Greece Greatness 2: Zakynthos

Zakynthos = Amazing. Returning is a must. Our stay was really hassle free, pleasant, and superbly enjoyable (finally!!). We had a little issue at the beginning with being picked up at the port at 11pm our first night, but it all worked out in the end. And then the room. . . the greatest deal on lodging ever! I still can't believe it. We had a very nice studio that had a double bed, a twin bed, a huge balcony area with furniture and a clothesline, a cooking area with a sink and hot plate and all necessary cooking ware, and a TV and bathroom. The first day of cooking one of the plates fell from its drying position and broke, but the guy at the reception was completely unconcerned and said not to worry about it. The place even had a pool and bar area as well, but Marshall and I never used it considering the beach was only a 10-15 minute walk away.

This particular beach, Kalamaki, was the major reason we came to Zakynthos; it is the nesting location of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. Our first time out in the water, not even five minutes after getting in, we spotted one just a few feet away. It was huge and simply gorgeous. We also went poking around in the sand after the first turtle swam away and found a cool looking crab and a really weird bivalve (clam of some sort). The water was warm and shallow a long way out. And we could walk along the beach and see the spots marked as turtle nests. It was a great break to hang out at the superb beach and come back to a home-cooked meal and not a hostel dorm room! We made some spaghetti for dinner with a salad, had a local sweet white wine, and then cake and ice cream for dessert, with a cappuchino to end. Scrumptious! And then having a warm breakfast the next day and more good meals, along with the beach again.

For our second excursion to the beach we brought the underwater camera and the goggles, and then almost ran into another turtle as we were wading in the water. Though the first one tried to get away pretty quick, the next three were willing to let us swim around them a few feet away, taking pictures. That experience is still our favorite so far because no one else (of human origin. . .) was near us. Just the two of us and the big, friendly turtles. I loved it. That night we also went to see Shrek 3 at a local bar to get some entertainment out of the sun, and while we were wandering in the evening we found a Greek who knew the capital of Iowa! He said he really liked geography and had memorized all the capitals of the states. It was pretty impressive and quite amusing.

But our time in Zakythos ended much too quickly. We didn't see any of the other parts of the island, like the shipwreck beach or the blue caves. And our attempts to get up early to see the sunrise (and go running) didn't work out here either. Nor anywhere else as of yet. . . But the long journey to our next stop, Naples, was simply exhausting. Finishing up packing bags early Wednesday morning we were driven to Zante Town at 9am, where the port to the mainland is located. I wasn't sure about ferry times because no one would answer when I called, but our idea was to get there early and hope for the best. We had our 16hr ferry to Italy at 6pm in Patras, and knew it was at least 2.5hrs to get to the Patras port on the mainland. In the end, it turned out the ferry left at 11am, which was perfect and even allowed time to grab some groceries for the ferry, too. However, the next two days were a public transportation heyday. Saying it all in a row is much more impressive (and painful to recall). . .

Van ride to the bus station, bus ride to the port, get off the bus onto the 1.5hr ferry, get off the ferry for an hour long bus ride, walk to the port to get tickets, onto the boat at 4pm, off the boat the next day at 8:30am, bus ride to the train station, train halfway to Naples, switch to a bus for another 1.5hrs because the train wouldn't be there for another three hours, then one more bus ride from the train station/bus drop off point to our hostel. . . And we, amazingly, were able to make it to the Archaeological Museum after all that without completely crashing. Grabbed some groceries for dinner and our day trip to Pompeii and Sorrento, watched part of a movie on my laptop, and hit the sack very hard.

Fortunately, the extremely long ferry ride wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. We obviously didn't pay for a cabin or anything, but this time found a kid's area (that played Disney movies!) with some nice comfy chairs nearby (with an outlet!) that allowed us to be enertained for quite some time with movies and Nintendo games. Though I don't want to see Peter Pan agian anytime soon considering it was played at least eight times during the journey. But we did get a bit of sleep after I physically attached and locked all of our valuables to me before I drifted off (Marshall was already out, of course). One of the crew had to wake us up to make sure we got off the boat, so it must have been a decent sleep!