Solen skiner i Karlstad

(photo by kaisla @ pbase)

The Swedes have an expression: "Hon skiner som solen i Karlstad", "she shines like the sun in Karlstad", to describe someone whose face radiates joy. Karlstad and the greater Värmland area has breathtaking vistas of majestic forests and calm lakes, so when the sun shines there on a crisp day it is the paragon of pastoral beauty.

The sun over Karlstad was the first thing that came to my mind upon awakening today, the second day of winter. The skies were clear, the air was crisp and it was the perfect opportunity for a walk, a haphazard wandering about my neighbourhood that would eventually bring me to the Syggros Estate (with the slight risk of my becoming roadkill on Kifissias Ave.).

I am fortunate enough to live in an area of Maroussi that is residential and not metropolitan in character. As it is, one can still find traces of the old days, when people would consider going for a picnic by the streams at Maroussi or Kifissia as a weekend getaway. (Ακόμα και τώρα γελάω με την "Κάλπικη Λίρα", όταν ο Λογοθετίδης λέει ότι το Ψυχικό είναι "ερημιές" ή "στου διαόλου τη μάνα" - δεν θυμάμαι ακριβώς...)








(για πόσο ακόμα θα αντιστεκεται η περιοχή; Σε πόσο καιρό η Κυψέλη θα φτάσει στην Ανθούσα;)

And then, there is the Syggrou Estate, left in a hazy status since the death of Ifigenia Syggrou, the heiress of Andreas Syggros, a Greek mogul of the late 19th century. Several acres of prime real estate open to the public, openly coveted by each and every major construction corporation in Greece, are a real oasis of calm next to one of the busiest streets in Europe


















(pics taken this morning)




The Estate sports two very interesting buildings : Syggros' villa and the chapel of St. Andrew, one of the very few, if not the only, chapels in Greece built in a gothic-neogothic style.
























A few paces later however the vision was shattered... looming at the skyline above the trees... the eyesore that is the Microsoft Kifissias building . It takes only one second for the calm to vanish. Another pitiful corporate office building, like all those other corporation buildings that rise along that congested and laughable wanna-be imitation of downtown Manhattan that is Kifissias Ave today...



Deplorable.
We have more sunshine than Sweden. We have clearer skies, at least as far as precipitation is concerned. Does the sun however shine upon us like in Karlstad?
Don't ask me. I know where I'm going for my month-long vacations each summer. Ask those who spend the hot July days in their ridiculous cubicles poring over data sheets, management reports, sales assessments, network traffic and so on.
Ask all those pitiful corporate slaves that jam Kifissias with their cars, when was the last time they had a vacation without having to hang by the cellphone, ready to be recalled at any minute. Ask them if they remember when was the last time they relaxed by the cliffs over the sea, listening to church bells tolling to hail a passing liner.

Ask them when was their last time they stretched their legs,after a day of rowing and fishing, by Iso Lohijärvi.
Go ahead. Ask them...
Pathetic creatures....