Η ελληνική περιπέτειά μου

So, first off, I didn't go bungee jumping. I contracted a serious case of the stomach flu from a girl's boyfriend who came to visit. I was in bed for two full days. It was very depressing as I dry-heaved over the toilet.

But when I did get better we decided to go on a day trip to Delphi. If you don't know what Delphi is, it housed the very famous temple to Apollo with the most famous oracle of all time. She sat in the temple, giving her very vague prophecies. Leaders from all over the known world would seek her advice on numerous things, from wars to government. She would also sit on top of a hole that channeled the fumes of the hot water spring underneath to increase the dramatic effect and possibly to intoxicate herself. But, in order to get her prophecy, you needed to send a lavish gift. The treasures of the oracle were almost as famous as she was, and they lined the very long path up to the Temple. Today, most of them are housed in the museum and consist of numerous statues and gold-pieces. It is pretty amazing! There is one statue with its eyes still painted from ancient times, a very rare thing. It is so rare in fact that the statue is worth over 1 billion euros, more than 3 billion dollars!

The site itself is built onto the side of a mountain, practically all the way to the top and all the way to the valley below. My legs and thighs were burning at the end of the day. They are ruins of course, but they are some of the most interesting I have seen so far. Whenever you look outwards, the visual is an infinite expanse, since its on a cliff. The Temple was like all ruined temples, and there were a few treasuries, a theater, a stadium, gymnasium and other buildings. Whenever you see pictures of Delphi, you see a picture of a round ruin. That happened to be at the bottom of the hill, but I was unsure of what it was.

The only downside - it took three hours to get to on. The bus there was fine, since it was 7.30 AM. I slept the whole way. But the way back was horrible! I don't think Greeks wear deodorant, and it had been a hot and sweaty day. I was very disgusting. Still, all in all, it was a successful trip!

Today, I went on a different adventure through Athens. For my class, I have to do walks, and I had to do one today on my own. I took Allison with me though because I didn't want to be alone. I went on an Ottoman walk that took me to the very few Turkish remnants in Athens. When Athens was "modernized" they were too zealous to glorify the classical ruins that they tore down almost anything Ottoman or French. There used to be a mosque on the acropolis of Athens, but it was deemed unworthy to keep. It is pretty sad. But, there still remains a few things. I walked around a mosque in the Roman agora, and mosque converted into a Greek museum, which I find incredibly ironic. The best part however were the Turkish baths. They are not functional now, but they rebuilt them. I walked through with a guided audio tour and it was pretty amazing and interesting! They still have some functional ones in Turkey and I really want to go. A full body massage with oil and a body scrub! But I am not going to Turkey, so I guess a good bath will have to do.

As you may have noticed, the look of my blog changed - a lot. I don't want to keep it this way, but blogger templates confuse me. I would like to feature some of my own pictures as the banner or background, but I don't know how to do this. Stacy, could you possibly help me?

And a few side notes - In my last blog I mentioned the terrorist group in Greece. It is the 17th of November, not the 13th.
And also, I am putting pictures up. The internet connection is very bad here though, so Flickr takes awhile. They are coming. Don't worry!

So, that is about it for now. Αντιο!