Athens, Greece

Nat and I decided on a quick weekend getaway to Athens.  With 19 °C (66 °F) it was a nice little break from the 8 °C (46 °F) in Brno.  We had a really nice time but aside from the Acropolis there really isn't that much to see. You can check out pretty much everything in a day.  Whilst I still want to go back to Greece to visit Iraklion, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Thessaloniki, I don't have any burning desire to go back to Athens anytime soon.  I was there in 1993 and now in 2012; so perhaps in another 20 years.

 
Athens, Αθήνα, is the capital city and the largest city in Greece.  With around 3,400 years of recorded history it is one of the oldest cities in the world.  Today, the metro Athens area has around 4 million people which makes it the EU's 4th largest capital city and the 7th largest city overall.

In 1896, Athens hosted the first modern Olympics.  The Panathenaic Stadium, Παναθηναϊκό στάδιο, was rebuilt from the remains of an ancient Greek stadium.  It is one of the oldest stadiums in the world and it is the only one in the world that is built entirely out of white marble. 


Omonoia Square, Πλατεία Ομονοίας, is Athens' oldest square.  It's in the northern corner of downtown.  The "Five Circles" was erected in 2001.  It is a 15-meter (49 feet) tall stainless steel mobile that runs with water.


The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation, Καθεδρικός Ναός Ευαγγελισμού της Θεοτόκου, is simply known as the Mētrópolis.  It is the archbishop's church of Athens. 

Construction began in 1842 and it was completed in 1862.  Marble from 72 demolished churches was used to build the church walls.  The church is home to the tombs of two different saints who were killed by Turks during the Ottoman Empire.  The church is currently undergoing renovation. 

Syntagma (Constitution) Square, Πλατεία Συντάγματος, is the city's largest square.  The square was built from 1836 to 1840.  It is home to the Greek Parliament which used to be the Royal Palace.  With everything going on in Greece right now, this is a main spot for protests.  Every hour on the hour you can see the changing of the presidential guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


The Zappeion, Ζάππειον Μέγαρο, is located at the National Gardens.  It was the first building that was constructed specifically for the modern Olympic Games.  At the 1896 Summer Olympics it was the site of the fencing competition.  It was the press center during the 2004 Summer Olympics.  Today it is a meeting center used for official ceremonies.

Hadrian's Arch, Αψίς του Ανδριανού, is a gateway that was built in honor of Roman Emperor Hadrian.  It dates back to 131 or 132 AD.  It is solid marble; no cement or mortar was used.  It is 18 meters (59 feet) high.

The arch is near the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Ναός του Ολυμπίου Διός.  The temple was dedicated to Zeus, the king of the Greek gods.  Construction on the temple began in the 6th century BC but wasn't completed until the 2nd century AD – around 638 years.  It was once the largest temple in Greece.  The column on the ground collapsed in 1852.

Hadrian's Library is on the north side of the Acropolis.  It was built in 132 AD.

The Theater of Dionysus is one of the earliest preserved open-air theaters in Athens.  It was dedicated to Dionysus who was the Greek god of wine and the patron of drama.  Excavation of the theater began in 1838 and lasted over 100 years.  Local area remains around the theater date back to the 6th century BC.  A partial restoration is underway and the $9 million project is scheduled to finish in 2015.

The Tower of the Winds is located in the Roman Agora.  It is an octagonal marble clock tower.  It is a combination sundial, water clock and wind vane.  The tower is 12 meters (39 feet) tall and has a diameter of about 8 meters (26.25 feet).  It was excavated in the 19th century.

The Temple of Hephaestus, Ναός Ηφαίστου, was inaugurated in 416-415 BC.  It was built for Hephaestus who was the Greek god of metal working and craftsmanship.  From the 7th century to 1834 it served as the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Ωδείο Ηρώδου του Αττικού, is a stone theater on the side of the Acropolis that was used for music concerts.  The 5,000 seat theater was built in 161 AD.  It was renovated in 1950.

