David and I got to Greece 2 days before our oldest daughter, Tara and her Fiance',  Robert.  The four of us met at the motel and rode the subway system to Piraus.  We bought our ferry tickets on the Flying Dolphin.  We bought coffee and stood next to the docks while we drank it and people watched.  Greeks are passionate and alive when they speak.  I love that.  They are also very warm to each other and strangers...

We loaded and sped to the island of Aegina on the dolphin ferry:  I managed not to get sick both ways.  Very unusual.  It was an unusual ride in that there were no outside seats.  When the boat gets up to speed it rises onto a ski in the front and flys along bouncing over the waves.  WE ADDED A VIDEO .... HOPE YOU ENJOY DISPITE THE CRAZY GRAPHICS... 

After we got there we walked around and shopped a little while with our packs. We saw a couple of boats pulled up that were fruit stands: neat. We bought a little fruit for later that night. The packs were getting heavy. We decided to get a room for the night then so we didn't have to lug our packs with us..  

Two different motels had their doors wide open and no one about... we yelled and rang bells but no one seemed home... (it was off season in February) We finally found a place that had an elderly lady who lead us spryly up the stairs.  I felt a little aged seeing how light on her feet she was. The room was acceptable and we gave her  30 euros and our passports.  We took a few pictures of the room and the balcony scenery and went out to find a restaurant. 

Tara spotted a place with a large covered patio: there was no one there although it could have held 50 people. We sat down.  A lady came running out and insisted we sit inside where it was warm.  We trooped inside: there was one larger family table and a couple small "taverna" table one had two elderly men sitting at it.  The drunker of the two began asking us questions and finding out what we did and where we were from... While he was talking I looked in at our hostess as I was about 6 feet from the open door to the kitchen/oven area.  I just about fainted when the lady took the dirty dishes out of the sink rinsed and dried them and put them onto a tray to bring them to us.  I watched then I turned and looked at my daughter who was about to bust up.... I decided not to watch any more .. (one of those too much information moments for me....)  the lady asked if we wanted red or white wine: We asked for red and Tara & Robert got a coke and a beer.  The lady went to a large water cooler sized jug on the floor and got David and I both a glass of white wine. it worked: We liked it. We ordered and we saw the dinner was frozen food that was microwaved...Tara and Robert got Greek Salads. It tasted really good and we had a lot of great homemade bread too.... 

The man at the table informed Robert that one coke was worse for you than 5 glasses of wine and he should not be drinking coke... the man also decided to tell us about his opinion of American politics.  .   . I finally told him we don't happen to agree with the American politics all the time either but no one listens to us... he liked that... he switched to a safe subject and began telling us how much he likes Michael Jordan the basket ball player.... Everyone loves Michael Jordan!  ... finally a happy subject!  He wound up telling of his life and his late wife: we left friends although the lady followed us out to apologize for him... not to worry...It was not a meal we would forget any time soon.... lol.... 

   We strolled on down to the waterfront and went into a jewelry store: we found out there was a temple on the island.  The owner called a "friend" who had a taxi and told us it would cost 30 euros.   I hesitated....  then the taxi driver called again and said 20 euros... so we took the cab out across the island (20 minutes or so) and we

could not believe the temple.  It was so complete and so beautiful.  

 The temple was built at the beginning of the 5th century BC.  It was dedicated to Aphaia. No one really knows who Aphaia was, although it seems that she was a very old goddess who eventually became associated both with the huntress goddess Artemis and with Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

 We (surprise? not!) took a million pictures....   What a lucky thing to find out about it.  

We visited the monastery of St Nectarius.    It was a huge complex with many buildings and a beautiful church that was being refurbished.  It has a beautiful silver coffin in the side sanctuary .  I saw it.... but no one was with me so i didn't have the guts to look onto the top.  Plus I was a little height challenged to look into the top of it... but it was an amazingly intricate silver coffin and extremely ornate. I have tried to find a reference to it on the internet but I cannot find anything....who was it?

In the main church, The pews were all carved individually with birds and scenes and the floor of the sanctuary was an ocean  mosaic.   

