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September 26 - Greece In Autumn
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Greek Man Kayaks Around Crete In 39 Days
What You Need To Know Before Joining A Pool In Athens
In Greece there are certain health requirements that are necessary in order to join a pool. When registering to use a public or private pool facility, you will be required to complete an application and provide some documents, which we've included for you below. Even though requirements are standardized, we suggest that you contact the pool's administration to confirm their enrollment process.
For children under 12 years old, the typical documents you will need to provide are:
1. A recent pediatrician's certificate that your child is healthy and does not suffer from heart and/or dermatological condition
2. 2 photographs
3. Birth Certificate
For teenagers and adults, the typical documents you will need to provide are:
1. A recent medical assessment from a general practitioner or cardiologist that you are healthy and capable of physical activity
2. A recent certificate by a dermatologist that you don't suffer from a skin condition
3. Two Photos
4. A photocopy of your id or passport, or green card for foreigners
5. Women also need a recent gynecological evaluation
Searching For Greek Science Stars
The U.S. Embassy in Athens and Greek nonprofit organization SciCo, are organizing for the first time in Greece, the STEM STARS GREECE competition with the aim of supporting, highlighting, and rewarding 14 to 18-year-old students with a special inclination towards science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). The winners of the competition will receive special prizes, including the opportunity to represent Greece at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest international science competition, which will be held in Anaheim, California from 10 to 15 May 2020. The competition is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.
Participation in the competition is free. Students who attend public or private schools in Greece and are between 14 and 18 years old (High School 3rd Grade – Lyceum 3rd Grade) on the date of the competition are eligible to participate.
All projects must be submitted online between December 16, 2019 and February 16, 2020.
For more information and detailed participation requirements, please visit: U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Greece
Putting The Covid-19 Crisis Into Perspective
If there’s a topic you’re interested in and would like to learn more about you may contact me via email. For more information about me and my work check the XpatAthens Directory or visit my website. Because this is your life!
Embrace An Aware Lifestyle
Easter Adventure At Technopolis: Unforgettable Fun For Kids
Wake up early, but no school today!
The day starts with games in the Central Courtyard! Each group, along with their supervisor, enjoys kinetic games in the outdoor areas of Technopolis, on the modern Skywalk, and in the children's playground!
Break time for a light snack to boost energy for the rest of the day! The snack includes bread with spreads, koulouri, juices, and more.
Children participate in educational programs and workshops led by artists and experienced educators.
Children can enjoy the snacks they brought from home.
The educational programs and workshops continue.
Board games and other group games for everyone!
Educational Programs & Workshops
Wake Up!
Lively games in the factory courtyard in collaboration with the Athens Trainers team, to start the day with teamwork, speed, and fun. An experienced team of trainers, dancers, and educators organize kinetic and traditional games, ball games, and floor games for our little friends.
A Circus at Technopolis!
Dance workshop by the A(r)ct: Art can Act team. Technopolis' Skywalk, the country's first certified and perfectly safe action park, transforms into the biggest circus and invites our little friends to become acrobats, musicians, jugglers, and clowns! In this workshop of creative movement and acrobatics, children will discover what it's like to balance on their hands, throw balls in the air, make faces, create stories with their bodies, hang from ropes, and balance on a human pyramid!
Namaste
Kids yoga workshop with Konstantina Roidopoulou. Our little friends will have the opportunity to interact, express themselves creatively, and relax through comfortable and fun yoga positions (asanas). Together, we'll play and "support" each other. The workshop combines dynamic asanas (poses) with exercises and lots of play! Children are encouraged to bring their own yoga mats and wear comfortable clothes.
The Machine of Wonders
Art workshop by the Industrial Gas Museum team. The factory's steam engine, the unique invention of the Industrial Revolution, comes to life and serves as inspiration for the most colorful and swirling construction. Geometric shapes, patterns, and mechanics join forces for a fun art workshop focusing on play.
Crime at the Tower - Easter Edition
The beloved mystery game, designed by the Industrial Gas Museum team! Holy Wednesday of 1952... Something suspicious is happening at the Tower of the old gasworks factory! A terrible mystery awaits its solution in the tallest building of Technopolis. Through puzzles and hidden guilty secrets, our little friends will solve a terrible crime from 1952, using the oral testimonies of the workers and the archival material of the old gasworks factory.
