MONDAY, JUNE 10
There is nothing, nothing, like going to the beach. The heat of the sun, the sound of the waves, the smell and texture of salt in the air, the expansiveness of the ocean, the coziness of the umbrella’s spot of shade. The sensation of being both expansive and tiny, part of the landscape of seemingly endless water, and at the same time a speck on the earth, lost in a faraway place.
Then to have the joy of a swim, a long swim in the clear, blue Aegean Sea, in a cove protected by rocky hills dotted with a few, small, white, blue-trimmed homes, bushes flowering with intense colors of purple and pink.
A book to read. Rest. Heat. The ocean whispering to skin. Time to think about nothing and everything.
GALISSAS BEACH
That’s what we did in Galissas, a beach town, just 20 minutes from Ermoupoli. We walked down the many steps from Anos Syros and through the homes in Ermoupoli to catch the local bus. It costs 3.60 euros each way for the two of us.
Galissas has small hotels and condos for rent. Restaurants, almost all of them were empty when we were there. While the beach must fill up in the high season, only about ten other people were on the long, sandy beach, layered with beach chairs.
The pace of the tiny town was sleepy, calm and relaxed like the people we encountered — the bus driver, the man in the coffeeshop in Anos Syros, the store keeper who we bought beach towels from, a woman in the market.
This is a place to slow down. Coffee shops don’t even open until 10. Restaurants close for days — no explanation necessary.
We had entered into a friendly, easygoing world of people who live in the sunshine, near the ease provided by the ocean, people lulled not by the sound of cars, the hustle and bustle of other people but by church bells and roosters, a place where absences become the fullness.
It’s so easy to fall in love with Greece.
