Yesterday I left Greece. I was quite sad to leave, just starting to understand bits of the language, but I was looking forward to finally going to Italy. The country where I can understand people better, where the language is amazing, where the food is delicious and the culture is… well, Italian. And I was dying for some good gelato!
To leave Greece I took the boat from Patras to Brindisi, which takes about 18 hours. But first I had to get back to Patras again (unfortunately there are no boats from the Ionian Islands to Italy). On the ferry back I met with the boat crew, they gave me the password to the internet (otherwise out of bounds for passengers), I chilled with them in their cabins and I was invited to have dinner with them. I was even invited to go back and forth to the Ionian Islands again, since my boat to Italy would only leave the day after at 17PM, but I politely declined.
I stayed with Panos for the night and I was finally taught backgammon. It’s like the national game of Greece, but I had never played it before.
To get to the boat the next day proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought, mainly because I spent a lot of time enjoying my last souvlaki in Greece, resulting in missing the bus to the port. Luckily there was another one going, but it would only leave ½ hour before my boat would take off to Italy. I took my chances, and they paid off, I could still enter the boat minutes before it left.
I didn’t want to spend money on a cabin, so I went as a deck passenger, hoping I could sleep somewhere on chairs or in the restaurant. And at first I did this happily. But later, after the stop in Igoumenitsa a lot of people came aboard and they sort of took over the boat, making noise, leaving trash everywhere and smelling pretty bad. I couldn’t really be bothered. I found another place to sit/lay down and sort of slept bits and pieces during the night.
And now I am back on the sacred Italian grounds (see some posts ago).
I had a great time in Greece. The people proved to be very nice, and I came across a lot of unplanned things. The score in the end:
- Marriage proposals: 2
- Tango lessons: 1
- Sleep-overs at a bakery:1
- Offered rides: >10, but I didn’t take most of them (because some were offered by men that didn’t look me in the eyes but about 40cm down)
- Pitas souvlaki: infinite
- Hurricanes: 0, but we had Beaufort 10.
- Dinners with the crew of a ship: 1
- Dog-attacks: 3
- Being invited (or invite myself) to sleep in the house of strangers: 6 (+ a few more I didn’t accept)
- Greek parties: 2
- And much more.
I will most definitely come back!
Irina Versteeg 