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Published: November 19th 2022
What is good to know is difficult to learn… ~ Greek Proverb
HE SAID... Today we were travelling southwest from Athens to
Aegina– by ferry.
On arriving at the breakfast room at Hotel Attalos, we were confronted by a large group of excited teenagers on a school trip to Athens. We’d become accustomed to a reasonably quiet and relaxed start to our Athenian days, but this was the polar opposite. The noise was deafening, but the kids were friendly and affable. Their interactions took us right back to our own school trips, where it mattered so much who you sat next to (and who you didn’t sit next to)! School trip politics is so unforgiving.
On braving the chaotic madness at the breakfast buffet (talk about herding cats!), I managed to serve myself a bowl of Greek yoghurt with muesli, fresh honey and cranberries. I also managed, after a few false starts, to battle my way to the drinks station – from which I eventually emerged unscathed with a couple of cups of tea and glasses of juice.
We gathered our packs, checked out of Hotel Attalos and walked to the train station under Plateia Monastirakiou (Monastiraki Square). As we waited on the platform, we realised we were
standing on the boundary of the Ancient Agora. We were below ground, but we could see remnants of the Agora through an opening above us. I realised we’d been looking down at this railway track the day before (as we walked the boundary of the Agora).
When our train arrived at the platform, we clambered onboard and headed to Piraeus, the main port of Athens. This was only the second time we’d been required to wear face masks since arriving in Greece, as they were mandatory on all forms of public transport. Up until this point, we’d been walking everywhere. It was a sudden jolt back to reality. I realised I’d become a little complacent about the COVID virus and the risk it posed for travellers. I hadn’t entirely forgotten about the pandemic, but I’d conveniently pushed it to one side.
On arriving in Piraeus, we clambered off the train and made our way to the ferry terminal. Piraeus is a busy place, and the port is a sight to behold – if you dare take your eyes off the road for a second to look around! When Ren said we were catching a ferry to Aegina, I
imagined a quaint little ferry with about 50 passengers and the odd bicycle. I imagined reclining on a bench seat with my hand dangling in the cool blue water, feeling the spray of the ocean on my face. I imagined sailing into the Saronic Gulf, leaving little more than a ripple of white water behind us.
How wrong I was. Our ferry was immense. As we walked towards it, I saw scores of cars and trucks driving into its cavernous bowels. It was as if they were being swallowed, never to be seen again. The ferry had multiple storeys, and those above the water line stretched high into the air. This thing was gargantuan, and there was no way on the planet I’d be dangling my hand in the water.
We walked onto the ferry via the car boarding platform (with cars driving along beside us), dropped our packs in a small open section of the car storage area, then caught an escalator up to the seating area on the middle deck. An escalator. On a ferry. This was not the quaint little ferry I’d envisaged. When we arrived on the middle deck, we were confronted by a
sea of plastic chairs under cover. We made our way to the top deck and stood for a while, but it was too hot to stay. However, it did offer a fantastic view of Piraeus and the southwestern suburbs of Athens. As we powered out of the busy port, I noticed our ferry had a reasonable cruising speed, which meant the trip to Aegina wouldn’t be too long. I was warming to this hulking vessel.
We settled on plastic seats in the covered middle deck area for the majority of the trip, and it wasn’t too bad, although the cigarette smoke was a bit confronting (especially when you’re not used to it). We arrived in Aegina Town (Aegina’s main port) around 11:30am, and the disembarking process was hectic. There were people and cars everywhere, and getting our packs from where we left them was a touch dangerous and very hot. Ramps were rising to let cars out from the bowels of the ferry, and people were jostling for the best position. At one stage, one of my legs started lifting off the ground, and I realised I was straddling a car ramp. The crew was trying its best to
ensure we were all safe, but there’s only so much you can do when people have an urgent need to be first at everything they do – including getting off a ferry!
We made our way over the car boarding platform and eventually found ourselves standing in the midst of Aegina’s busy port. We’d survived our first ferry disembarkation! We discovered our hotel room was not yet ready, so a decision was made to send our packs ahead to the hotel (by taxi), and that we would board another smaller ferry and head across to Moni, a tiny uninhabited island just off the southwestern tip of Aegina. This sounded okay, but there were a few things that weren’t ideal. Our main concern involved time. Why spend four hours exploring Moni when we could spend four hours exploring Aegina? We’d just set foot on a beautiful island. Why travel to another? It didn’t make sense.
