Up at 4:30 to get the taxi to the airport. Once again I am really glad we travel just carry on. When we got to the airport, the check in line was out the door. I just went up to a touch screen, printed out our boarding passes and we were through security and in within 5 minutes. We got emergency row seats with an empty seat between us... Lucky day so far. Wish we were sitting like this to fly home. The flight to Athens is so short that we are almost landing as we take off, and they served us breakfast. Breakfast! Can you believe that? The stewardess with the trash bin is literally right on the heels of the snack cart. She stands and watches me gulp my coffee, grabs the cup and hustles back to strap in for landing. American airlines need to learn a thing or three from these foreign carriers. It is official: they have lost my business!
It is pretty cool flying over the islands like this. They look so desert-like from above, and you can pick out beaches and farms, churches and villages. The water is pretty blue. You know the Gulf of Mexico color by Cancun? Not that color. The blue on Kauai? Nope. The water off SoCal? Not that. It is like, well, Mediterranean Blue.
We caught the Airport-to-Port Bus #X96 and made it to dock 8 and onto our ship with 8 minutes to spare. It amazes me how you can figure all this out on the internet, and time the connections... reminds me of picking up the rental car in Turkey last week, after a night bus, connecting bus and stop for breakfast we were only 15 minutes early for a car pick up I had scheduled in February, from how many thousand miles away. So we are gently rocking as we rocket across the ocean on a high speed "Flying Cat" catamaran on Hellenic Seaways. A good coffee at the bar and relaxing seats. This is still my lucky day.
We disembark in Hydra and it is so quaint and so charming it makes your eyes ache. Donkeys, not cars carry luggage and whatever else (washing machines, sacks of concrete, lugs of bottled water). A beautiful harbor ringed by cafes, we drop our packs at our guesthouse (with a donkey hitched outside) much to the surprise of the owner, then walk back to the harbour for a drink and lunch. Gail has artichokes, the best ever, and I have pork with baked cheese and peppers in some lemon sauce. A quarter litre of red wine for me, a glass of white for Gail... we could sit here all day. What a change from the busy, flashy touristy-ness of Santorini just 5 hours ago. And, since it is my lucky day, sure enough it is all under €20!
We spent a slow afternoon wandering the winding streets and alleys, until everything closed up about 13:00 for afternoon siesta until 15:00. So we settled into a taverna for an hour. When we resumed wandering the streets we found an army of cats in one square, a couple hidden parks and a windmill used in a Sophia Loren movie. The locals recall it like yesterday.
Near sunset we stopped for drinks. The taverna had sofa benches to sit on. We got a small carafe of ice cubes!!! I can't tell you what a treat it is to get ice in Europe! My really lucky day! We tried Ouzo (turns put that is what the ice is for. Kind of burns drinking it straight up.) which has a licorice taste. Weird thing is, I don't like licorice, but the ouzo was ok. OK, but not “Oh, I’ll buy that when I get home” great. But OK as in “Hey! I am in Greece on a charming little island, drinking Ouzo at sunset!” Meanwhile the sunset was spectacular. We eventually decided to find dinner, and headed up the hill towards a traditional family restaurant. Oh, what great food again! Gail had cheese and spinach "pie" and smoked eggplant, I had these breaded prawns, home made wine... I am going to have to fast tomorrow I think.
Oh yea, about my lucky day? It is 18 June today. Father's Day.
P.S. Gail spoiled it and told me Father's Day was yesterday. Crap. Now I have had a really bad bad day.