ARROW - 161. Chapter 161

Sleep that night was welcomed. The bed was extremely comfortable. I wonder if we could buy one in the States. Then my thoughts turned to the Home. GG came and said to go sleep, the Home is safe. I wonder when I’ll stop worrying about people with bad intentions going after the kids in the Home. Every time I look at Carl, I have visions of the men who abused him in the most horrible way. With these thoughts, I got to sleep. In my semi-sleep, GG came in her rocking chair and my mind was flooded with the past when she would come in her rocking chair and rock me to sleep.

Colin woke me in the morning, he was dressed for the day. I looked at my watch and it was almost 8 in the morning.

“It’s about time you woke up. Everyone is having breakfast. I have a cup of coffee for you. Hurry up and get dressed and come down for some breakfast. We have a busy day today.”

I got up, “I need a kiss.” Laughing, Colin gave me what I wanted. “I’ll be down in 30 minutes. Order some toast for me.”

Walking into the dining room, the guys clapped. Carl had a seat for me, he was becoming my shadow.

“What did you order for my breakfast?”

“Dad, try this.” Carl had a cup of yogurt. I took a little on my coffee spoon. Then Johnny who was sitting on the other side offered me a piece of his pita bread. It had a marmalade of fresh fruit on the piece he offered me. I thought if they kept that up, I wouldn’t need to order breakfast.

The waiter came and I ordered scrambled eggs, pita bread, and a mixture of fresh fruit with a coffee refill.

The boys had to make a pit stop before we left the hotel. The weather was cool, a great temperature for a walk. Arnaud said it will warm up in a few hours.

Later that morning walking to the Acropolis, Colin told me the boys were worried I wasn’t there when they came down.

We could see some of the buildings from the road as we walked toward the hill named the Acropolis. Climbing the hill, we could see other bulldogs and part of the original wall.

“Dad, what was the purpose of the Acropolis?”

“You need to ask Uncle Arnaud. He has been here often and I’ll bet he will know.”

I watched as Anthony approached Arnaud. “Uncle Arnaud, what is the Acropolis.”

“Anthony, a long time ago, each city in Greece had a leader, like a king. To protect the people in the city, they built a fortress so they could go there to be safe. For Athens, they built a place on this hill called the Acropolis. It was called a citadel which is another word for fortress.”

“So if an army attacked Athens, the people came here to be safe.” “Yes”

I watched as Anthony smiled. Arnaud patted him on his head. I knew I’d need to get a book on the history of Athens. When I told Colin he said I’ll end up with a small library. I thought that might not be a bad idea.

Arnaud was telling the boys that the term Acropolis referred to this plateau which is 400 feet above the plain where the city of Athen is located. This area was developed by a king in the fourth millennium BCE. He dedicated the Acropolis to Athena, one of the early Gods. There is a story that she raced Poseidon to this hill and she won. So she planted an olive tree. Do you remember the wooden building we saw on the way up? It is called Erechtheion and it was built to honor Athena and Poisidon. They had a wooden statue of Athena in the upper chamber and that olive tree is supposedly the one She planted after winning the race.

“Who founded the city?”

“It is a legend that the king who founded Athens was an ancient king named Cecrops. They named this hill Cecropia in his honor, He is buried in that wooden building .”

“What is that building?”

“That is a temple to Athena which was built around 400 BCE. It is similar to other buildings of the gods. We will see more.”

I listened as Arnaud was telling the boys a little bit of the history of this area. It was evident that the Greek gods played an essential role in the early lives of the people.

“The temple of Athena is called the Parthenon. Its construction started in 427 BC and was opened to the public in 425 BC”

The boys wanted to look inside. I watched, the building was of typical Greek design. Open air with an altar and a statue of Athena.

Leaving the hill, Arnaud had told the boys there was a museum in the city. That was where we were heading. We spent the rest of the morning in that museum. For lunch, we stopped at a tavern that was known for serving only Greek food. I knew what would happen. The boys ordered one dish of everything on the menu. Then it was “Taste this”, “I like this.”

It was an experience for the boys. I had a suspicion that Arnaud knew this would happen. He seems to really enjoy the boy's taste testing the food. I had a pita stuffed with thinly sliced meat and a salad. Colin wanted a taste and he order the same.

After lunch, we headed to the bus station and took a bus ride to the nearest city, Mycenae. Arnaud explained that the people from this city attacked Athens and were able to occupy the Acropolis.” They fought the Athenians and they conquered the Acropolis by capturing the water well which wasn’t adequately protected.“ We listened as Arnaud spoke about this ancient city. “This city was one of the major centers of Greek civilization. The city was founded in 1350 BC. The city had a citadel built on a cliff. The architects built the citadel for the upper class who lived within the walls of the city as well as the farmers who lived outside of the city walls. The city had two gates for entrance. The back gate called the Postern Gate was for the citizens from the surrounding area to enter the city in case of attack. The front gate was called the Lions Gate as it had two lions on the gate.”

As we did in Athens, we ended up our tour of the city in a museum.

“I think when we are done touring the museum we should head back to our hotel.” When I mentioned that to the boys, they were ready to go back. They had a few leaflets to review, so they said.

On the bus ride back to Athens, the boys were very quiet. At first, I thought they may have fallen asleep, they were looking at the pamphlets they picked up.