Making its way to Scotland for the first time is the award-winning exhibition, Museum Without A Home, made up of items donated to refugees.

According to BBC, the exhibition items were mainly donated by people in Greece to refugees and asylum seekers as the refugee crisis began to unfold in 2015/2016. First shown in Athens, it was put together by Amnesty International and Oxfam.

As the exhibition travels the world, it picks up items along the way. Scotland's contribution if welcome letters written by locals.

Eiman, who lives in Scotland and came from Sudan, said, "If you have nothing and you arrive in a new place, the simplest act of kindness can make a really big difference, whether that's in Athens or here in Glasgow. So with these items, it's the story that they tell, even if they seem like a strange thing to put in a display case."

To read this article in full, please visit: BBC

An energy boost in the morning is a perfect start to the day, especially if it contains a healthy Greek-inspired breakfast! Get some ideas about it in this week's newsletter and go get some excercise at the Athens Tennis Club, the oldest tennis club in Greece! You can also keep an eye out for the 3rd Messinia Pro-Am schedule if you're thinking of a quick getaway outside of Athens!

This July the SNFCC is hosting several sports and wellbeing classes for Athenians of any age. Get ready to and relax your mind and work your body with the free yoga in the park sessions that will be taking place until the end of the month.

Source: snfcc.org

The Washington Oxi Day Foundation is offering the following scholarships to five Greek-American students (Grades 6-12) who best describe “philotimo”

 

First Place: $2,000 scholarship and an invitation to the Foundation’s October 24 black tie gala in Washington, DC, where the winner will be recognized

Second Place: $1,000 scholarship (two)

Third Place: $500 scholarship (two)

1. Watch the Foundation’s video ‘The Greek Secret’ on the subject of philotimo here

2. In 500 words, or less, answer one of the following questions:

• What does philotimo mean to you?

• What are some extraordinary examples of philotimo that you have seen?

• What are some of the things you can do in your daily life to exhibit philotimo?

• How can philotimo improve your life?

3. Submit your answer to the Foundation via email by Friday, October 4

XpatAthens is very happy to welcome Eleni Meraki as an official content contributor!

We're especially excited about sharing some of the inspiring content from her Be Your Own Muse platform which will be published for our readers in our Conscious Living section.

We will also work closely with Eleni to share some of the life-changing stories from her storytelling platform Guts & Tales - this content will be shared with our readers in the People section of our website.

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XpatAthens works with writers, bloggers, cultural platforms, and local media in order to give our readers unique, useful, and up-to-date content. We're always looking to meet and connect with new content contributors and if you believe that your content would be a positive contribution to XpatAthens, learn more about working with us here.

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More About Eleni Meraki
 

Eleni Meraki is a life and business coach, multiple online entrepreneur, and writer, and has devoted her life to assisting people on their journeys to living a more authentic and happy life. She has coached and interviewed hundreds of people on their journeys of transformation towards a more meaningful life and conscious business making.

Visit Eleni's Websites

Eleni Meraki: www.elenimeraki.com
Guts & Tales: www.gutsandtales.com
By Your Own Muse: www.beyourownmuse.com

Our kids are tired and bored with online schooling. So are we, of course, as our daily life has become more intense and irritating.

They need a break. So do we. Fortunately, Christmas is approaching. But what does Christmas mean? Love, is everyone's response, regardless of religion, financial status and educational level. If you ask a parent they will tell you that of course they love their child. They may sometimes hit them or give them the evil eye but they do love them. They only reason they may do it is for the child’s benefit, so they learn how to behave better. After all, their parents did the same and nothing happened. But when we spank our children even it’s just a bit or when we shout at them do we really love them at that moment? Do we respect them? Are we treating fairly? Do we get in their shoes?

In her eye-opening book "The Truth Will Set You Free," Alice Miller confirms once again that any form of violence is devoid of love. And since we are talking about Christmas and its message, let us see how Jesus Christ was raised by his parents. They loved him, respected him and protected him. It did not cross their minds to bring him to reason all the time, only to support him. They did not demand submission. As Miller writes "did he become selfish, arrogant, greedy, authoritarian or vain? Quite the opposite. He became a strong, conscious, compassionate and wise man…"

Perhaps now, especially under the special conditions of the COVID-19 quarantine, it’s a good opportunity to rethink how we raise our children. Let's not forget that we have "taken away " their social life. With online schooling they cannot have daily contact with their friends. They cannot play in the playgrounds. They cannot hug their grandparents. They do not enjoy their childhood. How about being more flexible and a little more patient? A little friendlier? And with Christmas just around the corner how about rethinking what love really means?

