ATHENS INSIDER SUMMER 2020

the city magazine of SUMMER 2020 Year 20 #144 ISSN 1790-3114

Arts & Events • People • Culture • Travel• Style • Food & Drink

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publisher’s note H

owever this summer pans out, there is no denying that it will be one where our notions of travel, fashion, the environment and freedom will be transformed.

Many of us will seek honesty in our travels: places that remain true over time.

Places that retain their luxury by valuing simplicity over shine. As post-pandemic travellers, we will be more prepared to abandon old habits and readier to adopt new ones.

Climate change will make a ferocious return, perhaps with an increased awareness that sudden, radical behavioural change is possible. And our frivolous, fast-consuming fashion will have to anchor itself in responsible sustainability. Brands will have to revisit their narratives. And creatives will have to find a middle-ground that doesn’t offend, nor succumbs to ‘cancel culture.’

Hopefully, along with our selfie-stick wielding tourists who cared little for the guide’s passion for a monument’s history, we will seek answers to fundamental existential issues: an exploration of how we live, the decisions we make and what really matters to us.

Avid Hellenophile Henry Miller, too, was, in his day, the loud, bar-hopping tourist that locals found jarring. He had little interest in the topography or customs of the place but he was obsessed with the flights and transports it aroused in him; the huge fascination with the way Greece served as a catalyst to the awakening of an ancient god within. To an inner landscape.

He describes Greece in The Colossus of Maroussi as a place where “one is ever filled with the sense of eternality which is expressed in the here and now. Everywhere you go in Greece, the atmosphere is pregnant with heroic deeds.”

This summer, go slow, check the ordinary, so much is interesting when we truly ‘see’.

Walk among the ancient philosophers and tragedians who gave us our sense of hubris and catharsis. Be grateful for Greece having retained so much of its human charm.

In our twentieth year, we’re humbled to have chronicled the incredible changes we’ve been witness to, and to have been honoured with The Best Travel Magazine Award by our hospitality industry peers. This award is all the more poignant in a year when the very idea of travel is being so sorely tested.

It seems only fitting that an issue kicking off the summer - after what has been a period of catharsis world over - should be rife with stories about transformation, about spotlighting people, places, designs, and art of all mediums and genres that might be essential to expanding and challenging our idea of what beauty is.

For Miller, “The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.” We know that the Attic light will feel different this year, the pull of the Aegean that much more powerful. This summer is not about where you’ve been, but how much deeper you’ve travelled.

Kalo Kalokairi!

Sudha Nair-Iliades

Find us on:

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66 CULTURE

PEOPLE

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Arts & Events Cultural highlights this summer.

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Culture at the time of a pandemic George Manginis of the Benaki Museum argues that culture is an 'essential,' not ‘expendable,’ product.

Why Greek real estate is more attractive than ever Georg Petras, CEO of Engel and Völkers Greece on the country's promising real estate prospects.

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When Walter Met Zorba Walter Lasally, Oscar-winning cinematographer of Zorba the Greek, recounts his life on Stavros beach.

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Pandemic Pandemonium Konstantin Kakanias uses intrepid wit to comment on the pandemic panic.

145 Bloomsday 2020 From poignant tales to evocative essays, the inaugural Bloomsday competition drew participants from the world over.

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114 Greece Healed Me British pop star Harry Lloyd is on track for the top. And he has Greece to thank for it.

STYLE 58

Zolotas’ timeless legacy The iconic Greek luxury brand, Zolotas celebrates 125 years of jewellery-making and expert craftsmanship.

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Fashion Agora Summer essentials

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The Fast and Furious Future of Fashion Omi Chowdhury believes the future of fashion is change.

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Portrait of a vanished era Robert McCabe's images from the '50s capture a poetic Santorini.

118 Heritage Holidays For a summer steeped in history and adventure, look no further than Kinsterna Hotel in Monemvasia.

126 Sun, Sea, Soil Sun-drenched, wind-caressed, and nurtured by its volcanic soil, Santorini's produce has an indescribable quality to it.

108 Time for a Sea-Change Why Greece needs a sailing revolution.

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Collateral Damage Dan Giannopoulos documents the pandemic's impact on the environment.

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Shedia offers hopes and homes to Athens’ most vulnerable Join Shedia's summer fest and show your solidarity.

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Urban Illusions Anthimos Ntagas captures the city's spirit through mind-bending compositions.

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6 Curated Concept Hubs in Athens Six addresses, as creative and quirky as the city itself, that stock books, designer souvenirs and jewellery.

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10+1 Experiences to live it up in Athens 11 different but equally rewarding ways to explore the city.

Astir Beach: The Ultimate Summering Destination Elevate your beach moments with all-day indulgence at Astir Beach. Expect music, food, cocktails and other temptations to succumb to.

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Athens Riviera, Fine Dining Zone Athens’ coastline has always been about living it up: from vegan outposts to swanky new bars and transporting culinary experiences. Here's our go-to guide for fine coastal dining.

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Retro Glyfada: 5 Fun Facts about the Queen of the Coast For a bit of sepia-tinted retro charm and obscure history, Anna Roins suggests diving into Glyfada’s glamorous past.

134 Out and about in Athens LGBTQ bars and restaurants have been proudly unfurling the rainbow flag in downtown Athens.

160 Kaleidoscope Greek summer is a state of mind

FOOD & DRINK 120 Island-hopping on a foodie quest Must-visit restaurants to enhance your island experience this summer.

132 French cuisine à la grecque Chef Bertrand Valegeas on why his role as Executive Chef at Four Seasons Astir is so rewarding.

138 Yia Mas! Steven Olson creates cocktail recipes to toast the summer.

Cover illustration by Daniel Egnéus

CITY LIFE

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Arts & Events

What to do in Athens this summer

Transformations

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WHAT: A summer group exhibition that is as eclectic and promising as the 30 Greek and foreign artists it features. Transformations includes some of the most iconic artists of our times such as Jeff Koons, Alexis Akrithakis, Lucas Samaras (who represented Greece at the Venice Biennale) and Haris Lambert.

WHEN: Until September 12 WHERE: Roma Gallery Roma 5, Tel: +30.213.035.8344, roma-gallery.com

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ARTS & EVENTS

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A life-affirming show WHAT: An exhibition that pays tribute to works of art that were conceived during the quarantine as a defiant affirmation of life. An existential quest that questions our way of life, ruled by deadlines and agendas, rendered meaningless and irrelevant by the lockdown.

athensinsider.com

WHEN: Until July 31 WHERE: Zoumboulakis Galleries Kolonaki Sq 20, Tel: +30 210.360.8278, zoumboulakis.gr

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ARTS & EVENTS

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The Adventure of Human Form in 20th Century Greek Painting WHAT: The B&M Theocharakis Foundation and the National Gallery present an exhibition with masterpieces that belong to the splendid collection of the National Museum. Featuring the theme of the human form and its various transformations in 20th century Greek painting, the exhibition runs until late August.

WHEN: Until August 23 WHERE: B&M Theocharakis Foundation Vas. Sofias 9 & Merlin 1, Tel: +30.210.361.1206, thf.gr

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Kostis Velonis Ghost Beggar WHAT: Ghost Beggar opens at Kalfayan Galleries with the artist presenting an exhibition of works that respond to the full spectrum of his visual media: sculptures, drawings on paper and canvas. Pierrot’s historical figure, with his familiar passivity, is at the heart of the sculptures, drawings and paintings.

WHEN: Until September 26 WHERE: Kalfayan Gallery Athens Haritos 11, Tel: +30.210.721.7679, kalfayan.gr

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Horizon Line SessionsWhere the sky meets the land WHAT: Greek and foreign artists who participate in the web series Horizon Line Sessions, were called to imagine themselves at the opening of an imaginary group show, where they present one piece of art. Conceptually at the exhibition, but actually at their studio, home or a space in the gallery, the artists reveal to the (conceptual) visitors and (actual) viewers the aspects and meanings embedded in their work.

WHEN: Every Tuesday and Friday at noon (GMT +3) WHERE: TheBlenderGallery on B,F and on V through IGTV

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ARTS & EVENTS

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Chisel and Memory WHAT: Over forty years of photographs and documentation of the marble craftsmen of the Acropolis at work. Marble craftsmen dominate the worksite, like forms in flight balancing on towering scaffolds, maneuvering the huge blocks of marble and conservation materials into and out of position. Grouped around six themes of self-denial, labour, cooperation, zeal, pride and companionship, the exhibition highlights the human element of this arduous work.

WHEN: Until September 30 WHERE: Acropolis Museum Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Tel: +30.210.900.0900, theacropolismuseum.gr

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Athens Open Air Film Festival WHAT: Few capitals do summer as Athens does, with over 60 openair summer cinemas promising drama, romance, high-jinx action, and rip-roaring comedy. Timeless classics, indie gems and blockbusters are screened under the starry Athenian sky at iconic landmarks such as museums, squares, gardens, and archaeological parks. The philosophy of the open-air film festival, which began in the summer of 2011, is to highlight some of Athens’ most emblematic monuments, squares, gardens and other historic open-air cinemas, using them as backdrops for film classics. Relive legendary cinematic moments watching the masters: Almodovar, Hitchcock, Leone, Fellini and Godard amongst others as they come alive on the big screen.

WHEN: Until August 18 WHERE: Please refer to the festival’s website for the full programme of screenings. aoaff.gr

ARTS & EVENTS

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Robert McCabe - Katerina Lymperopoulou: ‘The Last Monk of Strofades’

WHEN: Until September 13 WHERE: Benaki Museum Koumbari 1 St. & Vas. Sofias Ave, Tel: +30. 210.367.1000, benaki.org

The lost statue of Athena Parthenos WHAT: The Acropolis Museum brings to life, digitally, the statue of Athena Parthenos. Made of gold and ivory, this masterpiece was designed by Pheidias for the Parthenon. The Museum invites you on a walk of knowledge about the materials used, the techniques employed, the myths and allegories surrounding it, its radiance and its adventures.

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WHEN: Until August 31 WHERE: Acropolis Museum Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Tel: +30.210.900.0900, theacropolismuseum.gr

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EMST as a storyline WHAT: EMST as a storyline presents the museum’s story since it first started operating in 2000.

The exhibitions, the activities, the educational programs and the move of the museum from space to space defined the museum until its installation at its permanent home.

Through a narration and historical proofs – photographs, videos, posters, banners, leaflets – visitors have the opportunity to follow the museum’s nomadic existence that has shaped its present.

WHEN: Until December 2020 WHERE: EMST Kallirois Ave. and Frantzi, Tel: +30.211.101.9000, emst.gr

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WHAT: The exhibition brings alive the history of a monastic complex (a fortified monastery) that is of unique historical, architectural and cultural significance, dating back to the 13th century. The complex dominates a secluded corner of the Ionian Sea, a small island, just one-third the length of a typical airport runway, called Stamfani, part of the Strofades complex of islands. Despite its diminutive size, the island has a unique history and preserves rich flora and fauna, thanks to its remarkable geological features.

ARTS & EVENTS

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Children's imagination is an antidote to isolation WHAT: An exhibition that brings out the very vivid and fascinating response of young, impressionable minds to the lockdown. The drawings that will hang on the walls of the museum express the very real and imagined fears, joys, hopes and thoughts of children.

An insight into their imagination and their experience of social distancing.

WHEN: Until September 30 WHERE: B&E Goulandris Foundation of Modern Art, Eratosthenous 13.

Tel: +30.210.725.2895, goulandris.gr

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Chinese works of art from the Passas Collection WHAT: An exhibition featuring 100 Chinese decorative objects dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. Made of precious and semi-precious stones, the artworks belong to the Foundation of Greek collectors Ioannis and Dimitra Passas, and present the little-known Chinese art of precious-stone carving to the Greek public.

WHEN: Until September 30 WHERE: Byzantine and Christian Museum 22 Vas. Sofias Ave, Tel: +30.213.213.9500, byzantinemuseum.gr

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ARTS & EVENTS

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Parontes: A photojournalism exhibition by iMEdD WHAT: The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) hosts a major photography exhibition, entitled “Parontes” (Present), by the NGO iMEdD. The exhibition consists of 43 works of photojournalism captured by reporters and photojournalists, which show everyday life during the lockdown, as well as the return to “normality”.

It is a journalism project that includes, in addition to photojournalism, revealing videos and live texts, all telling the stories of people who, over the recent period, found themselves on the front line, fought valiantly against the pandemic, and are now trying to return to normality.

WHEN: Until September 30 WHERE: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center Syggrou Ave. 364, Kallithea, Tel: +30.216.809.1000, snfcc.org

WHAT: The permanent collection of Ancient Greek Art at the Cycladic Museum comprises painted vases, terracotta figurines, bronze vessels, stone sculptures, coins, gold jewellery and glass items, covering a wide time span from the 2nd millennium BC to the 4th c. AD. During this long period, major socio-political events took place, including the rise of Greek city-states, the establishment of democracy and the appearance of the first Mediterranean empires. Each of these developments left its imprint on art, producing images which reflect different social values and ideologies.

The exhibition on the 2nd floor of the museum provides a comprehensive overview of historical, artistic and technological developments in the course of ancient Greek history.

The exhibition on the 4th floor offers a vivid glance on everyday life in Classical Athens, accompanied with rich educational material.

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4th Athens Tango Week WHAT: Athens Tango Week, now an annual festival that celebrates the passion and intricate dance steps that have come to define Argentinean culture in Greece, will run for a whole month. Look forward to lessons, milongas (organised evenings of tango dancing) and music to spread the universal language of tango to Athenians.

WHEN: Until July 29 WHERE: Danzarin, Thessalonikis 7, Tel: 211.409.7741, danzarin.net

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WHEN: Open every day from 10am to 5pm except on Sundays from 11am to 5p.

Closed on Tuesdays.

WHERE: Museum of Cycladic Art Neophytou Douka 4, Tel: +30 210.722.8.321-3, cycladic.gr athens insider | 31 |

athensinsider.com

Ancient Greek Art

Arts & Around the Islands Events

Sometimes, a unique cultural experience, even an artistic one – can make your summer hols just that little bit more sublime. In fact, combining a dip into azure Greek waters with a dive into art, seems to be a growing trend on the islands. Athens Insider presents the top arty choices you may consider this summer.

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Abstract approaches

by Greek artists of the Diaspora WHAT: Curated by Kyriakos Koutsomallis, the exhibition features works of art by modern Greek artists from the diaspora who thrived in their adopted countries pursuing their creative careers. Basil and Elize’s impressive collection features artists Chryssa, Lynda Benglis and Babis Vekris (who were based in the US), Paris-based artists and sculptors Takis, Pavlos, Sophia Vari, Dicos Byzantios, Vizantiou and several other prominent diaspora artists including British-born Greek-American Mark Hadjipateras, Greek, American mixed media artist Lucas Samaras amongst others.

WHEN: Until September 27 WHERE: B & E Goulandris Foundation, Andros, Tel: +30.228.202.2444, goulandris.gr athens insider | 32 |

ARTS & EVENTS

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WHEN: Until September 30 WHERE: Costas Tsoclis Museum, Tinos, Tel: +30 228.305.1009, tsoclismuseum.gr

Prayer WHAT: Age has never been a deterrent to the creative curiosity of the 90-year old conceptual artist. His exhibition ‘Prayer’ at his eponymous Museum on Tinos celebrates the Tree in its various forms. The Costas Tsoclis Museum, housed in a former primary school in Kambos village on Tinos, opened in 2011, as a comprehensive archive of the artist’s work. The "Prayer" exhibition at the Costas Tsoclis Museum on Tinos celebrates the Tree in its various forms. "One day, a small revelation became my new guide", writes Costas Tsoclis in 1973. “A tree, whose ever-changing image beautified my life, broke and revealed to me its specific and enduring truth: "the wood", which had been hidden under its ephemeral image for so long. With my latest work, I try to unite the image, the source of the image and the use of this source in a single artistic event.” A thought-provoking exhibition that confronts the destruction of nature and invites the viewer to see beyond the image.

WHAT: The DESTE Foundation, as a grand artistic response to the 199th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence, has commissioned Greek artist Kostis Velonis to conceive an immersive presentation of eight funerary masks of fighters from Greece’s War of Independence in 1821. The exhibition will be on view in the old Hydra Slaughterhouse until November 1, 2020.

WHEN: Until November 1 WHERE: DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra, Tel: +30.210.275.8490, deste.gr

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DESTE: Kostis Velonis' 8 Funerary Masks

ARTS & EVENTS

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26th Kalamata Dance Festival WHAT: For ten days in August, in the beautiful Messinean town of Kalamata, twenty one international dance masters come together to showcase multidisciplinary dance performances – from contemporary circus to street dance. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the festival which has continued to celebrate artists who explore the limits of dance and the human body.

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Constantin Xenakis, Greece and Writing Codes WHAT: The multifaceted visual idiom of Constantin Xenakis, who recently passed away, is inspired by signs and symbols that span the spectrum from the ancient worlds of Egypt and Greece to contemporary reality: urban structures, computer systems, the chaotic internet. He charts and codifies, combines elements from past and present, documents and denounces the impasses of communication, the lack of understanding, the contemporary world's failure to connect. The emblematic work in the series at the Museum is a map of Greece, a chart of the sea-“la mer grecque”. As always in the mapping works of Xenakis, the objective documentation is chaotically mingled with symbols-references that are personal or cultural in a broader sense.

The charted Aegean Sea is presented as a “mosaic of shipwrecks”; a Greek sea that acts as both an intercultural cradle and a hub of Greek tragedy. It must be remembered that the Aegean is the predominant marine point of reference throughout Greek history, political and cultural alike, and hence a timeless element of Greek identity.

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WHEN: Until October 4 WHERE: Archaeological Museum of Poros, Koryzi Sq, Poros, Tel: +30 697.998.9684, citronne.com

WHEN: August 21 – August 30 WHERE: Kalamata, kalamatadancefestival.gr

Nikos Markou, Topos WHAT: Photographer Nikos Markou selects spaces which he defines as a personal “topos” - a private point of reference.

His Topos of urban or other decontextualized landscapes leads towards a clear or unclear horizon which renders them deliberately finite. The human presence is either nonexistent or merely hinted at - but its impact is all too visible: pollution, environmental destruction, deterioration of nature, distortion of the physiognomy of the place. In the images of Athens, degradation has evolved into an everyday experience, but similar elements can be discerned out of town, such as the half-sunken ship that dissects the horizon and the sea in Eleusis. Even the lotus flowers in the Corinthian landscape hint at the loss of memory more than at blossoming and bounty. Here the photographer aims to generate a semi-objective impression as he invisibly intertwines natural and artificial elements. His “topos” is constructed via the framing of his chosen subject.

WHEN: Until September 13 WHERE: Citronne Gallery, Virvili Sq, Poros, Tel: +30 697.998.9684, citronne.com

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Santorini: Portrait of a Vanished Era The latest book from Robert A. McCabe, the celebrated photographer of Greece, who was made an honorary citizen in February 2020 in recognition of his contributions to the Greek cultural record through over sixty years of photography.

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hen photographer Robert McCabe and his brother arrived there in 1954, they were the only visitors on the island. Santorini: Portrait of a Vanished Era by Robert A. McCabe and Margarita Pournara presents a collection of stunning photographs from 1954 to 1964 reproduced as tritones of surpassing quality which reveal the hardscrabble, yet often romantic, life of a vanished era. Picturesque white-washed houses dug into the volcanic pumice; the harvest of the island’s famous cherry tomatoes; the winding road to the ruins of ancient Thera,all this was captured by his lens. Narrative captions bring each image

to life, from recounting the island’s first phone call to the US to the discovery of Akrotiri, a virtually intact city preserved since the sixteenth-century BC under 100 feet of volcanic ash - Santorini’s Minoan “Pompeii.” Not long after McCabe’s first visit, the island suffered a devastating earthquake, which damaged or destroyed 85 percent of the structures on the island, making these images a unique testament to the island both as it once stood and during its reconstruction.

Santorini: Portrait of a Vanished Era

By Robert A. McCabe and Margarita Pournara. Available at Patakis bookstore.

Experience Santorini as it was before tourism, through a decade of black-and-white photographs depicting idyllic landscapes and traditional island culture. athens insider | 36 |

For a nostalgia-tinted stay at two heritage hotels in Santorini Aigialos: Right next to Santorini’s most photographed church, the 200-year old Byzantine church of Christ, Aigialos is a complex of 18th and 19th century captain residences renovated to superbly appointed guest suites with lavish marble bathrooms, and spacious verandas. Overlooking the volcano and the Aegean Sea, Aigialos’ cobbled walkways; stunning views and island elegance offer an inimitable private escape.

Fira, 84700 Santorini, Tel: +30.228.602.5191-5, aigialos.gr Esperas: Perched on the edge of a cliff at the village of Oia, the Esperas is an oasis of serenity and wonderment in absolute privacy and just a few minutes from the famous Oia cobbled walkway. All of the lodgings, originally carved into the rock as fishermen houses, have been meticulously restored preserving their unique architectural characteristics. Spacious and tastefully decorated with elegant island furnishings, they all have a private terrace with breathtaking views of the world famous Santorinian sunset, the volcano and the Aegean Sea beyond.

Oia, 84702 Santorini , Tel: +30.228.607.1501, m.esperas-santorini.com

KOLONAKI 15 Skoufa str.

10673 Kolonaki, Athens +30 210 3635600

KIFISIA 11 Kolokotroni str.

14562 Kifisia, Athens +30 210 8016641

FOUR SEASONS ASTIR PALACE HOTEL 40 Apollonos str.

16671 Vouliagmeni, Athens

LU I SAWO R L D.C O M

MYKONOS Nammos Village Psarou +30 2289 022015

BOTTEGA VENETA 14 Kolokotroni str.

14562 Kifisia, Athens +30 210 8085182

©Ioanna Koulakou

OPINION

Culture at the time of a pandemic George Manginis, Academic Director of the Benaki Museum argues that the future of museums hinges on whether their role in fostering social cohesion through education, culture and community is deemed as ‘essential’ or ‘expendable’ by politicians.

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ne of my least-favourite euphemisms is the use of the adjective ‘challenging’ as a substitute for ‘disastrous’ and indeed the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are an apt example.

Ever-optimistic, in recent weeks the cultural industry perceived the breaking of its regular contact with audiences - its lifeline, because of the income it generates and the sponsorship it attracts - as a challenge, an opportunity to develop pathways of communication previously explored as alternatives but now rendered compulsory: internet resources and social media. Audiences in their turn embraced the opportunity across websites and platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Old Master paintings were enacted in imaginative ways by isolated art lovers; theatre performances missed by many when they were ‘on stage’ were offered on Vimeo or YouTube for all to enjoy; museum directors perambulated luxuriantly empty rooms offering tours that few had experienced before on live streaming; challenges and games

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01, 02. The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art and The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture can be visited online through a 360˚ virtual tour. 03. Facade of the Benaki Museum on Vas. Sofias Ave. All images courtesy of © Benaki Museum.

However, there is a bitter aftertaste to this phenomenal success of cultural institutions in the unprecedented ‘challenge’ of global confinement. How will they continue to produce high-quality work for the future in the midst of what promises to be an economic crisis of cataclysmic proportions?

All of us working in the cultural industry have known for at least a decade that our work has been deemed ‘non-essential’ by decision-makers the world over. landscape of competitive fundraising and corporate income generation. Amazingly, we coped because we forged strong bonds between our custodians and our audiences, because we opened our venues to more people for longer hours, because we diversified our themes and made our agenda more inclusive, because we changed our ways of thinking.

However, the 2020 crisis, which is unfolding as I write these lines, is far more ‘challenging.’ Bonds with visiting audiences have been sev-

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ered and venues have been deserted. No matter how beautifully the performance has been filmed or how faithfully the art object has been reproduced in digital format, nothing can replace the experience of being in place, in time, in the flesh.

Our digital audiences will inevitably wane, and our visitors will be slow to trust us again with their physical presence; queues will be unlikely for some time. Furthermore, the challenge to fundraising will be extraordinary, as more pressing preoccupations will inevitably take precedence. Now, finally, it is the time of political leadership in Europe and beyond to take up a role forsaken in past decades, the role of fostering social cohesion through the things that bring us together: education, culture, community.

