It flashed and boomed all night long and the rain came down heavily. When we crawled out of bed this morning the clouds were still thick and the sky was still grumbling. It rained hard on and off but the air was peaceful because of the coolness the rain brought. It was nice to not be sweating by 8 am for a change.
It seems quite ironic that four years ago on our last night in Athens, the sky darkened and we awoke to a downpour. So strange to experience the same farewell to the Mediterranean. It does make it easier to leave….somewhat.
We packed last night but checked and rechecked every nook and cranny of the boat for anything we might have missed. We drank the last of our juice, had cereal and downed the last of the milk. But we didn’t quite use everything up. A few eggs, some flour, some coffee, tea, tomato sauce and a bit of pasta…and six darned potatoes and a can of corn that we bought on day one and never ended up eating because who really wants to eat heavy starchy carbs when it’s 35 degrees at dinner time? Note to self…next time, don’t buy potatoes!
We stripped the bed, and put all the dirty towels and laundry in a large bag to try and tidy the boat up. I’m sure some people charter and leave a mess behind, but as a matter of personal pride we wanted to leave it as clean as we could.
Stavros arrived shortly after 9 am and we talked about the trip and the boat and what a good time we had. He went through the boat and checked it out but surprisingly he did not bring a diver to check the bottom. When we chartered from Pireaus they dove each boat that returned to check for damage. Stavros said that boats suffer more damage in the Cyclades than here in the Ionian. We called the agent for Sailing in Blue who came down to meet us and have us fill out a questionnaire. He called Vangelis who was not able to be here to meet us, he is in Athens. They say they will destroy our deposit slip and apologize that it is in Athens and not here.
Stavros asks when we are leaving, we say today at 2:30. He won’t hear of us taking a taxi and says he will drive us. The luggage is put into the car and we stop at the Port Authorities to sign us off the boat and have the final papers stamped. He then stops at a pastry shop and buys us each a freshly baked tyropita (cheese pie) ….really yummy! We then stop at a cafe and he buys us each a cappuccino and we sit and discuss Greece history, politics, economics…. He asked if we drive and we said yes….he then wanted to give us his car to drive around but we declined, we felt that we were taking too much of his time and we were now imposing so we convinced him to take us to the airport early. On the way we got a great tour of the area. He pointed out the ancient Roman road between Lefkas and Aktion that is now mostly submerged. He showed us the canal that Cleopatra used to move her ships into Voulkaria Lake to hide them.
He asks us how long we are in Athens and suggests that we just jump on another plane and head for Mykonos or some other island for another month. We say we’d love to…but there would be no job for Kirk to come back to if we did. When he drops us off at the airport we thank him profusely, that was a long drive and would have been a fairly expensive taxi ride. We are very appreciative. He gave us his email address and asked us to send him photos of us and of the boat.
Our luggage is overweight for Olympic Airline, but we knew that before we left Canada. Unless one is flying international with them, the luggage allowance is very low. Although, we have somehow increased our weight slightly overall (with respect to luggage) even though we didn’t really buy anything to bring home with us. Apparently we did not do as good a job of allocating the heavy items into our shoulder packs as we did on our way here…the lack of a scale would be our problem. However, their overweight charges are nominal and again, we had already factored it in before we left Canada. We should be fine for our British Airways flights. We pass through security, are looked over from every angle …I have two boarding passes and Kirk has two passports and he forgets to pick his luggage up as we spin in circles…it’s a wonder they let us out. We’ve been on a boat too long! We visit the duty free shop, alcohol, perfume, cigarettes, stuffed animals, and more of the same ticky-tacky-touristy crap we have seen at every shop on every island. Everywhere we went we saw the exact same items with just the name of the island changed. Aprons, towels, plates, doormats….who buys this stuff?
We wait for our flight and they call one, somewhat unintelligibly, but we think they said Austria and Vienna. We look around the waiting room and there are five TV screens which one would think would have the flights listed…but they are all black. So typical of here. There are only ten flights out of this airport today, one to Athens….we hope we manage to figure out when we are called because it is immediate. They call, you look around, suddenly someone shows up at a door, they flash the few people through, shut the door, and it’s all over. Better act quick!
Everything runs on Greek time. The plane is supposed to board at 1415 – it’s 1420 and there is no plane here yet. The plane is supposed to depart at 1435….but there is no plane yet. I asked the security guy what gate we should go to, he looked at me like I was an idiot and said they would call it, but probably Gate 3…when I look around I realize why he looked at me like I was a bit daft…there are three gates…one has a podium in front of it, one has nothing and one has a row of chairs right across it. Ummm…looks like Gate 3 it is. 1425…still no plane….
It has been another wonderful adventure in Greece.
And now we are off to Athens, with a two hour layover, then to London and a few days in England for another, albeit much shorter, adventure.
On to England!
1 comment
Sad … but glad too to be on the way … ??