Homer & The Continuing Adventure: Conversations With Paul Cartledge
What makes the Iliad and Odyssey so pivotal to the ancient Greeks, and to world culture in general now? Why so enthralling?
All human life is there. The Greeks being non-dogmatic polytheists didn’t have an equivalent of the Christian Bible or Islamic Qu’ran. But they recognized in the two monumental epic tales not just as entertaining stories (they contain plenty of those!) but also as sources of ethical instruction.
Does The Iliad have a lot to do with the anger of Achilles?
The Iliad’s guiding narrative thread or theme is the anger of the semidivine (his mother was the goddess Thetis, his father a mortal) warrior hero Achilles. Was Achilles justified in feeling so angry with his commanding officer at Troy, angry enough to withdraw from the fighting (and skulk in his tent) thereby endangering the whole operation to recover the stolen Spartan queen Helen of Sparta? Probably not. But he had a good death!
What are some of the lessons of Odysseus’ seemingly endless journey?
And what did the travels and travails of the hero Odysseus, king of a small rocky isle off western Greece, avail – avail either him (he lost all his men on the way back home from Troy) or his readers? What they did was teach the poem’s listeners and later readers what it meant to be Greek (as opposed to a non-Greek ‘barbarian’) and how to behave towards each other, not least in the matters of marriage, hospitality and sexuality. Odysseus is seduced and seduces more than once along the way back – one reason the journey from Troy to Ithaca took him ten whole years was that he ‘dallied’ for seven of them with a goddess called Calypso on her private island!
What an ending to the Odyssey! It’s triumphalist, ritualistic and very violent. Was it overkill, so to speak?
The poem’s climax – after Odysseus takes a singularly bloody, surely excessive (see above) revenge on the 108 suitors (who’d been vying to wed his presumed widow Penelope, another Spartan woman) – is his final reunion and reconciliation with his longsuffering, steadfastly loyal wife. And the poet is careful to remind us that Odysseus’s aged father Laertes is still alive and needs looking after – his mother Anticleia had sadly died during the 20 years her son was away from Ithaca; the only reunion he could achieve with her was with her bloodless shade, deep down in the Hades underworld. So the essentially family saga of the Odyssey perfectly complemented the martial derring-do of the Iliad.
Richard Marranca is an author who teaches ancient world, myth, and religion at Montclair State University. He writes for various print and digital publications, and his upcoming book, "Speaking of the Dead: Mummies & Mysteries of Egypt," will be published by Blydyn Square Books. Richard has had the honor of receiving a Fulbright to teach at LMU Munich and spent a semester in Athens during his doctoral studies at New York University. In his career, Richard has had the privilege of interviewing esteemed classicist Paul Cartledge on topics ranging from Alexander the Great to Greek philosophy.
Lake Plastira
The Lake Plastiras area is known for its spectacular natural beauty. The lake itself is man-made and was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Nikolaos Plastiras, for whom the lake and its dam are named. The lake is set at an altitude of about 800 meters in the Agrafa mountain range making it a place with magnificent views no matter where you stop to look.
Covering an area of about 24km2, it is surrounded by natural beauty, beaches, restaurants, hotels and many trails within its vast forest. Here you can walk, drive or bike along fir, oak and chestnut trees down shady lanes with openings to views of immense height and the vast plains below. Fishing, sailing, kayaking, river rafting, hiking, horseback riding, mountain climbing, cross country skiing and jeep tours are only a few of the ways you can enjoy the natural beauty of this area.
There are several small villages surrounding the lake, each one preserving the history of this land. The villages of Kryoneri and Kalivia of Pezoula are well developed for tourism. Here you will find hiking tracks, hotels, places to rent various equipment for a variety of sporting activities, organized outdoor areas and the beaches of the lake.
