After our stay in Turkey we needed to pick up a plane to Thailand, and the only way to do that was to go to Athens and pick up the flight there. On our first visit I argued heavily to make a trip out to Delphi. But, with the strikes and all, and our limited time, it just wasn’t practical. So this time, we arrived three days early. Dad and Emma flew after a mix up getting airplane tickets and due to expenses, Mom and I were forced to take the ferry. It was our first time apart, and quite a change. You never realize how used you are to being with your family 24/7. Anyway, after waiting a few hours for Dad and Emma to pick us up in the rental car, We found each other, swapped stories, and waited for the rental car bus to pick us up. We were standing in the wrong spot.
After a long time, we had a rental car and were quite relieved we had it. In fact, the Greeks didn’t stop their strikes when we left. They were still going.
We had a few incidents on the road, and remarked on the Greek’s nonchalant way of following driving rules. (A lot better than Egypt though). We made it to Dephi, which was plastered to the steep slopes of a mountain. We fell asleep, and the next day, we drove up to the ancient archeological site.
I was quite exited. I really wanted to see the place where the Delphic oracle sat, and chanted her vague mumblings, which the priests ‘interpreted’. Anyway, we reached the area and went in after paying a reasonable fee. It was kind of disappointing, honestly. There were no signs, except for the occasional ‘Stone of the Sybil’ and ‘Treasury of Athens’. Delphi seemed to be pretty rich, as lots of cities donated wealth to the famous oracle. We continued and asked a few guards where the oracle was. Mixed answers. One said the temple of Apollo. Maybe. The other one gave an even more vague answer, like she didn’t really know. Mom remembered going into a cave where the oracle was, but we didn’t see anything of the sort. Hmm….
The whole area was kind of interesting, but it was a big disappointment. There was no signage, which would be very interesting, except the strange pedestals that looked as if they were signs, but had no words. Weird.
We later researched the oracle, and found out that she did sit in the caves. Sneaky guards. We also found out that she breathed in noxious fumes so she didn’t get enough oxygen. Believe it or not, she began hallucinating. Then she mumbled nonsense and flailed around. Poor woman. The the smart priest would ‘translate’ her nonsense into verse. Then he would use his political knowledge and give very good advice.
There was an amphitheater, a bunch of ancient rocks, and a few more ruiney things. I think that it would really improve if they added signs. Anyway. We left, got the rental car, and picked up a massive flight to Thailand. I actually enjoyed it , due to the movies they had on, and stayed up late watching ’em.
Anyway, I was pretty tired by the time we reached Bangkok.
-Bjorn
long4adventure