If there’s a topic you’re interested in and would like to learn more about you may contact me via email. For more information about me and my work check the XpatAthens Directory or visit my website. Because this is your life!

Time to explore the surprisingly diverse fabric of Athens and why the Greek capital looks the way it does. “We’ll see how Athens went from being a two-horse provincial town with some old ruins, to the dream capital of a newly independent Greece.

And then how a very Greek system was used to tear that down and replace it with a concrete landscape of apartment blocks,” says Sofka Zinovieff in this second episode devoted to the Athens aesthetic. Hear how a Bavarian Monarch's grand designs on Athens from the 1830s created a neoclassical European city. And why Athenian housewives of the 1950s welcomed the demolition of their former dwellings.

Bestselling writer and former anthropologist, Sofka Zinovieff, embarks on a quest to uncover the true essence of her adopted home, in all its layers and mysteries. Discover how Athenians feel about their own architecture, how tragedy and trauma have flavored the city’s cuisine, why Athens has always been a “15-minute city”, and much, much more.

 

Pangrati is the quintessential middle-class neighborhood with a definite artsy aura. The home address of musicians, writers, directors, academics, and journalists, past residents include composer Manos Hatzidakis and poet George Seferis. This makes for a lively café culture radiating from two hubs, Platia Proskopon and Platia Varnava. Shops, restaurants, small bars, and green spaces—plus a couple of galleries, an art-house cinema, and a theatre—reflect the locals’ cosmopolitan outlook. Opened in October 2019, the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art boosted the area’s profile among visitors, already drawn by the Kallimarmaro stadium and Athens First Cemetery. The artsy ambiance is now complete with the reopening of the city’s flagship art repository, the National Gallery in early 2021. The unique vibe undulates between edginess and convention. This is one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods, and finding an apartment in the Pangrati or Mets areas has always been hard, as people move in but rarely move out. Though technically right in the city centre, the mood here is decidedly detached from it: Pangrati isn’t where change is sparked, but where it settles in.

Panathenaic Stadium


Credit: Thomas Gravanis

When Pierre de Coubertin’s vision of reviving the Olympic Games became reality in 1896, the stadium where they would be held was not a random choice. Beneath the marble stands of the 204-meter long oval stadium were the ruins of a 4th century BC arena used for the Panathenaic Games, one of the four major athletic competitions of antiquity, and later by Roman gladiators. A private benefactor, Georgios Averoff, paid to have the stadium beautifully refitted with gleaming white stone from the same Pendeli quarry used millennia earlier to build the Acropolis, thus earning the venue its Greek name - Kallimarmaron, or beautiful marble. If climbing some 50 rows to reach the top of the world’s only all-marble stadium is daunting, walk up Eratosthenous and turn onto Archimidous Street to the rear entrance. This leads to a track around the stadium’s upper rim, a popular training run for local joggers. Follow the path through the Ardittos woods for one of the best views over the centre of Athens and the Acropolis.

Plateia Proskopon 


Credit: Thomas Gravanis

Platia Varnava is Pangrati’s hip answer to Platia Proskopon’s entrenched cool. Unlike typical Athens squares, the action isn’t in the middle but on its periphery and the streets around it, stretching as far as the smaller Platia Plastira. The neighborhood’s humbler origins survive in the men chatting idly outside the old-fashioned barber’s just meters from one of the city’s first Michelin-starred restaurants. The cafes and meze bars extend down Empedokleous, a shaded semi-pedestrian street with palm fronds poking over the mulberry trees. Pensioners picking over produce at the Friday farmer's market, which switches seasonally to different sides of the square, mingle easily with tattooed youths sipping freddos from mason jars.

Athens First Cemetery


Credit: Thomas Gravanis

Death and burial have been constant themes in Greek civilization since antiquity. And it’s quite likely that the kitsch plastic wreaths sold at the stands along Anapafseos Street - literally, eternal rest - outside the First Cemetery gates had their counterparts then, too. But this gaudiness does not prepare you for the splendor of the grandiose memorials inside. The 170,00-square-metre necropolis is officially a national museum, as key figures of modern Greek history are buried in many of the 10,000-odd plots. Former prime ministers, film stars, even the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann lay buried beneath some remarkable sculpture. Not all memorials are eponymous. A simple bronze statue of a woman clutching a baby to her emaciated body is dedicated to all survivors of the Nazi occupation. Another stand-out among the marble rococo is the grave of poet Costas Varnalis: an avant-garde bronze marked simply: “Peace, the kingdom of human friendship.”

To read this article in full and discover Pangrati's most popular locales, please visit: thisisathens.org

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