When our luggage was taken to the hotel by a very grumpy taxi driver who didn’t want backpacks or suitcases on his seats, the aura of Aegina was fading. We also had to extract bathers from our packs on the busy wharf, which was
a little difficult. I kept looking around Aegina Town and wondering if we should stay and explore this island rather than kill time on another island we hadn’t researched or planned for. Too late. We’d purchased the ferry tickets.
We wandered around the port area of Aegina for about 30 minutes, then caught a small ferry to the tiny island of Moni, arriving at 12:30pm. Descriptive words sometimes offer very different contexts, and the term ‘uninhabited’ had for some reason translated as ‘uncrowded’ in my mind. How wrong I was! As our ferry pulled into a small jetty on Lalares Beach, I couldn’t believe what lay before us. It felt like we’d arrived at an overcrowded Thai beach. There were people everywhere. There was a bar. There were boats and yachts and umbrellas. Moni certainly becomes ‘uninhabited’ when the final ferry departs in the late afternoon, but this tiny island is seriously ‘populated’ during the day.
We walked to a reasonably private area of the island and settled in for the next three hours. There was no beach, so entry to the water was off-rocks. I took the opportunity to swim in the sheltered bay, and I managed
to pierce the palm of my hand with the spine of a sea urchin. There were other people swimming, and a few yachts and boats were anchored offshore. Was this a good use of our time? Not really. I would much rather have been exploring Aegina Town. Unfortunately, this was out of the question. We were more than ready to leave the uninhabited (but heavily populated) Moni island when our small ferry finally returned to Lalares Beach at 4pm.
It was fantastic to get back to Aegina. We hired a tandem bike and rode a short distance to Hotel Danae, our accommodation for the night. It was a little out of town, but beautiful nonetheless. We arrived at 5pm, freshened up in our room and then headed out to a local pistachio farm at 6:30pm. Our mode of transport – the tandem bike. This ride along a narrow coastal road was spectacular. We hugged Aegina’s majestic coastline, which offered breathtaking views out over the Saronic Gulf. The few locals we encountered on the way were very friendly and understanding. We were riding in the middle of the road, distracted by the views around us. They simply gave us a
wide berth.
On arriving at the pistachio farm, we discovered it had finished its operations for the day. If we had not spent four hours on Moni, we would’ve been able to experience the pistachio farm in full flight. The decisions you come to regret when travelling! Anyway, we wandered the farm with the friendly owners, and they tried their utmost to describe a typical day in the life of a pistachio on this beautiful island.
We left the farm at 7:30pm and retraced our path along the narrow coastal road. This time our tandem bike ride was even more spectacular, because the sun was setting in front of us. We stopped at a small enclave opposite the Kapralos Museum, where a poignant public artwork titled
The Mother stands alone on Aegina’s coastline. Under her caring gaze, we were mesmerised as the orange glow of the sun slowly disappeared behind the Peloponnese mountains across the Saronic Gulf. It was, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary sunsets I’ve ever witnessed.
We continued our bike ride along the narrow coastal road until we arrived back in Aegina Town. We were dining at Petra Edesmatopolion on the waterfront, and
we settled at an outside table. This place was amazing, and the restaurant owner stood at the head of our table and described – at great length – the food she would be serving. When you’re hungry, there’s nothing quite like a detailed food narrative. We were ready to eat!
We shared plates of Petra salad,
dakos (a Cretan salad with carob rusks, local cheese, tomatoes and olives),
dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs),
sfelara (a local cheese) with pistachio pesto,
soutzouki (cured meat) pies, homemade kebabs (minced meat cooked on skewers),
pastourma (pastrami and cheese) pie and, last but not least, slow cooked pork belly with apple and beer sauce. This was a spectacular meal, and the pork belly was a standout! As we sat outside in the warm evening air, I felt a subliminal affinity with this relaxed island. I wanted to explore it further, and we had a small amount of time the following morning before boarding a ferry to Poros. We had to use our time well.
We left Petra Edesmatopolion and walked a small distance to Aiakeion, a popular gelato shop on Aegina’s waterfront, where we shared a pistachio gelato and
a salted pistachio gelato (in small cups). Despite the evening being young, we were exhausted from the day’s activities, so we jumped into a taxi and headed back to our outlying hotel (arriving around 10pm).
When we walked into the hotel’s vast breakfast area the following morning, I was impressed by the COVID-safe buffet. Everything was individually packaged, including small glass jars of yoghurt. There were no communal tubs of Greek yoghurt with large metal spoons like our beloved hotel breakfast buffet in Athens. Yet while COVID-safe, this breakfast buffet lacked something. I think it was taste. I wondered why an outlying hotel on a small island was maintaining COVID-safe practices, while city-based hotels had abandoned all but the most standard COVID-safe practices?
