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Before you purchase jewelry in Athens make sure to check Aphrodite Jewelry in Monastiraki. These folks have been around for over 25 years and they have unique designs and excellent quality and prices. They are a personal favorite of mine and their guest book reads like a who is who of the Athens diplomatic corp.

The owner is extending a 30% discount when you mention that you saw this listing on the Hellas.net web site, so take advantage of it.

Aphrodite Gold & Silver Jewelry
13 Ifestou St.
Monastiraki
Athens 105 55
Tel: (210) 321-9900

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Parga is a picturesque small town on the north-western coast of Greece, situated in a sheltered bay with its houses climbing the mountainside from seaside to the top. It has a castle, one large beach on the other side of the mountain called Valtos Beach, two smaller beaches in town (one is pictured above), an island across the bay with a chapel on, a pier for the tourboats and fishingboats in the middle of town and another beach a couple of kilometers south of town in the next village called Lichnos beach.

Parga is surrounded by mountains covered with olive groves. The olive groves are actually more like olive forests than groves with very large trees. Apart from Parga, and some smaller villages nearby, this area is mountaneous and very sparsely populated.

Parga is a positive surprise. It is advertised as a small town on the mainland with an island-feeling to it and that's exactly what it is. It retains the genuine aura of a small Greek town. At the restaurants you get genuine greek food, not the tourist version, and the locals are just very nice and friendly. There are as many greek tourists as people from elsewhere in the world. Wintertime Parga has about 2.500 inhabitants and many more during tourist-season.

With the nice town, the harbour and its restaurants, the nearby beaches and the great food, Parga is worth a visit. It is a quiet and relaxing place, not for those who prefer a lot of activity or patying but for those who want to relax and take it easy. You can take short day trips to some of the nearby islands like Paxos and Antipaxos and also to neareby towns like Preveza, Ioannina, Lefkada, etc. The big island of Corfu is also not all that far away.
Adapted from Nini's World

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Athens - July 28, 2005 - ATHENS – Fire swept through Athens' eastern suburbs on Thursday, injuring at least six people, burning down dozens of homes and factories and temporarily threatening the prime minister's seaside home.
More than 350 firefighters and soldiers, 80 fire trucks, eight airplanes and six helicopters have been fighting the blaze, but have so far been unable to contain it.

The blaze, that fire officials and locals blamed on arsonists, destroyed hundreds of acres of pine forest and forced many residents of nearby coastal areas to flee.

Some residents carrying their babies and pets sought refuge in remote monasteries and churches.

"This is arson. They are destroying everything I built my whole life," a resident of Rafina told reporters in tears. "I now see my house burning down."

A second fire started nearby less than three hours later.

"It certainly seems to be arson," a fire brigade spokesman told Reuters.

At least six people, including two firefighters, were injured as they tried to contain the blaze that started early on Thursday near the suburb of Rafina and quickly gathered speed, fanned by strong winds and sizzling summer temperatures.

Authorities in eastern Athens evacuated houses, summer camps, psychiatric asylums and orphanages as the blaze spread.

They urged Athenians who own houses in the area to stay away.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose private residence is in Rafina, met fire officials and inspected operations in the area. The area where his home is had been in path of the fire until the winds changed.

DESPERATE

Hundreds of residents armed with water hoses and buckets tried desperately to save their homes as 45-foot-high flames raced toward them.

Deputy fire brigade chief Andreas Kois said hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene but the strong winds hampered their operations.

"Everything is working against us. The wind is very strong and the fire is spreading too fast for us to fight it," Kois told reporters.

The winds were expected to last until late in the afternoon, the state weather center said.

"I've seen several houses already burnt and we don't have any water or electricity," Rafina resident Aris Pertsinidis told Reuters over the telephone from his house.

The wealthy area, about 19 miles east of the city center, is scattered with small, green suburbs and thousands of holiday homes.

Athens International airport, which lies some 10 kilometers away, shut its western runway and redirected all flights to its eastern runway.
Source: REUTERS

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Athens - July 26, 2005 A one-day general strike called by unions opposed to the conservative government’s reforms disrupted businesses, public services and transport.
The General Confederation of Workers (GSEE), Greece’s largest union with 600,000 members, said the strike was having an especially strong impact in certain sectors such as mining, shipbuilding, refineries and public transportation, according to a GSEE representative, Stathis Anestis.
The Greek national air carrier Olympic Airlines cancelled 50 flights including 15 to foreign destinations.
At the ports, commercial traffic and the unloading of ships was blocked due to striking dock workers, Anestis said.
In the Greek capital, public transport on buses, trams and subway trains was paralysed by the strike as well as suburban trains heading to the Piraeus and the airport.
Public banks were closed, while businesses such as phone companies, utilities, and the post office were operating with fewer employees, according to Anestis.
No daily newspaper was published yesterday and no newscast was aired on radio and television.
Public services were also affected by a four-hour walkout called by the 200,000-strong Union of Civil Servants (ADEDY).
The unions held a mass demonstration in the afternoon in front of the Greek parliament, which is debating Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s proposed reforms that the unions claim would make the workday longer and weaken the labour organisations.
An ongoing government drive to reform the labour market and increase productivity has put unions on edge, sparking strikes in several sectors of the Greek economy in recent months
Source: AFP

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The hill of Likavitos, one of the best places in Athens to watch the sunset.