Jimopolous and Sarahkles in Greece

Kalispera, my friend!  We've arrived into Rome just this morning, so I think it's time to update you about our time in Greece that has just ended.  We arrived in Athens midday on Wednesday after a very early morning flight from Tel Aviv, Israel.  By the way, Israeli security was out in full force even at 5:30am.  Those guys are serious.  :)  But the flight was fine, and we even got to see the Greek islands as we flew over the Mediterranean.  

We took the metro to downtown Athens and checked into our hotel.  We were grateful to find a cheap, yet very nice, hotel in Athens for 3 nights, which is perhaps a reflection of the Greek economy at present, but either way, we were grateful to have a place to ourselves instead of sleeping in dorm-style bunks.  We rested for a little while, and then wandered around the city center.  We went to a restaurant and ordered greek salad, fried cheese (saganaki), tzatziki, and pita bread.  Delicious!  We got to see a bit of the city, but we were tired, so we went back to the hotel pretty early.  The next morning, we got up quite early again to catch the 7:30 bus to Delphi.  Delphi is the site of the famous oracle that predicted the future for several centuries and it's about 3 hours away from Athens by driving, so we had to get an early start.  We drove way up into the Greek mountains and it was just lovely.  I mean, I'm sure I was primed for it, but it felt like a land of the (little g) gods for some reason, where you might expect to find Zeus and Hercules tromping around.  :)  The scenery felt to me like a mix of the southwest US and the Alps, with the arid scrubby landscape covering steep rocky mountains.  I suppose that's just the Mediterranean climes for you, but it was my first ever exposure and it's really quite beautiful!  And the green was a nice change from all the dusty desert we went through in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, as there are lots of olive, almond, and fig trees around.  This blinky little Greek kitty was showing off the landscape:

Delphi itself was a really pretty site as well.  Temples, monuments, shrines, and treasuries line the winding path up the side of the hill and culminate in a flat gymnasium field at the top where the Pythian games used to be held.  

Us, with a view looking down the hill.  That building behind us is a restored treasury where they stashed all the offerings to the god Apollo.

The ruins would have been impressive by themselves, but the natural beauty surrounding us really added to the ambiance of the Greek world's "omphalos" (belly button).  Legend goes that Zeus sent out two eagles to circle the world and find the exact center, and Delphi is where the eagles met.  A special stone was then dropped from the heavens to mark the spot.  Consequently, Delphi is the world's navel; Jim's navel was here, too:

And while Jim was engaged in omphaloskepsis, I was busy pretending to be a Greek nymph:

While walking around Delphi, we met some new friends - Mariana, Calima, and Dmitri - with whom we walked around and shared lunch later on.  It was fun to meet some temporary travel buddies, as we've done for short bits earlier in the trip, as well, and we enjoyed their company.

The next day was devoted to touring Athens' main attraction, which is the Acropolis, of course.  That hill in the middle of the city contains the world-famous Parthenon... and what a Parthenon it is!  :)  Despite the fact that large chunks of it are currently covered in scaffolding for restoration and preservation, it is still a most impressive building.  

We wandered all around that beautiful spot where so much history has survived in that one building.  It is the symbol of Athens and all that Greece achieved thousands of years ago, although it contains not only Greek history but world history, as well, since in different periods it was also a treasury, a church, and a mosque, depending on who ruled the realm at the time.  Quite fascinating, really.

We also went to the newly constructed and beautifully made Acropolis museum.  Really, it's quite lovely, and is likely the prettiest and most enjoyably formatted museum I've been to.  And the entrance is superb.  Glass panels cover the remains of an ancient Greek neighborhood and you walk right over it as you look down through and see what's been excavated!  Super nifty!

Plus, on the top floor, they are basically reconstructing the design of the Parthenon's upper portion in order to be able to fully display the sculptures from the pediments, frieze, and metopes.  It's a creative and nicely done way to show the carvings.  Also, by the blank spaces waiting to be filled in, you can tell that Greece is ready to wage battle with the British Museum for the remaining pieces (called the "Elgin Marbles," which were purloined centuries ago) to be returned to their homeland.

What a great museum!

Later, after another delicious dinner, we got some frozen Greek yogurt, which I highly recommend with raspberries and chocolate jimmies.  :)

The next morning (and by morning, I mean the middle of the night), we flew to the Greek island of Santorini.  I'm not sure either Jim or I really knew what to expect, but whatever it was, we got a whole lot more than we bargained for!  Santorini is gorgeous and is literally the rim of a volcanic caldera.  The whitewashed city of Thira is perched on the edge of the precipitous cliffs that drop off into the bluest of blue waters inside the caldera.  The shape of the volcano (or what's left of it) is pretty clear in looking at the landscape, too, and is just so cool to look at.  I would imagine it's extremely difficult ever to get tired of looking at this scenery!

Here's the view (refer to the cruise ships to give you some scale):

And here's how we got to enjoy the view:

We really loved Santorini!  We zipped all over the island on a little scooter that we rented, visited the 4,000-year-old ruins of an entire city that were preserved by volcanic ash at Akrotiri, ate amazing food, stopped at several beaches to get the view, did a wine tasting, and just generally cavorted, ending the day by swimming in the ultra-clear waters of the Mediterranean on a lava-rock beach where Jim got a huge kick out of the floating pumice pebbles.  We enjoyed the fullest use possible of our one day in Santorini and hope to go back some day in the future!

All in all, Greece was a huge hit!  :)