Aiming to boost connections between Greece, the US and Canada, SkyGreece Airlines presented its plans last week to the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA), with sights on garnering their support.

The Markopoulos-based carrier, founded in Greece in October 2012 by a team of Greek-Canadian businessmen, aims to connect the Greek diaspora to Greece by offering non-stop flights between Athens and North America (Chicago & Boston), with plans to offer flights to South Africa in the near future.

The first direct Athens-New York route will launch on June 19 2015.

With headquarters in Athens, SkyGreece also has offices in New York, Toronto and Montreal and employs 150 people, 100 of whom are based in Greece.

HATTA President Lysandros Tsilidis welcomed the new initiative, stating;

“The air link is an important tool for travel agencies that deal with incoming tourism from the US and Canada, which is particularly dynamic, for expatriates, and of course, is expected to play an important role in outbound tourism by offering competitive prices.” 

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Archaeologists in Greece have discovered the ruins of an ancient palace with important archaic inscriptions dating back to the Mycenaean age, the culture ministry said Tuesday.

The palace, likely built around the 17th-16th centuries BC, had around 10 rooms and was discovered near Sparta in southern Greece.

At the site, archaeologists found objects of worship, clay figurines, a cup adorned with a bull’s head, swords and fragments of murals. Since 2009, excavations in the area have unearthed inscriptions on tables detailing religious ceremonies and names and places in a script called Linear B, the oldest script to be discovered in Europe.

To read more, please visit: The Guardian.

Starting a day later than previous years because of the Labour Holiday, Mid-Season sales in Athens began on Wednesday, May 4th. Retailers in Athens will have their sales for one week, ending on May 10th, so get your shopping bags ready! 

Athens, 11th July 2016 – Costa Navarino, the prime sustainable golf destination in the Mediterranean, inaugurates the 1st Messinia Pro Am, on 21-24 February 2017, under the auspices of the PGAs of Europe, the PGA of Greece and the Hellenic Olympic Academy.

When golf meets ancient Greek history…

“Sfairistiki”, the ancestor of all games being played with a club, such as hockey and golf, was among the most popular sports and is being portrayed in many statues and amphoras dating back from 510 to 500 B.C.

Top professional and amateur golf players, celebrities and special guests from all over the world will compete in the awarded golf courses, The Dunes Course and The Bay Course, the only signature golf courses in Greece. The athletes will have the opportunity to enjoy the ideal weather conditions, the Mediterranean landscape and the stunning view of the Ionian Sea and Bay of Navarino, while playing golf amid lush olive groves and rolling hills.

Costa Navarino is home to “The Dunes Course”, the first signature 18 hole golf course, designed by Bernhard Langer, former US Masters champion and chief of the Ryder Cup European team, in association with European Golf Design. The Dunes Course features a 3,500 square meters golf club as well as a Golf Academy. The Bay Course came next, an 18 hole seaside golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., located next to the historic Bay of Navarino and awarded among the “Best of the Best Golf Courses” by Robb Report. Both golf courses have been accolated, as Best Newcomers, by the World of Leading Golf Association, in 2014.

The Messinia Pro Am aims to become an established institution hosting the golfing elite from around the globe, thus contributing to the development and promotion of golf and golf tourism in Greece. Moreover, golf, as of 2016, will again be included in the Olympic Games, for the first time after 1900 and 1904.

AEGEAN, member of STAR ALLIANCE, the leading global aviation alliance will be the official airline partner of the event. The airliner was awarded by Skytrax World Airline Awards, for the 5th consecutive time and 6th time over the last 7 years as the best regional airliner in Europe for 2015.

Subscriptions and participation forms will be accepted through the official website of the event: HERE. For those who are interested in staying at The Westin Resort Costa Navarino and enjoying the full program of the Messinia Pro Am 2017, special accommodation packages will be in place.



Official Airline Partner: AEGEAN
Organizer: Costa Navarino Website

Despoina Bebedeli, a renowned actress, starred in Hecuba, a Refugee, which was the first play performed in an ancient theatre on the uninhabited Greek island of Delos in over than 2,100 years.