In the words of Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and himself a former Member of Parliament, ‘politicians should now give a clear account of how culture and collections fit within our public sphere and why they should be supported by public funds.’

Until then, culture workers will continue to toil tirelessly (perhaps hopelessly) through this ‘challenge’ in order to help make the world a place worth living in.

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athensinsider.com

testing historical and artistic knowledge filled the ‘history’ sections of social media. Cultural outlets offered solace in this time of global stress through their internet outreach.

I am proud to say that the systematic work of my colleagues at the Benaki Museum over decades was deployed with Blitzkrieg speed upon our closure on 14 March 2020 and by the end of the following week, our audience engagement ratings surpassed any other cultural institution in Greece several times over. International news coverage was surprising, too, with our 360˚ virtual visits featuring in lists of the best ‘open-on-your-screen’ museums worldwide, alongside the usual suspects: the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Louvre.

In most countries, subsidies were slashed because of (or on the occasion of) the 2008 crisis and institutions had to adapt swiftly to a new

Retro Glyfada: 5 Fun Facts about the Queen of the Coast For a bit of sepia-tinted retro charm and obscure history, Anna Roins suggests diving into Glyfada’s glamorous past. A few fun facts about this sleepless coastal suburb you didn’t know!

D

id you know that Glyfada became popular among the Athenians in 1957 when the development of the Athens Riviera started with the creation of Asterias Beach which was sometimes featured in Greek Finos Films classics? Here are other five-funfacts about Glyfada’s history that you may not have known!

#1 ONASSIS’S HOUSE IN GLYFADA Further down towards Neos Kosmas, there are several abandoned old mansions, no doubt tied up in probate. The most notable villa of the area, which has been unfortunately torn down, is the 3.5-acre plot where ‘Villa Onassis’ used to sit on the corner of Bakogianni Street, right next to Emmantina Hotel. It was the first asset of Aristotle Onassis after he returned from Argentina early in his career.

He liked to drink ouzo at the foot of his garden near large pots of

flowers where he had unencumbered sea-views before the dirt road in front of him became the calamitous cacophony that is Posidonos Avenue today. It was a two-story house painted in white as requested by his lover, the world-renowned soprano, Maria Callas. She would often be heard rehearsing arias on the piano in his living room.

Imagine walking by then?

Jacqueline Kennedy, with her oversized Francois Pinton signature sunglasses, had also lived in this house after marrying Onassis in 1968. However, she preferred to head to Astir Palace (as the Four Seasons was called then) in Vouliagmeni.

The only evidence of the villa to this day is the distinctive paving stones that led to Ari’s garage looking a little forlorn and forgotten.

#2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES Heading North towards Glyfada marina is an ancient archaeological

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site on Diadochou Pavlou Street; a Christian basilica dating back to 5 B.C. It heralds the beginning of the shopping district and is surrounded by modern buildings and hotels. However, it’s easy to imagine how stunning the nave, divided by three aisles consisting of five marble columns of alternating white and blue colour, had once looked nestled against the lush, green foliage and a sparkling shoreline.

Glyfada has been the stuff of folklore for decades. In 2018, the council spoke to the local elderly who remembered a ‘foul-smelling spring’ as children near the current municipal tennis court. A stream in the subsoil was discovered to contain rich healing waters in temperatures up to 40 Celsius, and now, development plans are in place for Attica’s first officially-recognized Thermal Springs Centre. Be the first in line.

#3 NERANTZIA

#5 ROYAL HOUSE

In the 1950s, Glyfada was not the grand old dame of the Athens Riviera that it is today, but some things haven’t changed, like the Bitter Orange trees. Their budding white blossoms puff a sense of promise every spring with their green, neroli scents. The Municipality of Athens had planted thousands of these ‘Seville’ orange trees, the ‘Nerantzia, all over Attica. The fruit is toxic, but no one told the Nazis this when they bit into them mistaking them for Valencia oranges during the occupation. That would have been fun to watch.

The last time Greece had a monarch was in 1973, with King Constantine II. Prince Petro of Greece and Denmark (1908–1980) had forfeited his dynastic rights upon marriage to a twice-divorced Russian commoner. He was a soldier and an anthropologist with a keen interest in Tibetan culture and polyandry, which is rather remarkable when you think about it. He lived in a neo-classical stone mansion on top of the street named in his honour, where the current Bed & Bath now stands on Vouliagmenis Avenue.

It has been suggested that Onassis’s daughter, unlucky-in-love Christina, married her second husband, Alexandros Andreadis, in a tiny chapel on the grounds. If you dig deep enough, there’s always something new to discover in your neighbourhood!

#4 SALTWATER SPA Glyfada used to be called ‘Aixone’ in ancient times and was considered the ‘spa town of Attica’. The existence of medicinal hot springs in Ano

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#1 Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis were the IT couple of the ‘60s and frequent guests at the Astir Palace in Vouliagmeni. Seen here in front of their home in Glyfada, now in a derelict condition. #2 Glyfada has more to it than just shops and bars. It also has its fair share of ruins and old churches too. #3 Bitter-orange trees, such a quintessential feature of Athens’ streetscape, were first introduced in Glyfada in the ‘50s. #4 Aixoni was a spa town in ancient times and efforts are underway to revive its old thermal baths. #5 Glyfada was also home to the Royal Family. Prince Petros lived here. Seen here with his parents Prince George of Greece and Denmark and Princess Marie Bonaparte. He married twice-divorced Russian Irina Aleksandrovna Ovtchinnikova in September 1939 while on a trip to India, just as WW2 was declared!

CULTURE

ath ens fe sti val

J’AI DES YEUX À LA PLACE DES OREILLES

Francis Poulenc

0708/08 21:30

One of the most heartrending works ever composed about the end of romantic love and the despair of being left, Francis Poulenc’s one-act opera, based on Cocteau’s La voix humaine (The Human Voice) will be presented for the first time at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, in a bold directorial concept by Maria Panourgia. Five dancers/actors, each shut up inside his or her own telephone box, round up a cast led by soprano Myrsini Margariti, as fellow-travellers throughout the heroine’s anguish and dreams. With Greek and English surtitles.

2020

Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus

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CULTURE

music dance & visual arts

MIHALIS KALKANIS GROUP

featuring Haig Yazdjian and Jannis Anastasakis

2122/06 21:00

Contrabassist Mihalis Kalkanis stands out among the new generation of Greek jazz musicians. A risk-taking creative artist and composer, Kalkanis fuses electronic music with traditional songs of his grandmother’s generation, doing field recordings in religious ceremonies of immigrants, and delivering a fusion of sounds in his album World Echoes in Athens. In this concert at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, he collaborates with Syria-born, Armenian oud virtuoso Haig Yazdjian and avant-garde master of electric guitar Jannis Anastasakis to create a soundscape where jazz, ambient, traditional, world music, psychedelia, noise, melodies and electronic are woven together to give birth to something altogether fresh.

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Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus

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CULTURE

fe sti val SAVINA YANNATOU - PRIMAVERA EN SALONICO

Watersong

14-15 /08 21:30

Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico are inspired by Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s The Tempest to create Watersong, a musical performance featuring songs about water and desert, life and death, fertility, magic, desire, and purification. The artists are joined by Tunisian singer Lamia Bedioui, whose distinctive voice will transport the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus to the realm of the desert. The Arabic language and the Bedouin dialect will cross paths with Mediterranean languages.

Oud, ney, violin, accordion, percussion and contrabass are the instruments accompanying the vocals, combining traditional influences with free improvisation. Songs about rain, the sea, rivers, tears, drops; the body immersed in the water; ultimately, our body.

A TRIBUTE TO THANOS MIKROUTSIKOS

Set Up the Spotlight

15-16 /07 21:00

A tribute to Thanos Mikroutsikos, a major composer who defined the Greek music scene and revolutionised the musical landscape of the country through his various institutional roles, serving as Minister of Culture (1994-1996), founder and Director of the International Patras Festival and Artistic Director of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival (1998-1999). This year’s programme opens with a tribute concert dedicated to Mikroutsikos’ music written for theatre (1972-2019), specially commissioned by the Festival, an emotional musical journey through songs, choral parts, compositions for musicals and revues, all of which were beloved by audiences and went on to enjoy a life beyond the theatre stage; music originally written for theatre, for plays by Brecht, Lope de Vega, Euripides and Aristophanes, together with poems by Ritsos, Cavafy and Kavvadias set to music.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus

MONIKA

Something is Blooming at Herodion

20-21 /07 21:00

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus will don the colours of a lovely Greek garden for this unique album release concert. Monika will premiere her new Greek-language album; an album she has been working on for more than ten years, taking care of it as if it were her own little garden.

The fruit of this collective effort is now set to ‘bloom’ at the heart of the Odeon before a live audience. In the popular singer-songwriter's own words: “There’s nothing better than feeling the memories of music you have loved in the past stirring inside you when you hear something fresh and brand-new”. Joined by her orchestra and a youth chorus, and using traditional instruments such as mandolin and harp, Monika takes us on a journey back in time and all the way to the present.

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CULTURE

RAFI MUSIC THEATRE COMPANY - NOVA MELANCHOLIA - MICHALIS SIGANIDIS

Il diluvio universale

31/07 -01/08 21:00

How does one sing about one’s desires and fears? To what extent are humans natural and to what extent are they spiritual? How does living with animals affect us? How much does it liberate us? Rafi, one of the most dynamic Greek music theatre companies, returns to the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, with Michelangelo Falvetti’s elegant Baroque oratorio Il diluvio universale (The Great Flood). Presented in Greece for the very first time, the oratorio of this provocative Sicilian priest caused a sensation when it was originally performed. Inspired by the Biblical story of the Great Flood, its protagonists are natural elements such as water, fire and air rather than Biblical figures. The directorial duo of Nova Melancholia evokes the sense of a true tempest on stage. Audiences will be carried away by a seductive blend of period instruments, oriental maqam and animal sounds, with virtuosos Michalis Siganidis and Harris Lambrakis improvising and sweeping us off our feet as if they were medieval troubadours.

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Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus

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Why Greek real estate is more attractive than ever As a businessman from Rhodes who grew up in Stuttgart, Engel and Völkers Greece CEO, Georg Petras approaches business with German pragmatism and Greek agility. He speaks at length with Athens Insider on the promising prospects of investing in real estate in Greece.

W

hen I meet Georg Petras for our interview at his office on the 10th floor at Athens Tower, it is a beautifully sunny day and the Mayor of Athens has just announced a host of ambitious urbanization projects designed to make Athens a greener, more humane city, open to pedestrians and cyclists. From his vantage point that commands a drone-like view of Athens, the cities polykatoikies glinting like sugar cubes in the horizon, he pre-empts my first post-quarantine question to declare that ‘there has never been a better time to invest in Greek real estate.’ Indeed, the Mayor’s announcement had been preceded by the international press feting Greece for its exemplary record in dealing with the pandemic. Major infrastructure projects, including the multi-billion-dollar Hellenikon development had been finally green-lighted a few months ago. All factors corroborating Mr Petras’ firm conviction that the true potential of Greek real estate is still largely untapped and underestimated.

An extremely engaging conversation followed where we touched upon everything from the resurgence of the real estate market, the extra-curricular lessons at the Greek community school in Germany where he mastered his mother tongue, his teenage son’s sporting prowess in football, and his best-selling book, Let’s go Hellas. Mr Petras’ unique ‘insider-outsider’ view of understanding Greece’s complexities is what prompted him to invest in Engel & Völkers’ license for his native Rhodes, in the midst of Greece’s economic crisis in 2010, and to finally make the big move from Stuttgart to Athens, last summer, as the CEO of Engel & Völkers Greece.

We are living through strange times. In the post-Covid era, will there be less interest in Greek real estate investment?

Generally speaking, more people will invest in real estate. Greece’s exemplary handling of the crisis has created a positive image in international media and the wave of real estate investors will come. Greece is now perceived as not only a beautiful country with a good climate but also as a safe destination with a serious government. I believe we have amazing opportunities in real estate in Greece, otherwise, we would not have launched Engel and Völkers here at so much expense.

Does Greece represent a unique investment opportunity for you?

The company did not come to Greece by chance. We saw that the interest in Greece for secondary homes was rising along with commercial and business properties. The first to come are those who know the property

market well, the funds that buy commercial properties: hotels, offices, etc. and usually after two years the residential boom begins. The “prime properties” of Athens’ commercial real estate have already been sold!

Where is the interest in Greek real estate coming from?

We notice a change in the global market. Buyers originating from Asian countries do not show the same willingness as in the past, especially for the Golden Visa scheme. Regarding the European market, we cannot predict what the effects will be on the real estate market, as the sales for the secondary home market has not yet begun. At the end of the Covid crisis, there will be an upward trend with dynamics that will be able to stimulate the market. Especially with regards to the secondary home market, if Greece continues on its current positive trend, we will be able to overcome the crisis faster than Italy and Spain, which are our main competitors, and we will see an upward trend in the holiday home market in the Greek islands. The main buyers are the Germans, the French, the Belgians. The British have had problems with Brexit for the last 2-3 years and they have been less active.

What impact does tourism have on real estate?

The more tourists that come to Greece, the more they will be interested in buying a property. And for me, they are the best and most interesting tourists, the ones who buy a house. They invest their money here, pay taxes, pay notaries, brokers, lawyers, and come here three times a year, and go out, eat and consume. These are the good tourists.

At Engel and Völkers, we go where our customers or potential customers go. Residential Real Estate has to do with tourism, so let’s go where tourists have decided to go on holiday, to Rhodes, to Mykonos, to Crete, for example.

How do Greek destinations compare with other European destinations in a real estate portfolio?

Let’s talk specifically about Athens. It is something we experienced again in 2012, when we opened a corresponding office in Barcelona. In Spain, too, they had a serious financial crisis, not to the same extent as Greece.

But when we opened in Barcelona in 2012, everyone was telling us we were crazy and today, we are number one in the market! We will do exactly the same in Athens. It still needs time to reach the levels of 2007, and I believe we can, because now we are more organized than then, both in Real Estate legislation, and with respect to tourism. In 2010, we had 15 million tourists, last year, we were at 35 million.

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ŠNikias Alexandris

Creativity, Professionalism, Confidence and Persistence. That is what Greece needs now!�

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01.

The Athenian Riviera is comparable to Cannes or St.Tropez. It is really a destination that has been underestimated abroad. There is no capital in Europe that takes you within 10 minutes from the center to the sea, and within an hour, to an island.

If Mykonos is Ibiza, Mallorca is Crete and Rhodes. Unfortunately, we do not have the infrastructure that Mallorca has. Mallorca’s airport is bigger than Athens’ airport.

They have 26 golf courses on the island.

In Greece, we have 9. Engel and Völkers alone has 16 offices on Mallorca. But Greece is extremely competitive price-wise.

What extra services does Engel & Völkers offer?

We have a large investment plan in Greece, bringing in funds only from abroad, which will continue for years to come. We are a Greek company Made in Germany. We already operate two shops in Rhodes and we plan

01. Villa Sensation, Porto Heli.

02. Contemporary Luxury Villa, Rhodes.

03. Paouris Mansion, Hydra.

04. Villa Cleopatra, Mykonos.

to extend our shop strategy in key areas in Athens and on the Greek Islands. Firstly, we don’t just sell the most expensive luxury properties, we sell the best properties in every area we operate in. We carry out a proper estimate of the property price. We do not take a property, upload it on the website and hope that it gets sold by chance. If we estimate 1 million and the seller wants 2, the answer is simply no. We can’t spend money unnecessarily on online marketing, print, showcases across Europe, because we get paid when we sell the property, so we have the courage to say that unfortunately, the property is worth a million, not two.

Our service is our global network of 800 offices worldwide. In other words, we can put the luxury villa in Mykonos in our shop window in Beverly Hills and find the right buyers for the right property. Engel & Völkers is rated as one of the top real estate brands in the world and that says a lot. Our customer, wherever he is, has the same service, all over the world. We came to Greece because our customers asked us to.

What features must a property have to be included in the Engel & Völkers portfolio?

There are no specific features and it has to do with each area. We offer the best property in every area and the premium service. You can have a property in an area with a low objective value like Koukaki, but you have the same service as a million-dollar villa in Mykonos. Our buyers

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02.

04.

account of events here including tips for a possible real estate purchase!

But the biggest take-away from the book is to truly understand what makes Greece tick. Everything is possible here!

Let’s go Hellas is available for sale on amazon.com

Engel & Völkers in numbers Founded in

1977

More than

800

offices &

17 Metropolitan market centers

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Engel & Völkers Greece plans to have

Prices in Greece are

staff

less than prices in Italy or Spain.

This gives Greece a terrific competitive advantage.

70

Turnover in 2019

780

million euros

35%

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have a lot of trust in us. Our buyer knows that our philosophy is not to show him twenty properties, we are here to show the three or four best, we just need to know our customer.

Which areas of Athens have been drawing interest from investors?

The centre of Athens around the Acropolis is the first choice. Areas like Pangrati or Gazi are drawing interest as are Kolonaki and the Athenian Riviera.

What about the glut of Airbnb properties in the city centre?

Young people can no longer rent a house because everything is very expensive, because of the magic word Airbnb. Today’s Airbnb will be the properties to be sold in 3 to 5 years. We will have many new properties in the prime areas of Athens and Greece available in the market.

It’s almost 5 years since the referendum and near-Grexit, when Greek-German relations were at an all-time low. How do you explain the ups and downs of this period through your book?

In 2015, when the banks closed, I was in Rhodes. I had to travel to Mallorca for an event organized by Christian Völkers, the founder of our company. I went to book my airline tickets with my Greek card, and I couldn’t. What sort of Europe is this, I thought, that I can travel as a German, but not as a Greek. The idea for the book came from Spiegel journalist Anja Steinbuch, who had come to Rhodes. We wrote the book together to shake off misconceptions on either side. It was widely read, in both German and English, and it did really well.

Let’s go Hellas epitomizes my innate optimism. When in 2010 clouds of gloom and despair gathered over Greece and the talk was of bankruptcy and Grexit, I wrote my personal, political, entrepreneurial and economic

©Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

03.

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Nottingham-based award-winning documentary and travel photographer, Dan Giannopoulos’ work has often focussed on individuals and communities on the fringes of contemporary society whether by their own volition or through circumstances out of their control. In this compelling photoessay, he documents the debris left behind by the pandemic. Gloves and masks discarded at public places. athens insider | 51 |

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Collateral Damage

ENVIRONMENT

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ENVIRONMENT

To me, these artefacts illustrated multiple issues at play at this time.

They highlighted the sheer scale of panic and paranoia over the threat of this invisible killer, but they also highlighted our own virulent, damaging nature.

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What does this mean for our environment?

What does this mean for controlling the virus? How should they be disposed of? And what does it say about our blindness to the fact that we are an exponentially more destructive force than Covid 19?

Dan Giannopoulos is a documentary and travel photographer whose work has featured widely in publications such as National Geographic, TIME, Smithsonian, The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Wired and The Guardian among many others. He has exhibited internationally and has been recognised with numerous photographic awards. gianphotography.com

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I

n the early days of Lockdown in the UK I had spent a lot of time thinking of ways to document this significant moment in global history. As a working photographer who often travels on assignment, being unable to leave the confines of my home for more than an hour or so a day forced me to think more about the ways that I could stay motivated, engaged with current world events and maintain my creativity and sanity.

Gloves and masks had been discarded everywhere. I couldn’t walk more than a few metres without finding one; in gutters, on doorsteps, hanging from bins, forced through fences, strewn in front gardens.

The first time I left my house after a number of days of social distancing, I was instantly struck by the amount of discarded PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in my neighbourhood in Nottingham, England.

I immediately began photographing them, zig zagging the streets near my home. During the course of the next 3 days I continued to venture out and photograph all within a 1 mile radius of home. I photographed a total of 373 pieces of abandoned PPE. If my small neighbourhood is an example of every 1mile square urban area in the UK (and globally) then there are likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of these potentially contaminated items discarded in public places.

HUMOUR

Through the irreverently irrepressible Mrs. Tependris, his fashionista alter ego, Konstantin Kakanias’ innocuously glam, satirical drawings use intrepid wit and flair to comment on the pandemic pandemonium that has taken over our lives.

LA-based Kakanias’ body of work, often a crossover between fashion and art, is a metaphor for the state of contemporary society. In his Quarantine series, he uses his effortless artworks as a sharp and clever gambit to express the issues that pre-occupied our planet: from vapid Instagram challenges to toilet roll

hoardings, invective-dripping nationalism, tourism scourges, and of course, identity politics. His off-the-wall mix of illustration and caricature capture the mood of the moment in only the coolest, cheekiest, provocative way that high-society doyenne Mrs. Tependris can.

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Describe your lockdown experience in 4 adjectives.

Scary. Bonding. Transformative. Extreme.

Did the world seem wiser or crazier or both? And is that fodder for a humorist like you?

I have never experienced a crazier situation in my adulthood. The United States is like a circus going berserk.

What worries you? What gives you hope?

Nature. And Nature.

How will fashion evolve post-Covid?

I have absolutely no idea, fashion will always express the zeitgeist of the times, hopefully in a more inclusive, sustainable and democratic way.

How has Mrs Tependris morphed? More domesticated? Fashion-embarrassed?

Mrs Tependris is a good sport - very adaptable. She always knows how to take care of the situation. Fashion-embarrassed? Of course not - never, darling!

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©Christopher Bagley

A passionate ceramicist and chef at heart, Konstantin Kakanias flits between the worlds of fashion and art amongst the beautiful people of LA (where he is based), Paris (that he calls home) and Athens (where he is from). He is a contributing editor for the New York Times style magazine T, his illustrations have been published in several newspapers and magazines including the LA Times, The New Yorker, Interview, Vogue - and Athens Insider’s inaugural cover in 2002!

His drawings, paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in New York, Paris, Los Angeles, at the Basel Art Fair, the Armory Show and in his native Athens at the Rebecca Camhi Gallery and at Kalfayan Gallery. He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in fashion: Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Cartier and Dior; iconic brands such as Tiffany and Barney’s NY; a comic book collaboration with Diane von Fürstenberg ‘Be The Wonder Woman You Can Be’ (DC Comics 2008); jewellery designs for Swarovski; and commissions for Frederic Malle’s fragrances, Nars cosmetics and swimwear brand Orlebar Brown.

125 years of Zolotas’ timeless legacy The symbol of Greek luxury and expert craftsmanship for over a century, the House of Zolotas, with French Marianne Le Clere-Papalexis and son Georges Papalexis at the helm, innovate to retain the allure of their iconic brand. With a legacy that spans over 125 years, the mission at the House of Zolotas has always been the enhancement of Greek cultural heritage, of combining ancient jewellery-making techniques with contemporary visual art to create an artistic language that transcends time. athens insider | 58 |

This grand display of the love of Greece and Hellenic culture is what attracted international recognition from celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve along with the social and political elite, including the Kennedys, firebrand actress-turned-politician Melina Mercouri, actress Irene Papas and shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who sought Zolotas’ creations for both his loves – Maria Callas and Jackie O! Royalty have been huge fans of Zolotas too – from jewels and tiaras for the Greek Royal family to wear to the coronation of King George V of England 100 years ago, to Queen Noor of Jordan, the jewellery house has maintained its allure by combining the aesthetics of classical Greece with contemporary designs.

Designers who have created for Zolotas include such renowned artists as Paloma Picasso, Takis, Fassianos and Nisa. For Georges Papalexis, “getting inspired by sculptures and paintings and translating them into jewellery is always a challenge, it is also a journey into someone else’s world and the result is immensely satisfying to both parties. The fusion is unique and gives birth to very distinctive jewellery, which we always create in limited series in order to keep its rarity. Some of the pieces are even made just once and are quotathens insider | 59 |

There is an invisible thread that runs through the history of Greece, linking all its periods with the implicit language of aesthetics. Every inch of gold and every little gem that has entered the workshops over Zolotas’ 125-year history, takes on a historical and mythological dimension.

It is transformed into an everlasting piece of Greek cultural heritage. It becomes a piece of Greece. ed as true art pieces and purchased by collectors”. From designing jewellery to creating the torch for the Special Olympics in 2011, Georges Papalexis seeks inspiration from “all kinds of visual elements issued from the Mediterranean civilization such as art, nature and

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F

ounded in 1895, a year before the opening of the first Modern Olympics, Zolotas has long been recognized for its meticulous reproductions of ancient and Byzantine jewellery as well as its own designs.

