Delphi, The Navel of the World

Our first Greek meal, Lunch.
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We were getting off the ferry first thing in the morning.  We had breakfast in the restaurant.  They served a very American breakfast of eggs and bacon.  They also served a warm sweet bun that had apricot jam on the inside.

We watched the sunrise after breakfast.  The sun came up over the mountains and then reflected on the water.  It was absolutely amazing.

We disembarked at 7am and headed straight for the bus.  We got a new bus driver, Nikos.  After waiting for Darryl to make a phone call (it was Sasha's birthday), we were on the road towards Delphi.

They were ready to start the games.
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About an hour into the ride, we found a roadside store to stop at.  Since it was 8:20am, they were closed.  Rosa was able to get the family to answer the door and Nikos explained our situation.  They opened the store just for us!  The bus drivers in Europe are great.  I picked up a snack bar that was made of pistachios, sesame seeds, and honey.  It reminded me of peanut brittle, but more salty.  There was a walkway behind the building that led down to the water.  Instead of sand, there were smooth black rocks that were on the banks.

The group at the base of the Delphi ruins.
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As we continued on, we were actually early for lunch and our tour of Delphi, so we stopped again at a Bus lookout point.  We could see Akonos, another small town near Delphi.  I got some amazing shots of the bountains.  Also, in the valley there were hundreds of olive trees growing.  You could actually smell them.

We ate lunch in Akonos at a sit down restaurant.  The owners brought around a cart and it had all the lunch options on the cart to pick out.  I sat with George, Chris, and Rusty.  We decided to be adventurous and pick 4-5 items and share.  We started with cheese sticks, then we ordered Mouslaki, cabbage/grape leaf rolls, a Greek salad, and taziki.  We were so filled by the time we left.

Akonos from our bus lookout point.
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We checked into our hotel in Delphi after lunch.  The name was Hotel Pan.  Each room had an balcony.  The students could really identify with the small town and many enjoyed Delphi the best.

We toured the Delphi ruins with a tour guide named Christina.  She explained the Oracle's purpose and gave a great speech about the principles of the prophets.  Basically, the Oracle was a big scam.  We also saw the sites of the Pythian games.   The stadium was at the highest elevation.  Some of our students tested themselves by running at that elevation.  Luckily, no one passed out.

The street of Delphi at night
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On the way back to the hotel, I stopped in some stores with Jess E. and Amanda R.  I started by purchasing some postcards and playing cards.  Then at the next store, I picked up some worry beads.

Here's some information about worry beads: Worry beads started on Mount Athos in northern Greece, where strands of beads are made of woolen knots tied on a string at regular intervals.  These knotted prayer strings are called komboskini.  Komboloi or komboskini are still used to count prayers by the monks in the monasteries on Mount Athos. The monks make their worry beads out of handy, inexpensive materials such as wood, shells, hazelnuts and olive pits.

Sunset in Delphi. This was taken at dinner.
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One item that I wanted to buy myself was a pair of gold earrings with the greek key design.  I was able to purchase a pair for 28 Euros.  The final purchase of the day was a cookie at a bakery.  It reminded me of my mom's butterball cookies, but it was 3 times as big and had powdered sugar piled on it.  Only 50 Eurocents.

Dinner was in a taverna down the street from the hotel.  There was only two main streets in Delphi, so we didn't have to walk far for anything.  Dinner was salad, french fries, and pork in a red sauce.  The sauce was tomato based, but had a cinnamon taste.  It was very good.  I used the sauce like ketchup on the fries and that was delicious.  Dessert was a thick chocolate mousse.  The men at the table finished off everyone's desserts.

The Temple of Athena
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At dinner, Nic was raving about these wonderful ashtrays he bought.  We wanted to check them out.  Nic, Wes, Jared, Brett and I went to find this store.  On the way, Jared tried on a pair of shoes and they took some posed pictures.  When we got to the store, the man running the place remember Nic from earlier in the day.  He started slashing prices like crazy.  I was able to purchase two watercolor prints for 15 Euros each, a patch of the Greek flag for my brother-in-law for 4 Euros, and another pair of silver earring for 8 Euros.  I was happy with my purchases.

The international flags flying at Delphi
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The final stop on our way home was the first store I had been in at in the day.  I had looked at some bronze owls and had been contemplating buying one.  The owls represent wisdom.  Athene, the goddess of wisdom, was impressed with owls and made them her favorite creature.  I ended up buying two bronze oxidized owls, one for my office and one for a friend.

I ended the beautiful evening by sharing a bottle of wine with Darryl, Chris, Marc, and Ski.  We reflected on the trip and shared some fun stories.