Delphi, Greece

Delphi is a quick 3 hour bus ride from Athens. But we were not coming from Athens. We were in Kalambaka. In the slow season, it’s not quite as easy. Oh on Thursday, Fridays, and Sundays you can take the 45 minute bus to Trikala and then catch a direct bus and be nestled into your room 3 ½ hours later. This day was a Tuesday. So we were up by 6:30. Downstairs for breakfast at 7. Out the door by 7:20 and at the bus station with tickets in hand by 7:40. First, a 45 minute bus ride to Trikala, the next town over, only about 15kms away. Then, the 9:00am from Trikala to Lamia. So now it’s 10:30. The bus to Delphi leaves at 12:45. Not a problem. A little lunch, some unsecured free WIFI, a little blogging, a little reading, and the bus leaves before you know it. A heralding 75 mountainous minutes later and we are in…Assima? Turns out during slow season, the bus ends here and you need to catch another one to Delphi. At 3:30. Like an hour from now. By the time 4:15 rolls around we pull up and reach our destination. This is not unusual. Fairly typical travel day. I will say the busses are a bit more comfortable here and built for European sized humans. Which is nice. And even the one Jeff Gordon wanna-be bus driver only reached about 65% of the typical SE Asian fear factor through the mountain pass. Overall a nice travel day.

Even though it was only 4:30 when we got in, being slow season, all the sites were already closed. We walked around the little town and found a small place filled with cheap eats, smoky locals, and watched a beautiful sunset.

The morning came quickly and we were at the main Archeological site when it opened. The main attraction here, and apparently the second most popular in Greece, is the site of the Oracle at Delphi in the Temple of Apollo. At some point this was the most important/sacred place in all of ancient Greece. Legend has it that Zeus sent two Eagles to find the center of the Universe. Sent one east. One West. They eventually made it back around and met in the middle. Zeus threw down a big ol’ rock where they met…and it landed here.

There were many Oracles all over Greece but this was the most important one. Even more important than this one...

The Oracle herself was always a young peasant girl. And she only worked on certain days of the week. No matter what. Bank hours basically. People would come from all walks of life to seek advice from the Oracle, and Apollo, in everything from love, war, politics, farming, everything. When someone would come with a question, they would carve it on a rock or whatever, hand it to the priest. The priest would tell it to the Oracle. The Oracle would huff some volcanic fumes coming out of the ground, get all hopped up, (harnes the power of Apollo) and then mutter something to the priest. The priest would then carve the cryptic horoscope/magic 8-ball type answer and give it to the visitor. Apparently tons of questions have been found, but never an answer.

The ruins were cool, and the artifacts in the museum were really impressive, but it was really the scenery that stole the show. Even if you’re not a big history buff, the natural setting alone is worth the trip.

Didn’t take more than 3 hours to see all the sites at a very slow pace. Lunch at our favorite spot from the night before and we were waiting to catch the three hour 4:00pm bus back to Athens.

From Delphi, with love,

Will+Sara