespectful to take one. So here is where we entered....


Had I taken a picture, it probably would've been along these lines....

It was a great experience to be there. We were there on Saturday, or Shabbat in Hebrew, which is the day of rest for Jews. There were lots of people around, praying and chanting at the wall, which made the experience more vivid I think. I really enjoyed just standing by the wall, listening to people pour their hearts out to God, and just seeing the faith and devotion so many had. Many people go up and touch the wall while praying, either with their hands or foreheads, but I didn't feel the need to touch it. Just standing in it's shadow, knowing that this was a most Holy place and that Jesus would return to this spot, was enough for me.

We continued through the city, walking by the markets and stalls with tons of people and smells surrounding us. Our guide didn't let us shop at all in the bazaar which was a big let down-usually you can get the best deals there. But hey, we have to help her get her kick back at the shops right?

The way she prefaced the trip through the city is that we would be walking where Jesus had when he lived, really following is path to the crucifixion spot. So we winded through the streets, stopping at various points where, according to legend, he had stumbled, fallen, taken water, etc. All these accounts are in the Bible, so the exact locations are left to legend more than anything else.

We stopped at the crucifixion site; where there used to be just a dirt hill, now there are building and churches built over top to mark the spot. It didn't even seem like we were really climbing at all when we arrived here.


This is the garden where He prayed....


Inside it was crazy packed! It was so difficult to see things with so many people around. First we went up stairs to where, according to legend again, the cross was actually put into the ground. THE spot. There was an altar over top the mound marking THE spot. There was also a line about an hour long to just kneel so see it more clearly. Again, no time to spot and linger. We headed down stairs where there was a beautiful mosaic (see Cyprus Life for all the pics!) and this stone slab, which is believed to be the stone that was placed in front of His tomb, which was just around the corner. People were touching, kissing, pouring olive oil, wine, and other offerings onto this slab. Again I am amazed at what people will do to artifacts, however Holy they are, thinking that it will change them in some way. For some people it seemed a genuine reflection of their faith, for others it seemed like a ritual that they had to perform to be blessed.


So here it is....the tomb. The empty (well at least of Jesus) tomb. It's hard to imagine what it really was like in His time, with all the glittering and gold and extras that have now been placed around these sites. I would have much rather seen a mound of dirt and a cavernous hole than this-I think it would've been more real for me, and probably Matt as well. It's difficult to focus on the reality of where you are when it's been over shadowed by all the extra stuff. Again, the line to get into the tomb was over an hour so we didn't go in. But in some respects why would you want to see an empty space-if He were still there that would be something else entirely, but then again if He were there than our faith would be nonexistent.


After finishing up in that church we headed back into the city, finished walking through the markets and got back on the bus, heading off to Bethlehem. Now, as most geologically minded people know, Bethlehem is on the West Bank, in control of the Palestinians. So to get there you must go through a buffer wall. No armored men came on to the bus to let us onto this side, but they definitely did to get back into Israel. Crazy stuff my friends. Here is the wall....


Anyhew, before we say the spot of Jesus' birth, we got to shop a little. It really wasn't all that grand, much rather shop in the bazaar but oh well. All I can think when I see this pic is "look at all that wood (that's what she said) "


Once again, there was a huge (or rather 3) church covering what once was a stable. Now it is grandiose and packed to get into and you have to be very very quiet and you will probably get yelled at anyway. There were guys strolling around this building with guns-made me a little nervous. I'm not a big fan of guns. So once we crawled through the holes, I mean doors, and waited and waited and waited we finally descended a few steps to see this......

After seeing where Jesus was born, we hopped back on the bus for 2 hrs back to the boat and good nights sleep.

The next morning we got up, got back on the bus at 730 and headed north this time to the Sea of Galilee and Narareth (or Nazarene for us English people). This is the area where Jesus grew up and started His ministry. First stop, where Mary received the annunciation from Gabriel that she was to have Jesus. It was a lovely church (again it was actually more than one) and there was a mass going on while we were there so we couldn't go down to the altar area.


The big thing that parts of Israel boasts about is that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all live together harmoniously despite the differences in their religions. So all over the place you see mosques, churches, cathedrals, and signage in different languages proclaiming the "truth." I think this was my favorite sign that we saw......


Yea that definitely is a very loving and peaceful religion. I'm proud to be a loser by the Quran's standard.

Next stop was the Church of Beatitudes where Jesus gave His sermon on the mount, right on the sea of Galilee. This was our favorite spot of the trip. It was very calming and beautiful. Jesus did pick a good spot to start his ministry.


