A day trip to Aegina

On Tuesday 17th of April it was time to visit one of my Greek friends whom I first met when he was doing his Erasmus period in Finland couple of years ago. He is currently in the army but he also had an easter holiday so he went home to Aegina and agreed on showing me around his home island. :)

I woke up 4.45 am and I got a ride from Thanassis to the port of Poros. The ferry ride took 1 hour and 20 minutes and it went fast sleeping. At the port of Aegina Panagiotis was there to meet me! We walked around the small and quiet alleys to look for a place to have a breakfast. The island was still sleeping since it was only 7.30 am. We found a place which was open and had coffees and koulouri for breakfast. Panos also told me that it was his birthday that day!! :) After having breakfast we walked to the tower of Markellos which is built in 1802 and it's located some street behind the boulevard of Aegina town.

We left to drive around to island with his scooter and first we arrived to this huge church called Agios Nektarios. It was really breathtaking and quiet since there was no one there at that time. Panos told me that during the easter days the place is so growded from people all over the world. After we climbed to the monastery of Agia Triada. There are still 14 nuns living in the monastery. The hill on which the monastery is built is named Xantos, from the word "xagnadema" (look out point), because the view is really nice from there. 

Agios Nektarios

The monastery

Then we headed to close by to the medieval village of Paleochora. It's a place which used to be the capital of the island from 9th century - early 19th century. It's practically set on this hill with castles and churches on it. There is rumoured that once there was 365 buildings, one for every day of the year. Now still 70 of them remain there and around 35 of them are open to visit. 

Paleochora

Next we drove to the temple of Afea/Aphaia. The entrance there was free for students and the place was nice, it reminded me of the temple of Parthenon. :) 

Then we drove to the famous tourist place, Agia Marina, at least in the summer time. Now the place was dead and we saw max 10 people there. But I can imagine it to be a busy place during the summer months. :) 

Life is simple. Do not complicate.

At that point we started running out the places to visit and it was only 11 am or something. We decided to have a time out in Panos' home. There her mom and brothers welcomed me to their home which I really liked! I taught finnish language to the older one and spoke english with the 9-year-old boy who also taught me some Greek from his school books. Aegina is famous for its Pistachio nuts and I got two bags from their yard. :)

When we drove around Aegina I noticed that it is much bigger than Poros is, but also it's much more countryside with houses and big yards. The distances between the places are also big so you need to have a car or a scooter. 

Famous fruit market right at the harbour

In the afternoon we collided into his father and after we met Panos' friends and went to eat lunch at the restaurant and I really enjoyed it a lot! I had a great time with them laughing! Again I wasn't allowed to pay anything.. Greek hospitality I would say.. Then we walked to the famous (among the young people at least) ice cream place. :) We started driving to the fishing village but the wind was so hard that we decided it's not worth it. 

Harbour

Then me and Panos sat on a coffee place for two hours and we had a lot to talk about after two years! :) The boat back to Poros left (or was supposed to leave..) at 7.25pm. Long day, but totally worth the early wake up! Happy birthday Panagiotis! :) Xronia Polla!