Sigh. My pool and wine time in Santorini had come to an end and I had to change out my bikini and put actual clothes back on. Sue and Pras were flying to Italy and I was going back to Athens. 

Armed with anti-nausea drugs, a couscous salad from Katharos Lounge and some vegan snacks from Green Market, I headed off to the ferry. Six-ish hours later I was back in Athens. Another 1.5 hours later I was at the Airbnb where I met one of my steemit worldmap partners in crime for the first time, @martibis!

@martibis—beautiful, confidence, wild!

Like pretty much everyone I've met from steemit that I talk to a lot on Discord, we got along well from the first hello. He arrived not long before me so after a bit, we went off to find a shop to buy some wine and snacks. Unfortunately, all the wine came in plastic bottles and cost about €2, which wasn't overly appealing to me. I have a wine price minimum and €2 is below it. I also like glass. We asked a shop lady for a recommendation and I got some olives while we were there. Like our cheap Airbnb room, both the wine and olives were average.

Where are we going?

Beyond the wine, we still didn't have a solid plan. Our initial plan went out the window since Greece recently cracked down on non-European drivers being able to rent a car without an international drivers licence, which I don't have. However, the next morning, we worked out there was a bus to Delphi at 10am and @martibis worked out a walking route (about 2km) to the bus station. Or, let's say, 'a' bus station. It was the wrong one. By now it was about 9.40am and we had to catch a taxi to the right bus station, which was 5km away. I was not convinced we were going to make it in time, but @martibis had more faith than me. Regardless, it was worth trying since the next bus wasn't til 3pm and neither of us really wanted to spend the day in Athens. We made it with a few minutes to spare.

Since there are no hostels in Delphi we went for a budget hotel. However, Hotel Orfeas turned out to be really nice and the owner gave us an extra breakfast for free since most of it I didn't eat anyway (too meaty and dairy-y). He also grew organic olives, which I bought a kilo of for €6 when we left. These were some of the best olives I've ever tasted. They also got through Panama customs no problem, so I'm still enjoying them.

Views for days

Delphi is up a mountain so all the views are amazing, including the one from our room. It's a super pretty town, and in winter there appears to be skiing in the area.

We could see the sea down below and decided to check it out. Plus @martibis wanted to go for a swim. We found a bus and off we went. However, being Sunday, the town—Itea—was dead. And sadly there was no sand, just rocks and stones then the water. And the water was cold. Beach fail.

Since there was nothing to do in Itea and we didn't know where the bus stop was, we went to a bar. (Urgh, what is it with us and buses?) The wine was good and cheap. Then it started raining so we stayed there and drank more. We were the only customers at this point, but it kept raining so we kept drinking. Then it got dark and we missed the last bus from wherever it went, and got an expensive taxi back to Delphi.

The ruins

The plan was to get up and go to the Delphi ruins by 8am to avoid the tour buses coming up from Athens. This didn't happen. I was fairly hungover and @martibis doesn't like mornings. He does like biscuit sandwiches though. Hmm, I don't know if this is just him, or a weird European thing.

@martibis' weird hangover sandwich, and slightly less than 1kg of the world's best olives.

After our late breakfast we walked up to the ruins, which are like 500m away from the town centre. I could ramble on about their historical significance. However, neither @martibis nor myself read any of the signs so it would probably be a shit summary full of factual errors. It's better if you just read UNESCO's or the one on this cool site. 

I'm already reading this, don't make me read something else!

Fine. Here's your TLDR version. The Delphi Oracle was a kick-arse priestess—I assume, on account of being a Greek priestess in the first place—who spoke for the Greek God Apollo. This is where she lived, and some other things went on there like sports. That is, until some pesky Roman Christian destroyed the temple and ruined everything, which, let's face it, is what religion typically does. Then, throw in an earthquake, fast forward 2000-ish years and boom, ruins. 

I know, I should totally be a tour guide!

While I did enjoy the ruins—despite not knowing their point until I looked them up just now—the highlight of Delphi was meeting this awesome street dog. LOOK AT HIM!!! Although, I wouldn't like to pick up his shits at the dog park. 

I also liked this other dog that was sleeping in a hole up at the ruins. It's like he's tucked up in his little bed. There were a bunch of cats around, but meh, cats, so I didn't take photos of any of them. Plus they all looked like they'd been fighting each other.

Vegan food

Not so much. It was quite difficult to find anything except for bread and olives, which are both awesome, so I guess it's not all terrible. There are no decent sized supermarkets in Delphi, which doesn't help. That said, we did go to some weird supermarket that was more of a mini-mart full of completely random stuff, run by some frail looking old lady who looked like she hadn't left the shop in about 40 years. She had dark chocolate though, that had the ingredients written in English—finally, since all the chocolate I saw in Santorini had Greek and Eastern European languages on it—and the best apricots I've ever had. Seriously, they were SO sweet. I don't think I've ever had apricots that tasted that good. Thanks weird old lady! 

However, if you're coming from Athens, I would recommend stocking up on some basics before you get there.

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

@martibis and I both really liked Delphi, so thumbs up. The town is gorgeous, the views are stunning, the ruins are cool, and there's that awesome dog that you'll probably see at least once. I would totally recommend this town. 

However, don't bother going down to the beach at Itea, cos there isn't one; and bring vegan snacks in case apricots are not in season.

Check out this post on steemitworldmap.

Previous stop, Santorini

Next stop, Meteora

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