Beauty and Blight

One thing is for certain, a swimming pool is a must at our campgrounds. It's hot! Fortunately, the Greeks must feel the same because every campground has had one so far. We woke up in Meteora, ready to explore but Jolene must have come down with some kind of food poisoning so she laid in the hot, buggy camper for most of the day. Allie read and Noelle chased cats, so they were perfectly happy. I took off on foot for the produce market in the nearby village and had one of my best authentic experiences of the trip so far. If only Jolene and the girls could have made it. The market was busy with old ladies shopping, their husbands drinking ouzo and beer in the shade, and vendors pitching their wares. I stocked up on some wonderful produce and best of all, a variety of olives straight from the motherland!



We ran out of propane for the fridge and stove so after fruitlessly looking for a replacement bottle in the town I gave up and swam instead. It turns out that Greece is next to impossible to find propane gas in the form our camper needs. Who knew? Luckily for the family, that means we are eating out more. We had decided to spend a bit more in the eating out area, as food is a big part of the culture of any country, so the timing wasn't bad. We ate at the campground restaurant and it was like eating with a Greek family. Greek salad, wine, and souvlaki. Fortunately, Jolene had recovered and could enjoy the meal with us.

We awoke early the next morning and explored the mountaintop monasteries of Meteora. There are a dozen or so of them all spectacularly located on pinnacles of rock, where monks took shelter 1000 years ago. We didn't enter any of the monasteries, as the dress code is very strict and it was too hot to wear pants and long dresses. We were more interested in hiking the narrow catwalks up to the monasteries than touring inside anyhow.








Leaving Meteora, we pointed the van south towards Delphi and headed out across mainland Greece. Driving in Greece makes Italy look sane. Drivers seem courteous and friendly enough, they just simply ignore all rules--if there are any to start with. Any moderately flat surface can be driven or parked on and whichever direction or angle you please. I actually enjoy it. The economic downturn has hit Greece very hard. There are many highways and roads that look new but just end in a tangle of rebar and debris. New malls and shops are empty with weeds growing everywhere. There are also a lot of older houses, half-finished with people living on one floor but the next floor up window and doorless. We see a little of this in Nevada, but Greece is at least 100 times more extreme. In some spots it's post apocalyptic, as if some disease wiped out everyone in the middle of a building boom and they just disappeared, tractors left decaying in the sun.

We set up in a campground in Delphi, on a mountaintop overlooking one of Europe's largest olive tree groves. Allie really enjoys Greek mythology, so she was excited to tour the Delphi ruins, one of Greece's largest archaeological sites. We awoke early and toured the ruins before the tour buses arrived and it was great. We were lucky to have Allie with us to explain the meaning of a lot of the temples and references to mythology.






Delphi was the center of the ancient Greek world, and home of the famous "Oracle of Delphi" whom many pilgrims would come see for advice. Zeus let two eagles go and they raced around the earth and met in Delphi, where the ancients placed this cone-shaped stone called "the naval". This is hallowed ground to a mythology buff.




We are leaving for Athens today. Let's hope its drivers don't smell fear on me.