Monday was our day trip outside of Athens proper to visit Delphi! Nestled in the mountains about 2.5-3 hours outside of Athens and to the west, we had a hired car to take us out and about since driving here is medium terrifying. A large van picked us up and off we were in rush hour traffic.
Our driver gave us a mini-tour of the city as we were heading out, highlighting the olympic stadium and a few neighborhoods. Once we finally left city limits, we learned about Greece’s various agricultural products (fun fact: Greece has a huge cotton export, which I didn’t know). It was a bit refreshing to see how non-city dwellers lived. There were a lot of farms scattered throughout the countryside.
Rolling hills gave way to mountains as we got further west. It really looked a lot like California, except moderately less flammable and much more olive-y. Some olive trees live for thousands of years. Today I learned they can get old as heck!
Before we got to Delphi, we stopped to appreciate the Temple of Athena Pronaia. It was for the plebs to go and worship and wait before the oracle at Delphi would see them. Sometimes, the wait was up to a year. The temple ruins were quiet since tour buses can’t fit here in this small hillside parking lot. It was just us and the birds and some giant sprinklers that were installed to fight any possible fires that might arise.
We met up with our soft-spoke and knowledgeable guide, who was to give us a tour of the Delphi Archeological museum and then the hillside ruins themselves. There were a lot of cats and some dogs enjoying toasting themselves in the sun outside of the museum.
He highlighted some amazing artifacts that were unearthed when Delphi was re-discovered in the late 1800s. There were bronze pots and statues all over Delphi in its heyday. Some figures made up ornate columns which supported the roof of the structures. Many statues were extremely lifelike and in incredible shape for being 2,000+ years old. I wonder if the original artists thought their work would last that long (the guy who carved dem stone booties probably knew those were golden for a few millenia).
The museum has a bronze statue from the ancient era, of which there are only four remaining worldwide. Oftentimes, statues were melted down to be made into shields or other things, so this type of statue is quite rare. It was surprisingly detailed!
Our guide told us that there was a woman who was taking a selfie and wasn’t aware of her surroundings who backed into a 2700-year-old statue, knocked it over, and turned it into dust. Another time recently, a guide was walking backwards and knocked over a display. Imagine being that guide.
Once we wound our way through the museum and around other tour groups, we started up the hill. The site had started out completely buried, and when it was rediscovered in the 1800s, there was another village already on top of it. The locals got into a tussle over selling their land once they realized the value of what lay beneath their houses. Before the story could come to any human-lead conclusion, there was an earthquake and a landslide buried the small village and they all moved away. Well, that’s that. The villagers were resettled in a new town very close by which is current-day Delphi town, the archaeologists got to dig stuff up, and everyone was happy.
The temple to Apollo had a few columns restored, and many of the original walkways were still intact, if a bit slippery. Delphi had a bank, a theater, a stadium (for the famous Dephi games!) and of course, the temple of Apollo, where the oracle lived.
We learned that the oracle got high off of gases in the earth and often delivered her prophecies in (extremely high) tongues, requiring a priest to interpret beside her. Since she was high and an oracle who could see the future, I assume she was just requesting funyuns or tacos or doritos but nobody knew what these things were, so the Priests just made stuff up.
The stadium, which was used for Delphi’s famous sporting matches, was high up top the ruins. It was in impressive shape and could seat thousands of spectators, back in its heyday. The theater was nearing a state of usable restoration and would reopen to the public for certain festivals sometime next year. Athens also has a similar ancient theater made entirely of marble which still gets used for the marathon and end other events.
We got back around 6:00 and poorly planned to go to the Acropolis Museum. However, turns out that it’s open til 8pm every day except Monday…when it closes at four. Rats. We scooped up the rest of our party for late evening gyros, so not all was lost.
Tuesday, Crete! Off to the Greek Islands. It’s a short hop across the Aegean Sea to Chania (pronounced like Hania), the small port/resort town which is filled with tasty food. We had a lazy morning in Athens before leaving and arrived on the island around 2pm. We have rental cars here, and I’m not really sure anyone understands the concepts of lanes in some parts of the city. The streets are narrow, chaotic, and somewhat lawless.
We survived and also managed to park our two large Jeeps in the public parking area through some utter miracle. Chania town has a large car-free area in the center (which is where we are staying, of course), and we had to walk a ways with our luggage to get to our rental home.
It’s a bit like a hobbit home or a Studio Ghibli home, with impossible staircases, small doors, and a weird doorless bathroom up a spiral staircase. It’s painted in warm, bright colors and has about 12 dozen doorways. I think we have located them all. Maybe.
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the warmth and eating food. Crete is famous for its cuisine. We got some excellent pies and cheeses and of course, gelato.
Some of us also went to the Turkish Bath in the city center. They have spa and massage packages, or you can just sit in a hot room and take a very long bath by yourself. We chose the latter option. Once you change into your swimsuit, you go into a room that is like the most humid, oppressive warmth you have ever felt in a room, but also filled with steam.
For the duration of the bath, you scrub yourself with soap and a rough cloth and pour various temperatures of water over yourself (we preferred the freezing cold water) while enjoying tasty snacks and tea. As a bonus, I also smell like honey and roses and no longer like armpits.
On the way out, Kari slipped and fell on the slick tile floors. I teased her about it and subsequently fell straight on my butt just as I thought I was safe. No regrets. It was a wonderful end to a lazy day despite losing to gravity in the end!
Tomorrow, we get horsey.