The new Acropolis Museum, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, is really well done.  It was built in order to house every artifact found on and around the Acropolis.  It opened in June 2009.  It is 14,000 sq meters (~150,700 sq ft) and is currently home to around 4,000 objects.  Admission is only €5 and everything is in Greek and English – Yeah!

The Acropolis, Ακρόπολις, is the most famous landmark in Athens.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Many people seem to use the words "Acropolis" and "Parthenon" interchangeably.  The Acropolis is the big flat hill that overlooks the city.  The Parthenon sits on top of the Acropolis.

The Parthenon is a temple that was built from 447 to 438 BC to honor Athena, the patron goddess of the city.  It is quite large at 30.9 meters by 69.5 meters (111 feet by 228 feet) and is considered to be the world's finest example of Doric-style architecture.

Hotel room view of the Acropolis

Over the centuries it was also a church and then a mosque.  During the Turkish Occupation of Greece it was used as a munitions depot.  In 1867, there was an explosion that occurred during a battle with the Venetians which caused most of the damage seen today.  There is a lot of work being done on the Parthenon but estimates are that it will take another 20 years and €70 million to complete the restoration.  So again, perhaps I'll head back in another 20 years.

Update: March 2023, the Vatican has returned three pieces of the Parthenon to Greece.

©BBC News

Greeks in Czech Republic

There is a small Greek community in Czech Republic.  During the Greek Civil War more than 100,000 refugees fled Greece.  Around 12,000 of them went to Czechoslovakia from 1946 to 1949.  About 5,200 were actually unaccompanied children.

Resettlement Areas for Greek Refugees

Relocation to Czechoslovakia was facilitated by the Greek Communist Party who, during the war, urged people to send their children away to safety in socialist countries.  The original thought was that everyone would return to Greece once the Communists won the civil war but that never happened. 

Major resettlement camps were in Prague and Brno.  Most of the Greeks were finally settled in Brno, Ostrava, Opava and Krnov as these were areas where Greek farmers could help revive local agricultural production.  Some people eventually became citizens while the majority of the Greek population returned to Greece in the 1980s.  By 1991, only 3,443 still declared having Greek ethnicity.

Update 2025: Here's a short video I found on YouTube about why didn't Greece become part of the Eastern Bloc. 

©History Matters

2012 Brno Grand Prix

I've always been a big fan of gymnastics.  Previously, I wrote about Czechoslovakia's most famous gymnast - Věra Čáslavská.  So how did I not know that this past Saturday there was going to be a pretty decent competition, here in Brno, less than a 5-minute walk from my flat.

The Brno Grand Prix is an annual mixed-pairs competition.  One male and one female gymnast pair up as a team.  They each compete on two events in the qualification round, one event in the semi-finals and then there is a four-team final round.

This was a world-class event with some athletes having competed in the 2012 Olympics.  Participating athletes represented Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.  And the admission price was only 80 Kč ($4).  Again, how did I not know about this?  The Ukrainian team won the event followed in second by the Czech/Spanish team.  You can bet that I will be on the look out for this next year.

On YouTube I found the balance beam routine from Mariya Livchikova from Ukraine.

©ČT

Laser Tag Team Building #2

Last night we had another laser tag team building.  This time it was with the Alps team.  Again, lots of fun.





This team isn't as big as my IGA team so we had longer matches than we did the last time.  You really do get a work out running around the course.



This time, we we got run their new course a couple of times which is definitely more challenging than the normal one.  I have a feeling that we'll be back again.

Celebrating St. Martin's Day

Today is November 11th which makes it St. Martin's Day.  People look forward to it even though it is not a national holiday.  It's kind of like St. Patrick's Day in that it is more of a commercial holiday, just without the green beer.


St. Martin started life out as a Roman soldier and later became a monk.  He once came across a beggar but didn't have any money to give him.  Instead, Martin tore his own coat and gave half to the beggar in order to protect the man from the cold. 

