Meganisi

We arrived at Meganisi at about 5:00 pm and the ferry landing looked like a poor place to find a room.  We stopped a small bus that was about to leave and got a free ride up the steep hill leading to the town.  It is a very old town with  tiny houses lining the twisted narrow streets.  There were no encouraging signs like ¨room for rent”.

We asked in a Taverna if there were any rooms to rent, and a man lead us to a closed coffee shop with a table and chairs  our front.  He pointed to the chairs and said “wait”.  Nothing more.

Does Meganisi have a room to rent?

The place had a sign indicating that they had rooms to rent, so we waited.  One hour ... two hours ... hey - how long do we have to wait?

Eventually three men across the street stepped out their front door.  We explained that we hoped to find a room and they said that the problem was that it was siesta time.  They tried to help us for about an hour, but they were unable to locate anyone.  They explained that there were between 200 and 500 people living in the town, and that the average age there was about 150 years old.  I suspect that it was exaggerated a bit.

Our backup plan was to return to Lefkata on the last ferry of the day.  The men confirmed that there was an 8:00 pm ferry and we hiked back down to the waterfront to catch it.

Plan B was looking pretty good until we found out that there was no 8:00 pm ferry.  We had already missed the last ferry and there was no room to be found.  Yikes!  It's time for plan C, but we don't have a plan C.

That's when we met Tony, a 71 year-old skipper from Wales.  He handed us plan C; stay with him on his sailboat.  Wow!  We're rescued!

We had dinner and a beer with Tony and then spent the night on his sailboat.

Tony explained to us that Greek ports don't charge to dock your boat, so he lives on his boat “for free” in Greek ports six months every year.  He makes a few Euros here and there diving for lost anchors etc.  He also skippers a 500,000 pound boat for a “rich lady”.  (I assume that's the value of the boat, not it's weight.)

Kathy again: I thought Marshall was beginning to exaggerate our being the lone travelers, but the last couple of places it sure has seemed that way. Plus we found out what all of the frenzied activity is all about. The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Easter this coming weekend.I wondered why they were selling Easter bread and Easter baskets now. I figured they had a lot

left over but how stale it would be by now! We are hoping to get in on some of the festivities.

This year we aren't seeking out museums or ruins, mostly enjoying the hikes, trails, beautiful harbors and waterfronts in general. It has been taking longer to get from point A to point B but we don't mind at all; we did plan more time just for that reason. It sure beats walking around Edmonds every day in the rain! (We do love Edmonds however)

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