The breakfast room was bright and airy, with large windows looking out over the Saronic Gulf. There was also a selection of resident cats that roamed the breakfast tables, making their way in and out of the hotel through the many open doors and windows. One of the cats decided to launch a sustained attack on my Crumpler bag which I’d placed on the floor beside my feet. This cat was cute and very easily
entertained.
We left our packs at the hotel (to be transported to the port by taxi) and walked into Aegina Town, a pleasant 15-minute stroll along the coastline. While the waterfront shops were buzzing, the narrow backstreets of Aegina Town remained quiet and relaxed, with many shops only just opening their doors. It was as if the bustling strip of portside stores was collectively acting as a facade to shelter and protect this network of tiny streets, so locals could go quietly about their daily lives.
We wandered the empty streets, breathing in their rustic beauty and charm. We discovered a small derelict tower crumbling into the earth. I wondered if the locals had made a measured decision to neither restore nor demolish it, preferring instead to let it disintegrate from view over time.
We slowly made our way back to the main port area, picking up some pistachio brittle on the way. We then sheltered in the shade of the Chapel of St Nicholas – a tiny church built right on the dock – as we waited for our ferry to Poros.
Thoughts I rarely record a summary of my thoughts about an individual town,
village or city. I usually save this for the end of our travels, when I record my thoughts about a country as a whole. However, I felt compelled to record my thoughts about Aegina, and the following is a transcript from my notebook (which I jotted down on the ferry to Poros):
> I loved the beauty of this warm, quiet and relaxing island
> As we ventured out of Aegina Town and rode our tandem bike along the edge of the Saronic Gulf, the beauty of Greece really became apparent… the sun setting over the calm sea, the warm air, the friendly locals who were so accommodating of tourists like us (as we meandered all over the road)
> This is a place where old men swim alone in the ocean of a morning
> This would be a very relaxing place to retire.
SHE SAID... After three days and four nights in Athens, it was time to head southwest to
Aegina (pronounced EGG-e-na), a Saronic Gulf island off the Peloponnese peninsula.
Speaking of peninsulas, I’d read that the word ‘peninsula’ came to English from two ancient Greek words (via Latin) – ‘
paene’ which means
‘almost’ and ‘
insula’ which means ‘island’. From now on, I’ll always think of a peninsula as an ‘almost island’. 😊
Anyway, back to our trip. We wanted to have a quick breakfast, but on walking down the hallway to the breakfast room we heard that distinct rumble of a room full of adolescents… and we knew breakfast was going to take us much longer than anticipated. They were very well behaved for a mixed gender group on an overseas school trip, but the mayhem was undeniable. They tried their best to not get in our way, but they also couldn’t help being teenagers.
As much as older people like to think that their generation behaved so much better than subsequent generations; neither of us buy into such generation stereotypes. As two Generation Xers, we could easily identify every group of kids in that breakfast room in the same way we instinctively would have in our own schoolyards. The terms may have changed, but the personalities and social structures are still pretty much the same.
I initially thought the kids were speaking some derivative of German, but I later guessed it was Dutch. Despite the raucous, Andrew and
I found their antics amusing. I was very distracted by one of the gangly 15/16-year-old boys on the next table… he spent ages trying to peel the foil lid off those small single-serve packets of jam. I was itching to point out the little tag on the corner to him, but Andrew shook his head at me. The social embarrassment he’d face in front of his peers wouldn’t be worth it! He eventually took to stabbing it with a knife… and squeezing the jam out. 😄
With not much time to finish packing and then wrangle the idiosyncratic hotel lifts, our checked out of Hotel Attalos was rushed. All seven members of our group and Georgia (our group leader) met at the hotel entrance and walked down Athinas Street to the train station in Monastiraki Square. I was surprised that the train to Piraeus Port only took about 15 or so minutes (it looked a lot further on the map). The walk to the ferry terminal from the Piraeus train station was quick but messy, as we had to cross the muddy construction zone of the new Piraeus metro station. The metro line had apparently faced many delays, but
would be opening soon.
Piraeus Port is the main passenger ferry port in Athens. Seeing as the port services all the hundreds of islands and has a lot of foot traffic, I was quite surprised that there weren’t pavements or walkways – it wasn’t pedestrian friendly at all. Thankfully, the cars and trucks were very understanding of us crisscrossing in front of them (with all our luggage) as they drove up to various ferries and lined up to board.
