Andros: Part 3

And now, for the thrilling conclusion to the Andros trilogy.

We were locked out, in a blizzard of Siberian proportions, literally. The weather that we were experiencing was blown in straight from Siberia (I was made aware of this the following day in Hora). Luckily, the key to the basement of the house did work and we were able to put our things down and have a little shelter from the freezing winds and snow. We found some WD-40 and went to work on the lock, which was apparently rusted/frozen shut. Matt's aunt also lived on the island, nearby, and was called in with her husband to lend a hand. After about 20 minutes of wrestling with the lock, the door finally swung open.

We gathered our things and stepped into the small, cold, "villa." I feel like the word "villa" is thrown around a lot, with a lot of undeserved (in most cases) glamour attached to it. All I can say is that the house was slightly less than the "villa" that had been described and that Julie and I had been expecting. But, at least we had shelter from the snow.

Matt flipped on the lights and we set to work making a fire and dinner. It wasn't more than a minute before the lights flickered and went out. The solar powered house that Matt had been talking up so much on the boat had seemingly run out of reserve energy and left us all in the dark. We lit candles, pulled out flashlights, found a solar light (which did have juice left), and Matt set to work fiddling with some circuitry in the basement of the house in an effort to restore the power. After about 20 minutes of lights coming on, then cutting out a few seconds later, we gave up. There was no power.

In the mean time, the rest of us had set to work building a fire in the fireplace and were enjoying a good amount of success in doing so. But, like just about everything else we had undertook that night, it was about to go very wrong. The chimney was blocked. The room began to fill with smoke. We were forced to open the front door and the door to the balcony to clear out the smoke, and the little amount of heat that had been built up in the room since we got there. We unblocked the chimney and at last had a fire going which produced a good amount of light but little to no heat. The only real source of heat was a propane space heater and well, clothing and blankets.

Matt had set to work cooking dinner on a small little propane camp stove and things seemed to be coming along nicely. Just then his aunt and her husband announced that they had had enough and even the two 5 liter boxes of wine on the counter weren't enough to keep them in that cold house another minute. They went home.

It was at this point that the effects of 40 hours without sleep began to set in. I was hungry, but I needed sleep more than I needed food. I pulled the covers over myself and fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning to the sight of my own breath hanging in the air. Julie was lying next to me, close, to stay warm. The fire had been put out last night and the propane heater had gone out overnight, it was freezing cold in the room.

When we were all awake, Matt cooked a few sausages, which we ate eagerly, and we discussed plans for the day. The snow and wind had not let up all night and there was little to no chance of restoring heat or power in the house. Matt told us that he would call for a cab so that we could get a proper hotel in a bigger city. We had 30 minutes to pack our things, eat our fill and then leave his meat locker of a "villa."

The cab arrived and we hurried outside and up the driveway to the street, not without stepping knee deep into a snow drift of course. We through our things in the back of the cab and closed the trunk, that was when it happened.

"Ok, so it'll be 40 euros," Matt said.

I looked at him for a second thinking about what he was talking about. The cab was going to be 40 euros? No way. Then it hit me, he was asking us to pay him for the night. Before I could even think about it, I was like "oh yea, sure" and reached for my wallet. I was still in a state of shock when we handed him a 50, Matt promising to pay us back later in Athens. Looking back on it all, there are a million things we could have and should have done differently. But when you are on a foreign mountain road in a blizzard with a taxi meter running, snow stinging your face with a guy you thought was trying to help you asking for money, you just DON'T think straight.

--Of course now I am sitting here 5 days later and after numerous calls and one attempted meeting, we have not gotten our 10 euros change, should have figured that would happen. However, he gave us way to much information about himself and I'll be damned it I can't find some way of getting even with that greedy opportunist.--

We struck off into the blinding snow at a rapid pace of around 5 mph, it was going to be a long ride. 20 euro later, we had reached our destination, Hora, the capital. We got out of the cab and ran to the entrance of the hotel, which was actually more like the back patio of a house. When the two owners arrived, they introduced themselves, paid the taxi driver for us and hurried Julie and I inside to warmth.

Dinos and Iro
We walked into what appeared to be a living room and sat down in a couple big, comfortable chairs as Iro, wife of Dinos, hurriedly moved around the kitchen assembling a small plate of snacks and 2 cups of tea. We were apparently looking a little haggard and sickly as both cough syrup and aspirin were delivered alongside the cookies and grilled cheese. Before either Julie or I could refuse, our tea was swiftly spiked with "punchy," a locally brewed vodka.

"It will soothe your cough, make you feel better!" Iro said as she topped our mugs to the brim with the vodka/tea blend.

All the while, Iro's husband Dinos had been sitting in the last chair of the room, waiting for us to get served before striking up conversation. He asked us what we were doing on Andros and where we were from. We answered and learned that they had gotten a call from our cabby and opened to hotel just for us. We also learned that he had lived in Brooklyn for about 10 years back in the 80's, moving back to Andros in 1991. His english was quite good and we were able to tell him our story of the previous day and of our lofty hopes for a spring break in Greece. He smiled and assured us that we were experiencing freak weather straight out of Siberia and that this snow was quite rare, that we were "witnessing history." This was both an answer to our wonders and a mega bummer, what rotten luck.

We finished up our snacks and tea and were shown upstairs to our room, which came complete with 2 beds, bathroom with shower, and a small kitchen. It was perfect, minus the fact that the power had gone out on the entire island and the room was without heat for the moment. We thanked Dinos for everything and sat down to let everything that had happened finally sink in. I checked the price sheet on the back of the door: 85 euros/night. Just one more thing to worry about, we hoped they would have mercy on us. They did: 80 euro for 2 nights. We got into bed to keep warm and stayed there, watching movies and falling to sleep early. It was still a blizzard outside and we had nowhere to go.

The next day, we had planned to hop on a ferry back to Rafina and then head to Athens, but all of the ferries had been cancelled do to the weather and we were stuck for one more night. We ate little toasted bread cracker things with butter and half-frozen honey that Iro had given us the night before. It was a most pathetic scene as we sat huddled around the small table, spreading the condiments with the back of our one spoon.

After breakfast, we decided to make the most of it and set out exploring the village once the weather had subsided a bit. Hora was amazing, a beautiful Greek island city, just as I had imagined. It was almost completely deserted due to the weather, but it was beautiful nonetheless! It was cold and windy but it was worth it to have a look around and get a bite to eat from one of the cafes.

We spent one more night in Hora, this time with heat and full stomachs and woke up to a beautiful sunny day! We packed up our things and ran out into the day. What a change! People everywhere! Sun! We were bummed that we had to catch a 1230 bus out of Hora to the ferry but then surprised to see that the next bus was actually at 245pm! We had a couple hours to sit and enjoy Andros in a much better light. We scored some souvlaki and set up shop in the town square where I found some wifi and typed out the first installment of this epic adventure.

Before we got on the bus, Dinos managed to find us sitting in the square and said goodbye. We thanked him again for everything and promised to return sometime in the summer. We enjoyed our last few minutes in Hora before hopping on the bus for the hour long ride to Gavrio. The bus ride was INCREDIBLE; amazing views around every twist and turn of the narrow mountain roads.

We got to Gavrio, hopped on the ferry and waved farewell to Andros. I will definitely be going back to explore the islands more when the weather is better. Even in the dead of winter, a blizzard and after spending way more than I wanted to, Andros took my breath away and I can't wait to return.