Winter colors

A little escape

Two hours drive out of Athens lies this beautiful artificial lake in Feneos, Korinth. The church was constructed there to commemorate the former position of a monastery which was forced to move upper in the mountain when the waters raised.
See the place in Wikimapia (you can zoom out to see where exactly in Greece it is)

Rime and mist

I guess the friends from the north are very familiar with scenes like this. But in Greece it's not something you see every day. This is what happens when the early morning mist freezes on the little branches when the temperatures gets below zero. Of course, this is a on a mountain.

Build it Up

For the past seven years, Athens is being rebuilt. No, they don't demolish the monstrous buildings in order to make new modern ones. They tear down beautiful old houses and villas in areas that were countryside but now they' re totally urban in order to build blocks of flats. The land now costs more that the old buildings themselves so the development companies take action. Of course, people who move into these new flats are borrowing the money from the banks. Millions of homes are already built in the greater Athens area and almost all of them are on heavy mortgage deals for 30 years or more.

At local market

Once a week, in almost every neighborhood in Athens a local market is being set up in 5 o'clock in the morning. They sell mostly vegetables and fruits but also fish, various small home objects and some clothing.
The basic idea behind these nomadic markets is that the farmers themselves can sell directly to the consumer, without anyone reselling in the middle. Therefore, the prices here are lower that those in super markets or the grocery's.
The market occupies an entire street. Motorcars can cross through the market and scenes like this are common.

At 13:00 in the afternoon, everyone packs everything and they go. Tomorrow they will sell somewhere else.

Athens DP is back

After what ended up as a small adventure with DSL access and my ISP, everything is up and running now and Athens DP is fully back online. Thanks everyone for the nice comments during that short break. Let's blog!

Athens DP is temporarily offline

Technical reasons, no DSL at home, force me to delay or stop the update of this blog for two to three weeks. (Dial up and photoblogging are a pain in the...line :-) ).

I plan to update from time to time (from wi-fi spots or Internet cafes), I 'll do my best. In two to three weeks time I expect to be fully online again and fully honor the word "daily" on the title.

See you around...

Ovelikios

Buy her a perfume

This is "Attica" the largest department store in central Athens. It's an old office building of the '30s covering an entire block, completely renovated and now dedicated exclusively to the gods of shopping.

This photo is from the late stages of the overhaul, hence the crane.

It's amazing how similar it looks with another department store in Tokyo. (See it here)

Cheer me up

Just a remnant from the holiday season, this clown is a much better version of the old circus clown.

Better or worse, most small kids that saw him were scared. That's how Stephen King finds his ideas. :-)

Meet Gwyneth

She was incognito but I found her :-)

Flower street

Early in the afternoon, minutes away from the city center. Beautiful flowers give a colorful tone in a winter day.

No respect

A more than common picture in Athens. It seems that there isn't a single one access ramp which is not blocked by a driving idiot.

Sailing the sun

From time to time I like to look at older photos just to be reminded of the summer. Here is an Aegean sunrise on the boat to Andros island.

When you have to go...

Just in case you need one when in Athens, here is what a public toilet looks like.

Acropolis...island

This beautiful neighborhood is Anafiotika, one of the first settlements in Athens just after the Greek Revolution of 1821. The first inhabitants were from the island of Anafi and, as they did in their own land, they settled just under the Acropolis. They brought their island architecture too so the result is something you could see in Aegean.

Tower of the Winds

It was built in the 2dn Century BC as a weather vane and water clock, and stands inside the Roman Agora. Its external frieze depicts faces of the eight winds. It seems that Athens back then was as hot as today and needed the winds to cool it down. Today we don't erect such monuments, we just turn on the AC. :-)

Dandy Cool

An unexpected meeting with a foppish salon. Extremely out of fashion but still respected style by some old fellas who were still young dudes when the coolest ride was the horse cart.

