On Sunday we said goodbye to Athens and hello to the open road. This time, instead of renting a small cramped car, we rented a large spacious nine passenger van, and instead of driving south, our road trip took us north. On the itinerary was a stop at the ruins of Delphi, where the most famous oracle in ancient Greece was located, then lots of driving to reach our hotel for the night in the town of Kalabaka (next to the famous site called Meteora.) In total we spent around five and a half hours in the van to cover 263 miles.
After waking up, Melissa and I packed up our things and headed down to check on my mom and Mike. We were only in their room a few minutes when Dan and Ann came to tell us our rental car was out front. This meant Mike had to scramble to pack while my Mom and I went downstairs to fill out the paperwork to be drivers. We had found a different rental company called Swift Rent-A-Car; it was relatively inexpensive and had the added perk of a pick up service. The driver who brought our van would then drive us through the confusing and congested streets of central Athens until we reached a main road, and let us take over.
Now I want to say a few more words about navigating and driving in Greece that I didn’t mention in my last post, which I think will be helpful for potential travelers. Throughout the entire trip we relied heavily on our cellphones for directions even though we had precious little roaming data. A feature I learned about on this trip was that within Google Maps we could download offline maps (over our free hotel WiFi of course) for wherever we were about to travel for the day. With the maps downloaded, we would turn our mobile data off, but leave the GPS receiver on. This way we could still get turn by turn directions and track our progress, much like a Tom-Tom or Garmin, but not use any data.
Even without the GPS capabilities in hand, finding your way along the Greek roads isn’t terribly hard. Stop signs and stop lights work the same way as any other developed country, the speed limit signs were easy to pick out, and most other highway signs had symbols that were universal or could be guessed. Even the the language on the signs was relatively easy to interpret. While the Greeks have their own alphabet, most signs had either an English translation, or the Greek word written in the Latin alphabet.
The van we rented was a manual transmission again, and my Mom took the first shift driving. I was thankful she did because getting to Delphi required navigating some narrow mountain roads. We climbed so high into the mountains that we actually drove through a ski resort town; who knew so close to the warm Mediterranean water you could spend a day on the slopes? Some of our descents also made me quite thankful we had a manual vehicle as we could just put the van into a lower gear and not have to ride the brakes. It was a good thing we saved our breaks too as more than once we needed to come to a halt for a heard of goats sauntering across the road!
Just before reaching the modern town of Delphi we drove past the site of the ancient oracle complex. Parking was a bit of a mess, but eventually my mom found a spot on a narrow one way street. The short trek back to the ruins was a beautiful walk with an amazing view. The city sits on the side of a steep mountain at approximately 580m (1900ft) above sea level, which was quite impressive considering that you could actually see the sea just 10 miles away. The steep mountain sides were covered with scrubby green brush, but a lush, misty olive grove covered the valley floor.
According to mythology Zeus determined Delphi to be the center of the world when he released two eagles from the world’s edges and as they flew toward each other, they crossed paths in Delphi. An oracle had been delivering prophecies there from as early as 1400 B.C. In the classical Greek period it was believed the god Apollo possessed the oracle, always a woman, when she sat over an opening in the ground spewing fumes. The oracle would enter a trance speaking in tongues, then priests at the site would interpret her words. Greeks from all over the world would come to ask the oracle important questions, and even Alexander the Great famously visited before setting out to conquer the world.
The ruin site is large, extending high up along the mountain side. We began by walking past the ruins of quite a few small stone buildings called treasuries. They belonged to different city states and were used to store tithes and offerings to the oracle. As we continued up, we walked by the temple and the area where the oracle got her inspiration. There was also a large theater, and climbing higher still, the last site is a stadium where a games similar to the Olympic games, called the Pythian Games, were held every four years.
There is a wonderful museum next to archaeological site that we visited after our foot tour. Many of the delicate statues and other well preserved artifacts from the site have been moved to the museum to protect them. I found an artists drawing of what the site might have looked like in its prime interesting. There is also an impressive bronze statue, that is quite rare as most bronze would rust, but this particular one was buried for many many years before it was unearthed.
Lunch was at a restaurant with an amazing panoramic view of the valley, and we each got a free slice of tiramisu for dessert. My mom drove for a little longer to get us out of the mountains then it was my turn. I was a little nervous after the experience of constantly stalling our rental car, but I think I did pretty well. I only stalled it once, and made it through some heavy fog and hard rain for much of the drive. The landscape slowly changed from mountains, to rolling hills, and finally to a large open plain filled with farm fields (not too unlike Iowa). As we came in to Kalabaka in the dark and pouring rain, the hills started to get steeper and we could just barely see the outlines of the giant looming cliffs and rock formations of Meteora.
In Kalabaka, after we pulled up to the hotel, I was nervous about parking so my mom took over. The lot was tiny, and the entrance was steep, very narrow, and lined with cars. After helping guide my mom through to the lot, I was soaked from the still-pouring rain, but relieved that we were able to put all of the driving for the day behind us. After changing into some dry clothes and wandering through the narrow empty streets, we stumbled upon a small restaurant. The food was good and instead of using a griddle, everything was grilled outside. At the end of our hearty meal, Greek hospitality shone again and we topped off the night with some soaked-cake and a shot of ouzo on the house.
