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Spring Break, Greece 2025 

Day 7, April 3

Greek flags flying

Today we woke up at our 5-star hotel (how it got 5 stars is a mystery!) and had to pack up before breakfast.  I did most of it last night, so it was mostly overnight and morning stuff to pack up.  Every morning, we put our bags out in the hall and George (our driver) with the help of hotel employees picks up all of the bags (they are tagged so that they don't get mixed up with other tour groups) and puts them in the bus.  Sorry yesterday's blog was delayed by a day--the wifi had MAJOR problems with uploading my photos last night and then finally just refused so I went to bed.  Tonight's stay (back in Athens) has much better wifi.  

First, finishing the tour is bittersweet.  I made friends with many people on the tour and didn't even really get a chance to say goodbye--especially to MJ--since I was the first dropoff in Athens.  Sigh.  But it is exciting to be onto the next part of my adventure.  Plus, although tours have their place and are helpful for some things, I just hate being part of a group I despise running into when I'm on a trip ("Ugh, here comes a tour group!").   

A staple of tour groups that most of us hate, is the workshop sales pitch.  We had three of them on this tour--all kept very short, though, thank goodness.  I think the tour groups/guides get some sort of kickback for this.  I've gone to see them making carpets.  making pottery, refining and making things out of alpaca wool, creating icons, making specialty olive oil, etc.  They demo how they do it and then point out similar items for sale in their sales floor or gift shop.  It is probably helpful for people who want to buy something that a country is known for and probably get good quality.  But many of us don't have the money to buy those really expensive items.  I've only bought a few (socks and a hat from alpaca wool).  And it is helpful that they typically employ local artisans to make the items, thus improving the local economy and quality of life for those people.  Our sales pitch today was a place that creates religious paintings of saints on wood.  Nope.

After that, we went to two monasteries in Meteora. They were both in the same area of mountains and it was a foggy day, so we mostly had fun taking photos of the awesome mountains in the fog!  We only saw a tiny part of each monastery and couldn't take any photos inside.  They neglected to let everyone in the group know that you needed to wear a skirt to the monasteries, so about half of the women wore skirts.  Luckily, they had wrap around skirts with long sashes to tie on.  

The courtyard of the first monastery

Another courtyard

After that we stopped for lunch and stopped a few more times for bathroom breaks on the long drive back to Athens.  Luckily, I only had to walk a short distance to my new accommodation.  It is part of an interesting place that has rooms, dorm-style rooms, co-working spaces, serves meals, and has a bar/nightclub.  There is a large reception lounge area, a library space with big areas of couches and chairs, large meeting tables, a quiet meeting room, and two soundproof booths people can use for zoom calls, etc (I used one for my duolingo lessons tonight because I have to talk out loud).  They have 24 hour reception.  It seems very young and hip, but everyone has been super friendly.  I'm working on this in the libary area that overlooks the restaurant/bar area with music blasting.  The shelves of the library have tons of books in different languages, including an area full of paperbacks that I'm sure is a take one/leave one space.  I am stayin in a 4-bed women's dorm room.  The two women I met were very young and very chill--one was super friendly with a British accent--we bonded over both being klutzes!  After I dropped off my stuff,  I went out to find dinner since it was around 7:30 at night.  I found a place where I had chicken kabobs, fried potatoes, and seasoned pita bread for €10.50.  Way cheaper than most of my meals and it was soooo filling!  On the tour I got so used to 3 huge meals a day, I need to start eating smaller meals again!  For the foodies--I've had moussaka and many other Greek foods and desserts, but I don't know what they are all called!  Sorry!

 

Gone to see the Oracle at Delphi

Spring Break 2025, Greece 

Day6

Okay, I'm going to do something weird.  I'm one day behind, but instead of doing yesterday's blog now, I'm going to do today's because it is fresh in my head.  Then, when I have time, I'll pop yesterday's in.

Today is my third day of my four-day cruise.  I've met some nice people, some slightly odd but nice people, and made a friend.  And I've seen a lot and learned a lot about Greek culture.  Each day we wake up, do breakfast, pack our bags and put them out in the hallway for them to collect and stow them in the bus, then get on the bus.  Tomorrow we have an earlier call, so we will have to pack our bags before the 7:00 breakfast.  We are seeing a few things on the way to returning to Athens.  They came around asking what our hotels were--they drop you off at your hotel, except for some outliers which get dropped at nearby hotels.  Well, yep, mine is an outlier.  I was a little ticked-off at first.  But then I actually looked it up on Google maps and mine is only a 2 minute walk from where I'm being dropped off, so I had to tell myself to calm down and move on.  They have to think about where to park and which streets the bus can drive down.  

