Striking out from Athens

Getting up early, we checked out of our hotel only to find there were a number of strikes taking place across Athens – the two relevant to us were taxis and metro – we’d only booked our tickets the night before and surely you would’ve thought that either the hotel or the ticket office were well aware of the impending strikes and what this would mean for someone needing to be at the port for 7.30am the following morning. But n0 – not one person mentioned this to us and only whilst checking out we got to find out this crucial detail!

We’d paid just shy of £100 for our ferry tickets and it was really beginning to look like we would be spending another night in Athens – a night neither of us wanted to do. Having no other option but to go out onto the street, I set about trying to find a cab – the receptionist told me I had no chance though undeterred, I stood outside trying to flag various cars down, I’d have willingly paid top dollar to get to the port. A Spanish couple came down, again in the same boat (we wish) as us – we were stuck, it was 6.45am and the boat was sailing in exactly 45 minutes…

A different group also joined us in reception only these guys had been told about the strike and were able to book a  cab – he turned up and hearing our plight assured us that we would indeed get to join our boat, I was dubious – Piraeus is a good a forty minutes return journey and we had forty-five minutes to play with and he’d just left with the first group.

At 7.05am – the cab driver screeched to a halt outside the hotel, us and the two Spainards piled in as the Kostas (cab driver) set off at break-neck speeds – listhening to loud classical music, he told me to put my seat-belt on and that he’d get us there with time to grab a coffee! We flew through town and true to his word, we just made it – it was one helluva of a ride and whilst we paid top dollar, we joined the ship and set sail for Sifnos – a three’ish hour boar ride from Piraeus…

Leaving Athens