Money can buy anything (?)

Imagine that you have more money than your country, that you can buy anything you want and do anything you like but you don't have a heir to pass on your fortune and most of your fellow citizens think that your a ruthless, deceitful, son of a bitch.

What can you do with all that money?

Andreas Syngros (12 October 1830 – 13 February 1899) found himself in this position and decided to buy himself a good name. And for the man that invented the stock fraud before the existence of the stock market itself, he did pretty good.

After all, money can buy anything, can't they?

According to the official Greek history he is a national benefactor, almost a hero. He had a funeral that would fit to a king, his name is on one of the biggest highways of Athens, a hospital and in the case of my pictures today, a small forest!

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't have foreseen the advent of internet so that he can buy himself a good name in the online world too :)

The mansion in the picture above is one of his properties that were donated after his (and his wife) death, along with the estate around it, that is now called Syngrou forest.

The truth is that no matter how it ended up as a public space, it is a lovely place to walk, in a city that has a severe shortage of parks and urban green spaces. And that's exactly what I did, a long relaxing walk, enjoying the good wether and the presence of trees!

Except for the mansion there are a few more buildings in the estate that are now housing, among others, an institute, a school and a museum, while some others has been left unused and abandoned. My favourite one is this little house in the picture below, just as I would imagine that a house should be, cute, small and surrounded by trees :)

I liked that fallen sign with the word exit on it, pointing to the sky. Kind of metaphysical don't you think?

I forgot to mention that I wasn't alone, my canine friend was with me. Can you spot him in the picture below?

Look for a black figure in the shadow :)

In the last picture you can see the statue of the man in question and the church that lies next to his mansion.

This is my walk from Sunday when I visited Athens for a few days and my contribution to the #wednesdaywalk challenge, a great initiative, hosted by @tattoodjay :)