Beaches

 

If you decide to come to Greece for beach holidays you can enjoy warm sea, resort atmosphere, clean beaches and excellent coffee shops or a light lunch by the water not only on the islands but also on the mainland. Here we offer you numerous choices of great and free beaches, where they can be reached by public transport from the city center.

 

Votsalakya (Castella) One of the most popular beaches for those staying in Piraeus: the beach is located between the marina Zeya and Castella.

 

The sandy beach Eden in Paleo Faliro, reachable by tram from the Syntagma Square: the bus stop Eden. The beach got its name from the restaurant located there.

 

Beach in the place of Agios Kosmas (Poseidon Avenue, the south of Athens). We have to pay for sunbeds and umbrellas on the majority of the beaches. Here sunbeds are provided for free by the municipality. The beach is also easily accessible by tram. It is located directly behind the sports facilities at the former airport "Elliniko." The entrance to the beach - with a pedestrian bridge Poseidon Avenue.

 

Glyfada Beach Although it is one of the most densely populated areas of Athens, the beach looks more secluded than other, it is just a few hundred meters.

 

One of the most beautiful beaches of Attica is Kavouri (gr. the crab), and a few hundred meters Megalo Kavouri beach is located (gr. the big crab).

 

Lumbarda (Koropi) is a closed bay located at the 33rd kilometer of Sounio Avenue, where you can swim, even when there are strong winds in the rest of Attica.

 

Galazia Akti (gr. Azure coast) is located at the 37th kilometer of the Sounio Avenue. It is a tiny beach but amazingly beautiful with fine white sand.

 

Mavro Lithari Beach (gr. black stone) is located at the 46th kilometer of the same Sounio Avenue, near Saronida. It got its name from the black rock. Half of the beach is public with parasols and sunbeds, the rest of the beach is free.

 

The beach of Agios Nikolaos (St Nicholas) is located in the area Anavissos. It is a huge sandy beach. Here you can easily imagine as if you were on Hawaii. The beach is served by a small mobile buffet.

 

Beach Timaru is located at the 54th kilometer of Sounio Avenue, the entrance to which is located on the corner.

 

Pasalimani (gr. cove of pasha) in Sounio: beach, which is practically known only to those who live in the same village. To find it, it is necessary to turn on the 73rd kilometer Sounio Avenue and go through the whole village.

In Ancient Greek Athens' name was in plural. However, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name was in the singular form, as Ἀθήνη was then rendered in the plural. The name of the city is related with the name of the goddess Athena. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα. However, because of the conservatism of the written language, Ἀθῆναι remained the official name of the city until the abandonment of Katharevousa in the 1970s, when Ἀθήνα became the official name. But no matter whether the name of the city is in plural or singular, only one conclusion can be drawn: Athens has not lost its ancient splendor, even becoming a metropolis. The city covers an area of 41 200 hectares, Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica that is often referred to as the Athens or Attica Basin. The basin is bounded by four large mountains: Mount Aegaleo to the west, Mount Parnitha to the north, Mount Penteli to the northeast and Mount Hymettus to the east. The capital is the home to a third of Greece's total population – 3 074 160 people, according to the last census in 2011. Every square kilometer in Athens has 7 462 residents! The capital of Greece is the seventh most populous city in Europe.

 

But at the same time Athens is a resort town of Greece. There are many beautiful beaches, where you can get to on an ordinary city tram. The coast of the Saronic Gulf, where there are the southern districts of the Athens’ area. It is a vacation destination for residents of the city, and for the guests. 

The International Airport of Athens "El. Venizelos ", located in the capital's suburb of Spata and built for the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, is one of the best, most comfortable, safest and most well organized airports in Europe and the world.

 

From the main train station of Athens Station "Larissis" there are lines to Peloponnese (south of the country) and to the Northern Greece and the island of Euboea, which can be reached by land, through the magnificent bridge connecting it to the mainland, and to the northern villages of Peloponnese. You can get to Athens from many European capitals.

