Sleeper in Every Group

so the long awaited (3 days--geez you guys are impatient!) post by lo. so of course it will contrast a little to erin's, i'm a ranter at heart and so i think i might be a ranter blogger...here we go.

i have come to discover, or i guess rediscover i do not like these guided tours (most esp. when people are wearing matching red hats that say "license to travel" on the back - no pic sorry, but true story).

today erin and i were eating our clif bars in the shade with a couple other tourists, they left. It was quiet just the cicadas clicking (or whatever that noise they make is called). then rolls up a woman with a huge leather purse, floppy white hat, white flowing shirt leading a string of tourista's. then the lecture began, they set up camp right in our pic-nic area and actually i had to move my bag to accommodate one of them. my problem is not so much the guided tour format it's that a large group of people looking at something old tend to become completely insular, they have no thought for the lone tourist who may want to stop in shade except can't because they (the group) is taking up the whole area, or may not want to stop right here to listen to a guide in a language they don't understand, they clog up the whole walkway so they can all listen to their guide, this is annoying to EVERYONE else, but they don't even know it b/c they're so self absorbed (the corporate self). As you can see by the pics we saw some more real old stuff today in old delphi,

apollo’s temple,


an arena and
the best preserved stadium including the locker room (i think it was mostly just a bench to leave a pile of clothes since they were nudie racers) erin and i did a little re-enactment, but left our clothes on ... sun burn you know.

Plus there was a real tough as nails woman with a whistle, who we learned knew enough english to yell "get off of there" "do not touch" (not at us we followed the rules of course we're ones), but could not inform your two friends where we might find the oracle of delphi. in fact the look the greek woman gave me when i asked looked a lot like "i have no idea if this person is even speaking real words, perhaps they are playing a trick on me".

Having summitted and claimed the picture of the view ...

we descended. I had seen some of the pic-nic spoiler group, they had a certain look to them hard to say what, but the guide definitely was speaking some sort of russian or slavic type language. at any rate we hadn't come across the guide, there were three levels to this site, and the stadium was a haul. hence the wet down

we took, down below the arena (not so far up) here was the long lost guide, looking quite hot and speaking animatedly with another older woman.

then it all became clear. the guide sat them all down and told them the whole story then as they approached the arena level her sleeper (in red ellipse) in the group says...ooohhhh i'm so hot could you please escort me down, and so the faithful guide cannot complete the tour with her compatriots but must escort their compadre down, so she does...

and then basks in the shade awaiting her crew, note this spy-pic...i had to hide the lens behind my water bottle, i didn't want her to become suspicious that i had discovered her ploy.

however the day of roasting in the heat was worth it as we sat back and enjoyed “a very nice slushy” as described by the greek patron selling them, anyone who walked by "everyone, people a very nice slushy," at the slushy concession as we headed back to new Delphi and our hotel.

off to dinner friends,

here's the view erin and i will be enjoying tonight as we soldier on w/ the high stakes cribbage tourney...current score erin: 3 lo: 3, it's really heating up look for us on espn next.