Balkan Beats 23

Balkan Beats

A BIMONTHLY MAGAZINE BY THE VOLUNTEERS OF THE UNITED SOCIETIES OF BALKANS

#23

FREE PRESS

Colours Colours

Editorial

s r u Colours lo o C The 23rd Edition

by Barış Yüksel

The summer is coming, and the volunteers of Balkan Hotspot are ready to cover different colours of life in our special summer edition.

Since the last edition of our magazine, most of us had the chance to have our on-arrival, and midterm training courses and the rest will have them soon as part of our volunteering journey.

Also, June was significant for us due to Pride

Week. Our volunteers visited Athens Pride and took part there with Thessaloniki Pride volunteers. Besides, we participated in Thessaloniki Pride to support/understand better the ongoing process with the pride. You can

see the article about them written by Laura in our magazine. Lastly, our volunteers Dimitris, Claudia, Filip and Egle were facilitating workshops about Diversity in Visual Arts which is a project to empower LGBTI+ community run by our organisation.

Dimitris shared his valuable ideas with us.

Since my beloved project is about to end, I

would like to mention that we have two great editors starting from this edition on. Giada from Italy and Eglė from Lithuania. The team of Balkan Hotspot is always changing, which brings new aspects and ideas to our work. We wish you will like our edition and have very eventful summer. Enjoy!

Balkan Beats, a part of Balkan Hotspot

Balkan Hotspot is the EVS (European Voluntary changes in the Balkan and Eastern European Service) project of “United Societies of Balkans”, region and under the need for the creation of a a NGO founded in Thessaloniki in 2008 by a team better social environment. of active young people.

Key areas of the organization’s activities concern The Balkans and Eastern Europe are geograph- the defense of human rights, the organization of ical regions with many cultural features which youth exchanges and training courses, which will offer a broad spectrum of actions and youth in- bring young people from Balkans and Europe tovolvement initiatives. The organization was cre- gether, the organization of local educational semated as a response to the pressure of constant inars and multimedia production.

United Societies of Balkans is a Non Governmental Organization, founded in Thessaloniki in 2008, by a team of active young people. The organization was created as a response to the pressure of constant changes in the Balkan and Eastern European region and under the need for the creation of a better social environment. Key areas of the organization’s activities concern the defense of human rights, the organization of youth exchanges and training courses, which will bring young people from Balkans and Europe together, the organization of local educational seminars and multimedia pro- duction(webradio, videos, documentaries).

Main goals of the organization • To promote the values of non formal le- aring,volunteering, active citizenship and democracy for the creation of a better future for European youth.

• To promote human rights, solidarity and respect for diversity.

• To build healthy cooperation bridges between countries of the Balkan area and that of Eastern Europe with the rest of Europe.

• To locate and multiply the special cultural attributes of our societies.

• The break down of prejudices and stereo- types between Balkan countries.

UNITED SOCIETIES OF BALKANS, NGO

Property of Balkan Beats The United Societies of Balkans, NGO, does not necessarily share the opinions expressed in Balkan Beats. It is illegal to reproduce any part of this publication without referring to the source.

www.balkanhotspot.org

This magazine is distributed free of charge.

9, Alamanas str., Agios Pavlos, Thessaloniki Tel./Fax: +30 2310 215 629 | www.usbngo.gr Cover © Dovilė Dobravolskaitė

02

Contents

Contents Volunteer Life

VOICE TO VOLUNTEERS

04

Voice to Volunteers

06

Youth Exchange – Croatia

08

USB NEWS

D.I.V.A. Project

10

NGO ACTIVITY

Action Art and the art of storytelling

13

STORY OF LUCK

Active woman

Local Life

16

FESTIVALS

Athens and Thessaloniki Pride

20

Thessaloniki loves Flea Market

22

COMICON

29

Andrόmachi Mantzanίdou

32

MUSIC

Imam Baildi

33

SPORT

Football For All

35

Mix Fix

BOOKS

TRAVEL

Do’s & Don’ts in Greece National Parks

Out Of The Borders Social and political issues

44

Art

POP ART & Keith Haring

47

Poetry

A gift from Greece to the world: Yiannis Ritsos Interesting Facts about the world

49

STRANGE CONNECTIONS - Humans Decisions

50

Comics

Raintasters & Mother Storm

37

Donald Trump, European Union and “the problem of migration”

39

Turkey and Greece

41

Travel

Wild beauty - Montenegro

43

Food

Spices

03

Volunteer Life VOICE TO VOLUNTEERS

Voice to Volunteers

Tomás Barão da Cunha

by Dimitris Ballotta

This month we interview Tomás Barão da Cunha, ex-long term volunteer at Balkan Hospot

born in Lisbon, Portugal. During his six months, he worked in a documentary called “AEGEAN”, the premiere will come out on 2019, but for now, let’s go back in time and discover what was for him EVS and what he learned. Enjoy!

2 Which were your emotions when you arrive?

I distinctly remember the day I had landed in

Greece, the feeling of that cold wind in the face when I left the plane, to look to every place and to feel completely lost because I couldn’t understand anything that I was reading. However, I remember that I was delighted with that lostness, It’s a reborn feeling, a new start.

3 Which were your emotions when you left?

When I finished my project, and I left Greece, I Portrait of Tomás Barão da Cunha

1

© Hande Yetkin

What was the most significant life lesson you had from this experience?

mainly felt fulfilled. I think I accomplished all the things I proposed to myself before the start of my EVS project. You will always feel nostalgic because you are leaving, but you need to look back and to know that you have done all the things that you wanted to.

The six months I had spent in Greece changed 4 Do you miss something from

a lot my perception in many matters, but I don’t think I could take a life lesson from it. I don’t think that is a question of life lessons that define our way, but a series of experiences, and in that way, I have brought a lot. Greece, besides the crisis context, it’s a great place to live and to grow. You can learn so many different things from the culture, the people and from all the environment itself.

04

Thessaloniki and the EVS life?

Once you leave Greece, you will always miss it.

Greece is a different place on earth, it all started there. A small part of you came from there and still belongs there. I miss the greek feeling, the warm taverna nights and all that things. There’s nothing like Greece, I’m sure.

VOICE TO VOLUNTEERS

Volunteer Life

© Hande Yetkin

Balkan Hotspot team

6 If you could choose again, will you want the same project?

Evening at Tandem

© Eglė Puodžiūnaitė

This is a difficult question because it’s always relative. The EVS project isn’t just the working hours; it’s something more, it’s about the rest of the time. What defines your choice it’s the way you spent that time. I left Greece with so many projects to work on the next months, and with some of them already presented, like the book “Days Of The Future” and the film I directed with Raul Fretes, “Aegean”. As I told, you create your own project, and you’re only dependent on yourself to feel fulfilled with it.

Greece becomes what you want, and that will

5 What would you like to say to the

never change.

new volunteers?

The only thing I can tell it’s to enjoy the most

you can, It’s a marvellous experience itself and Greece it’s a beautiful country. Make local friends; this was very important to me because they will show you a different city and different places. Be always open to learning, because knowledge is around the corner and for sure you want to learn the most you can during the time you are there.

Evening at Tandem

© Eglė Puodžiūnaitė

05

Volunteer Life VOICE TO VOLUNTEERS

Youth Exchange – Croatia “It was very fulfilling to spread newly-gained knowledge and make other people days..”

by Vicky, Ilia, Konstantinos, Antonis, Alexandros, Thanos

Last year, on December, thirty-six ambitious young activists coming from six different

countries gathered together in Osijek, Croatia with one mutual goal; to learn more about human rights and, also, help raise awareness about them. The Greek partner organisation for this Youth Exchange was United Societies of Balkans, that sent there the six authors of this article.

The Erasmus+ European funding program, along During the first two days, the primary objective of

with the NGO Interaktiva, gave the opportunity to young people from Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania and Macedonia to achieve the goal mentioned above through sessions, workshops, team-building activities, while simultaneously expressing their creative side.

06

the activities was for the participants to become familiar with each other, destroy any communication barriers and lift any shyness through name and other spirit-building games. Furthermore, it was of great importance to have some ground rules set, in order to create a more productive working atmosphere

VOICE TO VOLUNTEERS

and for everything to progress smoothly. Lastly, each country had to present their home-sending organization in a fun fashion show. So, the whole project was constructed by twelve unique sessions in total, each, of course, depicting a different aspect of the human rights topic. The way most sessions were facilitated was that all participants were divided into smaller groups and each group was assigned a specific task to complete. Using their phones and internet access, participants conducted a little research about their issue and then presented it to the rest of the attendees as creatively as possible. It was quite a fun experience for them to be able to gain some knowledge while also being playful, artistic and creative about it.

The main instalment of the line-up, the street action,

took place during the sixth day of the project. It was decided by everyone involved to engage in a lot of different actions during that time, so the preparations started the day before. Their ideas included a survey about people’s thought on human rights, a social experiment of some sort where some participants gave out free hugs and paid random people compliments while recording their reaction. A banner to go along with those activities was created, too. In many aspects, the street action was the most essential part of the project. It was probably very fulfilling to spread their newly-gained knowledge about human rights and make other people’s days merrier.

