Day 10 - April 21, 2017 (Jay)

Waking up was harder than I expected it to be. I could feel the end of the trip looming in the distance, but I couldn't let it get to me. I just had to enjoy the now, which meant the fun of finally realizing that everyone was already up ready to go, except for me. I quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, I couldn't hold everyone up! As I was rushing around, I finally heard Gladdie yelling to slow down or I was going to hurt myself. After a little more time, I was ready to go, and due to my late start we had to skip breakfast to get to Saint Andrews to make my schedule. Oops...
The walk to Saint Andrew's Church was uneventful, other than Abby almost tripping a falling. We were on our way there when her foot caught on the slide walk, but luckily, Olivia caught her and helped regain her balance. I shook my head and chuckled at them, and before I knew it we were arriving at the church. Good think it was only a 15 minute walk, because I was ready to get started on the day.
Saint Andrew's Church (Cultural)

Saint Andrews Church

Just at first glance the church was amazing, the building was tall and had a cross that seemed puny on the top, when in reality, I bet it was 3 times my size. I take that back, three times Micheal Jordan's height he's a bit taller then me. It surprises me how many windows there are in churches. When I went to the Catholic Church in Washington, they had a ton of windows too, lots of stain glass steal ones. I might have thought the outside of the church was impressive, but the inside was even more impressive. The roof seemed to reach to the sky and there were a lot of paintings covering the walls. The most amazing thing to me in the entire church was the chandelier. After flagging someone down, I found out that the chandelier is wood carved. Asking for some more information about the church, I also found out that the church was built in 1979. Being a Noe-Byzantine style church, it was made to receive the great pilgrimage which occurs on St. Andrew's Day, which happened on November 30. The church is dedicated to Saint Andrew, the First-Called Apostle. The church was estimated to have cost about $5 million dollars to complete. That is a LOT of money. However, the church was worth it because of how beautiful it turned out. After a while of looking around and falling in love with the building, I was sad to realize we would miss our transit if we didn't leave, so I rounded everyone up and we headed out.
I wasn't sure if I liked the transit or not. It was loud, smelly and full of people, not my type of transportation. Even with all of these downsides, it was still fun to ride. Striking up a conversation with Hailey about it, I didn't realize that we were there when Gladdie started to pull on my arm. Checking my watch, I realized we were right on time, arriving at 10:30.

Patras Mycenaean Park, Some of the Tomb Entrances

Patras Mycenaean Park (Natural Environment)
I'll admit, at first I wasn't that impressed by the park, it just looked like a bunch of grass with holes in some places. Meeting our tour guide, who's name was Danny was weird. Not only did he have the same as my dad, but when he asked if I thought the park was beautiful I just kind of nodded my head and smiled. He smiled back at me knowingly. Soon we were walking across the land to what seemed like a hole. This hole changed my perspective if the Park entirely. The holes in the ground were entrances to underground holes, tombs. Danny explained to our group that the park was a cemetery and an Acropolis of a town. Personally, I thought that it was weird to have a cemetery and a bunker in the same places. But anyway, looking up after hearing of the tombs, I saw the Abby and Olivia were both curious and a little bit unsure of what to do. I honestly thought this place was awesome. It reminded me of my trip to Arlington Cemetery, where it was sort of sad but it was cool to be able to be there and pay my respects to the fallen soldiers. Looking in some of the tombs, my group found that none were the same. The were different sizes and well as different shapes, I never got it out of my tour guide, but I wonder how many tombs there really were. Looking around I could only assume a lot. One of the crypts still had the skeletal remains in it. I thought it was cool, but I guess the others were less into going in to touch it. After that tomb, we decided to we had to go because I could hear every one's stomachs growling. We thanked Danny for the great tour and soon we were on our way.
The walk to Flouskounis Food was quick  considering how hungry everyone was. I guess I was so sidetracked by the tombs that I didn't realize that it was already to 12:15. I was looking forward to lunch since we had skipped breakfast.

Flouskounis Food

Flouskounis Food
The worst thing about Greece was not being able to read any of the menus, plus not being able to pronounce any of the Grecian words. When we received the menus at Flouskounis Food I was disappointed to find that they had no English translations. Getting out google translate, I started to try to figure what I was going order. The waiter walked over about 1/4 way through of translating, so he looked at us knowingly and asked for out drinks only. I decided on a Dr Pepper, I missed sweet tea though. I wouldn't wait to get back to my baby Bojangles and their fantastic sweet tea. After a couple more minutes of translating, I was finally ready to chose what I wanted to eat. Eventually, I decided on XXL pizza 12 track cheese because everyone wanted to eat a pizza. Once the pizza arrived at the table I knew it was going to be fantastic just by the smell. The smell that wafted into my nose was so delicious that I couldn't help snatching a piece as quickly as I could and take the first bite. The flavors that exploded into the my mouth made me realize something, I could never go to back to regular pizza. The pizza was finished quickly with how good it was. We gathered our things and went outside to catch a cab. Finally hailing one we hoped in for a quick drive to The Kouls.
Driving there was interesting. Eventually I had to heads asleep on my shoulders so I couldn't go anywhere. Trying to play on my phone was not an option because one of my arms was being used as a teddy bear. After a little of trying to maneuver myself I gave up and just decided to go to sleep myself. Shortly, I was being shaken awake and we were going again.

