Capital of Greece - Athens

Its always nice to see the clouds below...huge candy floss ;) . In few hours time I shall be standing on the grounds of Athens, the start of my graduation trip with my family...weeeee!

Acropolis means upper city and many of the city and many of the city states of ancient greece are built around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. It's for this reason that the most sacred buildings are usually on the acropolis. Its the safest most secure place in town.

Below the Acropolis theater of Herod Atticus built by the Romans in 161 AD and still used today for classical concerts, ballet, performances of high cultural value and Yanni.

Propylaea, which was completed in 432 just before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian wars.

The Acropolis: Fortified citadel and primary urban religious sanctuary. Propylaia, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon (right in the pic above, Erechtheion (left in the pic above), Pre-classical remains.

Erecthion

...where Athens stretches out endlessly below

"Peace" – mum, dad, sis & me. hahaha

Huge sunflower, taller than me and bigger than my face.

Out of Acropolis...down this stretch - souvenirs shops (chk out the price differ & don't get cheated)

"hand in hand"

Every hour, in front of the Parliament, the Royal Corps of special soldiers are changing the guard of the grave of the unknown soldier and the Parliament.

The Evrones all wear skirts (Greek figthers of the 1821 revolution used to wear). There are 400 folds in these skirts, that the soldiers have to iron themselves. Every fold stands for one year of Turkish occupation of Greece. The 'tsahouri' shoes they wear have a big black pom-pom on top of it. These shoes weighs 3 kilos, mostly because of the nails at the bottom of the shoes. These protect the soldiers from slipping. The Evrones all have one own partner, that is never working with another partner. This has to make sure the structure of the marching is perfect. They aren't allowed to show any emotion at all, they just have to look strong. For this reason there are only picked out soldiers longer than 1.87m, to march here, cos they make the impression of being a strong protector.

They are really very very tall cos I look like a peanut beside them. Wonder if air is fresher up there...

Olympic Stadium - rebuilt entirely of marble in 1896 for the first modern Olympics. The stadium was originally built in the 4th Century for the Panathenaic contests and it is said that 1000 wild animals were slaugthered here to celebrate the inauguration of the Emperor Hadrian in 120 AD.