When You Have a Greek Theater All To Yourself

My excursion for the day today took me to Flokas- a small village town about 3 kilometers outside of my town. Flokas is home to the Ancient Olympian theater, one taverna and a campground- that’s it.

The walk to Flokas is completely uphill (thank you, calf muscles) and absolutely gorgeous. Remembering I forgot to apply sunscreen and it was about 1:30 in the afternoon I began jogging to escape the dreaded sunburn I knew was coming to me.
Being out in the middle of nowhere, your senses really come alive. You hear everything better, things look clearer, you feel the air against your skin- in every pore, and your lungs greedily absorb all the oxygen they can hold. After a few minutes in my own trance, I realized I heard something strange and slowed down to look around. Aha!

Where you Goin? Nowhere!

Scooting his way, very very slowly uphill, was a turtle, or maybe it’s a tortoise I forget which live on land. At any rate, I was as delighted as Elmyra from Looney Tunes. I tried to offer him some branches for lunch, scout around to see if there was a turtle family, even made a little water fountain for him (just in case he was thirsty). Well, turtles are quite rude, and he went inside his house and wasn’t having any of it.

Fine- I’m going paparazzi on you. Admire my photo of my new pet. I call him my new pet because he’s on the path going uphill and it’s about 2 more kilometers before he can get downhill needless to say, he will be there for my enjoyment tomorrow.
Moving on towards Flokas. Aha- I see the sign for the theater, and as I am walking up the hill I realize it’s very quiet… too quiet. I get excited – I start running. I reach the top of the theater and, sweet baby jesus… I AM ALONE! If there is anything I love more than ancient ruins, it’s not having to share them with anyone.
Alone- all alone in an ancient theater! I was literally skipping with joy.
The first thing I proceed to do is find the place on the ground with the best acoustics. About 2 meters from the front row- your voice echos 5 times. What’s more exciting to me than hearing my own voice? Hearing my own voice FIVE TIMES!
I slowly used my imagination to fill every spot in the theater with people I know, faces I remember- even if only in passing. Now, with a full audience I proceeded to give a speech.
I talked about life, about love, about the beauty and the pain I was feeling; I basically pretended to be my own Oprah. And for some strange reason, I really love this moment and wanted to share it with you. Whatever, I do what I want!