Traveling

Winding Roads - 6/7/07, Delphi, 8:22 p.m.

Hello! I know it's been a couple of days, but we've been on the road!

The day before yesterday (Tuesday), we didn't do much. We went to the National Archaeological Museum again and then a bunch of us just wandered around and did some window shopping. Then, on Tuesday night, we went to see Carmen the French opera at the theater of Herodus Atticus on the Acropolis! It was amazing! I mean, the opera was in French and the only subtitles were in Greek, so we only got a basic gist of the story, but it was still a lot of fun. We got to sit in the old theater and watch a real, live play! Plus, Carmen is a really good opera. The woman who played Carmen wasn't the best. The whole point of Carmen is that she is a feminine woman who turns down her lover, which is surprising because she's so delicate (sort of). However, the woman who played Carmen was a mannish looking lady. Not convincing. It was still a great show and a whole lot of fun to see!

Then, yesterday morning, bright and early, we boarded the bus to drive to Olympia. It's about a 5 hour ride from Athens to Olympia, so it was long long long! But we played cards and chatted and napped, so it didn't seem that long. We arrived in Olympia and went to the site. The biggest attraction there is the temple of Zeus Olympios, which was amazing. It was really cool cause we got to walk all over the site and even the temple, which you can't really do anywhere else anymore. We saw the olympic stadium, where we had a foot race of our own. It was a lot of fun. I have some nice pictures from there. We went back to the hotel and took a swim! I forgot how much I love swimming! Brianne and I played around like we were little girls - always a good time. We had a big group dinner and then hung out for a while, before going to bed.

This morning, we got up and went back to Olympia, where we wandered the site again. We saw Phideas' workshop. Phideas was the man responsible for constructing the cult image of Zeus Olympios, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. None of it stands anymore, but it was cool to be where Phideas once was. We went to the newly constructed museum, which was really really nice, and then boarded the bus once again to make our way to Delphi, another 5 hour bus ride.

We arrived in Delphi about 5 hours ago and spent the majority of the time so far wandering around the archaeological site. It's beautiful here! The sanctuary is built into a mountain, so the views are phenomenal! We saw the stadium, the theater, and the temple to Apollo, where the Delphic Oracle would've been. So cool!

A funny little story for you: We have no real access to a washer/dryer, unless you pay 9 euros or something, so we washed our clothes in our bathtub in Athens and then fashioned a drying line out of phone chargers and a usb cord and strung it across the room! i have a really great picture that i'll post later!

Okay, I've got to get going to dinner, but I'll talk to you all later!

Lots of love from Delphi!

Xoxo,

Ally