Hi XpatAthens. Thank you for your newsletters and for all the great info on your website – it’s great to have a place I know I can keep going back to. What I’ve written about is my first couple weeks in Athens. I’ve entitled it ‘Greek Neighbourly Love’. Hope you enjoy it.

Well, to start, every week, if not every day, in Athens has been an experience. So far Greece has been better than great on good days, and REAL ‘interesting’ other days. I suppose this is how life goes. But I’m starting to believe that this is how life is in Greece.

The story goes like this, I moved to Athens a couple months ago because my professional life brought me here. Although I’d many times said I’d love to visit Greece one day, I never in a million years thought I’d actually live here. Anyway, back home it wasn’t very common to chat with your neighbours. Conversations usually consisted of:

‘Evening, what floor?’
‘22’
‘Thanks!’

So you can imagine my surprise when the lady next door rang the door bell, welcomed herself in, had a look around, and asked ‘husband?’ For a second I though to myself, I should have her arrested, well, ok, I should just tell her to get out of my house! But I took a deep breath and offered her a glass of water. She didn’t stay long, just enough to hear, ‘No, I’m single’ and ‘Yes I have a good job’.

About a week went by until the next time the doorbell rang, or at least the next time I was home to hear it ring…it was the same lady…except this time she had a plate in her hands. She handed it to me and said ‘You have to eat!’ I thanked her and that was it. Once I finished the incredible plate of food, I washed the dish and returned it. The next day when I got home from work (at just about 9:30), there was a plate on the doorstep. And the next day there was another plate…and the next another. Wow! I must be blessed. So, so far in Greece I’ve discovered that neighbourly love is a wonderful thing – especially if your neighbour is a Greek ‘Mama’!!

Thanks Marianne for sharing your story with us. We look forward to hearing more stories.

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

Excavations brought to light dozens of fir planks and beams up to 15 meters long, assembled in a strange form. The wooden assembly was inside the walls of the ancient city of Troy. Fir planks were used for building seafaring ships, archaeologists say.

The Trojan Horse is considered to be a mythical structure. Described as a horse in Homer’s Odyssey, historians suggest that the writer was making an analogy for a war machine, or a natural disaster.

To read more, please visit greekreporter.com

By Philip Chrysopoulos

A Light -- But Still Creamy -- Mac 'n' Cheese

Sure, you can make swaps to turn this classic comfort-food dish into a healthy dinner, but if you go too far -- e.g., using fat-free cheese, or a butter alternative -- you may sacrifice the richness. Greek yogurt, though, ensures a finished casserole that's just as thick and filling as traditional versions. Recipe

Cupcakes (or Cake) Without Any Fancy Ingredients

The two-ingredient yogurt cake recipe we've been seeing all over Pinterest (just add cake mix!) certainly sounds intriguing. Even if you're skeptical, though, it does drive home the point that if you've got yogurt, you can probably make a cake. (The same holds true for sour cream, but these days, fridges are more likely to contain a tub of plain Greek yogurt than a tub of sour cream.) Adding a cup of yogurt yields a cake that's moist and keeps well for days. Recipe

A Cool Counterpoint To Spicy Soup

We're totally stealing this recipe's trick for taming the heat on a hot soup: You thin plain Greek yogurt with water (use three parts yogurt and one part water), and then drizzle it over whatever you're eating. In this case, it's a curried (and cayenne-d) Indian lentil and chickpea stew, but the technique would work great with chili, too. Recipe

Healthy Burgers That Stay Juicy

Turkey burgers are such a wonderful alternative to burgers made with fattier meats, but all too often they're dry and crumbly. The fix: a quarter-cup of Greek yogurt (for a pound and a half of meat). It's better for you than eggs, and couldn't be easier: just gently mix it into the meat before forming the patties. Recipe

A Dipping Sauce That Goes With Practically Anything

O mag food columnist Sunny Anderson likes to dip fried green tomatillos into this sweet and spicy mix of Greek yogurt, sour cream, honey and hot sauce -- but the creamy accompaniment has tons more uses. Try it on a BLT instead of mayo, with quesadillas or alongside appetizers from potato skins to chicken fingers. Recipe

By Lynn Andriani

huffingtonpost.com

The first part of a government plan to increase the minimum salary is expected to be implemented in October, taking the level up to 654 euros per month for all private sector workers. The government’s election pledge to raise the minimum monthly salary to 751 euros will not be fulfilled before the second half of 2016.

The Labor Ministry is currently planning for two regulations, which will bring the salaries paid to young workers up to the same level as those received by older workers, as well as the minimum salary of menial workers to that of office employees. That way, if Parliament clears both measures, no worker should get less than 654 euros per month.

To read more please visit: ekathimerini.com
By Roula Salourou