1. The taxi was approaching the port of Piraeus before I felt myself relax. I’d made a rookie travel mistake, not a huge one, but it threatened to cost me an extra hundred bucks and ding my ego very early in the trip. My flight into Athens was scheduled to arrive at 12:30 and I was hoping to be on a 14:30 ferry headed out the Saronic Gulf and to the island of Spetses. I planned to take the Athens Metro to Piraeus. Google Maps told me that it was a one-hour trip. So by 13:00, I‘d cleared immigration and was waiting in a line at a kiosk to get a sim card. I figured it was safe to go online and book my ferry ticket. That turned out to be premature. The sim card line took a while and even by the time I’d gotten the card, my checked bag had not come out onto the luggage carousel. Then, I realized that the train ride itself was an hour and only left every hour, so the metro was out. When I got my bag and walked outside, I saw that the line for taxis was quite long. It was approaching 2pm and I had a paid-for, non-refundable ticket for the 14:30 ferry. This was not the auspicious return to the road that I had envisaged.
Dispatches: Spetses, Greece
Dispatches: Spetses, Greece
Dispatches: Spetses, Greece
1. The taxi was approaching the port of Piraeus before I felt myself relax. I’d made a rookie travel mistake, not a huge one, but it threatened to cost me an extra hundred bucks and ding my ego very early in the trip. My flight into Athens was scheduled to arrive at 12:30 and I was hoping to be on a 14:30 ferry headed out the Saronic Gulf and to the island of Spetses. I planned to take the Athens Metro to Piraeus. Google Maps told me that it was a one-hour trip. So by 13:00, I‘d cleared immigration and was waiting in a line at a kiosk to get a sim card. I figured it was safe to go online and book my ferry ticket. That turned out to be premature. The sim card line took a while and even by the time I’d gotten the card, my checked bag had not come out onto the luggage carousel. Then, I realized that the train ride itself was an hour and only left every hour, so the metro was out. When I got my bag and walked outside, I saw that the line for taxis was quite long. It was approaching 2pm and I had a paid-for, non-refundable ticket for the 14:30 ferry. This was not the auspicious return to the road that I had envisaged.