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IN
AMSTERDAM, we all woke up around
noon. Els made a pot of coffee and we had a relaxing visit as I believed
our plane to Athens was not due to depart until 5 p.m. We ate fried eggs
and bread, then took showers. Cor and Els were planning to give us a
tour of some nearby villages before driving us out to the airport.
As
we were putting on our coats I had an inexplicable urge to check our
tickets, and to my shock I discovered
that the plane was leaving at 2:40, not
five o'clock! It was now 2 o’clock. Luckily they lived close to
Schiphol airport, so we raced over there, checked in hurriedly and were told
to take our bags directly to the gate, where we were the last to board
the plane.
Arriving
in Athens at around 7 p.m., we stood in the taxi line and found a cab to
take us to Corinth for 15,000 drachmas (around $50) for the two-hour
drive. It was dark, so we couldn’t see much except billboards.
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EXCERPT FROM MY
PAST:
I had lived in Greece for two years between 1979
and 1980. I had gone there on a vacation, met a Greek, and
during the course of our tempestuous relationship I flew back and
forth to Los Angeles every time we broke up and got back
together—a costly practice. After our final split, instead of
flying home I decided instead to move in with an English friend,
Pat Poag, who was living in Corinth. During my six months in
Corinth I had three “illegal” jobs—English
teacher, glass washer in a tourist bar, and babysitter of a
two-year-old German/Greek child.
I also met Pat’s other English friends who were living in
Corinth, including Helen Markellos and her Greek husband,
George. They had four children. I introduced Helen and George to
the Urantia Book while I was there and it changed their
lives—especially Helen, who had been feeling trapped and
unhappy. [Click to
read Helen's story here.]
Visiting the Markellos family in
1986: From left, Andy Raevouri, Saskia,
the three Markellos sons and a daughter-in-law, George and Helen,
after
picking olives on their farm in Corinth
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The
taxi driver spoke a little English, and my meager Greek vocabulary began
to come back so we had some communication. He serenaded Joy and told her
he loved her, and kept grabbing our hands to kiss them. He also stopped
along the way to make a phone call, leaving the meter running, and I did
my best to scold him in Greek, which he pretended not to understand.
As
we entered Corinth I recognized nothing of the town I had lived in
almost twenty years earlier, and my attempts to guide the driver to the
Markellos apartment ended in failure. We stopped to ask directions of
the locals, and finally a man on a motorcycle escorted us to Krokida 7.
Modern Corinth
The
Markellos’s daughter Christina (I had first met her as an infant and later
as a young girl) came down to meet us. She was now a beautiful,
well-spoken young woman of twenty. She led us up to the sixth floor in
the same rickety elevator I had ridden in so many times years earlier,
and into the apartment where Helen had been expecting us for hours.
George had already gone to bed, having to get up at sunrise to work on
his farm.
Helen
stood ready with quite a spread of food—meat, spinach pie, potatoes,
bread, feta cheese, and local retsina.
During our initial greeting I noticed that she didn’t look well
and learned that she had lately been suffering from anxiety brought on
by worries over her children and the fact that George’s pension had
not yet come through. We sat up talking and reminiscing until midnight,
and Joy and I vowed to do whatever we could to cheer Helen up.
She
told us over and over that she had read the Urantia Book at least
fifteen times since 1980 and that the information it contained had been a
lifesaver for her. To my surprise, I learned that George had also been reading it and
both of their books were quite worn out!
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CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO CALENDAR
or
read on by clicking on any of the following
links:
1.
From Los Angeles to Amsterdam
2. The Flight to Greece
this
page
3. Ancient
Corinth
4. The
Citadel
5. To Piraeus
6. Hania on
Crete
7. A
Day in Limbo
8. Back
to Athens
9. From
Athens to Cairo
10. Cairo
11. The Pyramids
12. The Bus to Israel
13. Jerusalem
14. Bethany and Bethpage
15. An Old Palestinian Hotel
16. The Drive to Galilee
17. Capernaum and Environs
18. The Ancient Boat and Nazareth
19. The Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon
20. The Eastern Shore and Scythiopolis
21. Mount of the Beatitudes
22. Ptolemais and Caesarea
23. A Day in Piraeus
24. Santorini
25. A Rainy Day
26. An Eventful Day in Athens
27. Return to Amsterdam
28. Going Home
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