“For us Greeks, Greece is a synonym for the sunburned shores and the light blue open seas that are accompanied with the spume of the waves. The brunette or medium-blonde girls, the whitewashed little houses and the little taverns and the night singing under a plain tree or while watching the moon being embraced by the seashore. Greece is our fathers and grandfathers, our ancestors, who, with a riffle in their hand, had only one thing in mind: the fight for freedom.” 

*Extract from Odysseas Elytis’ speech, dedicated to the Greek people who live in Sweden, after the Nobel Prize award ceremony.