Delphi

The center of the complex at Delphi was the temple to Apollo.  In the temple was an opening in the ground, from which came fumes that gave the Priestess or Pythia her prophetic visions.  (We refer to The Oracle as a person, but in Greece it is understood as the whole temple complex).  People would travel from all over Greece to make offerings at the temple and receive the Priestess' insights. There were 'Treasure houses' from each Greek city in the complex where they would store their special offerings.   The Priestess would drink from the local Castalian spring with holy powers, and eat laurel leaves.  Just as Apollo's throne was a calderon on a tripod, the Priestess also sat in a calderon within the temple.  The Priestess spoke in the voice of Apollo (gibberish not understood by humans), and her words were interpreted by her priests.

Artistic recreation: The large pillared building is the temple, 

below it were the treasure houses for each city and below that was a market.

 A tripod similar to the one the Priestess may have sat in.

There were not any buildings standing on the site, except one treasure house that had been reconstructed from the ruins.  A few of the temple pillars, and its foundation were still visible, and the walls and floors of other buildings in the complex.

The site is located halfway up a hill in a beautiful mountain valley.  When we arrived, there were rain clouds moving down the slopes of the mountains and coming down the valley toward us (fortunately we only got sprinkles).

After visiting the ruins, we went to the museum where some of the statues and artifacts were preserved.

  

This is the remains of a silver bull.  A wooden structure was completely covered with silver plating.

Greek politics, history, and economy

Our tour to Delphi included a guide who was full of interesting information (to a political scientist) about Greece.  Greece has thousands of years of history, but the guide only gave us details about the more recent changes as we made our way into the mountains:

*  Greece became a parliamentary government in 1974 when the King abdicated and a new constitution was adopted.  He lives abroad, but still visits frequently.
*  Greece has a large ex-patriot population, with the largest group being in Melbourne Australia.
*  Greece is 98% Greek Orthodox and 1% Muslim (legacy of the 400 years under the Ottoman Turks). There are a few Catholics, mostly on the outer islands that were captured by Italy over the years.  The official religion is Greek Orthodoxy, and it was interesting that the guide specifically mentioned that the others are also Greek citizens even if they are not Greek Orthodox.
*  The ancient Greek religions that worshiped the gods of Greek mythology were stamped out by the converted Christian rulers around 400 AD, and many of their temples were pulled down, or made into Christian churches.
*  The largest (or second largest, according to the internet) shipping fleet in the world with 3000+ ships.  (We got to see a few of these on our trip to the island of Poros).
*  Greek flag: The nine stripes are said to represent the number of syllables in the Greek phrase "Eleutheria H Thanatos" or "Freedom or Death", a battle cry during the revolt against the Ottoman empire.  The cross represents the Orthodox church, which played a crucial role in the fight for independence.  The color blue represents the sea which is so important to the Greek economy.  The white represents the waves on the ocean.
*  The guide noted that economic times were very hard and that they debt was higher than Greek's annual GDP right now.  She seemed to indicate that she was hopeful that better times were on the way, but that seemed a bit too optimistic from my perspective.

Greek countryside

As the plane was landing, we flew over the ocean and could see some of the many islands.  The train ride in showed a drier countryside that Italy, but with plenty of agriculture - olive trees, vineyards, and many plants I couldn't identify.  There are irrigation systems for the fields, especially the cotton fields (one of Greece's major exports).  They also grow sugar beets, wheat, potatoes, onions, and of course grapes and olives (the 3rd largest producer behind Italy and Spain).

We had the opportunity to drive up into the mountains yesterday and got to see more of the countryside.  Beautiful rugged hills/mountains, blooming yellow broom plants all over, also lots of pink oleanders and red poppies.  I thought about my mother-in-law throughout the day because she loves wildflowers (and could probably identify more of them than I could).

The countryside is not nearly as populated as it is in Poland, although it is not wilderness either.   (From our tourguide we learned that the population is 11 million, and that almost 5 million live in the capital city of Athens. In 1830 Athens had only 5,000 people - so the city has struggled with extremely rapid growth issues!)  Some of the land is cultivated, but some is not.  Our guide indicated that the national forestland is protected, but that the law allows for development where there are no longer trees, thus a lot of arson occurs (some of which caused the devastating forest fires in 2007).  Not quite sure if I understood this law correctly...seems a bit unusual to me.

