Location: Matala/Athens
I wanted to paddle the last leg from Agia Galini back to Matala this morning, but I worried my poor stomach just couldn’t take eight miles on open water. Instead Alexis and I were drove to Matala, where we used the time the others were kayaking to take a last walk around the town, the beach, and the caves. This extra time proved highly useful as Alexis and I had planned to take the ferry back to the main part of the country, and the ferries surprised us by announcing a strike; we had to scramble to book last-minute plane tickets to Athens, which cost a fortune since the only tickets left were business class.
The silver lining is that I got to experience travelling business class; the flight from Heraklion to Athens is only about 35 minutes, but we got newspapers, hot towels, alcohol, and really nice sandwiches.
Alexis and I got a room in a hostel in Athens where we stashed our stuff, and then we went out to do the city thing. Unfortuately, it was about four by the time we got started, and we found that most of the attractions close around five, so I basically showed Alexis around what I knew of Athens (Monistiraki, Syntagma Square), we did gyros for dinner and ice cream for dessert, and Alexis went to bed early while I checked out the rooftop bar of our hostel (deserted). I chatted with my friends back home for a few hours and then went to bed as well.
Our hostel is such a change from the hotels we’ve been staying at. It’s a lot more like my cabin on the ferry than a hotel room (bunk beds, a shower, a toilet, and a folding chair), and the view outside is of the backside of another building, some climate control machines, and someone’s shoe lying on a shack. I like this place.
I wanted to paddle the last leg from Agia Galini back to Matala this morning, but I worried my poor stomach just couldn’t take eight miles on open water. Instead Alexis and I were drove to Matala, where we used the time the others were kayaking to take a last walk around the town, the beach, and the caves. This extra time proved highly useful as Alexis and I had planned to take the ferry back to the main part of the country, and the ferries surprised us by announcing a strike; we had to scramble to book last-minute plane tickets to Athens, which cost a fortune since the only tickets left were business class.
The silver lining is that I got to experience travelling business class; the flight from Heraklion to Athens is only about 35 minutes, but we got newspapers, hot towels, alcohol, and really nice sandwiches.
Our hostel is such a change from the hotels we’ve been staying at. It’s a lot more like my cabin on the ferry than a hotel room (bunk beds, a shower, a toilet, and a folding chair), and the view outside is of the backside of another building, some climate control machines, and someone’s shoe lying on a shack. I like this place.
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| The Greek Capital Building, unusually free of protestors. |
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