Isn't it a great church? And it was so simple inside.


After visiting the church we had a fish lunch, the same that Jesus did the miracle of multiplying fish and bread. It was rather tasty. Even Matt seemed to enjoy his fish.

Then we went to Capagog, and crashed at Peter's mom's house, which also has a church over the site. It was very peaceful and lovely. Again, Jesus knew how to pick some good spots ;)


Our final stop was the Jordan river. If you wanted to, you could be baptized in the river. We opted out of that but we did stick our feet in. Sadly at that point our camera battery died so we don't have a picture on our camera of us in the river. Our friends who we went with do so I need to get the copy. Again this site was tremendously touristy but it was handled better than some of the other sites.


All in all it was a great experience and I would LOVE to go back and really spend some more time in each area that we visited. This trip was a good warm up for going back so we don't get super duper lost ;) I would say that it is worth a trip there if you are able to go-it is quite an amazing thing to see these places that you (or at least we have) read about in the Bible and to see places that changed man kind forever. Now when we read about Jesus' life it will be with a new perspective and understanding which was the whole point really.

3 Years Down...How Many More to Go???

So today is our wedding anniversary. Crazy I know. Marrying Matt was one of the happiest days of my life, the happiest being the day we moved to Cyprus (ok ok, you know I kid!) In all seriousness (or as serious as I can be really), I thought it would be fun to take a look back on the last 3 years, more really this day in the last 3 years. If you really look back on our life since we got married, you just have to go "whew! will they ever stop??" Here's a fast recap of that's happened since May 16, 2008:
Got married. Honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominica Republic.
I (Lynsey) moved from Colorado to Tucson where Matt was stationed at the time.
April 2009, move to Beale AFB in Yuba, California.
May 2009, buy a house. Also 1 year anniversary (spent in Yuba)
January-March 2010, Matt on TDY.
May 2010, 2 year anniversary (went to Redwoods for weekend).
June-July 2010, Matt on TDY again.
September 2010, move to Cyprus.
May 2011, 3 year anniversary (spent in Cyprus with amazing trip planned for June/July).
So those are the bullet points of our last 3 years. In some respects it doesn't look that crazy-but having lived it-it is!!! I am so thankful for all that has happened to us, even though at times it has been tremendously difficult. Always being away from family is never easy but it has made our relationship that much stronger and we know that these experiences are wonderful treasures we will be able to share with our children one day. I feel like this list is a perfect visual to compliment the title of the blog-"Blessed Be:" because that is completely what we are! So the photos are what has happened in visual form (for the most part)....

May 16, 2008-wedding day! So young. So carefree-if only then we knew what laid ahead...

Honeymoon-can you tell???

Year 1-we bought this, instead of going here.....

Hawaii folks. We had originally intended on doing a funtastic trip here for our one year....

Year 2. Redwood National Forrest-it was a great weekend getaway to celebrate.

We did celebrate a little when I went to Puerto Rico to see Matt on his TDY.

Here is where we live now-Cyprus. So clear and blue. And beautiful!

Year 3. Anniversary dinner at Columbia Resort in Pissouri Bay. Oh so tasty. And lovely.

We will forever be skipping off into the unknown, together, holding hands. As long as we're together we can tackle our crazy life just fine, wherever it may take us!

It's Been a While....

So it's been a little while since I've posted-sorry about that. I was out of the country for a few weeks so I didn't get to post at all cause I was busy having fun in the states! It was a wild, fast, and crazy trip but oober fun and it was great to see so many people! Mom also came back with me to help me deal with the stress of bringing Joey home with me but also just for a fun visit! It was great to have her and I CAN NOT WAIT for our trip in June/July with mom and dad-it's going to be epic!!
The pictures are a little out of order, oops. The ending of the trip is on top and the beginning is on bottom-deal with it. Just kidding. The pictures will better show the fun and adventures I had in the states and what we did with mom here.
I'm in the process of finding a horse to loan or own (for free preferably but spending just a little $$ wouldn't be the end of the world.). It certainly is a process. Once I find one/make a decision there will be tons of posts on it and all the fun riding I will be doing with it! Also, I will be doing some info updates on the BIG TRIP!! Next month (is it already here?? I have been waiting FOREVER for June to get here!!) we are going to Paris for a week since dad has to go for the big airshow (Matt is going for a day or 2 since he's a geek like that) and then off to Belgium and the Netherlands. None of us have been up that way so it's a new experience and adventure for all of us-so excited!! I'll try not to rub it in your faces too badly ;)

Here mom is exploring some tombs-crawling around is always great fun!

