It is a peninsular and mountainous country situated in southeast Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, with a total area of 130.800 km2. The country is surrounded by the sea. The greek islands represent one fifth of the country’s area. Greece has about 1400 greek islands of which 169 are inhabited. The majority of the islands are scattered in the Aegean Sea between the Greek and Turkish coasts.
Greece has a population of 10,610,000 (2000) of which 3.7 million are located in Athens, the country’s capital.
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The conventional names of the country are Ellas or Hellada or Elliniki Dimocratia (Hellenic Republic).
The democratic Greek system is working like a parliamentary republic with a president as the head of the state.
The actual head of government is the Prime Minister Karamanlis and the chief of state is the President Konstandinos Stephanopoulos
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220 volts AC, 50Hz. Round two-pin plugs are used. North American require a transformer and British an adaptor.
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Greece is one of the poorest countries in the European Union, even though its economy has improved after the EU’s single currency (the euro) and the country’s preparation for the Olympic Games. Greece is an agricultural country. 22% of the workforce is employed for agriculture, 27% in the industry sector and 50 % in the services.
The sector of tourism, hotels, travel and shipping contribute the most to economy.
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Greek is the unique language of the country but most of the people connected to tourism and the younger generations currently use English at a good level and sometimes German, Italian or French.
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98% of the Greek population belongs to the Orthodox Church. The rest of the Greek population is Roman Catholic, Muslim and Jewish. Russia is the only other country with such a proportion of Orthodox. The Orthodox Church forms the third largest branch of Christianity.
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GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).
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The network coverage is quite good in most parts of the country except from some areas like mountains and in some small islands. The main operators are Vodafone, Cosmote, Telestet and Q.
Internet is available in all the cities of Greece and in the touristic areas (islands).
Greece is the European country with the bigger number of newspapers. There are 18 daily newspapers in Athens. Foreign press can be found in cities and popular islands.
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The Public services are opened from 08.00 to 14.00 from Monday to Friday. The private companies are opened from 09.00 till 17.00.
The shops are opened Monday-Wednesday- Saturday from 09.00 to 15.00 and Tuesday-Thursday-Friday from 09.00 to 14.00 and 17.00 to 08.00.
These shops’ working hours highly differ in the touristy areas, where some shops remain open all day long and sometimes until late at night.
In August 2004, the Olympic Games are going to return to their birth country, Greece. Athletes from over 200 countries will join Athens during 17 days in August 2004.
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Greece also proposes many event especialy during the summer. The famous "Athens Festival" organises concerts and theatrical scenes in the famous theatre of Herodes Atticus and Epidaurus.
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