Richard and I went out for breakfast this morning, our last on Mykonos. In the afternoon we would return to Athens. We looked for a bakery with fresh pastries to no avail, turned into a search for the Holy Grail, and settled for the little bakery close to our room.
Then Richard called hotels in Athens (one of the few times our iPhones could make a connection), but call hotels (Hotel Phaedra, Hotel Adams, Hotel Adonis) were all booked solid. We hadn’t planned on this. Finally, we went out looking for a travel agent who could find a room for us for our last two nights in Athens. We finally found one open that early in the morning (09:30 on Sunday), and the young woman who helped us was gorgeous (dark brunette, olive skin, marvelous cleavage). She eventually found us a room in a large hotel (200 rooms) two metro stops away from the Akropolis. Definitely not in Plaka where we’d been staying.
After all our walking, I stayed in our room to rest while Richard went out sketching. We had the room until 13:30, so I had a while to recover, and I needed it. When he returned, we decided to go on to the dock to await the ferry. We decided to take a taxi this time and avoid the hassle of the buses. Cost us 6EU. The taxi driver was a little heavy-footed, and we made it in record time.
We had an hour or so before it came steaming into port. He sketched while I talked to two British girls. It wasn’t long before the Blue Star Ithaki ferry steemed into port.
Blue Star Ithaki Ferry turning aft end first to back up to the dock to load passengers.
Soon we were onboard and found ourselves a good seat to wait out the eight-hour ride to Athens.
Our seats onboard the ferry to Athens.
We stayed up on deck for a couple of hours, but the cigarette smoke was absolutely suffocating, so we went below deck among the hoards of people, found a table in the crowded room and settled down for the six hours we had left of our trip back to Athens.
When we got close to Athens, Richard and I shouldered our packs and made our way down to the ferry hold.
Down in the Ferry Hold awaiting docking.
Soon everyone was down there milling about, waiting for the gangway to lower.
The gangway lowering.
From the docks, we walked across a footbridge to the metro, where we purchased tickets, and rode the train two stops and got off. Hotel Stanley was right next to the metro, and soon we were in our room, except that the electricity seemed to be off. Richard went back to the front desk, and a porter followed him to the room and showed him how the key card (used magnetic cards instead of metal keys) were used on a device by the door to turn on the electricity. Very modern, and not like the primitive hotels in Plaka at all. We were out of the old city and mixed in with the hoards of tour groups. I purchased ninety minutes of Internet access at the front desk, which cost me 5EU. The room looked very American, and was in perfect condition. Definitely took us out of the Greek experience.
Richard in our room in Hotel Stanley.
Richard started unpacking and getting ready for bed and I got on the Internet to check my email. It had been a long boring day of traveling.