What a fantastic Odyssey! We set off from Salerno on 7 August 2005 heading for Bari. ATTENTION!!! First warning. Never leave on a Sunday: public transport is reduced and you risk having to do what we did, that is, set off twelve hours before the boarding time. On Sundays the connections to Bari are really poor, so there we were at 7.45 am ready to catch the bus to Benevento and then the train to Bari...the ship's departure was at 20.00. We had booked well in advance 4 seats on the Blue Horizon of BLUE STAR FERRIES...a dream ship! Spotlessly clean, with a swimming pool, several bars, two restaurants, a disco bar, a casino, DVD player rental, etc. (price 137 euros each, return).
To book the tickets I recommend the "Do it yourself" approach: that is, go to the SUPERFAST website and complete the booking, but if you don't want to pay by credit card you can phone Superfast (you'll find the number browsing the site), book the tickets, which will be held until one month before your departure, and pay by bank transfer. On arrival in Bari, with the fax and a copy of the payment, the tickets will be handed to you. My advice is to spend 10 euros more than the deck passage and take a seat; you'll sleep more peacefully and warmly (so to speak, because the air conditioning is probably set to -50°). As soon as you board, some friendly little men dressed to the nines will direct you to your seats.
Sit down, put your suitcases in the designated spaces (nobody steals them, also because my departure looked like a house move, nobody felt strong enough to carry off my luggage...and then where?) and try to occupy, with beach towels or mats, spots on the floor that don't block the passage...listen to me, you'll thank me! Also because the friendly well-dressed little man who welcomed you at the entrance, barring entry to those who hadn't booked a seat in the armchairs, turns into a toilet cleaner when the ship departs and therefore leaves the hall open even to those with only a deck ticket. Now you can have fun on the ship, explore it far and wide, and if you're a smoker buy cigarettes, they cost only 2 euros. You'd also do well to allow yourself a bit of time for a shower. If you're heading to the Cyclades there won't be another chance to wash for the next two days.
The showers aren't a splendour, but leave your mental standards at home and think of them as the showers of any gym. I almost forgot!!! If you're heading to Athens or Piraeus, as soon as you board buy the ticket for the bus provided by Blue Star Ferries, another 15 euros each. Once you disembark at Patras, another 3 hours of bus await you...and not only that. Along the way you'll see wonderful landscapes and can photograph the Gulf of Corinth, it's marvellous! During the bus journey there's also a stop at a motorway service station, totally different from the ones we're used to. Now that the advice is over, let me tell you about our holiday. There were 4 of us: me, Giosue, Mariella and Matteo, in Greece for the first time, with about 1000 euros each to visit Mykonos, Santorini and Crete; some of us came home with a few hundred euros left, others spent a bit more.
We were convinced we'd find transport and accommodation without difficulty; partly this is true, but probably not entirely in August. As soon as we arrived in Piraeus, there was the first difficulty: finding the ferry to Mykonos. Quite an undertaking! Tickets sold out and the few we found were very expensive and arrived at night, and then the problem would have been finding accommodation. We decide to first reach the port of Heraklion in Crete; departure at 21.00, arrival at 6.00, perfect! The ship belongs to the Anek company, not as beautiful as the Blue Star but acceptable (as beautiful as the Blue Star I don't think you'll find any more in Greece), price 26 euros each for the deck passage (if we'd booked earlier, at 32 euros each we'd have had a cabin for two...what a shame!). If you can, book them online (and have them sent to you).
Arriving at the port of Heraklion, a taxi driver offers to take us to the car-rental places, loads the suitcases and drives us around (10 euros)...but it's August and his rental friends have no more cars, so he drops us in the city centre, where by 8.30 at least ten car-rental agencies in the area would have opened. We wait for them to open, having breakfast in one of the many bars, and then rent an Accent for 50 euros a day. A real rip-off...not for the car, which was in excellent condition, but for the price. In Heraklion the prices are a bit steep; I recommend taking a bus to wherever you're headed and then renting a car or scooter there...you'll understand why. The bus station is a few dozen metres from the port exit; if you like, you can leave your luggage at the port's left-luggage office (only 1 euro for the whole day) and pick it up later.
We head for Hersonissos; we'd read it was a very lively little town full of bars and shops, and indeed that's how it turned out. We stop at the first rent-a-room in Hersonissos where they offer us two double rooms for 20 euros each; the price was good but they became free at 12 and we wanted to see them before taking them (we'd set off with the idea that Greece was dirty...nothing could be further from the truth!), so we leave everything on hold and decide to take another little wander. We head up a slope; after less than a kilometre we spot a cluster of colourful little houses on the left and make for it. A wonderful village with two-storey little villas and, as we'd later discover, a beautiful swimming pool, a market and parties organised in the evening.
