Balkan backpack

Delphi, major site of classic pilgrimage. A long processional way, steep uphill, votive offerings from cities and towns asking for patronage from the gods, located in the midst of natural splendour. Like religious sites all around the world, the entrance to a big temple in India, a sacred mountain in China, stations of the cross in Lourdes. Stunning setting, an amazing array of classical ruins from the 8th century BC through to Hadrian, Roman emperor, the weight of worship over millenia heavy in the hot, still air, the loud orchestra of cicadas, and just remembering: this is the Oracle of Delphi!! This is the navel of the world, where Zeus's birds met, where Apollo beat the Pythia, where priests interpreted the prophecies of the entranced oracle according to magic and politics and mystery, where the Pythian Games gathered athletes from the pan-hellenic world..where all the heroes came..in colour and confusion and offerings and souvenirs back then, enormous gaudy statues, heat, noise and the eternal beauty of the mountainsLes mer