The Kouls Store Front

The Kouls
I have no clue why we had to go to this one specific store, but Olivia and Abby were insisting on it. Upon arriving to the store I knew it was a clothing store. Shopping is not really my thing, so I just kind of walked around the store. I guess they chose this store because it was right next to the bus station. Wandering, I found out the store had been established on April 4, 2015, so it was a pretty new store. Walking up to Olivia I asked how she had found out about the store and she said her friend that had been to Greece before had recommended it. About an half an hour later Olivia and Abby had decided no a pair shoes from their pocket money. Personally, I had sate outside waiting for most of it chatting to Hailey who had joined me a couple minutes after I walked out. I was just ready to get on the bus so I could nap some more.Considering how close the store was to the bus station, we didn't have to do far. We were right on time for our bus, arriving at 2:45
Gathering our luggage, we gave everything to the bus driver who said he'd take care of it. I hiked onto the bus and decided on some seats closer to the front. This would keep Hailey and I from getting really car sick. I fell asleep after about 10 minutes of driving. I dream-pt of the flight home and woke hoping it would never actually happen. To my excitement, we were close to Delphi when I woke, so I chatted to Hailey about the Greek gods. I've always loved Greek mythology, but I don't know if I started liking it before or after Percy Jackson.
When our bus slowed to a stop I was already ready to go, I couldn't wait to see Delphi's theatre! However I got overruled by everyone else that we should got to dinner first. After a vote, I sadly lost to majority rules. We decided on a close restaurant, The Epikouros Taverna.

The Epikouros Taverna

The Epikouros Taverna (Food)
Upon arriving to the restaurant, I realized how awesome this was going to be. Apparently, you could sit on a back porch sort of thing overlooking the mountains due to the higher elevation we were at. After siting down, I heard my stomach growling, confirming how hungry I was. I was glad that I got convinced to eat first. I wanted to love Delphi's theatre. Staring at the view, I didn't realize that the waiter had asked for my order. After asking my again, it finally computed and I ordered water. Looking at the menu, which thankfully had English translations, I decided on the Grilled Chicken Fillet which ended up being Hailey and Abby's order too. Olivia and Gladdie ended up getting Beef In Red Sauce. After a little while of waiting, our food made an appearance. Not only did it look good, but it also tasted good. After enjoying our meal, we paid and shoot out like a bullet. We loved the food, but all of us were excited for Delphi's Stadium.
Delphi's Stadium

Delphi's Stadium

Having already gone to Delphi's Theatre, it was cool to be able to also see Delphi's Stadium. Compared to Delphi's Theatre it was huge because compared to the performances that had to be held at the theatre, the stadium had to hold competitions. After doing some research I found that it held many athletic and music events. Built in the 5th century B.C., it was remolded several times with the 2nd century A.D. one being built by Herodus Atticus. He financed the stone seating and the arched entrance making it only more impressive. The stadium holds 6,500 spectators making it great for the activities held there in the past and today. Walking around the stadium and looking over the sides of the seats I found it rests on top of hill. Doing some more googling I found out that the structure was built beyond the sacred way and the Theater. Inside the building, the track was one of the most cool things being 177.55 m long, about 550 ft., and 25.50 m wide. In the past, one time it was used exclusively was the the Pythian and Panhellenic games. Guess the games were pretty important if they could fill up the entire stadium.
To my dismay, we had to leave earlier than I would have liked to due to a minor stomach ache that Gladdie had received from eating too much food. I would never forget this amazing structure though. It will forever be one of the best things I've ever seen.
Checking in didn't take very long considering we got in at 9:45 at night. I was glad because I didn't want to have to wait any long to brush my teeth. After getting our keys, we shuffled up to our room and settled in. I opened my luggage and grabbed my tooth brush first. After finishing brushing I felt relieved to have fresh clean teeth and breath. Changing into my PJ's I was ready for bed.
I went straight to bed because of how tired I was. I don't know how late the others stayed up, but I was out like a light as soon as my head touched the pillow.