Itisallgreek2me

"Flying Dolphin XV" - Port of Piraeus

I left Crete on Thursday evening as planned – my friend Antonia drove me to the Port of Hania, leaving me there to await the 2300 hours departure of the Blue Star Ferries “Blue Horizon”.  Being one of the first to board, I managed to secure a comfortable place to doze for the journey to Piraeus, scheduled time of arrival 0615 hours.  At 0500 hours, feeling a little peckish, I went to buy something to eat – could only find a very dry cheese sandwich which was washed down with a pleasant cup of Green Tea.   

Our slightly later arrival time in Piraeus at just before 0700 hours meant the pressure was on me to make it to Gate 8 in time for the first hydrofoil of the day to Spetses leaving at 0800 hours.  Fortunately, there was a free bus I could take from Gate 2 to Gate 5 and a walk from there – with a heavy pack and a somewhat cold morning, I managed to make it in time.  Costas telephoned me soon after departure and said “See you in a couple of hours”.  What I didn’t know at that time was I was about to experience the worst hydrofoil journey of my life!  

Sitting in Seat 1F right at the very front of the craft, I had a good view, however, the sea was very rough, several times my bum literally leaving the seat and we kept having to slow down to ride lower through the waves.  Made it to our first stop at the island of Poros and eventually on to Hydra.  I telephoned Costas to say we would be running late and that I would call again when Spetses was in sight, which I did later saying we were just 5-10 minutes away.  

As we pulled in beside the jetty, I could see Costas waiting for me.  I was feeling so happy to have made it back here and relieved to still be in one piece.  With the vessel rising and falling I found it quite difficult to put my heavy pack on my back, however, once I had managed to do so, I just wanted to get off and see Costas.  Not to be, just yet anyway.  With the sea crashing up over the pier and the vessel rolling so much, for safety reasons the Captain decided we could not get off, he backed away and it was announced that we would be taken to Porto Heli on the Peloponneses mainland and a decision would then be made as to where to from there.  

As we waited outside in Porto Heli for some decision to be made, it was absolutely freezing and no one seemed too sure of what they were going to do.  Finally I hopped into a shared taxi with three other passengers and we paid 3 Euro each to be taken to Kosta nearby, from where we took a Water Taxi to Spetses at a further cost of 5 Euro each.  Cold and tired but very happy to be here, Costas was awaiting me at the Cafe nearby where I had a big cup of hot tea before going to the house for a rest, followed by a yummy lunch Costas had prepared of beef in lemon sauce with rice and a fine bottle of white wine.  

The weather here is nothing like I have become accustomed to over the past few months – very cold and, in fact, I am going back to the house shortly where I believe Costas will have lit the fire!  Yes, it is that cold.  Last night in Bar Spetsa was a cosy affair – just a pleasant number of patrons, the last leaving around 0345 hours.   I chatted a little with Raymond and Heather, a Scottish couple from Aberdeen who live for much of the year on the island and Steve, an English guy who has been skippering the same boat for 12 years and spends a great deal of time on Spetses.  Interesting guy – he has been to Antarctica, touched penguins there and swum with whales and New Zealand is one of his favourite places.  

When the bar closed, Costas suggested we go for a quiet drink at Spiros to which I said no – I needed to sleep.  This is, of course, my final week for now in Greece and I will be making the very most I can of every precious moment here on Spetses with Costas.  This is my 99th Blog so you can all look forward to at least one more before I return to New Zealand – I must hit the ton!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 11:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.