More than 150 leaders of the Greek-Australian community met in Sydney recently to discuss how to mobilize Australian support for The Hellenic Initiative. Representatives from every state and the two mainland territories attended a dinner event at the Hellenic Club of Sydney’s new Alpha Restaurant, and after a lively discussion there was broad consensus to form an Australian Chapter of THI.

The Hellenic Initiative is a global, non-profit, non-governmental organization, whose vision aims, through the generosity of the Greek Diaspora and the Philhellenic community, to provide substantial encouragement and financial support to help preserve organizations and projects, while also inspiring business growth that will allow Greek people to ensure the long-term prosperity of Greece. The organization encourages the promotion of the necessary structural reforms and private capital investments, which will help to upgrade Greece’s competitiveness.

Apart from Andrew Liveris, founding members of the initiative also include Libra CEO George Logothetis, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company Muhtar Kent, renowned Washington lawyer and investment consultant George Stamas, and George David, chairman of Coca-Cola Hellas.

The event MC was Helen Kapolos of the Seven Network’s Sunday Night program, THI founding member and Dow Chemical CEO  Andrew N. Liveris was the keynote speaker.  The organizing committee included Nick Mitaros, Nick Pappas, George Giovas, Greg Gav and Penny Maragiannis.  Joining the event from the US were THI Executive Committee member Dean Dakolias and John and Mae Calamos.

“This was the first time so many community leaders nationwide have come together to discuss how to organize our community in support of Greece,” said Nick Pappas.

To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter Australia

by

Konstantinos Menzel

What if there was a language that only uses whistling for communication and conversation and no words? There is such a language and it exists in Greece.

It is not just about plain whistling sounds or signals, but an actual conversational whistle language!

Sometimes, by meeting people out of the blue and talking to them, you may discover amazing secret hidden gems of culture. When Greek Adventure travelled to South Evia they discovered this Greek secret.

The village this secret is hidden in is called Andia and is located at South Evia, near Cape Cavo D’ Oro. Apparently there is a whistle language used, which has a label by itself. It is called 'Sfyria.' The reason this was born? The locals say they wanted to use a way to communicate across the countryside from long distances. Others claim that it was used to alert people about incoming bandits. Sound travels fast, especially in the wilderness and tops of Greek mountains, so a whole whistle conversational language was born.

The existence of the whistling language of Andia was discovered after an airplane accident happened in the area in 1979. The pilot was missing and search parties went to the area. There, the locals offered their help and they used the 'Sfyria' whistling to communicate across the mountains. No mobiles in 1979!

To read this article in full, please visit: A Greek Adventure

As part of celebrations for its sixth birthday, the Acropolis Museum will launch a series of exhibitions featuring archaeological treasures from small museums across Greece, with “Samothrace – The Mysteries of the Great Gods” on June 20, 2015.

On the same day, a concert in the museum courtyard will feature the Athens Municipality Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir in works from the interwar period, the cinema and Greek operetta. All exhibition areas and the restaurant will remain open from 8am to midnight and admission will be reduced at 3 euros for all visitors.

On June 21, the museum will organize a scientific conference focusing on recent archaeological research in Samothrace.

Organized in collaboration with ephorates of Rodopi and Evros,under the guidance Samothrace antiquities expert Dimitrios Matsas,the temporary show features 252 ancient artefacts assembled in groups on the basis of their relationship to the island’s sanctuary, where visitors were initiated into the island cult. The exhibit will run through to September 30.

To read more please visit: Greek Travel Pages

What is a Tactual Museum exactly? Read on to find out more.

When Dave Briggs drew the Tactual Museum of Athens as the next museum on his list to visit, he was excited. He'd heard of tactual museums, but had never visited one before. The basic concept is that they are set up as a way for sighted people to experience and understand to a small degree what it must be like to operate in a world without sight. The idea is to be led around a room blindfolded, and then to touch a series of objects in order to understand what they might be.