We decide to ask for an apartment for 4, willing to spend any amount for that wonderful place full of young people of every nationality, sure that they'd quote us an exorbitant figure for such a treat. Miss Ellen welcomes us and shows us the available apartments; we choose one with a double bedroom overlooking a magnificent garden, two single beds, a kitchenette, a bathroom and a small terrace with a table and chairs. It's time to ask the price; by now we were all in love with the place and it would have been ours at any price. Miss Ellen asks us for 40 euros a day. We kept asking her in broken English: "For one person?" and she kept answering: "No! For all!" What a stroke of luck!!! Forgive the expression. Paradise at 10 euros each? For us it was incredible, yet it was exactly so.
The place is called PORTO VILLAGE...(remember this name because if you happen to be in Hersonissos you absolutely must go, it's really far too beautiful. In the house there's a safe that costs 3 euros for the entire stay, the pool with umbrellas and sun loungers is free and you can also use mats, balls etc. that the owners provide free of charge. Around the pool there's the bar where you can also eat local specialities. For the first day we decide to go to the sea at Malia, about ten kilometres from Hersonissos; it's a very pretty centre full of little shops, tavernas and a car-rental place that would rent us an Accent for 20 euros a day and scooters, two- or four-wheeled, for 10 euros. But by now they'd already pulled the rip-off on us!!!!! TO BE CONTINUED...
Day 18 Aug 2005
Crete
There, the pools, strange as it may seem, are free. We first go to a beach called "Free" for breakfast. If we had wanted to swim in the pool we could have done it for free, while an umbrella and 2 sunbeds on the beach cost 8 euros. We wanted, however, to see another beach club, and we take 2 umbrellas and 4 sunbeds for 12 euros, 3 euros each. We ask how much we would have to pay to also take a dip in the pool and the guy tells us it's free... strange... but true! In the evening, after a stroll through the little shops of Hersonissos to buy souvenirs, we return to Malia. Malia has an entire street of Disco Bars where you can go in and dance even without buying anything. Just ask for the street of the Clubs and they'll point it out to you right away. There are dozens and dozens of nightclubs frequented mainly by northern European twenty-something guys and girls.
The impression that place gave me is of a Rimini ten times crazier, with drunk teen-agers behaving like in American movies during college parties - where everything is allowed. Truthfully a bit transgressive for my tastes.
Smiling woman sitting on stone steps among sunny buildings and garden
Day 29 Aug 2005
On the second day we decide to stay in the village, it's really too beautiful to just sleep in! Until 10:30 am, by paying 3.90 euros, you can have breakfast with everything you could want... even eggs and bacon, but we had come back at dawn the night before and consequently opt for a breakfast with enormous croissants and milk and cocoa in a little bottle bought at the village market around 12. In the evening we decide to go to Aghios Nikolaos, about 60 km away. A very beautiful place, refined and welcoming. We decide to have dinner in one of those little restaurants by the sea... beautiful! Be careful when you choose the restaurant... as soon as you stop in front of one of these, the waiter will try to convince you to come in and sit down. You politely reply that you've already had dinner and calmly choose the one you like best.
Man in sunglasses swimming in blue pool, hand on edge
Day 310 Aug 2005
Third day in Crete, today we go to the sea at Aghia Pelagia, lovely! What's more, there's even a paid shower... in the Cyclades it will be really hard to find a shower on the beaches. In the evening we wander around Hersonissos, we have to buy little gifts. Here in Crete everything is extremely affordable, even for souvenirs there are little shops with everything at 1.50 euros, and then there are perfect imitations of bags, hats, glasses, wallets, etc. of all the brands at rock-bottom prices.
Man in sunglasses swimming in blue pool, hand on edge
Day 411 Aug 2005
Fourth day. We have to catch the ferry to Santorini at 9:00 pm which will arrive at 1:00 am (16 euros)... let's hope we find a place to stay! Anyway, the last day in Crete passes visiting the House of Minos at Knossos (entry 6 euros) and having lunch in a nice little restaurant by the sea, near the castle in Heraklion (very beautiful and cheap). In the morning we had had to return the car and had rented a 50cc scooter for 20 euros and a 150cc one for 23 euros, with which we toured the whole city. At 8:00 pm we drop off the scooters, retrieve our suitcases at the port and off we go on a ramshackle Minoan ship to Santorini.
