10-21-2022: Pireaus

Pireaus is a port city within the Athens urban area. It’s where a lot of ferries to the Greek islands come and go and cruise ships dock. Today we walked over to the terminal where we will embark tomorrow to see if it is walkable with our luggage. It’s not, so we’ll taxi over tomorrow. It’s nearly a mile walk and there are too many sidewalks that are not smooth and very uneven so wheeling luggage would be impossible. Good to know.

We first walked through an open air market that was right around the corner from the hotel. Fish was one of the big products being sold.

The port is large with lots of boat traffic, especially ferries.

Near the cruise terminal was a very tiny Eastern Orthodox chapel named Chapel of the Neomartyrs, Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene. These are venerated saints from the 15th century who were canonized in the mid-1900s.

We then went on an Orthodox Church bonanza seeing three marvelous churches that were within a couple of blocks. The first was the Church of Saint Nicholas, a beautiful building with a wonderful blue dome. Inside the walls and ceiling were covered with painted iconography of Orthodox saints. The chandeliers were huge and beautiful.

Next was the Church of St. Spyridon, a saint I’ve never heard of, but I now know he is the patron saint of potters. He became canonized based on him converting someone based on a story using a pot shard to illustrate how one single entity (a piece of pottery) could be composed of three unique entities (fire, water and clay), a metaphor for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. When Spryidon was finished speaking, the shard is said to have miraculously burst into flame, water dripped on the ground, and only dust remained in his hand. Again, the inside of the church was full of hand painted iconography.

We stopped in a cafe and had a sparkling iced tea. It was quite a process to make because the tea was actually made just for the drink, so a bunch of tea leaves and other things went into a pot to quickly boil. Then ice was dumped in and that was furiously stirred. A cup with several types of berries was produced and the tea poured in. Then some sparkling water finished off the drink. Christine’s was a sparkling sunset and mine was a sparkling passion. Both were delicious and really hit the spot.

We then visited our final Orthodox church, Church of the Holy Trinity. It’s the newest of the churches we visited, but we both loved the exterior as it was very different from the other two. Inside, per usual, the walls were covered in painted iconography. The very large dome was the unique thing because it was very large and you could actually see it from anywhere in the church.

In each of the churches, it was clear that many visitors were devout Orthodox Christians as they touched or kissed many of the paintings and icons as they moved around the church. They also lit a lot of candles.

On our way back to the hotel we strolled through another outdoor market. This one was for household goods and garden supplies.

I like these types of open air markets. The shopkeepers are always conversing with each other across the lane and people are much more interactive. I think neighbors see each other and stop and chat with one another. And there are outdoor cafes everywhere where clusters of mostly older men sit and chat.

We stopped in at a shop to get something for lunch. Christine had a nice piece of spanikopita and I had a small pizza. We sat in an open window looking out onto the street and watched the comings and going. It was quite nice. We extended the leftovers into some dinner later in the evening.

So now it’s just pack up in the morning, check out of the hotel, get a cab to the terminal, and embark onto the Azamara Quest at about 2:00 where we’ll be with 630 other lesbians for a fun-filled week cruising the western Mediterranean. Christine is especially looking forward to being on the cruise where she’ll be able to meet up with several other Lifeboat group members that she got close with a year ago when we were on another Olivia trip in Tulum, Mexico. It should be another wonderful Olivia cruise.

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