So today we went to Delphi.  Anyone who has read Greek stories, Greek mythology, or Oedipus--like I did, will remember the Oracle at Delphi.  Or at least that's where my brain went!  We went to The Temple of Apollo which is just outside of the town of Delphi, by Mount Parnassus. Oracles would give prophecies. They were conduits to the gods. People would ask them questions or ask for intercession with the gods.  The oracles were priestesses; the best known at Delphi was Pythia.  This sanctuary began around the 8th century BCE, with the Temple complex being built around 7th century BCE.  Pythia started by seeing people once a year.  It was so popular though, they hired a few more oracles and began offering it once a month, except during the winter months.  Evidently the oracles could speak to the gods and would give prophecies or answer questions often by shrieking incoherently, groaning, and thrashing their bodies around.  They had priests with them who said that they could understand them and would "interpret" what was said, often in a poem or song.  Eventually, there came about a festival, celebrated every four years.  Different regions of Greece would compete.  It began as a music competition, then became about sports.  The winners would bring honor and recognition for their areas.  Pythia did her prophecies in Apollo's temple.  Each temple is divided into three parts--front, middle, and back and the middle part would have a statue of the god whose temple it was.  Well Pythia was connected with Apollo and had a secret room in his temple in which she delivered her prophecies.  

The fountain room where the priestess washes and prepares

The wall of the sanctuary

This is part of the agora--the area where meetings and commerce
occurred

Behind the columns, were where souvenirs and other items
were sold during festivals

Each area that competed built a treasury house where they stored their tributes to various gods.  The treasury buildings were quite eleaborate.

The treasury of the Sikyonians and Siphnians

Other buildings, treasuries

The Treasury of Athens (this has been rebuilt)

The beautifual view from the sanctuary

The Prophecy Rock, used by another oracle

Slaves that wanted their freedom would write their case upon this wall
Some would be granted

A slave's petition

Another petition

An offering.  It originally had a three legged pot on top

Photos of the Temple of Apollo

When they added sports, they had to add a stadium.  The Greeks would just have grass around their stadiums, but when the Romans came into power, they put seating in.  The stadium is way at the top of the mountain at Delphi--it was an exhausting climb!

The theater

The stadium

the woods

Ever since watching "Under the Tuscan Sun,:
I can only think of these kind of trees as creepy
Italian trees!

When the Christians came into power, all of it ended and they destroyed all of the temples and buildings because they didn't permit idolatry and they had a different god.  

To create Delphi, the story is that Zeus let go of two Eagles, one in the East and one in the West and where they met up would be the center of the Earth.  That was Delphi.  When archeologists came in to excavate the Temple site, they had to move the village that had been built on top of it, to a nearby site which is now known as the city of Delphi.

After the site, we went to the museum and saw the things that had been removed and the shards that had been reassembled.  

A marble statue of the demonic monster, the Sphinx is from the sanctuary of Gaia,
the most ancient place of worship in Delphi, which was right next to the Propohecy Rock

Frieze from the treasury(?)

The Twins of Argos.  Very realistic.

painted wood

Part of Athena going into battle

Statues from entrance to Temple of Apollo

this is music--words and musical notes written by one of the priests

The Tholos, they don't know what it was for

Statues from decoration of Tholos

Part of the Column of the Dancers

Top of the Column of the dancers

Right above base of the column of the dancers

Base of the Column of the dancers

A well-preserved statue they found buried

Of bronze--made by a Roman artist- The Charioteer of
Delphi shown as a calm confident athlete with a sense of ethos

We also stopped at a monument to the battle in Thermopyles.  It was just a quick stop photo shoot, tben. back on the bus.

Tomorrow we are going to see some monasteries then be dropped off around 7:00 in Athens.  Then on Friday I am going to one of the islands--Hydra and stay there overnight.  On Saturday I will probably drop my bags at a bag drop then go see Ancient Agora before going out to my hotel in the suburbs, nearer to the airport.  Then fly home Sunday.