- 🌀The Greek Talk
- Posts
- 🌀Greece beats China + France for cultural heritage crown (and coffee crisis)
🌀Greece beats China + France for cultural heritage crown (and coffee crisis)
In partnership with
Hi Greek Talkers!
This week Greece claimed the global cultural heritage crown, beating France, Italy, Spain, and China in the process. Meanwhile, Greek coffee prices hit 45-year highs, proving that even the Greek national addiction isn't immune to inflation. Plus, tourism breaks records, ancient artifacts find their way home, and Australia continues perfecting Greek festivals.
Let’s dive in. ☕🤿🇬🇷
Are you taking advantage of your Amazon Prime perks? Whether you’re already a Prime member or considering signing up, here are 9 Prime member benefits you should be using!
For many of us, free shipping and access to exclusive shows and movies is enough reason to fork over the $14.99 per month to get Prime. But if that hasn't been enough to entice you to join Prime, maybe some lesser-known incentives like free music/podcasts, access to lightning deals, and Whole Foods discounts will tempt you to sign up.
Make sure you're not missing out, and get the most out of your Prime membership!
🇬🇷 WHAT’S NEW IN GREECE
⚓ Divers recover artifacts from Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship - proving Greece collects shipwrecks from every century.
ekathimerini.gr
🎬 ANIMASYROS 2025 unveils animation festival program. Greek mythology gets the cartoon treatment.
awn.com
More news from Greece
🏛️ Greece beats France, Italy, Spain, and China to become 2025's most celebrated cultural heritage destination. Sometimes ancient civilizations age better than wine.
🌊 Greece has officially monetized Mediterranean charm, as tourism records its best ever January-July period.
☕ The national addiction just became a tad more expensive as Greek coffee prices hit 45-year highs.
✈️ Clear the runway for samosa-spanakopita friendships. IndiGo launches first direct India-to-Greece flights in 2026.
📊 Stability: the new Greek excitement, as Moody's keeps Greece's rating unchanged.
🎵 Eurovision submissions open for Greece's 2026 entry. Time for another ballad/sirtaki/techno fusion song about Greece/love/drama with bouzouki drop and key change.
💰 Greece's new fund targets €1 billion in tech and renewables - finally investing in the future instead of just preserving the past.
🫀 Greece breaks organ donation records: This is the scoreboard we actually care about: more donors, more lives saved.
🧠 3,000 year old figurines reminding you to exhale as the Museum of Cycladic Art launches mental health initiative for seniors.
🏛️ 86 ancient artifacts return to Greece from abroad. Someone's private collection just became significantly less impressive.
🎨 15 Greek destinations get their own cultural brands. Marketing ancient history, one logo at a time (and The Greek Talk will feature each one of them).
🦷 Aristotle University plans English dentistry program in Thessaloniki. Dentistry and bougatsa in one location.
🌎️ WHAT’S NEW OUTSIDE OF GREECE
🎪 Parramatta hosts its biggest Let's Go Greek Festival yet. Australia continues perfecting Greek culture while Greece perfects bureaucracy.
More news from outside of Greece
🥙 'Yiayia's Saloni' wins best stall at South Australia's Mosaic Festival. Grandmothers remain undefeated in competitive cooking.
🏘️ Sydney suburb tops Australia for Greek-speaking households. The diaspora has officially claimed territory.
💰 Greek generosity gets international applause, as SNF co-president Dracopoulos recognized for philanthropy in New York.
Got a burning question about Greek culture, diaspora life, or that family tradition nobody can explain?
💌 Send it to [email protected] - your question might become next week's featured Q&A.
💎 CULTURAL GEMS
🎨 The Painter Who Turned a Mediterranean Breeze Into a Leading Man
alekosfassianos.gr
Alekos Fassianos, one of Greece’s most celebrated painters, didn’t just paint figures; he painted wind-tossed profiles, cyclists, card players, fishermen, lovers, flattened into reds, golds, and blues. Born in Athens but shaped by ancient stories, he forged a visual language that’s unmistakably Greek and entirely modern.
He solved something that so many have struggled with: honor tradition without getting trapped by it. Fassianos swaped a warrior’s horse for a bicycle, let mythic musicians play modern instruments, and kept the essential Greek spirit intact—bold color fields, simplified forms, playful classical nods that speak to today without pandering. It’s mythology with a metro ticket.
