Wonderfully Relaxing Hydra

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At a tourist office in Patra (the city our ferry landed), we asked the girl helping us if she could recommend a restful, quiet place to stay for a few days. She thought about and told us we should go to the Sarconic islands, a short boat ride from Athens, and in particular mentioned Hydra, a small little island with no cars, only donkeys for transporting goods. Perfect! So we zoomed off to Athens to get the first boat we could to Hydra, figuring we’d catch the Athens sites on the way back.

If you can’t find some peace and quiet on Hydra, you just can’t find it. The little village never has more than 3,000 residents, and the winter is very, very quiet as far as tourism goes. One boat a day arrived with a bunch of tourists and left about an hour after it arrived. We found this great little guesthouse, where the woman who runs the place just did her best to make us feel welcome. She spoke about as much English as we spoke Greek, but she would just grab Tracey’s hand and lead us around gesturing to things to show us how they worked, when a concert was happening and even brought us cookies.

We just slept A LOT, ate just as much as we slept and have enjoyed wandering around the narrow, steep streets. It was cold and windy every day but one, but it was perfect snoozing weather. However, that one sunny day was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The sun was overhead all day, the sky was brilliantly blue and for once we didn’t need a jacket! We took advantage and hiked up the mountain to a Greek Orthodox monastery. We hiked up a path with a series of switchback and then climbed 898 steps to the top of the mountain. A priest was outside and greeted us, letting us go inside the chapel, which was adorned with lots of gold leaf artwork, and the overlook where we got a gorgeous view of the ocean and the neighboring Peloponnese Islands. We planned returning with plenty of time to see Athens and go to Thermopylae, but the day we planned on returning some heavy windstorms forced all the ferries to cancel their routes, so 3 nights has turned into 5. The village itself was very pretty with stone and white plaster homes accented by glossy, navy blue paint, stone streets and breathtaking views of the ocean. There were also a countless number of the most well fed cats we’ve seen. You could tell when a fishing boat comes into the harbor, because the cats all crowd around waiting to be tossed some fish scraps from the latest haul. Coming here has been just what we needed to give us a much needed energy boost. In the summer, Hydra would be just breathtaking, and the people are very hospitable.

When we did finally make it back to Athens, we learned that the same storm that had caused the ferries to be cancelled also dumped a lot of snow and ice in the region where Thermopylae (300 Spartans) is. So we had to cancel that trip, partly because of weather and partly because of the lack of time. Jason was pretty bummed out, because he loves war history and is a 300 Spartans junky, but it just wasn’t in the cards this time. Then, we also found out that we only had one day to see the Acropolis and other historical sites and museums in Athens because the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church died, and all the sites would be closed for his funeral. So we scurried around trying to see as much as we could in one day, and unfortunately there wasn’t time to make it to the museum that houses the well-preserved artifacts, statues and other Greek art. We did go to the Acropolis, but that was a huge disappointment. Nearly all of the temples were undergoing restoration simultaneously and completely surrounded by scaffolding, so you couldn’t really see the buildings. And the buildings truthfully weren’t as impressive as people make them sound, and they are right smack in the middle of all of Athens city sprawl. So we are just really glad that we went to Hydra, because it would have been very disappointing to come a very long way to see something that is over-hyped.

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Photos

Gorgeous Day in Hydra!
Overlooking islands in the distance

Some of the Parthenon Marbles
most of the other marbles are in the museum in Athens and in a British museum

The Acropolis at Night
...view from our hotel room