Arriving on Chios

Happy Independence Day! The kids never did get to fly those flags….it’s kind of a long story. One we will probably be telling years from now!

Chios has not been our lucky island. First, as you will recall, we weren’t able to arrive Saturday morning because of high winds on Naxos. That meant that instead we had to take a five and a half hour ferry back to Piraeus yesterday, kill three hours (easily done with a fantastic fish supper that Topher and I enjoyed, the kids not so much), and then an overnight ferry to Chios, arriving at the port at 3:30 am. Fun! We hadn’t done a whole lot of research on Chios since we booked the accommodation in December, so we were a bit confused when the steward who showed us our cabin last night said something vague about a bus from the port to the main town on Chios, confusingly also called Chios. I think he said if we wanted to take the bus we should talk to the purser. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to take the bus as our Airbnb host had said he would meet us to give us the key at an all-night cafe near the port but not until a more reasonable 7:30 am. So we didn’t talk to the purser.

After not a great sleep in a very dry and stuffy cabin, we get off the ferry in

pitch black in what looked like the middle of nowhere….no sign of a cafe for us to sit in with two half-asleep kids asking us where we’re going. We weighed our options and decided to get on one of the two buses heading to the main town, purser or no purser. At the very least it would kill some time and we could keep dozing! It turned out to be the right call. We were able to buy tickets on the bus and after several stops that were obviously unofficial, the bus took us to the other port, attached to the main town, not the god-forsaken corner of the island we first landed at. Topher vaguely recalls reading about a new cruise ship dock, so we’re guessing that is where we were initially.

So we hunkered down in the first open cafe we found, hoping it was the right one. I was the only woman in the place for a good two hours other than the server and I think we were the only ones not smoking despite the no smoking signs plastered all over the place! I guess those are there for when an inspector comes. I still can’t figure out what the old men were doing there at 5 am as they were still there more than two hours later. They didn’t seem in a rush to get anywhere. The kids mostly continued dozing while we breakfasted and drank tea, watching the sun rise over Turkey, which is just a few miles across the water (pictured below). Hugh eventually woke up enough to have breakfast but David just stretched out on a couch and slept.

At around 7:30 am our host’s wife came with the key and explained how to get

to the house we had rented, which is in a small village about 25 minutes from Chios. She explained that because of the national holiday the streets downtown and around the port would be closed by about 10:30 am for the noontime parade. She also said that all stores would be closed but not the car rental places. We hadn’t yet tried to rent a car as we figured nothing was open but as it was nearing 8 we decided it was worth getting out of the smoky cafe to see what we could find.

We walked past several that were closed before we found one close to the port that was open and the owners were very friendly. All was going smoothly, and we were looking forward to soon crawling back into bed, until the car rental people learned that neither of us had an international Driver’s License. It had never occurred to us to check before we left home whether we needed one, and we had already rented several cars in Greece with no issues! They were very firm as it is the law, not just company policy.

We waited around outside for a bit with all of our stuff wondering what to do, and then Topher decided to see if more places were open and perhaps less law abiding. He tried everything that was open - about six places by now - and was told no way at every one. Some offered the explanation that because it was a national holiday there would be more police checks and they didn’t want to take the risk, as apparently not just the driver is fined but the owner of the car as well. One place did say to try back after 9 am as his boss was not available. Next we tried the bus station, which Topher had found while he was checking out car rentals. We spent quite a while trying to decipher the schedule, and things weren’t looking hopeful for a bus before 1:15 pm (if that was the right bus?) when the station cafe lady came over and said there were no buses today because of the holiday.

At this point I got in touch with our Airbnb host, to find out how much we should expect to pay for a taxi and hoping he might have a creative solution to our dilemma. He was sympathetic but emphasized that staying in the village without a car would be pretty much impossible as there aren’t any grocery stores or even a convenience store, just two restaurants, and we would miss

seeing much of anything without a car. He found it hard to believe that we couldn’t find someone to rent a car as the Greeks generally ignore traffic laws and they don’t seem to be enforced very often either. I don’t think the whole issue would have come up at all if we had arrived Saturday!

The situation certainly wasn’t looking great, but at least we had a place to stay and we weren’t going to starve. We were looking forward to his medieval stone house from the pictures, so we steeled ourselves to spend 30 euros each way on a taxi and just eat all of our meals at the village restaurants. We had already spent the money on accommodations anyway so paying extra to stay somewhere else in the port for two days until our ferry to Turkey didn’t seem like a better option. Topher tried one more time at our last hope - the guy who had said to come back at 9 am. David and I waited in the smoky bus station, which is basically yet another place for old men to hang out smoking and drinking coffee. There are a lot of old men in Greece. Anyway, to make a very long story short, he got a car!

We decided to get the heck out of town and not wait around for the parade, and had to have a delicate conversation - that I’m sure we’ll be having over and over again - with the boys about breaking the law, and would we all go to jail or just dad? More on the rest of our day another time as I’m now ready for bed! It has been a long two days.