We paid a little bit extra for the room with the view, and what a lovely view it was. We could see out over the mountains, and even a little of the Bay of Corinth in the distance.
Breakfast was ordinary, but in the lobby, we ran into our Australian buddy from Mycenae. We chatted for a few minutes, and then it was off to Delphi (which is properly pronounced Delf-ee, not Delf-eye, as I had always pronounced it). This was the thing that Max most wanted to do. First was the museum, of course. We didn't have time to read every sign, though, and we managed to pass right by the Omphalos, the "Navel of the World". Delphi is said to be the center of the world. Zeus sent out two birds from opposite ends of the earth, and they met in the middle. The middle was Delphi, and the Omphalos is the stone thing placed there to mark the spot. It is also said that the gasses breathed in by the Pythia (the lady who gave the oracle) came through the Omphalos, as it was hollow.
But, we did see some pretty cool things. We got to take pictures, but only of the statues. No people. When I tried to get in a picture with a sphinx, the lady yelled at us. No people! OK, fine. I have no idea why.
Time for the site. It's a bit of a walk to the entrance, but it was all shady. We got inside and started up. I had gotten a book at the museum shop, and it had a map, but it was rather hard to tell what was what. It just said "Sanctuary of Apollo" which I wasn't sure meant the whole place, or just the main Apollo temple. Since it's mostly in ruins, the shapes of the buildings are sometimes hard to tell. Plus, it said there was a sacred bull at the beginning, and I never saw one. So, I was kind of confused. Anyway...
The sanctuary is, of course, built up a hill. So, we climbed. Max really wanted to see the cave where the Pythia sat, but she was under the temple, and it collapsed a while ago, so you can't see it. We did see the sacred pool where she bathed, though it had no water, and the spring was blocked off due to rock slides.
I wanted to see the Tholos of Athena, but I couldn't tell where it was on the map. It wasn't on the Sanctuary of Apollo map, which is the other main reason why I was unsure about whether the map was for the whole place or not. I was also looking for a cache. The cache page said that the Jeeps wouldn't work there, so we would need to just keep our eyes open. I did, but I didn't see it. Max & I walked all the way up to the top of the site, but to no avail. As we were looking, Em came up and joined us. She had stayed down a bit because of her ankle, but as she kept telling us, she had climbed two frickin' mountains yesterday, she could do anything.
No luck on the cache, and no luck on the Tholos. On the way back down, we stopped n asked an attendant where the Tholos was. She pointed down the street. It's not actually in the Sanctuary itself, it was a separate piece. We could just barely see it from there. She said it was a very short walk, no problem. So, we got slushies at the bottom (it was hot) and started walking along a winding mountain road to the Tholos. We saw some steps down, and went in. No Tholos. This was a gymnasium. The Tholos was further down. We had already walked a bit down the hill by that time, we we knew we'd have to walk back up. The road also started looking quite dangerous by that point, as there was no more sidewalk. So, it was back to the car to drive to the Tholos. It was on the way out of town, anyway, and that's the way we needed to go.
We drove down to the Tholos & got out. A Tholos is a round temple. This was a Tholos to Athena. Three of the columns have been restored, so it's really pretty.
This is also where we discovered that the Greeks apparently built with Legos.
On the way out, Em discovered a dead snake in a drainage ditch. So, we got sticks and played with it for a little while. We didn't pick it up, but we made it into a snake eating its own tail. We couldn't get the mouth to stay open, though, so you just have to imagine.
Time to go down the mountain. First, we passed through Arachova. It's a tourist town.
You may recall our original plan was to go to Thermopylae after Delphi, but with the whole "everything's closed" on May 1 thing, we changed Thermopylae to our first day, so we could get back to Athens to see some stuff Saturday (this) afternoon. Well, then they scheduled the election for this weekend, so everything was closing at 3. There's no way we could see Delphi, drive the 3 hours back to Athens airport, drop off the car, get to our hotel to drop off our stuff, and get out to see stuff by 3. So, I looked for something else to see on the way home. The same guy who made the Delphi cache that we didn't find had one at a monastery called Osios Lukas. It was only a little bit off the road back to Athens, and Max loves monasteries (I find it interesting that we're both non-religious, but he loves monasteries, and I love churches and shrines) so we decided to go there.
