Athens to Santorini

Today was a doozy of a travel day, from Athens to Santorini.

We started our day getting up early to catch our ferry to Santorini from Athens. Chris grabbed coffees while Chels got ready, and we were making great time! When we went to call an uber though, we were shocked to see that after 8 minutes we weren’t getting a ride(uber calls taxis in Greece)

We went to a nearby hotel to ask if they could call a taxi for us, and to our horror learned every taxi driver in Athens had chosen today to strike. Upon learning this we made a mad dash to the metro with our bags, and were greeted by the most full metro and trains we had ever seen. With hundreds of people also hauling bags and unable to call a taxi. The train we needed pulled up, and was completely full, but we pushed our way on as we couldn’t miss it or we’d miss our ferry.

After an hour on the metro, we arrived at the ferry stop, and sprinted the next few blocks to the ferry terminal we needed, where we saw our boat steaming away. There was a group of ten or so others waiting at the dock who had also missed it. We were a bit annoyed at this point, as the ferry was the same price as a plane ticket and they wouldn’t refund it.

In any case, we got back on the metro to go an hour and a half back to the airport to catch a flight. The metro was jam packed again, but emptied out a bit after we got past Athens. To our shock the metro stopped around 5 stops from the airport and the lights turned off. We then heard an announcement to leave the train. Us and a hundred or so other tourists now stood befuddled on the metro platform, as train after train arrived, turned off its lights, and announced for passengers to disembark.

We were quite confused. Finally a train pulled up though whose lights didn’t turn off, and everyone on the platform rushed on. Thankfully this plane did indeed get us to the airport. We grabbed food at a lounge in the airport, and the. Headed to our plane. We boarded from the tarmac where we saw the most disorganized ground crew we’d ever seen unloading and reloading bags from the plane, and mixing them up! We joked that we hoped our bags wouldn’t be lost, and were shocked by the unprofessionalism.

After a very long travel day we were so happy to get on our plane. It was an uneventful flight, but upon landing, Chelsea’s bag never came out of the baggage claim. To our bemusement when we checked its air tag, the bag had indeed been left on the tarmac in Athens. When we submitted a lost baggage claim, we learned we wouldn’t get it til tomorrow.

At this point we were ready for a drink! We took our shuttle to the hotel, and bought some beer from the local market across the street. We enjoyed a few drinks, explored the neighborhood, and then had dinner at a spot with a superb view of the ocean. Afterwards we enjoyed the sunset from our balcony, and called it a night on our longest travel day yet!Read more