His work appeared on everything from album covers, public murals, to posters—making high art accessible. Greeks saw his work and recognized something familiar yet fresh: their own stories told with a modern sensibility that never apologized for being Greek or translated itself for outsiders. One can see his work at the Alekos Fassianos Museum in Athens and in major collections like the Benaki Museum (Athens), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and Fondation Maeght—a global footprint that’s only grown since his 2022 passing.
📆 BEST OF GREEK CALENDAR
🎵 September 24–28, 2025, Reworks Festival 2025, Thessaloniki
📖 2025-2026 Workshop Series, Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece, Harvard University
🏞️ October 5–6, 2025, Olympus Adrenaline & Nature Festival, Pieria
🎥 October 17–19, 2025, Atlanta Greek Film Expo, Atlanta
🎥 October 30 - November 9, 2025, 66th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (IFF), Thessaloniki
🧳 TRAVEL NEWS
🚢 Syros: The Cycladic Island That Actually Runs Things
telegraph.co.uk/Nancy Pauwels/iStockphoto
Forget the Santorini sunset scramble and the Mykonos confetti cannon—Syros is the Cyclades’ adult in the room: the administrative capital with government buildings that actually open on Monday, working shipyards, and year-round residents whose jobs extend far beyond pouring freddos. That gives you a rare Greek-island combo—authentic Cycladic culture minus the performance art of mass tourism—so the charm isn’t staged, it’s lived.
Everything orbits Ermoupoli, a neoclassical port that feels like someone air-dropped 19th-century Vienna onto the Aegean: grand Town Hall, pocket-La-Scala Apollo Theater, pastel mansions born of the shipping boom, plus banks, schools, and busy bureaus that keep the city humming outside summer. Stroll Miaouli Square, drift down to the shipyards, then walk to the picturesque Vaporia neighborhood for rock-ledge swims where sea and architecture have been flirting since the 1800s—followed by loukoumi and halvadopita.
Syros also runs on two levels—literally and culturally. Harbor side, Orthodox Ermoupoli handles the business of the islands; up the hill, Catholic Ano Syros keeps its medieval, Venetian mood—bougainvillea lanes, domes, and the ghost-groove of Markos Vamvakaris (future Greek Talk cultural gem because, rebetiko), + the Vamvakaris museum. Linger into sunset at Kini or Delfini beach. Best window: September–October—warm water, open kitchens, fewer elbows, and layers of history that reveal themselves only if you stay long enough to notice.
🎭 Apollo Theater - 19th-century opera house modeled after La Scala, still hosting performances.
🏭 Syros Shipyards - working industrial facility where you can watch boats being built and repaired.
🧀 San Michalis Cheese - local cow's milk cheese aged in caves, found nowhere else in Greece.
🏖️ Galissas Beach - family-friendly bay with tavernas that serve locals, not just tourists.
🆕 OBSESSIONS
🧑🍳 RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Loukoumi of Syros
Omilo.com
Syros's signature confection represents the island's cosmopolitan heritage - Turkish technique meets Greek refinement in rose and mastic-flavored cubes that dissolve on your tongue. Local confectioneries like Charalambous have perfected this recipe for over a century, creating loukoumi with a texture and flavor profile found nowhere else in the Cyclades.
Unlike mainland versions, Syros loukoumi uses island spring water and traditional copper pots, resulting in a cleaner taste that locals swear tastes like concentrated Mediterranean sunshine. The best part? You can only get the authentic version by visiting Syros, making it the perfect edible souvenir that actually represents where you've been.
💡 INSPIRATION
History is Philosophy teaching by examples
😎 GREEK FYI
🇬🇷 Syros is the capital of the Cyclades, blending Orthodox and Catholic traditions. Its main town, Ermoupoli, was a major 19th-century trade hub.
😂 MYTHIC MEMES
@greek_problems
@greekgateway
internets.gr
@thenerdygreek
That’s it for now: global cultural dominance, record tourism, and coffee that costs more than some people's rent. At least the Britannic finally gave up some secrets after a century of keeping quiet underwater. Catch you next week for more news, drama and deep dives. 🧿 Stay Greek. [email protected]
What did you think of today's newsletter? |