Greece
I Was Blindsided When I Moved To Greece: Here’s What You Should Know Before You Visit
Written By: Will Anagnos
Before moving to Greece in 2016, I thought I had prepared myself well. I wanted to understand and fit in as much as possible, anticipating the cultural differences I would encounter while living in a foreign country. However, there were many things about Greece — and the Greeks — that I hadn’t expected. Here are a few things that stood out to me: The Way Greeks Communicate Greek conversations can sound intense, even if they’re just casual discussions.
Why Greek Americans should visit Greece
Written By: Stavros
Greece is one of the most popular summer tourist destinations around the world – known far and wide as the perfect vacation spot for many reasons. For one, as an EU member state it is accessible, and English is commonly spoken by Greeks living there. Also, most places have fair prices. The natural beauty in the mountains and at the beaches draws in tourists by the hundreds of thousands. It is a place where it is easy to relax, but also safe to explore.
Why Third Generation Greeks Have One Last Chance to Claim Their Heritage
Written By: Christophoros
If you’re a third generation Greek living in America, Canada, Australia or any other major hub of Hellenes worldwide, there’s a good chance you are still clinging onto your Greek heritage. That’s a good thing, but it must be said that those members of the Diaspora statistically have a very consequential decision to make: they can either repatriate themselves back to Greece, or let the forces of Western culture erase their children’s heritage, and the heritage of their children’s children.
What KTE’s Founders Learned Working at a Greek Restaurant in Greece
Written By: Christophoros
This summer my brother and I lived out the Greek American dream: we spent a season working for free at a Greek restaurant in Greece. Working in our homeland, a place our Pappou fled after WWII, was extremely eye-opening and one of the richest life experiences we have shared together. My brother Alexandros and I are open and honest about the fact that we are Greek Americans, not Greeks. However, like many Greek Americans, we crave a return to Greece and felt its call grow in the truest sense from everything we learned working at Medusa Milos, one of the best authentic restaurants in all of Greece.
Greece is my Medicine
Written By: Christophoros
Greece is my medicine. Many other Greeks living abroad know what I mean when I say this – I need to visit the homeland of my ancestors regularly to reconnect with the culture, language and spiritual traditions I have admired all my life. Diaspora Greeks are part of a uniquely split identity between the Greek heritage we treasure and the Western environment our relatives willingly sought out. Yes, my ancestors fled Greece after WWII in pursuit of greater economic promises, but now that those promises have been fully explored and American society has fundamentally changed for the worse, I crave a permanent return to Greece for myself and my future children.
Discovering the Greek Family Unit, From a Generation X Perspective
Written By: Penelope
I’ve always been proud of my Greek heritage – that’s an understatement for myself and many fellow Hellenes. In my youth, I embraced it in what I thought was its entirety. I learned how to Greek dance, regularly attended Greek Orthodox Church, enrolled myself in Greek school, strictly followed the religious calendar and dyed my Easter eggs red. Growing up, I participated in JOY, GOYA and YAL. I taught myself to cook all of my favorite Greek dishes.
Two Versions of Greece
Written By: Alexandros
There exists two distinct versions of Greece: the one imagined and lived by those in the diaspora, and the one imagined and lived by Greeks who remain, to this day, in the fatherland. The Greece that is imagined by the current population is one desperately trying to impersonate America and its neighbors. It is consumed by consumerism, it hastens to glorify American art, music, and its heroes, and it is becoming secular and modern in every way imaginable by the West.
De-Stigmatizing Right Wing Politics
Written By: Alexandros
The stigmatization of right wing politics is something that has plagued Greece for a long time, and it all comes back to what happened with Golden Dawn (Χρυσή Αυγή). Those familiar with 21st century Greek politics remember Golden Dawn for their ascription as a neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organization that defined the right wing political space before its leadership were sent to prison and the party was permanently dismantled in 2020.
The New Colonization of Greece
Written By: Alexandros
Remembering our four centuries under Ottoman rule, Greeks should consider the cultural infiltration of America a new kind of societal subversion and defend our traditions accordingly. Greece was once a colony of the Ottoman Empire. Across nearly 400 years, Greeks were second-class citizens in the land they inhabited for millennia. During this period of occupation and the many wars of reconquest that were fought to reclaim Hellenic territory, untold millions of Greeks were lost due to genocide, starvation, famine, war, and forced conversion and assimilation.
The Need for Right-Wing Consolidation in Greece
Written By: Alexandros
As of the European Parliament election results, nationalist parties in Greece account for nearly 20% of the Greek electorate. This would place the combined nationalist parties in the second place spot, ahead of left-wing SYRIZA and center-left PASOK. However, given the fragmentation of the Nationalist space in Greece, the support is distributed between 4 separate polling parties, with further fragmentation resulting from voters being drawn to the large center-right party Nea Dimokratia as well as several smaller right-wing parties that fail to garner the necessary 1% to register on polls.