Now for the day by day extravaganza...
Day ONE:
A fairly early morning start with a prompt pick up from our hotel and a drive around the city to pick up people here and there. Then we were off with our new tour guide to drive along the Peloponnese coast. We made many stops to beautiful small towns and villages and drove up 
thousands of feet alongside mountains. My ears were popping continuously but it didn't matter because once you looked out of the window to see the spectacular views below, popped ears were not a problem anymore. We drove and stopped, drove and stopped and our tour guide explained everything about all that we saw. She was incredible and so knowledgeable it was almost scary. There were only 10 of us on the tour so it was personalized a lot of the time.
So we made our way along the Peloponnese coast and got lunch. I was able to order a beautiful vegetable dish including potatoes, eggplant and stuffed tomatoes. The stuffed tomatoes here are like a delicacy! They are filled with rice, olive oil and sometimes even pine nuts. SO tasty! After lunch, we drove on down to Olympia that was a long three hours after our lunch stop and I got to sleep off the lunch and listen to my mp3 player along the way. Colbie Caillat and Taylor Swift along with Jason Mraz got me through that ride...We ended up at this hotel about five minutes from Olympia's center and were served fresh grapefruit, cherry and orange juices upon arrival. It was a first class hotel that had been included in the tour cost and a hotel that was top of the line in service, cleanliness, location and food! We were amazing at the marble in the rooms and the buffet dinner they served..
.
.This was exactly what I needed: brussel sprouts, potatoes, rice, whole wheat bread and the classic Greek salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. I stuffed up on dinner and fit in some watermelon for dessert :)
The night ended and it was an early morning start once again tomorrow.
Day TWO:
OK- so let's try this again. Briefly.
We started out ubber early to beat the heat on day too because it was going up to 38 degrees- which in Fahrenheit is about 100+...we got out to the site of Olympia and saw a bunch of ruins and temples and training houses where Greek men spent most of their time training for the Olympic tournaments. We visited the famous Olympic stadium and got to stand on the very starting line ancient Greeks did before they took off on their races. It was a great site to visit but t
he bugs kept attacking everyone in the group and we were swatting them away every few minutes. The tour guide explained every little ruin that we passed and she was so drained by the end that she let us have some free time and went for an espresso with the bus drive- this was a normal thing. Kait and I wandered some more and took a bunch of pictures, but made our final stop the WC, which stands for Wash Closet. We didn't know this up until now because we were ashamed to ask but what the heck! It didn't make sense to us but you know the Greeks (just kidding).The archeological museum for Olympia was huge and the tour guide managed to take us into each and every room in an hour. She yet again explained everything and competed with the loud tours that were taking place all over. It was insane!
(p.s. I think another French couple is cursing me off from being on the computer- if they only knew what I just did to help their people!!!)
Back to Olympia...we got through the museum- better yet- survived the museum because not only was a hungry, but I was also very tired and bored with the stuff after the first 20 minutes. We walked down a cute path and over a foot bridge to see frogs hopping along in the stream below and to stop at a restaurant that was strategically placed right outside of the site. I ordered "briam," which is a dish of zucchini and potatoes. It was like a ratatouille! It was delicious and the vegetables melted in your mouth along with the tomato sauce they were stewed in. YUM!
After the lunch, we headed to a shop next door and then off to Delphi.
I thought the drive around the mountains to get to Olympia were rough, but this was even worse! My ears were popping like popcorn and we rode through old towns and villages that were along the sea coast. We got to touch sand and water! Super cool...when we made our way up to the mountain at which Delphi stood, we passed through the oldest olive tree grove that is now actually protected by UNESCO. The trees were between 300 and some even 700 years old!
We rode up, up, up and made it to our hotel that was the sister hotel to the one we stayed at last night. What was even more incredible was that this hotel was even nicer- is that even possible?? It sure was.
We got dinner which consisted of potatoes, rice dishes, traditional Greek dishes and the buffet went on and on. The potatoes had just the right amount of salt and oil on them to keep you going back for me. It was all delicious! We ate up and got stuffed, so we decided to walk around outside to get a great look at the mountainous view. It was as if we were looking down on a painting. Breathtaking.
The night ended with yet another football match of the World Cup and a restless night of trying to fall asleep....
Day THREE:
We woke, fairly early and were off to a quick breakfast. We were still tired and didn't get much sleep so we were looking forward to a long bus ride, but that didn't happen. The site was about five minutes away and we walked and walked in the heat. The sites of Delphi were scattered, so we visited the first part and then walked up to a higher point on the mountain to reach the
Temple of Apollo and some other stadiums and activity sites that were used by priests and people who honored the gods. It was HOT- yea like ridiculous. We roasted on the way up and roasted on the way down...the sites were gorgeous but the stories of the Oracle and the way the people visited the site for answers from the gods were even better! I was soooo enveloped in all the tour guide had to say- and yes, it was a lot.We visited the museum, but thank goodness it wasn't as big as yesterday's so we got out in about 40 minutes. She got into some arguments with the other Greek tour guides and it was pretty funny to watch three Greek tour guides arguing in Greek about who was going to show their group the ancient Greek hymns first...priceless.
Lunch was next! We went to this "taverna" down the road and ate up some food. I got the classic stuffed tomato dish that was made with the usual rice, oil and pine nuts. They were incredible and I cleaned up the plate. We headed back on the bus and were on our way back to Athens.
The tour was over and to finish up we tipped our driver and the guide and were on our way on another bus to be stuck in traffic and with a crazy tour guide that told us just about every single thought that came into her head- and they weren't always intelligent ones. what a wifty guide- poor people that had to be with her the whole day...:) Anywho she did a fantastic job getting us home and updating us on the football game that GREECE eventually won! It was the first game in forever that they've won pretty much and it was time for everyone to celebrate!
Back to our first hotel we went and spent time munching on the organic snacks that I brought along...yummy...an early morning is staring us down as is the METRO strike. Our plans had to be switched around a bit, but we are ready to take on another trip and more days of eating this food WOW!
Words of the tour:
geia su- hello
neh- yes
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