 

Athens has a wide network of public transport and taxis. Built for the Olympic Games in Athens the metro, the suburban railway (Proastiakos) and the tram line solved the problem of traffic jams in the streets and avenues from private transport, though the Greeks who are the passionate lovers of cars and motorcycles, and are usually very difficult to part with their cars, even for short distances.

 

Athens metro is the most convenient means of transportation. So far, the metro runs two of the three metro lines; namely the Red (line 2) and Blue (line 3) lines. The two lines intersect the third line - the line of the old city train lines that run from the north of Athens (Kifisia) to the port of Piraeus.

Athens being a growing and a multi-ethnic city, gradually is losing their traditions which the residents kept strictly till the middle of the last century, when its population barely exceeded one million. Each district has its own patron saint; his or her birthday is considered a national holiday and accompanied by the fairs, cultural and sporting events.

 

Athens celebrates its carnival, which is organized on the last Sunday before the Clean Monday before the beginning of the Easter Lent. In the middle of the last century, the splendid carnival was celebrated in Plaka, in the most beautiful, and today the most tourist quarter of the capital. Plaka is considered the heart of Athens, still beating passionately and fervently by the "chest" of the city - the Acropolis.

 

The Clean Monday is celebrated joyfully and massively and a cloud of beautiful kites float over the Parthenon. Athenians gather on a hill Philopapou and fly colored kites together in the early spring sky blue.

 

Athens parks, hills and yards are generously given by the administration for Athenian picnics. The Greeks spread a tablecloth on the young grass and enjoy Lenten dishes, which there are of great abundance in the Greek cuisine, and then dance folk dances, familiar to every Greek from their childhood.

 

There is another old tradition in Athens concerning the celebration of Christmas and New Year in the Athenian style, when on the eve of December 24 and 31 children knock at the doors of houses and shops and sing carols. Street singers were satisfied with the sweets in the past and these days are paid off with money. Many children sing carols and on the eve of the Feast of Epiphany - January 5.

 

On the Day of Epiphany on January 6 the Athenians try to get up early in the morning and go close to the water if they cannot get to the sea, they gather around the pool area. The Athenian priests sanctify the water by dipping the cross in the water. The bravest usually young men dive into the water after it. The one who take out the cross is considered to be the luckiest person for the whole year as he or she receives the blessing from the priest first.

Probably to start exploring Athens it is better to begin from its center, the Syntagma Square, which received its name from the uprising in September 3, 1843, when the army and the people demanded from King of Greece Otto to give the Greeks the Constitution ("syntagma" in Greek means "constitution").

 

Located on Syntagma square the Greek Parliament, once a royal palace, is guarded by the Greek National Guards evzones, the presidential guards whose uniform of short kilts and pom-pom shoes is based on the attire worn by the klephts (the mountain fighters of the War of Independence). And next to the Parliament there is The National Park, founded by the first Greek Queen Amalia.

 

But, despite the fact that Syntagma Square is the centre of Athens, the zero point and the most central area of the capital is still considered Omonia square, like from Concorde square in Paris, the central avenues in Athens start from Omonia. The circle accesses 3 Septemvriou Street in the north (September 3, exit), Patission Street, Panepistimiou Street (entrance), Agiou Konstantinou Street in the west (formerly entrance/exit, now exit), Panagi Tsaldari Street accessing Pireos Street (formerly entrance/exit, now entrance), Athinas Street (entrance/exit) in the south and now a walkway, while Stadiou Street (named after the ancient Stadium) in the southeast (exit) once continued the circle.

 

The main shopping street in the center of Athens is Ermou Street, named to honour Hermes, the god of commerce. This pedestrian street leads down to the Syntagma Square and to Monastiraki. Monastiraki is known around the world as "Oriental bazaar" of Athens with endless souvenir and retail shops where you can buy everything, justifying the phrase of Anton Chekhov - "Greece has everything."

