I can't wait to put these pictures up! Yesterday and today have been amazing. Started out yesterday (Sunday) missing our bus to Delphi and having to take the later one. We pulled into Delphi about 10:00, got off the bus and asked someone where a cheap hotel was. He pointed us up one (of the two) streets in Delphi towards Hotel Pan. We got there and talked the guy down to 20 euro per person with breakfast included for a 3 person hotel room. He told us there was a great view and we just thought he was selling the place, until we got to our room and realized we had a balcony over the valley!

We got up to see if we could catch the sunrise, but it was cloudy so I went straight back to bed. After a breakfast of sandwiches, bread, chocolate chip bread, and tea we headed to Apollo's Temple. We got there before the tour busses which was great, because the museum was packed after about 11 o'clock.

Delphi was never really a town, more just a sacred site. In the temple there used to be an oracle who people went to for advice, (like in the movie 300). In order to 'get advice' or good fortune from the oracle they brought sacrifices and expensive gifts to the mountain. The museum has a lot of these artifacts on display, along with the friezes off the temple itself and others constructed around it.

Next we hiked around the site, to the temple where the oracle stayed, theater where they held poetry/lyric contests during the Pythian Games, and the stadium where the other events were held. We also checked out the training facility that was like the one in the disney movie Hercules.

I was hoping to catch the 1:15 bus to Patra to increase my chances of getting to Ancient Olympia that night, so we headed back to the hotel where our bags were waiting and walked down to the bus stop. The station was closed so we talked to Theodore at the gas station for a while until it opened. He lives in New York City with his American wife, he was just back working at the family business for a week. He gave us each a pop and directions to a good, less touristy place, for the girls to eat at when I left.

The bus station man was... helpful... I guess. He told me that I could get to Olympia no problem if I took the later bus so I bought a ticket for 3:45 and we all headed off to the restaurant. The place Theodore suggested was closed, but we ended up talking to that guy for a long time to. He lived in LA, has an American son who just graduated from UCLA. He told us some stories about LA, his run ins with the police, and gave us some little hand painted pots to remember him by.

We ate at a little restaurant a little further into town. Greek salad, Greek sausage, spagetti, pork, and of course dessert! I really liked the sausage, the girls not so much... surprise! The dessert was almost like French toast soaked in honey - a classic combo.

After lunch we headed back to the bus stop where the story gets interesting...