Delphi

After travelling by bus for 2 hours on Monday, we stopped at Thermopyle- the battle site of the movie 300 and the real place where the spartans along with few other greeks stopped the huge persian army for a whole 3 days. After seeing the extremely mountainous geography of the area it was really easy to see why the spartans picked this place to meet the persians and why they were able to hold them off.

Another hour and a half later, driving through tiny costal towns on the aegean sea and then eventually up huge mountains with steep curvy roads we reached Delphi. Delphi could quite possibly be the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life. With streets so small we could barely get our tour bus through, and quaint shops and cafes and looking over the mountains down to the water, I was so greatful we took the time to go. Our hotel was beautiful too, and everyroom had a large balcony overlooking the mountains. We set off to go shopping, find some lunch and get to know the town. We had a night time lecture with a great view and then we all went to various cafe's for appetizers and wine.

The first full day in Delphi we started out early in the morning, going to see the ruins of the ancient town. We first went down the mountain, looking at the ancient gymnasium, temple to athena and and sacred natural spring travelers would use for purifying rituals. Then we climbed. and climbed. and climbed some more up the mountain through the path travellers took in arcaic times to get to the oricle at Delphi to have their prophecies told. We saw the athenian treassury where Athenian's placed their offerings to Apollo, also the Omphalos (the belly button, said to be the rock Kronos swallowed instead of swallowing Zeus), the temple of Apollo, then up to the theatre. Then after a ten minute climb we reached the stadium. This stadium used to hold the most famous delphian races, a kind of olympics. Then we headed over to the museum to see the amazing remains archeologists found in the site. Huge columns and statues made of bronze and marble along with smaller offerings and stone reliefs. After the most tiring and interesting day yet, most of the afternoon was reserved for naps and dinner and reading.

This morning (wednesday) our bus driver decided to be an hour late, and that was the start to a frustrating day. After an hour we stopped at a famous monestary dedicated to St. Loukas, which was built on top of the ruins of the Temple to Demeter, after the christians destroyed most pagean buildings in the 4th century AD to make way for christianity. We only spent about 45 minutes there, but I almost got stung by a bee 2 times (they make their own delicious honey at the monestary) and then the bathrooms there were closed and our bus finally started after 45 minutes of trying to get it to turn over. On the up side, the monestary was gorgeous. So after being an hour and a half behind schedule and not having a bathroom break for about 4 hours while sitting in the extremely hot sun and drinking lots of water to not get sun stroke, we finally stopped at a food stand outside of athens to get lunch and take a break. Then when we got to our apartment we found that our shower, which had broke on friday, was not fixed even though someone was supposedly here to fix it on monday. So we do not have a shower either, so we will have to continue walking at least 4 blocks to take a shower at another girls apartment.

But even with the set backs, it was a great trip to Delphi and is a great time here in Athens. Many of the people are helpful if you try and speak greek to them first instead of going right to english, and also if you sit for a long time and talk to them, and ask them questions about whatever they are doing. So far I havent bought anything for myself, just gifts that I see fit people perfectly. There is a sandal maker here that is famous for his greek style sandals and I am heading to his shop after the designated nap period (from 2-5pm) to take a look. Miss you all and call you sometime soon as I realize I havent even called home yet.

I will try and send links for my pictures out asap when I load them on my computer. I will try and label everything so you know what you are looking at.

Talk to you soon!