Greece: Day 12

So here is my last day in Greece. Honestly, it was kind of a bust! We had thought about going to see Poseidon's temple at Cape Sounion, but decided to go to Delphi instead to see the oracle and the temple of Apollo. We were really excited to see it, it seemed like it would be a pretty simple day trip. Wrong. 3 hour bus ride...1 way! So yep, that's about 6 hours in a bus. We saw some beautiful scenery, but seriously, we wasted 6 hours of our last day in Greece on Delphi. I think it was like a 1 hour trip to Cape Sounion. Whatever. I know you are thinking, I'm sure it's not that bad. Wrong! We got there and we were all excited, as we walked up to the entrance we found out that it was free! Yay! Then we found out why. The freaking temple of Apollo and the oracle was closed. Yep, we could see part of Delphi, but not the cool part. It was closed for technical reasons. What's so technical about a pile of rocks? BITTER does not begin to describe how I felt. I actually let it ruin my mood for most of the day. I don't know why. I might have been a bit traveled out at this point. Emotionally exhausted, actually. Well, here are the pictures...

We were so high up, you could see the ocean. It's on the side by Italy, if you want a geographic location. I'm too lazy to look it up.

Here we are walking up to Delphi, the bus stopped in the cutest town. The town before Delphi, was actually a ski town. It was SO cute. We should have stopped there, lol.

I loved the exposed walls. The patterns were really cool.

This is pretty much all we got to see. At the very top you can see the pillars of the temple of Apollo.

It was raining most of the day. Delphi really is a cool place. It's perched on the top of this mountain, and the views are spectacular.

We still had no idea that the cool part was closed...

The building at the top was the treasury.

This is my foot on the old paving stones. I did this in Thailand too at the Khmer temple. I just love the thought that I'm stepping on something that is thousands of years old, that someone who lived so long ago did too...

Close up of the treasury...

This is the closest we got to the temple of Apollo...sad face...

The views!!! The scenery!!

Disappointed? Yes. But still, I'm glad that I got to see this view...

I wasn't glad at the time, though. When we hiked down here, to the temple of Athena, I was pretty bitter. And honestly, I was sulking. Oh well. Who said traveling is easy? I guess in the 1920s (I think, again too lazy to look it up) they tried to rebuild part of the temple. That is why there is patches on it.

This is a view from the temple of Athena. You can see Apollo and the amphitheater that we didn't get to see...

I love ruins...There was also a gymnasium ruin, but I didn't take any pictures. Remember, it was raining...and I was sulking and just didn't feel it. I was stupid, what can I say...

After we got back to Athens, (on a bus ride that I almost hurled on from car-sickness and claustrophobia) we decided to find the Plaka. The other times we had "found the Plaka", it had actually been other market places in Athens, lol. This time we actually found it, lol. We went into just another random store looking for worry beads for all of our friends. We lucked out! This guy, and an older guy in the store were the cutest old men. They taught us how to flip our worry beads, gave us free worry beads and wanted to give us homemade wine. We had to say no, since you know, the whole Mormon thing. The older guy was such the typical Greek grandpa. Barely spoke English, but gave me a hug. It was a really good way to end the night. They were awesome.