The Greek story

As the flame was lifted high above the stadium in a gigantic cauldron, we were all filled with admiration for our country and touched the gold medal with the letter “G” that the dove brought us from modern Greece. “Now that we’ve got the medal we must go on!” said Marios.

“Time is really pressing! Let’s stick to our aim! We must find the star before Europe, our homeland, collapses!”

“R” is the next letter of GREECE. Any ideas? “What if I told you that I’ve already found the magic word for “R”! It’s been echoing in my ears for quite some time now. It’s Respect!” said Gabriela confidently. The room miraculously began to spin. “Shall we try the third letter “E” as well?” proposed Phaedon hastily. “What about Equality? Equality is closely connected to Respect. These two words go hand in hand. If Respect is the one, then Equality must be the other!”

He hadn’t even finished his words when we heard the same jangling sound from inside the computers. Outside the window night had fallen.

The sky was full of fireworks. They were forming the five Olympic rings.

The sound got louder and louder. The room started to spin faster and faster. The computers flashed with light. We held each other’s hands tightly. The sound was unbearable. Then it suddenly stopped. Silence.

“Where are we?” asked Theodore. We poked our heads out of one of the windows. We had landed at the bottom of a small rocky hill. A wonderful transparent light illuminated the place. In the east you could see another rugged cliff towering above the city. On its top, the famous temple of Athena, the Parthenon, made us almost stop breathing with emotion. A lot of men were passing in front of us heading to the top of the hill on which we had landed a few minutes ago. They were wearing very simple cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch and belted around the waist. Leather sandals protected their feet from the rocky surface of the ground. As they were walking up the hill, they were talking briskly with each other.

We thought that we were dreaming! We knew exactly where we were!

In the very heart of our city, Athens! Only we had gone back in time many centuries ago! The place we had been studying in history was now 9