Here I've picked out my future burial spot-my tomb. Lovely isn't it?!

Mom's posing with Aphrodite's Rock-she really doesn't need to be there-she's already youthful enough ;)

Mom is a bad influence; she said "Hey why don't you guys climb on the pillars and I'll take a pic!" Shame on her.....

A little windswept never hurt anyone.

Joey smooches....always nice

She had a great time watching me teach-looks like it's going to rain!!

Joey getting used to the new car-he doesn't like being in the boot!

Picturesque on a Venetian bridge....

We went to say hey to the queen at Windsor castle-and to give her some wedding advice ;)

Business class baby! That's the life of luxury there.

Caution-Joey is a live animal in that kennel! So happy in there huh?

Took some riding lessons while at home-I actually look like a proper rider there!

No trip home is complete without a trail ride with mom on our old fogies!

I got to go some good friend's wedding-it was so awesome to be part of it! I even got a dance with the groom ;)

Hopefully this random assortment of pictures help you to see my fun time at home!! It was good to be there for a visit but I was so happy to be back on this side of the world-where I belong!

Epidavrous-Still Boggling the Minds of Smart People

So the last official, site seeing stop we went to was Epidavrous because word was that it had an AMAZING amphitheater. Well, it's true! We left Idra in the morning, got into our rental, and headed out. We had decided we wanted to see this site from the beginning because we had read it was awesome so we punched it into the GPS and off we went. We were once again driving through the hillsides, admiring the small villages and beautiful sea when it showed itself.
Now to get to the amphitheater you have to go away from the town of Epidavrous which can be confusing, especially since for the town they have a sign that says " theater" which is NOT what we wanted. As we were driving looking for this thing we kept saying we'll see it before we get there right? If it's as large and as impressive as they say we'll see it right? Nope. It's tucked away in the trees so you don't see it at all until you walk up to it, after you park in a dirt lot and walk in for a while. But it's pretty awesome once you see it-how would you like to watch an ancient play while sitting here....

Yea! I know! They still do theater productions in the summertime which I think is pretty awesome! Look at that view! And seriously, you can't see the thing from the road or until you get up to it!

So that is me in the red in the center there! Earlier, there was guy standing in the dead center and he was dropping a pin, yes I said a pin, and you could hear it perfectly up top! No joke. Apparently the acoustics in this thing are so near to perfection that it's still baffling the experts today on how it was accomplished. You could literally stand in the middle and speak at a normal level and the people up top could hear everything just fine. It was quite amusing.


There were some Spanish folks about while we were there and they hogged the center for a while so when we finally got a shot we played around some-

Obviously we would be PERFECT to sing some opera-don't you think so??

After having our fun we went to see the rest of the ruins. Like most ancient sites, this one was very extensive and had more to it that we originally thought. This place was a huge ceremonial epicenter that included healing waters (from wells) and competition fields for games. So we decided to check them out, but on the way we met this little guy.

There were stray dogs all over the place in Greece but not all were as cute as that puppy. I gave him some scratches, big mistake! He followed us for a while until someone else gave him love than he left us. I wanted to steal him home.

Some little flowers were coming into bloom so we took some pics of them in contrast to the gray granite and marble of the ruins-very artistic if you ask me ;)


And Matt had to show off his manliness amidst the ruins. It was a somewhat dreary day but we had a great time.


After we finished here we decided to head back toward Athina. Matt really wanted to go into Corinth and eat dinner there but we didn't stay-it was SO SKETCHY!! Now we totally understand why Paul felt the need to write them 2 letters rebuking them-and apparently they didn't get the picture either. Remember how I said there was tons of graffiti in Athina, well quadruple that for Corinth. It was not welcoming at all really. And the guide book said "although it is rich in history Corinth does not have much to offer"-they only listed 3 restaurants that would've been nice for summertime but not dreary February. So we high-tailed it out of there. We called a head to book a family run hotel that had a view of the Akropolis, bonus! My next and final post will be of the hotels we stayed in. We took pictures of them all-you'll see what kind of places you can stay on a moderate budget.

Hydra-Not as Interesting in the Winter Time

So the third stop on our trip was Hydra, or Idra in Greek. This place is famous for not having motorized vehicles on the island and for everything being transported by donkeys. It is apparently a very popular spot in the summer time, an island hit on a quick 3 island tour that is popular and ports from Athina, and is SO DEAD in the off season!! We were the only ones in our hotel, which was fine I suppose, but we didn't really have much to do. It was a good place to stop; not sure if we will again even though the word is it's way nicer in late spring and early summer. Our venture to Idra started by getting on a ferry.....


