Thessaloniki

From Velislava 🙂

Rhodes

 

Another lovely card from the lovely Milda. 🙂

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and also the island group’s historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes. The city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey.

Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Skiathos

Another postcard from my pen pal Mikaela who was on a holiday in Greece. 🙂

Skiathos is a small Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. It is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades group, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos.

The film Mamma Mia was partially filmed on Skiathos and nearby island Skopelos. This has increased its popularity as a tourist destination since the release of the successful movie.

Santorini #3

My third card from Santorini comes from my Scandinavian pen pal Mikaela. 🙂

Here are my other two Santorini cards: Santorini #1, Santorini #2 

Santorini: Daily life

This lovely Greek card comes from my pen pal Mikaela who went on a holiday there last year. Santorini is may be the most famous Greek island so it’s pointless to talk about it. I’ll just say this again: I just love, love, love cards that show something from the real life. 🙂

Crete Gramvousa

Here comes another beautiful Greek card from the lovely Milda who’s now at Crete. I’m so jealous of her! 😀

Gramvousa also Grampousa refers to two small uninhabited islands off the coast of north-western Crete in the regional unit of Chania.

Imeri Gramvousa, which translates to Tame Gramvousa, hosts the remains of a Venetian fort and the remains of buildings left behind by Cretan insurgents, who were compelled to live as pirates, during the Greek War of Independence. Today, Imeri Gramvousa is a popular tourist attraction.

Agria Gramvousa, which translates to Wild Gramvousa, is much less hospitable and is located due north of Imeri Gramvousa.

Fittingly, for an island that has accommodated pirates, there is a lagoon, named the Balos lagoon (shown on my postcard), between the island and the coast of Crete. There is an islet which forms part of a cape, through the lagoon, called Cap Tigani (which means “frying pan” in Greek). North of Balos, at the Korykon cape, are the ruins of the small ancient Roman city of Agnion, with a temple to the god Apollo.

Meteora

This card, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in my collection, comes from Milda. 🙂

The Metéora (lit. “middle of the sky”, “suspended in the air” or “in the heavens above” — etymologically related to “Meteorite”) is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron is the largest of the monasteries located at Metéora. It was erected in the mid-14th century and was the subject of restoration and embellishment projects in 1483 and 1552. The building serves as the main museum for tourists.

Olympic Flame

Yet another gorgeous postcard from Milda. 🙂

The Olympic flame is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. In contrast to the Olympic flame proper, the torch relay of modern times, which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games, had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

I (h) Greece

 

This Greek mapcard was sent to me by, of course, Milda. 😀

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Athens is the nation’s capital and largest city. Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of Ancient Greece, which is considered the cradle of all Western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama, including both tragedy and comedy. The cultural and technological achievements of Greece greatly influenced the world, with many aspects of Greek civilization being imparted to the East through Alexander the Great’s campaigns, and to the West through the Roman Empire. This rich legacy is partly reflected in the 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Greece, ranking it 7th in Europe and 13th in the world. The modern Greek state, which comprises much of the historical core of Greek civilization, was established in 1830 following the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Acropolis of Athens

 

And here comes another Greek postcard from Milda. 😀

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and containing the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, “edge, extremity”) and πόλις (polis, “city”). Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as “The Acropolis” without qualification.

While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the site’s most important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War when the Parthenon was being used for gunpowder storage and was hit by a cannonball.

Acropolis of Athens is inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.