Delphi

It took 4 hours of driving on the snake roads from Meteora to Delphi. 

Delphi is most famous for the ancient sanctuary that housed the oracle who was consulted on important decisions throughout the ancient classical world by the rulers, explorers, philosophers, priests and orindary people.  According to tradition, Delphi was considered as the navel (or centre) of the world by the Greeks as represented by the Omphalos (navel), the meeting point of two eagles dispatched by Zeus from the ends of the universe to find the centre of the world. 

The Temple of Apollo, completed 330 BC, was the centrepiece at the archaeological site. Many pilgrims, such as Socrates, spent a good portion of their life time pondering the wisdom and riddles spoken by the oracle. The entire sanctuary is about 640 feet by 442 feet, twice as big as abfootball field. 

Not far from the archaeological site, there is the Santurary of Athena who was worshipped at Delphi along with Apollo. The star attraction is the tholos, a round structure that was built around 380 BC. Many of the artifacts are now housed in the museum which is situated next to the archaeological site. 

Because of the historical significance, the site attract visitors from the globe. Many tour buses dropped off and picked them up. Most people would do a day trip to Delphi and return back to Athens on the same day as Delphi is a very small town, only three streets. We stayed at Delphi for one night and walked around to discover that there are so many hotels here, virtually every house/apartment has a hotel sign. In its hay days, this town must be very busy. During our stay, we hardly saw tourists walking on he street. I don't know how they sustain their living here, even the restaurants are quite empty. 

Meteora

14 century montastries were built on top of magnificent pillors of rocks. This is the central attraction for tourists from around the globe to decend to the small town. The view was simply breath taking, awe struck and totally unbelievable. There are many monasteries in the area but only a handful (6) is open for pilgrims and visitors as many of them are still being used and practiced by the monks and nuns or in ruins. Visitors must be soberly dressed (i.e., no shorts for men and women must wear dresses). In addition to the monasteries, we also visited a cave at Theopatra that dated back to 5000 BC - 200000 BC. The museum provided some of the artifacts from the excavation, including two human remains and foot prints. We came back for the hotel for a short rest before heading back to the town and had another wonderful dinner 😋. 

Sunset at Meteora

Here are some incredible scenes of the iconic rock pillars at Meteora. These soaring pillars of rocks seemingly risen to heavenward and some of them also have built montastries on top since the 14th centuries. We will be visiting some of them tomorrow morning. The view on top of the mountains was simply breath taking. Well worth the long drive. 

Pella Archaeological Site

The car was waiting for us first thing in the morning at our hotel. It was nice that the rental company provided such nice service. We wanted to visit the old walls and the look out tower before leaving Thessaloniki as the Trigoniou tower is quite far from our hotel and too hilly to walk. It provided a panoramic view of the city. 

Afterward we drove to Pella to visit the archaeological site and then to Vergina to see the royal tomb. We missed breakfast and by the time we arrived at Pella, it was just before 11:00 am and according to the Greek culture, shops and restaurants were just opened. Pella is a VERY SMALL town. We look for a restaurant that had signs of open and saw a group of men sitting in one. As we approached them and asked to see if they have a lunch menu, one man spoke to us in Greek and said no one spoke English. It turned out that the restaurant only offered coffee and alcoholic drinks. There were only two other places that looked like restaurants and luckily, a woman came out and asked us what we needed. She then shouted to another woman across the street and asked if she was open for business. Unfortunately, this older woman only spoke a few words of English and since we don't speak Greek, it took us a bit of time to communicate. Despite the menu given to us and after figuring out what the Greek words meant on the menu, she told us that only chicken souvlaki was available for lunch. Had we known there was only 

tnone menu item, we would not have to spend the time to figure what each menu item meant. It was so funny how we had to communicate in two different languages. She was trying to ask how many skews of the chicken souvlaki we wanted for our plate and it took a bit of guessing and signs, but we finally understood each other. The meal was delicious. The Greek salad was much better than the one we tried last night. The chicken was tender, juice and tasty. 

The archaeological site was quite interesting. It offered a glimpse of what it was like in 330-320 BC during the height of Mecedonia. We also visited the tombs of Phillip II who was the father of Alexander the Great and his own son, Prince Alexander. 

The drive to Meteora was challenging. The route was full of twists and turns, up and down on a single lane with frequent extreme sharp turns.  Richard also had to drive during the late afternoon when our body was most tired due to jet lag as we had yet to adjust to the local time. There were a few close calls along the way!!  We made it safely to the hotel which is situated right in front of a few rock pillars. More explorations in the area tomorrow. 

Dinner at Thessalonoki

We were going to try one of the recommendations from Rough Guide but it turned out that the info was totally incorrect and it took two very dedicated and experienced engineers a while to finally abandon the idea and look for a restaurant that looked decent. The dinner tonight was much lighter than the one we had last night but just as good. 

