After Friday's enormous downpour, I was a little worried that our weather might suck for our day trip. As we ascended into the mountains, it appeared it wasn't going to be great. It rained quite a bit on the way up, but managed to remain cloudy when we started our tour of the ruins of Delphi.
I would give my left testicle to go back in time and see what that would've looked like in the glory days of Greece. Our guide was a lovely woman who gave us an in-depth explanation of pretty much everything that was there. She definitely knew her stuff. One of the interesting things she said was that when the Oracle delivered answers, they were cryptic and vague so that way they could be interpreted in two different ways. People would tell the priest who was on the other side of the wall from the Oracle what they wanted, that way when the Oracle spouted off her gibberish, because she was actually just getting high off burning fumes, the priest could always give the correct answer to the person who came to see the Oracle. This way, the Oracle was never wrong because her answers were so vague that they could be applied in any way. Thanks, now I understand why modern-day politicians act like they do.
They always chose young girls, especially virgins (man, people in ancient times REALLY had an affinity with virgins) to make the Oracle because the idea was that they would have plenty of years to learn the successes of life. Well that or they would die prematurely from a melted brain from all the inhalations. You know, for as smart as the ancient Greeks were, they sure missed the memo on that one.
Delphi is referred to as "The Navel of the Earth." I just don't see how this is a favorable nickname, BUT they were very proud of it so I guess work with what you got, huh? I wonder what Portland would be called: "Homeless Teenage Heaven," "Stripper World," or "Portland: Home of the Wanna-Be Hipster." I guess that "The Navel of the Earth" sounds a little better now. Anyway, the story behind that is Zeus wanted to find the center of the world, so he released two golden falcons (eagles? So I wasn't paying that close of attention) and they would meet in the center of the Earth. They landed on Delphi. Hey, works for me, at least it wasn't somewhere in Jersey.
The views in Delphi were truly breath-taking. I put up an album on Facebook but to try and say that the pictures do it any justice is a total joke. Pictures, at their best, are a poor mental representation that attempts to capture the world but falls flat on its face. The sun busted through the clouds and we were treated to a perfect fall day. I also just reread those last couple of sentences and realized that I am an enormous tool for how I phrased them. There, I saved you the time of mocking me.
Three for three on excursions. Well done, Greece. You have quite a bit to offer.
Yep, if that doesn't sum it up, then nothing else does.
P.S. Watch this if you haven't yet. It will make you a better person.
This looks awesome. I only spent time five days in Greece on the islands but I loved it. Would love to get back there soon. Keep up the blogging.
ReplyDeleteEasy with the Jersey bashing there, Mert.
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