I thought after my many trips to ShangHai, Hong Kong and Beijing that this little jaunt to Greece would be a walk in the park. 10 hours! Pah!
Not so much, actually.
We had decided to do a few days in the Islands, then come back to Athens and have a day or two there to see the Major Attractions... I didn't want to split the "getting there" up too much...we only budgeted 8 days, and one full day of that would be spent traveling to Greece.
(And when I say full, Jocko, I mean FULL.)
So... On the big metal bird at 11am to Nooowark, on another (much bigger) one at 5, arriving in Athens at 10:30 in the A of the M, and thence onward to the next leg of the journey.
Fortunately, with all my recent health issues and subsequent trips to the local Jax Beach nostrum purveyor, I was able to get a refill on my Ambien CR...woo hoo. I took one of those little knock-out numbers and the trip from EWR to ATH was a breeze. And, apparently, no episodes of sleep-walking this time.The Woman Who Knows Most Things had turned me down when I offered her an Ambien, so her 10 hours was somewhat less restful.
So I was rested for the next segment of "Planes Buses Ferries and Station Wagons". We had reservations on the ferry to Naxos at 1630. We gathered our meager belongings and headed out to ground transport after skipping baggage claim and breezing Customs and Immigration. (I'm liking this 'carry-on only' thing.)
I snagged two tickets on the x96 bus to Piraeus...it took a long but relatively quick outside-the-city route from ATH to the Port. We needed to pick up our tickets, so we went in search of the offices for Hellenic Seaways.
Oddly, this wasn't their offices.
We finally found the ticket office, then had another couple hours to kill...
I went on walkabout to find a US to Euro power adapter whilst TWWKMT found a shady spot to to sit and read as she waited with our stuff.
Killing time
The Ferry showed up about 1500 and we loaded up not too long after that.
Our seating area was quite comfortable and TWWKMT took advantage of the soft seats and the quiet environment and caught a few winks. Like 3 hours worth...
Don't bug me, I'm sleeping.
We departed Piraeus on time, and we made our way to the first stop, Pharos. It was a drop-and-dash, because I don't think we were at the dock more than 5 minutes when the engines revved and we were back on our way to Naxos.
We pulled into the quay in Naxos just as the sun was setting, around 2015 or so.
We had not made reservations for accommodations, having heard that the smaller (less expensive) hotels and pensions have shills at the port and there are "good deals to be had if you are willing to take the risk".
Hey, we were willing... this is supposed to be an adventure, right?
We made our way over to the line of locals holding up signs with the name of the hotel and the general location... (i.e. "Irene I & II, Naxos" "Diamas, St. Georges" etc)
The shills would work out a deal with you, then load you into their van or station wagon, and go back for more victims, until they filled their vehicle or their room quota.
I started to talk to one guy who looked a bit shady, but he got distracted when one of his already-loaded-in-the-van "clients" started to get out of the vehicle...
While he went to deal with the defector, another lady started talking to us about her accommodations.
Mr. ShadyMan and the woman got into a shouting match about who was going to separate us from our money... Shadyman made a valiant effort, but it was to no avail... He'd obviously never heard of TBG's Rule No. 4, "Never argue with a woman."
So we were loaded into a small car and taken on a short but wild ride into Naxos proper to Studios Maria... "30 Euros, both!"
A quiet, clean little room in a 3 floor walk-up.
We wandered the narrow streets a bit to see what kind of restaurants and stores were in the neighborhood, had a bit of dinner (Greek salad, stuffed eggplant, other mezes) then headed home to crash...
Tomorrow will bring scooter rentals and other touristy stuff...
Film at 11.
TBG- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
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