A Crazy Canuck Living in Zany Italia!: Trip no. 9 to Greece and to our 17th island, Andros!

A 90 minute flight from Rome to Athens followed by a 30 minute cheap (tickets only 3.20) bus ride to the Rafina port of Athens and then a 2 hour pleasant boat ride to Gavrio, the main port on the island of Andros.

The period we travelled to Andros was from September 7^th-21^st with excellent day-time weather (it hit 30+ degree Celcius) and with not that many foreign tourists nor families, especially those with rather annoying, kids, you know, the ones that cry from here to eternity. And speaking of tourists, a very low Italian contingent but a rather noticeable British one.

We found a studio, Villa Bagia (cooking facilities so you can have breakfast when you want and you can eat what you want), at the adorable town of Batsi, located only 8 km from Gavrio. A nice three-bedroom abode, somewhat rudimentary but nevertheless very close to the town, quiet, clean and with entertaining British neighbours with whom we got to chat on Queen Elizabeth II’s sad passing on September 8^th, her funeral on the 19^th and many other things related to Great Britain (such as the GREAT rock bands it’s given the world).

With the exception of Kefalonia which is a rather large island to explore we again rented a 125 cc scooter (check out Dino’s rental at Batsi as they’ve got good rental fees. A Welsh lady who works there is also very helpful).

Andros is the 2^nd largest after Naxos (been there too) in the Cyclades, 40 km long and 16 km wide with about 9,000 inhabitants. The distances from one place to another on the map don’t appear to seem excessive but are instead rather long on a scooter as some winding roads are more like “highways to hell” as they’re not paved (they’re dirt roads) so driving around with about 250 kg (the weight of the scooter plus 2 of us) can make for some VERY tricky driving and manoeuvring: if you intend on taking these roads at warp speed forget it because if you wipe out and/or get a flat tire you risk flying off the roads and down some rather high cliffs (like all the bad guys that have faced an untimely death in the many James Bond movies that we’ve all seen).

Beaches? We hit 10 of them, all with truly wonderful crystal-blue water. A few of them didn’t have facilities, in the sense of sun-beds and bars, but that’s not a major problem as you can just chill out on your beach towel and under a tree (we always travel with a small flexible water cooler as we throw in a few sandwiches, some fruit, beer and water) .

Prices? Excellent on the beaches: 2 sun-beds, the overhanging umbrella and my usual coffee Frappe’ as low as 2.50 Euros (max 10 Euros on one beach but still a bargain compared to the beach facilities in Italy).

The Greeks? Darlings actually, all of them, from the kids working in the bars and restaurants to the folks running the beaches. In fact, since my first island visit to Milos (been there twice and in my list it’s STILL no. 1) I’ve never ever had any problems with the locals. That’s perhaps why I LOVE going to Greece!

My Big, Fat Greek Wedding: two wedding processions rolled thru the town while we were there and just a few hours later two nice fireworks shows which we got to see while comfortably sitting on our balconies. Oh, it was ALL very Greek!

The laid-back evenings in Greece!

Sites to see? Plenty of monasteries (we saw one but had to haggle a lot with the Mother Superior who spoke NO English as she didn’t want anyone inside her monastery) which aboard a scooter though can be a bit difficult to reach. The main town of Andros (Chora), located about 26 km from Batsi, is quaint. Korthi’s beach (just a few km from Batsi) also included the odd swan scrounging around for food.

Rather hard to focus on that swan!

The infamous highways to hell!

Lots of ancient and modern history, some of it rather tragic too: the period of Italian occupation (May 1941-September 1943) and the German occupation after that (up to September 8^th, 1943) were extremely difficult as the refusal of the Italians to hand themselves over to the Germans led to the bombing of Chora and the destruction of some of its most magnificent mansions. Nasty things wars as we’ve got yet another one just around the corner in Ukraine…

The main church in Batsi.

A 15 Euro taxi drive back to Gavrio, another pleasant 2 hour boat ride to Rafina, that 30 minute bus ride back to Athens’s airport (30 Euros instead if you chose to take a taxi) and then at 8.40 pm sharp back to Rome’s Fiumicino airport.