The Museum does this with a difference. Rather than using ordinary objects, they instead display copies of artifacts from Ancient Greece. The idea behind this is twofold. Firstly, non-sighted people rarely, if ever, get to touch and feel the relics from an ancient past. These faithful replicas would allow them to do so. Secondly, it would give a chance for sighted people to approach ancient Greece from a new angle, and experience trying to work out what a new object is just by the sense of touch. People are given blindfolds to experience the museum as a non-sighted person would.

There were two rooms downstairs, and several larger rooms upstairs. Some of the smaller objects, such as the golden laurel leaf crown, were especially hard to work out what they were.

Location:
Visitors’ entrance via Lighthouse for The Blind of Greece
Athinas 17, Kallithea, 17673

Hours:
8:00 - 17:00

Museum Website: http://www.tactualmuseum.gr/indexe.htm

To read this article in full please visit: Dave's Travel Pages

These are the top ten sights and landmarks not to be missed in Greece according to the users of Tripadvisor.  Based on the votes of travelers themselves, Tripadvisor has come up with a list of the top ten sights and landmarks worth visiting in Greece.

Rather unsurprisingly the top two places go to Greece's most recognizable landmark with the Acropolis hill taking the first spot followed by the Parthenon itself at number 2.

The list also includes Meteora, Delphi and perhaps lesser known monuments such as the Acropolis of Rhodes and the island of Spinalonga which was once home to a leper colony.

Below is the list in full of the top ten places to visit in Greece:

Νο 1 Acropolis

Νο 2 Parthenon - One of the seven wonders of the ancient world

Νο 3 Meteora - The monasteries perched on the tops of imposing cliffs are wonders in their own right and marvels of Byzantine architecture

Νο 4 Delphi - Perhaps the spiritually most important site of the ancient world

Νο 5 Hephaestus Temple in Athens - The best preserved ancient Greek temple in Athens and perhaps the country

To read more, please visit: The TOC

How far do you need to go to find yourself?

What do you have to give up?

Daphne didn't go very far. After too many years of living as a writer who didn't write, she gave up her life in London to spend 100 days of solitude on the remote Greek island of Sifnos, off season, and find out, once and for all, who she really was. Her challenge: to write every day.

One hundred days and one hundred entries later, her question had been answered in more ways than she could have imagined, and the things she'd given up never mattered in the first place. This book is her story, as personal as it is universal, of the most obvious and most fundamental quest of all: to be happy; to do what you love.

Part memoir, part fiction, part philosophy and part travel writing, 100 days of solitude is a collection of one hundred stories, all of them connected and each one self-contained.

To find out more about this book, please visit Daphne's site at: Daphne Kapsali

Available on Amazon

Discover “Apovathra”, the outdoor platform of the Railway Carriage Theater to Treno sto Rouf, at Rouf railway station, only ten minutes from the lively Gazi district.

Enjoy refreshing cocktails, delicious Greek snacks, hip DJ sounds, art exhibitions, video screenings and live musical performances. Escape to the coolest spot of the city during summer.

Enjoy the atmosphere among the blooming oleanders and the subdued lighting from the train carriages of the unique Railway Theater.

Address:
“Rouf” Railway Station on Konstantinoupoleos Ave., 11854. (Map: https://goo.gl/maps/0eiDx)

For more, please visit: To Treno Sto Rouf

Ryanair has announced that it will increase the frequencies to flights on its Chania routes to Athens and Thessaloniki this August due to overwhelming demand, as part of its Chania summer 2015 schedule.

The flights from Chania to Athens will increase from three to four daily and to Thessaloniki will rise from one to two per day.

Ryanair’s Chania summer schedule also includes two new routes to Glasgow and Manchester (29 routes in total), and extra flights to Dublin. The airline expects the summer schedule to deliver one million passengers annually and support 1,000 on-site jobs at Chania Airport.

According to the airline, Greek customers and visitors can now choose from 29 routes to/from Chania this summer, while enjoying allocated seating, a free second carry-on bag, reduced fees, an improved website and app with mobile boarding passes, as well as Ryanair’s Family Extra and Business Plus services.

