We spent three amazing nights at Delphi. The hotel was the lowest quality hotel yet, and probably for our entire trip, but I enjoyed my time there the most. Our hotel room was simple, but I was roomed with only one other girl who I quite enjoyed. There is something about Delphi that I really enjoyed, it is really unexplainable. It is built on the side of a mountain, quite high up, and the streets are narrow with steep stairs connecting them. There are a few shops and I found that the English was quite good and I had little difficulties. Our hotel did not have any internet services, but I was able to find a restaurant that offered free WiFi and spent much time there hanging out with some others from the group. The sanctuary at Delphi was more then I could have imagined. What they have found buried under the ground is straight from ancient Greece. The stadium in near perfect condition, the theatre, parts of the temple to Apollo, and foundations of many other different buildings and treasuries. Down below was the temple to Athena, the famous Thollos that no one is quite sure of the function, and the gymnasium where the men went to train for the games and also to learn and discuss important things such as mythology and philosophy. I managed to get quite a few good pictures, and it would be hard not to! The view from the mountainside is spectacular, and with the ancient buildings in the background, everything is complete.
Here is the remains of the temple of Apollo:
A very hot and sweaty me in front of the temple:
Standing from the ground, looking up at the temple:
Me posing in front of the theatre, joking around about being an actor:
Here I am, about halfway up the sanctuary, with the view of the rest down below:
A view of the theatre from the top looking down:
Another view from near the top, looking down over the sanctuary:
Next, we would see the museum at Delphi. My camera unfortunately takes rather horrible photos inside without the flash, and flash is never allowed in museums. We had a fabulous tour guide take us through the sanctuary and then into the museum, and I definitely learned a lot! I realize I have yet to upload any museum pictures, so here are two things from Delphi that I found really quite neat.
The first is part of a column that had women dancing on all four sides. The second is known as the "charioteer." Only four bronze statues have survived from the 5th century and he is one of them, originally part of a much larger piece including his chariot. He now looks green in colour because over time, bronze oxidizes and changes colours.
The following day would be a free day and an optional hike up mount Parnassus to the Corycian cave. The cave was another sacred destination and many women would make the trek as they wouldn't be able to attend to the events in the sanctuary. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the memory card in my camera and so my pictures are stored on the internal memory, and I do not have a cord to connect to the camera from my computer. The hike was unbelievably strenuous. First, it took about 150 or so very steep stairs to the path on the mountain. It then turned into a switchback trail up mount Parnassus, and believe me, it was quite steep. Eventually, we would reach the top and hike over the top of the mountain, through the summit, and encountered a german village who had settled there after the war. The village was in sight but we did not hike as far as it, because the long gravel road then reached the trail up to the cave. We hiked straight up the next mountain, a switchback trail once again, but there were parts where we practically had to climb. Finally, we reached the cave. The view from the mountain was unbelievable, and the cave was so strange and yet so beautiful. It was huge and freezing cold, and eventually was so dark I had to turn back. The floor was slippery and smooth and the ceiling slowly dripped. I could tell how sacred this space would be. The entire hike would take us seven hours, and was approximately 10km. Pictures will come once I am home I suppose!
We stayed in Delphi for three nights and today we left for Napflion. We will be here for three nights and I am sure I will be posting along the way, as the internet is actually quite decent here.
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