Stuck

It is ironic that I just posted my change of plans yesterday only to discover today that the changes I made don’t work.

I set out this morning to buy my ferry ticket from Thessaloniki to Lesvos. I thought there was a boat leaving tomorrow and that it would only take a few hours to get there. No, I discovered today that when the website had said the boat was leaving at 1 it meant 1am not 1pm. The ferry was scheduled to leave tonight/tomorrow morning at 1am and arrive in Lesvos at 4pm tomorrow. I told the lady at the travel agency that I would like to buy this ticket, but she discovered that she could not make the reservation because it was too short of notice. So, I tried to find the ticket office at the port.

Unfortunately I failed at finding the ticket booth and was directed to go to another travel agency. At this office they informed me there was no ferry scheduled for tonight, but there was one on Friday night/Saturday morning. I was going to buy a ticket for that ferry when she told me that I could not receive a student discount or my Eurail discount. So I left and went back to the other ticket office.

En route I decided that it was silly for me to even go to Lesvos that late because it wasn’t high on my priority list to begin with, I was just going for the sake of going. The only problem was that the islands I wanted to go to were in the southern part of the sea. I had couch surfing arrangements set up in Samos already so I hoped I could get there. The ticket agent informed me that there were no ferries going to Samos in the next 4 days. She suggested I try to go to another town that was on my list of places, Momemvasia.

I then took a bus to the main bus station to buy a ticket to Momemvasia. The travel agent had told me it was about 3-4 hours away. When I got to the bus station they informed me that the bus was actually a 10 hour ride. So, I went back to the travel agent to ask if there was any way I could take a ferry directly to Rhodes or Santorini or even Myknos. She said that there were no ferries from Thessaloniki to those islands and I would be best to go to Athens and visit the islands from there.

So, I am giving up on going to Lesvos and Samos. They are pretty much lost causes at this point and not islands that I really cared about going to. Now I will go to Athens on Friday and catch a ferry to Rhodes on Saturday night, arriving Sunday morning. I will stay in Rhodes for two nights and then go to Santorini. Santorini is pretty cheap this time of year because the tourists are not so common, so I will stay there three nights I think. Then I will continue with my plan to visit the Peloponnese and then move into Athens for my day trips and so forth. I think that I will try to go to Momemvasia from Athens either as a day trip or for one night, because I have a few extra days to play with now that I am not going to Lesvos or Samos.

Wow, the last two days have been mentally exhausting trying to figure out all these details. The nice thing is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in a sense. While I am not wishing my trip to be over, it is comforting to know that in a few weeks all my future plans will be set and I wont have to continue adjusting and re-adjusting my plans. When I get home I am looking forward to not having to think or worry about where I will sleep, what I will eat, or how I will get from place to place. It will be good to just be!

My feet and legs are also quite tired. Today I spent most of the day walking in circles (or so it felt like). I got lost walking from my host’s apartment into the downtown area. I eventually found my way and then spent a few hours going back and forth from the port to the bus station and then finally at 3 set off to go visit some museums. Unfortunately I did not realize that the museums closed at 3, so I walked around until about 5 visiting the places that I will return to tomorrow and actually go inside of.

Today was quite an adventure – this is certain. I am glad to be relaxing now and enjoying a nice hot cup of tea. Which reminds me… has anyone found my tea yet? My new friend that I helped in Florence is from Australia and has offered to mail me the tea if I cannot find it at home. At least I will not be without it even if it is not sold in the US!

I will work up uploading pictures tonight and tomorrow afternoon. I think I have to start a new album. This will be album number 8. I have also been backing up my pictures and videos on SD cards and flash drives. I have backed up about 11 gigs of data and think that I am going to have to buy another 4 gig card to back up the rest of them! Man, I take a lot of pictures!