Bus ride around Aegina

The next day after eating a wonderful Greek breakfast made by Ms. Rina, our hostess, we went around the island on the bus system. Ms. Rina made a traditional dish that had a flaky crust and on top was mixed eggs, feta and salt. This was baked in the oven.

She also gave us Greek yogurt and we could top it with three types of "spoon fruit" that she made each week. One was a marmalade, one of cherries, and one of plum. They were so fresh and made a great counter-point to the plain yogurt. The Greeks only serve plain yogurt. You have to dress it up. The full fat variety of yogurt is the best tasting but you can get 0% fat in our stores.



The Spoon Fruit recipe is really easy-

Spoon Fruit (marmalade type)

2 medium oranges
Sugar

Barely cut the ends off the oranges. Cover with water and boil one hour. Drain and then weigh the oranges. Put the oranges back in the pan. Measure the sugar to the same weight as the boiled oranges. Put back on the heat, about medium and cook about 20 minutes. Slice up the oranges in thin strips.

I found that I liked the syrup but not the rinds so much. I added some water and lemonjuice to make more syrup. Keep in a sterilized covered dish in the refrigerator. Lasts about a week.

Aegina is a small island but it is the largest that we went to. We decided to hop on the regular bus service and go places on the island. We decided to go to the famous cathedral and monastery, Agios Nektarios and the Temple of Aphaia.

The bus service only goes on once an hour. Of course, the driver is looking to set a record; it was one wild trip! huge cathedral has ceilings with lovely tile mosaics that have so much gold, they look like they are internal light up.





You have to climb the hill to the monastery. This is a Greek Orthodox cathedral and the population is devoted. As I walked up the hill with lots of old ladies, I thought "How devoted. All these old ladies hunched over their rosaries, walking up this steep hill." And then I turned around and saw behind me that all the old ladies were hunched over their cell phones, texting like mad!



When I got to the monestary, there was a sign "No half dressed women." I was wearing a tank top and short skirt! Fortunately I also had a sarong in my bag that I could use like a huge scarf, covering most of me up!

Eating in Aegina

Boy, did we feel foolish! After looking in the harbor, we got tired and went to our room for a nap. When we woke up and were hungry at 7:00 pm, we found Aegina up and all the stores open! It turns out that this is how the Greeks live on the islands: open your business, regardless of type of business at 7:00 AM, close at 1:00 or 2:00 pm (depending on island), eat a big lunch with your family, take a long nap in the heat of the day, open your business at 6:00 pm, close around 9:00 to 10:00 pm, go to a restaurant at 9:00 pm and eat a big meal with your family, and go to bed around midnight. If you are young, forgo bed and go to a bar with very loud music until about 3:00 am.

So, everything was open! We ate a traditional Greek meal of a Greek Salad and some grilled fish. If you ask for salad in Greece, you will get a Greek Salad. It is so fresh. Sorry for the half eaten picture.



Here is the recipe:

Greek Salad

2 -3 tomatoes rough chopped
1/2 of an English Cucumber (or several small persian cucumbers. Trader Joe's has them) sliced and cut in half
5 thin slices of a red onion, cut in quarters
8 Kalamata olives (pitted are nice if you can get them)
Big slice of Feta cheese (get the cheese in brine so it is moist)
a sprinkle of oregano
Olive oil to taste

Chop up the veggies and put in a big bowl or platter that is bowl like. Sprinkle on the olives. I sprinkle a bit of oregano at this point but most people don't. Put the feta on top in one chunk. Sprinkle the oregano and pour olive oil over the top of the feta.

That it! Easy Peazy! This is very filling and could be a meal or could go with another dish.

More Aegina

We didn't get much time at the museum or in the ancient town of Kolona because it closed at 3:00! We were a little puzzled at the early closing and decided to walk through the harbor to other side of town.

We walked along the harbor, looking at the boats and yachts, and the eateries on the other side of the road. At the end of the harbor we found a beach. We sat under these palm trees on a park bench and enjoyed the breeze
.






Little fishes swimming in the harbor



I found this sea urchin on the beach. You are safe to swim in Greek waters. No sharks will get you but you have to be aware of sea urchins. Their spines break off in the sand and if you step on one and get it embedded, it will get infected. We brought aqua socks so we could walk freely.



