On Friday, July 22 we left Tinos for the mainland. We were all sad to leave. I think Louis, Meghan and I would have stayed indefinitely if we could have. Alas, it was time to move on and explore other places in Greece.
We bought tickets for a 3:00pm ferry so that we would have plenty of time to get all of our stuff down to the docks and loaded on the ship. We had much more than we came with and this provided a problem. There were only 4 adults and one of them would have to take care of the children while the rest of us would go back and forth to get our stuff. We would even have to make two trips in the car to get our belongings down from Kardiani to the docks. Louis and I had a great plan: we would load the car with as much stuff as we could and take it down to a restaurant or café. I would sit in the café and read or write or watch people while I sat with all of the luggage. Then he would go back to Kardiani and get what was left plus everyone else. We would then take the stuff down to the docks.
Well, the car rental place had a better plan: leave your luggage here and we will ferry it down when you are ready. That was a PERFECT idea...except they did not realize how much stuff we had. Once they saw that there were about 12 pieces of luggage in the first round (we had 21 all together), they would not have room to do that. I helped Louis drop off the first round and then went into the village to shop and wait for him to come back. When he did arrive, I found him loading all of our stuff back into the rental car and heading down to a restaurant closer to the docks. He left Meghan and Lena with the luggage down there, came back to drop off the rental car, and the rest of us headed down on foot to meet her and have lunch.
Now we are at a restaurant about 100 yards from the docks. We figure that we must eat lunch and then Louis and I will make two trips to help carry all of our stuff down to the docks. I was thinking the sooner we did this, the better. But Louis insisted that we have plenty of time. There was no ferry in sight and we had at least an hour.
Louis was also thinking that the ferry would be in port for maybe 10-15 minutes. He (and we since we agreed with him) were very wrong. It works like this: you wait at the dock. The ferry comes in and lets down the ramp. People get on and off at the same time causing a large clusterf^*%. It all takes about 5 minutes. Panic ensues.
Rosemary had Perrin and was trying to get everything she had on the ferry plus communicate to the ferry people that more of us were coming. Louis and I were almost running (it’s hard to do when you are loaded down) to the ferry with the second round. Meghan was in there somewhere but I cannot remember if she had Lena or she was helping us or both. It was a mess. Louis had the tickets and Rosemary, Meghan and the kids could not board the ferry without them. Meanwhile, he is trying to load all of the stuff on the ferry in a place where we can find it when we depart. It was mass chaos. All of us were freaking out in our own way. We almost did not make it off the island. Truthfully, this would not have been so bad if we had a place to stay :-)
The boat ride back was pretty uneventful. We all sat down and relaxed glad to be safely aboard and on our way back to Athens. Louis bought me a large beer, which I guzzled. We took some pictures, ate some snacks, watched Lena sleep, and enjoyed the ocean air. Four hours later, we experience the rush again as we try to get all of the stuff off of the boat and find Louis’ uncle at the same time.
We bought tickets for a 3:00pm ferry so that we would have plenty of time to get all of our stuff down to the docks and loaded on the ship. We had much more than we came with and this provided a problem. There were only 4 adults and one of them would have to take care of the children while the rest of us would go back and forth to get our stuff. We would even have to make two trips in the car to get our belongings down from Kardiani to the docks. Louis and I had a great plan: we would load the car with as much stuff as we could and take it down to a restaurant or café. I would sit in the café and read or write or watch people while I sat with all of the luggage. Then he would go back to Kardiani and get what was left plus everyone else. We would then take the stuff down to the docks.
Well, the car rental place had a better plan: leave your luggage here and we will ferry it down when you are ready. That was a PERFECT idea...except they did not realize how much stuff we had. Once they saw that there were about 12 pieces of luggage in the first round (we had 21 all together), they would not have room to do that. I helped Louis drop off the first round and then went into the village to shop and wait for him to come back. When he did arrive, I found him loading all of our stuff back into the rental car and heading down to a restaurant closer to the docks. He left Meghan and Lena with the luggage down there, came back to drop off the rental car, and the rest of us headed down on foot to meet her and have lunch.
Now we are at a restaurant about 100 yards from the docks. We figure that we must eat lunch and then Louis and I will make two trips to help carry all of our stuff down to the docks. I was thinking the sooner we did this, the better. But Louis insisted that we have plenty of time. There was no ferry in sight and we had at least an hour.
Louis was also thinking that the ferry would be in port for maybe 10-15 minutes. He (and we since we agreed with him) were very wrong. It works like this: you wait at the dock. The ferry comes in and lets down the ramp. People get on and off at the same time causing a large clusterf^*%. It all takes about 5 minutes. Panic ensues.
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| I did not take this pic, but its a good visual |
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| Goofiness (That's my hat and sunglasses) |
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| So Long, Tinos (sigh) |
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