Firsly, we are aware that this blog is about 3 weeks late, but compared with most of the stuff on this blog page it fits in fine!

The blog is a first-hand account of two travellers journey from Santorini (place of our last blog) to Milan. If you look on a map, you will see that there path was a long stretch of lots of water and long - a trip that in the modern area could very easily be taken by plane. However, our two thrifty travellers decided to embark on a far more adventerous (and cheaper) journey. We pick up there trail at the start of the journey....

The train leaving Anna hostel (9 euro a night and worth every cent) left the hostel at 8:15 on the evening of the 2nd of September. The trip was taken in a small mini-bus (small even for a mini-bus), and it was stuffed with heavy ladden travellers, ready to embark on the night ferry back to athens by deck passage (due to leave at 10:15pm. It was a warm nice, and as such, was full of promise as we would not freeze on the deck. We arrived at the port before 9, and did the only thing we really could - wait for the boat. However, the boat was late - a slight problem for eli and I as we had planned a travel scheduale that didnt allow us being later - there was only an hour wait between each of the 7 or 8 forms of transport we had to take! So at 1am when the boat left, we started to get worried - our connection was at 10 and the boat took 9 hours to get in - do the math.

We arrived at 9:45am, and rushed the the metro station - the next one that was possible (which was a bit of a walk and a few phone calls away!). We got to our destination (Larissa Station) after two changes of lines on the metro, to find that the time table had changed that very day, so the next departure time to Patras (the port where we would get our ferry to Aconna in Italy) was at about midday - time to relax we thought. Eli got chatting to a grandpa - he knew 7 languages fluently and was very nice - and what luck she did, for he informed us that the train stations that cxonnected with Patra had changed as well! With this information we were able to reach the Patras port by 3, rather than getting off at the wrong station and missin our boat (we had already missed 1). So we successfully got the Patras and walked straight into a travel agent, booked our boat tickets and boarded (4pm leaving at 5), ready to embark on a 21 hour boat trip.

We found a spot behind a find shield on the deck (near the front of the boat) and crashed there for a nice (but not before dinnering on biscuits!). The high point of drama for the evening being when Eli managed to cut her finger on a bin she was trying not to touch. We had one of the best night sleeps of the trip (comparative the the standard of accomodation) and were awoken by a wonderful sunrise (we will put photos up when we can!). We then spent the day writing postcards, playing cards and reading - basically trying to wate away the day. All was going extremely smoothly, when all of the sudden, the wind picked up the a gail and we were forced inside. Not 10 minutes after we were in a massive storm hit. Rocking the boat to and fro like nothing we had experienced before, but never fear by that time we were not one hour from port... wrong. Because of the storm we were forced to tough it our on the sea for an extra 2 hours, just outside the habour. I have never seen so many poeple sea sick in my life, and I tell you that Eli looked a little worse for wear too! This was also a worry for us, as we were aiming to catch a train to milano leave at 4 (getting to milano at 9), and it was about 1:30 when we started the two hour wait. We got into port and ran to the train station (with our backs - about 2kms) and arrived there 15 minutes before the trains departure - to find a massive line waiting and moving very slowly. We also heard the all tickets for this train had sold out, which would have meant a 2 hour wait and 20 euro extra tickets - not pretty. We toughed out the wait in the line though, and was the longest 12 minutes of my life (it felt like ages). Anyway, we found out there was standing room, and snapped them up!

Five hours later by train and abut 48 hours after we had started, we arrive in Milano (having found seats in appartments free about half way through the trip) and were greeted by the welcoming arms of the Seba Maister...

(this didnt get a proof read - Eli will do that soon lol)