WHY PHILIPPI? #4 ARRIVING IN KAVALA

We  are actually here at this hotel!! 
The 20 hours in flight weren't horrible at all. 
Poor Dorothea.
Beanie told her every detail about out treasure hunt to Argentina. Dorothea was also friends with Carmine. And she and her then boyfriend, Paul, even met Mario...the treasure we found in Presario, Argentina.(You can find that trip in annieinmemphis.blogspot.com. ) When they met  Mario, he was a sailor stationed in Memphis.  I do admit Beanie is a good talker and she kept us entertained...and then of course we slept some too.
When we landed in Athens to change planes for the short trip to Kavala...we were overwhelmed by its beauty.

We caught a cab from airport to our hotel about nine miles away. Here is the lobby where we signed in and were required to leave passports.

 Much of the hotel is carved of ancient stone on the highest hill in Krinedes, where Alexander the Great rode his horse.

 

If you look on the right, second floor. You will see rooms with balconies. The second balcony from the end is our large room which we will share. We could have gotten separate rooms but wanted to stay close to each other. We have another adjoining room which we will use for our stuff!!

 

We ate dinner in the dining room of the hotel. The view below is magnificent. We plan to eat all our meals here and not waste time looking for restaurants.
Now we are back in our large room. are looking forward to good sleep.  
This is the other room we will use for our stuff!!

So today we arrived, toured the hotel and ate..It is night now.
Going to bed early ...Tomorrow we will tour Philippi. And we are so excited about it!! I doubt that love letter can be found, but...hoping.....!!
As we know more, we'll tell you more.
Love, Beanie, Dorothea and annie
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WHY PHILIPPI? #3 LEAVING MEMPHIS TO BEGIN 20 HR FLIGHT

So Monday has arrived....still in Memphis... A limo will take us to the airport for our first touch of luxury. 


We will leave this afternoon and arrive at our destination in around 20 hours.

The next time I write, we will be in Macedonia, Greece.
As I know more, I will tell you more.
love, annie in memphis
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WHY PHILIPPI? # 2 MAKING PLANS OVER COFFEE

This morning Beanie and Dorothea arrived to make our plans over coffee. Whenever Beanie comes into my kitchen now, she catches her breath a second as she sees Ben's empty chair.
But the three of us girls (we feel like girls) excitedly began making plans.
facsimile of Beanie in yellow blouse and Dorothea in pink.

"Where are your parents from, Dorothea?" She answered they came to the U S from Athens. But they loved America so much they never went back even to visit.

Beanie said, "You know, Annie, Dorothea knows a lot of modern Greek. The pastor at her church taught classes at the church as well as at Memphis State."  

No, I did not know that. But it was wonderful to hear because having one of us speaking the language would help so much. I studied classical Greek in college, but don't know anything now except the alphabet.

I would not have recognized Dorothea. We had not seen each other since our graduation night and senior dance in 1951. She is still pretty and so is Beanie. We enjoyed being together.
I wondered if anybody had a good idea where to stay in Kavala. 

Dorothea said her husband and the other men stayed in a dorm like place, but she has no idea of the address. No matter, we will stay at the very best, most expensive hotel in Kavala.

We found Hotel Philippeio on line; it looked like just the right place.
I slept so many nights on a Greyhound bus on my real trips in the US; but old people do better in luxury. And we can afford it!!

Then Dorothea showed us the card.

She said to look at the thick tall column on the left of the postcard.Now look at the bottom. There is one long stone and a loose stone on the right of it. There is an x (not shown here) on it.  She thinks the love letter is in a plastic sack under the loose stone???

Beanie and I just looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Thirty years? Not likely we thought to ourselves. Still this adventure is so important not only to Dorothea but to Beanie and me too.

Last night I started rereading in Acts about Paul in Philippi...I will forever find the things that happened there exciting...and can hardly wait to be there.

I have already bought the flight tickets and made reservations to leave Monday.(9/23)

We will tell you more as we know more.
love, annie in memphis
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Choir in Kavala

old7lady9blogger80@gmail.com

If only I could hear Ben's sweet voice reading this before I publish it on the blog.

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WHY PHILIPPI? A PRETEND TRIP I NEVER PLANNED ON TAKING

 I just now put down the phone; now I am sitting here quietly for a moment, trying to take in what has happened. Somehow I let myself be talked into another pretend trip. I had spread the word among my friends that I wouldn't be making any more. But I just had a request that touched my heart...and without thinking it through, I said YES!!

