'111 Places in Athens That you Shouldn't Miss' - Three Authors and a Great Book Launch, Athens Tuesday 13 November!

The Book: 

111 Places in Athens That You Shouldn't Miss

It promised to be a great evening and it was! 
Our authors chose the ominously, inauspicious day of Tuesday the 13th 
for the launch of their book but it worked out beautifully - 
Not a book left to buy! 

Friends, family, colleagues, even ex-teachers came to find out 
about the things they shouldn't miss in Athens! 

 Diana, Diane and Alexia have written a wonderful little guide to 
111 spots around Athens that are not so well-known 
but a treasure trove when you find them.  
From the Riot Dog memorial graffiti to the wonderful Avli Taverna
and 109 more, way too many to detail.
We love it.

 With so much to see around Athens, we think you will soon be writing Volume II 

 Well done everyone!
   
Kalotaxido!

 

  The Three Authors:
Diane Shugart, Diana Farr Louis and Alexia Amvrazi
  (like the Three Tenors, but different)

Author Diana at work... signing copies!

Author Alexia at work... signing copies

 

  

The Guests:
Author Diane with yet another famous Diane, Diane Kochilas, 
 our Greek Food Guru from the amazing island of Ikaria, the island where people forget to die...

 Our talented and accomplished GlobalGreeks rule! 

The Guests: 
The Greek - Irish Connection
Journalist Damian Mac Con Uladh
an honorary GlobalGreek and an Irishman at the same time

 Mamas, friends and ex teachers all present!

The Guests: 

Here with Biology/Science Teacher Pagona Economou, who always supports Campion's Alumni!

 It's a small world after all...

 

The Place:

 To Lexikopoleio,

People everywhere!

  Full house - every author's dream for their book launch!

 The Place:
To Lexikopoleio,
standing room only and outside at that!

  

We managed to get Diane Shugart and Alexia Amvrazi - two talented Alumnae of Athens' Campion School -  but not Diana Farr Louis, we lost her by the time we got round to having our copy signed. 

Discover 

the 111 wonderful places in Athens waiting for you

on your next visit to Greece 

Just click here 
To get your very own copy from Amazon! 

A great gift for friends and relatives too,
for Christmas, birthdays or just because!

  

🇬🇷

Don't forget:

Buy GREEK -  VisitGREECE - Support GREECE - BuyGREEK4Xmas 

At Global Greek World, We ♥ Greece...and it shows! 

© GlobalGreekWorld 2009-2018 All Rights Reserved

Huma Mobin's 'Husband-Less-Honeymoon' in GReece Photo Album goes Viral!

Huma Mobin on her 'Husband-less-Honeymoon' in Greece
Source: Photos are from Huma's Facebook page, the collage is ours!

 

Theoretically this lovely lady should be smiling… but she’s not, even though she is having a great holiday in the best country in the world…

Which country is that? Greece, of course! 

How can someone be in Greece and be unhappy you say? It’s simple. 

If you were planning the trip as a second honeymoon and your other half didn’t get his visa approved, then you have good reason to be a bit sad as you go on your ‘Husband-less Honeymoon’ to Athens, Crete and Santorini.

That’s what happened to Huma Mobin. A creative director at BBDO in Pakistan, she didn’t let the inspiration she had go to waste. 

She decided to create her own ‘Husband-less-Honeymoon-in-Greece’ album with her arm around her ‘in absentia’ husband and share the photos with that other half, and of course, via Facebook, with the rest of the world!

Her pictures have gone viral. We loved her story so we are sharing it and the photos. 

 Source: Huma Mobin's Facebook page

Thanks for visiting Greece, Huma and for showing the world how beautiful this country is even when your other half couldn’t make it!

We hope that you will come back soon, with your husband and take the same photos with him in it this time!

 Compassionate Caryatid - Acropolis Museum

Source: Huma Mobin's Facebook page

PS Please make sure you get his visa application in early next time, just in case…

 

PPS Maybe you should enter one or two of your photos in this year's World Tourism Day Greek Photo Competition starting in September 2016! 

Think about it!  

Check out the rest of Huma’s pictures on her personal FB page  or on her Outside Girl FB Page.

 

At Global Greek World, We ♥ Greece...and it shows! 

© GlobalGreekWorld 2009-2017 All Rights Reserved

36 Hours in Athens with the NYT: It's Never Enough but it's a Great Start...

Beauty in motion: Athens' magnificent flying runner "Ο Δρομέας". 

Against a backdrop of Mt Ymittos and set between the Hilton and the Caravel Hotels, Varotsos' sculpture in glass appears ready to take off...
Just ONE of the amazing things to see in Athens! 

