#gemsofgreece

[gemsofgreece]

Okay this is very stupid but I can’t find one of the few posts I am actually lowkey proud of making. It was an answer to an ask about similarities between real Greece and Assassin’s Creed representation. (Yes that’s the one I am proud of, what about it) I have tried all possible keywords and all searches and I can’t find it. Should anyone ever come across it, please tag me or give me the link to my own post lol 😅😅😅

[samodivas]

♡, ✓ ? (from gemsofgreece 😘)

♡ : which languages do you speak/have you learned in school?

Other than Bulgarian, I've studied English, Russian, French, and Italian. I wanted to gain fluency in each of those at some point but only English stuck 😅

✓ : funniest word in your language

Off the top of my head, „пльок“ (plyok) is the word for splat, like the sound something makes when it just... squishes, or falls and splatters somewhere.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Blog recommendations

Many of the other useless-[country]facts blogs are inactive now, though you can still find years of content on their blogs. The ones that are still sometimes active with new posts (to different extents) are:

@useless-austriafacts

@useless-bulgariafacts

@useless-denmarkfacts

@useless-englandfacts

@useless-polandfacts

@useless-switzerlandfacts

and of course me :D

(I hope I'm not forgetting anyone, please let me know if I am!)

Considering that the other ones aren’t active anymore, I thought I could compile a list of blogs about cultures from around the world that I like and that people who follow this blog might be interested in.

From East to West approximately:

@lotusinjadewell - beautiful photos of historical and modern places, traditions, food, and traditional and modern fashion from Vietnam.

@nonrussian and @thenuclearmallard - about the Indigenous peoples of the Russian federation.

@russianfolklore - legends and folklore from Russia.

@womanlifefreedom - updates, translations and art from the 2022 Iran revolution and following events.

@ancientegyptdaily - art and archaeology from Ancient Egypt. 

@harminuya - culture, history, art and current events from Armenia (and Artsakh)

@gemsofgreece - photos, history and more from Greece.

@arbenia - photography, culture and recent history of Albania.

@unofficial-estonia - culture, history and recently mostly news and jokes from Estonia.

@urluch-in-dla-nebia - languages, music and photos from Lombardy, Switzerland, Piedmont, Trentino and South Tyrol. 

@unofficial-aragon - culture and photos from Aragon. 

@beautiful-basque-country - culture, places, photos and some current events from the Basque Country.

@knario47 - history and current events from the Canary Islands (blog in Spanish).

@haitianhistory - history from Haiti.

@fuckyeahmexico - Mexico (blog mostly in Spanish, sometimes in English, but mostly photos).

[folkfashion]

do you have any blogs like yours that you would recommend? that share culture and cultural fashion? <33 i’ll take anything!

Hi ! Okay I'll try to make a list on the top of my head : @polishfolklore (poland) @gemsofgreece (greece) @fuckyeahchinesefashion (china) @songs-of-the-east (eastern europe and ex-ussr countries and regions) @norwayandsapmi (well, norway and sapmi) @vintage-ukraine (ukraine) @jaffababe (west asia) @useless-catalanfacts (catalonia) And that's just the few I think of right now, if anyone wants to add any or have one don't hesitate. I'll maybe update the ask if I remember some others

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Studying Attic Greek at uni with a bunch of pretencious people who base their personalities on The Secret History really is something! Forgive me for being judgmental, but they make it very hard to not be lol (I do keep my judgements to myself ofc) I tried to hide my greekness at first, but my teacher quickly picked up on my accent and called me out in front of the others. It’s just so hard to lose the accent when there are so many similarities with modern Greek! 😅 He was positive about it tho thankfully and encouraged me to keep the accent if it was more comfortable for me, emphasizing that the Erasmian pronunciation is just a convention and used to differentiate between ancient and modern language. The students however are not so positive and love to compare ancient Athens to the modern city and lament Greece´s conversion to christianity. As if it is somehow a degeneration of the «perfect» Ancient Greece. I let them talk, but inside I am rolling my eyes hard lol

Uuuugh the Secret History type of students get on my nerves. The lament about Christianity is the most condescending thing ever 🤦‍♀️ It undermines the thousands and thousands of Greeks who turned into the faith willingly, and also dismisses the slander and crimes of the Polytheists against the Christians. And it completely disregards the fact that many ancient Polytheist customs got into the Christian worship and Greek Orthodoxy is a distinctly Greek way to worship, with an anthropocentric character.

Of course same thing with how Greece has "devolved" over the years 🤦‍♀️ In their minds our achievements in all other eras don't matter just because our statues and columns are of a different style after 2.000 years. Huge yikes.

I'd say don't be afraid to let them know about the history of Greece (because as gemsofgreece once notes, this period wasn't actually good for all Greeks) and let them understand that they're not respectful to the culture when they treat it like an object to obsess over. Just say it to 2-3 people and I'm sure it will spread xD Or just slip little details here and there of all the similarities and how the language and customs have evolved. What's the worst that can happen if you don't keep the judgement to yourself, ya know? They already behave like airheads and you don't have to remain silent if you're boiling on the inside.

I am so glad that your professor spoke about the true use of the Erasmian and encouraged you to keep your Greek accent when reading.. Greek! xD He did the bare minimum but still it would be unfair to not give him credit for being sensible. I don't get too many stories like this on my asks.

