Day 5 in Greece -- We were starting off on our big road trip today, in our pre-booked Audi A1 (!), living it up on the Greek Peninsula. Away from the islands of the Mediterranean, the landscape was lush and hilly, and the exoticism of the whole vacation came together. Beautiful scenery, check. Sweet wheels, check. Unexpectedly great experiences, check.
Today was a driving day towards the town of Delphi - most known for the Oracle of Delphi, some 178 km northwest of Athens. As with any road trip, we made a few stops along the way. Some were planned, others were just out of plain curiosity.
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| Our sweet ride, complete with contrasting trim! Even the cat was impressed. |
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| Verdant |
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| Going downhill |
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| That was what we were going downhill on.... then we realised we had taken a wrong turn and went all the way up again. The left turn was BEFORE this mountain. Sigh..... |
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| Driving in the mountains (back up) |
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| Occasionally we could come across roadside memorials built in the form of miniature churches. I found out only after we had left Greece that these were built to mark the spot where people had been killed in accidents. I'm glad I didn't know that before going on the road. |
Our first planned stop was the Monastery of Osios Lukas, named after a hermit that had lived in the area in the year 946, in the ruins of a temple to Demeter (Greek goddess of the harvest). This monastery was on UNESCO's World Heritage List because it stood out as one of the "outstanding examples of a type of construction characteristic of the middle period of Byzantine religious architecture". The church was constructed in the middle of the 10th century and contains some breathtaking frescos and architectural features (at least to my non-architect eyes). The setting of the monastery, on the slopes of Mount Helikon, was also magnificent.
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| The monks' living quarters |
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| Front facade |
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| Side arches buttressing the main building. |
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| Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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Front Courtyard
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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| Amazingly restored mosaics/frescos inside the main church |
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| Exquisite decor inside the chapel |
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The main dome covered with gold leaf mosaic
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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| I liked the flowers around the monastery |
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| A side chapel... and Dawn doing the cool photographer thing. |
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| Inside the crypt - frescoed ceilings |
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| Crypts usually freak me out, but the beauty of this crypt served as a distraction for some time. |
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| Continuing on the theme of doors... |
Back on the road - and we were now on our way for real to Delphi (apparently only 37 km away!)
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| Do you see what I see? |
Here's where we made an unplanned stop. We went through many mountain towns during the drive, but the charming, picturesque town of Arahova hugging the slopes of Mount Parnassos made us do a double-take. This ski-resort town was only 12 km away from Delphi, but we decided it was time for lunch anyway ...
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| Arahova |
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| Driving through Arahova. I'm a sucker for any town with star-lights strung across its main streets. |
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| Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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| Tiny alleyways criss-cross the town. |
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Doors!
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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| These many, many steps lead up to the church of Agios Georgios (St. George) |
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| Mid-way rest-stop... |
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| Made it to the top! |
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| Church of Agios Georgios. The festival of Agios Georgios was scheduled for the following day - but we couldn't backtrack to join in the celebrations.. we had a whole country to explore! |
We took the advice of our Lonely Planet guide and stopped in at a taverna across from the Church gates for lunch. This turned out to be one of our most enjoyable meals in Greece! The taverna was filled with an air of post-Easter celebrations. There were large families still savouring their mid-day meal, the owner was friendly and accommodating to two non-Greek-speaking Asian girls, and we struck up a great conversation with our fellow diners at the next table who shared their alcohol copiously. We had the most delicious Mastic (produced only in Greece) compliments of the owner, and warm raki with honey which went down like, er, honey from the diners on the next table. This was Greek hospitality at its best.
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| Ok, so I think the sign says Panagiota. If you can read Greek, please help me confirm this. |
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First, a steaming bowl of vegetable (?) soup with crusty bread.
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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Baked pasta
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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| Something delicious... I think it was dolmades? |
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| Eggplant and cheese baked. Yummm. |
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| Yogurt with candied fruits. Seriously, the best dessert I had during the trip. This was amazing Greek yogurt, smooth, creamy, and tear-evoking. *choke* |
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| Savouring a meal in the shadow of the church. |
Bellies filled, we were back on the road to Delphi, a quick 15 minute drive away. On the way into the modern town of Delphi, we drove past the ruins of ancient Delphi, and couldn't resist a stop to sneak a peak of what we would be seeing the following day. It was also a gorgeous place to stop and take in the view.
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| Ruins at the middle left. |
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| Another memorial. |
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Wisteria blooming!
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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Closer zoom of the ruins.
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
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Watching the fog roll in over the mountain tops.
Photo Credit: Dawn LX |
In true free-and-easy fashion, we had wandered into the town of Delphi without hotel reservations. We figured that it was off-peak travel season and since Delphi was such as tourist town, it should not have been difficult to get a room. We were surprised to find that we were wrong... and found that there were still bus-loads of tourists coming through and booking up whole hotels. Finally, at the 4th or 5th stop, we ran into the owner of one hotel who pointed us to his other hotel across the road - and said "Girls, I have the best room for you." We were a little skeptical, but he let us see the room before we decided. We were so pleasantly charmed by the room, we took it right away! It was spacious and had great views over the valley!
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| Pan Hotel, our life-saver! |
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| Spectacular views towards the Gulf of Corinth |
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| Our little balcony |
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| The great room |
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| I originally took this photo to remind myself of where we had parked the car. I am now using it as proof of my superior parking skills - parallel parking UPSLOPE! |
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| We hired this cat to watch over our car. |
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| Main streets of modern Delphi |
Settling in, we had a light dinner and were off to bed early, in preparation for our ruins-exploration the following day!
