22 July 2010

Πάντα ῥεῖ: Shit happens

Yesterday, Scott and I drove a small two-lane (and at some intervals nearly a one lane) road to Epidarus. The site of Epidarus has a rather impressive ancient theater with a terribly unimpressive museum. Most of the original discoveries there have been moved to more note-worthy locations. We then spent the rest of the day relaxing in quiant, little Nafplio.

Today we packed our things, checked out of our incredible hotel in Nafplio and drove north toward Delphoi, which was once the spiritual site of the oracle of Delphi.
Scott seemed to have fun driving like a local Greek which means that you basically drive however the hell you would like. This includes going twice the speedlimit, passing a car on double, solid lines in on coming traffic, and if you're not in the mood to stop at stop signs, it's ok because apparently they are not mandatory.

It was quite stressful.

We then took several steep, curving and dizzying roads through the mountains to arrive at Delphoi, a little town that apears to be desperately clutching against the cliffs of Mt. Parnassus. I was excited to see the ancient sight of the Temple of Apollo (where the oracle lived) and a few other monuments that I had done so much research about in college. So we checked into our little hotel and got everything setteled as quickly as we could when we were greeted by a sudden, freak torrential thunderstorm.
I sat on the hotel bed and stared out the window, nearly in tears because I was afraid we wouldn't be able to go to the site. After missing the bus to see it earlier this week it almost seemed like the god Apollo, himself, was mocking me. We listened to the thunder echo off the mountains deep into the valley for awhile. Scott chuckled and told me that this was almost funny in a way.

I didn't see the humor.

But after a half and hour the god relented and we were able to go see ancient Delphi nestled high up in the mountain. It was nearly a religious experience finally getting to see it. The pictures and descriptions I had read in text books paled in comparison when you finally see it in person.

Or maybe it was the thin air finally getting to my head.



No matter. It was still awe inspiring.

No comments:

Post a Comment