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

It's hot. Finally. So hot that I'm complaining about it. This makes me happy. It also makes me want to pack it all in and plant myself on some hot sand somewhere, close enough to jump in the water when the sweat is just too much to bear.. Greek Summer is here!

'Are there beaches in Athens??'  Why, yes, dear tourist. There are plenty. Some of them are even nice! And some others are... less nice.

Close to the city-centre, I've been to Akanthus a couple times. It is an 'all day beach bar' along the Alimos seaside - with a lovely sandy beach, clear waters, and a decidedly cool vibe. There is a restaurant with a nice menu, music all day long, and a nighttime club transformation on most nights.  It gets rather busy, especially on weekends. But if you go early enough, it's one of the nicer spots close to the city.

There are many beaches along the Athenian Rivera (as entire coastal strip has been branded). The further south you go, the more crystal clear the water becomes, as the surroundings become less 'urban'. Or so one would think. There are some obvious places I would never (ever) swim - and plenty of others that would make me pause and think.

How is one to know about the cleanliness of the waters around Attica? There are a couple places to check for water quality. The Greek Centre for Environmental Research (ΠΑΚΟΕ - Πανελληνιο Κεντρο Οικολογικών Ερευνών) recently released its ratings of Attica's beaches, based on its scientific measurements of water quality. Some people have commented on the ratings, saying that they are biased - you can judge for yourselves.

For an alternative version, with interactive map, try the Clean Beaches site - outlined below (also in English).

Whatever you choose to believe, have your wits about you and don't bunk down in the first place with a sandy stretch of beach. Take good care and enjoy the summer!

Until next week,

Jack

(in Greek, but Google translate can help here - and most of the beach names can be easily recognized)

Leof. Poseidonos, Kalamaki, Athens

+30 210 968 0800

Their flavours are unique. Their essence feels like Greece and summertime. Ouzo, raki, tsipouro and masticha: among the wide selection of Greek products, three famous spirits and a liqueur are eager to reveal their secrets.

Ouzo is considered the national drink of Greece. In technical terms ouzo is either produced by partial distillation or the admixture of plain alcohol with aromatic herbs. The best ouzos are of course the distilled ones with the main flavour being imparted by anise seeds, though other aromatics are often added, such as masticha from Chios, cinnamon, cloves or fennel, depending on the brand. Each location prides itself on its ouzo but the most famous are from the island of Lesvos and from Tyrnavos in Thessaly.

Ouzo is ideally served chilled, with or without ice, though many add water which releases the essential oils from the anise, turning the drink milky and heightening the aromas. You should always add ice or water to already poured ouzo and not the other way around.

Though ouzo is delightful with many kinds of traditional Greek meze, like a good ladotyri from Zakynthos or Mytilini or a kopanisti from Mykonos or Tinos, it is best known for its affinity for strong-flavoured seafood such as the octopus mentioned above or marinated anchovies. Spicy pickled peppers also go well.

Apart from ouzo, Greece is known for another pair of considerably stronger distilled local drinks, often confused with one another, raki and tsipouro. Frequently homemade, production peaks in the autumn after the grape-harvest with celebrations centred around the great distillation cauldrons.

Tsipouro is a traditional product that comes from mainland Greece while raki is from Crete. Both are made from grapes not destined for wine-making yet still capable of producing quality distilled spirits. The main differences among them are the degree of alcoholic content and the addition or not of anise seed, which is often added to tsipouro but never to raki.

Tsipouro with anise has pride of place in the tsipouro bars of Volos where it accompanies traditional delicacies from the region and Thessaly in general. Drink it either chilled or with ice.

Potent raki is enjoyed by Cretans of all ages, usually in shot glasses either chilled or at room temperature. They tend to accompany it with traditional products of Crete like cheese, local preserved meats, roasts or whatever else arrives at table including traditional sweets and pies. No excuse is needed to pour a glass at any hour of the day or night.

To read more, please visit: Discover Greece