Ryanair has announced improvements to its flight times on the Athens–Santorini route, aiming to offer a much more comfortable experience to Greeks and visitors from abroad.

The airline’s winter schedule will offer two daily flights from Athens to Santorini, a morning flight at 7am and an evening flight at 6:25pm (instead of the current 10:35pm flight).

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages.

Just days ahead of the snap elections that has called Greek voters to the polls for a second time this year on Sunday September 20th, 2015, the latest opinion polls suggest that the result is still neck and neck between the two major parties Syriza and New Democracy. The outgoing Syriza party holds a faint lead which leader Alexis Tsipras had hoped to convert into a stronger ruling majority.

According to the Interior Ministry, Sunday’s snap elections will cost taxpayers 33.2 million euros, which is substantially less than the 51.1 million euros spent on the early elections in January, but more than the 26.7 million that the referendum cost in July. According to the ministry, of the 33.2 million euros to be paid for Sunday’s vote, some 27 million euros will be spent on wages.

A8inea, a free daily newsletter that supplies Athenians with their dose of news just in time for their lunch break, has prepared an interesting infographic of some facts and figures relative to recent elections in Greece. Take a look HERE!

Sources: eKathimerini, Euronews, A8inea

Four revolutionary driverless busses have successfully completed their first trial runs in the Greek city of Trikala in central Greece; the first of five European cities to introduce the automated transportation. The driverless bus is due to become fully operational in October.

The initiative is the combined effort of the CityMobil2 Program, a multi-stakeholder project co-funded by the EU’s Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development.

This small futuristic vehicle will make a 2.4 km route on a daily basis from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 14:00 and then again from 16:00 to 20:00. The first six days of its operation (until September 17), the bus circulated the city of Trikala without carrying any passengers. Passengers were welcomed to join the experience starting on Friday September 18.

Built by French manufacturer Robosoft, the buses are electric, silent and non-polluting. They are 5 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, carry 10-12 people, and do not exceed 20 km/h. The vehicles are equipped with an advanced GPS and a laser mapping system for localization and movement control. Laser and ultrasound technologies are used to detect obstacles in front of and around the bus.

Similar automated road transport systems are expected to be implemented in a number of urban environments across Europe.

Sources: PappasPost & Greek Reporter & eKathimerini

With little end to their economic misery in sight, Greeks are finding inventive ways to feed the poor while also fighting waste – a movement that is chipping away at traditional attitudes to food.

Three years ago, Xenia Papastavrou came up with a simple idea: take unsold food from shops and restaurants that was headed for the bin, and use it to feed the growing number of Greeks going hungry as the financial crisis took hold.

"In June, they gave us 3,000 kilos of melons; in August we got 7,200 cartons of milk," the 39-year-old told AFP at her office behind Athens' central market.

Boroume ("We Can"), the organization she founded, matches donated foodstuffs with charities in need -- whether vegetables, bread or "even these 12 tiropita (cheese pies), which weren't sold at the bakery."

These days the food routed through Boroume provides an average of 2,500 meals a day across Greece, from Athens to Thessaloniki in the north.

"Greece is a country that throws a lot away," explained Papastavrou from behind a computer screen covered with data tables and the addresses of charities.

In Greek tavernas, if the plates aren't piled with huge pyramids of food, a meal between friends can be considered a failure, she added.

"There isn't really a mentality of paying attention to this," she said. "Here, it's: 'I've paid for it, so I can do what I want with it.'"

But years of hardship have started to change habits in a country where official figures show a quarter of the population is at risk of poverty.

"In Greece, people used to think that good quality means high prices," said Tonia Katerini, an architect who spends about 10 hours a week working in the Sesoula co-operative grocery store in Exarchia, downtown Athens.

But as Greece slumped into a deep six-year recession after the 2008 financial crisis erupted, people began thinking harder about whether this was really true, she said.

To read more, please visit: ekathimerini

Just before sunrise on September 28, 2015 the rare and spectacular natural phenomenon of a total lunar eclipse will be visible from Athens. According to the Eugenides Foundation, the phenomenon will be completed in the following phases:

1)    Partial phase of the eclipse begins at 4:07 am on Monday 28/9, when the moon enters gradually into the earth’s shadow.

