{"id":580,"date":"2008-08-20T10:34:10","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T07:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=580"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:41:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:41:15","slug":"northern-greece-another-part-of-romania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2008\/08\/20\/northern-greece-another-part-of-romania\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Greece, another part of\u2026 Romania!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first part of my vacation is over. Yes, Thasos island is simply F A N T A S T I C and if any of you wants some special hints and places where he \/ she can feel closer to paradise, let me know, I refreshed my memory the previous days and also discovered many new spots, especially the tremendous resort Makryammos (http:\/\/makryammos-hotel.gr\/<\/a>), which has almost anything you ever dreamed for your vacation! (Needless to say that the service, the quality of food, organization of beach and the fantastic quality of water there can not be compared with the \u2013 more expensive \u2013 \u201c5 star hotels\u201d of Mamaia, in Constanta area\u2026)
\nLast week I was writing here that my mother and my friends complain that I became Romanian. Well, seems that almost all Northern Greece has been invaded by Romanians this summer (too). In Thasos, in Halkidiki, at my place Katerini (Paralia Katerini, Platamonas, Olympiaki Akti, Leptokarya and many more) almost one third of the people you see are Romanians. Coming by endless buses, arriving by driving their own cars from all areas of the country, this year the Romanian invasion in Greece exceeded all possible records. Of course this is one more of the effects I was describing to you couple of weeks ago, regarding Romanians spending money like there is no tomorrow, but still it is really impressive. And let me tell you also another secret: Either my friends like it or not, almost all businessmen in tourism segment admit that the Romanian tourists are the ones who spend the biggest amounts this year, by far more than all the rest, except the Americans.
\nWith the borders having been opened since January 1st, 2007, sooner or later Romania and Bulgaria will come even closer to the Northern Part of Greece, which is their closest destination for quality vacation (I am sorry guys, but nothing in Black Sea can be compared with the endless choices you have in Greece, mainly because of the amazing sea). You move around the streets and you hear Romanian language everywhere, which confuses sometimes the Romanians themselves. Many people I know in Bucharest tell me that \u201cNorthern Greece has become a part of Romania\u201d, with the thousands of Romanians exploring it.<\/p>\n

Olympics update<\/h2>\n

\n

Wow. My country finally won 3 olympic medals in the Games. One silver and two bronze ones, but although all the media started talking like the athletes who won are now gods, all of them forgot the basic lesson: Two teams of people and one woman herself have achieved to be Olympic winners. But please notice that in these teams the \u201ccaptain\u201d was someone who won another medal in 2004 (and had started participating in Olympics since 1996). In the same time the lady who won the bronze medal was also second in 2004 and she spent many years in training too. So, people became happy, but no one says the most important: THE RESULTS CAME BY THE COMBINATION OF VERY HARD WORK AND MANY YEARS OF PREPARATION. All the \u201cfireworks – athletes\u201d of 2004 have disappeared or were caught using illegal substances. The ones who won again were the once who gave to all of us the example of hard work, planning and many years of devotion to the target. This applies to almost everything in life, but unfortunately it is so easy to say it and so hard to make it happen.
\nRegarding Phelps, he has my huge appreciation for the\u2026 7 golden medals he has won. Regarding the 8th one, which he is supposed to have got by winning for 0.01 second by a Serbian athlete, I will finally wait to watch the replay by the camera under water. I know, people need heroes and it was the easiest solution for all to announce him as winner in this battle too, but I prefer to be sure, because even if the Serbian athlete is not a\u2026 hero like Phelps, he still deserves the golden medal if\u00a0 he was first. (that\u2019s my opinion, sorry if my American readers will get pissed of).
\nUnfortunately in the same time I continue to get pissed off by many Greek athletes, who lose in a really bad way and they give interviews like they won the first place! And the worst of all, the journalists. The ones who are ready to praise an athlete and say words that normal people would be ashamed to use and the next day the same people are ready to say exactly the opposite words and to crucify the same athlete if something bad will come up to surface. Last question: I wonder, in all the countries the commentators of the Olympic Games are like most of the Greek ones? Who describe so bad and without any interest, that sometimes I think my grand mother (not exactly the biggest sports fan) would be more passionate in this job. Ah, Granny, you lost a career\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first part of my vacation is over. Yes, Thasos island is simply F A N T A S T I C and if any of you wants some special hints and places where he \/ she can feel closer to paradise, let me know, I refreshed my memory the previous days and also discovered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}