The addition of these stars on Dionysiou Areopagitou ( Διονυσίου Αρεοπαγίτου), street just below the Acropolis made for a great photographic opportunity. Great idea!
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Meditations
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
― Cosmos
Syndagma Square
Balloon Sellers
Santa & Mickey. Wow!
The Evzones in winter clothes.
Taxis, everywhere taxis!
Happy New Year! This will be my first blog post of the year. I got the lucky coin in my cake this year, so maybe I’ll have good luck this year.. we’ll see.
Last Sunday I took a stroll through Downtown Athens just for the purpose of taking some photographs for the blog. I think I was the only person walking around with a camera! It was the least busiest day, so it was much easier to move around and take clearer shots.
I took a lot more as I am a shutter bug and you will see more photographs in the next few posts 🙂
Ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος! Αυτό θα είναι το πρώτο μου μπλογκ ποστ της χρονιάς. Κερδισα το φλουρί φετος για πρωτη φορα. Έτσι ίσως θα έχω καλή τύχη φέτος .. για να δούμε.
Την περασμένη Κυριακή έκανα μια βόλτα στο κέντρο της Αθήνας για να τραβήξω κάποιες φωτογραφίες για το μπλογκ.
Την περασμένη Κυριακή έκανα μια βόλτα στο κέντρο της Αθήνας μόνο για να τραβήξω κάποιες φωτογραφίες για το blog. Νομίζω ότι ήμουν το μόνο άτομο που περπατούσε με μια φωτογραφική μηχανή! Ευτυχος που δεν ηταν η πιο πολυσύχναστη μέρα, οπότε ήταν πολύ πιο εύκολο να μετακινηθω στη περιοχη και να τραβηξω πιο καθαρες φωτογραφιες.
Happy New Year to my followers and beyond! Wishing everyone one a year full of wonderful blessings!
Thank goodness this very difficult decade is over. Let the ‘roaring twenties’ begin!
“Be so busy loving your life that you don’t have no time for hate, regret or fear’. -Unknown
This little street on Psirri street in Athens always goes all out for every big event of the year.
Loads of fun! 🙂
The gold has a lot of intricate detail. The incense are the little balls that look like olives above the gold.
The popular telling of the story of the Three kings, also called wise men or magi is that they came from the east bearing their precious gifts for the young Jesus. The gifts were Frankincense, Myrrh and Gold. The Frankincense symbolizes prayer, Myrrh symbolizes suffering and gold symbolizes virtue.
Many don’t know that the gifts still exist and are kept in a vault at the monastery of St Paulos at Mount Athos in Greece. In a rare move the “Timia Dora’ or ‘Honourable Gifts’ as the Orthodox Christians call them, were brought to western Athens to the church of St. Nektarios so that everyone can see them up close. They will be displayed in the church from the 27th until the 31st of this month.
The story of how the ‘Honurable Gifts’ made their way to the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos) is a perilous one. It is said that The Virgin Mary gave up many relics to the church in Jerusalem where they remained until the year 400 A.D. That year the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius relocated the relics to the city of Constantinople to bless and protect the people and to promote the city. The gifts remained there until the city fell to the Franks in 1204 A.D. There after, for safety reasons, they were taken to the town of Nikaia in Northwestern Asia Minor, the temporary capitol of Byzantium. The gifts would remain there for 60 years. After the crusaders retreated the relics returned to Constantinople until the city fell to the Turks in 1453 A.D.
After the fall of the city, a Christian woman named Mara Brankovic who was the daughter of the King of Serbia and who was married to the Ottoman Sultan Murat II, brought the relics to Mount Athos. At the port she handed over the relics to the monks as as she was not allowed to enter as only men are allowed and only with written permission.
Wishing all of my followers a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Joyful New Year!
Strength to strength
Shore to shore
There is not a life in ruins
Or time wasted
We each carry our burdens
and our traumas
Whether our fate is assigned or
Whether we are the masters of it
We must emulate the roses
That wither, but are resilient
And come alive again.
*I love the strength and resiliency of the roses in my garden. From intense heat waves and cold snaps they pull through. Some humans should need to get some lessons from nature.
Our Imbalanced Earth
Sunflower in December
Humanity’s’ shame.
**************
I wrote a Haiku Japanese ancient poem to describe my shock when I saw a sunflower bloom in the garden this December. I planted the seed in May and they usually bloom in June here in Greece. I read that July was the hottest month on record for the planet resulting in the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice and many other calamities. Then October came and there was a heatwave in Europe, the temperatures almost reached 30 °C. The seed that failed to germinate in the spring got it’s second chance in the unusually warm fall season.
Very worrying indeed. 😦
*So glad to be feeling better after 2 weeks of the flu 🙂
*I have always been fascinated by end times prophecies. They are universal and reflect the times we are living in.
The Castle of Larissa on a hill 289 metres above the town of Argos.
The Larissa Castle of Argos dates back to the Helladic Period (Bronze age) and played a crucial role in the Greek Revolution 200 years ago due to it’s very strategic position.
A statue in honour of mothers.
After visiting the ancient site of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, I made a quick stop to the beautiful town of Argos. Argos is just 20 kilometers from Mycenae and it is considered the oldest town in continental Europe as it can be dated back to the Bronze age. It has over 20,000 inhabitants and it very lively and well maintained.
I had no time to visit the castle but I will return in the future to take pictures from the castle as it offers stunning views of the town below.
My Creative Wayz 