Volunteer Life

As with any program of this type, this also in-

cluded some fun side projects. During the night of the second and third day, an intercultural show was held where the participants of each country presented a video of their country, created some fun quizzes and offered a small taste of their country’s traditional cuisine and products.

Besides those, every night had a specific theme and specific actions attached to it. Also, before every single one of the sessions, the party delved into some fun energizing games that helped with getting to know each other and build intimacy.

Naturally, bringing thirty-six random people togeth-

er and asking them to work as one group is quite a challenging thing to do. Eventually, though, once everyone realized that similar goals dwell within them, everything started going according to plan. This project permitted intercultural exchange and the formation of international relationships that hopefully will last through time. Thirty-six people became more aware and informed about active citizenship, along with human rights and how to defend them, but that is not enough. There is, still, so much work left for us to do, as human rights are always at stake in the modern world.

07

Volunteer Life USB NEWS

D.I.V.A. Project Diversity in Visual Arts Vol. 2

by Dimitris Ballotta

United Society of Balkans organised the second edition of Diversity in Visual Art, in order to get the participants in touch with the LGBTI + community and to participate in the Pride.

The

youth exchange Diversity in Visual Arts vol.2 brought to Thessaloniki 55 young people, aged 18-25 for 11 days from 10 countries (Italy, Turkey, Fyrom, Romania, Estonia, Croatia, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Greece). The aim of the exchange was to get the participants in touch with the LGBTI + community, the problems and needs as well as its rights - while at the same time they trained on human rights in general. Also, during the exchange, the participants had the opportunity to attend art workshops- theatre, arts&crafts, creative writing, drawing and comics, and new technologies (photography, video).

D.I.V.A. project logo

Parade

08

Š United Societes of Balkans Archive

It was another successful edition that permits 55 young people to participate in the 7 Thessaloniki Pride festival.

Š Dimitris Ballotta

USB NEWS

Volunteer Life

We

asked some participants of the project some thoughts about the experience just lived.

Giorgios, from Larissa, said this: “For me it was my first time I took part in a project like this.

I really believe that projects like this can help you

improve yourself and expand your mind, you also get a multicultural education and personally I felt like I was travelling all around the world. The best part is that at the end of the projects you get emotional and that’s the proof that all of these people mean something to you and the most important you have a place all over Europe.”

“Family” banner made by participants

© Stefanos Ioannou

And the last participant interviewed by us was

Thomas, from Greece: “Generally the Diva project was really nice. I socialized a lot with many people and different cultures. I learned more about LGBTQ+ rights and I experience my first Pride. I learned a lot of things about videography We continue with another participant from Ro- and photography. mania, Florin: “ What I liked the most about the project was the people. The experience you get Yeah, it was a great experience knowing other from meeting all the people from different coun- LGBT people. We were talking about our lives tries is awesome. I liked the workshop as well, and our stories! We gain a lot from each other. my facilitator Egle and Filip were cool and nice We felt ourselves... with hiding from anyone!” to work with. I hope I will get to see all of the So let’s hope for the third edition of Diversity participants again. in Visual Art in order to give to other people the I think it’s really important to learn about LGBT opportunity to live this experience, learn more people and I got to see first hand how they see about LGBT + community and Human rights, and life and how it is for them. I liked the project a lot.” to meet people from all over Europe.

D.I.V.A. participants in front of White Tower

© Aris Parashou

09

Volunteer Life NGO ACTIVITY

Action Art and the art of storytelling

by Giada Russo

Action Art is a non-profit company founded in 2009 by Rodanthi Dimitressi in Thessaloniki.

The aim of the company is the promotion of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage� which, according to Unesco, is related to traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.

Action Art activities

This is exactly what the members of Action Art They provide seminars about plastic, visual and

want to do encouraging young people to participate in the artistic process and creation through the promotion of cultural, educational and multicultural programs that involve people and other countries in the development of communication and solidarity.

Handmade works created by children

10

applied arts, programs of artistic nature, plus educational, cultural and intercultural projects.

In the past, there were also training about bookbinding that is how to create the skeleton of the books. Sometimes, the volunteers organize art workshops in libraries according to the style of several painters, or they show how to create handmade works.

Š Giada Russo

NGO ACTIVITY

Volunteer Life

Festival of storytelling

they can go to schools in the morning schedules for full performances.

Festival program

However,

The reason that drove to the achievement of the activity came out from a personal situation experienced firsthand by Rodhanti.

the activity that characterizes and In 1995, in France, she started to train as a stomake known Action Art most than the others is ryteller in a workshop with a multicultural nature, the project of storytelling. and there she realised that traditional fairytales In the last four years, the organisation focuses speak in the same way in every culture, including its attention on storytelling seminars with mem- universal values and ethics. She saw how this bers meeting every week to form people about work got closer the members of the group and voice, body movement, imagination, narrative when she came back to Greece, she wanted to education. Through this kind of work, they want create the same connection between people of to promote the communication between mem- different cultures. In these years she is coming bers of a group and also encourage inner explo- in touch with many associations that hosted forrations. In fact, this year, there was a prominent eigners, not only refugees but also students. seminary about how to channel and handle the Action art is interested in traditional fairy tales feelings about storytelling training and storytellfrom all around the world, a condition that they ing performance. are folks and not written by famous and modern Trained people give performances for free in cul- writers. In this way, Rodia collaborates with the tural places, organizations, schools, libraries or natural storytellers who want to make known their own country and their culture, values in

11

Volunteer Life NGO ACTIVITY

their language. She found an extraordinary way xenophobia, meaning the fear of the unknown. to work with them and now she can co-operate Also, for this reason, the organisation works with with people from Africa, France, Italy, Balkan vulnerable people as refugees. countries, Japan, Turkey, Spain and, this year, Most of the story-telling performances in also Lithuania. schools are a multilingual experience, so the The advantage of the multilingual project is that audience can come in touch, from a very early the stories told by the natural storytellers have age, with the real world in which a lot of different some in common from culture to culture, no languages exist. matter the language, and this is a way to learn The 20th May, for another year, the company each other customs, values and traditions. actively participated in another event organWe may consider this as the good meaning of ised by the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Multiglobalization to find our unique place through lingual-Polyglossia Festival. It saw natural stothe others and to collaborate for sharing this. An ry-tellers from France, Japan, Turkey, Burkina understanding of the intangible cultural heritage Faso, Lithuanian sharing stories in their native of different communities helps with intercultural language, stories nestled in their hearts and travdialogue and encourages mutual respect for oth- elling with them and every story was translated simultaneously in Greek by Rodhanti. er ways of life.

Last year they had a project with Kurdish peo-

ple coming from Syria in a refugee camp. They worked with them in training courses and sem- Through this program, we should understand inaries to help them become members of the that we are not so different as we think, but, on group and also to be more welcomed in the new the other hand, we have many things in common no matter the country, the language, the culture. reality.

The project aim is to show how the things that This year the festival started on 11th May and unite us are more than the ones that divide us; it finished on the 8th of June. The program in- it’s more or less the same feeling that we have cluded a month full of events, multilingual per- when we can communicate with other people formances, seminars not only in café places but even though we use a different language. also in schools and kindergartens. The inspiration was the fact that Thessaloniki is a city in which many languages have been spoken for “Fairy tales are like birds: they centuries. The aim is to move throughout the look for ears to hear, hearts to city as people do: this is why the events took nest, mouths to tell and sing.” place in different areas. In this way, people come together exchanging personal ideas and getting to know each other in order also to fight the

12

STORY OF LUCK

Active woman

Volunteer Life

by Claudia Maria Cornea

Georgia Kalpazidou is 28 years old woman, also she is a mother, a wife, a philologist, an

active Roma woman who is fighting every day against all the prejudices. This is the story about a strong woman, one of the role models for the Roma community in Dendropotamos. She managed to follow her dreams and prove to the community that a Roma woman can be both moral and active in the society. We interviewed her for you to know her better.

Active woman in the Roma community of Dendropotamos

Š Claudia Cornea

13

Volunteer Life STORY OF LUCK

6 Was it difficult for you to attend

university? Why? What was the biggest challenge?

1

When I finished high-school, I met my husband.

In the first year of university, I was dating him. A

What did you want to do when you bit later, during my second year, we got engaged, were a child? And what are you and that was more difficult because he started doing now? to be jealous. He was thinking that I was going

to university so that I would be with a lot of men there, but he didn’t know what I was doing there painter, but now I am a Greek literature philoloand also what people were thinking about me. gist.

Then in the third year, I was pregnant, but I continued to go, and that was even more difficult.

Where did you go to school? Did

When I was a child, I was thinking to become a

2

you choose the school you wanted to attend?

