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Published: July 11th 2023
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Pretty uneventful day today, which was a nice change of pace from yesterday..! I still don't feel amazing, but at least no more concussion symptom flareups.
I took the early ferry out of Kyllini (thankfully no creeper this time!) and started making my way back towards Athens to drop off my car. 130km/hr, let's goooooo haha.
I stopped at the Rio Fortress, just outside of Patras. Easy parking, short little visit. Within the fortress you get a great view of the Rio bridge looming in the back. The fortress is mostly blocked off though - idk if it's normally like that or just because of construction..? Signs were in Greek so idk lol. But I did find one staircase that wasn't blocked off so I could go up on to the wall and one of the towers.
Rest of the drive was fine - stopped for a simple lunch on the way and then managed to perfectly calculate my gas for my rental return. (I hate when they do same-to-same instead of full-to-full. But HA! I was right on the nose when I brought it back - you're not getting any extra euro from me.) Athens traffic was
a lot worse than when I left, but I wasn't in a rush so that's fine.
I took the suburban train from the airport to the port. I'm always fascinated by staff at these very tourist driven areas... like I find it interesting how some places are so welcoming and patient and almost overly explain and other places are like give me your money and fuck off lol. I would say Athens airport staff are just wildly indifferent to you making your connections vs not lol. Let's just say I'm very glad I looked ahead of time where I'm going and that I had my GPS/phone.
I got down to the tracks and a train showed up with no announcement, no nothing on it. I'm like k cool, let's hope! Once on board I did ask a guy around my age if it goes to the port and he confirmed it's going that way at least. He then asked me where I was from etc and we got to talking for a bit before the train got busy. Two stops before Piraeus there was a long ass Greek announcement and then most people got off the train. I'm
like... shit, do I need to know what they said? I looked outside and some old man was waving at me and gesturing to bring my bag lol. Sure, let's go with it. And sure enough I had to change trains bc the other train just randomly ended there today. Thank you old man.
Arriving at the port is a gong show haha, once again glad I looked things up ahead of time. First you had to find an open gate (thankfully I only had to go one over) and that actually worked out well bc it was a stop for the free shuttle that takes you to the different ships. I was super early but that's fine - gave me time to explore the boat a bit which was a lot nicer than I anticipated tbh - it basically looks like a cruise ship on the inside decor wise, seating areas, etc. There's a games room, little cinema, few bars/restaurant areas and little shops too. The cabins are a nice size, nothing overly fancy but does the trick for the night. I got the 3-bed dorm, so I shared the room with a Greek grandma and her granddaughter
(around 5-6 years old?) The Grandma was cute, she didn't really speak English, but when she would leave and pop back in for something she'd be like "just me just me" lol.
(Sidenote: I have managed to not get a sunburn yet!!! That is miraculous bc I usually burn 1st day no matter where I go in the summer. My globs of sunscreen are paying off. Well. One exception - my lips burned. Yeah. They can burn and it's a weird feeling - I got stuck paying a stupid amount at the airport for SPF lipbalm bc I couldn't find any in Zakynthos.)
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