I remember when my Greek friends were describing me Hellada for the first time, the mountainous landscape, the beaches, villages, clear waters of the seas and… theirs cities. It was much before my first ever visit to Greece. They were complaining a lot about narrow, dark and polluted streets, and lack of parks, green places, squares with trees. I was a little terrified with the picture they were describing… Fortunately they exaggerated a lot and I could be nicely surprised.
Patras indeed looks like having very few green spots at first. But after better and closer look, it seems only true for the center, and is getting much better just outside of it. The areas between marina and plaza, plaza itself and Dasulio, are the best example how wrong my friends were. All these spots are really nice and offer peaceful escape from crowded city streets full of traffic. Especially Dasulio is a place of choice, small forest area located on the hill northeast from the fortress. It offers lots of cool shadow from tall pine trees, very well prepared wide alleys for walking and jogging, and of course magnificent views in almost all directions, thanks to which, it took its nickname “the balcony of Patras Gulf”. It was exactly from this place, where I took panoramic photo of the city with Agios Andreas church.
The pine trees are a unique asset of the place. They were planted by students of local primary schools, high schools and university in March 1916, under supervision of Austrian forest specialist Steggel. Since then, Dasillio is a one of flagships of Patras, mentioned as a “much see” along with the fortress, amphitheatre and all Ano Poli. It is indeed refreshing walk there during 35C heat in the summer, where there are not many other places in Patras with so much pleasant shadow.
Photo: NIKON D70s, AP, f 1/8, 1/160s, -0.3EV, f=40 mm (for 35mm), GIMP software
Patras indeed looks like having very few green spots at first. But after better and closer look, it seems only true for the center, and is getting much better just outside of it. The areas between marina and plaza, plaza itself and Dasulio, are the best example how wrong my friends were. All these spots are really nice and offer peaceful escape from crowded city streets full of traffic. Especially Dasulio is a place of choice, small forest area located on the hill northeast from the fortress. It offers lots of cool shadow from tall pine trees, very well prepared wide alleys for walking and jogging, and of course magnificent views in almost all directions, thanks to which, it took its nickname “the balcony of Patras Gulf”. It was exactly from this place, where I took panoramic photo of the city with Agios Andreas church.
The pine trees are a unique asset of the place. They were planted by students of local primary schools, high schools and university in March 1916, under supervision of Austrian forest specialist Steggel. Since then, Dasillio is a one of flagships of Patras, mentioned as a “much see” along with the fortress, amphitheatre and all Ano Poli. It is indeed refreshing walk there during 35C heat in the summer, where there are not many other places in Patras with so much pleasant shadow.
Photo: NIKON D70s, AP, f 1/8, 1/160s, -0.3EV, f=40 mm (for 35mm), GIMP software
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