...memories & some random thoughts...

One year ago I started with my Greek life... it was three challenging and amaizing months of my life... :)


I was writting here about some of my adventures but it was so many, and it was impossible to write down all of them, and maybe some people will start to think I am a bit weird or crazy oooor that Greeks are weird, or maybe lazy... :P
In order to avoid misunderstandings, someof those crazy memoires I will keep in my mind & heart <3




- Time & Perspective -
Now 2009 - people around me were happy I am going to live in Greece, so they can visit me etc. bla bla etc.


Dec 2009 - same people stated to ask me if I am alive and if everything is okey with me, and maybe would be better for me to come back to Croatia because of all demonstrations and economic situation there...


Feb 2010 - ... - I am trying to explain that is not so bad in Greece as it`s present...


maybe you will understand my opinion after watching this TED video, so please take some time... it is worthfull...
Danger of the single story




Living in another country requires also to respect the culture, by knowing the hystory in order to understand why people behave like they behave...
...in Greece demonstrations became somehow model for solving problems... it is the fact that Greek Government took loan from IMF and EU, and international debt is still huge...but from the other side, people in Greece got used to live according to some standards... and they will not give up from it just like that, because some politicions made mistakes in the past...


Percentage of unemployment in Greece is around 12... the highest ever in last 20 years... and comparing to Croatia where unemployment is around 17% (+ people that are not registered as unemplyed) ...If you try to organize some demonstrations related with unemployment or government work, beter not to waste time on it... because mentality is different...
it doesnt mean that someone is wrong and some right it is about to understand that isnot always as it is present in media... (remember "danger of the single story")

It is all about perspective :)

If I can change anything related to My Greek adventure, what would it be?!?! NOTHING!!!
Why? Because I:
- had time of my life (so much random unexpected fun moments),
- met some people that will never forget,
- learned new way of writing...
- got clue about international marketing in practice...
- got idea what to take as topic for my master thesis...
- experienced Greek cuisine, tradition, culture...etc.
- learned why pigeons do not fly under Acropolis...
- realised importance of knowing body language...
- got used to live in city that has more inhabitants that whole Croatia :)
- much more unexlainable things...

The Gods must be crazy

The video about My Greek Adventure you can check here

φιλάκια σε όλους απο την Κροάτια!!! :)

Kaliorexi kai gia mas

By the title you can guess that this post is about Greek food and drinks :)

Kaliorexi = bon appetit!!!

Gia mass = cheers!!!

 Greek cuisine has unique flavour. During your stay in Greece you will be pleasantly surprised by culinary specialties. „Greek Salad“, Souvlaki“, „Mousaka“ is all most people know of Greek cuisine.    However, Greek cuisine comprises of a large variety of dishes fully meat eaters and vegetarians. This is not surprising considering that Greece is the country where symposium originated and the homeland of the Epikaureian philosophers. Archestratos wrote the 1st cookbook in history in 330 BC reminding readers that cuisine is a mark of civilization. Greece has a gastronomic tradition of 4ooo years. However, like most national cuisines, Greek one was also influenced by neighboring countries, from the East and the West.While lunch is main meal in some countries, in Greece is actually dinner. Greek religiously preserved the custom of gathering around the table to enjoy the meal and various appetizers, with ouzo...

     Having a meal with friends at home or at restaurant or taverna is a deeply rooted social habit. The atmosphere in typical Greek restaurants and tavernas is casual, relaxed and informal. Food is prepared according to fundamental rules. Good amateur cooks enjoyed great respect in their social circle, while a good housewife in Greece means a good cook. A good cook sometimes dedicates days to the presentations of a meal for his/her friends.

