‘What happened next? What happened to the boys?'

Once upon a lifetime, twenty-five years ago or more, I wrote a book called A Foreign Wife. In it I recorded my experiences during my first five years in the Peloponnesian village to which I had unexpectedly migrated in 1980.’

Life in the Peloponnese continues to delight and challenge Gillian Bouras. Seeing and Believing resumes the narrative as her sons create their own families and time delivers a fresh crop of joys and heartaches, to which she tries to adjust.

Acutely responsive to what she calls ‘the conspiracy of beauty in Greece,’ she celebrates the natural world in prose that indicates a lifelong engagement with words. Global events send her to historians for enlightenment, while tragedy closer to home —fire, unexpected death— prompts reflection on the solace of contrasting creeds. In between she observes the human comedy with dry humour.

Gillian Bouras was born in Melbourne in 1945. She worked as a teacher in Australia before moving to Greece with her husband and children in 1980. Her first books were about this experience. She lives in the Peloponnese, Greece, as well as maintaining ties with Australia. Her journalism has been published in six countries.

For more information, please visit: Gillian Bouras.

 

This is a great story from WindyCity Greek about an American woman, who after having met and married her husband in Chicago, returned to his family’s homeland of Kavala in Greece. It was there that she began down a path much different from her corporate career in the US. Staci Wagner learned the art of traditional soap making and founded the successful Vilia Soap Company.

American Staci Wagner Hamalis met her husband in Chicago, where she lived for four years. The city was especially romantic for him because that is where his own parents met. Since he proposed to her in 2012 at The Bean (a sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park), she began visiting his homeland. Gradually, she fell more and more in love with Greece — and his family — while also learning about traditional soap making. Her life changed dramatically when she settled in her husband’s hometown of Kavala.

Her high-flying career had her traveling around the world and living in cities such as Brussels and London, but she found her true path upon settling in northern Greece in 2015. She moved soon after her marriage, and was immediately inspired by the fertile Greek landscape and its cornucopia of natural products — most of which have curative and cosmetic properties. Above all, she became fascinated by what her father-in-law, a retired chemist, began teaching her in 2012: traditional soap-making. Using the purest of nature’s bounty and employing old school artisanal methods, she is now running the successful Vilia Soap Company. Her use of old methods is most impressive, especially in a world of mass produced, chemically-laden products.

Vilia Soap Company uses Greek organic olive oil from Kavala combined with almond oil from Volos in central Greece. Inspired from local flora and fauna, they use lavender from the local market, and various other indigenous herbs like rosemary. Ingredients like Tea Tree oil and lemongrass are sourced from foreign suppliers.

Their soaps have already proven a great success among customers in 11 countries across the world. Their largest demographic is women, from late 20s and up, who seek pure, handmade, high-quality, chemical-free and uniquely fragranced soaps. But they aren’t stopping there.

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

 

Photo Credit: Vilia Soap Company

The National Library of Greece, under the direction of Dr. Filippos Tsimpoglou, General Director, is methodically preparing for a historic relocation that will enable its transition into a new digital era of innovation and extroversion. From the Vallianeio historic neoclassical building in the center of Athens, which together with the University of Athens and the Academy form the Athens Trilogy, the National Library is moving its headquarters to a state-of-the-art building erected by architect Renzo Piano for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC).

The entrance to the Library leads into a large open lobby that provides an immediate visual orientation to all the organization’s functions. The natural light creates an open hospitable environment for individual and collaborative learning. Within its new premises, the National Library of Greece will thus be able to strengthen its role in the field of Research, while expanding its focus from an exclusive research facility to an inclusive public resource, an active hub for knowledge, enterprise and innovation.

Starting from March 2017, the National Library of Greece has six months to complete the relocation process and two months to conduct pilot operation at the new building. Based on this framework, the library opening is being scheduled for Autumn 2017.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek News Agenda

Photo Credit: Giorgis Gerolympos, Greek News Agenda

Here are the best Greek islands for families. They’re known for their sandy beaches, water sports, untouched island life, and lots of history and culture.

Best for: fly and flop

If you’re after a bit of R&R, Rhodes’s east coast has a 30-mile stretch of well-maintained golden-sand beaches with warm, shallow water down its eastern coast.

Best for: budget

Make like the Durrells and head to Corfu for a spot of swimming and sunbathing on one of its varied beaches: sandy Glyfada, on the wild west coast; nearby Paleokastritsa, with its sheltered pebble coves; or Sidari on the north coast, with its peculiar rock formations and warm shallow sea.

