Tuesday May 30th- Athens

 We checked out of the hotel by 8am today to explore the Delphi sights! The archeological sites were much more intact compared to Olympia so it was easier to envision what it had looked like in the past. The Delphi site is home to the Temple of Apollo and a treasury that had a variety of treasures to showcase the city's wealth and strength. The overall site is called “The Oracle”, as there was an oracle who would make prophecies about the future. Her prophecies were very creative due to a natural gas mixture that was released during that time period. The theater and stadium largely remained intact which was also super interesting to see! Before we headed to the museum, we stopped in the town to do some shopping and get a snack. We all ended up getting ice cream which was so delicious!

The museum had statues that were excavated from the Oracle. Unfortunately, some of them were replicas as the statues were taken from the original site to various areas of the Western world. It was interesting that the tour guide noted some Egyptian influence. As we were walking through the museum, our guide also noted a fun fact, this time unrelated to the Ancient Greeks- she pointed out that Ivanka Trump was in the same room as us. While some tried, no one could get their picture with a famous person to check off the scavenger hunt list. As we left the museum, we also saw four kittens sitting outside! There have been lots of cute cats and dogs roaming throughout Delphi. 

We headed to lunch in the downtown area of Delphi and were able to try new foods! We also gave some leftovers to a cat roaming the streets. Lunch fueled us up before our bus ride to Athens. This bus ride was fairly quiet as we listened to music and caught up on sleep and work. In the beginning we had a view of both the sea and the mountains. As we got closer to Athens, we could see the Parthenon. Once we got to Athens we went to Nikki’s for dinner and a lecture. On the walk over, she explained Greece’s tumultuous past. We learned about the religious conflict and how it still impacts Greece today. We also discussed Greece’s relationship with other countries such as Turkey. It was nice to have a home cooked meal once we got to Nikki’s! We had salad, spanakopita, and something that was similar to the Moussaka I ate at lunch. Everything seemed super authentic, and it was cool to walk through the city to get to her home. We had to walk up two spiral staircases to get to the kitchen and living room. Once we were done, we headed up another spiral staircase to look at her view of the Parthenon and the city. The lecture explained the history behind the Parthenon so we would have some background knowledge on it. We learned in greater depth information on the battles that the Athenians were involved in and how the Parthenon has changed over time. Nikki also put things into an American perspective when discussing democracy. The first version of democracy was born in Greece so she discussed how it is difficult to remain a world power while simultaneously carrying out democratic ideals.