October 9: Rhodes City to Blue Star Ferry
This was our last day in Rhodes, and it was the beginning of one of our few awkwardly scheduled days. For the most part, this trip didn’t involve any dead time waiting for transport, but some waiting around with our suitcases was unavoidable between Rhodes and Crete. We had to leave the house by 11:00 AM, but the ferry didn’t leave until 6:00 PM. That meant killing several hours with luggage, which is never fun.
Today was also the day to refine our packing. We’d been slightly overpacked, which didn’t matter when we had a car, but now we needed to be lean and mean. I tossed out my beloved Lems Primals (it would be all Altra Lone Peaks in Crete) along with several garments and some underused cosmetics. Chris left his old Lone Peaks and several under-used electronic objects. We were finally at fighting weight!
Our host Stephen met us at the house to see us on our way. He’d assumed we could just take the bus into town. I suspect he doesn’t use the bus himself (he rides a scooter) and didn’t know what we’d discovered—the buses don’t stop in Kritika, at least not in the late morning. Nor would a northbound cab stop—they were all loaded up with tourists leaving their hotels and heading to the airport.
We finally flagged down a cab heading the wrong direction, and persuaded him to take us to the port. On the way, he told us how insane traffic is in the summer, when the tourist burden is at its highest.
We spent the afternoon sitting at a taverna, eating lunch and working on our computers.
At 3:00, we dragged out suitcases down to the port, intending to board the ferry and ditch our stuff in our cabin. But the ferry wasn’t there. After some investigating, I figured out why. These ferries run what are essentially bus routes, stopping in at various islands for a few minutes and then moving onward. Our ferry originated in Karpathos, and was going to stop in Rhodes for just a quick pickup.
This meant killing another couple of hours. Happily there was a Grygorys (basically, Greek QuickTrip).
And we were off, back across the Aegean!