The first thing we did when we got there was to look for the cache. It gave pretty clear directions how to get to the right area, on the hill above the parking lot. But, we got up there and couldn't find anything that looked right. The Jeeps was sending me in circles. Plus, it was really hot. We couldn't wear shorts in the monastery, so we had put on jeans before we got out of the car. We gave up. We did find some nice rocks up there, though, so we grabbed a couple of those. I like to collect rocks and/or shells when we go places.
The things I had read said that Osios Lukas has some of the finest Byzantine art in Greece. It really was beautiful. Most of the mosaics were still in excellent condition, and most of the painting was, too.
There was a body in a glass case between the Lady Chapel and the main church. I thought it was a woman, but upon further investigation, I think it might actually be St. Luke of Steiris.
There was also a crypt with a sign that said, "St. Barbara" though we couldn't (and still can't, even after looking online) tell whether she's actually in there, or if it's just a shrine to her. We found out later that St. Barbara is the patron saint of those who work with explosives, so I thought it particularly fitting that we found her, not only because my mom's name is Barbara, but also because one of my brothers is an explosive ordinances guy in the army.
We were hungry & thirsty, and saw that there was a little snack shop on the grounds. we went in to get water and snacks, and the guy said, "sandwiches?" Sure, we love sandwiches. He said, "Three sandwiches? I will bring them out. 5 minutes." We got our waters and a little pack of sesame sweets, and went outside to wait. It was a lovely shady spot with a table made of rock with seats made of rock. It was nice and cool. He brought us our sandwiches (all ham and cheese, no options) and we had a wonderful lunch at the monastery.
Full and happy, we changed back into shorts and headed off to Athens. We were quite a bit earlier back to the airport than we had originally thought we would be. We called the rental car company when we were half an hour out, and told them we were on our way. The guy that answered was the same one we had worked with on Tuesday, and he said he was already at the airport, waiting for somebody else. We dropped off the car with little difficulty, and he took us to the taxi stand. Our hotel was right downtown, and there is a 35 euro flat rate to get downtown, so we didn't have to haggle at all. Our taxi driver was rather taciturn. At one stoplight, there were people dancing for money. Max gave them a little. The taxi driver cheered up a little after that. it was very close to our hotel, though, so we didn't get to enjoy his conversation for long.
The driver dropped us at the address on our hotel reservation slip, and we went in. Actually, the lobby was crowded, so I went it. Turns out, the address they gave us was for the hostel part of the hotel, and our apartment part was a couple of blocks away. So, we walked. Luckily, we had everything nice and compact in our suitcases, so it wasn't bad. We got in to the right part of the hotel, checked in, and went up to our room. I had heard great things about this place. It was written up in all of the books and gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. Well, I don't know if we just got a crappy room, but it was nothing like the pictures or the description. I didn't care to make a fuss, though, so we dealt with it. It was plenty big, and it had a little kitchenette, but it had no other amenities. The bathroom was one where there is no real division between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. There was a partial glass wall, but it didn't protect much. Your clothes had to go on the toilet while you showered, or they would be soaked. Anything on the floor got soaked, as we discovered with a roll of toilet paper. But, it had beds and A/C, so we were fine.
Em was exhausted, but Max & I wanted to go see if there were any signs about the acropolis being open the next day. I knew from their website that the Acropolis Museum would be open until 3 on both Saturday and Sunday, and was always closed on Monday. I was really afraid that the Acropolis was closed on Monday, too, because it seems like there were a lot of things closed on Mondays. But, their website hadn't been updated in what must have been ages (it still had winter hours listed, when they were supposed to end over a month ago), so I had no idea of their schedule. So, Max & I walked up to the Acropolis, while Em stayed and played on the computer in the room. (We were willing to deal with the crappy room because it was so very close to the Acropolis and all of the historical things without being crazy expensive). Guess what? Closed. I figured it would be. But, there was nothing that said it would be closed for the elections the next day, and it did have opening hours for Monday. So, I felt better.