7 Did you ever have a point when you wanted to give up?

I went at Dendropotamos, but I didn’t choose the Yes, when I was pregnant it was challenging for school because we have only one school there

me. Then, when I gave birth to my son, it was also tricky. I had to be a wife, and I had a baby, Are there any differences between so I had to take care of my child and my husband and, at the same time, I had to study. Everything the Dendropotamos school and was very hard during that period. I had to find other schools? time to let my child to my mother, to go and No, I don’t think so, because teachers in the come back from school, especially when I had Dendropotamos school were and are still very exam it was very anxious time because my son good. What I remember is that I was pleased and was still a baby. couldn’t wait to go to school. and I knew I had to accept that one.

3

4 How did you choose what you

wanted to do after high school?

Since I was a child, I liked reading, literature,

Greek ancient language so I decided that I wanted to be useful in some way. I wanted to help other people learn how to read and write. By the time, I decided to become a teacher.

5 What type of student were you?

I was very interested in learning different things; I was studying very hard. I decided to become a teacher because my teacher inspired me.

Entrance to Dendropotamos © Claudia Cornea

14

STORY OF LUCK

Volunteer Life

8 Did your family ever try to

influence your decisions and how?

Yes, of course. When I was 14 years old, my

grandmother decided that it was a good time for me to get married and she chose the groom; he was 24 years old, ten years older than me. I didn’t know him and we had many differences between us; as a conclusion I didn’t want to get married. On the other hand, I thought that if my family believed that I had to get married, I would follow their decisions; I was not a strong character, I was a good girl, I was obedient. After a year of dating once a month with this guy I realised I was unfortunate, I was crying quite often, so my mother took the decision that I didn’t have to get married if I didn’t want. We had many fights at home between my mother and my grandmother.

My father was on both sides, but at the end, he was with me.

9 Was your family supportive of your decisions?

times I feel limited, especially now, that I am

married. My husband and my family cannot understand that a Roma woman can be both active and moral. They think that if a woman goes to different congresses, participates in various activities she doesn’t care about her family anymore. For example, my best friend was studying to become a hairdresser, but in the last year, her husband told her not to go to school anymore, because they were together. She was crying, but she decided to follow the decision of her husband, and now we have the same age, but she has two children and is doing what her husband says. For this reason, I am fighting with my husband because he is telling me that my friend is doing what her husband wants and he is asking me why I am not doing the same.

Both my mother and my father were very sup- 10 What was your most significant portive. Also, my teacher at school was very supportive. I was lucky, without their support I wouldn’t be the same now. Even though some

accomplishment in your life? The thing that you are most proud of?

Definitely that I didn’t give up, I continued to study because it’s something I like. I do this job because I love it and for me going to university was like a break from everything; I liked it very much. I like learning, I like reading, and for this reason, that I didn’t give up, I can say to be proud of myself.

11 To conclude, would you change anything in your life?

Unfortunately yes. I would like to change the period in which I was pregnant; I would prefer to finish my studies and then to get pregnant. It was a period that I didn’t have in my mind.

12 Thank you so much for sharing your story of luck with us.

15

Local Life FESTIVALS

Athens and Thessaloniki Pride

by Laura Samuilytė

Most colourful experience in the cities

I’m one of those people who didn’t know a lot about the LGBTQIA+ community before at-

tending Pride events. Even though back in Lithuania, where I come from, I have a best friend who is gay and I used to support him through all the hard times, for me his life as an LGBTQIA+ community member was something difficult to understand.

To be honest, in our country it’s quite different

“not being normal”, which would mean not being for straight people; we don’t have to try to re- like everyone else and fighting for your right just ceive acceptance for who we are; our families to be yourself. and friends usually support and love us when we get into a relationship. Nevertheless, I heard a Love can be shown and felt in many different lot about struggles of people with different sex- but beautiful ways, so why does our society still ual orientation, about the inability to open their believes that love LGBTQIA+ people is a bad or a hearts, even to closest people like friends, class- shameful thing? mates and especially parents, because they grew up in a Soviet society that taught them to merge It’s not hard to notice that people are used to into the rest of the USSR and never stand out. laughing and mock things that they don’t fully unThat made it hard for LGBTQIA+ people to show derstand. I’ve never been a part of the LGBTQIA+ how they feel because they’re always on the community, but I was always open-minded and alverge of being misunderstood or excluded from ways cared about feelings and struggles of other their family or community. I had an opportunity people. Maybe is that the point of pride events? to witness cases of teenagers being bullied for They need to show in some way that every human being who is alive and has feelings, should be appreciated and loved the same as all of us.

Volunteers (who are working for Pride in Thessaloniki) in Athens Pride. © Laura Samuilytė

16

Photo from Athens Pride.

© Laura Samuilytė

FESTIVALS

Photo from Athens Pride.

Local Life

© Laura Samuilytė

In Thessaloniki, I have met amazing personali-

ties, and few of them invited me to join the Pride © Laura Samuilytė festivals. They explained how it’s important to Photo from Athens Pride. them, how the feeling of being among people edge about LGBTQIA+ goals and obstacles before that are the same as you empower them, and I Pride, were instantly accepted into a big family. completely agree.

Athens Pride was full of loud music, different acAthens Pride tivities, handmade souvenir kiosks and even a free checkpoint where you could check for HIV and The journey begins: we came to Athens for Pride, make sure to remember to take care of your body.

I saw my friends being very excited, waiting, read- After a long and emotional day, the Pride parade, ing the news and preparing unusual and colourful the most crucial part of Pride festivals, started clothes. It was my first Pride, so I was observing and, in a sudden, the widest city streets were fuleverything patiently. My first impression: so many filled with music and thousands of people. People colours, people and smiles. I couldn’t stop taking from different cultural backgrounds, of varying photos, because I saw happy, colourful people, age, and all of them were proud of themselves, who came here to celebrate their goals and sup- happy for being part of this, let’s say “family” beport each other. I cannot remember the last time cause this word allows me to express the feeling I saw that amount of people in one square and all of an active and significant community. of their eyes were shining so bright. I felt that even people like me, who didn’t have so much knowl- After Athens Pride, I heard that there was going to be a Pride festival in Thessaloniki, and again I was waiting for it too. I knew that thousands of cute

Volunteers (who are working for Pride in Thessaloniki) in Athens Pride. © Laura Samuilytė

Photo from Athens Pride.

© Laura Samuilytė

17

Local Life FESTIVALS

Thessaloniki Pride

After Athens I

read some articles about Thessaloniki Pride and I found out more about the political messages and requests of the Pride movement. At first why most pride events take place around June: it is to commemorate the Photo from Thessaloniki Pride © Laura Samuilytė 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBT social movements. Evand happy people would hang out in the heart of ery year the Pride address also specific topics. the city and attend a lovely concert at night.

This year’s celebration, with the slogan “ExtremeI was more supportive of them than before, and I ly Family”, has been centred on family and childstarted to research what was happening around hood. Thanos Vlachogiannis, the Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki that was connected to Pride.

Pride spokesman, underlined it after his greetings

Photo from Thessaloniki Pride © Laura Samuilytė

18

FESTIVALS

to the thousands of participants ready for the parade: “The 7th Thessaloniki Pride is dedicated to the family we want to build and our state prevents us, does not allow for political marriage or debauchery, excludes married transsexuals from legal recognition of gender identity. However, it is also devoted to the family in which we grow up, often with difficulty, as our parents are worried about us, but today we are overwhelming”,

Local Life

made their way throughout the City, ending at the White Tower where the final concert took place.

After watching how some people need to fight day by day for their rights to be an equal member of society, I began to see beauty in their braveness and strong beliefs. Straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or those who are still discovering themselves – we are all equal, we all have a heart, two legs, two arms, and othAs it happened in Athens, the participants, hold- er ”ingredients” that make us call ourselves huing small colourful flags, dancing and singing, mans. Do we need more evidence?

19

Local Life FESTIVALS

Thessaloniki loves Flea Market

by Öznur Coşar

Do you want to spend your money on a meaningful product? Ever thought of the history

behind an object or a piece of clothing? Nowadays marketing says that good quality means expensive. Nowadays ‘boho’ marketing says Vintage, Second hand, Antiques, Handmade. The rules of the bohemian marketing say ‘Flea Market’.

In June the 4th edition of the Flea Market took

place at the premises of Helexpo in Thessaloniki.

I had the chance to see all the exhibitors and sellers from the beginning till the end, and from the moment they started to set up their tents, with all of their products and all these beautiful decorations as to how they were promoting them to customers. Moreover, they were speaking about

Antiques items in the Flea Market

20

each one like it was their baby no matter if the product was handmade or second hand; one could see the love and care, the history behind its making and till the night fell and they packed the tents back in the caravans, and in the end the sheer concrete of the ground could be shown again after all the life and colors that covered it for two days.

© Claudia Maria Cornea

FESTIVALS

Stand in the Flea Market with second hand clothes © Claudia Maria Cornea

Handmade creations, clothes, jewellery, metals,

beads, precious stones, wood fabrics colours!

A festivity of colour it was. Also, all these wardrobes full of clothes each one hiding a story, clothes bought from different parts of the world of different brands or no name hanged or hidden inside mountains for one to search, discover as if it was a precious treasure.

