Fiction: On a balcony in Athens, 1998

I step out onto the balcony. The balcony floor is decorated in a flat mosaic pattern, dull pinks and blues and greens. The railing is cream where it hasn’t rusted. Where it has it is brittle brown-red. It falls away when I hold onto it. But it is sturdy enough and I lean over it. [...]

Fiction: The apartment in Athens, August 1998

The apartment on R. Street was a dump. No one had lived in it for years and I’d been offered its keys from a friend of a friend of a friend.
The first thing I remember seeing when I opened the door for the very first time was a pair of shoes. A pair of men’s [...]

Fact: Greek threat?

Teamtalk.com reports that Norwegian footballers are wary of the Greeks prior to to Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifying match.

Fact: Karamanlis equals Greek corruption

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis is the subject of a Time article.
Anthee Carassava writes:
Is corruption intractable in Greece? Two-and-a-half years ago, Greece’s center-right New Democracy party rose to power, ousting long-serving socialists on a single policy pledge: to clean up the country’s crooked public sector and root out rousfeti, a system of patronage that permeates [...]

Fact: Greece to build mosque in Athens

The International Herald Tribune reports that Greece will spend around 15 million euros to build a mosque in the city of Athens. It will be the first mosque to offer services since the end of Ottoman rule over 170 years ago.
The IHT reports:
Greece also has a 120,000-strong Muslim minority in the northeastern Thrace region, many [...]