Our Saronic Ferries ferry was much larger than I had realised it would be (for a one-hour trip)! I’m not quite sure what I had expected, but it certainly wasn’t the great big hulking thing we boarded. And even more weirdly, passengers had to board on the same ramp as the vehicles… while the vehicles were driving on!
We left our luggage in a seemingly random area at the back of the vehicle bay and caught an escalator upstairs to the first level. I was surprised to see how packed it was, but the huge ferry now made sense. We managed to commandeer the last few hard plastic seats on the outdoor undercover deck. There was a large
indoor air-conditioned section with a popular cafe and more comfortable cushioned seating, but the air conditioning wasn’t very effective, and the area was already quite packed anyway. So hard plastic seats it was. Georgia kindly watched our bags while we wandered off to check out the ferry.
The open deck on the top level had great views, but unfortunately it didn’t have any shade, and the handful of deck chairs were already taken. We braved the sun and stationed ourselves along a railing from which to survey the suburb of Piraeus and the port area. I was amused to see dogs on this upper deck. It was clear this was a regular journey for them, as they were very calm and nonplussed.
So far in Greece, face masks have only been mandatory on public transport. And even then, they weren’t required on the outside decks of the ferry. After we watched our ferry leave the port, we returned to our cramped hot seats and chatted with a few of our group. Once the ferry gathered speed, the breeze helped with lowering the temperature, but we had to put up with a large group of smokers blowing smoke in
our faces for the whole trip.
Aegina was our first Greek island, and we were excited! It was once a strategic port in fighting Persian fleets and later the Turks, but it’s probably most well-known these days as a popular weekend getaway from Athens and as the centre of
fistiki (pistachio) production. We were visiting during the peak harvest period, and even though we would be missing the annual Fistiki Festival by two weeks, we would still get to sample the pistachios at their freshest (and without the festival crowds).
As we approached Aegina, my first view of the capital – Aegina Town – made me very happy. I could see pastel-coloured classical looking buildings and stone churches in the distance, and glistening bright blue water lapping at the stone quay walls of the town. We couldn’t watch the ferry dock, as we had to join the long line of people shuffling their way downstairs. We didn’t have much time to get our luggage and get off the ferry before it took off for the island of Poros. Disembarking the ferry was a mess of pushing people, bucking suitcases biting at my ankles while being dragged along the
uneven metal floor of the ferry, and cars trying to drive through the crowd! I couldn’t help thinking that there had to be a better (and safer) way of running the process.
It wasn’t the most pleasant of big ferry experiences, but the journey on the Saronic Gulf had been very smooth and it got us to Aegina in one piece. This ferry trip between Athens and Aegina is apparently always busy, but it was more so because it was a Friday and the weekenders were descending on Aegina.
In our group briefing the day before, Georgia had told us that we would go to our hotel (which was a 5-minute drive out of the port/town area) and then head out later in the evening for our included activities of a bike ride through the island and an orientation walk of Aegina Town. There had also been a brief mention of an optional activity to visit the small uninhabited island of Moni in the afternoon if we wished. It was supposed to be a very unique uninhabited island where even overnight stays were banned. And in the absence of humans, populations of deer and peacocks had thrived. Georgia
really pushed for everyone to take up the optional activity (actually she assumed we all would). Andrew and I were quite hesitant at losing a whole afternoon of our one day stay in Aegina, and we were in two minds about going.
For various reasons, while we were on the ferry the order of activities changed a few times (to a point where neither of us really knew what was happening). At some point a decision was made that since our hotel was a distance out of town, we would leave for Moni straight away once we docked. It was only the first day of the trip, and we knew that if we didn’t go along with the group and do the optional activity, it would make life logistically difficult for Georgia. So, we sucked it up and tagged along.
None of us were prepared for the change in plans, and this meant rummaging through bags on the side of the wharf to get swimsuits out, and get changed out of travel clothing and into suitable island attire etc. Then while Georgia battled with a taxi driver to take our luggage to the hotel, the rest of us
purchased 12pm ferry tickets to Moni and bought drinks and food for the couple of hours we’d be there. We’d been told the return ferry would pick us up at 3pm; but after we bought tickets, we were told it would be after 4pm.
It was a very small ferry and the 20-minute trip was very pretty. When travelling I really really really try not to have expectations, but I can’t help but frame what I hear through what I know. So given the description of Moni, I had pictured a very natural and untouched national park-esque island. Well, this image was totally shattered when our small ferry pulled into a cove covered in sunbeds, sun umbrellas, a bar with pumping music, frolicking adults and children running around. This looked to be the main beach, and it really could have been a small crowded resort beach anywhere in the world.
