Ralph and Karen's Tours

Again time to move on from a place we loved. This time leaving the mainland and like our time on Zakynthos, we now look forward to some time on the tiny island of Hydra.

it can’t be too bad if the Great Leonard Chen called it home for the last 30 years of his life, right?

We had to drive from Nafplio to a port town of Ermioni, which is about 75 minutes or 30kms away. Ermioni port town is very cute…it’s a life support system to the many ferries, charter boats and private vessels that Criss cross to some of the many islands in and around the Argolic Gulf – the entry port to the Aegean.

You park your car in a public car park for free, and just take whatever you want with you on the 25 minute ferry trip. Cost is just €7 per person. Our vessel was an old hydrofoil, that holds about 85 people all inside in aircraft like seating. These things are fast! They get up on their foils and scoot across the glass like water surface, in between other tiny islands, and other larger ones like Spetses that dot these waterways.

Before you know it, you’re entering a picture postcard harbour. OMFG. I know, I know, we’ve said this before; “how pretty is this place?”. Well, here we go again.

Hydra harbour is a horseshoe shape with Taverna and beautiful shops just lining the promenade. There is NO vehicular traffic on the island – not even pushbikes. The preferred mode of transport is donkey! Yep, donkey. It’s so freaking cool. If you need assistance with luggage, or your accommodation is up the hills away from the harbour, donkey is your go to.

Hydra is one of the closest islands to Athens, so is popular with Athenians particularly on weekends. Some people live here and commute daily to Athens.

It is very bohemian, art crafty, very much a ’60s and ’70s vibe with music, art and craft all over the place, up every laneway, on the waterfront, up in the hills. Blokes with pony tails are everywhere, and very classical linen clothing is de riguer.

We love it. Haha. I wish I lived here in the ’70s, as I reckon it would have been something quite special….well, it’s special now!

Our hotel/Pensione is just back from the harbour front, probably 50m back up a lovely Taverna lined alleyway. Whitewashed, old, clean, with amazing hosts and with the smallest TV God ever invented. Not that we’d even turn it on, but it is Serio a relic from 1974. Fabulous. Our boss man host Michael is a champion. Got us into our room about 4 hours early and gave us a good run down of where to eat, drink, which beaches to go to, how to get there and how to avoid touristica. I tell you what, he’s right on the money with everything.

Apart from a couple of swimming holes in the main town harbour, the island is dotted with hidden majestic coves that are only accessible by walking LONG distances OR by shuttle boat.

Mmmmmm which option here?

We took Michael’s advice and grabbed a Shuttle boat to a little bay called Bisti Beach. 20 minutes in the boat and we drop into this gorgeous little bay, maybe 50m wide, with all kinds of coloured blue water, beach loungers, umbrellas and even better, a bunch of trees to shade under! Added to that, a little Taverna on the beach serving beer, wine , coffee, food, snacks….bliss.

It’s a pebble beach, so the lounge chairs are a god send, and you need your thongs on to get in and out of the water. I went for a swim around into the next bay, which was probably 200m away where five or six yachts just called home. I kid you not, I swam through 7 different shades of blue and green water. I was speaking to a local bloke in the water when swimming between the bays, we were probably 150m off shore and you could see the bottom of the ocean floor – he was telling me it was 50-60 feet deep….it looked 6 feet deep. Just magnificent.

So back to the shade and comfort of the trees with an icy cold Mythos beer or two and some Smirnoffs for the Boss Lady (€7 for both) until it was time again to get in the water to cool down. Dayum.

After a few hours we jumped back on a shuttle boat for the trip into Hydra port and a few more late afternoon refreshments in the “Pirate Bar” – aaarrrgggghh! Just waiting for Johnny Depp to come walking out.

During the day I made friends (how does this always happen to me?) with an allegedly very rich Greek American, who currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia and is in the restaurant business. He has restaurants in the US and also Athens and travels to and fro several times a year. He was great entertainment and we got on famously. He is here with his wife, and another couple.

Anyway, when we were finished at the Pee Raaat bar, we headed back to our hotel for a shower before dinner. Who should I bump into in the little tiny laneway leading to our place? Old mate Greek Atlanta just finishing his late lunch/very early dinner at around 6pm.

His gang were heading off to their place so he asked me to join him for a beer. I couldn’t be rude could I and decline this very pleasant invitation….Karen could see where this was headed, so she bid a hasty retreat and left me to do my best with Old Mate Greek Atlanta. He was 3/4 deep into a bottle of Ouzo and an ice bucket you couldn’t jump over. So, I had beer. And Ouzo. Just to be polite. And a couple more of each. So he got another bottle of Ouzo, and I had a beer. And so it went.

We had a fabulous time talking family, business, traveling, religion. Politics, life in general. Solved a bunch of problems of the world. He sent me his contact details to my Australian phone number because I couldn’t remember my Greek one. He wants to stay in touch – if/when we come back again either to Greece or the US. Sounds fantastic. I think he paid.

After spending all this time with him…….what is his name?????

Never mind…..visited a beautiful restaurant literally across from our hotel for dinner and despite not having great appetites the food was sensational. We had another random salad with a bunch of different lettuce, pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and a really unusual grilled cheese that apparently comes from Crete. A cross between a feta and a haloumi it sat astride this mound of salad magnificence like a colossus, drizzled with olive oil, honey and balsamic vinegar.

The standard bread with a fish roe and mint flavoured dip – awesome – and Karen had fried baby fish, which were either whitebait or sardines, yummo. I had pork souvlaki that was a killer. €34 – stop the fight.

Again, at the end of it all they offered us a pink coloured mini jug of their “home made” spirit. We are still getting over our Tsiporou experience from Nafplio so took to this cautiously….it was bloody beautiful! Sweet, smooth with hints of fruit and flowers. We asked about it and it’s the grandmas secret (well not so secret) recipe. The waitress went to the garden and pulled off a bit of vegetation and showed Karen and said “this”. Karen recognised it as geranium, which is like a weed in our backyard. Karen had to write down the name of it, because none of them know what it’s called! Apparently mumma yia yia combines rose wine, sugar and geraniums into a bottle, corks it and leaves it for 20 days. It’s beyond good, so guess what we are going to try when we get home😉

A quick walk around the harbour before bed….another great day.

Our plan for today, was more of what we did yesterday. In fact identical. We had a beautiful late breakfast at the Marina, and were about to get on the small boat to Bisti Beach again, when literally within a couple of minutes what seemed like a hurricane swept through the port. Man, stuff was flying everywhere, the restaurants went into meltdown, boats were bouncing around like corks – it was quite scary for a while there.

Boats that had just left the harbour couldn’t proceed but couldn’t get back to berth either, so they sat there in no mans land for probably an hour for the wind and swell to pass. It rained for a bit, which is odd for this time of the year, so we went to our fave place, the Pee Raaat bar and had a coffee and juice and watched the carnage.

Just like it started, it ended so after a bit of time all returned to normal, so we got on our little boat and chugged off to Bisti beach anyway. Probably a couple of hours later than intended, but because of the disruption, we are sitting here again right now, with probably only 30 people in the whole beach. Talk about paradise!

Anyway, I’ll interrupt this broadcast now because it’s time for another swim…and maybe a beer…..will finish this off later on….🐳🐬🏊🏽

Ok, back on deck…feel much better now. Swim, beer, repeat.

Back in the town now, just getting ready to head out for cocktails at a very cute cocktail bar opposite us and then a neat restaurant we found when we were just wandering…..

In a nutshell? Hydra – it’s a YES from us.

To check out some more of the fantastic sites of Hydra, click on this link

Catch ya from Corinth in a couple of days….