Athens Greeknotes 9 Aug

Hot again! But not like the 40ºC days of last year, more around the mid-thirties. Also at night – it was 32ºC at 9pm when I checked yesterday. A sort of positive update to all the grim news of last week, the devastating wildfires of last week have abated, although hundreds of homes were lost in Psatha and Porto Germeno. The kypseli suitcase murder appears to be solved – the killer was known to the victim and not some roving psychopath on the loose around kypseli. Still, a tragedy. Photo by the European Space Agency August In august, athens quietly comes to a bit of a halt as the greeks take the month off to return to their spawning points, epirus, peloponnese, their home islands etc. The roads are noticeably emptier. My two favourite bars, my barber, some tavernas, even my new nearby kiosk are all closed down for this hot month. My working week was also quite quiet, so I took the opportunity to visit some new beaches. Avlaki beach Tuesday’s beach was αυλακι on the east coast of attica…