Coffee Breaks--An Essential Part of Greek Intercity Transportation

On Tuesday we headed from Athens to our favorite island. We're going to call it A., like how 19th century authors used an initial instead of a full name for a key character. Our friends rarely remember the name even if we tell it to them multiple times. And we don't want more people to know about it!

We left Athens on Tuesday morning for A., a few hours after our friend Kleopatra's daughter gave birth, at long last, to a healthy daughter. Despite the big news, Kleopatra kindly drove us to the bus station, but we had to leave Yiorgos behind because three of us and our luggage turned their car into an overstuffed dolma. The bus ride took us from Athens, across Evia island, to the ferry port in Kymasi. Evia has been in international news because of horrible fires over the past few weeks. We expected to see lots of devastation, but we had an experience similar to when we were in Australia in early 2020 when they were having catastrophic fires. We didn't see any fire damage on Evia! Luckily we saw lots of green forest still intact.

The bus arrived at Kymasi and everyone got off and went to the bus's luggage bay to collect their bags. But shortly after opening the luggage bay, the bus driver started an animated discussion with the passengers. I was worried that the ferry might have been postponed, so I asked another passenger what the driver said. The Greek passenger told me that the bus driver would be taking us all back to a nearby cafe, since the ferry was still 2 hours away. As a weird side note, the Greek passenger I had asked spent several years in Worcester, MA, where I was born! Kymasi has basically no facilities--see the photo below. It looks sort of like a deserted Wild West mining town... but with a beach. So we all got back on the bus for the 1/4 mile dirt road ride to the cafe, had a leisurely drink on a lovely stretch of beach, and got back on the bus when the driver saw the ferry in the distance. Hard to imagine this happening in the States but it seems in character for Greece. Coffee break time!

You have to have a health form completed to board ferries to the islands. While waiting at the port for the ferry to dock, a policeman came over and asked to see our forms. We had to show him our US vaccination cards because he wanted to see the dates of our vaccination doses, but that was it. Not a big fuss, just sensible public health enforcement. He wandered around the waiting area and did the same with other passengers. People were good about masking up for the ferry ride as shown in a photo below.

An hour or so later, we were on A. Soon after that, we even had a swim in the perfect temperature water. It's a treat to be back here!

Bonus Greek cultural notes:

Maria, a friend of Kleopatra's, told us that when children are born in Greece, it's typical for the new baby to give a gift to their older siblings. When Maria's second son was born, he ‘brought’ a gift to his older brother. Older brother was baffled at how he had carried the puzzle in mom's tummy! Arriving with a gift seems like a great idea for staving off older child jealousy about newborns, right?

Kleopatra used a phrase that we're still trying to fully puzzle out, though maybe we know what it means? It was 'Like two donkeys fighting in a stranger's barn." Hmmm...?!