On St. Paul's third missionary journey, he passed by the Island of Samos in the Aegean Sea. We traveled this morning to Samos and docked in the port town of Vathi. We are staying for three nights at the harbor and are able to look from our hotel across a crescent-shaped bay.
The morning began with a flash of lightning closely followed by a deafening crash of thunder. It is very unusual to have heavy rains this time of year in this region. The rain followed us as we carried our backpacks down the shore to the ferry port and customs offce. We had our passports stamped and climbed aboard the small passenger ferry. While we waited, we watched thousands of passengers disembark from cruise shipes with umbrellas and then board buses for a tour of Ephesus. We were glad we visited the site yesterday, and not today in the mud! The trip from Turkish Kudasi to Greek Samos took about an hour.
We know we're in Greece because we heard church bells tolling at noon instead of the Muslim call to prayer which we've heard a few times a day for the past several weeks. After settling in to our hotel room, we took a walk along the shoreline and then had a lunch of bread, cheese, wine, and chocolate (!) on our balcony. A long afternoon nap helped as neither of us is back to one hundred percent after being ill. We plan to take it easy for the next couple days. Hopefully the weather will dry out more completely and warm up a bit. Either way, we're grateful to be enjoying the beauty of Samos!
The morning began with a flash of lightning closely followed by a deafening crash of thunder. It is very unusual to have heavy rains this time of year in this region. The rain followed us as we carried our backpacks down the shore to the ferry port and customs offce. We had our passports stamped and climbed aboard the small passenger ferry. While we waited, we watched thousands of passengers disembark from cruise shipes with umbrellas and then board buses for a tour of Ephesus. We were glad we visited the site yesterday, and not today in the mud! The trip from Turkish Kudasi to Greek Samos took about an hour.
We know we're in Greece because we heard church bells tolling at noon instead of the Muslim call to prayer which we've heard a few times a day for the past several weeks. After settling in to our hotel room, we took a walk along the shoreline and then had a lunch of bread, cheese, wine, and chocolate (!) on our balcony. A long afternoon nap helped as neither of us is back to one hundred percent after being ill. We plan to take it easy for the next couple days. Hopefully the weather will dry out more completely and warm up a bit. Either way, we're grateful to be enjoying the beauty of Samos!