InterNations, an extensive expat network with 3.7 million members worldwide, has published the Expat City Rankings for 2019.

The Best And Worst Cities To Move To In 2020

This year, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Singapore are at the top of the list, followed by Montréal, Lisbon, Barcelona, Zug, The Hague, and Basel. While expats appreciate each city for different reasons, they have some aspects in common: they typically rank highly in the Urban Work Life, the Quality of Urban Living, and the Local Cost of Living Indices. What is more, expats find it (very) easy to get settled in most of these cities, but not so much in the Swiss cities of Basel and Zug.

Expats are unhappiest in Kuwait City (82nd out of 82) as well as in both Italian cities surveyed, Rome (81st), and Milan (80th). Lagos (Nigeria), Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Lima, New York City, and Yangon (Myanmar) also join the bottom 10 cities worldwide.

The Expat City Ranking is based on the annual Expat Insider survey by InterNations. With more than 20,000 respondents in 2019, the Expat Insider is one of the most comprehensive reports about living and working abroad. In 2019, 82 cities around the globe were analyzed in the survey, offering in-depth information about 5 areas of expat life: Quality of Urban Living, Getting Settled, Urban Work Life, Finance & Housing, and Local Cost of Living. Together, the first four areas make up the Expat City Ranking, which reveals the best and worst cities to move to in 2020.

Expat Life In Athens

The Cons

In the 68th place, Athens is held back in the Expat City Ranking 2019 by its very poor financial situation and work life.The Greek capital comes last worldwide in the Finance subcategory. Over two in five respondents (41%) feel that they do not have sufficient disposable household income to cover their daily costs (vs. 23% globally), while nearly half (47%) are dissatisfied with their current financial situation (vs. 26% globally). This might be linked to Athens’ poor work life, for which it ranks second to last worldwide, behind only Rome. Almost three in ten expats (27%) are dissatisfied with their job in general (vs. 19% globally), two in five (40%) are unhappy with the job security (vs. 21% globally), and 56% are displeased with the local career opportunities (vs. 27% globally). A US American expat explains that “it is difficult to find steady employment because of the unsteady economy”. Indeed, 68% of expats are unhappy with the state of Athens’ local economy, which is more than four times the global average (15%).
The Pros

While having significant weaknesses in terms of finances and work life, Athens does rank highly for housing (12th): more than half the expats (51%) find housing affordable (vs. 36% globally), and 60% agree that it is easy for expats to find a home (vs. 50% globally). Expats’ opinions are mixed when it comes to the quality of life in Athens (54th). They are not happy with the availably of healthcare (30% unhappy vs. 13% globally), the local transportation (23% vs. 19% globally), or the political (in)stability (38% negative ratings vs. 17% globally). However, Athens ranks among the top 10 in the Leisure & Climate subcategory (8th). More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) are content with the local leisure options (vs. 74% globally), and over nine in ten (91%) enjoy the local weather and climate (vs. 59% globally). A British expat says that he appreciates the “climate, quality of life, and friendliness of the people.” Indeed, almost three-quarters of respondents (74%) describe the locals as friendly (vs. 64% globally), and 57% believe it is easy to find new friends (vs. 45% globally).

About Internations

With more than 3.5 million members in 420 cities around the world, InterNations is the largest global community and information site for people who live and work abroad. InterNations offers global and local networking both online and face-to-face. At around 6,000 official events and activities per month, expatriates have the opportunity to meet other global minds. Online services include country and city guides created by a team of professional writers, guest contributions about life abroad, and discussion forums to help members with topics such as the local job or housing search.


To read more about this survey, please visit: InteNations.org

 

The Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens celebrated the beginning of the holiday season on Saturday, November 30, with its traditional Christmas Tree lighting event in its lobby in a festive atmosphere. The ceremony included Christmas carols performed by the children’s choir of the educational institution “Themistoklis”. Volunteers of ELIZA - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were also present informing guests about the organization’s important initiatives.

 

Everyone enjoyed themselves within the overwhelming Christmas spirit and had the chance to watch the Hotel’s new Christmas video. As every year, the highlight was the amazing Christmas tree, decorated with impressive garlands, special ornaments and more than 10,000 lights creating a unique festive scene in the lobby.

