Fugitive Diaries: Day 6

View from our balcony in the morning light

I awoke with the sense of being refreshed and ready for the day. I spent some time out in our balcony eating my Honey Nut Cheerios and taking in the view. It was a little chilly outside so I decided to wear pants. They felt foreign because I had been wearing shorts everyday. It took me a while to get Andrew up, but he eventually began to stir. We set out with the an objective of seeing the ruins. Andrew wanted to see the Throne of Apollo which was quite a hike. Delphi is a little tiny village which reminded me of Cinque Terre. It is terraced on a cliffside which gives a climber a workout! We first began to ascend the stairs and I already felt the burn. Talk about out of shape, phew! We decided that we should probably start stretching. We got higher and higher until all that was in front of us was a mountain. Not entirely a mountain, more so the foothills of mountains. They had paths cut out in the soil which we began to follow. We saw a tree and guessed that it was a date tree. Wrong-o! It was an almond tree. These nuts would be a pain to get out of their shells! I will no longer why they are so expensive. Note to self: not ripe almonds DO NOT taste very good.

Almonds

I haven't tied my sweatshirt around my waist since I was 10.

Sanctuary of Athena

We continued on our path to reach a gate that was locked. The normal response would be to turn around. No, no, no not Andrew. His response, “Well, its only about 6 feet tall.” No way Jose! Delphi has been going smoothly and I do not want to mess up our mojo. Locks don’t stop Andrew! We did see a trail that went upwards so we decided to take that and see where it leads. It was quite a hike but we were able to see some fantastic scenery. As we began to climb the cliffside, a spectacular view of the Gulf of Corinth came into sight. Thousands of twisted olive trees could be seen for as far as the eye could see. As the distance between us and Delphi grew, the only thing we could here was the buzzing of the bees. And oh man, these were everywhere. Not the scary hornets, but the friendly honey and bumblebees! We also came across a couple foundations of what we suspect to be houses. We doubt that they could be that ancient.

It was nice to be able to go at our pace and stop and observe our surroundings. We also were able to see a bird’s eye view of the Sanctuary of Apollo. We had not quite anticipated the degree of the hike we were taking, and I had only brought my water bottle. Talk about being parched. We kept passing water cisterns in which Andrew was trying to break into but came out being thirstier than he was in the first place. While he did this I laid down and took a little nap. Everyday this past week I have taken a nap and I can honesty say that I have grown accustomed to this habit. It is very soothing and relaxing to lay outside and feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.

We kept hiking up but had no idea what our destination was. We had climbed over the first foothill and kept on going. We ended up at some rural Greek farm. Andrew kept commenting on how he felt like Frodo. The first thing he is going to do when we get home is watch Return of the King. Chuckles. What a nerd. We were growing tired and decided to turn around. On our way down we saw another turtle! Turtle hunting! This little guy was way more playful than the one we saw in Athens. After some time we eventually made it back to Delphi. By this time it was well after 17:00 so we went back to our hostel, got cleaned up, and went to a café for some homemade ice-cream! I felt like I earned 2 scoops because I just burned a bagillion calories on our multi-kilometer hike. We then went to the supermarket to buy some more milk to finish off our cheerios and peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. We once again ate on our little balcony and proceeded to watch So I Married an Ax Murder. Tomorrow’s agenda entails touring the Sanctuary of Apollo & Athena.

Luckily we had no encounter with our adversaries. Fortunately, they are not quite in the athletic shape that we are in, and were unable to trail us up the mountain. Our guard has not been let down and we are ready for any enemies we might stumble across in the near future.

Our updated plans are to head to Thessaloniki on Friday with the hopes of catching a train on Saturday to Germany! The airports are expected to be up and running on Thursday, but there are loads of pepole who are trying to get flights. Therefore, we opt to take the train. Plus Athens is crazy and I don't want to have to deal with that. Not sure exactly where we are going or staying once we get to Germany, but as long as we are in that country I will be at ease!