Its richly textured 22k yellow gold designs has adorned the graceful limbs of many a celebrity and the crowned heads of royalty.

Zolotas’ designs, steeped in artistry and expert craftsmanship, has brought to life ancient Greek motifs, fantastic lions, snakes and rams and forms inspired by embroidery and architecture - retaining its quintessentially Greek character and earning the house an enviable reputation. Helmed by Marianne Le Clere-Papalexis and Georges Papalexis, the company has perpetuated the centuries old heritage of jewellery-making at Zolotas.

The house’s appeal has endured over the years - its distinctive rings, drop earrings, necklaces and bracelets are still a draw after more than a century. Describing the Zolotas clientele as “individuals always in search of true values within their acquisitions” Marianne Papalexis explains, “They belong to an elite group of people who choose to be and act different. They appreciate the values of our classical spirit, go along with our aesthetic, enjoy our perfection and get excited by our modern cut.”

architecture.”

In keeping with the Zolotas tradition of intricate creations inspired by early Greek designs, Papalexis “likes getting inspired from older or ancient elements and to reintroduce them as jewellery with a modern cut.”

Marianne Papalexis adds, “At Zolotas, the driving principle has always been to honour Beauty through a combination of precision craftsmanship together with the fabulous memories inherited from classic Greek art and innovations.”

But the 125-year journey had not always been paved in gold. The company was witness to and suffered the dire consequences of the depression of 1929, the two World Wars, the Greek Civil War, and more recently, the recession in Greece. Marianne Papalexis adds,“The Zolotas house draws its strength from ancient culture and 125 years of history.

It is in a period of crisis, that one has to be at one’s creative best.”

An Iconic Heritage Journey through the milestones that established Zolotas as an international icon of legendary style, bold artistry and innovative design.

In 1895, an ambitious 21-year-old Efthimios Zolotas lays the first stone of what will soon become the most historic jewellery house in Greece, on Aiolou, at the foothills of the Acropolis. A few stints at Parisian ateliers hones his vision to create a Greek house of jewellery offering masterpieces of European standards.

His son, Prof. Xenophon Zolotas is not only a central figure of the country’s

economic and political life, (he took office as Prime Minister in 1990), he is also a man of rare education, with deep knowledge of Greek literature and high vision for Hellenism. For Xenophon, the art of jewellery has to turn into a mission to promote the Greek spirit around the world. Together with his wife, Kallirhoe (prominent member of the Greek aristocracy of New York), who becomes his muse and the reason for the creation of mythical jewellery, he manages to identify the House with the very glory of Hellenism by establishing exclusive cooperation with the archaeological museums of Greece in the 1960s. All legendary patterns, from the Lions of Mycenae and the Star of Vergina, to gold-trimmed Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, return to life. Zolotas’ gold threads embrace women’s wrists, and the winged figures of its jewellery transform them into modern goddesses.

In the early 70s, the already worldknown House of Jewellery establishes in Paris. Great artists coming from different horizons are inspired by the philosophy of the new Greek jeweller and rally around his vision. The rising artist Paloma Picasso, daughter of the great Pablo, designs a limited collection of unique necklaces and bracelets in the shape of daisy petals and bracelets with the faces of the moon. Collaborations with artists such as Takis, Alekos Fasianos and sculptor Claude Lalanne all leave an indelible imprint in gold.

In the late 1970s, New York designer Ronald McNamer, who until recently was designing for Tiffany’s, accepted the invitation to design a new collection for the Zolotas House. He travels to Greece and is immeathens insider | 60 |

diately charmed by the traditional techniques and the unique aesthetic of Greek patterns.

Capturing perfectly the vision of the House, he soon becomes its staunchest proponent.

Concentrating on the volume and shape, the American designer invents jewellery inspired by architectural motifs, based on characteristics of the basic architectural orders of ancient Greece: the Doric, the Ionian and the Corinthian. The meander and the spiral regain a modern plasticity, adjusting their ancient motifs in brilliant creations in 22k gold, often hand-hammered. McNamer becomes the “soul” of the Zolotas House.

The 21st century brings new challenges.

Globalization brings new inspirations and contemporary jewellery brings innovative features. In response to these challenges, Zolotas’ goldsmith artists create jewellery introducing new shapes while remaining faithful to the House’s tradition. Georges Papalexis joins the House as the new artistic director after specializing in haute joallerie in Paris.

Perfectly aware of the brand’s stylistic force and its frenetic creativity, he undertakes the task to recreate it respecting its singular identity. He brings back iconic codes, favouring thematic inspiration from Greek architecture and other symbols of Hellenic cultural heritage. Diamond prevails in his new fine jewelry collection Helios in yellow, white, grey, or pink gold, a whole new radiant chapter in the House’s creative story. This jewellery collection radiates the unique solar gold of Zolotas and honours the ancient technique of granulation.

Zolotas, Panepistimiou 10, Athens 3, rue de Miromesnil, 75008 Paris, zolotas.gr

athensinsider.com

Jewellery is the encounter of matter and time. Made up of the four elements of nature, earth, water, fire and air, and forged in the dimension of the tangible world through high human intellect and technique, jewellery - before being a decorative element - is a magic symbol of perfection and indestructibility. It is a piece of hand shaped nature, a ray of light, that people wear or offer as a present to others. That is why a gift of jewellery always touches people in a very special way: it is an act of transmission of the absolute light.

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Bracelet in 22k gold from the Heritage collection, ZOLOTAS Galactic swirl earrings designed by Anastasia Kessaris in 18k white gold and titanium with brilliant cut diamonds and sapphires, KESSARIS Panier medium raffia basket bag SAINT LAURENT, LUISA WORLD Emerald and diamond earrings in white gold SERKOS Pleated scarf by DAPHNE VALENTE

SUMMER ESSENTIALS Illustrations by: Diane Alexandre athens insider | 62 |

Hat MISSONI MARE, LUISA WORLD

Green carpet bag

by Chlo� Sevigny, CHOPARD Μamba ring B oxidised silver white black background, MINAS athens insider | 63 |

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CHANEL sunglasses with pearl chain, PANAIDIS

Pronoe green lurex top & medeia green lurex bottom, PRETTY ME, HONDOS CENTER Cable trolley (cabin size), MONTBLANC X Paradise Iolite and blue topaz three strand collar necklace and long drop earrings, MARCO BICEGO Sutra pink gold earrings with diamonds, sapphire and opal, VENETIA VILDIRIDIS

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Gold thongs, LINEA PIU Beige & black vanity case, CHANEL, LINEA PIU

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Milkyway black titanium diamond earrings by Anastasia Kessaris, KESSARIS

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The Fast and the Furious Future of Fashion athens insider | 66 |

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Fashion photographer Omi Chowdhury believes the future of fashion is change and predicts that in a post-Covid world, the market will have to retool itself and descale accordingly.

There will be less frivolous commerce and more substantive investment in clothes.

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STYLE

The future of fashion is a topic of conversation that has created a cottage industry of conferences every year. The biggest of such conversations take place during Copenhagen Fashion Summit and trickles down to smaller platforms worldwide. To fully grasp the ideas that are floating through this seemingly aesthetics-driven industry you have to imagine a Ted type talk wrapped in another Ted type talk and then start adding Ted talks to this process where the mosaic of ideas worth spreading just becomes a mosaic floor where large multinationals dictate terms on where to stand and whether you can stand on one leg or two legs. And if you are critical of the market forces that fund these conferences, you might find sitting outside the mosaic floor admiring the beauty of Swede symmetry of exclusion and Danish kanelsnegle of cold shoulders.

It is a clever pantomime wrapped in organic ideas of sustainability but those ideas are used as padding against real criticism without really changing any behavior either of the MNCs or the consumer. Up until now, this has been the most consistent of ideas of these fashion meetups that talk about the future of fashion.

These talks from industry leaders promise equity, equality, sustainability, restructuring, vigilance, pro-environmental policies, and every other talking point large corporations take up to maximize profit. If the corporations are a bit more self- aware and savvy in the moods of the internet they create sophisticated campaigns to make sure maximizing profit looks organic and sustainable and #onfleek to the average consumer.

“We are thinking, we are changing, we are becoming more sustainable” is the mostly commonly used line in the industry as it has come under continuous and righteous scrutiny. But what they don’t tell you is that “we are thinking (of maximizing profit at any cost), we are changing (your mind so you look away from the actual problem of overconsumption which we intend to feed and make worse), we are becoming more sustainable (because it is a nice little word and our subcontractors don’t have to be fully sustainable). And that is where the conversation would end.

Then something happens. No, it isn’t Greta Thunberg, it isn’t a few thousand dead Bengalis in Rana Plaza collapse, it isn’t child labor controversies, it isn’t even Donald J Trump, it is a virus (organic and fully sustainable that could replicate itself faster than Zara and H&M combined) that puts a halt to the over-consumption economy.

Covid-19 goes straight for the jugular of our global economy. It does not care if you are in Downing Street or down on the streets, it goes after the rich, the poor, black, brown, white, man, women, LGBTQ+, children, elderly, young... by that time our resiliency that drives us as a species kicks in and most of us are fully aware of the threat...life as we know it has stopped. And then introspection, dissection of that introspection, and ensuing realizations settle.

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©Omi Chowdhury

THE FUTURE OF FASHION IS CHANGE.

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So the future of fashion has been a lot of talk(s) and it has been a great way to distract from horrible industry practices (and truly horrible environmental records), and a marginal shift to sustainability without truly wanting to understand or implement what holistic sustainability truly means.

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STYLE

That unfurling also gives way to a lot of other unravelings within the structure of our once ‘normal’ economic activities.

Fast Fashion becomes the immediate victim due to its fast and furious nature. A seemingly immoveable consumption habit that gave birth to no less than 15 billionaires in the last two decades and 30 dollars/ month wage for workers in Ethiopia is suddenly displaced. And that is where we are now.

This is a pivotal moment. Does the fashion industry (by that I mean large scale producers) pivot to incorporate the new normal into their marketing campaign so we can digest the same absurd but with a side of self-satisfaction of doing something for the environment? Or does the industry pivot and do a full-on catwalk turn to mitigate the damage it has done to the planet?

There is a whole host of issues that have plagued the fashion industry for a long time along with its environmental impact. From a lack of diversity to a general rejection of egalitarianism and feminism, the industry itself has been one of the vanguards of status quo despite playing dress-up as the complete opposite.

So it does not matter if you are wearing the most comfortable FoG sneakers and the most contentious of McQueen’s gowns. Some would say that is an academic concern but it is worth noting that it is an important one nonetheless as all progression and regression stems from that specific thread of foundational identity of how the industry views itself and it pushes that identity.

The future of fashion more specifically the industry of fashion is going to be based on how fashion evolves from that highly exclusive faux-liberal retrogressive narrative dictated by a few people to a universal language of inclusion.

The most obvious impact of the Covid-19 crisis is the last nail on the coffin for sprawling department stores like Neiman Marcus which along with others of its ilk are filing for bankruptcy. Multibrand large stores will likely become less of a franchise and more of a novelty, like typewriters.

On the other hand, the retailers that deal with fast fashion are finding out that the feeding frenzy that gave birth to #ootd (outfit of the day) and the insta-influencer craze is not a necessary commodity anymore.

The idea of owning clothes for three weeks and keeping on refreshing your wardrobe is going to get out of our collective systems like a kidney stone passing through. It will be painful but necessary.

So, the market will have to retool itself and descale accordingly. There will be less frivolous commerce and more substantive investment in clothes (the only market that might not suffer as extensively would be the shoe industry due to the general longevity of footwear vs clothes). athens insider | 71 |

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Most of us realize the absurdity of what was normal... previously. And as days of isolation turns to weeks and months, the layers of absurdity that has been wrapped around the fashion industry like a Diane von Fürstenberg wrap dress starts to unfurl.

The impact of this behaviour correction of the consumer will provide a platform for the reorganization of retail space and the incorporation of technology. From VR reconstruction of showrooms to apps that work as a virtual tailor are readymade remedies to that issue that will bring in far more innovation than we anticipated. In many ways, smaller designers would find this process to be far more fruitful in the long run than trying to get on the good side of one of the department stores to get a less than stellar contract for the sake of just surviving.

As an industry, fashion has to find a solution for millions of workers in developing countries that provide manpower, raw materials, and address the ensuing environmental degradation that accompanies such a large scale endeavour. But that is primarily the realm of giant corporations. And while descaling will inevitably impact countries like India, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia and Turkey, the short term cost will outweigh the long term benefits as long as descaling is done with a community focus and profit sharing which has been completely absent in any of the major brands that drive this industry.

There is substantive talk among academia about an Earth- Logic plan that reorganizes and revisualizes fashion as a force of substantive change to mitigate the damage fashion has done to the planet.

But this brainchild of Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham may very well be not the craziest ideas out there to wean fashion of its current trajectory which leads to a ruined planet and on top of millions of ruined lives in the developing world.

On a more superficial level, Fashion weeks will have to be cut down to at most 2 each year vs 6 or 8 each year (which in retrospect seems just ridiculous). For smaller fashion cities like Athens or Copenhagen or Berlin the calculations would need to be even more drastic and would have to come down to one showing a year.

Fewer Fashion Weeks will likely make the designers who are up and

Moving away from a Profit-logic model to an Earth-Logic plan is what responsible academics have been calling for long, though they have been largely ignored by major fashion groups and brushed aside as too radical, too soon. coming tailor their clothes to more transitional seasons vs strictly seasonal wear.

Again, the ridiculousness of having this many seasons is sometimes lost on the flashing lights of the runway, but the fact that there is a season called Resort season suggests that no concern for the environment was given to create this white space. Organic fabrics like wool and cotton will likely become more prevalent as the industry and its core shift towards clothing that is biodegradable.

And these are some of the behavioural changes that will likely happen as a necessity and will surely make fashion more sustainable and less of a problem, more of a solution to the crisis of climate change. There will be a lot of birthing pain involved with this process, but it is inevitable in many respects and whoever embraces change will benefit from it.

The future of fashion is Change.

Omi Chowdhury is a Dhaka-born, Harvard-educated War theorist and fashion photographer who writes on liberalism, elite-level diplomacy, feminism and shoots haute couture when nothing else is available!

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Shedia

offers hopes and homes to Athens’ most vulnerable Shedia’s vendors in their recognisable red vests are now a familiar sight at street intersections and at other high-visibility places, challenging societal perceptions, one newspaper at a time. For the vendors, it is a step towards social inclusion, of getting back their dignity, their livelihoods, their jobs and homes back. When Christos Alefantis started Shedia, Athens’ version of The Big Issue in 2013, he didn’t anticipate the lasting impact it would have. Housed in a heritage building, ShediaHome is not only a beautifully designed, bustling café-barrestaurant whose chefs have been trained by Michelin chef Lefteris Lazarou, it is also a retail point for upcycled home accessories and a workshop that empowers our fellow-citizens to re-build their lives.

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How did Shedia come about?

I used to be a keen reader and supporter of The Big Issue Australia, in my time in Melbourne and Sydney, which is also home for me. When I moved to Greece, in 2005, I used to work in Exarchia for a monthly magazine. I would see people sleeping rough, homeless people roaming the streets of the Greek capital, and this is even well before the current socio-economic crisis. In 2007, we formed the “Kick Out Poverty” campaign, incorporating social football and the first ever “Greek Homeless Football Team”, which has been taking part since, in a major annual global social football tournament, the Homeless World Cup (homelessworldcup.org). It is a project that utilizes the great powers of the wonderful game, of social football, that is, as a way to support people to reclaim their very own lives, and not just to win some football game(s). Shedia street paper followed six years later, in March 2013.

Shedia was born out of our desire to support those affected the most by the current social and financial crisis support themselves. One could also say that it was also a product of our desire to stand up

As you walk into ShediaHome, one of the first things that strike you are the airy, home mobiles dangling from the ceiling. Made of papier-mache and metal wire-frames, each of these homes represents a real one found for a homeless person, a collective victory.

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hristos Alefantis, the enterprising spirit behind Shedia beams when he talks about the Greek Homeless National Football team winning the Fair Play award. As he does when he speaks animatedly about the upcoming summer project: 9 ½ weeks -a celebration of Athens, its people, music and monuments. In conversation with Athens Insider.

©Yiannis Zindrilis

©Louisa Nikolaidou

CULTURE

ShediaArt is a clever initiative that engages people in upcycling unsold papers into home decorative art, and helps marginalized individuals take on the role as community leaders. Their affordable creations are available for sale at leading museums, pop-up stores across the city and at ShediaHome.

©Panos

©Yiannis Zindrilis

against the injustices so widely inflicted on the less privileged. We felt that we had to do something to support those suffering. It was our response to a big social problem.

Currently, Shedia sells around 25,000 copies per month, But of course, the measure of our success is not the number of copies sold, but the number of the people who find refuge in Shedia. The opportunity to get energized, empowered, to stop feeling invisible, to make, in a dignified way, some income.

Apart from the street paper, we try to provide a wide range of services to our 150 active vendors. We try to offer to people who are experiencing social exclusion access to some of the simple things in life that you and I are blessed or lucky enough to still enjoy. Social tours, ceramics classes, creative writing, tickets to theatres, photography projects, even yoga classes. We have formed a small theatre group ourselves for our vendors, and recently launched our very own choir in collaboration with El Sistema Greece. It is all about supporting people to support themselves, helping them to feel good about themselves again, to feel connected.

And of course, we support people to find stable employment as well as secure housing. 47 of our vendors so far have moved out of the street and into their own little flat, through the income the make as Shedia vendors. We are absolutely delighted when things like this happen.

We feel it is a collective victory. Similarly, more than 120 people have moved on to rejoin the labour market.

Homelessness as a socio-economic phenomenon is a recent one for Greece. How many homeless people do you estimate live on the streets in Athens? In Greece?

I’m not familiar with any reliable data on the number of homeless in Greece. A survey conducted by the Ministry for Health a couple of years ago reported about 2000 rough sleepers in Athens and Piraeus.

I think these figures grossly underestimate the true size of the problem. I am not even sure it takes “hidden homelessness” into account.

I mean there are hundreds of people who have been to Shedia alone.

What does a homeless person most crave for? Dignity? Acceptance? How do you make a community pushed to the margins of society regain their sense of self-worth?

If one reads the life stories of our vendors which feature regularly on the last page of Shedia each month or on shedia.gr, it becomes very clear that feeling visible, useful, connected, part of society is what homeless people are yearning for. When we talk to them, it is not money they wish to speak about, even though, they are all in desperate need for an income to pay off for their most basic needs, but this sense of belonging, the restoration of a sense of purpose. How important it is that they wake up in the morning, they visit our offices and then move on to their pitch, to interact, to exchange a kalimera, to sell.

9 ½ weeks Street Fest ShediaHome organizes its first summer fest for 9 and a half weeks of summer fun, urban discovery and solidarity until September 5. Expect live gigs, photography exhibitions, bbq fests, yoga sessions, special brunches, cycling tours in the city and petpampering sessions. Highlights include: • Cocktail happy hours from 5 pm to 9 pm every day.

• The restaurant stays open until midnight.

• A special full moon night event at the National Observatory with finger food and chilled drinks under a starry sky on August 3.

What skills do you hope to impart to make them employable?

I think the most important thing is that people start believing in themselves again but also to start to believe in the world around them.

This is crucial. We have found that many people who walk through our doors, feel so heavily burdened that they are just about to give up.

Life has been so harsh that they have lost faith in themselves but also in society, in general. We sense a feeling of bitterness when they speak.

So, bridging this gap and believing again in yourself I really feel is crucial. If you believe, things will happen.

Any upcoming projects towards empowering the homeless?

We recently launched our shediahome.gr project which incorporates a fully accessible top class café-bar-restaurant (a Michelin star chef has designed our menu, an award-winning bartender our cocktail list and top music producers their fantastic playlists). It is also an applied social innovation hub where people can have a fantastic time while participating in a great social project. This heritage building is also home to our social and environmental project, shediart.gr. Our showroom, workshops and retail shop are all here. It is great social project but also an amazing world waiting to be discovered. As of July 1, we launch our first fest with pop-up exhibitions, cocktail nights. It is going to be a fun summer!

©Yiannis Zindrilis

©Nikos Tsiros

Christos Alefantis, Founder and editor-in-chief of street magazine Shedia.

How can one get involved?

There are so many ways people can get involved, starting from enjoying a great dinner and/or cocktail in our café-bar-restaurant to volunteering in our upcycling workshops. Indeed, there are so many opportunities for people who have the time and kindness to contribute. Visiting us, I think, is a great way to start!

Shedia Home, Kolokotroni 56, Tel: +30.213.023.1220, shediahome.gr

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things you can do that go a long way

• Kick a ball: with Shedia’s football team.

• Join an upcycling workshop: Re-use, recreate and rejoice at ShediaArt! • Go on a city tour: Who better as your city guide than someone who knows its streets intimately.

• Eat, Drink and be Merry: Share a meal or a cocktail with friends.

• Buy a copy: Or subscribe at shedia.gr

Humour

is the best antidote!

Anthimos Ntagas reveals the everyday humour and magic that Athens hides, through his mind-bending compositions. He speaks to Sudha Nair-Iliades on the art of ‘capturing chance encounters between the city, its people and its street art.’

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CITY LIFE

seductively open; a man urinating into the mouth of a grafitti. Some images just fall into place instantly, others take months to capture the same sense of spontaneity and whimsy. Creative, to the point of being accused of staging his images, Anthimos Ntagas insists that there is no substitute for real-life street theatre. ‘It is just a question of being at the right place, at the right time.’ A bit of luck, some imagination and some camera tricks to pull off an optical illusion is how Ntagas describes his unique style of street photography.

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01. Psiri: A rainy day in Psyrri and a woman walking in front of a street art.

02. Omonia: An old man yawning in front of a poste with giant red lips.

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thens lends itself to street photography, there is so much confusion, energy, colour, humour,” Anthimos Ntagas, whose street photography has earned him a loyal following on Instagram, insists. His surreal images not only capture Athens in all its ephemeral glory, he captures the city’s underlying energy in that one instant when everything is perfectly aligned to create a hilarious illusory outcome. Ntagas’real talent lies in elevating everyday scenes into something preposterous: a man yawning next to red, luscious lips, mouth

CITY LIFE

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03. Ermou: A man unwittingly mimics the graffiti on the wall, Ermou street.

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04. Keramikos: A man walking at the Ermou at Keramikos and seems like he has locked horns with the bull.

05. Athinas: “Usually I don’t do this” says the graffiti and a man is sitting there begging.

06. Metaxourgio: A man urinating into the mouth of a graffiti at Metaxourgio.

07. Rhodes: ‘I tried to make it look like the man was about to eat the people on the staircase’.

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CITY LIFE

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Your tongue-in-cheek style of street photography has earned you a large following on Instagram. What compels you to document things as they happen?

It all started as a game at Instagram. I wanted to create a gallery of images different from any other photographer. The more interesting photos I took, the more followers I gained.

Does Athens, with its street art, and outdoorsy lifestyle, naturally lend itself to visual story-telling?

Definitely Athens with its street art and its lifestyle helps, but a lot of other cities have as much character and stories as Athens does.

An interesting city is not enough. You need imagination, the nose for interesting images and the ability to look at things from a different perspective to direct a photographic scene.

Are your photographs staged?

Not08 at all! I have been accused of staging my photos because of the unique situations I capture. I always take it as a compliment!

Which is your favourite image? Why? A few months ago, I took one of my favourite photographs while I was in New York. An old woman with a shock of white hair was walking in front of a street chimney bellowing white smoke. The smoke looked like an extension of her hair - it was as if her head was on fire! I like this photo for two reasons. First of all it reminds me of the great time I had in New York City. When I posted the photo a couple of months later, it went viral. I got such a good vibe from my Instagram followers with all their comments, that this image has etched itself deep in my heart.

What was your most frustrating shot?

A year ago, I was walking in Brighton when I spotted a guy with a tattoo of “leather face�, a serial killer from a horror movie. In my effort to combine the tattoo with some other people in the background, I got really frustrated since he kept moving all the time. The result was a great shot with his tattoo displaying the head of the killer on top of another person’s body.