Martin přijíždí na bílém koni means that "Martin rides in on a white horse" because this is supposed to be the first day of snow.  Well we already had snow in October and fortunately we didn't get any more today.

The proper way to celebrate St. Martin's day is with young wine and a traditional meal of roast goose with red and white cabbage.  Almost every restaurant has roast goose (or duck) on special for the next week.

Colorado Potato Beetle

The Colorado Potato Beetle is a big pest for farmers.  The insect ravages potato, tomato and eggplant crops.  However, I never knew that in the Czech Republic it is known, or at least it was known, as the American bug.

Colorado Potato Beetle

Back in the Cold War days, the communists used to promote propaganda that American planes dropped the bugs over crops in an effort to destabilize socialism.  East Germany also used to report that imperialist planes and secret agents were responsible for poor harvests due to having unleashed the insects.  What the hell ever!

Here's a Czechoslovakian report, with English subtitles, that I found on YouTube about the "American bug".  You can also hear what the Czech language sounds like.

I'm Everywhere

So besides the election results, here's the other thing that happened to me yesterday.  I was in a meeting with my boss and she says that I'm everywhere.  I had no idea of what the hell she was talking about.  Apparently, this past weekend she was looking at a blog which she normally reads at and she found a picture of me.  What!?!?

Check this out.  Some Prague blogger wrote a story about being on a tram.  In the story, the people were happy and so he posted a picture of some happy people.  Here's the thing.  The photo is of Claudia, Mariya and me, from 2011, when we did the Brno Expat tram ride. 

Here's the link to the story.

Here's the translation.  And FYI...Any expat can tell you that Google Translate or Bing Translate never gives you a 100% accurate translation.  While the English isn't perfect you will still get the gist of the story.

Miracles happen. Every day and everywhere. Even you don't have to be a mystic or a prophet. Just tune in. Or be ready jedoduše. It happened a few days ago on the tram 26 in which I took at Kulaťáku. It was in the middle of ' everyday ' day, it was a few of us on the island, among others, and a man with a dog. I paid no special attention to anybody, because I wrote the email. The tram arrived, I sat down, all for standing writing email. And then it happened. From there, after a while the speakers: "on behalf of the Transport business thank you vzornému the passenger with the dog, which not only has the dog perfectly prepared for travel in the public mass transport, but in addition to the stop sign for the emergence of a dog. Thank You Very Much. It happens once every few years. "

The hand with the rozepsaným by email to me and I looked at the car, because they teach me culture-this must be meant sarcastically and I see some antisocial drunken individum dog. But the tram driver was not meant seriously and positively. What? Veřejená the praise from the mouth of the driver of the tram?! On what planet I was? The Impossible! A Miracle! But the real miracle came only because everybody on the tram began to talk. ' Ice ' immediately and we must have melted-present people-we just magically come together. I've heard the stories, seen the cute faces, smiles, joy. An ordinary human encounters on the tram 26. Live. What you didn't know for a while. The gentleman with the dog looked incredibly happy and almost up to the other, so that in itself is not a model, but that it had learned in the army. There was laughter and the word several stations. I was (and I'm from the episode) happy, because I brought the realization that this is what in the US is actually below the layer of culture. We can do it. We're not so bad, how are we trying to kid each other everywhere. We've got to do it. Only we have to afford more and more as follows. Thank you to all of the tram 26., which was the day going to the station of a miracle.

So pretty much a human interest story.  It's just funny that my face showed up on a Czech language Prague blog that I've never heard of.  I don't mind at all but it is odd.  I did post the following comment to the story.  Basically I said that "Hmmm, this picture is from a 2011 expat function in Brno.  How the hell did my photograph end up on this page and what does it have to do with this story?"  I also included a link to the original photo.  Again, I don't mind.  Just another random funny thing I get to write about.  I guess I really am everywhere.