There were several solar collecter farmers outside Athens, but they were not that big. (Every apartment building in Athens also have solar hot water heaters).   There were also a number of large wind turbines up on the hills. There were usually 4-5 together, not the giants spread of 20+ that we see in Kansas (not enough room on the hills for more).  It was kind of funny to see them on hilltops, since in Kansas they are spread across the plains.

Each unit is presumably for one apartment.  Most buildings had 8-10 collectors on top.

The rocky hillsides have streaks of terracotta red and white.  The red indicates bauxite, which is mined in the mountains (open pit on the top of hillsides), and used in the Greek aluminium industry.  The white shades are often marble, which is famous worldwide.

National Gardens

We spent the end of the day in the National Gardens just reading and enjoying the relative cool and quiet (Athens is a pretty noisy city).  There are paths all over the place and lots of benches and water features to enjoy.

After relaxing there for several hours, we headed into the Plaka for dinner - real Greek food, NOT a German pub.  I had spinich pie and dolma (stuffed grape leaves).  Yum!  We walked around a bit and I acquired my requisite new scarf : )  then we headed back to the hotel.

 This tortoise crossed my path as I was walking in the gardens.  

He was moving at a pretty good clip for  a turtle!

 An excellent climbing tree!

Lycabettus hill

After lunch we ventured over to Lycabettus hill, the highest point in Athens.  We decided not to take the long trail up, opting for the short funicular ride instead (accessible after climbing over 100 stairs!).  The view from the top was quite spectacular, with all of Athens spreading out 360 degrees around you for as far as the eye can see.  You can look across and see the Acropolis (it looks quite small from the distance), and you can also see the sea port and ships out in the ocean on the horizon.

Unfortunately there is a total of one small tree at the top (under which sat several diligent vendors), and tons of blazingly white marble patios, so we chose not to linger after taking our pictures.  (The temperature today was about 28 C /82 F).

Stairs up to the funicular.

National Archeological Museum

On our second day we visited the National Archeological Museum.  Its quite a bit like the British Museum in design and display, but with artifacts only from Greece (and thus not as overwhelmingly large).  Lots of items from Mycenae and Thebes among other places.  I got to see the gold burial mask of King Agamemnon and lots of other gold and bronze items.  Many beautiful pots and other daily living items as well.

Delaney really enjoyed looking at the statues.  She wanted to know why so many of them were naked.  I explained that some of the men were athletes and that they competed without clothes.  You could tell by how well muscled they were that they were athletes : )  Then she wanted to know why the women were naked.  I just explained that women are beautiful, and that's the way they sculpted them.  She enjoyed seeing the various images of Aphrodite and Hercules, especially after reading about them in her mythology book.  She told me all about the power of his lion skin.

 Delaney wanted me to take pictures of this lady's hair from every angle she liked it so much!

 This was one of several cast iron (?) frying pans.  I loved the decorations on the bottom!

Souvenir shopping

We try not to do too much souvenir shopping, but its hard to resist a few items in each city.  I had intended to buy Delaney some books about Greek history and mythology.  She really enjoyed the books we got in Rome on ancient Roman times.  At the Acropolis museum, they had a huge pile of children's books in Greek, but only one in English.  Big disappointment.  We got the one and decided to keep on looking.  We asked the hotel clerk about bookstores and he steered us in the right direction.  After three more stops, we were still disappointed...This was a surprise because in Rome they had many books in every language imaginable.  We'll keep looking, but I'm not holding my breath at this point. We found her a small bronze owl to add to her animal sculpture collection instead.

The Plaka is the shopping and eating district and we enjoyed exploring around it.  I had to laugh when I saw at least 4 different fur shops there...Fur in Greece!?

Dessert

Dinner was not worth commenting about on our second evening.  We ended up in an "German pub" instead of a restaurant with Greek food because of the rain and being in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

Dessert on the other hand was fabulous - baklava - rich, sweet, dripping with honey - Delicious!  Its our plan to repeat this experience every night we are here.

Acropolis Museum

After visiting the Acropolis, we headed to the brand new Acropolis Museum.  It was very nice.  When you approach the building, you suddenly realize that you are walking on a glass floor that allows you to see down into an excavation site.  As we arrived, there were two archeologists who were cleaning some of the mosaic tiles that had been discovered on the site.  We stood right on top of them to watch - pretty cool. (Some other visitors got a laugh out of them when they started making shade puppets right over their work space - ha!)

