Βοτανικός - Ελληνικό ένας κορμοράνος δρόμος.

Αν θέλετε να βάλετε δύσκολα σε ένα δημοσιογράφο πείτε του να σας βρει μια επένδυση στην Ελλάδα που δε βρήκε απέναντί της την Αριστερά ή την KGB/FSB/MYT ή όλους μαζί.

Nature does it better

Τα καλώδια των τηλεοπτικών κεραιών, εκτός από αηδιαστικά, στα μάτια μου πάντα φαίνονταν σαν ομφάλιος λώρος με τη σαχλαμάρα. Και μπορεί στο παρελθόν ελλείψει εναλλακτικών να υπήρχαν δικαιολογίες για αυτό το ελεεινό δάσος των κεραιών που μετέτρεψε τις ταράτσες των κτιρίων σε οπτικό βασανιστήριο αλλά σήμερα είναι ακόμη περισσότερο αδικαιολόγητο αυτό το χάλι.

Έρχεται όμως η φύση και σου λέει σε άπταιστα Ελληνικά "hold my beer":

Απλές σκέψεις

Σε χτεσινό δημοσίευμα σχετικά με τη συμμορία της Πολυτεχνειούπολης αναφέρονται μεταξύ άλλων τα εξής:

The ancient sites of Athens and their 4 legged fauna (part 4 - final)

It already took 3 parts to cover 3/4 of my walk around the historic center of Athens - betcha you can write books about those ancient sites if you wanna go into details. Speaking of books, fancy a visit to a Roman library?

Let's go:

The ancient sites of Athens and their 4 legged fauna (part 3)

Takes many parts to cover only part of a casual walk around Athenian antiquities - if nothing else we the citizens of this important city are very lucky. Walking down the pedestrian (and most commercial) street Ermou brings me outside the ancient cemetery of Athens named Kerameikos:

The ancient sites of Athens and their 4 legged fauna (part 2)

Continuing my walk in the Ancient Agora of Athens from part 1, here's where I have the luck to spend my time at:

It's so lovely to have images like this filling your eyes in total absence of anything contemporary cause on the other side there's bits in the background that spoil this sensational view:

My next aim is to visit the Stoa of Attalos, this long building in the distance:

I might be walking the Ancient Agora but this is belongs to the Roman period. It's also the building where the expansion of Europe was signed back in the early 2000s. Let's have a closer look:

How could the EU leaders imagine back in the day that 20 years later we'd be experiencing a war on the East end of our Union? Well, some of them should actually. At least mr. Schroeder...

A funny bit I recall from that time is that our PM welcomed Tony Blair by saying "As you can see we have some nice marbles here" with the UK PM replying looking at his entourage "You can't escape that guy...". Again, how could mr. Blair imagine that 20 years later we'd be closer to the return of Parthenon's marbles than ever. Times change...

In front of that historic building one can also see the oldest orthodox temple of Athens, dating back to the late 900s:

Close your eyes and imagine you have a nice house right next to one of the most important ancient sites of the world..now open them:

Still I can't take my eyes of the temple of Hephaestus (see why in my previous post):

Funny thing is that a moment later a place draws an arrow above it:

I can spend the whole day there taking various pictures as the vary same spot in front of the Stoa of Attalos offers top view but let's just put just one more which shows the National Observatory of Athens far in the middle,

and let's enter that extra long Stoa:

Just a couple of steps and you're in its impressive ground floor:

Which is full of statues,

And nice view through its arches:

Inside this building is a museum with nice items like the following one:

(You can enjoy a walk inside the museum while watching a 4K video I will post later)

I love the ground floor so much that as I exit I can't resist a few more shots:

Here's how the rest of the city looks like from the North end of Stoa:

The oldest metro line of Athens is just one breath away:

And here is me struggling to capture the whole building from the very same spot:

As you see it's got one more floor so let's see what's waiting the visitors up there:

Oups, that's a tall one!

Huge column!

I love that the upper floor is full of miniatures of the Agora and Acropolis. Nice job!

