A Dream Come True

 

Thirty hours into our trip after three plane rides including Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Zurich, Zurich to Athens, a one hour bus ride from Athens to the port of Pireaus, a three hour wait for the ferry, and finally a six hour ferry ride to the island of Naxos, my granddaughter Jordan and I began to question our sanity. “What were we thinking, why didn’t we just go somewhere simple like Mexico or Hawaii?”

Of course, the answer lay in the dreams that we both shared of going somewhere beautiful and wonderful where most people that we know have not been. Years ago, Jordan and I were talking about where she would want to go when she graduated from high school. Before I knew it, not only had she graduated, but she was fully embarked upon her college education. “Holy Cow”, I said to her, we better go on that trip I promised you before you finish university! “Where do you want to go?” I asked. “Well,” she said, “since the time I saw Mama Mia, I have really wanted to see Greece.” As we all know, the movies lie, but little did we know how much of the exhausting business of arriving was deleted from the Mama Mia story line.

However, the story line did not disappoint, as once we landed on the island of Naxos, in spite disembarking from the ferry looking and feeling somewhat like lost refugees, we prayed that the owners of our hotel got the message that we desperately needed a pick-up. As we dragged our tired, bedraggled bodies as well as our luggage behind us, we saw them standing there holding the “Welcome to Faros Hotel” sign. I was so relieved, I wanted to kiss them, but thought that might scare them away!  Our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Moustakis and their son Niko were waiting to bring us to our hotel, which involved yet another 45 minute journey by van. This pickup was such a nice personal touch, and we began to relax as we enjoyed the drive around the island, past beaches and lovely little towns.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, a lovely little establishment run by the two brothers and their parents. Although it was dark, we could hear the waves from the ocean below us, and could just make out the pool just beyond the open air lobby. We checked emails, and Jordan her Facebook, as we had not been able to get online once we left Toronto.  We both wanted to let our friends and family know that we had arrived safely. Finally, at 1:00 am after 33 hours of being awake, except for a few catnaps along the way, we finally settled into our beds for a good night’s sleep.

A very long ferry ride!