I didn`t really had much time to write here recently. I was really busy with my studies and work. Nevertheless I managed to meet one very nice Greek couple! Stefania and Antonis are the sunshine of the bad danish days for me here. They come from Crete, but Antonis is half-Islandic! Imagine?

I really miss Greece all the time. By the way if anyone has any contacts in marketing, tourism or other similar areas please let me know! I have to internship starting around July/August 2010 and of course I`d be extremely happy to go to Greece! So please if anyone who is reading it can give me any valuable information – I`d be so thankful!

So that`s all for now. Here are some of my photo-memories from Rhodes. Enjoy.

When this August I got to Athens again I just couldn`t miss a chance to visit a new Acropolis museum that opened its doors to the visitors on 21st of June in 2009. I was very excited to see all the Greek historical heritage and besides the building itself was suppose to be amazing.

So on a sunny hot Athens` morning I got to the Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. It it quite easy to find Acropolis museum: it is situated on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill and about 2km from Syntagma square. If you follow the crowd of people from “Acropolis” metro station – you`d definitely get to the right place.

When you are on the right street you are able to see Acropolis hill, with the magnificent Parthenon on the top of it, on one side and the new museum on the other. The facade of the Acropolis museum is really fascinating! To me it looked like a crazy space ship and with the word “crazy” I mean something unbelievably good! Almost whole building is built from glass (at least it seems so) and it is reflecting amazing Greek surroundings.

The reflection on the facade of the New Acropolis Museum

Not a big wonder that even in Copenhagen, where I moved 2 weeks ago, I managed to find Greeks.

Last week I was wondering around the streets of Danish capital and saw the restaurant named “ELLAS” that of course grabbed my attention. The weather wasn`t the best, so I decided to go inside to drink a frappe. The interior was very nice with lots of details and pictures, reminding you of cute Greek daily views. After ordering a coffee I got into the conversation with the bartender, who turned out to be half Greek and half Danish guy. From the conversation I learned that this restaurant is owned and run by Greeks, who lived in Denmark for quite a long time. The place opened its doors to the customers in 1994.

As I came there alone (and drinking your coffee alone in Greece is not possible), so soon guys invited me to join their table. That evening I got to know around 7 new, interesting Greek people, from restaurant`s bartenders to the cooks and owners. They offered me food, drinks and we kept talking all together until it was late. This is what I call “Greek hospitality” and this is why I love Greek people. It was amazing time and the place is really great! It`s cheap for Copenhagen to eat there and the food is thousands times tastier than in most of the Danish places.

Today I passed by “ELLAS” again for a coffee and they were so glad to see me again! And I was glad spending time there too.

So if you`re in Copenhagen – take a change to enjoy Greek warmth in the middle of the rainy capital. Here is their website – “ELLAS”. It`s very easy to find the restaurant from the most popular Nørreport Station – just turn to the Fiolstræde 21.

Kali Oreksi

One of the things that most Greeks can`t live without is frappe.

Frappe is a type of foam-covered ice coffee, invented in Greece by Yannis Dritsas (representative of Nestle company) in 1957. It is made from instant coffee, water and ice cubes. You can add sugar and milk if you like. It is extremely popular in Greece and some other southern countries.

When I was styuding in Denmark all of my Greek friends brought a jar or frappe coffee and mixer for it with them from Greece. They were drinking a lot of this coffee and I really can`t imagine Greek people without frappe now. There I fell in love with this drink and now I always bring one can of coffee for myself from all my trips to Greece.

If you come to Greece, especially in summer, you`ll see many people in every cafeteria drinking different kinds of frappe. You can order it as you like it most: plain (“σκέτο” – sketo), medium sweet (“μέτριο” – metrio), sweet(“γλυκό” – gliko), with milk (“με γάλα” – me gala).

You can also try the latest invention of coffeemakers – fredo. It is more like simple ice-coffee or with a milk foam on top (fredo-cappuccino). It is very tasty though .

So today I decided to tell you how to make a frappe. I took photos, while my dear Greek friend Aspa was making a morning coffee for me. I`ll explain every step, so follow me.

Step 1. Take a glass. Yes, frappe is always served in a glass, not in a cup! Put 2 spoons of coffee (you can put more or less depending on how strong you want it and how big is your glass). Add sugar if you like. I prefer to put 2 spoons of coffee and one spoon of sugar to make medium sweet (metrio) frappe.

Add coffee and sugar

I`m back from a 10 day vacation in Athens!

It was amaizng time and I love it even more now!

Follow to see the latest photos and posts!

What best represents the country? Probably its people.

So today I got interested in world famous people, who came from Greece. Most of the people know American actors, Brazilian and Spanish football players, European politicians…  But how many Greeks do you know?

The first name that pops up in my mind is a businessman Aristotle Onassis (Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης). Born in 1906 in a rich family by the age of 16 he spoke four languages: Spanish, Turkish, English and Greek. He was famous shipping magnate and founder of the national Greek air carrier Olympic Airlines. Aristotle was married twice (Athina Livanos and Jacquelinne Kennedy) and had an affair with world known opera diva Maria Callas. He died in France in 1975, but his daughter Christina Onassis successfully continued fathers shipping business.

