Greece

Sunday is the day of rest. No shops are open around the neighborhoods, tourist shops never close. For the locals, the day doesn't start until 10 and everyone goes to the beach. No one works on Sundays in Greece.

Everyday from noon to 2 is siesta. Local shops are closed during this time and all the locals take a nap.

Things I learned on the 3 hour drive to Delphi:

They heat water by using solar panels. Every house and building has solar panels on the roof. And they have many solar panel farms outside of the city. Greece is converting to other sources of energy because of the war in Ukraine the price of electricity is very high. They have at least 30 wind turbines up on the hill and that's just what I can see from the road.

Forest fires start because of Arson due to the law that you can't build in forests, so people burn the trees down so that they can build. Two days before we arrived there were 24 forest fires. They leave the trees burnt for 4 or 5 years because some trees with spring with new life and any tree that hasn't they will cut down. They just passed a new law where you cannot build where the trees were burned down.

Children spend the summers with their grandparents while their parents work.

There are phone booths on the side of the highway.

There are no speed limit signs, and I have yet to see any roadkill.

They grow potatoes, onions, wheat, and cotton. In the fields outside of Athens. They don't use weed killers and they don't have enough workers to tend fields that need tending to. So they only grow a few things.

There was a legend that a sphinx guarded the entrance to the city of Thebans. She had a riddle that no one could answer. It was:
First I have four feet. Then I have 2 feet. Then I have 3 feet.

A man
Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx was astounded and inexplicably killed herself by throwing herself into the sea. Oedipus thereby won the freedom of the Thebans, the kingdom of that city, and as his wife, Jocasta, who was later revealed to be his mother.

Saw my first flock of sheep and the shepherd actually had a hook!

Around the time of Easter the fields are full of red poppy flowers. They symbolize the blood of Christ. The Greek Orthodox are not very religious. No one goes to church every Sunday, but on Easter no one misses church. Easter preparations start 40 days before Easter Day.

As we drive farther out from Athens the houses are more dispersed and the mountains are full of green. I can see small collections of houses very few and far between across the land.

The terrain is riddle with thousands of olive trees. They grow like a weed all over the countryside.

Tried Baklava and an orange sticky cake thing. Greece is known for their iced coffee and they did not disappoint. I ordered mine with cream, sugar and caramel. It was delicious! There were 2 cats that would wander around the Café and they had 3 kittens outside. They were super friendly and soft.

Marble is very cheap in Greece, it is timber that is expensive.

Up in the mountains I saw around 20 goats eating grass on the side of the road. In Greece pedestrians don't have the right of way but goats do. We had to stop as close to 50 goats crossed the road.

The mountains are populated with sheep, goats, wolves, and wild pigs. If you hit a pig with your car, people will take it home and eat it.

Grecians do not support guns. In Crete they use guns for celebration by shooting it in the air. And for those that do hunt they have to hand in their gun after the season is over. There has never been a shooting in a school. Most Greeks are afraid of guns.

Rules are lenient for children. At 16 you can go into bars and buy cigarettes and alcohol. By the time they turn 18 they know how to control their alcohol intake.

When COVID hit, they passed a law that you could go on a run or walk your dogs for 2 hours a day. Our tour guide, Eleni, has 2 German Shepherds that have never walked so much in their lives because everyone in the neighborhoods would walk her dogs so that they could get out of the house.

Constantino's Olive Grove is the oldest olive grove in the world with more that 1 millions roots. They make Olive oil with black olives because it takes half as many black olives compared to green olives to make a bottle of olive oil. Black olives are more expensive than green olives because it is harder to harvest the black olives because the weather is temperamental in the harvest season. The bigger the trunk the older the tree. The oldest olive tree is 3,500 years old and is still alive. Most of the trees are over 1000 years old. They hand pick all of the olives because the bruise easily. They do not use the olive pit in the oil.

While we were at the olive grove one of the chaperones was climbing on a stump and fell off. She was picked up by the ambulance because she broke her ankle and had to have surgery in Athens.

Delphi: "nothing in excess" and "know thyself" were enscripted in the temple of Apollo and Dionysus. The gods of wine and sun shared the same temple because of those to sayings. Apollo was worshipped 6 months out of the year while Dionysus was worshipped in the winter months. Delphi means whom because it is located in the naval of the world or so they believed. Zeus found the center of the Earth by setting two eagles free, one to the east and another to the west, and these two eagles made the round trip of Earth and met above Delphi. Delphi took its name from the word dolphin. Apollo killed Python and was exiled for punishment. The land is called Pytho— smells of rot— because python was left to rot in the land. There used to be 3,000 bronze statues representing every walk of life. Inside the walls of Delphi everyone is welcome. Delphi is considered to be the center of the world. Delphi was built in the middle of fault lines meaning that there were many earthquakes and the building survived through them all.

A Greek Sphinx is the head of a woman, body of a lion, tail of a snake, and wings of an eagle.

Delphi told prophecy. The way they did that is a woman (pythias) would sit on a stool in the basement and breathe in the "breath of the gods"—gas that came out of a crack in the ground— and when someone would ask a question she would answer in prophetic language. They don't know if the gases made the woman high, hallucinate, or if it made her more lucid. But people listened. Without Delphi there is no Greek philosophy.

The gods are interpreted differently throughout Greece, but the essence is the same.

My lamb chops only cost 12 Euros and they were phenomenal! I had red wine to accompany my meal and chocolate cake with homemade ice cream. That was the best ice cream that I have ever had.

Arachova: architecture like no other. Red clay tiled roofs with stone or white siding plopped on the side of the mountain. On the opposite side of the village is the ski resort that many locals frequent during the winter season.Read more