Take me to the Oracle!

A class accommodation Hotel Amalia

view from the balcony

ruins of Delphi, also site of Christian churches

What's left of the Temple of Apollo, where you could ask the Oracle questions

the ampitheatre above

surrounded by mountains

the treasury building

the temple of Athena

museum exhibit

Greek version of Sphinx

further exhibits

recreation of a thriving ancient Delphi

I’m sitting at the Amalia Hotel www.amalia.gr in Delphi having a Mythos beer (3.90 euro a bottle) after my first day on the Delphi/Meteora tour. I must admit, it turned out better than I thought.

Originally I tried to “do it myself” from Sicily, and even contacted Spiros, the “best taxi driver in Greece and the only one in Athens who doesn’t smoke” but he wanted about 650 euro to take me to Delphi and Meteora and that didn’t include accommodation!

Eventually I settled on Antelope Travel http://www.antelope-travel.com/Three-Days-Delphi-and-Meteora-Tour.html (Chat tours) which runs a 3 day Delphi/Meteora Tour. I paid 328 Euro which includes all transport, entrances and 2 meals each day for a tourist hotel without having to share with anyone, but somehow tonight at least I am at the more expensive A class Amalia. Not sure why but I’m not complaining. I checked my voucher and I should have been staying at the more humble Hermes hotel here and Orfeas hotel at Kalambaka. Perhaps I’ve been upgraded!

I was really worried about the tour being boring and too regimented, but I must say, so far it has been good. Eve, our guide for the day was intelligent and a great storyteller, unlike Nina the awful Pompei tour guide, Dave and I escaped from years ago! There has been a good mix of organised activity and information and quiet/free time. This afternoon for example the ‘tour” finished at lunch (2.30pm –they eat so frigging late here!) and then it was just me and 3 oldies who were left at the hotel to “do our own thing” until about 1-30 pm tomorrow when we join another group and go to Meteora. 

I checked in, got changed and set off to explore Delphi and visit the temple of Athena.

The trip to Delphi was pretty painless. The hardest bit was “leaving Athens”, which really depends on the skill of your driver in negotiating the horrendous traffic. Ours, Gregoris, was pretty good and about an hour after setting off, we were in rural Greece heading towards some impressive snow capped mountains and towards a pretty little the town of Arachova, with its colourful handicrafts lining its narrow streets. The only problem with a tour of course is that you can’t stop to take photos or browse, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it was a picturesque drive.

Eve regaled us with stories of Greek mythology. It was fascinating and so much better than a soapie, with stories of adultery, heroism, murder and adventure. (Later at the museum of Delphi, I discreetly wandered off on my own, rejoining the group from time to time, as my eyes glaze over after too many facts and figures and time in museums!)

Apologies in advance for my errors and ignorance but this is what I remember about the legend of Delphi.

Zeus, the head honcho –God of the sky- is married to Hera, but has a lot of affairs. Apollo is one of his sons.

One day Zeus wakes up and asks (as you do) “Where is the centre of the earth?” and no one can tell him, so he asks two eagles to help him out and sends one to one end of the earth and one to the other and tells them

“Guys, fly towards each other, and when you meet that must be the centre”

The poor eagles didn’t have radar so they collided and fell down to earth and where they fell became Delphi. Delphi means “belly” in Ancient Greek.

At some point (I fell asleep for part of the story) Apollo takes the form of a human and travels. He is on a boat that is attacked by pirates, and knowing they will take him as a slave, because that’s what happened to good looking boys on boats in those days, jumps into the sea to evade capture. Dolphins lead him to land and he ends up going the sanctuary of his grandmother Gaia –but he fights with a python (which is really a dragon in those days) on what is considered sacred ground and it is a big sin to do that, so he has to be punished even though he is the head honchos son – I’m glad to see that there was no favouritism!-and his punishment is to live as a human and slave for 9 years, which is pretty harsh for a God’s son.

Fast forward nine years, and he’s done his time and he builds a house in Delphi. Not sure why?  and decides to give mortals the gift of an oracle. Then the story gets a bit more complicated and involves cleansing ceremonies and young maidens who eat bay leaves and channel cryptic answers to all the questions that everyone asks!

The point is that it’s really interesting stuff and I feel pretty ignorant that I don’t know any of it.

What I do know, is that sitting under a tree at Apollo’s temple and looking out across the valley to the mountains majestically towering around us, I had the same feeling I have had when I was at Macchu Pichu, in Peru and in remote areas of the Kimberley and in Egypt, and that is that the ancients all over the world had so many things in common and really got it right. They listened to nature, respected and tried to understand her. They had amazing intelligence and ability in engineering, astronomy, medicine, preserving, art, and agricultural practices. That’s not to say, it was easy living back then, because I suspect you were kind of in survival mode a lot of the time, but my sense is that it was more simple and less complicated then.

All of a sudden I realise, that in spite of my freedom, I am not free!

It is my bodily functions that control my day, (hunger, tiredness and ablutions need to be factored into my daily plans!) and my bladder is crying out for attention. I calculate how long it will take me to get back to the museum, where I know there are toilets and then I realise I haven’t even asked the oracle a question.

I sit for a while, listening to the silence and the absorbing the energy of this ancient sacred place, imagining what it would have been like to be here then.

What comes is unexpected.

“even though there are some questions, I have no need for answers right now.”

Instead a deep sense of gratitude envelops me. As I look out across the valley to mountain still green from winter rain and see the butterflies playing together in front of me and hear the faint sounds of humans in the profound stillness of this place and feel the tears on my cheek, that remind me that I am indeed an emotional being, I am grateful that I am healthy and happy and able to be right here, right now, today.  

A presto

Mon x

Tips

Make sure you have rubber soles shoes. Mine died and I had to wear my leather ballerina pumps and risked life and limb as I kept slipping on the smooth surface of the ancient stones. Eventually I went barefoot!

Never leave your cap on the bus, even on an overcast day. It was a hot climb up and when the sun came out it burned!

Go out of your comfort zone sometimes. If you are gregarious, be silent, if you like to be on your own, try the group thing. It’s good for your brain and your emotional well being!

I was unusually antisocial today, yet still managed to meet some fabulous citizens of the world, a couple from Alice Springs who work on an Aboriginal community, a Chinese/American writer, who I saved from getting on the wrong tourist bus, and a Korean Christian woman, whose group stopped above the temple of Apollo and sang a haunting hymn. The glorious melody accompanied me as I walked up the hill. Efaristo’ and cheers!

enjoyed this beer after my hike!

Lobby of Amalia

not hot enough for me but great view!