April 24: Naxos

This morning I walked/hobbled to the port. The rest day helped and I only had to sit down twice on the walk to the port. But, it was still hard going.

I had two reasons for going to the port: to inquire about an alternate (aka better) ferry connection to Amorgos on Thursday, and to replenish my supply of Euros. I had done some Googling the day before about ferry routes and schedules, and where to buy tickets, so I knew I had to go to ZAS Travel. Unfortunately, their office was located at the furthest end of the port. I had to have a sit down for a minute when I got there. Thankfully, the staff were busy chatting and having their morning smoke, so they didn't bother me. Sometimes it's nice to be ignored.

My Googling had been correct. The two options were the Express Skopelitis, departing at 2:00pm and arriving at 5:55pm (for EUR 11), and Seajet 2, departing at 12:00pm and arriving at 1:15pm (for EUR 57). After a brief ponder, I opted for the more expensive - but faster - Seajet catamaran. I asked about where I should catch the Seajet and the travel agent's answer was a bit vague ("Over there. Check the gate.") so I decided to have breakfast and then hang out at the pier to see where the ferry docked and what the offloading / loading procedure was like.

Brekkie was "The English". They didn't ask me how I wanted my eggs prepared, so I got fried eggs with runny yolks. I hate fried eggs with runny yolks. Oh, well. My bad. Everything else was lovely.

My post-brekkie "recce" of the port proved valuable. A few minutes after the scheduled departure time, two ferries arrived at the same time, both operated by Seajet. There was a larger ferry and a small catamaran. The offloading / loading procedure was the same as I remembered from past trips - the ferry tied up, the ramp was immediately thrown down, people offloaded / loaded in under 5 minutes, and as the last person stepped onto the deck they had already cast off and started raising the ramp. There was absolutely no fucking around.

Satisfied that I knew what to expect, I went to the bank to get Euros and then walked back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool. I must have spent three hours swimming back and forth.

I met Cindy and Sandy for dinner at 7:00pm. We went back to Scirocco. I had soutsoukakia (cumin-spiced meatballs) with rice. Cindy and Sandy had pita and tzatziki, and shared the lemonato (lamb stew with lemon) with roasted veggies for their main. Unortunately, I didn't take any photos.

Back at the hotel we said our goodbyes. They were catching a 9:30am ferry to Paros the next morning.