Rakomelo is a Greek mixed alcoholic drink.  It is a digestive spirit that's high in powerful antioxidants, like flavonoids, and it's been used as a home remedy for a sore throat or cough for centuries.

Rakomelo, a delectable blend of Raki (Crete's traditional spirit) and locally made honey, is the ideal alcoholic beverage to enjoy during the harsh winter months. It's even better when spiced up with cloves and cinnamon. During the summer, some people drink it at room temperature or even ice-cold, but the warm version is more popular.

Rakomelo's history dates back to the 12th century when the Peloponnese peninsula was occupied by the Franks. Others, though, place its story on  Crete and the Cyclades.

Rakomelo combines natural honey in complete harmony with the strong raki spirit, while cinnamon and clove buds bring the final touch to a distinctive and outstanding flavor, regardless of the real narrative.

Apart from being served Rakomelo in a cafe, bar, or taverna, you can buy this bottled in shops that sell traditional Greek products, especially Cretan ones.

Ingredients
    •    1lt of raki or tsikoudia (grape pomace drink)
    •    4-5tbs of honey
    •    2 cinnamon sticks
    •    4-5 cloves

Directions
Place the ingredients in a pot and boil them on a low fire, while stirring continuously. As soon as they boil sufficiently, turn off the flame and leave the rakomelo covered for approximately another 10’ to absorb the flavoring. Remove the cinnamon and cloves. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a bottle.

Recipe by iCookGreek.

While some people dream of winning the football the basketball world cups, Konstantina Stara claimed the most prestigious award in Japan‘s gardening realm.

Stara won the gold medal in the 2015 Gardening World Cup, a gardening exhibition held in Japan, with her garden design entitled “Parea,” which is the Greek word describing a group of friends.

During an interview with the Athens Macedonian News Agency Stara, who lives in Thailand, noted that gardens have been a very significant aspect of Japanese culture for a long time.

To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter

by

Anastassios Adamopoulos

Three years after they first made the request, Greek transport authorities have been given the go-ahead by the country’s privacy watchdog to install CCTV cameras inside metro trains in Athens.

A total of 408 cameras are to be fitted to the trains. There are already another 204 cameras on platforms and in metros stations.

Two years ago the Hellenic Data Protection Authority ruled that STASY, the authority that manages fixed rail modes of transport, could not install the cameras as it would not be in passengers’ interests. However, STASY put in a new request last year, which has now been approved.

To read more, please visit: Apokoronasnews

The blackboard hanging outside Dexameni’s cramped kitchen reads, “Kindergarten-Bar-Nursing Home,” the title jokingly bestowed upon the café by the eminent novelist and poet Alexandros Papadiamantis. He was among the literati who made Dexameni their regular hangout shortly after it opened in the early 1900s – so regular that the place ended up serving as a home-away-from-home for all stages of life. By 2009, however, Dexameni had lost its traditional, old-fashioned character, the prices had gone up and the municipality of Athens had begun asking for exorbitant rent, so it closed for a spell. Since reopening in 2012 under the management of two area bar owners, it has been very busy, with locals even queuing up for tables on warm summer nights (reservations are not accepted).

The café – built on a steep road that was once part of the Athenian countryside – and the neighborhood get their name (“cistern” in Greek) from the water reservoirs that were built here during Hadrian’s reign (AD 117-138), near the outskirts of beautiful Mount Lycabettus, in what is now wonderfully posh Kolonaki, downtown’s chicest area. The name stuck, not just for the area as a whole but also for its square (complete with an open-air cinema also called Dexameni), where children like to play football, ride their bikes and make noise.

Dexameni is a largely open-air venue; it consists of a small stone building that houses the kitchen and bathrooms and that’s about it. The tables and chairs are scattered around outside on two wide, steep sidewalks, separated by a pedestrianized street. Half of the fun of eating here is the people-watching, which is a favorite pastime among patrons, especially in the summertime. Dexameni has always been that rare Athenian venue – a place for everyone at all times – and the new proprietors have made a point of keeping it that way.  There are old men reading their paper in the mornings (a Greek coffee costs a mere €1.50), ladies who lunch after 1p.m., students and businessmen dressed in suits who come for coffee and beer, and an endless number of children playing football, bicycling or hide-and-seek behind strangers while their parents eat with their friends.  At night there isn't a single age group not represented here.  Kids play till late while their parents drink and dine, twenty-somethings flirt in big groups while nibbling on their meze plates, and older couples quietly look on.