Bird on a stone

..it would had rest on a wire but everybody knows that ancient Athenians had gone wireless long ago :-)

Art...or something like it.

In Athens, many stores sell statuettes and souvenirs of ancient themes. Every Athenian finds them to be of bad taste but these stores are there for decades so they make money.

Would you buy something like this? What does your own city sell that you find ridiculous but tourists love it?

Chat De Garde

Hill of Ares

As the unsuspecting visitor approaches this place just below Acropolis, he sees what seems to be just a large rock. It is Areios Pagos, the oldest high degree court for homicides in Athens. Here used to be, also, an altar dedicated to goddess Athena.

It is also the place where, according to the Bible, apostle Paul did his preaching in 54 A.D. In Greece, the Christian religion had to step, literally, upon the ancient religion in order to expand.

Many people like to sit on the rock and enjoy the sunset. Every major Athens landmark is visible from here and Acropolis is just behind your shoulder.
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...and some more

Happy New Year

Let's start the 2007 posting with a smile. Not from a child or a cute person but from a school gate. Which, apparently, also blinks an eye to us.

Greetings from Athens, the city where even doors are smiling.

Farewell to 2006

Let's bid a farewell to 2006 with this wonderful painting which is titled "Santorini". It's dedicated to all of you who stopped by Athens photoblog, to you who left a comment and to everyone who just passed by and took a glimpse of the athenian and greek sun.

I also especially dedicate this joyful scene to everyone who had a sad moment, small or big, during these holidays. Life is sometimes so ironic that in days of great happiness the saddest things can happen.

P.S.
I hope you 'll forgive my little own artistic intervention: it's the "sun" just over the hills on the background which is, actually, the flash of my camera.
Happy new year to all.

Monkey Business

In Greece, we call "monkeys" all the products that are imitations. For example, a LV bag which is sold out in the street we call it "monkey" and we pronounce it "mymoo".

In the photo, Nigerian immigrants carry their merchandise (mostly mymoo bags but also wooden crafts, clothes and souvenirs) away while the police is raiding their positions in Christmas Athens. The sheet is very convenient. It allows them to wrap everything into seconds, make their way around the block and return to their spot.

Leave a message

Between garbage and demolition debris, a message tries to tell something.

Happy Wet Feet

Happy penguins in Attica Zoological Park. During my visit there the penguins did not sing neither danced. It must have been Athens heat, I hear that in Antarctic every penguin sings or dances.

Season's Greetings to all of you, many thanks to anyone who left a comment yesterday.

The faces of God

Today, we celebrate Christmas and we remember that Athens had some Gods of her own, one who came along the way and stayed and another who came and left.

The Temple of Hephaestus (also called Thission, upper left) is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world, built about 449 BC. The church on the right is Aghii Apostoli, one of the oldest orthodox churches in Athens, built around AD 1000.
This building used to be a mosque. It was the "Fethiye Mosque", built around 1458 by Mehmet the Conqueror inside the area of the Roman agora (yes, Romans had conquered Athens too). It hasn't been used as a mosque for about 180 years.

On a day like this, let's remember that religion should not be used to divide people (as it happens again in our days) but to teach lessons of love, tolerance and respect to anyone's faith.

Question for our friends from non-christian countries: Do you even celebrate Christmas? I read in the papers that Asian cities are decorated, camels in Egypt bear Santa Klaus accessories and things like that. Is that really happening?

Merry Christmas to all of you or Happy Holidays anyway. :-)

Singing Christmas

These kids are singing the "kalanta", a carol which brings in every home the message of Jesus' birth and says wishes. The "singers" ring triangles.

The day before Christmas hordes of children go out and knock doors, ring bells, ride trains (the photo is from metro), raid malls, even sing in the middle of the street asking for money. Of course, the custom is to be given sweets but we live in a material world :-)

Do children sing christmas carols in your country?

What's for dinner?

Most Greeks never eat at restaurants like this but, truth is, they have funny signs.

Ballons and a glance