 

2)    Total eclipse phase, which is calculated to begin at 5:11 am, during which the entire moon will enter the earth's shadow.

 

3)    Maximum eclipse will occur at 5:47 am, while the end of the total phase at 6:23 am.

 

You will be able to observe this entire natural phenomenon from Athens! Just make sure that your location is not impeded by hills and / or tall buildings so that you are able to watch the total lunar eclipse before the moon is lost beyond the western horizon.

This double natural phenomenon has been observed 5 times since 1900 - in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982 - and will again be observed in 2033.

Source: AthensVoice

Translated By: XpatAthens

China Greece Times, a community newspaper in the Chinese language published in Greece since 2005, has launched a Greek-language section.

“Our readers used to be Chinese who live and work in Greece but also Chinese visitors to the country,” the paper’s editor-in-chief, Lydia Liang, tells Kathimerini. “However, as our two peoples had come so much closer over the past two years and the two governments are working closer together, we decided to expand to a Greek audience.”

The new edition forms a bridge of communication for many Greeks, mainly businessmen who are interested in expanding their activities to the Asian powerhouse.

“Many Greeks want to know more about the real China by reading Chinese news firsthand,” says Liang.

“There are already businessmen who have found partners in China and expanded their activities, such as Coco-Mat with its mattresses, Vianex with pharmaceuticals and Boutaris wines,” notes journalist Giorgos Tzogopoulos, an expert on Greek-Chinese relations who is also one of the newspaper’s columnists and founder of the website www.chinaandgreece.com. “Language has always been an obstacle and with this initiative we are removing it.”

Tzogopoulos admits that the political uncertainty in Greece is making potential Chinese investors hesitate, but in the meantime, “they are waiting and are interested in making acquaintances in the Greek business community.”

To read more, please visit: Ekathimerini

Greek islands with tourism growth and high per capita income will as of October 1 see a 30 percent value-added tax (VAT) hike on all their goods and services, doing away with a special reduced tax rate which was applicable until now.

According to the new law, the islands will be divided into categories depending on per capita income and tourism development and taxed accordingly. A reduced VAT rate will continue to apply on remote islands while those with limited tourism will see the tax hikes take effect on June 1, 2016.

The popular Cyclades including Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Naxos, Milos, Syros and Tinos, as well as the Sporades isles such as Skopelos are expected to be the first to bear the brunt of the new taxing regime.

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Civil Defense sirens will sound across the country on Tuesday October 6th in the morning. The sirens will be sounded for routine checks and to ensure that they are in good operation; the sirens are part of the large-scale military exercise called “Parmenion 2015”.

As announced, the air raid sirens will ring at 11 am, for sixty (60) seconds and will end at 11:05 with a 60-second constant intense sound. The public is to be assured that this is a routine check and there is no cause for concern.

Source: TaNea

Translated by: XpatAthens

Athens features in the top 20 list of hotels giving the best value for money, according to a study by hotel search website Trivago.

Trivago recently released its list of 45 best value popular global cities for the coming year and Athens came in at number 17, scoring 78.36 points.

First on the list was Belgrade in Serbia, followed by St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia. Santiago in Chile was 4th, Istanbul in Turkey was 5th, Melbourne in Australia was 20th and New York was 45th on Trivago’s list.

The hotel search website also compiled another list with 100 lesser-known destinations that also offer the best value for money. The Greek town of Nafplio in the Peloponnese is ranked 63rd on that list with 93.56 points.

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Delta Air Lines’ nonstop double daily flights between Athens and New York-JFK are now on sale for travel in summer 2016, an announcement said on Monday 5th October 2015.

Flights will begin five times weekly from March 27, 2016, increasing to a daily service from May 24, 2016 using an Airbus A330-300 aircraft with 292 seats.

From May 27, 2016, an additional flight will be added which will also operate on a daily basis with a Boeing 767-400 aircraft with 245 seats, bringing the weekly total to 14 flights.

During the peak summer months, Delta will offer over 7,500 weekly seats between Greece and the United States.

All services from Athens are operated in conjunction with joint venture partners Air France KLM and Alitalia.

“Our investment in our New York-JFK hub means we offer greater connectivity for customers travelling to the United States and beyond from Greece,” said Nat Pieper, Delta’s senior vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa."

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages