Every year from December 25 to January 5, the village streets of Kozani, Greece light up with more than just christmas lights. They come alive with the ancient customs of the Momoeria where actors, musicians, and dancers fill the village streets and visit people’s homes in celebration of the new year.

Recently UNESCO has announced that is has inscribed the ancient custom of the Momoeria on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making sure that this beautiful cultural tradition will be preserved for future generations to come.

The practice of Momoeria is to bless the village for the upcoming new year with prosperity, healthy offspring and a good harvest.

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

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Find out why Athens is THE city to visit in 2017, why there’s always a church around the corner in Greece, and explore Nafpaktos with the top things to do!

 

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While Autumn weather kicks into high gear, start protecting yourself from the seasonal colds and flu with these Greek-style remedies.

Hearty, simple and extra comforting, this Greek lemon chicken soup is with no doubt the perfect dish for a cold winter's day! Kotosoupa Avgolemono is a classic delicacy made basically with chicken, which is boiled until tender, rice and finished off with a delicious egg-lemon sauce added to the chicken broth. This is the authentic recipe for Greek lemon chicken soup, a trademark dish that has nourished generations.

The ancient Greeks consumed a drink called tsipouro (or Raki), which was made from the leftover mash of wine-making. They added a little cinnamon and honey to create a remedy that eased cold symptoms.Patients were said to enjoy a clearer head and reduced symptoms.

This plant is a natural expectorant used to ease the discomfort of coughs. In ancient Greece, fennel tea was brewed for the treatment of muscle and joint pain.

To read this article in full, please visit: Neos Kosmos

The last time Culinary Backstreets visited Pipería in Neo Psychiko was five years ago until just recently, they made their way back to this unchanged restaurant owned by Yannis Galaktopoulos.

 

“I’m not a chef, just a cook,” Yannis said, as he originally wanted to be an architect (and in fact still harbors a dream of becoming one). He only got involved in the food business after his father bought a beach resort in Glyfada, one of Athens’ southern suburbs, in 1993. It was in the resort’s restaurant that he learned his way around a kitchen.

He opened Piperiá in 2001 with a friend, the well-known chef Panagiotis Papanikolaou, who designed most of the menu. “When I bought Piperiá, which had been a café, we conceived it as a mezedopoleio [a meze restaurant], but we quickly changed the focus to seafood and fish,” he explained. “The name, which means pepper, the vegetable not the spice, already existed, and it sounds more like a meat place, but we decided to keep it, as it was becoming known.”

To read this article in full, please visit: Culinary Backstreets

The Benizelos Mansion has been recorded as one of the oldest houses in Athens. It belonged to Angelos Benizelos, born in 1490 and a student of an important philosopher of the time. At the time, he was elected as a represantative of the Greeks living in Venice and was also a teacher, just like his father.

The mansion was then a home to the daughter of Angelos Benizelos, Regoula Benizelou, who in the 16th century became a nun and died after the Turks tortured her for her Christian works.

Today the house stands as a place to visit and admire. Visitors can also enjoy events, such as theatrical plays, photography exhibits and classical music concerts.

The Egnatia Odos is part of the European E90 highway that runs from Istanbul to Italy and as BBC writes, "one of the most fascinating (and fastest) drives across Greece." Completed in 2009, it starts from the Turkish border crossing of Kipi in Thrace and goes to the Ionian Sea at Igoumenitsa.

From BBC Travel, "While (not only) Greek drivers get a thrill out of shooting for 200km/hour speeds on the highway's long, flat expanses, for travellers the major reward lies in the close access the Egnatia Odos provides to many towns of historic and culinary interest, all complemented by an ever-changing scenery quite different from elsewhere in Greece."

"When approaching from Turkey the earthy eastern plains of Thrace are first to emerge, with their vivid patches of sunflowers, rolling fields of wheat and storks' nests dotting the telephone poles. The first major settlement, Alexandroupoli, is a pretty port town with good seafood restaurants, and just west of the Evros Delta, an important migratory route perfect for bird-watchers. Alexandroupoli is also the jumping-off point for ferries to Samothraki island."

To read this article in full, please visit: BBC

Are you passionate about writing? Do you want to develop your writing, improve your critical thinking and discuss your work in small, focused groups? If so, you shouldn’t miss the chance to join the International Creative Writing Summer School that will take place in Athens and Thessaloniki in early June.

 

The International Creative Writing Summer School is one of the leading creative writing programs in Greece. The course is organized by the British Council and offers the unique opportunity to create original written work under the direction of some the most respected British  writers and academics.

 

This year’s program will focus on short fiction, crime and thriller, novel and/or poetry and will involve critiquing and discussing work in progress as well as one-to-one tutorials.

 

Courses will be held in English, are suitable for writers at all levels, and will be scheduled from Monday to Friday between 18.00 and 21.00.

 

To learn more the International Creative Writing Summer School, please visit: The British Council

 

InstaShop, a Greek-owned company whose grocery delivery app is very successful in the Middle East, has been sold to German food delivery service, Delivery Hero for €305 million, the highest sum ever paid to acquire a Greek startup.

InstaShop started in the United Arab Emirates in 2015 and has expanded to Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, and some parts of Thessaloniki, Greece.
The app's services are not limited to groceries, as it also connects consumers to pet shops, bakeries, pharmacies, cleaners, coffee shops, florists, cosmetics shops, and a variety of specialty shops. The products are delivered to users in 30 to 60 minutes average, depending on location.

Regarding the sale, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted:

"Congratulations to InstaShop on the largest Greek-founded startup company acquisition to date. With R&D based in Greece and initial Greek investment, it highlights how our startup ecosystem is thriving and going from strength to strength."


This content has been sourced and prepared by Codico Lab

In Ancient Greece, public life was at its most vibrant in the agorá! It was a public space that played a significant role in every aspect of social life - it also served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their products. It is this idea that inspired us to create our own Agorá in the form of an open digital space on our trusted platform where the international community can gather, navigate, and discover local products by local Greek businesses, designers, food producers, artists, authors, and independent creators.

 

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Although this new section of our website comes to life during a vital time to support local business and local economy, for us at XpatAthens AMKE, our Agorá is an added piece of our whole platform that further empowers our mission of contributing to the local community while living global experiences. Learn more about our Agorá below.

Our Agorá was created with the intention of connecting the international community with local Greek products. Always in alignment with our mission and nonprofit causes, we strive to bridge our readers with the local community in order to enhance their experience of living in Greece, while simultaneously supporting local businesses.

Just like it was in Ancient Greece, our Agorá is a marketplace where our community of global citizens can gather and explore local Greek products of quality, value and authenticity. 

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