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SHOPPING

6 Curated Concept Hubs in Athens Sudha Nair-Iliades rounds up 6 addresses as creative and quirky as the city itself, stocking fashionforward, wallet-friendly, covetable objets d’art and locally designed fashion. A crossover between art galleries, stylish gift shops and Instagrammable cafes, the one common thread that connects these charming but seemingly unconnected destinations is their unmistakeably Athenian character.

Refashioning Greek Heritage: Benaki Museum Pavilion WHY: Stumped for an anniversary gift in the southern suburbs on a Sunday afternoon? The Benaki Museum Pavilion, an outlet of the central Athens museum at the Four Seasons Astir, is your go-to place. A culture-filled contemporary concept store, it stocks carefully curated items that reflect Greece’s ancient heritage and modern design sensibilities: take your pick from designer bowls in titanium, marble homeware, intricately hand-crafted jewellery, high-quality leather accessories and Greek-inspired gifts suited for all budgets and tastes. The store itself is an architectural marvel, worth ogling at!

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: Christina Skouloudi’s light and summery plateware that add a pop of colour to a summer table, jewellery designer Elena Votsi’s conversation pieces, Acrotect’s clever designs rooted in Greek elements, Aluminati’s feather-weight, colour-soaked wall fixtures to liven up a holiday home.

WHERE: Four Seasons Astir, Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni,Tel: +30. 210.367.1034, benakishop.gr

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An urban oasis: Minu Concept Store WHY: The over-riding colour here is green. With its sculptural cacti and evergreens bursting from every ceiling and corner, this ‘urban jungle’ is an adventure you want to embark on. There’s Scandi-furniture that you can perch on (but also buy), stunning lighting, bathroom fixtures that will make you want to re-design your home, plants you’ll want to take back to recreate your own little oasis. George Syrmas, whose brain-child Minu is, describes it as ‘miniature cosmos of curiosities.’

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: The setting is so inviting – there’s coffee all day, nutrient-laden pastries and wine round the clock in their secret garden. Our fave picks include: Pikaplant terraria, Pebble sofa from Bolia, transparent Moebe frames, Normann tea pots and of course, every single plant in there (starting from 10 euros upto 2,200 euros!).

Open daily until 9pm and from Thursdays to Sundays until 11pm, Minu promises to be a fashion-furniture-food experience you can’t get enough of.

WHERE: Sarri 50, Psyrri, Tel: +30 210.323 2022, minuconcept.com

Firing up Creativity: Sealed Earth WHY: The enormously talented Loukia Thomopoulou launched Sealed Earth earlier this year, in an area where sculptures are anchored into its very landscape, at the foothills of the Acropolis.

A creative hub for ceramicists, from beginners to professional creators, this is where you want to spend your afternoons, rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty, while honing your pottery skills in the bargain! With the added bonus of being able to buy what you see.

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: Almost as quickly as you step in through its doors, you sense an indescribable, palpable sense of community. Its open-air plan with planters everywhere (usually created by the student-potters themselves), vaulted ceilings with hand-crafted light fixtures, and its sun-drenched courtyard all make Sealed Earth a retreat to learn, create, admire and buy.

WHERE: Erechthiou 22, Tel: +30.210.965.5596, sealedearth.art

For bookish delights: Lexikopoleio WHY: A place of discovery, escape and joy in leafy Pangrati. Walking into Lexikopoleio feels like coming home, because there’s an inexplicable warmth and safety it fosters. The musky smell of the books, the vibrant colours of the covers, the texture of the pages and spine - that in itself is a draw -but when it is peopled by staff who love literature, urging you to discover a new author or revisit an old classic, it’s also a sanctuary that simultaneously soothes and stimulates.

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: Interspersed among the latest bestsellers are greeting cards, literary gifts, and word games – in English, French, Greek and more! There is a small bowl of candy by the register and no one seems to care if you take more than one. Stay on for a coffee, browse for hours!

WHERE: Stasinou 13, Pangrati, Tel: +30.210.723.1201, lexikopoleio.com

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Travel tales: Flâneur Souvenirs and Supplies WHY: A trip to Paris is stalled, and two wanderlusts Katerina and Yannis Chytiroglou convert their frustration into what they’d wanted to do in Paris – flâner, (that untranslatable French word to just float about aimlessly absorbing the essence of the city) into a travel boutique. Flâneur is all that and more. So much more than souvenirs, it is a clever collection of all that is classy, creative and on-trend: from travel accessories to doodle books, back packs and hand-crafted soaps to beautifully illustrated posters and tees to take back home.

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: Silk-screen printed illustrations by Noni Nezi, Dreyk The Pirate, Tind!, Lila Ruby King, candle holders by ea ceramic studio in Crete, travel books, Seayousoon beach towels!

WHERE: Flessa 1 & Adrianou 110, Plaka, Tel: +30.210.322.6900, Vflaneur_souvenirs_supplies

For jewellery with attitude: Eleni Marneri Galerie

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WHY: Just off the pedestrianized Dionysiou Areopagitou street and within walking distance of the Acropolis Museum, El. Marneri Galerie is an immaculately beautiful space with exquisite pieces of jewellery crafted by artists. For over two decades, the gallery has been showcasing and promoting contemporary and art jewellery, and in fact is the only one of its kind in the country.

WHAT INSIDER LOVES: Intricate hand laced jewellery made with upcycled 70’s silk threads and semiprecious stones crafted by Clara Poulantza of Contessina Atelier, Sculptural Earrings by Christina Kellidi, Geodesis candles and diffusers, Maria Santa Novella grooming products.

WHERE: Lebessi & Ponirou 5-7 Makriyanni, Tel: +30.210.861.9488, elenimarneri.com athens insider | 83 |

CITY LIFE

10+1 Experiences to live it up in Athens Once you’ve taken the mandatory selfie at the Acropolis and dined on that beautifully greasy souvlaki in Plaka with swarms of desperate cats playing footsie with you for a morsel of leftover meat, you might then wonder what you need to tick off your must-do list. Wonder no more…

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SKATE AWAY AT LATRAAC

Here’s a brilliant use of negative space, a great venue to hang out with Athens’ skate community, and hearty brunches and unplugged concerts to get under the skin of Athens’ alternative urban lifestyle.

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GET YOUR FRUITY FIX Dayside check out the ‘laiki agora’ which translates to people’s market and is a vital Greek weekly shopping tradition. For the freshest seasonal fruits, vegetables and plants and an impromptu lesson in Greek politics or philosophy.

POPCORN NIGHTS Summer kicks off when one can sit under a balmy and starry sky, on chairs wedged between the derrieres of crumbling apartment buildings in a ‘therino’ outdoor cinema. The décor is frozen in all its ‘50s and ‘60s glory, making the whole experience wonderfully retro. The iconic downtown Athens movie theatres such as Cine Paris, Dexameni, Thission and Aegli throw all the classic cinema rules out the non-existent window. You can drink, eat, bring your pet, (even your noisy baby) and take in the heady fragrance of a Greek summer evening. athens insider | 86 |

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TAKE IN A SHOW AT AN EPIC VENUE There’s a great line-up as always at the landmark Herodion of Atticus theatre. Acts as varied as Florence and the Machine, Andrea Boccelli, and John Cleese have performed under the stars in this most ancient of theatres.

MASTERING THE MOUSSAKA

BEACH IT!

In Athens, at Yoleni’s Greek Gastronomy Center beyond the great deli counter you can explore the secrets of Greek traditional cuisine and hospitality, thanks to their cooking classes. For an alternative foodie tour of the city, check out dopios.gr who promise to entertain all culinary requests.

You don’t need to island it to experience lazy days on the beach with sand-side service. Athens boasts many a beach club along its southern suburbs. Head to the coast for sandy bliss.

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VOLUNTEER

FULL MOON FIESTAS

Make your holiday one where you make a difference. Join the green generation and initiatives such as ‘Clean Blue Paros’ launched

by Common Seas and the Municipality of Paros island to support the island in becoming the first plastic-waste free Mediterranean island. Every year in Greece alone, 666 million plastic water bottles and an estimated 900 million plastic straws are consumed. Or make the most of your pawsome time here by volunteering with Nine Lives, a cat-charity that nurtures Athens’ sizable stray cat population.

A low-hanging full moon packs in more romance and intrigue to your summer nights. ideal for close encounters of the celestial kind as the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon remain open to the public until midnight. As do most museums with late opening hours and special events.

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SLAM DUNK AT YIANNIS’ COURT “Which team are you?” is probably one of the first things you’re asked when you arrive in Greece. Imbibe Greece’s rich basketball culture at Sepolia where Giannis Antetokounmpo, voted the Most Valuable Player, used to train.

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11 PEDAL POWER

STYLISH SIPS ON THE ROOF Athens boasts rooftop bars that compete for killer views with a drinks list to match.

Check out athensinsider.com for a list of rooftop bars with striking sights and stylish sips. athens insider | 88 |

Not many destinations can match what Athens has to offer - the city’s historic centre and the sea are within an 8-km radius and new cycling routes have made the city more bike-friendly. There’s enough challenge for seasoned bikers too as Athens’ hilly roads and stellar views promise to take your breath away!

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Astir Beach The Ultimate Summering Destination ATHENS RIVIERA REVIVAL

Revel in your 'Summer of Sunsets' at the iconic Astir Beach, emblematic of the laidback allure of the Athenian Riviera. Elevate your beach moments with all-day indulgence at the Privilege Beach House. Expect music, food, cocktails and other temptations to succumb to, for the ultimate beach experience.

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Opening Hours: 08:00am – 01:00pm daily.

Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni Tel. +30.210.890.1619 To book a sunbed: astir.gr/beach/lounger Privilege Beach Bar Reservations: +30.228.920.0000 / +30.694.431.8834, info@privilegeathens.com | V privilegebeachhouse

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stir Beach promises an all-day luxury experience at its brand new cafĂŠ-cocktail bar-restaurant Privilege Beach House with sizzling cocktails, swanky music and inventive Mediterranean flavours to make your summer come alive.

Done up in Mediterranean tones, the restaurant helmed by Chefs Nikos Thomas, and Costas Terzoudis, boasts a menu evocative of their signature Greek bistronomy cuisine. The cocktails curated by Cypriot mixologists Lost + Found guarantee summer evenings with a '90s twist!

Vassilis Tsilichristos brings his transporting sounds southside to Astir Beach.

GREEK LIFE

Beefbar: Primed to be a cut above the rest

It’s everything you’ve come to expect of Beefbar, and those who have been to its outposts all over the world will confirm, it’s the right balance of flashy and laid-back, making it the perfect place for a hedonistic, meaty getaway. Expect sleek service, fine dining street food with international influences, designer plateware with a cheeky twist, a jaw-dropping view, and despite its name, an array of choices to seduce vegans too! Beefbar at Four Seasons Astir opens its doors mid-July. athens insider | 92 |

repurposed to create a lavish, laid-back vibe: ceramic tabletops, handcrafted lighting, terracotta floors and furniture crafted in walnut and iroko. The paradoxical playfulness that is so cleverly perfected in its dishes comes through in their sophisticated tableware too: a collection of fun and off-beat plates with funky emojis, some exclusively designed for Athens, offset with delicate gold edging.

Open every day from 6.30pm to 2am Four Seasons Astir, Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni Tel: +30.210.967.0700 | beefbar.com

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hat started in 2005 as a frustrated attempt to consume incredible meats, cut just-so, imbued with flavours from the world over, ended up as a premium restaurant chain with gourmet outposts all over the world. Riccardo Giraudi draws on the same drive that led to the creation of his flagship restaurant in Monte Carlo to the stunning waterfront location at Four Seasons Astir.

For Riccardo Giraudi, Beefbar is more than a restaurant. It is a destination for epicureans, craving an extravagant indulgence in a refined setting.

With branches all over the world now, this Monte Carlo-based group has created an uber-stylish restaurant whose décor blends marble and leather. Naturally, meat is the real focus, with the prime cuts broiled, then chargrilled, to keep in all the flavour. To start, consider one of the lighter ceviches, smoked Mexican tacos and Japanese Kobe beef gyozas. The accent is on gutsy street food elevated to sublime grilled perfection. The mains are very much steeped in French classics like juicy Chateaubriand and filet mignon but also with a whole range of options for diners who prefer to go beef-free.

The purées here aren’t just an afterthought, they share iconic status with their meaty counterparts. From creamy mashed potatoes to other adventurous mashes delicately flecked with spices, purées come into their own at Beefbar.

Non-meat lovers who’d like to keep it light and summery can tuck into Riccardo Giraudi’s guilt-free Leafbar menu. Picture a zesty kale salad with avocado, a spinach salad topped with miso and Manchego cheese or a revamped Horiatiki salad.

If you’ve been seduced by the food and the plating, Humbert & Poyet’s lavish aesthetics at Beefbar will have you completely floored. Inspired by the dramatic setting at Four Seasons Astir, in Vouliagmeni’s pine-draped peninsula, the design reflects Greece’s natural elements with master craftsmanship. Every detail has been thought out and

ATHENS RIVIERA REVIVAL

Matsuhisa Athens for a sublime experience Part of the Astir peninsula, Matsuhisa Athens, located within the grounds of Four Seasons Astir, brings the quiet power of Japanese culture and the charm of fusion philosophy to the Athens Riviera.

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obu’s Matsuhisa with its sublime, refined Japanese-Peruvian cuisine remains a destination of choice for its spectacular setting as for its legendary dishes that must surely feature on every foodie’s bucket list.

Nobu fans hooked on the influential chef’s own brand of high-citrus, Peruvian-influenced fusion food can expect to tuck into favourites like the signature Black Cod in miso: a cut of fish from the tail marinated in miso for three days then seared to give the outside a sweet stickiness while maintaining the rich softness of the flaky flesh.

Executive Chef Anthony Vratsanos crafts a new, innovative menu, so expect to savour sublime dishes such as the perfectly balanced Yellowtail jalapeno, Chilean sea bass with tosazu truffle and Squid pasta with quail egg. The infinity bar at the restaurant’s outdoor area, UMI (Japanese for ‘sea’), is where mixologists bring their alchemist expertise to concoct quaffs as intoxicating as the view!

Open every day from 7.30pm Four Seasons Astir, Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni Tel: +30 210. 896. 0510 | matsuhisaathens.com

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FOOD & DRINK

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CITYSCOPE

Athens Riviera emerges as the hottest luxe dining destination A booming culinary revolution is quietly underway quickly transforming the coastal strip from Glyfada to Varkiza into a fine-dining destination. With enviable waterfront views, golfing greens and its forever-summer vibe, some serious culinary contenders have entered the fray. After all, the food has a lot to live up to when a killer setting is its counterpart. We suggest you get in line. You will not be underwhelmed.

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one are the days of over-priced seafood taverns dishing out mediocre fare and frozen inedibles. The culinary scene has upgraded several-fold over with on-the-ball restauranteurs redefining what it means to create a luxury dining experience. With Varoulko Seaside leading the way with its award-winning cuisine, and the affable Michelin chef Lefteris Lazarou still surprising us with exceptionally inventive dishes after 33 years in the business, the coast already boasts one of the top 5 restaurants in Athens. At Athens Insider, we predict that the next Michelin restaurants will be one among the gastronomic outposts we’ve listed here, on the coast between Glyfada and Varkiza.

The launch of Four Seasons Astir Palace doesn’t just raise Vouliagmeni’s glam quotient, it translates as elevated dining options with world-class chefs. With six dining options within the complex itself, it qualifies as an haute gastronomy zone, that you’ll want to visit again and again.

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Illustrations by Lila Ruby King

ATHENS RIVIERA REVIVAL

Helios Chef Luca Piscazzi

Mercato

Pelagos

Mercato makes up for a much-needed Italian trattoria in the Southern suburbs with wholesome Tuscan cuisine on the waterfront. There is something soul-warming about a carb-filled plate of pasta, cheese and cured meats. Chef Luca Piscazzi, who has just moved from London’s celebrated two star Michelin Dame de Pic restaurant, knows exactly how to whisk your senses away with a unique take on comfort food!

Ambitious and supremely talented, we sense a Michelin might be well within his sights in Athens too. A spritzeria for your summer quaffs, a deli counter, an outdoor pizza oven, killer views and a wine list to match - need we say more?

At extremely accessible prices too.

Taverna 37 perched on the water, serves unpretentious Greek seafood treats and taverna fare with flair. The taramosalata is perfectly buttery and briny, the grilled fish, deboned and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Nothing speaks more to Greek cuisine as fresh, lightly seasoned vegetables and grilled fish celebrated here in all its refined simplicity.

Helios wins hands-down for its stellar view that spills beyond its olive-lined pools to the Saronic Gulf. Add sun-kissed flavours from the Americas - drawn from the unrivalled natural pantry that extends from the Andean peaks to the Amazonian rainforest, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - and you have a winner. For an explosive burst of flavours, try the Nikkei Tiradito – sea bass with truffle ponzu, elevated with the berry-like smoky flavour of Peruvian chilli, Aji Panca. For summer freshness, try the ceviche, tinged with just the right doses of piquancy and zest. The bar at Helios celebrates a continent that takes its cocktails seriously and the bartenders really flex their mixology chops.

Pelagos, the Four Seasons Astir’s waterfront restaurant mirrors those very qualities that make hospitality a byword in Greece: simplicity, generosity and an appreciation for fresh produce, gently cooked, redolent of tradition. It is only natural that in a setting where the line between sea and sky look like it’s been blended with a painter’s thumb, that it is the bounties of the ocean that are celebrated in all its versatility.

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Beefbar

40Forty

Privilege Beach Club

Matsuhisa Athens

Beefbar: If you’ve got a penchant for fine meats, seared to perfection, and you’re looking to sample Kobe beef in one of the city’s most jaw-dropping settings, make sure you secure a place at one of the hottest tables in town. Chef Panyiotis Retzis promises to entice you with elevated street food that sates all your meaty cravings. Not just restricted to carnivores, Beefbar's Leafbar menu is desiged to seduce vegans too.

Nobu’s Matsuhisa Athens has been a bastion of gastronomy in Greece for the past 14 years. Its sublime, refined Japanese-Peruvian cuisine remains a destination of choice for Nobusan’s legion of fans and its spectacular locale matches the magic on the plate.

Island teeters on the edge of a dazzling bay, on its own little peninsula, on the outskirts of Vouliagmeni, frequented by celebs, models and princes with white loungers, billowing gazebos, potted palms. For clubbing, celebrity-spotting, all-night parties that rival Mykonos and Ibiza, and meals cooked by a roster of the best chefs in the city, look no further than Island. Wednesday nights throughout the summer are reserved for guest chefs, so make sure you book ahead. La Luz on Sunday nights has now been established as a weekly summer tradition where Island’s flamboyant host Chryssanthos Panas is often

spotted in the company of fashion designers, Hollywood A-listers and Greek rockstars.

At Astir Beach, dining options include waiter service to parasoled sunbeds by Privilege Beach Club. The newly launched Privilege Beach Club promises Mediterranean cuisine with a twist, cocktails on the water and downtempo dance music by DJs. Waiters ply light salads and drinks to keep you and your family fueled up at your sunbed or at the restaurant.

At 40Forty, succumb to the pleasures of day-to-dusk beach-side dining at Astir Beach. Now in its fifth year, 40Forty has established itself as the go-to place for accessible, gourmet meals. Revel in the barefoot luxury of watching the sun dip into the horizon while sipping a cocktail. Book ahead to access the restaurant, even after the beach is closed to the public at 8pm.

Nero, is a new addition to Vouliagmeni’s dining scene at the cavernous Vouliagmeni Lake. The Il Barretto team bring their expertise to this most exquisite of settings. Dinner on the teak deck skirting the lake with the illuminated rocks is an experience unlike any other – this is the venue to declare undying love, or at the very least, to make amends for forgotten anniversaries.

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ADVERTORIAL

Ultimate luxury THE MOST COMPELLING CHOICE FOR SEASIDE DINING Indulge yourself with the ultimate luxury of being served cocktails and fresh salads while lounging on your sundeck, toes dipped in sand at Astir Beach.

40Forty serves everything from sashimi and ceviche by day to morph into a luxe dining destination by sundown. Candle-lit tables, matched by the rich palette of the sun dipping in the horizon, and an elevated menu where options segue from succulent lobster tail and oysters to impeccably grilled Sirloin steak paired with an impressive wine list, make 40Forty the most compelling choice for seaside dining.

40, Astir Beach, Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni | Tel:+30 210.896.1261

40forty.gr

Ithaki

Moorings Blue Fish

Krabo

Garbi, one of the oldest seafood destinations in Vouliagmeni, started life as a humble eatery for fishermen in 1924, and fast gained a reputation amongst celebrities and tourists. When the restaurant had to relocate from the current Astir Beach in the late ‘50s, it moved to Kavouri, where it is run today by founder Petros Garbi’s three daughters and their children. With a passion for food and hospitality (the staff here uncannily remember your name and culinary preferences), Garbi attracts not just locals from the southern suburbs, but from all over Athens.

At Blue Fish, Chef George Oikonomidis reworks the magic with which he wooed tourists and locals in Naoussa on Paros and brings his unique brand of Mediterranean-Japanese seafood cuisine. Its stone walls, white tables and rustic décor sets the tone for an unhurried meal. This is the closest you can get to having a meal on the water and the food here is a delightfully engaging play on textures and flavours. Perfect for pre-or post-swim meals or indeed, in between dips Ithaki suspended on a cliff above Astir Beach is well worth the splurge for special occasions. The view, the service and the engagingly creative cuisine, beautifully plated, is a winning formula for celebratory times.

Moorings at the Astir Marina is a good pit stop for coffees, cocktails and gourmet meals with a side-order of yacht-envy. Work out your excesses by strolling along the harbour and taking in some serious eye-candy – no leaky fishing boats here, just gleaming, million-dollar sleek yachts.

Krabo is not just a great hang-out for an island-in-the-city vibe, it is a delightfully secluded bay, ideally designed for an all-day beach experience.

Equipped with sundecks, this is where sophisticates come to play. Stay on for sundowners and thoughtfully crafted meals.

Pere Ubu: Rolling with the times, this former fine-dining establishment has split in half to re-invent itself as a Night and Day Dining proposition. Pere is now a gourmet burger bar-restaurant, while Ubu next door offers healthy breakfasts and brunches during the day.

Sea Spice: Shaped like a luxury yacht with a staircase that looks like a giant cinematic reel, this is clearly the new People-Watching HQ of Glyfada. Sea Spice, Pere Ubu’s sister establishment, has just the right degree of fuss and fusion to elevate the senses without destroying the soul of comfort food. It’s bar alone with its veined marble-top should be a draw, but the inventive dishes here, plus its pet-friendly credentials make it a popular local favourite with local expats and Southsiders.

Blends: Part of the wave of enthusiastic, post-financial-crisis upscale all-day café-bar-restaurants, this sprawling space spread across several floors, oozes flamboyant Miami-esque appeal. It comes equipped with a private cigar lounge, doubles up as an art gallery, serves an interesting mix of dishes to cater to eclectic tastes, and has a killer bar to boot. A giant olive tree sprouts in the middle of its sun-lit atrium, making Blends as much a winter destination as a summer one.

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RESTAURANT

All Day Cafe Bar Restaurant Blends at Nymfon Square, in Glyfada, combining in its architecture the urban aesthetics with natural elements, the modern interior design with artworks, succeeds in creating a patchwork of unique experiences by “blending” senses.

19 Phoebis & Laodikis, 16674 Glyfada, Attica, Greece, T +30 211-1821711

A lovely place in a perfect location!

Located in Marina Vouliagmenis, Moorings Café | Bar | Restaurant stands with its elegant and discreet style as the most popular meeting point of Southern suburbs. Fully renovated, is the ideal place to enjoy daily a coffee, meal, dinner or cocktail from early in the morning until late in the evening. Combining exceptionally the panoramic view of Vouliagmenis natural landscape and the glamorous environment of the yachts, Moorings offers its guests a feeling of both calmness and relaxation.

Marina Vouliagmeni, 16671 Vouliagmeni, T 2109670659, T 2108961310, info@moorings.gr, moorings.gr athens insider | 126 |

Colonial Blends Nero Ark

Colonial: Think lush, manicured golfing greens and elegant evenings with refined company, exquisite cuisine and sophisticated service.

