Marathon

 ελληνικά

In times when the Olympic torch has just been brought from Greece to London Olympics, it only makes more sense to post about one of my favorite places for camping, which bears the name of Marathon. That is where Persians attempted to invade Greece… and from where, allegedly, the courier ran all the way to Athens to tell the news of victory of the Greek army. This story, in turn, inspired the Marathon race! But I think not many people know that the beach where Persians once disembarked their warships is nowadays a perfect place for running. Given that even modern Greeks are quite easy with nudity and the beach is never crowded, you can run the way Ancient Greek athletes did – naked!

This is how this place looks from the plane:

Marathon is a little over 2-hour ride from buzzing Athens, but to get to the wilder part of the beach, you’ll have to walk from the bus station along the beach for more than an hour. (That is if you don’t have a car.) However, it is totally worth it. It’s a great weekend escape, and we often went there to camp overnight.

It’s easy to find a nice cozy spot for you tent.

So, there is not only a nice beach but also an old pine forest

with a pond

and numerous trails to wander around.

Scarcely growing old pines were perfect for hanging a hammock.

It was a lightweight variety, but still cozy enough to chill out, feeling the sea breeze all over body. I was learning Greek with a book, but not for too long as you can see…

Other “facilities” at the beach include a couple of metal platforms that are not in use anymore but are still stable and provide nice views over the beach.

But why stay on the beach all the time, if there is a forest next to it?

We were exploring whereabout of the ancient battleground in full tranquility and…

full nudity too 🙂

Haven’t I mentioned tranquility?

And of course we didn’t just walk and sit there. We also played beach bats during day,

and at night we tried a fast version of badminton, ‘Speedminton’, completed with glow sticks in the shuttlecocks. To see each other, we also decorated ourselves with glow sticks.

Then we also attached glow sticks to frisbee, which made it look like UFO in the night sky. Too bad our cameras couldn’t catch it, but it was quite a sight!

Another time, we ventured for a long run forth and back along the beach; wet sand was compact enough to run comfortably. Just a few patches have some colorful pebbles instead of sand.

If all that is not enough for your entertainment, there is also a bunch of friendly stray dogs that are happy to keep you company.