On the slow ferry

---

Day to leave! I was quite done with relaxing on the beach, it was time to go back into routine. We packed the tent which unfortunately we have to carry back now 😞. The mat I got before was very helpful and packing was smooth. Breakfast was the last remaining Greek yogurt and then we decided to get some fresh bread from the store. I said bye and thanks to the great staff, and they said "see you next year", and I could not help but think - hmm, its possible, though I make it a point not to go to same place again, but if I want to just sit and relax on beach this nice and known beach is as good as any. Anyway, that's for next year who knows where Greece will be next year 😉. We got a fresh bread and some apfelstruddel for the road.

We loaded our stuff in the campsite van and off we were at about 8:30. The van dropped us at port in 15min. The ferry was at 9:30, so I had sufficient time to pick up lunch. As planned I went to the same restaurant where I had lunch before and "ordered" a vegetarian plate. Like most places on island, it was a family business. So an old man, probably the owner, took our "order" and yelled to his wife (most likely) to prepare it 😊. They charged only 5 EUR this time, could be because he did not have change for my 20. In any case, the food was as great as it was last time. I also picked a vegetarian wrap from the Gregory's place just to get some more substance into the vegetable centric platter.

The ferry was already there, so we boarded it. This one was not as big and spacious as the Santorini one. There was not enough lounge space. We found a place on top, again not as cozy as Santorini ferry and settled in. Since I had had enough of sun and the island, there was no desire to go outside and watch it disappear. First order of business was to read and get some more sleep. So that is what I did. At Paros many more people joined in, and some of them had seat assigned, so we had to move. I don't know why some people had seat assigned and some did not, while buying the tickets the agent said nothing about seats. There were also bunch of people sleeping on the floor that I did not understand, it was broad daylight time, and also a lot of people were just sitting outside where it was quite hot. Maybe with out unassigned seat tickets we were also suppose to be there but then there were empty seats. Anyway, we were comfortably seated. I walked around the lounge area a few more times, but it was all packed. 6 hours passed quite easily reading, sleeping and eating. The lunch was great, last great meal in Greece 😞

Upon arriving in Athens we followed the crowd to get to metro station which was quite close. We had a direct metro to our hotel (Best Western My Athens) which was great. It took about an hour to get there though, then some walking to reach the hotel. The hotel was in noisy neighbourhood which sounded like fish market, many small stores selling clothes and everyday items, and some street vendors selling fresh vegetables and fruits. The hotel was quite nice though, 8 floors, clean nice rooms. I was quite happy with the choice. I decided to do some "shopping" there, which is was any expat living in Switzerland would do 😉 I bought a pair of slippers but did not find anything else. Then we walked over to the historic site and the tourist square of Monastiraki. It was a different crowded world there. Ate some random things there. Entry to museum was as usual free for students. It was time for dinner now. As usual I am skeptical of eating at such touristy place, food is usually bad and over-priced. They are focused on hard-selling, so once you are seated and ordered they don't care so much about the service. Which is exactly what happened. The Greek salad I ordered was terrible, almost tasted like what you would get in US, and he charged 1 EUR each for seating. Also a street singer came to us and started talking about being in Yoga, wanting to get out of the country, wanting to have love in his heart and how he hates this society full of greed and what not, agree with him on most counts.

Then we walked back to the hotel in order to get ready for tomorrow's early flight. Hotel is very well located and we were able to walk to Monastiraki again to catch a direct train to Airport. This train also takes ~45min, but we were there in good time. We almost got down at a previous stop, but realized in time that its not airport! Otherwise it would have been some adventure. The bags with tent and stakes was no problem to carry through security. Then it was smooth flight back home.

---

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

The ferry system
We love all the ferries in the Greek islands.Sorry to hear this one was smaller. They are really well done and user friendly.