Hiding Out on Hydra

Getting away from it all

After the stress of our time in Athens, I was ready for some downtime.  We had planned a short visit to the island of Hydra, pronounced “Eedra” and sometimes shown on the maps as Idra, Ydra or Ύδρα.  We didn’t know much about it beyond the fact that there were no cars on the island.  It sounded like a good place to get away for a couple days.  Not exactly “off grid”, but close enough.  I was looking forward to doing nothing for a little while.

I’m certain that the experience of being robbed colored my impressions of Athens.  I’m also certain that it raised my expectations for what I’d find in Hydra.  Perception is reality, and I was not disappointed by the island.

Getting there

On a sunny Sunday morning, we checked out of our hotel and rode the metro to the last stop on the Green line, the port of Piraeus.  We had booked tickets on a ferry, the SpeedCat I, and were looking forward to the two hour trip.  

The Speed Cat was a definite step up from the last ferry we’d ridden- the old boat that plods back and forth across the Tagus River in Lisbon.  This was a new, modern boat ( or ship? Where do you draw the line?).  Our seats were at a table in the far corner of the lower level.  We left our suitcases in the aisle and squeezed into our seats on one side of the narrow table.  Across from us sat two Greek gentlemen who smiled and nodded as we knocked knees in the crowded space.  

The boat was full.  Apparently there were lots of people who wanted to visit the islands that day.  I had a vague feeling of discomfort, knowing that we were across a crowded room from the exits and that the aisles were full of suitcases.  I half-remembered news stories about ferries capsizing and all aboard drowning.  But I pushed those thoughts aside and settled in for the ride.  

We left on time and gained speed as we moved out of the harbor toward open water.  We were surprised by the smoothness of the ride.  The boat barely rocked as it moved along.  No chance of getting seasick on this trip!

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed looking out the window at the rocky hills of the coast and then at the open water of the Saronic Gulf.  

After about an hour and a half, the ferry stopped at the port of Poros on the eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula.  The crowd thinned out as passengers disembarked and in a few minutes we were sailing again.  We grew increasingly excited as we got closer to Hydra.  

We pulled into the port and all aboard began collecting bags and getting ready to disembark.  One of the two gentlemen across from us spoke for the first time.  “Is this your first time here?”

We said it was.  He smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder.  “It’s our second trip”, he said.  “The first time was 45 years ago.”  They both smiled and wished us a pleasant stay, then they were off to begin their adventure.  We were right behind them.

The lay of the land

Hydra is a small island, about 50 square kilometers (or 19 square miles – roughly  80% the size of Manhattan).  Hydra Town is the main port and the biggest village on the island.  There are about 2,500 human residents on the island.  (We’ll talk about cats and donkeys in a minute.)  A presidential degree in the 1950’s outlawed wheeled vehicles – cars, trucks, motorcycles, even bicycles – so the town is quiet.  

The Hydra Town harbor is crescent-shaped, with a wide stone walkway around the perimeter.  Lining the island side of the walkway are small shops, a few small hotels, cafés, and art galleries.  Behind them a jumble of whitewashed buildings ascended the rocky hills. 

At the apex of the curved harbor walk was an unusual sight – a row of donkeys tied up. These were not ponies waiting to give tourists a ride. These animals had hard, flat saddles draped with coils of rope. They were waiting for work.

With no cars or buses on the island, getting around means walking up and down the rough cobbled streets.  If you have something heavy that needs to be moved – like your luggage or the week’s supply of bottled water coming off the supply ship – you hire a guy with a donkey. 

Throughout our stay, the only traffic noise we heard was their slow clip-clopping as they went up and down the street outside our room.  

And we’d see them “parked” at various places around town.  Sometimes they were left in the sun, but we saw one lucky fellow whose owner had left him in the shade of a beautiful tree!

While walking the narrow streets, we sometimes had to move out of the way of a train of two or three donkeys tied together.  It seems they have the right-of-way here.

Settling in

When we arrived, we had two hours to wait until we could get into our guest house, so we found a restaurant with a shady porch and enjoyed lunch – a big Greek salad, a fennel pie, and white wine served in an ice-cold metal pitcher. 

