Athenian Views

Some more views of Athens.  Some or most of these could well have gone in previous posts.  This is my ultimate Athenian post however.  The Omega post if you will. 

Athens definitely suffers from urban sprawl.  A rather uniform grey lapping up and around the hills. 

And this is then a closeup of the urbanization.  

A spot of color, orange and red window shades. 

The Stoa of Attalos, restored.  

Various Ruins Around Athens

Some ruined buildings. 

This might be Hadrian's library. 

And this hairy beast is approximately where the folk art museum should be.  Its like your grandfather with the hair growing out of his ears.  (A fate that awaits many of us.)  

Ya just can't get good help any more.   

Athens Animals

Wildlife is everywhere.  My occasional catbirding blog. 

Pigeon candid.  

Nesting structure.  (A stat reference for those who know.)

I'm guessing this is a flycatcher, but I'm not a birder.  I can barely identify cats from dogs from birds, and that maybe half the time.  

What would birding be without a parallel interest in birdhousing?  

Every cat I saw was out of the bag.  And all appeared well fed.  

The Parthenon

Four views of The Parthenon.  Upon THE Acropolis.  No need to say its the one in Athens.  If you don't identify it, there is only one.

View 1.  Construction continuing to this day.  I imagine they're still repairing the damage from the 16th century.  Or the 17th.  Or the 5th. 

Panoramas are us.  Extending over to the Erectheum.  

 Two crane action.  Getting ready for those Elgin marbles to come home.  Like that's happening shortly. 

The majesty is visible still, two thousand 400 years later.  

Athens Odds and Signs

Offbeat items and signs I came across. 

Chairs on the street stacked and ready for setup. 

This in front of stairs to climb up a rock.  It was indeed slippery.  After several millenia of people traipsing across the rock and up the stairs, the entire surface was quite smooth.  No surprising it was very slippery even in the absence of water.  

Enough said.  I guess Freud would argue that swords are indeed male.  

Graffiti and a list of banned items.  I carried my own water; I didn't see food; I don't recall seeing a dog.  Why someone would carry a suitcase all the way up baffles me, though families with strollers and kids had the equivalent of several suitcases.  And several cars did drive along this stretch of roadway.  It closed a touch early for my taste.  I would have enjoyed a trip up in the early evening.  

Prickly and unattractive little beast.  But this is what you have to do if you don't want pigeons pooping all over your ductwork. 

Buildings in Athens

Some buildings I found of interest.  Two were rotated by blogger, unasked for by me.  Does anyone else have this difficulty with blogger, that it can't upload pictures correctly?  I deleted one picture, and you can identify the other picture that is rotated fairly easily. 

Nicely rebuilt house, eaves and concrete walls, but the window coverings are dinghy and in need of paint. 

Roofing.  I spend a lot of time in Portugal and in Athens trying to get the right picture of roofs, and this was my first roofing picture, and in the end, one of the best pictures I took of roofing.  

Rotated window.  Notice the graffiti on the right, and the new paint tint starting just above the window frame.  

Interesting choice of window shades.  Not all windows are even still there.  

Another decrepit building, but it appears to still be in use, though some repairs are beginning to take place, given the wooden catch-bin at the bottom of the second story.  

Graffiti over Athens

And on and under and around.  Graffiti was ubiquitous in some quarters. 

Graffiti on the house, and even on the door and window shutters.  The woman to the right of the door is notable. 

This pink house and indeed this entire street was completely covered.  

The pink house above is on the right in this panaramic shot of the graffiti covering this street.  

A closeup picture of the house in the previous picture at the end of the street.  

This graffiti had some political overtones.  

The drip pattern drawing is a little spooky.  The art work feels like the same artist as in the previous picture.  

Final graffiti, in the business district.  

Commerce, Athens Style

Doing business in Athens

To the right is the Athens flea market.  This was one of two fruit vendors selling very tempting looking fruit.  

The other fruit vendor, perhaps ten feet away.  Graffiti adorns both carts.  

Carpet merchant.  Sit on one and don't think of elephants and they fly.  

Jewelry market.  This was one of several railroad flat shops -- deep and narrow shops with every inch of the walls absolutely covered with merchandise.  This one had dinosaur footprints showing the way in, or else a very large dog constantly left his marker here.   

Views from the Acropolis

Sweeping panoramas and intimate vistas from the top of the Acropolis.  As always, I tried to get the names right, and my apologies if I've named something incorrectly. 

Herod Atticus Theatre.  Still in use, though they seem to be putting on Italian opera.  Seat cushions are visible in my other shots of this venue. 

St. George chapel on top of the Lycobettus hill.  Hills in Athens are primarily used for TV, radio and cell phone towers it seems.  

The city surrounds the Acropolis in all directions.  The pall in the distance is from an oncoming thunder storm that never really arrived.  

Theatre of Dionysus.  

One of many Byzantine (I presume) churchs around Athens. 

Thesseion or Temple of Hephaestus I believe. 

Agii Apostoli, Byzantine church.  

I believe this is a view of the (a) observatory with the byzantine church of three photos ago on its right.  

I believe that says Piraeus Bank on the fancy reflective building.  With Athens sprawling beyond.  

More ruins.  

View of the side of the Acropolis with Athens in the distance. 

A rock that many people climbed upon to garner a view of Athens.  

A view from the other side.  

A more distant shot of St. George on Lycobettus hill.