LIFE & CULTURE
XpatAthens
Monday, 10 August 2015 07:00
Municipal Gallery Of Athens
The Municipal Gallery of Athens is one of a number of museums in Athens which are housed in more than one building. This can make it quite confusing in the sense of defining exactly what the museum and its exhibits are about. In the sense of the Municipal Gallery of Athens, it has both temporary and permanent exhibits featuring mainly Greek artists and work connected to Greece.
Building 1
This can be found at 51 Piraios Street on Eleftharias (Koumoundourou) Square. This was the original building of the Municipal Gallery of Athens and although it was closed down a few years ago when the new ones opened, it has re-opened again. The building itself is something of an architectural gem; dating back to the late 1800s.
At the time of the author's visit, the exhibition entitled "Athens - 180 years Capital of the Greek State" was showing. This was originally due to finish in May 2015, but was extended due to popularity. Inside were numerous paintings, some depicting modern art interpretations of the city with other more original ones.
To read more, please visit: Dave's Travel Pages
Published in
City Discovery
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Monday, 10 August 2015 07:00
Greece Ranks Third Worldwide In Blue Flag Beaches
395 Greek beaches and 9 marinas won the international quality Blue Flag award this year, putting Greece in third place worldwide among 50 countries, according to the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (EEPF).
The announcement was made during an EEPF press conference in Katerini. EEPF is the national operator of the International Blue Flags program in Greece, in cooperation with the Pieria Hoteliers Association.
According to EEPF, the Blue Flag is the most recognizable and popular international symbol of quality in the world. Since 1987 the award has been given to beaches and marinas that meet the strict award criteria. The beaches not only need to have excellent quality bathing waters. They also need to meet 32 criteria, which refer to cleanliness, organization, information, swimmer and visitor safety, protection of the natural wealth of the beach and coastal area, as well as environmental awareness.
The founder and international coordinator of the program is the Denmark-based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), with 63 member-countries from all continents. In Greece, FEE is represented by EEPF, the oldest environmental organization in the country, founded in 1951, which organizes active environmental interventions, actions and nature conservation projects.
To read more and see a list of Blue Flag beaches, please visit Greek Reporter.
Published in
Local News
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Friday, 07 August 2015 07:00
Power Bill Dodgers Being Watched
New monitoring software introduced by the Public Power Corporation (PPC) to separate freeloaders taking advantage of the imposition of capital controls to avoid paying their bills from consumers who genuinely cannot afford to settle their debts, made some interesting revelations within just the first month of operation.
According to the findings of the SAP system that were made public recently, PPC located at least 20 luxury villas in the Attica area that have not paid their electricity bills over several months, including one that owes the state-owned company 35,000 euros in arrears dating back to 2011 but which had filed for protection from being cut off even though the residents continued to heat the swimming pool.
On the islands, the SAP system singled out 20 businesses, most of them hotels, that owe a combined total in excess of 4 million euros to PPC. Among them is a 5-star resort that reported 100 percent occupancy in the summer season but which has not paid its last 12 electricity bills, running up arrears of 220,000 euros.
To read more, please visit: ekathimerini
To read more, please visit: ekathimerini
Published in
Local News
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Thursday, 06 August 2015 07:00
Serendipity Magazine - 5th Issue
Serendipity Magazine explores artist expression. In this fifth issue, Serendipity explores how various media is utilized by artists. Inside you'll discover interviews with authors, artists and sculptors as well as a variety of interesting guest articles.
Published in
Greek Language & Culture
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Wednesday, 05 August 2015 07:00
Power And Pathos Review: Once-In-A-Lifetime Look At Greek Bronze Sculptures
With loans from 34 museums in 12 countries, this exhibition at the Getty Center in Los Angeles includes ancient treasures never before assembled in one place.
On the Greek Isle of Rhodes a 30-meter bronze statue of their patron god Helios, famously known as the Colossus, watched over the harbor for more than 50 years, until it was felled by an earthquake in 226BC. Ptolemy III offered to rebuild it, but the oracle of Delphi said the people had offended Helios, and the bronze fragments remained where they lay for 800 years before they were hauled away.
No one knows where the Colossus stood or what it even looked like, which can be said of the vast majority of Greek bronzes from the period marked by the end of Alexander’s reign in 323BC to the beginning of the Roman empire. Colossus sculptor Chares of Lindos was a student of Lysippos – Alexander’s court sculptor –and was regarded as the finest in the medium, yet of his 1,500 works, none have survived.
Today, fewer than 200 large-scale bronzes of the era remain, and 47 of them are on display in Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. With loans from 34 museums in 12 countries, this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition includes numerous national treasures never before assembled in one place. The show stops in three cities only: it went to Florence in March, and travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC this December.
