A Greek village in Hungary: a story of the communist refugees

It’s funny how a simple request to visit friends can lead to another Hellenic Travels adventure. With winter in London seemingly at an end, I was invited to Budapest to visit a few of my Australian friends who had moved there.

As I always do before a simple visit to a foreign country I typed in the words ‘Greek’ and the destination country with the hope of locating a restaurant serving souvlakia and ouzo. The results that Google search returned astounded me. I found an article published in 1993 in the US about a Greek village in Hungary. The Greek village was located 60 km south of Budapest and before I knew it I had convinced my friends to take me to the mysterious Greek village of Hungary!

Restoration: Tunisia with a touch of Hellenism

Restoration: Tunisia with a touch of Hellenism

Restoration. A word that stood out for me on my recent trip to Tunisia – a word which succinctly captures what the Greek community are aspiring to and what I in turn having been seeking for 10 years.

Tunisia is picturesque Mediterranean country. Pristine beaches to the north, the Sahara in the south, the Arab culture of the East and a touch of influence from the West (via the French colonial years). It has been a melting pot of history’s great cultures: Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Berbers, Arabs and Ottomans.

What most people won’t know is the long history of Greek speakers in Tunisia. Indeed, across North Africa, the presence of Greeks can be traced back to the merchants and traders who set up towns in Egypt in Antiquity through to the Byzantine occupation of the region from 535 AD – the last Byzantine territory to fall was Ceuta (Spanish enclave in Morocco) in 711 AD!! In fact, for the uninitiated, Greek cities could be found in Libya, notably Cyrenaica, Egypt under Alexander and the Ptolomies and a number of Byzantine cities developed in the 6th Century AD, as far a field as Algeria.

Macedonia: What’s in a Name?

It’s been a long time since I last wrote an article on Macedonia. Like most of the Greeks abroad, we carry Macedonia in our hearts, and back in my student days I campaigned on the issue. It was a constant feature of the Greek magazine we produced. However, I drifted from the campaign. It wasn’t until a recent visit to Thessaloniki from London in 2008 that the historian in me awoke from its slumber – like a great bear after a long sleep.

Should I be writing on Macedonia? It’s an emotive issue and I would merely be another Greek providing his thoughts on the matter. BUT I’m also a historian…

The Greeks of Odessa and Ukrainian cuisine

It had been an unusually cold period for that time of the year in the Ukraine. We were waiting anxiously, freezing, near the village’s only shop. It was a rather overcast day. I had already asked people if they spoke Greek, surprisingly the responses I received were: ‘Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian, English.’ Then I heard a group of middle aged and older women speaking Greek. I rushed over to them to chat – but this was no facebook chat window. They were initially hesitant and frightened by an outsider, who seemed to be able to speak their language. As I did so the sun finally came out …… now lets backtrack for a minute. How did I get to this small village near the Black Sea?

A sign of the Greek times: Byzantine Malta

To some of my regular readers, it comes as no surprise that in April I made the move from Sydney to London ostensibly to work. On my list of places to visit was Malta, a little island nation in the Mediterranean with a population of 400 000.

Croatian Customs officials and the Greek church of Zadar

I moved to London in April 2008 in order to be closer to real frappe and to visit Greek towns and sites that fall outside of Greece proper. I was in dire need of a break from the dismal London weather and from constant weekend trips across Europe, so I booked in a 2 day retreat to a place called Zadar, Croatia.

True to form as I arrived at Zadar, 2 things occurred which are standard aspects of my European trips.

An ancient Greek theatre in Barcelona: Greek towns in Spain and France

A few years ago I made it to Barcelona. During the course of site seeing I came across the ruins of “Teatre Grec” (Greek theatre). To say I was astonished would be an understatement. To say that I am Greek “blind” is also an understatement – a rare condition that disrupts a person’s vision so that they only see Greek things.

TREBIZOND — The Last Greek Empire

Before I start this article, let me invite you the reader to help me. From my castle in Sydney it is a struggle to obtain information on Trebizond so I have made an executive decision – to make this article interactive. Should you have any information on Trebizond I am happy to go back to what I have written and change it. So let’s make this an interactive article, written by moi and any of the readers out there. 

MILATAI ELLINIKA: The Greeks of Bulgaria

The visit to Sofia

Milatai Ellinika!! (Great, you speak Greek!!)

Prosexai, ti theli o xenos?? (Be careful, what does that stranger want??)

I had just walked past a Couple who were speaking Greek. I couldn’t resist the temptation. I had to ask if they were Greeks from Bulgaria. After startling the woman (I’m sure she was the dialing the number for the local Police as I approached her) the man told me as abruptly as he possibly could that they were from Athens and not from BULGARIA!!

Hellenic Travels to…Japan

The following is an article written by Billy Cotsis which was published in the O Kosmos newspaper in 2003. I was working in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan at the time and wondered what would happen if you pitted a proud Hellene ready to talk about his country’s history for hours on end (without a single break) against an unsuspecting Japanese citizenry.