During 3 months in Greece I eat more lamb meat then in whole my life... yeah, in Croatia, we are eating it only in official and special occasions. Another thing I have been surprised is that despite eating heavy food, big portions, so late, Greeks are not that fat... answer is probable hidden in fact that they are drinking a lot of water, e.g. you will go to restaurant, waiter will bring you water automatically and then ask you, what would you like to order...
btw: tap water in Athens is very nice, but about other cities, specially islands check it twice :D
    One more thing (besides souvlaki, mousaka & greek salad) you can not miss is potato in all shapes and dzadziki :D))))) Talking about salad need to admit how my view changed... in Greece I started to eat salad as main meal...yeah, when you see Greek portions, you will understand why... :D

Continue to portions, if you are female, sometime (in some countries) waiter will warn you that portions are big, so you can change your order ... well in Greece it wont happen, so in case you wont ask for “Doggy-bag”, some dog will get it anyway... (that is why homeless dogs in Athens are fat & lazy )

Koluri & Bugatza is also something unavoidable in Greece, I heard that best one are in Thessaloniki, and there is only one way to find it out.

My favorite cafe that I like to prepare at home is so called „Turkish cafe“, why „so called“ because I have never been in Turkey and haven’t try it there...so I do not know difference between real, original Turkish cafe & Greek cafe... what I do know is that I like Greek cafe, a lot!!!

If you are going to Praha you need to try Absinth, right? If you are going to Chios you need to try mastixa... to be honest I’ve tried it, but not in Chios, so it doesn’t count, but I promise you, that one day I will visit Chios and dedicate whole post, ok?

Above mentioned ouzo, is impossible to avoid in Greece... it is normal that drinks goes together with food, interesting thing is that in Greece always food goes together with drinks.... aham, even If you order just ouzo, oinomelo (wine+honey) or rakomelo (raki+honey) you will get something for snack.

This is random picture form green market in Athens, interesting thing about its randomness is actually beer boxes you can see below ... Heineken & Amstel are the only international beers you can find there.

One of many interesting things about living in another country is that different market has different products, like nonalcoholic drink from producer for you only know as producer of alcohol drinks, or milk for cafe from can, or different flavors from your favorite drinks...

Talking about atmosphere in Greek restaurants, tavernas, cafe bars etc... we mentioned it is relaxed, spontaneous and it is a habit to gather with family and/or friends few times per week.
This habit has roots in ancient Greece, word symposium is greek one (of course, like thousand others.. :P) and it means: „drinking with the company“.
That is connected with my post about Thessaloniki and „Halara“ way of living and I like it. Maybe it is or it is not related but huge % of Greeks are smokers, so the tool from picture below is something like „fashion“...

The last but not the least is orange story, do not worry it is not story about annoying orange :S, it is the fact that in Athens are thousands of orange/tangerine/mandarins trees.
E.g. in 200m long street you can count approximately 80 trees... on every of them is few kilograms of fruits which you can not eat, because it is not healthy, it is like decorations... LOL,
what kind of decorations?!?!? In some point of time, fruits are falling down to floor and becoming garbage, sorry, I mean floor decoration... imagine how many streets like this, trees like this, fruits like this are wasting every, day, week, year... Do not forget how many streets like this you have in Athens, in Greece...
dear Greeks friends, if you make them healthy, and start with export, how knows maybe can decrease international debt of Greece, XaXaXa?!? :P

Discovering Athens - AnafiOtika

When you hear "Athens" I can bet that 99,69% people will have in mind Acropolis and Parthenon, right?!?!

...that is why I wont write about it, I will do it my way and write about things you will not be able to read in books and tourist guides... e.g. did you see some birds flying under Acropolis?!? Nope, you will not find it there, because that area is on magnetic filed ...

Since word "Acropolis" came from Greek language (did you doubt?!?! :P) and meaning is "highest city" it is obvious that you will have beautiful view from there ... buuuut, do not look too far!!! okey, you can, in that case you wont see something really interesting; small and hidden neighborhood called ANAFIOTIKA,

on the northern side of Acropolis. :)

 this area is one of the oldest settlements in Athens, even some local people do not know about it :(

So, the story begins with Peloponnesian war (431-404 BC) when refugees situated this area...

By 1841, it had been colonized by workmen from Anafi in the Cycades, who eventually gave name to this area. Part of influx of island craftsmen, who helped to construct the new city following Independence, ignored an 1834 decree declaring the area an archaeological zone, and completed their houses overnight, installing their families by morning. By Ottoman law, this meant authorities were powerless to knock the new houses down.

