Our trip to Aegina was so unreal. To sum the trip up in a picture would be this:
However, I will give all of the details. The trip began Friday morning after a trip to the open-air market and finishing packing up. We took a bus to Piraeus (the port closest to Athens). In Piraeus we visited the Archeological Museum of Piraeus, which had artifacts that were found between Athens and Piraeus.
It was an interesting museum – very small and had very unpleasant staff. However, there were some amazing bronze sculptures, which were my favorite of the place.
After visiting the museum we got back on the bus to go to the ferry! I had the wrong impression of what this “ferry” was going to be. I had images of a little rocky boat sailing through the Mediterranean – I mean Aegina is very close to the mainland. However, I was very wrong. Waiting to board the ferry – I snapped this picture to give you an idea of the size of this “ferry”.
Rain was coming but that didn’t stop us from sitting on the top deck to see Athens disappear before our eyes.
We even attempted some photos on the top deck but that was not successful.
So I just lounged and ate some lunch looking at the beautiful blue water before getting too cold and having to go inside.
It was only like an hour (not very sure – you tend to ignore time in Greece) but it was quick. Then we were herded off the ferry like animals.
After getting off the ferry it was a short walk to our hotel. It was so adorably beautiful. The lady who runs the place was super cute. She took us on a tour of the place before sticking each of us in a room. I shared a room with my roomie Kathryn. It was such a cute little room.
After dropping off our things and resting for about a minute we were off to explore the island.
Aegina is a small island off of the cost of the mainland. Known for their pistachios and the few temples on the island. It was off-season so it was very quite but that only added to the beauty.
We walked up and down the coast, put our hands in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, and walked on the beach in January. The trip was off to an amazing start and we had only been exploring for about 2 hours. Where our hotel was located was close to the shoreline and then there were a bunch of side streets that had stores, restaurants, etc.
It was approaching sunset, and I couldn’t miss that. We went to the furthest pier we could find to get some wonderful sunset photos.
After watching the sunset, it was time to eat. Corrine and I found this adorable place (that we had seen our Athens Centre Rep eating at earlier, so we assumed it was a good choice). It overlooked the water and had very reasonable priced food.
I had some calamari and taziki. It was delicious and tasted rather fresh.
We also had a guest for our entire dinner. A cat that we had met earlier on our adventure decided to crash our dinner and ended up with a belly full of calamari so I guess he made a good decision. The restaurant owner said that he is the restaurant cat.
After dinner we went looking for the rest of the group in the rain – we failed and ended up back at the hotel where a lot of people were sleeping so we all got up and got together and went out to a local bar for a relaxing way to end our evening.
The next day was a big one. We began with an amazing breakfast by the lady at the hotel. It was basically dessert – just chocolate, cakes, apple thing, and cheese thing. We ate on the rooftop – it was an awesome way to start the day.
After breakfast we set off for our first temple visit of the day – Ancient Aegina and the Temple of Apollo. It was an amazing site - right on the water in walking distance from our hotel. There was also a very nice museum that accompanied the site with some great artifacts that were really old.
After that site we got on a bus and were driven away from the coast. This was incredible. There was so much of the island that was covered up by the mountains.
Rolling hills of green, houses poached up on hilltops with wonderful views of the sea, goats being herded on a mountain. The bus zigged and zagged up the hill to drop us off at the Temple of Aphaea. The temple and the view from the temple was breath taking.
Mary Lou and Marky Mark gave us some information about the temple and then gave us an hour or so to just take in the “bigness” of it all. (This “bigness” is a term that I took away from Italy when I went in 2006. When I got home a lot of people asked me about the experience and the only way to describe everything was that it was big. Everything was just big – in size, in experience, in its affect on me. This site was big – fo sho.) The weather was beautiful and it just added to the whole experience. We had already decided to extend our trip on Aegina by few hours so the extra time there was truly a gift and very much appreciated.
After leaving (reluctantly) we were on our way back to the coast when we stopped at “pottery”. This was on our agenda for the trip and we were all very curious about what it meant. We thought for sure it was going to be something archealogical – but it wasn’t. It was amazing though. It was this man – 4th generation – doing pottery on the side of the road for his whole life.
It was sad because he told us that he was the last of his family to be doing it and because he didn’t have any kids it wouldn’t continue. I contemplated adoption for a brief moment after that story. He did some demonstrations for us. It was amazing how natural he seemed doing it.
After returning to the coast we enjoyed lunch. Some people got fish – something that I have been reluctant about because of how it is served – the whole thing. Here are the leftovers!!! Haha, they had a gag reflex while eating for good reasons.
After lunch, we took a walk and ran into our teachers. They had walked past us during our lunch and snapped a photo of us so we returned the favor.
We all went back to the hotel for our things and then sat at a café to enjoy some hot chocolate and enjoy another beautiful sunset on the Mediterranean Sea.
We boarded the ferry and had a relaxing trip back to Piraeus where we got on the bus and went back home. I missed Athens when I was at Aegina. The island life is nice but I don’t think it would be permanently for me. I like the hustle and bustle of the city. After returning home I went to bed at about 8p for the evening. The trip took a lot out of me but also gave so much more to me.
