We woke up pretty early to catch the metro to head to the port. This was good for me because it gave me the chance to figure out the port with help and people who knew what they were doing. We got to the boat just in time and did have to do a little bit of running to make it. Once onboard I was kinda surprised. I'm used to big ish ferries, going back and forth from whidbey and everything, but this boat was way bigger than that! Add in the fact the entire upstairs where all the passengers sat was so packed we almost couldn't find somewhere to sit. The ride itself wasn't bad at all, quite enjoyable actually.
Once we arrived it was chaos. So you know in the states when you take a ferry, there is an order to it. First they let foot passengers off, then each row of cars, then they let the new foot passengers on and then the new cars. Yeah. Um. Not how it works here. It is 100% free for all. Massive crowd of people pushing to get off and on, cars honking to try and make there way off the boat and through the hordes of people... Aka chaos. Quite an experience. So anyways, once out of the massive crowd we started walking towards our campsite which I won't pretend was close... Also it was hot as hell. This trip has been a nice reminder that I should pack less. Seriously, self, next time you travel PACK LESS!
Anyways, after walking a ways we found a decent spot in the shade on the cliff. It was a beautiful view. Right away we changed and headed to the beach. Such a beautiful beach. Of course we had to walk a bit further to get to the beach and it was actually located at the base of the cliff so we had to manuver down the steep incline at just the right spot. I thought it was rather fun, but some other people kept getting stuck because it was scary I guess? Once down we were able to find a decent spot and commence laying out. Of course I'm back in Europe so most of the people were naked and beautifully tanned. I still have some work to do. Especially how even after this first summer sun day I ended up white and red, even a little speckled due to bad sunscreen, not tan. Alas, the plight of not being Greek! The beach was amazing though and besides loosing/leaving my very expensive sunscreen it was a perfect afternoon.
Once we were crispy we all decided to walk down to the port. Again I was fully surpsied, this time by the fact there was a lot more to the port than it had seemed getting off the boat. We got some ice cream first: priorities, and then preceded to walk around past all the shops and restaurants (more restaurants less shops). As we walked around Yannis ran into some friends of his and when we finally decided we should eat, we picked where they had been. I tried octopus for the first time! And that was pretty delicious, as well as calamari, and a Greek salad. Dinner was yummy but as time passed I could feel my sunburn getting worse.
Once we finished eating it was only 9 o'clock and we were trying to decide what to do. Option one was grab a drink and relax by the water in the port, option two was go find their friends campsite and hang out with them. I wanted option one or really my only stipulation was I didn't want a lot of walking... If you can guess we went with option two. Apparently it wasn't supposed to be that far.... Let me tell you right now, it was frikking more than far. We walked a 5k. Literally. Not figuratively or exaggerated. Actually. I was in crappy old navy flip flops, shorts and a tshirt. Thank god I brought my light zip up because when we got there after nearly an hour and half of walking, my sunburn kicked in and I was freeeezingggg! The first hour or so was fun, we played never have I ever which was interesting because I had to have someone translate everything to me and so it was funny delayed. I socialized a bit but after nearly three hours i was frozen, exhausted, my feet hurt and I was grumpy. I could also mention that I was running off of about 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say I was thrilled when everyone else finally got too drunk and started passing out which prompted my group to finally call a taxi.
The next day my legs were totally beat. Every step took effort and the blister between my toes was rather unhappy. We had initially thought about staying one more night but that morning as we lay in the tent we decided it would be best to go back, so we ended up walking back down to the port to buy our tickets. After trying to find a beach close to the port, we were unhappy with how dirty the water was and decided to hike back to be beach we were at the day before. It was a little less hot this day and we were out a little later as well which helped with the fact my body was already burnt and crispy. As we relaxed basically just waiting for it to be time for our ferry, we realized it started to get a little cloudy. About five minutes after I said "wow those clouds look ominous" we decided to pack up and get to our tent in case it rained. Sure enough, just as we climbed up the cliff and started walking, the rain and thunder kicked in. We picked up the pace knowing our tent was open and all our stuff inside. Luckily it didn't start to really downpour until all our stuff was packed and we were walking back towards the port again! This time looking for somewhere to get out of the rain and maybe grab a snack. We were soaked by the time we got there. Luckily I'm from Washington and I like the rain, especially when it's mostly warm. The best part about this story was that we were so incredibly lucky we had changed out minds to leave earlier that day. The boat was already nearly full and after the rain started and it being Sunday everyone was trying to get on that last boat. Needless to say it was an adventure and I made some memories in those two days. Not a bad start to a trip of islands..
No comments:
Post a Comment