Day 36

It's cruise day! You may recall that we booked a cruise yesterday. That meant getting up at 6:45, getting down to the breakfast area of the hotel at 7 (as that's when they open for breakfast), scoffing down some food, and getting to the pickup site at 7:15.

There were a bunch of others for the same cruise there and we all got on the same bus together. However, turns out that they overbooked the bus, so they asked us if our group of 4 would wait for the next bus. Off we went and waited again. This was worth it though as the next bus was so much better!

We got the cruise boat (in the port of Piraeus) and went aboard. They took your photo with some people in traditional Greek dress on the way in (ah, marketing). We took our seats upstairs and were on our way.

The cruise went to 3 islands: Hydra, Poros and Aegina. The first leg was the longest as that went straight to the furthest one, Hydra. Despite being disappointed that there were no 3 headed monsters, the island was pretty cool. We had an hour and a half to explore the island. The highlight was totally the swimming area. I love swimming in the sea when the sea isn't freezing. We also saw some donkey rides but sadly realised that we couldn't fit one in before the boat left.

On the way to the next island (Poros), we had lunch provided for us on the boat. Not bad for a bulk meal. There were no options, so I wonder what people with dietary requirements ate. Either way, it was tasty enough for us.

Poros was a quick stop, only 45 minutes. I suspect that they were running out of time. We spent most of our time there seeing if there were any other cool rides (like a donkey) but couldn't find any. This island was a bit more populated than poor old Hydra, so it ended up being much like a normal small town port.

We then went to the final island where we went on a bus tour. The first stop was a local pistachio farm, where we learned about how they harvest and prepare their pistachios for export and then got to eat pistachios! Win!

We then went to the Temple of Aphaia. This is one of the 3 main temples that make up the triangle of sacred temples in Greece: the first being the Parthenon, this is the second, and the third is Poseidons Temple. Sadly, we didn't go to that one, so our collection is incomplete.

On our way back to the boat, we stopped off at the Monastery of Saint Nektarious. Apparently, all Greek people around the world do pilgrimages to this place. We only had enough time to get out of the bus, take a picture, then get back in again. It was then back on the boat to cruise back into Athens.

They had some Greek dancing and stuff on downstairs that the ladies went and had a look at for a bit but most of the time was spent on the deck enjoying the rest of the cruise. The sunset looked awesome.

When we got back, we bused into the city. At this point, we were pretty hungry, so we got some food at a nearby takeaway shop. We went to this place that had outside seating, but was in an alley. Not once did we get hassled by sales men. Win.