Days 1 & 2: oh Crikey, I’m heading to Thessaloniki! 

Friends,

I arrived at IAH quite early for an 9:00 flight but it was well worth it considering it took a while to get through security. Even though Houston is an huge city I run into a fair few of you out and about and the airport is no exception. I went through the long security process with Shannon Wallace and we had some laughs in the line before going our separate ways: me to Greece, Shannon to a conference out of state. Shannon, her husband Rivers, and her parents in law, will all be ushering for the first time at Palmer at the 11:15 service so be sure to say hello! 

With strict instructions to arrive no later than 6:00pm, our group trickled in and some of are dinner together before heading to our very crowded gate to meet with with whole group. The final iteration of our group consists of:

Bishop Hector Monterroso
Canon Marcea Paul
Rhonda Rogers, St. Francis of Assisi, Prairie View
Mike Stone, St. Thomas the Apostle, Nassau Bay
Suzanne Smith, Grace, Alvin
Agook Kuol, St. Philip the Evangelist, Houston 
Uriel Osnaya-Jimenez, Santa Maria Virgen, Houston 
Alyssa Stebbing, St. Christopher, Austin 
Isaias Ginson, Church Planter, Diocese of Texas
Bradley Dyche, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Stephenville 
Ryan Hawthorne, Palmer, Houston 

After a brief delay, We departed last night around 9:30 and enjoyed a mostly smooth flight, with the exception of some plane shaking turbulence over western half of the Atlantic.

12 hours later and we landed in Istanbul, Türkiye. Needless to say we were all stretching our legs and yearning for a walk and maybe even a short time outside on the terminal terrace but the journey and half layover reflecting in the flight times turned out to be wishful thinking and we boarded our flight to Thessaloniki right away. 

Thankfully the flight from Istanbul to Thessaloniki is 55 minutes start to finish. Somehow in that short amount of time the flight crew not only managed to get us drinks but also a snack consisting of a hoagie, fruit cup, garden salad, and a dessert. And they brought us chocolates as well. A very efficient and pleasant crew. 

Our tour guide and chartered bus met us at the airport and welcomed us to Greece quite warmly. We arrived to our hotel around 10:00pm Greece time, 2:00pm Houston time.

It’s midnight now and I am heading to bed after I send this off. I am looking forward to getting you all pictures of us at sites but I wore something special for my departure flight. Can you spot it? 

Up for day 3: Thessaloniki—Kavala—Philippi

faithfully,
ryan