Galaxidi... just what the doctor ordered.

The town of Galaxidi was another superb recommendation by Andrew, the random friend of a friend that has been our amazing compass.

This was the stopping point for two main objectives. 

1.       1. To see Delphi

2.       2. To get over an illness we were experiencing

We almost completely succeeded.  We made the trip to Delphi which was awesome.  It took a bus trip to Itea, where we were going to originally stop for Delphi, and were very happy we were steered elsewhere.  The marina wasn’t impressive at all, there was a street racing tournament going on right at the entrance that would’ve been a whole lot of fun to try and sleep and navigate through.  We watched the cars start the race and on the way back through on the way home, we saw them coming through the finish line.  A bus from there took us to Delphi and it was a fun walk through modern Delphi to the ruins.

The entire city had homes with fronts like these.  The flowers were beautiful and in bloom, the shutters painted that Greek blue, and everything was absolutely picturesque.  Most of these places has signs that there were rooms for rent either as short term places to stay or as a furnished apartment situation.

Ah the joyful siesta at around 3:30 in the afternoon.  One thing I love about the cafes and tavernas here is that you can sit and order a water or cup of coffee and once you have done that your seat is yours until you decide to move on to the next place.  No rush to get you out or to buy anything else.

The town apparently got a facelift with hopes of attracting tourists.  There were tour buses that stopped and encouraged visitors to eat along the water or to explore the alleyways.  I really enjoyed the non-tourist spots like the park this photo was taken from.

I got into port sick as a dog and was able to sleep off the cold part of it on the first night.  I took a Nyquil and passed out on the first night.  Apparently there was a party going on across the water that kept everyone else on the boat up, but I didn’t hear a damn thing.  My eye infection wasn’t improving, with what turned out to be a saline solution, so Dad got out a goop that he put in my eyes for two nights, but that may be expired because they got worse as each night went on.

By the second day I woke up in tears, unable to open my eyes.  It had turned into confirmed conjunctivitis.  We were planning a walk into town to see the Galaxidi Nautical Museum, but put that on hold for the morning to search for a pharmacy.  It was Monday, so of course there was a line, but with basic sign language and saying antibiotic I got another set of drops that have tobramycin in them.  We dropped a few in my eyes and the redness and pain cleared up almost immediately.  (It’s 10-7-10 and my eyes still itch, but don’t hurt as bad).  Then we ventured to the Nautical Historical Museum of Galaxidi.

On a side note, my morning started off terrible with painful eyes, dropping my soap in the shower, and realizing that our shampoo was full of water. Not a good way to start out the day.  When we got off the boat there was a dog that we had seen walking up and down the boardwalk.  She was a stray that had either been left there by a boater or just adopted the area as her home.  Well she met us at the end of the gang plank and I said good morning and she began to follow us.  The wonderful friendly dog followed us to the pharmacy and waited outside, then followed us to the museum and waited while we walked through that, we stopped at markets on the way home and she waited outside of each one until we got back to the pier and she went off on her own.  She just stood by us and I felt like I had cheated on my pug a little and felt bad when I didn’t have any meat to give to her.  All we had were crackers, and she didn’t care for them much.  It was sweet though and made me smile.

This is who I cheated on Frankie with.  She was a stray that kept me company and lifted my spirits while I explored the town.  The morning we left she was curled up along the edge of the street about two boats down from us and I went to pet her and say goodbye.  It was time to leave, I was getting attached.

So for those of you who have never been to a nautical museum, you are missing out!  For someone like my Dad and Chuck it was really cool because it’s a history of anchors, weapons, pictures of sailboats throughout development, and ships’ logs.  I enjoyed that part of the museum because it related pretty directly with what we are doing now and I have a new respect for sailors and everything they went through.  Apparently Galaxidi was a major shipping port and when Greece gained its independence it was one of the first places the Greek flag flew.

Photography wasn’t permitted in the nautical museum so this was the best I could get for a photo.  I bought a souvenir in the form of a stamped envelope that was custom made for the museum.  One of the few things I have actually purchased to take home with me.

There was a spiral stairway that led downstairs into a basement type place that we thought would contain more anchors and things of that sort.  Well there was an anchor, but to my surprise there was also the most extensive stamp collection I have ever seen.  I am a stamp collector.  Amateur of course, but I have a fairly substantial collection of American stamps and am starting to bridge the gap and am also acquiring international ones.  This was amazing.  There were four walls of waist high display cases that had the prominent stamps displayed on the top and then five pull out drawers underneath full of specialized collections.  It was technically a nautical collection that had stamps pertaining to pirates, ships, various coasts, and things put together from all over the world.  It was one of the highlights of my trip.  I had a total geek out moment and it was great.

One thing I loved about Galaxidi was the Café Liberty located literally across the road from our gangplank.  A family owned café that is owned by Mom and Dad who are probably in their early 70s and who do the cooking and everything.  Then their daughter and her English husband moved in with their two small children and you have a family run place.  They had free internet if you got food or a drink so I was there pretty much every night having my evening cappuccino.  By the last night, I felt like family. 

Something that was quite amusing is our boat was tied up to a boardwalk that had these shops all along.  Tour buses would drop people off to get a taste of the local cuisine and some of these buses would contain a whole slew of American tourists.  The first day we were sitting on deck unwinding, and a whole group of Americans came up to talk to us.  By the time they learned that the boat made a trans-Atlantic trip and that the captain was standing right behind them, they all whipped out their cameras and asked to take our photo.  We smiled and that was that.