[12th & 18th October 2024]

In order to swap between ferry lines that serve different Greek island groups, we have booked to stay two separate nights in Piraeus, the very large port of Athens.

The night we arrive in Piraeus from Paros, en route to Hydra, should be one of the highlights of the trip, for me at least.  Before we left Edinburgh, I invested Euros 175 in a ticket to watch the famous Olympiacos Basketball Club play a Greek League match against Aris, in the Peace and Friendship Indoor Hall, which is reasonably close to our hotel in the Port Square.

The Olympiacos fans are famous for their passionate and spectacular support of their team, which puts even the most fervent NBA crowd in the shadows.  I looked forward to taking many photos and videos of them in full voice.

At some point after I pay for my ticket, I notice that the tip-off time has changed, but calculate that there is still time for me to get to the hotel from the ferry, then get back out and take a taxi to the stadium.  What I don’t notice is that the day of the match has also changed, from the Saturday to the Sunday, well after our ferry is scheduled to leave for Hydra.

Fiona, bless her, offers to stay for another night in Piraeus, and re-book the ferry for a day later, or alternatively to go on ahead to Hydra on her own, for me to catch up with her the next day, so I can still go to the game.  However, I decide that I’m not going to throw good money after bad, and so put the ticket up for sale on the Biletwise ticket site.

After a few days of gradually reducing the asking price, and glitches during which my ticket disappears from the website, it fails to sell.  So that cash is straight down the drain.

Our brief experience of Piraeus is a bit at odds with the name of the Olympiacos arena.  The area around our hotel is awash with very dodgy-looking people.  We take a brief stroll across the Old Port Square to the ferry terminal, where I think twice about taking my phone out of my pocket to snap a photo. 

We notice as we walk across the Square that there are significantly sized areas of dried blood at intervals underfoot.  Just before we reach the ferry port, we notice a stone bench.  Spray painted on the side is “Migrants Welcome.  Tourists Go Home!”

Happily our hotel is a bit of an oasis, with a nice restaurant, to which non-residents come for dinner.  The food is good and the staff are very helpful to Fi with regard to her dietary requirements.

Next morning, we pack again and head for the ferry to Hydra.  Whilst we wait in the ferry terminal equivalent of a bus shelter, groups of very young and ragged children mill around the travellers begging for money.  One girl who looks to be not long past puberty has a baby on her hip.  It’s probably the first time in Europe, and certainly the first time in a long time, that we have met with similar scenes.

Happily, the driver of one of the tourist buses hands the kids some shopping bags full of food and drinks, which keeps them happy for a while.  A chastening experience in a large European capital city.

With 15 minutes to go until our scheduled departure time, we can’t see the ferry at Gate 8, which is noted on our ticket.  Luckily, we have the presence of mind to look it up on our Maritime Traffic app.  The real-time app shows us that the ferry has, indeed, arrived, and is currently parked at Gate 9, a few hundred metres further around the terminal.  A swift transit pushing suitcases is required, and we make it aboard with little time to spare. Perhaps we were meant to be clairvoyant.

We return from Hydra almost a week later, with time to have dinner and breakfast in the Port Square Hotel, before we get a fixed-price taxi for the 40-minute trip out to Athens airport, to catch our flight to Barcelona and then on to Menorca.

Leaving Greece for this trip gives us pause to reflect on our first visit to the country, apart from a few hours in Athens in 2022, for quite a number of years.

Hydra was every bit as good as we had hoped it would be, and we had a lovely time on the island.  Folegandros was a great experience – a beautiful place to stay with very friendly hosts, and spectacular views.

Visiting Paros again was nostalgic, and visiting Antiparos for the first time was enjoyable. However, the main island seemed much more hectic and a bit disillusioned with what it has become.  Our accommodation there was again an oasis in which to chill out and not do very much at all.

Santorini remains one of the most spectacular destinations in Europe, geologically and photographically.  It seems to us that the island is pretty much an object lesson in the downside of over-tourism, with the cruise boat invasion a particular blight.

General observations include that Greece is not a cheap destination anymore, with even the ferries being an expensive item.  Greek wine, according to our experience, is generally vastly overpriced for the quality on offer.

Fiona, in particular, noticed that the Greek women she encountered were almost unfailingly lovely, polite and very helpful.

All in all it has been a very interesting and thought-provoking experience to go back to some of the islands which had seemed like nirvana to us when we were young.  They have changed and we have changed, and perhaps we’ll not go back to some of them.  Hydra and Folegandros would definitely be worth returning to, however.

And so we move on to Spain – we hope our luck with the weather continues in Menorca!

My half dozen favourite images from our stays in Piraeus are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.

Image Gallery