To read more, please visit: Culinary Backstreets

by

Despina Trivolis

Photo credit: Manteau Stam

Athens is not only a city full of history, it is also a city with a vibrant night scene. Regarding nightlife the city has a lot to offer from wine bars, beer gardens, bars and clubs to venues with live music. There is something for everyone.  One of my favourite places to go out in Athens at night are the rooftop bars where you can have a drink while admiring the city’s landmarks.

Here, Travel Passionate shares her favourite rooftop bars in Athens:

Located on the top floor of Hilton hotel, Galaxy bar and restaurant enjoys spectacular views of the city of Athens including the Acropolis and Lycabettus Hill. At the restaurant with the open kitchen you can enjoy traditional cuisine with a modern flair while at the bar you can unwind with a wide range of creative cocktails, drinks, finger food and sushi. Galaxy bar was ranked among the best rooftop bars in the world.

Skyfall Restaurant & Bar

Where: Markou Mousourou
Website: Click here

Next to Kallimarmaro stadium, Skyfall restaurant and bar has a big rooftop veranda offering magnificent views to the Acropolis and the historical centre of Athens. Skyfall is divided into two levels: the restaurant that serves quality dishes and the bar with its signature cocktails and delicious tapas and finger food. 

 

Couleur Locale

Where: Mormanou 3
Website: Click here

Hidden in a street near Monastiraki station, Coleur Locale is a popular rooftop bar where you can admire the view of the Acropolis Hill and Plaka.  On the terrace you can enjoy delicious cocktails and creative snacks.  The bar has a welcoming atmosphere and is particularly popular with the younger crowd.

 

To read this article in full, please visit: Travel Passionate

Photo credit: The Hilton

A harbour-side restaurant and its tenacious owner have become a beacon of hope for refugees landing on Lesbos.

Molyvos, Greece - "It feels sometimes like I'm doing the job of the UNHCR," Melinda McRostie says with a smile. The restaurant owner is pacing up and down the kitchen of The Captain's Table, her seaside restaurant in the town of Molyvos, on the Greek island of Lesbos.

"Especially when they're phoning me up, asking me to send one of our volunteers down to their office to register refugees - like they did today," she continues, pausing for a moment, as though taking in the absurdity of the situation.

Over last year, McRostie, an Australian who moved to Greece with her family at the age of three, has found herself thrust into the centre of Europe's refugee crisis.

For the upwards of 3,000 refugees arriving on Lesbos each day - disembarking from overcrowded plastic dinghies after their short but perilous trek across the Aegean Sea from Turkey - McRostie's restaurant, nestled beside the habour, has become a beacon of hope.

In November 2014, she began to offer more than just emotional support; setting up an organisation to provide practical assistance.

One year later, her organisation, Asterias (the Greek word for Starfish) has a volunteer force of 40 and has helped shelter, clothe, and feed more than 90,000 refugees. McRostie has even created two basic refugee camps in the north of the island - all without any significant help from an established aid organisation.

"The boats were coming in; people were distressed, some in trauma because of other refugees drowning. I had to help," she says.

McRostie never seems to stand still, and multi-tasking has become her norm. She uses one hand to make pesto, "It's especially good when the nuts are still crunchy," she enthuses, while the other holds the phone via which she arranges for that day's influx of refugees to be settled into the make-shift refugee camps. It's an unusual juxtaposition, but one that McRostie thrives on.

Young volunteers from Holland, Sweden, and Denmark mill around the restaurant-turned-office: some taking phone calls, others with their eyes fixed on computer screens, undertaking administrative tasks for the fledgling refugee organisation.

"She's incredible," says Filip Valentmadse, a 20-year-old Danish volunteer, when asked about McRostie. "She's taking phone calls every second, running everything."

Valentmadse jokes that McRostie is like a mother to the volunteers under her command, as well as to the thousands of refugees who have passed through the island, not to mention "her actual kids", he adds laughing.

To read more, please visit: Aljazeera

by Matthew Vickery

Even though the “Navarino Challenge 2015” concluded a few weeks ago, the beautiful images and memories of the top sports tourism event still remain indelible! Watch the first 360-degree videos ever made for a Greek sports tourism event!