We returned to the main town and Tara and Robert took the ferry back to Piraus.   David and I bought some crackers, cheese and wine and walked back to the room.. It was freezing ...  We tried to turn on the heater then asked our hostess how to turn it on.... Oh... not until tomorrow morning.... yikes... we wound up putting on layers of clothes and our coats, gloves and scarves and getting into bed...We decided against opening the wine and the rest was just awkward to eat with our gloves on...    we froze all night...   Bright and early the next morning we found there was no hot water... We decided not to shower : we weren't really brave enough to strip in the frigid air anyway....  We retreived our passports and went out to get breakfast... excellent meal.  We caught the ferry and met up with Robert and Tara late morning.

We have seen the most on Aegina. It is not a very big island. When you have a few days of time, you can easily take a few moments to visit the most important things on the island. We chose to do it in 1 week, but it can be done faster too. The last days we spent more time on the beach and in the water. Eef is now able to snorkel and we like it a lot now. We can go in the water together now and it is much nicer to do than Timo being alone in the water. We eat a lot, actually too much, at Vassilis and at Kostas. We enjoy now every moment, because from now on it will take a while before we can go out on vacation. First there is a weekend in Nieuwpoort and then we go to Costa Rica, we hope it will be a nice experience. When you’re on Aegina you need to leave early by ferry. We need to take the boat of 7 and then a bus will be ready to bring us from Piraeus to the airport. This is a good ending of our Greece holiday. At Zaventem Peter, Ilse and Maurits pick us up. Maurits takes Linda, Patrick and Christine to Bornem and Peter and Ilse take us to Sint-Amands. They invite us to eat at their place and we accept. We should have gone to restaurant Castelsardo in Bornem, but Christine her dog died during her vacation, so we stay in Sint-Amands

We get up at ten; have breakfast at Vassilis, because Kostas is closed. At 11:00 we leave by scooter, which we already rented before breakfast. At first we take the same roads as the previous time along the coast passing by the beautiful village of Souvala with the gorgeous harbor and then inland to Palaiochora. Ancient churches, grouped together. Only a few of the churches are open, but we still can look inside. It looks sober, but pretty. It really is worth to climb up the hill, because there are not only the churches, but you have also a view at the monastery and Souvala. Then we drive to Aja marina and from there we want to go to Porta to go and explore the rest. We’re not lucky, because we don’t find the road and arrive at the monastery again. So we take the road back to Aegina and the big coast road to Perdika. It is already 14:00 when we start lunch. Choriatiki and chtapodi with water and wine. Two yachts arrive, so we have something to see. After about an hour we go back to Aegina town and go snorkeling. We take the scooter to drive 15 minutes north and there in a small bay we can snorkel. There are a lot of fish, big ones and small ones, all mixed and especially between the weeds. Eef starts to get the hang of it and also starts to like it more. We stay here for an hour and then return to hotel Avra. At 18:00 it is apero-time. We drink at Vassilis and Enrique “ouzo me meze”. The meze is nothing much here. We still enjoy it and also spend the rest of the evening there, flooded with drinks.

We again sleep till about ten and have breakfast with Kostas again. After breakfast we want to visit the archeological site in Aegina. Again – as it is the case with a lot of monuments – a great view. The most important remain is the colona, a high pillar that rules over the ancient city. Next to this there is a small museum and we pass here too. After this cultural event it is time to do something else. We walk through town and buy some fruit (gapes and figs). We take the fruit with us to the beach, where Patrick, Christine and Linda are enjoying the sun. For this time of the year it still is hot at the beach. We have bought during our city walk a mask for snorkeling for Eef and we want her to learn how to use it. It’s not that difficult, so she gets along very well. We start with the aperitif at Vassilis early in the day at the pool-bar. Some wine and snacks (fried octopus). Then we must get ready to have a Greek pita, a Mythos and we go to bed at 23:30.

