Adventures on a car-less Island

This past weekend, I got in touch with my inner pirate.  Yes, you read that correctly: PIRATE.  You see, myself and four of my colleagues took off on Friday evening for an adventure on the island of Hydra.  Hydra is a quick (well, 1.5 hours) ferry hop away from Athens, so we left a little bit after school ended and arrived just a little bit before dinner time.*

*I haven't mentioned this yet: Greek dinner time doesn't take place at 6:00 or 7:00, as most of you Midwesterners probably are used to.  It doesn't even happen at 8:00 or 9:00, for all you East Coast folks.  No, it's just starting to become acceptable to dine around 9:30 or 10:00 on a daily basis.

A quick word on logistics in Hydra: the only vehicles that you'll find on the island are a garbage truck (yes, a SINGLE garbage truck) and water taxis.  Oh yes, there are plenty of donkeys also.  You can imagine how much quieter all of this makes the island -- a huge change from the business of Athens!  Anyway, we arrive at the port and go to meet our landlord, who walks us up the mountain to the villa he is renting us.

Two things I want to point out here:
1.)  That's a really damn steep hill.
2.)  The yacht is probably worth more than the entire city.

Once we get settled, we enjoy some dinner at a local taverna, then head on over to THE PIRATE BAR!  Several people from school recommended this place, particularly their B52s.  Friends, ask me about that sometime.  Parents/grandparents, you're probably better off not knowing.  We'll just agree that it was a very fun birthday evening.

Yarrr.... 

I think the pirates ran out of rum...

On Saturday, Bethany (one of my colleagues) and I decided to go for a hike.  We started following signs for the lighthouse, which we thought would be pretty neat to check out.  It was kind of like looking for buried treasure (except it's not buried...... nor is it really a treasure...... nor did we have a map.....), but alas, our pirating skills were not up to snuff.  After three hours of searching, we decided to turn around and head home.  Luckily for us, the Mediterranean Sea was calling our name, and we hopped into a beautifully warm and refreshing ocean.  

 Clear water = Happy Evan

 Our hikes are rough.  All uphill.  This picture doesn't do it justice...

...especially with this little stretch at the top.  Ouch.

Sunday was very similar to Saturday -- hiking and oceaning took up most of the day, but there came a point when we finally had to face reality -- it was time to head home.  I'm convinced, though, that Athens is fake-Greece.  Real Greece is only found on those little islands out in the middle of the ocean.  One down, 1,399 to go!

Proof that I was actually there.

No Mother, of course I didn't jump off the cliff into the Mediterranean Sea...