Above mentioned beautiful Maria Callas(Μαρία Κάλλας), a worldwide known opera singer, was a New York born, but got her musical education in

The Grave of Maria Callas in France

 Greece. She was naturally talented and was singing on the major stages of the opera theatres all over the world.

I was surprised to find out that one of my favorite fashion brands “BULGARI” was founded by the Greek jeweller Sotirios Boulgaris (Σωτήριος Βούλγαρης) in 1884. Another famous Greek-American designer Peter Speliopouloswas working with such huge fashion houses like Laura Biagotti in Rome, Christian Dior, Gloria Sachs and today he is a Vice President of Design for Donna Karan New York. And I love their perfume

Today there was an interview with the Eurovision`09 contest winner Alexander Rybak on the Greek radio Rythmos 94.4.

It was very funny, because both – the DJ and Alex – had troubles expressing themselves in English. But I was truly surprised to hear this interview anyway, as I didn`t know that he got popular in Greece too.

Nevertheless, they played couple of his new songs and I liked them a lot. But the most funny part was Alexander`s quote about Greeks:

“You`re the same passionate as Italians, but you mix it with intelligence”

I found totally hilarious the way he formed this sentence! “Intelligent passion” is something new… And maybe he`s right!

And what do you think???

Some people say that Greek language is very complicated. Some people don`t like how it sounds.

Well… I love it!:)

There can be several reasons for that, but I think those are not really worth to mention. I`d better tell you how I started to learn Greek.

Of course the first word that every person that gets in touch with Greeks learns is “malaka”. Simply because they use it thousands times a day. The article in Wikipedia explains it perfectly. I find it very interesting and amusing that one word can mean so many different things and is known all over the world. I`m really curious about the history of “malaka”, so if someone has any resources or information – let me know.

As I`m really a language freak sometimes and love learning new languages, so soon I got to know basic Greek vocabulary like:

- “Hi” – γεια – ja

- “How are you?” – Τι κάνεις – Ti kanis

- “Good” – καλα – kala

- “Good morning/good night” (I think I`ve learnt “Good night” first ) – καλημέρα/καληνύχτα – kalimera/kalinihta

Most of the people, who get in touch with some people from southern countries find it difficult to get used to the different time frames those people use. Most of the Greeks, Spanish, Italians and etc expect people to be late for meetings, late for activities, late with the deadline and late, late, late…

Once I needed to wait for an hour for Greeks, who told they gonna come for a coffee to my place, and after 30 minutes I thought they are lost or dead. Seriously! In my culture would be normal to be late 5-10 minutes, or after I`d call and say the reason I`m late. I was worried and when after 1 hour they showed up happy and relaxed – I was shocked. And the main thing – they didn`t understand why I was stressed so much!

The other test I made – I asked around 10 Greeks if they know the English word “punctual”. Guess the result? 1 out of 10 knew it. And they even had troubles translating it into Greek just because they simply don`t really use it. Do you see the trend?

It took me time to get used to the “not limited time”. I got it completely the first time when I went to Greece. There you understand why those people are like this and aren`t different. And the worst thing (or maybe the best) – you can quickly adapt to their lifestyle! Why? Because it`s happy!:)

Throw your clock away! You wouldn`t need it in Greece. Everything is not really limited… you drink coffees for hours, you sleep until you wake up, you meet your friends (and everyone is late for those meetings anyway), you don`t make plans, you go out.. Do they work? Yes they do! But slowly You don`t need to hurry – you have your whole life! Enjoy the moment!

And you know, maybe this is one of the factors that makes those people happy? And I learned from them not to stress about the things I used to worry before. There is not much sense in biting your nails because of the deadline (you still have enough time), or the things you can`t change (well, just relax than), or the things you wish for to happen (they will happen – just don`t think of it too much)… Personally for me it works. It makes my life easier, happier and safes my nerves.

P.S. I still keep some of my punctuality. Just in case. Just not to be late for my next plane to Greece.

One of the greatest pleasures if you are in Greece definitely is food.
All those souvlakia, fasolakia, tzatziki, tiropita, moussaka, kalamari, octopodi, soutsoukakia, baklava and, of course, feta cheese and olives are not just strange names for some southern food. No. Those are delicious peaces of their culture that just can`t be misses!

The real Greek food is only in Greece and it just can`t taste the same way anywhere else. At least because of the ingredients: tomatoes that are full of sun, bread breathing marine air, feta melting in your mouth, sea food straight from the water, sweets covered with the sweetest honey.. Those things just can`t be replaced. That`s why, in my opinion, all those tourists sitting in their all-inclusive hotels and eating European breakfasts miss an enormous part of their Greek experience.

Greek food in taverna in Xalkida

I love feta and truly think that it is one of the greatest food inventions. The real feta obviously can be found only in Greece and if you want to buy one in your country – look for the name and the producer country. By the EU law the name “feta” can be used only for sheep-milk cheese produced on the Greek territory and nowhere else. All the others “salad-cheese”, “Greek style cheese” are usually made from cow`s milk and have different taste.

Greek salad