Dining at Colonial is heartfelt hospitality at its classiest. Open all day-long for brunches, lunches, dinners, coffee and cocktails, Colonial harks back to a different era and evokes the right kind of nostalgia its name suggests.

Drakoulis Dry and Raw: Its dark, intimidating entrance sends out a clear message: only serious epicureans need enter. This is a shrine to all things meaty. The chef-butcher here, after whom the restaurant is named, is obsessed with cuts, and Drakoulis is only one of two venues in Greece to serve Kobe beef.

Ark: For a swish dining experience, by the water, look no further. This is where southerners convene for cocktails and spell-binding views.

Acclaimed chef Yiannis Baxevannis’ award-winning cuisine matches the stellar setting. Expect imaginative cocktails, curated wine-list, personalised coffee-blends to complete your waterfront fantasy.

Tartare: French cuisine at its most classic, this Glyfada institution has been around for at least two decades. In a cosy, bistro-like environment, this is where you head to when you crave a beef tartare or a Chateaubriand. Tartare manages to combine two rare virtues in the restaurant business: consistent quality and staying power – and perhaps proves that the two are intricately intertwined.

Balux House Project and Balux Pool Seaside: Hugely popular with families for its homey, intimate vibe, Balux manages to morph from a family-friendly venue to a chilled-out tiki-style setting by night. The food is here is inventive, with eclectic influences. As is its upbeat music that sets the tone for the evening.

Coyoacan Plaza: Everything here exudes beachside indulgence. A play on Mexiterranean flavours, the dĂŠcor here is distinctly bohemian.

Reminiscent of a beach club in Ibiza, come here dayside for a dip and a sip, stay on for a tantalising meal and be prepared to party till the wee hours.

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Innate hospitality Our story: Garbi has been a gastronomic destination since 1924, attracting lovers of fresh seafood - from humble fishermen to the international jetset - to enjoy founder Petros Garbi’s generous hospitality and enviable waterfront location.

Our philosophy: Now in our 9th decade, we are still guided by the same passion of letting our guests have a memorable time over carefully crafted meals, lovingly prepared with fresh ingredients and attention to detail.

Garbi Restaurant | 21 Iliou street, Kavouri, Vouliagmeni | +302108963480

www.garbi.gr

addresses VOULIAGMENI Helios Mercato Pelagos Taverna 37 At Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel, Apollonos 40 Tel. 210.896.1000 Matsuhisa Athens, Apollonos 40 Tel. 210.896.0510 Beefbar, Apollonos 40 Tel. 210.896.0510 Privilege Beach Club, Apollonos 40 Tel. 210.896.0510

40Forty, Apollonos 40 Tel. 210.890.1619

Nero at Vouliagmeni Lake, Tel. 210.896.2239

Ithaki Restaurant, Apollonos 28 Tel. 210.896.3747

VARKIZA Island, 27th km Athens-Sounio Ave. Tel: 210.965.3563

BlueFish Restaurant, Poseidonos Ave 4 Tel. 210.967.1778 Moorings, Astir Marina Tel. 210.967.0659 Krabo, Thespidos Tel. 210.896.3309 Garbi, Iliou 21 Tel. 210.896.3480

Coyoacan Playa, Varkiza Resort, Tel. 694.866.8855 GLYFADA Ark, Grigoriou Lampraki 2 Tel. 210.894.8882 Balux Seaside, Leof. Posidonos 58 Tel. 210.894.0566

Colonial, Glyfada Golf Club. Tel. 210.342.0002 Blends, Fivis 19 Tel. 211.182.1711 Â Pere Ubu, Kiprou 74 Tel. 210.894.1450 Tartare, Alexandrou Panagouli 52 Tel. 210.968.0320 Sea Spice, Kiprou 80 Tel. 212.105.4489 VOULA Drakoulis Dry & Raw, Vas.Pavlou 103, Tel. 210.895.5655

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At IPIROTISSA you will find exceptional worldwide products, finest gourmet selections and unique culinary experiences.

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Time for a Sea Change While Greece is a world-renowned tourist destination for sailing holidays, it’s not the hub for professional racing sailing that its climate and location warrants. Graham Wood talks to Akis Tsarouchis, a passionate sailing guru who is trying to remedy all that.

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n the face of it, Greece should be the European epicenter for professional sailing. It’s got everything. A perfect climate, ideal wind conditions, beautiful locations, and plenty of sea. Unfortunately, apart from all those factors, which have actually made it a much-loved hub for sailing holidays, Greece still comes up short when it comes to catering for the world’s professional racing sailors.

Why? Put simply, the international sailing community tend to associate Greece with relaxation rather than regattas. Tsarouchis, one of Piraeus Sailing Club’s prominent sailing coaches and among Greece’s most experienced yachtsmen, is trying to change that. Spearheading the club’s newest initiative, Sailing Spot, which is a club for adults to learn the trade of match racing, Tsarouchis frequently organizes high profile events, generating interest among the local communities, and the momentum is building.

“With events like these, the aim is to develop sailing in parts of Greece away from its capital and promote a sport that for a country like

Greece, should be the equivalent to skiing for an alpine country,” Tsarouchis tells Insider.

“Efforts like these, apart from developing the sport of sailing, help in generating a new touristic product and highlight parts of Greece as destinations for yachting activities. What we want is to provide a training platform for adults seeing sailing more as a sport rather than just for vacations, and that’s why the Piraeus Sailing Club has launched this new division, Sailing Spot, which does exactly that: trains adults, at any level, to be able to compete in such events.”

Indeed, for all its popularity for the vacationing sailing jetset, there still remains an absence of large professional regattas. And therein lies the problem for Tsarouchis.

“To attract interest you must be able to host major events, meaning large-scale regattas with all leading crews and yachts participating,” he says. “Most of those type of yachts reside in specific places in the Mediterranean such as Palma, Sardinia and the French Riviera. Why?

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As well as time on the water, Sailing Spot offers a unique digital experience using 360 cameras, VR, smartphones and smartwatches in a cooperation with Samsung so that students get the most out of their training and progress much faster and with less effort. Additionally, students have access to other activities such as yoga, fitness, skiing and seminars.

Adds Tsarouchis: “Our target audience is mainly for the professional adult, people who see sailing as a sporting and recreational activity where they find peace and fun away from their busy everyday office lives with like-minded individuals – anyone can join, regardless of prior sailing experience; we’re here to teach everything needed so that anyone can start enjoying sailing.”

What was it the famous sailor Webb Chiles, the first American to sail solo around Cape Horn, said? “A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.” Now if that’s not romantic enough to get you excited about joining the sailing revolution then I don’t know what is.

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Because of easy access to facilities, organized marinas, service points, etc, as well as their close proximity to one another. Greece has beautiful destinations and is a unique place for sailing but is only really now developing the infrastructure needed to accommodate big regattas.

Yes, major events have taken place here in the past, but we cannot be considered a hub. Not yet at least.” So location is, in effect, a barrier to Greece’s development in many ways.

“That’s right,” Tsarouchis agrees. “The long travel time of yachts from the current Mediterranean ‘hubs’, along with the lack of infrastructure, are the main barriers. On top of that, the economic climate prevents sponsors from being keen to support such attempts thus leaving yacht clubs to struggle to raise the funding needed.”

While time will tell if Tsarouchis and his fellow seamen at the Piraeus Sailing Club can have a major effect of the current status quo. What is certain is the effort and innovation they are bringing to the table with the Sailing Spot arm of the club.

When Walter Met Zorba Sherri Moshman Paganos revisits both the iconic film location of Zorba the Greek - Stavros beach in Crete - and her memorable encounter with Oscar-winning cinematographer Walter Lassally, the man who made Zorba’s dance immortal, and who would himself spend his final decades living on “Zorba’s Beach”.

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Walter Lassally actually made his home for nearly twenty years in this pleasant seaside village at the northern end of the Akrotiri peninsula, 14 kilometers from Chania.

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s evening draws near on Stavros beach on Crete, the ghosts of Zorba and Basil, his beloved Boss, are dancing for those in the know.

This summer I revisited Stavros, where in the classic ending scene of Zorba the Greek, Basil (Alan Bates) begs Anthony Quinn, the immortal Zorba, to teach him to dance. The camera slowly pulls away from the two figures laughing and dancing syrtaki on the unspoilt and pristine beach where much of Zorba was filmed in atmospheric black and white. Despite its inevitable discovery over the years as the beach of Zorba and some inevitable tackiness (a lifesize Anthony Quinn poster on a wooden frame with the caption “This is Zorba’s Beach” greets beachgoers), Stavros remains a lovely village by the sea with crystalline and clear turquoise water, the beach now filled with colorful green and white umbrellas and orange sea beds.

My mind goes back to the summer of 2009 when I met Walter Lassally, the Oscar-winning cinematographer, and director of photography, for Zorba, here in front of the former ‘Christiana’ restaurant, which burned to the ground in 2012. It was a dark dingy looking place.

But it contained something inside that drew visitors from around the world: the Oscar statuette that Lassally got for his cinematography for the film and that he donated to the restaurant. The Oscar, however, also burned in the fire, and from ‘Christiana’s’ ashes, rose the Zorba-themed ‘Sea View Beach Bar’.

Thanks to the Sea View, everyone here knows that this beach is connected with the movie. They might even think idly about the famous

ending as they order a strawberry smoothie on the beach or have the “Special: Zorba’s Souvalaki” at one of the tables set up on the grass or look at the movie stills on the walls, such as Bates offering his umbrella to the Widow, (Irene Pappas) or Quinn and Bates meeting for the first time in Pireaus. But I can’t help but wonder how many have actually seen the film and know that its celebrated cinematographer Walter Lassally actually made his home for nearly twenty years in this pleasant seaside village at the northern end of the Akrotiri peninsula, 14 kilometers from Hania. After Lassally retired, he and his wife Nadia visited all the places that he had worked on throughout his film career, with an eye to decide where to settle down and live. It was Stavros, backdrop for Zorba, that won their hearts. Several years later after Nadia died in 1994, he made the move a reality. Here, Lassally lived with his dogs, until his recent death, aged 90, on October 23rd at a hospital in Hania.

Born in Germany in 1926, Lassally fled the Nazis as a child along with his family, and they settled in England where he felt the stigma Walter Lasally with his Oscar.

of being a “displaced person”. With his father a film director and an early pioneer in the film industry, it was natural that the young Lassally follow in his footsteps, and he first got involved in documentaries showing British workers. Later, he joined the Free Wave cinema movement with director Tony Richardson in the late 50’s and early 60’s, a movement “totally ignored by the mainstream,” as Lassally expressed to me once, with such social realism films as A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and then later Tom Jones, a worldwide hit.

On our first encounter, Lassally had greeted me courteously with an impish smile, red faced, with a full head of white curly hair. The table was set out on the sidewalk across the road right above the beach.

Although it was only late morning, he had already started on a carafe of cold white wine and poured a glass for me. A June day held a slight chill in the air. The umbrellas, then blue, sheltered a few families with children playing in the sand. It took great imagination to think of the beach in the early 60’s; no electricity, no water, certainly no Greek or other European tourists enjoying the clear sparkling sea, a delight to swim in. And it took even more imagination to think in black & white, as it had to be in the film: Bates’ white jacket that he tosses onto the sand, Quinn rolling up the sleeves of his dark shirt, the waves of the sea beyond, the rocks, the starkness of the mountain.

“Over there,” Lasally pointed out to me, knowing this is what I – what everyone - wanted to see, “is where they danced. And that’s where,” he had gestured ahead to the barren rocky mountain with sparse growing shrubs, “where the logging scene happens.” The logs that start flying in all directions down the mountain is the impetus for the Boss learning not only how to dance, but how to laugh, and consequently how to live.

Lassally enjoyed relating stories about the actors. Quinn’s huge ego was legendary, “and he was used to yes men, fawning over him,” Lassally told me. “He brought four of them with him and their sole role

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When Lasally and director Michael Cacoyiannis set about turning Nikos Kazantzakis’ complex novel into a film, they had in mind only one person for the role of Zorba: Anthony Quinn, who they’d seen in Fellini’s La Strada. was to tell him from morning to night how marvelous he was.” He laughed. “Another thing is that he told us he wanted to do things in only one take. I was the one to tell him that wasn’t the way that Cacoyiannis worked. He was surprised that someone was questioning him but I think he actually liked that somebody stood up to him!”

“Another thing about Quinn,” he had told me, “is that he really felt most at home doing physical acts -- there’s a scene that unfortunately was cut where he picks up a table with his teeth! But he felt less sure of himself with speaking Greek words, and Quinn practiced the word melomakarona literally hundreds of times before he had to say it twice in one scene.”

Zorba was actually the 5th film he and Cacoyiannis cooperated on.

Their collaboration dated back to the mid-50’s when, dissatisfied with the cameraman he had worked with on the film “Stella,” Cacoyiannis heard about the “young and talented Lassally” from the British director Lindsay Anderson and sight unseen, proposed that he come to Greece to work with him. The first film they cooperated on, To Koritisi me ta Mavra (The Girl in Black) has the lyrical black & white realism that Lassally was so fond of. His favorite story was when the director and the cast of the film – Elly Lambetti, Dimitris Horn and Yorgos Fountas, “in full evening dress, came to meet me for the first time at the airport. They were waiting for someone mature to get out of the plane,” said Lassally. “Instead, although I was 28, I looked like a 16

year old schoolboy. This was not what they expected!”

After Zorba in 1964, Lassally did one more film with Cacoyiannis three years later, “a terrible flop! I won’t say anything about it,” he had said mischievously, “but here’s the title if you want to look it up: The Day the Fish Came Out.” Although he continued doing some Greek movies, with the advent of the junta, he decided to concentrate more on English films and so began his collaboration with “the third important director of my life. “ This was James Ivory, who he teamed up with through the 70’s and 80’s on a number of films, including the acclaimed Heat and Dust.

Several glasses of wine later, overlooking the beach and some earlyin-the-season swimmers, Lassally had taken me into the Christiana to see the Oscar which he took down from the top shelf. Years of handling it had made the gold start to lose its luster and he had reluctantly put it in a box to help preserve it better. Ironically, keeping it here in its “spiritual home” as he called it, didn’t help the precious statuette survive the fire.

In the new Sea View, besides the film stills, is a well-known side profile photo of Kazantzakis in white billowing shirt and holding a pen, and one of a young black-haired Mikis Theodorakis, composer of the immortal Zorba music, conducting the orchestra. But conspicuously absent is a photo to honor the world-renowned and venerated Walter Lassally who not only won an Oscar for the cinematography, but became an honorary Stavros resident, visited by fans from all over the world. Some years ago ERT did a documentary about Lassally entitled Walter the Greek, a name that locals used too in talking about their illustrious inhabitant.

Evening is drawing near. Under the green and white umbrella on Stavros beach, I stare at the rugged mountain across the bay. In my mind, the bouzouki starts playing and there they are, on this desolate windswept beach, Zorba and “Boss,” arms on shoulders, Walter Lassally’s camera having truly made their dance eternal.

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Anthony Quinn as Zorba

©David Yeo

ARTS & EVENTS

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©BonMK1

Philosopher, grecophile, born-again British pop star… Harry Lloyd aka Waiting For Smith is on track for the top. And he has Greece to thank for it, writes Amanda Dardanis.

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F

ive years ago, Harry Lloyd was working as a ski instructor in Courchevel when he hit a mogul and flipped during avalanche training. In the fateful moments that followed, the singersongwriter from Oxfordshire knew two things.

That his back was broken. And that he’d no longer have to choose between his two great loves: skiing and music.

Ask his family his age, and they’ll tell you he’s just turned five; because technically, he died on the operating table that day. It took a year in bed to recover. “I spent a whole day once just looking at an orange,” confesses this rising young star of the indie folk scene who performs under the name Waiting For Smith (he’s actually 29, in case you’re curious). “When you look at anything too long it becomes strange and mysterious, including yourself.”

Many might have subsided beneath self-pity or depression. Instead, Lloyd picked up a guitar and hurled himself into music making; transforming a one-time hobby into a bright new calling. Four years later, there’s been 11 singles garnering radio play across the world, a US tour, and a swag of festival dates including Latitude, Glastonbury, Port Eliot - and a forthcoming appearance at Wilderness this summer. He’s been tipped as the next George Ezra, and his mellifluous vocals and catchy compositions have led British style bible GQ to declare him “the British singer-songwriter you’ve been waiting for.” (That name, incidentally, was inspired by a former drummer, Smith, who was always late for rehearsals.)

After facing down death, it’s little wonder that Waiting For Smith’s releases are no frothy confections. At odds with the chiselled boyish features, Lloyd’s songs have a heft and emotional authenticity that’s chiming loudly with Millennial ears in this era of the narrative pop ballad. Set to his melancholy piano chords or jaunty guitar riffs, the tracks deal with issues like crippling anxiety (Monkeys in My Head) and mortality (the stirring Song for Grace, written after he attended the funeral of a girl he’d been dating just a few weeks).

Recently, actor Stephen Fry publically championed another single, a sonic panacea titled Meditation.

“Disaster can be a gift,” acknowledges Lloyd, “if you can see it that way.”

None of it, though, might have happened if it weren’t for Greece.

His father, the highly-respected British comedy producer John Lloyd (who’s worked on iconic British hits like Blackadder and Spitting Image) took him to Greece most summers as a child.

Thanks to this bond, Greece was the place Lloyd instinctively turned to; to come to terms with his life-altering accident. Subsequently, he’s dedicated a song to Greece, Peace in Greece, on his forthcoming album.

©David Yeo

ARTS & EVENTS

Harry Lloyd relaxing with his guitar on Corfu.

Athens Insider caught up with the talented recording artist on a recent phone date from London and chatted life, death and fetaaddiction: 2019 was a seminal year for you. Can you list a couple of highlights that really signalled you were on your way?

Shooting a music video with the legend Kevin Godley who’s worked with U2, Duran Duran and Keane. Being played on every major UK station. And a friend calling to say they’d heard Waiting For Smith while getting into a taxi in Madrid!

Just like Greece, you’ve stood at a crossroads and had to evolve to survive. You recently posted that “breaking my back was hard, but it was a lot easier than breaking into music”. Where did you find the endurance and self-belief to re-invent yourself in such a crushingly difficult industry?

I grew up surrounded by British comedy legends. People like Lenny Henry and Peter Cook were always coming around and saying, “as long as you know what you want to do, then you can do it”. To hear that message as a young child, well, that was a rare gift.

Tell us more about your Greek Connection? When did you first visit?

It was a family holiday in Spetses when I was six. My earliest memories are of my dad’s roguish travel roulette set. He taught me all about odds and how to basically gamble on that holiday! We had loads of time and it was very hot. And back then, obviously, no one was using mobiles or computers. I always associate Greece with being happy.

Your music videos (and your Instagram feed) speak of a hearty appetite for travel. Would you say you inherited that wanderlust

from all your early adventures with your father?

Because my dad comes from a TV & film background, he loves going on location and finding new places – and exploring different food, culture and languages. So, yes, he introduced me to that lovely thing of arriving somewhere new and trying different tastes and hearing new words. I got interested in the Greek language about age 10 and even started to speak a little bit of it (I can still get by in a restaurant and know quite a few swear words).

If Leonard Cohen had Hydra, which pocket of Greece would be your muse?

Corfu is where I’ve experienced my strongest creative inspiration: when I was writing Peace in Greece and looking over to Albania.

There’s something about the history and all the civil unrest and Greece being the place that Albanians might have looked over at and thought, “how do I get there?” That weird thing of being next door to paradise, but so far away? I found it very powerful and inspiring.

Have you been back to tap into that energy again?

My girlfriend and I went to Corfu just after Christmas and it was magic at that time of year. I performed on a local radio station and visited some family friends. They’re both into philosophy and psychiatry so I went to absorb their wisdom. They have this beautiful little olive grove and we would walk around having all these chats about life. Just like the old philosophers in the time of Socrates!

And have you spent much time in Athens?

No, but I’d like to. I spent a weekend there with my dad when I was 11 on a whim. No one was around and he said, “Why don’t we go and see where it all started.” So we jumped on a plane and went around the Acropolis.

Let’s dive into your music now. Your breakthrough track Monkeys in My Head is about this idea of a “24 hour radio station of anger, anxiety and fear” playing constantly in our heads. It’s an ode to our anxiety epidemic. Clearly a lot of people related.

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When I died, I literally came back a new person. Greece helped me to recover and find my new spirit. I still go regularly; it’s always been a place of peaceful nostalgia for me.

Visit waitingforsmith.co.uk for updates on Lloyd’s debut album.

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We’re all trying to figure out who we are as we go along. I do spend a lot of time in my own head. Monkeys is a personal milestone for me because it was the first single I actually managed to finish and say, “This is where I begin.” Anyone who’s a painter or writer or musician knows that getting the car out of the driveway is the hardest thing. You always think: “Is this good enough?”

Song for Grace has such sad origins. It was inspired after you witnessed the parents of a girl you’d only known for a few weeks having to bury their own child after a fatal car accident. Did you feel compelled to write it?

That’s the one that a lot of people know and it pretty much wrote itself. I can only describe it as like you’re sitting by an instrument, a piano or guitar, and somebody opens a hatch in the sky and something just falls out fully-formed. Lyrics, melody, everything.

It’s an amazing and mystical experience.

Would you say it’s easier to capture sad than happy?

I don’t know why that is, but I’d agree. It’s hard not to fall into “happy clappy around the campfire.” So I try to create sad songs packaged as happy songs. Take Monkeys in My Head… you stick it on and think, “oh that’s quite cheery and makes me feel good,” then you listen to the lyrics and it’s almost like, “I don’t know if I want to be around tomorrow.” But somehow, dressing it up like that gives people hope.

GQ refers to the “golden age of the British male singer songwriter” with narrative acts like Ed Sheeran and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man leading the pack. Are we all craving more meaningful connections now with the music we follow?

I hope we’re coming back round to another age of the song. Where people say, “I want to hear a verse and a chorus that speaks to me about something I understand.” When I first started songwriting, I got very interested in 60s and 70s stuff, like J.J. Cale, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, because they’re often simple songs that you can play on one instrument. As a musician, I always try to start there.

There’s nothing more soulful than a song you hear someone whistling on a bike down the street, or that you can just bang out on the piano.

There’ve been comparisons to musical peers like Nick Mulvey, Sam Fender and George Ezra. As an emerging artist, is that kind of cataloguing a help or hindrance?

If people are comparing you to anyone, normally they’re comparing you to someone they like, and saying “I know what you’re doing”, so that’s a good thing. People need to put things in boxes. That’s totally fine. Until you make your own box.

Have any artists in particular informed your process?

If you’re going to pick out an artist that I listened to a lot last year who has inspired me to write differently this year, it would be Nick Mulvey. A lot of the stuff he talks about resonates. Essentially, it’s about trying to work out your place in the world.

What about Greek musicians or tracks? Anyone on your radar?

Zorba the Greek by Mikis Theodorakis. It’s a classic that has peppered all those childhood holidays, and although it’s not current, if I ever hear it, it always makes me smile.

You have all the makings of an honorary Greek citizen. Perhaps they’ll make you one, one day, like Tom Hanks!

Well, I am obsessed with feta cheese. I once ate nothing but feta and tomatoes for a month. I’d just returned from Greece and was in the studio every day recording so there wasn’t much time to eat.

I figured I’d just make one meal I love and eat that. I never got bored of it.

Have you got on skiis again or is that off the menu now?

It’s not that I don’t want to or I won’t. But my accident was very much the closing of a chapter. And I’m so excited by this new chapter. I’ll get back to the Alps when I’ve got a record that everyone’s heard of. Right now, there’s so much to create.

Carefree holidays in a heritage hotel For a summer steeped in history and adventure, in a magnificently restored hotel, look no further than Kinsterna Hotel in Monemvasia. Picture breakfast under centuries-old olive trees, sunning under fragrant citrus orchards, horse-back riding through vineyards, gourmet meals crafted from home-grown produce, castles and dungeons waiting to be explored, and boat rides for that sense of freedom that only water can provide.

A SAFE HAVEN Named after the Byzantine word for the age-old cistern around which it is built, and which, for centuries, has breathed life into the surrounding fertile land, towering trees, and olive groves, Kinsterna is an 18th-century Byzantine mansion that has been painstakingly restored to a contemporary design hotel.