Pink and white hotel arches with pool, sea in the background
Day 512 Aug 2005
We arrive a bit late, around 2:00 am, in Santorini, convinced we'll have to spend the night awake because the port is at the base of a very tall cliff, impossible to climb on foot, and there's no beach. As soon as we arrive, though, the agencies at the port are open and we ask for an apartment. They offer us one in Perissa for 30 euros per person and offer to take us there, I don't know why but we don't accept. Further on, in front of the port, a lady shows photographs of a very nice apartment complex in Thira with a beautiful pool at the centre and she wants only 25 euros each. We opt for this, climb into her little van which takes us with our suitcases to VILLA MANOS (two bus stops (the stop is very close to our tourist complex) from Thira Town).
Tourists in front of white church with blue domes in Santorini
Day 613 Aug 2005
The following day, as soon as we wake up, we go in frantic search of scooters or cars... nothing! It's August 13th!... impossible to find them. So we take the bus to have breakfast in the centre and to buy tickets for Mykonos and then for Piraeus. All sold out!!! After an initial moment of panic, the young lady at the agency finds us a solution. We have to leave the next day for Mykonos by taking a ferry to Paros and from there a fast ferry to Mykonos, only this way can we then leave Mykonos at 3:00 am on August 18th to arrive in Piraeus in the morning (about 50 euros). What a shame!!! We haven't seen anything of Santorini and our ferry leaves at 7:00 am the next day (Even skipping the Mykonos stop there was no available ferry to get home). OK! We have only one night to see Santorini and on foot at that. We return to Manos Villa, take a swim in the pool and get ready for the evening.
Our apartment was nice, a double bedroom with a fridge, a small room with two beds, the bathroom and a nice balcony, and the owner, Miss Poppy, very kind and helpful (fresh linen every day). In the evening, on foot, we reach Thira Town. What a magnificent spectacle!!! Needless to say, it's all marvellously indescribable. At 2:30 am we take the bus back home, in truth there was also one at 4:00 am but the next day another journey awaited us. The next day we reach the port by bus and board for Mykonos.
Tourists in front of white church with blue domes in Santorini
Day 714 Aug 2005
We arrive at 12:00 pm on August 14th. As soon as we disembark they offer us a room with four beds for 160 euros a day. Too much to be crammed all into one room. We leave our luggage at Pier 1 across from the port (1.50 euros for the first 4 hours, 3 euros for the whole day), and we manage to rent two 50cc scooters for 30 euros each (those who disembarked after us couldn't even find those). We tour the island far and wide asking at room rentals and hotels... nothing... all sold out!!! Exhausted as never before and after a crying fit of mine, we resign ourselves to the idea of having to spend the night under the stars hoping to find something the next day. We meet a group of very kind Neapolitan guys who, after witnessing my crying, make themselves available, giving us the phone numbers of room rentals and hotels from half of Mykonos... but nothing doing.
We decide to have dinner at the restaurant next to Pier 1, which would soon become very familiar to us. After dinner we try to camp at the port along with many fellow sufferers, but a flying cockroach that prefers to fly and land on people's shirts quickly makes me change my mind. Either me or it! And since that's its home, we decide to change places. Free of the luggage, which we had left at Pier 1 since the morning, we head to the airport to spend the night. Not a very wise choice because the airport is closed. There are other people there though, and we settle down. By now I see everything in a black light, I hated Mykonos, it seemed ugly and dangerous to me, and then... how many days would I have to spend on the street?
hotel Kastelakia in Mykonos
Day 815 Aug 2005
The next morning, as soon as we woke up, straight to the restaurant next to the Pier 1 agency, which in the morning turns into a bar. A hearty breakfast while we wait for the agency to open at 9 to find a place to stay and collect our luggage. We realize that everyone who had disembarked the day before, like us, had slept on the street, and the task of finding accommodation seems more and more daunting. Hundreds of people to place and on top of that it's August 15th. Impossible!!! We have to beat them to it or we risk sleeping under the stars for another night. Besides, the ferries were full and we couldn't even change islands. What to do? We position ourselves in pole position in front of the agency waiting for it to open...
