Olympic Delphi

... thing seemed kind of supernatural and fascinating. Even though the Temple wasn’t in the best condition (the walls weren’t there- just the foundations and the columns at the entrance) you could definitely still picture what it must have been like.

After seeing the Temple, we walked up to the theater. It was built in the 4th century B.C. and was used to host song contests honoring Apollo, the god of music. It has 35 rows of white stone quarried from Mt ...

... of Corinth). We were told to wait till another bus came, to take us to Delphi. So we waited for a while and sure enough, another bus pulled up. We hopped on and then the bus ascended the side of a small mountain for about 20 minutes before arriving at a cute little town. The driver then announced we had arrived in Delphi. We got off the bus, found our hotel within five minutes of walking, and finally got to relax after being on the road for 24 exhausting hours.

... for some potential shopping. In the village is a bust of Papanicolau, he of PAP smear fame, since this was his place of birth. On the bus with us were another 13 people who were booked on the Rotterdam cruise and we got to know them during the day. One of them, Michael from Salt Lake City was sitting next to us and showed us the Greek alphabet at one point. Lots of uni students in the US know this alphabet very early in their uni careers since they join up ...

... br>They had an amphitheater that sat 6,000 (!) and an open market and everything. At the veeeery top they had a stadium for footraces, which of course I had to go see. It was only a 15 minute hike up polished marble and polished marble steps (read: SLIPPERY), with no handrails, and of course, no assistance from anyone. But I did it, damnit! Views were beautiful.

Back to Athens now!

<3

... ruins and other mountains off in the distance. From the Lonely Planet: "Ancient Greeks regarded Delphi as the centre of the world; according to mythology, Zeus released 2 eagles at opposite ends of the world and they met here." So we too made our own pilgrimage to Delphi.

We stayed at Hotel Athina- nice place and it came with breakfast.

Traveling from Delphi to Athens:

We left at 4:30pm and got to Athens 3 hours later at 7:30pm.

... BEAU!! qu"hier! C"est le GRAND LUXE!! Comment on en fait pour nous offrir ca a ce prix la! Puis on fait encore bonbance!! on mange trop malgre l"exercice! on retourne se coucher la bedaine par dessus la tete!! Kalispera!!! Je tente toujours de transmettre les photos , visitez nous demain, nous en aurons pour les 4 derniers jours !!!

... pointless when so much is lost in the end--human life, ancient art, cultural treasures, etc. Grrr. Anywho, we visited the Acropolis for some time, seeing the various structures that still stand and envisioning the ones that no longer do, then hopped on the little tour bus en route towards another ancient Greek city, Mycenea. Stopping breifly in Korinth to see the great canal, we then had another tour of the "beehive tombs" of ancient ...

... Apollo and another theatre we saw. I was told before I came to Greece that this is a place that only had stones and more stones, ruins and more ruins. I was told that after awhile, all the ruins would seem uninteresting. Well, I was certain my interest in this place had not waned as the days past. I only grew more intrigued by what I saw, what I ...

... caught my eye. This is the Winged Sphinx of Naxians, it was presevered quite well. Quite different from the Great Sphinx in Giza.















What is this? Apparently this was the center of the Universe in greek mythology! It's Omphalos. I would expect the ...