If you followed the posts of my longest trip ever over the last months you probably noticed that the weather was rather bad, especially during it's first part in May and June. At the same time I had my coldest summer ever (also for locals of places I've visited) Greece and other places in the European South were suffering from crazy hot and long heatwaves. The funny thing though is that as soon as I came back a crazy weather flooded significant parts of central Greece reminding me the following song:
Here in Athens we also got part of this rain wave of the storm called Diana and even though it was less intense it still felt to me like on of the craziest rainstorms I recall around here. Even though I had the tents of my balcony down I collected enough rain to water my plants for ages:
The wind was so strong at times that water was flying horizontally making my balcony look like I have no tents at all. Imagine that when it all was over after a couple of days raining the weather removed stains on my car that I couldn't by scrubbing them with a sponge. Insane...
Begs the question how it's gonna be like if this will be the new normality. Till then we fortunately still get some good old nice versions of Athenian sky here which beautifies the ugliness of the rooftops close to sunset:
I liked the following sky art so much that I couldn't decide which camera orientation I should pick so here's both:
I am taking my first leisure walk around my hometown after all these months and I find out I haven't turned my head up to look at this lady since it was painted here:
How is it possible to miss such a thing? I guess it's because I either pass through while driving so I focus on the traffic or I walk while (again) paying attention to the traffic as the local drivers are not the most civilised ones.
Actually this is two sided:
Spoils the city's grey concrete jungle. For the better of course. Or at least much better than this wannabe art does:
As you can see this piece is called "return to sender":
I would like to rename it "return to creator". Speaking of which, I find out that it was made by a woman who also directs the local Museum of Contemporary Art. The rest of the shots I took from her art might mean a lot about how she managed to make it to that position:
Actually I think the signs about this "art" are more artistic than the piece itself:
What makes me fuming about it is that this was decided to be placed at the best Cultural Center of Athens, a fantastic award winning complex:
Which now has some eye pollution:
Here is the main building of the complex:
And here's a rare picture of the view to Athens the main building offers while no one is around:
This is one of my favourite parts of this complex - an open space where movies are projected for free in the summer:
Aren't those olive chairs lovely?
Walking towards the sea that I missed so much over those months I spot some new graffiti on these container offices:
Looking left is another favourite bit of mine, the Tae Kwon Do Stadium:
I like how it was decided to have a boaty shape being so close to the sea. Speaking of the latter, have a slice:
It's the rally Acropolis time and one of its special stages takes place here this year so unintentionally I step in the area where they prepare for the ceremony:
This area actually is a graffiti playground which makes the grey concrete surfaces look like this:
Way too much info in just one image right?
And here's the contrast with the Rally's preparations:
Which expand to the local roundabout:
It's obviously a spot with intense activity at times during which you might loose your undies:
On the contrary here's also the museum of Greek Aviation history, a beautiful building which is hard to miss with a thing like that on its garden:
Hope you liked my walk with all its contradictions, enjoy yours and see you on the next one!