The Town

We saw more "angels" on roofs. These angles looked a little different than the angels in Aegina. Later, when we went to the New Acropolis Museum, we saw ancient "angels" that Greeks used to decorate their houses before Christ. These have been around a long time.



A statue by the harbor that honors sailors. The column has a trident with the fish that represents Poseidon entwined on the handle. Greece has influenced the entire world. This same type of fish is entwined up the light poles on the Victoria Embankment on the river Thames in London.


From the top of Poros looking down at the harbor


Looking up from the harbor


The clock tower. I used this to orient myself as I hiked all over the island.

Food!

Greek food is so pretty and tasty. I tried to take pictures before I ate it but this is usually how it turned out: shrimp shells and fish bones!



Once in a while I actually managed to take a picture but usually because the food was so amusing-



Yes, that's an olive in his eye socket! And, green pepper for gills and red onion for ribs. Here's a close up of that eye.



The spaghetti was fab-



I think I pretty much captured the same taste with this recipe-

1.5 lbs. ground beef
5 tomatoes
1 sweet onion
3 or more cloves of garlic
Romano cheese
Dried oregano
Red wine
Salt

Use two pans. Chop the onions small. Chop the garlic small. Chop the tomatoes big. With a little oil, saute the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir it a bit. Add the big chopped tomatoes. Sprinkle on some salt and oregano and let it cook a bit as you look the ground beef in the other pan.

Cook the ground beef with a little salt and oregano. Drain when done. Once the ground beef is done and drained add the onion mixture and reduce the heat a bit. Add some red wine, salt and some oregano. Sprinkle in a small handful of romano cheese. Cook for about 10 minutes and add more red wine. Cook for about 10 more minutes. The tomatoes will melt.

If the meat is too chunky, take a pie crust mixer to it (You know, one of those wire/cutter dealies with a handle).

All the alcohol will be cooked off but the wonderful smell and taste will remain. It will look like that picture!

Streets of Poros

Poros is a cool island. It has two roads: one going around it and one going up almost to the middle. Otherwise, all the roads are walkways and stairs. If fact, its faster to walk over Poros than around it.

Since we were on the edge of the season, the people of Poros started painting, fixing and getting ready for next year. Almost everything is painted white with a colored trim. Even the stair and walkway edges are painted white.

You cannot get lost on Poros because there is a clock tower at the top that you can see from nearly everywhere. I hiked all over and took many pictures of streets.

I'm usually not so easy, but I went home with a man!

We set sail for Poros and we got "picked up!" Travel aficionado, Rick Steves, says that in Greece you should go home with strangers. Many Greek families rent out rooms in their homes or own pensions or have motel-like rooms to tourists to make money. They advertise locally and you can pre-arrange in the tourist season but you can also just show up at the dock and go home with someone.

We did! It was exciting! We arrived at Poros and started walking. Greeks are not loud and a man started trailing us and whispering. My husband was dutifully trudging along, avoiding him like it was bum asking for money. I finally caught on and said to my husband that I think this man wants to talk to us. We slowed down and looked at him.

"Lady, you looking for a room?"
"yes"
"How many nights?"
"Two" He grabs my hand and starts shaking it.
"I have rooms! Come see my rooms!"
"Are they far?" He grabs my hand and shakes it some more.
"No, not too far but just right!" He grabs my husband's hand shakes it as well for good measure.

Now about the hands. This man wasn't over-weight, or very tall, but he was rugged. He must have worked hard physically all his life because his hands were like small shovels! I could not even wrap my fingers around this hand to shake it properly. Neither could my husband.

Also, he must have had palsy or a stroke that caused one eye to droop. But he fixed it! He took a long piece of of cellophane tape and just taped that sucker up! So we're going home with a stranger who has one eye tapped open and could kill us with his bare hands. My husband looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

However, this landlord really wanted you to receive value so he took us on a walking tour as well. he pointed out the best fish tavernas, where we could get our laundry done, and where we could get breakfast. We took the room.

Poros is the smallest island we went to. It is built into the hill and all the roads are stairs between the houses.

Poros-


Looking across the harbor towards the mainland-

The little water taxis-

Cute!

A cafe in the harbor. All the buildings look freshly painted.

Our room is just up these stairs-

Pictures around the town of Aegina

Pictures of the streets-









Lovely painted doors-







Restaurants in streets-





Tomorrow we go to the island of Poros.