Thursday 11 April 2013

Why travelling to Greece?


Hello readers! How are you doing? Right now, I am blogging while I am sitting on my balcony in the sunshine in Greece, so I am doing great! 
This week, or let us say these past few days, I am going to tell you something more about the culture in Greece. Unfortunately, we leave within a few hours to Italy, another beautiful country!

In Greece, the population speaks the Greek language. It has a really strange view for us Europeans. It has not the typical ABC-alphabet, but the alfa-bèta-gamma alphabet. It also has 24 characters, but the letters are very different than the letters in our language. I put a scheme below, so that you can see the view of the Greek alphabet:
 

 

Lucky for us, the Greek can speak English too. Except in the little, authentic villages, people only speak Greek.

The majority of the population is part of the Greek Orthodox Church and Christianity. It is the largest religion in Greece but there are some other religions in Greece like Catholicism, Hellenic Neoplasms, Protestantism and the Islam too.

Their holiday is on 25th of March and is called Independence Day. Unfortunately, we were a little too late to celebrate this holiday!

I travelled to Athens once, and there I ate very good meals for a small price!
For this week, we wanted to taste some of the typical Greek kitchen too, so we decided not to book a room with dinner. Every evening, we are going to look for good, typical Greek restaurants. The Greek prepare their dishes with typical ingredients like olive oil, cheese, aubergine, courgette, spices, vegetables, grain, wine, fish, meat like poultry, rabbit, lamb and beef and yoghurt. The Greek their desserts are sweet, they prepare it with nuts and honey.

On our first evening, we did not know what to choose because there were so many different typical meals. The waiter was very friendly and explained us all the meals and its ingredients.

As a starter, we ate taramosalata. This meal is made from the salted calf of the codfish or carp. It is mixed with bread or mashed potatoes, lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil. It was very good!
 

After that, Debra ate a Greek salad. The ingredients are salad, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, cumcumber and olive oil. It was served with bread and wine.
 
 

Célestine ate pastitsio: a meal with layers, like lasagne. The bottom was made from paste, eggs and cheese. The second layer was made with meat (beef, veal and lamb) and tomatoes. Then, there was another layer with paste and the final layer was with Béchamel sauce or Béchamel sauce with cheese. Greek people use spices like cinnamon and nutmeg to finish the dish.
 

Lauren ate souvlaki: cubes from pickled lamb or pork and served with sauce, bread or French fries.

 

And I ate moussaka. It consists of aubergine, minced meat, onions, spices, breadcrumbs, red wine, sliced aubergine, sometimes courgette too, potatoes, tomatoes, Béchamel sauce and finished with a little bit of cheese.
 
 
 
We talked a little while with our waiter and because we wanted to know more about this beautiful country. He said that dancing and music was still very important for him and his family. He invited us to a party in his home town.

We saw that dancing and music is indeed still one of the biggest traditions in Greece. The people dance at every party in Greece. The children learn the folk dance by playing. The friendly waiter, Anthos, told us that Greece knows more than 300 different dances and that each region has its own folk-dance, costumes and music. It is a very social event and brings people together. People dance on weddings, at Eastern and other important events in someone’s life.

I did not know any famous Greek persons, but I do know a lot of Greek gods and goddesses. I am very interested in the Greek mythology, and I am going to name the most famous gods and goddesses from Greece: Atlas, Aphrodite, Fauna, Flora, Hercules, Jezus, Neptunus, Venus, Zeus etc. There a lot of Greek gods and goddesses with each their history.

And how could I finish my blog without saying anything about the sports in Greece? The Olympic Games, the biggest international sporting event. The Olympic Games started in Olympia, a village in Greece. The Games are organised in winter and summer. The most famous symbols are the Olympic flag and the Olympic flame. Nowadays, the Paralympic Games (the Games for disabled persons) are becoming more and more important.
 
 
My colleagues are going to inform you more concerning the buildings and the economy in this beautiful country! They also are going to tell you more about the nice activities we did these past few days.
 
It was nice to spend my time in Greece for the second time. I do want to come back on my holiday to travel around the different Greek islands because the islands are beautiful and I want to spend more time to travel around!

Keep reading!

Liesbeth

Sources:


Three relevant real-life examples:

3 comments:

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  3. Hello Liesbeth!

    I thought: “Let me comment this blog post!” because I really liked reading it.
    It was so weird to hear the Greek language and the alfa-bèta-gamma alphabet, was’t it? Fortunately, some people understand English.

    I really liked the food there. I did not eat Greek kitchen before so it was a discovery for me. The food was not that healthy but I liked it, though.
    I did not like our starter the first evening. We ate taramosalata, remember? BEH!
    After that, I ate souvlakia. I was happy to eat a French fries.
    I am happy that I did not pick the Greek salad because I hate feta cheese. The meal of Célestine, pastitsio, looked amazing. It looked like a lasagne, mmm. I think I am addicted to Italian food…

    Greece is actually a very rich country when you think of, for example, the Greek mythology with the famous gods and goddesses from Greece, for example Aphrodite.
    Also The Olympic Games is named after Olympia, a village in Greece.

    I really liked our time spending here and I will definitely go back to Greece with my boyfriend this summer.

    Thank you for the beautiful time together, Liesbeth.

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