January 30

This morning we left the hotel at the usual 8:30, but unfortunately, the Thebes museum was closed for renovations. So instead of the museum, we walked around Thebes a bit and looked at the various sites that have been discovered when someone has proposed a new construction project. I think we saw 5 on just our 30 minute walk. We also came across some temple ruins that have just fallen down into a ditch on the side of a hill. This whole scenario is just so bizarre to me. That these ruins are just left here (in addition to the accumulating trash) without any sort of archaeological activity just goes to show you how much there is to discover here. Apparently, these hundreds of years old blocks and capitals are relatively unexciting.
We left Thebes for Delphi, stopping along the way at Chaironeia, the site of the battle between the Macedonians and the Greeks in 338 BCE. This battle marked the end of the free status of Greek city-states. Phillip II was the king of Macedonia and his son, Alexander, fought alongside him. There is not a lot of information on this battle, and we discussed the details of what little there is, including strategy of the Macedonians, which seems to include a fake retreat so as to divide the Greek lines, and then charge the divide with the cavalry. I’m no expert in battle strategies, but it was still pretty interesting to look at the region myself and envision the battle.
We got to Delphi around 1pm and we extremely disappointed to find out that we will be sharing the hotel with a large number of high school students who are here for the weekend. They are extremely noisy, and giggly, and everywhere. And for a while there, someone kept calling my room and hanging up when we’d answer. That got old fast. I don’t know that I ever went through that particular stage of adolescence, but I can sympathize with those who cringe at the site of a hoard of teenagers. (I can say that now because I am technically no longer one of them – going on 3 months.) The chaperones don’t seem to care at all what these students are up to. But hopefully they won’t be too loud when I go to sleep.
Enough about them. So having arrived at 1, lunch was on the brain. Allie and I decided to hit up the super market instead of a long sit down meal. Krentz had proposed a hike up to the top of the hill/mountain (it was harder to climb than a hill, but not what I’d call a mountain) at 3, and we wanted to get some work done before we left. This hike was not easy. It took over an hour to get to this look-out on the peak (well, there is more to why it took so long, but I’m getting to that). The path wasn’t too steep, but there were so many turns (I think the technical term is “setback”), that it took us forever. I am going to be sore in the morning. The path was basically an hour’s worth of climbing broad steps. It was a great work out, but oh am I feeling the stiffness already.
The group who decided to hike consisted of about 10 people, including Krentz. After about 20 minutes, we had divided into 3 groups according to our pace. I was in the middle pack with Bryce and Caroline. The trail’s path is very clear, and just in case you need more assurances, there are several painted markers along the way. Well, the three of us got to a fork in the path and we couldn’t tell which way the faster paced group had gone. The way to the left seemed faster (the destination had been visible up to this point and we knew which direction it lay), but there were more markers in the distance on the right option. So, without a lot of thought put into it, we took the right pathway. This turned out to be a mistake. We ended up on the other side of this hill, at about the same elevation as the fork. There was also a home here and a dirt road. The path, which was now the road looked like it kept going around this hill, so we decided to go over the hill to reach the lookout. I’m pretty sure we were following goat trails at this point and we crossed some (relatively) newly exposed rock. That was cool. Sure enough we did reach this look-out, but by this point the others had waited and left. After having taken some beautiful pictures and gazed out over the valley for a few minutes, we spotted the group heading back down the path and shouted that we had finally made it.
I think one of my favorite aspects of this trip is the hikes. It is a great opportunity for some exercise and we get rewarded with such beautiful scenery. And normally I would have been irritated at our mistake and my competitive nature would have been frustrated that I was the one of the last people to reach the top, but instead I was just happy. I wondered to myself why I wasn’t upset, and I decided that this misstep provides a great story (or at least a great memory). And that’s what these trips are all about – the experiences. I had some nice conversations with Bryce and Caroline. We got to go on an adventure, and literally took the road less travelled. We got all nerdy and compared our little trek up the mountain to the Persians’ being led up the mountain by Ephialtes, the Spartain traitor, on the goat path. This stealthy strategy gave the Persians the break they needed to defeat the 300 Spartans. Since Bryce was leading the way (and he had on a backpack – Ephialtes had a hunchback), he became Ephialtes.
We headed back down the hill and made it back to the hotel worn out. My legs were a wee bit wobbly. I then washed the dirt out of my pants and used up two bottles of the free mini shampoos provided by the hotel to get them completely clean. Dinner was at 7 and Krentz suggested to our group (there were 7 of us) that we each pick an item – appetizer or entrée – and we could all share them. This turned out to be a great plan and saved us a few bucks too. The meal ended up consisting of a Greek salad (you’ll be shocked to find out that this was not my pick), stuffed cabbage (this was my choice, though I had wanted the stuffed tomatoes, but they were out of season), grilled pork, fried calamari, mousaka (an eggplant, beef, and potato dish that comes out like lasagna – it’s Greek and delicious), and fries (I don’t know why Krentz ordered fries, that seemed a bit bland to me). We also shared a kilo of the local wine and it too was very good. Krentz scheduled today to be a discussion day about the literature we had read earlier in the week. The first time slot was 6, and the second was over dinner at 7. So the discussion during the meal was on Hesiod’s poems “Works and Days” and “Theogony.” I like discussing the readings because they always end up being more interesting than I had originally thought.
So now I am in the room (the teenagers are actually quiet now!) and am trying to get some of Herodotus read before I fall asleep.