Today, its white-washed houses, cramped streets, lazy cats and pots of basil-on windowsills give it atmosphere of a typical Cycladic village...  :)

If you have money to buy some of these houses, Do It!!!! :)

...coz you will have view like this, every day... :)

But, If you do not have, you are always welcomed as tourist!!!!

ps: Xronia polla!!! Kali Xronia!!!! 

Sve Najbolje!!! Sretna Nova Godina!!! :)

Xronia polla

The constitution of Greece recognizes the Greek Orthodox faith as the "prevailing" religion of the country, while guaranteeing freedom of religious belief for all. The Greek Government does not keep statistics on religious groups and censuses do not ask for religious affiliation. According to the State Department, an estimated 97% of Greek citizens identify themselves as Greek Orthodox. However, in the Eurostat – Eurobarometer poll of 2005, 81% of Greek citizens responded that they believe there is a God, which was the third highest percentage among EU members behind only Malta and Cyprus.

Xronia pollaaaaa, was phrase you could hear and see everywhere around Greece these days... on the street, on the buses, shops, people saying it on the phone, everywhere... If you think it means "Merry Christmas" you are wRongggg, literary translate means "lots of happiness" and people use it when someone has birthday, name-day, Christmas, ... every time when someone celebrates something :) If you want to say Merry Christmas, then you will say Kala Xristougenna, which is less used phrase...  (as I noticed...)

For all of us, Christmas is somehow related with gifts...
what I would like to give you as a gift under Christmas tree is video below...
hope you will find 18:49 min of your life for something that can make you more open & better person...
The danger of a single story

Why I like this video?!? Because I also had some single stories about Greece, and now I am really happy by the fact that the single story is disappearing and I consider whole this Greek experience/adventure as a big gift :)  Last year, before my trip to Brazil, I also had a single story about this country... what I learned there?!? If (lots of) people there can be happy by having something to eat, playing football and dancing.. .then I also should find (at least) 3 small things to be happy about my life... for this Christmas I was happy knowing that even I am not with my family (for first time in my life) they are all healthy and also happy, having nice Christmas tree (first time, next to palm tree), watching Cro TV channel (after 6 weeks:)), a blanket :), full table of food (maybe more that needed :D), new friends and Sophia`s family that warmly hosted me (Efharisto polly)!!!!!!!!  :)

once more: Xronia polla!!! :)  Sretan Božić!!! :)

...cooooommunication...

If you think that word "communication" is originally from Greece,  I am so sorry, need to disappoint you ... it is Latin one... Most of you probable know that communication consists of few different things... I chose some of them to present you how I see things here... :)

First of all, the language is really interesting, sometimes sounds like Italian or Spanish (e.g. Kalimera [Good morning] :)) but sometimes more sounds like Arabic (e.g. EfHHaRRistoo [Thank you]).. annnnd sometimes you can see Turkish influence, also visible in Croatia (e.g. Sokaki [street])  ...  now after this small Greek vocabulary lesson lets try to read it: Καλιμερα, Εφχαριστο, Σοκακι... -> ?!?!? yep!!! ...exactly; alfa, beta, gama, delta is one thing... but to read it is something more advanced.... I was lucky and had opportunity to repeat my "Cyrillic skills" in Belgrade, which was warming up for Greece :))))

In communication around 55-70% is body language, so sometimes can  be really helpful "tool" to understand what  people are talking about ...buuut sometimes in different country and culture you will stay confused... :P
ONLY IN GREECE word "yes"starts with "N", and to be even more funny if you wanna say "yes" in Greek you need to say "NEeeee" ...in most of Balkan languages and wider it means totally opposite...so, that is something I still adopting to (after a month here...) and I also had some interesting situations with it.... one was in crowded night train, I was between two wagons and suddenly doors started to close, and I couldn't move and of course in that moment I said: "neeeee..." which was reallyyyy weird to people around me [hihih, crazy girl is happy because doors compressed her, yeah write:P]    -> after it, some things changed... :D  From now on, things will be more clear to guys which had theory: "when girl tell you "neee", she means YES!" :P  :P :P

