LIFE & CULTURE

XpatAthens
Language Learning Support
Find the Right Language Path
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Trusted recommendations for language schools and teachers
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Assistance with enrollment and scheduling
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Learning options for children, adults, and professionals
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Online and in-person formats
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Suggestions tailored to personal goals and timelines
Curious where to begin? Get in touch with us to explore language learning options through our Relocation Services!
Cross-Cultural Guidance
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Local values and daily routines
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Social etiquette and communication styles
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Understanding professional and workplace culture
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Helping children adjust socially and at school
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Comparative insights based on the assignee’s cultural background
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Practical advice for smoother integration into the community
Welcome Package For New Arrivals
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Local city map and neighborhood guide
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Public transport information and main routes
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Emergency contact numbers and useful hotlines
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Local magazines, publications, and media guides
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Insider recommendations on shopping, dining, and local living
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Tips on navigating services, social customs, and everyday routines
To request a Welcome Package or learn more about settling in, get in touch with us today!
Support Services For Smoothy Settling-In
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City orientation and neighborhood tours
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Introduction to the public transport system
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Registration with local authorities
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Assistance with opening bank accounts and obtaining insurance
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Help with purchasing furniture, appliances, and home essentials
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Access to medical facilities and healthcare recommendations
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Vehicle lease or purchase assistance
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Pet registration
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Cable, internet, and satellite TV setup
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Tips on dining, shopping, fitness, and local lifestyle
Home & School Search In Greece
Home Search Support
Home Search services may include:
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Personalized needs assessment
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Curated listings of pre-screened properties
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Appointment scheduling and accompanied viewings
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Lease negotiation and document review
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Move-in support, including utility setup (electricity, internet, water, etc.)
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Walk-throughs and property handover assistance
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Overview of local public, private, and international schools
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Recommendations based on age, learning style, language needs, and family values
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Organized and accompanied school visits
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Support during the application and enrollment process
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Insights on curricula, tuition fees, admissions timelines, and extracurricular activities
To learn more or begin the process, get in touch with a us today!
Immigration & Legal Support in Greece
Immigration & Residency Procedures
Greek Tax Registration & Financial Setup
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Issuing a Greek Tax Identification Number (AFM)
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Setting up TaxisNet credentials
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Transferring tax files to the correct local office (DOY)
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Opening a Greek bank account
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Registering for AMKA or AMA numbers
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Enrolling with EFKA (social security)
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Scheduling and coordinating necessary appointments
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Entry visa preparation
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Applications for residence and work permits
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Renewal processing or changes in legal status
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Vehicle registration
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Conversion of EU driver’s licenses to Greek licenses
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General assistance with legal paperwork
Temporary Accommodation: Arrive With Ease
Relocating to Greece? Securing a convenient and comfortable temporary home can make all the difference in starting off right. Our trusted relocation experts offer personalized support in finding short-term accommodations that fit your lifestyle, location preferences, and budget.
Tailored Options, Thoughtfully Selected
Every relocation journey is unique, and so are the housing needs that come with it. Whether it’s a furnished apartment in the heart of Athens, a quiet flat near work, or an extended-stay hotel, options are curated to match your specific criteria. Key considerations often include:
- Proximity to work, schools, or essential services
- Access to public transportation
- Neighborhood preferences and lifestyle fit
- Pet-friendly units, available parking, or special amenities
Seamless Setup Before Arrival
Expect a stress-free experience. A shortlist of vetted accommodation options is prepared based on your requirements, with full coordination handled in advance, from inquiries and bookings to communication with property managers.
Optional Welcome Support Upon Arrival
To ease the transition even further, optional arrival services are available, such as:
- Airport or hotel pick-up
- Transfer to your chosen accommodation
- A brief local orientation or welcome briefing (on request)
More Than Just a Place to Stay
The first few days in Greece can shape your entire relocation experience. A secure, well-located, and comfortable place to land helps set a positive tone, and bringing peace of mind from day one.
Looking for a Temporary Home in Greece?
Reach out today to explore short-term housing options tailored to your relocation plan.
Personalized Relocation Orientation: Experience Greece Before You Move
Relocating to a new country is exciting but it can also feel overwhelming and that's why a Customized Relocation Orientation Experience is perfectly designed to give you a first-hand look at life in Greece before your big move.
Whether you're moving for work, retirement, family, or a lifestyle change, orientation helps you gain real insight into what day-to-day life in Greece will look like, making your transition smoother and more informed.
What to Expect from Your Orientation
Every person—and every move—is different. That’s why each orientation is customized based on your needs and interests. Here’s what’s typically included:
Neighborhood Discovery
Tour hand-picked areas that align with your lifestyle, whether that’s vibrant city living, quiet family-friendly suburbs, or proximity to the coast or your future office.
School Introductions
Moving with children? The orientation can include visits to top local and international schools to help you make the best educational choice for your family.
Everyday Essentials
From where to shop for groceries and medications to where to grab your morning coffee or find a nearby gym, all the basics of daily living are fully covered.
Local Know-How
Wondering about Greek customs, transportation, healthcare, or how to open a bank account? We’re here to answer your questions and offer the cultural insights that make adjusting easier.
Personalized Add-Ons
Have a specific interest, hobby, or need? Whether it’s a medical requirement, religious center, or language school, we’ll make sure it’s part of your visit.
Why Book a Relocation Orientation?
Because seeing is believing. When you walk the streets of your future neighborhood, visit potential schools, and experience the rhythm of daily life, you’ll feel more confident and excited about your move.
This is more than just a tour; it’s a practical step toward feeling at home in Greece from day one!
Ready to Get Started?
We’d love to help you explore your future home in Greece. Reach out to plan your Customized Relocation Orientation Experience or to request a quote for full relocation support.
Contact us today and let’s begin your journey to Greece together!
Made in the South Bronx: A Group Exhibition On Memory, Movement & Metamorphosis
In 2023, the legendary Margarete Roeder Gallery in New York City presented the five Bronx-based women artists in the exhibition Bronx Fivefold: Harmonious Convergence, highlighting the diversity of their visual expression, as well as the creative collaboration born out of 20 years of friendship and artistic comradeship in an art scene that is both unique and dynamic.
Extending this multifaceted solidarity and wanting to bring a piece of the South Bronx to Athens, the artists present works in a variety of media in the show Made in the South Bronx. They reveal ways in which their daily contact with this particular area of New York City, as residents and active artists, has influenced their visual practice. Their themes include the importance of the cultural heritage bestowed upon us by indigenous peoples, the tragic destruction of life and nature due to human brutality, the transformations of neighborhoods due to gentrification mechanisms, and the personal changes in our emotional and spiritual worlds caused by the interaction with a rapidly changing global socio-political environment.
Formally trained as a painter, Mexican-American Blanka Amezkua's creative practice is greatly influenced by Mexican popular art and culture, from papel picado to comics. She combines traditional and contemporary techniques, as well as socio cultural mythologies and philosophies to preserve evidence of the past in the present. Honoring the wisdom of the indigenous people of the Americas, Amezkua has made research on medicinal plants and flowers from the first book of medicine created in the Americas, the Codex de la Cruz-Badiano (1552). The visual result is a series of papel picado pieces dedicated to the Cempasuchil flower and the California poppy, created in collaboration with maestro don Rene Mendoza from Huixcolotla, Puebla, Mexico in August 2024. Underscoring her ancestors' respect and admiration for plant diversity, Amezkua pays tribute to the valuable knowledge of Mexico's ancient and modern culture and its special contribution to world art and science.


