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

The Greek Ministry of Culture is expected to submit the final nomination file for the inscription of the island of Spinalonga on the UNESCO World Heritage List, at the end of the month.

 

“It will be Crete’s first monument to be included on the World Heritage List of UNESCO,” Culture Ministry Secretary General Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki said.

 

After the Palace of Knossos, Spinalonga is the most visited archaeological site in Crete and the 6^th in Greece. The small islet attracts countless visitors every year due to its unique architecture and historical importance. Spinalonga features a well-preserved 16^th century Venetian defense fortification.

 

The Region of Crete has managed to secure 900,000 euros in EU funding in order to complete the 3^rd phase of restoration which includes maintenance works on its fortification and buildings.

 

It is worth noting that from the early 20th century up until 1957, Spinalonga was used as a leper colony, while the last inhabitant left the island in 1962. The tiny island became famous as the setting of ‘The Island’ a best-selling novel by Victoria Hislop.

 

 

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Four years after her first concert in Greece, the true rock star Beth Hart returns to Athens in June 2019 for one big blues rock concert at the Theatro Vrachon “Melina Mercouri”.

Beth Hart, the singer and composer with the raw voice, the dynamic stage presence, the sold out concerts in America, Asia, Australia and Europe, the successful albums and the collaborations with huge names of the music industry is having one of the best moments in her career so far.

In the last three years, Beth Hart has released two personal albums and one more “Black Coffee” (January 2018), with song covers, in which she sings on the side of Joe Bonamassa. She recently released, also in Greece, her new double album “Beth Hart live at The Royal Albert Hall”.

For more than two decades, Beth Hart has been driving her audience crazy. Known for her passion, she rocks the stage with her soul and never fails to amaze with her vocal abilities and her endless energy. In her longstanding career she counts numerous awards such as three Blues Music Awards (two Female Blues Artist awards and one as Instrumentalist – Vocals). She has been a Grammy nominee while guitar-legends such as Jeff Beck, Slash, Joe Bonamassa and Buddy Guy have shared the stage with her and have also collaborated in the studio.

The power-duo The Big Nose Attack will be opening Beth Hart's concert at the Vrachon Theater. Known for their distinct sound, a combination of blues and their own untamed rock elements of the '70s, counting numerous shows and having taken part in big festivals in Greece as well as abroad, The Big Nose Attack will rock the stage of the Vrachon Theater!

The explosive Beth Hart puts Greece on the map of her world tour in 2019 and sets the date for the 27^th June at the Theatro Vrachon “Melina Mercouri”! A true blues rock concert we definitely wouldn’t miss!

Four to 20 hours by sea. This is the length of the journey that is required, in some cases, for a simple medical examination. This is a reality faced by thousands of Greek people living on remote islands and hard to access regions of the country. The minimal health infrastructure and lack of medical specialists in close proximity compel them to make long journeys to get the appropriate medical care.

 

The question was simple, could a hospital travel to the country’s most remote areas, enabling the locals to access to a wide variety of medical services? Even though, at first, the idea seemed impossible to implement, the Mobile Medical Units (MMU) program was created in 2014 at the initiative of and with the exclusive support of the SNF. The program is implemented by the NGO Regeneration & Progress in collaboration with Health Units S.A., under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

 

Once a month a group of physicians, qualified nurses, and technical staff leave their families and put their personal obligations behind in order to provide their services and to ensure that more people have free access to comprehensive health services.

 

Since the program was created in 2014, 39 missions have taken place in areas such as Kastelorizo, Kasos, Tilos, Agios Efstratios, Agrafa, Anafi, and Schinoussa. More than 13.600 patients have been examined and 23,968 medical tests have taken place.

 

Watch this inspiring video about the significance of giving back to the community and working selflessly for the common good.

Who is on the other end of the internet and what are the processes between us when communicating online?" Asking this question, Daniel Wetzel, founding member of the internationally acclaimed Rimini Protokoll, sets up an interactive installation for the peers of YouTube; for those who use messengers despite the age restriction; for the upcoming generation of digital natives.