Journey to Delphi

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Last night we got two new roommates, a dad and his daughter were hostelling from Greece to Italy and finally to Slovenia. At first it was nice to room with them because the dad had paid for air conditioning for the room, it was heavenly!!! They were in bed early and both had some sort of "problem" during the night. The dad was a cronic snorer and the daughter had a crying fit sometime in the night. It was interesting. BUt we felt less bad when we woke up at 8 this morning and had to get ready and pack while they were still sleeping.

We were ready and checked out by 8:30am. Last night we had purchased our bus tickets for the city bus after some wonderful Gyros!!! I have been fantasizing about more ever since! Any ways, Jan and I left the hostel in enough time to get some yogurt for breakfast and catch the bus. We were told by our friendly hostel owner that we had to get off at the 5th stop after we got on the 024 bus. This was supposed to take us to Terminal B. While we did make it jsut fine, there was a moment of panic as we got off of the bus at the 5th stop (we paid close attention and counted) and there was no terminal in sight. But there had been another guy who got off at our stop who had a giant bag, so we took a gamble and followed him down the street and around the corner. Low and behold, there was the bus station - Terminal B. We got our tickets and were ready to go...a full hour and a half before our bus left! 😊 But better to be prepared, right? At around 10am we headed out to the "platform" where our bus was going to be leaving from. Out there we met two other Canadians - Edmontonians though... and talked to them for the half an hour before our bus left. Once on the road I dosed in and out, but while I was a wake I saw some gorgeous landscapes. The countryside of Greece is spectacular. It is very hilly, there are lots of farms and green on either side of the road. The hills are spotted with trees, and the dirt shows through where there are no trees. The dirt ranges from a yellow to a red color. In the mountains there were some gorgeous little towns, all of which clearly show the influence of the tourism industry. People come to the area for both the ruins and surprizingly also for the skiing! Delphi shares this tourist aspect with her neighbouring cities. The high seasons are the late summer as people go to see the archeological site, and in the winter as people come to lodge and ski. Weird hey? Greece isn't the first place I would think to go if I wanted to ski, but then again, I am not an avid skier.

Once at the Delphi bus station Jan and I found our hostel and checked in. We have great accomodations and look forward to a peaceful nights sleep as we don't have to share the room. After a quick nap we went to look around the town, so that we would know what we wanted to do for tomorrow. That didn't take very long. The whole town has a population of 1500. While that contributes to the lack of things to do (besides the ruins which we will see tomorrow) it does add a certain charm to the town. The sidewalks are all cobbled and the most of the little buildings look over the valley. It has a very european feel to it, not surprising if you consider all the tourists. The town is also very "posh" whcih is also another influence of the tourism.

Again, tomorrow we are going to go see the ruins, and I am very excited. For those of you not familiar with the site, Delphi is the ancient site which was home to an oracle. There are also temples and sanctuaries here. One of the more impressive things about the site is that some of the area pre-dates ancient Greek civilization. The Myceneans were here first! I can't wait to see it all, Jan is less excited, he thinks once you have see a ruin, you have seen them all. This is not true however. I could easily spend the whole summer going from ruin to ruin. His mood is a bit dampening but I am still thrilled that I am in Delphi!!! - Former home of the Oracle.

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Comments

[Courtney]

YAY DELPHI
So exciting, does it feel oracular?

[Janielle]

Definitely felt oracular to me!!!

[anonymous]

Eeeewwww! Oilers fans! You travel halfway around the world and that's who you talk to? For shame... find some Aussies already! :p (Sorry Yvonne, if you're reading this. I just can't help it.)