 

From bird's eye view (and from the top of the Acropolis) Athens is seen as a city made of solid stone. The construction boom has spoiled much of the picture that the future king of Greece in 1832 a young Bavarian prince Otto admired so much when he first came to the Attic land. But at that time Athens was still rural where the Attic incredible blue sky shone and the air was so clear and fragrant.

 

In addition to the Athens National Park area of 15 hectares, founded by Amalia the wife of Otto, the capital can boast with Diomidis Botanical Garden. This is a large garden in the area of Haidari, western Attica with one of the richest collections in the world of flowers and plants from all over the world, which is protected by the state, and which directly taken care of the University of Athens.

 

Next to the National Park, there is The Zappeion Park with an area of 12 hectares that also has quite a large collection of plants, as well as a great fountain with light which is considered to be the pride of the garden and the city.

 

The Areos Park is a nice, large, and very relaxing park with old trees, flower beds, lakes and ponds, with a giant statue of the goddess Athena. It is located on Leoforos Alexandras, not far from the National Archeological Museum.

 

In the north of the capital there is a beautiful garden Galatsi, where the variety of cultural events and festivals take place. It is located near the Olympic Centre Galatsi.

 

In addition to the gardens there are the remnants of former luxury in Athens like trees planted by kings and queens starting from Queen Olga, a Russian Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna, and ending with her sisters, daughters and granddaughters.

 

What is worth vising in Athens:

 

The Archaeological Museum Keramikou

 

The Byzantine and Christian Museum) (St. Vasilissis Sofias, 22, that is, the Queen Sofia

 

The National Archaeological Museum (St. Tositsa 1)

 

The New Acropolis Museum (St. Makriyanni 2-4)

 

The Benaki Museum (St. Kumbari 1)

 

The Museum of jewelry of Ilya Lalaounis (St. Kallisperi Kariatidon 4A)

 

Athens Numismatics Museum, located in a house built for his family by a famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (St. Panepistimiou, 12)

 

The Museum of the Ancient Agora (market)

 

Russian Holy Trinity Church on St. Filellinon starting from the Syntagma Square

 

Cathedral on St. Mitropoleos

 

For those who must daily visit at least one museum exhibition, we can offer more:

 

The State Historical Museum

 

The Epigraphy Museum

 

The Theatre Museum

 

The Museum of Islamic Art

 

The Children's Museum

 

The Military Museum

The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier, Pre-Greek language. The etiological myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon.

 

Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with one another for the honour, offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a salt spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and named the city after Athena. (Speaking of water: tap water in Athens is not only suitable for drinking, but it is also the best among the European capitals in quality).

 

The history of Athens is lost through the centuries. The great philosopher Plato said that the Egyptian priests told his predecessor, the Athenian lawmaker Solon, that, according to the Egyptian archives, the prosperous city with the name of Athens existed almost 10 000 years ago.

 

Due to the lack of evidence supporting this hypothesis, it is believed that the first inhabitants of the region were Pelasgians. The first king of Athens was Cecrops, who lived in the II or III millennium BC. Following the Pelasges Ionians came to Attica. The myth of the prince Theseus who killed the Minotaur in Crete in the famous Labyrinth, and out of which he was helped by the Ariadne thread says that once Athens were under the rule of Crete.

 

In the Trojan War Athena sided with the Achaeans and the king of Sparta, King Menelaus, whose wife, Elena the Fair, stole the Trojan prince Paris.

 

But its peak Athens reached in the classical period of its history, between 500 and 300 BC, that is called the "Golden Age" or "The Age of Pericles" named after an Athenian general, politician and orator who distinguished himself above the other personalities of the era. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public projects including the Parthenon. The study of ancient Greek classics half thousand years later would lead to the Renaissance, "The Golden Age" in the Western culture.

 

In 86 BC, after a long siege, Athens was occupied by the Roman strategist Lucius Cornelius Sulla. However, and after the capture of Athens by the Romans and up to 3 BC it remained important cultural center until it was sieged by the German tribes. But the city once again rose from the ashes like a phoenix, and stayed afloat for three hundred years. The final fall of the once brilliant Athens happened when in 529, by decree of the Emperor Justinian the famous schools of philosophy were shut down. This is generally taken to mark the end of the ancient history of Athens. Gradually the center of the progress, of science, arts and commerce moved to the north of the country to Constantinople.

