Hydra

This past weekend our group took a day trip to the breathtaking island, Hydra.  Hydra is an hour and a half ferry ride from the port in Athens.  The island has only two cars, one to deliver water and one to collect the garbage. Therefore, all travel on this island is done by foot.  One of the locals here, in Athens, was so excited to hear that we were going, and promised us that it was the most beautiful Greek island.  He told us that by day it is a perfectly quant fishing village with amazing beaches and by night, it transforms into a hot spot for yachts to dock and their owners to indulge in the restaurants, one of which is the most expensive Italian restaurant in the world. 

            There was not a single negative thing about the trip to this island other than the 6:00am wake up call.  We loaded the bus while Athens was just beginning to feel the warmth of the sun, and were dropped off at a small port.  As we waited for our ferry to arrive, some of us grabbed a breakfast pastry from a near-by kiosk.  I decided that I wanted to try something new, so I bought a bready object from an older gentleman who was selling a cart-full of them.  I naturally proceeded to eat the ring of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds, as any person in their right mind would.  Three bites in, I looked around at the other people who purchased the bread–ring, and noticed that they were all feeding it to the pigeons that flocked over to the area in which we were standing.  I asked some of my friends if they knew what the correct etiquette of this food item was but none seemed to know for sure.  I’m still not completely sure if the object was meant to be fed to the birds or if it was meant for human consumption but needless to say, I finished the bread-ring all by myself with no help from the sketchy pigeons that continued to eye me as the others ran out of food to throw to them. 

            The ferry was a speedy thing, and got us to the island in no time.  After a couple of rounds of “I-spy” and “would you rather”, I could not seem to escape the soothing rock of the boat.  Everyone in our group fell victim to the spell the ferry had cast on us and took a quick nap only to be woken up by the repetition of chime-like rings that signaled to the passengers that we had arrived. 

At the Fort

We were greeted by a young gentleman in aviators anxious to give us a quick history lesson about the island.   We walked up to fortress that over looked to main entrance of the island. We learned that Hydra is not old enough to have ancient ruins and there were no archeological sites on the island, which is a pretty rare thing for Greece.  We meandered back down from the fort and the guide continued to tell us all he knew about the island, which was not very much. He kept reminding us, “Hydra does not have a very extensive history”. 

On the water taxi

Jesus

After about an hour we were free to do as we pleased.  The group I was with decided that since lunch was not going to be until 3 and it was currently 11, we were going to eat, just like we always do.  It seems that we can’t go five minutes without eating something.  We sat down at a little restaurant that served my favorite, chicken pitas, and ate away.  After we paid the bill we decided to take a water taxi to the beach to get the full experience out of the trip and besides, it only cost three euros and it was less walking we had to do.  Side note: We decided the driver of the boat earned the nickname Jesus due to his awesome facial hair.  His partner and a jet ski driver got into a spat as we tried to park because the jet ski was in our parking spot which mind you, was probably eight foot wide for our ten-twelve foot wide boat.  I could not understand exactly what words were exchanged but I did understand the one cuss word we know in Greek was used multiple times by both gentlemen. 

After the beach

            The beach was only about fifth a mile away from where the boat dropped us.  It was very quant and taken over by tourists.  The beaches here are covered in rocks instead of the soft sand we are used to.  The water in the Aegean Sea is unbelievable clear and blue as a result of the salinity, which prevents any algae from growing in the water.  I split my time pretty evenly between swimming and lying out in the warm sun.  All of us agreed that we needed a break from the jam-packed days we had experienced recently, and this was a perfect way to relax and enjoy ourselves. 

Our college, Deree, organized our trip and lunch was included, which is always a good thing!  We met back in the main part of the island and our guide led us through the beautiful streets to the restaurant.  The place was completely empty.  It was tucked back into the town and from the atmosphere, it seemed to be a hidden gem.  We ate a traditional Greek meal, which is done by sharing appetizers; only this time we got our own main course.  I got a spaghetti type dish with noodles, tomato sauce, that came with pieces of really tender beef mixed in. For dessert, we were treated to watermelon, which was just what I needed after getting semi-dehydrated at the beach earlier that day.  After the meal, a couple of us engaged in a conversation with the women who took our orders.  She told us that she and her husband opened to place almost thirty years ago.  Her husband used to work as a chef on boats, and after his age started to get the best of him, they decided to open up a place of their own.  The women and her husband do all the cooking and her children help run the rest.   She told us that the only other places in Greece she had visited were the village her family were from and Athens, and even this excursion was only for medicinal reasons. She stressed to us that the restaurant is all they have and if she is not there to make the food and keep things under control, they will go broke, so there is no time for vacation. This blew me away.  Here we are, 18/19 years old, from another country, and we had seen more of Greece than this Grecian woman.

We thanked her over and over again for the delicious meal then made our way to the shops.  As we weaved our way through the shops, I could not help but notice the beauty of the island.    For example, all the boats that lined the port seemed to have its own personality and stories to tell about days out at sea with the fisherman.  The tethered flags and overused ropes screamed out to me and I sat for a little while and just listened to what they had to say.  I appreciated the history within the beaten up boats and found true beauty hidden in their scratched off light blue paint and beneath the nets on their decks. 

As it is with every trip, it was sad to watch the island disappear, especially knowing that I had the midterm for my art history class and a presentation to do the following day.  Knowing my luck, the ferry decided to stop working mid trip.  Something had gone terribly wrong with the motors and they only pushed to ferry backwards.  After three announcements updating us and thirty or so minutes of our ferry doing doughnuts in the Aegean, we were finally on our way.  We ended up not getting back to the dorms until around 10:30ish.  All my brilliant plans of procrastination were put to shame as I changed and immediately went to sleep.  You know you have had a good day when you are almost 19 (in less than a week!) and can’t seem to function past 10:00.