Acropolis & Parthenon

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014 Athens

Last night's dinner in the cellar of a building just off the fruit and vegetable market is a little out of focus but it shows the general idea of beans, chick peas, wine in a big tin cup and sardines yet to come. The casks really are full of wine which they tap as required. Great experience!
After breakfast in the hotel this morning, we walked up to the Acropolis and were there by about 9:00 am.

 As we walked up to the main entrance, we could look down into the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, built in 161 AD by a Roman.

 Here we are up at on the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena and completed in 438 BC.

Another view of the Parthenon. The Acropolis site is very rocky and rough. It must have been paved at one time with marble stone but it seems like all of the paving material is missing.
We walked all over the Acropolis for about 1 1/2 hours among a few other tourists. The Parthenon is quite large and it's incredible to think that it was built so well so long ago. By 10:30 am, the school groups and cruise ship tour groups were arriving. It got really crowded really fast, so having felt that we'd seen it all, we walked back down through the gate. We followed a scenic path past many foundations of homes below the Acropolis.
 Eventually we ended up at the Ancient Agora, the main downtown area of classic Greek culture about 2,500 years ago. We walked in the same streets where Aristotle, Plato & Socrates walked. We saw stone seats where Socrates used to sit and expound upon his philosophy. This was where Diogenes walked around in broad daylight with a lamp, looking for an honest man. It was a very cool experience.
The ancient Greeks started democratic government and trial by a jury of peers chosen randomly, among many other accomplishments. Some of it was a bit primitive, but it was a start. For instance, to eliminate the possibility of electing a terrible despot, there was a system called "ostrekas" (or something like that), which I think meant shard of pottery. With a quorum of 6,000 people, the Athenians would each scratch or paint the name of the least desirable candidate on a shard of pottery. The shards were collected and counted and the person who was deemed least desirable was unable to stand for election and was, in fact, forced to leave Athens for 10 years, or as we would say, "ostracized".
We also saw a slotted stone tablet through which citizens would slip a bronze tag with their name on it. Behind the tablet, a funnel collected the names from only one column, chosen at random. Thus, juries were selected totally at random.
We have more pictures of the Ancient Agora but the internet here is very slow so we'll have to leave them for another day. Tomorrow morning we have to get to one of the bus stations and buy tickets to get to Delphi, about 3 hours northwest of here. We'll stay there for 2 nights. Perhaps the internet service will be better there.