Santorini Blues!

                                                                                    Santorini, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015

Blue is my favorite color! The sky is blue, the ocean is blue and now I have one more reason to love the color blue, Santorini. Santorini consists of 5 islands. It used to be a single big island until the Volcano in the middle blew up 3500 years ago. The dome of the volcano collapsed and the Aegean sea filled up the Caldera resulting in the 5 islands.

Santorini view from the Athens - Santorini flight.
In the C shaped big island, the town of Oia (pronounced as "Eeaa" ) is the right most white patch in this picture.
Fira is the town at the center with the airport and cruise ship terminal.

View of another small town, Imerovigli, as seen from Oia.
All the towns are built on the slopes of the volcanic Caldera!
The churches, hotels, houses and restaurants  seem to be hanging over the edge of the nearly vertical cliffs!

The Armeni Village was our home during our stay in Oia.

Our cave suite at the Armeni Village !!!

The view from our cave !

Oia is the most beautiful, enchanting and picturesque town and is located at the northern most tip of Santorini. 
This view has been forever etched in my mind :)

Oia

Oia

Most of the churches in Santorini and Oia (...there are many) have brilliant, bright blue domes.

The northern most point of Oia. A beautiful place to watch the Sunset.

Steps leading down the cliff. The hotels are pretty much stacked up one on another.
Some of the most beautiful views of Oia you see in this post are accessible only if you explore these hidden side lanes and steps.

Stunning view of Amoudi Bay, boats and Taverns from the cliffs of Oia.

Souvlaki Row

                                                                                    Athens, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015
                                                                                              
The year was 1988. I was settling down and getting used to life at The University of Oklahoma (OU) at Norman. One of the  first international food I was introduced to, was the Greek Gyro Pita sandwich. There was a small, family run Greek cafe, walking distance from the engineering building. I used to visit the place often for a Gyro sandwich. After graduating from OU, I never had such an authentic,  delicious Gyro sandwich, that is, until this trip to Greece!


Monastiraki Square
The Monastiraki Square is with in 10 minutes of walking from the Syntagma Square (  link  ). Monastiraki means "Little Monastery" and refers to the 12th-century Byzantine church located in the square. Monastiraki Square is the hub of a busy shopping center, always packed with tourists. From the square, one street leads to the Athens Flea Market, and another street is home to specialty stores, clothing boutiques and souvenir shops loaded with just the things tourists want to buy !!!  Yet another street leading from the square has the most appropriate name, "Souvlaki Row", for a very good reason. 

Do I need a caption for this photo? :)

Walking towards Monastiraki Sqaure. See the street lights hanging overhead at the middle of the street !
That is very unique; I have never seen like this in any other country we had visited!

Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea on Ermou street;  a 11th century, Byzantine, Greek Orthodox Church.

The Monastiraki Square.

Fruit vendors at Monastiraki Square. I wanted to buy just 2 Peaches. The man selling the fruit said,
" Sorry my friend, you need buy for at least 1 Euro". I said OK and was shocked to receive 5 fresh, juicy and
very yummy peaches just for 1 Euro.!!! The narrow street behind these fruit stalls lead to the
Athens Flea Market.

This street is full of boutique and souvenir shops!

Souvlaki Row
If you visit Athens and would like to enjoy really, authentic, mouth watering, finger-licking delicious Greek food like Gyros and Souvlaki's, for a very reasonable price, Souvlaki Row is not to be missed. Located in the Mitropoleos street, leading off from the Monastiraki sqaure, the "Souvlaki Row" is lined with excellent Greek Cafes and Restaurants.  

As you walk along Souvlaki Row, waiters on either side literally try to pull you inside their cafe!

Outdoor tables clog both sides of the already narrow street, providing an enjoyable, upclose and personal dining experience!

We selected a Cafe called Σαββαs (pronounced as "Sabbas") which was opened in 1925.

This is how my red wine arrived !!!

Appetizer: Eggplant with Yogurt !!!  Man, this was melting in my mouth and setup high expectation for the rest of the food! 

Fresh Greek Salad. The cheese square on the top was worth its weight in Gold !

The Gyro.  It was delicious and we all absolutely loved it. Each Gyro costs just 2.50 Euros.
Next day, we went back to the same place for lunch (:-P...

