Our final full day was all about
Delphi. We woke up early and drove out to Delphi on the bus, which
took like three hours. Before we left, the pharmacies were all
closed again, so I asked our bus's tour guide, Tassos, if he knew
somewhere that was open where I could buy medicine. He said nothing
would be open now, but he spoke in Greek to one of the front desk
staff of the hotel and got me a couple of capsules. I couldn't read
anything written on the packaging, but at this point, my cold had
gotten so much worse I really didn't care as long as it worked. I
read most of the trip, but I did look up regularly to enjoy the
amazing mountain scenery. Mountains disappearing into clouds on one
side, farmland on the other. Later, a vertical wall of rock to one
side and a sheer cliff drop into fog on the other. Then, a small
town built into the mountain with streets all on different levels and
huge staircases connecting them. Some of these roads were super thin
and winding, so I applaud our driver for getting us there and back
safely. It's difficult to get pictures from a moving bus with tinted
and somewhat dirty windows with glare, so I mostly didn't bother. I
took a panoramic of one of the mountains across from a rest stop on
the way there. It really just doesn't capture how awe-inspiring the
countryside really is here.
At the Delphi ruins, we saw another
temple to Apollo, but this one was special because this was where the
prophet Pythia got her visions from the gods. We learned that people
would write their questions down on clay tablets and give them to the
priests, who would then give them to Pythia. She would go to the
gods with questions two or three times a month, so people often had
to wait a long time for their answers. When they got them, they were
often cryptic riddles or made no sense. The reason behind this is
that there was a spring near the temple where Pythia would bathe, but
this spring produces gasses which caused her to hallucinate, and
while she hallucinated and babbled incoherently, the priests would
write down her ramblings and interpret them as messages from above
and answers to people's questions. Interesting stuff. The ruins of
Delphi were pretty cool, and they were spread out on a big hill, so
it wound up being more of a hike than I'd anticipated. Then, it
started raining. We retreated to the attached museum to look at more
statues and Bobby did parkour on the steps before heading out to
lunch at a local restaurant. We shared lamb, salad, and the best
grilled cheese. Now, when I say that, I'm not talking about a
sandwich. They just took two thick slices of cheese and put it on a
grill. I don't remember what it was called, but it's a special
cheese that is only made in this tiny mountain town in the middle of
nowhere in the Greek countryside. It was a bit salty but then also
really savory and it wasn't melted or crumbly either. It kind of
squeaked on your teeth when you chewed it. I really can't describe
it, but it was absolutely the best food of the trip, except maybe
those cakes from Aegina. But still. Amazing.
I read some more on the way back, and
it was getting dark by then, so there wasn't much to see outside my
window. We had a little time at the hotel before dinner, at a
different restaurant, where we ate outside in this enclosed,
semi-heated sidewalk area. The food on the first courses was so good
I nearly didn't have room for the main one. They had the standard
salad and bread, then some stuffed grape leaves, a really tasty
sausage, and some other things I couldn't identify but tasted good.
The main course was a lasagna, but it didn't have red sauce or
Italian cheeses. It was a strange Greek lasagna, but it was also
good. For dessert, there was an almond cake thing and ice cream,
which I don't know how I managed to make room for, but I did.
Then it was back to the hotel. We had
a 2:30am wake-up call, so a regular night's sleep wasn't going to
happen.
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