Jaunted

Greece Travel / Political Travel / Tourism / Travel News / → All Tags

Smile, You're in Greece!

It’s not exactly a time to party over in Greece—at least for the country’s residents—due to the ongoing financial problems, bailouts, and other money misery. We’re hardly experts when it comes to the economic situation in the region, but we do know they’re going to get an influx of cash sooner than later. That’s because the tourists are getting ready to arrive, as the weather gets warmer and those Greek islands become more and more appealing.

Obviously buying up some souvenir t-shirts isn’t going to save the economy, but a little extra cash from a few tourists certainly won’t hurt. That’s just one of the reasons that the country’s prime minister is asking residents to pitch in, and to show a smiling face to greet those coming to visit Greece.

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Travel Cat / Rhodes Travel / Animals / Greece Travel / → All Tags

The Adventures of Travel Cat: Rhodes, Greece

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted at: Rhodes, Greece.

This week's Travel Cat is from Instagrammer @aksakosha, who spotted this puss doing what any other cat would naturally do in the same situation: pop a squat on a perch perfectly sized just for him.

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Greece Travel / Strikes / Athens Travel / Europe Travel / Tourism / Politics Travel / Travel Politics / Travel News / Tourism Industry / → All Tags

Major Strike (Intentionally) Grinds Greece Travel to a Halt

We hate getting involved in travel politics labor issues. We say things like 'hey, if your company or your country is in financial or economic trouble, maybe you should go to work,' which seems reasonable to us. You guys respond by yelling at us for - actual quote - "undermin[ing] the intrinsic and sacramental right for unions to strike or engage in collective bargaining." That's no fun for anyone.

That said, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least suggest the possibility that the 24 hour strike currently crippling Greece—which is specifically designed in part to disrupt travel and includes that country's civil aviation authority—is probably not going to help Greece's troubled economy.

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Airline Mergers / Airline News / Airlines / Aegean Airlines / Olympic Air / → All Tags

Aegean Airlines Ready to Shack Up with Olympic Air in Greece

Financial things aren’t going that well over in Greece, and now it looks like the crisis is moving towards the airline industry. One airline isn’t exactly rolling in the euros—or drachmas—and there’s another looking to step in and gobble them up.

In this case, Aegean Airlines has the upper hand and now they are ready to make a move to combine with their rivals over at Olympic Air. This is the second time the two airlines have kind of moved towards getting warm and cozy with one another, but back in 2010 officials in Europe thought that the canoodling wasn’t good for competition. They've of different opinions now.

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Greece Travel / Greek Islands / Mykonos Travel / Island Travel / Travel Tips / Road Trips / Scootering / → All Tags

Awesome and Affordable Scootering on Mykonos

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

We've heard it before and, heck, we've even uttered it ourselves. And that's just what we did when we were in, well, Greece. After arriving on Mykonos, we saw heaps of scooters going every which way and it looked like the best way to experience the island.

Locals have the right idea to get around the island, navigating narrow laneways. A sputtering scooter turns a trip around the island for a gliko frappe or a spanakopita into a lickety-split affair. You not only get to see a lot more than just one city, but you'll escape the hordes of tourists all looking for tacky souvenirs at the same shops.

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Travel Cat / Animals / Mykonos Travel / Greece Travel / → All Tags

The Adventures of Travel Cat: Mykonos, Greece

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted in: Mykonos, Greece.

This week's Travel Cat comes from Instagrammer @bollozos, who spotted this tired orange cat atop one of the whitewashed walls that so typify the Greek island. He totally needs to send a postcard to these cats.

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Travel Cat / Animals / Greece Travel / Santorini Travel / → All Tags

The Adventures of Travel Cat: Santorini, Greece

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted in: Santorini, Greece.

This week's Travel Cat is from Jaunted reader Amanda Abrams, who tweeted this photo to us of "cats having a conversation in Santorini, Greece." It's quadruple the Travel Cat fun this week! You can follow Amanda's adventures both in and out of her home country of Canada on Twitter, as ACityMouse.

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Social Media / Volunteer Travel / Greek Travel / Twitter / Athens Travel / → All Tags

Greece is Looking for Volunteers to Tweet about Greece-y Travel

After a shaky economic year, Greece is ready to lure back leery travelers and they're looking for volunteers to help out.

The Greek National Tourism Organization has just launched TrueGreece.org, a new website created to recruit volunteer travelers willing to spread the good word about Greece through social media.

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Crimes / Greece Travel / Death / Thanatourism / Tourists / Souvenirs / → All Tags

Sound Advice: Do Not Buy Skulls as Trip Souvenirs

If it looks like a skull, feels like a skull and probably smells like a skull, do everyone a favor and don't buy it as a souvenir of your trip, okay? We wish that two young tourists to the Greek island of Mykonos had figured this out when they purchased six human skulls and tried to transport back to the US through Athens International Airport. Of course they were stopped at security when the scanners revealed the skulls in their carry-on baggage, and the two were taken into custody.

Despite the claims that the tourists believed the skulls to be fake when they purchased them from a souvenir shop on the island, MSNBC reports that the airport summoned a coroner, who confirmed that they were indeed actual human remains. The consequences: the travelers were charged with "desecrating the dead."

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Travel News / Airlines Strikes / Greece Travel / Political Travel / → All Tags

A European Country is Striking Again, and This Time It's a Doozy

Istanbul is busy; Greece not so much

First it was the volcanic ash cloud holding up European air traffic, and now it's Greece as an entire country. Early this morning, Greece awoke to a planned nationwide strike, affecting everything from air travel to ferries to the subway and government offices. Civil servants, unions and more are protesting the nation's move to raise taxes, lower bonus pay for civil servants and retirees, and raise the retirement age for women to 65. And no one's going anywhere while they do it.

If you've traveled in Europe a fair bit, you've probably weathered a transportation strike or two. It's just part of life and there's no choice but to wait it out. This Greek mess may be a larger scale version of an average European strike, but its danger is that it has the potential to reoccur. The police has clashed with protestors and the government must continue with its plans or else face the wrath of countries from whom it's been borrowing money.

We'd keep our eyes open for cheap airfare to Greece if we were you; all these troubles usually lead to cancelled trips and more open seats...if your flight can arrive, that is.

Related Stories:
· Greece Hit by Anti-Austerity General Strike [Sydney Morning Herald]
· Political Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: FlightRadar24]

Drunk Travel / Alcohol / → All Tags

Good Luck With That: U.K., Greece Aim to Curb Booze Tourism

When it comes to getting 'housed on holiday, few nationalities do it better than the British, whose reputation for expatriate debauchery is legendary. Turns out, though, that such extreme inebriation has a downside, ranging from fights to sexual assaults to automobile and scooter accidents. Officials in the U.K. and Greece, a popular holiday destination for young Brits, are fed up with the embarrassing actions of a few hardcore lager louts and are doing something about it. As Reuters points out, Britain urged "Grease" on Thursday to ban bar-hopping tours in which patrons visit so many bars in an evening that even having one drink in each would put you well out of touch with your senses.

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Ancient History Travel / Elgin Marbles / Museum Travel / Historical Travel / History / History Travel / → All Tags

New Acropolis Museum Reopens Age-Old Debate Over Elgin Marbles

Today's a big day in the world of Greek antiquities, as the massive New Acropolis Museum in Athens opens its doors to the public for the first time. The fancy new building was designed by architect Bernard Tschumi, and incorporates classic and contemporary elements to display 4,000 artifacts, more than ten times the number of the inadequate old museum it replaces. The New York Times has a nifty article and slide show of the $200 million museum, which it calls "one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in this decade."

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