Do you think Greece and Finland are culturally more eastern european countries?

[jerney]

Then who do you think of as culturally similar to Greeks?

Greece once would have been similar culturally to Italy and also West Asia, but today due to the spread of Islam and everything associated with that, and Catholicism in Italy, Greek culture being Eastern Orthodox influenced at many levels would not share much with either.

Can you tell me what specifically Greeks share with Russians that makes them culturally closer to Slavic Eastern Europe than to say, Italians? Is it your belief that a Russian can assimilate easier in Greece than say, an Italian or even a Spaniard?

[Bosnjakinja]

Hmm what are the differences? No one has ever guessed me as being Slavic, though I'm fully half eastern Slavic.

Language, mentality, culture, appearance...Greeks aren't similar at all to Russians. Out of Slavs they are closer to Serbs and Bulgarians but I think they overall share more similarities with Southern Italians then any Slavs.

I don't consider Finland Eastern European, rather Northern.

[Sikeliot]

Southern Italians I can agree with but not Spaniards. Greece and Spain have very few similarities.

[Sikeliot]

Can you tell me what specifically Greeks share with Russians that makes them culturally closer to Slavic Eastern Europe than to say, Italians? Is it your belief that a Russian can assimilate easier in Greece than say, an Italian or even a Spaniard?

Religion, similar sounding accent, names for the most part.
With Italy they have history, some common roots, some similar music.

With Spain I can't think of anything alike.

[jerney]

Greeks are far more similar to Spaniards in mentality and culture than to Russians, that was my point. I feel like you have to have been living in a bubble your whole life to find Greeks and Russians even remotely similar. The mentalities of the two couldn't be on more extreme ends of the spectrum

[riverman]

I don't consider Finland Eastern European, rather Northern.

But isn't this ignoring the similarities between Finns and northern Slavs? I consider Finland to be northeast Europe, simply saying 'northern' isn't descriptive enough IMO to the overall character of the nation, compare them to Sweden and Norway, Iceland, Scotland, it's different.

[Queen B]

Well I would say that southern Italy and Greece, apart from religion, language, and names are very similar.. but I am thinking of it as Eastern European because my greatest familiarity with Greece is the Greek Orthodox church in my town and I know a lot of Slavs also go there, and I know Greek people who think of themselves as Eastern European.

Νο, Ι am not talking about SOUTHERN Italy. Its not about genetics to talk about North and South here.
Culturally, is the customs, the way of life, the food,everything.
We had tones of Italian tourists this year, and were from Rimini, Rome, Naples, Milan...

We are both extremely family oriented (to a great degree). We like to party, and have fun (I mean, if you go to austria or Germany, the only open places after 8 are italian cafes and Greek restaurants), we share the same (medditeranean) cuisine, we are very loud, we are corrupt, we are flirty and sex-obsessed, we love and enjoy sea,we both have a great history back to us,coffee addcits, etc etc etc.

I worked and saw every kind of Europeans . I couldn't say that Greeks fit more with any other nation than Italians (una faccia una razza).

[Pontios]

Greece yes.
Finland no.

They are far from being Eastern Europeans.

[jerney]

Religion

The Irish are Catholic. Will you next claim they're more closely related to Italy than to England?

similar sounding accent

What?

names for the most part.

Russians use Greek names, just like the rest of European people?

[riverman]

Greeks are far more similar to Spaniards in mentality and culture than to Russians, that was my point. I feel like you have to have been living in a bubble your whole life to find Greeks and Russians even remotely similar. The mentalities of the two couldn't be on more extreme ends of the spectrum

They're closer to Balkanites, no country that far east is similar to Spain. They don't even look similar.