Today the cistern, with its cantilevered platforms, provides a most relaxing setting where meals are served while taking in the stunning views of the rolling vineyards and sparkling Aegean. The freshwater spring continues its path past the cistern, emerges from the building’s basement and, gradually gathering flow on its way towards the citrus groves, eventually forming the remarkably designed river-like swimming pool with the private relaxation areas.

Spread across a sprawling 25 acres, Kinsterna spearheaded the locavore hospitality movement producing its own oil, wine, olives, soap, fruit and vegetables, before it became a global trend. Drawing on its rich natural resources, the building’s long history and Monemvasia’s rugged character, Kinsterna is a sanctuary for the senses in more ways than one.

A NATURAL, WELLNESS SANCTUARY The property, with its strong personality and layered history, itself has a humbling, comforting character. Its serene setting, at the base of the lush Mt. Parnon mountains, in a secluded village six kilometres away from Monemvasia’s imposing castle, offer both privacy and a real break from the bustle and anxieties of urban living.

The 50 rooms, suites and residences have been restored and designed to create a uniquely welcoming and warm atmosphere which blends with Monemvasia’s authentic character, and offer stunning views to the Aegean, the castle-city and the surrounding groves and vineyards.

With its sprawling estate, spacious outdoor common areas, al fresco dining in communion with nature and its spaced layout and stimulating architecture, Kinsterna is best designed to implement hygiene protocols and new operating procedures.

Book ahead to enjoy breakfast under ancient olive trees. The pools, separated for families and adults, and the beach, just 800 metres away, promise wholesome water fun in a safe environment. For the more adventurous, head out on the property’s boat to the more secluded beaches dotted along the coast.

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DO, DREAM, DISCOVER Not only does Kinsterna’s design encourage visitors to interpret the building’s history as a voyage through time, its spa offers transporting journeys of a different kind. The relaxation area extends beyond the spa, onto the orchards and the heady fragrance of citrus blossoms with sunbeds that offer privacy and a real connection with nature.

Even the services of the Linos tavern extend beyond the restaurant to meals under pomegranates and quince trees.

For those who seek even more privacy, stay at the secluded farmhouse that dates back to 1770, located in the midst of a magical, medieval setting, wedged between 3 ravines, just 20 km from Kinsterna.

Designed to engage and occupy the young and old alike, the activities here cover everything from horseback riding, cycling and hiking for the more outdoorsy guests, to carriage rides and walks around the old Ottoman tower for history buffs, vineyard-hopping and visiting a sheep farm for the agro-minded.

ABOUT MONEMVASIA With echoes of its layered history whispering through its fortified town, Monemvasia is so much more than a 300-metre high rock.

Weaving through its rich Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian and Greek history, Monemvasia’s rugged beauty is enhanced by the mystery and simplicity of its 800 houses (some in advanced states of ruin) and by four of the 40 churches that once stood proudly in the Kastro. Kinsterna, itself a reflection of the area’s rich cosmopolitan heritage, is your perfect base to explore the region.

Summer Restart rates from €230 per double room, per night, including Greek Breakfast. Road access from Athens or Kalamata airports.

Kinsterna Hotel, Monemvasia, Peloponnese, Tel. +30 27320 66300, info@kinsternahotel.gr, kinsternahotel.gr

ISLAND HOPPING FOR EPICUREAN DELIGHTS Beyond its cobblestoned alleyways and dovecotes, Greek islands are fast acquiring a reputation as gourmet destinations. Talented Athenian chefs have set up culinary ventures from fashionable Tinos to hippie Koufonissia - proof that innovative locavore cuisine is thriving. Angela Stamatiadou reviews five new island restaurants that promise meals to remember.

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KOUFONISSIA Made up of three islands, Koufonisia, inhabited by just 400 residents throughout the year, has a laid-back 1960s vibe, a favourite of the hipster set.

Once you’ve sated on the island’s enviably cerulean waters, head to Laska for a refined, unpretentious meal.

Just a few minutes off the port, Chef Sifis Manouselis’ inviting new restaurant with novel Greek food and bohemian vibes, is all about a shared dining experience. So, expect lots of generous platters. Local delicacies like capers and small rocket leaves find their way into the dishes, and the menu reflects Koufonissian culinary staples: chickpea salads, local scrambled eggs with oil nuts, vinegar, garlic and handmade louza and grilled octopus. Try the scorpio stifado with gnocchi in wine sauce, slow-cooked to tender perfection, with thyme and lemon. The fish (and seafood) is sourced directly from the islanders, who still fish for a living! Sitting on a whitewashed terrace with a chilled wine in hand, overlooking Keros, resembling a supine female figure bathed in moonlight, you could be forgiven to want to linger a little longer.

Ano Koufonisi. Tel. +30.228.507.4599, B Laska Restaurant athens insider | 121 |

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Laska

©GNTO Y. Skoulas

ATHENS RIVIERA REVIVAL

CHANIA The Minoans, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Turks and Germans have all left their mark here and its layered history mingles with its contemporary spirit to make Chania a singular destination. Its picture-perfect looks with pastel waterfront houses and piercing minarets, and its cosmopolitan charm, with synagogues, churches and former mosques jostling for space on its cobbled streets, makes it the most attractive city in Crete. But when it comes to gastronomy, its Cretan sibling Rethymno always fared better. Liokalyvo is all set to remedy that misconception.

Liokalyvo An evocative name for a restaurant that promises to be a draw this summer.

This bohemian beach bar in Falassarna is aptly named for the instinctive hut-shaped gesture of shielding one’s eyes while gazing at the sun. Trust the Greeks to have a word for it – liokalyvo! With its enviable location on the sundrenched blonde beach, there will be much squinting, shielding, swimming and sunning and Liokalyvo’s relaxing, boho aesthetic only enhances the island summer experience. The food here is proudly Cretan, as is its chef, Manolis Papoutsakis. You’ll find that the cocktails here have a Made in Crete seal too – try the hugely popular Cretan Americano, made with sweet vermouth, Campari, carob honey and cherry soda.

Falasarna Beach, Chania, Tel.: +0030.695.611.6906, B Liokalyvo athens insider | 122 |

TINOS Tinos is attracting a different kind of pilgrim these past couple of years. Local businesses have been following the lead of pioneering microbreweries and winemakers, making Tinos a coveted destination for food-lovers. With Thama, Greek for miracle, expect divine intervention in the form of an exquisite meal.

Thama

ŠGNTO Y. Skoulas

When Dimitris Katrivesis set foot on Tinos, he had a calling. He knew he simply had to come back. Having succumbed to Tinos’ charms, in his own version of veni, vidi, vici, the adventurous chef, is all set to conquer discerning Tinians too, with a cuisine rooted in "tradinnovation."

In an elegant terrace overlooking the cobalt sea, enjoy a smoky pizza with a very special local cheese that ripens in a dried watermelon, served with a fantastic sanguine jam. One of the most charismatic chefs of his generation, Katrivesis’ presence here is likely to transform island eating for good.

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Leof. Stavrou Kionion, Tinos, Tel: +30.228.302.9021, thamarestaurant.com

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MYKONOS This celebrity bolthole might justifiably have its party-till-you-drop reputation, but Mykonians insist it is the unique energy suffused by Apollon from his sanctuary on Delos that gives Mykonos its always switched-on vibe. Little wonder then, that international bastions of gastronomy choose Mykonos as their launch pad to feed that insatiable appetite for life. This year its Coya, the Peruvian restaurant that has taken London, Dubai and Monte Carlo by storm, that comes to Mykonos.

Coya With an impressive open-air restaurant and two Pisco Bar & Lounges, Coya doesn’t just make you love Peruvian food, it makes you lust after it. One of the most talked-about premieres this summer, expect Andean favourites like Ceviche and Hiramasa tiradito - silky slices of Kingfish served with a brothy mouthful of dashi, chives and truffle. Wallets and appetites permitting, dig into the pricey Chilean Wagyu sirloin or settle for the Solomillo de Res, a spiced beef fillet topped with crispy shallots. A Pisco Sour is obligatory and it comes infused with intriguing flavours. Done up in Mediterranean tones, the sound here is Latin, house and downtempo. DJs take turns on the console paving a rhythmic path from Latin America to the Island of the Winds.

Malamatenias St, Matogianni, Mykonos, Tel: +30.228.902.2515, coyarestaurant.com athens insider | 124 |

©Christos Drazos

ATHENS RIVIERA REVIVAL

SANTORINI There is destruction written over every rock of the island, but so is endurance, and its capacity to renew itself. That sense of heightened emotion is what makes Santorini so special and its food so extraordinary. Farmers have had to struggle against the elements to coerce anything to grow on this rocky island, but they’re more than rewarded by its intensely flavourful produce. The result has been some spectacular restaurants. This year, Kaliya is a welcome addition to the dining options on the island.

A cross between Kalliste, one of Santorini’s names which means "the most beautiful" and the Greek equivalent of "cheers", Kaliya, housed in a handsome neoclassical building in Fira, is a welcome and striking addition to Santorini’s already booming gastronomic scene. Overlooking the Caldera, Dimos Balopoulos’s effortless Mediterranean cuisine and talented bartender Manolis Lykiardopoulos’ inspiring cocktails, match the sense of drama that the setting evokes. Start off your day with pancakes, power-packed bowls, and eggs in every form, for brunch; stretch into a languorous meal of fish carpaccio and sea urchin salad; and stay for a sip of Vinsanto Negroni made with Santorini’s distinctive sweet wine.

Metropolitan Yavriil 22, Fira, Santorini, Tel. +30.228.602.3807, kaliya-restaurant.com athens insider | 125 |

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Kaliya

Sun, Sea, Soil How the elements conspire to make Santorini a moving feast for the senses.

Come for its beauty, stay to savour its wines and fine produce.

I

t s blue-domed churches and picture-perfect architecture feature in every holidayer’s idea of an escape. But what makes Santorini even more appealing is the sheer richness and diversity of its produce. Drenched by dazzling light in the day, caressed by the Aegean breeze by dusk, nurtured by Santorini’s fertile, mineral-rich, volcanic soil, everything grown here has an earthy, hard-to-describe quality to it. Not surprisingly, most of Santorini’s products on market shelves today are registered as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and are valued for their originality, unique flavour and premium quality.

In fact, the demand for local products from around the world has shown a rapid increase in the past years. Here is a checklist of Santorini’s famed products: Seafood and Fish For a slice of authentic island living, visit the Fira fish market and discover the bounties of the Aegean. Santorini has been known since historic times to engage in fishing, though the fish were usually rather modest-sized. Local delicacies include Atherinopita, made with breaded white bait and ‘Santorini sashimi,’ Xelouristos cod, cut into small cubes and eaten raw with a refreshing tomato salad.

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ŠChristos Drazos

The extraordinary diversity of Santorini's landscape makes it a natural pantry of extraordinary products - from its famed cherry tomatoes, to its tangy capers, split peas and wines, Santorini is celebrated as much for its gastronmic riches as for its beauty.

Fava It is believed that fava beans have been cultivated on the island for almost 3,600 years.

Cultivated under challenging conditions in extremely rough terrain, farmers have to plough through tracts of land inaccessible to tractors. But all that hard labour pays off as Santorini’s volcanic subsoil gives the fava beans here a special sweet taste unlike any other. Apart from the popular fava served as a meze (split pea purée), local recipes range from fava with pork or with tomato purée, as a soup, with rice or in an omelette.

Cherry tomatoes Santorini’s crunchy, waterless tomatoes have an aroma and flavour so distinct, that ever since they were first cultivated on the island in the 18th century, it has become the mainstay of the local economy along with its local wines. The pioneering entrepreneur Dimitris Nomikos set up a canning factory in 1926 and at its peak, Santorini had as many as 14 factories, tomatos being the primary export of the island. So flavoursome are its sundrenched tomatoes, that they’ve earned the moniker of The Red Queen. athens insider | 128 |

Capers The capers you see in Greek salads and as garnish for fava are buds, not fruits, of this tenacious creeper. Capers thrive in the smallest of cracks in the rocks. Cured or pickled, its leaves, shoots and fruits also find their way into Santorini’s local cuisine.

White Aubergines This bleached variety of aubergines has all the goodness associated with the vegetable, minus the bitterness. Coloured white by the volcanic soil, it is a sweet, succulent orb of delight!

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Santorini’s wines: Inimitable character, in a glass of its own Its lunar landscape seems like the unlikeliest setting for a thriving wine industry. Santorini has a unique, centuries-old history of vinification and age-old techniques still produce distinctive wines from its resilient grapes.

Several volcanic eruptions meant that volcanic ash, lava, and pumice covered the limestone and slate subsoil, forming what the islanders call aspa or solid ground. A Santorini viticulturist has to be even more committed than his counterparts in less hostile terrains to really eke out the poetry from his vines – but the perseverance pays off in the form of some truly rewarding wines. The island’s ungrafted vines cover almost 1,000 hectares, of which the Assyrtiko grape that produces the strong, crispy white wines that have firmly placed Santorini on every oenophile’s radar, accounts for almost 80% of Santorini’s production, and is characterized by its mineral-rich, dry, bold, crisp, high-acid wonders.

Decanter describes it as ‘an excellent wine to pair with food, aided by its pronounced savoury profile, stony minerality and citrus freshness. This unique Greek grape is rising from relative obscurity, with an insider cult following, to achieve a resonant new voice in the wine world.’ athens insider | 130 |

Photos: Christos Drazos

The sun, the wind and the lava work magically to ward off known ailments such as mildew and botrytis. Its unique terroir, its volcanic soil, its harsh climatic conditions and its own distinctive way of pruning its vines (the ground-hugging vines here are coiled like wreaths or baskets, locally known as kouloura, to withstand the elements) – all make for some great wines that capture a pronounced sense of place.

©Nikos Karanikolas

French cuisine à la grecque From cultivating his own herb garden to picking the day’s catch pulled straight from the Aegean that laps the Hotel’s beachfront, Bertrand Valegeas, Executive Chef at Four Seasons Astir, is thrilled to head the long line-up of dining experiences at the property. athens insider | 132 |

“T

here are times in life when opportunities just happen.

This was one I couldn’t miss,” Chef Bertrand Valegeas confesses unabashedly. His boyish looks and easy demeanour belie the years of experience he has packed away in prestigious kitchens across the globe - The St. Regis Singapore; Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah; One&Only Royal Mirage, Dubai; Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens and Relais Louis XIII, Paris amongst others.

Vastly experienced from three decades of culinary creativity in topend hotels around the world, Valegeas is quick to admit that his current position was not a long-term goal or anything. “I worked in Athens before and had no plans to come back. But there are times in life when opportunities just happen. This was one I couldn’t miss.”

And what an opportunity it was. Playing off Astir Palace’s renown as a historic hotspot in Athens and on the global scene, the Hotel offers seven food & beverage outlets including the signature Pelagos serving sophisticated Greek seafood; the trattoria Mercato spotlighting authentic Italian cuisine; Taverna 37 dishing local specialties on the beach; and zesty Latin American flavours at Helios by the pool with a DJ at sunset and live music at night.

“All of them I love for different reasons, at different times of day, in different seasons.” That’s Bertrand Valegeas waxing poetic on the long line-up of dining and drinking experiences he oversees as Executive Chef of Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens.

The essential ingredient of each are the products Valegeas sources from across Greece and beyond. “The beauty of this country is we can have almost anything we want,” he enthuses, noting in particular fresh fish and seafood pulled straight from the Aegean that laps the Hotel’s beachfront. “We have fishermen who come in every morning with amazing catch of the day and live langoustines. There are amazing vegetables, amazing cheeses. It’s so easy.”

Valegeas is similarly excited about the talent on his team, most of whom are Greek and most of who have worked abroad. He feels “quite lucky,” he says. “Technically my wife is Greek, so I have a connection here. I’ve always found people very friendly and welcoming. Our team helps give a message of authenticity, and that goes a long way.”

So, too, does Valegeas’s approach to management. He jokes that at his age, “I cannot yell anymore!” Actually, he can, but he doesn’t. “I worked for a chef like that maybe 20 years ago, so I know exactly how someone feels on the other end.” Times have changed, he continues.

What we’re doing here is about teamwork.

I may have ideas, but others may too.

Giving them a chance to contribute lets them know they can deliver.

Valegeas grew up not far from Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of southwest France. Unlike many in his profession, he doesn’t credit family meals as inspiration, but he does have strong memories of summer vacations to his grandparent’s farm. “That’s where I discovered my sense of taste. And that’s why I’m so focused on product. If you don’t have good ingredients, you cannot cook.”

Never much of a student, he contemplated becoming a baker, not least because he simply loves the bread. “Then I went to talk to a baker, and he told me the day starts at 3am. I said, ‘no way can I get up that early,’ and I started looking at the rest of the kitchen.”

Valegeas’s career began with an apprenticeship in a small restaurant before he moved onto Paris and the desirable kitchen of a very successful chef.

He went further, with assignments in Dubai, Greece and eventually Singapore, learning something new in every kitchen and about every culture as he went. Success in Paris wasn’t enough, he recalls.

“We French like to think we’re the best cooks in the world, but a well-rounded chef needs to learn things elsewhere as well.”

Now back in Greece and with Four Seasons for the first time, Valegeas is confident of success and excited about being at the forefront of a new era of luxury hospitality in Athens.

You sometimes just feel when you arrive at a hotel that it’s going to be the best.

Here we have everything: The people, the products, the culture. We can’t go wrong.

FOOD & DRINK

out and about

in Athens Until recently, Athens was merely a pit stop on the queer map for LGBTQ travellers on their way to the freedom and openmindedness of always cosmopolitan, gayfriendly Mykonos. Thanks to some pioneering bars, clubs, restaurants and Gen Z’s refusal to be categorised by gender or sexual preference labels, the Athenian LGBTQ scene is finally OUT of the closet and in the open. Gazi is still the gay village of the capital.

Elena Panayides shares the entrepreneurial spirits unfurling the rainbow flag in downtown Athens. athens insider | 134 |

ARTS CITY & EVENTS LIFE

SHAMONE Popular weekend nightclub with drag shows, live performances and regular themed parties. Shamone attracts a very diverse party crowd full of energy and good cheer.

A great option to start the night.

Konstantinoupoleos 46, Tel: +30.210.345.0144, B Shamone Club

The daughter of Shamone this brand new, all-day cafe, bar, restaurant has brought Sunday drag brunches to Athens in a beautiful and cosy downtown space filled with colour and good vibes.

Nikis 23 , Tel: +30.210.331.6158, B Shamonette athens insider | 135 |

athensinsider.com

SHAMONETTE

NOIZ

S-CAPE

LGBTQ nightclub in Gazi, with more of a lesbian tilt in a loud, stylish, and buzzing space. Open every night of the week, with female DJs spinning Greek and international dance hits.

Konstantinoupoleos 78, Tel: +30.210.346.7850, B Noiz Club ATH

The classic nightclub returns. S-Cape is back with pride and as popular as ever.

Regular themed nights, special events, DJ’s, drag shows and go-go dancers galore.

Iakchou 32, Gazi, Tel: +30.697.819.5598, B S-Cape

athens insider | 136 |

SODADE2 The legendary 15 year-old Athens’ gay nightclub Sodade2 has two dance floors (second area only open on the weekends), with DJ’s spinning mainstream hits, house, progressive and Greek songs.

The club gets really packed on the weekends and it’s definitely still the place to be.

Triptolemou 10, Athens, Tel: +30 21 0346 8657, Fb: Sodade2

ROOSTER All-day gay café bar located in the heart of Agias Eirinis square, with a chilled-out atmosphere, good food and DJs. Great hangout for drinking, dining and people-watching, or an early evening drink before heading to Gazi.

Plateia Agias Eirinis 4, Tel: +30.210.322.4410, roostercafe.gr

The premier cabaret and drag bar in Athens with nightly shows. Koukles Club has enough kitsch to bring a massive smile to your face – a must-see for fans of vibrant stage performance and comedy.

Zan Moreas 32, Tel: +30.694.755.7443, B Koukles Club Athens athens insider | 137 |

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KOUKLES

OUZOTINI

YIA

Shake with ice and strain into a sugarrimmed martini glass.

MAS!

Steven Olson creates cocktail recipes to toast the summer

athens insider | 138 |

ŠHellenic Export Promotion Board

1 oz. vodka 1 oz. Ouzo 1 oz. Peach Schnapps ½ oz. fresh lime juice chifonade of 5-6 mint leaves

cocktails & drinks MAVRODAPHNE COOLER

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2 oz. Mavrodaphne ½ oz. Crème de Cassis ½ oz. white rum 1 oz. lemon juice 2 oz. cranberry juice Serve over ice in a high-ball glass. Garnish with mint sprig and lemon twist.

athens insider | 139 |

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In general, the thymus is afhormones, especially testosterone. fected by sex hormones, which, In general, the thymus womamong other things, givesinthe feen affects sex characteristics, memale characteristics and affects metabolism, bonestructure, structure,fatty fattabolism, bone ty tissueand andmood moodchanges, changes,early eartissue lymenstrual menstrualsyndrome, syndrome, cramps, cramps, pains, constipation, indigestion pains, constipation, indigestion and acne. and acne.

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Komboloi

Illustration: Iason Iliades

Stress reliever, ringing accompaniment to kafeneio chatter, fashion statement or must-have souvenir from Greece? Eulogized by the Koutsavakides in their rebetika anthems, denigrated as low-brow by society doyens, it still retains its place as a quintessential accessory in everyday Greek life.

Traditionally, with amber or coral beads strung on a silk cord, with a tassel or founta and a larger bead called the papas, or priest, the komboloi usually has 23 beads. The music of the rhythmic clanging of komboloi beads to the clinking of ouzo glasses and the rolling of dice on a tavli board may be an oversimplified stereotype but it epitomizes the image of a timeless, Greek summer.

BLOOMSDAY 2020 WRITING COMPETITION ORGANISED BY THE EMBASSY OF IRELAND AND ATHENS INSIDER

Gold Sponsors

Supported by

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From poignant tales to evocative essays, dark comedies and compelling drama, the competition was tight, the quality was universally high, and the judges’ job was tough. In the end, from the nearly 200 entries, eleven winners across three categories were selected. Equally diverse was the geography: entries came in from all over the world. A big thank you to our talented participants, generous sponsors and our tireless judges Sofka Zinovieff, Haris Vlavianos and Theo Dorgan.

BLOOMSDAY 2020

Adults Category SAM WINDRIM’S ‘JUNE 16th’ IS THE WINNER Sam Windrim was declared the winner of the Bloomsday Writing Competition 2020, organised by the Embassy of Ireland and Athens Insider, in the Adults Category. Here’s what our judges had to say of Sam’s tender, heart-wrenching story: Sofka Zinovieff described his entry as the ‘fabulous, strong voice of a husband narrating a day in the life of his seriously ill wife. Funny, tragic and memorable with an elegant turn of phrase.’ Theo Dorgan commended the piece as ‘a poignant and moving story, neatly handled, the precision of physical description balanced by spare, telling speech.’ Haris Vlavianos described Sam as ‘someone who had something meaningful to say, and said it in the best possible way’.

R

ight through the night, you’d twisted and turned. Your body burned hotter than the furnace of one of those old-time, runaway trains. I remember thinking how I could have lit a candle off of the heat of your dreams. I liked that line. Promised myself I’d share it with you in the morning. Think I was hoping it might’ve made you smile and feel a little better for a time. But I don’t think I ever remembered to do that, did I? I felt like I’d let you down when I opened my eyes and you were no longer in our bed. The clammy sheet over on your side, remained all caught up, crumpled. It reminded me of a painting of some crazy sea.

I made my way downstairs. Half afraid, I coughed, a bit too theatrically but only because I knew how much you’d hated getting caught weeping that last time.

You said there was coffee in the pot and some of that French blood sausage, left over from the night before. And that maybe you’d try some from the microwave, if it were on a little toast.

I remember you that morning. With your hair scraped back, you might have looked like that movie star but you were never quite so sophisticated at the start of the day. No, you were always more of a graceful detail, like that photograph you took of a raindrop running down a statue’s face.

I sat down beside you at your mother’s old table and asked you how you were doing that day but you just shrugged and complained about such lousy weather for the time of year.

A tiny voice on the radio said something about a statue getting pulled down, somewhere in America’s Deep, Deep South and you muttered something along the lines of it being about time. After that, we sat in silence. Me, eating my breakfast but you just roughing yours up, while the radio had gone back to playing newfangled pop songs which neither of us recognised.