 

Being part of a socially responsible company, Hotels Grande Bretagne and King George continue their special fund raising campaign. From December 1st and for four months, €1.50 will be added to each receipt issued at the GB Roof Garden and Tudor Hall restaurants with the customers’ consent and will be donated to support “ELIZA - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children” in its pioneering work, aimed at protecting children who have suffered or are in danger of suffering abuse and neglect all over Greece.

Learn more about the Hotel Grande Bretagne, here.

This year located at the start of the Canal, in front of the Visitors Center, the Ice Rink will offer all fans of the most Christmassy sport the opportunity to enjoy a fantastic “inside view” of the majestic Dancing Fountains and the illuminated Canal.

The Ice Rink will be open daily from 10.00 to 22.00 until 02/02/2020 (subject to weather conditions), with a maximum 40-minute stay.

By The Glass first opened its doors in 2012 following the uprisings and destruction of Athens in 2011. This superb Wine Bistrot was the answer of its proprietor, Fotini Pantzia, to the inactivity and abandonment of the Greek capital in the wake of the Greek crisis.

 

By The Glass is located Ralli Gallery (arcade) just a few steps away from the entrance of the National Gardens of Athens.

 

"A refuge to hide, to isolate oneself from the city's buzz, to take a breath and then dive again in the everyday reality of Athens" in the words of the owner, the arcade magically transfers guests to the Old Athens.

 

Their wine list is one of the most concise and exciting in Greece; it holds a selection of 500+ wines including Greek Vintages, Premium Fine Wines, tried and true international classics, rare collector's bottles, and one-of-a-kind Magnums. Additionally, expect to find a great list of Champagnes and Sparkling Wines, Distillates (Eau-de-Vie), and Dessert Wines.

As its name implies, By The Glass serves more than 200 wines by the glass–using Coravin wine preservation systems and a 36 module wine dispenser. The carefully curated wine list primarily comprises Greek wines but at the same time includes many imported "jewels," such as a French Corton or a legendary Romanée-Conti!

Here you will be able to pair the exquisite wines with a few delicious yet unpretentious dishes prepared by talented chef, Antonis Pechlivanakis! Some of our favorites include the Greek traditional pressed lamb with celeriac puree, baby potatoes, and Porto sauce, the focaccia with mushrooms, cream cheese, and truffle oil and the poached salmon with avocado cream and carob powder.

By The Glass ranks no 41 out of 100 best restaurants in Athens at the Restaurant 100 Awards and has been voted as the best Bar Restaurant in Athens in 2017, 2018, and 2019 by the same organization.

A secret garden in the quaint Rallou Manou square welcomes guests from spring until the end of October with a backdrop of a stone-built church on one side and the statue honoring the unknown artist on the other!

Address: G.Souri 3 & Filellinon, Syntagma, Athens
Telephone: 210 3232560 & 210 3249988

Price Point: $$-$$$
Dress Code: Casual Chic

 

Photo: By The Glass

One hears about the recent phenomenon of artist-run spaces, but rarely is there the chance to discover more about the work of the artists who run the artist-run space. In their second two-person show at FokiaNou Art Space, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris present “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

Almost four years after their first collaboration in the space, the two directors will show work with many commonalities: the use of repurposed materials to produce small-scale abstract gems with vibrant, intense colors, which give rise to the euphoric feeling of gazing into a Tiffany’s display window.

Mary Cox’s tiny collages and digital prints play with appropriation of work from other artists, rejecting the idea of originality and artistic genius. The appropriated reproductions have been through multiple transformations, scale changes and finally collaging and painting, resulting in a new hybrid metamorphosis.

Mary is an American painter with Greek nationality living and working in Greece since 1993. She holds a Masters in Fine Art from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA. Over the years she has taken up different subject matter, and used a range of media, from a mixed-media series on migration which was selected for the Lulea Art Biennial 2011, to a photo-realistic series of paintings of old houses and buildings in the southern suburbs of Athens. 

Panagiotis Voulgaris has long used string, thread and masking tapes to create in situ installations, and interventions in natural and man-made environments. As an artist-in-residence in Valletta, Malta, part of the 2018 European Capital of Culture program, his work included many interventions as well as workshops in schools around Malta. He recorded his ideas for his work in an art book that started as a diary and gradually became a stand-alone work. From this book came the idea for small-scale, easily transportable pieces which are autonomous but also can be combined to form a larger whole: collages on paper, using colored tape and layered with bold shapes, charts, drawings and excerpts from old books.

