iPhone is here...

...well, not exactly. A fully functional piece (although with no SIM card and no EDGE network) is displayed at "Plaisio" computer shops since last Friday and many people have been waiting in line to hold it and play with it. I was out of town for the weekend so I couldn't take photos of people posing with it for their friends. 

I went there today, early in the morning of course, and I played with it for 15 minutes or so. It's the most impressive device I 've ever held. 

iPhone will not go for sale in Greece (and, of course, in Europe) before Christmas but the sign in front of the device reads "iPhone is here!" They should have put some Santas and elves there. :-)

Plaisio stores

iPhone homepage

Protesting for the forest

Today, the first ever large environmental protest took place in Athens. People are so fed up with the ineptitude of the state to protect the forests and the environment that they gathered outside the Parliament to protest.
On the very tomb of the Unknown Soldier, protesters left ashes and burnt branches from Parnitha, cigarette lighters and some bricks (symbolizing arson and the subsequent building of the burnt places).

Last week, Parnitha mountain's forest, the one and only national park in the vicinity of the capital, was lost due to a huge wildfire. No emergency plan was carried out, the forest is now gone and the minister in charge of the fire brigade said that the operation was "relatively successful"...
Read more about the protest

Lost

I took this photo in Parnitha, a few weeks before the fire, at a place that is now burnt.

The aftermath

Grief

Sadness, anger and huge disappointment. These are my feelings as the one and only national park near Athens is no more. The whole forest in Parnitha mountain is gone as a result of a huge wildfire.

The endangered red deers are (most probably) gone too. I met three of those some weeks ago. It was the last time I ever saw them alive.

What is most painful is that the fire was not an arson. It was just the absolute stupidity of the authorities. They did not manage to contain a relatively small fire on the foothills and the fire went up at 1100m altitude, just because of their complete impotence.

None apologized for this, none resigned. None will ever be held accountable for the total loss of our most precious forest.

I feel like I just lost a beloved person...
The story in BBC news

ADP out of town: Spetses island

I spent the weekend at this beautiful island (about 2 hours from Athens by hydrofoil). Spetses is mostly known for its great contribution (with warriors, money and ships) to the Greek war of Independence in 1821.
Private cars are totally forbidden so people use horse and carriages, motorbikes or these red sea-taxis to get around the island or to the nearby mainland shores. The little port's entrance gets very busy sometimes...
Spetses in Wikipedia
Spetses.gr (in Greek)
More info (in english)

Summer time in Nafplio

Nafplio (about 150km from Athens) was the first capital of the Greek state and today stands as one of the most historical places in the country. This beautiful snapshot is from the old part of the town, these houses must be 200 years old.

Read more here

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

During a visit at old Athens Intl airport (Hellenikon), I stumbled upon this old private airplane. The sign on its side reminded me that no promise lasts for ever...
...no matter how high it flies.

Black and White

Meeting with...the cavalry in Kea island.
Where is it?

Looking marble

Diana, a friend of ADP, sent me this breath-taking photo.

As she says...
"I wanted to send you a picture that I took while "doing the tourist thing" one of the days I was there. It is a view of the Parthenon through the columns of the Temple of Zeus. I really like how the color of the poppies just add something to this photo".
.
Thanks, Diana. Wish you a nice time in Athens when you come back

Runner

"Running" just beside the Hilton hotel, this (not so beautiful from up close) statue is "Dromeas" (The Runner). Built from stacked plates of glass by Kostas Varotsos.

Not many people find it beautiful. When in was first intoduced in Omonoia Square in 1994, people were calling it "The Thing". But now it's considered one of the prominent pieces of modern art.

Tell me what you think. Do you find it good-looking or not?
See it in its previous location
More Dromeas pics at Flickr

Island ranquility

Afternoon at Kea island.
In Wikimapia

Heavy bird spotting

ADP proudly presents the Greek plane spotters. Here, outside Athens airport, spotting the unusual heavy traffic the day of the Champions League final. More than 40 people, along with some German and Austrian spotters, were there to welcome the iron birds.
Air-born

Tower and the winds

The Athens airport control tower playing hide and seek with the sun and the clouds.

Photo Journal: Champions League Final

A friend of ADP was in the Olympic Stadium during the Champions League final. Many thanks for sharing. The first photo is just before the kick-off.
Seconds before Milan´s first goal...
...and moments after.
The match has just ended...
Fireworks all around.......and the Champions in full glory.