The view from up there is even more impressive. The observatory's hill in its full beauty:

The temple of Hephaestus just got one more arrow above it:

And both of them compose this stunning view:

Of course there's numerous statues as well:

As I leave the whole Agora behind I am exposed to the intense contradictions this capital offers. An under construction ancient site, surrounded by old and new buildings peppered with some graffiti:

A few graffiti later I find this rather insecure kitten:

Regardless how tender I am she is too afraid to socialise so I continue my walk as I still have lots to see and it's not early anymore meaning that I have less chances to take picture in the absence of humanity.

The ancient sites of Athens and their 4 legged fauna (part 1)

Among my favourite hobbies is experiencing my birthplace as a visitor. It makes me more objective about Athens and freshens up my point of view which is an intriguing procedure. Luckily enough, you can just sit and watch what I harvested during my last walk around the historic center, or maybe unlucky enough to not experience this bright sunny Athenian day.

Let's go!

My initial intention is to visit Acropolis (yeah, surprise surprise eh?) the site of sites. This brings me outside the museum of Acropolis early in the morning in my attempt to skip the crowd:

As you can see (it's the building on the left) it doesn't really blend with the rest much older buildings around but that's my only criticism about it as they have done such a wonderful job inside. However, I can't wait to enter Acropolis itself so I pass it and steps later I have my first view to it in the background right in front of Acropolis metro station:

Not close enough yet though. As soon as I reach the pedestrian street that connects several antiquities around the center I take a couple of distant shots:

This next building is so lucky to be decorated like this only because the museum of Acropolis was built next to it:

 

Of course the most lucky thing about all the guys staying around is that they are THAT close to this:

This might be the most important thing around by far but it's not the only one. Here is Herodion theater, a gem from the Roman period which today is venue for some of the most important gigs in Athens:

Aaaand finally I walk up to the entrance of Acropolis in full excitement to revisit this place for the Nth time...only to see this:

I hate queues like no one else does. Sorry to disappoint you but can't wait for all these guys to enter. However, a local always has a plan B and I certainly do.

Follow me;)

You see this?

Empty as it gets right? Extremely rare image as it's a very popular destination but not for early birds like me. It's the Areios Pagos hill, named after the ancient supreme court which used to be there. So, let's see what's on top.

There's two ways to make it to the top, one is the old rocky stairway which today is slippery AF:

And the other is this metal stairway:

The early bird catches the best images so here I am (almost) all alone taking the first picture:

I intentionally left my shadow in it so you have an idea of how low the sun still is. I love the overview of Athens this spot offers so, be my guest:

Sorry for the absence of Acropolis, here is its West side though:

I take a walk on the pedestrian streets around Acropolis on this lovely early morning enjoying the green surrounding area as well:

Lucky residents in these cute houses - view to Acropolis every single day!

And this nice walk right in their front door:

OK, I skipped Acropolis but this doesn't mean I'll leave you without ancient sites.

Fancy visiting the Ancient Agora?

Follow me:

As you can already see, nothing like the crowds Acropolis attracts but that's because I'm early enough there. Later this will be flooded too. This area is one of my favourites. You get a good amount of vegetation,

and an even greater amount of ancient Hellenic art:

However, the most impressive part of this site is (IMHO at least), the Temple of Hephaestus, the one you can see in the background in the middle:

Still there's nice bits around,

And important ones like this headless statue of Emperor Adrian:

But I can't wait to walk up to my favourite temple:

And as soon as I manage I adore its beauty complimented by the early morning warm sunlight:

As you can see I struggle to fit its entirety in one image but I hope you literally get the picture. I'd better let images do the talking for this temple which is the most well preserved of its kind:

The view from the temple is gorgeous too. Acropolis included:

Gives you a good overview of the Ancient Agora though the harsh sunlight drying up the night's moisture is not camera friendly.

Bye temple, see you later:

Hello kitty!

That's the first 4 legged sweetheart I meet and discretely picture in order to not spoil her sunbathing. Glad to see that actually she needed some company so walked towards me hence the last catwalk shot.

To be continued...