Hydra Day 3

The weather on the island was cool and cloudy with on and off rain today. We decided to walk the trail by the sea. After about an hour there was no more trail, so we turned around and headed back. We passed a few beaches along the way, but due to the weather we did not enjoy any of them. I took a few pictures along the path.

Hydra Day 2: Mt Eros climb

When I asked Bob what the plan was for Hydra, he told me just to relax. So naturally last night I asked “Do you want to climb up Mt. Eros tomorrow? It will only be about 4 hours rounds trip.” Bob agreed. Once the rain died down, we headed up the mountain. It was a steep incline all the way up, and I got very sweaty. A little over halfway along the trail is a monastery, so we stopped to take a few photos then finished the hike up. The journey was long, but the 360 view of the island was worth it.

This was at the beginning of our climb up before I was tired and sweaty, so I asked Bob to take this picture.

A picture from the monastery.

Climbing along the top of the mountain.

When I caught Bob taking a picture of me climbing along the top of the mountain.

A picture of the monastery from the top of Mt. Eros.

After eating food and resting a bit we decided to finally do the relaxing thing and headed to a little beach. We had sun for all of about four minutes, so it was mostly cloud bathing.

Strawberry salad with halumi cheese. mmmm.

Hydra

We left our Athens home for good this morning and are continuing our Greece adventure on a few islands before our flight back to the States. Our first stop is Hydra, an island known for the lack of automobiles. If you want to get around, you walk, take a donkey, or use a water taxi aka boat.

The port.

Your donkey awaits. We did not ride any donkeys.

The water here is beautiful, but not all areas allow swimming. In this particular area, it is "forbiten".

There were a lot of cannons as decor. I made Bob take my picture on one.

Seagull city. They were very vocal.

I took a picture of Bob taking a picture of the seagulls because I wanted a picture of Bob.

There was a wedding taking place here too, so I snapped a creeper picture; notice all the kilts.

Greek Bathrooms

This trip is my first time leaving North America, and I didn't know that Greek bathrooms held many new adventures. You cannot throw the toilet paper into the toilet. The plumbing is not built to handle it. Instead there are little trash bins next to the toilet for you to deposit your paper into. I'm sure many tourists do not know this information, so most toilets will remind you. I've created a few collages of signs we've encountered.

Some of them show pictures, some of them are just words, and some have both. The bottom right one with words and picture is telling us to "keep the toilet clean" and I just think if you sprinkle when you tinkle and not to throw the tp in the trash.

Sometimes the message is only in Greek but after awhile you get the idea.

I liked the mosaic style of this one.

In addition to not throwing the paper in the toilet, this one had an additional sign to ask you to flush the toilet.

Very specific here. Not in the "toilet seat".

No other objects allowed in the toilet. Find another place for your deceased goldfish.

In addition to the "thou shall not throw thy paper in thy toilet" signs that I enjoyed, I found the toilet itself to be like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get when you open that door. I mean once it was a literal box.

Yes, this toilet is a square.

No, this toilet is not comfortable.

Many toilets do not have seats. I call these "squatters".

But in reality, this toilet is probably the squatter as there is literally no toilet. Just a hole.

These are apparently called Turkish toilets.

And sometimes the economic crisis seems so bad even the toilet is out of work.

I also enjoyed some of the signs telling you that you'd found the toilet location.

I'm not sure this is sending the right message.

This was the men's room.

And the women's.

This one is a little tricky. Men can wear thongs too right?

And women can wear shorts.

Just in case you didn't see the first W.C they put another one up.

This is a little girl's toilet.

There is one picture of a toilet with a face looking angry and t.p. being dropped in. When I see it I just think "Do not feed the toilets".