Stacey Seaside

Sunshine, Salt and Sea

“Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.”

Ada Louise Huxtable

The photo in this article is an image that commuters on the Athens metro and bus system have been encountering these last few weeks.  At their feet, instead of the normal linoleum flooring surface, underfoot they find themselves on a sandy beach, at the water’s edge, with the waves rolling in.

This is all part of very “out of the box” advertising campaign. 

What’s being sold? 

Believe it or not, lotto tickets. 

The slogan roughly translates to “Your holiday is but a SCRATCH away.” 

SCRATCH is a new type of (scratch and win) lotto ticket. 

The image drew me in as I saw it posted over and over on several face book pages as well as many news sites. 

But the beach and the sea always draw me in, especially when we are so close to summertime in Greece.

And although trouble abounds for my adopted home of Greece on many fronts, with the arrival of summer it seems that even trouble takes a vacation during the summer months. 

Whether you are sipping coffee on a city square or lucky enough to be near the water or up in the mountains, you can’t help but forget life’s daily troubles for just a little bit as the sunshine warms you and you enjoy some magnificent geography. 

Just being out in the Greek summer sunshine is enough to brighten your mood and change your disposition.  Take advantage of the glorious sunshine and the transformation it enables.

The months ahead will require long hours of work on the resort island of Mykonos but I will still enjoy even the moments of a Greek Summer!

I will enjoy the sunshine, the  seas, the mountains and the town squares—all of which are part of that thing called a glorious Greek summer. It is but a “scratch” away.

Stacey Seaside: aka Stacey Harris-Papaioannou