Getting to Athens

Next year I will be working in Athens, hence why I'm currently learning Greek.

As we're in a recession, I thought I'd check out the cheapest routes to get there. By foot, Google Maps says it will take me just over 14 days to get there, but they seem to imply I'll have to take some lessons from Jesus at for the sea stage of the journey...

Here it is, the cheapest route from Manchester to Athens.

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Happy independence day Greece!

Καλήμερα σας!

I was spending the morning learning Greek, when I realised today is Greece's Independence Day! How exciting!

Independence day celebrates the Greek declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire on March 25th 1821. It signalled the start of their war of independence which they eventually won.

Apparently*, it was then that Ελευθερία ή θάνατος became Greece's motto. It literally means freedom or death, and was their rallying cry as the country rose up to fight against oppression and tyranny. The nine stripes on the modern Greek flag are representative of the nine syllables of the motto.

This is all lot more interesting than the vocab I've been learning this morning. Even thought the sense of satisfaction of completing another list on BYKI is pretty good, when the most exciting word you've learnt is "airport" (το αεροδρόμιο), most other things are way more interesting.

Here is a picture to celebrate:



*from what Wikipedia tells me...

Sweet relief

Today I had a parcel delivered that's about four years late. It should have been delivered to me in Lesotho (I was there during my gap year) but it must have got lost somewhere en route.

Anyway, it contained a pack of fruit pastilles and some postcards from my family when they were on holiday. I strongly advise against eating three year old fruit pastilles and I'm lucky to have any teeth remaining after the first chew.

It's a great little surprise and this little time capsule from the year 2005 reminded me just how much I enjoyed getting parcels out in Lesotho.


This is what I where I was on March 12th 2005. Good times.

There should be some mission week and Relay updates coming sometime early next week, and you never know, I might even get round to putting up some of the posts that I promised months ago...