Champions League @ Athens

My dearest friend Annika sent me this photo of Constitution Square where Liverpool fans are having fun hours before they hit the road to the Olympic Stadium.

Drive and dive

The swimming pool of Athens Hilton hotel is so close to the road that the people who swim can actually feel the roar of the engines of the vehicles passing by. Not the best environment but, then again, where else in Athens can anyone find such a cool and elegant place?
The place in Wikimapia

Automotive History

A charming collection of retro sports cars (dating from 1928 to 1975) is open to the public at Peiraios St 83. This MERCEDES-BENZ 190 SL (1961) is only one the beauties I met there.
Alman Sport Historic Cars Collection (in Greek)

House of a tyrant

In the middle of Parnitha National Park (only a few kilometers from Athens) lie the ruins of a villa owned by the dictator Papadopoulos, head of the military junta that governed Greece from 1967 to 1974.

The villa was immediately looted after the junta fell and he went to jail. Anyone can reach the site now (which features also a heliport and a deserted military camp) by foot or by bicycle. It is unknown why the Greek state hasn´t turned it into something useful like a mountain refuge (it is in 1100m alt).
See the place in Wikimapia

Books and marble

Last week, under the Acropolis rock, the Book Fair.

Pantheon and manure

When it comes to decorate your garden, anything goes. The Sphinx, Alexander the Great, an eagle, goddess Athena (again in Athens DP) and other figures are for sale in a local garden shop near the flowers, the flowerpots, the fertilizers and the manure.

Goddess at work

Next year, the new Acropolis Museum (just below the ancient temple of Parthenon) will be ready to receive the first artifacts. This poster is just outside the works area.
The glass gallery on the top will have direct view to Acropolis.
To read more about the museum click here and to watch a virtual tour click here.
Also this Wikimapia link shows the site before the actual building begun to be built. You can clearly see the ancient findings. The artifacts of this particular site will be displayed in the museum too.

Historic Acropolis Rally

This stylish beauty, along with other awesome cars, competed for 6th Historic Acropolis Rally. A race for sport cars of age 22 years and more. The cars started and finished their race under the Acropolis.

Windows

In Greece there are no real TV news. They are merely entertainment programs about what happens in the country.

We call this lay-out "TV windows". The woman in the middle is the host. The guys left and right of her are journalists-commentators who are there every single evening commenting on everything: From the government's budget to the latest crime of passion.

On the second row are two politicians. Politicians have become actual commentators themselves. Since they don't produce any news (except from some scandals) they are there to comment on the news.

(Behind the white-haired man there are pictures of Orthodox Saints. He is the Minister of Interior and this is his office in the ministry. And I thought that the theocrats were in Tehran and Washington DC only, LOL).

What about your country? Are there similar pictures?

Unfitting...

The same hotel (see previous post) from a nearby peak. It was built on the site of an old sanatorium of the ´20s.
Wikimapia Link

Madonna bringing gifts

This poster was part of the H&M launch campaign in Athens about a month ago. No, she did not visit :-)

Meeting the wild

On Parnitha mountain, only 25km from downtown Athens, lives the largest Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) population in Greece (about 400 deers).
I met a family of three during a walk this week and it was one really amazing and magic moment.

(The photo was taken just a few meters behind the ruined hotel of the previous photo)

Upper Class ruins

This used to be an upper class hotel back in the '60s and the early '70s. State owned, it was built on Parnitha mountain, at 1050m altitude and it was abandoned in the late '70s. Today is deserted, looted and almost in ruins. The inside is spooky. Totally destroyed, burned furniture and carpets, broken floors. As of today, there are no plans for its future.
This interesting structure, where it used to be the covered lounge of the hotel, has the tree's roots built in this cylinder all the way down to the ground.
See the place in Wikimapia

Meeting with a veteran

In the porch of soon-to-be-demolished house, an old piano (no idea how old) waits its own fate.

Easter Eggs

The custom in Greece is to paint eggs red and crush the one on the other in Easter Sunday, the Resurrection Day. The one who will crush everyone else´s egg and keep his/her own intact will have good luck.

Happy Easter to everyone. And to the non-Christians... greetings and good luck.

More Street Art

The only