Athens

The city with the most glorious history in the world, a city worshipped by gods and people, a magical city. The enchanting capital of Greece has always been a birthplace for civilization. It is the city where democracy was born and most of the wise men of ancient civilization of ancient world flourished in Athens.
Who hasn’t heard of the Acropolis of Athens? Photos and history of the most archaelogical monument in Europe have made the world tour causing feelings of admiration by thousands of people. Acropolis is nominated to be one of the seven wonders of the Modern World. In fact, the trademark of Athens is one of the favourites. The Holy Rock of Acropolis dates back to the 5th BC, the famous Golden Age of Periklis.
The Propylaea are the monumental entrances to the sacred area dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city. Built by the architect Mnesicles with Pentelic marble, their design was avant-garde. To the South West of the Propylae, on a rampart protecting the main entrance to the Acropolis is the Ionian Temple of Apteros Nike. The inscrptions on the numerous and precious offerings to the sanctuary of Athena (marble korai, bronze and clay statuettes and vases) indicate that the cult of the city’s patron goddess was established as early as the Archaic period (650- 480 BC)
Athens met times of bloom and decline, but still shines under the Attic sky gazing the future. Still sparlkling like the marbles of the Parthenon and the limpid white of Pentelic marble.
Athens is situated in the prefecture of Attica and extends to the Peninsula that reaches up to the Central Greece. It is surrounded by mountains. The sun is shining over Athens all year round.
Athens is constantly inhabited since Neolithic Age. The 5th century was the time of its ultimate bloom, when moral values and civilization surpassed city limits and became the mother land of western civilization.
In the centuries that followed, many conquerors tried to take over Athens. In 1834 Athens was chosen to be the capital of the newly established Greek State.
The city that now hosts more than 4,5 million people was constructed around the Acropolis walls. Today is the political, social, cultural, financial and commercial center of Greece.
Athens is a city of different aspects. Plaka, the old neighbourhoods, reveal the coexistence of different eras. Old mansions, well-preserved one and other worn down by time. Luxurious department stores and small intimate shops, fancy restaurants and traditional taverns. The heart of Athens beats in Syntagma Square where Parliament and most of the ministries are. Monastiraki, Kolonaki and Lycabettus Hill are also there. Athens and Attica in general have the most important archaelogical monuments (Acropolis, Odeion of Herodes Atticus, Olymbion, Roman Market, Panathinaiko Stadium, the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio)
In the capital you will admire many imposing neoclassic buildings, true ornaments of the city (the Greek Parliament, Athens Academy and University) and the museums of our cultural inheritance (Archaelogical Museum, Military Museum, Byzantine Museum)


Homer (ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος, Homēros) is an ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The ancient Greeks generally believed that Homer was a historical individual, but some modern scholars are skeptical: no reliable biographical information has been handed down from classical antiquity. According to Martin West, "Homer" is "not the name of a historical poet, but a fictitious or constructed name."[1] The poems are now widely regarded as the culmination of a long tradition of orally composed poetry, but the way in which they reached their final written form, and the role of an individual poet, or poets, in this process is disputed. By the reckoning of scholars like Geoffrey Kirk, both poems were created by an individual genius who drew much of his material from various traditional stories. Others, like Martin West, hold that the epics were composed by a number of poets. Gregory Nagy maintains that the epics are not the creation of any individual; rather, they slowly evolved towards their final form over a period of centuries and, in this view, are the collective work of generations of poets.
The date of Homer was controversial in antiquity and is no less so today. Herodotus said that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at about 850 BC;[2] but other ancient sources gave dates much closer to the Trojan War.[3] For modern scholarship, "the date of Homer" refers to the date of the poems' conception as much as to the lifetime of an individual. The scholarly consensus is that "the Iliad and the Odyssey date from the extreme end of the 9th century BC or from the 8th, the Iliad being anterior to the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades."[4],i.e. somewhat earlier than Hesiod[5], and that the Iliad is the oldest work of western literature. Over the past few decades, some scholars have been arguing for a 7th-century date. Those who believe that the Homeric poems developed gradually over a long period of time, however, generally give a later date for the poems: according to Nagy, they only became fixed texts in the 6th century.[6]
Alfred Heubeck states that the formative influence of the works of Homer in shaping and influencing the whole development of Greek culture was recognised by many Greeks themselves, who considered him to be their instructor.[7]

Christchurch (eng)

