Shortcut to Europe was the title of this year’s European Day celebration including both the EU Embassies Open House and the added EU Cultural Week.

For the EU Open House all of the EU Embassies in Washington DC and the EU Commission Delegation opened their doors to the public on Saturday May 3^rd from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. They hired 25 buses that transported visitors to embassy premises. People from all age groups, professional backgrounds and ethnicities "traveled" to Europe in a one day free trip and without the need for a passport.   The web site: www.europe-in-dc.com was specifically designed to provide information about this event.

The Embassy of Greece welcomed more than 5.000 visitors from May 3-10 during the EU Open House and the EU Cultural Week. This year we opened two of our buildings located on 2217 and 2221 Massachusetts Ave. on Sheridan Circle. One over-a-century old historic building and one new building of modern architecture were transformed into buzzing centers. Washingtonians and visitors from many other U.S States waited patiently under the sun in the long queue.

Visitors were received first in the new building, the Chancery, where an exhibition of the New Acropolis Museum was presented along with a video that showed the excavations of the site, the construction and the moving of ancient sculptures by crane, from the Parthenon to the New Acropolis Museum.

After viewing the exhibition and the video, visitors moved to the next building where they had the chance to see its 19^th century architecture. A variety of Greek foods and products were presented and offered, while a video on Greece highlighted beautiful landscapes from the islands and the mainland. Young students performed traditional Greek dances. Personnel of the Embassy, interns and volunteers greeted our visitors and provided information along with tourist, economic, business and cultural materials on Greece and the European Union.

The EU Cultural Week continued with the exhibition and video of the New Acropolis Museum and a special screening of the film “Biography: Maria Callas” courtesy of the History Channel.

Our events were featured in Washington Post’s May 2^nd, 2008 “Weekend” edition.

We would like to thank all our guests for traveling to Greece with us on that sunny Saturday morning and we hope that we were able to provide a small sample of the famous, since ancient times, Greek hospitality.

To receive information on Greek Cultural Events, please subscribe at our list serve send an email to: info@greekculture.us.

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