Olympia

On Sunday the 5th we went to Ancient Olympia, where we saw the site of, obviously, the first Olympics. The day before we had gone to the Olympia Archaeological Museum, which holds some interesting statues and other artifacts, among them the helmet of the Athenian hero of the Battle of Marathon, Miltiades. The town is in a valley surrounded by green hills, and it was early morning when we walked down the path and sat in the ruins of the gymnasium. Our Western Civilizations professor, Dr. Hatlie (who speaks seven languages and is amazing and we all love him) was giving a lecture on the proceedings of the Olympics when a Greek woman leading a tour interrupted him and started to argue with him in Greek, gesturing to us, and back to her group. Hatlie was polite, but you could tell he was pretty annoyed. Eventually she left, taking her group with her. Dr. Hatlie said, "Sorry about that. The Greeks think that the site is theirs, and no one else should have a right to visit it." And truly the Greeks are very possessive about their artifacts and places of historical interest. No one was allowed to clap or shout on the site, and posing in front of statues was strictly forbidden in museums.
Eventually we left the gym while the Greek tour guide glared at us, and we climbed up the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, which once held one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World! It was a HUGE statue of Zeus which was eventually captured, destroyed, and lost in Constantinople (I think). The temple itself must have been colossal, because we could see the drums of the columns lying on the ground, and they were as big around as the mammoth trees in California.

Everyone then went to the stadium where foot races took place. Everyone, even the teachers put on their running shoes, and the men went to the starting line. The most amusing runners were Steve, our RA, proudly displaying his American flag swim trunks, and Dr. Lowery, our Theology professor, sprinting at top speed. Then the girls ran, and it was not the best day for me, because I was sneezing, and in general had a bad cold. But I participated at a light jog, for how many times in your life will you get to compete in Olympia? The winners were crowned with olive branches, and then we all piled on the bus to Delphi.

I slept most of the way, trying to recover from my cold, but I woke up when we were crossing the Gulf of Corinth to see an amazing white bridge. The water was again blue and beautiful, and the landscape was green, with little islands and white houses dotting the shoreline. We started to wind around the Gulf through the mountains, and saw Delphi across the water, with Mt. Parnassus rising above it. (home of the Muses, Apollo, and Dionysus!)
When we were winding up the mountain to the town, the view of the valley below was gorgeous. The sun was setting and the fields of olive trees and grape branches cast shadows in the golden haze. Rays through the clouds lit up the tall pine trees, and we could see the sea far away. Our hotel was on the slope of a mountain, and we had a perfect view of the valley and neighboring mountain. At night we could see hundreds of stars in the little town, and the crescent moon shone silver and gold. Modern Delphi is a small little town, with steep, narrow streets, and Christmas lights everywhere. There are little cats everywhere, and as I was going back to the hotel from our restaurant, I'm sure I saw something that was not a cat, it looked like a ferret or a mongoose or something, so that was kind of weird.
Olympia was interesting, but Delphi was definitely one of my favorite places on the trip.