Oh Heavenly Hydra

Hydra! Hydra! Hydra! The island where no cars are allowed and the only way to get around is by your own two feet and donkey rides! After staying in Athens the week before, 5 of my friends and I decided to head to an island for a little R&R! We left early on Friday morning around 8am since none of us have class that day and took a little speedy boat called ‘The Flying Dolphin.’ If only I could have gotten a video of what that ferry can do on the water…..It took us about 1 ½ hours to get there. Once we arrived, we knew we picked a pretty special place to visit! Our port was in Hydra Town and we stayed in a cute little hotel called Erofili. Hydra Town was the main tourist area and right as we got off the Flying Dolphin, we saw tourist shops, donkeys and restaurants. The place was gorgeous! You could see buildings all along the side of the mountain. We were greeted with a donkey ride yet we decided to pass since our hotel wasn’t far from the port. We wanted to wait for the donkey rides to maybe a near by beach.

We hung around our hotel for a little bit since one of our rooms was not ready yet. Once we got our second room, we got changed and wanted to hit up the beach right away. We asked the guy at the reception desk and he told us that one of the closest and nicest beaches was in Mandraki. We walked for about 20 minutes. We were worried that we might’ve passed it but we didn’t see any beaches along the way yet. We went around a bend and then we knew we had found it! It was a cute little beach with a small café on the side. We stayed for I believe a little more than 2 hours and then made the long trek back.

Mandraki Beach

This girl cracks me up!

She wasn't even trying to be funny.

She really needed the umbrella.

After Mandraki we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. In one of our tour books it mentioned a small restaurant that had good food for reasonable price. We asked the guy at reception again where to find it. This time, we searched all over for this place. We went to back alleys that we were told to walk through and didn’t see it. We went back and forth and around and we got nothing. Then we went back to the main tourist area where the port was and asked another person for directions. She told us the same thing that our reception guy told us. We walked that way again. Nothing. We tried another way and it had lots and lots of steps so we decided to stop and ask one more person. He was an older gentlemen working on some wood cutting at the time. His son I believe, was helping him and the man told his son to show us where to go. So we ended up having our own personal escort to the restaurant!

We finally reached it and sat down right a way to order (we never would have found it on our own by the way. We had headed in the right direction before but didn’t make the right turn). As we waited for our food, we noticed a whole bunch of kittens and cats around us. There was this one kitten that was very cute (at first). I should mention, any one planning to head to Greece and its islands, beware that there is an ungodly number of cats and dogs around! Once we got our food, a couple more cats seemed to appear around us. The cute little one became a little desperate and made her way between Jessie and Mary! She lunged at Jessie’s food and good thing she was small or else Jessie wouldn’t have been able to save her dinner! It was so scary!!! These cats were crazy! The same kitten clung on to Jessie’s leg afterwards and tried to grab her purse! It sure was an entertaining dinner!! This restaurant was very reasonable priced but the food was Etsi-k-ektsi (so-so). After dinner we walked around the tourist shops to find great souvenirs!

That concluded our 1st day in Hydra!

Day 2

The next day, we wanted to see another beach. We decided to walk the opposite side of the port and we discovered the cutest swimming area between to two big cliffs! There was no sand present, just a cement-like platform to lay down on (yea, it doesn’t sound very comfy, huh? Well, it wasn’t). We spent a few hours lounging around and swimming. Kate, Maura and Mary, the daring little devils, did a little cliff jumping. They didn’t jump from far, far up but they managed to find smaller cliffs along the rocky wall. Sitting around the water was so peaceful and beautiful. I felt like I was sitting in a scene from a movie. It was breathtaking.

When we left this beach, we quickly went back to our hotels to get dressed for dinner and see the sunset. Unfortunately, we missed the sunset but had a delicious dinner along the water. We found a restaurant that overlooks the port and Mediterranean. The food was absolutely delicious!! We once again found ourselves in the company of a few crazy felines! I will forever hate the sound of cats fighting. It’s like nails on a chalk board.




We had eaten early that night so we could head back to the port and do some more shopping! I was able to pick up a lovely hand-made ring for only a few euros. I wanted to find a shot glass for my brother and a scarf for my sister but no such luck. My only souvenirs I decided to get was the ring and a few postcards. My favorite souvenirs are always the pictures I take and the memories I’ll carry forever.

After shopping, we decided to head back to our hotel and relax for a little bit. Our plan was to rest for 2 hours and then head out to a bar. We had gotten 2 triple rooms and in my room, Maura, Jessie and I ended up all falling asleep. We were woken by Karynna and had a hard time getting up….We finally managed to escape our zombie like stage and check out a bar. We ended up having difficulties finding one that we wanted to sit in. One was all older people, one only had guys….where was the one that was just right?! We finally settled on a bar with a handful of older folks who were so cute because they looked like they were having a great time dancing the night away! After drinks, listening to the music and chit-chatting, we left that bar and Mary, Jessie and I decided to head back to our hotel. The other 3 visited another bar with all the lovely fellas.

And that concluded the 2nd day on Hydra!


Day 3

Departure time! Oh man was this a crazy travel day! We checked out half hour early and wanted to do last minute shopping. When we were checking out, one of the ladies that worked at the hotel said that our ferry might be canceled due to rough waters. We hurried over to the ferry office and lo and behold our ferry was canceled! Not that staying on a beautiful island another day was a bad thing but it looked like all the ferries after ours would be canceled as well! And staying another night on a beautiful island is not something I’d cry over BUT we had class the next day and it’s not something any of us could miss. We were lucky enough to switch our tickets and jump on the ferry that was actually on its way to Hydra. We waited at the port and nearly gotten blown a way!!!! And when I say it was windy I mean it was W-I-N-D-Y! The poor little kitty cats roaming around had to find shelter or risk being blown away! We waited longer than expected for this ferry and it made us a little on edge thinking that it had to turn around due to the extremely rough waves. I also get very very sea sick on pretty much any type of boat so I was feeling nervoussssss. I medicated myself real well so no worries there :).

Finally our Flying Dolphin showed up and was swaying all over the place! There was some difficulty getting on this moving ferry. Finally settled into our seats, we prayed that we’d make it back to Athens ok. Several times throughout the journey home, an announcement was made explaining pretty much that we would kind of coast along for a little bit because the waves were dangerous enough for us to possibly tip. But we made it back ok around 1pm and we had enough time for another exciting night in Athens!!! Another post coming up next about that little experience!!

-m