Corinne CrawfordAfter Paros, we were taking the ferry to Piraeus port just outside of Athens. We got in the queue for the ferry and saw it slide in. It was way bigger than we imagined. After the people and cars and cargo disembarked, there was a line up of semi trucks that expertly backed into the hold, sometimes simply dropping off the trailer portion and then the truck cab coming back out and sometimes the whole truck and load. Then the cars as the people were streaming in as well. We followed the line of people that were storing their bags in the bottom hold, dropped off our luggage and continued in the queue to go up to the passenger area. We were unaware how big the ferry was and so Debbie and I had bought “seats” because the other option was just called economy deck and in my mind, I was thinking that meant you had to stand on the outside deck for the 4 hour ride to Athens. But in addition to the various sections with the assigned seating, there were countless areas but inside and outside, some areas covered and buffeted from the breeze where the economy deck passengers could sit at tables, benches, etc. Had I known, we might have just bought that cheaper ticket and found a seat there. But as it was, we took our seat in the assigned area even though Jodi had actually bought the economy ticket. However, during the entire 4 hour ride, not a single person checked any ticket so it was no problem.
About halfway through the trip from Paros to Athens, passing by countless islands of various sizes on a perfectly ocean blue sea, I decided to wander around the enormous ferry and find out if I could go down to the hold to retrieve my iPad from my backpack I had put there so I could spend the idle time catching up my blog. I went to the reception type desk and asked the gentleman there if there was any way I could go down and get my bag as there was not an obvious door open that allowed passengers to go back down there. He thought about it for a moment and then told me to be back at the desk in 15 minutes.. As I wandered both inside and outside and there were no less than 3 snack/beverage bars on the boat. I also saw that at least half of the passengers had their bags with them and I got to thinking what a cluster it was going to be to get off the boat and fight the crowds and cars to find our luggage in the huge stack down below. We had a taxi we had arranged to pick us up and take us to the hotel, the same hotel I had stayed at prior to Jodi and Debbie arriving and I hold told them our ferry was coming in at 2pm but I envisioned a long wait to get our bags and actually get off the boat so I went back to our seats to suggest that we go down and retrieve our bags so we have them with us when the ferry docked at Pireaus. Debbie was dozing so I explained my thoughts to Jodi and she was in agreement. We didn’t want to wake Debbie so we were just going to grab her bag too. We went back to the desk and waited a few minutes more for a guy who took us down to the hold using what I assumed was a type of freight elevator as it could only be operating with a key. We went down, weaved our way through the cars to the bag area and then had to dig a little bit to get to our bags. On our way back to the elevator with the guy, he was asking us where we were from and giving us some stories about his travels on ships to the U.S. In the middle of the story, the elevator doors opened and he got out quickly and the doors just closed mid sentence with sort of a wave goodbye on his part. The elevator continued up to the passenger area and we both were amused by the interaction. We were so glad we thought to get the bags because it was a bit chaotic trying to get off the ferry and I was glad we also didn’t have to fight the crowds going in and out of the luggage hold area. We had arranged a ride from the same taxi driver that took us to the airport initially from Athens to Crete but he had messaged us saying he was not available and he was sending a colleague that would be at the port holding a sign with my name on it. As we got off the boat, we saw several people holding signs with names on it but none of them were mine. We continued looking a bit but figured that perhaps the ride didn’t pan out so just as we were about to hail a different cab, a large cheerful looking man barreled towards us holding a sign that said Corinna. Close enough. His name was Stavros and we followed him back to where he had parked his taxi as he was apologizing for being late, explaining that there was an accident on one of the roads there that caused a delay. As we drove into Athens to our hotel, Stavros xplained what we were seeing and the road we were on with apparently was the original route from the Acropolis down to the sea from the Byzantine era.
We got to the hotel, Acropolis Vision and Jodi was leaving the next day super early in the morning and so arranged for Stavros to pick her up at 5am the following morning to go to the airport. Debbie was leaving the day after. My dentist appointment was at 3:30pm the day Jodi left. We went out for one last dinner and Jodi thought maybe we could find non-Greek food here in Athens because she said that even though they were delicious, she wasn’t sure she wanted yet another Greek salad. We googled Thai food and found a places walking distance from the hotel so after a shower and fresh clothes, we headed out with the directions on my phone. When we turned into the alley per the directions, we discovered that either the place was closed or no longer at that location. It was just a dark alley. So we googled another spot called Sticky Rice and Friends. As we were walking there, we saw a few side streets where businesses have decorated for Halloween that was in just a few days. Turned out the restaurant we chose was just mostly a take out place but they did have a few tables outside. We were hungry at that point and needed to use the bathroom so we ventured in, placed our order and sat outside to eat. It was not the best meal we ever had but it was better than we expected and it satisfied our hunger. Perhaps another Greek salad would have been the better choice.