Christchurch is a very special city. A wealth of attractions, festivals, entertaiment, heritage and culture combine to make it a wonderful place to live, work and spend time.
Its Maori name is OTAUTHAI. Legends tell of early tribes who arrived by land or canoe of the Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and, later, Ngai Tahu of Tautohi, one of the Ngai Tahu chiefs who built his “pa” more than 200 years ago on the banks of the Otakaro (Avon River.)
By the time, European settlement began in the 1840’s, no more than 500 lived in Canterbury, as a result of fierce confrontations with the Northern Maori tribes. It was with their assistance that the first European colonists received food and shelter.
The city of Chirstchurch today is New Zealand’s third largest city. It is a city built for people, known as the Garden City. At its centre are the expansive Hagley Park and the Avon River. Christchurch lies on the edge of the New Zealand largest plain, bounded to the East by the Pacific coastline and the hills of Banks Peninsula and looking inwards to the mountains of the Southern Alps.
The early British colonists dreamed of establishing a Church of England settlement and their success is most evident in Cathedral Square, dominated by the Christchurch Cathedral. This place is a busy pedestrian area, well known for its market days and fruit and flowres vendors.
Old stone buildings nestle beside modern shopping malls and high-rise office blocks, and it is this combination of the new and the historical that give Christchurch its unique character. The Canterbury Provincial Government Buildings are an example of High Victorian architecture. Nearly stands the Bridge of Remembrance, a proud monument to the soldiers of World War.
New Regent St., a faithfully restored, pinturesque Spanish colonial styled mall is lined with cafés to suit all tastes. New Regent St. is a major feature of the 2,5 km. tram route that operates around the centre of Christchurch.
Worcester Boulevard features attractions such the Antigua Boatsheds, the Robert Mc Dougall Art Gallery and the Canterbury Museum. Across the road from the museum is the Arts Centre, formerly the site of the University of Christchurch.
In the Christchurch Botanical Gardens you will find the finest single collection of exotic and indigenous plants in New Zealand. The gardens cover 30 hectares and feature broad walking tracks, attractive vistas, floral features, trees, conservatories and statues encompassed by the Avon River.
Across the river you will find Hagley Park, which covers 161 hectares and was declared a public reserve in 1856.

I remember now my few days in Christchurch and I know that each day that I spent there, there was something fresh for me to experience. Around every corner there were new surprises. Each day was a new and different adventure. But the most important memory that I brought in my heart was the beautiful banks of the Avon River, where I spent a lot of hours reading, relaxing, writing and missing my faraway children, in not a very good time. It gave me the peace and the serenity for continuing with a better and hopeful life.

Prague (eng)

I turn you in my fingers like amethyst. But no. I only have to walk about and, as though through a magic mirror of dusted crystal, which is Prague itself, I see a man, his expression all excitement, a man whose fate is to find himself and wander, a man whose fate is to find himself through wandering.
Vitezslav Nezval (Walker of Prague)

For a thousand years stories have been told in Prague, magical, mysterious, romantic legends, stories of love and adventure. The foundation of Prague New Town is one of them:

Once of an evening the Bohemian king and Roman emperor of the House of Premyslides, Charles IV, sat by the window of Prague Castle and he and all his company gazed at the city, lovely in the light of early evening. Snow had touched the roofs with silver and the blanched beauty of the town was borne up to the castle windows.
The Bohemian king looked with delight at the capital city of his kingdom, prophesying its glory, as the Princess Libuse, his ancestress, had done. Then he invited the astrologer to speak too about the future of Prague. The astrologer remained a moment in melancholy silence and then spoke.
“If you command me to speak, my king, I will tell you what I know – but rather would I offer you – reconsider your request…”
The king repeated it.
“The fate of this city is written in the stars above our heads. In them, as in silver letters, its whole future is written and this sparkling inscrption, my king, bodes no good… Behold, the town below the castle, the Little Quarter, will be consumed by fire, look across the river to the Old Town – it will be destroyed by floods. The whole of Prague – so it is written in the stars, will perish…”
The Bohemian king was silent for a while, reflecting.
Then he looked round at his frightened listeners and said:
“You are wrong, astrologer. My beloved Prague will not perish. Perhaps what yoy say you read in silver letters on the sky will come about. But I shall found a New Town of Prague, I shall found it above the Old Town of Prague – and that town, you shall know, will not perish!”
And straightway he told his guests what the New Town that he would found would look like, where it would start and how far it would reach, where its gates would be – and his guests were amazed at the magnificence and magnanimity of the town that the king had dreamt up.