Ilias I. Katsos with Petro Doukas the Mayor of Sparta, and also the President of ICC Hellas International Chamber of Commerce

Petro Doukas the Mayor of Sparta, and also the President of ICC Hellas International Chamber of Commerce, wanted to meet with me even though I had to cancel our lunch date in Georgitsi on Wednesday to go back to Athens. Regardless of whether it was kind of crazy (nothing new) , based on time lines, we coordinated to meet in Sparta and I’m glad I went. I discussed with him and his Deputy Mayors the possibility of making the major Georgitsi old school into a museum (with a conceptual plan on how to do it) as well as helping with some of Sparta’s various planned Hellenic Revolution Bicentennial events. I have great respect for him, besides other things, as a scholar who has written a few books. He was a great panelist last August in EMBCA's “2,500th Year Anniversary of The Battle of Thermopylae and Salamis Commemoration ” that I had with other world recognized scholars on the subject.

 I am back in New York and would like to thank everyone I met in Hellas , relatives, friends & newly discovered friends, and associates for your filotimo, love, interesting & challenging discussions, and in some cases debates. Although I was in Hellas a week mainly for the AHEPA Convention within that week I probably traveled over 1,000 km meeting with relatives in Kalamata, wonderful priests, government officials and great new mutual historical collaborators in Argos, Mayors/ Deputy Mayors in Sparta for other collaborations and I could go on and on. In Athens I had a wonderful intellectual, theoretical and in some cases bareknuckle experience of meeting with various AHEPA Brothers from around Hellas ,Cyprus , Europe and America for some very serious discussions on AHEPA’s present and future. In Athens I treasure having also spent some magical/ poetic time with very dear friends for serious conversations, laughter, comradery and generally having a fantastic time.

The photos are of some of the books I was given while in Hellas on this trip with many being given by the authors themselves. My interests are varied and diverse as some know which at times surprises people who do not know me. I have been since I was young a bibliophile, and an academic for many years, and have my own library of books on topic of interests to me, some being rare.

Ilias I. Katsos