Thankfully, the whole group seemed happy to escape the masses and we walked to a less populated area of the island. We walked past a few small groups who also had the same idea as us, and eventually settled under pine trees on a hill that sloped down
to the sea. The reason this area had less people was because the walk down to the water was difficult and had sharp and uneven rocks on the water’s edge. We later discovered there were sea urchins on the rocks and in the water too.
We got changed behind towels… trying not to flash our new group members, the other tourists or the people on the yachts anchored just down below us. I’m sure there is a trick to pulling on a bathing suit when your skin in hot and sweaty, but I haven’t mastered that skill… so eventually Andrew had to drop part of the towel to help me… and I’m sure there are now some mentally-scarred-for-life yachties out there. 😄
The sea was absolutely gorgeous and almost warm! Andrew went for a swim, skirting the couple of small yachts anchored close to us. I sat in the water and chatted with a few of the group… I enjoy these bonding moments with group members at the start of a trip. Kathrin had very kindly bought some small cheese pastries to share with us all, and they were rather delicious eaten through sea salty lips. While sitting
there in that turquoise green sea, being sun drenched and doused in salt water, I could feel that very pleasing ‘on-holiday’ mood starting to wash over me.
Eventually the rocks got too uncomfortable and the group split up, with just Dani, Kathrin and us staying behind chatting and admiring the beautiful Saronic Gulf. At some point I wandered off to get some photos of the peacocks and deer. The peacocks were quite confident and didn’t care about me, but the majority of deer were understandably rather skittish. A few bolder ones were rewarded with food from the tourists. Thankfully most people seemed to be giving them fruit, but I saw kids being encouraged by parents to feed them chips (crisps) and bread out of their hands. 😞
Speaking of bad behaviour, I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I was so amazed at seeing an albino deer that I stalked it for a little while. However, it very cleverly evaded me by simply walking off the path and into an open rocky area; it was just too hard for me to walk on the rocks and it was too hot to stray from the shade of the pine trees.
I’m pretty sure this was learnt ‘tourist avoidance’ behaviour! 😊
By now I was getting very bored, and I was ready to head back. There was still more than an hour left before our ferry returned at 4pm. It had become a game of killing time. We walked back to the main beach area and Andrew attempted to get a selfie with a stag with magnificent antlers. His efforts got mixed results, but at least it amused me and killed a bit more time.
I was so happy to see the ferry finally arrive. While it had been nice visiting the island of Moni, it was the sort of chilled out place I’d probably have enjoyed at the end of a trip – not on Day 1. Being stranded there for hours had left us both feeling a bit crabby that we hadn’t opted to explore Aegina Town instead. Georgia genuinely thought everyone in the group really wanted to prioritise swimming over any other activity, and she regarded Aegina Town as a small place that didn’t warrant much exploring.
On arrival back in Aegina Town, we picked up the bikes we would be riding for the rest
of the afternoon and evening. While getting our helmets fitted, Andrew and I spotted a tandem bike and decided it would be a fun ride. And thank goodness we made that decision! The ‘one small hill’ we’d been told about turned into two rather steep sections that my post-COVID lungs would have definitely struggled with.
Georgia’s lack of experience was showing. She was super fit, and again, genuinely didn’t think the hills needed any better explanation. One group member decided to abandon the bike at this point and catch a taxi to and from the activities that evening.
We rode northwest out of the beautiful town and along Aegina’s stunning coastal road. Danae Hotel was one kilometre or so from the town centre, and sat charmingly on a small hill right across from the sea. The hotel rooms were set around an inviting pool, and our first-floor room faced the sea… but the view was partially blocked by a small forest of pine trees. We were at the hotel just long enough to shower and unpack before we regrouped for our bike ride to a nearby pistachio farm.
The promenade of Aegina Town is as polished and
sparkling as any waterside marina town, but just outside it, idyllic rural life reigns. We rode our tandem bike along the stunning coastal road again, admiring the little bays and rocky beaches on one side and the farms and houses on the other. The houses that hugged the coast ranged from small two-room farm houses to grand mansions. The island is a favourite weekend getaway for Athenians, and I can absolutely see the attraction. The farms seemed to grow mostly pistachios, but I also saw olive groves and fig trees.
One of the owners of the pistachio farm met us on the main road and guided us to their farm. We turned off the coastal road and started riding inland through small villages. The farm had been in the family for multiple generations, and was now run by Pantelis and his wife. They gave us a short history of the pistachio nut in Aegina, and described the process of growing and processing it (this was translated to us by Georgia).