the first available accommodation has to be ours! Meanwhile Giosuè, whose English consists of saying only "Yes," spots a hotelier's little van and catapults himself over to ask about room availability. He finds (probably speaking Italian, mangled English and gesturing) two double rooms at the Hotel Kastelakia (cat. D) not far from the center for 50 euros a head. We accept! The hotelier-driver tells us the room would become available later and that he'd come pick us up at 10:00. We, however, also decide to play the PIER 1 card; after all, we were first in line, comparing offers cost us nothing. After several phone calls, the young lady at the agency finds us accommodation in a room with 4 beds for 200 euros a day...
the other offer is better! We arrive at the Kastelakia, a family-run hotel, the owners are very friendly (also because they're pulling a fast one on us — in Aosta dialect "solone" means they're ripping us off... get it?). Our two rooms are small with a balcony shared with the other rooms, and they advise us, therefore, to keep the balconies closed to prevent someone from unlawfully helping themselves to our things (in truth the owners make the international hand-twisting gesture, which means stealing). Got it! We take the advice and suffocate in those boiling rooms. After a nice shower in a shower with no tray (in short, to wash yourself you absolutely had to flood the bathroom) and an equally nice long sleep, Mykonos seems more beautiful to us. After going to Agrari...
and having a hard time getting out of Agrari (there's a steep downhill and an equally steep uphill) we go to Tropicana in the Paradise area. The beach is very beautiful and people dance until evening. We run into that group from Naples who bent over backwards to help us find a place... Thanks guys — then we go back to the hotel and after a quick shower... off to the alleys of Mykonos Town, full of bars, taverns and little shops. We have dinner at Alexandras in Little Venice, by the sea... now everything really is more beautiful. Then we go back to the hotel, we're tired! Matteo, however, who for the summer of 2005 had set out to be a conqueror, decides to rent a Matiz for 55 euros a day (he doesn't know how to ride a scooter) and after a quick freshening up at 4:00 he heads to the Paradise club. I won't go into it here...
but Matteo is a CRAZY DRIVER and at dawn he's left with two car wheels stuck in a ditch, he comes back to the hotel by taxi, and instead of waking us up, he decides the best solution is to pester two guys from Bari he'd never met before. (Guys from Bari, if you're reading this, thank you for taking care of our Matteo). I could tell you plenty about Matteo... but I'll spare you. Just one thing... When on the ship they gave the instructions for emergency evacuation, Matteo became convinced we were sinking and alarmed half the ship. While we, knowing him, were laughing our heads off, he, now panicking, was counting the lifeboats and scaring the passengers.
hotel Kastelakia in Mykonos
Day 916 Aug 2005
Second day in Mykonos. We decide to go to Aghios Stefanos, the beach is very nice, cost of the umbrella with two sunbeds 8 euros. In the evening we go back to Mykonos Town... we absolutely want to eat Italian. In the little streets of the center we also run into two of the three guys we had met during that night spent under the stars. (Guys, you're hilarious!!! Your friend who was doing the calculations, is he okay?) Wandering among the alleys and little spots, it's suddenly 4:00. We go back to the Hotel, Matteo has the car there (in the center you can't find a spot even for scooters) and he has to go out to play the CONQUEROR. Too bad!!! He always comes back empty-handed.
Girl and tourist petting a large white pelican on a street at night
Day 1017 Aug 2005
Last day in Mykonos. We leave the hotel and take our suitcases to PIER 1 to store them until closing at 10:30 pm. We leave the scooters and with Matteo's car we go to Ornos. We look for a beach club with a shower... we need to wash up later... we have the ferry at 3 in the morning. We find one near the port of Ornos with a pool; to use the facilities you just need to buy a drink—and it's also cheap—We spend the day at the beach and then take a shower and go back to the port of Mykonos. We have to return the car, pick up the suitcases and take the last photos (we even saw a real, live pelican). Unfortunately we're about to go home. We have dinner at the now-familiar restaurant next to the Pier 1 agency and then take the bus at 1:00 for the new port. The ship leaves from there at 3:00. We leave Mykonos at 3 in the morning on August 18 and will be home only at 9:00 pm on August 19.
If you weren't bored reading my story all I can do is thank you... contact me if you need information and photos P.S. A few tips. Top up your phone card from home because in Greece it's difficult, and if you go to Mykonos or the nearby islands in August contact Pier 1, they'll find you accommodation that's even affordable, the site I think is or. You can also browse the site of the Greek National Tourism Organization; if you send an email with your address they'll send you, free of charge, all the materials you need at home. You can specifically request the list of all the hotels with their email and phone addresses for whichever area of Greece interests you most. Also check (in English and Greek) BYE GREECE... SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.
Girl and tourist petting a large white pelican on a street at night
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