Before we can get to the fun day trip to Aegina, we have to resolve the fun from last night. Kieran eventually got to sleep after coming back out to the Ted Lasso watch party… At 11:15pm. But at least Jordan went down to for bed no problem, right? Right?! Wrong. So. Very. Wrong. She emerged at *midnight* asking for a cup of water. So I got that for her and noticed that the iPad she took in to read one chapter of her book was still fully illuminated under her sheet. At midnight. So that was a stern talking to and immediate send to bed. That should make tomorrow fun!
Unsurprisingly, we had to wake Jordan up for our 8am departure from the apartment down to Piraeaus to catch our ferry. We aimed to be there an hour early as per the company’s suggestion, which seemed unusual for a walk-on ticket. Luckily, the metro has a stop down at Piraeaus and we found the boat easily. Good thing we were early, though, as the ferry left 30 minutes early! Crazy!
Turns out it was a good thing the ferry left early, because it meant we connected on to the bus in Aegina with almost precision perfect timing. That bus dropped us at the absolutely gorgeous Holy Church of Saint Nektarios. Unfortunately, they are doing some work on the interior roof, so there was a lot of massive scaffolding in the main church. This is apparently one of the holiest places in the Greek Orthodox, as just up the mountain is the Monastery of Saint Nektarios. We made our way up the switchback path and were treated to the several mini chapels, each with a unique feature. The coolest was the one with dozens upon dozens of lamps (or incense containers? Unclear) hanging from the ceiling.
We made perfect timing up there and back down the hill and got the bus back to town because it was time to find some food. We settled on a place where the guy offered to show me the seafood in the back so that I could choose based on the freshness. And it was very fresh octopus, indeed! Emily got peppers stuffed with herbs and rice, though she felt it was a bit dill-forward (which is mostly a her thing, given how prevalent dill is in Greek food) while Jordan got some spaghetti Bolognese. The octopus was not that much better than any I have had before but it was quite tasty.
The lunch place was was (along with nearly everything else in Aegina)right across the road from the Sardonic Gulf. So we did the only reasonable thing and hopped right in! The water was absolutely gorgeous, both in temperature and view. We all had a great time splashing about, with Kieran probably having the most fun of anyone at the entire beach. The beach itself was nothing special, so we got changed and headed out after our swim.
After the beach, it was time for more souvenir shops and gelato. Aegina is known for its abundance of pistachio trees, so we got some classic pistachio gelato to go along with our chocolate and mango scoops, then it was back to shopping. Here, we had the first stirrings of trouble caused from the lack of sleep the night before. Jordan was sad about the lack of souvenir, but we thought it was smoothed over by talking about how much time was left for shopping. We thought it was smoothed over as we stepped back onto the ferry to Athens. We even managed to do the same thing as Toledo and got onto the one hour earlier ferry as we had overestimated the time we would need. However, it was now time for the meltdown as we left port. We did manage to get past it, but it took over 20 minutes to calm down.
The rest of the trip back to Athens was uneventful. A re-cheered Jordan (mollified with a group selfie on the side of the ship, though she pouted about the exact positioning of us all) was a great help keeping Kieran entertained as usual. One weird thing is that while Kieran was sleeping at the metro station, an older lady decided that she was going to touch his foot. So weird, though he did maintain his sleep through it. Sensing the need for an early night, we picked up some cheese for grilled cheese at the apartment. The owner has even gone out, obtained and delivered a high chair after I had inquired about one. 5 star rating incoming!
The original plan was to make Jordan have a shower and go to bed early. But yet another meltdown occured and short circuited right to bed time. Moral of the story, make sure your kid gets the right amount of sleep. Moral of the story number two, don’t send the kid to bed with the iPad and trust that they won’t just go down the rabbit hole. And yes, as I write this at 8:45pm, Kieran is still awake (probably due to his later than usual nap at 5:30 until 6ish).
Who knows what this all means for tomorrow. I think we will have to play it by ear. Because we are doing the Parthenon when we come back from Crete, we have actually done most of the typical Athens activities. You’ll just have to tune in tomorrow to find out what we figure out!
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