Stupidity kills

This ignorant motherf*&#@r cant even spell right...

Sticky & Sweet..after waiting in line for 4 hours!

The long-awaited tickets are finally in MY hands!

Beautiful relics

(bullet holes?)

Walking around my new neighbourhood - close to Proskopon sq., Pangrati.

The right spot...not!

The City of Athens has recently launched a new campaign entitled "Find the right spot", aiming at informing and creating awareness among our very civilized fellow citizens with regard to waste...

...apparently some people in Kolonaki are still unaware....

Music Saves

Norwegian Silence

Easter time?

Any ideas what this is? These dudes were parked at Kolonaki square these days...

Winter skies

View towards Thespiai and Lake Iliki, in Voiotia.

Porto Germeno, in the Corinth Gulf

Parnassos Mountain in the distance with lots of snow!

another Greek architectural masterpiece close to Vilia...

Climbed Kithaironas Mountain (close to Athens-Attica) yesterday, was super windy (thus the weird, out of focus pics-no way I could hold the cam steady!), cold and refreshing, with amazing 360 views.

Autumn skies

Just as night was falling, outside the Benaki museum, after visiting the Fluxus movement exhibition which just finished, and the Topoi exhibition, from the collection of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art

Art art art

Finally got a chance to visit ReMapKM (brava Chloe!), some of the stuff I dug:

Anastasia Douka@gazonrouge

Andrew Rogers@Peres Projects

Rita Ackerman@PP

...is this another exhibit?

The eerie-awesome Claire Woods@Rebecca Camhi

1st Athens Biennial - Destroy Athens

Kate Owens@Young Athenians

Tommy Grace@YA

...and a wonderful escape window

Elections 2007 - Campaigning

It's funny how politicians talk about their environmental consciousness and then all of a sudden you see flyers with their lovely face decorating the streets of the city (this politician in particular was also Mayor of Athens!)

Burning down the house

We are all watching as the last haven of our capital city is being burned to the ground. The fire began Wednesday afternoon 15 km away from the National Park of Parnitha (a NATURA 2000 site) and reached it yesterday afternoon. There is ash flying all over the city, and the smell is just so scary. There are way too many questions the government and the local authorities will have to answer to.
How timely this is, if one thinks of the Greek government's plan to amend article 24 of the constitution by inserting an innocuous passage which will allow development in order to meet "public needs", aka opening the door for uncontrolled development in forest areas. This along with the absence of a national cadastre, a forestry inventory and the recently proposed Spatial Planning Framework for Tourism, make all of us working in the environmental field all the more angry and suspicious of our country's "leaders".

The Street of the Tripods

Lysikrates monument

The Hellenic Society's building at #28

The retaining wall

Original paved surface & drainage

The olive press

I didn’t have to go very far to find this one! I happen to be working on one of the oldest roads in Europe, Tripodon street in Plaka area, under the Acropolis.
The street of the tripods, was named after the 3-legged bronze cauldrons were awarded to the victorious choregoi (sponsors) of the dramatic contests that took place during festivals like the Dionysia.
One can see the Choragic Monument of Lysikrates (334 – 333 BC) at the beginning of the street, and a bit further down at number 28 is the neoclassical building in which my office is housed. It was built during King Othon’s reign (1833-1862) and it’s restoration works won a Europa Nostra award, along with revealing several antiquities: a 4m-high stone retaining wall of the Classical period (5th century BC), a part of the original paved surface of the street with its ceramic drainge channel, and part of an olive press of a later date.

Urban Contradictions

Saw this (could be a Tracey Emin piece for all I know!) while walking back to the car last night, after the amazing Goran Bregovic concert in the open air theater in Vyronas...

...and after a few meters, saw this. It was the first time we all saw some kind of municipal initiative in this country concerning dog shit, which happens to be everywhere in the city, since Greek dog owners dont bother cleaning up!

Παγκόσμια Ημέρα Περιβάλλοντος - World Environment Day

Με σύνθημα«Το κλίμα αλλάζει...αλλάζω ζωή!»

Οι δράσεις της ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑΣ για το περιβάλλον, στα πλαίσια του εορτασμού της Παγκόσμιας Ημέρας Περιβάλλοντος, αρχίζουν την Κυριακή, 3 Ιουνίου στις 7 το απόγευμα στην Πύλη του Αδριανού.

Heavy skies

Finally some rain, so much heavy energy accumulating over the city all these days...let's see if we're gonna get a much needed northerly too...

Molina solo in Athens

A truly beautiful evening last night with Jason Molina performing live for very few people in Athens, at Planet Music.

Spring came early...

Prunus amygdalus (the almond tree) in full bloom, in Athens...and I thought it was just in the Middle East that the tree breaks into sudden bloom in January...

Athens - lack of imagination

I woke up this morning feeling incredibly high on life. Part of my usual Thursday morning routine is to grab the 2 free press issues of "Athens Voice" and "LiFo", to read on the train. They are usually quite a fun read, but today I was struck by the fact that they both had the same main article, on "Athens Design" - (talk about originality huh?!), and as if that wasn't enough I realized that all the ads placed in the metro trains are also identical, not to mention that they are McDonald's (uuughhh!). What a buzzkill...

The natural wonders of Attica

Trail map of Mt. Parnitha (source: Oreivatein)

Stalagmitic & stalactitic decor of the cave (photo: P. Matsouka)

This Saturday I went on an amazing hike with two friends at the southwest foot of Mt. Parnitha. We took the not-so beaten path (not the green one marked on map) and started off on the west side of the Kleiston Monastery, passed through forested areas, clearings, traversed west around Omali peak, made a small beautiful climb down the left side of Goura gorge and hit Giannoula's stream with it's gorgeous silver colored pools to climb up again and reach Panos Cave. This beautiful "alive" cave (770 m), was the site of worship of Pan, the ancient goat-legged god who protected mountains, forests, caves and the flocks. It amazes me every time how gorgeous Attica is, all these places just a few minutes away from the city center.

Useful mountaineering link: Oreivatein