Anna Roins culls two personal pandemic stories - each story radically different, peppered with the highs and lows of this transformative experience, to compile a portrait of a society in flux. LAURA SLAUGHTER (34), Medical Aesthetician, Kifissia Laura Slaughter is a full-time mum to her two-year-old toddler, Siena and while she...
Read moreTypically, as we head into the summer of 2020, sports newspapers would have been chock-a-block with articles on potential gold-medallists and the glory of sport. Time to travel all the way back, to the very beginning, to the very origin of some of the sports. Did you know that these popular modern sports have their roots in ancient times?...
Read moreWHAT: The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center’s (SNFCC) online concert series continues with Alkinoos Ioannidis, on Thursday, June 4, at 21:00. At a time when we’re keeping our distances, Alkinoos Ioannidis brings us closer through the magic of songs that we have loved, such as “Oneiro Itane”, “O Kosmos Pou Allazei” and “Vythos”. Following...
Read moreWHAT: The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center’s (SNFCC) new online concert series #snfccAtHome continues with Pavlos Pavlidis, one of the most important representatives of the Greek alternative rock scene, on Friday, May 29, at 21:00. The much-loved songwriter presents an unusual project he created during lockdown, especially for his onl...
Read moreThe good doctor is taking a much deserved break and an eternally grateful nation thanks the selfless efforts of our epidemiological whiz. John Carr's paean to Dr. Sotiris Tsiodras. Well, who'da thunk it, girls and boys, He who never made much noise, Yet measured out his words so clear, Has opted out of the public sphere. H...
Read moreWhether they’re opening their lives up for public inspection, or through the exploratory lens of therapy, you will enjoy these laugh-out-loud New York Times best-sellers, Anna Roins suggests. Becoming, by Michele Obama (Crown, 13 Nov 2018) It’s been said that ‘First ladies are, for the most part, second-hand celebrities...
Read moreThe Irish Embassy, in collaboration with Athens Insider, announces its first-ever Bloomsday creative writing competition in English, open to writers of all ages and nationalities. Bloomsday is marked around the world as a celebration of James Joyce, of course, but also as a celebration of Irish literature, modernist writing and creativity...
Read moreIn his sequel fantasy series, John Kittmer, not unlike Jason or Odysseus, takes us through archipelagos and roll-calls of island names. These names have a magic all of their own. The poet Odysseas Elytis knew this well; ‘Each word a swallow to bring you spring in the midst of summer’. In this magical six-day tour, I am finally...
Read moreThe Acropolis of Athens is a fair test of our commitment to humankind’s higher cultural aspirations. In ordinary times, Athenians have ten thousand good excuses to postpone the Acropolis until next month or next lifetime. These are not ordinary times. For an able-bodied resident of Athens not to take advantage of this opportunity is to fa...
Read morePM Mitsotakis announced that the Greek tourist season opens its doors on June 15 and that its well-earned “passport” of safety, reliability and health will ensure that tourists come back to Greece for a spot under the sun. Greece’s 2020 tourism season might have begun late but will offer a safe escape for tourists headed here....
Read moreEditions Assouline's dreamy coffee table books often are as attractive as the destinations they cover. Its latest addition, the Athens Riviera coffee table book is a stunning photo album that retraces the history and spirit of Athens and its inhabitants. Discover a city that we have known for millennia, but whose contemporaneity is too of...
Read moreJeff Siger has called Greece home for 35 years. Spending his lockdown in pastoral New Jersey with a grizzly-size black bear who drops in occasionally, he has been plotting his next mystery thriller set on a Greek isle. The emotions that run through this column starkly contrast with the hope he expresses in his first corona chronicle. [...
Read more
