Greece – Athens to Hydra

These posts will be rough, but I’m going to try to get to them everyday, and then clean them up in the end. —Cindy

The flight was miserable. Ten hours in total, the surprise was that the ten hours was from about 2pm to Midnight. It’s pretty tough to be tired enough to sleep properly in that time span. That put us into Athens at 8am. We were beat, but we had arranged for a car to meet us at the airport for not much more than a taxi. That, plus the convenience of flying carry on, had us through immigration, customs, and on the road within 15 minutes. It was certainly the quickest international arrival that I’d remembered. 

The center of Athens is more than 40 minutes from the new airport, but the ride was easy. When we arrived at the hotel – Marriott Athens – we were delighted to find that Tom’s status gave us a room right away as well as a corporate suite upgrade. We had booked ahead enough to enjoy a 127E room rate, which included M Club access and breakfast this morning. The second room certainly proved useful as either one of us was up roaming around in the night. (There were even two bathrooms.) Tom does a pretty good job of adjusting to time zones, but I do not. The rule for this trip was that I was allowed to cope with the jet lag my way, not his. So at 10am I tucked in for a lovely 3 hour nap. For me, it worked perfectly.

Tom roamed the neighborhood for some of that time. He found the restaurant our driver had recommended coming into town. He caught up online, and then about noon he gave in and napped as well.

The hotel was not in the city center, but they offered a bus to the city center every hour. We hopped it to run errands. Accomplished within two blocks our our drop off location:

—2 sim cards at 12E each for our phones here

—round trip ferry tickets to Hydra (eedrah) 35E x 4 segments

—a substantial stash of cash from the ATM

The one hiccup was the phone I’d packed for travel was not unlocked, although I swear I’d done that a year ago. Tom’s phone set up easily, but I headed back to the hotel to fiddle with a few things. I was able to unlock it remotely through the ATT app, but to even access that app I had to recruit the help of a family member on the plan in the US to send me a verification code. Still, the work was done without having to talk to a dreaded human. 

The agent at the cellular store was marvelous. Her English was great, and she had a remarkable ability to remember PIN numbers and birthdates and push all of the details through to let us buy the cards. Passports are required, as ID is required to secure a number, but 2 numbers are allowed per passport, so she only had one to copy for verification.

The M Club, the equivalent of the concierge lounge in other Marriott hotels, has been a consistent bonus for all the years of Tom’s Marriott loyalty. There was a happy hour from 5 to 7 that let us have a great snack and a beer for Tom and wine for me. We’d not eaten since breakfast on the airplane.

Dinner last night was at the Calypso. Total bill: 33,70E. We added a 5E extra. It’s not something we always do, but this was no ordinary dinner. As I mentioned, this was a recommendation from the driver earlier that morning. He promised it was a very traditional restaurant. Indeed, the place was filling up with locals by 7pm. One table of about 20 were likely going to be there all evening. We’d eat and leave in time for our outdoor table to open for the real dinner crowd. 

We still pretty much stick to our own meal timing when we travel. Slipping into the local time for meals as custom dictates sometimes happens towards the end of a trip, but those first few days we promise ourselves to eat when we’re hungry and ignore local traditions. One thing that still causes us to be out of sync, though, is Tom’s ability to pack away three-days calories at a breakfast buffet, while I need to stick to what gets me to lunch. I’ve learned to work around his not being hungry yet by stashing snacks. Sometimes I white-knuckle any hunger pangs, while others I’ll loudly proclaim I’m hangry and he can just sit there while I eat. (This never actually happens, by the way.) Again, it can take a couple of days to catch the rhythm of the feeding schedule. 

We’d found the menu online, and in English, so we were comfortable with what to expect. We chose a local salad, think coleslaw with tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, and olives, fried zucchini, and a mixed grilled meats platter for two. The salad arrived with bread. Another plate had two lemons, halved, and a metal tube with a piece of paper in it. The paper was a receipt of the order in Greek. That little piece of paper turned out to be a bit of comfort for what happened next. Not long after the zucchini arrived a side of tsaki showed up. I’d seen this on the menu, but knew we’d have plenty to eat, so didn’t order it. “For the zucchini,” the waiter insisted. I didn’t think twice and plowed into it. 

The tsaki here is magical for a few reasons: The yogurt is not the Greek yogurt we’re sold, but halfway between a Greek-styled yogurt and a soft cream cheese. Next, the cucumber and onion are grated rather fine instead of chopped. Finally, you can taste that it’s been given the benefit of time. The flavors are easily blended to produce almost a third flavor. Think onion and cucumber salad on the second day. (Maybe that’s just a leftover from my Oklahoma childhood.)

When the meat arrived the platter for two was so generous that it would have easily fed four. Then a side of fried potatoes showed up. “For the meats,” the waiter said. We ate. We asked for the bill. I held my breath.

The first dessert arrived of strawberries, a banana, and some chocolate for dipping. The then second showed up with little sweet dough balls fried and covered in chocolate or honey. Then there was the ouzo digestives.

Under 40 Euro. Which since Europe is on sale right now means about $40ish dollars.

We were fed.

It was a good idea to use a travel agent for the ferry tickets yesterday. While we could have done it all online, there was no extra expense for having someone else manage the purchase. Her English was easy, too. Seat are assigned, much like an airplane, which was a surprise. Turns out she chose us great seats. We had done it in reverse order, but it’s best to have a phone number before anything else because then we would have been notified of a gate change. Fortunately the taxi driver knew exactly how to track down the ferry.

So, now we’re on a ferry in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea for two hours. I am drugged up, as is customary, when I end up in boat in deep water. The waves are very tame today, and the ferry is a medium size, so the situation appears manageable. Hydra does not allow automobiles. There were other ferries about three times this size loading vehicles for other islands. We passed a Princess cruise ship on the way out of the port. Dang those ships are large. 

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We’ve talked about it a bit and have decided to share as much about the costs to the blog as possible. Ours is a great situation, prepaid at the expense of a husband who spent many more nights in a hotel than at home in a year for several years in a row. Still, the rate for the Marriott Athens would have been the same for a king room, and if you are in a situation to pay for more, then you know why we really enjoy those upgraded suites.

The airfare, about $800 per ticket roundtrip, utilized four system-wide pre-pandemic upgrades to Business Class. Those things are hard to track down, and for two years now we’ve relied upon ExpertyFlyer.com for upgrade availability when planning trips. The upgrades are likely the last we will see. The pandemic shut down much travel, and though Tom kept his Executive Platinum status with American Airlines, it was under a special offer that did not provide the system-wide upgrade bonus. 

American used the pandemic to revamp, and frankly devalue, their loyalty plan. We are good through March 2023 when his EP and my Gold status expire. It may be worth the time to share how I’m using the new system to keep my Gold status after that time. 

Also, we are already booked business class on American Aadvantage miles to both Italy in September and Chile in January 2023.

Did I mention that we like to travel?