Delphi, Greece

Delphi is 3.5 hours  by road from Athens with a nice scenic route.

In the bus on the way to Delphi at 8am in the morning, with Chika.  Desperately trying  my best to look cheerful and not half sleepy. As you can see Chika is a morning person


The famous attractions at Delphi is the Oracle ruins which also houses the temple of Apollo and the Delphi museum

A snapshot of the description at the archaeological site of Delphi

Me chilling at a rest stop on the way to Delphi.Now i look lively after some breakfast

Pictures of the Delphi Ruins

  

An old theater that patrons to the oracle site would visit to watch plays

  

        Remains of the Athenian Treasury

  

During the period, the Treasury looked like the above pic

Ruins of the Roman Agora

Back in the day it looked like the pic above

 First Highlight of my trip

 Ruins of the Temple of Apollo

  

This is what the temple would have looked like

A pic in front of the remaining standing pillars of the temple of Apollo

Chika and I

Remains of the Halo's laire

would have looked like the pic above

Another Highlight of the trip to Delphi

 Remains of the Oracle of Delphi.

Legend says that During this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks. The Pythia  commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, beneath the Castalian Spring.

The Pythia was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by Apollo. The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BC, although it may have been present in some form in Late Mycenaean times,^[2] from 1400 BC and was abandoned, and there is evidence that Apollo took over the shrine from an earlier dedication to Gaia. The last recorded response was given about 395 A.D. to Emperor Theodosius I, after he had ordered pagan temples to cease operation.

The usual theory has been that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from a chasm in the rock, and that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature.The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks.

Famous Delphi Statue located in the Delphi Museum

Some other artifacts located in the Delphi museum

So after 3 hrs of looking at ruins and taking pictures, I was famished.  I decided to stop by at a local traditional Greek restaurant  at the city center in Delphi. This is usually a difficult exercises  for me because i am a pescetarian( only eat sea food) and traditional Greeks love their meat.

So I decided, to order some Greek salad and Risotto( only item on the menu with some kind rice). I was in for some surprise. Authentic Greek salad doe snot include leathers as typically made in the US. Authentic Greek salad is made with just cucumbers, tomatoes( my least favorites), onions, feta cheese and olive oil.  Looking at the dishes and menu in front of me, I said to myself, I am definitely going to loose weight on this trip!!!

                                                      Authentic Greek Salad

 Greek Risotto dish

After lunch,  continued my trip to  kalambaka,  where I stopped at Thermolaye. (The last highlight of my Delphi trip) Thermolaye is the place where the 300 Greek soldiers led by King Leonidas,  were killed by the Persian army led by Xerxes I of Persia. This was greatly portrayed by Hollywood in the firm 300. ( Loved this movie most especially Gerald Butler who plays King Leonidas)

Memorial statue of King Leonidas