Modern Delphi

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The natural beauty of the Sanctuary of Apollo is obvious and the location provides a commanding view of the surrounding area. I imagine one of the reasons I like modern Delphi so much is because of its rugged, mountainous situation, much like home. In fact, the view from a distance is remarkably like home, it is only on approaching more closely or when viewing the buildings that one realizes one isn't in BC.

Modern Delphi is a cute little town perched on a fairly precipitous hillside. There is so little space on the side of the mountain that the town has two main streets, one for each direction. There is a cute little church in the Byzantine style, although the thicker bricks in the window arches give away its newness. They are certainly much thicker than the ones we saw in the actual Byzantine church of Ossios Loukas that we visited enroute to Delphi.

The whole town had to be moved fairly recently (within the last 200 years) when the archaeologists started excavating the Sanctuary of Apollo so everything is relatively new but with that timeless quality that seems to me to be uniquely Greek. The walls and sidewalks are made of stone and could have been there 10 years or 1,000 years since whitewash has been around for hundreds of years. The other thing that seems to be uniquely Greek are the dogs. In this country DOG'S RULE in a big way. There are quite a few feral cats and they are thin and skittish and obviously surviving on their own. The dogs on the other hand are friendly and happy and well-fed and if it weren't for the parasites you would swear they were somebody's beloved pet.

Back to the scenery. If it wasn't for the sea of olive trees leading to the sea, you would swear you were in the Fraser Canyon or the Alberta foothills, at least from a distance. However, upon approaching the 'sagebrush', they turn out to be small mounds of a roundish Ponderosa pine type plant that never gets more than about waist high. The 'Broom' has smoother stems and a neater roundish appearance in comparison to what grows on Vancouver Island but it is certainly as prolific. The common shrub that we have been running across on our travels is, I believe, oleander with beautiful pink flowers. It seems to grow wild just about anywhere and is quite common at the side of the road. The sea itself is a gorgeous deep royal blue in comparison to the greenish tinge that we commonly see off the coast of BC.

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