Have I told you about the cats yet? There are lots of cats on all the Greek islands! They are like pigeons or mice. They are only rarely pets. They work hard to make a living. This one just stopped, curled up and took a nap on the beach, right by the water!



When I went to check out a little building that turned out to the Union Hall for the Fishermen, I found that someone had created a little sculpture of a head in the corner. I felt like I had discovered the real Greece: when faced with repair, sculpt a goddess!

Aegina, Temple of Apollo

After we found our room and we ate, we thought we'd go shopping. But it wasn't to be. All the shops except for the eateries at the harbor were closed! I thought maybe we waited too long and they all closed for the season.

We decided to sight see instead. Only a few blocks away from the harbor is the remains of the Temple of Apollo and the ancient town of Kolona. The temple of Apollo was built in the 6th century BC.


Remains of Kolona

The last column left of the Temple of Apollo


The attached museum had a reconstructed Amphora jug that was over 6 feet high. Here is one that is half buried in the ancient town on Kolona. These amphora come to a point at the bottom and so they can't stand up. The do have "ears" with holes. Smaller amphora were meant to be suspended from the ceiling and then you could tip them over and pour out the wine. They are not sure what these huge amphora held but they do know that the jug was made in the room they found it in.


The museum, temple and town are right next to the see and have the prettiest palm trees.



As we made our way back to town I just had to shoot some pictures of the horse cabs and boats-

The Island of Aegina (or paradise to you and me)

I'm sitting on the veranda of our bed and breakfast, sipping a frappe, and wondering why we haven't all moved to Aegina?

Really, this is heaven! Aegina is a small island in the Aegean Sea below Athens. It is the largest island we will stay on though. Its a 1.5 hour ferry ride that only costs about $9. Aegina has many excellent things: shopping, old churches, old archeological digs, museums, beaches, and food.

First, a word about our plans. We have none! We plan to stay on islands as long as it is fun and move on when the honeymoon is over or becomes too expensive. We didn't plan to stay at fancy accommodations. In fact, if all went wrong, I'm prepared to sleep rough on a beach!

Second, a word about safety. Good old Rick Steves is always going on about pickpockets, making you scared and ruining the fun of travel. However, he does say that you should roll with it in Greece. Be careful, but not too careful. I agree. We missed out on getting our tickets to Aegina quickly and wandered around a bit on the pier because we were too safe.

You see there are many sellers of ferry tickets to the various islands and they all approach you something like this on the sidewalk: "Psst, lady.... you want ferry tickets? I get them for you. Only $7 euros. Special for you. Why you clutching bag? Really, just come in to my lair, em, business. Lady, that your husband?" and then yells in Greek, back to someone I can't see, yelling "Guido, his head looks hard! Make sure you use the extra heavy sap."

No, I don't speak Greek, but I was sure that was what he was saying. Turns out I could have saved a bit of time and sweat by taking him up on his offer. You see, the prices are fixed in Greece and he could not have charged me any more and he would have made sure we got on the right ferry (which we did anyway but we were a lot more sweaty).

Once off the ferry, we walked around, trying to find accommodations. The little town of Aegina is nestled against a working harbor and is a maze of cute streets. Since we are at the end of the season, there are no tourist maps to be found. Its noon and its hot and more than a little humid. I wondered if we would find a room, when we turned a corner and found this-


I walked in the front door and asked Ms. Rina, the proprietor, if she had a room we could stay in and how much. She said "My dear! You don't want to know how much the room is! You must seeeee it first! Come with me." She showed me around this wonderful 200 year old home. There is a suite that still has the old Venetian painted ceilings.



And this is where the frappe comes in...


This is the back common area. Our room is the farthest on the right.


The front entrance and outside common area-



Side view of the front entrance-


Heaven!

Athens, Pireaus port

Rick Steves, travel guru, says you only need one day to look around Athens and then get out! He is quite right but more on that later. We decided to look around Athens on our return trip and get out to the islands first.

We decided to see three Greek Island: Aegina, Poros, and Hydra (pronounced Id-dra). We choose these because they were close by Athens by ferry and they were not islands that most tourist choose. They are island that Greeks go to when they go on vacation. We also are going at the end of the season. We risk that many shops and places to stay are closed. Weather-wise, it is lovely, less humid, warm and still sun-kissed.

