None for You
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
79
148
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Hydra,
Saronic Gulf Islands,
Greece
Saturday, October 18, 2008
We rode to Hydra on a flying cat ferry. This one had airplane seating, and was going so fast that we weren't allowed to stand outside on the deck while the boat was moving. I took my Greek homework to study, but I must report that I mostly just napped.
Hydra Town is one postcard eye feast after another
Exquisite Hydra
. Local men met us at the harbor and asked us if we wanted their donkeys to carry our luggage up to our hotel, but we declined. We walked through a bougainvillea-arched doorway to check into the Ippokampos (eep-oh-CAMP-ose, "seahorse") Hotel. Chaplain, Dutch, and I shared one room, and Nurse Cubby and Gramma had a room upstairs with a view of the sea from their veranda. If you ever go to Hydra, I highly recommend a stay at the Ippokampos.We lunched at a taverna just up the cobblestone walkway from the hotel. We all shared Nurse Cubby's dish of stuffed eggplant, which is called "Imam Fainted" or "Imam Laughed." According to legend, during the four hundred years when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Turks, an important Muslim imam was served this dish, and it was so delicious he either laughed or fainted. I wanted to do both.
After lunch, we took a mosey through the shops lining the harbor. My friends bought some clothes, jewelry, scarves, weavings, olive oil soap, and paintings. It felt wonderful to amble around at our leisure, no pressure and nowhere to be. But shopping is exhausting work, so I also napped for about four hours back at the hotel.
Dinner was stewed lamb, swordfish fillet, and pureed fava beans spread on bread
Donkey transport of Hydra
. There are many more stray cats on the islands, and one little aggressive kitty wanted so many of our scraps that she jumped into Dutch's lap.A shop owner had told us about a live music party scheduled for the evening at the same taverna where we'd lunched. He failed to mention we'd need reservations and that we should eat dinner there if we hoped to get a seat. The place was packed, and the owner refused to seat us when we said we only wanted dessert and drinks. We ended up sitting on the stoop to hear the music. There was a group of about ten musicians with guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, dulcimer, spoons, and singers. They sang only in Greek. The audience clapped along and often sang all the words along with the band.
The hotel owner told us later that they are a group from England who come to Hydra every year for a conference on Rembetika music. Rembetika is a style of music that arose from the 1922 population exchange. After a disastrous Greek attempt to take over parts of Turkey and Cyprus, Turkey expelled hundreds of thousands of ethnically Greek people from their country (and in turn, Greece sent some of their population, mostly Muslims, to Turkey). The refugees in Greece, left with no fortune, no land, no jobs, no marriage prospects, and missing the loved ones they left behind, composed Rembetika songs. It's been referred to as the "Greek blues," so I was expecting it to sound slower and sadder than it turned out to be. The hotel owner explained that it's more a "macho music" with lyrics about marijuana, hashish, and sex.
Nurse Cubby and Chaplain managed to commandeer a table from a group that departed the concert early. But even after they were seated, the taverna owner continued to be in a huff. Cubby noticed huge dishes of ice cream being delivered to other tables, and asked to order dessert. Ice cream? No, sorry, we're all out. Baklava? Don't have any of that. Well what desserts do you have, then? None for you.
