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- 🌀Greece Ends 'Eternal Students', Para-athletics gold + Volcanic Island Gets UNESCO Nod
🌀Greece Ends 'Eternal Students', Para-athletics gold + Volcanic Island Gets UNESCO Nod
Hi Greek Talkers!
Welcome back to the global Greek family group chat where the Wi-Fi works better than our bureaucracy and everyone has opinions about ancient stones.
This week Greece wins para-athletics gold while simultaneously discovering that tourists need visual diagrams explaining "don't lift 2,500-year-old temple pieces." Meanwhile, eternal students are finally graduating whether they like it or not and Nisyros got UNESCO validation for being volcanically gorgeous.
Quick shoutout to Maria P. who loves our memes and our witty style - why thank you Maria, we are blushing!
About that reader survey we promised last week: It didn't happen so look for it Thursday this week - rather do it right than do it fast, which is also the inspiration quote of the week from Xenophon.
Let’s dive in. ☕🤿🇬🇷
🇬🇷 WHAT’S NEW IN GREECE
🏃 Greek sprinter Gavelas wins gold at World Para Athletics Championships. ALSO: Thanassis Konstantinidis earned silver in the shot put (F32), Alexandros Skourtis claimed bronze in the 400 meters (T38), Konstantinos Tzounis took bronze in the discus (F56), and Lida Manthopoulou secured bronze in the 100 meters (T38). BRAVO GREECE!!! 👏 👏 👏🇬🇷 🇬🇷 🇬🇷
Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
🏛️ National Archaeological Museum expansion approved. Finally upgrading the warehouse that houses civilization's greatest hits.
tovima.com
More news from Greece
🌋 Nisyros joins UNESCO's Global Geoparks Network. The volcanic island gets a certificate for being geologically gorgeous
⚠️ New fencing in the Naxos Temple of Apollo. Note to tourists: buy the T-shirt, leave the marble
🎓 Greece expels 'eternal students' after years of enrollment. Lifelong learning vs lifelong enrollment 1-0
🌊 Kyllini launches a new era with seaplanes - two bags, one selfie and hello coastal hop life
⚡ Meet Europe’s splashiest extension cord. Egypt-Greece advance 3,000-MW undersea power link
🤝 Dolma meet dolma: Armenia and Greece explore deeper tourism cooperation and everyone wins
🚀 Thess INTEC science & tech park in Thessaloniki aims to make Thessaloniki the city where ideas go from “maybe” to “funded already?”
🇺🇸➡️🇬🇷 New US ambassador to Greece sworn in. Diplomatic handoff complete; let the schmoozing begin
🌎️ WHAT’S NEW OUTSIDE OF GREECE
🎖️ Sydney to commemorate Greek women of WWII Resistance. Heroines who weren't waiting around to be rescued.
ekathimerini.com
More news from outside of Greece
🩺 US-trained Greek doctors get easier certification pathway home. Medical brain drain reversal gets less bureaucratic.
🎶 One person, one circle, one story—repeat. Zeibekiko Festival launches in Sydney
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
🌋 Volcanological Museum of Nisyros
Nisyros is the rare island that hands you the user manual to its own drama: a crisp little museum perched over a live caldera, where clean displays translate rumbling earth into sentences you can casually drop over dinner. Before you step into the lunar bowl of Stefanos, this is the ten-minute briefing that turns “wow, steam” into “ah, hydrothermal vents on an active maar within the Hellenic volcanic arc”—science, but with scenery.
The cheeky thrill is how human the volcano becomes once you meet its evidence: sulfur crystals like lemon sherbet (do not taste), ash layers stacked like mille-feuille, thin-section slides that reveal lava’s secret geometry. You’ll see seismograph squiggles, historical eruption notes, and a relief model that explains why some paths are paths and others are bad ideas. Walk out with vocabulary (fumarole, alteration halo), practical wisdom (stay on the boardwalk unless you collect melted soles), and a new party trick: reading rocks the way other people read wine labels.
