Ελληνικά νησιά στη Μεσόγειο (Greek Isles on the Mediterranean)

There are times that I wish my family knew how to relax on vacations, but then I think of all the things we would never see.  A pool is just a pool.  The ocean is big and blue and magnificent, but there is more to the world than just the beach.  So on days like yesterday, when we miss both breakfast and dinner because we leave our hotel before 6 AM and don’t return until after 10 PM, I try to be grateful that my family and I get so many experiences on our vacations.  Yesterday night, it was hard to do, but today, as I sit on the porch, enjoy the beautiful weather, and listen to the kids play in the pool, it is much, much easier.  It probably doesn’t hurt that I got to sleep in this morning. J

We woke up at 5:30 AM on Sunday morning and ate a breakfast of bread, butter and honey, and cheese because the Olympia restaurant where we eat wouldn’t be open for four more hours.  Then we made our way down to the lobby to meet a minibus taxi that we had arranged for the night before.  Due to the fact that we had to be at Hotel Amalia earlier than normal (7:30 AM), we knew there was no way we were going to be able to take public transportation and make it on time.  We arrived early enough to get coffees at Solo Café.  The Greek gentleman working there is very nice and helpful to us poor Americans who need weak coffee haha.  We sat in the lobby of the hotel and then Abi showed up!  YAY!  It was nice to have her around for a day, we had been missing her own personal brand of entertainment.

The bus took us to the port of Lavrio near Athens and we hopped onto the big, three-story ferry that would take us to the different islands on our tour that day: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina.  We were one of the last buses to arrive, so there were very few tables available.  We spent the first hour or so of the ride sitting on a ledge at the bow of the boat.  It was a very windy, but a great view!  Eventually, Carla and Dan found a table in an air conditioned portion of the boat and we went down to pick our excursion while we were on the island of Aegina.  The ferry rides were all very interesting.  We sailed for about 2 hours to get to Hydra, another hour or so between the second two islands, and another 2 hour sail back to the mainland port.  There was a DJ who played all sorts of music up on the third story.  They gave Greek dance lessons and there were a lot of people who danced almost the whole time they were on the ferry, it was a lot of fun to watch!  There was also a three-man band that played traditional Greek music for you in the area we were sitting.  One of the gentleman was playing a bouzouki, it is a guitar-like instrument that is round on the back, like a big wooden bowl with strings.

Our seat at the bow of the ferry

We stopped at Hydra (pronounced more like ee-dra, the H is silent) first.  The water was gorgeous – so blue and clear!  The town we were was not quite as idyllic as Oia on Santorini, but it still looked like a post card.  Lots of narrow cobbled streets with whitewashed buildings and colorful doors.  There are also stray cats EVERYWHERE.  They’re all very tame and would love it if you had some food to give them!  We wandered around going into shops and souvenir shopping for an hour before we had to get back onto the ferry.

Poros was more of the same, but we only had about 40 minutes so we only got to shop right next to the harbor. A long strip of the harbor was covered in these hand painted rocks shown below. When we got back on the boat it was our turn for lunch!  The food was traditionally Greek and some of the best I’ve had on the whole trip. 

By the time we reached Aegina, it was during the hours of siesta.  Like in many Mediterranean countries, Greek business shut their doors for several hours in the afternoon and early evening.  This is obviously less observed in more urban areas, but on a rural island like Aegina almost everything was closed.  That’s why we got to do excursions during this visit.  First we got to visit the Temple of Aphaia.  It is one of the most well-preserved temples in Greece and it celebrates a local goddess of fertility who came to the island to flee the romantic intentions of King Minos.  Experts actually believe that Aphaia is actually a different name given to the goddess Athena to distinguish her from the patron goddess of the nearby Athens.  There were also some beautiful views of the island from the acropolis the temple was on.  After we toured the temple we stopped for refreshments and got to have some pistachio ice cream.  Aegina is grows some of the best pistachios in the world, so of course we bought a bag to munch on during the ferry ride home.

On the way back to the ferry we stopped at the Church of Agios Nektarios.  Nektarios was known as both a miracle worker and a healer during his lifetime.  Although he was popular with the people during his lifetime, his methods were frowned upon by the Greek Orthodox Church because they believed him to be using his popularity unwisely.  He ended up moving to Aegina and starting The Holy Trinity Monastery where he stayed until his death in 1920.  In the 1960s, the Greek Orthodox Church sainted him, making him the most recent saint in the church.  His remains and books of his teaching are accessible at the church and monastery in Aegina, making the church a common pilgrimage for members of the Greek Orthodox Church.  The church is huge and a great example of Byzantine architecture. Unfortunately, they were doing some work on the interior, so we couldn’t see the inside of the domed roof or several of the beautiful frescos inside. 

This is where Agios Nektarios' remains are buried

We made it back to Athens at 8 PM, but we couldn’t be dropped off at our usual point because there was a demonstration taking place at Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament building.  All the roads were blocked off and there were riot police everywhere.  However, the protest seemed to be very peaceful and under control.  There was no rioting.  Our trip to the hotel was a long one and we didn’t make it back until after 10 PM.  Dinner wasn’t being served anymore, but we had had so much to eat during the cruise that it didn’t matter too much.  Today was another beach day, so we got to sleep in and be lazy!  Tomorrow we have a half-day tour of the Acropolis of Athens and we will get to visit Abi to see where she’s attending school.