Sadly, this was our last day on Santorini. When I woke up, I was mostly recovered from the hike up the volcano from yesterday, and we had to pack and get down to the corner again. But we had a little time to kill, so we put our luggage in the lobby (which was again picked up by handy open-back truck) and the lady at the desk offered to hide our carry-ons. So we went out for a bit and then had lunch, and then went to Cesare’s for more Mythos, and then ended up at that corner again for pickup.

No, they weren’t all for me

We were bussed back down to Eulonda again, where we were to wait for a while. On the way we noticed, and not the first time, all the solar panels on the rooftops. Virtually every roof had solar panels and tanks, which they used to heat water. They were green, not out of guilt, but out of necessity, since electricity is a fairly recent addition to the island. Half a century ago, it wasn’t a tourist spot because it had no infrastructure, but when it was hit by an earthquake, Greece helped rebuild the island and put in a lot of the infrastructure that is still in use today.

They might as well line all the walls with solarcells

At the docks we spotted Flying Cat 4 again, and we had pity on the poor people who had to ride that thing. We were waiting around for a tender boat to take us to the Aquamarine, and they made it sound like it wouldn’t take long, so I waited for a bit and then had to hit the bathroom in the ’station’. I was expecting TTC subway station quality, but even the TTC knows that bathrooms are most effective when the stall doors can stay closed and when there is any sort of light. I rushed and when I emerged, everyone was still there. And still there two hours later…

We later learned that apparently someone left their wallet at their hotel so that was why the tour operators hadn’t called for the tender boats. Even the tender boat people seemed annoyed at the delay when finally they arrived. We were standing around waiting at one point, when people operating a vehicle rental place told us to move in what I can only describe, again, as a rude manner. Even when our transat rep was guiding the lot of us across the asphalt to the tender boats the guys from the rental place were yelling at all of us to move. I told one of them to fuck off, but I don’t think he heard, or cared. If you set up your business on a sidewalk, you’d better be prepared for the god damned pedestrians.

Anyway, when we were aboard, they did a sort of roll-call, but it all still felt very haphazard. There was even a couple that didn’t appear to be there, but they told us to just launch anyway. I have to wonder what happens to people who are left behind.

When we got got the Aquamarine, we ended up in a line where we had to hand over our passports again and get another boarding card. The line was delayed when a British couple got into a heated argument (well, it was more a one-way thing) with the girl collecting the passports. He was refusing to surrender the passports, and said he’d sooner get off the ship. It went on for a bit until they opened a second line and we got out of there, and down to our room, which was only a couple doors down from our previous cabin.

We were able to collect our passports only a scant hour later, which made us wonder what the point was. If the passports were so we could freely move on the high seas, if we were going from Greece to Greece, I wouldn’t have thought we’d need stamps. We went to the internet kiosks to send more emails home, but found that when we swiped our boarding card, it wouldn’t let us. We suspected that it was because we hadn’t imprinted a credit card on the boarding card, so we went to Reception to do that. They said they wouldn’t do it, because we were only going to be there one day. I asked how we could use the internet kiosks in that case since it didn’t take cash, and they said we couldn’t at all. I thought that was pretty shitty service, but there was nothing that could be done. In any case, we found better in Athens.

We had dinner and went to the Sun Deck to look around. I hadn’t been there at night, and not many people were there, for good reason. It was pretty windy and getting a little cold. Of course, if I find it a little cold, it usually means Alicia is freezing. We eventually ended up in our cabin, which was sort of a mirror image of our other cabin. Alicia took the bunk again, thankfully, and we went to sleep. It was going to be another early morning as we’d have to disembark early for our final port of call, Athens.

To Be Continued