Day four

5-16-2010

3:42pm Istanbul, Turkey

We had a pretty full and exciting last couple days, that’s why I haven’t logged. On Thursday the 13^th, we took a boat ride down to the Island of Hydra, just below the Peloponnesian peninsula. We had to take the metro out to the port of Piraeus, which took about 35 min or so. We were pretty early so we decided to wander around Piraeus a bit. What a cool place! Right down by the harbor. There was a guy that sort of came out of nowhere when we first entered the pier and started asking us about our tickets (for the ship). We were both pretty startled and didn’t realize he was not official until he started leading us to our ship, which was very easy to find. He wanted 1 euro, we declined.

While we were wandering around the town, after we’d gone to find out where our ship was departing from, we found a cool city market again, where people were calling out their stuff and how much it costs. It was a little overwhelming, but really awesome!

As we were leaving the market, we ran into the same guy who had tried to ‘help’ us find our ship. He still wanted 1 euro, we still declined. We went and found where to wait for our ship and again ran into the same guy, who was upset we didn’t give him 1 euro for leading us to where we were. Again, we declined and he finally left us alone. We watched him walk back across the pier, and find some other unsuspecting tourists to harass.

Our ship was called the Flyingcat1, a catamaran with two hulls. It looked like an airplane on the inside. While we were waiting in line to board, and they had turned on the engines, we had to stand in the diesel exhaust cloud, which made me feel a little sick. To top that off, I was having a bit of a panic attack but didn’t quite realize it. By the time we got boarded and took off, I was feeling pretty seasick. It was an hour and forty-five minute ride down to Hydra, with one stop at another port called Poros.

Now the problem was feeling a little sea sick, mixed with a little anxiety, mixed with low blood sugar, and mixed with the overwhelming beauty of the place. Bad combination. We wondered around for a few minutes, but I was feeling sicker and sicker. So we finally decided on a place to eat and I should have gotten bread, but thought for whatever reason, that I could handle a gyro. Side note, the entire time we were in Greece, we never saw lamb gyros. They were always chicken or pork.

I couldn’t eat it. I really tried, even to just pick it apart, not taking bites. I just couldn’t do it. I sat at the table and cried because that’s what I do when I’m nauseated, and Eli yelled at me for crying, which didn’t help. I know he was trying to ‘motivate’ me, and he wasn’t actually yelling, but I was feeling very sensitive, haha! He ate his food right up.

I finally gave up on the idea, and we left the café to do some island exploring. I was feeling so terrible though, that it was hard to focus on anything else. We found a little spot for me to just sit down by the water for a bit, while Eli went around to get his bearings.

That was kind of nice. I just sat and looked out over the beautiful harbor and tried not to think about how bad I was feeling, in this wonderful place. We had wanted to go to the beach, but didn’t know quite where it was. I had seen several people walk by in bathing suits, with towels while I was waiting for Eli to return. When he came back, we went in the direction as all the people and found the beach to be around the corner of the harbor and up the road/hill a ways. There were a few beaches in small coves, where you had to walk from way up on the road, down a winding stairway, to a cement platform that was “the beach”. It was wonderful! The water was so clear, and felt so good although a little cooler than I expected. It helped quite a bit (for a while) to get in the water and cool off; it was about 80 degrees (F).

After taking turns swimming, (because we were afraid of loosing our passports and money) we climbed back up the stairs and continued on down the road. It was made of marble slabs, which were all uneven, like marble cobblestone. Up on a cliff, absolutely breath taking. After a few minutes walk, we came to another town that I don’t remember the name of, but it looked like it was straight out of a postcard. Tucked away, on quiet side of the island, with a beautiful natural harbor, full of small fishing boats. Very quiet and lazy feeling. It was the middle of the day, there was nothing going on…. I felt like I could live there happily for the rest of my life…. my own little Mediterranean paradise, even though I was feeling bad again. That little view coming around the corner of the bluff, with the sea to the right and a Cliffside to the left, stilled my stomach for just a moment.

We wondered up through the town, not taking any particular path just taking in the beauty and peacefulness of the little white washed buildings, which seemed to be all connected to each other. There were so many brightly colored flowers everywhere we looked, and with the white washed background of the houses, they seemed even brighter. We found a little store, where I could use the bathroom (water closet is what ALL of the bathrooms have been labeled as) and get a little snack since I hadn’t been able to eat my gyro. I had an ice-cream cone and a banana. We continued our wander through the town streets, and up and down the winding paths, and found our way back around to the town of Hydra, where we had initially landed. The town and the Island are both called Hydra, even though there are different towns on the island as well.

We found a nice little wall to sit on, while Eli consulted our guidebook to find a place for dinner. We found this great little place, with a rooftop terrace. It was only us, and two other couples. I wasn’t feeling great, but was able to eat some bread and part of my Greek salad. Then we walked back down the hill, and ran into the only transportation on the whole island, some burrows. There were no motorized vehicles on the entire island! It was so great.

There were a lot of cats everywhere. Dogs too, but more cats. They were strays, but well taken care of, and friendly. While we were waiting for our return ship (a hydrofoil this time instead of a catamaran) we noticed the cats all had caught these little fish. It was pretty funny looking to see them running down the lane, with this little sardine looking fish sticking out of their mouth. The first one we saw, I didn’t realized it was a fish; I thought the cat had picked up a piece of candy wrapper or something, that was flapping in the wind. Then Eli says “that cat has a fish in its mouth!” Those little kitties were pretty smart. The fish would jump out of the water trying to catch bugs, and miss the water upon return, and land on the side of the dock. The cats were all out and ready to snatch them right up if they were able.

Our ship came and we took off, both falling asleep for a while. I was feeling ok, but not that great…at least I was able to sleep most of the way back to Piraeus. We made it back to our hotel without major problems and crashed.

I felt bad for ruining Eli’s trip to Hydra, even though he said I did not. What a wonderful husband he is! Even with feeling sick all day, it was still a great trip.