After an early wake up call, we traveled to the docks where we went on a day cruise to three of the nine Saronic Gulf islands. We had boat rides between the islands throughout the day. We saw beautiful islands and the coasts of the mainland as we continued our journey to different islands. We enjoyed a buffet lunch on the cruise, as well as bonding moments with card games during our travels. On our way back from the last island, we saw Greek dancers who performed both traditional and current dances. After they performed, we learned some Greek dances and continued dancing. The views were spectacular and it was very interesting meeting people from all different countries on the boat with us.
The first island we visited was called Hydra. In 1821, it served as the headquarters for the Greek Independence War, and some of the bastions still stand as remnants of the mighty battles that were waged off of the coastline. Today, the island is of course celebrated for this history, but it is also well known for its almond paste sweets and pastries. The baklava in particular was absolutely divine! A popular island activity our group especially enjoyed was taking a short donkey ride through the harbor and around the city. We finished our wonderful excursion with some pictures from the top of a stone structure that overlooked the entirety of the harbor before making our way back to the boat to prepare for our next stop: Poros.
Poros is the smallest island among the three. It is built amphitheatrically on the slopes of a hill. Its most famous landmark is a clock tower, built in 1927. Similar to what we did on the first island, we took a walk around Poros and enjoyed the gorgeous buildings in the town.
The third island was the land of the pistachio. After a quick visit to the gorgeous Temple of Athena, we tasted some pistachios and bought pistachio ice cream. We will be roasting our pistachios with salt and lemon from now on. Yum!
