Are you hungry? Today with the help of my grandmother I will give you a recipe of Mousaka (Μουσακάς). This is one of the most known food we have and one of the “must eat” once you visit Greece. This food requires a lot of efforts and time to be cooked. So, here we are:

Ingredients (Yλικά) for 8-10 portions (size of the oven pan 25×35):

6 aubergines (μελιτζάνες)

Oil (λάδι) to fry the aubergines
700gr minced beef (κιμά μοσχαρίσιο)
1 big onion (κρεμμύδι) finely sliced
1 glass of white wine (λευκό κρασί), not retsina!
1 coffee cup olive oil (ελαιόλαδο)
1 big spoon tomato paste (πελτέ ντομάτας)
1 bay leaf (φύλλο δάφνης)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (κανέλα)
4  grains of allspice(μπαχάρι)
salt (αλάτι) and pepper(πιπέρι)

For the Bechamel Sauce (μπεσαμέλ):
3 big spoons fresh butter (βούτυρο)
4 big spoons flour (αλεύρι)
2 water glasses of milk (γάλα)
2 eggs (αβγά)
1 pinch of nutmeg (μοσχοκάρυδο)
1 tea cup grated Kasseri cheese  (κασσέρι)
salt and pepper

Method:

Remove the stems from the aubergines and cut lengthways into thick slices of 1 cm. Salt them and put them in a colander for ½ hour. Take them out, squeeze gently, rinse, and then squeeze them again.Fry them (or shallow-fry them) until they become pale golden on both sides. Afterwards, drain them on absorbent paper to remove the most of their oil

Prepare the minced meat. In a big pan, heat the olive oil and sautee the chopped onion until it looks glistening. Add the meat and sautee together, stirring, until the meat starts to change color. Add the white wine. Cook the mixture until the wine evaporates. Dissolve the tomato paste in some water and then add it into the meat.  Put the bay leaf, cinnamon, allspice, pepper and salt. Stir and cook until all liquid evaporate and minced meat is dried. Let it cool.

Prepare the sauce. Heat the fresh butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook until it become darker  and add the hot milk while stirring continuously . Once the sauce thickens, remove from heat and add the nutmeg, a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper. Add the cheese and stir, then add the eggs and stir quickly until they are absorbed by the rest of the mixture. Let it wait.

Take a roasting container and put to the bottom create a layer with the slices of eggplant placing them very close without leaving any gaps. Pour over the meat and move it to go everywhere and then do a second layer with the remaining slices of the eggplant. Pour the Bechamel sauce and straighten it with a knife. Then you bake it in the oven for about 1 hour until a golden crust is formed on top. Before cutting into pieces the Moussaka let it sit for ½ hour.

One of the most beautiful and adventurous journeys by train, is being offered to the passengers of the Kalavrita (Καλάβρυτα) rack railway for many decades. The small and flexible train (τρένο) of this route has the ability to “climb” up, defying the steep slopes (απότομες πλαγιές) which can reach a gradient of 17.5% !

The railway is single line with just 75 cm gauge which covers a route of 22,3km. Within this route there are three sections with Abt system rack for a total of 3.8 km. Maximum speed is 40 km/h for adhesion sections and 12 km/h for rack sections.

Departing (αναχωρόντας) from the seaside town of Diakopto (Διακοπτό) and following the footsteps of Vouraikos (Βουραϊκός) river, the train crosses the gorge of Vouraikos and ends after 65 minutes to the beautiful and historic town of Kalavryta, located 720 meters above the sea. The route passes through numerous tunnels, bridges, large and small waterfalls and breathtaking scenery. Kalavryta region is a tourist resort for all seasons with visitors around the world. This is historical place with the unrivaled natural beauty has the most organized ski centers in the country.
The construction of the railway network began in 1889 and took 5 years to be completed. The little train is so well integrated into the natural environment (περιβάλλον), that is seems like it was always there. The method of construction was friendly to the ecosystem of the gorge (φαράγγι). With wood and stone taken from the very same area, the technicians of that time did such a good work that you think that all these have been made by the nature (φύση) itself.
In 2003 an extensive reconstruction of the network has begun, modernizing its lines and improving the ease of the travel. In the conventional sections of the route the rails have been replaced completely and the steel bridges were reinforced. Nowadays the railcars of the Swiss company STADLER are used which are the most modern and safe railcars of this form ready to accommodate 110 passengers.

Enjoy the ride!

source : Railway Friends Association web page.

Most of you know that the very first digital computer was developed between 1940 and 1945. Yes this is true, but what about the first computing machine we know today?

This is about the Antikythera mechanism (Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων) which has been dated to the early 1st century BCE. This mechanism was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers (σφουγγαράδες) in a ship wreck (ναυάγιο) in the island of Antikythera. It took decades for the scientists (επιστήμονες) to understand its significance and its complexity. The mechanism (μηχανισμός) is the oldest known scientific calculator which is valued as the first analog computer.

The device is consisted of 3 main dials (one at the front and two at the back) and 32 gears which rotate about 10 axes. Its complexity and miniaturization is competitive to clocks made as late as in the 19^th Century. This advanced device was able to calculate for a given date the position of the sun, the moon, the location of the planets and other astronomical information like eclipse prediction.

In 1951 theBritish science historian Derek J. de Solla Price started to study systematically (συστηματικά) the mechanism. He published (δημοσίευσε) several papers on his investigation with the most important in 1974 named “Gears from the Greeks: the Antikythera mechanism — a calendar (ημερολόγιο) computer from ca. 80 BCE” where he presented a model on how the mechanism could have functioned.

The first model of the Antikythera Mechanism was built in the 1930s by Ioannis Theofanides. After that time several models have been built based on new data. A Research team lead by professors John H. Seiradakis and Kyriakos Efstathiou is developing the most recent model of the Mechanism at the University of Thessaloniki which is based on the new results and the latest gearing diagram from the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.

Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University has said: “This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully … in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa”.