2012 Election Results

So two things happened today.  The first was that I woke up to find out that President Obama won the election in the USA.  This was my first presidential election experience as an expat.  I honestly feel that if you don't vote then you have to shut the f#@k up for the next four years.  So I made sure to get my absentee ballot in.

I've got to say that it was kind of nice to just wake up and see the results on CNN International.  None of the normal up, to the wee hours of the morning, watching the election analysis.  Just go to sleep and wake up to the news.  Very nice.

It was funny at work today with many people coming up to me asking if I won the election.  Yes, my vote is the one that put us over.  Living overseas does open up your eyes to the world outside of the USA.  You get an appreciation for a different view of things.  Not better, not worse, just different.  But this time, I have to laugh at some people.  I've read and seen some news clips of a few individuals whose candidate didn't win the election and how they will leave the USA.  Of course, it is only a few nut jobs; not all Republicans.  They plan to leave the USA because President Obama is turning the country socialist.

So, people who are upset about national healthcare want to move to Europe or Canada.  Places that both have national healthcare.  They want a more conservative government.  Well Canada's conservatives tend to be more liberal than American liberals.

These same people who are up in arms about immigration just want to pick up and move to Europe.  I'm not sure why these people think that Europe will welcome them with open arms.  Schengen rules only allow for Americans to stay up to 90 days every six months.  Besides that, most Americans can't speak anything other than English which makes it pretty difficult to just pick up and start a new life over here.  

I've even heard where people say they will go to New Zealand where they can be free - until they realize that New Zealand will not let them bring their guns.

What about me?  I live overseas.  Well, yes I do.  But I came over here because of my job.  It's not that I was fleeing the country.

So enough about the election.  One, that's results I am totally happy with by the way.  There were two things that happened today.  The second thing was that apparently I'm everywhere. 

Silent Disco

After laser tag we headed off to the second part of our team building evening - silent disco.  Here's the deal.  There are two laundromats in Brno and they are both pubs.  So basically you can have a beer and smoke while you wait for your clothes. 

It's interesting but it doesn't make sense to me because everything would come out smelling like smoke but whatever.  One of the two places is called Club Wash which has a big room in the back where they often show movies, have quiz nights, host Couchsurfing meetings, etc.  Well on Friday nights they have silent disco.

There are two DJs who compete for listeners but there is no speaker system.  Everyone wears wireless headphones.  Each person can set his or her own volume and flip between the DJs.  There is a light on each headset that shines either blue or green so everyone can tell which DJ you are listening to.  This thing was absolutely brilliant!

If you want to talk to someone you just take off the headset.  it was really fun to watch people just tearing it up on the dance floor in silence. 



You could see people dancing with each other but you could tell that they weren't even listening to the same DJ.

Sometimes people would forget that not everyone was listening to music so they would speak loudly but a simple reminder is all it took to have a normal conversation with someone.  This was definitely another first for me and it was a blast.  

Laser Tag Team Building #1

Last night was another great team building evening.  One of the new project managers on my IGA team decided to plan a two-part event.  The first part was an hour of laser tag.  I thought it would be fun but I had no idea of just how much fun it would be.

We broke up in to 5-person teams.  Two teams competed at a time in 10-minute intervals.  The indoor course is dark with smoke so you need to be careful not to shoot your own team mate(s).


It does require a bit of strategy and, of course, we were pretty competitive.  I kind of figured that people would be gunning for me.  Who doesn't want to shoot the boss, right?


But hey, my group did pretty well.  We won 3 of our 4 matches and I never finished lower than 4th place in any of my rounds.  You really do get a work out running around.


You've got to love how we spent an hour hunting each other down and afterwards we're all like "peace".  This was a blast.  Which is a good thing because the Alps team is planning their own laser tag event in a couple of weeks. 

Again, this was the first part of a two-part event.  After this we headed off to our first silent disco.