3 day Voyage to Rome!

We wanted to find the cheapest way to get from Santorini to Rome. We could fly, but that’s too expensive, so after some research done by Kathy (Ally’s mom) we figured it out. We had to take a 9 hour ferry from Santorini to Athens, then a bus across Athens to Patra, then a 14 hour ferry from Patra to Bari, Italy, then a train from Bari to Rome. Sounds simple enough right…. HA! Our 3 day journey turned into much more of an adventure. The first ferry to Athens was a breeze! We got on the ferry at 3pm on Monday (which was quite large and reminded us of a cruise ship) and found a place to sit next to 2 Canadians who we chatted with most of the journey. We made it to Athens by midnight. We planned on sleeping at the bus station in Athens then taking the first bus over to Patra where we needed to catch the ferry to Bari.

It was raining (of course) but we soon found a taxi to take us over to the bus station. While driving around, he soon found out that it was our first time in Athens and we really had no intention of visiting the city. He told us for the same price, he would drive us around the city and show us the important parts. We figured less time sleeping at the bus station so why not. He also told us he felt bad just leaving 2 young girls at the bus station - unless we had a gun…. I said I had my swiss army knife. That would have to do! So we drove around the city and we got to see the 2004 Olympic venue, government buildings, a university, the tomb of the unknown soldier, an Olympic arena, Acropolis and the brand new Acropolis museum.

By 2am we showed up at the bus station to find it all locked up…. Awesome! Our taxi driver wouldn’t let us stay there and insisted he find us a cheap hotel to stay for a few hours before leaving. Our taxi driver was amazing, he was so nice to us! The first place was a hotel where you can pay hourly rates for a room - also where people ‘go to make sex’. thankfully it was booked! So he took us to another hotel (each time we stopped somewhere, he had us sit and wait in the car while he went in and talked to the front desk). He found us a room at the Ionis Hotel for a cheap price and it included breakfast! We finally got up to our room and in bed by 3am. It was actually quite a treat because it was a legit hotel with 2 double beds and a full bathroom! We woke up in the morning for the free breakfast and loaded up on fresh bread, some cereal and drinks. I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I started it out by putting sand in my coffee. Well you see, I thought it was cocoa powder, so I was really excited to put it in some coffee (because I hate coffee, unless there is chocolate in it), then some guy stared at my and said, “um, that’s hot sand from the dessert” apparently its some ancient way to make an espresso by putting water in the sand and waiting for it to boil. Awesome. I decided it would be better to settle with hot tea instead. Besides that, we also managed to smuggle out some fresh bread for later! Score! We went back to sleep for a while, since it was a long night and all, then checked out by noon. We made our way back to the bus station - still lugging around all our luggage and breaking our bodies - and got on the bus! Three hours later we were in Patra. In Patra we booked our ferry tickets from Patra to Bari which was supposed to leave at 5:30pm Tuesday and get to Italy by 9:30am Wednesday. The ship ended up leaving at 7pm and it was pretty empty. We found a place to sit and made ourselves comfortable for the long journey ahead. On the ship, we read, watched tv, played cards, and eventually fell asleep on some benches (much more comfortable than the Milan airport!). On the ship, we managed to survive on our stolen bread from the previous breakfast and some other snacks that we got in Santorin at a grocery store. We finally made it to Bari, Italy a little before noon, so it was a 17 hour ferry ride, holy smokes, and there was 1 more leg left of our journey to Rome. We took a taxi to the train station and then a 4 hour train to ROME! Finally, we made it by 6pm Wednesday evening!!!!!!! What an adventure!