Syntagma Square is the center of the new subway hub of Athens and is the easiest way to get to the port to take a ferry. We hop on a train bound for Pireaus and see glimpses of the Acropolis and the Temple of Diana. However, I couldn't get good pics from the train. Here is a picture of the apartment balconies. They look a little French and then you can see bits of the Mediterranean.



This is the train station at the port.





Interesting iron work.






And this is me on the ferry watching the scenery!



The shades of blue and aqua are not adequately shown in this picture! The camera cannot catch the amazing colors our eyes can see. I will spend most of the trip unsuccessfully attempting to catch the colors of aqua and turquoise I see.



Aegina in the distance

Athens, Take I

So, we successfully completed our short journey to Paris and got back to Charles de Gaulle airport in time for our flight to Greece. It was weird that we didn't have to go through customs since we were already in an EU country.

And by the way, I noticed that all American airlines (all of them, not the one named that) are really wound up about safety. When we went to Europe last year and this year, I noticed that nobody else in the world gets so nuts about take off and landing and being buckled in, tray up, and seat back up, as us. About 10 minutes before landing in Europe, they announce "Oh, by the way, we're about to land and you might want to buckle up, put up your tray, sit up straighter, and keep your wine from falling over. No fuss though, just saying."

So, now for the real challenge: in our sleep deprived state, get off airplane, find the bus going to Syntagma square (sounds like Sin-tog-wa), stay awake for one hour, get off, avoid pickpockets, find our hotel, and get a room without bedbugs. Easy peasy.

Why is it that all foreign bus drivers seek to channel the spirit of race car driver, Mario Andretti? Our Greek driver was no different. I was surprised I had muscle strength to hang on and stay in my seat. I thought that it was overkill for Rick Steves to suggest that we watch out for pickpockets at 1 AM in Syntagma Square. Turns out he's mostly right, there were people everywhere! It turns out the Greeks, and their tourists, hardly sleep! One AM is just getting warmed up! More about that in later posts.

Fortunately, we spy our hotel sign across the Square in record time. No pickpockets either. The manager on duty was very nice. I know it was his job to be nice but I've found uniformly that Greek people are very pleasant people.

Next challenge, room without bedbugs. Not that Greece is chock-a-block with bedbugs. Its just that there is a world-wide explosion of them and they are not as easy to defeat as our Great, great grandmother did. I have a house full of carpet and it would be a nightmare.

So, sad news. I found indications that our room had bedbugs. As I'm trying to remember how my great great grandmother dodged that bullet when she first pulled in to old Yakima (Union Gap now), my wonderful husband cudgels together some tired brain cells and says "The ashtray, Terri!"

You see, he booked a non-smoking room. Even though it doesn't smell like smoke at all, the room shouldn't have an ashtray! I called the front desk and easily got our room changed and that room on a different floor did not have bedbugs!

Lovely, a restful sleep free from worry and bites.

More pictures of Paris

Here are a few more pictures of Paris. Some are from our last trip. The first two pictures are from a building on the Champs-Élysées. Each of the "holes" depict a Greek or Roman god like Bacchus.




This is a small Arch that we found by accident. It is clearly very old. "By accident" means we were just wandering around, slightly lost.




Possibly a consulate building-


I took this at night on our last trip.



We've been walking for 6 hours and I'm jealous that the Parisian mannequin gets to sit down and I don't!

Paris!

I know I'm about to say something that is practically heresy: Paris is a bit of a let down.



I know, I know... how could I think the City of Lights, a lovely romantic city like Paris is anything but great? The problem with Paris is that you spend more time below it than on top of it! We use the Metro to get around and I find we spend most of our time in the subway rather than enjoying Paris. When you are on top, it is breathtaking beautiful. The buildings are lovely. The people are well dressed. The shops full of interesting foods and goods like these lovely scallops in a fish shop.



The subways are extensive, large, humid, and a little dangerous feeling. There are always buskers. You think you have safely gotten on the right train, only to have a team of accordion players and their amplifier, hop on the train and start playing and asking for money.

I love the tall, tall doors in Paris.



The flower shops



The chocolates!!!