thessaloniki greece | the rescued home

Big inhale now exhale….we are home. I love home! I am so grateful for our little Rescued Home. After a month of living in Greece we are back home and trying to get over jet lag. I have pretty much been in bed since Thursday! My schedule is all off and I’m not quite sure what to do with my time. It is weird transitioning back into a normal life with routine it kind of feels like I’m standing on the edge of a pool waiting to jump in. Ooo pool….. maybe I will go swimming today??? I think I’m avoiding responsibility!

Greece was definitely life changing. I have never before experienced a culture or people like the Greeks. In our month of living there we saw some beautiful places and made new life long friendships. I will always remember the amazing things I saw God do during our time in Greece. Here are the last few pictures I want to share with you.

The churches were beautiful! A lot of the old churches sit below the current ground level because the city over time has been built on top of existing structures.

This is the ruins of a roman market place where the apostle Paul preached!

This area of the city is called Aristoteles Square. It was my favorite place to hang out.

After weeks in the city we decided we needed to get away for a couple of nights so we headed out on a 3 hour bus ride then a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride to the island of Thassos.

The island was beautiful! The mountains went right down into the sea. This is the view from our patio.

The rock had sparkles in it so the sand sparkled in the sun.

Just because I was in Greece didn’t mean I was free from dumpster diving! Yep that’s right, I found some architectural blue prints next to a dumpster and you better believe I brought those puppies home with me!

Hey have you checked out my blog?

So we had a pretty big game changer around here, before we left for Greece we found out we are going to have our first baby in January! I am so excited and can’t wait for motherhood. I fought morning sickness the whole time we were gone. I think I will one day look back on this time and ask myself, “what was I thinking?” Now we are making decisions that will involve a little one. As soon as we got back we went into our newly remodeled guest room and started coming up with plans to make it a nursery. Oh it is soo much fun! I wrote a post a few months ago about ideas for a nursery you can read that here. I think I will stick with those plans depending if it is a boy or girl. We know we will have to slow down on the pace of our projects which kind of bums me out but I think we are going to try to remodel our bedroom before the baby arrives. I have been poking around online and found a few inspirations for our bedroom.

I saw this picture in a Country Living magazine a few months ago and knew this is what I want my bedroom to look like.

We will rip off all the sheet rock and paint the ship lap underneath a creamy white.

I love the vintage touches in this picture.

I hope you enjoyed keeping up with our little adventure in Greece. I’m looking forward to sharing the next chapter in our lives with all of you.

With love,
Lauren

Greetings from Thessaloniki, Greece!!!! Ahh we have finally settled in enough for me to be able to sit down and write. I’m sitting at a Starbucks that overlooks the Aegean Sea, how blessed the people of Thessaloniki are to have the opportunity to live here. I can’t believe I’m in a city where parts of the original church were birthed. There are land marks where the apostle Paul preached!

We traveled for over 30 hours and have spent the past few days getting adjusted to our new life in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki a city of 1.5 million people, is very different from San Marcos, Texas. The city buzzes 24/7. We woke this morning to the sound of a parade outside of our apartment in downtown Thessaloniki. We are adjusting quickly and learning the city and have already made new friends. I am so excited to see what God has in store for us over the next month.

On the way over we had a 13 hour layover in Zurich, Switzerland where we were able to get out of the airport and explore the city. Zurich was the quietest, most peaceful city I’ve ever been in. It is very orderly and clean. I didn’t see one piece of trash on the ground! The people are reserved and well put together. Here are a few pictures I snapped.

There were cobblestone streets everywhere.

And of course I will always find antique shops no matter where I am in the world!

Greece is very different from Switzerland. It is loud and colorful and messy. It isn’t illegal to double park and there is graffiti art all over the city. It isn’t unusual to see two men standing in the street arguing and throwing their arms in the air. The people in Greece are very fashionable and spend a lot of time in small street side cafes with friends drinking coffee and smoking. They have been so friendly and have welcomed us to their city. I haven’t had my camera with me that much but here are a few pictures.