Moving Day - Syros to Samos 🇬🇷

The alarm at 1 a.m. confirmed that the ferry was on its way. Strangely, I managed to get back to sleep and slept fairly well. But 2:45 a.m. came around way too quickly. Up we got and off we went—not very far at all down to the port. We probably should have waited at the apartment longer rather than waiting there. The wind was still blowing and, although it was a warm wind, it was the first time in months that I could have worn my sweatshirt. But it was packed away, and I wasn’t going to bother getting it out.

It was 3:50 a.m. when the ferry finally arrived, and we boarded with a small group of others. The ferry was very full. It was a big Blue Star Ferries boat. We struggled to find a nice seat with a table like we had ex-Santorini on a similar boat. In the end, we found two airline-style seats and settled in. Next stop: Mykonos. I decided to dig my sweatshirt out of my pack, as it was cool inside the boat—good air conditioning.

It didn’t seem like we had been going for very long when Sarah started looking quite green. She wandered about a bit trying to feel less seasick but with not much success. At Mykonos, it felt like more than half the passengers got off. But there were still no nice seats with tables. The next stop was a smaller island called Ikaria. We had considered stopping here but decided it was a bit too small with not a lot to do.

Finally, a nice booth seat with a table became free, and we moved to it. Sarah lay down for a little while and started to look better. I got her a cup of tea and a packet of chips, which seemed to help. She even felt good enough for a game of Five Crowns—which she proceeded to win. ☹️ Maybe she was just faking the illness to lull me into a trap?

We stopped at another small island port called Fourni. Then our island, Samos, was next. But they stop at two ports on Samos: Karlovasi and Vathy. We needed to wait a bit longer and get off at Port Vathy, which is in the main town of the same name—Samos.

Imagine my surprise (and grumpiness) when the ferry dropped us off on the other side of the Samos Vathy harbour. Google Maps clearly shows the ferry lanes going into the side we were expecting! Shoot! The port we landed at is a full 3 km walk from our apartment. It was supposed to be only 700 m away from the port. It is… but we now know there are actually two ports in Vathy, one on each side of the harbour! What?! A lot of people were getting off here too, and there was no sign of a bus stop. Sarah asked some people, and they said there was one about 1 km down the road.

We did find a bus stop, and it was actually closer than 1 km, but we had no idea if a bus would ever turn up there—or when. So we kept walking. There was a nice breeze, and we stuck to the shade whenever possible, but it was still a long walk. We stopped just over halfway for a drink and a breather. We had a friendly dog keeping us company all the way up until this point. She even had a drink from my bottle. 😂 After that, she wandered off on her own. We never saw a bus pass us during the walk, so who knows if they even service that port. Pretty useless.

We made it to the apartment and found it without too much difficulty. Glad not to be doing it at 1:30 a.m.! It was hot, and the last bit of the walk was uphill. The apartment is really nice—must have been renovated quite recently, as everything looks new.

Later, we went back out and down to the main square to visit a couple of supermarkets. We found a small one that had the basics we needed. That meant another walk back up the hill, but it was much easier without lugging a back and front pack.

For dinner, we cooked chicken schnitzel (pre-crumbed in the pack), plus roasted sweet potatoes and a lettuce salad. A nice change to the usual chicken breasts and good to have a full size oven.