I asked again about going with you and you got cross and started into telling me off about the mortgage and the price of the creche. Still, I was insistent and I made you promise to let me drive. And anyway babe, everybody knows you can’t do good work where the foundations need tending.

You’d been fingering a piece of kitchen paper I’d handed you for a napkin and I noticed how you clenched it when our boy’s alarm clock went.

I stood up to get him roused and readied for his day but you held me back with your too thin arm across my waist.

I want to go, you said.

You asked me if I thought the receptionist was pretty and when I said

god-no, you lay your head on my shoulder and drawled, boy, that’s some mighty fine lying. And not wanting to disturb you from where you leant upon me, I held back my reaction to that quip. Although, I regret now, never telling you how the comfort of your body against mine, just then and every other time, always made me feel like someone better.

The waiting took forever and more. I remember we tried passing some of the time, considering the fluorescent lighting. With their shades pulled off, we debated about whether they really resembled light sabres or not and after that, pondered which of our fellow sorrowful travellers, seated around us, might win a battle if forced to fight the Empire.

Most of that day though, you sat twitching like a woman with someplace else to be. Constantly strumming that outpatient card along the backs of your finely-sculpted fingers. You said something in a phony gangster accent about the goddamned chairs being left over from the Spanish Inquisition and when I laughed too hard at that, your head just lolled, oh really? Now you laugh? And I hadn’t the words to explain to you how we both knew you to make better jokes but that I so admired that you were even trying.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine o’clock before they finally called your name out and we were both surprised by how quickly you just sprang up in attendance. It felt wrong to ask you to hold my coffee cup but I had to while I rustled through the stupid bag that contained all of your files. The pretty/not pretty receptionist watched me struggle but then waved her hand, declining them, when they were offered to her.

That same young woman led us out of the waiting room. She wasn’t walking very quickly but even so, you laboured and we were soon lagging behind. Normal service has been resumed, you said wryly; meaning the power had drained again from your body.

I remember how your hand found mine as we rounded a corner and discovered the receptionist, waiting by an open door. She might have made the world’s grimmest estate agent, the way she gestured, just so, for us to come along and enter. I felt an all-or-nothing this is it clenching of the hand from you, as we

athens insider | 146 |

Even though the midsummer sunlight gate-crashed our bedroom that night, you were determined to get some sleep. I crept in behind you and you snuggled backwards until your bottom fitted warm and soft against my bare thighs. And for a while, the pair of us lay like that, colluding in mutual silence, as a bluff wind pushed rain spatters up against our window pane and the clock behind my back continued to pluck time.

At some unscripted moment, you turned about to face me. I still like remember how your soft lips gently kissed the nape of my neck. The way the warmth of your breath trembled the hairs on my chest. Six months is no time at all, you whispered. And I held onto you as finally we both allowed ourselves to cry. There was the presence of love in how I put my arms around you. Tenderness in the way your fingers touched my face.

And we might never have stopped weeping if our boy hadn’t woken up again and called out. I was quickest up and said I’d go settle him but once again you stopped me dead. I remember you were so helpless, so passionate, in the way you said it.

Let me go, you told me – and fuck this for a life but I had to.

Sam Windrim is from Ballynanty Beg in Limerick City, Ireland. He compiled The Limerick Lexicon (the first ever dictionary of Limerick slang) and co-authored Ammemorium – A Forgotten Rebel’s Tale (Manchester Metropolitan University) with John Hyatt. In 2019, he was shortlisted for The Bangor Literary Journal’s 40 Words Poetry Prize and Silver Apples Redemption Short Story Prize.

He recently finished his first novel and will soon be the bane of agents’ lives everywhere.

athens insider | 147 |

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approached the entrance.

Afraid to look, I shrivelled and curled up inside. My heart assumed the crash position. My mouth suddenly started to taste of something broken and dry. Then you laughed and I let myself look up and the sight that met my eyes mocked all of my trepidation.

Great, another waiting room, you jeered. The receptionist shrugged, apologetically. Promised it wouldn’t be for as long this time and we weren’t sure if that was a good thing or not. As we sat down, I said, Welcome to Level Two in the voice of the evil mastermind from that video game we used to play. You only half smiled in response, as your head gave me that loll again. I’ll do the jokes around here…

Bowie’s Life on Mars rang out of nowhere. As soon as it abruptly ended, a gaunt woman in a headscarf began talking 1000 anxious words a minute, more at her phone than into it. Along the row from her, I wondered if I didn’t recognise the ghost of a certain tired old gentleman.

He was chomping on a pen; occasionally making additions to the puzzle book on his lap. Over by the window, a mother and father fondly cradled their weakling child. Ten years old, we overheard and silently gasped to each other in sadness and in horror. And had we not been put through it, I wouldn’t have believed either of us had possessed the strength to hang around that place for as long as we did.

After we collected our boy from the creche, you suggested McDonalds and honestly it felt like such a waste. I blurted out you hate that place but you looked down at him and then back at me and said it again and I felt foolish, even a little bit ashamed for ever objecting.

When we got there, you attempted the Big Mac Meal and mocked, with one hand covering your mouth, the concept of a lifetime on the hips. I didn’t tell you, did I but I have rarely been so glad as when I saw you finish your food. And after all of our boy’s nuggets were polished off and his leftovers abandoned for some Monsters Inc toy, you urged me to steal what few chips there were from the remnants of the Happy Meal before, inevitably, unfairly, you started to feel down again.

BLOOMSDAY 2020

MAJELLA CULLINANE’S ‘LONGEST DAY, SHORTEST NIGHT’ IS RUNNER-UP A ‘humorous and moving story about a mother’s love for her faraway son,’ Majella Cullinane’s powerful story is runner-up in the adults category of the Bloomsday Writing Competition 2020.

The judges described her writing as ‘beautiful, natural prose in a powerfully convincing voice that pulls you straight in’ and as an ‘utterly believable insight into the moods and thoughts of a mother dealing with separation, physical and emotional.’

W

hen you left I was a bit confused by the time. The twelve, plus or minus one-hour difference. It was hard getting my head round it. You a whole hemisphere away. Well, that’s how it seemed. Like the world wasn’t going round so much as it was turned upside down. Today’s the longest day here, the shortest night there. If I called you now you’d only be waking up and you’re a bear in the morning. Hardly a word out of you. Yes, Mam. No, Mam. Three bags full Mam. I could ask you to murder our neighbour Nancy Quinn, and you’d say, Yes, Mam. I keep threatening to go and see you, but the thought of an aero-

plane for twenty-four hours gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’m a woeful coward so I am. You’re gone now three years and I still haven’t been out to see you. I’m a disgrace. One day I’ll get up the nerve.

I wonder if I just turned up what you’d say? Ah no, I wouldn’t do that. I’d only be cramping your style as you used to say as a teenager.

New Zealand is beautiful you tell me. Where you are in the mountains, with all that snow and ice. Trees neither of us had ever heard of. I looked them up on Google – kauri, puriri, rimu. I listened to a bird called a tui with blackish blue feathers and a white ruff like

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were out. Crawling all over the place, into everything. Before you went to school you’d ask me in the morning, like some auld fella – so what are we going to do today Mammy?

Our children are on loan, Nana used say. They’re only on loan like all of us are just one of the many borrowed things in the world. I’m lucky though. I count my blessings. Look at poor Mrs Barry two doors down, her son hanging himself there last year.

There’s no coming back from that. And the woman gone to skin and bones. As good as a ghost. You’ll not be a ghost though will you? When we’re on Skype the odd time you say you miss home, but you’re only twenty-five, still so much to get out of your system yet. I suppose what I’m worried about is that you’ll fall for one of those sweet Kiwi girls and I’ll never see you again, and my own grandchildren won’t know me from Eve. Did I ever tell you that Nana used say I’d make a great contemplative nun because I always liked my own company? I used often wonder about them in their cells, their knees on cold floors, the smallest square of light coming through a window, the world’s time a different one from the time behind the convent walls. Would they have allowed a slither of their past into their thoughts? A glimpse of a loved one’s face on a twilight evening, their hair a halo of sunlight as they cycled down a country road. Dark thoughts too maybe: a punishment or a slap, the skin burning with the memory of it, unkind words that lingered for years later, memories that scale any wall no matter how fortified, that lurk in corners like shadows or cobwebs. What would bring them back to the room then, to the silence of their heart beating, back to contemplation? For them God surely, for me the sky. The sky and a glass of wine.

I’ve a notion to sit here tonight and wait for the sun to come up, and it won’t be long either. Summer’s light, even on the wettest, dullest day is still hidden in the folds of night.

Funny, I remember that parable the priest liked to read of a Sunday, about the virgins and the candles or something along those lines. How they were supposed to wait up for their master, but how all of them fell asleep but for one. I have no Lord and master now. So yeah, I think I’ll stay up. Sure hasn’t the last few days been the warmest in recent history? The whole country out in shorts and T-shirts. So many sunburnt arms and legs I’ve lost count.

I haven’t opened your bedroom door since you left. I keep meaning to give it a clean but I’m afraid if I go in that gap of distance will break something in me I can’t fix. I should go to see you. But then what? I’d still have to come back here. I shouldn’t think this, but there you are. There’s more now between us than the distance of 11,806 miles. There’s tonight and the next day and the day after that, and all the space in the night sky – and the boy that’s gone, that let go of my hand years ago.

From Limerick, Majella Cullinane has lived in New Zealand since 2008 and writes fiction, poetry and essays.

Her debut novel The Life of De’Ath was longlisted for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Fiction. Her second poetry collection Whisper of a Crow’s Wing was published by Otago University Press and Salmon Poetry, Ireland. She’s Professional Practice Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Otago, where she also completed her PhD last year.

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a Puritan minister. Two voice boxes it said they had, so they click, cackle, creak, groan and wheeze. It made me wonder what it would have been like to travel on an old ship coursing through the seas to New Zealand in the 1800s – the creaking deck, the wheezy sea captain smoking his pipe, the groan of the timbers, the cackle and click of a tui in a cage. One hundred and twenty days at sea. Can you imagine?

You miss crows you said and that made me laugh. Caw, caw, caw.

What else is different I ask you? A field’s a paddock, a kettle’s a jug, Wellies are Gummies, which made me think of jellies which aren’t jellies there but lollies. A lolly’s something you suck at the end of a stick I said to you. And hiking is tramping, but you’re not a tramp, are you?

You’ve picked up a bit of the accent too. Your voice goes up at the end of sentences now, so you sound like you might fall off a cliff. You say awesome a lot and sweet. It’s ‘sweet’ you tell me which I know means good, but well a chocolate bar is sweet, or a slice of cake, and this ‘sweet as’ business. Well ‘sweet as’ what – sugar? honey?

There’s a week or two where we’re exactly twelve hours apart. I often picture you in your flat, all the lads you share it with, from Mayo and Cork and Dublin, and in between all the banter and laughing the sound of those tuis outside. Sometimes I wake at night and the phone seems like a mute animal next to me, but then if I really wanted I could make it talk. All I’d have to do is touch a few buttons and I could hear your voice. I don’t though. I listen to the house here – the hot water cylinder gurgling in the airing cupboard, the rain tapping behind the curtains, the cat dreaming and twitching at the end of the bed.

This wine’s not a bad one, says she pouring another glass. I’m staring at the sky again. A little darker now on this warm, solstice night. I’m remembering that time I lost you in a shopping centre when you were small. I must have been talking to someone and you got bored, and when I turned around you were gone. I’ll never forget the horrible, sinking feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach and I felt totally winded, and then my blood pressure must have shot through the roof because I felt dizzy. I looked around, calling your name over and again. I kept telling myself to calm down, that you were seven, that you probably knew your way home. Then I saw you, your face scarred from tears and I ran over to you just as an old woman approached to offer comfort. Aidan I said, holding you. You didn’t stop crying. I asked where you’d got to and why you’d left me, and you said you couldn’t remember and you held my hand tight. Tighter than you had for two years. You’d told me at five you were too old to hold my hand anymore, that you were a big boy. You kept me closer the next couple of days until you forgot, just like a child forgets they used to believe in the tooth fairy and Santa and monsters in the dark.

We must have gone to the shopping centre every Thursday night until you were nine or ten and didn’t want to be seen eating ice-cream with your Mam. You got into soccer then and your Da said he was relieved, that he wasn’t wanting you to turn into a Mammy’s boy. But there was never a danger of that, was there? From the time you were small you were always your own little fella. You never clung to me when

BLOOMSDAY 2020 JAMES RUSSELL WINS THIRD PRIZE James Russell’s uncanny ability to inhabit the fears and pleasures of a 7-year old boy earns him third place in the Adult category of the Bloomsday Writing Competition 2020. The judges described his writing as ‘a considerable feat, to take us inside the mind of a child, with its yearnings, its insights and confusions.’

I

’ve wet the bed again. It must have happened during the night because I’m sleeping half off the bed, squashed right up against to the wall. The wallpaper is cold but the wet sheet is colder. I kick my pyjamas off with my feet. I don’t want to touch them. I feel bad but I know the sheets get changed and he doesn’t say anything to me.

But it’s Saturday so if the sheet fairy comes he’ll have to say something because I’m here. He’ll see me. I’ll see him.

It’s 8 o’clock, later we’re going to see Mum. She never had breakfast ready but Dad has left Frosties and Coco Pops out on the table. I mix them and stir until the milk changes colour but I’ve filled the bowl too much so I have to put my face in it and drink it without lifting it up. My nose touches a Frosty. I stretch out my lips as far as they go and suck up the sweet milk. I’m like a chimpanzee. When I can’t suck it any more I lick it like a dog. I’m a chimp dog. I’m a chimp dog. A chimp dog. “Ooh ooh ooh woof. Ooh ooh woof.”

“Peter!” I jump up and the bowl spills a little. Dad’s at the kitchen door looking at me. His dressing gown is open but he’s wearing pants.

He looks skinny. “What you playing at?” I can’t answer him. I can’t tell him I was a chimp dog. I just take my hands off the table and look at him a bit scared until I feel a few drips of milk on my leg. I grab the tea-towel and wipe it up.

“Can you not eat normally?” I pick up my spoon but just hold it, I don’t feel like eating now. He stands there just watching me. “Right, well, if you’re finished go and watch the telly for a while.” When he goes I finish my breakfast. I wash my plate and leave it to dry then I put the cans of beer that were in the sink in the bin. There’s 5 of them.

I wonder if Dad would put beer in his Frosties.

He doesn’t like me watching telly. Mum used to sit for hours and hours and just watch telly and not do anything else. Sometimes when I came back from school I would sit beside her on the couch. Sit right up next to her, touching her, but she wouldn’t say anything to me because she loved watching telly so much. On days like that when she was in love with the telly Dad would make dinner when he got in from work so she didn’t have to get up. That was nice of him.

Cartoons are on. “Scooby, Scooby Doo, where are you?” I stop singing when the phone rings in the hall. I’m not allowed to answer. I try to listen but Scooby Doo is making too much noise and Dad’s not saying much. I stand up and creep towards the door on my tip toes like Shaggy does, holding my hands out like a string puppet. He says things I don’t understand like isolayshun and sedated, his voice is all quiet and sad. When he puts down the phone I jump back on the couch and pretend I was there the whole time. Dad opens the door.

“What you doing?” He’s still wearing his dressing gown.

“Nuthin.”

“Well, that was the hospital. Mum’s tired today.”

“We’re not going to see her?”

“No, get dressed. We’ll go see Granddad instead.” He waits for me to get up but I turn back to Scooby Doo. “Peter,” he says. I don’t do anything. Then his voice goes quiet again. ‘Peter. Do you want to put

a 50p in the meter?’ I still don’t answer. I liked to do that when I was a kid. I’m 7 now.

“It’s nearly finished.” He gives in and closes the door. I know he feels bad for not taking me to see Mum but I put on my sad voice. It’s low like a whisper. I want to make him feel worse.

Granddad was a coal miner. He tells me I’ve not to do the same as him but I don’t know why. His hands look like The Incredible Hulk’s but just not green. Sometimes he squeezes my knee really hard until I shout, I submit, I submit. Yesterday he got his pension so we can go to the Fair because Dad doesn’t have to work or have to go and see Mum in the hospital or anything.

The Fair is brilliant. I’m not allowed on the Waltzers because it’s dangerous for kids but there’s loads of other stuff to do. I’ve been there before with Mum when I was 6. This time Granddad says it’s just the men. That’s Granddad and Dad and me. I’m getting really excited.

We get there early so Granddad says we can have a pub lunch. I have pie and beans and chips and I cover them in tomato sauce.

A drop falls onto my jumper but Granddad just laughs. Dad doesn’t notice so I don’t get a telling off. I rub the sauce into my jumper to make it go away, then I laugh too. Dad’s not very hungry so he just has some beer. Granddad gives me 20p to put in the Space Invaders but I don’t know how to play it so it finishes quick.

After our pub lunch the fair is open. I go on the dodgems first with Granddad because Dad says he’s ok just to watch. Granddad puts his cap on me and says I’m like Jackie Stewart, who must be a friend of his. If I pull the steering wheel down to one side we just go round in circles. It’s like when I’m doing aeroplanes in the park and running round and round and round. It’s brilliant and I don’t get dizzy because we’re sitting down. Even Dad is laughing. I get two goes on the dodgems.

Then we go to throw ping-pong balls in the clown’s mouth and you can win a prize. I don’t win anything but the ping-pong ball bounces off the clown’s face and back to me because I threw it too hard and I catch it so I get a free shot. I laugh because Dad says I’m not good at catching things. The prizes are goldfish.

There’s loads of them hanging in tiny plastic bags, doing nothing. They just stare at you with their black eyes. So it’s OK I don’t win anything here.

Dad tells me to go on the Haunted House but I’m not sure. They won’t come on with me and Dad calls me a wee scaredy cat. I am a bit scared but I tell him I’m not. I’m not doing it by myself.

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Granddad sings it nice. It’s his song for my gran. I see his face in the mirror and he’s sad. I think for a minute he’ll cry but he doesn’t. He’s my granddad. ‘The love of my life,’ he says. I don’t know if he’s talking to me or not. When we get home Dad’s still snoring so Granddad whispers to get out the car and we go to the chippy and I have a bag of chips for dinner. I hope Mum has chips at the hospital, she likes them as much as I do.

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James Russell is a Scotsman living by the Mediterranean, ‘swapping the green mountains for the sea and the sun but still misses the rain and the cold.’ He is father to three Scottish Terriers and has had a few short pieces and flash fiction published. His first novel completed, and is looking for a home!

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He pushes me to make me go on but Granddad says I don’t have to if I don’t want to. Dad gets a bit annoyed and pushes me again but then Granddad says ‘Gerry’ and after that it’s OK. The next one has the plastic ducks that go round the stall on real water so it looks like they’re swimming. It’s hard because the ducks are actually quite heavy and they’re not that close, especially for a kid.

But I lean over and hook three of them and get a prize. The prizes are cuddly toys and teddies. Dad says they’re for sissies but Granddad sees a toy tank with a soldier. So that’s a good prize for a boy. I do some other stuff then have a candy floss even though I already had pudding at lunch. If my teeth fall out I’ll just get falsers, loads of people have them.

Granddad drives home because Dad’s tired. He’s drunk loads of beer that’s why he’s tired. Granddad sings his favourite song and I sing the bit I know. ‘That’s the wonder, the wonder of you.’ That’s the chorus.

I slide along the back seat and it squeaks a bit because its plastic leather. I go right behind the driver’s seat and sing into his ear and we sing it in quiet voices so we don’t wake Dad. It’s a lovely song and

BLOOMSDAY 2020 KAYA KETTER’S ‘MOVING DAY’ EARNS HER FIRST PLACE IN THE U-18 CATEGORY

I

t happens every couple of years: move out day. My room is bare, everything is packed away ready to be shipped off to my new life.

Maybe my bags are prepared to move but I’m not. My life is here, the one I built in the two years living here. My friends, school, teachers will be distant memories to look back upon.

Who knows if I’ll ever come back? To visit?

To live? The unknown is the most aggravating.

The movers finally left this morning and staring at my empty house reflected my emptiness.

My last day here in my home, forever maybe.

Part of me wanted to spend every last second I had with my friends, the other part wanted to hide away in a corner, so I could forget this was happening. Seeing my friends would make the reality come to life and I wasn’t ready to let that happen.

By the afternoon I finally decided to go say my goodbyes to everyone that I would miss. It’s never easy. Phrases like, “See ya later alligator” and “Come back soon” are the hardest to digest. All the, “We’ll miss you!” is how everyone feels in the moment. But what about in five years? Ten? Will they still miss me even though we haven’t seen each other in so long? Maybe my friends will say that to me, but they can’t mean it. Over the years I’ve taught myself to let go, but it’s never easy. It’s not fair that everyone can proceed normally with their lives while I just have to say goodbye. I’ll always be just a minor character in their stories, and accepting that is natural at this point.

After wishing my farewells I headed back to the practically abandoned house I called home for a short period of time. I stared out my bedroom window. I tried desperately to remember exactly each detail: how the trees changed each season, and how my street turned from

a snowy, sledding hill to a regular driveway.

Pictures are never the same, sure, they capture a moment, but I’d rather have a full, clear image from my head. So I sat and watched, pondered, dreamt about my new life ahead, all the possibilities and the fresh start. It is exciting but dreadful. These thoughts carry over to my last meal in my home. Traditionally my family and I pick our favorite spot and go eat out, but tonight we wanted to enjoy the last few moments we had in the beautiful house.

We became nostalgic quickly, and reminiscing during these times was a common theme. We ate, laughed and cried, but in the end, it’s just move out day. It happens every couple of years.

Kaya Ketter was born in San Diego, California and currently lives in Athens, Greece where her father works for the American Embassy. This overseas post isn’t her first. She’s moved a total of nine times and has lived in Russia, South Korea, and Belgium.

Kaya enjoys playing soccer and basketball for her school in Athens, ACS. She also spends her time playing the violin, ukulele and guitar.

RAPHAËL COUROUBLE'S DIARY OF A DYING SOLDIER WINS FIRST PRIZE IN THE U-13 CATEGORY Shame. The feeling trapping me was maybe the most intense a human could go through. This bitter dishonour made me feel at the mercy of my feelings and unworthy of my God. Walking through the dust, through the mud, through my pain, I was wondering who I was and what I was doing in this place immensely far from any peaceful region. I once had a family, one who cared about me, yet I preferred to be in the midst of action; I chose to join the army and my first mission was during the Arab Spring. Months passed, I became more and more violent and less and less aware of who I was or what I was doing. I had wanted a thrilling adventure, which I had received. Within a few days, the worst had happened.

The memories distinctly came back to me while walking through the dusty landscape. I remembered my wife. Had she forgotten me? If not for her, I would not be alive. If not for her, life would not be worth enduring. As my regiment was marching triumphantly and proudly, I remembered athens insider | 152 |

what had happened next. I had killed a man.

The demonstrations were becoming more intense and as they grew, bullets were involuntary and without any order, shot in every direction. In the furious crowd, I had killed a man. Not knowing who he was, I had killed a man. Looking at him in the eye, I had killed a man.

Why did we get involved in this? It had nothing to do with our country! Why did I leave my loving family? Nothing matters anymore.

I cannot go home, shame will always follow.

I killed a man. The only way to end my pain is to die.

Raphaël Courouble is a 12 year-old French student fluent in English, Chinese and French. A keen long-distance runner, Raphaël enjoys archery and martial arts and is a bonafide Harry Potter and Star Wars fan.

Bouzouki

Illustration: Iason Iliades

What other instrument, so synonymous with Greek music, best captures the Greek zest for life and that lingering feeling of kaimos than the three-stringed bouzouki.

The instrument was brought to Greece in the 1900s by Greek immigrants from Asia Minor, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetiko genre. The tempo that builds in the bouzouki gives a real sense of the underlying raw emotion, of ‘rebetiko’s clandestine past and its gentrification by the greats of modern Greek music, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Manos Hadzidakis and Mikis Theodorakis.

