Prophesies at Oracles of Delphi and Capturing the Minotaur at Crete

The Oracle of Delphi

It says Kate!

Dolphin fresco in the Queen's rooms

Me in front of the Bull Horns

The Oracle of Delphi involved more walking than expected but well worth it. If you were an athlete competing in the pithian games, you would have to walk all the way up the mountain and then expected to run races on top of that! The bros and I gave high fives to all the elementary school kids on the way up the mountain. Small world, we met a group from valpo university. Half way around the world, and we met someone from Indiana! There was a group of students from Valpo University. We also saw the omphalos, which supposedly if you touch it it is a gurantee to come back to Athens. We also saw the treasury of Athens, the actual temple where they got prophesys, and the track at the top where they held the Pithian games. The boys in our class held a foot race to reenact it.

This past weekend, we took a trip to Crete. We took an overnight ferry, which was difficult to sleep in those chairs but most convenient. We arrived in Crete at 6 am to a dead town but a beautiful sunset overlooking the lighthouse and the bay. The group had omelets and sweet frappes before making the trek on a 3 hr bus ride to the palace of Knossos. Being geeky classics majors, we were persistent to make it there even though it was a longer commute than we thought! There were a lot of german tourists. I felt at home with the tall blondes, and got to break out my awesome german. I even said danka to someone who took our picture.

The ruins were more restored than I would like, but it was still good to see. On the way back, we discovered chocolate croissants at kiosks that were soo good. After returing to Chania, the port city, we decided to swim. The beach was cold and there were sun showers but the gorgeous white sands and mountain views were more than enough compensation. So far Crete is my favorite. I am partial to the islands more than Athens.

The guy at the restraunt we ate at in Crete suprisingly said hola to us. He gave us free shots of raki at the end. Overall best weekend so far. The girls and I went shopping in plaka. For souvenirs, I bought got ouzo and shot glasses, a blackberry tie for my Dad and worry beads.

We also found this wonderful place where they sold knockoff designer purses. One of the workers went to university of Indianapolis. I got an italian designer purse and a burberry wallet with my bag purchase. After our sucessful shopping endeavors, we had fredduchinos with the view of temple of hephaestion, stoa of attopolis, acropolis and Parthenon. On the way back to the apartment, we walked through syntagma and saw Athens beach volleyball golden cup. Later, we went out to the bars. At the bars we ran into a group of Delta Chis from Georgia Tech. The social chair introduced himself as the ADPi sweetheart and was super excited to meet us. Then he and I exchanged the dchi handshake and took adpi/dchi pictures. What a small world! Tomorrow should bring more adventure with a day trip to Eleusis!