We sleep until 10 and then have breakfast at Kostas. This is already a tradition. At around 11 we decide to rent a bike to explore the north of the island. We follow the coast north and arrive via small roads in Agia Marina. This is the most northern part of the island. A beautiful town with a harbor, and we can enjoy the rest. We drink a bit and have a small snack; not too much. We sit on the terrace of restaurant Kiriakakis and have a beautiful view. After lunch we drive to the temple of Afea. We visit the ruins of the temple and the museum there. Everything has become a lot more expensive since the Euro was introduced. At 14:45 we drive inland to the monastery “Agios Nektarios”. We visit the monastery; people are working on the inside. As always in Greece we need to be dressed decent, when we want to enter a monastery. No problem: we always have something with us to cover our shoulders and knees. From here we take the road back to Aegina, stop in Agios Asomatos to drink a Mythos and stay here for about an hour. Then we drive to Marathonas and go for a swim there. At 18:00 we’re back in Aegina city and end the day at the same place where we started. At Kostas’ restaurant we have ouzo me meze. We need to return the scooter at 20:00, so that’s what we do. We take a shower and eat tonight at Vassilis. After the ouzo we start with an aperitif.

We sleep till about 10:30. We have breakfast at Kostas’ place: the restaurant is called O Pelaïsos. It is raining, so we won’t be doing a lot today. At least that’s the plan, not too much action. In the afternoon we sit down on a table at Vassilis and play cards. We also have something small to eat and drink a Greek beer (Mythos). Today is really doing nothing, because we can’t even go outside. The benefit in Greece is: it is not cold when it rains. It still is warm, even for this time of the year. And we don’t need to go to work, that’s another nice thing. Later in the afternoon the clouds disappear and the sun comes checking out the world. We want to go and explore the town and also check out what’s available in the environment. When we’re back at the hotel we’re very lucky: we have just entered the hotel and there is a very hard shower coming down from heaven. Then we prepare ourselves to go out for an evening to Perdika. Vassilis has invited us to go out to eat in a restaurant in another village: Perdika. Vassilis has his origin in this town and knows about everyone. We drive by car at 21:30 – Vassilis is driving – to Perdika. We are treated like kings. Everything is ready to make it a nice evening. There is a tables overloaded with Greek salad, cheese saganaki, squid, chorta and several other dishes. Everyone chooses fish as a main course, except Patrick; he takes pork meat. The fish is unbelievably good. We have seen in the kitchen, what they were going to serve us. All fish was lying in a freezer on ice, so it must have been fresh fish. We eat very much and drink a lot of local white wine with it. After this perfect meal we’re not yet leaving Perdika, but go a little bit further to a bar for a drink. The women take amaretto and the guys have a tasty whiskey. It starts to get late and at about three in the night we leave Perdika. Christine and Vassilis go into town, because it’s not yet late enough, but we go home to sleep. Sleep tight.

I went to Aegina in 1987 and absolutely loved it, what a lovely place to visit, apparently it hasn't changed much since then, I was 15 at the time and it was very hot, we stayed in a little appartment in Stone House which was ideal, on a nighttime we went either into the town center for food and drinks or to the congo palace hotel which always had some fun greek entertainment on. The islanders were very friendly and made us so welcome, I was gutted when we come home!

A 40 minutos en un Flying Dolphin desde el puerto del Pireo se encuentra la isla de Aegina. Su puerto es lo más bonito para ver junto con el templo de Aphaia, al que se puede llegar tomando un autobus desde el mismo puerto.

This is a picture of the Temple: I have tried to correct the year: it is supposed to be 2006....

So my first island adventure was everything I though it would be...but about a million things time more!

We did everything you are supposed to do on a Greek island. We did the beach thing, the taverna thing, the shopping thing...I even did the seafood thing! Now, I absolutely love seafood but was afraid to try it in Greece; I'm not one for my food staring back at me from the plate. So on the island I ordered shrimp! Little did I know that shrimp come with faces in Greece too! So sadly, that was my first and only experience with seafood in Greece!

It got more interesting that night, what with a guy from another table having a drink sent over to me and then bar hopping with Jen, an Albanian (who spoke English) and a Greek (who didn't speak English), followed by rides on the coast on their motorbikes! Pretty much everything was fantastic and while not everything happened the way it should have (or how a clear thinking American girl in a foreign country should have been thinking) I can definitely say that I believe the best way to see a Greek island at night is on the back of a motorbike hanging on to a gorgeous Greek man with nothing but the moon and stars to see by.

