Europe Up Close

Dora Stratou Dance Company in Athens

Published/Revised March 1, 2018 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Dora Stratou Dance Company in Athens I am sitting in a quiet wooded park area at the foot of Philoppaou Hill near the Acropolis in Athens Greece.  It’s a warm September evening and the air is fragrant with pine. Overhead the night sky is littered with stars. On a stage in front of the tiers of seats, a group of musicians take their places and begin to play. The melodic, soulful sound of ... Read Full Article

Rescuing the Cats of Athens

Published/Revised September 6, 2017 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Rescuing the Cats of Athens They haunt the ancient temples of the Acropolis like lean ghosts. They scavenge through piles of plastic garbage bags in the narrow streets of the Plaka. Their tormented yowls and chilling screams are the night music of suburban alleys. They are the cats of Athens. It is impossible to estimate the numbers of them. They roam as free and wild as their ancestors in the ... Read Full Article

Isadora Duncan – Dancing in the Temple of the Arts in Athens

Published/Revised June 21, 2017 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Dancing in the Temple of the Arts in Athens Isadora Duncan On a high hillside in the Athens municipality of Byronos stands a Mycenaean stone building that once was the home of the flamboyant dancer, Isadora Duncan. It’s a steep climb up the hill, but the view from the top is worth the effort, with vistas out over almost the entire city. The house, once known as “The Temple of Dance” was built ... Read Full Article

Marathon, Greece and the Ghosts of Ancient Warriors

Published/Revised December 28, 2015 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

I stand on the deserted beach of Marathon, Greece, a long crescent of stones and sand. Surf spills over the pebbles, spray bursts like a shower of gold-dust reflecting the dazzling Greek sun. On this beach, with the surf hissing over pebbles red as blood and white as bone, I hear the wind moaning like the voices of the ancient dead, as though the spirits still linger in the shade of the pine ... Read Full Article

On the Road From Athens to Corinth

Published/Revised December 16, 2014 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

The road from Athens to the Peloponnese traverses the coastline past factories and shipyards then climbs high above the sea rewarding us with panoramic views of the sparkling blue Saronic Gulf. My friends and I on our way to visit Corinth, the ancient city that was once a strong rival of Athens. As we descend the pass, we reach a low, flat barren track of land known as the Isthmus that connects ... Read Full Article

Anafiotika: The Hidden Village under the Acropolis

Published/Revised January 6, 2018 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

The great city of Athens, Greece is made up of numerous small villages that have melded together over the years. Plaka is the most ancient, original part of the city where most of the archaeological sites are located. Just up on the hill above Plaka, under the flank of the Acropolis (“the high city”) there is the tiny village of Anafiotika, unique because of how it came to be. Find Hotels in ... Read Full Article

The Jewish Museum of Athens: Recalling the Past

Published/Revised May 12, 2016 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

In a small, privately owned building just at the edge of Athen’s old Plaka district, all that is left of Greece’s Jewish heritage is displayed with artifacts that have been collected and restored since the 1970’s by tireless museum curators and volunteers. It is because of their dedication that the Jewish Museum of Greece now ranks among the top Jewish Museums in Europe. The idea of a ... Read Full Article

Heinrich Schliemann’s House in Athens

Published/Revised December 18, 2017 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

I’m sitting in a beautiful garden surrounded by classical sculptures and exotic foliage. Brazilian jazz is playing as I sip my glass of sangria. Who could imagine I am in the middle of downtown Athens or that this garden is at the former home of the explorer Heinrich Schliemann. This “Garden of the Muses” is part of what was the Schliemann estate, located just a few blocks from Syntagma ... Read Full Article

Canal of Corinth, Agamemnon’s Tomb and Epidaurus

Published/Revised June 11, 2014 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

I hadn't expected to visit the Canal of Corinth, Agamemnon’s tomb and Epidaurus  on this trip, but Athens was a nightmare. I had arrived in the middle of violent demonstrations against the government’s austerity measures. Roads were closed off which made getting from A to B extremely difficult, even on foot, unless you wanted to risk life and limb. The Acropolis was shrouded in scaffolding and ... Read Full Article

Hand-Picking Olives in Greece

Published/Revised June 11, 2014 By This post may contain promotional and affiliate links. EuropeUpClose may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Please read our disclosure for more info.

On a sunny October day in the southwest Peloponnese, about 3 hours outside Athens, countless electric green olives were weighing down branches, signaling that it was time for an annual ritual: hand-picking olives in Greece. I was joining the workers for my first time olive-picking experience. I rolled up my sleeves and waited for instructions to participate in this tradition. In Costa Navarino ... Read Full Article