Best for: sociable teens

If you want to avoid the crowds of an all-inclusive, but have teens who need to mingle, head to the Peligoni Beach Club on Zakynthos. The island’s dramatic coastline will thrill your family by day – Navagio (Shipwreck beach), a blissful cove backed by plummeting limestone cliffs, is unmissable – and Peligoni Club offers families with teenagers round-the- clock activities – and options for socialising in the evenings.

Best for: honeymoon with the kids

Mykonos is famous for its flamboyant nightlife, but the island also makes for a wonderful family destination if you stay in one of the quieter resorts, such as Agios Ioannis, with its lovely sandy beach beach, immortalised in the film Shirley Valentine (1989). Days spent by the sea will ensure that young children are ready for bed come sunset, after which you can head into Mykonos Town for dinner, then round off with either drinks overlooking the harbour in Little Venice.

To read this article in full, please visit: The Telegraph

Eight refugees from Syria and Iraq held a cookout with traditional dishes for visitors and other refugees attending the 19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

During the event, called “Food Uniting People #WithRefugees,” the four men from the refugee camps of Volvi and Alexandria cooked and served quzi, falafel and kibbeh.

Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), 18-year-old Ahmet Obeyid from Syria said he participated because he wanted to show the culinary wealth and culture of his country, but also to thank the Greeks for their friendly attitude towards them.

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

Housed all over the world are some of the greatest art and history collections. The experts at The Telegraph reveal where the best collections exist and the 41 museums never to miss in a lifetime. Lucky for us, two of those museums call Athens home - The Benaki Museum and the New Acropolis Museum.

Listed as number 24, the New Acropolis Museum is described as, ‘this light, airy glass-and-concrete building that was designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi. Archaic and classical finds from the Acropolis site are displayed here – proud statues of the ancients and life-like stone carvings of animals. The top floor is devoted to the marble frieze that once ran around the top of the Parthenon. About half of the pieces are originals, while the remainder are white plaster copies.’

And at 25, the Benaki Museum is oused in a neo-classical building with a lovely roof-terrace cafe, this museum traces Greek art right up the 20th century.

To read this article in full, please visit: The Telegraph

Air France has recently announced new routes from Athens to Nice, Toulouse, and Marseille to keep up with high traveller’s demand. The new routes with start from July 24th through September 3rd.

Nice is a city where life is sweet and living is easy. The capital of the riviera stands out with its colourful architecture and its intense cultural life. Tourists come from all over the world to contemplate it and discover its impressive architectural heritage.

Toulouse is considered the pink city of a thousand flavours. This gourmet destination is brimming with natural and historical attractions. The Saint-Sernin Basilica, the Jacobins Convent, the Saint-Etienne Cathedral, the Roman amphitheater at Purpan, the Roman baths at Ancely: monuments and historic sites abound in Toulouse, the capital of the Visigoth kingdom in the 5th century.

Marseille gives us the sweet fragrance of the Mediterranean. It is the second largest city in France and it possesses a rich and exciting past.

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

Adhesive labels in passports and all other kinds of paperwork relating to foreign nationals living in Greece are to be scrapped and replaced by a new, electronic residence permit that will also double up as an identity card.

There are currently 557,476 third-country nationals living in Greece legally and they will soon be able to apply for a meeting with authorities to go through the necessary process for obtaining their permits.

Within 30 days of receiving the application, Greek authorities will have to set a date for the meeting, during which their biometric data (user’s photo and fingerprints) will be recorded so it can be entered on the card’s electronic chip. The chip can also store electronic proof of identity and a qualified electronic signature.

To read this article in full, please visit: Ekathimerini

If Vogue is writing about it, then it must be cool, right?

From roaming the streets of Plaka to admiring the exhibitions at the Benaki Museum, Athens doesn’t dissapoint with brilliant things to do. Sometimes however, especially during the summer months, Athens becomes crowded with tourists. It may be hard to find a quiet space to enjoy the city if you don’t know what you’re looking for. In this article, Vogue explores Koukaki and Makriyianni and establishes these two neighborhoods as ‘inviting and lingering, remaining remarkably hushed.’

Click HERE to read Vogue’s suggestions for what to do, where to eat, where to shop, and even where to stay, all within Koukaki and Makriyianni!