Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Greek Food



Monday, November 06, 2006

Europe starts at Greece

Its more than two months now and we have started enjoying Greece. We are passing through Attiki Metro station and seen this Caption in one of the pictures in a Shop “Europe starts at Greece”.

How can I validate this one? Here go some of my explanations.

1) Location - Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa. South is Africa, East being Asia and North West is Europe. So location wise it’s the gateway to Europe.
2) Weather – Whether is not like typical European, but in winter it snows in some places and but in summer it is hot, almost like Asia, perhaps not like Africa.
Sometime it rains heavily and remembers me Indian Monsoon. So we can say its not truly European, but the typical Eu weather starts here.

3) Cuisine - Typical combination of Continental and Asian Cuisine. We have tested Souvaliki. Souvlaki is a popular Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. Gyros is similar to souvlaki pita. The souvlaki is replaced by gyros (kebab usually made of pork- But we have taken Chiken). Some Greek foods are specie though some foods are quite slimier to European Burgers.
4) Immigrants – The immigrant pool is quite big here as it is close to Asia, Africa and developing east European nations. It’s considered the gateway to EU, thus getting visa is strict and my practical experience is horrible, simply nightmare. It’s mainly because Europe starts here.
5) People – look wise and behavior wise they are quite similar to typical Europeans but not quite formal, methodical like proper Europeans. Common Greek people are broad minded, not raciest and are open to different culture, but sometime they are impatient and behave harshly and talk loudly. Still I like them.
6) Civilization - Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history which lasted for around one thousand years and ended with the rise of Christianity. The first sign of civilization in Greece was on the island of Crete from around 2600 BC, and by 1600 BC, it had risen to become a larger civilization across much of Greece. So, European civilization started here thousands year back.
7) EU- The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 25(will be 27 as Romania and Bulgaria is going to join in 2007) independent, democratic member states. Greece is south most one and also detached from the major cluster. So to neighboring countries it’s the beginning of EU.