Today we headed out on what we are calling our own personal Amazing Race. We are heading to Rome today and the journey will involve 2 buses, one ferry and one train. We are a bit apprehensive since this involves a lot of transfers and depot locations.
Our first leg is from Napflio on bus. We know where the station is and the time, so we are not stressed at all. However, we need to catch the 8 am bus and breakfast starts at 7 so we get up early to pack before breakfast, then head down to eat only to learn that breakfast is delayed today since the breads have not been delivered. Not a problem since we can eat cereals etc. but not a good sense of the start.
We get to the bus station and get our ticket. We had been told we would get a ticket to take us straight through to Patra even though we need to change buses at Korinth. Wrong! We have learned that in Greece each bus region is managed by different bus companies so we need to pay for a ticket to Korinth with the company in Napflio and then buy a ticket in Korinth for the rest of the trip. Not really a problem but interesting.
The buses in Greece have assigned ticketing and as we got on the bus we realized that we had be placed on the very back seats. I am sure in the case of an accident it is the best place to sit but not very good for watching scenery. Ok, we are ok since we have seen this section of the country before a couple of times since we head back towards Athens to get off the Peloponnese peninsula.
We got to Korinth and I have to wonder if there is any relationship to this and the Biblical reference to Corinthians. No matter at the bus station we go to pick up the ticket and for the first time the ticket agent seemed to have an attitude. She asked for 25.20 Euro for the tickets and I set 40.20 Euro on the counter for her. She kept saying it was 25.20 and pushed the money towards her but she again said it was 25.20 and I needed 5 more. I am very confused and finally she snapped up the money and gave me change. I still do not know what happened but suspect she did not realized that I was handing her 2 20 Euro bills. As we got on the bus we noted that she had changed one tickets seating with her pen just before handing over the tickets. When we got on the bus we realized we were seated at the back of the bus and on opposite sides of the bus. The original seating had us sitting side by side so we sat according to the original seating plan. This was good since someone else had been assigned the seat she had penned in on the ticket so if we had followed her penned seating we would have been told to move. Wes and I are still confused about what happened but we did not worry.
While we waited for the bus to Patra at Korinth we watched buses come and go steady. We knew the time of our bus but since all the names on the front of the bus was written in Greek we were not sure which one to watch for. Fortunately we had a lady approach us to chat. She had seen our Canadian flag label on the camera case and since she grew up in Canada (Montreal and Toronto) she wanted to say hi. She moved to Greece 10 years ago with her husband who was originally from Greece himself. She helped us identify the correct bus, so off we went again.
While talking to this lady we learned a lot about how politics have changed this country in the last 10 years. She is not in favour with the European Common Market Alliance since she believes it caused a huge increase in the cost of living and depressed wages. I suspect it is not as simple as that, but it was her point of view.
The bus trip to Patra was enjoyable since I slept some of it (sitting at the back of the bus does have some advantages) and the views along the highway which followed the sea was very pleasant. However, we both are surprised again at how much smog there is and how it really cuts down on the distant views. That was too bad but closer range we could see a lot of agriculture, new road constructions and other indications of a country building its infrastructure. Perhaps this is evidence of the economic reconstruction happening here as well. We have heard how low the wages are and how poor the majority of the people are, but the evidence of what we saw was not much different than Canada. Obviously we did not see any of the slums but we also did not see much evidence of homeless people. It amazed us how many people seem to have money for cigarettes, cell phones and cars. I do not doubt the low income.
We arrived in Patra to find that the bus depot is about 2 blocks from the ferry terminal. So we find a ticket agent and pick up our tickets for dormitory rooms to Ancona, Italy on a Fast Ferry. Even on a fast ferry it will take 21 hours so this is our Mediterranean Cruise. We leave port at 2:30 pm and arrive in Ancona at 10:30 am Italy time. We get on the ship and get our gear stored in the dormitory before heading up to the deck to relax.
The dormitory is very interesting since it is a small berth with triple bunk beds on each side. There are 3 small rooms (berths) in the men’s dormitory. Each small room can sleep 6 men but you can imagine how narrow the space is for getting into the bunk. The bathroom for men is interesting. Originally the ship was designed to have a women’s dormitory on one side with the women’s bathroom and the men’s on the otherside. What has happened is they have pulled out the former men’s dormitory and replaced the berths with ‘aircraft chairs’ which is exactly what it sounds like. The room is filled with the ‘reclining chairs’ from an aircraft and you can buy a ticket to have: a deck seat (no sleeping place), a aircraft chair (sleeping in a semi-reclined seat), a dormitory (bunk bed), a 4 person berth (shared bedroom with bath with 2 bunkbeds), a 2 person berth (single beds or one double bed) and I think even a suite. The ferry is not like anything we have in BC.
The decks are very nicely appointed with comfortable chairs, bars everywhere, several places to eat meals, a swimming pool and hot tub. (Swimming pool and hot tub are closed down at this time of year).
As we leave port we see lots of islands and as we travel along the coastline we see even more. This area does have a lot of small islands. We stopped at one island port to pick up passengers before continuing on to our destination.
We sat on the upper deck enjoying the views but had to find shelter from the breeze which is very chilly. Yes I did put on the pant legs of my convertibles. After a leisurely time we wandered around the 2 public decks and found a spot to sit at the front of the ship. Wes watched a couple of movies while I read and we just relaxed until dinner time.
Meals here are not cheap. We learned that the prices are displayed on a board outside of the cafeteria and no prices inline, so you are really trying to guess about costs as you go. Finally we did pick out a modest meal (although I did have wine and Wes a beer) that cost us 44 Euro. I checked later but the meal was not of the same quality as we have enjoyed in Greece and the prices where 50% more. However what options do you have? Our only consolation was that with the Eurail Pass our passage did not cost us anything and that saved us about 200 Euro AND since it included the dorm we are not paying for a nights hotel which saves us another 50 Euro so once we thought in those terms the cost of the meal seemed better.
When we got back to the dormitory to get ready for bed we learned that in the entire dormitory there were only 3 people and in our berth with 6 beds there was only Wes and I. The other person was in one of the other 2 berths by himself.
Bedtime and tomorrow we will see what happens as we finish this leg of the amazing race to Rome.
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