Patras

we left Poros this morning... EARLY. we met at the bus at 6:30 to catch the 7am ferry. blech.

i set my alarm for 5:30am because i wanted to shower. i knew i'd be in patras for today, on the ferry from midnight tonight until 7:30am on tuesday (so far we're at two full days and three nights) and then in tuesday i'll be wandering venice until 11:30pm when i'll hop on the train that should have me in rome on wednesday morning and hopefully at the hostel by 8am-ish. just in case you're keeping track, if i showered this morning, it would still be four full days and five nights before i could shower again. ew.

anyway. the water was ice cold. ice. often in our hotel, especially when it's been used a lot, the shower spits out water that is warm on your hands but cold everywhere else. this water... at 5:30am on a morning when only 1-2 other people were showering... was ice cold, even on my hands.

so i didn't shower. but i did shave my legs and wash my hair. so i feel mostly clean.


the ferry ride was uneventful. probably because we all hopped on, headed straight to the big comfy benches at the front, and slept until one of the crew walked by saying "wake up. ding, ding, ding!" about two minutes before we arrived at the port in kyllini.

everyone else is going to athens tonight where they'll stay one night at the hotel where we stayed when we first arrived ("Hotel Acropolis View") and then a bunch of 'em will be heading home tomorrow or off on their own adventures.

me? i opted to take advantage of geoffrey's offer to get vasillis to drop me off at the port in patras since they'd be driving right through and it's only be 10 minutes or so oyt of the way for them (off the highway to the port, drop me off, back on the highway to athens and voila!).

it didn't quite work out that way...

attempt number one to get to the port failed because the road was under construction. after 15 minutes of driving in the wrong direction (it's hard to turn a bus around on some of these roads...) we got back to the highway heading in the right direction again.

attempt number two was to try to get to the port via the city center. except that all the roads have been changed or something and while the signage to get off the highway is fabulous, the signage that directs one to the port once off the highway is non-existent. so that was at least a half hour of random corners and dead ends until we found our way back to the highway again.

attempt number three was finally successful. we took another exit that was posted as a route to the port and it got us there easy-as-pie. here's hoping they got back to the highway just as easily!!


so. i spent the first hour re-packing. AGAIN. i'm so ridiculous.

then i found the luggage storage and squished as much in there as i could (the big bag i have, plus my laptop case minus the laptop, and some food that i brought along for the ferry ride). then i took my small backpack (with laptop in the hopes of finding free or cheap Internet), purse, a book and my water bottle and hit the town!

it's a huge city, but i mostly just stuck around the touristy area -- the city center and the few blocks surrounding it. nothing's open except coffee shops and restaurants because it's sunday, but that's ok! i found a cafe with free internet (woohoo!), bought a tea and can know access their wireless from anywhere in the square. i also did some window shopping... good thing nothing is open! i certainly wouldn't have room for any of the sweet things i saw in those windows!

what else?

oh!

i used my greek!!!

i wanted a gyro -- one last one for the road kinda thing. plus they're cheap and filling and tasty wherever you are! so i found a lady who was cleaning up some of the garbage in the square and tried asking her where to buy one. except that she didn't speak english AT ALL. so i said, "πού βρίσκη gyro-pita?" (sounds like "poo vrisk-eh gyro-pita?" and translates to "where i find/i am finding (a) gyro-pita?)

and it worked! she smiled at my wit and charm (or my horrible pronunciation and grammar, but whatev) and pointed me in the right direction. and man. it was the RIGHT direction. that gyro was fabulous. yum.


after that, i wandered the square a bit more... took a few pictures...

oh!

prior to the greek-using gyro-finding business, i was reading a book on a bench (enjoying the sunshine and blue skies along with the flowing fountains and pretty european square *sigh*) and a bunch of people (10-15ish) gathered to listen to this guy in a suit talk about God and Jesus. i think. it was in greek.

they all sang together (just out and about in the square -- it was really kind of nice) and then they started giving out Bibles and talking with whoever was around and wanted to listen. they were actually really really friendly. they didn't seem to be overly pushy or anything, just... available to chat or answer questions, etc.

one guy tried talking to me but failed because of the whole language-barrier thing but then he called over his buddy who did speak english and we chatted for a few minutes.

so that was fun. i felt like... they were respected a lot more here than people who tried to do anything like that at home would have been. not a lot of people stopped to listen or anything, but there wasn't any visible sneering or outright avoiding and a few people did stop to ask questions and chat for a while. it was refreshing.

ANYWAY. my battery is dying so i'm going to go wander a bit more... then probably head back to the ferry terminal in the near-ish future. it's getting chilly out here and i didn't feel like spending any more money just to sit inside when i could do that AT the terminal. i'm guessing there won't be any internet there (at least not the free kind) which means... this is goodbye!

So long, farewell! Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight!

'til the next 'bout of free time and internet -- much love!