Linda Cunningham's work is concerned with time, transience and contradictions, with a particular interest in the architectural and structural remnants of present and past cultures. Her images employ a fluid, calligraphic line and drawing form. With compelling forms she often challenges the viewer to accept the sometimes discomforting content of her works. In Cunningham's mixed media South Bronx Waterfront Sagas series, her materials and images merge, revealing a broken history of the South Bronx, an area that was once a haven for clean air and greenery. The themes addressed are environmental concerns in relation to industry, urban blight and loss of the natural environment, as well as her concern for her Bronx home area facing the mechanisms of gentrification. Athens residents share a number of parallel concerns, which reveals the universality of socio-political strategies aimed at economic gains at the expense of community cohesion and economic equality, as well as the environment and history of the area. In another series of works, Cunningham addresses the consequences of the climate crisis, depicting the devastating hurricanes that have hit America in recent years.

Mimma Scarpini is an Italian artist living in New York who creates with various visual media. Her work is characterized by both an abstract and figurative idiom, engaging in a dialogue with both the European figurative and abstract art traditions. The triptych drawing on paper entitled Black Eden depicts a burnt Garden of Eden, which, according to the Bible, was originally created by God as a Paradise for humans. The medium Scarpini uses, charcoal, is itself burnt organic matter (wood), intensifying the idea of the irreversible evil perpetrated by the human hand. In the mixed media work on paper Maria Mesa fleeing tear gas at the border, she is inspired by the Pulitzer Prize winning Kim Kyung Hoon's photograph of migrants running away from tear gas at the border with Mexico. Hoon’s photograph captures a paradox, underlined by Scarpini’s use of color: as the woman and her children flee from tear gas, their shadows appear to move in the opposite direction, as though returning to the very place they are trying to escape. This aesthetic detail reflects key elements of the migrant experience: while they flee from danger and economic hardship, they also leave behind their culture and history—an identity that calls them back, like the irresistible pull of a siren’s song.

