Not my Athens-Islam in Europe

This, dear friends, is what happened this morning in Athens.
In the square in front of the City Hall. The seat of the Mayor of Athens. With guest appearance by an Egyptian imam.



No, dear friends, this is not some North African hamlet, this is not some Asian inner city. THIS is the city of
Theseus and Aeschylus, the city of Plato and all other giants of human civilisation. THIS is the center of Athens.This is where Muslems, most of them uninvited illegal immigrants, celebrated the end of the Ramadan. And declared their will to have a mosque built in Athens.

After some 400 years of bitter fighting, after rivers of European blood spilled in the gates of Constantinople and Vienna, our politicians open our countries' gates to the islamic flood.

In France



In Italy and the world



I believe in the right of people to worship the divinities that best fit their nature, their idiosyncarcy, their history, their traditions in their countries and homes.
I do not intend to worship in the open air of Mecca. I am a Greek Orthodox worshiping the God of my fathers, where my ancestors have lived from times unknown.

Why on earth do we have to put up with this?

Our trip to Athens I

I rarely like travelling to Athens these days. I like to keep in mind the image of the bright, clean, beautiful city of my youth. There are a few places that remind me of the real Athens. Fortunately, Kifissia, a leafy suburb to the North of the city is one of them.
I remember the dances at the Theoxenia hotel, the summer evenings that seemed so exotic.

Part of the hotel's ground floor now houses Haagen-Dazs. We payed an early morning visit.

 

And yes, we did have a lovely cheesecake and ice cream for breakfast!

The hotel overlooks Kefalari square with the landmark church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, and memories of family functions and teenaged confidences.

This is such a typical Athenian landscape. The tall pines, the church at the center of the suburb, the color of the building even, underlined with white around the windows. On the square, the statue of Pavlos Melas (1870-1904), a young army officer who organised the Greek struggle for the liberation of Macedonia from its Bulgarian and Turkish oppressors.

 

Here is another look around the square with its famous cafes and Greek and foreign press news stands, offering, by the way, delicious chocolates.

Further north, a cinema. It remains just the same as I remember it. It is called "Asteria" (Stars) and has been the meeting point of many Sunday afternoons. Notice the advertising boards for "Nine" and "Petit Nicolas" ("Little Nicolas"). They are not prints. They are actually painted as was the custom in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s...

 

Right across the street, there is one of the most famous Greek patisseries...I'll show you in my next post.

Our trip to Athens

Hello,
I hope you all had a lovely weekend, the last one in March. Even the time changed. We turned our watches one hour forward on Sunday morning.
Thank you so much for stopping by and posting a comment, a thought, a question. You fill me with gratitude and enthusiasm.
As I have promised, I am going to show you some photos from our trip to Athens.

On the weekend before the Greek National Day of March 25th, we travelled to Athens and stayed with C's parents.
On Sunday morning we took the children for a stroll in Athens center. They hadn't seen the city center before, so it was something new for them, that we wanted them to know. Usually going to the city center is an inferno, with lots of traffic and jams, but as Tuesday was a holiday for everyone in the public sector, many people had left town, so it was rather pleasant. Athens is a beautiful city. The problem is that it has long been mistreated by developers and politicians who allowed developers to do as they pleased for profit.

We began our walk at the National Historical Museum. Oddly enough, it is a private museum housed in the building of the first Greek Parliament. This is fortunate, because the Museum is in great condition. It is old fashioned in the way items are displayed, but I love it this way.

The ceilings are tall and painted subtly but in great detail in soft blues and golds.

The main parliament hall is used for conferences.

The museum is divided into rooms that promote a sense of familiarity and peace, without becoming overpowering, as one might expect from an establishment covering the road to liberation from the Turkish occupation of 1453, at the fall of Constantinople,

to the numerous revolutions against the Ottoman Empire, until the final one in 1821, the struggle for the reunion of different parts of Greece that remain(ed) occupied, such as Asia Minor, and the two World Wars of the last century.
It houses many personal belongings of great personalities, such as the helmet and armour of General Theodore Kolokotronis (1770-1843), one of the greatest heroes of the Greek Revolution. My ancestral village is close to his and my ancestors on my maternal grandmother's side were producing gun powder for his troops. I am proud to be associated even distantly with such a legendary man.

Women fought in the war, too, or donated their fortunes to free the nation. How easily we take our freedom for granted...
This is the throne of the first King of Greece, King Otto, surrounded by costumes of his court. It was later used by King George I.

Young (just 17) Prince Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria,

was a rather tiny man, as shown by his costume, yet a brave one who, together with his wife, Amalia, truly loved Greece and the people, although his counselors didn't. Unfortunately the couple remained childless, and the Great Powers of the time (England, France and Russia) sent to Greece a Danish prince, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, who was to become King George I.

These are flags captured by the Turkish and Egyptian armies during the numerous battles for the liberation of Greece.

There are also items of both religious and national importance, such as the ceremonial hat of Bishop and Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna.

The museum also hosts an important collection of traditional Greek clothes from the mainland and the islands.

Whenever I see people, especially women, wearing traditional clothes, I am amazed. Women look like queens in grace and stature.

Also hosted in the museum, there are several items of traditional craft, mainly belonging to the families of the heroes who have donated them to the museum.
After our visit to the museum, we went to Constitution Square, where we witnessed the change of the guard in the monument to the Unknown Soldier, just below the Parliament (the ex-palace of King Otto).

By that time the children were quite tired, so we went to Mc Donald's who is serving a menu especially for Lent, with prawn burgers and seafood spaghetti. We then took a tourist train that goes around the Acropolis.
There were some beautiful moments and some ugly ones.

We finally indulged in some shopping.

Cigars and a treasured find.

I hope you enjoyed walking with me around Athens. Next I am going to post about some beautiful buildings, and our weekend trip to a village where time has stopped.

Be blessed.