“It’s two terms that are meant to distill what Hellenistic sculpture is about. Ruler culture emerges as a genre in this period,” is how Getty curator of antiquities Jens Daehner explains the show’s title. Co-curator Kenneth Lapatin adds: “Pathos in Greek means a kind of lived experience, as opposed to the ideal figures.”
That last remark is part of what separates Hellenistic bronzes from their predecessors. Where earlier archaic and classical subjects were mainly mythical figures and demigods presented in idealized form, the Getty show features everyday people, noblemen, artisans and athletes, reflecting a new political reality framed by Alexander and his successors. Most finds are in secondary and tertiary locations, separate from their original bases describing the work. As such, the figures represented are mostly anonymous civic leaders, wealthy patrons, fellow citizens and the deceased.
To read more, please visit: The Guardian
Published in
Greece In The News
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Tuesday, 04 August 2015 07:00
U.S. Lawyer Returns To His Grandfather's Birth Island To Make Olive Oil
When Stratis Camatsos decided to move back to his home country, Greece, with his wife and child, amidst one of the worst financial crisis that it has and is still enduring, people thought that he was crazy. Where others saw insanity, Stratis saw opportunity, one that would combine family tradition with giving back to society. Thus, he went to work to bring to life and share with others his family’s love for olive oil.
Stratis comes from a family of farmers— his grandfather harvested olives and made olive oil, as was his father, who also returned to Greece after emigration to the United States, to pursue and continue his passion of olive farming.
“The idea was,” Stratis told The Pappas Post, “to not only bottle our quality extra virgin olive oil, but also to make a little different that would give something back to society and the environment. Therefore, I proceeded to make a social enterprise, the first Greek olive oil to do so. Our concept is that for every bottle sold, we plant a tree in a deforested area in Africa.
The result was evoᶾ, and idea of evolution, environment and experience. A love of labor which embodied history and service, evoᶾ is a story. A prefix for evolution, it is something that gives rise to the birth of a new concept, of an olive oil with a social cause.
However, the story actually begins on the island of Lesvos during World War II, where Ioannis Kamatsos, farmer and father of five and Stratis’ grandfather, bore the winters and fought off starvation to produce olive oil, his most precious commodity. He would load his oil onto a small fishing boat in the middle of the night, crossing the Aegean Sea to the mainland, evading German and Italian soldiers, risking his life for his family, to trade his valuable olive oil for enough food and supplies to keep them alive during the harsh times of the war. The oil had saved himself and his family.
His son, George Camatsos, bore his own journey, immigrating to the United States by himself when he became of legal age, trading his father’s olive trees for knowledge in medicine. After 27 years in the United States, his return to his native island brought an intense desire to pick up where his father had left off. George put every ounce of his passion to reinvigorate his olive trees and to continue producing the valuable juice of the olive. Transforming the production to organic cultivation using sustainable methods, he also continued to use the traditional methods that he had learned from his father. This knowledge is now being passed on to his youngest son, Stratis.
evoᶾ is different from the rest of the olive oils in the market, not only because of its high quality, but also because of the environmental and social cause behind it. The heart of evoᶾ is its concept. For every bottle sold, a tree will be planted in a deforested area in Africa – specifically in Ethiopia and Madagascar. These areas are incredibly impoverished, thus by employing locals to plant and further take care of the trees, new employment opportunities are also created. Furthermore, allowing parents to be able to earn a decent wage, they become able to afford to send their children to school and get an education and thereby protect them from falling into forced child labor to survive. After planting and careful monitoring, their land becomes fertile for farming with a sustainable ecosystem.
To read more, please visit: Pappas Post
Stratis comes from a family of farmers— his grandfather harvested olives and made olive oil, as was his father, who also returned to Greece after emigration to the United States, to pursue and continue his passion of olive farming.
“The idea was,” Stratis told The Pappas Post, “to not only bottle our quality extra virgin olive oil, but also to make a little different that would give something back to society and the environment. Therefore, I proceeded to make a social enterprise, the first Greek olive oil to do so. Our concept is that for every bottle sold, we plant a tree in a deforested area in Africa.
The result was evoᶾ, and idea of evolution, environment and experience. A love of labor which embodied history and service, evoᶾ is a story. A prefix for evolution, it is something that gives rise to the birth of a new concept, of an olive oil with a social cause.
However, the story actually begins on the island of Lesvos during World War II, where Ioannis Kamatsos, farmer and father of five and Stratis’ grandfather, bore the winters and fought off starvation to produce olive oil, his most precious commodity. He would load his oil onto a small fishing boat in the middle of the night, crossing the Aegean Sea to the mainland, evading German and Italian soldiers, risking his life for his family, to trade his valuable olive oil for enough food and supplies to keep them alive during the harsh times of the war. The oil had saved himself and his family.
