The Broncos get Manning! And I'm in Greece

So obviously the big news for today, even on the other side of the world is Manning chooses the Broncos. I'm still in shock about that one. My Dad received an email from his office that contain the news and he announced it to the bus. There was a collective groan when everyone heard that. I think we all love Tebow and hate to see him go, even if it means great things for the Broncos. It's just hard to see that right now. Ok, anyway, back to my day. We had a wake-up call at 6am, luggage had to be in the hallway by 6:30 and we had to be on the bus at 7:45am. I guess that's one of the downfalls of traveling with a group - they dictate your schedule. Oh well, there are positives as well. I would say the morning was uneventful and skip right to our first stop, but it wasn't. Apparently neither Dad nor I are very electronic savvy and we messed up. Dad brought an adapter for our electronics, but not a converter. Quite luckily for me, the plug didn't ruin either of our cell phones, or my ipad. But the curling iron was another issue. I plugged it in to the bathroom and then when I went to use it, the light was off. That should have been a sign but it didn't register. Then I plugged the curling iron into the living area and then when I used it, I promptly burnt my hair and singed off a good few inches. What a way to start the morning! My hair immediately starting burning and was burnt off. That was a shock! So my hair was going to look less than beautiful for today. Breakfast was so-so. I'm a picky eater, so this is hard to eat in other countries. I'm just so nervous about trying new food and everything looks so .....well.....interesting. The serve weird things for breakfast. The orange juice was terrible, very bitter. We learned later it's because of the oranges. I ate plenty of canned fruit, which they called 'stewed fruit' and a chocolate chip muffin which was really good. Everything else, not so good. I think this is why my Aunt Jeannie doesn't travel to other countries, she'd starve! LOL. We boarded the bus, all packed up for our next destination. As we drove through Athens traffic towards, Delphi, Dad noticed solar panels on nearly every building top. Astute observation for someone who sticks his finger in the ice cream bowl (more on that later). Many of the buildings, signs, and bridges were covered in graffiti. So sad. It seems they can't even keep up with cleaning the graffiti, so they just gave up. We contined towards Delphi and saw some breathtaking views. The countryside was just beautiful and very mountainous. There are even snow capped mountains here. The tallest mountain here is about 7200 feet. As we rounded a bend in the road, we drove through the cutest little town, perched on the side of the cliff. I don't think I ever caught the name of the town, but everyone was wanting to stop. There were adorable shops, flowers and plants on every balcony, and the most relaxing looking cafes and resturants. We weren't able to stop, another reason why a group tour was a bummer today. We all wanted to stop, even Pastor Rick said a few times he wished we could have stopped there. The town was so close together and the streets are narrow. Cars are parked on either sides and you wonder how this classifies as a two way street. Well, we were proven that it was a two way street, when around the bend sat another charter bus. We all groaned and thought we were stuck for good. I thought it would take at least 10 minutes to figure our way out of that one. But a shop keeper jumped up, moved a car, another directed the buses and we passed each other (quickly I might add) in no time. We arrived at Delphi around 11:30 am. We bagan by touring the museum located at Delphi. We were given our headsets and Coastes officially began his touring duties. We saw some fascinating pieces of archological finds in this museum. Aparently, a group of archeologists from Germany thought there was something to be found under this city, so they had the city moved and began digging. What they found were the Temples of Apollo, Athena, and a whole little city! Many of the decorative pieces were locaed inside museum. We saw the oldest known written sheet music. Of course, it wasn't written on a sheet, but carved on stone. We saw another stone with a letter carved on it, partially readable still today. The letter states the exact dates when Paul came to Greece. Pretty cool! Then we were able to tour the ruins, which were amazing! I could have spent a lot more time there. We bought this really cool book at the rest stop that was just what I wanted! It's a book that has pictures of the ruins in their current state. Then there is an overlay, clear page that has a drawing of what they think the building looked like. So every part we went to, we looked through the book and found the overlay page. It made the ruins come alive and give us more of an idea