It is cold but the air is wonderful, clean and refreshing. We take oranges from our own tree in the morning with breakfast; the tree is just full of ripe sweet oranges.
When we arrived in Athens we had plenty of time since the Flying Dolphin was leaving at 5 o’clock. Well, that’s what we thought anyway when we came down to the Piraeus port but on the way to the ticket office we met a taxi driver who asked if we wanted to have a ride with him because there was no boats at all, the sea is too rough. And of course he was right, I had my money back on the ticket I had ordered on the internet and after some hassling about the price we agreed to go with him down Peloponnese and take a taxi boat over. He just called his friend on Hydra who had a taxi boat to see if it was OK. When we heard that it was Adonis taxi boat we smiled since we know him well and he is a good captain although his boat is small.
We took off and as always the trip this way was beautiful, over the hills and magnificent view over the islands and the sea. We passed the Corinth canal and since we went over slowly we could see for certain that the train bridge does indeed cover the view of the steep walls down to the 110 year old canal. The horrifying view was gone, at least from the motor way.The second hour of the car trip was spent on small serpentine roads along the sea, going through Galatas just opposite Poros and it felt strange to see several signs for Hydra and Spetses, like they were just small villages, not islands off the coast. It had gotten dark and we met a few cars on the small road. At last there was a larger sign that said Hydra, pointing straight down at the sea. And then we recognized the place, this was where we got the boat last time. Seems like the sea was rougher this time. We did not look forward to this trip, even though it would probably take just twenty minutes; we saw the lights from the Hydra port on the other side.
We greeted Adonis who helped us on the boat. We felt the see when he turned the small one engine taxi boat around, the sea was really strong and he bolted the windows and doors and tried to close the doors to the small cabin where we sat with our bags. There were no life-jackets, or there may be some stuff somewhere on the boat but there was no reason to wear anything, Adonis said when Marie asked him. He ran the strong Penta motor and attacked the waves, this time even William and I realized it’s not even fun. Adonis wanted me to sit on the other side of the boat and I stumbled over and sat down beside William, grabbing hold of the door handle to try to steady myself. We had just taken off and the waves were already high and the water rushed in and I had to move our bags to save our computers, at least.
There was a really strong headlight on the boat that got Adonis to see the waves as they turned up and sometimes he could hit them and steer through them but there were so many waves and the further out we got the more wind reached us also from the side of the channel. Once in a while he had to slow down to wait and let go because he couldn't ride over the waves and then you felt the strength and for sure it would not be possible to swim in this water, it’s cold and absolutely dark and the waves were too big. We didn’t say much, the noise was high and there was not much to say, I asked or screamed to Marie if she was OK and she screamed back and said she was not OK – and William sat close to me and I held his knee in my free hand. The waves were rolling in the middle between the island and the coast, this we feel even in the summer, it’s like the currents meet out there even on a calm day. This trip was not calm and I felt I was holding the door handle so hard that my arm was aching. When we saw more of the island Marie said that he couldn’t go in because it’s too rough, she hollered to me that he should try to go to Miramare instead, the next harbor where it’s more secluded. He probably knows I thought, but I am also scared but suddenly we felt some slight balance in the boat and it felt like he was getting closer to our target.
It took some more turns but then he could straighten up the boat and we were alongside the pier in the port. We just sat silent and when we were helped up out of the boat Adonis asked Marie if it was too much... Never again said William. Adonis didn’t say anything but when I asked him he said he would not go out again that day.
It felt great to arrive to our house, the electricity was on and we started all the heaters, went up to Ghikas and greeted them all and bought some pita bread and sausages and hamburgers. They all wondered how we got there since there was not boats and we had to explain about the horrible boat trip and of course Ghikas had been on even worse trips, of course and we laughed at him. We were so tired that after dinner we just stumbled into our beds.
We slept late next day and just after breakfast there was a knock on the door and Michael Lawrence came to say hi, on his way down to the port. He also said we had our light on outside the street, something a Greek family would never do of course. Or Michael.
With him came a sweet red and brown little cat that had followed him all the way down from Kamini. She came in and was really scared but after getting some food she was really friendly and stayed with us when Michael went off. There are not many cats around but theone s that show up all look well fed but very affectionate. Maybe that’s their way to stay well fed. The Foxier cat disappeared later in the afternoon, probably followed someone else down the road.
The weather was OK but no sun and a slight cold breeze that kept us from sitting outside. We spent a whole day reading inside, interrupted by a snack for lunch and a long siesta for me. William connected his computer to the internet and started to interact with his game pals.
The next day we visited Michael and had coffee. He called us to tell that the cat Lillen that he adopted from us in October was inside with him if we wanted to come down. Soon we were there and the sweet small kitten was in my lap, purring and looking like she remembered us. It looked like she had a favorite chair in Michael’s studio; she was soon asleep there although Michael still claims he never lets any of the cats inside. Nice coffee and we had brought the fantastic homemade baklava that we got from Annie the day before, Michael and I agreed they were the best baklava we had ever had, fresh from the day before and just heavenly sweet and rich.
It felt like his studio was full of bronze statues, he had taken a lot of them out and they are all beautiful. And the bronze gets nicer with age, the color and patina changes to the better.
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