This is Sparta

An average small town in the Greek provinces, with a glorious and heroic past but a rather uninteresting present (not so different than the rest of the country that is). It is not a popular travel destination either. You will pass through, if you are exploring the Peloponnesian region but I don’t think that many travellers stay there for long. You may have heard of it though. If not because you are an avid student of Ancient Greece’s history, then due to a movie.

The story of the 300 Spartans that stood against an army 100 times bigger than theirs, on an actual suicide mission, is one of the most epic moments of Ancient Greek's history. The movie 300, on the other hand, is an entertaining but rather ridiculous adaptation of a comic that was based on the original story. In short, the movie has very little to do with the real events or even the way people resembled in that era but it made the name Sparta known worldwide and the phrase "This is Sparta" a multi-quoted slogan!

I was there in the middle of the summer, in a time that most people, including the residents of the town, would prefer to be on the beach :)

The signs of the glorious past are limited in a few statues. Other than that it is a small pleasant town, where time passes slowly and calmly.

But when the night came and all the bars and the restaurants and the taverns and the coffee shops were open, a spark of liveliness lit the small town and the empty streets flooded with people ready to enjoy themselves :)

But as I said, it's just a typical Greek town :)

I took those pictures on 15/07/2011, when I was working as a photographer for a travel magazine. A job that allowed me to travel all over Greece and see all the places I ever wanted to see and some more that I never imagined I would be interested in (but I enjoyed them anyway).