Hydra Island – October 2006

There were several reasons to visit the island of Hydra – we hadn’t been there yet, it’s close to Athens, and it’s listed in Patricia Schultz’s book “1000 Places to see before you die” – but the main drawing point was that it is quiet.  By law they do not allow any motorized vehicles on the island.  No motorcycles, no cars, nothing with a motor except the three garbage trucks that the island owns.  All transportation is by mule, burro, donkey, or horse. 



So after a week of company, Rita and I opted for a short visit overnight to this island for peace and quiet.  The weather forecast wasn’t particularly good but we didn’t care.  We would take books to read and just relax.  If it rained and turned cool as predicted, it didn’t matter. 



We left on Sunday from Piraeus since Monday was Columbus Day and the Embassy was closed.  Our ferry left Piraeus at 10:00 am sharp and we arrived in Hydra Town (the only town of note on the island) about noon after a stop at the island of Poros.   We walked from the harbor to our hotel, Hotel Angelica, and checked into our room, the Niki suite.  Niki in Greek is really Nike, the winged goddess of victory.  Then we walked some back alleys and settled on the restaurant of the Bratsera Hotel for lunch.  We had a very good meal outside by the pool of this pretty hotel which was once a sponge warehouse.



Surprisingly the weather was sunny and hot – nothing like the forecast.  The island was shutting down for siesta time so we went back to our room and read our books, nodding off in the process.  I should mention that we had also napped on the ferry trip over to Hydra.  We really felt exhausted for some reason.



About 6:30 pm we walked to the Sunset restaurant which sits on a rocky promontory with ocean views on three sides.  We sipped a glass of white wine and watched a beautiful sunset.  Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera and I didn’t feel like going back for it so we have no photos of that nice sunset.  We had a fairly good dinner as darkness descended on us then looked the other direction and saw a beautiful full moon rise in the east.  Hydra is usually frequented by day trippers and staying overnight in October there were very few tourists to share the island with.  Nevertheless, the harbor restaurants were doing a fairly good business with the few other overnight tourists and local crowds.



We turned in fairly early and were surprised that we were sleepy once more.  When we woke up in the morning we discovered we had slept another 10 hours straight after napping much of the previous day.  I guess we were exhausted.  It’s not old age, is it?



Monday morning we had a nice breakfast that was included with our hotel room.  The weather had turned cloudy and threatened rain.  We sat outside to eat our breakfast and almost made it to the end when sprinkles started during our last cup of coffee.  The drizzle didn’t last long and we went back to our room to read our books until noon when we checked out of our room.  We left our one piece of luggage with the hotel and started walking back alleys.  We found many colorful buildings, doorways, and churches which we photographed.  About 1:00 pm we stopped for lunch at the “world famous” Elia-Douskos taverna.  No, I never heard of it before either but that’s what their sign said.  We had a nice meal with visits from several cats once more.  We also watched and photographed the cook as she made a huge pot of dolmades.  She was wrapping the seasoned meat into grape leaves and was lining the pot with them as we left her.  This taverna dates to 1825 by their advertisement, which predates Greek independence from the Turks.



I should mention that Hydra doesn’t have a rich or colorful history.  It wasn’t mentioned much until the 15^th century when it became a quasi-autonomous town that came to terms with the Turks.  Later the island became a ship building center and home to several wealthy shipping families.  The town sits in a hidden natural harbor with pretty, colorful houses up the hillside.  Except for a couple of monasteries in the hills, there isn’t much to see on the island except the pretty town called Hydra Town.  Hydra is sometime spelled Idra. 



So we sat at an outdoor café sipping coffee and people watching until our ferry came at 3:00 pm.  We still hadn’t experienced much rain until our trip back to Piraeus when we hit wind, rain, thunder and lightning.  But the trip wasn’t delayed much and we arrived in Piraeus about 4:30 pm allowing us to get home at a reasonable time, thankful for a nice, relaxing weekend.