On the beach

 

This is the beach we use most days for swimming. It's a 5 minute walk from our flat so it's very convenient. I have been coming to this beach every summer (except for the two years when we lived in the States) since I was one year old.

 



 

 

 

It's changed a lot over the years and now it's an 'organised' beach and is very popular with Athenians as well as local people. The entry fee is quite hefty but we get in free because we are residents.

 

Different groups of people use the beach at different times. Older people come very early in the morning. Ken goes for a walk around 8:00 and he says that it's packed, with just the one age group. I remember that both my parents used to go very early, they would be back at home before I got up. My father would then shower and be in Athens for work by 8:00. The second batch of people is a mixture and we are part of this group. After 2:00 it's the teenagers who will stay for the whole stretch when the sun is at its hottest. Late afternoon/early evening is a mix again, including a lot of people who go after work or people who go after their siesta because they want to avoid the hot sun. You also get the late shift, the night swimmers, but there aren't many of those.

 



 

 

 

The yellow and orange floats are to delineate where the lifeguard's boat would be launched from, but it rarely gets used.

 

 

 

We go to the beach during the changeover - most of the early swimmers have left but the second 'shift' are in the process of arriving so we can get an umbrella and loungers right by the sea - you can see my varnished big toe nail sticking out on the edge of the photograph - this is how close to the sea I sit. It's bliss.

 

I don't do anything while sitting on the beach: no reading or listening to music. I just look at the sea and listen to the waves crashing on the shore. I don't think much either, I get into some form of trance - reverie is the order of the day. It's heavenly.

 



 

 

Except for swimming: I swim a lot. We swim to and along the net which you can just about see on the horizon. The net surrounds the designated swimming area, keeping boats out

 

I have zoomed in here, so you can see the net plus a boat that is heading towards Piraeus.

The water is clear.

Nothing as clear as what you get on the islands, but clear enough, given how close we are to Athens.

On a clear day you can see the mountains near Piraeus






It never gets too busy except for Saturday and Sunday. We tend to come and just swim on those days, we go to the net where most people don't venture and then we just go home as the beach gets extremely crowded.

This part of the beach is always very crowded and we avoid it

 

 

 

it's by Bolivar, a bar during the day and club at night.

 



 

 

 

Some of the DJs and bands they get are quite good, and on Saturdays, particularly when it's full moon, hundreds of people come to listen and to dance. From the balcony of our flat we see loads of groups of young people walking down our street on their way to Bolivar

 



 

 

and this whole stretch of the beach is taken up for partying.

This is Bolivar at night, the photo taken from the path which is fairly high above sea level. In the distance you can see the net and further along, the lights from Aegina island.