Greece: Delphi, the antic Greece.

How can we talk about Greece without thinking about old temples and antic ruins? European history is intimately linked to the antic Greece, and some of its cities can still be visited today! Among the most beautiful ones, you can find Delphi, lost in the mountains and far from modern big cities but however easy to visit from Athens by Bus.

The modern Delphi is a very small city, rebuilt away from the antic one when french and german archeologists explored the site. However, this half pedestrian village is still a very good place to take a rest before or after the walk in the antic Delphi. The city is composed by a few streets and typical greek houses. You will find very nice restaurants and bars there. Really, spending one night in this village would have been awesome but unfortunatly, we didn't have the time! Don't hesitate to stop in bars along the main road (the one where the Athens-Delphi bus stop), especially the ones on the end of the road (opposit side of the antic site). As I already said, Delphi is lost in the mountains, and you will get a very nice view on some lakes and valleys, and most of the bars have awesome balconies and great cocktails. You can also have lunch or dinner in nice restaurants in the upper streets: just delicious!

But the main reason why you must visit Delphi, is indeed the UNESCO anttic site located at a walking distance from the city (10 minutes along the main road). It's said that Zeus launched two golden eagles from the two extrem sides of the world. When the two eagles met each other, Zeus threw a massive stone to mark the place as the middle of the world. This stone marked the location of a new city and Delphi became a very important religious center in antic Greece (probably the most important one). You can see the stone in the bellow pictures.

You will find lot of amazing ruins in Delphi: the temple of Apollo (which was the biggest in Delphi), an antic theater, the sanctuary of Athena (the most beautiful ruin, away from the main site however) and even a stadium. The museum is however not that interesting. I would advise you to visit the site with a local guide as we visited Delphi by our own and I'm sure that we missed many important explanations. The very good point is that the site is not full of tourists, quite calm, well preserved, and you will feel free to explore the ruins! For all of this, Delphi was my best memory in Greece !

If you want to reach Delphi from Athens, I would recommend you to take the bus from the terminal B (first bus from Athens is around 7am and last one around 8pm, and return from Delphi is from 9am to 6pm) do by your own). As you can see, the best option would be to spend one day there! Be careful! It s really not easy to find bus terminal B in Athens, you should take the subway to Kato Patisia station (line 1) and then, walk 10 minutes (take a map or ask for direction!), so taking a taxi can be better idea (we get lost when we tried to find this terminal!).