Day 1: "That's okay, I make Lamb"

The first meal in Athens was spent on the roof top of a local restaurant with a night view of the Acropolis. Just to give you an idea of how Greeks eat (and how I ate for a week), every meal was a minimum of "two courses". Two courses being 7 different dishes in the first and an entree and dessert platter in the second. My favorite course was, what I call in colloquial language, "Lamb in a Bag", which is essentially what it was...Sounds real appealing doesn't it?

In the following morning, my philosophy class and I spent time in Ancient Agora! Here, I visited the death place of Socrates where he drank the hemlock poison after being trialed and sentenced to death. We took a rest at the archeological sight of his jail cell where he was executed, and we read passages from Plato's, "Phaedo" encompassing Socrates final speech on death. Those small clay jars in the photo were discovered in the exact spot I was sitting, and they were used to execute a number of state offenders, including Socrates himself.

From Agora we climbed to the very top of the Acropolis where I visited the Temple of Athena and The Parthenon. I actually got to see the olive tree that Athena herself bestowed upon the Greeks in return for their favor and worship. I thought it would be really cool to make it look like I was holding the Parthenon, but as you can see by the one photo...I failed and look awkward. However, the view of the city was breathtaking. It gave you an idea of how the Greeks used the natural landscape and space to raise their temples above the rest of the city, closer to the gods and heavens.