The Bois Family Trip to Athens

The afternoon of March 21, 2001 Aegina

After lunch, many people fell asleep, Danusia included.  Fortunately, there was room to stretch out.  Since tourist season hadn't started, there were fewer than 50 passengers on this boat that can handle 600. I went out on deck to watch the islands go by.

Earlier, I mentioned that there might be mountain tops just under the water's surface.  Here's one that sticks out of the water by only thirty feet or so.

The village on the south shore has a road traversing a steep hill, like the one we saw on the Peloponnese earlier in the day. The port though is on the west side of the island, so it was a full two hours from Hydra to Aegina.  And when we got there...

...we saw lots of cats.

We strolled though the town and stumbled on and Internet café.  So we paid the ridiculously cheap fee and emailed a picture we took on Hydra to friends and family back home in a different time zone, just waking up to go to work. After that, we sat outside and had drinks and a snack.  As you can see, Adam had his usual Sprite, Danusia had a Cappuccino, and I had a Nescafé Frappé, my new favorite.  I also had some baklava, because I was determined to have some before we left and this was our last day. It was delicious.

This was one of the few tavernas we went to where the staff chased dogs away.  They did it inconspicuously by shuffling chairs.  The dogs were never deterred for long.

We leisurely walked down the dock to the boat.  Here's what it looked like, by the way.

There was a small church at the end of the dock.  I suppose it's there so sailors can pray before setting sail.

Amid the hubbub, a harbor official fed a few dogs. This one must not have been hungry.

After the three dogs finished eating, two took off together.  The third barked up a storm, asking, I suppose, "Hey, where ya going?"

This might look like a volcano, but it was just a fire of some sort on the other side of the mountain. We had time to look at dogs and imaginary volcanos because two people were late getting back to the boat.  The captain finally gave the order to leave without them and at that moment, two of the college students came running down the dock as fast as they could.

We pulled away from the dock and started back to Athens.  We passed a point of land with a tiny church and a lighthouse.

Turning north from the lighthouse, we lost sight of the town.

And we met a ferry on its way from Athens to the town we just left.

 

As we got closer to Athens, traffic started getting heavier.  I don't mean cars and motorcycles, I mean tankers and freighters.  It's a busy port and ships have to wait for a dock to become available. We talked about our trip - the busy city and tranquil islands, the revving motor scooters and sleeping dogs, the sinfully good food and skinny people, the renovations next to the restorations. These strange juxtapositions take a little getting used to.  Though I was tired and ready to go home, I already wanted to visit Greece again so I could figure it out. I had been disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the countryside and didn't get to talk to more people.  Danusia thinks it might be a good idea to take a working vacation on one of the islands.  With a laptop and a guitar, I might come up with some beautifully new ideas.  Or I might spend all my time in the taverna. Either way, it would be time well spent. And we're already talking about where to go next year.  Danusia has another idea, and that's that Adam and I should go somewhere on a father/son trip.  Each of us knows the barest minimum of French, we might just be able to survive in France for a week. On the other hand, I have a strange desire to rent a car in Stockholm and drive to the Arctic Circle. Stay tuned....Bill