Thursday, September 3, 2015

June 17, 2015 Delphi then on to Athens!

89 and sunny today, thank goodness there's no humidity and shade actually works here... not that there's much shade.

We started out the day in town where we had some lunch and did some shopping. I ordered a caesar salad, but they don't do it quite the way we do. the dressing was a thick slab of mustard mixed with mayonnaise. it took some time to get a new salad without it and the whole thing set off a screaming match between the waitress and the cook... i don't think they liked me much there. We shopped for a bit and I got talked into buying a beautiful bracelet for a lot of euro.

So then we went to the ruins. Delphi is built into the side of a mountain. Most of the walking was climbing. Our guide talked to us about the oracle and told us stories and the prevailing philosophies at the time.

 beautiful Greece!
 colors are a little funky on some of these because our bus had tinted windows...
on the edge of town

 Town of Delphi
 View from the road.
 Jaxon, Cody, Eric and Kirsten

my lunchmates - Cody, Eric, Karen, Marc






 Cody and Jaxon (that cannot be comfortable...)


Look just below and a bit left of the center of the picture above and below is what is there. 
Mom's camera has a nice zoom!


 Karen and Eric
Marc in the Amphitheater
 Yes, my legs are STILL that white.
 



There's an indoor museum near the ruins where some of the statuary and artifacts are. I like that they give you these drawings so you know how things were before they were ruins.




 This statue was a little creepy, especially the eyes.

A model of the temple and surroundings as it may have looked in 1400 BC. 

There's also a stadium above all the areas I went. Every four years, starting in 586 BC, the Pythian Games were held here. Not quite as prestigious as those held at Olympia, but still a precursor to the modern Olympics. Anyway, the stadium was a rough climb so Marc and I went down to the museum instead.

We left Delphi around 5:15pm and headed to Athens. We were very excited because Matthew was there waiting at the hotel. Karen and I were about 20th in line for hugs when we finally got there, but that's okay.

I was overjoyed to find out that the hotel messed up our reservations and we were not getting served dinner than night. Oh glory oh joy, no chicken and potatoes!! we found a burger joint called Goody's and ate there. I am still not 100% sure what the greeks do to burgers, but they're not like ours. at first i thought maybe it's not beef, but i think it is, then i thought maybe tons of fillers? the texture is just all wrong. i came to the conclusion that they grind their meat too finely. So I'm not a big fan, but it was still better than chicken... AND i got a giant oreo volcano cake for desert that was absolutely heavenly.





 We stopped to take some pictures. Ethan, Eric and our guide John.


 Arriving in Athens.



here's what's on tap for tomorrow... "Weather:  Rainy." Obviously John is not yet a believer.

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