Getting to Know Thyself at Delphi

My Balkan coworker asked me upon my return from Delphi, "Did you get to Know Thyself?"

That's a great question for any self-respecting traveler. Should the experience of traveling run deeper than finding one's favorite sunset or the best local dishes, it should keep leading the traveler closer to his own purpose of travel. Frankly I didn't give it much thought until I was confronted with this question from my coworker. Know thyself.



Some 2400 years earlier a bunch of buddies of Socrates also traveled here to ask the all-knowing Delphic Oracle about the enigmatic philosopher. Was Socrates the wisest man of all? While the Oracle said yes, Socrates went on a fact finding mission to arrive at a roundabout conclusion that he was indeed the wisest, but only due to the fact that he alone realized his own ignorance.



Back in the days of Socrates, Delphi was one of the most influential and sophisticated institutions of the ancient world. Treasures of entire nations were stockpiled in its sanctuaries for safekeeping. Empires rose and fell, diplomatic relationships were built and annulled, and internal policies were formulated based on the semi-conscious utterance of the Oracle's priestesses. This was part Central Bank, part CIA, part TV psychic, and all powerful.



Alexander the Great sought counsel from the Oracle and, at the other end of the spectrum, so did Emperor Nero, the less-than-great. But the priestesses are long gone since Roman times, and today only half-restored ruins remain to greet the curious visitor. But the views from the mountainside is still spectacular, and it's still a fine place for the weary traveler to rest in the shadow of Apollo's Temple and reflect on past journeys and future plans. Oh and the purpose of traveling.



So what makes me travel? Traveling for the purpose of blogging would be entirely backwards, as I write simply for the reinforcement and retainment of fond memories. For photography then? Not really, as I always treat photography only as an aid to the imperfection of visual memory. For food? While food is one of my passions it's still not the crux of traveling for me.



And it's definitely not about the arrogance of appearing to be more worldly or knowledgeable than the peer, simply because one has seen more of the world than anyone around. It's not about comparing oneself to other travelers. That's no different from the absurdity of basing one's self-worth on money or appearance or whatever the society of the time happens to fashion.



For me, traveling is about the daydream.

To entirely misquote Karl Marx, it's opium for eight-to-five workers like myself, an escape from the mundane for 3 weeks a year, and a distant mirage to drag myself towards for the other 49 weeks. Heroin addicts blow their fortune and lose themselves in their expensive habit, and well ... so does travel addicts like myself.



Perhaps that's an overly negative view, and instead I could pretend to take the high road. IMHO traveling is still the best way to foster cross-cultural awareness and bridge political and religious ideologies, especially in this post-911 era. I do wish more people in the Western world can have the opportunity to visit an ordinary family in a Middle Eastern nation and understand them as everyday folks, and vice versa. But to call cultural understanding my main purpose of travel would be a preposterous exaggeration, a confusion of the cause and the effect.



I think I finally know how to answer my coworker's question. I don't need any deep and sophisticated purpose. Traveling feels good to me -- and that's that. If it's still not good enough for an answer, I can always take a page out of Socrates's book ... I know that I know nothing, especially when it comes to myself.


RESTAURANT REVIEWS

Philosophical thoughts aside we still had to find something substantial to eat, and here we came across one of our favorite restaurants on this trip.

Food Review: TAVERNA VAKHOS
Address: 31 Apollonos, Delphi
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: The small town of Delphi has three main streets running through it, and Apollonos is the hilly street overlooking the town. Vakhos is right in the middle section of the street.


This was a memorable restaurant for us. Excellent food, reasonable prices, and a spectacular view above the town of Delphi stretching all the way to the Gulf of Corinth. And to top all that, my wife found her favorite Baklava here. Tempted yet, dessert fans?

After an abysmally disappointing lunch and probably our worst single meal in Greece (it was Taverna Dionysos on Pavlou-Friderikis Street, in case you're wondering), we opted for a place far away from the bus station and a street above the main throughfare. Vakhos was nondescript among dozens of similar tavernas in town, but I remember exactly what tipped us to give this place a try -- it was the alluring smell of stewing meat, tomatoes and garlic from the kitchen's air vent. You can rarely go wrong with that.



First off, the Skordalia here wasn't the creamy, semi-liquid variety. This was solid, chunky, and very, very strong. It's a garlic lover's dream, the way I personally like it, though understandably not for anyone concerned at all about post-dinner bad breath.



