A song for my holy land of Delphi
Being born in a place like Delphi, definitely leaves a mark on you.
Greek mythology played a huge role to what I was becoming as a character for example. You could find me most of the afternoons of my pre-teenage years somewhere in the ancient ruins of Pronea Athena. I was carrying around my big cassette player (like a funny ghetto kid) and after the place was closed for the public, I could sneak in from a hole in the fence that I had found. It was my dreamland and spent many many hours there.
The modern village of Delphi doesn’t really has much to offer. It is a mid size tourist-only village of around 2000 residents. Almost every single business is build around visitors. Restaurants and hotels, period.
My dad himself was running a giant bar-restaurant from 1979 up to 1999. That was the place I learnt to appreciate the way money were made and respect the hard work. I worked my ass there from my 12 to 19 years and loved it!
Living from a young age with tourists from all around the globe, made me a boy that was keen to meet other places and led me to love traveling so much. I guess that my love for photography and nightlife begun here as well. Meeting people is always a great experience.
I am now gone from Delphi for almost 25 years and I keep missing the place; especially the ancient ruins that shaped my character to a great extent.
I am not sure if this is true, but once upon a time a young girl (guide to the ancient ruins at the time), had told me that this stone inscription here is the proof that the ancient Greeks were the ones who wrote the English R in this way. It says “ΑΡΓΕΙΟΙ”, meaning the people from Argos city.
I don’t know why we keep on returning to the places we grew up as kids, but my dream is not to come back there any time soon. Don’t get me wrong, I keep a warm place in my heart for this amazing land that raised me to the man I am today.
I am blessed to have lived my first 18 years under the shadows of the sacred ancient Delphi, but I wouldn’t come back; and that’s maybe because I want to keep it alive as a happy place in my heart, as only our childhood can always be.
And of course the view; oh, this view comes back in my mind over and over again.