Furniture, antiques, small precious objects with a history going back to decades before in the times of our parents, grandparents and even further back... Smelling a unique aroma of traditional spirituality.

Local Life

Our volunteers helping a visitor designing her bag © Claudia Maria Cornea

painting and so many other activities. The volunteers of United Societies of Balkans and Balkan Hotspot were there as artists delivering the activities.

The idea came one evening by a group of young people who thought that the city of Thessaloniki doesn’t have an event like this and like so many other places like Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris, London. The production team is making no profit.

The only benefit is the pleasure of introducing this spectacle of creativity and eco-awareness to the city of Thessaloniki.

mean one might think that being in fashion This year the event included, apart from music Imeans buying new and shiny objects but is that

and shows, a space for kids and adults to cre- the case these days? More and more young ate handbags from reused fabrics, to do face people speak of sustainability, eco-awareness, turning into vegans and entering the hippie void.

Think about Berlin or Portugal and all the festivals full of young people who led by the commands of music turn somehow into representatives of the nouveau urban sustainability movement. Flea Market is an event representing the fresh wave of eco-awareness, eco-fashion and design made out of love care and cooperation.

Next Flea Market in September!

Our volunteer Eglé holding an handmade bag © Claudia Maria Cornea

More information: www.fleamarker.gr

21

Local Life FESTIVALS

COMICON

by Filip Grác

At the beginning of May, Thessaloniki hosted its four Comic Convention, where people could

see all the beautiful things like fan art, cosplay, debates with the illustrators from Greece as well as to meet comic bookmakers from all around the world. On this occasion, volunteers from Action Art and Balkan Hotspot (most probably for the first time in the known history of USB) joined their forces and went together to map-explore this lovely three-day-long event.

Encounters From Comicon (Part 1) : Meeting With A Friend

The first person whom we met right behind the

gates of Comicon was surprisingly their old buddy Asterios, which occasionally works also as a photographer and video-making for USB. This (atr)active fellow was helping out in the kiosk of EPSILON CUSTOM SABRES that was presenting custom made light sabres to the visitors of the convention. Thus we asked him to use his talkative nature and high level of English language to help us out in interviewing his friend Dionisis, the maker of the light sabres.

Volunteer at Action Art

22

How many light sabres do you have on the stock?

There is never a stock because every model is handmade and customized for the client by the client. Each client gives his input to have maximum perfect light sabre for him. Every design is unique, and there is no other like it. For this reason, we can say that EPSILON CUSTOM SABRES is not a product line. It is an art line.

© Aubérica Gilly

FESTIVALS

Local Life

Asterios and Dionisis © Aubérica Gilly

How many days does it take to Dionisis to manufacture these light sabres and what is their price?

What was the most peculiar order that Dionisis had ever experienced from his customers?

For example there was a case of one upgrade,

where the client did not even wanted to use the Star Wars sound for his light sabre. He wanted stances, but it is somewhere around 700 euro, a completely different sound that was not conand it is also influenced by what exactly the cli- nected to Star Wars universe at all. ent wants, how much work does it require and so on. Concerning all these factors, Dionisis than In the end of our interview EPSILON CUSTOM makes the final product from ten days up to two SABRES were so kind that they also let us to try months. one of their light sabres.

The price is usually depending on the circum-

Do these light sabres also have some insurance in case that they get broken?

There is definitely a one year guarantee, but if

the clients will use their light sabres too carelessly, for example, hit it against the stone wall repetitively and break it, then there is no insurance for situations like that. However, from my own experience, I should say that these light sabres are very reliable and they can endure a lot. If you use them for example just for duelling, they are not going to break. So, there is a one year guarantee, and also there is a possibility of future upgrades.

Can you tell us more about these upgrades?

Light sabres can be upgraded for example with

the additional sound-maker, that will make a sound whenever the sabre is turned on during the duel.

Me fighting with the light sabre

© Aubérica Gilly

23

Local Life FESTIVALS

Encounters From Comicon (Part 2): Dark & Gothic Artists

pencilling, inking all the way up to the printing and presentation to the public. All of these tasks, functions are done by me.

From the kiosk with the light sabres, we went to explore a vast area at the right part of the expo- Also printing? sition hall in which local illustrators from all over Greece presented their work. The first one of I also print them myself. So all of my art is basithem, which caught our eye with her bold black cally self-published. I never went to any printing and white manga style was a green haired gothic company. girl named Evgenia: Could you tell us a little bit about the works that you have done so far?

I did my first zines as sort of an experiment. Then

Evgenia V.

Š AubÊrica Gilly

Where do you draw inspiration for your work?

I started to be curious also about making of short stories in comic book form and from this point on I have begun to do even more significant work. So, this is my work of last three years basically. As for the theme, I wanted all of my works to be somehow fun and incorporate into them some sort of depression. However, nothing way too pessimistic - more like a fun depression, if you know what I mean.

Why do you publish your works in the English language?

Mostly from music. I like much black metal. Re- I think that I mostly write in English because

cently I have been also very inspired by vintage most of the comic books that I read are in Enmanga and large chunk of inspiration comes glish. On the other hand, I also want to go to other conventions outside of Greece and in this way from my own life as well. my works would be more reader-friendly to the How did your style develop since you international audience.

first work?

The next illustrator whose art was super exciting for us was DaNi, a cute tattooed girl with fluent ized that I tried to focus more on inking and thus English and a great sense of humour. So we deI think that results are now visually better and cided to ask her a few questions about her bold black and white Tarantino-styled stories: much cleaner.

My first works were way messier, so when I real-

Do you make all of the work on your comic books by yourself or do you also have some sort of collaborators?

Yes, all of the production phases are done by

me. From the creation of the story, through the

24

Your works are obviously very much inspired by the aesthetics and atmosphere of the movies by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriques, is that right?

Yes, I really love these movies. They are my favourite.

FESTIVALS

Local Life

tisements in between the stories. This was the stuff that I really enjoyed from very beginning to an end.

As for the comic book inspirations, which artists are your favourite?

In general, I really like the artwork of Mike Mignola.

DaNi

© Aubérica Gilly

For example, the fourth volume of your TALES FROM THE STRIPS is dedicated to Titty Twister?

Yes, because look why: I made this comic and it

was finished, it was ready to be printed and one of my friends read it and she said instantly afterwards: ”OK, so you basically made from Dusk till Dawn.” And I was like: ”Oh my God, you are right … what am I going to do now?” So the friend advised me: ”Do not worry, just say that it is a homage to Dusk till Dawn” … and that is what I did in the end.

What about your next project? What are you up to?

I cannot say a lot about this next project, but I am

working on something with Dan Waters, and maybe next year we would be able to talk about it.

Outside of comic books, what other visual works have you done so far?

I did numerous commissions. I make many things

for bands, like album covers, posters and visual design for T-shirts … and also, something that you would never expect. I have done a children’s book.

It is not out yet, but I am also very curious myself to see how the final result would look like.

Was it an enjoyable experience?

So apart from the movies, what else inspires the whole series of Tales from It was something totally different. When they called me: “Do you want to come here to our ofthe Strips?

fice and talk about the children’s book? ” And I was like: “Really? Have you seen what kind of art I am inspiration. I was thinking of making more because making? ” And they said: “Sure but that is why we people liked the first one so much. At first, I just had think that you would do something exciting.” these two characters, Cool Zombie and his girlfriend Daphne, and I did not have any specific plan. It was What do you think is the future of part of the flow. It just it happened somehow. comic book medium?

I actually made it for fun. I did not overthink about the

When were you creating the Tales from the Strips series, which was the hardest part and which was the most enjoyable part?

The most challenging part is the actual creation of

the story because I cannot write very well and that is why I decided to keep things simple. On the other hand, my favourite part was all those little adver-

I hope that it would be more open to girls and

women because comic books are usually directed primarily to please the men, but each year we can see more and more comic books coming out for the female audience, which is very nice to see. Also in connection with the comic book movie adaptations in cinemas, I hope that people will come much more in contact with this wonderful medium of sequential images. © Aubérica Gilly Volunteer at Action Art

25

Local Life FESTIVALS

Encounters From Comicon (Part 3) : Fantasy Artists

Could you tell us a little bit about how you have developed your visual style?

Another amazing illustrator that we decided to I started collecting my pictures in books in 2014.

interview was a lovely student of English lan- Before that, I just used random papers, but from 2014 I began to use sketchbooks, which helped me a lot to track my progress and have everything filed in, so that I could look back and review all the works that I did before.

What influences do you have from the current artists?

Little Ulvar is my all time favourite artist. She is

Polish and her civil name is Katerzina Bekus, but you can find her on Instagram as Little Ulvar. I Peng - Foteini Tyrovouzi © Aubérica Gilly have been following her ever since I was in high school. So it is for seven years now. Also, if you guage and literature from Thessaloniki, which will look at her drawing and my drawing, you can welcomed us into her visual world in a truly see that she clearly inspired me. I used to carry her sketchbook everywhere with me. charming manner:

Where do you draw inspiration?

What kind of project would you really like to do in the future?

