From Athens to Delphi

Yesterday evening, after the hammam, I met up with Topher and the boys back at the apartment around 7 pm. The boys were in good spirits after having some fun hanging out in the park enjoying the sunshine.

Since no one appeared to be starving, we decided to check out the Gazi area for supper, which our host had suggested was a good place to visit for restaurants and bars. It’s a former industrial area (where they stored gas, hence the name) and it has recently become hipsterized. We walked in the light rain for about 20 minutes, with the boys asking where we were going to eat every five seconds. Everyone was pretty irritable by the time we got to Gazi. The huge gas storage tank was impressive (pictured below) and I’m glad they are preserving it, but the hipster bars were not very appealing and the

restaurant that our host had recommended was no longer in existence.

By this point, David was in tears and wishing he hadn’t come on this trip. We used our Uber app to call a taxi (Uber uses the local taxi service here, which works really well) and went back to a square we had passed where Topher had spied what he thought looked like a suitable restaurant. Our taxi driver thought it was funny that we wanted a ride to somewhere so close, but it was a good 10 minute walk. He dropped us off and we realized that the restaurant was an African restaurant, which probably would have been fine, but we really weren’t feeling like Seychellian food.

I finally had the brainwave to ask the Internet, and saw that there was a restaurant just a block away. It looked nice so we went in and sat down, and started perusing the menus on the table while a waiter brought us some water. We had all decided what we were going to order when another waiter came over and kindly explained that they had recently had a fire so they didn’t have a kitchen. They were operating only as a bar and were setting up for some music later. Topher laughed out loud at the irony of the situation, which he hoped she didn’t think was at the restaurant’s misfortune!

We asked if she knew of anywhere to eat nearby, and she recommended a restaurant around the corner that she described as a “taverna” that served Greek food. Tavernas are traditional Greek restaurants and the kind of thing we were looking for so that’s where we headed next on this epic quest to find supper. The place was very cute, but definitely not an authentic taverna - it was more like a Disney version of one. The food was overall very good, if a bit

overpriced, but the waiter was what made the whole experience memorable, and even David managed a smile or two. The waiter gave Hugh the job of writing out our order and patiently showed him how to write the Greek letters on the bill. Later he made flowers out of napkins and a paper airplane for Hugh (pictured on previous page) and of course brought us free dessert (as he did for the other tables, and is common in Greece). Hugh loved it and made sure that we gave him a good tip. I ordered baked eggplant with feta, which is definitely something I will try to recreate at home. So simple, but so delicious. Then it was home to bed.

This morning we packed up and I squeezed the last mileage out of my metro pass by going back to pick up my shoes - which now fit much better - and then we walked about 800 metres with all of our stuff - which seemed somehow to have grown exponentially - to pick up our rental car. Renting the car involved some stilted conversations on the phone and in person, but we finally managed it and were on the road by about 2 pm. It’s a pretty crappy little car, with lots of scratches and dents that the rental guy carefully videotaped for us. But it’s only for a few days until we leave the mainland so it will be good enough.

We stopped for lunch in a little town off the highway, and again I used Google maps to find a restaurant. We parked close to where the restaurant was

supposed to be but I couldn’t see anything other than a cafe (which here only serve coffee pretty much), so we tried another that was nearby. It turned out to be a bar so we walked back toward where the first one was supposed to be, and found an unmarked place that looked like it might be a restaurant. I peeked in the windows and saw salt, pepper and toothpicks on the table so knew we were at the right place! It was perfect. A simple little “grill house” serving souvlaki cooked on charcoal, which we had with salad, french fries and tzatziki. Yum!

We then continued on our way toward Delphi, with a slight detour through Thiva (Thebes) when we missed our turn. Hugh asked Topher to “have a long, boring conversation”, which meant he wanted to hear Topher give a lecture on the history of Greece and Turkey. Topher did and it was very informative for me too. I’m not sure how much of it David heard as he was listening to music, but Hugh was very attentive and has already absorbed quite a bit.

We enjoyed seeing some Greek countryside, and trying to figure out the names of things in Greek and what they meant. We passed by literally hundreds of churches and roadside shrines, some very tiny. As we got closer to Delphi we could see snow on the mountains and soon we were heading into the mountains themselves. We admired a very quaint stone farm perched on a steep slope above the highway - hard to imagine anyone farming that rocky place. We saw several more like that across the valley and lots of olive trees everywhere we looked.

We passed through Arachova, the town next to Delphi, and Topher commented that it is a lot like Banff - they even have skiing! Must be a very short season. Delphi is a smaller town (about the size of Merrickville maybe) but also very touristy. Considering that it has been a place for people to come for thousands of years, it’s not surprising!

We checked in to our Airbnb studio apartment. It’s tiny but all that we need for two nights, and spotlessly clean. The boys were astounded that we are two floors below street level, but still have an amazing view (top two photos opposite twin from our balcony)! Everything here is built on the side of the mountain (Mount Parnassus) so I’m not sure if there’s a room in town without a view. We’re relaxing a bit and will soon head out to find some supper.