His son, George Camatsos, bore his own journey, immigrating to the United States by himself when he became of legal age, trading his father’s olive trees for knowledge in medicine. After 27 years in the United States, his return to his native island brought an intense desire to pick up where his father had left off. George put every ounce of his passion to reinvigorate his olive trees and to continue producing the valuable juice of the olive. Transforming the production to organic cultivation using sustainable methods, he also continued to use the traditional methods that he had learned from his father. This knowledge is now being passed on to his youngest son, Stratis.
evoᶾ is different from the rest of the olive oils in the market, not only because of its high quality, but also because of the environmental and social cause behind it. The heart of evoᶾ is its concept. For every bottle sold, a tree will be planted in a deforested area in Africa – specifically in Ethiopia and Madagascar. These areas are incredibly impoverished, thus by employing locals to plant and further take care of the trees, new employment opportunities are also created. Furthermore, allowing parents to be able to earn a decent wage, they become able to afford to send their children to school and get an education and thereby protect them from falling into forced child labor to survive. After planting and careful monitoring, their land becomes fertile for farming with a sustainable ecosystem.
To read more, please visit: Pappas Post
Published in
People
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Monday, 03 August 2015 07:00
Monemvasia - A Greek Castle Town
Travel Passionate shares with us her experience of this unique Greek castle town in the Southern Peloponnese.
The South Peloponnese region of Greece has many beautiful places worth visiting. One of them is Monemvasia. At 280km from Athens, it's possible to reach Monemvasia by KTEL, the public bus network, or car - of course.
Old Monemvasia Town lies on a big rock jutting out to sea, connected to land by a small bridge. A whole town of castles, cobbled streets, mansions, squares and churches unfolds before your eyes, Inside the fortress's wall, you'll see one of the best preserved castles in Greece.
The main road starting at the entrance offers many restaurants, bars, shops and boutique hotels to choose from - all housed within preserved buildings.
In the main square, Monemvasia is dominated by an old cannon and the church of Elkomenos Christos and a 16th Century mosque that's home to the town's archiological collection.
To read more, please visit: Travel Passionate
Published in
Travel Greece
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Monday, 03 August 2015 07:00
Larissa Goes "Green" With First Wooden Solar-Powered Charging Bench
Dimitris Chaidas, an industrial designer and lab assistant at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly in Karditsa, Greece, has designed the first wooden solar-powered charging bench.
Chaidas’ innovative creation, having a small but powerful photovoltaic system on its roof, can charge smartphones, tablets and other gadgets through its two USB ports.
The wooden solar-powered bench, which allows visitors to rest on it while they ecologically charge their “smart” devices using renewable solar energy, has been temporarily placed at Larissa’s Municipal Swimming Pool.
To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter
Published in
Local News
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Thursday, 30 July 2015 07:00
Spanakopita Tarts With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
A fabulous summer dish.
Ingredients
- 450g (3 cups) plain flour
- 250g chilled butter, cut into 2cm pieces
- 40g (1/2 cup) shredded pecorino or parmesan
- 2 x 240g packets small cherry trussed tomatoes
- Olive oil spray
- 1 egg
- 2-3 tablespoons chilled water
Filling
- 250g packet frozen chopped spinach, thawed
- 400g full cream feta, crumbled
- 300g fresh ricotta
- 3 shallots - trimmed, thinly sliced
- 2 tablesppons chopped fresh dill
- 3 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
- 6 eggs, lightly whisked
If this has temped you, go to Taste.com to see the Method for making this dish.
Published in
Greek Food & Diet
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Thursday, 30 July 2015 07:00
DNA Study Shows When Ancient Greeks Colonized Italy
Magna Graecia is the name of the coastal areas of southern Italy and Sicily that were extensively populated by Greek settlers. The settlers brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, such as in the culture of ancient Rome.
Now, an international team of scientists published a study in the European Journal of Human Genetics claiming that they were able to determine when and how Italy and Sicily were colonized by Greeks, through DNA analysis.
“There are scenarios ranging from a colonization process based on small groups of males moderately mixing with indigenous groups to substantial migrations from Greece and a Hellenic origin for a significant part of the pre-Roman Italian population,” noted lead author Sergio Tofanelli and his colleagues.
To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter
Now, an international team of scientists published a study in the European Journal of Human Genetics claiming that they were able to determine when and how Italy and Sicily were colonized by Greeks, through DNA analysis.
“There are scenarios ranging from a colonization process based on small groups of males moderately mixing with indigenous groups to substantial migrations from Greece and a Hellenic origin for a significant part of the pre-Roman Italian population,” noted lead author Sergio Tofanelli and his colleagues.
To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter
Published in
Greece In The News
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