First of all, most of my inspiration is coming from a dream. So I take some inspiration from a I just would like to illustrate some of the ideas dream and everyday things that I see around and for comic books that I have in my head. then I am trying to apply them into some other visual context. Also, I love flowers and colours in Did you study art in some form? general. Colours are my passion; it is actually my No. I am self-thought. I study English linguistics favourite thing to draw. and literature. I am studying here in Thessaloniki.

I also like to draw a different people, so when I I am in my last year. This year I am finishing and am on the bus or when I am on the street, I look then I will be doing my living by making comics. at people and I try to take notes. For example, let’s say that I like one person`s skin colour or I may like the nose of some other person, then eventually I try to take the note of it and maybe put it in the drawing later. I am a very visual person. I think visually.

26

Do you also teach drawing?

I teach English, but I would like to teach drawing

at some point as well, because I really like helping people through art and at the same time I also love children’s art. When I see how imagina-

FESTIVALS

Local Life

tive kids are and how much color they put in, so I The last creative mind that caught our eye was think that it might be actually a lot of fun.

Georgia Sachari - young ambitious comic book maker with chanson voice that came to present Have you ever used your illustrating here art to Thessaloniki Comicon all the way skills in English teaching process? from Athens

Yes, I had made a comic book for my first-grade

students last week. It was about a few children talking about their favourite toys. So when I made these comics, first I made the inking only and then I scanned it and gave the handouts to my students, because that way they could colour it on their own and they loved it. They were so happy because in the first-grade kids sometimes do not know how to read and when I gave them this paper they immediately started to read the comic, they were so engaged in it, and I liked it so much.

Georgia Zachari

© Aubérica Gilly

Do you use some particular pseudonym for your comic books?

Not really. I sign with my own name because my

name means sugar in Greek, so it is very natural and thus I do not need a pseudonym.

Could you tell us a little bit about the comic books that you made so far?

I made one comic book last year and one this year. Both of these are proper comic books with entire stories and characters in them, but I have

Volunteer at Action Art

© Aubérica Gilly

27

Local Life FESTIVALS

day and then destroying it at night. In this aspect, it was also talking about human memory and how memory is labour or some sort of act that you do - it is very philosophical. I am making a comic “the embroidery manuals for the end As for the more significant comic book stories, of the world” where the group of teenagers has the one that I made last year is part of the bigger grandmas that are making an entire world in emstory, and it is called Matiasma, which is weird to broidery in order to save it. explain because it is connected to this phenomenon which people in Greece call “the evil eye.” Which comic books do you like to The term Matiasma is the process of removing read? this evil eye away from people. But, at the same time, it is also some kind of joke because it also As a child, I was reading a lot of Disney comtalks about the Athens and about how I experi- ics and as I grew up, eventually, I started to seek more mature themes. That is how I came to ence this city. know comic books by Moebius or the one that The other one is connected to the theme of my, I read recently called Octopus Pie by Meredith and it is talking about memory. It is also based Gran. It is an excellent comic book about everyon the Greek myth of Penelope, the wife of Od- day life and becoming an adult, so I can definitely ysseus, who was making the shroud during the recommend you this one. also made some smaller visual stories, that are more impulsive. My stay in France for Erasmus, for example, inspired one of these shorter impulsive stories.

© Aubérica Gilly 28

BOOKS

Andrόmachi Mantzanίdou

Local Life

by Giada Russo

an emerging writer for children and grown-ups.

This is the story of a woman who is a mother and who dreams to become an author. We

want to present you her first book, a book born by the necessity to share thoughts about a common issue which is affecting more and more people nowadays. A book that, apparently, seems to be addressed to children, but in fact can be read by adults as well.

Andrόmachi has been writing since she was a

“Conceited Meni”

child. When I interviewed her, she told me that she used to write in secret; she threw away all Meni, a teenage female elephant is the protagothe drafts, either because of shyness, or because nist of her book. Meni loves fashions and secret of uncertainty. In the end, she decided to start with a fairy tale as a complete work, because fairy tales are short and anything can happen in them. They are surreal.

Andrόmachi gives the characters of her stories

flesh and blood by just observing people, in the park, the playground or anywhere. She looks at people: the way they are dressed, their facial expressions, the tone of their voice. Because when you make up a story, you need images, you need faces.

She also told me that usually, she prefers writing

to speaking, maybe because she is more introverted. When you write it’s like being completely naked in front of people in Tsimiski street, because you say things you would never have had the courage to confess to anyone. But you expose yourself and you wear a mask at the same time. The mask of another person of a different age, sex etc gives you the freedom to reveal inner thoughts you wouldn’t even confess to yourself.

Cover of the book

© Nikos Bikos

29

Local Life BOOKS

walks to the nearby town. She enjoys herself when people admire her and she reads fashion magazines. One day she reads in a magazine that all females have to be slim to be successful and attractive. Meni looks at herself and she realizes that she is not as thin as she is supposed to be. Then, she decides to abstain from food in order to be attractive and to become a model.

Soon, she suffers from anorexia nervosa.

At the end of the story, after going through all the stages of the disease, she will understand that she has to accept herself as she is, without changing anything; but she has to pay the price for this. In fact, she loses everything: friends, her beauty, her strength, and she even stops studying.

How came up the idea of a topic so sensitive, difficult but at the same time common nowadays?

The author was influenced by an incident ex-

perienced firsthand. One day, one of her 9 year

Illustration from the book

30

old students, said to her: “Teacher, you are so beautiful today.” But when she replied with the same compliment, the little girl responded that she believed she was fat, and as a consequence, not beautiful.

After this, she figured out how our society is putting us under pressure since childhood, even though, fortunately, the author never had this kind of problem during her childhood. The book came out when she gave birth to her daughter and this is the reason it is dedicated to her and also her beloved niece. She wanted to tell her daughter in this way that no one should judge us just because we have some kilos more than someone else. This is probably why she finally decided to make this work public, not only for her daughter but for all the people, no matter the gender, who are suffering because of their own lack of self-esteem and as a consequence are affected by the media stereotypes and other people’s opinions. What we need to have clear

© Nikos Bikos

BOOKS

is that we don’t have to be all the same, even though the society is trying to impose on us some “stereotypes”. Everyone is beautiful as she or he is; it doesn’t matter what we look like, how we dress, our sexual orientation, because beauty is in everyone and it is inside us. I would say by mentioning a sentence from “The Little Prince”

by Saint-Exupéry, that the real beauty, which is essential, is invisible to the eye.

Other books of the author

“Conceited Meni” is not the only project of the

Local Life

stories, like “The story of an hour”. In fact, all of the stories are happening in one day, but in the background there is the story of a life that the reader can read between the lines.

All we have to do is wait for these intriguing upcoming stories. Right now what we can do is enjoy the book we already have and that will be published again in a more concise form in September and thank the author for the important message she is trying to share and to give us in an unusual but successful way.

The author, finally wanted to thank Methexis publications for the opportunity they gave her to publish her first book, and Giannis Karadedos, her publisher, who believed in her most of all.

Also a great thanks to Nikos Bikos for the beautiful drawings and last but not least a thank you Two adult books are still in progress. The one to all the friends who were there at Meni’s first that will apparently finish first consists of short presentation to support her.

author. In fact, she has completed two more children’s stories. One of the books for kids is a funny poem about Greek grandmothers. The second book is concise but value-laden, and deals with love of all kinds.

Illustration from the book

© Nikos Bikos

31

Local Life MUSIC

Imam Baildi

by Ahmet Sahin

Urban Greek music project

You may find as a reader, mainly the historical flow of the band year by year and the sort of music that they produce.

To begin with, the name of the band comes from

one of the delicious Southeast Mediterranean dishes consisting of auberThe group was funded in 2005 by the brothers Orestis and Lysandros Falireas, who started to produce their music in Athens. At the beginning of their project, they combined Greek music of the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s with electronic melodies.

The music that they produce is quite tasty as much as imam bayildi is as a dish and the band is influenced by a variety of music types such as Balkan, Mediterranean, Western effects and so on.

Imam Baildi appeared as a duet up till their first al-

bum was released. Step by step the band accepted members from different musical backgrounds and in 2008 the range of music they were making increased. After that, they started making performances abroad as well. The first one was in Transmusicales De Rennes in France in which Imam Baildi was featuring eight members; they played also in Roskilde in Denmark in 2009. In 2010 the collaboration was going very well with two of the most famous vocalists in Greek music who are Dimitra Galani and Eleni Tsaligopoulu. The band also released a new album which included a wide range of music influences, called The Imam Baildi Cookbook by the end of

© Unknown

32

2010. They started to become well-known in Greece and also all over Europe. They have been invited for several performances in Germany. We can even notice the proof by looking at rankings on June 2011; “Cookbook” reached no. 5 in World Music Charts Europe. The band had their first European tour in 2012, in which they performed in approximately ten concerts. The tour was a turning point for the group regarding the international presence and as an experience gaining. Imam Baildi made its first trip across the Atlantic in early 2013. The band had an opportunity to present their music in “South by Southwest”, USA’s most significant music conference for upcoming groups, according to Slug Magazine.

