Easy Vegan Dining—Even for Klutzes—Aboard Blue Star Ferries Diagoras

Fava, an Aegean specialty

The cafeteria-style dining hall on the Diagoras, a Blue Star Ferries vessel sailing Aegean waters, probably doesn’t see a lot of vegans, but nevertheless it offers some critter-free, tasty choices.

During VV’s recent 16-hour trip from the port of Pireaus, near Athens, to the little island of Tilos, she enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti, or macaronia, with Napolitain sauce (tomato, onion, garlic, herbs); fava (pureed yellow peas), which is a traditional dish on Aegean islands; and a crisp salad of romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, purple onion, and olives.

Fresh salad

The chef garnished the plates with panache, including a “rose” made of tomato slices.  Napkins shaped into swans watched over the counter.

Napkin art

On a subsequent trip, between the islands of Rhodes and Nisyros, VV went back to the Diagoras dining hall so as to enjoy the same meal. This time she requested extra Napolitain sauce since she liked it so much the time before. Then she managed to drop her entire tray.  Plates shattered, food flew everywhere, even onto her slacks, and startled diners stared.

After uttering at least a dozen mortified apologies, VV was amazed by the speed, grace, and good humor with which crewmembers swooped in to clean up.

“You’re not thinking you’re the first who’s done this, are you?” asked one.

“Well, of course none of us has ever dropped anything,” the other said with a wink.

“Your spaghetti was too heavy.” The serving chef grinned. “Because you made me put  extra sauce on it.”

Macaronia Napolitain

All text and photos by A Vegan Voyager - Copyright 2012

COPYRIGHT NOTICE - If you like articles on this page, you'll delight Vegan Voyager by sharing the links. However please be nice and follow copyright law; do not re-post or reprint the photos or more than a paragraph or so of the text without explicit permission from VV, who will be happy to hear from you veganvoyagerATyahooDOTcom. Thanks!

A Berth of One’s Own

Little cabin on a big ship

The second the porter softly shut the door, leaving her alone in her sleeper cabin aboard the Blue Star Ferries ship Diagoras, VV did a happy dance.

It had been a long few months with elderly family members ill. In the tiny, simple, but cleverly designed space, the world of worries vanished.

Compact desk in cabin

VV admired the adorably compact desk with a handily placed electrical outlet for laptop or camera battery recharge, the teensy yet ingeniously outfitted and gleaming bathroom, and the just-big-enough closet, then spent the next few minutes lounging in the chair with her feet up on the stool, enjoying a glass of mineral water, and pondering a weighty decision: on which of the two twin beds would she would have a nap before dinner?

Life rarely gets better: 16 carefree hours in a cute little cabin on a mighty seagoing vessel that slips you quietly overnight from one scenic Greek port to another.

On deck, leaving Pireaus

Well, OK, it might have been better if VV’s husband had been along, but someone’s got to stay home with the dog mob. Or if she had sprung the extra 50 Euros for an outside cabin with a window. But there’s a budget to be respected (more or less).

Ship's engines swirl the sea

In any case, for most of the trip, Hypnos, the god of sleep, kept VV tucked contentedly between the crisp linens of one of the cabin’s two beds—the one on the right, as it was decided after serious debate.

The window was barely missed.

The husband… somewhat more so.

Ship-shape bed

Coming up soon: Easy Vegan Dining—Even for Klutzes—Aboard Blue Star Ferries Diagoras

Not Your Grandmother’s Greek Ferry Boat

The Diagoras at dawn, calling at the port of Tilos

Diagoras was the name of an Olympic boxing champion in the 5^th century B.C. It is also the name of a sleek Greek ship plying the Aegean Sea, operated by Blue Star Ferries.

As someone who is in love to the point of obsession with almost anything involving bodies of water, Vegan Voyager (VV) is easy to please when it comes to boats. But even before she stepped aboard the Diagoras, she knew this one would make her especially happy.

The white-uniformed, handsome fellow who took her ticket at the foot of the ramp wished her a good trip and gave her one of those dizzying smiles that explain why legions of foreign women—not just Shirley Valentine—lose their minds over Greek men. 

Between him and the ship’s reception desk a total of eight additional crew members warmly welcomed VV aboard, and another helped her ease her embarrassingly heavy roller bag onto the escalators.

Diagoras reception area

If you’ve ridden enough Greek ferries, as VV has done since her first trip to Greece with her grandmother decades ago, you’ll know that this sort of enthusiastic reception is not exactly standard practice. Ferry staff can sometimes be harried and snippy. VV recalls that her grandmother, Yiayia in Greek, gave one or two crewmembers a lecture on manners, in vain.

On the Diagoras, which recently transported VV between the Athens-area port of Pireaus and various Aegean islands, the courteous and cheerful crew might as well have been vacationing themselves.

Diagoras cafe

In one example, a petite but sturdy female porter carried VV’s copious luggage through the maze of hallways to a sleeper cabin, then demurely tried to refuse a tip. VV had to insist. Now how often does that happen?

Yiayia would approve.

