A Spontaneous Trip

After being in Athens for about a day and a half, there was a reception dinner at The American College of Greece. It was more of a casual dinner with finger food and small tables to stand around. The food, once again, did not disappoint. Here is where me and some new friends from Loyola planned a trip to the Greek Island, Poros for the weekend of September 14. Or what we thought was Poros.

We booked an Airbnb while at the reception dinner and decided we would book one that would fit six people and sneak in the other three. Perfect way to save money. But karma caught up. While some of the girls booked their ferry tickets shortly after, myself and three other girls waited until Friday and let me give all my readers some advice, if you’re traveling in a somewhat bigger group, do not wait until the day before to book your ferry tickets. The ferry that most of the girls already booked, was sold out for me, Anna, Molly, and Liv. So, we ended up booking a ferry ride that left earlier on Saturday.

The day to go to the island came and after taking a thirty-minute taxi to the port, our ferry was cancelled because of the rough waters. Thankfully we were able to change our ferry to one that left that night at 10 p.m., the same ferry as the other girls. Getting ready to leave our dorm to begin our second trip to the port, Jade noticed that our tickets said Paros… not Poros. While this seems as if the two would be near each other, they certainly were not near each other. In fact, they were 42 euro in difference not near each other. That’s right. I paid seventy euro instead of twenty-eight euro.

We decided to get a ferry to the correct island the next morning at 8 a.m. Even though we missed out on a night in our Airbnb, at least we would have the entire day on Poros island. Shockingly, the ferry once again was cancelled, and we had to get the longer ferry which left at 10 a.m. 

On top of that, after being sent to four different offices, we were unable to get a refund on our seventy euro which we initially spent on the wrong ferry. We spent ninety-eight euro on tickets when I could have only spent twenty-eight euro. And on top of that, we obviously were not reimbursed the money from the first night we missed out on our Airbnb. Hello karma!

Poros was beautiful and our Airbnb was breathtaking sitting high up overlooking the town and yacht infested port. Having to carry my suitcase up countless stairs to the top was what my body needed after the feast of exploring Greek food I had that week.

After going to the beach all day, we decided to eat at a restaurant called Poseidon, which looked like the only restaurant on the island. It was delicious but a shock to see we each had to pay more than a 2.70-euro for a gyro. But a complimentary plate of watermelon was Poseidon’s way of making up for the fact we were charged .80 cents per slice of bread. If you couldn’t tell, Greece being so inexpensive, made me cheap.

This trip was truly beautiful and a great experience, the good and the chaotic. It was my first trip while in Greece and I feel as if I learned a lot more about traveling as well as the culture itself. But word to the wise, plan better than me and if you can find a better option, don’t take a ferry.