Orthodox Churches, Hilarious Bike Tour, and Socrates

I've been in Athens over a week now! My how time flies! Here's the skinny on what I've been doing the last few days. On Saturday, the group was scheduled to meet our tour guide Demitris at a church seemingly in the middle of a heavily populated suburban street. Further stressing the bizarre connection between the ancient and contemporary found all over here in Athens. The inside of the church was beautiful. I find that many of the older orthodox churches are breathtaking because the icons that take up every inch of the walls, with the large dome in the center with Christ painted inside (see picture). We were told that this church was almost distroyed (like most churches in Athens) to make way for new streets. Instead, a German monarch, who we lovingly refer to as "Crazy Ludwig", convinced the Athenians to spare it.
After that we went to the Petraki monastery and spoke with an Orthodox monk while viewing the church there. We were able to learn about the culture of the monastery from a monk himself—which was really wonderful experience. Although the monk seemed to want to talk with us forever (I suppose time passes a little differently to him). I enjoyed the monastery though and especially enjoyed the cookies and juice they offered us!
On Sunday we got the opportunity to take a bike tour of Athens. The bike tour ended up being run by two young men who offer these tours free of charge. They were very cool and very hilarious. Throughout the tour they made up ridiculous "facts" about the ancient monuments--siting that the Greeks are the only people who don't know about their history, so we can't really blame them. Although riding through the city had an enormous amount of obstacles—rumor has it one of the girls in our group hit a man on her bike during the final stretch of the tour. You know, all accidents happen within a mile of home! All in all, it was a wonderful tour--well worth the charge of absolutely no euro.
Class on Monday was very interesting, as we talked about “The Birds” (a very funny theatre production) and Plato’s Dialogues with “The Apology” and “The Phaedo”. "The Apology" consists of Socrate's justification during his trial while "The Phaedo" is his final words in prison before being put to death with a draught of poison. We visited both Phyx Hill (where Socrates’ trial was held) and Socrates’ Prison (where he is speculated to have died). Dr. Hammerling had us read the end of “The Phaedo”, which includes the last words and death of Socrates. A class member said it best when they admitted how dramatic that excerpt was being read in the spot where scholars believed it was originally said.

The church in the middle of the street which "Crazy Ludwig" saved
The church at the Petraki monastery
Sam, my Athens roommate, and I on the bike tour (we are sad because our bike bells didn't work)
Socrates' Prison (this is where he was supposed to have died)

That's it for now! During these last few days the weather was excellent (in the mid to upper 60s mostly). But, never fear, it's rainy and cloudy today and supposed to be all week. Better than snow though, right?