what it would have looked like. I took several pictures of the sites with me holding the overlay picture in the foreground. There were several ruins that were still very much intact. I was very excited to see the Temple of Apollo. There was even a 'holy of holies' is Apollo's temple. A huge theatre was further up the hill. We learned later that there was a stadium up the hill further, but we didn't go up there. Instead we got more pictures of the Temple of Apollo. I was bummed we didn't get to go down the road to the Temple of Athena and get some closer pictures. I was at least able to see it and I have the book that I can read all about it. Dad reminded me that I won't be able to see everything and I have to save things for Ken and I to do when we return. :-) We then got back on the bus and went to lunch at a seaside town. We ate right back the Ionia Sea (spelling?). The scenery was beautiful, much more beautiful than the lunch choices. Others seemed to be enjoying the food, it's just me and Echo Owen that are having a hard time with the food. She's a self-proclaimed picky eater too, but she ate calamari for lunch. That just doesn't seem right. Mostly everyone ordered fish or some other Greek dish, I ordered spaghetti. People laughed at my choice, but at least I was able to eat something. We ate at a restaurant that had the seating across the street from the actual kitchen and restroom. So when we ordered our food, it was actually prepared across the street and then carried across the street on trays. It was funny watching the men carry our food across the street while trying not to get hit by a car. So then after lunch, we mostly all went to the restroom at about the same time. The restroom was tiny! Only 2 stalls per gender and there was a SMALL divider separating the men from the women. The girls actually had to turn their heads so they weren't staring at the men. One lady in our group, said NO THANKS! I'll wait until the next stop. I still can't get used to toilets over here - no toilet seats. At least my quads are getting a good workout. We then began our four hour bus trip to the north to Kalambaka. Once again, we traveled through beautiful country-side. The only interesting thing that happened on the four hour bus trip was Dad getting the email about Peyton Manning. We got to our hotel, another Divani chain around 7:30. Dinner was served at 7:45. Dad and I are in room 236. The elevators here are small and we were proud of ourselves for getting six people in it, but then it wouldn't move. The maxiumum number of people said 4. Weird. When we got to the 2nd floor, there were no lights on in the hallways and we had to use our cell phones to our room. Later we were thinking it was because our group was the only one occupying the second and third floor. Dinner was actually.......very good! I had spaghetti for the second time today. I also had chicken, lamb (apparently, I didn't know that when I ate it), rice, bread, and mushy green beans. The dessert was yummy! They had chocolate and vanilla ice cream. So on to the ice cream scooper story. I went with Dad to the dessert table, which looking back was a good move, because I can't leave him by alone. He was trying to get the vanilla ice cream out of the scooper and into his bowl, but it was stuck. So he struggled with it for a while and then finally stuck his finger in the ice cream and pushed it into his bowl. I saw this happen out of the corner of my eye. I said, "You didn't just stick your finger int here did you?" He replied, "Yep, what's the matter with that?" The British lady that is traveling with us made some funny comment, which sounded even funnier because of her accent. Dad was embarassed and I told him quietly at the table that he can't do things like that. He's a world traveler! How does he act when I'm not with him. Agghggh! Then Echo told us about another tourist from China who went down the buffet line and tried each food with the serving spoon. Everyone did a collective gasp and then Dad thought he'd get in on the story telling and told what he did with the ice cream. Everyone responded just the way I did, much to my Dad's surprise. He tought they would say no big deal. I think Dad learned his leason via embarassement. After dinner I learned that wifi only works in the lobby so I am sitting on the couch in the lobby typing away. I got to visit with a nice couple from Kentucky - Dick and Jane. Hard to forget their names. We talked about Kentucky basketball because he wants to know if he can watch the game on my ipad. We also talked about Isreal and teaching. They are also reading The Story, which I find interesting that so many people are reading that at the same time. It's 10:33 and I still haven't talked to Ken yet today. I'll try him again and then check Twitter. I have to see what everyone is saying about Peyton Manning. Tomorrow we are going to see the monistaries. Night, night!