The second largest town of Greece is probably the place to see the most Byzantine artifacts in the world, whether it’s museum objects or standing buildings. But the thousand years long heritage of the Greco-Roman Christian empire is not only a museum exhibit, but a living tradition, preserved in daily religious life. The great Orthodox […]

There are such lucky towns that offer their visitors the opportunity of time traveling. For instance, when I entered the Byzantine Art Museum in Thessaloniki, I was met by a large print with what seemed to be a drawing after a crossing between an ancient temple and a modern church. While looking at that wall-size […]

Greek community in Romania gathered to celebrate 25th of March, the national day of Greece with traditional dances and music. Most of the dancers are members of Ellas Ensemble, a dance group that is promoting Greek arts for many years, with constant appearances on national television. The ensemble also danced in concerts of famous Greek […]

One of the most enduring and fascinating empires in history, The Byzantine Empire appeared when Diocletian took the decision to split the Roman Empire in two parts. The decision was a practical one as the decaying Roman Empire was under siege by numerous barbarian tribes and the kingdom was too vast to manage from Rome. […]

Depending on what you consider an island, Greece has between a thousand and six thousand islands, of which over two hundred are large enough to be inhabited. Some of those are major tourist attractions. Crete is the largest Greek island, with a population of over 600.000 people. Heraklion is its capital and largest city. Attractions […]

The tower of Thessaloniki is a souvenir of the lasting Ottoman occupation, when the Turks fortified the city with walls against a see attack. The tower was long time used as a prison and was the scene of several massacres. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the Greeks earned their independence, the tower […]

If you get to the island of Corfu, in the capital city with the same name, located in its eastern part, it’s worth doing a detour on the coast towards north to reach a lovely place called Paleokastritsa. The place is considered to be one of the most beautiful marine landscapes in the world, and […]

For a visitor from the East of Europe, the beach of Paralia may feel like home, with numerous Balkanic languages being spoken everywhere. One should not expect the exotic landscape of a Greek island, but the hospitality of the locals and the professionalism of hotel and restaurant workers make it for a pleasant stay at […]

While nothing can top the landscapes from Paleokastritsa, the Glyfada Beach has to offer a large beach with fine sand and some luxurious hotels with tavernas and swimming pool. The clear Ionian See is suitable for swimming and even diving to the near picturesque rocks. Glyfada is on the western side of the small island, […]

Though it is not the biggest Greek island, Corfu attracts the western tourists with the green and turquoise waters of the Ionian See, the rocks with vegetation that emerge from the water and the welcoming locals. The island look like a giant residential neighborhood, with villas spread all around on the winding roads that go […]

Strolling through the galleries of the Archeology Museum in Thessaloníki one can but wonder what happened with the art of carving in the period between Antiquity and Renaissance, when brilliant artists rediscovered the lines of the human body and the techniques necessary to reproduce movement and emotion in stone and marble. The level at which […]

Though Mount Pantokrator is rather a hill of 906 m above the sea level, and I am accustomed with higher altitudes, this mountain scared me to death. It starts like any other street in Corfu, where roads encircle the island, never going in a straight line, and although from one point the buildings disappear and […]

Some say that this might be the oldest Christian church in the world that is still in place, while others admit that this is just the oldest monument of this type in Greece or in the city. However, the Rotunda from Thessaloniki, built in 306, is a witness to almost two millenniums of history. It […]

The tradition of monasticism comes from Egypt and Syria, with the patron of this reclusive lifestyle, St Anthony. In the most extreme form of abandoning the world and its temptations, monks would seek the most remote places, living in the wilderness only by the means provided by nature. The rocky hills of Meteora were ideal […]

The zoo garden of Thessaloníki is a quiet and pleasant place where anyone can enter and stroll and sometimes even mingle with the peacocks, pelicans and wild ducks that are not closed in behind bars. A brown bear that has its own swimming pawn is the star of this habitat. The storks have their nest […]

For Greeks the image of the cloud covered peaks was so impressive, that they considered Mount Olympus as the meeting place between heaven and earth, and there for, the house of their gods. The Greek pantheon comprised 12 gods: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus, which were followed […]

In the dawn of the Christian era, the 10th century, Platamon was a strategic point, on a hill that guarded the roads of the East Roman Empire, on the shores of the Aegean see. The ruins of the ancient city of Herakleion can be found inside the walls of this fortification that now has a […]