Paralympics 2012

Yesterday was the end of the London 2012 Paralympics. I didn’t watch much of the closing ceremony. The beginning seemed like a silly remake of ‘Mad Max’ and I’m not generally a fan of Coldplay, I find them extremely boring sometimes. I have to admit though that the stuff that was happening around them with the dancers looked interesting when I took a glimpse while changing channels. Did you watch it? Did you like it?

I was fortunate enough to go and watch the actual games last week though. Last Monday to be precise, I met ‘JJ’ after work and we went to the Olympic Park. It was our choice to go to watch the Paralympics instead of the Olympics. We also wanted to go and check the main stadium and that is why we picked an Athletics event. We saw high jump, long jump, javelin, running and wheel chair running. It was simply amazing.

The Olympic Stadium was astonishing and the atmosphere breath-taking. The volunteers were all very polite and helpful, the crowd in a very good mood and the organisation spotless. The stadium was full and the people were cheering for the athletes of every origin and congratulate even the people for coming last, for their effort. The roar of the spectators was deafening though when a British athlete, Mickey Bushell, won a gold medal in 100 meters, T53 category (wheelchair). I even saw the Greek Alexandra Dimoglou win a bronze medal in 400 meters T13 category (wheelchair).

The very funny event of that night was when George Osborne was introduced to give a medal to an athlete. That’s a British Conservative Politian who is currently the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the minister for economic and financial matters! He was booed so badly!!! People were so disapproval which was a bit sad and funny at the same time.

In any case, the true heroes were the athletes themselves.  The determination, power of will, courage and discipline they show is astonishing. I saw people high jumping with only one leg, blind runners with amazing speed running with just guides to aid them and javelin throwers with kinetic problems. I was very happy to learn that the London Paralympics have been a huge success with sold out tickets throughout the venues. People with disabilities deserve of course the public’s respect and support and I hope the Paralympics help into that direction in the long run.

 

Back from holidays Part 2

During my second part of my holidays I visited my parents in my hometown. That is where I was born, grew up and lived up to the point I left to study in the university at 17. It’s a small town in the North of Greece by the sea with not many inhabitants, where my parents now only spend their summers. We have a house close to the beach, a bit isolated and 17 kilometres from the city which is actually perfect for relaxing holidays.

This time during my visit, I had 2 friends of mine there as well staying in the house. Their visit differentiated a bit the normal way I spent my Greek summer holidays. Having them there meant that I spent less time at home and also organised some visits to places with touristic interest. For example we walked a lot around the beautiful older part of the town, went to a nearby conservation area surrounding a lake and to a very interesting archaeological dig site nearby. That’s a place called Philippi. Among the stories surrounding this thriving town of the past is the fact that Apostle Paul passed by and stayed there. One of the first European Christian churches were built there, not to mention the ‘Epistle to the Philippians’ written by him for the people of that town.

When we weren’t on a mission to visit these touristic places, we simply enjoyed the sea and the sun to a nearby amazing beach called ‘ammolofoi’ (Αμμόλοφοι) which can be translated as ‘hills of sand’. There are a couple of beach bars there where you can stay under an umbrella, enjoy a cold drink or food and spend your day watching the waves.

The only unfortunate event of my visit was the fact that with such a busy schedule the week passed quickly. I had an amazing time and returned to London with my batteries recharged and some kilos extra after consuming tons of my mother's food.

These are some pictures I took. They can be enlarged and look much better here than my previous Blogger post. I don't think I'll be using that app any time soon. Anyway, enjoy:

 That's Roberta or Roberto (we're not sure on the sex yet) that my niece found abandoned and kept us company through my visit in Greece.

Filippi old ampitheatre where even today a summer festival of plays and concerts take place.  

Parts of the first old Christian church that was built on the site. 

These are the ancients toilets! There was a small river passing underneath and they had dug holes to them! Stories say that they made their servants sit on the marble to make it warmer before they went to do their business... :-)

The mosaic at the 'Basilica of Paul'. It looks amazing even now

Part of the old 'Via Egnatia' built by the Romans

Ammolofoi beach where I spent hours and hours... 

The old aqueduct in my city that was used to water the older part of the town was built. It's current location and form is from the 16th century 

The monastery dedicated to Virgin Mary in the Lake Vistonida  

Going shopping in an antique shop.

Going swimming in a nearby river. The water was a bit cold but crystal clear and the valley was so beautiful and green

    

Back from holidays part 1

It's been a while since I came back from my holidays but I've been extremely busy these last few days. I've been doing some really interesting stuff I'll post about in the future. However I've missed blogging and I really need to catch up with you guys and see what you've been up to. In the meantime and for the first time I'm using my smartphone's app for this post. I hope it works fine. If not, please let me know...

As I think I mentioned (not easy to check through blogger) I travelled to Greece via Zurich, where a very good friend of mine lives. It's not very big and the old town is easy to explore in a day. The visit however left me mixed feelings. The city is very beautiful and worth visiting, however I was shocked to find out the problems my friend is facing trying to live and work there. The community there is very strict and foreigners are not easily accepted. Having lived before in a place like London,  not accepting foreigners comes as a bad surprise, especially decent, hard working people trying to make a living.

In any case we had fun and it was very nice seeing my friend again. We went out drinking and visited some really nice places and monuments of the area. Here's some pictures I took while being there: