After sitting two hours in a bus we arrived to Corinth bus stop and saw Thanassis and his wife waiting for us! :) It had been two years since I had last seen them. They have seen me every summer of my life since I was 5 months old, so it wasn't akward to see them. The famous Corinth canal was only 500 metres away so we walked there to see it. I had been there last time when I was 14 years old. It still looked magical! After seeing and taking pictures of it we started our drive to the island of Poros!
I hadn't even realised how much the place meant to me and how much I had missed it until I saw it again. All the familiar people and all the familiar beaches, restaurants, supermarkets etc, it was almost like the place I grew up in. The ride was fierce, highspeeding on the curvy mountains without seatbelts.. Because of the new highway it took only 1,5 hours before we arrived to Galatas. We also passed the village of Trizinia were me and my family used to go almost every summer to eat at our friend's parents house. They had the most wonderful house with dogs, cats, coats, roosters, chickens etc. on their backyard. I remember once leaving from the house with my little sister and this young boy (our friend's sister's son) who was at the time maybe 9 years old (I was around 14) and he took us the to place where all the neighbourhood kids played and used to spent time. We walked to this square through these narrow allies (no lights anywhere and it was pitch black) and in the square all the kids came to talk with us (at least the ones who knew a bit of english). They also wanted to play with us and talked us in greek. It was a bit scary to look after my 10 year old sister and I only had little communication with the boy and no idea how to get back. But in the end it was a nice memory to remember. :) Oh, and my little sister Trina has gotten her name after that village. :)
The feeling I had when we waited on the Galatas side for the ferry to leave to cross the small canal to Poros (about 300 metres) and watched Poros and its center town! I felt like beeing at home again! I had to call my parents to tell them the feeling I had 'cause I knew they of all people would understand! Poros is a small island only a little over one hour ferry ride from the harbour of Athens, Pireus. Around 4000 people live in Poros. It's used by many boaters and greek families to have vacations on the island. There aren't too many tourists in the island and that's what makes it so perfeck place to spent vacations. There are several beaches, one gym, bars and one nightclub.
"Today Poros with its traditional local color, its picturesque, its cosmopolitan life and modern facilities is the ideal holiday resort."
Most of the people living in Poros live in Askeli, Neorio or the Poros town (the little triangle).
We stayed at the hotel were I've always stayed at: Villa Violetta in Askeli. We got the same room where me and my sister usually have always stayed at (since I was somewhere 14-15 years old we got our own room). We left for the supermarket we always go, only maybe 50 metres from our hotel and the salespersons were the same they have always been. Before arriving to Poros I was a bit afraid that the people we don't know so well might not recognise me, but I was so wrong! When we were paying in the supermarket the man asked how am I and where my parents are. :) Then we went walking around in Askeli and I could introduce my second home to Saija and the neighbourhood: beaches, restaurants, kiosks, gym etc..
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| Taken from Askeli Beach. The first mountain is the back of Poros town and the bigger one is Galatas side (Peleponnesos). |
I had been waiting so long to see one of our closest family friend: Manos, who works in a restaurant in town. (Our hotel is located near the beaches (less than 100m) and maybe 2km from the Poros town. Manos had been working in the same restaurant maybe for 5-8 years. And when we went to look for him from his usual restaurant the other familiar men working there, told me that he is not working there anymore. They told me were he worked nowadays and we went there. He recognised me from far away and he was totally in shock and almost started to cry! I almost started to cry, I call him my uncle and I really had missed him! He sat on our table for a long time and we talked about how's everything going and he couldn't believe I was travelling the world alone without my parents and that I've grown so much and become so big (read old). He has also seen me every summer since a was a baby.. He was so happy that he wanted to call my mom also. And he almost didn't bring us white wine we ordered 'cause he still taught I was too young. :P
After eating at Manos place we walked passed couple of restaurants and other friend of our family recognised me too and came to talk with us. :) He was also surprised seeing me alone without my parents and he wondered how the time flies past. :) We headed to the bars of Malibu (grreat drinks!), Joy and Orion where we met these two local boys: Kiriakos and Soto who offered us to show the island and the famous Russian Bay in Neorio with their scooters. It was a great evening with the boys, I had seen the russian bay many times before. I just loved to lie on the sand in the middle of the night and stare the starry sky! The boys gave us a ride to our hotel at 3.30 am! :)
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