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- 🌀Greek Women Win Gold, Diaspora Flexes Hard, and the Moonlit Ruins Are Free
🌀Greek Women Win Gold, Diaspora Flexes Hard, and the Moonlit Ruins Are Free
The Greek Talk: Making your week 97% more Greek, scientifically speaking. 🔬🇬🇷
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Hi Greek Talkers!
First off—shoutout to Eleni M., who wrote in to say she couldn’t get enough of our newsletter, and Despina D. who loves our wit and sarcasm (Sarcasm? Us? Naaah). Despina and Eleni, we love you. Your check is in the mail (it’s not, but we’re emotionally invested).
This week, we’re swimming in national pride—literally. Greece just conquered the water polo world, our stock exchange may graduate to “developed” status (!!!), and the full moon is unlocking free access to ancient ruins because… we’re still a romantic culture. Also: Ritsos gets a museum, Melbourne launches Greek youth programming, and we we made you a playlist of songs that mention “kalokairi” because no Greek summer is complete without at least twenty songs screaming “kalokairi” at you. We bet you could tan just listening to it.
Let’s dive in. ☕🤿🇬🇷
**Got a story, photo, or memory we should share? Send it our way — we’d love to hear from you: [email protected]
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🇬🇷 WHAT’S NEW IN GREECE
🥇 World champs! Greek women dominate Hungary in water polo—national pride at dangerous levels! CONGRATS GREECE!! 🇬🇷 🇬🇷 👏 👏
🥉 Men’s bronze adds to women’s gold in water polo: Greece basically owns the pool now. CONGRATS GREECE!! 🇬🇷 🇬🇷 👏 👏
More news from Greece
💸 Q1 report: Greeks outspent their earnings, because financial planning is for November.
🧠 Greek companies court expats across Europe, basically trying to bring Greeks home with job offers and zero mention of tax offices. Bold.
📈 Athens stock exchange might go ‘developed’ in 2026—cue smug LinkedIn posts (seriously though ftou ftou).
💧Greece unveils national water plan to fight drought since mythological fountains aren't cutting it anymore.
🌕️ Full moon, free ruins—Greece unlocks ancient sites for one magical night (and zero euros).
🎥 Lanthimos brings his alien comedy to Venice—awkward is now a genre, and he’s its king.
🏛️Poet Yannis Ritsos’ home opens as a museum—bring tissues, books, and your most rebellious stare. More on Ritsos below.
🪨 Ancient marble fragment returns to Greece from Chile, while the British Museum suddenly avoids eye contact 👀 .
🌎️ WHAT’S NEW OUTSIDE OF GREECE
🌎️ Diaspora Greeks turn crisis into momentum—because if anyone can fix it from abroad, it’s someone with 3 WhatsApp groups and a spreadsheet (and a newsletter like The Greek Talk 🧿).
🏛️Greek exhibits in Boston go immersive, so yes, you can touch the past (politely, please).
Gods and Goddesses’ Gallery for Greek and Roman art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston], ekathimerini
More news from outside of Greece
🇨🇾 Cypriot Australians honor 51 years since invasion—memory, mourning, and resilience echo down under.
🇦🇺 Australia invests in Greek youth identity, because heritage is more than just yelling opa at weddings.
🎨 Greek-Australian artist turns lockdown into art—therapy is expensive and paint is cheaper.
💎 CULTURAL GEMS
yannisritsos.gr
Yannis Ritsos – The poet with a typewriter and a target on his back
Yannis Ritsos isn’t just a poet—he’s a Greek institution with over 100 books to his name and more banned works than your uncle has lottery tickets. Born in 1909 in Monemvasia, he lived through wars, dictatorships, and exile—yet still managed to write like someone who believed that beauty, memory, and political defiance could coexist on the same page. His most iconic works—Epitaphios, Romiosini, and the mythological monologues of The Fourth Dimension—elevated the suffering and stubbornness of everyday Greeks into something operatic. His words were set to music by Mikis Theodorakis and sung in protests, funerals, and kitchens. In Romiosini, especially, the language is simple, the imagery tactile, and the message clear: Greece lives in its people—not in monuments or politics, but in the daily courage of surviving and loving despite it all.
Ritsos wrote most of his poems in exile or under surveillance, scribbling verses on cigarette boxes, scraps of paper, even soap wrappers. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize multiple times—but was too politically controversial to win it. And despite being known for his tragic, serious tone, the man had a wicked sense of humor and once told a journalist: “They exiled me to islands, but I came back with whole archipelagos of poems.” 🌊
📆 BEST OF GREEK CALENDAR
🎤 2 August 20205, Elena Paparizou, Chios
💃 9-23 August 2025, Ikaria State of Mind 2025, Ikaria
🎶 2-24 August 2025, 19th Music Festival Aiginas, Aigina
🧳 TRAVEL NEWS
🏰 Monemvasia: Greece’s stone secret
Ever wanted to feel like you just stepped into a medieval Greek time machine but with a better wine list? Welcome to Monemvasia, the rock-island fortress clinging to the southeastern coast of the Peloponnese. Yannis Ritsos, Greece’s poet of resistance, was born in Monemvasia..
Hidden behind stone walls and cobbled streets, Monemvasia is not drive-thru Greece. You park your car and enter a walled world of Byzantine churches, Venetian mansions, bougainvillea-draped balconies, and old-school tavernas that still believe in serving bread by the kilo. The name literally means “single entrance,” which feels about right—you enter once and basically never want to leave.
A few must-dos in Monemvasia (besides cry over the sunset) are walking through the Upper Town, a ghost town turned poetic ruin, visiting the 12th-century Agia Sophia, perched like a crown on the rock, buying wine from local Malvasia producers and swimming below stone walls in turquoise waters and pretend you’re in the latest D&G perfume commercial.
🌊 Pori Beach – 10 minutes from the main rock, this is a wild, quiet beachy stretch.
🕯️ Cave Church of Agia Anna – A tiny stone chapel inside the Monemvasia rock, lit only by candles and mystery. Blink and you’ll miss it.
🌄 Kastania Cave – 45 minutes south, this underground dripstone labyrinth looks like nature joined an avant-garde art school
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🆕 OBSESSIONS
✨ THE GREEK TALK SUMMER PLAYLIST
🧑🍳 RECIPE OF THE WEEK
A Monemvasia version of spanakopita. Instead of baking it in a tray, the dough is fried in olive oil. Best eaten by hand, preferably standing so that the calories don’t count.
monemvasia.gr
💡 INSPIRATION
Make the best use of what’s in your power and take the rest as it happens.
😎 GREEK FYI
🇬🇷 The ancient Greeks invented the alarm clock using dripping water, levers, and small pebbles. It was designed to wake up philosophers before sunrise.
😂 MYTHIC MEMES
📌 RECS
Why don’t you:
✅ Get volcanic on Nisyros – You can literally walk inside a smoking caldera.
✅ Explore Lipsi – No party crowds, just quiet coves, local wine, and stargazing.
That’s it for now—whether you’re sweating through a heatwave in Athens or reading from a rainy corner in Melbourne, we hope this brought a little pride, laughter, and cultural clarity into your week.
If you liked what you read, forward this to your cousin who still thinks water polo is something they play at the beach with flip-flops. Catch you next week for more news, drama and deep dives. 🧿 Stay Greek. [email protected]
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