Day 32 – Patmos, Pireaus, Athens
We welcome in the new day in a bar in Skala. At 0130 we head around to the port and join several hundred people and a few dozen cars queuing for the ferry.
At 0235 a bright light on the horizon prompts some murmuring. Even as it grows nearer and becomes several lights it looks far too small to be the overnight ferry but just in time it grows in to a large ship and slowly turns through 90° to dock.
It docks at 0245 and we board to discover bodies everywhere. There are no cabins available so we need to choose a patch of floor. Deciding the space near the entrance where tickets are being checked would become vacated once everyone had boarded, we hang around for a while and though someone else has the same idea we get a decent spot in which to manage 5-6 hours of bad sleep under the fluorescent glare.
Arriving two hours late we find that there’s no metro from Pireaus due to engineering works. We follow some other disorientated tourists rather than the non-existent signs and find the replacement buses a couple of hundred metres along the other side of the main road, discreetly tucked away in a side street. We leave soon after boarding and arrive at Faliro station, where we can complete our journey to central Athens.
We are staying in the pleasant Plaka district, which has a relaxed and sociable if touristy atmosphere. We spend the afternoon wandering the locale, returning to watch the sunset from the hotel’s roof garden before heading out for refreshment.
