Athens to Delphi

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 Delphi

 Yesterday, during our walk through the ancient agora, we visited the Stoa of Attalos. A stoa is a covered walkway. This one, rebuilt about 50 years ago, had shops along one side. Built about 150 BC, it might have been the first shopping mall. It was interesting walking along the Panathenaic Way, the old main street of the agora, where all the ancient Greeks would have walked.

 On the edge of the agora is the Temple of Hephaestus, the god of the forge. It used to be surrounded by metal-working shops. This temple was built in 449 BC.

 The Church of the Holy Apostles was built in the 10th century AD and is on the site of some of the Athens schools where Socrates and the other philosophers may have taught.
After we had wandered around the ancient agora enough, we walked a little further to Keramikos, the old Athens cemetery used from the 12th century BC to Roman times. However, looking at it from outside the gates, it was just paths between old walls and crypts that weren't in good shape. Plus the fence around it was covered in graffiti and the area is obviously a bit of a refuge for the homeless. Not that nice.

 In the market right outside our hotel door, I helped out the olive guy for a few minutes. We've never seen so many kinds of olives for sale.

This is Anita's artsy picture of her plastic wine glass on the roof terrace of our hotel, with the Acropolis and the Parthenon in the far background.

After happy hour, we walked about 4 blocks down the seedy side streets to a restaurant called "Telis", recommended in Lonely Planet. When we walked in, the waitress plunked the usual paper tablecloth over everything and handed us a brief menu. Then pointing at the menu, she said, in broken English, that it would either be pork chops or Greek salad - that's all they had. Why we got a menu at all, I don't know. Anyway, the pork chops and Greek salad were so plentiful and good, we couldn't even eat the bread. Not cheap though: 27.50 euros or about $40.
This morning we had breakfast and checked out of the Athens Center Square Hotel. I had spent a lot of time on the internet trying to figure out how to get to Bus Station B for the bus to Delphi. When I asked the front desk guys, they said not to bother with public transit because nothing went directly there, which I had already figured out. They told us to just get a taxi for about 7 euros and save a lot of aggravation. So we walked out onto Athina street and hailed a cab in about 2 seconds. The cabbie got us to the bus station in about 10 minutes for 5 1/2 euros, including tip, so that turned out to be good advice.
We bought return tickets to Delphi and back for about 30 euros each ($45). The bus left at 10:30 am and we were here by 1:30 pm. The bus wasn't as nice as Turkish buses but it was okay. For most of the trip, we thought the flight attendant was some old bum who got a ride on the bus, until he got out his little ticket machine and checked our tickets. Grooming is not a priority for everyone in Athens.
Anyway, the last 1/3 of the trip was through beautiful steep mountain terrain. Delphi is built on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, and it's steep. We're staying in the Hotel Sibylla and we have a balcony overlooking the valley. We can see all the way down to the Gulf of Corinth about 10 or 15 km away. This is a beautiful little town.

 The view from our balcony.

The latest pig-out at a diner just up the steps on the hillside, total price 17.50 euros ($26). At some point, this has to stop.