Rabbit Stifado, which was a quarter rabbit in a homey local stew. Come to think of it, this may have been the smell that lured us into the taverna in the first place! The rabbit was flavorful, but the best part was the sweet shallots swimming in an extremely rich tomato sauce. The sauce was too good that I simply had to mop up all of it with my bread.



And it gets better with the Mussel Saganaki. The same thick, homemade tomato sauce got spiced up here with hot peppers and smothered a whole pan of sauteed mussels. The mussels were so fresh that we could just taste the briny Mediterranean waters in the meat despite being accompanied by such a deep and strong sauce. Excellent.



And that's not even the highlight of the night. The distinction of the best dish belonged to this small, unassuming plate of cigar-shaped Baklava. According to the Baklava lover in the family (ie. my wife) this was the best Baklava she ever had, and I think it had something to do with the crispiness of the phyllo pastry even when drenched in honey, giving it the lighter-than-usual texture that she greatly appreciated after a full, cheesy meal.

Even with a half litre of house red the whole meal came to only 30 Euros, very reasonable for a great meal with a view in a touristy town. All of the dishes were enjoyable, and certainly the Mussel Saganaki and Baklava were among the more memorable dishes of our trip. We wouldn't hesitate to go back, should we visit Delphi again.

Bill for Two Persons

Skordalia	Euro 3.8
Mussel Saganaki	Euro 8.8
Rabbit Stifado	Euro 8.2
Baklava	Euro 3
House Red 1/2 Litre	Euro 5
Bread for Two	Euro 1.2
TOTAL	Euro 30 (CAD$48)

ACCOMMODATION

Hotel Review: ATHINA HOTEL (Delphi)
Address: 55 Pavlou and Friderikis Street, Delphi
Price: Euro 30 for double room with private shower/toilet
Website/Map: N/A
How To Book: Through Hostelbookers.com
Directions: It's right on the main road through town, on the downhill side of the street just two minute's walk from the bus station.


This was among the cheapest private double rooms we've come across anywhere in Europe, and right at the centre of a tourist town at that. The town of Delphi is small enough that the hotel was essentially within walking distance to everything -- 2 minutes to the bus station, 10 minutes to the Delphi Museum and the entrance to the main archeological site (ie. Temple of Apollo, Treasury of Athenians, Theatre etc.), and 20 minutes to the Castalian Spring and the Tholos.



The room was simple and clean, with a private shower and toilet. There's no air conditioning, which was probably why the price here was so low. But in this crisp mountain air we barely needed the electric fan, even in late June. And even though our room faced the street, there's not enough traffic in this little town at night to disrupt sleep.



Having a private balcony was a bonus -- giving us the opportunity for some early morning people-watching, when the locals took to the streets before the daily onslaught of tourists. And after everyone woke up, there's a simple but free breakfast downstairs in the cafe. This was definitely the best hotel deal we came across on our 18 day trip.



Lastly, since we had trouble finding the Delphi bus schedule on the Internet, we took a picture before taking off for Athens. We understand the schedule changes between the summer tourist season and the winter months, but hopefully this will give some idea to future visitors what the possible connections are.

Traveling from Meteora to Delphi through another World Heritage Site -- Hosios Loukas

This article is for fellow independent travelers facing the same popular logistic problem ... how does one get from Meteora to Delphi using public transport? While we had the chance to take trains and buses the whole way, we found an alternate way at Livadeia to spend some money to pack a third UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 1000-year-old monastery of Hosios Loukas, to break a long half-day of travel.



Here I assume most readers would agree that the cliff-top monasteries of Meteora is a definite must-see for any first-time visitor to mainland Greece, and so is the archeological site of the Delphic Oracle. In fact many tour operators and taxi drivers from Athens make their living doing just that -- whisking tourists for a whirlwind tour of the two sites in 2 or 3 days at a premium price. For cheap backpackers though the easiest way is to travel to Meteora, back-track to Athens again, then start another trip to Delphi. This essentially wastes close to a whole day’s valuable sightseeing time on the road.



A smarter way is to travel from Meteora to Livadeia/Lamia and transfer to buses towards Delphi. Our original plan was to take Train IC47 from Kalampaka to Livadeia (06:33-09:51), take the quick connecting bus to the town centre (1 Euro, less than 10 minutes), then walk three blocks over to the bus station for next bus to Delphi (same bus that starts from Athens, departing Livadeia at 09:30, 12:30, 15:00, 17:30, 19:30, 22:00 at the time of writing). And we followed this plan leading up to the last step at Livadeia town centre, and then ... we came up with something more interesting.



