ATHENS TO HYDRA
We originally planned to stop on the island of Syros on the way to Athens and looked forward to that. But the ferry schedule prevented that. Then Susie talked with Todd who had seen a Rick Steves report on Hydra, which is two hours by ferry from Athens. It sounded like an interesting place. It has no cars, everything is transported by donkey. It was Leonard Cohen’s favorite place. He bought a house here for $1500 as a twenty year old and wrote poetry here. Someone encouraged him to put his poems to music. He sang his first concert here at a tavern below the clock tower. So Susie was eager to come here.
So we tried to come here by ferry on Sunday, but all ferries stayed in port. We left Athens at 9 on Monday morning and had a great time on Monday walking around. Now on Tuesday we have learned that the ferries were kept in port today by high winds and wonder if we will be able to get back to Athens by Thursday morning when our unchangeable cheap flights fly out. We‘ll see.
But in the meantime we are delighted with Hydra and feel so lucky to come here unexpectedly. The town, without cars and with many donkeys and cats, as promised, sits on a steep rocky hill that extends sharply upwards from a square harbor filled with boats and lined with outdoor/indoor restaurants. There are just enough tourists to keep it from feeling empty but most of the people in the cafes drinking coffee or wine are residents.
A very striking thing about the town, apparently an Italian influence, is that all the roofs are red clay tile roofs at a slight slant and many houses are multicolored. In Paros and Santerini all of the houses were white, no exceptions, and all had flat white roofs. The people in both places are Greeks. Two years I wondered why all the houses were white in Paros and the roofs flat and figured out that the climate was the reason. But here there is the same climate and the houses are different. Now my answer is that people in every place are part of a culture that does everything in the same way, they are part of a tribe and a tribe dresses, eats, speaks in the same way and rejects other ways of doing things. The first guy that built a house here, probably from Italy, put on a red clay peaked roof and since then everyone has done the same thing. That is my current explanation.
But the thing that has really been on my mind here, probably what made Leonard Cohen buy a house here, was how beautiful and quiet and friendly Hydra is. I first thought that Naousa was the most special place in Greece, for the same reasons. But when we drove around Paros every little town was equally beautiful. Every town seemed like the ideal place to spend the winter after the tourists had gone home. But now I am realizing that all of the Greek islands feel this way. The Durrell brothers felt the same way about Corfu. Henry Miller loved Greece, apparently. The mild climate, brilliant flowers, wonderful architecture, friendly people are irresistible.
The first time I came here two years ago it was on a whim. But this second time it was to stay another month and just be here and breathe deep and do nothing at all. Thanks to the summer crush of tourists the Greek islands aren‘t that cheap, but the food is fantastic and the weather perfect and on Hydra the pace, with no cars (except garbage and dump trucks and a single volunteer fire engine which went gingerly up the hill this morning with its siren on) and everything heavy moved by donkey.
I am also realizing that there I am caught between the two ways of travel. The simplest and the cheapest way is to rent a place for a month where you can buy groceries and cook yourself and not spend money on any activities. The second way is to spend a short time in a place and spend money on gaining every experience you can including eating out since you are here such a short time. Our Airbnb is more expensive and much more lavish, an exquisite cave in the hill surrounded by bougainvillea with a full kitchen which we haven‘t used at all. At Efi‘s I heated food on a single hot plate.
This morning we had breakfast by the harbor and ordered the special Greek breakfast for two, since we expect to only have one breakfast here. We had a marvelous farm egg with lumps of potato omelette, tomato paste and olives on freshly baked bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, hot chocolate, Greek yogurt with honey, dried fruit of several kinds, toast, butter, jam and orange cake for dessert. It was $20 apiece and worth every penny. At Efi‘s I had muesli and milk daily for breakfast, probably $2. Tuesday night we sat in a family taverna with four tables and two other sets of diners eating a delicious Greek salad, almost all homegrown tomatoes, and for the first time in my life I ate fried shrimp. The crunchy pink shrimp were fried crisp whole, with a antenna and legs and head included. I asked the cook how to eat them and he said I could crunch them down whole, head to trailing legs, but that some people preferred not to eat the heads with the shiny black eyes. So I followed his suggestion and found that while they tasted delicious and I liked the crunchiness that after I had chewed for awhile the last little bit of debris was hard to swallow, so I put it on the plate with the heads.
So the choice is Hydra for 2 days at $100 a day, or Hydra for a month at $20 a day. In both cases you could breathe deep and enjoy the beauty, and in the second stay a lot longer.
And beyond all this calculating is the sheer wonder of being here at all. How could I be in this beautiful place at all? I could have stayed in Swannanoa, but here I am in this enchanted place. In two days I will be back in my own bed.
For two months Taormina was exhilarating, Letojanni was exhilarating, Santorini was exhilarating, Paros was exhilerating, Athens was exhilerating, Hydra is exhilerating and now I am getting on the plane and flying home. Why?
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 