January 15th, 2008
Ancient gods made the right choice picking Ancient Hellas to permanently live in.
Greece… The country of gods and heroes, antique statues and picturesque relics, Olympic Games and olive trees… Archeologists and historians, philologists and art experts keep coming here from all over the world to become familiar with the epoch-making works of the ancient past.
But Greece is not only relics of the past but also a splendid country for you to have an unforgettable time in.
The celestials seem to have been the first to notice that Greece is an ideal place for heaven on earth. It has everything: marvelous wildernesses for nice recreation and breathtaking adventures (there are more than three thousand islands alone); delicious and healthy food and lashings of good wine. And, for sure, great deep blue sky, sunshine the year round, and boundless watery waste. Tourists from all over the world hurry to enjoy all thus. More than 11 million foreigners cross the border in a year which is equal to the population of Greece.
It is forecasted that this figure may grow substantially within the next two years. The reason of the expected tourist boom is justified by the 28th Olympic Games held at home of the Olympic movement. Attentive guides will remind you of this fact as soon as you find yourself in the brand-new Athens airport. It daily accommodates up to one hundred planes. Virtually, the airport is the first transferred Olympic site but for the white marble stadium opened as long ago as in 1896 when the first modern Olympics were held. However, the Greeks have not decided yet whether the stadium will host competitions, for it requires modernization, and the local protectors of historical monuments oppose it. Most probably, its arena will host only the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games.
Gourmets prefer to fetch along a couple of bottles of the famous Nemean wine as a reminder of Greece. It was here that Heracles performed his first labor having conquered the formidable Nemean lion. In our days, this valley is famous for its vineyards and wineries, and visiting them is a must for tourists from the adjacent resorts. After an hour’s testing, they recognize Greece as the best country in the world, and dance away the Greek dance sirtaki in the autobus on their way back.
Let us move from the road and gastronomic part of the story to the sightseeing one. So that we do not repeat ourselves in the description of historic monuments of ancient Hellas (Acropolis, Mycenae, Apollo’s temple in Delphi), we would like to draw our readers’ attention to the fact that, apart from the abovementioned sights, Greece has a number of places of no lesser interest.