📆 BEST OF GREEK CALENDAR
💃 October 10-12, 2025, Original Phoenix Greek Festival, Arizona
🏃 October 11-14, 2025, Nafplio Challenge 2025, Nafplio, Greece
🎵 October 14-19, 2025, GRis Festival, Berlin
🎵 October 25, 2025, 100 Years of Hadjidakis, Washington DC
🧳 TRAVEL NEWS
🌋 Lunar Landscapes, Human Pace: Nisyros for People Who Like Their Science with a Sunset
This week, Nisyros joined UNESCO's Global Geoparks Network. This recognition highlights what the island's 1,000 residents already know: living on an active volcano that last erupted in 1888 creates exceptional geology. Unlike the dramatic views of Santorini, Nisyros invites visitors into its volcanic crater (stay on the paths, though). This 260-meter-wide depression named Stefanos lets you walk across sulfurous terrain while steam rises from the ground (while the signs keep reminding you that you are entering at your own risk).
The island runs on laid-back island tempo. Life in Nisyros matches the volcano's activity: bursts of energy followed by quiet times. The main town, Mandraki, tumbles down hills in classic white-and-blue Cycladic style despite its Dodecanese place in the map. Its streets are too narrow for cars, and are designed for people moving at a slower pace. The Panagia Spiliani monastery sits in a cave with sea views, proving once again that Greeks like their monasteries dramatic.
Under the scenery sits a layered history: Knights Hospitaller, Ottoman chapters, seafaring families, and the myth that Poseidon lobbed a chunk of Kos to pin a giant—voilà, Nisyros (the representation of this myth, the creation of Nisyros, exists in the 6th eastern metope of the Parthenon and is exhibited in the Acropolis museum). The Volcanological Museum in Nikia winks at your inner nerd; Paleokastro’s basalt walls remind you that islanders engineered with what the volcano gave them.
Nisyros stands out because it doesn’t cater to tourism. The island has beaches, but they’re volcanic black with uncomfortably hot sand. It has over 40 hiking trails, but they’re steep and at times sulfurous. The main attraction is a hole in the ground that smells like rotten eggs. Yet, the mix of active geology, village life, and no resorts creates a rare Greek island feel that seems undiscovered. The UNESCO designation might change that, but for now, Nisyros remains a place where geology, history, and Greek life unfold naturally.
🏰 Paleokastro - Hellenistic fortress ruins with 360-degree island views
🧀 Pithia - local cheese aged in volcanic caves, found nowhere else
🏖️ Lies (or Lyes) Beach - black sand volcanic beach accessible only by boat
🍯 Soumada - almond-based drink specific to Nisyros, served ice-cold
🥄 Dessert with a view - in Nikia’s square, order moustalevria or a soumada and watch the caldera take its nightly bow.
🆕 OBSESSIONS
travel.gr
🧑🍳 RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Soumada, Nisyros’ Drink of Happiness
greece-is
Soumada is Greece’s chicest non-alcoholic flex: a silky almond cordial that shows up at weddings, name days, and “just popped by” visits with the elegance of a linen shirt. Think velvety almond milk meets perfumed syrup—brightened with orange blossom (or rose), then poured over clinking ice or topped with fizzy water for that island–aperitif energy without the hangover. It’s old-school hospitality in a glass: humble pantry staples, luxe flavor.
💡 INSPIRATION
Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.
😎 GREEK FYI
🇬🇷 Parts of the Nisyros crater floor are a thin crust over boiling mud and fumaroles—ground temps can exceed 60–100°C in spots.
😂 MYTHIC MEMES
@greek_problems
X @Lampatzampa
That’s it for now: athletic victories, volcanic recognition, and the end of perpetual university enrollment. Sometimes progress means enforcing rules that technically existed all along. Catch you next week for more news, drama and deep dives.
🧿 Stay Greek. [email protected]
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