Riff raff and lots of laugh with Aussies, Graussies and anyone who loves Australia

 

Beers, cocktails, shots and the best burgers in town from Bullseye Burgers

 

Kappatos Gallery in collaboration with the non-profit organization Pantheon presents the exhibition titled “Performance Rooms 2019." Now entering its third decade ROOMS is an event which was first organised in 1999. This year, nineteen curators present performers from the visual arts as well as other artistic fields such as theatre, dance, music and multimedia in the rooms of a hotel. Each room will host a live performance for the four-day duration of the exhibition, which will be open to the public for three hours every day starting Thursday 24 January until Sunday 27 January from 19:00-22:00.

The exhibition aims to systematically present and record contemporary trends and propositions in the artistic field of performance, both in theory and practice. It also aspires to create an essential and fruitful dialogue between the participants, in continuation of previous Rooms events, which have contributed in promoting a large number of artists and curators.

The exhibition is of a non-profit mentality and will take place at the rooms of the St. George Lycabettus Hotel at Deksameni Square (Kleomenous 2, Kolonaki, Athens).

Participating Artists: Marilena Aligizaki, Katerina Drakopoulou, GAAM (Konstantinos Gkarametsis) and Anna Papathanasiou, Maria Galazoula, Giannis Gardiklis, Vera Iona (Papadopoulou) and Eliza Krikoni, Roula Karaferi, Spyros Kouvaras, Giorgos Nikopoulos, Artemis Orfanidou, Evgenia Papageorgiou, Iro Papakosta, Marios Stamatis, Vasilis Skarmoutsos and Foteini Alexopoulou, Antigoni Theodorou, Thodoris Trampas, Eleni Tsamadia, Evtixia Tzanetoulakou, ZS Ensemble.

Participating Curators: Domna Gounari, Dio Kaggelari, Nasia Kalamaki, Dora Kechagia, Francesco Kiàis, Alkistis-Maria Kontopoulou, Macklin Kowal, Maria Maragou, Valentini Margaritopoulou, Dimitra Marini, Christina Mot, Simoni Niarou, Vasiliki-Maria Plavou, Nikoleta Prepi, Irini Savvani, Marianna Strapatsaki, Lina Tsikouta, Evtixia (Faye) Tzanetoulakou, Antonis Volanakis, Maria Xypolopoulou.

Escape rooms or escape games have rapidly become a huge entertainment trend throughout the world. The first escape game was developed in Kyoto, Japan in 2007. Escape rooms are physical adventure games in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategies in order to complete the game’s objective and escape within a specified time limit.

Heading to an escape room is a great way to have fun with your group of friends or family; it's also an excellent way to pump back the motivation into your team. Do something different after work, put your skills to the test, and bond as a team in one of the numerous escape rooms in Athens.

 

Exit Plan Escape Rooms

Exit Plan, one of our favorite escape venues in Athens, is located in Agios Dimitrios right next to the Athens Metro Mall. They offer three different escape rooms, two of which also cater for English speaking players. The 'Dark Side of Elements’ has been ranked #1 escape room in Athens by avid escapers from around Greece. So, gather a group of 2 to 6 players and head to Exit Plan to think, unlock, open, have fun, and escape!

 

To find out more about escape rooms in Athens and their rankings, please visit: The Escapers

 

During the past, few years the number of people in Greece that appreciate and look for smoke-free places is constantly increasing. Since the idea of smoke-free venues (cafes, bars and restaurants) has become pretty much mainstream, a small group of volunteers have created a website that aims to encourage and accelerate this smoke-free trend.



If you want to discover a restaurant or bar in your area where smoking is not allowed indoors, all you need to do is check out their ever-growing list of smoke free venues.

Are you ready to become your most authentically confident, clear, emotionally and mentally strong you? Well then, you are just 12-weeks away from your best year, yet! 

XpatAthens contributor, Eleni Meraki of Guts & Tales, has been cooking up another inspiring platform called Be Your Own Muse that is a 12-week online coaching program designed for women.

Eleni tells us that BYOM is the biggest professional accomplishment of her life so far. She's never felt more proud, strong, committed and excited about anything else before. For Eleni personally, the last 3 years have been quite a ride, from her own career and life change, including her emigration to Greece, it’s been a journey of many changes, many fears, and innumerable obstacles to overcome – continuous falling and getting up again.

We’d like to invite you to join women from all around the planet, to take part in a 12-week program that will truly impact your life. The program will take you through 12 themes that step-by-step will get you to exactly where you need to take you, to being your own muse.

The themes you’ll explore are carefully curated to tackle the issues and questions that many women are faced with today, including:

• Being authentic.
• Managing your thoughts.
• Believing in yourself, no matter what.
• Navigating your feelings and emotions.
• Living a balanced life.
• Maintaining a positive mindset.
• Be present and patient.

The program is very clearly structured and easy-to-follow. You’ll receive one email a day with something to read, watch, listen or do. Each day of the entire program can be done while drinking your morning coffee or on your morning commute - it will take just 5 to 20 minutes of you time per day. The content is a perfect mix of practical tools, theory, inspiration and motivation with a touch of practical coaching, psychology, (neuro) science and philosophy.

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About the creator of the Be Your Own Muse program:

 

Eleni Meraki is a life coach, trainer, hypnotherapist, writer and founder of the storytelling platform Guts & Tales. Learn more about the BYOM team here.

