Piraeus Port, the passenger port of Athens, is where the ferries depart from the mainland to the islands. After collecting our paper tickets at the Anek Lines ticket office, we waited in the parking lot until it was our turn to drive our van onto the ferry. Besides passengers, the ferries transport vehicles of all shapes and sizes. It was fascinating to watch how the truck cabs pull the freight containers up the ramp and into the hull of the ship and then emerge alone, like a parent dropping young children off at school.
Soon, the passenger vehicles and motorcycles were signaled to drive up the ramp and we were directed by workers to turn and maneuver our van to fit into a space that seemed impossibly small. By the time the cars were all in position, there was only about 10 cm of space between each car. The whole operation was like a well-tuned orchestra with everybody doing exactly what was needed to create harmonious music.
The only other time that Leo and I drove a car onto a ferry was when Leo and I traveled from Boston to Nova Scotia. We took the CAT Ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine to Nova Scotia. The kids have never been on a huge ferry like this and were trying to work out the difference between a cruise and a ferry. The explanation that we came up with is: a cruise is like a resort on the sea whereas a ferry is like a water taxi. We reached the lobby and were delighted to see a decorated Christmas tree welcome us onboard.
Once we reached our rooms, it became obvious to the kids that this was a ferry and not a cruise. The rooms were simple, clean and just a little bigger than the sleeper car of a train with beds on either side. There were upper-level beds that folded down from the walls when it was time to sleep. Besides the beds, there was a desk with chair, a closet and an ensuite bathroom that made it slightly more convenient than a train. It was nothing fancy, but it was comfortable enough for a night.
We explored the different areas of the ferry and discovered various seating areas. Later, we would find that travelers who didn’t reserve a room brought blankets and pillows and found a comfy chair or space on the floor to spend the night. We enjoyed dinner in the restaurant, whose layout resembled an Ikea cafeteria. The bread, salads and appetizers were self-serve while the six or so hot food selections were served by a worker onto plates. After selecting a dessert and drinks, we carried the trays to the cashier and paid for the meal.
Once we finished dinner, there was not much left to do but return to our rooms. We spent the few hours before bed working on EY’s Christmas wish – rainbow hair. AY came up with the brilliant idea to use pipe cleaners and yarn to fashion a wig. With the pipe cleaners, we made a kind of cap structure to hold the yarn together. Then we tied on the pink, purple, yellow-colored yarn that EY had picked out at a shop in Nafplio. We could have used more yarn to make the hair fuller, but most importantly, EY was satisfied with the results.
The next morning, we were awoken at 5 am by a knock on the door. We were all still tired, but we looked forward to stepping foot on Crete. The well-tuned orchestra started playing and under the expert guidance of the ferry workers, all of the cars and passengers made it into Heraklion port in less than 15 minutes and in an orderly fashion.
It was just before sunrise so we wanted to take advantage of the unusual occurrence of being awake so early. We wanted to try and find a beach to see the sun rising out of the Aegean Sea. We hadn’t done much research and we didn’t have the luxury of time, so we drove out of the port onto the main road to see what we could find. The roads were completely empty and the sky was already turning light. We stopped at the parking lot of Karavolas park where we could see a walking path and a concrete pier jutting into the ocean. The wind was strong and the sea lashed violently onto the rocks. There was an old man fishing from the pier and I could imagine that he enjoyed this solitary activity regularly. Maybe he would take what he caught home for him and his wife to have fish soup or grilled fish for lunch.
After looking at the map, we realized that we were facing north and probably wouldn’t see the sunrise. But we did get to watch the sky turn into beautiful pastel shades of pink, yellow and blue, just about matching the shades of EY’s rainbow hair.
Satisfied but cold, we continued driving west toward Chania, in search of a place to stop for breakfast and a hot drink. We came across a cozy bakery, one of many we would come across in Crete, with an extensive selection of breads, pastries, cookies and cakes. EY wore her rainbow wig or as she calls it, rainbow pretend hair into the restaurant. It turns out that rainbow hair is popular with the early breakfast crowd and she got some approving smiles and compliments. We ordered a variety of breads, sourdough, pretzels, croissant, donuts, koulouri and some hot chocolate. This is the first time that we tried koulouri, a Greek bagel covered with sesame seeds.
We still had half a day before we could check into our Airbnb so we did some grocery shopping. We came across a butcher shop, Meet the Meat, that became one of our favorite places to buy good quality meat. They have so many cuts of meat that RY was eager to get onto the grill and the rest of us were eager to taste.
