Wherein I show you some glamourous hats and offer advice on the necessities:
There are two body parts that need special protection in Greece: your head, and your feet. They can ruin a holiday faster than you can say, “I’ll have another tyropita, parakalo.”* Take it from my twenty year-old self, who spent two days in bed recovering from heat stroke during a trip to Greece.
As far as hats go, you have a lot of options. At a minimum, bring or buy two of the following. Menfolk, modify as you see fit:
The bucket hat: it’s enough to shade the eyes and a little bit of the face, without obscuring vision or interfering with a camera when taking photographs. A lot of Greek grannies—very, very smart women—wear it in the water while swimming, for sun protection. It’s my favorite hat because it’s comfortable, cool, and able to hold all my hair.
The floppy hat: I call this my Brigitte Bardot hat because it makes me feel like I should be on a scooter in the South of France.
I love the colors, the wide brim keeps my whole face and neck shaded, and it doesn’t interfere with photographs. Let this hat fulfill its destiny by pairing it with big Chanel sunglasses and hopping on the back of someone’s scooter — it doesn’t really matter who’s.
The baseball cap: if you’re American you’ll probably want to bring one along… just because. I saw a surprising number of Russians wearing them as well. Is it a fad in Russia?
Baseball caps get in the way of your camera (if you use the viewfinder), but they protect your face — though not your ears — when the sun is at the right angle. [Go, Badgers.]
On to feet. Everyone needs at least these two pairs of shoes:
The rock/hot sand/water shoe: Buy this for €7 as soon as you get to Greece.
Most of the best beaches are at least pebbly, if not full-on rocky. If the beach is sandy, by noon the sand will be too hot to walk barefoot, and sometimes its too hot for flip-flops even: the sand slips in the crevices. They’ll also protect you if you step on a sea urchin — which are common in Greek waters.
The tough/durable shoe: at a minimum, you’ll want something with a sole at least this thick for walking anywhere in Greece, even in Athens—the gods help you if you’re wearing flip flops around the Acropolis and it starts to rain.
If you plan on doing any sort of mildly strenuous hiking, you’ll need a tougher shoe/boot. I went on a few hikes — planned and unplanned (some might call this “getting lost”, but I think the phrase carries a distinct hint of judgement) — and really could have used a pair of light boots, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of having my feet so hot. I wore my Keens in the water, but they were way too buoyant and made it impossible to swim because my feet kept floating higher than my head.
Another necessity is sunscreen, and I’ve found this one to be the best:
It takes a good 15 minutes to rub this stuff on to your skin, but it’s well worth the effort if you have super-pale skin of the Southern Slav variety like I do. The good news is you’ll only have to rub it in once per day, even if you spend the entire day in the water. In fact, you’ll have to use a loofah in the shower to get it all off.
I’ve tried just about every kind of sunscreen out there. Spray-on sunscreens are a joke, even if they claim to be waterproof. Sunscreens without Zinc or Titanium Dioxide are also a joke. Some sunscreens with Zinc or Titanium Dioxide are a joke. I even tried the “sensitive skin” version of this same sunscreen, SPF 50, and I still burned. After much trial and sunburn, I’ve come to the conclusion that, in order to truly protect oneself from the sun, sunscreen must be difficult to rub into the skin. Don’t believe the marketing hype, get this: Carroten SPF 50 for kids.
One more thing: bug/mosquito spray. The mosquitos of Greece are surprisingly zealous and persistent little bloodsuckers. Bring along some bug spray if you don’t want to be chasing them around your room at 2:00 in the morning.
* I’ll have another cheese pie, please.
© 2010 – 2012, Ithaka Bound. All rights reserved.
