Day 5 -- Delphi

From the vantage point of the next morning all of yesterday seems to be nothing compared to a single hour on the road. We were barreling along a Greek highway at 130 kph when the car began to make a horrible sound. I pulled over onto the shoulder, verified that we had a flat tire, listened to Andrea and Joshua beg me to get help instead of trying to change the tire myself, called the rental company, called roadside assistance, and pulled out my kindle.

Five minutes and three interruptions from the kids later, Andrea who has the patience of a saint with our children but none for anything else (as if the children have used it all up), was at the back of the car with tools trying to get the spare detached from the underside of the car. I changed the tire with trucks whizzing past. Andrea called and cancelled road service.

When we got back to the hotel at 7PM, the car rental company representative wanted me to go get the tire fixed. I told him that I didn't think the tire should be my problem, bargained him down to twenty euros and was done with it.

Much as the day seems to be about a flat now, we actually saw a lot of interesting things in Delphi. The temple where the oracles inhaled gasses released from underground (ethane, methane, and ethylene) and made their prophecies and the famous statues of the phoenix, the twins, and the charioteer.

Delphi was a delightful town, but had horrible restaurants. Andrea and Joshua are really sick of Greek food. I have to admit I was ready for a change myself but we had another meal of salad, tzatziki, and dolmatas. Once we were finally back in Athens we ate at a vegetarian restaurant called Avocado and everyone was happy once again.

Tomorrow we wake up at 6AM to take a ferry to Santorini. and so to bed.

A General Rant About Greeks

Ever since we've been in Greece I've notice two things about the Greeks that I think add up to a real problem. First, the Greeks are really, genuinely nice. When Andrea asked at a restaurant that we had just eaten lunch at where there was a grocery store to buy fruit for the road they took her back to the kitchen and packed a bag of fruit for her. When we asked about a laundromat the woman we asked let us do a load in the hotel's machine. If you look lost, they stop and ask if they can help you navigate.

Second, every Greek person under the age of about 60 seems to speak English fluently. Unlike the French, they're happy to speak English. It's like being in Sweden; as soon as they realize that you're American, sometimes before you even open your mouth, they switch to English.

I was counting on an environment more like Japan, where it helped to try to impress people with the fact that you at least tried to learn their language and sometimes they genuinely needed to communicate in Japanese. How is Ari going to learn any Greek in a country that makes life this pleasant?