The Journey to Crete - Nightmare on the Seas

Wow. The worst traveling leg of the trip “so far” was definitely the journey to Crete (knock on wood!). We decided that since it was such a crazy experience, it deserved its own posting. When we woke up in the morning of our last day in Santorini, we had some breakfast and packed and then decided to hit up the internet before heading down to the port. Our ferry wasn’t until 5 PM, so we knew we had plenty of time. That was, until when we asked the hostel about transportation, they told us that their transport was only free upon pick-up, not drop-off to the port, and that the only drop off time was 2 PM. After a small surcharge and 10 minute ride later, we were safe and sound at the port, and had only three and a half hours to hang out. We tried to go to a local restaurant that had wi-fi, but they wanted to charge us $4 for ½ hour. Too much!

One overpriced, but tasty double cheeseburger later, we decided to look around some shops and read until the ferry arrived. Upon setting down though, we noticed it was hard to read. The wind was picking up quite steadily, and sand was getting blow everywhere. The small boats in the harbor were getting tossed around, and the large boats were even having trouble moving. At this point, we should have realized there was trouble ahead. For the next two hours, we were sandblasted in the hot sun, trying to take refuge anywhere we could, including behind lines of people boarding other ferries. When Eric went to pick up the tickets from the Ferry office, one hour before departure, the clerk told him that the ferry might be cancelled because of the weather. “Strange,” Eric thought, “it isn’t even raining…”

The Ferry finally arrived (actually on time!) and we boarded unsteadily. The boat was rocking pretty heavily, but we figured that would pass once we got away from port. After we shoved off though, the rocking did not stop. Not at all. In fact, it steadily increased…for the next three hours. At the start, the crew looked pretty serious, as if they knew this was not going to be a fun ride. They kept moving all the picture takers in from the outside decks. Then they started passing out the bags. It was then that we finally realized what we were in for.

The first hour wasn’t so bad. Mostly people were all suffering silently and patiently. Most of the people on the boat were staring at the horizon, trying to stave off the sea sickness. But then, as more and more people got sick, it was like domino rally, and at the peak of the waves, about 80% of the boat (including Eric) began to feel quite ill. Laura, on the other hand, apparently does not get sea sick in the slightest. She was prancing around, having fun while the boat rocked, and drank a beer and played some solitaire, while others around her were moaning in agony. Eric didn’t fare too badly, but wasn’t moving from his seat, and eventually fell asleep for the duration of the ride.

While on the rough boat ride, we moved seats about four times, simply to escape the inhumane noises and smells coming from the sickness bags that stewards were constantly making the rounds delivering to people. We can honestly say that there wasn’t a spot on the boat where you could escape the sea sick tourists. Even the outside deck had people leaning over the railings. Finally we found a semi decent table area that was remotely isolated from the rest, this is where Eric took his que and drifted off to dream land.

As if the entire experience wasn’t taxing enough , once we finally arrived at Crete, the hoards of tourists, over eager to exit the ship, all huddled around the exit ramp, located in the belly of the ship. Were cars normally park. However, the ramp was malfunctioning, and the en tire compliment of passengers from the ship had crammed into a storage compartment that was now filling with heavy diesel oil engine fumes. 15 minutes later, they got the ramp down and we were finally free.

We were two and a half hours late getting into port, and we thought we had missed the last bus to Rethymno, the town we were supposed to stay in Crete. However, once we got to the bus station, we met a handful of others, also coming from the ferry and wanting to go to Rethmno, who were confused about where and what they should do. Being the seasoned travelers we are, we took charge and figured out that there just happened to be one last bus and we boarded with a trail of tourists behind us onto a bus which was nearly full. One and a half hours later, traveling at midnight on wavy mountain roads (Exactly what we wanted after that ferry ride!!!), we finally reached our destination. Once we arrived at our hostel, and situated ourselves into our dorm room, sleep was rocky, as both Eric and Laura drifted to dreamland with the impression that their bunks were rocking with the waves, (a lovely side effect of a 6 hour long rough boat ride!)
It was quite an experience, but we were laughing about it the whole way. I think we cried a bit too. It is definitely an adventure and a great story. Laura is now determined to take some sailing classes after the last few days of boat trips, and is determined to one day become a skipper (with a pocket full of Dramamine for Eric!) Next time, we will post about Crete, and our time there…

Eric and Laura

Eric and Laura in the belly of the beast!