Trip to Northern Greece

Hey everyone! I'm back for another post. CYA had another five-day field trip, this time to northern Greece. It was loads of fun. I went to Delphi, Meteora, Thermopylae, Thessaloniki, and a few other places. I loved Delphi. It has to be one of the most amazing places on Earth. Here are some pictures of my favorite sites.

Here's a picture of the Temple of Pythian Apollo as seen from beneath it. This is the east section because the altar is directly in front of these pillars. And this is the eastern portion of the temple as seen from above. The western portion doesn't have any standing columns. The Pythia, who delivered the oracles, sat above a chasm with mysterious vapors on the western portion of the temple. However, no chasm has ever been discovered by archaeologists or geologists. (I know that the dates on these pictures aren't the same; that's because I also went to Delphi over spring break with my mom so I took a majority of my Delphi pictures then.)

This is the Great Meteoron Monaster at Meteora. Meteora has these huge stone pillars with monasteries perched on the top. This particularly monastery is still active; a few monks still live there despite that it's a huge tourist attraction. Since it's a monastery, women aren't supposed to be there. However, they do allowed women enter only if they are wearing skirts. I didn't bring a skirt so I had to wear a wraparound skirt that was provided. Today, there is a road and steps that lead to the monasteries but back in the day, people and supplies were pulled up with pulleys and rope baskets. I think that would be terrifying.

We stopped for lunch in a town in the mountains. After a quick lunch of a gyro and Coke, my friends and I went to see the waterfalls on the river that flows through the town. There were three or four waterfalls including a rather large one that I unfortunately coudn't get a picture of because you could only see it from the road and I didn't have enough time to go down there. I thought that it's just so beautiful looking, don't you?

I know that this is rather a cloudy picture but I gave up after about ten minutes because the clouds just weren't cooperating. This is Mt. Olympus. That's right, people. MT. OLYMPUS, home of the gods and divine gods. I think that's pretty awesome. I was told that Mt. Olympus is nearly always surrounded by clouds. I suppose that Zeus wants to keep him and the other gods hidden from prying mortal eyes.

I bet you know this one. Three guesses who this is. Yes, it's a Spartan. Yes, it's that guys who yelled, "This is Sparta!" Yup, that's right. It's King Leonidas of Sparta who led the legendary 300 against the Persians at Thermopylae. Let me tell you that Thermopylae is full of mosquitoes and smells like sulfur because there is a sulfur hot spring that runs through it. The Greek on the statue is, "Molon labe," or "Come get them," which is what he says to the Persians about their weapons. Below is the sunset at Thermopylae (taken from the bus).

Thessaloniki was really nice. It's must smaller than Athens but is the second largest city (it has about 500,000 people). Thessaloniki is rich in Roman history rather than ancient Greek history. I also saw Pella, which was the capitol of the Macedonian empire (you know, Alexander the Great?). I hope you enjoyed my quick rendition of trip to northern Greece!