In The Lap of the Gods

I go to Greece at risk of getting my fingers chopped off for gold. So run rumors about Athens right now. I go anyway.

I go to support young upstarts serving spanakopita and smiles among selfie sticks. I go to walk the same agoras as ancient sages, athletes and aesthetes. I go for the buttery almond cookies you only find at a Greek deli.

I go to restore the Greeks to glory.

DELPHI
Centre of the Universe, 2500 years ago.
A scenic 3 hours from Athens, I’m at the infamous Oracle by dusk. #NOCROWDS.

LAP OF THE GODS
The ruins rise out of schoolbook pages into my adult imagination. I bolt uphill. #NIKE.
I pass marble dancers and Doric columns. A solo spectator at the Pan Hellenic stadium, I see 20 strong men sprint naked. #NUDITYATVELOCITY.
I run down.

LIVE, AT THE APOLLO TEMPLE
I honor the god of music, harmony and light with earplugs. #ELVIS #NOWPLAYING.
Enshrouded by mountains. Calm and calamity once forecast from a trance-inducing chasm here. Ancient wisdom is inscribed. #KNOWTHYSELF #NOTHINGINEXCESS.

I muse on the enigmatic Delphic E. Ancient equivalent to #42, credit Douglas Adams.
I liken “asking the Oracle” to Googling. Our search for answers is eternal.

I’M FEELING LUCKY
Entry is free. International Museum Day thwarts my attempt to save the economy; dinner gets upgraded instead.

MYTHIC SWALLOWS
Hundreds of birds— helidoni, circle a 200-year-old tavern perched above the Gulf of Corinth. I sacrifice 18 euros for the best lemony lamb of my life. I picture Persephone’s plight in my pomegranate salad. I drink, nodding to Dionysus.
Dimitri at Cafe´ Amigos tells me about the helidoni. The swallow signals summer and the coming, euro-injecting crowds.
A Delphi local and aspiring actor, it takes only 30 seconds to see his YouTube cameos on an Athenian talkshow. Another 30 to talk up his girlfriend count. A Facebook add betrays his demi-god claims.

The locals chatter, smoke and watch basketball on TV. I’m invited to a (the only?) Delphi nightclub and a morning motorbike ride in the mountains.
At dawn, I have Athena’s shrine to myself for a #DELPHI #SELFIE. *
Greece is #SAFE. Not from selfie sticks, but from the legions of #LP wielding World Nomads. Sent from the gods to lift a wave of hospitable hopefuls into legend again.
I leave with almond cookies, all fingers intact.

TIPS
BUS: €15 from Athens KTEL bus station (5 mins from Attiki metro)
STAY: €35 and up. Main Street. Balcony view.
DINE: ToPatriko Mas
DO: Ruins and museum (8am to 8pm)
NEAR(ISH): Meteora