Day Two in Thessaloniki

We had a full day of exploration in Thessaloniki. The weather at 24 degrees was a perfect day to walk to the various sites and streets to sample the true daily life here. What a contrast to the quite and seemingly deserted city yesterday. Today, the city was bustled with cars, people and stores. We sampled the local breakfast here which is an assortments of buns and pastries. I would be worry to travel to Greece if one is gluten sensitive as many dishes and local food are made of bread. The iconic White Tower was not as impressive as we thought. The scenic board walk along the ocean was very nice. We spent a good few hours at the museum and learned how the city was born in 315 BC. Along the way, we visited some well preserved churches, mosques and ruins. We came back to the hotel and took a leisure rest on the rooftop before heading out for dinner later. Still not quite adjusted to the time zone yet. 

Frankfurt Airport - Definitely No More Next Time!!

After arriving at the airport, we were directed to a gate for our next flight to Athens. So far, very normal. However, to our total astonishment and bewilderment, we were stopped at an area pointing to the gate. A huge lineup already formed. Initially, we thought we had to wait for a transit train to take us to the gate. Upon further inquiry, we were told to lineup for crowd control on the passport inspection. A few airlines arrived at the same time and the crowd kept getting bigger and the line getting longer. We only had a slightly over an hour before our next flight to Athens. In the meantime, the line was not moving and no one was getting in. After more than 35 minutes, we were still standing still at the same spot and starting to get frustrated. There was no communication from anyone. As the crowd starting to make some noises and seeing some people trying to cut into the line, more police with guns arrived. Definitely not a pretty sight!  As we were pondering our options, one older man with a badge started to shout to the crowd that there is another passport checking station which requires some walking and asked a small group of 80 people to follow him. At that point, everyone started to push toward this man and trying to walk past the other  passengers who are not part of the group. We were running and trying not to lose sight of the guy. We felt like refugees who had be given a chance to cross the  border and we had to fight to squeeze in before the gate is shut. As soon as the guy pointed to the passport station, everyone sprinted and dashed to the line before the the next person in order to beat the crowd. Finally, we past the inspection point and then realized that the gate for our next flight is located on the other side of the airport. We ran like crazy and hoping that we would not miss the boarding. Just as we arrived at the end of the airport, the sign pointed us back to the other end, and we had to keep running. I don't think we had been running this much at an airport. We needed the exercise after sitting on a plane for so long but would definitely prefer having a rigorous workout in a different circumstance. We arrived just in time to board and then were herded to a bus which takes us back to the other end of the airport. We had zig-zagging the airport from one end to another at least 5 times for the flight from Frankfurt to Athens. Totally unbelievable, chaotic, and disorganized - a characteristic trait that is so unlike the Germans. Go figure!!  

Is it our luck or do we tend to have more dramatic experiences than other people?  Hoping that the rest of the journey will be more smooth and less chaotic than what we have experienced at Frankfurt. On the other hand, we are heading to Greece, a country known for its chaotic systems - who are we kidding for less chaotic experiences there. Stay tuned ... The adventures had just begun ...

Services and selections from Economy Plus

Dinner at Thessaloniki

We arrived around 6:00 pm on Sunday, May 08, 2016. Given it was Sunday, there were hardly any stores opened (we learned this later)!! We were anxious to try the authentic Greek cuisines but unfortunately, the restaurants selections were extremely limited. Most of the ones opened were coffee shops or baked goods like wraps or sandwiches. We walked around the areas in our hotel but could not find a decent one. It was later that we found a restaurant that was located in the downtown area, mostly catered for tourists but the menu looked reasonable. Before we arrived at the restaurant, we came across a big protest and the entire downtown area was closed for pedestrians only. Huge police presence with guns, gas masks, and motor bikes followed the protest behind and around the streets corners. We walked past them and even waved to them, taking pictures. It was intense but did not feel dangerous or threatened at that time. However, as we just started to eat, we heard a few very loud exposions, people shouting loud and footsteps running from different directions. We were quite startled by the explosions which were not too far from where we were sitting. Some people ran toward our area and police were chasing them with sirens and lights flashing. We didn't know what to do - should we leave the restaurant quickly in case the situation got out of control or just play it by ear as our food just arrived?  Some people stayed while the other customers continued their meal. The waiter assured us that it was due to the protests and not terrorists. We put away the cameras and personal belongs, just in case we had to dash at the first sight of danger!  Luckily, the noises and explosions stopped shortly and things got back to normal. 

The dinner was pretty good, low on presentation but the flavours were quite authentic, except the lamb chops were like bones and skins rather than chops.   

After such a long journey, we have arrived in Greece (took us 23 hours) and tomorrow morning we will begin exploration of this old city. From what we saw, buildings in Thessaloniki are rather old and much of the up keep have been neglected due to lack of funding. People seemed friendly and only limited English in their fluency to  communicate. I'm sure we will manage - with a bit of miscommunication and much laughter!

Waiting in Toronto for the next flight to Frankfurt.

Boarded and ready to fly.

Partners in our adventures ahead ...

Getting ready for the adventures ahead.

Woke up early to get ready for the trip this morning. Able to use our Nexus card to by-pass the crowd for security check 🙂.  Getting some nutrition for our body before the hectic schedule. A very long trip ahead before reaching Thessaloniki.