June 18 - Bus troubles....

This day was ok, but nothing too special. Because Poppy offered to take us to the port for our ferry back to Heraklion, we needed to get back to the hotel by 2:30pm. Not a big deal except we didn't drop our luggage off at her place until 12:00pm and the bus to Akrotiri (home of the red sand beach) didn't show up until 12:30pm. Finally though we did get there, and after a little bit of hiking made it far enough to see the beginnings of the beach. Then, when we started on the path to see more, we see this humungous cloud of small bugs just waiting for us to walk throuhg, beathe in, and swallow. It was a unanimous decision to turn around and spend some time at a small jewelry stand and then find our way back to Villa Manos. Here's when the wakiness starts. We get to the bus stop at 2pm just in time to wait 20min for the bus to arrive (keep in mind that we are supposed to back at 2:30pm and the red beach stop is 20min away from Villa Manos). After finally getting on the bus it proceeds to go all the way back to Fira WITHOUT STOPPING IN FRONT OF VILLA MANOS. At this point we have to call Poppy and tell her that we are not going to be back in time, and then get on the bus to Kamari which we found out yesterday stops at Villa Manos. But you know what? This time around the bus driver ignored our pleas to stop and PASSED THE HOTEL! It was horrible. We had to ride the bus all the way around and then get off.

Miraculously we make it back to Villa Manos at 3:30pm and take a cab to the port. Where we wait for our 4:55pm ferry. Or so we think. Because the ferry is 40min late! When it finally does show up it's a mad dash to find a seat, with some people telling us we have assigned seat numbers and others saying it doesn't matter where we sit. The only good part is that I was able to nap the entire way, because that ship was so sway-y I definitely would have been more than unhappy and sick feeling. When we eventually made it back to Heraklion is was another bus ride back to Chania ( 3hrs) and a cab ride to the airport (40 min) where all three of us are now, waiting for our 6am flight. Goody, goody, gumdrops. Whatever. We made it here alive and now just have to nap a little while before leaving. Things could be worse.