Third Time in Greece, Still Great

Although my wife and i have been married legally for the past 2 years, it was still important to get married in the eyes of God. So we were married on the 12th of July at an ancient church in Thessaloniki, Greece - Annika's hometown (although she is half greek and half german). The church (which used to be a mosque, and before that a church) is actually now a monistary that dates back to the Roman empire and was actually the place where Paul gave his address to the Thessalonians (as in the chapter "Paul's Letters to the Thessalonians" in the Bible). It really was amazing. The frescos on the wall were barely visible from many places due to the quantity of insence that has been burned there over the past couple thousand years, and most of those frescos were pitted very regularly in the dark ages by the turks in the 13th century when they conquered greece and turned the orthadox churches into mosques. I will have to post images when i return to the states. Definetly a once in a lifetime that i bet very few Americans can say to have done.

My languages have also improved this year, i would say i am conversatinal in german and i can pronounce the greek alphabet (and know about 200 words) - not to mention the already fluent spanish and english. My niece and nephew are here from finland (as well as Annikas german family), where my brother in law lives with his finnish wife, so we are throwing around english, german, greek, finnish and spanish...fun...it really makes me appreciate the basic understanding of sentence structure and the latin\greek vocabulary roots.

I have been having great rides here, as i have the past two times ive visited. I have a 70s era "Hercules" three speed touring bike that was my brother in laws bike. i believe the brand is german. My lowest gear is not enough to climb the big mountains so i have to settle on the foothills, where i have developed a nice collection of villages, beaches, vinyard roads, and low altitude passes in the past two weeks of riding. I am heading off to Halkidiki later this week for some riding in the quinticential greek coastal lands - im sure to enjoy.

I also collected a handmade Bouzouki today - a traditional long necked strung instrument with three double strings. It is a beauty, and i splurged. My mother in law knew an instrument maker who teaches traditional greek instrument making and he gave me a great deal on a very very fine bouzouki that he made about 7 years ago. The Bouzouki plays like a narrow fretboarded guitar, but is voiced differently - DAD rather than EADGBE with the guitar. the tuning is very natural and open and im sure i will make lots of multitracked music with it. I will edit this post with images when i am back in the states on the 28th of this month.