A vacation from my vacation. Relaxation, pure and simple. Which is what I needed after several more cities of running around constantly. Hydra is an island, only about 2 hours by boat from Athens. The main town, also named Hydra, is an adorable old town, built into the hill surrounding a bay. The “streets” are all narrow passageways, less than 5 feet wide, with steep hills and stairs.
They have banned motorized vehicles on the island, using donkeys for transportation instead. The donkeys spend half their time giving rides to tourists, and the other half lugging stuff up hills to houses, hotels, and restaurants. They carry everything from groceries to major appliances.
What is there to do here? Nothing. Plain and simple, you can spend a lot of time, doing a lot of nothing, which is exactly what I did. I bought a book (at over twice the sticker price, but heck, it was a book in English on a small island in Greece). I spent the majority of my two days here sitting by the sea, reading the book. When I got too hot (it was in the 90‘s), I jumped in the sea, which was refreshingly chilly, then got out to read again. Peaceful and wonderful.
The town has a lot of shops and restaurants around the port, which cater to the hundreds of tourists that get dropped off by cruise ships for a few hours at a time, throughout the day. But, the streets up the hills, and all streets in the evening are uncrowned, but never feel deserted. The place that I stayed, Achilles Pension, was run by a delightful woman who spoke only a few words of English (more than I speak in Greek), but was extremely warm and friendly, and very helpful, despite any language barrier. I had left my luggage at the hotel after checking out, since I wasn’t taking a boat back to Athens until late afternoon. When I came back to pick up my luggage, she apologized, mostly with repeatedly saying "I'm sorry" then pantomiming the rest. She had seen a water bottle sitting in the pocket of my bag, and it was so hot out, she put it in the fridge. She hoped I didn’t mind. So sweet! The ice cold water tasted wonderful after spending the day in the heat! On the way out of town, I ran into Roberto and Robbie, the two guys who I had gone to Delphi with, who had been island hopping, and happened to be there in the same back street as I was. Altogether, a great place to stay!
you're in a back street alley too strung out to form legible words. is the cat with you? i've always had my suspicions about that cat. when you come down you should take the cat to rehab.
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