Prior to our trip we had heard about this ancient monastery of Hosios Loukas, a gem surviving from the Dark Ages and called one of the finest pieces of Byzantine architecture in Greece, a short distance from Livadeia. No means of public transportation exists apparently, which meant that for us the only way to visit was by taxi. So this is what we explained to our young taxi driver: a trip from Livadeia to Hosios Loukas, stop for an hour or so to allow us time for a good visit, then head off to Delphi.



The road from Livadeia to Delphi measures around 40km. Hosios Loukas is on a branch road off the town of Distomo, adding another 20km or so both ways. For this total distance of 60km, plus the cost of the driver needing to make it back to Livadeia perhaps without passengers, cost 70 Euros. As a taxi trip we thought the price was quite reasonable, though we have to compare it to the 7 Euros per person bus fare from Livadeia to Delphi. So essentially the two of us would be paying 56 extra Euros for a trip to Hosios Loukas, with the added benefit of not having to sit and wait 2.5 hours for the next bus and thus getting to Delphi quicker for a half day’s sightseeing. Expensive? Definitely. But weighing the virtue of an extra destination and the longer sightseeing time at Delphi, we wasted no time jumping into the taxi.



Our driver was actually quite surprised at our mention of Hosios Loukas, which we thought was a good sign of how off-the-beaten-track this place was. After a 20 minute drive through hills after hills of olive groves, we arrived at the mysterious Byzantine monastery with no tour buses in sight, and of course none of the loud, flag-waving guides and tourists that plague any major sight in Athens. On this gloriously sunny Friday in late June, we ran into no more than 10 visitors in the entire complex.



At the heart of Hosios Loukas are two ornate medieval churches, both of which are considered among the most influential architectural pieces of their era. Relics of the 10th Century saint to whom the monastery was dedicated are still housed within the Katholikon church today, and a millennium’s erosion on the remaining frescoes and dazzling mosaics only adds to the air of sanctity and serenity. This was my favorite of the numerous monasteries and churches we came across in Greece.



My favorite area of the monastery was also easiest to miss, a hallowed crypt sitting underneath the main Katholikon originally serving the purpose of venerating the relics of the saint, back in the age of miracles and ritualistic healing. Today parts of the sacred stone altar remains, and the archaic, Middle Ages frescoes have been recently restored to its former glory after centuries of deterioration. The Hosios Loukas is already extremely quiet and off-the-beaten-path as far as World Heritage Sites go, but the crypt was so peaceful that we had it all to ourselves during our visit.



More than a thousand years after its founding, the monastery remains an object of pilgrimage to the Orthodox faithful, who continue to pay homage to the lavishly decorated casket on February 5 and May 3. To me this is the real attraction of sites such as Hosios Loukas -- not as a museum of medieval architecture and artwork, but as a living continuum of an ancient religious practice in this part of the world.



Our trusty taxi driver waited in the shades for more than an hour for us and asked whether we liked the monastery. I thought he still couldn’t quite understand what we enjoyed so much about Hosios Loukas enough to pay him to make this long trip. It would take another 30 minute’s drive to our final destination of Delphi, arriving just past 13:00 for lunch ahead of an afternoon of sightseeing in the museum and the archaeological sites. So that’s our alternate suggestion for fellow travelers journeying between Meteora and Delphi. It’s a little expensive if you’re a party of 2 or less, but the detour is excellent and the timing works great -- there’s definitely enough time left in the afternoon to see all of Delphi, especially in the long daylight hours of Greece’s summer.

Hiking Among Meteora's Cliff-top Monasteries

We’re normally not hikers. But if you have to fly 11,000 km just to arrive in Greece, you wouldn’t want to rush through one of the world’s most spectacular sights on a day-trip either. While we certainly won’t claim to be physically fit, we did our best to enjoy panoramic views of Meteora on a couple of easy hikes.



Many first-time visitors to Greece may not have heard of Meteora, but most would have seen dramatic photos on tour brochures of ancient monasteries perched, impossibly it would seem, at the top of gigantic rock pedestals. Sacred to Greek Orthodox faithfuls since the medieval ages and still hailed in the 21st Century as one of the world’s Top 10 Most Precarious Buildings, Meteora is now a featured highlight on most Greece mainland tours. So the key for us wasn’t so much getting there, but how best to avoid the multi-national armies of tourists.



For independent travelers like ourselves two means of direct transportation exist between Athens and Meteora -- OSE train number 884 from Larissa Station or KTEL bus from the terminal on Liossion Street. Either choice would take about 5 hours in the best of conditions. Despite all the horror stories about the punctuality of Greek transportation, we never came across any delays throughout the whole trip and arrived at Kalampaka, the village underneath the towering rock cliffs and monasteries, around lunchtime.



