Relaxing....

Dear All,

Because life is not only work, business, money and worries, I decided to share with you a song that I really like:



Lily Allen, a relatively new song from her brand new album. Nice, Nice, Nice! I like the fact that the music is smooth electronic and the rythm is so playful. The video is also clever, so colourful. Lyrics are far strong and as always Lily does not afraid to say some truths. Some clever points that I caught from the lyrics are:

• Now everything's cool as long as I’m gettin thinner
• And i’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless;Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous
• fu...ing fantastic.
  

Well I am looking forward for her new albuls; Is so promising artist.

I hope that this song will keep you a company while you are staying in Greece or you are looking for your house in Greece. If you seek for a prompt advice here are some houses for you to look at:

• House for sale in Syros. Many villas available for sale.
• House for sale in Mykonos. Reasonable price for the area and good location.
• House for sale in Zakynthos. Interesting to look at it.
• House for sale in Santorini. Worth looking at it. Yes things are expensive there.

Thats all for now, keep tuned!

Greek News Papers

Hi There!

In one of our last posts we talk about Greek Media. In this post I am presenting you some information about the Greek News papers. Suprisingly enough there is a big number of news papers published in Greece.

Of course you might be interested in English papers published by Greek publishing organizations. We list of some of the major news papers and a long list is available here.

• Kathimerini (Daily in English). Kathimerini has a well maintained English version and its link is this one: Kathimerini. Kathimerini is considered to be affiliated with what is called center-right. Kathimerini is also publishing in Greece, the English version of the The International Herald Tribune.
• Ta Nea (The News, in English). Ta Nea is a paper of high circulation considered to express the center-left. Their page is: Ta Nea and is worth noting that they do not offer an English version. Nea and Vima (The Tribune), are two of high circulation papers published by the same publishing organization Lambrakis Press (www.dol.gr). Vima's online version also lacks an English edition. Lambraki Press is also the owner of the well established portal: www.in.gr.
  

In Greece of course there are some more political news papers targeting specific readers. For instance, Rizospastis (Radical) is a historical political paper associated with the Greek Communist Party. I Avgi (The Dawn) is also a well known old political paper affiliated with the Coalition of Left Parties.

Apart of many news paper titles in Greece, sports news papers are amazingly popular. The majority of the Sports papers are affiliated with a football team. Olympiakos, AEK and Panathinaikos for instance have their own papers like: Protathlitis (Champion, http://www.championsday.gr/), Dikefalos, Derby and Prasini, respectively.

There are also some very popular and well maintained sports portal like: www.contra.gr

Very popular are also the betting papers, specializing in the betting football predictions. There are plenty here: www.12x.gr (one of the oldest) and KingBet (http://www.kingbet.gr/).

I hope that you found the post interesting and you might choose some news papers while you are enjoying your holidays in a house in Syros or in a villa in Santorini or in a house in Mykonos.

If you are looking for Properties in Greece or a house for sale in Mykonos, a house for sale in Lefkada or a house for sale in Skiathos, please take a look at the Greek Properties.

Ciao for now!

Bookstores in Athens

Athens is a real book center!

Greeks according to latest researches might not read much, but the number of book titles published by Greek publishing companies has significantly increased. Of course the majority of the book titles in Greece are in Greek Langauge and many translations of foreign editions are published as well.

As I said, many Greeks do not really love reading, but for those buying books are strongly dedicated to different sort of books.

This post though is not about whether Greeks are reading or not. Is about the numerous book stores at the center of Athens. We could say that some streets of Athens host only book stores.

I will start with the Ikaros publications located at the heart of Athens near to the Old Parliament and near to Ermou Street. Ikaros has published the majority of the books of the two Nobel prizewinners George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis. Ikaros has dedicated friends and if you ever visit Athens, I am strongly advicing you to visit that small but so significant book store. Note that at Ikaros signficant Greek Poets were meeting regurarly for exchanging thoughts and reading poems. Ikaros website is: Ikaros

A second bookstore that I am strongly recommending you to visit, is the bookstore of the Estia Publications. Estia publications and its bookstore is one of the oldest ones in Athens and their library has a significant collection of Greek books by famous Greek Authors like Kazantzaki, Tsirka and many more. Estia book store is located at Solonos near to the Law School of Athens.

For those of you looking for English Titles you might interested in Papasotiriou and Eleutheroudakis bookstores. Eleutheroudakis main bookstore is located towards the Panepistimiou Street and their website is: http://www.books.gr/. Papasotiriou on the other hand offers many technical book titles and their website is: http://www.papasotiriou.gr/. I am recommending you to visit their Patision and Stournari branch and you to have a look at their Greek or Modern Architecture section.

Off course, for those of you looking for a completely different book market you should visit Monastiraki where many second hand old books can be found. If you like visiting free markets, then Monastiraki is a place you should not miss!

Another street with many bookstores is Zoodoxou Pigis. Near to Akadimias.

I am promising you to post again about the Greek Book market. If you want any more information or help please drop me a line as a comment and we will keep in touch.

And if you are looking a for house in Greece, please have a look here: Properties in Greece where recently a magnificent house in Galaxidi has been posted: house for sale in Galaxidi

All the best!