Finding the guest house turned out to be harder than anticipated.  Perhaps the wine at lunch interfered with our navigation skills, but the fact that there were no street signs didn’t help any.  Google Maps got us to the right street, but sent us way up the hill.  Apple Maps didn’t know where the hell we were.

Soaking up the vibe

We enjoyed walking around Hydra Town and a couple of nearby villages.  The atmosphere in the area is very relaxed.  Not frantic relaxed, like in US beach towns, and not really an “island vibe” like you might find in the Caribbean.  It’s more of a “slow down, don’t get all worked up, we’ve been here for hundreds of years and we’re not going anywhere soon” sort of thing.  

Two examples:  

Seccond, there was a small convenience store just up the street from the guest house.  We stopped in on Sunday afternoon to buy a bottle of wine, but didn’t find any on the shelves.  Stepping back outside, I noticed another shop just across a small courtyard.  The door was open and I stepped inside to find a fully stocked wine shop.  I picked out a bottle, but then found there was no one there to ring up the sale.  

I stepped outside, thinking maybe the clerk was out having a smoke.  Nobody around.  While I was standing there, holding the bottle and looking confused, an old man walked through the courtyard.  He saw me, smiled, and pointed back to the convenience store.  I took the bottle in and paid for it.  

Imagine leaving a wine shop open and unattended where you live.

Exploring the town

We had no schedule or agenda, so we took our time and wandered through the side streets, looking at the gleaming white buildings with the classic blue Greek trim.

We walked along a high bluff going west out of Hydra Town to the smaller village of Kamini.  The view out over the water was stunning, and looking down we could see the clear, sparkling water along the rocky shore.  

A song along the coast

On our way back to Hydra Town we stopped to admire a modern stone and wood bench.  A plaque at one end said that it was dedicated to the memory of the singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen who had lived on Hydra from 1960 – 1967.  

The plaque included the line “He came so far for beauty…”.  That prompted us to do a quick Google search for Cohen’s songs.  We found “Came So Far for Beauty” and played it on Spotify while we walked back to town.  Like most of Cohen’s songs, this one is melancholy and haunting, but it contains what I think is the most masterful lyric I’ve ever heard:

I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned

The sun in the east

The food, of course!

The weather was perfect while we were in Hydra, so we enjoyed dining outdoors both days.  There were side-by-side cafés all along the harbor walk, but we went looking for places a block or two up the hill.  

 On our first afternoon we stopped at Flora’s Gelataria on the next block over from our hotel.  We sat on the patio and enjoyed (devoured!) two pieces of pastry.

One was galaktoboureko – egg custard sprinkled with cinnamon and baked between layers of phyllo dough.  The other was the biggest and best piece of baklava we had ever tasted.  

That late afternoon snack might have spoiled our dinner, if we were on a regular schedule.  But since we were relaxing on the island, we waited until nearly 10pm and found a nearby restaurant with tables outdoors under an arbor.  We enjoyed another Greek salad and some pasta under the stars.

But there was this one guy who seemed to be taking life more seriously.  He might have been the mayor of Hydra Town.

Another unexpected encounter

On our last evening on Hydra, we went to the restaurant Ostria, where the menus are written out by hand. This was one of the recommendations in our Rick Steves’ guidebook*. Rick rarely leads us astray and this time was no exception.

We enjoyed a leisurely dinner, again outside.  As we were finishing, Mary struck up a conversation with a group of three people at the next table.  They were also Americans, from Los Angeles. 

We continued on, as most of these chats do, by talking about where we’d been and what we’d seen.  They had also been in Athens the week before.  And, it turned out that the man in the party, also named Mike, had also had his pocket picked, at the same metro station, by a group that used the same M.O.  (For our European readers, that’s US detective show lingo for “modus operandi”, or how the little bastards did the crime.)

We had a good laugh about our common experience.  

So long, Hydra, for now

The next morning we caught the 7:20am ferry back to Athens, took the metro to the airport, and flew home.  

I hope to go back to Hydra some day.  Maybe on that trip I’ll come on a one-way ticket.

Until next time / Até a próxima vez

Mike

The Writer