Delphi, Monasteries, Mt. Olympus, and Vergina - The past few days!

Anywho after the museum, we had a group pic and then bought some snacks at a kiosk, and then piled on the bus for a two and a half hour trip to Delphi!! We stopped at some place called olympus travel to eat lunch and it was not the most appetizing place. I had some chicken parmesan sand-which with some weird orange colored cream cheese-like spread. It was ok but left a weird taste in my mouth so i justified it by buying myself a slushie...finally something with ice!! :) After this stop we got back on the bus and drove through the most beautiful mountains i have ever seen in my life! Living in West Virginia and everything, i thought i'd seen the mountains, everything from my backyard to snowshoe. The mountains here though are different. They are like rock. Very high rocks with scattered bushes, not many trees, and they look very dry. They are huge, way bigger than any mountains i have ever seen. It's breathtaking, the pictures i took just don't do them justice. Once we got to Delphi we went to another boring museum, this one was smaller so it was a less painful experience. We checked into our quaint little hotel called hotel phaethon. We went to dinner which was amazing. We had a different version of greek salad, bread, water with no ice, again, and veal with yummy veggies and such....and then fresh watermelon for dessert. I give this meal 4 thumbs up on a scale of 1 to 5. After this, some people and i shopped and we pretty much walked the entire town. It was extremely small.. Later that night, the lady that owns the hotel or whatever, it was very small, wouldn't let anyone use the phone, and she stood outside and stared up at all of us while we were just sitting on our balconies quietly. We weren't even being loud and then she came up and paced around in our hallways like we were supposed to be sleeping or something....it was ridiculous...i went down to use the phone to call mom to let her know that we had made it there alright and she was like yelling at me in greek to get off the phone like i understood her, then she started poking my arm!!! We couldn't dial out on the phones in the rooms because her hotel was crappy. I wanted to strangle her!!! GHETTO!!! I was mad, we were all mad, and the next morning i skipped the "skimpy breakfast" in case she had poisoned it!! There were other things too, but she obviously did not like Americans!! I tried to be nice, but she surpassed my limits.

Soo wednesday morning after the nights experience, we boarded the bus and went back to the ancient site of the Oracle of Delphi. Let me just say this, the acropolis is pretty amazing because you look at it and think, wow i can't believe something like that is in the middle of a metropolis the size of like Orlando or Atlanta!!  Its just outstanding!! BUT, the oracle and ancient ruins in delphi are phenomenal!! They are so well preserved and because this place was once thought to be the center of the earth, it is a very important site! The columns and buildings and temples are amazing. We saw the Agora with the temple of Apollo, the treasuries, the gymnasium with one of the only preserved swimming pools, the theater, the stadium was closed because some rocks fell, and my personal favorite, the temple of athena!! It was beautiful!! So far my favorite place! It amazes me how skilled and smart the ancient greeks were and how devotedly they really believed in these "mythological gods." I mean seriously, their whole lives revolved around them and today i definitely learned some important history. I really finally felt like "hey omg, I'm not in the US anymore!" It was just crazy. Something i think everyone needs to see before they die and the history that goes with all these sites is just unbelievable.

After Delphi, we got back on the bus to travel four and a half hours to Kastriki, Kalambaka, and Meteorea where the monasteries are that we were going to see. The towns are all in the same general area. We stopped again at a mount olympus travel place for lunch, this time i had a salad..not too bad and then we got back on the bus and watched some movie while most of us tried to nap, it was nearly impossible to take a nap with all the curvy roads though, i kept whacking my head up against the window every time we'd take a turn! After we arrived at the hotel, which btw was very cute and way nicer than the last one with the mean old lady,  we got settled in and cleaned up and then headed to dinner. We had of course the usual, bread, greek salad, also i forgot, special bread dips come with most meals too, and then the main course was chicken and potatoes...it was a very flavorful dish which i was surprised because the food here has really simple flavors or not much at all and they never serve anything really cold or really hot...its all like room temperature..its weird. One thing i have noticed about the mountainous region is that i've seen bugs here! I didn't see one bug the whole time i was in Athens but here there are all sorts of bugs, some i've seen before and others that are native to greece. After dinner we went over to a little bakery, i had a mini ice cream sand-which and i got a slice of baklava for the morning for breakfast because i imagined it was going to be slim pickings since it was a really small hotel.

As for the next morning, Thursday, we got up early and traveled way up to these outstanding rocks that i could see from our hotel room, in Meteorea where the monasteries are and checked them out. They were beautiful!! They are on the very top of these rocks that are like mountains but very straight up like cylinders, don't worry i took lots of pictures, its hard to describe. I saw some monks and some nuns and bought a few souvenirs. The monasteries were very old and had beautiful paintings in them of jesus and about his life and the disciples. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the monasteries but i took photos of the outsides. We had to climb up about a million stairs to get to them too! They were also pretty old. HOWEVER, here is the interesting part...the toilets here so far haven't been too bad except for not being able to flush toilet paper down some of them but recently, at the monasteries, they had a toilet that was like a hole in the floor!!! DON'T panic...i took a picture of this so you'll know what i'm talking about...it was like a ceramic toilet just in the floor...when i saw this i didn't believe my eyes! I mean i understand because the nuns wear skirts and everything and its probably easiest for them to use the bathroom like this. (i heard it was the cleanest way too, but i don't believe that from experience) But, i had to get like completely naked just to take a piss!! I was like, "this is crazy and uncalled for." Seriously, it was traumatizing, quite the first experience. Squatting is never cool. After visiting two of the monasteries we got back on the bus for another two and a half hours for our trip to Mt. Olympus which was breathtaking as well. This was our first time at the beach, so we were all very anxious to get in the water. This was also our tour guides family hotel, so we got to meet his family and we got a special tour of the facility. They had a campground and bungalows and then a main area with a restaurant and bar and such.  We stayed in the bungalows, they were alot nicer than what i was picturing and we all got bathing suits on and headed for the beach. It was sort of an overcast day because it had just rained so it was a little chilly so i didn't get in. After the beach though, we got showers and headed to dinner in the small town and i would give this dinner 5 thumbs up!! It was delicious!! We had lamb, salad, bread, bread dips, soup--cold soup, something new-- and then a fabulous fruit and ice cream dessert!! I got some pictures of Mt. Olympus because we had a good view and then we headed back to the hotel. They had a complimentary round of drinks waiting for us back at the bar, so we had some drinks and then sat by the beach all night. We went to bed late and then got up early this morning...i had toast for breakfast because i have run out of special K bars in my duffle bag, the rest are in my main suitcase! We then got on the bus this morning and headed for Vergina where we toured the museum of Phillip II, Alexander the Great's Father. It was pretty cool...i like this type of stuff so i didn't mind this museum, plus everything was well preserved and real!! It was cool...we ate lunch in the small town which was also good and then we got back on the bus for another 4 hours to drive to Thessaloniki to drop off our tour guide, he'll be back to see us sunday ( we were sad though cause we liked him) and then a little further up the coast to Chalkadiki to stay at the Alexander the Great Beach Hotel for a couple of days before returning to Thessaloniki. I've been having a great time so far, there are some annoying people on this trip that really aggravate me but i'm trying not to let that ruin my time. It's beautiful here but can be frustrating at times. I will post more probably later tonight or tomorrow. Leave me comments!