Apparently, the pistachios of Aegina (the Egintiki variety) are considered the best in Greece for flavour and aroma. It has ideal growing conditions of long hot and dry
summers with low rainfall, further helped by its proximity to the sea and the unique soil composition. Sadly, the island had recently experienced unseasonal rain, and the farm had lost a portion of their crops. 😞
We walked through the farm and among the pistachio trees, and I was amazed that fresh pistachios are a bright pink and cream colour! They looked more like unopened flower buds than a nut. I had clearly only ever seen the greeny-brown dried ones. The farm is comprised of female trees with just one male tree, and is pollinated by the wind. The pistachios are harvested like olives with the trees beaten with wrapped sticks, after which they are immediately hulled in a machine onsite and dried naturally in the sun for three days. They are then roasted either with or without salt.
The farm is organic, and they also try to minimise their waste – the shells are converted into fertiliser and used on the farm (not the nicest of smells!), and the pistachios that don’t make sale grade are fed to local pigs and chickens. It’s a very simple but effective operation. Unfortunately, the farm had stopped hulling for the
day, but I really enjoyed meeting the producers and learning about pistachios. We also managed to eat quite a lot of the delicious roasted pistachios they’d generously given us to sample.
By the time we left the farm, the sun was beginning to set and we raced back along the coast road to get to a large sculpture called
The Mother. We’d seen the very imposing piece on our way to the farm and thought it would make a great sunset spot. We made it with minutes to spare, and it really was the most gorgeous view! We watched as the sun sank beyond distant hills, and the sea and surrounding landscape was bathed in vibrant reds, pinks and oranges. It was very beautiful.
We kept riding past our hotel on our way into Aegina Town. We were in no rush, and could take in the beautiful scenery still lit in those stunning sunset colours. This is Greek island life I suppose… the relaxing, rejuvenating experience that has been enticing millions of tourists for years. Luckily for us, the stunning landscapes we were passing through were largely deserted. Those millions of tourists were elsewhere, and I was very
very grateful.
Our journey in Greece had only just begun, but I felt that this sunset ride was going to be one of the highlights of our entire trip. 😄
After navigating the light traffic in the heart of town, we returned the bikes to the rental place on the main promenade. Our tandem bike had been a lot of fun, but it had no gears to speak of. When faced with hills and not being able to gear down, we both had to pedal furiously! At one point I fancied that we must look like two frantic hamsters on a wheel, and that mental image made me giggle a bit. My momentary lapse in concentration made my feet slip off the pedals at the most inopportune moment. Andrew’s breathless voice asking ‘what ARE you doing back there?’ guilted me into banishing all thoughts of hamsters and pedalling much harder for the rest of the hill. 😊
We were supposed to have an orientation walk in Aegina Town, but it ended up being a gentle stroll along the beautiful main promenade. Even without any background information, it was still an interesting walk. On one side there were
large expensive yachts, smaller sailing boats and tiny fishing boats all moored at the marina, and on the other side was the lovely low-rise streetscape of the promenade. This area was full of shops and restaurants with outside seating. We had an included dinner at one such place called Petra.
Petra was one of the smaller establishments on the waterfront, and it was run by a lovely family. We sat at an outside table and Georgia suggested we opt for the chef’s choice. The chef-owner came out to our table and ran through a few dishes, and we eagerly agreed to everything she suggested. To be honest I lost track of the menu by about the fourth dish – but it didn’t matter… I was totally up for trying everything a local chef wanted to feed us. It was obvious that she was very proud of Aegina and its produce.
The food was seriously incredible! We shared eight courses, starting with the Petra house salad which featured greens, cherry tomatoes, cured pork, dry anthotiro cheese (a hard salty sheep and goat milk cheese), oranges, olives and local pistachios. This was followed by a
dakos salad, which is a
Cretan dish with crushed tomatoes, crumbled feta, black olives, capers and carob rusks at the bottom of the dish. The rusks absorb the juices of all the ingredients, including the olive oil, and is quite delicious. I had been perplexed about the rusks we’d had in Athens, but I now understood the attraction!
The other dishes were
dolmades (vine leaf rolls stuffed with herbed rice); thick slabs of warmed
sfelara cheese (a semi-hard sheep cheese) sandwiched between sliced tomatoes and drizzled with pistachio pesto; deep fried
soutzouki (cured meat) pie with a spicy tomato sauce; house made
kebabs (minced lamb, beef and pork cooked on a skewer) with roasted peppers, tomatoes, onion, yoghurt and pita bread, deep fried
pastourmadopita (pastrami and cheese pie) with yoghurt sauce; and finally slow cooked pork belly with fries, salad and an apple and beer sauce.
