In one of those strange occurrences that hurl humans back and forth across the globe, I woke up one morning to find myself in Greece. It is a wonderful place. Mountains coming out of the sea, feta cheese, and lots of history. I took a lot of pictures, here are some of the best. I made them smallish so the site wouldn't take a long time to load (though it probably will anyway), but should be able to click on them to get a bigger view.
I'll insert my witty comments in between, to maybe give you some context. Here they are, in no particular order.
This is Nafplio (corrected spelling, thanks kiki and Betabug!). It was the original capital of Greece, and is now a quiet little town with many forts and dogs.
I think the trees in Greece are beautiful. Such greens, even though they are most conifers growing in rocky soil.
This is Santorini. You've probably seen this picture or one similar on a calendar somewhere. They sell lots of calendars on Santorini. I didn't buy one, because I took my own picture. Though now I don't know what day of the week it is.
There was much debate about what kind of tree this is. Maybe cyprus, maybe cedar? Either way, I can tell you these trees are at dusk. (Definitively, Cyprus trees).
This tree's most significant aspect is its size. It is very big.
This is the sun setting over Ia, on Santorini. The island is a volcano. The sun is the same one that you know.
This is Mycenae. Agamemnon lived there. He killed his daughter and was killed by his wife and her lover who were killed by his other daughter. All because sometimes the ancients liked to feed either other human as a joke.
This is the Omphalos; the belly-button of the world. It lives at Delphi. I wonder where the after-birth of the world is now?
This is the biggest olive grove in Greece (the trees in the bottom of the valley). I am looking at it from the modern city of Delphi. It is very pretty.
This is the temple of Poseidon, on the southern-most point of Attica. People live near there, like, just whatever, I live in Poseidonia. I, on the other hand, live near the drycleaners.
The greeks love graffitti! This graffitto loves autonomy. ("Freedom to G. Dimitrakis", an anarchist bank robber. Thanks Betabug!)
More graffitti. It's pretty impressive, though I don't really know what it is.
This is on the outside of the Monastiraki subway station.
I guess kissing on steps is pretty romantic.
For some reason this one made me think of Steve Erickson
It's a fish farm, you fishbag!
"Fjord" in Greek.
The theater of Epidauros, and my Saucony.
I really, really wanted to see a goatherd while in Greece. It's a good thing lots of roads aren't marked, otherwise we never would have gotten lost in the hills of the Peloponnese and I never would have seen these goats.
Balloons!
The theater of Dionysos in Athens. I'm imagining how nervous Sophocles must have been on the opening performance of Oedipus Rex.
When driving in Greece, you can pretty much go either way you like.
Pretty rock.
Part of the Epidauros site.
Fira, on Santorini. The island in the middle is the cone of the volcano.
Bye bye sun.
No diving.
Part of the boxing and wrestling practice space at Olympia.
The Corinth canal. Take that, isthmus!
A pretty little garden in Delphi.
The acropolis. They are rebuilding it, because I guess some of it has fallen down over the years.
The arch entering the stadium at Olympia. Can you tell I really like the blue/green filter on my camera?
The temple of Athena at Delphi. You would recognize it, but I took the picture from an "unconventional angle". Artistic!
Bell tower in Fira. Delicious sunshine.
Bridge connecting Attica and the Peloponnese. I forget the name of the town.
There are like 500 more (literally) but these are the best. I also pasted together a panorama of the Epidauros theater, that is at top. I'll leave it there for awhile.
Yamas!
I'll insert my witty comments in between, to maybe give you some context. Here they are, in no particular order.
This is Nafplio (corrected spelling, thanks kiki and Betabug!). It was the original capital of Greece, and is now a quiet little town with many forts and dogs.
I think the trees in Greece are beautiful. Such greens, even though they are most conifers growing in rocky soil.
This is Santorini. You've probably seen this picture or one similar on a calendar somewhere. They sell lots of calendars on Santorini. I didn't buy one, because I took my own picture. Though now I don't know what day of the week it is.
