Greece - Day 2 - On Delphi, and trespassing
On day two, the plan is pretty ambitious in terms of schedule - head to Delphi, have a pretty thorough look around, then push on all the way to Patra. The day starts well - we manage to get up relatively on-time-ish, get ourselves onto the task of finding some butane fuel for my cooker thingy, so that we can make road coffee, and thus survive, and then we head out of town.
Unfortunately, we're following signposts, so we manage to take a b-road out of town, rather than the "big" roads. This actually doesn't change the windiness of the road, as there's no way of going over terrain like that in anything that even vaguely resembles a straight line, but the quality of the road deteriorates swiftly, passing quickly through poor, dire, and abandoned and settling on wtf. It winds it's way up the cliffs, with missing sections on the outside balanced by half the cliff-face encroaching on the inside half; some of the potholes are so big that I expect that asteroid monster from Starwars to come out of them any second. Scariness! Anywho, we make it over that somehow, and make coffee at the top of a gorge in a windswept pass. Every turn of the road has Dave and me looking out across the plain and having to resist taking even more photos. The condition of the road is explained - the roadworkers get sent up to the heights, but just get gobsmacked by the views...
Finally make it to Delphi, which is breathtaking for a number of reasons - firstly for it's amazing ruins, but it stands head and shoulders above other ruins that I've seen because of the setting - perched on top of a hillside, with stunning views of valley, which contains even more ruins. We took a simply ridiculous number of pictures of pretty much the same view. Anyway, we went to the archeological museum (wow), to which I forgot to take my shiny new glasses, so didn't get the best view of things. Amazing how immaculately the Greek sculptors showed the human body, considering how long it took painters to do likewise. Also amazing that those things survived 2500 years in situ, considering that every classical source ever was telling you exactly where it was, and what was there! I can't imagine that the wealthy of the region wouldn't have liked a genuine ancient masterpiece sitting in the backyard (or courtyard, or whatever). Still, stunning stuff. Then, out into the site itself, where the view takes your breath away. So we climb the site, each twist and turn presenting a new take on the vista, and head on up to the stadium, right at the top of the complex. It's an amazing setting, but one has to wonder why they put it right at the top - maybe they got sick of asking the atheletes if they'd warmed up properly. The stadium is roped off, because of the danger of falling rocks, but we're feeling anti-authoritarian (we've been listening to Twisted Sister in the car - "We're not gonna take it, No! we ain't gonna take it!") and skip over the rope, outside of the viewing arc of the watchful attendants, for a sneaky "lining up for the race" photo. Spend the way down discussing further trespass opportunities, including the idea of bringing some bread, cheese and ham and a sleeping bag, and hiding out in the ruins for a night. I'd swear it's warm enough... You didn't hear it here!
Suitably impressed by the scale and majesty of Apollo's temple, and can easily imagine it in it's pomp, dominating the scene bordered by that glorious backdrop. We spend a bit of time working out where each of the statues came from, and trying to imagine them in situ (a bit harder than the big temple). Get ourselves confused about the difference between the Pythia and the Sibyl of Delphi, and have to look it up later on. Classical education, fail!
We leave like good boys, and boot it down to Patra, aided by some relatively straight roads - I don't fancy driving at night in Greece, it's difficult enough to miss the potholes during the day.
In Patra, we find that our hotel is some serious way off the main strip, which at first seems like a bad thing, but in the end leads us to a local restaurant situated in what seems to have been originally designed as a garage. There's not an English-speaker in the place (which is packed) and we have a delicious meal, ordered through the medium of mime, and a few beers in a leisurely fashion. Beautiful!
Unfortunately, we're following signposts, so we manage to take a b-road out of town, rather than the "big" roads. This actually doesn't change the windiness of the road, as there's no way of going over terrain like that in anything that even vaguely resembles a straight line, but the quality of the road deteriorates swiftly, passing quickly through poor, dire, and abandoned and settling on wtf. It winds it's way up the cliffs, with missing sections on the outside balanced by half the cliff-face encroaching on the inside half; some of the potholes are so big that I expect that asteroid monster from Starwars to come out of them any second. Scariness! Anywho, we make it over that somehow, and make coffee at the top of a gorge in a windswept pass. Every turn of the road has Dave and me looking out across the plain and having to resist taking even more photos. The condition of the road is explained - the roadworkers get sent up to the heights, but just get gobsmacked by the views...
Finally make it to Delphi, which is breathtaking for a number of reasons - firstly for it's amazing ruins, but it stands head and shoulders above other ruins that I've seen because of the setting - perched on top of a hillside, with stunning views of valley, which contains even more ruins. We took a simply ridiculous number of pictures of pretty much the same view. Anyway, we went to the archeological museum (wow), to which I forgot to take my shiny new glasses, so didn't get the best view of things. Amazing how immaculately the Greek sculptors showed the human body, considering how long it took painters to do likewise. Also amazing that those things survived 2500 years in situ, considering that every classical source ever was telling you exactly where it was, and what was there! I can't imagine that the wealthy of the region wouldn't have liked a genuine ancient masterpiece sitting in the backyard (or courtyard, or whatever). Still, stunning stuff. Then, out into the site itself, where the view takes your breath away. So we climb the site, each twist and turn presenting a new take on the vista, and head on up to the stadium, right at the top of the complex. It's an amazing setting, but one has to wonder why they put it right at the top - maybe they got sick of asking the atheletes if they'd warmed up properly. The stadium is roped off, because of the danger of falling rocks, but we're feeling anti-authoritarian (we've been listening to Twisted Sister in the car - "We're not gonna take it, No! we ain't gonna take it!") and skip over the rope, outside of the viewing arc of the watchful attendants, for a sneaky "lining up for the race" photo. Spend the way down discussing further trespass opportunities, including the idea of bringing some bread, cheese and ham and a sleeping bag, and hiding out in the ruins for a night. I'd swear it's warm enough... You didn't hear it here!
Suitably impressed by the scale and majesty of Apollo's temple, and can easily imagine it in it's pomp, dominating the scene bordered by that glorious backdrop. We spend a bit of time working out where each of the statues came from, and trying to imagine them in situ (a bit harder than the big temple). Get ourselves confused about the difference between the Pythia and the Sibyl of Delphi, and have to look it up later on. Classical education, fail!
We leave like good boys, and boot it down to Patra, aided by some relatively straight roads - I don't fancy driving at night in Greece, it's difficult enough to miss the potholes during the day.
In Patra, we find that our hotel is some serious way off the main strip, which at first seems like a bad thing, but in the end leads us to a local restaurant situated in what seems to have been originally designed as a garage. There's not an English-speaker in the place (which is packed) and we have a delicious meal, ordered through the medium of mime, and a few beers in a leisurely fashion. Beautiful!
posted by Not My Former at 2:54 AM
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