I walked off the boat at 5am feeling awful. A combination of diesel fumes, lack of sleep, no food, and over-enthusiastic air conditioning had me worried about my health. The port at Athens was not the place to be, so I corralled the others into the metro as quickly as possible, and got out of the polluted air, picking up a few croissants on the way.We had to wait about an hour at the main train station before getting a train to Patras, which was a reasonably fast transfer considering the frequency of the trains. Three hours later it was midday, we were approaching Patras, and I was desperate for something to eat. Nathalia had come up with a plan though, and it meant delaying lunch – it would have to be good. It was. We would get a boat not to Brindisi but to Ancona – much further north, longer boat trip but the boat left within two hours and was much faster. It would save us over 12 hours in the long run.

Journey 11: Santorini to Florence
4 legs, 2200km, 43 hr. Average speed: 51kph
Origin/Destination	Departs	Arrives	Carrier	My Rating
Santorini Athens	20:00	05:30	Hellas Ferries
Athens Patras	09:00	12:30	Greek Railways
Patras Ancona	14:00	11:30	Superfast Ferries
Ancona Florence	12:30	15:00	TrenItalia

We managed to find the office of Superfast Ferries, and were directed to the ‘check in’ point at the gate. Eventually we found this too, and got the tickets, paying a mere €6 port tax. As we got on the boat, I began to appreciate that this was a VERY good plan. While the Santorini-Athens boat was a cut above the rusting vessels that we’d taken before, this one was leagues ahead again. The boat was huge, by far the largest boat I’d ever been on, and had amenities including a casino, swimming pool, lounges, bars, several restaurants, movie screens and even internet terminals. Chris was positively glowing as he walked up to the reception desk and bought an upgrade. He had clearly not been swayed by his foray into deck class, and as if to emphasise the point, paid for a first class cabin at a cost of €140.

I took up residence in the ‘Purple Lounge’, and made sure that I liberally sprinkled low-value personal effects on the sofa to mark my territory.

For the first couple of hours, we took turns to guard stuff while others had showers or wandered around. Then Chris went off to his posh cabin to sleep, and a short time later Sunil and Nathalia left, but I didn’t hear them say where that were going.

Three hours and two films later I was getting fed up of babysitting Sunil and Nathalia’s luggage. I decided if they couldn’t be bothered to come back after three hours I couldn’t be bothered to guard their stuff anymore. I got up and went to watch the sunset. Turned out they were already there, and I felt a bit guilty about having left their things in the lounge. They didn’t seem too bothered about it though.

I ate dinner with Chris in the ship’s table-service restaurant, which was very nice though a bit expensive, then Chris made use of the ship’s satellite internet access while I went to reclaim my sofa. Due to the peculiarities of Nathalia’s travel pass, she had been given a couchette, so the four of us ended up sleeping in different parts of the ship. Chris had his first class cabin on deck nine, Nathalia had her couchette on deck eight, Sunil was up on the sundeck by the pool, and I stayed in the lounge on deck seven.