You can never get enough of Athens! 

Every corner reveals something new - Antiquities, amazing churches, art, music, history, culture, music, mythology, cuisine - LIFE! 

For those of us who love this wonderful city steeped in history, we are so glad that The New York Times agrees with us!

Watch the great little video from the team at the New York Times (Fritzie Andrade, Max Cantor, Chris Carmichael and Aaron Wolfe), then read the article by Joanna Kakissis, it will make you want to be here! 

So call your travel agent, book your tickets and hop on over for a weekend break... you will love it.

36 Hours in Athens... It's Never Enough but it's a great start!

Enjoy!

At Global Greek World, We ♥ Greece...and it shows! 

 © GlobalGreekWorld 2014 All Rights Reserved

The Marathon of Marathons: The Athens Classic Marathon

The Athens Classic Marathon is the Marathon of Marathons! No matter how many Marathons you've run, you haven't run a real Marathon until you've run the original!

Today the world's greatest Marathon race took place in the city where it was born, in Athens, Greece along the exact same path that the heroic Pheidippides followed in 490 B.C., 2501 years ago, to announce the Athenians' victory over the Persians.

Commemorating that incredibly difficult 42 kilometre run from Marathon to Athens by  Pheidippides, people from all over the world flock to Greece each year to take part in the Athens Marathon, few being able to withstand the lure, the historic significance and the symbolism of running the same route as Pheidippides, in the Marathon of Marathons,

The message we want to send around the world is simple:

20,000 this year, 30,000 next year!

Spread the word, become a part of history!

The Athens Classic Marathon is the Marathon of Marathons! No matter how many Marathons you've run, you haven't run a real Marathon until you've run the original!

Τηλεοπτικό Σποτ ΣΕΓΑΣ - 29ος Κλασικός Μαραθώνιος... by Athens_classic_marathon

 Related posts:

The Marathon of Marathons:490 B.C - 2010 A.D - Commemorating 2500 Years Since the Battle of Marathon

29 June 2011: A Sad Day for Athens, A Sad Day for Greece

Syntagma Square 2007

Photo Source: unknown (Thanks George Tz)  
 

One of Greece's elite Presidential Guards, an Evzon, on duty at Syntagma Square 

demonstrating the iron discipline they must have, tears up because of the extensive 

use of teargas by police during a demonstration in 2007 about the destructive Parnitha forest fires

Expressive, extremely powerful and just as appropriate today as it was then... 


This photo was taken in 2007 and not during today's demonstrations and the violence which erupted in the center of Athens before and after the voting of the mid-term fiscal measures in Greece's Parliament... 


A  sad day for  Athens , a sad day for Greece...

The Greece We Know and Love... It Happened in Athens...Yesterday!

An American couple arrived at the US Embassy in Athens on Friday 17 June 2011 at about ten minutes to five in the afternoon. 

They were supposed to embark on a cruise this morning, Saturday, and somewhere, at some point, during the day, they had lost one of their passports. 

No passport? No cruise...

He was shaking, she was crying....

In they came, and we were able to process a new passport and get them on their way in an hour or so. 

They were, of course very grateful and thanked us. 

I told them that while we can't always fix things, when we can, we do. It is our job. 

Here is the good part: when they first realized they had lost the passport, they went to the front desk of their hotel. 

The hotel called every single museum, shop, restaurant, etc., that they had visited that day to ask if anyone had found the passport. 

No luck. 

Then the hotel called the embassy to see if it was still open. 

Then, they got them a cab. When they arrived at the embassy, the cab driver offered to wait for them, to see if they could get in. 

When they got the OK from the Embassy and went back out to pay the fare, the driver refused to accept any money from them. 

He would not let them pay. 

The couple told the offficer that they would always remember the day that the wonderful people of Athens saved their vacation of a lifetime. 

So, on their behalf, 

Thank you Athens. Greece's legendary hospitality is alive and well!

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted!" 

We agree 100%! 

We are so glad to see that despite the economic crisis Greece retains its legenday hospitality and its sense of values.

Please feel free to share this great little story. We loved it and thank the US Embassy officer for telling it and Sharon C for passing it on...

Wish we knew the name of the hotel and the taxi driver too...

Melina Mercouri - The Woman Who Should Have Been Mayor of Athens

 Honouring Melina Mercouri - the Last Greek Goddess

The Poster created for her Mayoral Campaign in 1990  was later issued 

as part of a set of commemorative stamps in her honour

The local elections in Greece recently saw a change of power in Greece's two main centres, for the first time since 1986...

