May 5: Athens to Hydra

It was another stormy day. I don't know what I have done to anger the weather gods, but I feel like this trip has been a bit cursed, weather-wise. I seem to be dragging storms around with me from place to place.

Alexandra picked me up at 12:30pm and drove me back to Piraeus. I was travelling with Hellenic Seaways to Hydra, on one of the large catamarans. It was pouring rain when I boarded at 1:00pm. I was crossing my fingers for better weather on Hydra.

Finding my seat was a bit of a clusterfuck. The signage for the assigned seats sucked. It took me a while just to find my seat, and when I did it was a window seat - which was full of the bags of the elderly couple sitting in the middle and aisle seats. I tried to gesture for them to move their bags and get up so I could sit, but they started objecting loudly in Greek. I called over a staff member who spoke to them in Greek. Sensing that it wasn't worth the effort to argue with them, she pointed to a seat two rows up and told me to sit there and walked away.

Of course, I was now sitting in someone else's assigned seat. and sure enough they showed up and asked me to move. I obliged and moved a row up, fully expecting to be unseated again shortly. Luckily, no one came to claim the seat, so I was able to avoid any further seat drama.

It was a relatively quick 2-hour trip to Hydra. It was raining and the seas were a bit rough, but the ferry was large enough that you didn't feel it as much. It was still raining when we docked in Hydra.

Evi from Nesea Boutique Apartments was waiting for me at the port, accompanied by her long-haired dachsund Maia. She walked me to the apartment, which was necessary because there was absolutely no signage on the door indicating that it was rental accommodation. It's just a blue door in an alleyway.

The walk was a bit murderous on my legs. The cobblestones were slippery from the rain, so not only were they uneven, I kept sliding around when I stepped down. Hydra is also the "city of stairs" and although Evi assured me there were only 15 stairs to the apartment, I think there were more like 45 stairs. I was walking too slowly for her and when I labored to carry my suitcase up the stairs she gave up and grabbed my suitcase and carried it the rest of the way. I was glad for it when we got to the apartment, because when she opened the blue door in the alleyway ... there were another 15 stairs up to my apartment.

As you can see, though, the apartment is lovely. It looks like they took a traditional home and gutted it to create rental accommodation.

After settling in, I walked down to the port to find the Super K super market that Evi had recommended. I grabbed some beverages and snacks to take back to the room. Around 6:00pm I walked back down to the port to find a restaurant to eat dinner. Most of them were closed, though. I ended up at Isalos Cafe, where I had a horribly overpriced plate of spaghetti (EUR 22) and a beer while shivering from the wind and rain. My table was under an awning, but I was still exposed to the wind. I ate as quickly as I could and hightailed it back to the apartment to relax out of the weather.