While all of the dishes were tasty, my favourite dishes were the
dolmades, the
sfelara cheese and tomato sandwich with pistachio pesto, and the slow cooked pork belly. I would be willing to return to Aegina just to indulge in these three dishes again! 😊
I much prefer baked Greek pies to deep-fried ones, so I
wasn’t surprised that I didn’t love either of the pies served, but the spicy tomato sauce served with the
soutzouki was mind-blowingly good.
Sadly, the small lamp on our outside table, though very romantic, was sorely inadequate as a light source for night photography. The few photographs we captured do not provide the best sharable evidence of the dishes, but they are more than enough to jog our memories of the incredible meal.
This was an amazing dinner, not just for the excellent food and great service, but also for the equally entrancing setting we found ourselves in. It was a beautiful warm night… we were sitting just across from a marina with all manner of boats bobbing on the water… we were partaking in a rave-worthy meal with travel buddies who shared our love of good food… with the lively chatter of hundreds of other tourists and locals around us enjoying themselves just as much as we were. 😊
We declined dessert at Petra’s, because we’d unanimously agreed that we wanted gelato. The gelato seed had been sown earlier that evening when we’d found out that the pistachios from Pantelis’ farm are used in the desserts
at Aiakeion. It was just a few doors down from Petra’s, and on Georgia’s advice we tried both the normal pistachio gelato and the salted pistachio version. Not only was the salted pistachio flavour a massive revelation for me, but the bar for pistachio gelato has now risen considerably. All future pistachio gelati will be judged against this one!
A few of us caught a taxi back to our hotel at 10pm. I had high hopes of writing some travel notes, but the warm shower and comfy bed conspired against me. After just five minutes I felt myself crashing and the next thing I knew, the alarm was going off at 6am.
I’ve already mentioned that our hotel was located on a beautiful setting on Aegina’s coastal road (which encircles the triangular island on two sides). I really wanted to have a look at the beach near our hotel before breakfast. Andrew wasn’t ready, so I headed out on my own.
As I was standing at the gate taking a photo of the hotel complex, I heard the unmistakeable sound of a wet dog shaking. I looked down to see a very fat Labrador with a waggy
tail looking at me with big curious eyes. He didn’t have to ask me twice for pats, but I fleetingly wondered what he was doing alone on a main road. A few moments later I saw an old man climbing the last few steps that led uphill from the sea. In black speedos that were probably a few sizes too small, and a towel over his shoulder, the old man shook his head and mimed that my hands were wet from patting his dog. He was right. I wish I could have mimed back ‘and also smell of wet dog’. They both slowly pottered off down the road to their car. I smiled at my very brief peek into the window of their morning routine.
I crossed the road and walked down the cement steps to the rocky beach the old man had just appeared from. It wasn’t a great beach, but it was small and totally private. However, what captivated me most was a view of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo across the water. I sat on a rock in this silent pine forested rocky beach until Andrew joined me a little while later. The previous
evening we’d seen some lovely little coves further down the shoreline that I would have loved to explore, but we only had two free hours that morning before we left for Poros, and we chose to explore Aegina Town instead.
We returned to the hotel for a quick breakfast, and I was very happy to see a bright and airy breakfast room with a view. The breakfast buffet had lovely little individual COVID-safe servings of most things. However, nothing I tried was very tasty. I couldn’t help but compare this buffet to the one we loved at our hotel in Athens. My breakfast ended up being a sampling of the various Greek cookies and biscuits on offer. They were drier than cookies I’d usually enjoy, but were excellent with my cups of tea.
I had noticed a beautiful black and white cat walking around the hotel. However, at the sound of the breakfast room coming alive, a few more appeared like magic. There was a clear divide between the hotel cats (who had free reign of the breakfast room) and the stray cats we’d seen on the pine hill (who now sat at the open windows, hoping someone
would throw them a scrap or two). There was tolerance of the intruder stray cats, but a hierarchy of status clearly applied. Sadly, the class system doesn’t escape even the domesticated feline societies.
Andrew and I checked out at 8:30am and left our packs in a storage room at the hotel. We sent a photo of them to Georgia for identification purposes, as she would be bringing our bags to the port later on. Georgia had set up a WhatsApp group for us, and it worked really well as a means of group communication (and also as a repository of group photos). This was the first time such a group had been initiated by the Group Leader, and it was a better and more inclusive system than the ones that would normally be informally set up by a group member.