We went back to the hotel to get Em, and we all went out for dinner. As you know if you've read much of my blog, we try to hit the Hard Rock every time we go to a city that has one. Athens does. Max knew the address, so I looked on my little map and found how to get to the street. We got a bit mixed up, though (the street signs aren't always easy to find) and we ended up in an unexpected place. So, we found our spot on the map and found our destination, and started out again. We came out on the right street and found where Hard Rock should have been, but it wasn't there! Maybe we had the wrong address. So, we walked up that street some more, but we didn't find it.
We did find Syntagma Square, though, which was another place I wanted to see. In front of the Parliament, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, they have a changing of the guards every hour. The timing was perfect. They started the change just a couple of minutes after we got there. Much like the guards at the Tower of London, they look straight ahead an don't move or react in any way. They keep these straight faces all through what honestly looks like a very silly ceremony. I have no problem with skirts as part of a uniform, though they aren't terribly scary, but the enormous tassels on the hats and the giant shoe pompoms are a bit much. They date back to historical outfits, yes, I understand.I'm guessing they looked silly back then, too.
But, the oddest thing is their steps. They march with their legs straight out, and they have an odd slap shuffle step that they do every once in a while. like some sort of slow motion tap dance step.
They march back to the tomb and salute, then the two old guards come up to the front to leave while the new ones take their posts. On the way out, they old guards come close together at the top of the steps and make their toes kiss in midair.
I'm sure it must have some sort of meaning, but I can't for the life of me find it online. Emma wanted desperately to feed the pigeons that were there, but we had nothing to feed them. She was sad, because she loves feeding pigeons, and these were even willing to sit all over you for food.
When that was over, we headed back down the road that Hard Rock was supposed to be on. We found it. Had we looked to the right instead of the left when we first came out onto the street before the changing of the guards, we would have seen it right away. We went in, and saw lots of sombreros and big plastic Party City-looking Mexican seals on the wall. (Not seals the animal, seals the things that look like big coins) There was also some demonstration of Mexican dances playing on the TV instead of regular music videos. We were like, "Ha! It's Mexican night at Hard Rock!" Then we realized that it was Cinco de Mayo. Duh!
The waiter seemed kind of excited that we knew what Cinco de Mayo was. He was also impressed that we didn't need him to translate the menu for us. The descriptions were all in Greek, but the names of the dishes were all in English. We've eaten there enough to know what to get. We ordered Mexican-ish dishes in celebration. And milkshakes. Because that's what you get at Hard Rock, that's why. It's hard to find real milkshakes in Europe. The food was just as Hard Rock food always is, and always should be.
We strolled back through Plaka, the very touristy knick-knack section of Athens, to our hotel. It was fun.
Back in the hotel, we discovered that all of the mattresses were covered in plastic. They crinkled. And crinkled. And crinkled. Every time one of us moved. And we are not still sleepers. It was awful. We were also over a sports bar, where people sang and cheered late into the night. The singing didn't actually bother us. It was loud enough to be entertaining, but not loud enough to disturb sleep. The plastic mattresses, though, made it so I didn't sleep very well at all.
Emma says - I climbed up another mountain today. With lunch, I had a really yummy bitter lemonade soda thing. I'm really glad that they let me stay and rest at the hotel for a little while this afternoon. I was so tired, and I think it would have ruined the rest of the trip if I didn't get some rest. Hard Rock was SOOO GOOOD and I love Hard Rock. We always go to Hard Rock if we can.
