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Greece: Aegina

Thursday September 15, 2005: Departure

We get up early as usual when we have to leave. This time it’s three thirty in the morning. Maurits picks us up and brings us to the airport. We quickly arrange all things and can drive to Zaventem at quarter past four, as we wanted to. There are no problems when we arrive at the airport, we can start the check in fast and then move on to the passport and luggage control and after that a quick breakfast. It’s all OK, but the people have done the control more thorough. Timo had to remove his belt and he has never done that in the past. We have two large coffees and have a croissant and a raisin biscuit. We only need to wait half an hour to start boarding, so we sit and wait at gate A42. That gate is close to the restaurant, so we don’t need to walk far, not to gate A90 or something. The boarding starts right on time (06:10) so will arrive on time. And indeed only with a minor delay of 5 minutes we take off. In the airplane we try to rest, but two Dutch people in the seats in front of us move all the time and then we amuse ourselves three hours reading our travel guide. In that way the time goes faster. After a flight of about three hours we arrive at the Athens airport. Everything is going smoothly. We only just arrive at the conveyer to collect our luggage, when our case comes towards us. It’s the tenth one that comes trough. We then go to the meeting point to see mama Linda, Patrick and Christine. We sit down at a kafeneio, have a cola and share a sandwich with cheese and ham. Then we only need to wait for an hour until the three of them arrive. We immediately take the bus, close to the door that goes to Piraeus. We drive from the airport straight to the coast and follow the sea until we arrive at Piraeus. The harbor is huge. This is a port to the world and not some small harbor like we’ve seen on the islands. The boats that arrive here are a thousand times bigger than us. We’re too late for the boat at one thirty, so we sit down to drink something and to have a snack. Patrick and Timo go to the ticket office to find out when the next boat will leave and the three ladies order drinks and food. A bottle of ouzo (with 5 persons) and three pitas with pork meat and 2 with chicken. They are the same as the pitas we had in Athens in May 2005, really very tasty, but very fattening. We order another ouzo and then it’s almost three o’clock and it’s time to get on the boat. The ferry leaves on time and we have another ouzo (pretty expensive, but then again). Behind the ferry there are a lot of gulls flying when we sail out of the harbor, herring gulls, black-headed gulls. Timo watches like a little child, as he always does when it comes to birds. We let our head hang in the wind and arrive after one hour on Aegina. Just before we sail in the harbor we see the same spectacle as we saw in Piraeus. There is a huge flock of seagulls flying behind the ferry, without flapping their wings, gliding through the sky. It is not a problem to only glide, because they use the strong wind and they also use the wind of the boat. I want to make a general remark. The weather is not good at all. There are a lot of clouds and it rains from time to time. The temperature is OK and that is something. We can see the hotel from the ferry and know immediately which way we need to go. After a ten-minute walk we’re there, we check in, receive our keys and can start unpacking. We have room 101, Patrick and Linda have room 201, right above ours – don’t make too much noise – and Christine has the key to room 308. We unpack quickly and rest for about an hour. We sleep from about six thirty until seven thirty, then Timo takes a shower and Eef stays in the bed for another 30 minutes. No problem; we’re on holiday and then we do what we like. When we’re both ready we go down and go for a drink downstairs, at taverna Avra. We come down at the reception and there already comes Christine towards us, so we sit on the covered terrace. It needs to be covered now, because it still is raining. We just ordered our drinks, when Linda and Patrick come down too. So we order some more and eat something. There are a lot of different things on the table: tzatziki, choriatiki, calamari, chorta, souvlaki (1 pork and one chicken), gigandes (large beans in tomato sauce), fries, saganaki (fried cheese). It all is gone pretty fast and then Vassilis brings something very good: roasted pork meat with fries. Where he gets that nobody knows; it does not come out of his kitchen, but is very, very good. After that Vassilis start to do too much. He brings a watermelon and a whole bole of ice cream. He has especially sent someone to get that from the bakery where he used to work. The ice cream is very good. We are having a good time here, now only the weather needs to change and than everything is complete. Mama Linda goes to bed at about 11 and we pay and drink some more wine at the table. Vassilis already asked to go into town to a bar, but we always refused. Eventually we join him and are in a very dark bar in the centre. Eef even says: Vassili, the bar is closed. And he replies: No, no this is always open for me. So we enter the bar; the ladies drink Amaretto and we have Johnny Walker, very nice, but also very high amount of alcohol. We are able to return after the second round (25 Euro for the first one) to the hotel and are back at the hotel at 01:30. A little bit drunk and tired we immediately go to bed. See you tomorrow; it was an exhausting day.