I really loved our 15-minute walk into town. The Temple of Apollo site (dating back to the 6th century BC) was not yet open, but we detoured via a nearby beach to get some photos of the lone standing temple column. These ruins are also called
Kolona (column) by the locals.
Once in Aegina Town, we started
at the main promenade and made our way into the smaller back streets away from the waterfront. The two small streets parallel to the promenade were full of stylish neoclassical buildings, tourist shops, expensive boutiques and nice cafes. But quite surprisingly, all the smaller lanes away from those streets were very local. They held snippets of very local life – churches, delis, tiny coffee shops, window boxes with pretty plants, apartments with washing hanging on the balconies, and pastel-coloured and whitewashed houses of various shapes and sizes. Aegina had belonged to the Byzantine Empire, before being ruled by the Venetians and Turks; and the architectural styles certainly reflected all these – as well as the local Greek island styles.
Some of the smaller residential areas we walked through had older people basking in the morning light by their front doors, putting out trays of pistachios to dry in the sun, watering their plants or walking to the shops. We were eyed with much curiosity, so I assumed that many tourists didn’t explore this area.
I’m a great believer in smiling at locals when travelling, especially in countries where there’s a language barrier. However, over the years I’ve come
to be a bit more cautious about understanding local norms (especially in smaller regional areas) before flashing my smiles all over the place. Our last trip to Europe was in eastern Europe, and in those cultures, smiling is part of a complex social etiquette that dictates how you interact with loved ones compared to strangers. Bearing this in mind, I smiled tentatively at a few people that morning, and the beaming smiles in return were so welcoming that I immediately knew I could be myself in this land.
I also really love the melodic sound of the word
kalimera (good morning) and didn’t hold back singing it out to everyone we came across that morning. Most people replied politely. However, I could hear surprise laced through the very pleased replies from the older generation.
On one such local street, I was crouching on the ground taking a photo of bright red shutters on a house with the cathedral belltower in the background, when I spied an old man trying to contort his body to see what I had found so interesting. He looked twice, shook his head and kept walking towards me. When I smiled and showed him
the shot on my camera, he smiled back and nodded, said ‘brava’, and continued on. But I could tell from his eyes that he wasn’t convinced. I reckon he was thinking ‘the poor girl’s never seen red shutters before’. 😄
In terms of sites of historical note, we visited the ruins of the pink Venetian styled Tower of Markellos, and walked past the red domed St Dionisious Cathedral (the first cathedral in modern Greece). We then started making our way back to the port for our 9:45am rendezvous with the group.
We had to rush as we still hadn’t bought the pistachio brittle we had been eyeing off since we arrived. We’d sampled pistachio products from three shops, and we settled on the flavour we liked the most. Needless to say, the places without free samples didn’t get our custom. We also tasted the pistachio butter that is much loved by my sister (bought in Aegina by my niece a few months ago); and even though I really loved it, the temperatures were still in summer mode and I didn’t fancy carrying around a bottle of butter in my pack for a few more weeks. I sincerely hope
I don’t regret that decision.
We kept running into members of our group as we roamed along the promenade, and Pedro informed us that the meeting time had changed to 10am. Ah, we hadn’t needed to rush after all. We meandered back to the pistachio kiosk to try more pistachio goodies. 😊
Eventually we all gathered at the ticket office near the port to pick up our luggage that had been transferred from the hotel. We walked onto the wharf and stood in the shade of the little white church of St Nicholas Thalassinos to await the arrival of our ferry to Poros. Given the position of this church right on the wharf, I’m sure it has heard its share of pleas from sailors and fishermen for safe voyages, and prayers of thanks for safe returns.
I was sad to leave the gorgeous island of Aegina – I had really loved what we saw of it. Even though I still felt a tiny blob of disappointment that we’d missed out on an afternoon of exploring more of Aegina Town, I was beyond thrilled with the experiences we’d had. What an amazingly beautiful, inviting and stress-free place it
was; even the bustling port area was lovely!
I suppose the key to the magic formula that made the island of Aegina so attractive was that despite its proximity to Athens, they have managed to keep overdevelopment at bay. It made for a fabulous place for the locals to live in, and a fabulous place for us to visit. And this fabulousness was palpable from the first moment I set foot on the island. Aegina had been a most joyous start to our exploration of this Peloponnese and Saronic Gulf region.
As we floated away, I made a mental note to add Aegina to the list of places we could easily and happily live in. 😊
Next we travel south to Poros, a Saronic Gulf island known as ‘the green island’.
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Chris L.
non-member comment
Aegina
A new island to me. This is my first time reading about it. I think I would have very much enjoyed riding a bike around that coast road.