 |
| Local 3-wheel transport |
 |
| Exploring the Afaia Temple on Aegina - it may not be possible to do this now |
We found a reasonably priced guest house and almost immediately left to walk to the Temple of Aphia. It's set on the top of a high hill from where you can see both sides of the island and was very impressive.
We walked down to the Aegina marina, looking for natural sponges to take back to Australia but no luck. We actually got a lift most of the way back in a truck and saw the hillside monastery.
Later we had lunch of cheese pastries at a local hang out with three drunk guys were into dancing - the Greeks are really into enjoying life. We spent the afternoon walking around the bay of Aegina before having the same pastries for dinner in another cafe.
 |
| Along the bay of Aegina |
 |
| Drying octopus in the sun (?) |
Nice and easygoing pace here and even a bit of sun in the afternoon. We met a German couple in the guest house that night and had a good chat and a drink of Retsina - I still think Retsina is a joke the Greeks play on foreigners, or at least it's a really acquired taste.
 |
| The port of Poros - Postcard |
 |
| Barrels of Retsina - Postcard |
Poros is different to Aegina (yes, I know all the islands are different, that's what makes it interesting), large hills all around and less fertile soil – plenty of olive groves and fig trees.
 |
| The port of Poros |
 |
| Poros keyside |
 |
| It is quite a busy port |
 |
| A man and his donkey |
 |
| The Dogs of Poros - is that a Greek play? |
I’d almost finished re-reading The Devil is Dead by R.A. Lafferty and it made a real difference reading the book here where part of the novel is set.
I liked the tandem and four wheel bicycles for hire by tourists, made using a very simple and effective construction. They seem a bit weighty and would probably be hard going uphill but okay on the flat. I took some photos and spent some time sketching the details of the four-wheel pedalos and talking to the guy who made them.
 |
| View of the port of Hydra from the hill on the right - Postcard |
 |
| Port of Hydra - Postcard |
 |
| Donkeys being loaded - Postcard |
 |
| The picturesque harbour - Postcard |
The water here is so clear that the boat seem to float on here – quite weird. Sponges also seem a better deal here so we might buy some.
We climbed a hill to the west of the port and took some photos before returning to the port.
 |
| Walking up the hill on the west |
 |
| View looking east |
 |
| View east to the harbour |
After a lunch of cheese, spinach pies, and Greek style custard slices went to tackle the higher hill to the east.
As we started following a path up the hill, we noticed a man with donkeys below us carting something. As we looked, we realised that the pack-donkey was carrying two sheep in its panniers!
Well the hill to the east was quite a bit higher and after dodging thorns, sheep, goats and donkeys we finally got to the top. No photo could capture the feeling we had up there, high above everything and seeing islands in each direction in the distance. |
| View of the harbour from the hill to the east |
The silence away from the port was uncanny, broken only by the sound of the wind, bells in the distance and the odd voice echoing in the hills. One thing we have enjoyed on the islands is that there are places where we can get away from people.
 |
| A German tourist |
Within minutes we heard mainly German, French and English accented people walking along the esplanade, looking at the shops. Within half an hour, they all headed back to the ship. Shortly thereafter, all the souvenir shops closed and the normal shops and cafes re-opened. That was the extent of their ‘Greek Island’ experience, a little different from ours. The Greeks have got this down to a fine art, separating tourism from daily life.
The next day we bought some sponges and postcards and did very little else, and spent most of the morning on the balcony watching cement, bricks and general supplies being unloaded and loaded onto donkeys to be taken into the town and surrounding hills.
The photos below were taken in and around the small harbour of Hydra including some of Hydra's cats. The cats would wait for the fishermen to unload buckets of live sardines still jumping and fretting onto the shore. Between the time the many buckets were put down and before they were carried away, the cats would begin flicking sardines out of the buckets. We thought they were just playing, but in fact they were cleverly and quickly flicking as many sardines as they could manage out of the buckets during that time. Then they leisurely munched their way through a feast of fresh sardines, after which they stretched out in the sun on the rocks, and waited for the next boatload.
These cats are apparently quite
famous, but also present a problem with their uncontrolled breeding.
The next morning we had lunch on the island and caught the boat back to Athens at 1:30 PM.
On Monday the 15th of March we travelled the four and a half hours back to Pireas and Athens on a very calm sea, with hardly a ripple on the water and the surface gently undulating.As soon as we arrived on the mainland we where immediately overwhelmed by the hustle, bustle and noise - and it gave me a headache. We retreated back to the same hotel we stayed in earlier and got the same cheap rate.
Later, we then went to Vivian’s again to pick up our backpacks and she was still as speedy to talk to - we realised that we had really slowed down over the four relaxing days on the Greek islands. We ate dinner with her as well as having lovely hot showers and then went back to our hotel for our last night of the trip.
The last day, on Tuesday the 16th of March we packed and left after traditional Greek breakfast of sugar and cinnamon pastries. I had found some cheap records, but I found they were poor quality Greek pressings so we didn't buy any.
We weighed the packs, mine was 21 kg and Danielle’s 18 kg so in total we were 1 kg under, that's if they didn't weigh our shoulder bags which have all the heavy stuff. We left a forwarding note for any mail at Poste Restante and headed down to our regular coffee snack bar to while away some time and have some of their delicious gyros for lunch.Then it was off to the airport for the flight back to Australia, 11 months and 4 says after we left.
