4/3/11, 9:55 am, Temple of Apollo, Delphi, Greece

The Sacred Way: the path to the
Temple of Apollo

 Last night I had a good dinner of fried cheese, zucchini blossom fritters, local wild boar cooked in wine, 1/2 liter of the local rose and yoghurt and honey for dessert. Too much food. The view from the balcony of the restaurant was wonderful! the breakfast at the hotel was OK. The usual tourist breakfast but I preferred the feta and olives I had in Athens.

  I'm writing this sitting on a ledge over looking the theatre at the Delphic ruins. It is amazing. It's easy to see how they believed that the gods were here. It's a place hung on the side of a mountain, towering crags overhead the the temple, theatre and stadium climbing up the mountain.

  The site has such a sense of place. It's as if the temple belongs here, that it could not exist in any other place. I arrived when the site opened at 8:30 am so I could walk without other tourists bothering me. There were maybe 10 people wandering around. The theatre did not impress me. I found out in my readings that it was built for music and oratory contests, not tragedies.

  Climbing all the way up to the stadium is a trek! Getting here, traveling from Athens, for ancient pilgrims was a major undertaking considering the roads at that time. I guess climbing the hill to the stadium is minor by comparison. 

  Of course the major draw at Delphi was the Temple of Apollo where the Oracle or Sybil sat and gave out prophecies. Not much is left now due to earthquakes. The theatre and stadium were built into the ground so more of them have survived. 

The Stadium

The Omphalos, the navel of the world.

What's left of the Temple of Apollo:
the home of the Delphic Oracle.

The Treasury of Athens, where tribute money and
armour was held for the Temple of Apollo

Delphi, Greece

4/2/11, 5:01 pm
I've hiked up a large hill above Delphi and took some pictures. One of the amazing things was the bees. It's Spring and all the flowers on the mountain are in bloom so, of course, the bees are out. I didn't see very many bees but I could constantly hear the buzzing as they gathered nectar. It was similar to Kentucky when the cicadas are out but the sound was more pleasant. Made the references to honey by Homer much more real. It was really quite nice climbing up the mountain above Delphi.

It was difficult climbing the hill since I could not find the hiking path. I just took off and started up the hill. I think I wandered onto private property but no one said anything to me. I kept finding all types of animal droppings: sheep, cow, cat?. As I climbed I was concentrating on not falling and when I finally looked up, there was a large ram staring at me. It didn't seem to feel threatened and it didn't frighten me but it isn't something I encounter everyday. As I climbed the sun came out and thinned out the rain clouds.

The rooftops of Delphi.

Me Overlooking The Ancient Stadium at Delphi

The View Out My Hotel Room in Delphi

Delphi, Greece

4/2/11 4:20 pm Delphi, Greece

Well, the taxi driver that took me to the Attalos Hotel (http://www.attaloshotel.com/) wanted to talk politcs! Why should I be surprised? It's Greece! Athens seems a bit grubby, lots of graffiti and just down in the mouth, but it was dark and I was tired. The next morning it was much better. The city didn't look that much better but I could feel the energy of Athens and it got me excited to finally be in Greece.

I walked to the Vodafone store to get a new SIM card for my phone and it was pretty amazing: at each cross street I'd look up and there was the Acropolis looming overhead. Not a bad view to start the day with. At the hotel I had a nice breakfast of olives, feta cheese, yoghurt, cereal, and strong coffee.

The drive to Delphi was good. Once I got out of Athens it was a great ride. Originally I didn't want to drive in Athens but due to the flight problems I had to drive out of town. People say they drive crazy in Athens but the just drive differently. As I drove, the country seemed pretty industrial. Makes sense since the country is so mountainous that everything is pushed close to the shore. Once I got to Lavinia it got much better and I saw a much prettier landscape. Once I started up the mountains it got beautiful, really gorgeous.

The large village of Delphi, which was built to house the tourist trade, was very nice. Not too big and the main business was hotels and places to eat. I stayed at the Hotel Fedriades (www.fedriades.com/). It is a wonderful hotel with an amazing view of the valley below and the Bay of Corinth. The man at the front counter told me about a hiking trail up the mountain behind the village. I could climb up the mountain and it would overlook the ancient ruins. So I climbed up the mountain and took some great pics of the ruins and the valley beyond the village toward the sea.

The view from the mountain above the village of Delphi.

4/1/11, 3:31 pm London time

Well, I'm stuck in Heathrow until 8:00 pm. Continental failed to reserve me a seat on the 4 pm flight to Athens so now I have to wait until the 8 pm flight. In Athens I'll take a taxi in to the hotel and then have them bring the car to me. It will only throw my schedule off one day so it's not too bad. I've had to change all my hotel reservations and car rental reservations on my iPod Touch from Heathrow Airport. It's amazing that I can do all of that from my tiny iPod but it worked. All of the hotels emailed back with confirmations and Swifty Car Rental in Athens said they would deliver the car to the hotel at 10 am tomorrow morning.

8:30 pm London Time

Finally on a flight to Athens. After dealing with a headache and an upset stomach at Heathrow, I'm on a plane that looks like it will leave on time. It's an Aegean Airlines flight and the plane looks new, very clean, LED lights everywhere and comfortable seats. The attendants are all women and the Greek men all flirt with them. They are very laid back and smile and then ignore the men. It's a four hour flight and we were served a full meal. Nice. Some sort of ground meat patty, lamb?

3/31/11

Well, the first day to Greece is already a mess. Due to weather at Newark, NJ my flight leaving Louisville was held and I missed my connection to Zurich. The airline (Continental) rebooked me to Paris for a connection there on Aegean Airlines. When I got to Newark I was rebooked thru London/Heathrow so I could get to Athens earlier. Now, the flight at Newark is delayed until 11:42 pm, leaving me with 5 minutes to make my connection in London. I'm afraid I'm going to miss that connection, too. That will mean getting to Athens too late to drive to Delphi. If I can I will stay in Athens and drive to Delphi the next morning. This is turning into a nightmare! I am dependent on the rental company to deliver the car but I don't know the exact time I will arrive in Athens. There is the outside chance that Aegean Airlines will have no seats. Then I'll be stuck in Heathrow, possibly overnight. The next problem is should I take my Ambien on the flight over? If I don't sleep, I'll be dead when I get to Athens. It's a 4 hour flight from London to Athens and I could sleep off the effects of the sleeping pill then. We'll see. So far my trip to Greece has rewarded me with the exotic food of Starbucks.

This is going to be the experiences I had while in Greece for Spring Break 2011. I'm composing this from my journal I kept so if it goes back and forth between tenses, sorry.

The trip was for a week in early April, March 31-April 8, 2011.