Final Recap: Aegina Island

Saturday we got off the boat and made our way to the ferry to catch one to Aegina Island. The waiting area here was filled with homeless folks, and others peddling random crap. It was not the most comfortable time and we were happy to board the ferry. It took an hour and we arrived to Aegina and walked to our hotel which was right up the street. We grabbed a light, early lunch with this gorgeous view

After we settled in, we went down to the beach and spent a few hours enjoying the water, and soaking in the sun.

the woman in front of my continued to take her top off and on, in front of her 20+ something year old son. So weird.

When we got back to the room, I started showering and MG had an idea to rent a car. For 40 Euro, we got a manual car for 24 hours--perfect! MG mapped out the way to dinner so we could see the sunset so we set off and just enjoyed the views along the way!

We made our way to Aegina Town (which grows some of the best Pistachios in the world--did you know that? I didn't! The trees are everywhere on the island!) and after wandering up and down the main strip in Aegina Town trying to find a place we wanted to eat at, we finally settled on one that had an amazing view of the sun setting! 

In addition to that, they had a 1/2 liter (yes I said liter) of their house white wine for 4 Euro (which is like $4.50). I won't tell you how much of it I drank (all of it).

They had the most amazing saganaki with an olive tapenade and dill--it was SO GOOD. I had the shrimp and feta in sauce which sounds weird but it's a dish you see all over the island and it was good! 

As our meal was wrapping up, MG asked our waiter the best way to get back to our hotel (on the other side of the island) to which to guy looked at his watch, asked where we were parked, and then told MG "follow me" and off they went! All of a sudden MG shows up table side on the back of our waiter's moped to get the car keys and off they went! Apparently the main road to get out of there was closing in minutes so the guy was trying to help us out. It didn't end up working, but what an interesting time it was (and this is why I had extra time to finish that wine!)

We made it back to the hotel with no problems, parked the car, and then went to a nearby beach bar for a yummy drink under the stars.

The next morning we got up and ate some breakfast at the hotel (minimal) and then went to explore the Temple of Aphaea. It looks similar to the parthenon (only smaller), but the views from up here are incredible!

We then went back to the hotel and packed up our stuff, then left our bags with the front desk and took off for another part of the island that we hadn't seen yet: Perdika! It's a little fishing town along the water but has some gorgeous views, and some beaches to go to. We found a restaurant there that had the best reviews for the island and grabbed lunch. The view wasn't too bad either!

MG had the calamari and I had the saganaki (just like the kind I love at our Greek restaurant at home) and a pizza (I was over the seafood at this point). Our waiter was nice and gave us this home made appetizer that was so good. We're still not sure what was in it, but we're pretending that it was a type of hummus but we're pretty sure he said "fish eggs" at one point. Either way, it was SO good!

After getting stuffed beyond belief for lunch, we got back in the car and made our way back to Aegina Town to wander through the shops a bit more. That's where I found my pretty evil eye necklace! to the hotel, returned the car, and made our way back to the ferry station to head back to Athens.

We took an adventure on the metro which was the cheapest way to get around, by far, but also the toughest, since we were pulling our luggage around behind us the whole time. And the metro here is notorious for pick pockets (our friend DeWayne had gotten pick pocketed before our cruise), so we kept our belongings close. 

We got to our hotel, and were upgrade to the Junior Suite. After freshening up, we headed out for our last Greek meal. We found a little jazz-themed tapas bar and ordered our last Mythos of the trip along with some Greek meatballs, something else (I can't remember) and these insane stuffed mushrooms that were SO good. It was the perfect way to end our Greek eating!

And then we went back to the hotel, showered and packed up so that we would be ready to go when our alarm went off at 2:45am! 

The best part of our 15+ hours back home was our stop in Zurich. Because of MG's status, we had business lounge access on all legs of our flight and the business class lounge in Zurich was INSANE! The food was SO good (and plentiful), I think we had about 3-4 mimosas during our 3 hour layover....AND they had an outdoor deck where you could relax, get some fresh air, and look at the mountains! It was the best 3 hour layover I've ever had and I kind of didn't want to leave :)

On the 9 hour flight back, I made it through 4 movies: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (liked it), Frozen (hadn't seen it before this), How to Be Single (so-so), and Creed (liked it).

And just like that, we were back home. Back to reality. With a ton of memories brought back with us :)