My Big Greek EVS: lipca 2012

So.. Hello after my little ol' brake. :)

I have been in Athens, on arrival training for my voluntary thing. Unfortunately.. we stayed in hotel, which I do not know that for sure.. but one of the biggest hotels I have ever seen.. like 10 levels, restaurant with a view on top.. but.. the Internet was still paid. 49 Euro a week is a little bit too much? aint it?.. so.. i had weak Internet connection and did not wrote anything. sorry.. the second reason why it happened was a lack of time that I had. Training was not that tense, but in the end.. when you are in Athens for the first time.. you do not want to sit behind a computer. You want to go out and see all this mythological places that you were learning about when you were a child. and you were a child one day? might be.. you still are. I know I met in there a few people that would say it too me without even a blink in their eye. :) ;)

Anyways. although all of the tasks, and pretty busy schedule of the training, our fantastic group of volunteers managed to pop out a bit of there, and in the evenings we were discovering the Ancient city of Athens. ( well at least whats left from it)
the ruins are.. liek ruins.. looks old enough, and the fence around all of the ancient structures says - this is important! do not touch it!

First thing that I have noticed on the streets, is that actually tourists.. although there are a lot of them in the city.. you barely can see them on the streets. if you go to the Acropolis you will find them for sure, but in the pubs or in the shops they blend with other normal Greek people. you would think that it is impossible because Greeks are tanned, and have this brown skin.. but.. no. not all of them, in fact there are a lot of light tanned people of Greece as well.

So at the beginning of the training we had a lot of lessons and practice exercises. I put all the pictures I had in to this gif - for all of you to check how did it looked like. We were inform about our organizations and all of the so called DO's and DON'Ts.

but after full and active day we wanted to visit Athens so At the first night we went out, walked around.. just like wondered around the streets. nothing particular except at the end everybody was tired so we stayed at Exarchia Square. On this Square local people of the City of Athens are relaxing, talking and meeting each others. Having some conversations or.. watching a silent movie. At the night we arrived there there was this silent movie switched on. People gathered together and than.. they had enjoy it together. Everyone brought its own chair! Can you imagine? there was like 40 persons with their chairs :D very cool. other people around over there where the youth of Athens, sitting on the wall smoking a blunt or having a beer. Mostly black dressed people with piercings all around. Also some other nations people. They say in Athena lives 35% of all People in Greece, and 30% of them are migrants. So we weere walking around and meeting each others like this:

This is Ana. Ana is from Lisbon the city of Portugal. Ana, as the Volunteer, visits Greece and takes care about Greek children, is educated in Geologic Science. Hates taking pictures and learning photography :) I hope I remembered everything correctly :)

This is a group picture. It was pretty hard to get everyone together in front of the Parliament in Athens, but Kursat helped me a lot. Kursat is a soon going to be a Master Diver which will allow him to became a training instructor and will be able to help and teach people how to dive safely. He asked my about taking a picture for him.. and while I was taking it all of the other persons of the group started posing in the back. Finally Kursat decided to join them. It was very funny.
Anyways the parliament building is guarded by 2 volunteer soldiers that are very strictly standing there and guarding it. They need to be tall from 1.85 meter to 2,30 I suppose, and during they one hour shift They can't move a muscle! it is pretty common in that kind of places. The only thing that they can move in this hour is their toes of the feet, which basically stimulates their blood circulation - poor dudes. volunteer dudes :)

We have been also at the Likavitas which basically should be the highest spot of the city, where from, the Athens panorama, during the night is the most beautiful thing I have seen in Greece so far. It is not so far from the center. It is a mountain with forests around it and with a small church and also a restaurant at the top of it. The view is not only fantastic but also impressive! Unfortunately my batteries of camera where down, so this is the best picture.. group picture that is from Likavitos. (above) and than.. there is a statue of Perykles the prominent and influential Greek statesman.

On the left side we see a fantastic Picture of Kubre and Marilisse which basically are searching for the greatest route for that evening. They organizational skills allowed me to see this fantastic souvenir shop ;) with sculputres of politicians and ancient mythological gods... and also plenty plenty more :)

This was a fantastic sun set seen from the balcony of our meeting room in the hotel :)

Apparently this is how Athenian balcony looks like and lower is just a door with a lamp.

Basically this pictures presents Giacomo the master of photography that gave me tips how to make good pictures.. and hopefully he will continue to do it. That picture is not sharp, but I liked it anyway. He told me about the aperture, and now for another month I will probably experiment with it.. and than.. who knows what idea he will have for me. On the right side is another window of the souvenir shop.

And on the left side above we have a pretty interesting photography of ancient Agora with enchanted enlightenment I suppose. Ancient Agora is a place where they have been holding Socrates, I think it was his prison type of thing.. although on the picture you cannot see a damn thing :) and than.. on the right side there is entrance to the famous Acropolis at the Athens.. which is the most important left over of the ancient times around and lower you can see some pictures of the Parthenon and me with Ola - the polish lover and student of architecture :)

Ola pretty much enjoyed the most the statues of this women statues behind me. ( picture on the left above) and on the right there is a view for the acropolis from the rock beneath it :D

and above there are the pictures of The first Greek theater of the Dionisos who basically is the god of the grape harvest, wine making and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy. The story says, that if on the stage part the coin is dropped.. the sound of it should be heard even at the places that are the most far away from the stage. (Mrs. Teacher Story).

and now there is a bit more of the acropolis view for you:

Basically view from the rock beneath the acropolis was also beautiful and overall all the city gives you this amazing impression of the ancient times. on almost every corner you can find some left overs, some stones or columns or statues that reminds you of the historical meaning of this city.

