Ancient Delphi and Athens

 January 15th, 2010

After breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to the ancient site of Delphi. The view was amazing, the allusion to what the buildings had been were amazing, and the history and depth of the place was stunning. I loved the fact that it was so old that the Romans visited it as tourists and the stories of the ancient religions that were there. I found it very interesting that the temple of Apollo was located directly on a fault line, and that the methane gas released were the spirits of the oracles breathed in by the little girls in the city. What was also fascinating was that once one of the little girls had died, they dressed up old ladies like little girls to fool the people going there so that no more little girls would die from ‘the overwhelming power of the gods.’ 

It would have been incredible to see Delphi in all its wonder at the height of it’s popularity, adorned with the three-thousand gold statues and all the marble buildings. But, the shell of what was left was still impressive, and the view added to it’s impressiveness. I think it might be my favorite historical site, second to Machu Picchu. 

After the ancient site, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and then made our way to Athens.

Athens is nothing like I expected. I think I was expecting something more historical, like Rome, but it was definitely not even close.  The buildings are very modern, and the city is not a very clean one. Stephania took up to Syntagma Square, in the center of the city, and we were able to do some shopping, but I was feeling very sick at this point. My friends and I got sandwiches at a cute little shop, and then Alyssa and I branched off and made our way back to the hotel. On our way back we stopped at this very cute store called Octopus, which I loved very much and wanted to buy everything in there. It was an array of cool furniture, clocks, trinkets, kitchen things, piggy-banks, ect. that were all very unique, funny, and super cute. I got a little cow piggy bank that I named after Stephania our tour guide.