“Navarino Challenge” introduces for the first time in a sports tourism event in Greece, the 360-degree technology in its videos and brings back the unique moments we experienced this year!

The innovative event which combines the greatest number of sports and activities in relation to any other sports tourism event in Greece, presents two 4K 360-degree videos, created by Digitribe Mediahouse. The videos were created by the official portable GoPro camera of “Navarino Challenge” and the assistance of Drakos Digital, the only official exclusive distributor of GoPro products in Greece and Cyprus. Active Media undertook the coordination for the creation of both videos. Videos will also be available very soon, through the official facebook page of  “Navarino Challenge”

360-degree videos are visible through any computer and mobile screen and through a virtual reality headset. When videos play on facebook, the user can see them towards any direction in desktop computers and android systems. On desktop, this is done by using the mouse, while on mobile devices by moving the device. They are also visible on iOS through the official application of YouTube.

The first video is related to the activity of running at “Navarino Challenge 2015” which included a Half-Marathon (21,1km), 10km and 5km routes (Running & dynamic gait) and a children's 1 km route, with a starting and finishing point at Navarino Dunes of Costa Navarino.

You may see the video here: https://youtu.be/5XvWpil5v58

 

The second video presents the activity of open water swimming held in the Bay of Navarino in the picturesque port of Pylos which included swimming routes of one mile for the adults and a half mile distance for children.

You may see the video here: https://youtu.be/unmHxVGLqTI

 

The Chief Executive Officer of Active Media, Mr. Akis Tsolis stated about this new innovation of the event: “We believe a lot in the effectiveness of new technologies in our events and in the virtual reality’s future. With the innovative use of 360-degree videos, we introduce for the first time this technology in sports tourism events, hoping thereby to open new perspectives in the field of tourism. Our goal is not only to attract visitors but also to create and promote the beautiful images of our country through these special technological applications. We are very proud to begin, although timidly, such practices in Navarino Challenge.”

The multiple award-winning sports tourism event “Navarino Challenge” is organized each year with the participation of people of all ages. The non-competitive event aims to raise awareness about the benefits of healthy living, exercise and the Mediterranean diet as well as the issue of childhood obesity through its numerous sports activities. The technologically pioneering event is also held each year with respect to the environment, to highlight the Greek natural beauty and also according to the sustainable tourism practices implemented at Costa Navarino.

The event was held under the Auspices of the Department of Nutrition and-Dietetics of Harokopio University of Athens and the Greek National Tourism Organization with the support of Costa Navarino and The Westin Resort Costa Navarino as well as the Municipalities of Pylos-Nestor and Trifilia. “Navarino Challenge” was included this year in the European Week of Sport (September 7-13, 2015).

“Navarino Challenge” renews its appointment for September 2016!

Official Sponsor: Allianz Greece

Official Airline Partner: Qatar Airways

Official Supporters: Hellenic Fuels S.A., Ford Motor Hellas, Natural Mineral Water “Vikos”, GoPro, Navarino Icons     

Assisted by: Health Runners Club of Messinia (SDYM), Pylos Association of Enterprises for Tourism Development, Maritime Athletic Pylos Association “Nestor”, Explore Messinia, Promopark, Aqua Divers Club, Digitribe Mediahouse, Drakos Digital, Navarino Outdoors, Safe Water Sports, NJV Athens Plaza, Poseidonia restaurant, ThaMa restaurant, Alpha (Athlima SA), Dole

Official Broadcaster: Novasports

Strategic TV Partner: National Geographic Channel

Official Travel Agent: The Travel Company Experts

Photo credits: Photo by Vladimir Rys

In the spring of 2012, 35-year-old Imperial College graduate Nikos Moraitakis was an Upstream executive in Dubai, far away from the noise of crisis-stricken Greece, but when a new round of elections was announced back home in May that year – a situation which would lead the country to the brink of Grexit – he decided to return and set up his own company together with fellow Upstream executive Spyros Magiatis. Perhaps as a response to those who felt his decision was “crazy,” Moraitakis had already created “The Drachma Start-up,” a blog with a telling subtitle: “Diary of an Entrepreneur with Incredibly Bad Timing.”

Three years later, their company, Workable, which develops software to facilitate the hiring process for companies, is reaffirming its reputation as the country’s most promising start-up firm. Recently, the company announced it was set to receive the largest amount of funding ever given to a local start-up – 27 million dollars. The financing comes from core investor Balderton Capital as well as Notion Capital and 83North (formerly Greylock IL, the venture capital firm which headed a previous round of funding).

