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GREECE!
Practical Information
- Electric Current
The standard in Greece is 220V
AC (50Hz).
Appliances from North America
require a transformer
and British ones an adaptor.
We recommend that you pack one together with
your electrical appliance, so that you do
not have to spend valuable time looking for
adaptors and transformers during your stay.
- Time
Greek time is two hours ahead
of Greenwich
Mean Time, an hour ahead of
Central European
Time and seven hours ahead
of Eastern Standard
Time. Along with the rest of
continental
Europe, the clock is advanced
one hour during
summer -from the end of March
to the end
of September- almost a month
earlier than
the UK, the US and Canada.
Therefore keep
in mind that the time difference
with these
countries is one hour greater
for some weeks
in April and October.
If you want to find out what is the exact
time call 141 (recorded message in Greek).
- Public Holidays
New Year's Day: January 1st
Epiphany: January 6th. The seas around Piraeus are
blessed. A Cross is thrown into the sea and
young men dive to retrieve it.
Ash Monday: 41 days before Easter. Lent begins. On Ash
Monday, Greeks fly kites, eat lenten food
and celebrate the koulouma.
Independence Day and the Feast of the Annunciation: March 25th , Military parade.
Easter: Good Friday-Easter Monday. Vesper evening
is on Good Friday and every church decorates
an Epitaphios (bier). The Epitaphios processions, followed by
people holding lit candles and chanting hymns,
fill the streets of every city, town and
village in the country.
Anastasi (Resurrection): celebrated with fire-works and lit candles
at midnight, on the eve of Easter Day. Pascha (Easter): on that Day Greeks traditionally eat lamb,
spit-roasted on charcoal. The festivities
include singing and dancing through the day.
Labour Day: May 1st . Many Flower Festivals take place
all over Greece.
Whit Monday: 50 days after Easter.
Dormition (Assumption) of The Virgin: August 15th .
October 28th: rejection of the Italian ultimatum in 1940.
Military parade.
Christmas: December 25th -26th.
- Postal Service
Signs denoting post offices
are usually bright
yellow, as are post-boxes.
If you need to send a letter there are stamp
vending machines and post-boxes outside all
central post offices. Parcels sent abroad
must be inspected, so do not wrap and seal
them beforehand. Brown paper, soft padded
envelopes and cardboard boxes can be bought
at the post offices themselves.
- What to Wear
You are expected to dress in
a respectable
manner when visiting churches
and monasteries:
long trousers for men, sleeved
dresses and
no miniskirts for women.
- Instructions for Safe Driving
While travelling on the National
Highway,
if you spot a dead or wounded animal please contact emergency telephone 171 (Panafon network subscribers should dial
9-171). If you are in regions out of Athens
please call any of the following numbers:
(010) 3235 307, (010) 3235 455, (010) 3235
465, (010) 3235 496, (010) 3235 513,
(010) 3236 610, (010) 3236 608, (010) 3237
356.
Thank you for your sensitivity to keep the
roads safe. Have a pleasant trip.
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