Before I say anything else is in this post, I want to tell everyone about the awesome meal we had for dinner the first night on Crete. Normally, I have to buy cheap meals like gyros, ham and cheese pies, or sandwiches unless I go to the grocery store and I have access to a kitchen. Every once in a while though we have a family style meal where we just order a whole bunch of food for the entire table and the entire bill is split evenly. Tonight we went to this great restaurant that was next to the water and Lulu and Kramer managed to get us good deals on dessert and appetizers. So we all (Kramer, Russell, Caroline, EzG, Eddie, James, Keegan, and Zak) went to eat and we had greek salad, free bread, tzastiziki, sagonaki (fried cheese), grilled octopus, oyster mushrooms, snails (Kramer guilted me into eating one because they were his favorite and he gave me his last one), mussels, and fried dough with ice cream and honey. We got all this for 66 Euro so each of us only had to pay 7 Euro to leave a tip. I know I’m probably making a big deal out of all the food but I really enjoyed it. I’m going to be really sad when I get back in the States and I can’t find any of this Greek food. ..I’m officially spoiled.
The ferry ride was really cool, the boat seemed huge to me but when I thought about how big Titanic was in the movie, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Everyone got a spot in a two-person cabin on the ship, which was apparently pretty special because I saw all these people sleeping in the hallway and underneath staircases. I roomed with Molly and about two minutes after we got in our cabin she wandered off somewhere for the rest of the night and I headed up to the deck of the ship. I stood up on the deck for about an hour (maybe an hour and a half) mainly because I really wanted to see us take-off especially since Fisher said that it would be awesome. I watched a few boats leave Piraeus before we did and a little firework show that went off somewhere in Athens (it looked like it came from a part of the city that I’ve never been in). The take-off actually was pretty awesome, it was fun looking at the parking lot and watching it far away. The smoke from the smokestack was neat the way that it stood out from the night sky and you could see the big puffs of smoke float up. I had to lean all my weight against the fence that I was standing against because the wind was really intense but the wind felt really refreshing overall. When we actually got out of the harbor at Athens I noticed that there were at least a dozen other ships going toward Piraeus. Watching the ships might have been my favorite part because all of them looked like floating cities as they passed by and I watched one of the liners that seemed to be going three times faster than all the others.
After I realized that I was cold I decided to go down to the cabin and get my jacket and sweater so I could watch some more, possibly the worst idea ever. For some reason I could get to my room from the deck but I couldn’t get to the deck from my room, even though I already managed it once. The boat had about 20 billion different hallways and a hundred different sets of stairs and I think I wandered around one section of the ship for about 25 minutes before I walked back to my cabin and found the right way to the deck.
When I got to the deck I sat down in a chair and just spaced out while I just listened to the motor of the ship and felt the sway of the boat. I didn’t really even notice the late 20’s or early 30’s guy staring at me for a little while, when I did see him I thought I would be nice and smile but then I looked away again. A minute later he started talking to me and I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying. At first I thought he was offering me some of the cigarette he was smoking but he kept shaking his head and repeating himself. Then I thought maybe he thought I was Greek or something and he’s speaking the parts of Greek that I don’t understand so I said that I was American and spoke English. Still not what he was saying I guess. The guy got closer and I could finally hear the word “café” and I knew that meant coffee. I’m still not sure whether I said no out of pure embarrassment for being a dumb American or because it was 10:30pm and no time for coffee. So the guy left me alone for a while and I just sat back and kept watching the sky. A little bit later I felt like someone else was staring at me and when I looked to the side I noticed that another guy was leaning against the boat and looking right at me so once again, I smiled and then looked away. Then I noticed the coffee guy was sitting across the deck with an open chair next to me and waved me over. I got up to leave because I was really creeped out and the guy leaning against the boat started waving me over too but I pretended to not see the coffee guy and the leaning guy and just left the deck and went to the cabin. Moral of the story: don’t go up to the deck of a ferry alone, the guys are really annoying.
There is so much more that I can say but I will save it for tomorrow night when we get to a hotel with reliable internet.
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