MARGARITA POURNARA

An American bookworm on Hydra

Josh Hickey recounts a funny scene that played out in the first year of the Hydra Book Club, a pop-up bookstore he established in 2021 on the first floor of the Hydra Historical Archive and Museum, featuring Greek and foreign books, new and used, on the island. It concerned a visit by Dakis Joannou, the renowned Cypriot art collector who owns two of the loveliest houses in the Saronic island’s main town and put Hydra on the international contemporary art map with the annual exhibition of top-flight artists at a converted slaughterhouse.

Syros: Crowded in summer; dead in winter

“How is it possible that humans have landed on the moon, but a machine hasn’t been invented to carry our groceries up the stairs?” comments a middle-aged woman from Ano Syros, known locally as an “Anosyriani.”

07.08.2024 / 16:14

‘We have run out of lobsters’

“In Turkey we say, ‘Tencere yuvarlanmis kapagini bulmus.’ Don’t you have the same proverb?” a woman from Kusadasi on Turkey’s western Aegean coast, eating at the table next to ours on the island of Agathonisi asked the waiter, making a circle with her hand.

10.07.2024 / 09:24

Bodossaki Excellence Award goes to two distinguished scientists

Even the pure white marble statues of Konstantinos and Evangelis Zappas on either side of the grand entrance were glowing in the afternoon June sun.

09.07.2024 / 09:52

‘Renato Mordo: The Hours’: Tribute to great Greek-Austrian Jewish opera director

Many Jewish communities in Macedonia and Thrace disappeared in the Holocaust, yet their presence in the places where their communities once thrived is still palpable.

04.07.2024 / 17:39

Antikythera seabed yielding more gifts

Poseidon cooperated this time around. The ancient Greek god blessed the archaeologists, divers and scientists in their latest mission to the Antikythera wreck with smooth seas.

23.06.2024 / 11:02

John Sarbanes: An ethical politician

He has some character traits that are missing from Greek politicians. It was perhaps his substantive answers, his honesty, but mostly the air of a statesman that surrounded US Congressman John Sarbanes in the very interesting discussion he had last Wednesday with students from Deree College (part of the American College of Greece – ACG) in the school’s Library.

30.05.2024 / 22:31

German Archaeological Institute celebrates 150 years in Athens

Elegant, well-kept and with a lovely rooftop terrace, the three-story townhouse is perhaps one of the least known of the Greek capital’s historical landmarks.

16.05.2024 / 04:00

Epirus’ journey from isolation to innovation

The Ionia and Egnatia highways have done away with the old isolation. Young people are returning to their roots. Tourism is booming. The people of Ioannina do not want to repeat the mistakes of others. They want to keep the sense of moderation that characterizes Epirus

22.04.2024 / 22:28

‘We are an amiable hodgepodge’

The sun was setting in the center of Komotini when suddenly cannon fire was heard. None of the numerous patrons at the local cafes was disturbed. What was it? “The sound signifies the end of the Ramadan fast that lasts from sunrise to sunset,” a passer-by explained.

03.04.2024 / 16:02

Nafplio: The houses were saved, but the residents left

Kostas Karapavlos is standing in the middle of the hall. The 180-year-old wooden floor creaks with every step he takes. He shows us portraits and old family photos on the walls – his great-great-grandfather was Ioannis Kapodistrias, first head of state of independent Greece.

04.03.2024 / 22:00

From Kaisariani to Strasbourg

“Hello, Mr Roussopoulos. Congratulations!” said a customer from another table at the taverna in Ilioupoli, where Kathimerini met on Tuesday with the first Greek politician to be unanimously elected the 35th president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

14.02.2024 / 21:16