[attichoney4u]

Part 1

Tag yourself: @margaretkart, @kebriones, @gemsofgreece, @stavrakas, @alatismeni-theitsa, @purple-amaranthe, @alalumin, @sugaroto, @wordsmithic, @gunsandcherries, @milkyway-onlyway, @scribl1ta, @juliensorelapologist, @crispyliza, @mouldy-cheese-error.

[gemsofgreece]

I am a little unsure regarding what I should post the next few days - I know in several places abroad the moment Christmas Day is over the mood is over. In Greece, however, Santa Claus (Saint Basil actually) comes in New Year's Day and the decorations are taken down in January 7th, after the Epiphany, so it will be still totally relevant if I keep posting Christmas-y stuff...

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi Theitsa😊 hope you are having a good day 🌿 I was wondering if there are any cultural differences between mainland Greece and the islands? Is the mainland more culturally similar to other balkan countries?

Hello! I also delayed answering this because the answer to this would be huge, and I decided to narrow it down. To put it simply, Greece doesn't have "islands". Greece has "clusters of islands" and depending on the cluster, the culture and history can be different. The history and sub-culture of the Heptanese is veeery different from that of the Dodecanese.

The mainland is more similar to other Balkan countries than say, Crete, however the islands close to the mainland also have this Balkan culture.

Sorry that I couldn't give more specific info but a more targeted question would help me to narrow it down. If you want to learn something more specific, let me know! But the internet is also a good place to search about the history of these island clusters and get a general idea about influences from other countries. Is there any cluster or island that interests you in particular?

@gemsofgreece has the regions nicely categorised in her blog. I also have the respective tags #crete , #cyclades and so on if you want to take a look.

[attichoney4u]

Tag yourself modern Greek city edition

Tagging: @alatismeni-theitsa, @sugaroto, @gemsofgreece, @margaretartstuff, @kebriones, @purple-amaranthe, @redhatmeg, @istadris

[gemsofgreece]

The Heptanese page is now complete!

Hehe I am making some progress lately! On my blog’s menu you can find the option “The Regions” which features basic information about all the regions of Greece.

The Heptanese is the latest region page that I have completed.

Other complete Region Pages:

Macedonia

Epirus

Thessaly

Sterea Hellas

Peloponnese

Crete 

Cyclades

Incomplete Region Pages:

Thrace

Dodecanese

Not-started yet -_- :

Islands of the Northeastern Aegean (getting there!)

Just like I mentioned in the last update, I go back and edit occasionally even the complete ones because sometimes I find out about new sights or I decorate these pages with Creative Commons pictures which often don’t make the places justice so I am always on the lookout for better options. Now I intent to edit them for better image positioning within the page.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hello! I'm not Greek (or European, or American) and only recently took an interest in the mythology—admittedly because of an American work—but I just wanted to say this blog was very educational for me! I actually grew up disliking the popular mythology that now I know was being filtered through non-Greek perspectives (PJO, LO, Madeline Miller, etc.), so getting to learn what an actual Greek person thinks has been very enlightening and helped me redirect my dislike towards the proper target: Americans 😭

Can I ask if you know other Greek bloggers or youtubers who talk about history, the culture, and the mythology? Or life in the modern day? Research is one thing but I enjoy personal perspectives a lot, to get to know other cultures better through the people. I only know you and gemsofgreece so far, and most of the stuff on youtube/google are focused on tourism and "pop mythology" sadly. It is hard to search when you can't speak or type in Greek 😂

(P.S. what people do to Demeter in fandom sucks so much :(( it makes me sad)

Hii! I'm very glad the content of this blog was enlightening and you're with us in this anger 😄 #modern greece and #tourism might be tags I have that could be useful to you in what you look for.

Usually no one listens to Greeks so our content rarely has English subs 😂 For Tumblr blogs you can try @thrassa @wordsmithic @greek-mythologies @margaretkart @purple-amaranthe. On Youtube and instagram check archaeostoryteller and The Mythologist ! The Mythologist sometimes has English subs, archaeostoryteller doesn't most of the time :/ But archaeostoryteller , Dr. Theodoros Papakostas has books that will soon be translated in English. This archaeologist has a pop style approach to our history (some dislike this) but he never leaves any details outside of the story and I find him quite balanced. Him and The Mythologist have rekindled many Greeks' passion for our history.

[kelseythelinguist]

For anyone looking to improve their Greek or Greek cultural studies, the University of Athens has many online courses in English by local professors. Tagging @gemsofgreece and @alatismeni-theitsa in case your non-Greek followers are interested.

[gwensparlour]

That Princess Mononoke scene but make it greek hero and angry soon-to-be sea wife

(Thanks to @gemsofgreece to have helped me with the translation! because go big or go home)

[anistrange]

MEME GREEK TIME

So @alatismeni-theitsa and I were talking about the current state of weather in Greece and apparently Athens is famous for overreact to extreme snow, so we decided to make a meme.

@gemsofgreece @thrassa I apologize in advance if someone here is Athenian 🤭⛄❄

DISCLAIMER: I live in a country where snow it's impossible to happen, I would honestly overreact tbh

[alatismeni-theitsa]

@gemsofgreece it's the point of view that does it 😂

Athens, Greece by Milan Gonda

[gemsofgreece]

whats your main blog?

My main blog is meta writing and casual posting about my favourite movies, shows etc but then also random things I find interesting. It has nothing to do with Greece, travelling, culture, history etc

Idk I don’t feel like saying the name of my blog. If you are interested in the fandoms I am active in the most, chances are you will see my blog floating around in your dash / recommendations sooner or later so…