deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The Hellenic Republic (the official name of Greece.) A country located in southeast Europe. The largest city is Athens with the second largest being Thessaloniki. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basinand the 11th longest coastline in the world

The earliest human activity in this section of the Balkans is estimated at 270,000 BC. Greece has been at the center of every imaginable world event. It has had almost every type of government. It has been involved in all major European conflicts for hundreds of years. We are actually in the Third Hellenic Republic.

The current flag, adopted in 1978 is commonly called ‘The Blue and White’. It consists of 9 horizontal stripes of blue and alternating white. In the canton, hoist side, there is a blue background with a white cross. (Colors are blue for the sea, white for the sky. The white cross in the canton represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The 9 stripes stand for the 9 syllables of the phrase: “Freedom Or Death”).