 

Athens remained possession of the Francs up to 1458, when the Duchy of Athens was conquered by the Turks. In the 17th century, when Athens attempted to repel the Turks when the siege of the Acropolis by Venetian Francesco Morosini took place and resulted in the destruction of a large part of the Parthenon, which the Turks used as an ammunition storage site.

 

By the day of the liberation of the city from the Turks they have turned the ancient Athens into a village.

 

The capital of newly independent Greece Athens became in 1833, when the Greek King Otto brought it here from Navplion. In 1834, the city began to be built. In 1863 the new king came to Piraeus, Danish Prince William Glücksburg, who was known as the Greek King George the First. He reigned with his wife, Queen Olga, Grand Duchess Olga K. of the Romanov dynasty, until 1913. Glücksburg dynasty once again intertwined with the Romanov dynasty, when the granddaughter of Alexander II, the daughter of the Grand Duke Constantine, Olga, became the queen of the Hellenes. The last Greek king, who was overthrown in 1974, Constantine II, lives in London.

 

Since then a lot has happened in the history of Athens. Athens survived two Balkan Wars, World War I, the Asia Minor catastrophe, when the crowds of Greek refugees flooded Greece from the coast of Turkey, dictatorships by Pangalos, Metaxas and Papadopoulos, World War II, when, during the occupation of the capital thousands of Athenians died of hunger, the civil war, when in the streets of the capital the Greeks fought with the Greeks, the dictatorship of the colonels, the events of the Polytechnic in 1973, a student uprising, that marked the end of the dictators.

 

All of the latest Greek history took place mainly in Athens, which in August 2004 became the capital of the XXVIII Olympic Games, when the city renewed.

 

Athens today is a metropolis, home to a third of the population of the country, the city of the East and the West, a city of modern art and culture. The city is one of the capitals of the European Union.

The Athenian cuisine does not exist. Athenians follow the Mediterranean diet and do not neglect any cuisine, even the cuisines which have nothing in common with the eating habits of the Greeks.

 

Among the dishes of the old Athenian cuisine one can include tender roast beef and sweet Athenian fish, as well as potato salad with mayonnaise. Athenians took advantage of mayonnaise earlier than the other regions of the country, perhaps because Athens was the residence of the Western empires and the Western diplomats set standards in Athenian society. It should not be forgotten that Thessaloniki was saved from the Turkish occupation only in 1912!

Athens nightlife is famous over the world, the change of day in the Greek capital - a purely physical concept that has nothing to do with the rhythm of life in the city, which remains hectic day and night.

 

Most of bouzouki music-halls are located on the coastline and in the coastal areas, and the best singers give performances on their stages. If you come here to watch at 9 pm, it may seem that the music scenes, bars and restaurants are empty. The real night life starts after 11 hours as the Greeks say because at 10 pm they are just beginning to shave.

 

The summer period is the period of the Greek Festival, when the Greek capital attracts the best theaters, artists, opera singers and dancers from all over the world. The center of the Athens Festival is the Herod Atticus theater under the Acropolis.

Greek clothing stores are among the best in Europe, so you will like shopping in its numerous shops located on Ermou Street. If you are interested you can visit fur shops on Mitropoleos St which is parallel to Ermou St.

 

If you are looking for souvenirs we can recommend you Monastiraki quarter and down the main street of Plaka on the street Adrian (Hadrian), there are plenty of jewelry shops with simple and cheap silver and gold jewelry. Gold and silver items are highly valued in Europe.

 

Great Greek leather and fur, Greek woven rugs, pottery and bronze and marble statues are of high demand.

 

For those who are looking for something special we can offer to visit the Benaki Museum boutique that sells copies of the Byzantine silver utensils, jewelry, and the Byzantine ceramics.

 

You can bring cosmetics, based on olive oil or mastiha Chios.