There was much debate about what kind of tree this is. Maybe cyprus, maybe cedar? Either way, I can tell you these trees are at dusk. (Definitively, Cyprus trees).
This tree's most significant aspect is its size. It is very big.
This is the sun setting over Ia, on Santorini. The island is a volcano. The sun is the same one that you know.
This is Mycenae. Agamemnon lived there. He killed his daughter and was killed by his wife and her lover who were killed by his other daughter. All because sometimes the ancients liked to feed either other human as a joke.
This is the Omphalos; the belly-button of the world. It lives at Delphi. I wonder where the after-birth of the world is now?
This is the biggest olive grove in Greece (the trees in the bottom of the valley). I am looking at it from the modern city of Delphi. It is very pretty.
This is the temple of Poseidon, on the southern-most point of Attica. People live near there, like, just whatever, I live in Poseidonia. I, on the other hand, live near the drycleaners.
The greeks love graffitti! This graffitto loves autonomy. ("Freedom to G. Dimitrakis", an anarchist bank robber. Thanks Betabug!)
More graffitti. It's pretty impressive, though I don't really know what it is.
This is on the outside of the Monastiraki subway station.
I guess kissing on steps is pretty romantic.
For some reason this one made me think of Steve Erickson
It's a fish farm, you fishbag!
"Fjord" in Greek.
The theater of Epidauros, and my Saucony.
I really, really wanted to see a goatherd while in Greece. It's a good thing lots of roads aren't marked, otherwise we never would have gotten lost in the hills of the Peloponnese and I never would have seen these goats.
Balloons!
The theater of Dionysos in Athens. I'm imagining how nervous Sophocles must have been on the opening performance of Oedipus Rex.
When driving in Greece, you can pretty much go either way you like.
Pretty rock.
Part of the Epidauros site.
Fira, on Santorini. The island in the middle is the cone of the volcano.
Bye bye sun.
No diving.
Part of the boxing and wrestling practice space at Olympia.
The Corinth canal. Take that, isthmus!
A pretty little garden in Delphi.
The acropolis. They are rebuilding it, because I guess some of it has fallen down over the years.
The arch entering the stadium at Olympia. Can you tell I really like the blue/green filter on my camera?
The temple of Athena at Delphi. You would recognize it, but I took the picture from an "unconventional angle". Artistic!
Bell tower in Fira. Delicious sunshine.
Bridge connecting Attica and the Peloponnese. I forget the name of the town.There are like 500 more (literally) but these are the best. I also pasted together a panorama of the Epidauros theater, that is at top. I'll leave it there for awhile.
Yamas!
2 comments:
Great Pix!
Let's see what I can tell you :-) The town (city?) in the first picture would be spelled Nafplio. The long, tall trees would be cyprus.
The graffiti says "Freedom to G. Dimitrakis", who is an anarchist who has been "arrested in Athens on 16 November, 2007 for armed bank robbery. Sentenced to 35 years in prison" according to wikipedia. We have lots of this kind of graffiti. Sometimes they get lazy and instead of writing all the names they just write "freedom to all those in the cells". Some of the anarchist graffiti are quite witty (even for non-anarchists).
The acropolis is being rebuilt, because the Bavarians and English who tried to build it up the first time around, got all the column pieces wrong. Also it's some kind of tradition that tourists see the Acropolis with the scaffolding (is that the right word?) and the building materials, if they weren't there, the tourists would believe it's a fake.
Last thing, that bridge is between Rio... and Antirio. You can walk (or bicycle) over that bridge, I went with a friend to the halfpoint and back, quite an experience.
Looks like you had a good time in Greece!
Thanks for the info and corrections!
I found the graffiti especially interesting, because here in the USA very little of it is ever political (perhaps a bit more out here on the west coast), and the rest is very egocentric-art, name tags and the like. Also, it seems to hang around a while, whereas here anything in a highly visible place is cleaned up very quickly.
I definitely had a good time in Greece.
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