We walked up to the bakery for coffee and pastries, then caught the 11:00 Super Runner ferry to Naxos. Three ferries docked at once and it is still incredible to me to see all the people and cars moving in and out, to think of the places they are going or coming from.
Kind of like the airport but without the airplanes.
Our ship continues on to Santorini as the final destination.
Onboard we stuck our luggage in the designated spot for Naxos. The bins were empty save for maybe five pieces of luggage.
The Santorini luggage filled the other bins, was stacked up the ramp by the cars, and all down along the inside wall of the parking area.
Onboard we got a bottle of water, looked around then took our seats 1A and 1B.
It was a short trip, thirty five minutes, in choppy waters.
We dropped our luggage at a travel agency-luggage storage-shower-bathroom -laundry place (What a great idea of a business for a major port transfer town. A lot of people coming in on layover, and you make a fortune one euro at a time with basic services. One locker €7.) and walked out a breakwall to see Apollo’s Temple.
The view back on Naxos town was really nice with the castle topping the hill. Along the breakwall, big rough waves were crashing in from the sea side, but on the harbor side families were swimming, the breakwall like a giant beach with the steps as seating.
We walked over to the old city center, Metropolis Square, with the fallen columns and big old church, then got lost in the twisting turning narrow streets, some so narrow two people can’t pass, and some with archways or balconies so low we had to duck through. And of course the flowers and brightly painted windows, doors and railings. Some of the archways and covered walls had the original timbered ceilings.
After two hours we stopped in at 520 Bar and had a glass of the local house wine (Rosé) and a green salad with sun dried tomato, local cheese and honey sauce. Gail got an open face sandwich with local graviera cheese and salad.
We were sitting up high over the port, just under the castle.
We continued walking, along up and out of the shopping area to the residential streets. Eventually we swung down to the waterfront and with an hour to go set up on a comfortable couch, harborside, at the Bossa Bar for drinks and to sit in the shade enjoying the cool ocean breeze. I like watching the ferries come and go, and some guy fishing off the dock with a twenty foot long pole. It’s interesting listening to the chain rattle as the big ferries drop the big anchors, and see the huge clumps of dirt fall off it when the anchor is pulled back up.
Well Super Runner is Running Super Late. At this point I am hoping they’ll ship our bags and let us just swim over.
I love the names of the ferries: Super Jet, High Speed 4, Flying Dolphins, Sea Jet 2.
Not a one is named Huge and Slow, or Steady But We Get There, or Big And Fat But Fast Enough.
The motto could be, “We May Be Slow, But You Don’t Have To Row."
Anyways it is really frustrating at times here in Greece. The ferries are ALWAYS late. Sometimes a half hour or hour, but today… two hours and counting…
My advice to you is this: do not ferry and fly the same day. You’ll never make it. Leave hours of connection time between ferries. We have five hours on our Milos to Hydra through Athens trip. The ferry ticket sellers (travel agencies) at the port are a good source of information if there are delays.
Well, our ferry just never showed up. I walked back out to one of the travel agencies after about an hour and found out about the schedule change and delay. The best they could do is say that the ferry took an unscheduled side trip to Mykonos first, which adds on about an hour and a half from now.
But here was no one at the actual port to tell us anything.
I walked back and let everyone know about the delay. Gail and I opted to go just find any place to eat a quick meal (And we had a crap diner because of it. Mad. I was looking forward to a good dinner on Milos. But at least we ate, as you shall see...) and drink.
The wine helped.
So we finally boarded and left at 21:15, on the ferry that was supposed to leave at 17:25. Four hours late! We left after we were supposed to have arrived on Milos.
On top of that, our 3.5 hour direct ferry trip to Milos turned into a five hour slog to Santorini (We did a midnight transfer to another ferry in Santorini. It was kind of cool to be back on the island just for a minute.) and then Milos, so we arrived 5 hours late.
At 2:30.
Absolutely crazy.
The bars were open, but nothing else, so anybody who didn’t eat something was outta luck.
Fortunately our guesthouse was waiting for us. They too had an impossible time, calling around to see where we were and when the ferry would arrive. She was NOT happy, and told us how this unprofessionalism will kill Greek Tourism.
I am going to apply for a full refund according to the EU rules. Handy to know.
Big inconvenience for us, but some poor guy from France missed his flight because of it.
Anyway, at 3:00 our place looks nice, but we just dumped everything, showered and crashed.
Sure enough, like clockwork, I was up at 5:00 the next morning, out walking around.
Damn.
Can’t sleep in!