Mount Parnitha

Our little family of four (I'm counting the dog, this is not a pregnancy announcement), trekked to Mount Parnitha this afternoon. Trekked is my term for "drove up the mountain in our car."

Mount Parnitha is the highest mountain in the Attica region. It's a short drive outside of Athens. The mountain houses a national park, a gondola to a casino, and a creepy, old, burned out sanitarium. There are gorgeous pine trees that smell like the forest section of a haunted house, and really pretty overlooks. I want to go back and hike sometime.

Near the casino.

Also near the casino. The outside of the casino is ugly. I don't know about the inside. I refused to photograph the building.

There was a massive forest fire on the mountain in 2007. It destroyed a lot, including an old sanitarium where they used to house TB patients from the city. The burned out building is still there--and said to be haunted. Across the road from it is an art installation carved into burned tree trunks that were found on the property after the fire. The artist said he was trying to evoke the horrible emotions of the place.

We didn't know any of this until about ten minutes ago when I googled it. We saw the burned out building, went, "Huh, ugly," then saw the creepy statues across the street.

This installation is called "The Park of the Souls."

Those storm clouds in the background hit as we were leaving the mountain. We stopped at an overlook to see the valley, but the view wasn't great through the rain.

The rain is also why Phil looks like an angel in this photo. Or maybe he's being haunted by one of the souls from the old hospital. 

Here's what the storm did in the valley:

Mount Parnitha is pretty. I'm going back.