Athens - Day 2

14 July 2025

First day of conference. I met many nice people! One in particular is Kiyasha, a South African but of Indian heritage and we became fast friends! She specifically looked me up due to my Indian name, and the blessings are all mine because she is really nice and I like her!

I was very good this time around, I attended all the panel sessions and went for lunch at 2 pm – Greek salad, moussaka which I couldn’t eat as there was beef, pasta (thank God!) and dessert.

In the afternoon I presented my paper, which I’m glad to say went very well. After it was over, and as it was still early, I went back to the hotel to change shoes, as there was a walking trip planned that same evening, followed by dinner.

First agenda on the walking trip: Aristotle’s Lyceum. The Lyceum was not just a school, it was a movement. Founded by Aristotle in 336 BCE (6^th century BCE), after he returned to Athens from tutoring Alexander the Great, the Lyceum became one of the greatest centres of learning in the ancient world. It is located just outside the city walls of classical Athens, in a leafy grove dedicated to Apollo Lyceius (hence the name). Unlike Plato’s Academy, which focused heavily on abstract thought, Aristotle’s Lyceum emphasized empirical observation, debate, and categorisation – what we now think of as the foundations of the scientific method.

Aristotle and his students often conducted their discussions while walking, which is why they were called Peripatetics (from peripatein, meaning "to walk about"). It is also known as a gymnasia (the modern word is of course, gymnasium) because exercises were also performed here, particularly wrestling and boxing.

Next, we walked past the National Gardens, but only briefly. Here there were busts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides – the three famous playwrights of ancient Greece. On the way to dinner, we managed to witness the changing of the guards (also known as presidential guards) which took place in front of the old parliament building. They do this service for free as it is of high honour. In other words, slavery 🙄.

Then we walked a bit of a distance for a typical Greek dinner, accompanied by live performances of Greek dances, singing and general entertainment. Dinner came in courses – first was bread and tzatziki (yogurt, garlic, cucumber), then Greek salad (tomato, cucumber, salad and feta cheese), spanakopita (a savory Greek pie filled with spinach, feta cheese, onions, and seasonings), dolmades (rice and herbs stuffed in vine leaves – a bit sour, not my cup of tea), souvlaki (small pieces of meat grilled on a skewer) and dessert - loukoumades (small, golden puffs of fried dough, drizzled with sweet syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon). I drank white wine (generally I do not like wine, but that was the only liquor available and I was on holiday, after all).

I kept asking our host if we were done, as it was close on 11.30 pm and I was really sleepy, to which his reply was, “this is Greece!” I never understood what he meant by this, but I think they generally eat quite late – lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 8 pm, which means that they will then stay up late.

We walked back to our hotels – another long walk. It is summer in Greece, and I heard horror stories about the heat but nothing more terrible than in Malaysia, the difference of course being that back home we drive everywhere to avoid the heat, a luxury that is non-existent when we are tourists. Anyway, I got back to the hotel alright, showered, but surprisingly had a restless night I know not why.