moving on...In general people are talking a lot here (which is not problem for me :D) so either talking on land line phone, cell-phone, public phone (which is unusual in Croatia) or use land phone from kiosk (which I did not know exist).  Even, fore some things it takes time to happen people are really open and ready to help you ... so, you can ask person who works in kiosk to help you charge your credit for cell phone :) In Greece is now new law, and every new sim card has to be registered before activation... and I went to store to do it, which was really funny; signing contract you are able (so-so) to read and understand (LoL), also, the guy put me Croatia as place of birth, even it is not truth he did not mind, and said: "okey, details... no one will check it if is truth or not" hehehe (tnx Lila for helping me with reading and understanding the contract, even we didn't get copy of it., but... details... :P  )  + to unlock cell-phone (like mine was locked for only one network :S) they are charging 30euros... khm, what to do?!? Go home, google "network code" & do it your self ;) 

The internet connection is like it is...even people are complaining about speed, you can see exactly how slow it is... here are also some Malake who left network unlocked... :)

Today I was really surprised with "Christmas gift" from Telecommunication company, yeah, phone book in front of mine doors, and no one took it (like it would happen in some countries...) from other side of doors you can find your mail and bills... :)


If you want to send post-cards or letters from Greece, you can only do that in post office, there is no (at least I didn`t see post-box, neither found a place to buy post-cards) so, sorry, there is no "2-FA-BE" my friends :(

If we are talking about newspapers, the most popular one (specially between AIESEC members in Greece) this week were Kathimerini (check page 16th) :)

Last but not the least, would like to share one story from Greek mythology which I discovered this week...
According to the urbane retelling of myth in Ovid's Metamorphoses, for a long time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from Zeus' affairs by leading her away and flattering her. When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to only repeat the words of others (our modern word "echo").

huh, It is long one post, but hope you liked it!?! filakia (kisses)!!! ;)

HaaaLaaaRaaaaa, you are in Thessaloniki...

HaaLaaRaaa, that was the first word I learned in Thessaloniki... actually it is not just a word, it is like a concept, principle how the things are going on there...

 ...you are a student? ...willing to travel during the night?  If answer is Yes, you are lucky one traveler, becauseeee this is the cheapest way to come from point A to point B in Greece :)

...as lucky travelers, we took midnight train from Athens to Thessaloniki [15euros economy class, 21euros business class, (yes, you can get student discount for business class :D)]

...however, after almost 7 hours of traveling we came to Thessaloniki, and of course it was time for "morning cafe"  ...what better place for cafe there then Aristotelous Square... 

After morning cafe, it was perfect time for breakfast...so we went outside of center where our dear friend hosted us (Efharistoooo Olga for breakfast and to Sia & Vivian for accommodation :))
...as you can see, Architecture there is really influences by Byzantine & Ottoman empire (more about history), totally different then Athens. [*Oh, one important tip, buy daily ticket, it cost only 1 euro and you can travel all around 24 hours... :)] ...try to guess what we done after breakfast?!? Cafe time :)))) then Shopping time:)))) then lunch time :)))) and then cafe time (again) all that in Halara style; relax, we have time... ("pe minuti")

I bet that people from Croatia see similarities with Split...  :))))


Thessaloniki (Saloniki, Salonica or Solun) is second biggest city in Greece, population is almost 1 ooo ooo, out of that 11o ooo are students ... so beside being important transportation hub it is also known as student city and religious center. The most famous Thessalonians are Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (founder and first president of Turkey) and Cicero (non-native). Some of  twin cities are: Alexandria (Egypt), Bratislava (Slovakia), Kolkata (India), Bologna (Italy), Cologne & Leipzig (Germany). etc.

The White Tower of Thessaloniki is a monument and museum on the waterfront of the city. Originally constructed by the Ottomans to fortify the city's harbor, it became a notorious prison and scene of mass executions during the period of Ottoman rule. It was substantially remodeled and its exterior was whitewashed after Greece gained control of the city in 1912. It has been adopted as the symbol of the city.

Actually, the reason why I went there was Youth Generation Forum, project of AIESEC in Greece with three events organized in Athens, Chios & Thessaloniki.  The event was taking place as to activate youth people and show them ways as how they can achieve impact in their everyday life. It was an event full of interaction and interesting workshops where participants could explore their leadership potential, see our world, put their ideas into action!!!

Till next post, Gia sou!!!  :)