AEGINA

On Sunday, I went on a day trip with Fiona to one of the nearby islands for my free day before going to Santorini.  We had decided to go to the port, Piraeus, together, see the ferry schedules, pick an island and go.  We had hoped to visit Hydra, but since the ferries were full, we ended up en route to Aegina, a major island only an hour ride from Athens.  For some reason I had had some prejudice against going to Aegina for a day, but I was so pleasantly surprised and charmed!

We arrived and promptly found a café for lunch (since I had been up at 5 that morning and was starving) and wandered around the town for a half hour or so. The boutiques all had a style that somehow Athens lacks and really ought to have!  Many of them had the decorated candles that Greeks use the night before Easter for the tradition of spreading the light that they fly over from Jerusalem. They fly the light over, then spread it through all the churches and from candle to candle so that everyone holds the same light originating from Jerusalem.  The candles I saw were ornamented with symbols of different hobbies.  When you give someone a candle as a gift, you give one that represents that person’s interests. 

We found our way to the bus stop, but found out that we had missed the last bus to the other side of the island!  Fiona and I had really wanted to see the temple to Aphaea (a local goddess who does not have any other temple aside from this one on Aegina) as well as a particular monastery.  Luckily, we rented an ATV to share!  It sprinkled a bit that day and wasn’t too sunny, so we froze a bit, but, again, driving around was a great way to see the island.  We made it to the temple, another of the towns that was recommended (but it was basically a ghost town), and the monastery.  I think both Fiona and I were surprised at how much we enjoyed this monastery.  We have visited a few this semester with CYA, but something about this one or being there on our own was very special.  Back in the port town, we had to buy some pistachios because Aegina harvests them there. All in all a great adventure day!