No better way to spend Sunday than church-hopping! Visiting our first service at Agios Dimitrios, we entered at around 9:00 am —2 hours into what is usually a 3-hour experience, no intermissions. Despite our inability to understand the hymns, Greek Orthodox churches, in it of themselves, are beautiful sites full of icons and paintings to behold. After enriching ourselves for about half an hour, we headed for the Church of St. Sophia to get more of a feel for this important piece of Greek culture. There were only minor stylistic differences between the two churches considering they were built in the 6th and 7th centuries. Regardless, it was an amazing experience to hear the different voices of this service.
We continued with the church theme by exploring the Museum of Byzantine Culture following our holy adventure. Sadly, the museum was understaffed so we were only able to see half of what we could have viewed. Nonetheless, its contents consisted of what one would find in an early Christian church, more specifically from the Byzantian period. Whether it was the tombs or mosaic depictions, we truly found out today how much architecture and religion go hand in hand!
Though we finished venturing for the day around 12:30 pm, there was no shortage of amazing findings. We shall see what other great experiences Thessaloniki has to offer in the coming days! Can’t wait!
Oles in Greece 2020 