Countries of the world, list of countries

Greece belongs to the European Union and shares in the European instrument of payment. You can pay in whole Greece with the Euro. That’s easy for tourists from Europe and international students, because they don’t have to calculate al the time when you want to buy something. Greece has been a cheap country but whit the introduction of the Euro it became more expensive. In the last 3 years the price of products has increased with 50%. The things that became the most expensive, compared to before the Euro are the meals in restaurants en accommodation.

When you are from an other country it might be possible that you need an visa for your stay in Greece. When you come from an other EU country, Australia, Canada, The USA, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Malta, San Marino or Israel you only need a visa when you want to stay longer then 3 months in Greece. When you come from another country you mostly need an visa when your stay is up to 2 months. Greece will refuse entry to anyone when there passport shows that they have visit north Cyprus since November 1983. The country lies beneath Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and against Turkey. Because of this Greece is still the only country belonging to the EU who doesn’t cross borders with another EU country. This might change in the future when Turkey joins the European Union.
The boundaries line is 1,210 km long in total and Greece has an coastline that is 13,676 km long. There are no places in Greece that are further then a 100 km far from the sea.

 

The Greece economy depends on tourism, shipping , food, tobacco production, textile, metal industry, mine en petroleum products. A lot of Greek inhabited live around the two biggest city’s, Athens and Thessaloniki. This is caused by the industrialization, this stopped almost entirely in the eighties. Thanks to the introduction of Greece to the European Union the salary from farmers increased. As a consequence of that it became more attractive to go back to the country and start a farm.

 

Greece has an Mediterranean sea climate with hot, dry summers and soft, wet winters. In the interior it can get very cold in the winter, there can even fall snow. In Athens they normally have 6 day of snow winters. There are even places in Greece where it is possible to ski during the winter. The Greece islands are in the summer very pleasant to stay, because of the sea breeze. In the interior the temperatures can get to 35 to 40 degrees. Greece has a lot of sun hours every year. The problem of dry summers, in combination whit must sun hours is the treat of forest fires. Every year 25,000 hectares forest are destroyed by fire. In the last 40 years Greece have had more then 20,000 earthquakes. Lucky for us, most of them are measured far in the nature where only very sensitive equipment can sense the shocks. The reason for the activity is because Greece lies in the Mediterranean meeting point of three continental plates, Arabian, African and Eurasian. Those three plates move little by little, when they get in touch with each other they wont move. They all want all the spaces they can get, so they’ll fight each other, by pushing constantly. For as long as this phenomenon exist there a many little earthquakes which a ordinary person won’t even notice. The last big earthquake that stroke Athens has been in September 1999, it left 100,000 people homeless and took the lives of 139 people. 
 

The Greek orthodox church was shaped in 1833 when 36 bishops declared themselves independent from the Ecumenist patriarchal of Constantinople and installed the Holy Synod. This church was recognised by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1850. The Greek constitution is registered in a special position of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Greek orthodox church was led by an archbishop. The archbishop of Athens and whole Greece is bishop Christodoulos. The church is split in 32 bishops and counts 2,500,000 religious people in Greece. Al lot of Greece people who life in other countries, like The Netherlands, the USA, Great Britain and Australia are still attached to the Greek Orthodox church. Even in Israel the Greek Orthodox religion is pretty big. Mostly in the Christen neighborhood in Jerusalem where Greek people live ever since thee time of Alexander the Great.
 

The population of people is about 11 million people, in a country that’s almost 4 times bigger then The Netherlands, you can imagine it is a lot less overpopulated then The Netherlands. Despite of al the changes Greece went trough the last 50 years the Greece society is still dominates by the family. In 2003 there was a research, the outcome was surprising. These day still 90% of the younger Greek put they’re family in the first place. It is also rare for Greek people to move out the parents home before they get married. When it is necessary for the education or work they can leave the house temporarily, but the shall return until they will marry. Since the last years the country population doesn’t grow to hard anymore, the grown is quiet stable. Despite of the immigration of other cultures 98% of the citizens are Greek Orthodox, 1,3% is Muslim and 0,7% has an other religion. The Greece government only recognizes the Greece Orthodox religion.
 

Greece has a lot of tradition which are still very important to the inhabited of Greece. Greeks love eating, long meals mostly joined with the whole family are important to these people. The also value party’s, weddings, music and dancing. Besides that Greece is known by the donkeys, doors, little street, alleyways, harbours, white houses, museum en ruins. The Greek value to these traditions and do like it when tourists adapt to these traditions. You don’t have to adapt to every tradition, but the Greek really appreciated it when tourist join them in there uses. It is not entirely necessary to dress tidy, as long as you are polite and friendly. If you are willing to visit a church or cloister it is usual to wear a long skirt or long trousers and the Greek appreciated it if you wear a shirt that covers your shoulders. This is also preferred in restaurants.