Friday September 16, 2005: Rest the whole day and enjoy

We sleep till about 10:30. We have breakfast at Kostas’ place: the restaurant is called O Pelaļsos. It is raining, so we won’t be doing a lot today. At least that’s the plan, not too much action. In the afternoon we sit down on a table at Vassilis and play cards. We also have something small to eat and drink a Greek beer (Mythos). Today is really doing nothing, because we can’t even go outside. The benefit in Greece is: it is not cold when it rains. It still is warm, even for this time of the year. And we don’t need to go to work, that’s another nice thing. Later in the afternoon the clouds disappear and the sun comes checking out the world. We want to go and explore the town and also check out what’s available in the environment. When we’re back at the hotel we’re very lucky: we have just entered the hotel and there is a very hard shower coming down from heaven. Then we prepare ourselves to go out for an evening to Perdika. Vassilis has invited us to go out to eat in a restaurant in another village: Perdika. Vassilis has his origin in this town and knows about everyone. We drive by car at 21:30 – Vassilis is driving – to Perdika. We are treated like kings. Everything is ready to make it a nice evening. There is a tables overloaded with Greek salad, cheese saganaki, squid, chorta and several other dishes. Everyone chooses fish as a main course, except Patrick; he takes pork meat. The fish is unbelievably good. We have seen in the kitchen, what they were going to serve us. All fish was lying in a freezer on ice, so it must have been fresh fish. We eat very much and drink a lot of local white wine with it. After this perfect meal we’re not yet leaving Perdika, but go a little bit further to a bar for a drink. The women take amaretto and the guys have a tasty whiskey. It starts to get late and at about three in the night we leave Perdika. Christine and Vassilis go into town, because it’s not yet late enough, but we go home to sleep. Sleep tight.

Saturday September 17, 2005: The north of Aegina

We sleep until 10 and then have breakfast at Kostas. This is already a tradition. At around 11 we decide to rent a bike to explore the north of the island. We follow the coast north and arrive via small roads in Agia Marina. This is the most northern part of the island. A beautiful town with a harbor, and we can enjoy the rest. We drink a bit and have a small snack; not too much. We sit on the terrace of restaurant Kiriakakis and have a beautiful view. After lunch we drive to the temple of Afea. We visit the ruins of the temple and the museum there. Everything has become a lot more expensive since the Euro was introduced. At 14:45 we drive inland to the monastery “Agios Nektarios”. We visit the monastery; people are working on the inside. As always in Greece we need to be dressed decent, when we want to enter a monastery. No problem: we always have something with us to cover our shoulders and knees. From here we take the road back to Aegina, stop in Agios Asomatos to drink a Mythos and stay here for about an hour. Then we drive to Marathonas and go for a swim there. At 18:00 we’re back in Aegina city and end the day at the same place where we started. At Kostas’ restaurant we have ouzo me meze. We need to return the scooter at 20:00, so that’s what we do. We take a shower and eat tonight at Vassilis. After the ouzo we start with an aperitif.

