Ferry, Bus, Subway to Athens

Saturday was a long day of travel to Athens by ferry, bus, and subway to our hotel in Athens. It took about 12 hours and it still cost me nearly as much as the 40 minute plane ride to Athens. But we did get to see a bit of the Greek countryside. Greece is beautiful and my conclusion from the 12 hour trip is that I’m no longer concerned about the world supply of olives and olive oil. I think we’ll be just fine.
We left Skiathos on the ferry to Volos about 11:15. The ferry takes about 3 hours to reach the mainland port of Volos.
About 1/2 hour into the ferry ride there was an announcement for any doctors on board. I egged on my father and Tom to respond, which they did. “Its either a heart attack or a woman going into labor”, said Tom. “Let’s hope its not the latter”. Well…it was. A woman’s water had broken and she was going into labor. She was on her way to Volos from Skiathos because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her baby’s neck and she needed to travel there for a c-section, but her water broke too soon. However, as this was her first baby the labor wasn’t active and her contractions where still 10 minutes apart by the time she boarded the ambulance on the other side.
We arrived in Volos and walked to the bus station (although we sent our bags along in a taxi). We missed the 3pm express bus so had to take the 4:30 local (4.5 hours long) for 27 Euro each. We were dropped at a subway station about 6 stops away from our hotel. It all worked out and we were happy to be back in Athens and at the Attalos Hotel for a few days in Athens before heading to Paris.

The bus ride was long but on a very modern and nice bus. But it was enough for Clara to get a little punchy with her paprika Pringles.
Once in Athens we went out on a Saturday night on a full moon and had dinner. Athens and the Plaka was hopping! Very intense number of people out. Great people watching and meal.

Much to our Sunday morning regret we finished our meal with our first (and last) glass of grappa in Greece. It tasted good going down but combined with our sea legs it made our Sunday morning get off to a slow start.