ParosParadiseOur experience will enhance yours

For the last couple years during the economic turmoil we have been advising travellers to ignore the news from Athens.  The trouble spots can easily be avoided and once you get to the islands everything is peaceful and quiet.

This advice was reinforced yesterday.  The news headlines and travel advisories were full of details of the national strike of the major unions including all government employees.  So imagine our surprise went we went into Parikia to find everything open including the government offices and even the post office.  Banking business was normal and there were ferries coming and going as well as Olympic flights.

Evidently the only direct effect on the islands was ferries leaving the major port of Piraeus and some flights arriving and leaving the Athens airport.  We are guessing that the island people, including government workers and union members, realize the damage that demonstrations and strikes are doing to their livelihoods and do not want anything to do with it.

So, again my advice is go ahead and plan your trip to Greece–without a visit to Syntagma Square—and only pay attention to your own flights and ferries.  Ignore the alarmist press.

This is less a guide and more the relating of my limited experience and knowledge of nude and topless beaches on Paros.  Some of the facts have been related by others; I wouldn’t want my readers to think this is all autobiographical.

Like so many other subjects involving social mores naturalism is constantly evolving.  What I read before coming to Greece seven years ago no longer seems to be true.  For instance now you will occasionally see younger Greek girls topless; earlier mainly Scandinavians and Germans were going bare.  I didn’t used to see topless women at the beaches closest to town; now you do.  Now you see them everywhere so more women are taking the plunge.  It doesn’t take long for any woman to see a pair of boobs or a figure that is less attractive than her own so she soon thinks, if they can do it, so can I.