Diagoras a la carte dining

Coming up soon: Vegan Dining—Even for Klutzes—Aboard Blue Star Ferries Diagoras

 All text and photos by A Vegan Voyager - Copyright 2012

COPYRIGHT NOTICE - If you like articles on this page, you'll delight Vegan Voyager by sharing the links. However please be nice and follow copyright law; do not re-post or reprint the photos or more than a paragraph or so of the text without explicit permission from VV, who will be happy to hear from you veganvoyagerATyahooDOTcom. Thanks!

Athens Airport Offers Vegan Options

A welcome sight

If you’re a vegan, you might sigh in relief upon arrival in almost any Mediterranean country. In this part of the world, plant foods tend to be spotlighted and celebrated, instead of reduced to teensy portions that end up as side dishes on heaping plates of animal products.

After a 16-hour trip from Texas with a stop in the not-so-vegan-friendly Amsterdam Schiphol airport, Vegan Voyager rubbed her hands in glee when she walked into the food court area of the Athens Eleftherios Venizelos airport and spotted a salad buffet with fresh veggies, fruits, salads, pastas, and several bean and whole grain items.

Athens airport salad bar

Famished, VV spent about 12 Euros ($15 U.S.) on two full plates, with the result of a finally-satisfied tummy.

Hommus, whole grain roll, veggies, romaine lettuce, variety of beans

On past stops in the Athens airport, VV has also enjoyed vegan selections at the Olive Tree Restaurant on the top floor.

Both establishments, however, are set among a preponderance of other restaurants and cafes that do sell those heaping plates of animal products, including, of course, the ubiquitous McDonald's.

McDonald’s ad in Athens airport

All text and photos by A Vegan Voyager - Copyright 2012

COPYRIGHT NOTICE - If you like articles on this page, you'll delight Vegan Voyager by sharing the links. However please be nice and follow copyright law; do not re-post or reprint the photos or more than a paragraph or so of the text without explicit permission from VV, who will be happy to hear from you veganvoyagerATyahooDOTcom. Thanks!

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport Shy on Vegan Choices

Juicy Details Jetlag Fighter

If you’re a vegan traveling through Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, don’t plan on finding a lot to eat. At least in the two terminals cruised by Vegan Voyager (VV) while making an international connection in November, pickings were slim.

After arriving on a jam-packed eight-hour KLM sardine tin from Texas, during which a flight attendant informed Vegan Voyager (VV) that her pre-ordered vegan meal had for unexplained reasons not made it aboard, and after inhaling every last crumb of the snacks she had brought along, VV entered Schiphol in less than the best of moods.

Foolishly, she passed up a restaurant in the arrival area offering a small buffet with items like a zucchini-egglplant dish, a pepper medley, and roasted potatoes. 

The buffet that got away

This error on the part of VV might be attributable to distraction by nearby oddities such as a shiny grand piano available for passenger noodling, weirdly-shaped benches and chairs arranged around fake hearths with fake flames (think Dr. Seuss), an aqua massage machine where you climb into a big plastic bag so that you can stay dry while water jets out at you rather fiercely from a surrounding coffin-like metal tube, and strangest of all, a booth where you stick your feet into an aquarium full of guppy-sized fish who supposedly smooth your skin while nibbling off dead cells. (More on that phenomenon in a future post.)

A snooze with Dr. Seuss

In any case, all of the aforementioned were to be found before the security checkpoint. After the checkpoint, pretty much nada.

Except… While wandering through the surprisingly vegan un-friendly desert that happens to be one of the world’s most heavily trafficked airports, passing acres of shops that hawk dreadfully un-vegan wares like gourmet cheeses, herring, and foie gras, and of course all things tulip, becoming weaker and more grumpily anti-Amsterdam by the second… VV finally discovered… Eureka!  Oasis! A juice bar by the clever name of Juicy Details.

The Juicy Details oasis

OK, so it was just juice.  But it was really good juice.  VV chose an item called Jetlag Fighter, hold the frozen yogurt please, and could you add extra muesli (granola)? 

Requests honored, mouth delighted by the velvety blend of orange, strawberry, and banana peppered by bits of crunchy muesli, and anti-Amsterdam grudges rapidly melting away, VV ordered a second.

Much-welcome vegan choices

At five and a half Euros a pop (about U.S. $7.25), this wasn’t the cheapest breakfast ever, but it lived completely up to its name. Jet lag shrugged off, VV felt peppy and fortified, ready for the onward journey to Athens.

Dank je wel—a big thank-you to Juicy Details.

As for Schipol Airport management, here’s hoping you’ll encourage your concessionaires to add vegan options to their menus.

VV can’t be the only traveler who won’t partake of smoked salmon or little wooden Dutch shoes stuffed with cheese.

How about maybe a falafel stand?  Veggie burgers?  A pasta and salad bar?  All Schiphol's terminals are bound to have room for those if they’ve got room for the tanks of foot-nibbling fish.

Traveler's tootsies getting the nibbles

All text and photos by A Vegan Voyager - Copyright 2011