Visiting the site of the 1st Olympic Games

MYKONOS, Greece — While I’m officially on my vacation, we have not touched on issues back home, especially the political ones and thanks to our onboard TV in the Royal Princess we only have BBC, MSNBC and Fox News, which reported that the mainstream media in the United States, CNN or New York Times came up on their survey that 91% of their reports were against US President Donald Trump. I never had any doubt that the US mainstream media was committed to bring down Pres. Trump.

Also noteworthy was the news reports that former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched her book on what happened or why she lost the 2016 elections. If there is anything that Hillary Clinton was very good at it is bad timing. If you ask me, Clinton should have waited until the reports about Hurricane Irma, which devastated the Florida Panhandle (and many of the Caribbean Islands and the Florida Keys) just a few days ago.

The news of Clinton’s book launch was given utmost importance by the US anti-Trump media; it actually diverted attention away from the problems besetting the people of Florida and the other areas that Hurricane Irma destroyed. This is not to mention that Texas is still reeling from Hurricane Harvey, which happened only a few weeks ago. Yes, just like back home in the Philippines, there’s just too much politics by self-serving politicians who cannot move on after her devastating defeat.

Since we left home last September 4, count me lucky that whenever I get to see a newspaper, like in Barcelona, it is in Catalan (that’s the official language in Catalunya) or in Spanish, which we unfortunately cannot read; this was due to the fact that the Philippine education system which taught us Spanish in high school did not teach us conversational Spanish). Then we went to Florence and the newspapers were in Italian and now we are in Greece, where everything is Greek to me!   The only news we get back home is when we have internet connection when the Royal Princess arrives in our destination. If you want to know, they do have internet on board the ship, but it is just too expensive at US$64. That is because they use a satellite for internet when they are at sea. But then we are on vacation, right? So let the world turn around without us.

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Yesterday we arrived in Katakolon, Greece and since their guided tours were quite expensive, we found a cheaper way by once more taking a taxicab, just like what we did in Florence. Katakolon apparently is another Cruise ship port, which brings tourists to the town of Olympia. Yes, it was in the year 776 BC in Olympia 3,000 years ago, before our Lord Jesus Christ was born when they held the first Olympic games.

Olympia is around 40 kilometers from the Port of Katakolon. While they do have narrow roads lined with Olive trees or grape vineyards, there was very little traffic except the tour buses that serviced the cruise ships. When you arrive in Olympia, you will see the ruins of what used to be a thriving community. Legend has it that this was the birthplace of Apollo, one of the gods in Greek mythology.

Olympia was once the sanctuary of Zeus, the Greek gods and by looking at the grounds, you will see that it was a place for sporting activity complete with gymnasiums, bathhouses and hostels. The Greeks fell under the Romans and an imperial edict was made to stop the games and in AD 426 the Romans destroyed Olympia and the destruction completed by an earthquake in the 6th century.

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Before I forget, tomorrow September 16 is the 12th Series Marian Congress at the Summit Circle as announced by Event Coordinator Dr. Josef Rene Bullecer. I would like to believe that this is the final series to prepare the Catholic faithful for the 100th anniversary of the last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal. This Congress will be held from 8:30AM to 5:15 PM and the theme is, “You have been warned!” Registration is at P500 including snacks and buffet lunch. I exhort my faithful readers to join Dr. Bullecer so you can be aware as what is happening in our world today as prophesied by the Blessed Virgin Mary a hundred years ago.

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