Day 5: Delphi

Today was another beautiful day in Greece.  We received our wake-up call at 6:30.  We got dressed in our finest tourist clothes and prepared to go out the door.  An adult couple in our group were unpleasantly surprised to wake up to a hotel security guard standing over their bed.  They had earplugs in and had set their own alarm.  When they didn't wake up for the wake-up call, they sent security up.  There was lots of yelling and stuff.  Great start :).

We made it down for breakfast.  It was a lovely bacon and eggs, and the most amazing fresh grape-cranberry juice.  It was delicious.  We boarded the bus and headed outside of athens to Delphi.  The ride to Delphi was wonderful.  It was a three hour trip, but the view was amazing.


10_Countryside from Jeff Stapleton on Vimeo.

Delphi is up in the mountains.  It was one of the most important religious centers in Greece.  People would come from all over the world to consult the "Oracle at Delphi" who was located in the bottom (basement) of the Temple of Apollo.

One of the first things we saw when we got there (besides the beautiful view) was the Treasury of Athens.  This is the place where most of the gifts to The Oracle and to the city were stored.









Next was the Temple of Apollo.

At the base of this Temple was an inscription crediting the people who donated or built the Temple of Apollo.  Its amazing that this writing is from around 4 BC.  There are many MANY stones with much finer writing all over the temple, but it was difficult to capture with the camera.  Heres an example I found from another website:

Forgive my bad Greek, but it says, Delphi Edokan Kiois, and then some other words I don't know...Baiscally, "Delphi, given by the Chios"

We then trekked up the mountain towards the ancient Stadium at Delphi. I had to take a quick picture break:

We went to the top of the hill to the Stadium. Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs and such.



Stadium from Jeff Stapleton on Vimeo.


After our trip back down the hill, we visited the musuem. There were neat things there for sure, but there is really one major thing that is SUPER important to the New Testament, and it is described in the video:

Gallio from Jeff Stapleton on Vimeo.

And here is a recreation of what Delphi would have looked like in Paul's day:

Now, this is all called the Acropolis, or the high point of the city.  Every city had an Acropolis, but there were important things outside of the Acropolis also.  

We left the Acropolis, and saw the Temple of Athena

We were hot and exhausted. Running up and down the hills all day gave us a tremendous appetite. Our next stop was a small town called Arahova where we ate lunch and visited. I'm proud of myself. They had a few American dishes, but I decided to branch out and try something Greek, and I'm glad I did. What I got was a roasted beef with noodles and Tomato sauce. I also got an amazing glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

After, we had 30 minutes to look around. Jake and I made a little excursion into an Orthodox Church. It was fun.

We then left to go back to Athens. We met with a representative from the travel company and arranged things for tomorrow. What is tomorrow? The Cruise! We will be going all over the place...Ephesus, Patmos, Crete, and Mykonos. I will probably have no internet on the cruise, so this is the last of my blogs for a few days.