Wars and earthquakes

Matthew Chapter 24: 6 to 7 "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." Throughout the history of mankind there has been wars, nations rising up against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms. There has been famines and earthquakes. We are reminded of the recent one in Japan. There are wars going on in the middle east. The Parthenon, built in 490 BC has seen its share of wars and earthquakes. It was built to worship the Greek gods, it was a church later, it was a mosque after that. It was partially destroyed by an explosion, it was looted for it stone to be used as construction material, it was looted for its friezes and reliefs and some of it is in the British museum. The Greeks are quite quick to remind the world's visitors that some part of their beloved Parthenon is in the British museum. Just imagine that at one time there was a cross on top of the Parthenon when it was a church and also imagine that there was a minaret on top after that when it was a mosque. I never knew that till I went to the Acropolis museum. It is one of the most amazing places in the world. March is a great time to visit. There were practically no visitors in the Peloponnese and not that many in Athens.
Athens is choked with traffic. it's quite cheap to go by taxi. We used taxis quite a bit. It's easier than trying to navigate the public transportation system. We travel by bus a lot in the Peloponnese. There are gypsies all over Athens and street urchins are everywhere hustling. One does have to be careful. The local Greeks are friendly and helpful.