1996
The Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
As I had no hotel arrangment connected to my tickets, the guide got me checked into a hotel, run by Fotis and his family.
The next morning I arranged with Fotis to keep 1 room vacant for me 1 week later, when returning from my tour.
Waiting for the rental car to be ready, I took a stroll around Parga, when I ran into my cousin Anne and her boy friend Baard, who were on a 2-week vacation in Pargas.
I told them about my plans, and we decided that they should join me on my tour. We started southbound, and from Messolongion we tok the ferry to Patras.
From Patras we drove further south to Olympia, and checked in at the "Hotel Olympic" for the night. Before going to bed, we had a splendid meal at the restaurant "Dionysos"
The next morning we went to see Ancient Olympia, were the ancient Olympiads were held. It gave us a strange, yet interresting feeling to walk around the remnants of this ancient cultural metropolis, learning about the history and reasons for the Olympiads. Baard and I competed in a 60 metres sprint on the more than 2000 year old stadium.
Next morning we went to see the remnants of the ancient city, which had its most powerful period about 3000 years ago
Inside a crypt we experienced the advanced knowledge to acoustics this ancient people had. The crypt was built so that I could stand on one side, next to the wall and talk normally to Baard standing next to the wall on the other side. When we moved away from the wall, standing next to each other, it was almost impossible to talk to each other
After Mikines we drove to Epidavros, another ancient city, with its famous theatre, known for its acoustic qualities.
The theatre is so constructed that when sitting anywhere on the tribunes one can hear a coin fall at the stage. Even to this day, scientists and constructors are not able to create a theatre with the same acoustic.
Late in the evening we arrived in Athens.
We got out of bed early next morning to go to Acropolis.
We soon discovered the advantage of coming there early, since the heat later that day rose to above 40 degrees, and when all the tourist buses arrived around 11 AM, the Acropolis was so crowded that one could hardly move around.
We were also lucky to meet an old man who took us around on a special tour telling us things the guides never told the tourist groups. Although we had to bargain the price for his tour, it was well worth the price we agreed upon.
On our way down from the hill we met a man in national costume.
Another advantage we discovered was that getting up early made us finish the tour to Acropolis and get out of Athens before the heavy rush hours. So we continued our tour towards Delphi.
My "mission" to Delphi was to get answers from the Oracle to all my questions. It was therefore a disappointment to me that the temple of Apollon was surrounded by heavy ropes, denying acces to the Oracle itself.
Coming back to the car, we found a leaflet on the car's window, advertising for a restaurant not far away. We decided to go there to have dinner, and followed the map on the leaflet to a remote house with, 3 dogs running outside. The restaurant was run by a lady, with help from her 2 daughters.
The eldest daughter, she could be 8 to 10 years old, spoke a little english and took the orders. After a while she and her little sister brought us our meals.
When we had finished eating and prepared for leaving, we noticed only 2 dogs running around. Baard made a joke that we had maybe eaten the third one, making Anne sick. We never found out what happened to that dog.
Leaving the restaurant, we continued through the mountains to Ionnanina, where we stayed overnight.
The next day we arrived back in Parga, where we delivered the car.
The next morning I happened to watch a wedding parade with a beautiful bride and her groom on horseback. Quite a difference from what I was used to from home.
We spent the rest of our holydays on the beaches and walking around in Parga, also experiencing rain so heavy that even the waiters had to take pracautions not to get the drinks too wet. Finally we all 3 got on the plane back home, again with Premiair.