Great news for Greek citizens and expats as the Citizens Service Centers (KEP) are about to fully digitize their services. In 2019, Citizens Service Centres will be able to provide faster and more efficient services that will require the least possible presence to conclude transactions.

 

It is worth noting that in 2017, out of a total of 8,519,381 cases handled by Citizens Service Centres throughout the country, more than half were processed electronically.

 

According to the general secretary of the Public Administration Ministry “the upgrading of KEP infrastructure will allow all citizens to electronically handle public administration issues and issue any required documents quickly, easily and safely without the need for printing or copying.”

 

“The modernization of services and infrastructure will contribute to reducing the time spent in serving the citizens and cutting down on bureaucracy. The centres will operate based on the principle of “only once”, meaning that information and data submitted to public authorities are not required to be submitted again. That is, supporting documents will be submitted only once, and from then on, the Public Administration is obliged to search for them and provide them when requested.”

To read this article in full, please visit: The Greek Observer

A mouthwatering veggie dish, that will amaze you. An extraordinary combination of juicy, salty fried feta covered with crispy, golden-brown sesame seeds with sweet honey sauce! Quick and easy to prepare, this dish will definitely become your favorite appetizer!

 

Fried feta with honey is a delicious meze that has it’s origins in Cretan cuisine, where one can find lots of recipes that combine salty cheese with sweet, or sour-sweet honey sauces.

• 250g feta cheese (9 ounces)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp of paprika
• 1 tsp of freshly ground pepper
• 70-80g of flour, enough to coat the feta (3 ounces)
• 160g sesame seeds
• Olive oil for frying
• 4 tbsps of honey

To view the full recipe, please visit: My Greek Dish

Photo Credit: My Greek Dish

* Update: January 22, 2019

Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached the Australian Open Semi Finals this morning, after winning the match against Roberto Bautista Agut.

 

Over the years, Tsitsipas has pored over Federer’s highlights on YouTube, both to admire his level and see how the Swiss’ opponents tried to attack him.

 

So, in a way Tsitsipas’ first ATP Head2Head match against Federer, in the fourth round of the Australian Open, was surreal; beating Federer in four sets for the biggest win of his life, a dream come true. “I just managed to close that match and stay strong, beat my idol,” Tsitsipas said. “My idol today became pretty much my rival.”

 

Stefanos' victory over one of the most celebrated tennis players of all time has brought him to the Australian Open quarter finals, where he will play against Roberto Bautista Agut on Tuesday January 22.

 

Roger Federer himself praised the work that Stefanos has put in the past couple of years, pointing out his wins over Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson as signs of his progress. “That's what you need to do to get to the next level. He's doing that. It's really nice for him,” Federer said. “I see him definitely being high up in the game for a long time. That was a good night for him tonight.”

 

 

To read more, please visit: ATP Tour

Kappatos gallery presents the second solo exhibition of Yorgos Papafigos. The exhibition’ s subject area is about human relation with new technologies and the World Wide Web and the concomitant influence that they exert on him through references to the video game aesthetics and the Internet culture.

A new series of artworks like moving images focuses on the Digital era and how immateriality affects human’ s perception of the real world through digital content (sound and image), which are generated entirely in the CPU. These digital artworks are a mash-up of disquieting situations, which take place in a fake world. Animated monochromatic bodies without a specific gender identity or ethnicity or imaginary borderless places , which have been affected by ecological devastation. The compositions and environments consist of 3D modeling and 3D scanning data while the physical sculptures are related to the other components allegorically, as they represent hybrid objects.

The exhibition will present a selection of drawings, 3D printed installations and animation.

Yorgos Papafigos was born in Larisa, Greece in 1989. He studied at the School of Fine Art of the Visual and Applied Arts Department of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki

(2015) and MA Royal College of Art - Moving Image(2018). He has presented his work in the solo show Reality of Paradox at Kappatos Gallery, Athens (2015) and in group shows in museums and galleries in Greece and abroad, including Whitechapel gallery open screenings(2018), 25th Drawing Show at Boston centre for the arts(2017), New Digital Art Biennale(2017), CICA Museum, South Korea (2017), The right to be human, Goethe Institute, Thessaloniki (2017).

Opening: Friday January 18 at 20:00 p.m.
Exhibition’s Duration: 18 Jan- 23 Feb
Τue - Fri:12:00-20:00, Sat 12:00-15:00.

Athens has been included on a list of "Europe's 20 Most Amazing Cities for Eating Out in 2019" that was published of the online edition of The Telegraph in December.

 

According to the newspaper, a European city break can be defined by those all important restaurant choices! Most cities in Europe offer a wide range of dining options; you'll be able to choose among buzzing trendy eateries, high-end Michelin-starred restaurants, and tiny joints where you'll eat just like a local.

 

Here is what The Telegraph says about eating in Athens:

"Athens has a fine range of places to eat, ranging from down-to-earth traditional tavernas to upmarket restaurants serving fusion cuisine. The area of Plaka is undeniably pretty, though some of its restaurants are aimed at tourists and can be a little disappointing. The city centre is where you will find some excellent so-called modern tavernas, serving classic Greek dishes with a contemporary twist."

 

Paris, London, Reykjavik, Seville, and Dubrovnik are also among the best cities in Europe for eating out.

 

To read the list in full, please visit: The Telegraph