a windy day

Saturday 9:00 a.m.

The smoke of the fire in East Attica
covered the sun.

UPDATE:
maybe I did not explain well enough...
That orange sky may be very beautiful,
like a Terner's painting
-that is what I also thought at first,
but
it is because of the big fire in East Attica
which keeps on for 3rd day today,
burning the suburbs and
taking people out of their homes.

summer in the city

The city is almost empty in August
everybody is on vacation, near the sea.

Monetary Museum Garden

The Monetary Museum is in Panepistimiou str a few metres form Syntagma metro station.
A beautiful old building designed by architect Ernst Ziller, that used to be Heinrich Schliemann'shome, named Iliou Melathron (=palace of Ilion).

This is the view while entering the garden

and this is the way Panepistimiou str
is (not!) seen from the garden.

There is a cute, quiet coffee shop in the garden behind the building, where you can have some time of peace and rest, away from the noise and the sun!

a bookshop

This is the ground floor of the Eleftheroudakis bookshop,
near the Syntagma metro station,
in the heart of the city.

Eight floors of books (!) and
a quiet coffee corner on the sixth floor.
Heaven!

empty street

Last Sunday, early in the morning,
during my walk for newspapers.

Empty streets in summer,
morning breeze,
delight of life.

by night

Like the houses we draw when we were kids, isn't it?

expansion

A smart way to expand
but also keep untouched
an old building.
In Panepistimiou street,
besides the National Library.

trees in a row

Another view of the "monster" under which I work!

three street junction

The inside of coffee-pastry shop "tristrato"
which means "junction of three streets"
in Plaka.

stuffed eggplants

Do you make this food in your country?
This is a summer food here!

You have to empty the eggplants, cut the inside into little pieces, mix them with a lot of onion, garlic, a lot of fresh tomato into pieces also, salt, pepper, sugar (a tea spoon), parsley and oil.
Then put in the oven for about an hour.

Next station: Monastiraki

Athens metropolitan has 3 Lines:
2 underground and 1 on-the-ground.
What you see is the external (green) line,
"the train" line as it is called here,
numbered "1" because it is the oldest of three.

You can find more information here.

Anyway, the cost is about 1euro for 90 minutes,
and you can also have a day-ticket
(for metro and all bus lines also)
just for 3euro.

This station is called "Monastiraki" (=little Monastirion).

It is one of the 2-3 most crowded and tourist stations,
because it is located in the heart of the city.

I took the photos on a very hot day, late noon,
that is why there are not many people around
-as there usually are.

sightseeing

This is the bus you can take you for
1-hour-seeing-around the city,
when you come to Athens.
Departs from Syntagma Square.

life out of the window

The back window in my work.
Yesterday, somebody was splashing a bird he kept in a cage that was hunging on his balcony wall, with a water-gun (while I was photo copying).

Monday comes running...

Under that monsterous tower is where I work...

trees on the pavement

A street in Ampelokipoi.
Crowded neighbourhood, but
quite near the centre of the city,
only a moment away from metro station Panormou.

under the tree

No need to explain: a cat under a fig-tree.
What you can not imagine is the heat of the day!

St.Nikolaos Ragkavas (II)

Was build about 1040-1050.
The name Ragkavas comes
from a famous Athenian family.
At first it was a private church,
but since many years is a public one.

Very interesting information here,
but you have to translate it in your language...

St.Nikolaos Ragkavas (I)

The back yard of St.Nikolaos Ragkavas, in Plaka.
We were there for a twin-girls christening, on Saturday morning.
An oasis to hide from the burning sunlight.

moon night

Last night, at our friends house.
Lighted on the right-above the houses,
Acropolis,
and on the left,
Lycabettus.
Not a nice shot, but at least,
you can imagine...

summer I

As you can easily understand, this is not Athens!
It is a bay in Peloponesse, where we spent our vacation.
Unbelievably quite!