                                                                                                                     * * * * * 
 
After the trip, I searched for my Greek House Cafe in Norman, OK. It is still there and I was not surprised to read amazing, raving reviews in Yelp, Google and TripAdvisor.  I also read a story that the original owners were farm workers from Greece who had moved to USA and started this Cafe in February of 1979.

When I had my first Gyro at this Cafe in Norman, OK in 1988, there was
no Internet, no web browsers, no cell/smart phones, no Yelp and no Google!!!
I know, I am dating myself :)
Thanks to them, today I was able to pull a photo of this place from the Internet !

Acropolis

                                                                                    Athens, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015
                                                                                              
The historical center of Athens was a pleasant 15 minute walk from the Airbnb apartment we had rented. The apartment was on the 4th floor - it would be, "5th floor" in USA :) - was new, very modern and nicely decorated. The best feature of the apartment was the glorious view from the balcony. If we were in the apartment, I spent my time watching the Acropolis from the balcony. Derived from the Greek words, Akro (high) and Polis (city), the Acropolis was built on a high hill, almost 500 feet above the city of Athens. The Acropolis is a massive 7 acre citadel containing the Propylaia, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. It was very fascinating to read that after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, the Parthenon was turned in to a mosque for a period of time, until the Greeks claimed it back in 1821. 

Acropolis. I would call this, "the morning tea view of the Acropolis". The Sun rising from the right lit up one side of the Acropolis.

Propylaia, the monumental entrance to the Acropolis.

View of the Odeon of the Herod Aticus from the Acropolis. Athens city in the background with the Agean sea in the left corner.

Odeon of the Herod Aticus is the open air theater on one side of the Acropolis. Built in 161 AD and restored in the 1950s, the Odeon is used for modern concerts too.
Many bands including Jethro Tull, Elton John and Liza Minnelli have performed at the Odeon.

Parthenon on the left and the Erechtheion on the right.

The Parthenon is the temple built and dedicated to Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and the patron of the city of Athens.
There are 8 Doric columns on either end 17 columns on the sides.

The Parthenon.

The circular blocks that make up a Doric column!

The Erechtheion, a temple dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea.

The Erechtheion.

The Porch of the Caryatids on one side of the Erechtheion.

The Airbnb apartment.

Night view of the Acropolis.

Perseid Meteor Shower !!!

Every year, during the middle of August, our earth crosses the orbital path of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The Comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the Sun with a period of about 133 years. Its last appearance was in 1992. As the left over debris of Comet Swift-Tuttle smash in to earth's upper atmosphere with a speed of 210,000 Kilometers per hour, the immense friction causes the meteoroids to burn up causing a flash of light (Meteor). It is called the Perseid Meteor Shower since the meteors appear to originate from the constellation Perseus. This year, the peak was between August 12th midnight to before dawn. I had set up my camera on a tripod and used an intervalometer to take 30 second exposure shots continuously. I started the camera at 12:30 AM and went to bed at 3 AM after watching some very brightest meteors ever. The camera continued to take shots until 5:20 AM, when the battery died. Out of the 549 photos, 5 had the light streak of the meteor. 

*** Click on the photos and view them on Full Screen Mode for better resolution ***

There are 2 meteors in this shot, very close to each other.

This is definitely the brightest meteor I have ever seen. It left behind a nice smoke trail too!

One near the center and the other towards the top right corner.

Short but bright.

Star trails using the 549 photos. The bright meteor from the 3rd photo is clearly visible.

ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑ Square !!!

                                                                                    Athens, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015
                                                                                              
September 3,1843:
Not happy with the rule of the first king of modern Greece, Otto, the people of Greece assembled before the king's palace, revolted and demanded a constitution. The crowd refused to leave until the constitution was granted. King Otto, yielded to the pressure on September 3, 1843. ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑ translates to "constitution" in modern Greek. The Syntagma square is named after the constitution granted by the king. The King's palace now houses the Greek Parliament.

Present:
The Syntagma square is the epicenter of Athens today. The Syntagma Metro station is right at the square.  Most of the major historic attractions of Athens are walking distance from the Syntagma square. It is also a major place for social activities and protests. All the protests related to Greece's bailout since 2010 to the most recent ones around July first week, happened at the Syntagma square.

Syntagma Square with the Greek Parliament House in the background.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Parliament House.

While this is not like the colorful and ceremonious "Change of Guards" at the Buckingham Palace,
it was very interesting to watch the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Syntagma square Metro station.