Wish You Were Here...
In October 2014 I sat at a meeting for a school trip for a tour for across Greece and apart of Italy. I decided YOLO, paid monthly and slowly got ready for the trip. In the week after Easter of 2016 I started my Journey. The Saturday before I had asked Josh Smith for a couple of spare balls and took my trusty Wiffleball bat I kept at school for the occasional game with students. Our group left Easter Sunday from Charleston to Atlanta slowly onward to Amsterdam and then Athens. When we reached the hotel here is the first Picture I took. You really can’t see it, but there’s a beach in the background. On the right is my view minus the Wiffleball.
On my second day of the trip we set out to the Parthenon but on the way we stopped at the Panathinaikos Stadium. The site of the 1896 Olympics and archery competitions. Needless to say this should be a great site for the 2017 HWL season. Unfortunately the guards disagreed… apparently a game of catch is not allowed.
After we got back onto the bus we set off immediately to the site of the Parthenon. Here the Wiffleball demanded to have its photo taken at the Parthenon. Soon future import HWL decisions should be made here. Somewhere around HWL podcast 100.
I later decided to take a picture with the wiffleball atop the acropolis overlooking Athens. Oh and Go Herd! Which BTW I met some folks from Huntington who saw my shirt at the acropolis museum. It’s a small world after all…
On the third day of the trip we went to Delphi where some of the most famous predictions in Greek history were made. Did you know archaeologists think priestesses giving the predictions got high off natural gas? Here at the temple of Apollo. Here is where the Magic happened.
Since I was here I took the time to if I could make wiffleball predictions here. So I placed the ball upon the podium in front of the temple. Then I managed to put myself in a catatonic state, chanted the HWL anthem, and spun like twenty times. I then had a friend ask the questions after I collapsed. I gave answers in my state until the authorities were forced to revive me.
The following is part of that Q/A session. I also interpreted the predictions.
Will the new tourney format be successful?
-Yes, by the blood of Zeus. – I’m taking this as a yes as long as work is put into it or we sacrifice a god.
Q:What accomplishments would HWL have this season?
A:The Armies of HWL shall be victories across many lands. – So yes possibly at London, Josh led ateam to NC recently and had fun, maybe NWLA given Patrick’s recent decision.
Q: Who will be the 2016 HWL champions?
A: the guys in pastel squatting shirts would be victorious in their fight only to find sorrow in blackness– I’m Taking this as SOMB will win the season overall then lose in the finale. Look to the newcomer in black Smoking Bases to possibly win it all.
Q: Will we get to finally use captain caveman bats in the new tournament format?
A: Check back later – I’m gonna take this as a no.
Some said the heat exhaustion me pretty hard- I say it worked! Time will only tell if these predictions turn out to be true.
Later that day, I was still exhausted from my catatonic state. We went to lunch and I got to enjoy a genuine Gyro. It melted in my mouth. Pork ones were the best, lamb was probably my second favorite.
After visiting Delphi we went to Holy Meteora. This shrine dedicated to St. Stephen at St. Stephens Monastery blessed the wiffleball after I bought a bottle of water and had it blessed. I sprinkled some on the wiffleball to make a holy ball before I took this picture. The ball literally lit up the shrine in the bright light seen. At this time I only had this one ball at the monastery so both the balls I took would soon be holy.
OMG THAT VIEW! Still at St. Stephens on the back side of the monastery on the cliffs edge, somehow I managed to not let the wiffleball fall 2000 feet down. It’s a good thing I sprinkled holy water on it and blessed it prior to taking this picture.
So after an 18-hr boat ride we went to Florence Italy. The walk On top of the Doumo bell tower was a PITA, but I made it to the top with the wiffleball. The Stair case got narrower as I went up. I had to let a group by coming down, then a Japanese group tried to barge past me from behind me. After the first person walked past I managed to get the nickname Godzilla after shouting at some Japanesse folks “Sumisen” –“Excuse me”in Japanese. A friend above the stairs shouted it as he saw the look on their faces. I don’t think they expected the fat American guy to shout a Japanese word at them in Italy. This was my victory pose at the top of the tower.
So late at night after visiting Florence we went to Pisa. Here I felt obliged to have a shot of me holding up the Leaning tower. Instead I chose that the Wiffleball should get the honors. LOL my wiffleball is holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa. I later sat down with friends and had an Italian beer. Not too shabby.
The next day we made it to the Colosseum here I attempt to play the first real game in centuries. Unfortunately I don’t think the guards were going to cooperate. I wanted to see if any of the guys dressed up as gladiators would play, but they wanted like five euros to take a picture. I declined.
But the Joke was on the guards. I play a game of catch anyway inside the Colosseum with a couple of students from Montana. EPIC. By the way I did attempt to take my Wiffleball bat, but it did not make it. L I t got bent up in the suitcase on the way to Europe so somewhere in a European dump there’s a bent yellow bat. Below is a picture of the bat at one of the hotels.
After we left the Colosseum we went shopping. I bought a Ferrari T-shirt at the Ferrari store of Rome and had a prosciutto pizza and a 3-Euro Coke a bit later. Everything was delicious and the T-shir fits despite Smaller European sizing. Also I almost bought a Jesus bobblehead at a tourist trap.I got told if I bought that I would have to ride with the smelly kid from Louisiana (that sort resembled Carl Coffee oddly) on the bus so I picked Julius Caesar instead. He now makes my more important decisions in the classroom. I don’t know why it was such a big deal, people tell me I need Jesus, for some reason.
Later after Lunch that day we went to St. Paul’s Basilica. My camera capture a miracle…
Needless to say I was dumbfounded between what I saw and what was on my phone. I think a message was trying to be sent. Not only is the statue holding a wiffleball bat strangely enough you can see St. Paul’s statue holding a copy of the HWL rule book if you look close enough. Truly a miracle.
Another Miracle is the timing of our visit during the church was and is still celebrating the Holy Year of Mercy at the time of this writing. So when you walk through the doors of the basilica one is bless as the Pope has blessed them for all visitors. At this point I carried both of my wiffleballs in my backpack. So therefore this means I have holy balls! Yeah so… and they got blessed again when we went to St. Peter’s Cathedral. So to make this clear HWL is the only league now with legitimate holy balls.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the pictures of the door I walked through or the wiffleballs being bless because pictures were discouraged. Also I was just in awe of my environment and all the statues and artwork that surrounded me.
Our last day was primarily spent the Vatican I was unable to take a lot of photos. I couldn’t capture the moment where my two Wiffleball I had brought become holy for the second time at St. Peters.Pictures weren’t allowed in many places. So Instead I tried to bribe an official to change the top of the obelisk in St. Peters Square to the following. I may or may not have been successful. But after we left the Vatican we went for Pizza and that concluded our trip. I was sad to leave, but when we got back to the Airport and I had me some Popeye’s and Sweet tea I knew I had returned home.
Below are some pictures of the trip:
