Lubertadventure: Hydra

We love Sifnos and keep returning to it – the scenery and the people are the magnets that keep us coming back, but Hydra, pronounced ee-dhr-ah, (yes Janey you were right) is definitely now on our list of favourite Greek islands, and we have been to quite a few: Milos, Sifnos, Naxos, Rhodes, Santorini, Folagandros, Serifos, Lesvos, Faros, Mykonos, and now Hydra. Hydra – no cars allowed! No motorcycles, no scooters. Situated in the Saronic Gulf, the primary mode of transporting goods and materials (and some tourists!) is donkey.

The town itself where we stayed is simply called Hydra Town, and it is a warren of tiny, interconnected lanes made of marble which has been polished over the years by millions of feet so that the cobbles shine with a beautiful translucence. Almost everywhere you go you can look down into the crystalline waters, which show off a pallet of colours of light and deep shining blues as the floor of the sea drops quickly away.

The port of Hydra Town is where the trendy meet the past. Huge yachts compete with water taxis and ferries that seem to vie for any available berth along the crowded pier. The ferries disgorge their passengers and the town buzzes with a rhythm of tourists sidestepping the donkeys to grab a chair and order a coffee or cold drink.

We stayed in Erofili Hotel, a comfortable place nestled up a sidestreet. The owners are very friendly and welcoming and responded immediately to any request or emergency we had. Lorraine lost a diamond earring down the sink, and the owner immediately came to take apart the trap and retrieve the errant stud and returned it to a much relieved Lorraine. It seems that plumbing has been a challenging theme for us, and Erofili was no exception, from problematic toilets to a shower that must have been designed by Rubik, because no matter what you did, one side would not align, and water soaked everything, everytime. The owner is planning to replace all the plumbing in the off-season.

We headed back into the warren of port-side houses, and climbed the steep slopes banking away from the town centre, and we got a totally different view on Hydriot life. Grandmothers chatted in quiet lanes and we wandered by random goats, horses, monestaries,churches and little shacks hewn out of the cliffside. After climbing for over 30 minutes, we were treated to a mountaintop view of all of Hydra, erupting out of the clear blue sea showing off its cloak of lavender, bougainvilla, oleander, and herbs.

We hiked the coastal road leading 2.5km east from the port to a pebble beach at Mandraki where a ghosttown-like remains of a beach resort Miramare was deserted, but chairs and loungers still adorned the stony beach. Luckily we spotted all the sea-urchins awaiting the unwary swimmer to give them a nasty jab in the foot with their poisonous spines BEFORE we stepped into the water!

Although the island's name is derived from springs known to the Ancient Greeks, it is now almost dry. Today, the island imports its water by boat from the Greek mainland. Many local people store winter rainfall in cisterns beneath their houses, to be used later as drinking water. Most food is also imported as very little is actually grown on Hydra. Between 1941 and 1943, during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, there was famine on Hydra. It is estimated that some eight percent of the population died of starvation.

Hydra is also the Greek home of Canadian musician and poet, Leonard Cohen. On September 27, 1960, six days after his twenty-sixth birthday, Cohen bought a house in Hydra for $1500, using a bequest from his recently deceased grandmother. Cohen later said that it was the smartest decision he ever made. The three-story, ancient whitewashed building, with its five rooms on several levels, was run down and had no electricity, plumbing or running water. Yet it was a private space where he could work, either on the large riled terrace or in his music room on the third floor.

Cohen often performed at the local taverna that was just around the corner from our hotel, and I had the pleasure of playing guitar with another guitarist and a bouzouki player at the taverna. I was informed that the guitar player was sitting in exactly the same spot as where Cohen would sit. The duo insisted that I play a Canadian song so I played "The Weight" under the watchful eye of the owner, who clearly feared his quaint Greek atmosphere was being hi-jacked, but when the final chorus was sung, the audience gave me a rousing round of applause and he appeared to be quite happy.
I returned the next day and an obliging waiter took a picture of me sitting exactly where Leonard Cohen sits when he in Hydra.

On our last night we were treated to the spectacle of a traditional Greek wedding, complete with ancient songs and dances. The hilarious highlight for us was the part where the wedding party carried the nuptial bed onto the dancefloor and the groom ceremoniously turned down the sheets, inviting his bride to join him, whereupon all the bridesmaids hurriedly remade the bed and then carried it away.

We will definitely return to Hydra.It will be interesting to see how our old favourite - Sifnos stacks up to its new competitor for our hearts.