Breakfast was ordinary, but in the lobby, we ran into our Australian buddy from Mycenae. We chatted for a few minutes, and then it was off to Delphi (which is properly pronounced Delf-ee, not Delf-eye, as I had always pronounced it). This was the thing that Max most wanted to do. First was the museum, of course. We didn't have time to read every sign, though, and we managed to pass right by the Omphalos, the "Navel of the World". Delphi is said to be the center of the world. Zeus sent out two birds from opposite ends of the earth, and they met in the middle. The middle was Delphi, and the Omphalos is the stone thing placed there to mark the spot. It is also said that the gasses breathed in by the Pythia (the lady who gave the oracle) came through the Omphalos, as it was hollow.
But, we did see some pretty cool things. We got to take pictures, but only of the statues. No people. When I tried to get in a picture with a sphinx, the lady yelled at us. No people! OK, fine. I have no idea why.
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| sphinx |
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| These are ivory with bronze (I think?) decorations |
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| I had never before seen a little girl statue on her own like this |
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| This is The Charioteer. He's famous |
Time for the site. It's a bit of a walk to the entrance, but it was all shady. We got inside and started up. I had gotten a book at the museum shop, and it had a map, but it was rather hard to tell what was what. It just said "Sanctuary of Apollo" which I wasn't sure meant the whole place, or just the main Apollo temple. Since it's mostly in ruins, the shapes of the buildings are sometimes hard to tell. Plus, it said there was a sacred bull at the beginning, and I never saw one. So, I was kind of confused. Anyway...
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| The Temple of Apollo |
The sanctuary is, of course, built up a hill. So, we climbed. Max really wanted to see the cave where the Pythia sat, but she was under the temple, and it collapsed a while ago, so you can't see it. We did see the sacred pool where she bathed, though it had no water, and the spring was blocked off due to rock slides.
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| The pool where the Pythia bathed |
I wanted to see the Tholos of Athena, but I couldn't tell where it was on the map. It wasn't on the Sanctuary of Apollo map, which is the other main reason why I was unsure about whether the map was for the whole place or not. I was also looking for a cache. The cache page said that the Jeeps wouldn't work there, so we would need to just keep our eyes open. I did, but I didn't see it. Max & I walked all the way up to the top of the site, but to no avail. As we were looking, Em came up and joined us. She had stayed down a bit because of her ankle, but as she kept telling us, she had climbed two frickin' mountains yesterday, she could do anything.
No luck on the cache, and no luck on the Tholos. On the way back down, we stopped n asked an attendant where the Tholos was. She pointed down the street. It's not actually in the Sanctuary itself, it was a separate piece. We could just barely see it from there. She said it was a very short walk, no problem. So, we got slushies at the bottom (it was hot) and started walking along a winding mountain road to the Tholos. We saw some steps down, and went in. No Tholos. This was a gymnasium. The Tholos was further down. We had already walked a bit down the hill by that time, we we knew we'd have to walk back up. The road also started looking quite dangerous by that point, as there was no more sidewalk. So, it was back to the car to drive to the Tholos. It was on the way out of town, anyway, and that's the way we needed to go.
We drove down to the Tholos & got out. A Tholos is a round temple. This was a Tholos to Athena. Three of the columns have been restored, so it's really pretty.
This is also where we discovered that the Greeks apparently built with Legos.
On the way out, Em discovered a dead snake in a drainage ditch. So, we got sticks and played with it for a little while. We didn't pick it up, but we made it into a snake eating its own tail. We couldn't get the mouth to stay open, though, so you just have to imagine.
Time to go down the mountain. First, we passed through Arachova. It's a tourist town.
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| Hoe do people get these things home? |
You may recall our original plan was to go to Thermopylae after Delphi, but with the whole "everything's closed" on May 1 thing, we changed Thermopylae to our first day, so we could get back to Athens to see some stuff Saturday (this) afternoon. Well, then they scheduled the election for this weekend, so everything was closing at 3. There's no way we could see Delphi, drive the 3 hours back to Athens airport, drop off the car, get to our hotel to drop off our stuff, and get out to see stuff by 3. So, I looked for something else to see on the way home. The same guy who made the Delphi cache that we didn't find had one at a monastery called Osios Lukas. It was only a little bit off the road back to Athens, and Max loves monasteries (I find it interesting that we're both non-religious, but he loves monasteries, and I love churches and shrines) so we decided to go there.
