Panic to Piraeus
It’s the 2nd of May in Mykonos, Greece. Our group has a ferry scheduled for 11:40 the next day, to travel from Mykonos to Piraeus (Athens main port). Midday the day prior, the ferry is delayed to 12:55. No dramas. The day continues and we enjoy the local festivities that Mykonos has to offer. One not quite unique to Mykonos, but Greece, was a Europa Conference League Semi final that included one of two Athen’s owned team Olympiacos, who were playing Aston Villa.
The night started in a sports bar that was showing basketball, then onto sitting on narrow stairs of a smaller pub that showed the soccer. A pub where waiters didn’t care if you were there, as long as the football was on. Olympiacos went on to win the first leg 4-2, where they will play again on the 9th of May in Piraeus, a day we unfortunately are leaving for Istanbul.
The night finished and morning has arrived. We lounged around the shores of Mykonos as we were eagerly prepared for the 12:55 ferry. Next notification. Ferry has been rescheduled for 15:45. Fortunately, we had no commitments planned in Athens, so it was just a matter of patience. So, as safe travellers do, we go 2 hours early to the dock. To pass time, we waited with the hundreds of other passengers for the delayed ferries that domino’d on throughout the day, and shared stories amongst the group.
15:45 has arrived. No ferry. People started to get anxious and kept looking over at the pier to see any sign of transportation. A feeling that was shared by many people at the time. At this point it was packed. Over either shoulder was a group of people from different backgrounds, trying to figure out what was happening.
16:00 has arrived, and so has the ferry - ‘The champion jet’. 87.50 euros per ticket. I held the tickets for four of the group members on my phone. The other 2 had theirs printed along with their other documents. As we queue up amongst the sea of people, I check our tickets. They’re the right tickets, although something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t an internet issue, it was a server issue in their backend. A bug that disabled my QR code… our tickets. In a quick rush of panic, I tell my girlfriend. She suggests for me to rush over to the customer service kiosk 100 metres away and get physical tickets printed. So I do. I got to the first of three booths that touched each other. I explain the problem and ask for the tickets. The man listening to me looked half asleep, and told me to go to the booth on the right, as I was at the wrong company. So I do. I stress to the lady in the right place, and she see’s it, and instantly prints them and tells me to run as it’s about to leave. I’m still 100m away from the ferry that has docked to come pick us up. However, amongst the sea of people, it was tough walk in a straight line to the dock. I manage to get to my girlfriend, and then we start running towards the boat.
The other four people are on the boat, including the two that I had the tickets for. We are 5 metres away, and we think we are going to make it! As we cross the road to board the ferry, police officers start blowing whistles at us to stop. That is when we notice the ramp onto the ferry starting to raise. The engine as loud as a helicopter started, and the Greek breeze contributed to my heart dropping. Most of our luggage, on board, was being taken with our other members. For a brief second, all 6 of us shout “WAIT!” and the ramp stopped. It started to lower again, and we were all relieved. They were actually going to let us on! Then 5 seconds later we were in disbelief as it raised up and took off without us. At this point, I wasn’t focused on our group, but the man directing all of this. I kept shouting “We are with them! Our stuff is there” only for him to say “Didn’t you hear the last call?” A loud FUCK left my body and stress started to overcome us. Thankfully I had my passport, my money and my phone. I had everything but most of my clothes.
Now we must think quick. What the fuck do we do here…First thing that came to our mind. See if there is another ferry to Athens today. Fortunately, there was a ferry that was next to us. We run across the dock and up the ramp. My girlfriend and I both ask the workers, “Athens?! Does this ferry go to Athens!?” The 5 workers all answered, “No, it goes to Rafina.” Where the fuck is Rafina? We need Athens! So stressed at this point, we even asked other passengers, who just told us to ask the workers. So again, we asked the workers, "Athens!?”. “No, Rafina”. My girlfriend uses google maps and manages to find Rafina. We see it. On the other side of Piraeus, 40 minutes from Athens, but on the mainland. We decide we want to take it. We just need to be on the mainland, sort the rest out later.
After talking to a woman collecting tickets to board, she asks for my passport and told us to wait upstairs. So we did. So with the bags that remained with us, and whatever confidence we had left, we sat on the deck floor in a, unquestionably, very nice and very empty boat. After 30 minutes of sailing, an announcement was made “James Cheeseman, please come to the office.” After a very brief moment of confusion, I decided to go up as I suspected that there are not many Greeks with the last name Cheeseman on board. So there I was, standing in front of the desk with two greek ferrymen, and the lady that helped us on. They asked “Where are you going?” in which I replied “Rafina.” The man wrote stuff down on two tickets, and said “That will be 38 euros each.” THANK GOD. I was expecting at least 90 euros. The Greek gods have blessed us. We did it! We are going to Athens! Slowly!
4-5 hours have passed, we arrive in Rafina. The lovely city of Rafina… That we need to get out of NOW. By this time, our group has gotten to the hotel, and rejuvenated. Instead we need to start looking for a coach we read about that will take us to Athens for 2.40 euro. We are the first to get off the ferry because we don’t know what time the bus might come. We see a coach that reads ‘ATHENS’ on its digital frontboard. We rush straight towards it, as we do not want to experience another miss. We ask the man standing out front, “Athens?”. The man replied “Athens City Centre”. I quickly reply “How much?”, knowing I would pay whatever it takes! “2.40” the man says. Say no more. We put our stuff under the bus, and get on without hesitation. We are relieved. We have finally done it!!
30 minutes have passed whilst on the bus. We notice a lot of people outside churches as we drive by, to realise it’s actually Good Friday. Nonetheless, we drive past it all and finally get to… the Metro. Fuck. Still more to go. Now we have to navigate the metro system. All we were missing at this point was a plane.
We go down into the metro. Buy our ticket for 1 Euro, and we’re on! But which way do we go? There’s no platform numbers, just a name of a town heading in each direction. No reception down here either, so we go back up to the street level and figure out which direction to head. We go back down to the same platform we were on before and get on the next metro. Can we relax now? I think so… as long as we don’t miss the stop. Aaaand we got there! The Hyde park of Greece, 1 and 1/4 hours from our arrival on ferry. We finally see Athens, the Parthenon. It’s all there, as promised. Lucky us, we got to take the scenic route too! Our group didn’t know what they were missing.
We reunite with the others at Macca’s, with hugs, like we hadn’t seen each other in years. Just like before our ferry, we start to share our stories. Much fresher stories. After 10 minutes of walking around Athens, we are stopped by a procession in the street. A Holy Friday Epitaphios. We finally reach our hotel around 23:00. A hotel that was surrounded by countless pubs and restaurants. Most of which were covered in Graffiti and open until 7:00 in the morning playing music. Home sweet home…
Moral of the story, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Especially when travelling! And maybe print off your tickets too. That could also be handy.