Adventure #12: 2 Days in Aegina

Adventure #12: 2 Days in Aegina

The preferred method of transportation on Aegina is moped. So our first day we rented a little knockoff Vespa and explored the island. The island is small, but by moped circumnavigation takes a little while. I'm fairly certain it has something to do with relativistic speeds. For instance, our travel was fast relative to rocks. We generally stuck to the shore road, passing small beaches, pistachio fields, and the occasional ancient ruin. This is Pen Pen riding a moped.

After driving for an hour, we ended up in a town called Aegina Marina on the other side of the island from Aegina Town. They name things very creatively here. We stopped off, parked the Scooty Puff Jr. and went looking for a beach. The one we found was crowded but beautiful. The water was perfectly clear and you could see all the way to the bottom. This is Pen Pen at the beach.

We decided to explore the village. I bought a pair of preposterous sun glasses. They were a cheap Diesel knockoff that a street vendor would be embarrassed to sell on Canal St. They're fantastic. Hungry, we stumbled on a Greek pizza place run by a British woman. I don't understand it either. Greek pizza, as best I can tell, is deep dish with little to no sauce. It was very tasty. This is Pen Pen eating British Greek Italian Pizza.

We hopped back on the Scooty Puff Jr. and explored the island some more. We drove over a small mountain, topped with the ruin of an ancient temple. The road was winding, and I didn't see an obvious path to explore, so we kept going. It looked cool though. After a while following the course of “that road has a sign! Let's go that way,” we ended up on top of another mountain. This time the road took a 45 degree downward slope. Moped don't play that. We headed back the way we came. This is Pen Pen staring out over Aegina wondering why the hell we took this route.

The SPJ was due back at 8, so we headed back. With a short detour to another beach at Aeginitissa. There they go with those creative names again. Apparently one of Bob Marley's lesser sons played there on Sunday. Good for him! Back at Aegina Town, we found a small restaurant on the water and had a fried cheese dish called Saganaki. Also a bottle of Tsipouro. I know technically Ouzo is the thing to drink on the islands, but it's just terrible. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you a bottle of ouzo. On the way back to the hotel, we passed by a little candy shop and got some chocolate mousse. Day 2 of vacation: win. This is Pen Pen eating mousse.

Our second day was shorter. We had exhausted many of our funds on the moped excursion of the day before, so we decided to keep it small and explore the village. We started off exploring the ruins of ancient Aegina. The original city was occupied from 4000 BC to 1000 AD before being abandoned. Not bad. This is Pen Pen at the Temple of Apollo.

The ruins were still being excavated by archaeologists, so we watched them working for a bit. One found an ancient coin while sifting through some dirt. In one fell swoop, he tossed an artifact worth more than all the money I will see in my lifetime in a bucket with the same grace and respect I show my laundry as I toss it in the bag. This is Pen Pen watching the archaeologists work.

We headed into the Archaeological museum which had some amazing artifacts. But mostly it was just water jugs. Not that they're not impressive, but I've seen probably a thousand ancient water jugs in the past week. I can't help but wonder if people in 2000 years will find my discarded Fanta bottles fascinating. The docent was friendly, so we didn't try to take any pictures we shouldn't be taking. Also he had 1920's body builder facial hair. It was intimidating. As we left, we came across the ruins of an ancient Jewish Synagogue, which was pretty cool. This is Pen Pen complaining about how hard it is to get a minyan together in ancient Aegina.

We wandered around the town for a few hours trying to find a birthday present for my nephew. In our wanderings, we stumbled upon an old tower, which at one point had been the Parliament building for the Greek government. Now it's the home to a sculpture court and some anti-authoritarian graffiti. This is Pen Pen being devoured by a Minotaur.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. I went swimming and noticed that the rocks under me were distinctly horizontal. There was an ancient wall under the water where I was swimming. How cool. This is Pen Pen sitting at the beach wearing preposterous sun glasses.

With a few hours left before our ferry left Aegina, we headed to a taverna and shared a bottle of Tsipouro and watched the sun set over the sea. Day 3 of vacation: total win. This is Pen Pen reminiscing about his trip to Aegina.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Spinning by nathanleigh