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| Beautiful |
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| I love this roof |
The first thing we did when we got there was to look for the cache. It gave pretty clear directions how to get to the right area, on the hill above the parking lot. But, we got up there and couldn't find anything that looked right. The Jeeps was sending me in circles. Plus, it was really hot. We couldn't wear shorts in the monastery, so we had put on jeans before we got out of the car. We gave up. We did find some nice rocks up there, though, so we grabbed a couple of those. I like to collect rocks and/or shells when we go places.
The things I had read said that Osios Lukas has some of the finest Byzantine art in Greece. It really was beautiful. Most of the mosaics were still in excellent condition, and most of the painting was, too.
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| Mosaic |
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| Mosaic |
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| Mosaic on the underside of an arch |
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| Note the small version underneath. You can buy that in the gift shop |
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| Jesus of the Big Mac |
There was a body in a glass case between the Lady Chapel and the main church. I thought it was a woman, but upon further investigation, I think it might actually be St. Luke of Steiris.
There was also a crypt with a sign that said, "St. Barbara" though we couldn't (and still can't, even after looking online) tell whether she's actually in there, or if it's just a shrine to her. We found out later that St. Barbara is the patron saint of those who work with explosives, so I thought it particularly fitting that we found her, not only because my mom's name is Barbara, but also because one of my brothers is an explosive ordinances guy in the army.
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| St. Barbara |
We were hungry & thirsty, and saw that there was a little snack shop on the grounds. we went in to get water and snacks, and the guy said, "sandwiches?" Sure, we love sandwiches. He said, "Three sandwiches? I will bring them out. 5 minutes." We got our waters and a little pack of sesame sweets, and went outside to wait. It was a lovely shady spot with a table made of rock with seats made of rock. It was nice and cool. He brought us our sandwiches (all ham and cheese, no options) and we had a wonderful lunch at the monastery.
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| I really liked this gate into this little garden. |
Full and happy, we changed back into shorts and headed off to Athens. We were quite a bit earlier back to the airport than we had originally thought we would be. We called the rental car company when we were half an hour out, and told them we were on our way. The guy that answered was the same one we had worked with on Tuesday, and he said he was already at the airport, waiting for somebody else. We dropped off the car with little difficulty, and he took us to the taxi stand. Our hotel was right downtown, and there is a 35 euro flat rate to get downtown, so we didn't have to haggle at all. Our taxi driver was rather taciturn. At one stoplight, there were people dancing for money. Max gave them a little. The taxi driver cheered up a little after that. it was very close to our hotel, though, so we didn't get to enjoy his conversation for long.
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| Kiss FM. It even had the same jingle |
The driver dropped us at the address on our hotel reservation slip, and we went in. Actually, the lobby was crowded, so I went it. Turns out, the address they gave us was for the hostel part of the hotel, and our apartment part was a couple of blocks away. So, we walked. Luckily, we had everything nice and compact in our suitcases, so it wasn't bad. We got in to the right part of the hotel, checked in, and went up to our room. I had heard great things about this place. It was written up in all of the books and gets great reviews on Trip Advisor. Well, I don't know if we just got a crappy room, but it was nothing like the pictures or the description. I didn't care to make a fuss, though, so we dealt with it. It was plenty big, and it had a little kitchenette, but it had no other amenities. The bathroom was one where there is no real division between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. There was a partial glass wall, but it didn't protect much. Your clothes had to go on the toilet while you showered, or they would be soaked. Anything on the floor got soaked, as we discovered with a roll of toilet paper. But, it had beds and A/C, so we were fine.
Em was exhausted, but Max & I wanted to go see if there were any signs about the acropolis being open the next day. I knew from their website that the Acropolis Museum would be open until 3 on both Saturday and Sunday, and was always closed on Monday. I was really afraid that the Acropolis was closed on Monday, too, because it seems like there were a lot of things closed on Mondays. But, their website hadn't been updated in what must have been ages (it still had winter hours listed, when they were supposed to end over a month ago), so I had no idea of their schedule. So, Max & I walked up to the Acropolis, while Em stayed and played on the computer in the room. (We were willing to deal with the crappy room because it was so very close to the Acropolis and all of the historical things without being crazy expensive). Guess what? Closed. I figured it would be. But, there was nothing that said it would be closed for the elections the next day, and it did have opening hours for Monday. So, I felt better.