Photos from Greece

Is interesting sometimes to check out what Google returns as related images for some queries. I will start with the one that I most enjoy:

My Google query was: house in Greece, and the beautiful Joanna (I got the name from the source link of the photo) was the fourth image of the returned Google images. Well, I do not know how much related Joanna is with houses in Greece, but the image is bringing back to our memory all that young ladies and boys working at the holiday resorts of Greece. I am sure that as me, you thought that Joanna is relaxing due to the summer holidays. Well this is not true since Joanna is having a break after a long day at her workplace in Mykonos.

The next query was: holiday in Greece. The image came as the second most related one. Yes is true, google images somehow reflects what most probably you will meet in the Greek Beaches. But is interesting that even Google's algorithm relates Greek holidays with beatiful ladies:)



I tried a more general query: Greek, and I obtained that photo. Another evidence that Google's algorithm and its image selection relates Greece with ladies.




Well I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you still plan to visit Greece soon. My next post will be about books and bookstores in Greece. Suprisingly enough Athens especially is a real publishing center. I will post soon!

If you are still planning to view or buy some Greek Properties, please have a look here: Properties in Greece.

Events & Festivals!

Every May is taking place “The Homereia” in Ios island. Legend has it that the great poet Homer, (supposed author of The Iliad) is buried on the island.

To honour his memory, every year there are cultural and sporting events including folk dancing, painting, and running races as part of this vibrant cultural festival. Leading figures from the world of culture and the arts come here for the three-day arts extravaganza. Readers of the poet's epics may want to join in and make the most of this island while the early summer allows a quieter experience of Ios before August sees it over-run with drinking holidaymakers.

Every August Cyclades Islands are full of festivals.

In Tinos is the fish festival. The beach at Aliki hosts the annual Fish Festival, with traditional dance and song going on through the night to the early hours. There is plenty of sustenance on offer, including fried fish dishes and wine.

In Santorini is the Jazz Festival. Held in an open-air cinema in the town of Kamari, the Santorini Jazz Festival is an annual series of concerts from local and – increasingly –international jazz musicians. Founded in 1997 by the cinema's owner and an Athenian musician, the festival has since played host to most of Greece's leading jazz bands, along with groups from Poland, France, Austria and the USA. The programming is eclectic, taking in everything from bebop to funk, and the outdoor location makes for three enjoyable evenings of music.

Greek Media

In this post I would like to give you some information about the Greek TV channels. I am sure that for some of you visiting greece soon would be interesting to know what you should expect from the Greek Media.

Well, Greek media and especially TV stations are very popular in Greece. I am sure that at any small shop selling cokes or chips you will see a tv screen being tuned in a TV frequency. Yes!
Greeks are TV-addicted.

There are public and private broadcasts. By public we refer to channels owned by the government while private are TV stations owned by media companies, publishers and other organizations. Note that the are not really controlled by the government but mostly managed. Off course the governments influence to the public channels is strong, but not much as in other countries.

The channels are:

• Mega Channel: http://www.megatv.com/ Quite popular for news and shows.
• Antenna Channel: http://www.antenna.gr/ A big competitor of the first one.
• Alpha TV: http://www.alphatv.gr/
• Star Channel: http://www.star.gr Mostly for American influenced entertainment. Plays mostly American Movies and TV productions.
• SKAI TV: http://www.skai.gr/ A decent TV station with clear focus on Global and Domestic News, Sports and Culture. There is also an available Live section on the website.
• ALTER TV: http://www.alter.gr/ Watch it if you want to learn how a typical Greek Station might look like....
  

All the mentioned channels are private ones and the public
channels are:

• ET1-First Public program
• NET-second Public program
• ET3- The public TV channel of North Greece with headquarters at Thessaloniki.
  

Their links are available by: http://www.ert.gr/en/ You will find a quite well developed English section, with frequent updates.

I was planning to write many things, but I will keep this post more informative and short. Thus whenever you are visiting Athens, Mykonos, Syros, Santorini, Tinos or any other Greek Island, and you want to use the available screen of your room, please watch one of the channels above.

There are so many things that you could write about the Greek Tv and I am leaving it for later...
Properties in Greece

Travel tips!

Hello!!

For the next few days I will post information about how to access the Cyclades islands.

Let's start with Santorini. Santorini is one of the most famous Cyclades island.

An important reason is the easy access that has. You can visit it by air or by sea. Everyday there are scheduled ship trips from Piraeus port, especially during the summer period. Many normal ferries and hydrofoils make daily trips to connect Santorini to the mainland Greece.

A classical ferry that departs from Piraeus needs about eight hours to reach the port of Santorini while more modern ferries need about seven hours. Santorini is also conencted to Thessaloniki (the trip takes about 20 hours) and Heraklion, Crete (4 hours by normal ferry). It is also linked with other Aegean islands, so you can combine your holidays.

Apart from normal ferries, there are also many hydrofoil itineraries to connect Santorini with other Aegean islands.

Using the plane you can choose among the everyday - scheduled flights from Athens International Airport (Eleftherios Venizelos) or using one of the thousands charter fights during the summer season. The National Airport of Santorini is connected to most international airports.

The flight time from Athens to Santorini is about 45 minutes and from Thessaloniki to Santorini about 1 hour and a half

Stay tuned,
Properties in Santorini