Blogs from Delphi, Central Greece, Greece, Europe

Set off in the morning for the ruins just outside of town. Absolutely overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the land in this area of Greece. Mt. Parnassos, the famous home of the Greek muses, is said to have "shining cliffs," and I can easily see why. The mountain literally glimmers, and I now understand that this is truly the place to come to find your muse, and be inspired. It's hard not to be. Ancient Delphi is one of the great pilgrimage sites of the world. This is where the Greeks said the center of the Earth was, which has a great myth behind it. Zeus released two golden eagles that flew in opposite directions, and they met at Delphi (which actually comes from the word, delphis, or womb of the world). To mark the ... read more

While in Athens, we did a day trip to Delphi. Ancient Greeks believed that Delphi's famous oracle could tell them what fate had in store for them. Legend would have it that Apollo the god of the oracle would speak through Pythia, his priest, who would in turn speak to whatever priest happened to be on shift, who would in turn speak to the pilgrim seeking Apollo's wisdom. Ancient greeks believed that Apollo knew everything, including what had happened in the past and what would happen in the future. The priests who talked to Pythia, who in turn talked to Apollo, became rather powerful diplomats/counsellors with many a VIP seeking Apollo's knowledge before waging wars or starting major projects. At the temple itself it was written 'Know thyself' with the connotation being that one should never ... read more

Today the plan is to head straight to Delphi before it gets too hot out and then make our way north to Mikrokastro. Got up at 8am, packed up the few things we brought in and had some breakfast at the hotel. The ancient site of Delphi was literally just around the corner from the village of Delphi and we were there in just a few minutes. It was still very early but the parking in from of the museum was already full so we grabbed a spot on the edge of the road. We decided we should see the site first and then see the museum while it was still relatively cool out. We tried to buy water, but all they had was sparkling water at the snack bar. Luckily we had some water in ... read more

Got up at 10am and finished the last bit of packing, showered and had breakfast with Steve and we talked through some eth the previous night’s stuff. Steve and Rachel took the transfer with the luggage from the hotel to the new ferry port to meet our ferry Highspeed 5. The ferry was at 11:25am. I took the rental car and met the rental car guy at 11:15am. Holy crap I was freaking out that the rental agents were going to make me miss the ferry! Argh I hate being so stressed out by stuff like this, and the rental agent was laughing telling me to ‘relax - the boat never leaves on time’. We wrestled the damn luggage up the car ramp and onto the ferry again. Okay this was officially way too much luggage!!! ... read more

Hi. I'm still struggling to find out how to properly update this blog... Day 1 of our trip was 'special'. From the start we knew it would be the hardest one... We left Athens quite late around noon direction Delphi. Even with the GPS working, I succeded into miss some crucial turns and making things adventurous without reason. Fortunately Cat & Pau were not mad at me (Despina a little bit). Just to keep it short, Delphi was great. We payed our respect to the greek gods at the temples of Apollo and Athina. Cat did the pentathlon at the 'Stadium', Despina did a monologue at the 'Theatre', Pau got wiser at the 'Gymnasium' and I was filming them. We had a 'souvlaki' at Domoko and arrive very late (02:00+) in Kalambaka. Heavy but a super ... read more

We were on the bus again today for another long drive. Our first stop was at Thermopyles, where the 300 Spartans made an incredible effort holding off the much bigger Persian army. The Spartans finally lost the battle, but it is one of the more famous battles in world history. It was difficult to see the mountain pass with all the tree growth, but you could see where the Persians didn’t have that many options due to the large mountain range on one side and the water on the other side. Next it was on to our hotel for an early check-in and lunch. We had a little free time before going on to Delphi. Several of us walked into town, others went to the pool, and some just rested. When the temperature cooled down, we ... read more