Next Destination: Athens, Greece

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The view of the Acropolis from the Hotel I stayed in, in Athens is majestic. Completed in 432 BC it was considered the perfect building built by the most advanced civilization at the time.
From the 22nd of April (Wednesday) to the Friday the 24 of April I was lucky that the annual conference for my work was held in the Hilton to enjoy this amazing view. Of course we were here for work not play, well maybe a little bit of play. But still the view was gorgeous.

We listed to speakers talk about the current financial crisis and how it affected both Europe, the US and the whole world. Some interesting arguments and points were brought forward.
During the conference in Athens we had a gala dinner at the Zappeion.

The Gala dinner followed a weeklong celebration of Greek orthodox so we had some Greek style lamb, which is a very significant symbol of the Easter celebration in Greece. Easter is a unique opportunity for families to come together in spring celebration, after 40 days of fasting. On Easter Sunday, from the very early hours of the day, preparations begin for roasting lamb in open air fires and everybody takes turns in ‘turning the rotisserie’ and preparing a glorious Easter feast.
The menu was as follows:
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Trio of appetizers:

Mushroom soup
Carpaccio of beef
Shrimp with avocado salad
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Roast rack of lamb with yoghurt sauce, new potatoes and ratatouille of vegetable
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Exotic Chocolate mille feuille with mascarpone cream
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Filter coffee or tea

The wines that we had with the meal were
Chateau Julia, Chardonnay, Domaine Costa Lazaridis
Megas Oenos, Agiorghitiko / Cabernet Sauvingnon, Domaine Skouras

After a delicious dinner and dancing on the Thursday night, the conference ended Friday afternoon. In the afternoon I was met by Chiel - remember Chiel from Netherlands? Well Chiel was traveling through, having hitch hiked all the way from the Netherlands. Together we went to find my dad and sister to do some sightseeing in Athens.

One thing I didn’t know about Athens was that they have a lot of stray dogs on the streets. This, according to our tour guide was due to the actions of a local animal rights activist group. The group found out about mistreatment of dogs in one of the dog pounds at the time. They made a documentary about it and sent it to the district attorney, who issued an arrest for the mayor of the city. That mayor as charged with the crime of "maltreatment of animals" which is a very serious offense in Greek law. He was convicted and sentenced to several months in prison along with a stiff monetary fine. As a result,
almost every municipality in Greece dissolved their dog pounds and fired their dog catchers. And that led to a lot more stray dogs on the streets in Athens which still exists today.
Whats interesting though is how these dogs have adapted to street life, you can see them walking down the streets, minding there own business, yelling at another dog every now and then. They even wait at lights to cross when they see other people crossing.

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