My Travelogue in Greece-4

My casual Travelogue in Greece
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Installment #7 <== You are here.
Installment #8

Installment #7

I got up at 6:00am to take a Taxi, from this out-in-the-boon docks luxury hotel, back to the main town of Ermioni.
Then I took the boat, from Ermioni, to Hydra, then Paros, then Piraeus.
Then I took another Taxi from Piraeus to the Hellenic Train Station.
Then I took the train to Levadia (as close as it could get to Delphy).
Then I took yet-another Taxi from Levadia to Delphy! to my hotel!

At this point, I've had a lot of experiences with Taxis, and I've noticed certain cultural patterns about driving in Greece:
There are no Speed signs.
That's because there are actually no speed limits.
And that's because they assume each person will drive at a reasonable-speed, in a reasonbly-safe way.
And it works! This is what actually happens.
There is no crazy-fast driving - like in Rome or Brazil.
Everyone drives reasonably-safe at a reasonable-speed. And it all works quite nicely.

In fact, all the drivers are exceptionally courteous.
Here's another pattern I noticed:
If a driver notices that there is another car close behind them, the driver assumes that the car behind them wants to pass.
So the car in front very politely moves over to the side of the road, with half the car off the road! to allow the car behind to pass.
How courteous! And this is standard. This behavior is "normal" and "consistent". This is standard driving behavior here in Greece.

Ah.....what a sane way to deal with driving.

Delphy !

Delphy is a realm of VAST SPACE - huge dimensions. It is on the steep slope of a huge mountain, leading to a deep valley, and then, on the opposite side, another mountain with steep slopes - all of this sloping down to the ocean.

Delphy is clearly one of the POWER SPOTS on the planet - like Machu Picchu, and Mount Fuji and Haleakala Crater and the Gizeh pyramids and Mt. Shasta.
The Greeks consider Delphy to be "the center of the entire world". I wouldn't go that far, but it definitely is one of the major POWER SPOTS on the planet.

Here are some of the vast views:

The town itself of Delphy is small and cute. It has just 3 narrow streets - all filled with tourist shops, and hotels, and tavernas (restaurants). Many of the hotels also have their own restaurants.

Even the outdoor dining in tavernas has the sense of VAST SPACE.

Here's the view from the balcony of my hotel room:

Again, a sense of VAST SPACE everywhere.

The actual temples at Delphy are all along a zig-zag path going up the steep mountain-side.
You need strong legs to get there!

Here's a depiction of how it might have looked:

Below the main road leading to the town of Delphy is the Temple of Athena Pronaie.
(The first temple of Athena)
Personally, I sense that this is the temple that "charges" the entire temple complex.

Here is a reproduction of how it allegedly originally looked:

And uphill from the road leading to the town, is the Archeological Museum and all the rest of the actual Temples.

Here's 1 statue from the museum:

When Delphy was being created, each of the City States of Greece, vied with each other,
to have the most impressive monument/temple.

Here is the monument from the Treasury of Athena:

The darker sections of the pillars are the original stones.
The brighter sections are new stones - used to re-create the pillars.

Okay, let's explore.

And a depiction of what it may have originally looked like:

The Temple of Apollo is (for me) my pride and joy of the entire temple complex.

I had a TOTALLY-UNEXPECTED reaction when I came here.
While I was standing by this temple, and inwardly tuning into it,
I suddenly had this ove-powering feeling of "I'M HOME AGAIN!"
And this was such an over-whelming feeling of the deepest strongest Happiness,
that I was over-come with emotional-overwhelm.

(Yeah, I know: I used "over" a lot here, but that's how it felt.)

Here's a depiction of what it originally looked like:

And here is the Ampitheater at Delphy:

Here is a photo of a play that occurred here many many years ago.

My dream - for many years - has been to do a major concert at this Ampitheater of Delphy,
on the Full Moon of May.
But for many years, they do not allow any public events here.
But the locals told me that in 2 or 3 years, they may again be re-opening it up, to public events here.

And finally, a photo to give you a sense of why I would LOVE to do a concert here!!!

Installment #8

Santorini

The island of Santorini is the rim of a huge crater, that must have hit the earth long long ago. The entire crater is submerged, except for the rim, and this above-water rim is the island of Santorini.

This is the view from my hotel - early morning.

The "main attraction" in Santorini is the spectacular view of the basin of the crater, as seen from high-up.
Except for that, it's pretty much just tourist shops, and restaurants, and hotels, and tours, and rentals. And, of course, great Greek food.

Here's what it looks like late at night:

And during the day:

There are frequent cruise ships that stop here.

The majority of the island is on a steep incline, so, almost always, you're climbing up some stairs, or climbing down some stairs, or up or down a steep road. This island is not for the feeble or faint-hearted. But great exercize for your legs!

Example, to get to the main floor of my hotel from the road, you climb down 43 BIG steps, and then climb up 12 steps. And of course, to leave the hotel, you climb down 12 steps, and then climb up 43 BIG steps! It's really a major effort just to reach the hotel, or leave the hotel! Here is a photo of just some of the steps when you leave the hotel:

When I step outside my room, there is a veranda where the guests can eat breakfast, and enjoy the view:

Aside from doing all the "tourist things" of looking, buying stuff, enjoying Greek food, and enjoying the view, there really is not much to do here.

Besides the roads, they have narrow cobble-stone mini-streets:

So, since I had nothing more interesting to do, I rented a "bike" (a 4-wheel scooter) for 2 days:

But that also turned out to be not-that-interesting.
Not much to see really - aside from the view.

I drove to the south end of the island, to go to the "favorite beach" that one local referred me to -
Perissa Beach.

But it was not much to see.
And the dark pebbles did not feel good on your feet.
(I guess the miles and miles of wonderful beaches on Maui have spoiled me.)

The dark pebbles made the water seem not that inviting.

Need I point out? Greece is a vey "rocky" place.

So my time in Santorini ended up being a time for centemplation and "going within".

But, gotta admit, you never really get tired of that view.

Here's the view on a cloudy day:

And on a sunny day.

By the way, the light is SO bright here,
(not spiritual light, but optical light that your eyes can see)
that it seems surreal to my eyes!
My eyes are just not used to such bright light.
Last time my eyes squinted this much, is when I went skiing on a super bright sunny day - without any sun glasses.

And then I fly back to Athens, and then fly back to Mother Maui.

END of Travelogue

Thanks for watching!

Love, Iasos

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