Welcome to Mainland Greece - Not!

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The port was a lot further than I had remembered it in the taxi. Not only that, but all the signs were in the cryptic Greek giberish and I was never entirely sure whether I was going in the right direction. It wasn't long, however, until some Greek blokes on mopeds took pity on me and gave me a lift. My backpack made it very unsteady, but any worry about that was more than made up for by gratitude for the lift.

Not that it mattered any more, but I was on the right road. I should have had more faith in my natural sense of direction, although it has let me down frequently and it was probably more luck than judgement.

The port was lined with sleeping back-packers, so I find a space and joined them for some sleep. Everyone started to to wake in plenty of time for the ferry and join the huge queue which was developing. We waited and waited and waited. At the time that the ferry was due to leave, there was still no sign of it even arriving. We left an hour and a half late.

I later discovered that everything here runs to GMT or Greek Maybe Time.

The ferry had showers, a sun deck and a swimming pool. It was a brilliant day.

The ferry arrived at Patras in the late evening and by that time, I was clean, refreshed and relaxed. There were a number of market stalls near the port which were selling all sorts of different foods and pastries, so I indulged myself a bit.

Most of the people on the ferry were heading for the Greek Islands (ones that weren’t eighteen thirty) and headed off to various places to find taxis, buses, ferries or whatever. A relatively small crowd of us headed to the station for the train to Athens. The trains also run to GMT, which made the Italian trains look punctual, and I played cards in the station with a couple of other lads until it eventually got round to turning up.

Take it from me that the Greeks on the islands are the nicest people you are ever likely to meet. The Greeks on the mainland, however, are complete assholes. They hate tourists, and inter-railers most of all. When we got on the train, bags were suddenly placed on all the empty seats and they flatly refused to move them. Things got very heated and we were surprised to discover that the Greeks recognised most of the English swear words that they were on the receiving end of.

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Photos

Ferry to Greece
The ferry eventually arriving