The tourist haven and best-known village, Neochori, is worth visiting, as it was built on a slope and offers the best views of the lake. It also offers a visit to its botanical gardens, which house plants making up the ecosystem of the local area. The communities of the lake offer an Environmental Education Center, an Educational Forest, Ecological Paths, Botanical Gardens, Hydro-biological Station, Observatory, Alpine Shelters, an outdoor activity center and renting of bikes, canoes and water bicycles.
There are also important monuments and places of interest in the wider region such as the Monastery of Korona, the Sacred Monastery of Pelekiti, the Sacred Monastery of Petra, the Gaki cave and the Kaimakia cave.
Visitors to Plastiras Lake can buy local products from the producers of the region along the road. You will find honey, spoon sweets, frumenty, garden products, wine, raki and more. No matter what time of year you choose to visit Lake Plastiras, you will be swept off your feet.
To read more, please visit windmillstravel.com
Olive Bread - Eliopsomo
This Greek olive bread recipe is just teeming with the flavours of Greece and the Mediterranean, with the delicious rustic bread, oozing with plump, rich olives, herbs and red onions. This bread is usually made with white flour, and with so many Greek recipes, enriched with a little olive oil. There is nothing like the wonderful aroma of freshly cooked bread wafting from the kitchen to gather everyone around for a tasting. This Eliopsomo - Olive bread recipe has a lovely rich flavour, and the sight and smell of this bread tempts all the senses. Eliopsomo literally means olive bread - Elio - olive, Psomo - bread.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve this olive bread recipe instead of normal bread at a Greek meal.
Have as a light lunch with cheese and ham.
Toast it and drizzle extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of freshly ground salt and pepper.
Have it fresh or grilled with slices of fresh, juicy tomatoes and crumbled feta.
Cut thin slices and have with dips.
Include in a meze, with a selection of appetizers, ideal with a drink.
Use good quality, rich oily olives for this olive bread recipe, you will appreciate their flavour in the bread.
Try not to use canned ones, they will not taste as good.
For a variety, use olives marinated in herbs.
Ensure all the olives are pitted before using, you do not want any olive stones in the bread!
Ingredients
1 red onion, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons olive oil, for frying
675g/1 1/2lb / 6 cups white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
25g/1oz fresh yeast OR 2 teaspoons dried yeast
350ml / 12 fl oz /1v 1/2 cups lukewarm water
5 tbspn olive oil
175g / 6 oz/ 1 1/2 cups pitted black olives, roughly chopped
2 tbspn fresh coriander, marjoram or oregano, finely choppped
extra flour for dusting
Makes 2 small loaves or 1 large loaf
Preparation
1. Fry the onion in the olive oil until soft.
2. Remove from pan and put aside till later.
3. Sift the flour and salt into a large Mixing Bowl, and make a well in the centre.
4. If using dried yeast, add to the flour. OR
5. If using fresh yeast, blend it with half the water in a jug and then add to the flour.
6. Add the rest of the water and the olive oil.
7. Mix it all in until a soft dough, using a round bladed knife.
8. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth.
9. Place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
10. Grease 2 Baking Sheets.
11. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead a few times.
12. Roll the dough out into a large circle and sprinkle the olives, herbs and fried onion evenly over the dough.
13. Bring the sides up over to cover the filling and gently knead the bread until the filling is mixed through the dough.
14. Cut the dough in half and shape each half to an oval bread shape.
15. If you prefer to do rolls, just cut into many small round or elongated shapes, or alternatively 1 large loaf.
16. Place each loaf on a baking sheet.
17. Cover with lighly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
18. Place 2 or 3 diagonal cuts - about 1 inch / 2cm deep along the top of the bread to create a nice rustic appearance once cooked.
19. Dust the loaves lightly with the flour.
20. Preheat the oven to 220 oC / 425 oF / gas 7
21. Once the loaves have risen, place in a preheated oven.
22. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden color and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
23. Transfer to a wire Cooling Rack and leave to cool.
If you wish to use this olive bread recipe to make rolls, you would reduce the cooking time to about 25 minutes. If you are making 1 large loaf, you would probably need an extra 10 minutes baking time.
Enjoy your olive bread recipe!
To read more, please visit http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/10/olive-bread/ and http://www.macheesmo.com