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see & do

Skoufa Gallery Skoufa 4, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.360.3541

British Council Kolonaki Square 17, 106 73 Athens, Tel: 210.369.2333

Stavros Mihaliaras Art 260 Kifissias & Diligianni, Kifissia, Tel: 210.623.0928

Instituto Cervantes Mitropoleos 23, 105 57 Athens, Tel: 210.363.4117

The Blender Gallery Zisimopoulou 4, Glyfada, Tel: 213.028.0597

Goethe Institut Omirou 14-16, 100 33 Athens, Tel: 210.366.1000

The George Economou Collection Grammou 77, Kifissias Av. 80 Marousi, Tel: 210.809.0519

Onassis Cultural Centre Syngrou Ave. 107-109, 117 45 Athens, Tel: 213.017.8000

Xippas Gallery Sofokleous 53D, Athens, Tel: 210.331.9333 Zoumboulakis Gallery Kolonaki Square 20, Kolonaki Tel: 210.360.8278, Kriezotou 6, Syntagma, Tel: 210.363.4454

GALLERIES Allouche Benias Kanari 1, Tel: 210.338.9111

CULTURAL VENUES

Artion Voukourestiou 21, Tel: 211.210.6455 Tel: 212.104.4166 Four Seasons Lobby Apollonos 40, Vouliagmeni, Tel: 694.447.7383

Athinais Cultural Centre Astorias 34-36, Votanikos, Tel: 210.348.0000.

B&M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts & Music Vas. Sofias 9 & Merlin 1, Athens, Tel: 210.361.1206

A. Antonopoulou Art Aristofanous 20, Psyrri, Tel: 210.321.4994 Artzone 42 42 Vas. Konstantinou, Athens, Tel: 210.725.9549

Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre Armatolon-Klephton 48, Athens, Tel: 210.643.9466

Astrolavos ArtLife Irodotou 11, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.722.1200 Athens Art Gallery Glykonos 4, Dexameni Sq., Athens, Tel: 210.721.3938

Megaron Mousikis (The Athens Concert Hall) Vas. Sofias Ave. & Kokkali, Tel: 210.728.2333 Michael Cacoyannis Foundation Piraeus 206, Tavros, Tel: 210.341.8550

Bernier - Eliades Gallery Eptachalkou 11, Thissio, Tel: 210.341.3935

Onassis Cultural Centre Syngrou 107-109, Athens, Tel: 213.017.8000

(The) Breeder Gallery Iasonas 45, Metaxourgeio, Tel: 210.331.7527

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Syngrou 364, Kallithea Tel: 216.809.1000

Citronne Gallery Athens Patriarchou Ioakim 19, Tel: 219.723.5226 Eleni Marneri Galerie Lebessi 5-7 & Porinou 16, Acropolis, Tel: 210.8619.488

The Art Foundation Normanou 5, Athens, Tel: 210.323.8757

Instituto Italiano di Cultura Patission (28 Oktovriou) 47, Tel: 210.369.2333, 210.524.2646

THEATRES Badminton Theatre Goudi, Athens, Tel: 211.101.0020 Gialino Music Theatre Sygrou 143, N. Smyrni, Athens Tel: 210.9316.101-4 Pallas Theatre Voukourestiou 5, Athens, Tel: 210.321.3100

MUSEUMS Agora Museum Located in the Stoa of Attalos, Athens. Tel: 210.321.0185 Atelier Spyros Vassiliou Webster 5A, Athens, Tel: 210.923.1502 spyrosvassiliou.org Athens University History Museum Tholou 5, Plaka, Tel: 210.368.9502 history-museum.uoa.gr B&E Goulandris Museum of Modern Art Eratosthenous 13, Athens, Tel: 210.725.2895, goulandris.gr Benaki Museum Koumbari 1 & Vas. Sofias Avenue, Athens, Tel: 210.367.1000, benaki.gr

CULTURAL INSTITUTES

Benaki Museum of Islamic Arts Dipylou 12, Kerameikos, Tel: 210.325.1311, benaki.gr

Kalfayan Gallery Haritos 11, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.721.7679

French Institute Sina 31, 10680 Athens Tel: 210.339.8600

Benaki Museum, Pireos Pireos 138 & Andronikou, Gazi Tel: 210.345.3111, benaki.gr

Kapopoulos Fine Arts Varis - Koropiou Av. 94, Koropi, Tel: 210.642.6573

Hellenic American Union Massalias 22, 10680 Athens, Tel: 210.368.0900

Byzantine Museum Vas. Sofias 22, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.721.1027,

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EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art Kallirrois Av. & Amvr. Frantzi, Athens, Tel: 210.924.2111- 3, emst.gr Hellenic Cosmos Foundation of the Hellenic world Pireos 254, Tavros, Tel: 212.254.0000 hellenic-cosmos.gr Goulandris Foundation Museum of Cycladic Art Neofytou Douka 4, Athens, Tel: 210.722.8321, cycladic.gr Herakleidon Herakleidon 16, Thissio, Tel: 210.346.1981 Apostolou Pavlou 37, Thissio Tel: 211.012.6486, herakleidon-art.gr Ilias Lalaounis Jewellery Museum Karyatidon & Kallisperi 12, Makrygianni, Acropolis.

Tel: 210.922.7260, lalaounis.com Jewish Museum Nikis 39, Plaka,Tel: 210.322.5582 jewishmuseum.gr Kerameikos Museum Ermou 148, Monastiraki, Tel: 210.346.3552 Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology Pindarou 6, Athens Tel: 211.411.0044, kotsanas.com National Archaeological Museum Patission 44, Athens, Tel: 210.821.7724, namuseum.gr Numismatic Museum Panepistimiou 12, Athens, Tel: 210.363.5953, nma.gr The Acropolis Museum Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, Acropolis, Tel: 210.924.1043 theacropolismuseum.gr The National Art Gallery and Alexander Soutzos Museum Michalakopoulou 1 & Vas. Constantinou 1, Athens, Tel: 210.723.5857

FASHION Ancient Greek Sandals Kolokotroni 1, Athina Tel : 210.323.0938

Leof. Dimarchou Aggelou Metaxa 34, Glyfada, Tel: 210.894.8510 Occhio Papavassiliou – Athens Stadiou 5, Athina 105 62 Tel: 210.321.0042 Kokkoris Optics Pl. Esperidon 3, Glyfada Tel: 210.898.0850

Andrea Papandreou 35, Tel: 210.630.0000 Shops, cinemas and food

JEWELLERY Apriati Pindarou 29, Tel: 210.360.7878 Smartly designed jewellery for the young

Linea Piu Sekeri 6, Tel: 210.360.6125

Bulgari Voukourestiou 8, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.324.7118, Opulent designs in jewellery, watches & accessories

Luisa World Skoufa 15, Tel: 210.363.5600 Louis Vuitton Voukourestiou St., Tel: 210.361.3938

Cartier Voukourestiou 7, Tel: 210.331.3600 Two floors of designs & timepieces by the prestigious Cartier maison

Panaidis Eyewear Boutique Artemidos 2, Glyfada Tel : 210.892.0934 Milioni 12 & Iraklitou 2, Kolonaki Tel: 210 3616683

Chopard Stadiou 2 & Vas. Georgiou, Tel: 210.325.0555 Legendary time pieces and jewellery Elena Votsi Xanthou 7, Tel: 210.360.0936 Conversation pieces in gold and stone

Zadig & Voltaire Voukourestiou 13 Tel: 210.364.0222 Zeus + Dione Voukourestiou 6, Tel: 210.323.0132

Fanourakis Patriarchou Ioakim 23, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.721.1762, Unique collection of animal and insect pins & earrings

Liana Camba Boutique: Anagnostopoulou 26, Kolonaki Atelier: Laodikis 33, Glyfada Tel: 210.364.1027

Folli Follie Tsakalof 6 & Solonos 25 Kolonaki, Tel: 210.323.0739 Greece's high-street export stocks watches and everyday bijoux

Mahjong Boutique Kanari 14, Kolonki Tel: 210.362.2860

Georgios P. Voulis 35, Athina Tel: 210.331.2220

DEPT. STORES Attica Panepistimiou 9, Tel: 211.180.2600 Home to an array of luxury brands, designer shoes and cosmetics

Ilias Lalaounis Panepistimiou 6, Tel: 210.361.1371 Fabulous gold designs by famous Greek jeweller

Athens Metro Mall Vouliagmenis Avenue 276, Tel: 210.976.9444 Shops, cinemas and food

Kessaris Panepistimiou 7, Tel: 210.323.2919 Wide range of luxury brand timepieces

Golden Hall Kifissias 37A, Tel: 210.680.3450

Marathianakis Karagiorgi Servias 4 (Stoa Kalliga), Tel: 210.362.7118 & 210.322.2424 Old-world shop known for its original & elegant designs

High-end (and high-street) stores for anyone with a passion for fashion

Callista Crafts Voukourestiou 11 Tel : 210.364.7989

McArthurGlen Building Block E71, Yalou, 19004, Spata, Tel: 210.663.0830, 210.663.0840 Designer Outlet Shopping Centre with value-for-money promotions

Occhio Papavassiliou - Glyfada

The Mall Athens

Marco Bicego Boutique Voukourestiou 20, Athina Tel: 210.363.6900 Nikos Koulis Filikis Eterias 15, Kolonaki Square, Athens Tel: +30.210.723.3783

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Contemporary designer jewellery Odysseus Jewels Voukourestiou 20, Athens Tel: +30. 211.220.4500 Wide range of jewellery and watches Omega Voukourestiou 2, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.322.7682 Elegant boutique showcasing the brand's timeless timepieces Pentheroudakis Voukourestiou 19, Tel: 210.361.3187 Timeless pieces inspired by classical Greek design Van Cleef & Arpels Voukourestiou 1, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.331.0319 The jeweller of the international jetset Venetia Vildiridis Voukourestiou 11 and El. Venizelou 8, Tel: 210.363.5145, 210.321.9408 Original designer jewellery pieces and watches Zerteo Jewellery Kiprou 78, Glyfada Tel: 210.894.6682 Zolotas Panepistimiou 10, Tel: 210.360.1272 Designs inspired by the ancient Greece as well as contemporary collections by designers like Paloma Picasso

SOUVENIRS Anamnesia Athens International Airport Departure Terminal, Tel: 210.353.3104 Andrianou 99, Plaka Tel: 214.687.0704 Matogianni, Myconos, Tel: 228.907.9171 anamnesia.gr Acropolis Museum Shop Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Tel: 210.900.0911 theacropolismuseum.gr Benaki Museum Shop Koumbari & Vas. Sofias Tel: 210.367.1045, Four Seasons Lobby, Apollonos 40 Tel: 210.890.2000 benakishop.gr Museum of Cycladic Art Shop Neophytou Douka 4, Kolonaki Tel: 210.722.8321-3 cycladic.gr

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useful info

EMBASSIES ALBANIA Vekiareli 7, Filothei, Tel: 210.687.6200 ALGERIA Vas. Constantinou 14, Athens Tel: 210.756.4191-2 ARGENTINA Vas. Sophias 59, Athens Tel: 210.724.4158 ARMENIA K. Palaiologou 95, Chalandri, Tel: 210.683.1130, 210.683.1145 AUSTRALIA Hatziyianni Mexi 5, Athens Tel: 210.870.4000 AUSTRIA Vas. Sofias Av. 4, Athens, Tel: 210.725.7270 AZERBAIJAN Marathonodromon 13, Psychiko, Tel: 210.363.2721 BANGLADESH Marathonodromon 119, Palaio Psychiko, Tel: 210.672.0250 BELGIUM Sekeri 3, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.360.0314 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Karneadou 25-29 Athens, Tel: 210.641.0788 BRAZIL Vassilis Sofias 23, Athens Tel: 210.721.3039 BULGARIA Stratigou Kallari 33A, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.8105 CANADA Eth. Antistaseos 48, Halandri, Tel: 210.727.3400 CHILE Rigilis 12, Athens, Tel: 210.729.2647 CHINA Leof. Dimokratias 10-12, P. Psychico Tel: 210.672.3282 CROATIA Tzavella 4, N. Psychico, Tel: 210.677.7033 CUBA Sofokleous 5, Filothei, Tel: 210.685.5550 CYPRUS Xenofontos 2A, Athens, Tel: 210.373.4800 CZECH REPUBLIC G. Seferi 6, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.671.3755 DENMARK Mourouzi 10, Athens, Tel: 210.725.6440 EGYPT Vas. Sofias 3, Syntagma, Tel: 210.361.8612 ESTONIA Messoghion 2-4, Ampelokipoi,

Tel: 210.747.5660 FINLAND Hatziyianni Mexi 5, Athens, Tel: 210.725.5860 FRANCE Vas. Sofias 7, Syntagma, Tel: 210.339.1000 FYROM Papadiamanti 15, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.9585 GEORGIA Ag. Dimitriou 24, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.2186 GERMANY Karaoli & Dimitriou 3, Athens, Tel: 210.728.5111 HUNGARY Vasileos Konstantinou Ave. 38, Pangrati, Tel: 210.725.6800 INDIA Kleanthous 3, Mets, Tel: 210.721.6481 INDONESIA Marathonodromon 99, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.2345 IRAN Stratigou Kallari 16, Patisia, Tel: 210.674.1436 IRAQ Mazaraki 4, Psychico, Tel: 210.677.8276 IRELAND Vas. Konstantinou 7, Mets, Tel: 210.723.2405 ISRAEL Marathonodromon 1, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.670.5500 ITALY Sekeri 2, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.361.7260 JAPAN Ethnikis Antistaseos 46, Halandri, Tel: 210.670.9900 JORDAN Papadiamanti 21, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.4161 KAZAKHSTAN Imittou 122, Papagou, Tel: 210.654.7765 KOREA Messoghion 2-4, Athens, Tel: 210.698.4080 KUWAIT Marathonodromon 27, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.3593 LEBANON Paritsi 2, Neo Psichiko, Tel: 210.675.5873 LIBYA Vyronos 13, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.2120 LITHUANIA Vas. Konstantinou 38, Athens, Tel: 210.729.4356 LATVIA Vas. Konstantinou 38, Athens Tel. 210.729.4483

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LUXEMBOURG Vas. Sofias 23A & Neofitou Vamva 2, Syntagma, Tel: 210.725.6400 MALTA V. Sofias 96, Athens, Tel: 210.778.5138 MEXICO Filikis Etaireias Sq. 14, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.729.4780 MOLDAVIA Georgiou Bacu 20, Filothei, Tel: 210.699.0660 MOROCCO Marathonodromon 115, & Kondylaki 2, Psychico, Tel: 210.674.4210 NETHERLANDS Vas. Konstantinou 5-7, Kalimarmaro, Tel: 210.725.4900 NIGERIA Streit 17, Filothei, Tel: 210.802.1188 NORWAY Hatziyianni Mexi 5, Athens, Tel: 210.724.6173 PAKISTAN Vekiareli 15, Filothei, Tel: 210.729.0122 PALESTINE Giassemion 13, P. Psychico, Tel.: 210.672.6061-3 PANAMA Praxitelous 192 & II Merarchias, Piraeus, Tel: 210.428.6441 PERU Semitelou 2, Athens, Tel: 210.779.2761 PHILIPPINES Antheon 26, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.672.1837 POLAND Chrysanthemon 22, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.679.7700 PORTUGAL Vas. Sofias 23, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.729.0096 / 210.723.6784 QATAR Perikleous 2 & Kifissias Av. 212, N. Psychico, Tel: 210.725.5031 ROMANIA Emm. Benaki 7, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.672.8875 RUSSIA Nikiforos Lytra 28, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.672.5235 SAUDI ARABIA Palaiologhou 2 & Agias Annis, Halandri, Tel: 210.671.6911 SERBIA Vas. Sophias 106, Athens, Tel: 210.777.4344 SINGAPORE Leof. Kifissias 10-12 Marousi, Tel: 210.684.5072 SLOVAK REPUBLIC G. Seferi 4, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.677.1980

EMERGENCIES EMERGENCY NUMBERS Ambulance Tel: 166 Doctors SOS Tel: 1016 They will issue an invoice to claim reimbursement from your insurer.

Ipirou 1, Athens.

Duty Pharmacies Tel:1434 Also check newspapers for listings.

Emergency Hospitals Tel: 1434 Fire Brigade Tel: 199 Forest Fire Tel: 191 Poison Hotline Tel: 210.779.3777

Police Tel: 100 Tourist Police Tel: 171 Coast Guard Tel: 108 Air Police Tel: 210.964.2000 ROAD ASSISTANCE ELPA Tel: 10400 Emergency Service Tel: 104 Express Service Tel: 154 Hellas Service Tel: 1057 Interamerican Tel: 1158 HEALTH PAEDIATRIC HOSPITALS EUROCLINIC PAEDON Lemessou 39-41 & Aharnon 209, Kato Patissia, Tel: 210.869.1900 PAEDON AGIA SOFIA HOSPITAL Mikras Asias & Thivon, Goudi, Tel: 210.746.7000 PAEDON AGLAIA KYRIAKOU HOSPITAL Livadias 3 & Thivon, Goudi, Tel: 210.772.6000 & 1535 PRIVATE HOSPITALS CENTRAL CLINIC OF ATHENS Asklipiou St. 31, Athens, Emergency number 1169 or Tel: 210.367.4000, centralclinic.gr EUROCLINIC Diagnostic, surgical and treatment centre. Athanasiadou 9, Athens, (near Mavili Sq.), Tel: 210.641.6600 EURODENTICA Specialized dental care Patision 150, Athens, Tel: 210.866.3367-8 Alamanas 3, Maroussi, Athens, Tel: 210.619.5760-1, El. Venizelou 162, Kallithea, Athens, Tel: 210.956.5365 YGEIA Kifissias & E. Stavrou 4, Maroussi, Tel: 210.686.7000, ygeia.gr IATRIKO KENTRO (ATHENS MEDICAL CENTER) Areos 36, P. Faliro, Tel: 210.989.2100-20 Distomou 5-7, Maroussi, Tel: 210.619.8100 METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL Ethnarou Makariou 9 & El. Venizelou, N. Faliro, Tel: 210.480.9000 metropolitan-hospital.gr IASO Kifissias 37-39, Maroussi, Tel: 210.618.4000 MITERA Kifissias & E. Stavrou 6, Maroussi, Tel: 210.686.9000

PUBLIC HOSPITALS ASKLEPIEION HOSPITAL Vas. Pavlou 1, Voula, Tel: 210.895.8301-4 EVANGELISMOS Ypsilantou 45-47, Kolonaki, Tel: 210.720.1000 KAT HOSPITAL Nikis 2, Kifissia, Tel: 210.628.0000 Specialized trauma unit.

TZANNEIO Afentouli & Tzani, Pireaus, Tel: 210.451.9411-9 ENGLISH MEDIA NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES Athens Insider, the quarterly magazine for Greece in English The International New York Times carries the English version of Kathimerini RADIO Athens International Radio 104,4 Good Morning Athens at 10am, English programs at 11am, music programs on weekdays at 9pm, weekends at 1pm.

Peiraios 100, Athens, Tel: 210.341.1610 SCHOOLS GREEK LANGUAGE The Athens Center 48 Archimidous Street, Mets, Athens 11636 Tel: 210.701.5242 CELT Athens 77 Academias Street, 106 78 Athens, Tel: 210.330.1455 Greek House Dragoumi 7, 145 61 Kifissia, Tel: 210.808.5186 Hellenic American Union 22 Massalias str., 106 80 Athens, Tel: 210.368.0900 Omilo Greek Language And Culture Panagi Tsaldari 13 (4th floor), 15122 Maroussi, Tel: 210.612.2706 SITES Acropolis is open daily and entrance, includes archaeological sites. Tel: 210.321.0219 Ancient Agora was the heart of ancient Athens - the focus of political, commercial, administrative and social life for centuries. Byzantine Churches. many churches dating from the 11th and 12th centuries are found around the city. Noteworthy examples include: Agios Eleftherios, next to the cathedral on Mitropoleos Street; Kapnikarea, halfway down Ermou Street from Syntagma; Agi Apostoli, Agora area south of Stoa of Attalos; and Agia Triada (Russian

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Orthodox church) on Filellinon Street.

Churches are open to the public on Sundays and holidays, also usually for daily prayers 7am-1pm and 4-6:30pm. Dress soberly when visiting. Technopolis (Gazi) a 19th century gas factory turned major cultural centre for performing arts and installation works. Pireos 100 & Ermou, Gazi. Tel: 210.346.1589.

Hadrian’s Arch a Roman arch that marked the boundary of ancient Athens and the new city. Located at the corner of Vas. Olgas and Amalias Avenues. Lykavittos Hill is the highest point in Athens. Take the teleferique from the top of Ploutarchou St. Odeon of Herod Atticus built in 161 AD, this is where the Athens Festival takes place.

Accessible for €1.50 and open daily from 8:30am. Panathenian Stadium Kalimarmaro was the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896. Located at Vassileos Konstantinou and Agras, across from the National Garden.

Pnyx Hill here, for the first time in history, every citizen could vote, giving Pnyx the name the birthplace of democracy.

Close by is the beautiful Old Observatory. Presidential Palace formerly the Royal Palace, this building is used by the President of Greece to host dignitaries. Irodou Attikou Street. Stoa of Attalos shopping arcade built in the 2nd century BC and totally reconstructed in the 1950s. Tues-Sun 8:30am3pm. Admission to the Agora and museum €3.50. Adrianou 24.

Tel: 210.321.0185 Syntagma (Constitution Square) is the heart of the city and the best spot for new visitors to orient themselves.

The Evzones, dressed in traditional uniforms, guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Parliament. The changing-of-theguard ceremony takes place every hour. Temple of Olympian Zeus once the largest temple in ancient Greece, its ruins lie just behind Hadrian’s Arch. Mon-Sun 8am7:30pm. €2.00. Vas. Olgas and Amalias Avenues, Tel: 210.922.6330.

Theatre of Dionysus built in 500 BC is where the plays of Aristophanes, Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles were first performed.

Tower of Winds the octagonal tower, representing the eight winds, was built in the 1st century BC by the Syrian astronomer Andronicus.

Mon-Sun 8am-7pm. Just east of the Ancient Agora. Tel: 210.324.5220.

athensinsider.com

SLOVENIA Kifissias Av. 280 & Dimokratias 1, N. Psychico, Tel: 210.672.0090-091 SOUTH AFRICA Kifissias 60, Maroussi, Tel: 210.610.6645 SPAIN Dionysiou Areopagitou 21, Plaka, Tel: 210.921.3123 SWEDEN Vas. Konstantinou 7, Athens, Tel: 210.726.6100 SWITZERLAND Iasiou 2, Evaggelismos, Tel: 210.723.0364-6 TAIWAN Marathonodromon 57, Psychico, Tel: 210.677.5122 Representative office THAILAND Marathorodromon 25 & Kyprou, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.9065 TUNISIA Antheon 2, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.671.7590 TURKEY Vas. Georgiou B’ 11, Athens, Tel: 210.726.3000 UKRAINE Stephanou Delta 4, Filothei, Tel: 210.680.0230 UAE Kifissias Av. 290 & N. Paritsi 2, Tel: .210.677.0220 UK Ploutarchou 1, Athens, Tel: 210.727.2600 USA Vas. Sofias 91, Athens, Tel: 210.721.2951 URUGUAY Menandrou 1, Kifissia, Tel: 210.361.3549 VATICAN Mavili 2, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.674.3598 VENEZUELA Marathonodromon 19, P. Psychico, Tel: 210.672.9169 VIETNAM Yakinthon 50,Psychico, Tel. 210.612.8733, 210.675.3080

Illustrations by Iason Iliades

Kaleidoscope

GREEK SUMMER IS A STATE OF MIND 1. Mounds of roughly hewn slices of cold watermelon, melon and cherries offered dorean at tavernas. 2. Crickets trying to raise the decibels by competing with noisy racquet-wielding beach-veterans. 3.The jangling of dice against a backgammon board. 4. Cafés populated by tanned bodies cooling off with long, tall glasses of frappé. 5. A terrific example of Greece’s elementary yet immensely satisfying sun-drenched seasonal cuisine, the Greek salad is a humble dish, rich in flavour. 6&7. The sultry Aegean inviting you to lose yourself in its crystal-clear depths in between sunning breaks. 8. Retired pensioners nursing their ouzos to the tantalizing smells of grilled sardines off a neighbour’s terrace. 9. Nothing like some frozen indulgence to beat the heat. athens insider | 160 |

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