After the USA performance, the band had a stage in Belgium in “Balkan Trafik Festival” and went for the second European Tour in 2013. In 2014 the group announced their third album, called Imam Baildi-III and now they are still having a lot of concerts and events around Greece and all over the world.

I

highly recommend to listen and follow the band’s news that will give you a variety of music taste, even if your favourite type of music is different from Imam Baildi’s style. Still, everyone can find songs they like in one of their albums.

© Unknown

SPORT

Football For All

Local Life

by Liam Jochems

Football, Soccer, or Association Football (depending on where you live) is the world’s most

universal sport. It crosses barriers such as race, age, gender and in my opinion; is a simple language anyone can learn to speak.

© Marianna Karakoulaki © Marianna Karakoulaki

emotions, grow fond of each other, and form a partnership on the field, without even needing to but if I want to ask him for directions to the su- understand a word we’re saying to each other. permarket I might struggle a bit. I don’t know the Japanese words to call for a pass, and I don’t When we think about migration, we must acreally need to know. I can even call for it in my knowledge a reality of the situation; two very diflanguage; “man on, lad!” He’s not going to under- ferent cultures are going collide. It’s likely going stand, but it doesn’t matter. If he gets the ball to be difficult for persons from each culture to to my feet, we’re sharing a moment of connect, understand and accept each other. It’s exhilaration in the game. Maybe I go also likely that misunderstandings in communion to score from his pass, and then cation will lead to conflict, or missed opportuwe might be running across the pitch nities to provide help and assistant to our new celebrating a goal. We can share neighbour’s.

I can play football with someone from Japan,

33

Local Life SPORT

© Marianna Karakoulaki

And so, a sport loved the world over like football

can make everyone’s lives a lot easier. I spoke to Dan Teuma the founder of Aniko ’Ανήκω’ organization on the phone earlier this week about an initiative he co-ordinates called Football For All. As both a football fan and somebody heavily involved in, shall we say, “humanitarian” work, I was inspired by his ideas.

Dan believes football “should be free and accessi-

© Marianna Karakoulaki

take part rather than choosing which groups will interact with each other.

Irrespective of where you come from, what your background is, or what religion you practice; nobody has to be sidelined in these games! Whether you want to play competitively or just for fun, Football For All is an opportunity to engage with new people and have some decent exercise. There are also other positives that are not at first appear at a Football For All event; in the sense that Dan intends for each game to provide access to services for migrants and locals alike. Soon a framework will be drawn up so that at each event newcomers can meet representatives offering free legal, mental health and advice services.

ble to everyone.” He touched upon existing initiatives that aim to provide football to marginalised groups but pointed out that sometimes these events tend to be held sporadically throughout the year or fail to remain inconsistent. Football For All, he hopes, will be one of the first worldwide and successful free football initiatives for literally anybody who would like to play. While the ben- I was inspired when I got off the phone to Dan, efits are largely geared towards the inclusion of and I hope to see his vision of a Football For All marginalised groups, he is a firm believer that it story being written from every city around the is more natural to allow a holistic range of players world; in cities like Thessaloniki and Amsterdam, from Paris to New York, and many many more!

34

TRAVEL

Local Life

Do’s & Don’ts in Greece National Parks

by Cristi Lupu

After a few days trip to Pindou National Park, I found out some things that you might find

useful if you’re planning a trip in that area. And if you don’t plan a trip there... well, definitely you should consider planning one!

Let’s start with one of the first things that you might do in the morning – having a coffee. So, we are in a village, with about 40-50 inhabitants, with only one shop/restaurant, up in the mountains. You go in, see that there is a coffee machine behind the bar, some coffee cups, no menu, not written prices, but there is also a great smell of coffee. Our experience was like this: “Kalimera! May we have two coffees, please? Black.”, “Nai”/”Yes”. Basic English, not so many words, enough to take your money. And the guy started to make the coffee...

When it was ready, I asked how much and now it’s coming the interesting part – he looked at me, he looked at my colleague, at my watch, then at my car and maybe at the registration plate, took a few moments to think about the price and finally said: “4 Euros”. Sooo: don’t ask how much it costs or you’ll get overpriced – better try to offer 1E – 1,5E per cup and ask if it’s ok. See how it works and then tell us in the comment area below! TIP: If you like your coffee really sweet, it’s a good idea to ask for a medium sweet one. Saying that you want it sweet, you risk not to feel the coffee taste at all.

Now that you had your coffee, and it was also

really tasty as well, there you are on the road again. So what’s the first thing that you do? Set your destination on the SatNav. From my point of view, as an ex Uber driver in London who used Google Maps to make a living, I’m used to trusting it and rely on it 100% fully. There are

two reasons why you shouldn’t do the same as I did in Pindou. First of all... there is a high chance to be out of signal coverage when you expect less – you set the destination, the software downloads the full route there, you arrive there, you enjoy what you have found there and when you’re ready to go to the next place, you see that there is no network coverage.

TIP: download offline maps for that area. And the second reason – it happened more than once – “Turn left”, it said – and surprise, the left turn street was 1 meter wide.

One of the reasons for which I, personally, like

to go in the nature, into the woods mainly is that my biorhythmic clock adjusts instantly to the “normal” – nature one; the day starts at sunrise and ends at sunset – no alarms, no wasting the night, enough sleep and fully recharged batteries for the next day! So, if you are a fan of camping and sleeping outside, you’ll find out that the laws are prohibiting camping in random places and you can do it only in specially designed ones. But here comes the surprise – there are not too many camping spots, and when we finally found one, it was actually an old and abandoned football field. Well, good... big... flat... but no electricity, no showers, nothing. Actually, not nothing, some homeless dogs were playing around and start smelling us once we arrived, so not the best place to camp. On the other hand, we slept by the road somewhere where we found a bench, very good for having dinner

© Cristi Lupu

35

Local Life TRAVEL

© Cristi Lupu

and also the next day breakfast – not legal, but no one actually cares. And it’s same with swimming, although it’s not legal, there are still people swimming in rivers or lakes in the national parks, but again, no one cares about it – keep in mind though that there is no lifeguard in the area, so if you’re doing it – it is on your own risk.

Another thing that we would like to do during

our nights there would have been a bone fire, but we asked some locals, and they said that if someone sees the smoke, they’ll call the police and we didn’t take the risk.

That’s more or less about few days in the moun-

tains, let us know about your outdoor experiences!

© Cristi Lupu

36

Social and political issues

Out Of The Borders

Donald Trump, European Union and “the problem of migration”

by Barış Yüksel

Donald Trump is controversial politician due to his impact on different issues such as mi-

gration or trade wars in the world. In social media, there is much fun about him, what about the flag-carrier of human rights which is European Union? The author aims to reflect upon the issue without being assertive

As

He softened hard-policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement(I.C.E) after the reveal of thousands of children were separated from their parents on the borders made public significantly angry about his decision. Still, in his rally, he said that“We protect Ice”. “They protect us, and we protect them.” He also started a trade war with the rest of the world. China, Canada and EU All his attempts created mixed responses not countries were some of the countries which got only in the country but also all over the world. affected by his decisions. a contemporary reader, you might follow the recent news about how D. Trump is pushing towards the hard-borders not only concerning “tackling of illegal immigration” but also to create “fair-trade” for the sake of American interests by adding extra taxes for the imported products coming to the U.S.A.

37

Out Of The Borders Social and political issues

In social media, you can find many memes, gifs,

commentaries about Trump’s decisions. Mostly, they make fun of him or condemn him. It is quite easy to take a personal position towards him. What about European Union countries which many of us perceive as much better than U.S.A case?

As an individual who tries to reflect upon social

and political issues, I don’t think that what I have said or what I will say that it will be neither the whole issue nor the answer however if we aim to address some social issues, we have to go beyond our existing common-sense arising from our identities related to our affiliations.

Turkey in the past. They promised to pay 6 billion Euros to Turkey to have better-regulated migration flows to Greece than the past. This agreement wasn’t the best regarding human rights, but it was rationalized due to its help to manage the crisis which drastically impacted on Greece.

We don’t know how externalising the issue will

change the course of events in the future however it is important to remember that in 2017, CNN unfolded Libya slavery markets where a dozen men auctioned -- some for as little as $400 each.

We have to question the issue that does EU need to risk people lives to secure European borders?

We have seen crisis between Italy and France Until so far, no African country accepted cooperabout the accepting refugee ship recently. Both ation with EU according to the public statements states had different claims towards the issue. by those non-EU countries.

While Italy was accused of being anti-immigrant

by France. Later, Italy pointed out how France Parallely, EU countries are working on other sends all the refugees back to Italy. Also, we solution methods agreed upon by all members have seen in the news, how French authorities of the EU. Until so far, we know that there might destroyed refugee camps for different reasons. be immigration centres however it was clearly Do you really think that we should analyse the expressed that it isn’t going to happen soon and attitudes of member states to solve this issue in also we should wonder how can we be sure that basic human rights would be respected in those terms of sincerity or sentiments? centres in Africa.

