{"id":2259,"date":"2010-09-25T15:41:13","date_gmt":"2010-09-25T15:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2011-04-12T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T16:34:11","slug":"moving-on-from-spetses-to-crete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=2259","title":{"rendered":"Moving on from Spetses to Crete"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Anek Lines ferry boat "LATO" - Port of Piraeus<\/p><\/div>\n

It was with a degree of sadness, that after sixteen fantastic\u00a0days I said\u00a0my farewell to Spetses and Costas yesterday, in order\u00a0to make a return visit to Crete to see the family in Kastelli\u00a0and my friends\u00a0in Hania. Leaving on the 1700 hours hydrofoil, allowing time to catch the 2100 hours ferry from Piraeus to Hania,\u00a0it was\u00a0a ride when my feelings were engulfed with thoughts of – why did I have to leave now when I was so happy and content there?\u00a0 But it is okay, I have so many wonderful memories of our time together – such as occasions\u00a0at Spiros’ bar after closing of Bar Spetsa, sitting out on the balcony under the stars with the lights shining and shimmering on the water.\u00a0 Leaving there for me to make the short walk home, with Costas riding ahead on his bicycle singing “Raindrops keep falling on my head …” – he would often\u00a0pass by\u00a0the bakery to buy fresh Spanakopita which we would devour before retiring, so yummy!\u00a0<\/p>\n

These days one’s only choice to travel from Spetses to Piraeus\u00a0is by\u00a0catamaran or hydrofoil\u00a0– both expensive at 35 Euro for a two hour trip.\u00a0 Yesterday it was a quiet and peaceful ride as far as Hydra, then hordes of rather noisy people boarded, almost filling the vessel to capacity.\u00a0 I have never much liked Piraeus, it\u00a0can\u00a0appear grey, dirty and always the traffic is chaotic, however, I set out on foot to walk from Gate 8 to Gate 4.\u00a0 I\u00a0was almost there when I remembered there exists a free bus service\u00a0to cover the distance but it was too late and I had a blister.\u00a0 Purchased my ticket for Anek Lines\u00a0ferry boat\u00a0“LATO” – 28 Euro for an 8 1\/2 hour journey – we would arrive in Hania at 0530 hours this morning, Saturday.\u00a0 No shortage of passengers who were mainly Greeks, including one disagreeable moron who decided he wanted a particular seat\u00a0someone else\u00a0had already claimed and he continued to be obnoxious.\u00a0 The final straw – click, click with his worry beads\u00a0when everyone wanted to try for a little sleep!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully I had packed a jacket in my day pack as where I sat in the lounge reading, the air conditioning was freezing cold.\u00a0\u00a0Also grateful to have a book\u00a0to read –\u00a0“Greece On My Wheels” by Edward Enfield – which I had picked from one of Costas’\u00a0many well stocked bookshelves.\u00a0 I am enjoying reading\u00a0another person’s\u00a0travel writing.\u00a0 When the hunger pangs arrived in my tummy, I headed off to the self service restaurant for a plate of\u00a0Fasolakia me Patates (green beans with potatoes) – overly oily and costing 6 Euro, I did not much enjoy them.\u00a0 As midnight approached, I found a space on the floor to curl up, with a magazine over my head to partially\u00a0keep out the light and protect my neck and shoulders from the cold\u00a0air conditioning.\u00a0\u00a0Having recently become accustomed\u00a0to late nights, i.e. retiring early morning, as well as the hard floor, meant\u00a0very little sleep was forthcoming.<\/p>\n

When the announcement came that we were only a few minutes away from arrival in Hania, the passengers began making their way to the exit.\u00a0 Forced to wait at the top of the stairs down to the lower deck, I could sense the impatience building up in these weary travellers and for a time, feared there might be a stampede once the gate was opened.\u00a0 By the time I\u00a0realised\u00a0Anek Lines were offering small\u00a0glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice, there was no way I could forge my way back through the crowd so went without.<\/p>\n

Assuming I would have no choice but to take a somewhat expensive taxi ride from the port to the Hania Bus Station, once off the ferry I was overjoyed to find a local bus operating the route at a cost of only 1.30 Euro.\u00a0\u00a0When I arrived\u00a0at the bus station\u00a0it was 0615 hours – perfect timing to catch the first bus of the day to Kastelli at 0630 hours.\u00a0 Lucky enough to\u00a0procure a front seat directly behind the driver, I stood up just before we reached Kastelli and asked “Please, can I get off at Kamara?” – which I did, the bus stop located near the\u00a0family home.\u00a0 It was 0730 hours and Katina was awaiting me for coffee and breakfast.\u00a0 Now it is midday and lunch will soon be served.\u00a0 Anna the family matriarch\u00a0is in Hania at present so it feels somewhat strange without her\u00a0here.\u00a0\u00a0This morning I saw Katina’s son Vassilis and an old friend of this family’s Costas.\u00a0 He\u00a0has lived in Sweden for the past 20 years but remembers me well\u00a0from when I lived in Kastelli back in the early 80’s.<\/p>\n

It is now 1800 hours.\u00a0 This afternoon I spoke briefly with Costas who told me around 0400 hours this morning,\u00a0unbelievably,\u00a0another deluge hit Spetses, similar to the one 2 weeks’ ago on the evening of the Armata.\u00a0 He has mud in Bar Spetsa and flooding in the house – I wish I was there to help him.\u00a0 He will telephone me again in a couple of days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was with a degree of sadness, that after sixteen fantastic\u00a0days I said\u00a0my farewell to Spetses and Costas yesterday, in order\u00a0to make a return visit to Crete to see the family in Kastelli\u00a0and my friends\u00a0in Hania. Leaving on the 1700 hours hydrofoil, allowing time to catch the 2100 hours ferry from Piraeus to Hania,\u00a0it was\u00a0a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2587,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}