Following Ancient Footprints

I've been following the ghosts of ancient Greeks. Or at least it feels that way...

After experiencing Delphi, I had to find a way to escape the hordes of tourists. Luckily, my friends and I had gotten a tip about a hike down the slope of Mt. Parnassus to the Gulf of Corinth. It's an ancient footpath that's been used since prehistoric times and it's the route that travelers would take up the mountain to see the oracle after getting off their ships.

The hike starts in Modern Delphi, down some stairs behind the Pension Odysseus (if you ask inside, they'll give you a map of the path, which is definitely necessary even though it's fairly well marked).

As soon as we got onto the path, all the other people disappeared. The faded trail and rocks through the beautiful mountain landscape made it feel as though we had actually traveled back in time.

It's easy to imagine the pilgrims who came here, having traveled from all over the ancient world, nervously walking this trail and worrying about what answers the oracle might give them. If the ancient path was anything like the modern one, those travelers wouldn't have had to go hungry. As we hiked along, we passed all kinds of fruit trees and picked and ate fresh figs, blackberries, a pomegranate, grapes and even almonds! Everything was ripe and delicious. I was particularly excited to try the almonds since it was the first time I'd ever seen an almond tree.

The hike also took us by some beautiful and rarely visited sites like a prehistoric acropolis and this church dedicated to Saint Georgiou.

The last leg of the hike took us on a shady walk through one of the largest olive groves in Greece before we finally reached Ancient Kirra, a port town on the Gulf of Corinth.

After hiking more than 10 miles, nothing could have felt better than tossing off my shoes and wading right into the sea.