Restaurants reviews can be found further down in this article, but the great thing about arriving in the midday is an opportunity for an easy afternoon hike, starting from the monasteries at the top and ending at the village in time for dinner. The area is deservedly popular to hikers with plentiful and mostly well-marked trails, two of which we found to be extremely useful for even casual sightseers with a moderate degree of fitness.



An Eastern trail connects from the St. Stephen monastery at the top, offering spectacular views of the monasteries of St. Stephen and Holy Trinity, hiking down the deep chasm to the bottom of Holy Trinity, then snaking down the valley among gigantic rock pillars and lush greenery into the town of Kalampaka. Oh ... and once in town the trail leads to the 1000-year-old Byzantine church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary. This is as spectacular a half-day hike as any I’ve been on.



We started the Eastern trail at about 14:00 in the afternoon. A short taxi trip took us up from the town square to the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen at the top of the rocks, swerving through numerous hairpin curves up a narrow mountain road while honking through flocks of unattended sheep. Each corner could spell disaster for an unfamiliar out-of-town driver, but local cabbies here negotiated the curves with admirable skill.



Within 10 minutes we were dropped off in front of St. Stephen, the monastery directly overlooking the town of Kalampaka above a sheer vertical cliff of 300m -- from here it’s not difficult to appreciate the monasteries’ collective claim as one of the world’s most precarious buildings. Although most of the exterior of the monastery was rebuilt relatively recently after much was bombed and destroyed by Axis forces during the Second World War, various frescoes and treasures are still intact and are well-maintained by an order of nuns still residing inside.



A short 15 minute walk from St. Stephen along the same plateau took us to an even more precarious sight -- a crude wire-and-pulley system with a single-person cable car hanging hazardously above a vertical chasm of a few hundred metres. The other end of the cable led to the Holy Trinity monastery, famed for its appearance in a James Bond movie and resting at the top of a rock pillar high above the plains.



Trails are generally well-marked with highly visible Greek signages such as this one. Here the trail quickly dropped in elevation and snaked down to the bottom of Holy Trinity. The only non-aerial path to the monastery would start right here, cleft out of sheer vertical rocks and circling up the pillar towards the monastery. We did not go up as we arrived on the monastery’s rest day.



The rest of the trail traveled through the deep valley towards Kalampaka, with bizarre rock formations and even more impressive cliff-side engravings along the way. The entire route from St Stephen to Kalampaka town would take about 1.5 hours of leisurely walking on a downhill trail, which I estimated to be perhaps 4 km long, plus sightseeing time in the two monasteries and the Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary at the edge of town (allow another 2 hours or so).



The Western trail is a little longer than the Eastern trail, and would easily consume a whole day taking into account the four magnificent monasteries awaiting the curious hiker. The path starts at the Great Meteoron monastery at the top, passing the Varlaam monastery and then the Roussanou monastery in relatively short distances, then follows the main road brushing past St. Nicholas Anapafsas monastery. A trail then travels along the plain towards the village of Kastraki for a total length of about 6 km.



So the next day we took the short KTEL bus ride (2 buses per day at 09:00 and 13:00) from Kalampaka town to the grandest piece of architecture in Meteora and the main site of pilgrimage for Orthodox worshipers, the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron. We were both in our hiking shorts and had to borrow long pants and skirts (free of charge) from the monastery to properly cover our legs.



With Great Meteoron being at the highest elevation, its viewpoint offers a good bird's eye view of the hiking route, most of which would follow the winding main road towards St Nicholas Anapafsas. This is also an excellent place for photos of Varlaam and Roussanou.



A short 500m walk along the main road leads to the neighboring monastery of Varlaam, then another 1.5 km walk past a sharp turn leads to the Roussanou, now operated as a nunnery. Each establishment charged nominal fees (2 Euros or so) for letting visitors in on the monastic lifestyle atop these formerly inaccessible natural citadels.



After Roussanou the road takes even more sharp turns (stay on the side of the mountain and watch out for the large tour buses around the turns!) and continues for another 2.5 km to the bottom of St. Nicholas Anapafsas. But a couple hundred metres before Anapafsas, there is a foot path leading towards the village of Kastraki to the south.