Workable currently employs 48 people, compared to 30 at the beginning of the year, while its turnover has risen fivefold in the space of 12 months.

Meanwhile, the company’s client base is increasing by 15 percent every month and, according to Moraitakis, the target is for revenues to quadruple by the end of 2016.

More than 3,000 companies in 52 countries use the company’s software, which, according to Daniel Howden, Workable’s vice president for marketing, “democratizes hirings” by allowing small to medium-sized companies lacking specialized human resources departments to compete with larger firms in the headhunting process.

The company operates primarily in Athens – with a staff of 36 – as well as London and Boston – now the company’s headquarters. “We hope to continue with the majority of employees working in Greece, as we plan to increase our staff to 150 people within the next year,” CEO Moraitakis told Kathimerini. Most of the members of the Greek team, “who are earning salaries that are considerably higher than the market average,” belong to one of the age categories worst hit by the crisis, 25- to 35-year-old graduates, said Moraitakis. Now the fresh funding will go toward the company’s growth plans.

To read more, please visit: ekathimerini

Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s comedy “Chevalier” won best film at the 59th BFI London Film Festival at the award ceremony at Banqueting House in London Saturday, while Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” took the first feature prize, known as the Sutherland Award.

In her film, Tsangari, who earned critical acclaim with “Attenberg,” lampoons male antagonism and competitiveness. A group of six men are on a fishing trip when they discover a mechanical issue with their yacht, and moor in a harbor to make repairs. While stuck there, they kill time by playing “Chevalier,” a game designed to determine who is “best in everything.”

Jury president, Pawel Pawlikowski, the director of Oscar-winner “Ida,” described “Chevalier” as a “study of male antagonism seen though the eyes of a brave and original filmmaker.” He added: “With great formal rigor and irresistible wit, Athena Rachel Tsangari has managed to make a film that is both a hilarious comedy and a deeply disturbing statement on the condition of Western humanity.”

Pawlikowski’s fellow jurors were producer Christine Vachon, actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott-Thomas, and director and screenwriter Mabel Cheung.

“The Witch” is about a 17th-century New England family torn apart by tension and the suspicion of witchcraft. Jury president, “Appropriate Behavior” director/screenwriter Desiree Akhavan, said “The Witch” “stood apart as the announcement of a new voice in contemporary cinema. A horror film that felt as though it were reinventing the genre with each frame and truly shocking moments that evoke both terror and empathy. With an impressive command of cameras as well as truly heartbreaking performances — it presented a fresh, feminist take on a timeless tale.”

The jury also commended Martin Butler and Bentley Dean’s “Tanna,” saying “It’s a rare skill to give a voice to a typically marginalized community that doesn’t condescend or patronize and for this reason the jury would like to give special mention to ‘Tanna’.”

Akhavan’s jury comprised director and fine artist Clio Barnard, who won the Sutherland Award in 2010 for her feature debut “The Arbor,” James Kent, the director of “Testament of Youth,” actor Allen Leech (“The Imitation Game”), and chief film critic of The Times, Kate Muir.

To read more, please visit: Variety

The game of Tavli is one of the most common and popular forms of leisurely board game playing in Greece. It's a game played by almost everyone, but it is especially common among men at the local kefeneio, a Greek coffee shop. Tavli literally means ‘board’ and is basically the Greek version of Backgammon…with a lot more shouting! The game is generally played for fun, but sometimes also for money.

Tavli is a very old game, which comes from the Eastern Mediterranean and the civilizations of Mesopotamia. Although there are many mentions in history and in archeological findings, the origin of Tavli has not been researched in depth and most conclusions are quite arbitrary.

Nevertheless, the traditional backgammon games that are played in Greece, were born in Greece. There are even mentions of this table top game by Homer. From the moment it was recorded, Tavli has been the mouthpiece of at least a thousand oral traditions of Greek civilization.

1. Portes – most similar to Western backgammon

2. Plakoto – a game where one checker can trap another checker at the same point

3. Fevga – (which has a Turkish origin) where one checker by itself can block a point

The games are played one after the other, in matches of 3, 5 or 7 points.

To read this article in full, please visit: Ekaterina's Greek Expectations