Athens then onward....

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James here. Believe it or not, our train actually arrived in Cairo on time! Though we were driven a little mad by our temporary guide who constantly sang the song from 'The Wedding Singer' throughout the night, but with a few variations.

The next day we arrived back in Athens, happy to have a break from busy Cairo. We had booked one night in Athens, planning to make the ferry ride to Santorini the next day. We decided after checking in to our room to go and book the ferry. Well, apparently there's a world cup going on at the moment and all the fans of the losing teams are going to the greek islands for a few days.... Meaning that most of the ferries were booked out! The only passage we could get without missing out on a night in Santorini was that night, leaving at 10pm.

We went back to the hotel after a massive feast of Maccas (incidently they serve Heineken beer at the Greek Maccas, just though i'd add that cos its sooo cool!), we went back to the hotel, rested for an hour or so, then set off for the ferry.

Our tickets said deck, which meant that we had to find a seat (First in best dressed) anywhere as long as it was on the deck. Not to worry, it was warm, the weather fair, and it sounded like a lovely way to pass the 12 hour trip....

In reality, well, the 16 hour train ride from Cairo was looking pretty good by the end of the trip. We found a seat; a hard bench facing out onto the water. Within a couple of hours the wind started to blow, then blast us.We took shelter in a tiny nook, and covered ourselves in what ever we could get from our packs, and hid under my back pack's rain hood. By the time the trip was half way done, we retreated inside to lay on the floor (Previously denied to us as we only had tickets for the deck). I think maybe the crew had taken pity on all the plebs on the upper decks suffering various degrees of hypothermia.

I think i managed maybe an hours sleep, Tania about the same (Refer to photo of Tania on the floor), and by the time we checked in at Santorini, we were almost too tired to appreciate the views. We had to wait a couple of hours to check in to our room, so having dropped off our bags we went in search of sustanence. Yes, You guessed it, back to Baguettes!

More on Santorini in the next blog.

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Photos

The evil boat trip...
Capturing a shot of Tania on the floor as she slept for those 20 minutes...

Salvation...Santorini
View of the sunset from our hotel in Santorini.

Santorini
More piccies from our hotel.