The play, which is based on two monologues written by Athenian tragedian Euripides, tells the tale of Hecuba, the queen of fallen Troy who as a captive mourns the loss of her husband and children during the Trojan War.

Over the centuries, this tragic heroine of Greek mythology has become an anti-war icon whose suffering lays bare all the horrors caused by conflict.

‘Our goal was to highlight the grave problem that affects all of us here in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the plight of war and being a refugee,’ Dimitris Athanasoulis told Al Jazeera. Athanasoulis is the director of the department of antiquities of the Cyclades who co-produced the play.

Organisers said they chose Delos, situated in the heart of the Aegean, to raise awareness about the drama of refugees risking everything to reach Europe's shores.

Millions of people fleeing poverty, war and repression in the Middle East, Asia and Africa have tried crossing the Aegean in recent years. Thousands have died undertaking the perilous journey.

Known as "the most sacred of all islands", Delos is the birthplace of Apollo, the son of daylight, and his twin sister, Artemis, the goddess of moonlight, according to Greek mythology.

This small rugged island was first settled in the third millennium BC, and by the third century BC it had become a prosperous and cosmopolitan centre of cultural, commercial and political life in the region.

Its imposing ancient theatre, regarded as one of the most important artistic creations of its time, was built entirely from marble in the third century BC. With a 6,500-strong capacity, it hosted major theatrical productions, dances and other cultural events.

To read this article in full, please visit: Al Jazeera

Every year from December 25 to January 5, the village streets of Kozani, Greece light up with more than just christmas lights. They come alive with the ancient customs of the Momoeria where actors, musicians, and dancers fill the village streets and visit people’s homes in celebration of the new year.

Recently UNESCO has announced that is has inscribed the ancient custom of the Momoeria on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making sure that this beautiful cultural tradition will be preserved for future generations to come.

The practice of Momoeria is to bless the village for the upcoming new year with prosperity, healthy offspring and a good harvest.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

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Find out why Athens is THE city to visit in 2017, why there’s always a church around the corner in Greece, and explore Nafpaktos with the top things to do!

 

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While Autumn weather kicks into high gear, start protecting yourself from the seasonal colds and flu with these Greek-style remedies.

Hearty, simple and extra comforting, this Greek lemon chicken soup is with no doubt the perfect dish for a cold winter's day! Kotosoupa Avgolemono is a classic delicacy made basically with chicken, which is boiled until tender, rice and finished off with a delicious egg-lemon sauce added to the chicken broth. This is the authentic recipe for Greek lemon chicken soup, a trademark dish that has nourished generations.

The ancient Greeks consumed a drink called tsipouro (or Raki), which was made from the leftover mash of wine-making. They added a little cinnamon and honey to create a remedy that eased cold symptoms.Patients were said to enjoy a clearer head and reduced symptoms.

This plant is a natural expectorant used to ease the discomfort of coughs. In ancient Greece, fennel tea was brewed for the treatment of muscle and joint pain.

To read this article in full, please visit: Neos Kosmos

The last time Culinary Backstreets visited Pipería in Neo Psychiko was five years ago until just recently, they made their way back to this unchanged restaurant owned by Yannis Galaktopoulos.

 

“I’m not a chef, just a cook,” Yannis said, as he originally wanted to be an architect (and in fact still harbors a dream of becoming one). He only got involved in the food business after his father bought a beach resort in Glyfada, one of Athens’ southern suburbs, in 1993. It was in the resort’s restaurant that he learned his way around a kitchen.

He opened Piperiá in 2001 with a friend, the well-known chef Panagiotis Papanikolaou, who designed most of the menu. “When I bought Piperiá, which had been a café, we conceived it as a mezedopoleio [a meze restaurant], but we quickly changed the focus to seafood and fish,” he explained. “The name, which means pepper, the vegetable not the spice, already existed, and it sounds more like a meat place, but we decided to keep it, as it was becoming known.”

To read this article in full, please visit: Culinary Backstreets