Europe Spring 2019 Poros, Greece

We’re on the island of Poros!

Well, here we are on the Peloponnese coast with the island of Poros behind us. From Athens it is about an hour boat ride to Poros. When we booked this part of the trip we found a blog about one persons experience on this island with a man named Vangelis Papathimiopoulos. The blog talks about learning Greek cooking, making Greek yogurt, and traveling to other islands with the help of Vangelis. So when looking up an AirBNB on Poros, we actually found the same place that was mentioned in that blog, and so we booked it for 10 days, hoping to arrange some of those unique experiences.

As anybody knows, the way to our hearts is coffee, and this was the first thing offered to us as we debarked the boat, before being led to our apartment. Our host Vangelis, a fireman on the local fire department, sat us down for coffee, sweets, and great conversion. Right in front of his family store, ERGANI weaving workshop, run by his wife and the rest of the family. The store is full of hand made weaving products. If you go definitely check it out!

And also taste the wonderful pastries from Patisserie Glykisma right next to their weaving workshop. These were truly marvelous!

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So on this first day we settled into our apartment, with a view from our balcony.

And as we settled in we had a snack. We’ll be in this apartment for 10 days, and eating out every day just is not as healthy as preparing your own food. Plus when you have a balcony you got to use it!

The island of Poros does have vehicles, and during the high season it is congested, but it has many, many more streets that have stairs that wind through the hillside.

It is quite easy to get lost, but if you just keep going up then you get some stunning views,

On one day we did quite a bit of hiking, and came upon a chapel at the far end of the island,

This chapel, being a bit remote is used for special occasions when many will come up to participate with views to either side of the island.

Also on the path to this church was an old watch tower. You could not go up in it as all the inside was in ruins.

On another day we were lent bikes from the host to ride not only on Poros but also over to the mainland of the Peloponnese peninsula. This required taking a boat over with the bikes. These big boats are running all day bringing cars and also big vehicles such as cement trucks,

The bikes allowed us to wander a lot further. All the way around the smaller part of Poros, and also up into the larger section of the island,

As this is an active fishing port we were very excited to have a seafood dinner out, and we were not disappointed,

The owner was very enthusiastic, and wanted us to choose our fish,

Then once prepared the waiter fillets, and de-bones the fish at your table,

By the end of this night the owner was calling us family! Don’t think that has ever happened back at home.

Speaking of service, as was mentioned before there is a ferry that takes cars and trucks back and forth between Poros, and the Peloponnese peninsula. Well there is also another transport,

Water Taxis!

These taxis cost only a euro per person, and are just plain fun!

They run all day every 10 minutes. I’m pretty sure our grand kids would love to just go back and forth on these!

Now before we leave you there are two Greek words we have learned a little about which express to us how we have been received here in Greece. “Xenia” is the first one, and what we get from this is the ‘hospitality that you offer others may be returned to you someday’. All the Greek people we have come in contact have been truly kind, gentle, understanding and receiving. Even in Athens which as a large city, one can sometimes find these values and characteristics lacking, we found quite the opposite. The other word is “Philotimo”, which has one translation as ‘love of honor’. And again, this sense of honor seems to pervade the Greek society that we have encountered. We have been truly impressed with the Greek people in general, and are even now starting to plan our next visit to Greece, as we would encourage any of you to also consider, if you have not ever visited Greece.

So let’s leave you for now as always with some of the many photos we have gathered so far……………….

We’ll see you again from Poros, Greece!