It would take another 1.5 km walk back to the centre of Kastraki village, where infrequent buses (or taxis) are available to carry the weary hiker back to the town of Kalampaka. Or for the not-so-weary, there are plenty of smaller monasteries and ruins along the rocks just to the east of the village to be visited. It's also possible to walk back to Kalampaka along the main road, which would be another 4 km or so.



One hidden gem we came across in Kalampaka -- Friday is market day, when a sizable morning market springs up stretching from the Town Hall Square for a few blocks in the direction of the rocks.



This is not a souvenir market in the Athens definition, but a genuine market organized by and for the locals. No tacky ouzo shot glasses, just wholesome local veggies, honey and other fresh produce, and cheap clothing and other necessities brought in from neighboring countries in Eastern Europe. This is also a great place to pick up some fruits and bakery items for the day's hike.


RESTAURANT REVIEWS

Though we didn't come across any spectacular restaurants, a couple of places did serve us decent meals at reasonable prices.

Food Review: TAVERNA PANELLINION
Address: Pl. Dimarhiou (Town Hall Square), Kalampaka
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: Head to the Town Hall Square (not to be confused with the Riga Fereou square) where the Tourist Information Centre is located. Panellinion is on the Square just across from the Info Centre.


This was our first lunch after settling down in Kalampaka, and Panellinion was conveniently located right on the square. Prices were still reasonable considering its central location. The pictured Briam, an oven-roasted vegetable casserole with succulent zucchinis and potatoes swimming in tomatoes and olive oil, was quite good.



My wife had the ubiquitous Moussaka, generously layered with eggplants and meat and smothered with bechamel as usual. The food at this place was not bad, and we would have returned had we not found a comparable place with slightly cheaper prices, as reviewed below.

Bill for Two Persons

Briam	Euro 7
Moussaka	Euro 8
TOTAL	Euro 15 (CAD$24)

Food Review: ARCHONTARIKI
Address: Pl. Riga Fereou (central square), Kalampaka
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: Official Site
Directions: From the Town Hall Square (Tourist Info Centre), walk east for a block and you'll be at the Riga Fereou square. Archontariki is on the west side of the square.


This place became our dinner spot for a couple of nights, mainly due its relatively cheap prices. Yes the food was unadventurous, but this is rural Kalampaka after all -- we came to Kalampaka for adventures of a different kind.



A plate of the homey Horta Vrasta cost 3.7 Euros, an eggplant salad (ie. bread spread) cost 3 euros, while a very large portion of Greek salad cost 5.5 Euros. We happily settled for such reasonable prices in the midst of a tourist town.



I wouldn't have ordered calamari in mountainous Central Greece, but I guess these are all flash-frozen on fishing boats nowadays in most places. Having no high expectations, this actually turned out better than I expected for 6.5 Euros.



Our favorite dish was these lamb chops. My wife does not like the gamey taste of lamb, and I don't remember exactly why we decided to order this dish. But these turned out to be some of the most enjoyable lamb chops she ever had -- succulent and juicy despite the charred appearance, and not a hint of gameyness in the lamb. Oh and it cost only 8.5 Euros.



What's better than some delectable honey and yogurt to sooth the body after a day of sun-drenched hikes? Overall the dishes were enjoyable if uninspired, about which I can't really complain at these prices.

Typical Bill for Two Persons

Grilled Lamb Chops	Euro 8.5
Fried Calamari	Euro 6.5
Eggplant Salad	Euro 3
Yogurt with Honey	Euro 4
Mythos Beer	Euro 3
Bread	Euro 0.8
TOTAL	Euro 25.8 (CAD$41.3)

ACCOMMODATION

Hotel Review: HOTEL REX (Kalampaka)
Address: Patriarhou Dimitriou 11A, Kalampaka
Price: Euro 50 for double room with private shower/toilet
Website/Map: http://www.hotelrex.gr/portal/index.asp
How To Book: Through official site
Directions: Start from the Tourist Info Centre at Town Hall Square. Hotel Rex is just half a block west on Patriarhou Dimitriou street.


We wanted a room with a view of the rocks at a reasonable price, at walkable distance from the train station, the bus station, and the squares. This was it.

It's a little far (15 minutes walk) from the train station, but it's quite close to the bus station for a bus ride to the Great Meteoron monastery. The Town Hall Square (and thus the Tourist Info Centre) is just around the corner. The hotel faces the giant rock face to the north of Kalampaka (not pictured), as well as the rocks on which the St. Stephen monastery sit (pictured). We spent hours just gazing at the rocks on our patio.



The hotel calls itself 3 stars, which I thought was a little on the generous side. The room and the bathroom were very clean however and it was good value for 50 Euros.