OMG (Oh, my gods)

We started the day with a 5:30 wake up call. Good idea for people coming off of jet lag and those of us who stay up until 1am blogging. I had every intention of sleeping on the bus, but the scenery was just too stunning. Stayed awake and took pictures the whole way.
Arrived three hours later at a mountain-top monastery of Holy Lukas (careful to point out that he was not Saint Luke) built in the 11th Century. "Beautiful", as a word, doesn't do it justice...nor does peaceful, incredible, or humbling. Fingers crossed: here's a pic...

A quick stop for lunch (vine leaves and cabbage leaves stuffed with minced beef and rice - dolmades) and then off to Delphi to visit the temple of Apollo and the legendary oracle there. Couldn't ask for anything more. It is easy to see why this spot was chosen as "the center of the world" and why the oracle there was never wrong. If my words couldn't do the monastery justice I'm not even going to think about attempting Delphi.

We then had another two hour bus ride to Patra. I fully intended to sleep, or read, or watch a movie on the way, but every time we turned a corner (and there were lots to turn since we followed the Corinthian coast for 2 hours) there was another picture-perfect landscape. We've just arrived at our hotel. We'll only be here for about 14 hours, but I am about to head out to the sea for a quick dip. I'll try to describe all of these things better after dinner.

(view from our new hotel room)

Sea you soon.