Now it's no secret that I get MASSIVELY motion sick. I won't even go into detail about what I like to call "Maui Puke Fest 2010"-it was bad to say the least. Thankfully this is a quick 30 min ride and the boat was really like an airplane on the inside-cushy chairs that recline and barf baggies in the seat pocket-always handy for me!

Upon arrival, this is what we saw.....

I want to title this piece "Deserted Idra" because the town felt like an old west town-nobody around. There were the donkey men waiting to take the few tourists to hotels or to carry the townspeople items home for them but not many of us staying the night.

We decided to go check into the hotel and then walk around the town some. Now, this town was a typical island town, everything goes up the side of the hill. Thankfully our hotel was about 500 feet from port so not a long walk. But we did see a church all the way up at the top and said hey, let's go up there. So we took a little stroll through the bottom of town first before we headed up. First thing we see (again) are donkeys. Now I LOVE donkeys. Sure they're stubborn and noisy and make a mess, but if you think about it, so am I. Maybe that's why I love them ;) Here is a shot of a happy little guy who I thought was just too cute!


We then walked around the port some and took some "artsy" photos-I call this one "Man Amongst Cannons"


This is the other side of the port-we didn't explore that area at all. We did think it was odd that there was a wall just randomly situated in the middle of the houses. We figured it was a boundary of some sort.

So we started to climb up and up and up to the top of the village to find that church and just to wander around. It was one heck of a climb! Think of all the movies where people are ambling around a small little town with tiny streets and lots of stairs-that's what we were doing. And on top of that people were riding down the streets on donkeys and mules-one man was riding a small horse and her baby was following. Now these are cobblestone streets people-not the best footing for a hoof-this mare obviously had walked them all her life because she didn't slip or anything going around the sharp corners with a man (who was too large for her really) on top. He went by so fast I couldn't take a picture. This shot was taken about half way up our walk; I call it "Peek Between Houses to the Sea View"


We finally made it to the top!! Whew! We kept joking (the whole trip really) that we both need to start exercising more and get into shape!! Never mind that I teach horseback riding about 3 hours everyday, which entails be walking constantly for about 5 hours! Walking up and around these hills did me in!! And poor Matt-no contest there ;) The view was nice; Matt needed a break so he stood looking over the view, contemplative, and I was sneaky and got some shots while he wasn't looking or at least was pretending not to notice...


The BIGGEST surprise on this little island was THIS bad boy.....

One of the things that this little island brags about is that there are NO motorized vehicles. NONE! NADA! OXI (that's Greek for NO!) And yet, while we were on our walkabout-BAM! There is this blue truck just hanging out on the side of the road. Matt said he wasn't surprised at all because there HAD to be a way to get all the construction bits up the hillside without using donkeys but I said no-they only use donkeys and mules. Man was I wrong, once again. And to make matters worse, we saw ANOTHER one being driven when we left the following day. Bummer. At least we did see mules and donkeys being used and hear a bunch of roosters crowing (which was also promised).

As we ventured down back to town for dinner we passed by this home.

Nothing says welcome like a welcome mat all the way at the end of the walk way!! It was somewhat dirty and muddy along the path so I guess if you want to stay extra clean, have your welcome mat and the end of your path. It just made me laugh so I thought a picture was necessary.

There were so many nice views on the way down from our walk that we did stop and take a few pictures. Matt didn't want me to take one of him (party pooper) and yet he insisted that I pose for some. The people were home in the house to my left and we could hear them making noise-it was kinda funny. I wouldn't mind living in home that had a beautiful view like this-how about you??

We ate dinner, had a very tasty crepe, then went to bed. The next morning we woke up and stopped at a bakery in Idra to get some of the most tasty cookies!! YUM YUM!!! We ate them later, not for breakfast in case you were wondering! We had thought since it was Sunday morning that the shops would not be open-WRONG! Those shutters that were closed earlier were now open with people wanting to sell the tourists their goodies! We did buy a couple prints for our art collection-rather lovely ones I think! We saw one of those boats with hoards of tourists pull up, unload all their Americans (there were quite a few, we are easy to spot!) and then our ferry came. We loaded up and headed back to Ermioni to get the car and start off to our next spot, Epidavrous.

Next time I'll tell you all about the great amphitheater of Epidavrous!!