1. There is no oracle at Delphi
3. None of this stopped us from desperately trying to find the Oracle anyways, some of us nearly getting left behind in the process.
When we arrived at Delphi, we found out why this place was once the heart of Greek wonderment. The ancient city is built on the side of a mountain, just on top of cliffs which lead into a large valley below and the Ionian Sea. It's a majestic location that was considered in the ancient world to be the center of the Universe. This was found out by Zeus himself when he sent two eagles around the universe in opposite directions, only to have them meet here (now, I found a logical fallacy in this story: wouldn't their meeting point be the same as their starting point? Ladies and Gents, that is called outsmarting the gods). The oracle came to Delphi at a different time. The story goes that a shepherd was tending to his flock when one of the sheep put his head over a rocky crevice and was struck by a rush of wisdom from deep inside. The sheep started talking in English and telling the future. Confused and alarmed that his sheep was a prophet, the shepherd ran down the hill to tell the citizens of Delphi, who immediately built a temple over the crevice and chose a young girl to sit on the crevice and occasionally spew the knowledge that was given to her. What a job.
What is left now is a whole bunch of ruins. There are three pillars left of the temple, a bunch of treasuries dedicated to the oracle on the path to the temple, a large theater, and a stadium. Unfortunately for us, most of this was closed off when we got there because of recently falling rocks that apparently were dangerous. This was kind of a let down. But, we still got to see some cool statues in the museum and a couple cool things on the site...and yes, there's pictures of everything at the end. Patience is a virtue, you know.
After a one night stay in Delphi and a couple of mishaps with getting on the bus (some people just can't read Greek clocks, so it's understandable), we took the long ride back to Athens. Back here, our most eventful experience (maybe of the trip) happened on Tuesday. For our Greek Theology class, our professor/priest wanted us to take a bus ride up to his Church in Northern Athens. He instructed us that we would get on the #10 right outside of the school building and take it to the last stop, get out, and walk straight to the church. Lastly, he noted that we should be able to get there by 4 if we left right after history (which gets out at 3:30). Simple, right?
Leave it to us to screw the whole thing up. Let me clarify that I wasn't the leader of our group (though I should have been), so I am as much at fault for not getting us there as anyone else. Whoever was leading must've been trustworthy, however, because all 30 of us stuck together. We stuck together when we didn't go to the bus stop right outside of class. We stuck together when we walked a half hour to a bus stop past the Acropolis. We stuck together when we boarded the #10 finally at 4:15. And lastly, we stuck together when we got off at the end of the line. The only problem was we went the wrong way.
An hour and 45 minutes later (6:00), we finally got off the bus at the other end of the line. Keep in mind that this was right about the time that we should've been headed back from our completed tour of the church. Our professor/priest was waiting there for us, feeling terrible that he didn't give us good enough instructions. I don't think he really asked that much of us, but that's just me. We toured the church (which was huge and beautifully painted), learned some stuff about Orthodox mass, and headed back. Come 9:00 we were finally back at school. You might think by now that we're expert travelers, seeing as how we made it through London and Paris without any problems, but let this be proof that we still have no idea what we're doing. Maybe we're just lucky this didn't happen earlier.
In other news, I was approached by the CSB/SJU rivals the other night. While I was peacefully checking emails and thinking up this blog entry, the Lewis and Clark group was engaging in a Greek cooking class. One of the Lewis and Clark girls had the nerve to approach me. I prepared to defend myself from her wicked sorcery but instead she asked me if I would want any of the cooking class' left overs. I didn't know how to respond at first. Maybe this was some evil ploy to poison me, thus removing one CSB/SJU student before I could warn the others. I chose to accept, feeling as if I could withstand any attack, but soon let down my guard as I tried their delicious food. Maybe, just maybe, they aren't so bad after all. But for now, I will still be wary.
And for those of you who are still confused by the title of this entry, try watching this scene and see if you can figure out what it means (online translators never tell the truth, don't believe them). This'll give you an idea of what the Oracle at Delphi was probably like.
Here are the pictures from Delphi, a couple of museums, and a random monastery near Delphi. Enjoy!
Special Shout-out of the Day: Matt Melsen. No one has begged, borrowed, or dealt more than Matt to get a shout-out on this blog, so for his efforts he is finally being rewarded. I personally didn't know that anyone cared that much to be named by me, but apparently Melsen believes this is some sort of high honor. Enjoy, Matt. Start bragging to anyone who actually cares.
European Insult Tally:
Bill: 1
Scott:3
Matt: 1
Ryan: 1
I'm getting sick and tired of winning this thing. It's about time one of the Caballeros steps up and does something about it (Ben Jagger, I'm looking at you to motivate your brother).
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Scott Twelves
I knew you would get at least one link about the Matirx into this blog when I heard you were going to Delphi. Nice job!
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