Tag: sight seeing

Athens, the Akropolis and some crazy beautiful sculptures

After Rosinante got fixed, I visited Athens in mid-May 2022. Like before in Corinth, I just couldn’t pass the Akropolis. And like before, I felt like I’m at the wrong place.

With the Park4Night app, I found a paid parking near a pretty restaurant and right next to the Akropolis. The last time I paid for parking was in Austria but I found the location of that place so cool and wanted to make sure that Rosiante was kind of secure. I think, that I’m not a very anxious person but in the big cities, I’m always a little more defensive. I liked how the parking managers made sure that as many cars as possible go into the parking: they kept the keys for most of the cars and drove them out of the way if someone parked up wanted to leave. It’s been like these games where you are only allowed to push one piece at a time and there is always only one space not occupied.

The Akropolis was nice to visit but for some reason, it didn’t catch me. I have been thinking if the human-made stuff just doesn’t interest me as much as natural phenomena do. But that doesn’t seem to be the case: right now (end of July 2022), I’m writing this post sitting in front of something human-made, that absolutely catches me. You will see in one of the next posts. It’s so awesome!

As I’ve been walking through the cute and lovely alleys in Athens, I found some awesome sculptures made by an artist called Yanni Souvatzoglou. Here, have a look at his stuff. Most of the time, I’m not much into sculptures and paintings, but these ones are still extraordinarily appealing to me. I guess, they are reminding me of my mother and the funny and sometimes crazy stuff she used to put in her garden and house as decorations. Among those things were severed doll heads, a Batman action figure with fluffy angel wings, and a crazy lot more.

What is more, I see them as a great projection of the Buddhist principle of Duhkha and therefore about human existence and life. Here is the Wikipedia article about Dukkha and if you want to get into it, try these magnificent podcast episodes and articles: The Zen Studies Podcast.

Erwin and a wonderful view at Corinth

It’s the end of April 2022 and for the first time in months, I’m getting close to a bigger settlement. After visiting Monemvasia, I got the feeling that visiting human-made sightseeing sites is not my favorite thing to do, but still, I thought that passing Corinth without visiting its famous sites, would be kind of stupid.

Half an hour before it closes down, I entered the ancient site of Corinth. I’m walking in between the old stones and especially the temple of Apollo impresses me. I’m enjoying visiting this place but I’m not sad that I have not much time left to check out all the ruins of this place. In my head, I notice something like a sense of duty. It’s weird. Like I have to be here. But of course, I know that I don’t. At one point I’m noticing that the mountain of Corinth with the ancient fortress of Corint on top of it, fascinates me the most. More than the ruins and by far more than the tourist restaurants and shops right next to the ancient site.

Before I have to leave the ancient site, I leave it and start driving Rosinante up the mountain. I take some offroad tracks and try different directions and in the end, I find an awesome spot to stay. After just a few minutes a young, cute stray dog approaches my little home area. He’s shy but looks very interested in what I’m doing. He looks hungry and so I’m taking a bit of the dog food I’m having with me and after a few minutes, he’s convinced that I’m a friend and I call him Erwin. From this moment on he stays at my little camp and follows me everywhere I go. When I’m sitting outside, Erwin lays beside me. We play around and take a walk. In the evening Erwin chooses a place under Rosinante as his sleeping spot. The next morning we take a morning run together and it turns out, that Erwin is a very good climber.

I’m thinking about what it would be like to have a permanent dog friend and travel companion with me.

Monemvasia: All this stuff just to protect from someone

It’s around mid of April 2022 and I’m doing some sightseeing in Monemvasia.

Essentially it’s a big rock and humans built a town in it. Yes, it’s more in than on it, I would say. It’s the first time on my journey, that I’m at a place where a lot of other people are around. Real, classic sightseeing at a pretty commercialized place. I’m walking through the small alleys, passing the souvenir shops and restaurants. They are cute but quickly I’m leaving the lower part and start climbing to the upper part of the big rock. From the above, I have a good overview and I’m thinking about how much effort it takes to build all this. And has there been a plan on how to build it or did they just start and over the centuries it came all together? And what had been their primary motivation? Did they build all this just to protect from someone?