This is one of the buildings of the Athenian Academy which basically was sooo closed.. :| (probably because of the summer time )

and this little green fella we have found on the way back, isn't it cool? :D yes it is :D cute car no 1.

Than when I had my last day at the Athens, and was supposed to wait very actively on my bus back to Serres at 22.00 we were just wondering around all this great Saturday. So with Alice the diver girl from UK we have seen acropolis one more time.. and a Temple of Zeus (left picture above with girl on it ;) The Temple of Zeus was the highest building in the ancient Athens and its columns where the tallest with their incredible above 100metres.. ( I think it was 122 or something like it) The right picture above shows us the mighty ol' servant of the goddess of the Beautiful and love Aphrodite - Pan himself. Pan was Aphrodite's helper, and also god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, and (which is my favorite part of course) the companion of the nymphs

This two statues was made a pictures because I was leaving Athens.. and they looked pretty cool. There was no time for getting knowledge about what who and where about them. Kind of stupid.. but The man on the horse shows the way.. at the other statue is kind of looking straight at .. where is he showing? I want to know. :D

On my personal request Alice went with me inside the Ferrari shop - I made a fast picture and we left. I never knew Ferrari shops existed before :D

Than we went back to the hotel and on the way we where just coming by this Parliament building.. and this little ship was a sculpture on the wall.

This dog was not sleeping, he was moving and he even looked at me when i did took this picture.. he never bothered about it :D

and than we went for the searching of the famous Exarchia squat place.. which was not easy to find, so we were just wondering around the neighborhood when I found this amazing graffiti of the Joker himself. and than, finally we made it to find the squat place. Maria, Bony, ( making themselves pictures) beautiful moment. perfect for the last quest in the Athens at this day.

I did liked the city very much ( especially Likavitos) , there was a very unique and fantastic atmosphere around, but it is not only the city what creates it.. it is mostly the people so...

Volunteers!!

thank you and hopefully see you again.. soon..

around the globe!

Thanks Bye!!

PS. it was pretty hard to say goodbye this time.. :| poker face ;)

Hello Everybody! How are you? Fine? Then good :)
I am aboout to tell you a story of my first experience with climbing with equipment.

So.. there was this beautiful when this opportunity had arise, and we could finally try - if I am a climber or a ground walker. Giorgos my Greek friend who took me and my flatmates to the abandoned village, collected a small team of climbers and we all went outside the city of Serres to climb a bit. The team was surprisingly young.. and not less surprisingly experienced. I mean - this boys where almost 18 years old.. but they climb and climb a lot.

Basically if you want to climb you need a rope for safety, harness to attach the rope somewhere and climbing shoes - in which your foot is dying in. not literally dying but.. it squeezed as fuck! And I really mean it.. it can't be squeezed any more.. because than you wold have to freaking brake your fucking foot, like Japanese geishas than back in the day. Than some carabiners like this one that Yannis is holding ( this little dude in the orange shirt) Now there - most of equipment is there on a photos for you to see how this shit looks like.

Giannis with carabiner, and little Jimmy attaches more carabiners to his harness

Giorgos and the team is adjusting straps of the harness for safety.

This Shoes are made for climbing.

This is the rope, it can hold on to 2,5 tons of weight. about 80 m. long.

And this is Climbing Safety - one dude stands at the ground, and the line is attached to him with a special part, that makes possible stopping and holding of the rope with the weight of the holders body.

And now we are climbing :), first the Giorgos, he showed me how to go up, during the way he attaches carabiners in the spots for them, and puts his rope threw them for safety.

Than he goes down, using the safety rope - this is pretty scary at the beginning but then.. when you know how it works.. it can be pretty fun too.

After Giorgos it was time for my initiation, the rope was at the highest point of the route.. So I did it just like him, only I was taking the rope out from the carabiner.. because I am a beginner.. it is a lot safer for start. But I did the route no problem :) and then I had some problems with going down. It is pretty hard. You need some trust to the rope, and to a person that holds it down there. Then.. when I finally got it.. (half way down) I started going down ( like Giorgos said) like a commando ;) because I was jumping on flowing down freely just some centimeters.

These is another route, and over here little Jimmy tries to do impossible route. He couldn't make it this time.. but although he is a very good climber - his muscles are not that big yet, training makes masters :)

This route.. made by Giorgos was very long.. like 30 m. up. He did it like 30 minutes I think, and went all the way up. then it was my turn.

Preparations.

The Climbing Facility wall contains countless numbers of different difficulties routes.

So I went up. and I must say it was not that easy.. also pretty scary sometimes, especially when I needed to grab on to a dry root that was in the wall, and jump a bit higher to get a proper grip with hand. amazing.

Also, I have reached almost the top of the rope that Giorgos set. I took the rope out of the last carabiner, and I was going higher just to touch the top, but I was tired I guess and made a little mistake, slipped or I think my hand and fingers where tired, and fell down a bit. Then guys told me to try again, but I was already tired.. especially my hands ;) It was very cool.

So it was time for me to go down. That was enough for a first time, and also Giorgos called me a professional beginner, because when he tried this route for the first time, he only got half way up, and I was like almost at the end :)