Eleventh entry. Traveling through Greece 1978

June 29, 1978 Greece (Grekland)

My brothers and I, we went to collect stones by the sea. We found many nice stones. I found a white one I put in my pocket to keep forever.

July 1, 1978

We went to a Greek theater. It was called Philiperna (The Philippians). I saw a snake skin. And we saw some ruins that were left over from the palace and the city.

July 4, 1978

Little brother had lost his shoes so we bought some plastic shoes. Then we went to the ruins from the Greek times. When they had the Olympic games. A long time ago in Greece.

July 5, 1978

We camped at a little place. And we went and ate at a restaurant. We saw a little kitten there. We called her White Nose (Vit nos). I asked the waiter how to say "thank you very much" in Greek. He taught it to me. I practiced and practiced and practiced. I finally learned it. Ephkaristoparapoli. Long word.

(Note from the present: I remember that word to this day. Remember I am writing as an eleven year old. The sentences are brief, to the point and short. The place we visited with the ruins were in Olympia, and you could see where ancient Olympic games had been held once a long time ago. As a young girl I loved to run really fast. So did my three brothers. So we all raced each other on the old ruins, and it was quite an experience. Now back to my journal).

July 6, 1978

We left Trippoli, but when we were in the Greek mountains and driving, the car stopped all of a sudden. There wasn't any gasoline left. (bensine) So Mammi and I had to walk to go get gas. But we got very thirsty and tired. A big truck stopped and gave us a ride to the gas station. Then we went with someone else back with our gas tank. Then on our way back, we saw our car drive by, so we turned around. They had gotten gas from a German.

(Thought from the present: Now why would a young girl of eleven and an attractive woman in her thirties go get gas by themselves in the Greek mountains? My mother has always been very attractive, and it seems odd that we were sent. Thankfully we were all alright hitch hiking and all).

7 July, 1978

We went to the Epodarus theater and saw a Greek play. That happened the night of July 8th at 9 P.M. The theatre has been there 2000 years before Jesus Christ. The people in the play did not have microphones. You could still hear them really well, just like an ear, since the theatre was formed like an ear shape. They danced really nice. We sat at the very top.

(Thought from the present: My father had had too much wine that day/night, and I remember us going to the play, but being very worried about my father. I don't think we really knew where he was. I loved my father dearly, but he sometimes had a drinking problem).

9 July, 1978

We camped at Camping Becas. That was the night Baba had too much to drink. He started swimming out to a far away island from the camping place. He said he could reach the island. We had to get help, so he would not drown. I prayed a lot for Baba that night, and was very worried.

10 July, 1978 Athens

We went to another place. To camping New Europian.

11 July, 1978

We drove to Kapsunion. There is a famous temple there. The temple was built for the Greek sea god. So a lot of people can come to the temple and worship him. The sea is called Sunion.

13 July, 1978

We went to Tamarinda! (Thoughts from present: Tamarinda is the Indonesian word for amusement park. I did not know any other word for it. The reason I called it Tamarinda, was because we used to live in Indonesia when I was six and seven. The reason I also call my father Baba, is because when my brother was born in Algeria, all little kids called their dads Baba, so he did as well. All of us siblings called him Baba because of that).

In Tamarinda we went to a ghost house, motor cars, rubber cars, airplanes and rollercauster. On 14 July we came to Camping Hellas. We swam and had fun. Then we ate dinner. It was pigs meat. Middle brother found a British Airways thing. He has it for his Snoopy dog. During the day at exactly 3 P.M. I do the Snoopy show in the car, in the back seat. It is my daily show. I use my brother's Snoopy dog and there is a theme song and everything.

(Thoughts from the present: We spent a month in Greece. My parents liked for us to see a lot of historical areas, many of which are mentioned in the book of Acts in the Bible. We were of course on our way back to Sweden, after getting out of war torn Afghanistan. I recently spoke to "Little brother" who now is 36, and he encouraged me to put some photos of Afghanistan on the blog. So, I will do that for my next entry. So coming up is my trip through Yugoslavia, and photos of me as a ten year old and photos of Afghanistan in 1978. I'm enjoying traveling with you back in time, through my journals. I'm still in journal number one. I currently have over 70 journals. We'll see how long I keep this up...maybe no one is really even reading. Are you? Happy reading and happy travels).