Jet Lag; Delphi; Busy Bees; Ge, the Earth Mother; Early Reveille???

Okay, international travel wasn’t that hard when I was 25. Now it’s a little tougher to fly seven time zones east and try to function normally on one hour’s sleep in 24 hours. I arrived in Athens, Greece on Monday morning and met Suzanne at the airport. After a week apart when My Lovely Bride was giving presentations in Crete, it was great to see her. We immediately boarded a van bound for Delphi, a two and a half hour drive west through Athens and its suburbs, then into the mountains. We were to spend two nights there, and I hoped to catch up on some sleep before the heavy sightseeing began. I managed to get a few hours in, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The next morning, we drove to the world-renowned archeological site where the Oracle of Delphi and a lot of other treasures were located. We were 10 turistas, 2 turistos and one tour guide, Yanni. Here is our group, less Yanni serving as photographer, in front of the Thalos of Athena Pronaia. We were blessed with perfect weather, 75F and sunny.  This group for the second week is a subset of the 45 members of last week’s conference.

Suzanne was in an ebullient mood and feeling the vibes of this sacred site, as you can see in this photo taken on the hillside above the Tholos. No, her voice did not cause ten of the columns to come crashing down. That was caused by various invaders and an earthquake or two, as best we can determine. An historical note: the Tholos was built in about 380 BC, or 2,400 years ago. Yes, it was already in its fourth century when Jesus lived. You get a different perspective of time when you visit Greece…

Speaking of time, not everything here is old. These bees are creating honey today. Suzanne captured them collecting pollen from these ivy flowers. Shops in town sold fabulous honey that is also used in some of the very sinful Greek desserts like baklava, which we of course had to taste as a matter of international good will…

The Temple of Apollo is another famous landmark here. Built about 700 years before Christ, it was established here in Delphi after Apollo killed the Python, the snake that guarded the oracle of Ge. This began Delphi’s reign as the spiritual and cultural center of the ancient Greek world.

You may recognize “Ge” as the prefix of words like geography and geology. Ge was the deity “Earth”, the first deity worshipped here. These small bronze figurines from the Mycenaen period depict Ge as the Earth Mother and symbolize fertility, are approximately 3,000 years old, and are in the fabulous museum at Delphi. 3,000 years old… that’s even older than My Good Friend Bob, who keeps pimping me about driving My Lovely Bride’s Corvette… I told you there would be a payback, Bob…

Well, after walking around Delphi in the hot sun, MLB was getting thirsty. There are no guys selling beer in the archeological area, so she had to resort to finding water from Ge, the Earth Mother. Fortunately, there is a sacred fresh water spring of pure mountain water that she was able to find to quench her thirst. Remember, folks have been drinking this water for over 3,000 years!

I am starting to wilt by this point, what with lack of sleep and a seven hour time zone difference. In this photo, there is actually someone behind me holding me up, and scotch tape is holding my smile in place…

Speaking of lack of sleep, imagine my shock when, during a break, our tour guide announced that on the morrow, we would be departing for our next stop, Mykonos, at 0400. As a reminder for you civilians, 0400 in the Navy is 4:00 AM in the Real World. That meant reveille at 0300 (3:00 AM), the same time that I had to get up for my flight from Orlando to JFK… this is almost like being back in the Navy and standing watch on the bridge of a destroyer from midnight to 0400 after a full day of work…  I would write more, but I am out of energy, and falling asleep as I type….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz