HYDRA (YDRA) 2/3/4 SEPTEMBER 2022 (part 3)

It was just what we needed… rest, sunshine, warmth, good food.

Hydra was all we had hoped it would be and perfectly timed after a couple of tiring weeks on the road, traversing central and eastern Europe.

As you know, we started our five night sojourn on Hydra Island with a day of boating on Wednesday and then on Thursday I ticked a bucket list item off by riding and then swimming with horses.

Friday and Saturday were much more chilled. We took the opportunity to rest and relax and recharge our batteries. We both read a lot, gave the ‘walk lots, eat lots’ rule a miss for a couple of days and even watched a movie in our apartment on the laptop. We became familiar faces to the crew at ‘Hydra Corner’ where we enjoyed the occasional Cappuccino Freddo or pot of tea, with milk.

The most energetic we got was regularly climbing the 31 steep stone steps up to our apartment or the 500m or so stroll along the entire Hydra Port waterfront promenade. It was great to have the Jacuzzi to cool off and relax in (set at the same temperature as the sea – 25c) and our grocery purchase of a large box of Kellogg’s cornflakes was possibly the best spent €2.70 of the whole trip. Isn’t it funny how you long for ‘normal’ food after a couple of weeks 😉

We ate breakfast in the apartment every morning, starting with cornflakes and super cold milk, nearly always accompanied by fresh fruit and yoghurt, then often some fresh bread or pastries from the nearby baker, and of course always alongside a great cup of tea.

I’ve go to take a moment here to acknowledge, beyond the cornflakes, the most tasty of grocery items purchased. Peaches. Fresh peaches. Peaches are now my Greek obsession. Either the white or traditional yellow variety, it doesn’t matter. But chilled in the fridge then served simply sliced… OMG they are so good!

We ate lunch and dinner out each day, mostly nearby to the apartment. I tried Greek pastissio (lasagne), fried locally caught squid, Prawn Saganaki, and quite a few versions of a Greek salad, while Dave enjoyed the hot chips on more then one occasion, each time they were hand cut and sprinkled with a little bit of dried oregano.

Earlier in our stay we had cancelled our long term booking at Techne Restaurant but managed to snag a cancellation booking last night. The last-minute booking meant our table wasn’t waterfront, but had an amazing view of the coast, nonetheless. I started with their signature cocktail, aptly named the ‘Aegean Breeze’ which was a mix of Gin, cucumber, Kitron liqueur, lime, pineapple and grapefruit soda. I will definitely try to replicate this at home – it was delicious, refreshing and not too sweet. We saw many, many large (ostentatious) sailing and motor boats in and around Hydra Port over the five days. I did think this one, which motored past during dinner, took grand to a new level – it had a helicopter on it’s rear deck!

We shared an entrée of Lamb “baklava”, which was filo pastry rolled around slow cooked lamb, with a chickpea & tahini purée and herb yoghurt. Delicious! Dave chose a lamb main also, which was pan-roasted and served with croquettes, edamame beans, sultanas and capers.

I do love handmade pasta, so choose fresh tagliatelle “cacio e pepe” which was tossed in sea urchin and generously covered with shaved fresh truffle. It had all the makings of an unbelievable dish. But… I didn’t like it 🙁 . I very rarely, if ever, don’t like something I have chosen. I eat pretty much everything, and have eaten sea urchin before and liked it. Many of you know that I LOVE truffles (@Helen – remember that Truffle Degustation a couple of years ago!!), so that wasn’t the issue. Either it was just too rich after so much eating over the last few weeks, or in fact I don’t like Sea Urchin, or maybe it was something else… whatever way after a couple of mouthfuls, I decided to leave the rest, although Dave kindly shared his very tasty lamb! There is always an upside, and not eating my main course meant there was room for dessert 😉 We really loved the warm almond & fig tart with rose ice-cream, so much so I forgot to take a pic! I also enjoyed both glasses of the complimentary dessert wine the apologetic waiter bought us when he noticed my uneaten main course.

Before we move on from talking about Hydra, I cannot go without mentioning all the cats on the island. Hydra is very well known for its copious number of street cats. They are mostly healthy and appeared well fed with bowls of food and water sitting outside many shops and homes. They were friendly, cute and often quite determined to snag a leftover morsel or two. My beautiful daughter Victoria, who is ok with being called a ‘crazy cat-lady’, visited Hydra with me ever so briefly on a day-long ferry trip we took to a few islands when we visited Athens in 2010. She would have loved being here this time for lots of reasons, but seeing all the cats would have been the first one! Next time a Mother-Daughter girls trip with Michelle and Molly I think!

We have had the most wonderful time on Hydra, but as they say, ‘all good things must come to an end.’ It’s time to move on to the last and very exciting phase of our adventure, a four-night Greek Island ‘Images of the Aegean’ cruise.

After finishing the last of the cornflakes this morning, we packed our suitcases and headed the short distance to the port where we boarded Aero Highspeed 1 for the two-hour journey back to Piraeus. On arrival, we rushed to a COVID testing centre in Piraeus, around 15 minutes walk, dragging our bags, from the port. We rushed because we knew it closed at 2pm and the ferry was running late and only docked around 1.30. When the nurse announced that in fact they couldn’t do our pre-cruise rapid test because they needed to shut at 2pm and the test would take up more than the 15 minutes there was left till then, I moved into begging mode! She teetered on the edge for a moment or two, but my pleading words, and look of exhaustion obviously did the trick and she agreed. By 2pm, we were actually back out the front with our negative results 🙂

The hotel where we are staying tonight is in Lavrio, a small port town about 50km south-east of Athens, where we will board tomorrow’s cruise. The hotel owner had arranged for a transfer from Piraeus to the small apartment style hotel very close to the port. It emanated that the driver was her husband, who picked us up directly from the testing centre and drove us the 1.5 hours here. A late lunch, shopping for more peaches (and a Kit-Kat for Dave) and we are now are safely ensconced in our room, excitedly waiting to see our dear Wagga friends Shaun and Steph tomorrow morning! Shaun and Steph have been travelling in Greece for the past week (with Shaun’s brother Russel and sister Donna). When they suggested last year that we meet up, we couldn’t agree fast enough. Visiting six Greek islands over the next five days with good friends, what could be better!