We witness in recent times that there is a significant rise of far-right in European parliaments We are not living in the ideals world. That’s why which remarkably altered the way how European what we aim to solve refugee problem may have Union approaches the issue. Since the begin- some undesired outcomes however if EU just ning of the problem, Visegrad countries (Poland, strive to externalize the problem by excusing Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) were themselves with security and economic threats, against the refugee quotas imposed on by Eu- we might fail our values which led the world to ropean Union. Now, with the far-right rising in be a better place in the last two centuries. the parliaments including Germany, France and Italy, the quota solution is not even an option anymore. The German government was about to come to an end due to the conflict between government allies on the refugee-related topics even though it was recently established.

Now,

EU is promoting the idea that refugee problem can be outsourced by moving it to nonEU countries in Africa. We remember a similar solution in the past. EU had an agreement with

38

© Unknown

Social and political issues

Turkey and Greece

Out Of The Borders

by Őznur Coşar

Common stages in migrant stories.

Living in a multicultural neighborhood of Thessaloniki I had the chance to meet several

migrants and talk to them. This article is the description of one of the thousands of stories of migrants leaving their countries and coming to Greece and Europe. Go, meet them, listen to their stories and their dreams, and help them to feel welcome in your country.

A total of 11,278 refugees and migrants arrived

in Greece by the sea in the first five months of 2018 according to data released by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Greece is often the entryway to Europe for the migrants coming from the Middle-East and passing through Turkey, a country that is nowadays

© Őznur Coşar

hosting over 3.5 millions of refugees. How do the migrants in Greece and Turkey view their current situations and plan for the future. To find out about this I have met and interviewed Mohammed, a 41 years old man from Iraq, nowadays living in Greece. He told us about his route to Greece and the motivations that convinced him to leave his country bringing with him his family.

39

Out Of The Borders Social and political issues

I asked him what can push people to leave their

country through a dangerous route in which lots of people lost their life. “I know, this is sad but is the truth: we cannot live there anymore, there is no life and no future for our children”. Numerous buildings in Iraq for example, according to what Mohammed said, have been damaged irreparably the war has caused great damage also to the infrastructure, and now only half of the hospitals and other health facilities are available. This reasons and the lack of safety in the country pushed Mohammed to take his family and try to come in Europe.

“The best way to go to Greece is through Turkey”,

Mohammed said “at first I went with my family to Turkey, to Adana, because is the closest place to go from Iraq”. He said that in order to enter Turkey they had to pay some smugglers because they cannot just walk or take a bus to pass the border without any help. Since Turkey has a lot of refugees, they easily found people available to help and host them, and they stayed in the country for two months, before to move ahead toward Greece. They first went to Istanbul and then walked to the Greek border taking a boat with others ten people to arrive in Greece.

that is a country where “illegal border crossing is not considered a crime”, and because is more safe than other countries where they might be victim of “criminals waiting for the refugees at the border, to steal them or of a more violent police”. Anyway it isn’t true that crossing the Greek border without permission is legal. If the migrant that pass the border is an asylum seeker Greece, as other countries, has to take care of them to respect the international law. About the safety there are no data to confirm it, even if there are several sources reporting about criminal activities against migrants in other Balkan countries.

It is well known that Greece is often a temporary hosting country and that most of the migrants passing by the country want to continue their travel to the north. “There are other countries like France, Italy, Germany that lots of migrants prefer to choose after Greece, because their governments give more money and life conditions are better, with more job opportunities too”. Often, what make the migrants stay is also the lack of money since they need resources to continue the trip. This happened also to Mohammed, who is now happy in Greece though, “and we don’t want to go to other countries”.

“We left Turkey because the Government does I really believe that dreaming of a better life is evnot pay for us and also because there are not a lot of good job opportunities available to keep on living there”. But why almost all the migrants coming from Turkey choose Greece as an entryway to Europe and not other countries, like Bulgaria for example. M said that one of the main reasons people do it is because they believe

40

eryone’s right. We should support everyone that tries to live with peace, faith, happiness so to create our peace all together. To fight fear and discrimination, everyone should meet this persons coming to different countries, to understand their reasons, their expectation, their dreams for their lives and their families.

Travel

Out Of The Borders

Wild beauty - Montenegro

by Marta Martinović

Nature is characterized by a great variety of colours that portray beautiful landscapes all

around the globe. One typical example of the beautiful way that nature mixes those colours very artistically and uniquely is Montenegro: a small country, located in southeastern Europe, bordering with five states and having the Adriatic Sea at its west. Montenegro conceals its natural wealth, beauty, magnificent beaches, clear lakes, wild rivers and remarkable mountains.

Travelling to the north of the country you will get a chance to experience the beauty of untouched nature. You can take a walk around Black Lake in Durmitor National Park or discover lake Biograd, located in the heart of the Biogradska Gora National Park and surrounded by the magnificent virgin forest. You can also visit one of the premium attraction in Prokletije National Park - Ali Pasha Springs – a peaceful place with spectacular nature.

Black Lake, Durmitor National Park

© Marta Martinović

Moving towards the central part of the coun-

try you will encounter many green and quite villages nearby the lake Skadar, surrounded by gold coloured cornfields and grey coloured rocky landscapes. The most important of those villages are Rijeka Crnojevića, Vranjina, Virpazar and Murići.

Vranjina, Skadar Lake, National Park © Marta Martinović

The

Durmitor National Park

© Marta Martinović

most famous pilgrim place in Montenegro is Ostrog Monastery, which is located above the Bjelopavlic valley. It was built during the 17th century, and till today it is believed to have magical powers and gets visitors from all religious backgrounds. Last stop in central Montenegro will be the Njegos Mausoleum, which is the highest mausoleum on earth.

From the blue of the sea to the green-grey of the mountain Lovcen, the Njegos Mausoleum is a circular viewpoint and visitors can have an unforgettable experience of nature and a breathtaking view.

41

Out Of The Borders Travel

Kotor, Boka Bay

© Marta Martinović

Moving to the south part of Montenegro, we find

the most touristic and visited places in the country. The most popular of them are Kotor, Budva, Ulcinj, Bar and Petrovac. Kotor is one of the most famous attractions for tourists, with lots of churches, museums and colourful squares and of course the Venetian palaces, built centuries ago in the city.

Petrovac, Budva

© Marta Martinović

surrounded by ancient walls, or visit near favorite places like Sveti Stefan, St. Nicholas Island, Petrovac.. with beautiful beaches, the blue color of the sea and the gold color of the sand connect and create a magnificent and chilling view that make visitors stare, relax and enjoy.

The contrasting and stunning wild and raw beauty

In the heart of the Adriatic coast of Montenegro, of Montenegro is characterized by the crystal sea Budva is the place for an unforgettable holiday. and the giant black mountains, the peaceful lakes You can take a walk in Budva’s Old Town complex and the rapid rivers. Come to share it with us!

Ponte Veslo, Luštica

42

© Marta Martinović

Food

Spices

Out Of The Borders

by Esra Han

Colours in our kitchen

With sweet, sour and bitter varieties, the colorful spices that decorate our tables have tak-

en place in almost all countries throughout history. Even the oldest civilizations in history used spices such as thyme, cumin and pepper.

In addition to this, spices were also used by the for colds and coughing; moreover minimizes a communities for therapeutic purposes. The gener- toothache and relieves lousy mouth odour. al benefits of spice can be summarized as follows: Finally, it is worthwhile to give a few helpful sug• It has no calories and can be used for weight gestions on the use of spices: control.

• It is more accurate to buy less spice when pur• Accelerates metabolism and regulates the di- chasing it. So you have prevented it from losgestive system. ing its freshness.

• Eliminates the need for dessert and reduces its • Keep the spices you buy in glass jars or in a use.

plastic bag that does not spoil the moisture.

What are the spices we see the most in our • It will be one of the most useful storage methkitchens and what are the benefits of these spices? I chose five most popular spices for you.

Let’s start with red pepper. It is known that the

ods you can apply when preserving spices in dark places and remote areas or just put them on the shelf of the fridge.

red pepper will accelerate the metabolism due to Once you have mastered herbs and spices, for the substance it contains and make it easier to sure, you will enjoy cooking a lot more than belose weight. fore. By the way it is still important to explore spices and know when to use them better and to Black pepper; another spice that we use a lot in our advantage. our soups, is known to increase body resistance in diseases such as influenza and colds.

Thyme, which enters the group of fragrant spices, is being used a lot in meat dishes. Thyme has the effect of relieving settle and lowering cholesterol.

Cinnamon, which we often used to use in desserts, helps to reduce the need for sugar in the body.

Mint I think is used in almost every kitchen

and it helps to reduce nausea. It is also useful

Shop in Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

© Dimitris Ballotta

43

Mix Fix Art

POP ART & Keith Haring

by Eglė Puodžiūnaitė

Dots, lines, colorful, vivid, revolutionary, shocking, intimate, personal, public, social; probably a dictionary of synonyms is not enough to describe POP art. Visually powerful compositions and simple messages attract human eyes in two seconds. POP art has remained its traditions through history thus far influential till current days.

