Sunday is the day of my long runs on my training schedule, so I woke up and headed out for a 5-mile jog along the coast. I had mapped out the route assuming that the road along the shore would be relatively flat, but I soon discovered that this was not the case. The road stayed flat for about a mile, then rose up to a series of bluffs before descending back down to the water. Having run in Foggia for the last few months, I was not used to the hill climbs. Couple that with my stopping to check out the various beaches along the way, and I could tell there wouldn’t be any records set that day.
Back at the hotel and thoroughly famished, we headed down to what we hoped would be a filling breakfast. We were disappointed to discover that the breakfast was nothing more than toast, jam, and dry granola. We thought that maybe there was more food on the way, but this was not the case. We returned the room and I ate a couple granola bars to make up the calories.
We headed into Poros Town with a goal in mind: rent a moped. There was a place listed at the hotel, so we showed up and found the door locked. As we were turning around to leave, a nice man walked up and unlocked the door. After some discussion about my driver’s license, he agreed to rent us a moped for two days. We hopped on and whisked back to the hotel. We changed into swimsuits, packed up towels and snacks, and headed for the beach.
We rode the moped down the same road I had run down in the morning. It was a much easier journey the second time around! We pulled into the first beach, called The Love Bay. It was a small rocky beach that had shallow and crystal clear water. There was a beach club, but everything was still boarded up for the winter and all the chairs and lounges were stacked. We rolled out the towels and read our books in the lovely sunshine. Eventually it got warm enough to swim, or so we thought. I told Christina that if she went in all the way up to her shoulders, I would go in too. After a few minutes, she held up her end of the deal, so I took a flying dive into the water.
As I hit the surface, it was as if I was jumping into an arctic pond. The cold water was such a shock that it almost took my breath away. I started swimming around thinking that I would warm up, but it never happened. After about 3 minutes of swimming, we headed back into shore. So much for the new swimsuit I had gotten! I wouldn’t use it again for the rest of the trip.
Back in the warm sunlight, we dried off and decided to keep our adventures on land. As we were reading our books a man arrived at the beach with a toolbox and started hammering away, preparing for the “real” tourist season later in the year. At the same time, a very friendly dog found us and decided that we wanted to play with him. After running him around the beach several times, he was hooked and kept wanting attention. At one point, he walked up an just sat in Christina’s lap (which was a fun sight because the dog weighed about 50 pounds!). Eventually we gave up and decided to look elsewhere for our serene island atmosphere.
We took off on the moped and explored the island. Working our way up the western coast, we climbed higher and higher until we were almost 1000 feet above the water. This gave us great views of the surrounding area and the rest of the island. Near the very top of the island was the Temple of Poseidon. Actually, it was the foundation of the Temple of Poseidon. We walked around the site, but there was really not much to see. We got back on the moped and headed down the other side of the island back towards Poros Town.
We stopped at a little waterfront café for lunch, and enjoyed wonderfully fresh tzatziki and bread. Christina had fried squid for the main course, while I had chicken souvlaki. Christina befriended a cat at the restaurant and discretely snuck it bites of squid. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel.
For dinner we had take-out gyros from a different place than the previous night. While we were walking around town after dinner, we realized that Poros is mostly a destination where the Greeks go to vacation. There were very few Americans, and just a couple British and French couples. That was just as well with us, as we felt like we had most of the island to ourselves!
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