In the capital, Athens the sitting Mayor, Nikitas Kaklamanis, a former Minister with Nea Democratia, was defeated by outsider Giorgos Kaminis, the former Ombudsman whose candidacy was supported by PASOK and the left coalitions...whilst Yiannis Boutaris, of the reknowned Boutari Wines, on a similar basis, ousted Nea Dimokratia's sitting Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos in Thessaloniki...

As the elections came and went and a new Mayor was elected for Athens, some of us couldn't help but think of the only woman who really deserved to have been the Mayor of Athens but wasn't, Melina Mercouri, the ultimate Athenian, the last Greek Goddess, someone who loved the city and would have done wonders for Athens' image and identity...

Her vision was focused on showcasing Greece's rich heritage - emphasising the beauty of Athens' many classical and historical monuments, uniting  Athens' many Archaeological sites, reuniting the Parthenon Sculptures, and adding culture and poetry to everyday living and education...


One thing is for sure, she certainly wouldn't have allowed her beloved Athens to get to the level it is today, with scenes such as the one pictured below an everyday occurrence which totally mars the beauty of the newly restored Athenian Trilogy buildings in one of the most beautiful streets of Athens, Panepistimiou... and not only!

Photo by Alexandros Filippidis which appeared in the Kathimerini on Sunday 

14 November 2010  in the article  Athens Is Losing its Symbols

Melina, born Maria Amalia Mercouri in Athens in 1920, was the daughter of Stamatis Mercouris, a former cavalry officer, member of Parliament for the Democratic Socialist Party of Greece and former Minister for Public Order of Greece, and the granddaughter of Spyros Mercouris, one of the most successful Mayors of Athens.

Melina worshipped her paternal grandfather who played such a significant role in her early childhood. In turn, Spyros Mercouris adored his granddaughter and took her with him almost everywhere he went - the sight of a young Melina with her grandfather was an endearing one, and one which would inspire the song Melina Melinaki which also became very popular in France.

A well-known and talented actress, Melina was internationally acclaimed for her portrayal of a woman of pleasure in Never on Sunday,  a film which was a milestone in Greek film history but she also had many other performances in her repertoire, both in films and in the theatre, modern and classical. 

During the years of the Military Junta in Greece, while in exile abroad, Melina also recorded several albums which became very popular... her sultry, husky voice giving the songs an extra special dimension. 

One of the most popular was a 1973 album with fellow Global Greek, composer Vangelis,  'Si Melina M'Etait Contee', which featured this song , one of her most beautiful ...  

 Athenes, ma Ville

Ma ville,c'est bon ne plus te voir en rêve

Ma ville, regarde le soleil se lève

Je te salue, toi mon ami, ma soeur

belle endormie mais qui attend son heure

Ma ville, écoute au creux de tes ruelles

Ma ville la voix  de tes enfants t'appelle

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

réveille-toi  réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

Ma ville que c'est un joli jour pour naitre

dore le pain Pâques est enfin venue

tire le vin qui fait chanter tes rues

Ma ville écoute au creux de tes ruelles

ma ville la voix de tes enfants t'appelle

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

réveille-toi réveille-toi

Athèna Athèna

Famous for her anti-dictatorship stance during the Military Junta, she was deprived of her Greek citizenship and denied entry into Greece from 1967 to 1974. Her response to that was a simple

'I was born Greek and I will die Greek. 

Mr Pattakos was born a dictator and a dictator he will die' 

Her biography, appropriately enough, has the same name, I Was Born Greek...

When democracy was restored to her homeland Melina returned to Greece and entered politics, becoming Minister of Culture in the first PASOK Government and retaining that position until she died, except for a short break between 1990 and 1993. From that position she took on the British Museum as she campaigned long and hard for the return of the stolen Parthenon Sculptures now on display in the British Museum. 

Melina didn't live to see her dream become reality. She died in 1994 but her cause was rapidly gaining support around the world and her vision of a Museum to house the Repatriated  Sculptures materialised on 20 June 2009  when the magnificent New Acropolis Museum opened its doors in Athens. 

The pressure on the British is unrelenting and grows daily, with the London Olympics in 2012 an ideal moment for initiatives to be taken. 

Melina, our immortal Melina, will be waiting, just as we are...  as she said when she addressed the UNESCO Conference in Mexico in 1982...

'You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles stand for us. They are our pride. Our sacrifice. Our ultimate symbol of nobility. It is a requiem to our democratic philosophy, our ambition and our name. They are the essence of our Hellenic Being. 

If you ask me whether I will be alive when the Marbles return to Greece, I tell you, yes, I will be. 

But even if I'm not, I will be born again.

When the Sculptures come home to Athens, so will I'