 

It is recommended to get a reliable health insurance before you leave for Greece. The national insurance IKA has a lower coverage then the Dutch health care insurance. Besides the health care in Greece is qualitative and the possibilities to choose an health care center less then it is in the Netherlands. An extra insurance to make it complete can make the possibilities in choosing an health care center bigger, because it can coffer the costs. By that you can choose the qualitative best health center. This is recommended because of the big differences in the health care between the Netherlands and Greece.

When you where born and vaccinated in the Netherlands you do not need any extra vaccination before you leave for Greece. Every vaccination that is recommended by the WHO is given to Dutch children. Medical facilities in Greece are adequate. In Greece they have private clinics and Public clinics. Most of the private clinics are quite good, just like the public clinics in Athens and Thessaloniki. Some clinics are connected to American clinics. It also happens that the doctors had their studies in the USA. It also happens that the doctors are educated in other countries, but the most who will go to another country for their lectures will go to the USA. Although the doctor went to other countries for their education in most clinics English is not as well spoken as expected. When visitors or tourists has to be treated in a public clinic they are often transported to Athens or Thessaloniki. In the provinces and islands they can not quiet communicated with these people as they can do in the bigger city’s. Other may choose to be transported to an private clinic in Athens. Americans often choose for this option and will be transported by an ambulance belonging to the private hospital. The cost for this ambulance, al well as the stay in the clinic has to be paid by the patient. Although the law is getting more strict on this issue since Greece joined the EU, it still is not uncommon for doctors and patients to smoke on the ward.

According to the Greek government al the 12 hospitals that been pointed as Olympic Hospitals will be required to have a staff that speaks English. The government has big plans about upgrading the hospitals. They want to develop mobile medical units, buy new equipment and improve trauma and emergency response capacities.
 

The Greece table manners are very different from ours. Although the Greece dress tidy and are looking really good, especially when they are going out for dinner, they have, what we find, very strange and rude habits. Greek are used of smoking during the dinner, and not only between the different meals, but also during the meals. It is an old tradition and Greek really love to eat outside the house, they really love to go out for dinner. Unfortunately the restaurants got a lot more expensive whit the coming of the Euro. The traditional public eating house in Greece is an Tavern. They have also restaurants in Greece, these are called Estiatorio. There is no big difference between the meals in a tavern and an Estiatorio, only the prices, in an Estiatorio the prices are higher. The traditional order in an ouzeri is a plate of mezedes and an quarter litre of ouzo. In the home meat takes a small but important place in the family’ diet. In poorer times it was likely to cook with older and bruised vegetables, these where less expensive. The home cooking remains mostly vegetarian. The most common meats you will see in an Greek kitchen are lamb and pork. Chicken is a sort of meat that is not eaten very often. It comes at the last places of meat that is eaten in Greece, especially in taverns it comes at a last places, chickens are only used for eggs.

Ouzo may be Greece most famous drink, there are a lot of different option in Greece. Greece has his own vineyards since the bronze age. When Greece got independent in 1829 farmers had their own small vineyards and used them only for their own consumption. It was until 1907 that there became a new way of thinking about wine. Soon after this the farmers started to produce wine for commercial reasons. Over the last 30 years the industry has transformed, making Greece an exciting source of modern wines.

The tap water in most parts of Greece is drinkable. It meets the European sanitary standards and won’t kill you. You won’t even get sick of it, in most city’s it even tasted quiet good. But in the smaller villages and on the most islands most tap water tasted like harbour water. Luckily every region has an high variety of underground springs. Thanks to that the regions has their own sorts of bottled water on the market.
 
Feta is the national cheese of Greece, it is made out of sheep’s milk, but it may contain up to 30% goat’s milk. The most feta comes from the mountains in Greece. The sheep’s has to walk far to find enough grass to eat. This has two positives sides. Because the sheep’s are walking long roads they won’t get fat. This makes the milk low fat, and this has an impact on the tasted of the cheese that is made out of the milk. Another positive side is that because of the great distance the sheep’s have to walk, they have a greater variety of plants, what gives an characteristic tasted to the cheese. At this moment 75% of the feta is produced outside of Greece, but this will be changed. In 2002 the European Union has decided that by 2007 all the feta in the world has to be produced in Greece.

Greeks have a different eating patron then we Dutch people have. Most Greek think of breakfast as a cigarette with an cup of coffee. The midday meal is a big an and does not start until 2pm. There will be mezedes, olives, octopus drizzled with oil and vinegar, stuffed vine leaves, dips, spreads and innumerable other culinary bits. There is no succession of courses, food is been brought to the table as soon as it is ready.  In the evening around 10pm this ritual is repeated. The meals are just a little but reduced in the calories.