Sunday September 18, 2005: Aegina

We again sleep till about ten and have breakfast with Kostas again. After breakfast we want to visit the archeological site in Aegina. Again – as it is the case with a lot of monuments – a great view. The most important remain is the colona, a high pillar that rules over the ancient city. Next to this there is a small museum and we pass here too. After this cultural event it is time to do something else. We walk through town and buy some fruit (gapes and figs). We take the fruit with us to the beach, where Patrick, Christine and Linda are enjoying the sun. For this time of the year it still is hot at the beach. We have bought during our city walk a mask for snorkeling for Eef and we want her to learn how to use it. It’s not that difficult, so she gets along very well. We start with the aperitif at Vassilis early in the day at the pool-bar. Some wine and snacks (fried octopus). Then we must get ready to have a Greek pita, a Mythos and we go to bed at 23:30.

Monday September 19, 2005: Hydra and the other islands in the Saronic Gulf

Today we need to get out of bed a bit earlier at 08:00. We have a frappe buy postal cards and stamps. At nine the ferry leaves to Hydra and that is an island you have to see/ we take the ferry and the boat brings us first to Methana after about 1 hour. Methana is a small city on the mainland of Greece. It can be a busy city, especially during high season. A little bit later we sail through the narrow canal between Poros and the mainland. It really looks great to see a big ferry maneuvering between sailing ships and finally we arrive on Hydra at 11:15. We make a short stroll, but we soon need to stop and sit and eat and drink something. We have retsina, gemista, giouvetsi, choriatiki and lamb. Very, very tasty. We then separate and each go our own ways. Only a small part of the island is done now and at 16:15 we’re already back on the ferry to return to Aegina. We take a shower and call home and then eat something at Kostas. At 23:00 we stop by Vassilis and play with the cards until one o’clock.

Tuesday September 20, 2005: Second day of exploration with a scooter

We get up at ten; have breakfast at Vassilis, because Kostas is closed. At 11:00 we leave by scooter, which we already rented before breakfast. At first we take the same roads as the previous time along the coast passing by the beautiful village of Souvala with the gorgeous harbor and then inland to Palaiochora. Ancient churches, grouped together. Only a few of the churches are open, but we still can look inside. It looks sober, but pretty. It really is worth to climb up the hill, because there are not only the churches, but you have also a view at the monastery and Souvala. Then we drive to Aja marina and from there we want to go to Porta to go and explore the rest. We’re not lucky, because we don’t find the road and arrive at the monastery again. So we take the road back to Aegina and the big coast road to Perdika. It is already 14:00 when we start lunch. Choriatiki and chtapodi with water and wine. Two yachts arrive, so we have something to see. After about an hour we go back to Aegina town and go snorkeling. We take the scooter to drive 15 minutes north and there in a small bay we can snorkel. There are a lot of fish, big ones and small ones, all mixed and especially between the weeds. Eef starts to get the hang of it and also starts to like it more. We stay here for an hour and then return to hotel Avra. At 18:00 it is apero-time. We drink at Vassilis and Enrique “ouzo me meze”. The meze is nothing much here. We still enjoy it and also spend the rest of the evening there, flooded with drinks.

Wednesday and Thursday September 21 and 22, 2005

We have seen the most on Aegina. It is not a very big island. When you have a few days of time, you can easily take a few moments to visit the most important things on the island. We chose to do it in 1 week, but it can be done faster too. The last days we spent more time on the beach and in the water. Eef is now able to snorkel and we like it a lot now. We can go in the water together now and it is much nicer to do than Timo being alone in the water. We eat a lot, actually too much, at Vassilis and at Kostas. We enjoy now every moment, because from now on it will take a while before we can go out on vacation. First there is a weekend in Nieuwpoort and then we go to Costa Rica, we hope it will be a nice experience. When you’re on Aegina you need to leave early by ferry. We need to take the boat of 7 and then a bus will be ready to bring us from Piraeus to the airport. This is a good ending of our Greece holiday. At Zaventem Peter, Ilse and Maurits pick us up. Maurits takes Linda, Patrick and Christine to Bornem and Peter and Ilse take us to Sint-Amands. They invite us to eat at their place and we accept. We should have gone to restaurant Castelsardo in Bornem, but Christine her dog died during her vacation, so we stay in Sint-Amands.