6/8/02 Athens, Greece (Phill)
Well the final couple of days were pretty crazy. I think we got as far as Simon showing up in the internet cafe. Well, little did I know that another friend of mine was coincidently in the same cafe! I didn't recognize her but she did think she saw me but didnt believe it. So after Simon and I wandered around and did the rest of Athens a girl comes up to me and hugs me in Syntagma Square. I have to admit I recognized her but had no idea of her name. When that happens (seems to happen alot to me) I do the obviouys thing: introduce her! So I just say "This is my friend Simon" and it forces her to give her name: Rebecca. 'Becs a crazy cool girl that William and I used to hang out with in Austin: It was fabulous to see her again but we only had an hour since her tour was leaving: Crazy, crazy coincidence.
Okay, so Simon and I headed back to the hostel. He had been trying to change his flight to one the next morning since I had booked a ferry out anyway, plus we had seen all the sights we wanted to see. Well, our friends at the hostel had also booked a ferry out to one of the islands. By this time Simon and I had both decided we wernąt going to pay for the hostel again since weąd been out till the early hours of the morning anyway. So we decided to sleep in the square. A choice we'd later regret!
We grabbed a shower and our stuff and headed to the port where Miguel and his girtfriend were planning on leaving from. Waiting for the boat we bump into two Canadians that we had been hanging out with but were now MIA. Turns out they're heading out on the same boat as Miguel and were very excited. I think it was at this point I was regretting leaving Greece.
Basically I like Athens, but I really loved the people I was hanging out with, they were brilliant! Anyway, I did contemplate jumping on their ferry and did briefly try to change my ticket. But I was pretty excited about Rome, so we saw them away and that was all :(
We both wandered around trying to pass time and at about 11pm we realized we were totally exhausted and had no place to sleep! Simon had an early morning flight and it seemed to make sense that he sleep in the airport. Then I decided that I might as well too since I had a ticket that would get me there and had figured out that they never check anyway so I might as well just go. The airport was like a bloody camping ground! Packed with people except security seemed to take a special interest in us and kept waking us up and moving us on! Very frustrating. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep!
Anyway said goodbye to Simon and hopped back into Athens to catch my bus to the ferry port (3 hours). On the bus back in I met two totally lost Scottish girls and spent about 30 minutes explaining to them how to work the public transport and getting them to their destination. That was my good deed for the day.
Basically the ferry turned out to be pretty terrible. I should've flown ,(ferry plus trains were half the price and I thought theyd be fun), and I've learned my lesson! The ferry company managed to assign me a seat in the Cinema, seriously. How do you sleep in a cinema? THey did the same to two Italians and the three of us spent the better part of an hour explaining to the crew that it was unacceptable. Really the customer service here is nothing like youd expect in the western world!
Anyway, I did end up winning a new seat and the Italians bought their way to a new one. Slept terribly and arrived in Italy exhausted. I caught the first train from Ancona (the port) to Rome and found my hostel.
Posted by Admin at August 6, 2002 06:01 AM