Last week, I wrote about our all-inclusive stay in Greece and I mentioned that we managed to get out of our lounge chairs just long enough to venture out of our hotel once. One morning, we decided to book a trip from the Barceló Hydra Beach Resort to Hydra Island on the opposite side of the Aegean Sea.
At around 9 AM, we embarked on a ferry that would bring us to Hydra in roughly 30 minutes. Slowly, the barren hills of the island became a mountainside fishing village. To learn the history of such a remarkable place, we wanted to follow the guide from our hotel on a tour. However, we quickly gave up as the successive translations from English, to Italian, to French and then to Czech were painfully too long to remain focused.
We broke away from the herd and started climbing the narrow alleys crisscrossing the village. How wonderful it was to take a stroll in a city where motorized vehicles are strictly forbidden! The continual buzz from engines was replaced by the clatter of mules transporting heavy charges up the sloping stairways.
As soon as we got away from the seaside market, we were virtually alone walking the peaceful streets. Up in the hills, when we arrived at the highest homes we were drenched in sweat … it was 37°C without any shadow to be found. We briskly went back to the port to cool down in a café.
Three hours in this timeless village passed in the blink of an eye. On our way back, I regretted choosing to vacation at an all-inclusive resort because Hydra Island is easily reachable from Athens (daily ferries) and there are many affordable rooms to rent. An even better experience in Greece must be to rent a sailboat to navigate freely between the different Greek Islands to explore their ancient treasures.
