Discovering the remote Delphi....back to my school years!

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They say you train your brain by studying Latin and Greek at high school. I did both...I'm sure my brain is trained, but honestly, I don't remember much from those years. Studying Economics at University was highly interesting...I can say I don't remember much from my years of Latin and Greek, I did go through, and that was a good point. Who knows what my brain got out of it!



Delphi and the Pythia has therefore be part of my "nightmares" for years. If only high school was only about Geography and History, I would have graduated with all the honors...but yes, I went through some serious high level in math, Latin and Greek...by my own choice...so this is it...I'm finally meeting the Pythia in Delphi!



Delphi is some 180kms out of Athens, and a good 400kms from Thessaloniki. My initial plan was to do a one way rental from Thessaloniki to Athens, but I never found a decent car rental rate for this one way. So back to Thessaloniki to return the car was the only option. Bear in mind, I have been fortunate enough to visit twice Epidavros, Mycenae as well as Corinthia. So these three are not on the program for me this summer.



I woke up early, and drove all the way South to the hills surrounding Delphi. For the first 300kms, it's mainly empty highways....sadly I couldn't see Mt Olympe as it was pretty clouded that morning. Once I left the highway, it's back to "alpine style" roads....you get in rally mode, and you make sure you see the trucks or busses coming in opposite direction. Beautiful day, slightly warm one too!



Delphi is a little touristic town that lives on the archeologic site, so not much point in here. The site is just outside town, and it's just mind blowing. I never expected such a beautiful place. They have built a museum just outside the site. As it was the warmest time of the day, I started by the Museum. And yes, this may be a place run by the State of Greece, here they take only cash too...welcome to modern Greece! The Museum is pretty well done and the best way to explain the time frame of the site of Delphi. I will not go in all the details here.



The site of Delphi is actually pretty huge...and be ready for a serious climb if you want to do it the stadium. Once you get there, you'll be rewarded with amazing views! So equipped with my water bottle, I went to explore. Mt Athos was full of Russians. Here, the place is packed with French speaking tourists....it's like if every site had his own crowd, pretty interesting!



So I guess you only have to enjoy the pictures. I spent few hours there....some moments with the crowds, some moments on my own. Not only can I finally tick Delphi as done after all those years, I truly enjoyed my half-day here. That was a well worth long drive.



Later in the afternoon, I made my way north for another few hours drive to some other amazing sites...to come very soon in my next entry!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Delphi
We loved our time at Delphi and would love to go back.