While that night on the island was a whirlwind of fun and crazy, the next day could not have held a candle to it. Not necessarily in a good way though. Early afternoon Jen, Becky, and I decided to do some shopping while some of the others decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. After a bit we decided to meet up with them. They were at a local beach in town and we were going to take a short cut (a very short cut, looking back I wonder if it was really worth it!) across a "pier" instead of walking on the street. The sea had just started coming up over this "pier", which was right in front of this cute little taverna. Becky was the first to go across and she turns and says "Be careful, it's slippery!" So I was going to go next and I set one foot one...now let me explain; we had everything with us, and I mean everything; our backpacks with every little thing we had brought; plus I had my nearly brand new Dooney and Bourke handbag, which had my nearly brand new professional digital camera, my nearly brand new international cell phone, my wallet, my passport...literally everything; not to mention I am dressed in a cute little tank top and mini skirt...I should have known I was tempting trouble!...

...one foot on, and I was immediately falling straight into the Meditterean Sea! Now it was pretty shallow water but I was still in nearly up to my neck! Falling in I must have felt myself getting a little bumped and bruised, but my biggest concern was throwing my backpack and handbag out then worrying about myself. As Jen and Becky are pulling me out we are all laughing hysterically...no doubt along with the patrons and entire waitstaff at the taverna! When I am out and "safe", we are just doubled over laughing like crazy people. Then I hear someone at the taverna yelling something: "You're bleeding, you're bleeding!" I look down and see blood pouring down my left leg, in addition to a cut across my thigh and some on my feet. I leaned down to look at my knee and a hole just opens up. I started having a panic attack and my friends had to help me sit down. Then it started to hurt...really hurt. Apparently a rock on the edge of the "pier" had ripped out a rather large chunk of skin from right below my knee cap. The logical part of brain was not thinking about this though; instead, I was convinced I had chipped my knee cap and was positive I needed stitches. I babbled like a crazy lady and we weren't really sure what to do. Luckily not a minute later came my knight in shining armor...a moped rental guy very much familiar with accident, gauze and iodine in hand. He also said he was going to call an ambulance for me.

By the time we were in the ambulance I had stopped crying, though still very shaking and hurting, but was able to laugh at the hilarity of the situation. I was not nearly calm enough though for what awaited me at the hospital...the doctor that came out to meet me spoke not a word of English; even if she had I doubt my friends would have been allowed in with me. Thankfully, once in a second doctor who did speak English came in. Thank goodness for the Greek health system! The doctor asked me my name and what had happened but wrote nothing down and I didn't have to pay a cent! Although I still almost cried as they poured what felt like acid in...and I came away with 4 beautiful stitches. I was lucky not to chip any bone, but at the same it was in a really bad location...I was metro bound for a few days once home in Athens and it was very sore for several weeks, and it was still sensitive my entire 3 months in Greece!

So what did I do after the taxi brought us back to town?...we ate lunch at the taverna right where I had fallen. I mean, you know what they say! Put on a brave face and be able to laugh at yourself! Which was not at all hard to do as our waiter could barely hold back a laugh as he smiled and took our order.

My advice? Don't take the short cut, because a 10 minute walk could easily turn into a (free!) 2 hour hospital detour!

We set out early on the train to Peiraias, where Katrina and I bought ferry tickets for Aigina.  After an uneventful ferry ride, we arranged for four taxis to take us to the Temple of Aphaia on the other side of the island.  After only a half hour on the site, we had to return to Aigina town, where we had lunch at a cafe on the waterfront.  The food was pretty mediocre, but Dimitris who owned the place was very nice.  After lunch I took the kids through the Kolonna Museum and site, and then we went back to the waterfront for souvenir shopping and so on.  I bought a blue necklace, and we left the island in the early evening.  That night we went to Alex's house for dinner (near Pl. Amerikis) - although I'm writing this a few days later so maybe it was yesterday that we went there, I'm not sure.  Anyway, we were so tired that we just ordered in.  Then off to bed.