Tammy Wofsey's art attempts to condense the essence of the natural world within the confines of paper. Paper acts as the conduit that gives life to all her prints. Her creative pursuit is guided by the goal of creating a deeply human connection to our environment and evoking a sense of slowing down over time. In this series the artist prints blue mountains on large flat paper, engraves them and folds them. According to the artist, the folded paper contains a memory that cannot be erased, telling a story that can be revived at any time with specific stimuli. Images evoke memories and vice versa, and connections between past and present are effortlessly activated: the smoke from the forest fires in California and Canada erases the artist's memories of her home state of Colorado and the view from her apartment in the South Bronx, respectively. The viewers can pick Wofsey's works in their hands and process them as they would flip through the pages of a memory-filled photo album. She hopes her work will give viewers the time to 'slow down', reflect, experience positive memories and aim for a better balance between their inner and outer worlds.

Opening: Thursday 26th June, 19:00
Opening hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 17:00-22:00
ARMY OF LOVERS - The Sacred Band of Ancient Greece
The untold epic saga of the Sacred Band premieres on June 12 and 13 in the presence of the director Lefteris Charitos and the film’s participants
Army of Lovers directed by Lefteris Charitos, tells the untold epic saga of the Sacred Band, an elite force of 150 pairs of male lovers who became the most formidable warriors of the ancient world.As a team of international archaeologists and historians is re-examining the newly uncovered evidence and gaining unprecedented insight into the story of the Sacred Band, their findings challenge us to rethink our understanding of Ancient Greece and our perceptions of heroism, gender and love across time.
The film is produced by Anemon (Greece) and Epo-Film (Austria) and is a co-production with ERT, ZDF / ARTE and ORF in association with SBS, Hearst Networks, History Italy, TV5 Québec and with the support of the Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Centre – Creative Greece (Tax Rebate and NextGenerationEU programme), Fernsehfonds Austria and Creative Europe. It is distributed by ZED.
The screenings are co-organised by CineDoc, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and ANESIS open-air cinema, with the support of the Museum of Cycladic Art.
To watch the trailer, please CLICK HERE!
About The Film
The Sacred Band was formed by the city of Thebes in 379 BCE to end Spartan domination. Fighting for four decades undefeated, it was annihilated by the forces of Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander in the Battle of Chaeronea. Buried on the battlefield where they fell, the 300 were forgotten by history, until pioneer archaeologist Panayotis Stamatakis discovered the mass grave in 1880.
SCREENINGS SCHEDULE
- ATHENS – Thursday, June 12 2025 | Cotsen Hall
Address: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (9 Anapiron Polemou st. Kolonaki)
Limited number of available seats. Free entry on a first-come, first-served basis; doors open at 18.00 and the screening starts at 19.00.
More information HERE!
The film will be screened with English subtitles. A Q&A will follow after the screening with director Lefteris Charitos and archaeologists Panagiotis Iossif and Maria Liston, followed by a wine reception.
Those arriving early can also visit the multimedia exhibition, Imag(in)ing Samothrace: From Homer to the HoloLens, hosted in the Makriyannis Wing of the American School of Classical Studies. Curated by Bonna D. Wescoat, Ellen M. Archie, Rebecca A. Salem and designed by Mikri Arktos (Andreas Georgiadis and Vivi Gerolymatou), it brings together objects from the 15th to the 21st century to chronicle how artists expressed their physical, emotional, and intellectual encounters with the island. Highlights include rare Renaissance drawings of Samothracian antiquities by the antiquarian Cyriacus of Ancona, shown in Greece for the first time.
- ATHENS – Friday, June 13 2025 | Anesis Open-Air Cinema
Address: 14 Kifisias Av., Athens
Doors open at 20.15 and the screening starts at 21.00.
The film will be screened with Greek subtitles and a Q&A will follow with director Lefteris Charitos and the film crew, moderated by Thodoris Antonopoulos (Journalist, LiFO).
About CINEDOC
CineDoc is based in Athens, Greece; it showcases and (selectively) distributes award-winning greek and international documentaries. The screenings are organised in collaboration with the French Institute of Greece, Danaos Cinema, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the CineDoc Volos and the Municipality of Volos, the "Simeio" Cultural Space in Rethymno, the Cyclades Preservation Fund (CPF) and the Thalassa Foundation. Screenings are accompanied by parallel events; the aim is to encourage dialogue, inspire collective actions and raise awareness on crucial subjects, such as the environment, gender equality, inclusivity, education, history, and more.
Additionally, CineDoc collaborates with cultural institutions, universities and various organizations, taking part in conferences, festivals and cultural events. Moreover, through CineDoc Island network the team organises documentary screenings both in Greek islands (Cyclades, Sporades, Ionian Islands and the Dodecanese) and across Greece, in collaboration with local cultural partners and film clubs.
Follow CineDoc on facebook and instagram.
More info: https://www.cinedoc.gr | cinedocanemon@gmail.com