Where in the World are V and M?: Mainland Greece

After we hit the Greek islands we wanted to see some of mainland Greece, away from Athens. We joined a tour that went by bus to the north of Athens, about a 5 hour journey. We learned a lot on this tour. It took about an hour to get away from Athens to finally see he country side, Athens is huge. The first area we drove through was Thebes. This is where Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many of Greece's other literary works come from this region. One story especially famous is that of Oedipus. He was the son of the King and the Queen of Thebes. As a baby, he was abandoned in the hills because of an oracle that any son the King had would eventually kill him. The king had his feet pinned so he could not walk (Oedipus means swollen foot) and be left to die. A royal shepherd found the boy and brought him to the palace of the King in Corinth. The king and and queen raised him as their own, since they didn't have their own kids. Then after growing up in Corinth the oracle was told again - that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Because Oedipus didn't want to kill his "parents" he ran away from Corinth. On the road one day he met a man and had to defend himself so he killed him (not knowing that the man was his real father). Then he encountered a Sphinx who wouldn't let him pass unless he answered the Riddle "What walks on 4 in the morning, on two in the day, and on 3 in the evening?" (I'll give you a second to think of the answer). Because Oedipus is also credited with being an incredibly intelligent man he answered the question. "At youth a baby crawls on all fours, an adult walks on two legs and the elderly use a walking stick. The answer is a man." Having heard that Oedipus answered correctly the Sphinx killed herself by throwing herself into the sea and releasing Thebes from her harsh rule. The people of Thebes were thrilled and said "We should make him king and give him our recently widowed queen as his wife." In this way the prophesy was fulfilled - Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. After realizing this the queen killed herself and Oedipus blinded himself. Greek mythology!

As we went along we got out of the bus at a few stops to take pictures like the one below.

Apoxaba, Greece with snow capped mountains.

Our first major stop was in Delphi. The city dedicated to the god Apollo. It was buried through the ages, but in the last century has been excavated and is currently being reconstructed, restored, and preserved. The most interesting story we heard here was that there was an Oracle (a person) who was the interpreter of Apollo at the temple. She had a room under the temple where she would receive her inspiration. It was told that she was never wrong, her answers just needed to be interpreted. One story was that there was a king who wanted to go to war with the Persians so he consulted the oracle. He asked if he would have victory when he went to battle. She answered that a great power will fall. Excited by the Oracle's words he went into battle... and lost, not realizing that he was a great power :). Another one was a man trying to prove that the oracle had no power at all. He went to the oracle with a dove clenched in his hand and asked is this dove dead or alive. If she said dead, he would let it go, if she said alive he would crush it in his hand. The oracle's answer was, "The answer lies within in your hands." And one last one, just to prove that she would never be wrong. A man asked if his wife would bear a boy or a girl. The Oracle said "Boy, not Girl". He went home and his wife had a girl. He came back to the Oracle and confronted her. All Oracles were written down so they looked at the record. "Boy not, Girl". :) (Greeks are great story tellers aren't they.)
Pics of Delphi below.

We pretty much had class before the tour began.

V at the Amphitheater in Delphi

Stadium in Delphi

Temple of Apollo in Delphi

Each of the polygonal shaped blocks of this retaining wall have Ancient Greek laws of the land on them for the citizens of the land to know them. Hard to see at this angle though.

The Athens treasury to the Apollo Temple in Delphi.

We made a quick stop at Thermopoly. Because I really liked the movie "The 300" I was sooo excited to see this place. Where, as the story goes, 300 Spartans lead by King Leonidis defended against the Persian king Xerxes and his millions. The Spartans all died, except one left to tell the story. I was a little disappointed though because the movie made it look like the sea was right there... it wasn't. It was too much of a hike to see the passage but still it was cool to see where it all happened.

Statue of a Spartan in Thermopoly

Now on to our final destination, Meteora. We were looking forward to seeing this place as it has a number of monasteries built in seemingly precarious places, on the tip top of rock formations. We got there late in the evening so Mu and I took a quick walk around before sun down. One thing we really didn't expect to see was though this town is small and in the middle of nowhere and the tourist season was low it was really bustling. Shops were open, people were in the streets, traffic was thick. It was a really nice atmosphere. We would have stayed out late, but our tour the next day was starting really early.

We woke up in time to grab some breakfast (and quickly make some lunch from the breakfast buffet because we are cheap...LOL). We caught the bus and made our way up to two of the monasteries and got to see some great views. Have a look.