I would like to introduce you to one of the most

important icons in the art world - American artist and activist Keith Haring. Even though you may hear this name first time in your life probably his art style fingerprints are noticeable in contemporary mass production.

POP art name derives from the English word

popular it has been influenced by music, fashion, mass culture, comic books, advertising. Formed in the early 50s as an active movement against consumerism, capitalism, elite; has brought art out of borders to streets.

“Art is for everybody” — Keith Haring

44

Art

Mix Fix

couraged his artistic skills development from the very early childhood. This talented boy started his artist path copying comics, cartoons and Walt Disney production on television.

One of these rebellious fighters was Keith Har-

After two years at Pittsburg‘s Ivy School of Professional Art, he quit studies of commercial art.

Later on, for a few years, he focused on the development of his own style. In 1978 he moved to New York to study painting at the School of Visual Arts. Life in a metropolitan city encouraged him to show his works in public spaces, finally, the first time his artworks were recognized in metro stations. He made drawings on advertisement backboards with white chalk.

ing who formed a unique style; it has vivid colors, bold lines, moving electrified figures, simple compositions with direct messages. The Radian Baby became his name tag. The main character is a human body, however, remain genderless, nationless figures dancing in the air or moving to accidental directions. Every single drawing has an attractive story inside craving for the viewer to dive into his world.

He was born in 1958 Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

Haring‘s father was an engineer and amateur cartoonist who was the first teacher who en-

45

Mix Fix Art

After this, successfully infiltrated the personal

art style inside the city graffiti life he continued to work with paint and brushes on big size walls. People fell in love with his simple compositions, Haring made more over 50 drawings in public spaces, hospitals, and day care centers.

Also, participated in many exhibitions and art biennials like Sao Paulo Biennial, Paris Biennial, Documenta 7 Germany, Whitney Biennial etc. He was a human rights activist and openly gay in

public; some series of the drawings directly address the message for safe sex. Keith Haring left this world in 1990 however his artworks are recognized everywhere. Last decades many artists and amateurs were inspired by his personality, uniqueness, artworks, perhaps you have just become one of them.

46

Poetry

Mix Fix

A gift from Greece to the world: Yiannis Ritsos

by Hande Yetkin

There come to the words first which give a start to every other thing in the world; then

the life becomes a see that is full of letters. Letters make lines for all the things in our hearts that we don’t easily say them when the mouths are open. The ones who wrote down those lines would become lifelong heroes for whole humanity.

Portrait of Yiannis Ritsos

Yiannis Ritsos is a complete genius who can

play with those letters maybe more than anyone else in Greek literature. His way of using words is undeniably unique and pure. One of the great examples of his technique can be observed in a

© Unknown

poem called “The Meaning of Simplicity” which was written in 1946. In contrary to his approach to the term ‘love’, that is deep and heavy to handle by an ordinary person, the way he chose to write his emotions down in a simple way.

47

Mix Fix Poetry

“I am behind simple things, hiding, so that you may find me; if you do not find me, you will find the things, will touch what I touched with my hand; the tracks of our hands will converge. …

Each word is an outlet for a meeting (often postponed) The word is real when it insists upon the meeting.”

time when widespread industrial action and protests rocked Greece. One, a rally by striking tobacco workers in Thessaloniki, ended in bloodshed, with 12 dead, among them, 25-year-old Tassos Tousis.

When Ritsos saw the photo of Tousis’ dead body and his mother crying behind, a very famous work of him was born. Insanely, he wrote the first fourteen part of Epitaphs in two days without eating and sleeping. In my point of view, the most awkward part of the poem was this line below:

Just close your eyes for a moment and try to imag-

ine a mother, a Mediterranean mother that is wholly dedicated herself to her son; and a 25 years old boy that is laying down in front of this mother with his eyelids that is not going to look at her face again.

What a tragedy! By the hands of Ritsos, it was pure and direct. It was in the way that is had to be.

As it barely seems, this simple statement about Every single word that is written by him became a simplicity is enough to cover the complexity lurking behind Ritsos’ feelings. Apart from his love-based works, he was periodically banned because of his left-wing contents. He became a member of the Greek Communist Party in 1934, the year that he published his first collection of poems. Those poems were the representative of his socialist philosophy and his personal suffering. One of the greatest examples of his socialist poems were coming from our beloved city, Thessaloniki. It was May 1936, a

48

legend in years. His life consists of 100 poem collections and compositions, 9 novels, 4 plays and several studies that translated in 40 languages.

This means for sure that he is a gift, from Greece to the world, and his memory will remain forever.

“How is it that your eyes are closed and you do not see me cry?”

Interesting Facts about the world

Mix Fix

STRANGE CONNECTIONS - Humans Decisions

by Cristi Lupu

We are born, we live, we die. Nothing disappears, everything is just transforming. But

changing by itself or we are changing? What is humans action impact upon “the natural way” of life and how it would be IF...?!

666” – tell me the first thing that comes to your

mind when you read those three digits. We all know the esoteric meaning of it, we believe in it more or less, but mainly it’s not a positive thing.

Well, it stands for LIFE first of all – 6 protons, 6 neutrons, 6 electrons of CARBON, the chemical element from Mendeleev periodic table on what our life is based on. So, because all of us come from the ground, in the end, there is where we have the carbon from, and it is one of the reasons for our existence. EARTH – a planet who is capable of sustaining life, to provide from it’s deepest © Unknown grounds to keep us alive. SUN – a huge star that were using a massive amount of carbon, but it is “alive” – burning because it has carbon in it. was only the beginning, there was lots of coal in I live in Thessaloniki for almost six months now, the ground, it was a new beginning, no one cared and I see here what I’ve also seen in other countries or even thought that maybe, at some moment it in Europe – sunny days, heat, high temperatures will just finish. And then petrol, and so on.

during the day and thunderstorms in the evening.

There are 250 years since we are taking resources And Greek people around me told me – that’s not from the ground to use, to move, to cook, to heat what it used to be. From where the change is comin the winter, to do individual sports and so on. On ing? Beside that “everything is changing”. the other side, it became the most important thing In my view, the kickstart point was in 1698 when to have nowadays, and people start to be killed, Denis Pepin invented the “under pressure steam wars were fought, futuristic inventions to replace barrel”, which lead to the most significant inven- those needs without using ground resources have tion (or not?) of James Watt – the Steam Engine been forced more or less to remain quiet. in 1784. From this point, we needed only a small step to the world to face an entire Industrial Revolution – that moment since nothing was the same, the new era. The Sun is burning because of carbon reactions, people found a new and faster way to move, to travel, to move them from one place to another, trains appeared. They

250 years of taking the carbon from the ground in different ways and releasing in the atmosphere CO2 – that’s the most long-term human action that ends up now seeing the results of our efforts in our life, in storms and “natural” disasters. So, is this “666” who gave us birth in the first place, the one that is gonna lead to our extinction?

49

Mix Fix Comics

Raintasters & Mother Storm

50

Comics

Mix Fix

Drawings by Filip Grรกc

51

Eglė Puodžiūnaitė | 27 years old

Cristi Lupu | 25 years old

Staying in Greece for 1 year, until February 2019.

Staying in Greece for 1 year, until February 2019.

Favorite topics are travel, culture and eco life.

Favorite topics are travel, technology and miscellaneous.

Giada Russo | 20 years old

Oznur Coşar | 26 years old

Staying in Greece for 6 months, until October.

Staying in Greece for 6 months, until August.

Favorite topics are languages, culture and travel.

Favorite topics are culture, history and food.

Laura Samuilytė | 21 years old

Hande Yetkin | 22 years old Staying in Greece for 10 months until​July.

Staying in Greece for 1 year, until February 2019.

Favorite topics are music, diving and photography.

Favorite topics are music, travel and sports.

Claudia Maria Cornea | 25 years old

Dimitris Ballotta | 20 years old

Staying in Greece for 1 year, until February 2019.

Staying in Greece for 6 months, until October.

Favorite topics are filmmaking, travel and photography.

Favorite topics are filmmaking, photography and travel.

Ahmet Şahin | 23 years old

Bar​ış​Yü​ksel | 27 years old Staying in Greece for 10 months until July.

Staying in Greece for 6 months, until August.

Favorite topics are sociology, History and cinema.

Favorite topics are music, social issues and political issues.

Guests

Filip Grác | 30 years old Staying in Greece for 1 year, until January.

Favorite topics are culture, History and art.

General Directors: Editors: Aristodimos Paraschou Baris Yuksel Christian Cibba Eglė Puodžiūnaitė Giada Russo Graphic Designer: Alexandros Tagaridis

Find us: www.balkanhotspot.org Usb_ngo.gr

Esra Han

Liam Jochems

Marta Martinovic

The volunteers responsible for this publication are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European ERASMUS+ Programme, European Voluntary Service. This project has been funded with support from the European Commision. This publication [communication] reflects the views of only of the author, and the Commision can not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.