25th June 2006
This morning I got up extra early for the three-island cruise. I was taken down to the Piraeus, where I boarded a ship called the Anna Maru. I managed to get a seat on the top deck right at the very front of the ship for what would be a one-and-a-half-hour cruise to the island of Poros, our first stop. As we cruised along, I took off my shirt and lounged around in my bikini top watching island after island go by, drinking a Tequila Sunrise, and thought, this is the life. I listened to my mp3 player and looked into the deep blue ocean. We arrived at Poros, on which we only got to spend about forty-five minutes, so I went and saw the supposedly famous clock tower and bought some postcards for my collection. Poros from the ship looked like a beautiful little red and white town built on the coastal area of this small island, it was indeed a very pretty sight.
We got moving once again and had a light lunch on board, we then stopped at the island of Hydra, this time getting two hours to explore. I decided to go to the beach. This involved quite a long walk to find a suitable area, which I did not find and ended up swimming at an unsuitable area. I climbed down a rocky embankment to swim in the Saronic Gulf, which was rather rough, although the sea was a lovely temperature.
There was no sand and the beach was covered in sharp jagged rocks. When I got out it took me about ten minutes to cover a distance of about ten metres. The waves kept knocking me down and my feet bled badly. I decided to go back up to the town and have a bit of a poke around in some of the shops, which were frightfully expensive, before reboarding the Anna Maru.
We cruised along for around another hour in which time I realised I had gotten horribly sunburnt. The tops of my breasts, tummy and shins were bright red and were stinging and throbbing. Once at Aegina the last island, I managed to get myself onto an organised tour, which first took in the wonderful temple of Aphaia, which is still intact up to two stories high, and you can actually see Athens from the highest point on the hill on which it is built. I bought and posted some postcards from this most unknown of places, mostly to confuse my friends. I bet they’ll think, where the hell is she now, when they get these. I also had pistachio ice cream, which is a specialty of the island, I usually hate pistachio ice cream, but this time as it was tradition so I made an exception and I tell you, you have never eaten pistachio ice cream until you have eaten it on the Greek Island of Aegina. By this time my shins were throbbing every time they came into contact with the sun, but we still had one more stop to go.
Our last stop was the church of Saint Nectarious a relatively new saint whose church on the island is not yet finished. The beautiful frescoes are still being painted and the inside is still under construction. We were then taken back to the ship and had to wait almost an hour because another ship which was still loading up was blocking us in. We arrived back at the Piraeus, and I went back to my hotel and rubbed sunscreen into what I was sure would be third degree burns, better late than never I thought. I attempted to call my parents who appeared to be out and watched Meet Joe Black with Greek subtitles. I then went down to McDonalds (yet again) for dinner and ate outside. There was a tiny black kitten hanging around scrounging for food and I gave him some of my chicken nuggets and played with him, he seemed very grateful for the attention, and he was very cute. Again, as with all the stray cats and kittens I had seen on my travels I felt sorry for this poor seemingly unloved and unwanted little soul and desperately wanted to take him home, but sadly I had to walk away. I got back to the hotel and asked if my second tour company had left me any messages of instruction, to which the lady at the desk said no. It was 8pm at night and I thought that was rather odd. I watched another movie and went to bed, uneasily wondering what was happening with my tour to the Islands the next day.
