Well, today was just like any other.  Went to the Ancient Agora, saw where Socrates hung out and the dialogue in the Crito took place, strolled through a Byzantine cathedral, ventured to the location of Plato's Euthyphro, spotted the where stoicism began and strolled through Kerameikos.  You know, the usual.  NOT.  Oh my goodness!  I feel like I jumped into a philosophy book and travelled back in time today!  I cannot believe I actually walked down a path that might have also supported the feet of men like Socrates and Plato!  Although the Agora looks more like a bunch of stones formed into squares with overgrown grass, I cannot help but appreciate what is left.  If you don't already know, the Agora was considered the main center of the city.  It had a market, courthouse, altar of the 12 gods, the temple of Hephaestus, a prison,  and so forth.  Only men of a certain age were allowed in the Agora and women could get as close as the watering hole located right outside.  Something I saw particularly interesting at the Agora Museum was what looked like the first way of deciding jury duty!? Never thought about where that came from and not too sure I want to actually thank them for it.  Lunch involved eating yet another chicken gyro and the most wonderful strawberries I have sunk my teeth into.  Plus, they were super cheap!   

        After visiting all of those places we were free for the rest of the afternoon, so a lot of us went onto the top floor of our hotel and did some work while enjoying the perfect weather with the hotel cats.  (Even the best Nashville coffee shop can't top that) For dinner, we went back to the same place we ate at last night called Estia and this time, I got the bread with dip for an appetizer, vegetable soup for my meal and the best crepe I have ever had for dessert.  Basically, the crepe had Nutella and strawberries, so of course I'm in.  The waiters liked us so much that they sat us on the outside of the restaurant to comment on how much we liked the food to passerbys! It was hilarious.  After a beautiful evening, we poked around some shops on the way back to the hotel and I ended up getting a really neat ring with a snake representing the god of medicine, Asclepius. 

Currently, my roommate and I are laying on our beds with the window open, a breeze coming in, and listening to a group of men from down the street sing beautifully together.  It is safe to say that today has been nothing short of wonderful

First Day in Greece

Kalispera! (Good evening in Greek)

The past two days have been the best combination of excitement and exhaustion.  We flew out of Nashville around 9 a.m. on Sunday and arrived in Athens, Greece around 11 a.m. Monday morning, so basically en entire 24 hours of nonstop traveling.  As soon as we got off the flight, we get into a bus and head for our hotel.  At first, Athens looks like any other foreign place to me with multilingual signs, cool telephone booths and a smell that says, "This is not America." (I love that smell) But as we get closer to the main part of the city, I look up and see it, the Acropolis.  It is so much closer to the Plaka than I excepted and appears to be floating on a sea of Athenian cityscape.  I instantly tried to picture what it would have looked like in it's prime and how I could get closer, thankfully, it was on our schedule for the next day.  After we freshened up at our hotel, The Art Gallery, we headed to see the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  I cannot imagine traveling with two better guides than a philosopher and an art historian because they have completely filled us in on all of the great history that goes along with each of these places.  For example, apparently Socrates dialogue in Plato's Phaedra takes place at a house right outside of that temple!  I never thought I would possibly walk the same streets as Socrates, so that was an exciting thing to see.  After those two locations we hiked up higher, higher and even higher to one of the tallest point in the city, Lycabettus.  It was the most incredible view! You could see the entire city and even eat dinner up there if you wanted to.  What I enjoyed most was walking through residential apartments on the way and seeing about 4 different cats.  If we hadn't done enough walking already, we headed back to the hotel to change and then headed to the Athens Center to meet up with our guide and go to dinner.  Dinner was incredible.  We enjoyed bread, some Greek salad, and main dishes that could have fed a small village.  I have enjoyed tasting the staple Greek meals and leaving my comfort zone to experience good food.  Dinner put us over the top so we went back home and I feel asleep almost instantly.  Well, there you have it, our first day in Greece!  Sorry it is so choppy and short, but as you can imagine... I am still a little jet lagged ;)