EDITORIAL

GREECE : a timeless experience

There are few unknown places left today. Secret paradises are secret no longer. Nevertheless, some lands have a charm that invites investigation. They possess a certain quality that no film can capture. An atmosphere that cannot be transmitted except by direct contact. That sets them apart, makes them unique.

Greece is such a land. With the incredible variety of its scenery and its small towns that once were powerful city-states with their own lows and culture. Whose citizens, though, all spoke the same language and had the same love of beauty. Ancient Greeks, Byzantines, modern Greeks always chose the best locations to erect their matchless monuments, their shining white temples, their mystical churches and later their scattered diminutive Cycladic houses and neoclassical mansions over the 3.100 Greek islands, binding them to the scenery, sea and sun.

Harmony and light, colour and quality. This is where democracy, theatre (drama), history, philosophy and poetry flowered. And poetry is still very much alive in the springs of Pelion and the towers of Mani, in the dark forests of Epirus and the fishermen’s huts in Serifos. In the windmills on Myconos and on the rocks of Meteora. From the grocer who carts his fruit from house to house singing his wares as he goes, in the old crone who lights the candles in church every day, in the old men who sit in the kafeneio eating "submarine" and drinking greek coffee or ouzo, in the student pationately listening to opera in Herodes Atticus theatre. Let us not forget also the Olympic Games, with their spirit of world-peace and brotherhood, first conceived and organised by the Greeks; or the Greek language which has enriched other languages with so many words and concepts.

Greece is the country for those who search their lost Ithaca, the charm of the centuries amidst the broken columns of an ancient temple, the narrow streets of Plaka, under the olive and cypress trees or the hot sand and in the purple mountains. Somewhere here are hidden away your childhood soul, the dreams of your youth and the most beautiful things ever created by human hand and the hand of nature. The beauty of Greece has no beginning or end...

Charikleia (Lila) Nifli

Assistant teacher in the Hauptschule Kautzen, Austria (January 1999-June 1999)

Lingua C – Socrates
May 1999

WHAT OUZO IS?

Ouzo is an alcoholic beverage with anise (Pimpinella Anissum, commonly aniseed) produced exclusively in Greece. It is obtained by blending alcohols that have been flavoured, by distillation or saturation, with aniseed and other aromatic seeds, fruits or aromatic plants such as fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), mastic deriving from the indigenous mastic trees of Chios (Pistacia lentiscus Chia or Latifolia), etc.

The alcohol flavoured by distillation must represent at least 20% of the alcoholic content of the ouzo. This extract must be obtained by distillation in traditional copper stills of non-continuous operation and capacity not greater than 1,000 litres and must have an alcoholic content of between 55% and 80% Vol. The ouzo must be colourless, and its sugar content must not exceed 50 gr. per litre.

Click here for a nice picture of a bottle of Ouzo + Mezes