They are both the recording of a journey to real places as well as the iconography of fantastic geometry and chaos, at once beautiful and spooky. Panagiotis Voulgaris is an artist and curator living and working in Athens. He holds a Masters Degree in Art and Architecture from the University of East London and has participated in numerous exhibitions, festivals and residencies in Greece and abroad.

FokiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens. The space encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community. The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris.

Hours

Wedsnesday - Saturday 17:00 - 20:00

One hears about the recent phenomenon of artist-run spaces, but rarely is there the chance to discover more about the work of the artists who run the artist-run space. In their second two-person show at FokiaNou Art Space, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris present “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. Almost four years after their first collaboration in the space, the two directors will show work with many commonalities: the use of repurposed materials to produce small-scale abstract gems with vibrant, intense colors, which give rise to the euphoric feeling of gazing into a Tiffany’s display window.

Mary Cox’s tiny collages and digital prints play with appropriation of work from other artists, rejecting the idea of originality and artistic genius. The appropriated reproductions have been through multiple transformations, scale changes and finally collaging and painting, resulting in a new hybrid metamorphosis.

Mary is an American painter with Greek nationality living and working in Greece since 1993. She holds a Masters in Fine Art from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA. Over the years she has taken up different subject matter, and used a range of media, from a mixed-media series on migration which was selected for the Lulea Art Biennial 2011, to a photo-realistic series of paintings of old houses and buildings in the southern suburbs of Athens. 

Panagiotis Voulgaris has long used string, thread and masking tapes to create in situ installations, and interventions in natural and man-made environments. As an artist-in-residence in Valletta, Malta, part of the 2018 European Capital of Culture program, his work included many interventions as well as workshops in schools around Malta. He recorded his ideas for his work in an art book that started as a diary and gradually became a stand-alone work. From this book came the idea for small-scale, easily transportable pieces which are autonomous but also can be combined to form a larger whole: collages on paper, using colored tape and layered with bold shapes, charts, drawings and excerpts from old books.

They are both the recording of a journey to real places as well as the iconography of fantastic geometry and chaos, at once beautiful and spooky. Panagiotis Voulgaris is an artist and curator living and working in Athens. He holds a Masters Degree in Art and Architecture from the University of East London and has participated in numerous exhibitions, festivals and residencies in Greece and abroad.

FokiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens. The space encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community. The space
hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris.

Hours

Wedsnesday - Saturday 17:00 - 20:00

Usually referred to as the blue and white ('galanolefki' or 'kyanolefki' in Greek), the national flag of Greece consists of a white cross on a blue background in the upper left corner of the flag and nine horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white.

There is a blue canton in the upper left-side corner bearing a white cross which represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the official religion of the Greek nation, and follows a proportion of 2:3. Even though there is no designated shade of blue, most flags in Greece tend to feature dark or royal blue.

 

Even though it is widely accepted that the nine stripes represent the nine syllables of the phrase 'Eleftheria I Thanatos' which means Freedom or Death, some people say they are intended to symbolize the nine letters of the Greek word 'freedom' (eleftheria). A third theory states that the stripes derive from the nine Muses of Greek mythology. However, there is a consensus on chosen colors, which symbolize the colors of the Greek sky and sea.

 

The current Greek national flag was adopted in 1978 and is used on both land and sea is also the war and civil ensign, replacing all other designs surviving until that time.

 

To learn more about the national flag of Greece, please visit: Wikipedia

To safeguard goods produced in the Region of Macedonia, Greece presented a new official trademark and is preparing to submit it to EUIPO, the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office, in Alicante, Spain. The new trademark logo depicts a capital ‘M,’ and the motto “The GReat Land” in blue and white and aims to address potential trade name rights infringement.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the presentation of the trademark in Thessaloniki and expressed his confidence that local producers will embrace it. “The new logo that will accompany Macedonian products across the globe offers a unique identity to the products produced on Macedonian land. An identity that points to the glorious past and paves the way for an optimistic future,” he stated through his twitter account.

Over 2,000 Greek businesses have already expressed interest in obtaining the EU trademark.

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

 

Every year Condé Nast Traveler magazine, one of the most prestigious and reliable travel publications in the world, calls on their readers to take part in a survey to discover the best of the best in the travel industry. The best hotels, resorts, travel agents, cruise lines, trains, airlines, airports, islands, and of course, the best countries in the world are published every year! For the 32nd annual Readers' Choice Awards survey, a record 600,000 registered voters weighed in, and their responses formed this years' list.