Hydra-Not as Interesting in the Winter Time

So the third stop on our trip was Hydra, or Idra in Greek. This place is famous for not having motorized vehicles on the island and for everything being transported by donkeys. It is apparently a very popular spot in the summer time, an island hit on a quick 3 island tour that is popular and ports from Athina, and is SO DEAD in the off season!! We were the only ones in our hotel, which was fine I suppose, but we didn't really have much to do. It was a good place to stop; not sure if we will again even though the word is it's way nicer in late spring and early summer. Our venture to Idra started by getting on a ferry.....


Now it's no secret that I get MASSIVELY motion sick. I won't even go into detail about what I like to call "Maui Puke Fest 2010"-it was bad to say the least. Thankfully this is a quick 30 min ride and the boat was really like an airplane on the inside-cushy chairs that recline and barf baggies in the seat pocket-always handy for me!

Upon arrival, this is what we saw.....

I want to title this piece "Deserted Idra" because the town felt like an old west town-nobody around. There were the donkey men waiting to take the few tourists to hotels or to carry the townspeople items home for them but not many of us staying the night.

We decided to go check into the hotel and then walk around the town some. Now, this town was a typical island town, everything goes up the side of the hill. Thankfully our hotel was about 500 feet from port so not a long walk. But we did see a church all the way up at the top and said hey, let's go up there. So we took a little stroll through the bottom of town first before we headed up. First thing we see (again) are donkeys. Now I LOVE donkeys. Sure they're stubborn and noisy and make a mess, but if you think about it, so am I. Maybe that's why I love them ;) Here is a shot of a happy little guy who I thought was just too cute!


We then walked around the port some and took some "artsy" photos-I call this one "Man Amongst Cannons"


This is the other side of the port-we didn't explore that area at all. We did think it was odd that there was a wall just randomly situated in the middle of the houses. We figured it was a boundary of some sort.

So we started to climb up and up and up to the top of the village to find that church and just to wander around. It was one heck of a climb! Think of all the movies where people are ambling around a small little town with tiny streets and lots of stairs-that's what we were doing. And on top of that people were riding down the streets on donkeys and mules-one man was riding a small horse and her baby was following. Now these are cobblestone streets people-not the best footing for a hoof-this mare obviously had walked them all her life because she didn't slip or anything going around the sharp corners with a man (who was too large for her really) on top. He went by so fast I couldn't take a picture. This shot was taken about half way up our walk; I call it "Peek Between Houses to the Sea View"


We finally made it to the top!! Whew! We kept joking (the whole trip really) that we both need to start exercising more and get into shape!! Never mind that I teach horseback riding about 3 hours everyday, which entails be walking constantly for about 5 hours! Walking up and around these hills did me in!! And poor Matt-no contest there ;) The view was nice; Matt needed a break so he stood looking over the view, contemplative, and I was sneaky and got some shots while he wasn't looking or at least was pretending not to notice...


The BIGGEST surprise on this little island was THIS bad boy.....

One of the things that this little island brags about is that there are NO motorized vehicles. NONE! NADA! OXI (that's Greek for NO!) And yet, while we were on our walkabout-BAM! There is this blue truck just hanging out on the side of the road. Matt said he wasn't surprised at all because there HAD to be a way to get all the construction bits up the hillside without using donkeys but I said no-they only use donkeys and mules. Man was I wrong, once again. And to make matters worse, we saw ANOTHER one being driven when we left the following day. Bummer. At least we did see mules and donkeys being used and hear a bunch of roosters crowing (which was also promised).

As we ventured down back to town for dinner we passed by this home.

Nothing says welcome like a welcome mat all the way at the end of the walk way!! It was somewhat dirty and muddy along the path so I guess if you want to stay extra clean, have your welcome mat and the end of your path. It just made me laugh so I thought a picture was necessary.

There were so many nice views on the way down from our walk that we did stop and take a few pictures. Matt didn't want me to take one of him (party pooper) and yet he insisted that I pose for some. The people were home in the house to my left and we could hear them making noise-it was kinda funny. I wouldn't mind living in home that had a beautiful view like this-how about you??

We ate dinner, had a very tasty crepe, then went to bed. The next morning we woke up and stopped at a bakery in Idra to get some of the most tasty cookies!! YUM YUM!!! We ate them later, not for breakfast in case you were wondering! We had thought since it was Sunday morning that the shops would not be open-WRONG! Those shutters that were closed earlier were now open with people wanting to sell the tourists their goodies! We did buy a couple prints for our art collection-rather lovely ones I think! We saw one of those boats with hoards of tourists pull up, unload all their Americans (there were quite a few, we are easy to spot!) and then our ferry came. We loaded up and headed back to Ermioni to get the car and start off to our next spot, Epidavrous.

Next time I'll tell you all about the great amphitheater of Epidavrous!!