Nobody likes a cancelled flight.  But as it so happened, a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul on Saturday, March 13 was cancelled due to a storm and fierce winds.  A small group of Orthodox college students and their leaders were shorted a day after having been delayed five hours.  A few phone calls later, the group found themselves in a hotel for the night about a half hour from JFK.  Sunday would bring hope of a successful flight.

Morning came with two taxis to bring the group back to the airport. The group hurried through security, and settled in front of the gate.  The weather was calm, nothing at all like the previous day.  Everyone was anxious to hear the slight crackle of the speakers.  Soon enough, everyone rejoiced when the words "The flight is now boarding" sounded throughout the gate. 

Father Mark Leondis, Alexia Chamberas, Michael Maryon, Greg Coogan, Corey Keggeris, Katrina Roseland, Angelus Kocoshis, Katia Christakis, Mike Stefanatos, Katie Mavrivotis, Nikol Haralampopoulos, Xanthi and Socrates Tsamutalis, Ali Apruzzese, Andrew Jayson, and I settled in our seats for a ten hour flight.  Sarah Ventura flew in from Italy.

Several movies, books, songs, and games later, Real Break Constantinople was standing on Turkish soil.  Ten hours later, they were six hours ahead of New York time.  Most eyes were plagued by red lightning, as it was 5:00 AM when they arrived.  The group only had a few hours of rest before they were to set to work.

The mission was simple.  Graveyard cleaning in the Scouteri region within the holy Metropolis of Chalcedon.  When they arrived at around 9:00 AM, they were met by years of weed overgrowth, waste, broken graves, abandoned bones throughout the grounds. Hoes, shovels, and shears were the available tools.

Shovels attacked dirt.  Shears slashed weeds.  Hoes tilled the earth.  Father Mark went from grave to grave.  Alexia, another trip leader and our resident photographer, weaved in and out with her camera. Some hired hands led by a man named Besat helped the group immensely.  The group worked up quite a sweat when they learned that they would have an audience with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a few hours later.

With a new change of clothes, the group sat in the Throne Room as His All Holiness spent over an hour with them in lively discussion about the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the students.  They sat in reverence of his knowledge and wisdom.  Sleep called to them, but it did little to hinder their undivided attention.  Soon enough, though, the day ended and the group enjoyed a full night's sleep.

The next day brought with it more restoration in the same cemetery.  Everybody pressed on with their tools in hand.  As seconds passed into minutes passed into hours with every dig of the shovel, dignity was restored to each grave.  They began to look the way graves should.  The group's time at Scouteri ended with Father Mark leading a small service in honor of the dead that they helped.  Heads lowered with spirits high, they left the cemetery with a sense of accomplishment.

The following days were spent in more cemetery work and a bit of sight-seeing. The location was drastically smaller than the previous two days, as it was on the side of a church.  The group split into two units with the same tools.  The graves progressed to a state of normalcy much quicker than those of Monday and Tuesday.  The group finished their work and later, were dressed in their "Sunday's best" at the finest fish restaurant on the Bosporus with His All Holiness and the Holy and Great Synod. 

On Friday, the students visited St. Mary of the Mongols, the only remaining church in all of Turkey (pre-fall) that was not converted to a mosque.  The group felt the power of the Byzantine icons that pervaded the space.  Vlacherna was the next stop, and the group arrived in the middle of a service led by Metropolitan Andreas of Crete.  Father Mark decided that they would stay for the entirety of the service which proved to be a great experience.   The group then journeyed to the Baloukli Monastery.  A nun gave a history of the monastery in Greek.

Following her introduction, the group walked into a small courtyard that housed the graves of previous patriarchs.  Marble encasements stood next to each other.  Sun doused them with a brilliant light as a cool breeze blew through the open space.  The graves spanned centuries, and everyone felt the power of them. 

Back at the hotel, the group rested before dinner.  Two minutes away at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Akathist Hymn was in full swing.  The photographer in me was raving about that opportunity, and like my grandfather Costa Hayden, I went and took photographs of the Patriarch and other religious officials.

The final dinner came and went. The group settled in and met with Father Mark and Alexia in the dining area of the hotel.  Words poured out everyone about the shared experience of having spent the week in of the most culturally and historically rich cities in the entire world. 

Everyone shared a high and low point of the trip.  Father Mark finished by asking everyone to close their eyes and raise their hand if they felt they became closer to God.  "That's it.  Right there.  That's my high," said Father Mark.  There was a profound sense of warmth and love as everyone shuffled to bed for the last batch of sleep before the departing flight.

The group left the hotel behind as they ventured to the airport.  The flight lasted ten hours.  The plane touched American soil at around 3:00 PM.  After making it through customs, everyone found themselves in the arms of their loved ones. As for us, we didn't say goodbye to each other outright.  It was more of a "See you later."  Because we knew that we'd see each other again.

Julius Motal is a Sophomore at Adelphi University, studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Japanese. He is the President of Adelphi's radio station as well as the photo editor of the school's newspaper. His grandfather, Costa Hayden, was the photographer for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for nearly 30 years.