Hydra Island

Note the big red star labeled "Hydra."

Hydra (Hee-drah) Island is a small mountainous Greek island just SE of the mainland and it's where we were lucky enough to spend our Saturday. Fun fact, this island is so small that there are no cars here. That's right. Breathe in... and out.... and imagine. Air without car pollution. And have you ever see water so blue?! 

But it's not so small that you can carry things everywhere on foot. That's where all of those pictures of Greek donkeys come to play. :) This island is also popular for beautiful (but rocky) swimming beaches, a lovely little museum, mountain hikes, fantastic views of surrounding islands, and a serene monastery. I swam in the bluest water on Earth and had the most relaxing of days exploring Hydra, shopping, eating, sipping frappés, and admiring the kitties. Seriously, I've never seen so many cute kitties in my life. However, I'm still getting warmed up to this whole being-abroad-for-three-months thing. And sometimes, the beauty of my surroundings gets overwhelming. When this happens, I have a tendency to occasionally chill out in the comfortable ease of "Debbi's Bubble" when maybe I should probably be jumping off of a cliff or at the very least taking pictures of other people jumping off of cliffs. So, to help myself learn from this and to keep you all accountable from making the same mistake, I made the following list. 

Things I Kind of Wish I Had Done on Hydra

(Aka, TIP: Do as I say, not as I do.)

• Ride the donkeys! And don't be afraid to bargain for it either. Two girls from our group cut the price almost in half. €10 to €6 per person for 15 minutes of donkey riding bliss.
• Stay near the leaders. This is something I have learned in the many times I have missed important details and helpful guidance because I was out of earshot of tour guides and group leaders. The important detail I missed this time was how and where to:
• Cliff dive! This is the second time in my life I have missed out on an opportunity to cliff dive. The first was in Belize and I have regretted it ever since. It won't happen again. 
• Hike to the Monastery. This isn't something I regret missing out on. Sometimes, hiking a mountain just doesn't sound fun. I'm terrible at listening to my gut when it comes to deciding what to do and order and such, so I'm glad I decided not to go. However, had I been in a hiking mood, it would have been amazing. The students who did go spoke with a monk and touched books like a thousand years old or something. So cool!
• Take pictures, idiot! You don't see this kind of beauty every day! Unfortunately, I often suffer from something called TDDD (Too Distracted for Documentation Disorder). It creeps up sometimes when I'm somewhere really beautiful or having a really good time. I always forget to document through pictures and journalling and even in this blog! (Did I mention I went to Belgium, Holland, and France last year? Nope. TDDD.)

Anna is in heaven.

However, like I said earlier, I had a wonderful time anyway - cliff dive free. The main adventure of the day was exploring Hydra, it's museum, trying new foods and swimming (keep an eye out for Anna's upcoming Hydra blog for an amusing story on my beach experience). And places like Hydra are me and Anna's favorite kind of places to go. It is the kind of place that feeds our souls. You know those places? Where you can just sit there and soak in all the beauty and the change of pace and feel good about the world. 

Photo credit to Anna 

New Foods!
Anna had her first baklava experience (success) and I had my first "Greek Delight" experience. Any Chronicles of Narnia readers out there? It's basically the same as Turkish delight. And it tastes like medicine. Some other tasty tries included fried zucchini balls and galaktoboureko (is that what its called?). The later is made with phyllo dough and custard. Dee-lish. 


We hope to tour more of the islands at some point, but boy are we having troubles narrowing down places we want to go in general. We're hoping to make it all over Greece and take some weekends in Italy and the UK as well. If we had it our way, we'd also make it over to Spain, Austria, back to Belgium and France, and maybe even Norway and Germany. It seems a shame to miss these places when tickets by train or plane are so cheap! Who would have ever thought that three months would seem like such a short amount of time? 

Also, I promise that the next blog will actually probably be more in depth on my thoughts and feelings and the things we've learned and such. You know, "my spiritual journey," or whatever. (But like I said: TDDD. It's a real thing.)  I've been here two weeks - time for the real adventuring to begin! 

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Yia sas!