🇬🇷 WHAT’S NEW IN GREECE

🏀 Greece earns its first Eurobasket medal in 16 years - BRAVO ELLADA!! 👏 👏 🇬🇷 🇬🇷 Great things come to those who wait! (and wait…. and wait…)

Georgios Kougioumtsidis makes history! Greece’s first-ever wrestling world gold medal! BRAVO ELLADA!!! 👏 👏 🇬🇷 🇬🇷🔥🔥 

More news from Greece

🏅 Karalis wins silver medal in pole vault at World Athletics Championships. BRAVOOOO 👏 👏 🇬🇷 🇬🇷 

♟️ Checkmate, world: Greece has a chess god now. Nikolas Theodorou becomes first Greek to defeat a reigning World Chess Champion in 138 years.

🫒 "Olive Oil Crete" gets Protected Geographical Indication status - finally, legal protection for what we already knew was superior (crossing fingers this too will come in a vending machine).

⛽ Chevron and Helleniq Energy bid for Greece gas exploration and suddenly the energy sector gets interesting.

🔌 Apparently our power grid diplomacy is more advanced than our regular diplomacy as Greece's IPTO joins Global Grid Alliance GO15.

🤖 Ancient Olympia hosts humanoid robots: The birthplace of athletic competition meets the future of athletic obsolescence.

🎓 Fulbright Scholarship prep sessions for Greek citizens begin. America still wants Greece’s brightest minds.

🥾 Arvanitia Trail in Nafplio begins revitalization - historic volta with better infrastructure.

🌎️ WHAT’S NEW OUTSIDE OF GREECE

🎓 Greek professor Panagiota Klentrou awarded lifetime distinction by Brock University in Canada - another Greek brain officially too valuable to lose.

More news from outside of Greece

🏛️ Women of Asia Minor honored in Melbourne - preserving memories that Turkey would prefer forgotten.

🏛️ Plans for Greek cultural precinct in Melbourne enter key phase - Australia continues building Little Greece better than actual Greece.

🌳 Greek Diaspora joins forces to heal Greece's forests through Federation partnership with THI - nothing says “networking" better than a federation of federations.

🎬 'Greek Diaspora Whisper' Cotsis releases new film about Greeks of South America - because we did more than diners and restaurants.

Have a memory worth sharing (or exaggerating)?

Drop it here 👉️ [email protected] and

💎 CULTURAL GEMS

🏰 Palamidi Fortress: Steps, Sweat and Stories at Nafplio’s Crown

Nafplio invites you to stroll in linen, but Palamidi Fortress adds a twist. This massive Venetian structure shows that beauty can come with effort. Some say it’s 857 steps to the top, while others say 999 (Greeks enjoy rounding up for a good story). Either way, by the halfway point, you’ll be bargaining with God, Zeus, and/or your step counter. But by the time you reach the peak, with the Argolic Gulf sparkling below, you’ll see why people climb for sunsets.

Here’s the twist: Palamidi is more than just a fortress. It’s where Greek revolutionaries staged bold takeovers in the 1820s, and where Kolokotronis walked as a prisoner. One bastion is named after Saint Andrew, who was captured on that day — a quirky coincidence. Look closely, and you'll see the fortress isn’t just one building. It’s eight separate bastions stitched together like a military quilt. You climb for the views, but you’re really scaling centuries of stories, where myth, sweat, and inflated step counts meet.

📆 BEST OF GREEK CALENDAR

October 3, 2025, This That Keeps On’ – a Personal Archaeology – by Dimitris Papaioannou, Athens

🏃 October 4-6, 2025, Tsagarada Escape Festival, Pelion

🏃‍♂️ October 10-12, 2025, Santorini Experience Sports event, Santorini

🧠 December 7, 2025, REBRAIN GREECE, New York

🧳 TRAVEL NEWS

🏖️ Nafplio: Greece’s prettiest former capital

Nafplio is the kind of place that makes even seasoned travelers pause mid-step. Between its Venetian fortresses, neoclassical mansions, and the kind of seaside light painters spend their careers chasing, the town wears its history and charm with quiet confidence. Add a seafront promenade that insists you slow-walk like you’re in a rom-com, and Nafplio is a strong contender for Greece’s most charming town. It also holds bragging rights as Greece’s first capital (before Athens muscled in), which gives the cobblestones a subtle air of “I was here first.”

At the heart of Nafplio’s charisma are its fortresses: the Palamidi, reached by 999 steps (or 857, but either way it’s cardio), and the Bourtzi, a fortress perched on a tiny islet in the bay like a chess piece daring you to play. Add in the Arvanitia Trail — perfect for sunset strolls or walking off too many gyros — or the deep blue nearby beaches, and you’ve got a destination that balances romance, history, sunbathing and workouts. And if you somehow get bored (unlikely) of bougainvillea and gelato, remember that both Mycenae and Epidaurus — the heavyweights of ancient Greece — are just down the road, waiting to casually drop 3,000 years of history into your weekend plans.

Whether you’re sipping wine in Syntagma Square, getting lost in the alleyways of the old town, or pretending you totally planned the boat ride to Bourtzi, Nafplio is the kind of place that turns even the most cynical traveler into a wide-eyed history buff. Just don’t brag too loudly about discovering it — Greeks have been weekend-getaway-ing here for decades.

🔍 Hidden Local Gems

🏛️ National Gallery Nafplio Annex - rotating exhibitions in a neoclassical mansion most tourists walk past.

🌙 Akronafplia Walls at Night: Skip the daytime crowd and climb the Akronafplia walls after sunset. The view of the bay lit up at night is cinematic — and you won’t be jostling for Instagram angles.

📿 Komboloi Museum - A tiny, quirky museum dedicated to Greek worry beads. Part history lesson, part tactile therapy — you’ll leave tempted to start your own collection and suddenly understand every papou on a deeper level.

🍯 Antica Gelateria di Roma - Italian gelato shop that somehow makes better gelato than most places in Italy.

🍷 Oinomelos Wine Bar - tiny space with exceptional Greek wines and owners who actually know their inventory.

✨ TRENDING GREEK SOCIAL MEDIA

🧑‍🍳 RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Karydopita Nafpliou

Nafplio's version of Greece's beloved walnut cake comes with a secret: locals add a touch of local honey and a splash of Nemea wine to the syrup, creating layers of flavor that reflect the region's agricultural wealth. Unlike the heavy, overly sweet versions found in tourist areas, Nafplio's karydopita strikes the perfect balance between nuts, spice, and syrup. Warning: one slice leads to requests for the recipe, which locals guard almost as carefully as their opinions about Athens.

💡 INSPIRATION

😎 GREEK FYI

🇬🇷 Nafplio once had a Venetian lion statue guarding its harbor — but it was stolen by the Venetians themselves in the 17th century and shipped off to Venice, where it still sits today.

😂 MYTHIC MEMES

That’s it for now - wrestling gold, basketball bronze, chess breakthroughs, and protected olive oil. Until next time — keep the diaspora strong, the humor sharp, and the coffee double.🧿 Stay Greek. [email protected]

🛑 Disclaimer

This newsletter contains humor, satire, and commentary meant to entertain, inform, and occasionally make you spit out your Greek coffee. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily representative of all Greeks, Greeks of the diaspora, or that one relative who always has an opinion at family gatherings. We strive for accuracy, but you should verify anything important — especially if you're about to start a heated WhatsApp thread over it. Any memes, quotes, or third-party content belong to their respective owners and are used under fair use. Unsubscribe anytime (but we’ll miss you)