You remember my friend Beanie. I did a rescue mission to Alaska to help her. Also, she went with our friend, Carmine, and me to Argentina to look for a lost treasure. (These trips can be found on annieinmemphis.blogspot.com)Now Beanie has been  back in Memphis for a month and is now requesting that we make another trip...to the ancient city of Philippi.

Beanie, Carmine and I were classmates at Humes High School. 
 

Beanie reminded me of another one  of  our friends there, Dorothea Costas, whose parents were from Greece. We  were not such close friends, mostly because she went home for lunch every day.  Their house was right across the street from the school. Don't know why I remember this, but Dorothea means "gift of God," which I always thought was such a neat name,

Well, like Beanie and me, Dorothea  is approaching 80 years old and wants to go to Philippi while her health is still good enough to try it.          
 

Beanie has already told Dorothea that I have unlimited funds which can only be used for travel, (monopoly money) and I will  pay everyone's way. Although all of us are widows, we should be able to do this because we will not tackle a long, arduous trip...but a short one only to Philippi and then home again.

But why this particular Biblical city? Beanie reminded me that Dorothea's husband had died there thirty years ago, when he was on a "Paul's Missionary Journeys" trip with a group of men from their Greek Orthodox Church. He sent Dorothea a post card from ancient Philippi. It said that he had written her a love letter and hidden it for them to retrieve when they could make a trip together there some day. The card arrived after his death from a heart attack. Dorothea thinks she can find the spot from some clues on the card. 


Who knows? But we can try and can at least let Dorothea be in the area her husband loved so much and where he died. 

The nearest airport is Kavala, Makedonia, Greece.

On my earlier trips I put all the flight information on the blog, but it took up too much space. I will simply say our route is Memphis, Atlanta, London, Athens, to Kavala. First Class. 19 hours and 50 minutes.

We will travel light, foregoing luggage for backpacks as I have done on all my pretend trips. (Alaska, Norway, Argentina,Poland and Geneva.)

Tonight we are not feeling so old; we are excited and feeling young to be doing this. I am thinking about Paul and his vision.


                               :

"Come to Macedonia and help us."

Now we are going there to help our friend who was married to another Paul...the love of her life: Paul Avgeris. Whatever the outcome, I think it will bless Dorothea and Beanie and me too!! This is a trip I never expected to make, but I am looking forward to it. Will tell you more as I know more.
Goodnight with love, from annie in memphis


Example of Greek writing from Rosetta Stone.
I am wishing my Ben could read this aloud as he did all the other pretend trips before I published them.... Miss him....
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old7lady9blogger80@gmail.com
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OAK LEAF SONNET by WILLIAM BENJAMIN BREWER (1933-2012)

               

    Clockwise some and counter fall the others;
Oak leaves know in life no joy nor suffered grief,
Nor look back now to those their clinging brothers,
Each of these a stronger clinging leaf.

    These twirlers did not thrive on summer's sun,
Knew not discomfort in a winter's cold;
These did never sense that they were green and young,
Nor looked ahead to ever being old.

    Since the day they were just sprout in spring
They've had no sense of leafy self at all,
And thoughtless each did to his own branch cling.

    Oak leaves feel no joy, no sin since birth,
Have looked not down to where they'll spinning fall,
Nor dreaded lifeless brown upon the earth.

                           
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Thank you to my dear Ben, for leaving us these poems.
love, annie 
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PATIO SONNET by WILLIAM BENJAMIN BREWER

 
                           
       Lying lately under autumn sky
I saw a leaf when it had to die:
Solemn  moment to be witness to,
When thread of life forever parts in two!

       Down it fluttered through its former fellows,
Nudging greens and not yet many yellows.
Thought I, now this is quite an early falling,
Not yet was heard for leaves the final calling.

       Then as unmarked dead fell down to earth,
Quite ignored by brothers hanging on,
I sobered in self-knowledge brought to mind:

        Like leaf were I of tree-engendered birth,
I too, my color soon to be all gone,
Would cut the stem, to coming brown resigned.

Another poem from the loose leaf notebook I found with poems unread until after Ben's death. What a treasure for me and all the loved ones. love, annie in memphis