Piper Three And A Half

A long overdue follow up post from the trip to Greece. Here is a run down on our attempts to travel around Greece. We're certainly not experts on Greek travel, and this was in November which isn't prime travel season. So while this probably isn't a typical week of travel in Greece, it is still ridiculous.

We booked our hotel room at each location months ahead of time (when we booked our flights and all of that). We wanted to book our ferry tickets to get from Athens to Crete, Crete to Santorini, and Santorini back to Athens, but we couldn't because ferry schedules are not available more than 2 weeks ahead of time (from what we could find).
We booked 2 nights in Athens, 2 nights in Crete, and 3 nights in Santorini. Also, our flight leaving Athens (end of the trip) was booked for 7pm -- you know, to give us plenty of time to get back to the mainland that day and make the flight.
When we arrived in Athens (on a flight from Rome), we had a plan to take a bus to a subway stop and then the subway to our hotel. After a bus trip with no issues, we found that the gates were closed at the entrance to the subway. Odd.
We waited 20 minutes for the next bus that would take us to our destination. It came and it didn't stop.
We waited 20 minutes for the next one. It stopped (apparently only for the red light), we walked up to it, the back doors opened, and we got on. And then the bus driver stands up, yells at us and points for us to get off the bus. We oblige.
Our savior, a young woman from the states but living in Greece, happens to be there. She asks if we're trying to get downtown and if we want to split a cab. If this hadn't happened, we may still be sitting on that corner in Athens.
Interesting note about Athens cab drivers: They'll ask you where you want to go, but if they don't want to take you there, they will decline and drive away. Doesn't seem like the best way to make money.
So we hail about 8 or 9 cabs before one finally agrees and finally get on our way. During the ride (through translation by our savior), we learn that A) the bus is indeed supposed to stop there and pick people up, and B) the subway workers are on strike and the strike will continue for the next day as well.
Second interesting note about Athens cab drivers: They will stop during your ride to pick up other passengers. In fact, apparently you don't actually split cab rides, but each person pays for the trip. I'm not completely certain about this because I don't speak Greek and this was our only cab ride. Luckily our driver refused the one or two other people looking for rides.

The next day we find a travel agency close to our hotel and inquire about ferry tickets.
There are only two ferries going to Crete, and they are both overnight ferries. This means we basically lose the first night of our hotel in Crete since we'll get there at 5AM.
Also, there are only overnight ferries between Santorini and Athens for our return, meaning we lose the last night of our hotel stay in Santorini -- AND we have an entire day to kill in Athens when we get back at 7AM until our flight leaves that night.
At least the ferry from Crete to Santorini is a simple 3 hour trip in the middle of the day...

We enjoyed Athens, and we head to the port to catch our ferry to Crete. We did not book a cabin for this trip to save money. Bad move. The ferry is delayed 5 hours due to bad weather. This led to a long night of sleeping in a room with a bunch of other people (think sleeping on a plane with everyone snoring). But we make it in time for breakfast at our hotel and plenty of time to see some things that day.

Two days later we head back to the Iraklio port to catch our boat to Santorini.
The boat is not there.
We ask around, and nobody really knows much of anything. The port is pretty dead.
Finally we call the ferry company and find out the ferry for the day is canceled. Awesome! They assure us it will be there the next day though.
We find a travel agency to see if there are any other ferries to take. Surprise, there are not.
Decision time: pay for an extra hotel night in Crete, only get one night in Santorini (remember we already lost the last night there), and take the next ferry. Or pay a lot of money for a plane ticket to get there that day and enjoy Santorini some. Neither is great, but it's a honeymoon so we decide to fly.

We have all of our stuff with us already so we head to the airport even though we're there 2.5 hours early.
Finally, it's close enough to our departure time to check in.
Weird, the flight is canceled due to bad weather.
It's 65 degrees and blue sky outside.
Also weird, another flight is also heading to Athens (all flights go through Athens) and it isn't canceled. So we get on the phone with our (new) travel agents and pay some more money to get the first leg of our flight changed to the other airline.
The flight is a little late taking off, but we finally leave that terrible island. We are pretty pumped we don't have to film our own version of LOST.

Santorini is very nice (see previous posts), although most things are closed in November. And somehow we get on our ferry back to Athens with no further complications.
Spending the extra day in Athens was actually pretty fun too. It even gave us a chance to check out the original Olympic stadium from 1896.

Moral: If you want to go to multiple islands in Greece, just book a cruise. It gives you a place to stay every night, and you know where you will start and end. Also, don't go during the dead season (November through March).