Inside, there were lots of pots and sculptures on display.  Delaney took an interest in many of the items and had me read the labels to her.  There was a good historical video that explained how the building was put together and the different artistic elements on it.  I didn't realize it had been a temple to the goddess Athena, a Christian church, and a muslim mosque over the years.  Toward the end of the video it talks about how the structure fell to ruin over the years, ending with how the British Lord Elgin brutally ripped many of the sculptures from the edifice and carted them back to London for display (I've actually seen the exhibit in the British Museum).  The Greek government has asked that these sculptures be returned to Greece for display in the museum, but the British have not agreed to do so yet.  The Acropolis museum has beautiful display space for them with lots of replica plaster casts on display at the moment.  It will be interesting to see how long the British Museum chooses to hold on to them.

Impressions of Athens

We spent quite a bit of time walking the streets of Athens yesterday (getting to the Acropolis, finding dinner in another torential downpour, and just looking around).  Of all the large cities I've visited, Athens is the most unusual.  Rather than getting a clear sense of "good safe neighborhood", "upscale rich neighborhood" or "keep walking out of here" neighborhood, the buildings are a complete mix of attractive and run-down, side by side.  Even in the Plaka district, there were fancy apartment buildings with beautiful marble facades, run down apartments with graffiti all over them, souvenir shops, upscale cafes, and unoccupied store fronts.  Its a bit unsettling because you can't tell if you are in a relatively safe neighborhood or not.  My overall impression resembles that of many others who have written about Athens, other than the ancient sites the city is not very attractive.

These two buildings were just 5 doors apart on the same street in the Plaka.

Dogs and Cats

One of the odd things we noticed on our climb to the top of the Acropolis was an unusual number of "seemingly dead" dogs laying around.  They weren't actually dead, but they were laying very very still in the middle of the walk ways on the hill.  Not sitting up, not walking around at all.  Simply laying down as if exhausted. No real interest in what was passing by them. No owners.  They were simply wild dogs.  We counted at least 20 in an hour.  I had not heard about dogs in Athens, but apparently I was unaware of a long standing problem, as documented in this article (more on Athens' strays).  Athens and other Greek cities have thousands of wild dogs and cats.  After a successful lawsuit against a mayor for maltreatment of animals in the city pound, many cities have closed down their pounds and the problem literally multiplies.   Delaney The Dog Lover was charmed by them, but I was rather disturbed by their evident ill health.  Kind of sad.

  This cat in the Plaka was watching a bird and thinking about dinner.  

We saw him on this same rock each evening that we passed by.

"Hey Mom"

Although I have posted several blog comments from Delaney's perspective, I don't think I could successfully do so for Athens.  It was clear for our touring yesterday that the things that catch her eye are often not the same things that catch my eye.  We started out the day headed to the Acropolis, leaving our hotel, crossing the busy street with no traffic light or cross walk, taking the metro and then walking to the Acropolis.  While I'm occupied trying to figure out if speeding cars and motorbikes are going to exit the roundabout on the street we are trying to cross, Delaney is saying "Hey Mom, hey Mom, did you see that donut?" (in the window of the restaurant on the corner). "No honey, I missed it" "Aw, Mom!" As I'm trying to shove my way onto the crowded metro and be aware of potential pick pockets..."Hey Mom, hey Mom, did you see that sign?" (on the wall of the metro station, advertising some upcoming movie) "No Sweetie, I didn't see it" "Aw, Mom!" By the time we were halfway up the hill to the Acropolis, I was trying to teach her a new phrase "Hey Dad".  It didn't stick.  It was a great day, but I was glad when the "Hey Mom" finally fell asleep!

Acropolis!

Our first major sightseeing trip was to the Acropolis where the Parthenon sits.  We made our way up the hill and the vistas of the city spread out before us.  It was quite an amazing view!  It had rained in the middle of the night and it was still quite cloudy.  This was good because it stayed nice and cool (the sun came out later as we were heading back down and it got hot).  We were surprised to see a number of cranes and scaffolding around the Parthenon, efforts at preservation and restoration.  A project had begun in the 1990s to rebuild one side of the collonade that had collapsed.  It was completed a few years ago.  The new white marble is very visible next to the older marble.  They are also working to replace older rusting metal supports (from previous intervention efforts) with new titanium ones.

Parts of pillars just stacked on the ground.

 Lycabettus hill (tallest point in Athesns) viewed from the Acropolis.

The Caryatids.

I liked this recycle bin : )

We ate a picnic lunch on the hill and then headed to the brand new Acropolis museum.