We went back to the hotel to get Em, and we all went out for dinner. As you know if you've read much of my blog, we try to hit the Hard Rock every time we go to a city that has one. Athens does. Max knew the address, so I looked on my little map and found how to get to the street. We got a bit mixed up, though (the street signs aren't always easy to find) and we ended up in an unexpected place. So, we found our spot on the map and found our destination, and started out again. We came out on the right street and found where Hard Rock should have been, but it wasn't there! Maybe we had the wrong address. So, we walked up that street some more, but we didn't find it.
We did find Syntagma Square, though, which was another place I wanted to see. In front of the Parliament, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, they have a changing of the guards every hour. The timing was perfect. They started the change just a couple of minutes after we got there. Much like the guards at the Tower of London, they look straight ahead an don't move or react in any way. They keep these straight faces all through what honestly looks like a very silly ceremony. I have no problem with skirts as part of a uniform, though they aren't terribly scary, but the enormous tassels on the hats and the giant shoe pompoms are a bit much. They date back to historical outfits, yes, I understand.I'm guessing they looked silly back then, too.
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| Eek! Maybe the pom poms are actually ill tempered small dogs that will bite you |
But, the oddest thing is their steps. They march with their legs straight out, and they have an odd slap shuffle step that they do every once in a while. like some sort of slow motion tap dance step.
They march back to the tomb and salute, then the two old guards come up to the front to leave while the new ones take their posts. On the way out, they old guards come close together at the top of the steps and make their toes kiss in midair.
 |
| Mwa! |
I'm sure it must have some sort of meaning, but I can't for the life of me find it online. Emma wanted desperately to feed the pigeons that were there, but we had nothing to feed them. She was sad, because she loves feeding pigeons, and these were even willing to sit all over you for food.
When that was over, we headed back down the road that Hard Rock was supposed to be on. We found it. Had we looked to the right instead of the left when we first came out onto the street before the changing of the guards, we would have seen it right away. We went in, and saw lots of sombreros and big plastic Party City-looking Mexican seals on the wall. (Not seals the animal, seals the things that look like big coins) There was also some demonstration of Mexican dances playing on the TV instead of regular music videos. We were like, "Ha! It's Mexican night at Hard Rock!" Then we realized that it was Cinco de Mayo. Duh!
The waiter seemed kind of excited that we knew what Cinco de Mayo was. He was also impressed that we didn't need him to translate the menu for us. The descriptions were all in Greek, but the names of the dishes were all in English. We've eaten there enough to know what to get. We ordered Mexican-ish dishes in celebration. And milkshakes. Because that's what you get at Hard Rock, that's why. It's hard to find real milkshakes in Europe. The food was just as Hard Rock food always is, and always should be.
We strolled back through Plaka, the very touristy knick-knack section of Athens, to our hotel. It was fun.
Back in the hotel, we discovered that all of the mattresses were covered in plastic. They crinkled. And crinkled. And crinkled. Every time one of us moved. And we are not still sleepers. It was awful. We were also over a sports bar, where people sang and cheered late into the night. The singing didn't actually bother us. It was loud enough to be entertaining, but not loud enough to disturb sleep. The plastic mattresses, though, made it so I didn't sleep very well at all.
Emma says - I climbed up another mountain today. With lunch, I had a really yummy bitter lemonade soda thing. I'm really glad that they let me stay and rest at the hotel for a little while this afternoon. I was so tired, and I think it would have ruined the rest of the trip if I didn't get some rest. Hard Rock was SOOO GOOOD and I love Hard Rock. We always go to Hard Rock if we can.
Laughed at the part about Cinco de Mayo! Glad you found it!
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