Encounters with the Davis Family: Aegina Island

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Aegina Island

So, last weekend we went to Aegina Island, one of the Greek Islands. We were looking forward to a weekend of swimming in the pool and hanging out at the beach. It wasn't quite what we had expected.

We were up and out of the house by 7:30 Friday morning, to meet our group at the Embassy by 8. We took a tour bus to the port (which was nice) and immediately boarded the Ferry once we go to the port. None of us had ever been on a Ferry and we really enjoyed the ride to the island (the water was super calm!). The kids made a new friend, she is 10, so it was a blast for them to have another kid to hang around with.
Once we got to the island we walked down to our hotel and checked in. There were only 3 single beds in our room, we had to go down and let them know that there were 4 of us, and then they brought in another single bed. It was tight quarters, but it really made us appreciate home more :)

After that we headed out to lunch (with our group). We were right on the water and had some really good food. We were there about 2 hours and then headed back to our hotel. We were really hot and sweaty by this point and couldn't wait to get to the pool. So, we changed into our swimsuits and headed down, only to find out that the pool closes for Greek quiet hours (which is normally 3-5), but the pool was going to be closed from 2:30-5:30. We were super bummed, but thought we would head on down to the ocean. Once we got down there, we realized it was super hard to get in the water, unless you used the ladder. But, the water was too deep (would have been over both kids heads with no where to stand), and I'm not a great swimmer. The waves were super rough and I was afraid the kids would get thrown back into the rocks (it was a rocky beach). We sat by the pool until they opened it at 4:50 (the guy told us not to make any noise for 10 minutes, and Elijah yelled with excitement, lol, we're American's we don't know how to be quiet.)

Saturday we had a tour planned with the group. We went to the Temple of Aphaia, The Monastery of Agios Nektarious and lunch out. We really enjoyed the Temple of Aphaia and the Museum that was there. Lunch was good and the kids got ice cream after. We got back to the hotel around 3pm, so we hung out in our room for a while, reading. We went down to the pool around 5 and swam until about 7. Most of the group ate dinner together, Friday night dinner was served at 9pm and Saturday 8pm. Matt went out both nights to get us something to eat because that was way to late for us to eat, although it was early by Greek standards.
Sunday we walked back down to the ferry, exploring town a bit, stopped at a bakery and got some yummy muffins, then sat and waited on the ferry.

Once we got on the ferry we noticed that the water was much choppier than it had been on Friday. We sat at the front of the ferry, on the top deck both times and the kids loved watching the water hit the boat. We were sitting there chatting when all the sudden we were doused with water! The waves were so rough that it had actually soaked us. We all got a huge laugh out of that. The kids screamed and laughed every time it happened (which was quite a bit for a while there). The wind was strong too and unfortunately Matt bumped me, I felt my hat tip and then it was gone, right into the Mediterranean Sea. At one point Matt said to me "all kidding aside, if this boat tips, swim with the current, don't try to fight it!"

Thankfully right as we were getting near the port, the water calmed down. We were absolutely exhausted when we got home.
We were glad to get away, but so happy to be home!