Etoliko is a historic city in western Greece built on an island in the middle of a lagoon.
Etoliko has described as Little Venice because of the wonderful environment in which it is.
Etoliko has neither the channels nor the impressive buildings of Venice, but it is a beautiful city Surrounded by water. A real paradise for photographers.
Dimitrios Asithianakis is a photographer and photography teacher. You can find him on Facebook Dimitrios Asithianakis.
This Sunday, January 18 was an interesting day. I was invited to the first presentation of Travel Bloggers Greece at Pallas Athena a Grecotel boutique hotel in the center of Athens.
During this first briefing Elena Sergeeva and Marissa Tejada the founders who had this wonderful idea explained to us in detail the objectives of Travel Bloggers Greece. Also the bloggers who attended the event we made a short presentation of our blogs. This was followed by lunch and a very pleasant conversation that helped us to know each other better. The first day of the presentation included an interesting limo tour but unfortunately some obligations forced me to leave after the lunch.
Travel Bloggers Greece is a non-profit networking group with a mission to promote the interests of travel bloggers that cover Greece as a travel destination. Travel Bloggers Greece also wants to educate about travel blogging, promote authentic travel and the most important for me increased awareness of Greek travel destinations. For all these gentle goals I decide from the first moment to participate as a full member.
More information: Travel Bloggers Greece
I visited once again the Metropolitan Expo Event Center for the Greek Tourism Expo an international Tourism Fair for Greek destinations. The weather was fine and I grab the opportunity to take some photos.
The Metropolitan Expo – Exhibition Center is the largest, most modern and functional venue for exhibitions, conferences and events in Athens, designed to the highest standards, ensuring thus functionality, flexibility and aesthetic integrity of facilities.
Metropolitan Expo building is located just 2 km after Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” in Spata, Attica. Although the exhibitors usually offer free transportation in their events, you can easily visit the venue in the same way someone can visit Athens International Airport.
Dimitrios Asithianakis is a photographer and a photography teacher. You can find him on Facebook Dimitrios Asithianakis.
Mykonos was an insignificant island in the Cyclades until it was discovered by travelers in the late 19th century as it was necessary for them to pass by en-route to the nearby and uninhabited Delos. Several decades passed and by the 1960s Mykonos had become the Mecca of the international jet set and even in more conservative times it had been a gay-friendly island.
Despite the development of tourism that Mykonos has seen in recent years, it still remains a stunningly beautiful island of the Cyclades. Sometimes, it can become a little intolerable because in fact there are a lot of people on the island especially during the summer, but there are always opportunities to explore Mykonos at a more relaxed pace besides high season.
What make’s Mykonos stand out is its unique atmosphere and the light that brings out the best colours of the Aegean, the colors of the sky and the sea, the dry Cycladic stones and the white-washed walls with their colorful window shutters.
On the south side of the Acropolis is located the remains of the ancient Theatre of Dionysus. In this area there was the sanctuary of Dionysus whose worshipers came from Eleutherae of Boeotia and for this reason he was called Dionysus Eleuthereus and was celebrated every year during the month of Elafivoliona in late March to early April, the Great Dionysia festivities were held in glorious celebration in honour of the god and was one of the most important festivals of ancient Athens. On this side of the Acropolis was created The Ancient Greek Theatre as a place of significance and all of the plays that were written during ancient times were to be shown firstly at the Theatre of Dionysus.
In the first years of its operation there were wooden stands in the Theatre of Dionysus. During the period of the archon Lycurgus, the Theatre was expanded using stone. It is estimated that at that time The Theatre of Dionysus could hold an audience capacity of more than 15,000 people. In the first series of rows there were 67 marble seats for the officials. This was the custom of Proedria (presidency) and each seat was inscribed with the name of the person for whom it was intended.
Over the subsequent centuries, the theatre was destroyed. For several years works of excavation, maintenance and restoration of the Theatre of Dionysus using materials similar to those used in ancient times has been in progress and the ancient theatre slowly returns to its original form. When you walk around the orchestra and the stands you are dominated by a sense of awe, when you think that here on this site, 2500 years ago, Theatre was born.
Arachova is a traditional mountain town in the region of Central Greece situated on the southern slopes of Mount Parnassus, where the most famous ski resort in Greece lies. 
Arachova thanks to its ski centre, the archaeological site and the museum of Delphi that are located a very short distance nearby has become one of the most popular travel destinations in Greece both during the winter and summer seasons. 
Arachova is surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery and can be used as a base for exploring the surrounding area, the town itself has an excellent tourist infrastructure, where you can also buy a lot of local traditional products. 
The Panathenaic Stadium is located on the site of the ancient stadium of Athens, which was rebuilt thanks to the orator Lycurgus in a private space that had been approved for the city by Deinias. The stadium was used for the first time during the celebration of the Great Panathenaia in 330-329 BC; it had the form of a classic ancient Greek stadium and would hold athletic games.
In Roman times, the orator and sophist Herodes, son of Atticus, spent much of his enormous assets on public works among them was the total renovation of the stadium. He changed its original shape of a rectangle with the addition of the semicircle that we see today, and installed seats for the spectators made of white Pentelic marble.
In the years that followed the stadium was destroyed and the marbles were used as building material. On the occasion of the organization of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and sponsored by a rich Greek benefactor George Averof, stadium was rebuilt from scratch following the form that it had had in the Roman era, again of white Pentelic marble, designed by the architect Anastasios Metaxas. That was the first time that the stadium was named Kallimarmaro (meaning “beautifully marbled”). So it took the form that it has today and we all admire it as one of the finest monuments of Athens.
The Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens is the impressive entrance to the Acropolis from the west side, built during the golden age of Pericles by the architect Mnesicles. It is believed that here also stood the gate of the Mycenaean Acropolis. All previous buildings were destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.
After the Persian wars, the buildings were reconstructed by Themistocles and Cimon. The Propylaea that we can see today belongs to the large reconstruction program that took place at the Acropolis during the Classical era, which unfortunately was interrupted by the Peloponnesian War. So the Propylaea were never completed.
The Propylaea is impressive in every respect of architecture and art, although it was not completed, Mnesicles passed into immortality along with Ictinus, Callicrates and Phidias the other architects and artists of the Acropolis. At the Propylaea of the Acropolis in a separate room was the very first gallery of the world. There were housed among others, paintings by Polygnotus.
* I usually take photos of the Acropolis from the west. This is the reason for my post title. Take a look at some photos from the other side.
