GREECE is part of the Balkan Peninsula in mainland Europe. It has a total land area of 131,990 square kilometers, making it the 96th largest country in the world. It has a population of about 11 million people making it the 74th most populous country in the world with a population density of 84 persons per square kilometer. Greece has one of the oldest civilizations in Europe and even in the world with proofs that the first settlement there began 3,000 years before Jesus’ birth. Its current prime minister is Kostas Karamanlis. It is bordered with Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, Turkey and the Aegean Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west.

Since Greece is a member of the Schengen Agreement, some of its land borders do not have outposts in them and any citizen from any European country which is a member of the agreement can pass through whether by bus, by car rental or through a car one privately owns. And being a member of the European Union, Greece doesn’t need visas from its visitors from other European countries.

The most convenient way to come here of course is through the Athens International Airport. It handles some 15 million passengers annually and it even has its own shopping mall inside the airport campus. The shopping center offers first class restaurants offering authentic Greek cuisine. This is sort of your appetizer upon coming to this very cosmopolitan country. Athens International Airport is so technologically enhanced that it employs two robots to handle luggage detection duties. Among the international destinations it services are Dublin, Moscow, Kiev, Munich, Nuremberg, Beijing, Dubai, Madrid, Paris, Bologna, Naples, Rome, Tirana, Venice, Helsinki, Marseille, London, Brussels, Newark, Atlanta, New York, Berlin, Milan, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Tbilisi, Bonn, Stuttgart, Sofia, Barcelona, Warsaw, Kuwait City, Budapest, Beirut, Islamabad, Lahore, Jeddah, Riyadh, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amman, Doha, Oslo, Geneva, Zurich, Damascus, Istanbul, Philadelphia, Tunis and Bangkok. Among the international passenger airliners making a stop there are those owned by Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, Air China, British Airways, Delta, El Al, Finnair, KLM and many others. Other international airports in Greece to enter to are Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Corfu. By train, there are daily trips coming from Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Istanbul and other European cities.

There are also international bus services coming from Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey. And then there are ferries too coming from Italy, Turkey, Alexandria, Cyprus and Haifa in northern Israel. If you have your own car, you can transport your cars through ferries from Italy. But when coming to Greece, be sure to book a hotel ahead before attempting to change billeting locations to an apartment for instance if you’re on a longer staying period like schooling. That’s because Greece is so beautiful a country that tourists never cease going there throughout the year, not just during summer times. Speaking of seasons, Greece is classified into having three climates – dry, temperate and cold. In the alpine areas, it is cold and in the southern part of the country, the weather is temperate. Dryness occurs at the Aegean Islands.