I grew up in an apartment building in Athens with my pappou and yiayia living two floors down. Naturally, most of my childhood was spent in yiayia’s kitchen, where time moved slower,…

In Greece, words are optional. Really. You can say “hello” without opening your mouth, warn someone off without touching them, and communicate your entire emotional spectrum with a single eyebrow raise. Foreigners?…

How to Start a Fight in Greece (Just Say “Turkish Coffee”) If you ever want to start a fight in Greece, forget politics or soccer or who took whose parking spot. Just…

“Vrionis, Vrionis Everywhere” In Greece, it is customary to name your children after the grandfather or grandmother. So my grandfather was Nikolaos Alexandrou (his father) Athanassiadis, and I am Nikolaos Alexandrou (my…

I’m asked that often. Well… after nearly 30 years in the U. S. of A., my New Yorker wife and I decided to move to Greece—my homeland. Armed with a few suitcases…

MAYDAY, MAYDAY My father was a shipowner of commercial vessels. One of them, NikosNasos II—named after a mix of my brother’s and my first names—was loaded with palletized cement bags in Turkey…