Travel from Crete to Naxos, via Santorini

We woke up early to the alarm clock. Tired but happy. Tired after the somewhat mentally exhausting - but fun - party yesterday, and happy that we managed to get home from there. Of course we were a bit down too because it was now time to leave Crete after four absolutely fantastic weeks. Sob. Now we have four weeks left in paradise. Hope time goes slowly.

After a minimal breakfast in the room in Chania we dragged ourselves (the packing is still heavy) to the bus station and took the bus to Rethymnon where we changed buses to Heraklion. When we arrived at the bus station we bought coffee and had a second breakfast, this time a little more substantial. After breakfast we took the ferry F/B El.Venizelos to Santorini, where we would change ferry for the onward journey to Naxos.

There weren't many people on the ferry. It really shows that the season is over. We had five hours in Santorini before the ferry to Naxos would depart. First we had planned to call Paris and Julia at the Honeymoon Beach Hotel and ask them to pick us up. But we didn't want to disturb them, so we spent five hours in an empty and desolate harbour. The only thing that broke the long wait in the port was me helping a boat that was about to set off, and that we ate a lunch consisting of two pies.

We had five boring hours in the port of Santorini.

We couldn't help but be fascinated by the difference between high season and low season when we stood on the deck of the ferry (Blue Star Paros) and waited for the departure. There were so incredibly few people in the port!

I took this picture of Santorini's port Athinios on August 11th.

This picture was taken today - October 29th.

Just like on the ferry between Crete and Santorini, the ferry to Naxos was almost empty.

It was a quiet boat trip and we got to see a very beautiful sunset.

After a two-hour boat trip on a deserted Blue Star Paros, we finally arrived in Naxos. Not many people got off at Naxos port, I counted twelve people, of which we were the only foreigners. The hordes of room owners that usually attack newly arrived tourists in Naxos port were now decimated to a few. Everyone was fighting over the two of us. No one won.

As usual, we had booked into Pension Sofi. Rena and Thodoris met us at the port with a sign that said Mr and Mrs Poko Loko. If you've followed the blog from the beginning, you know where the names come from. It was sad to leave Crete, but when we arrived in Naxos that feeling disappeared, and we were happy again.

Welcome to Naxos - Mr. and Mrs. Poko Loko!

When we arrived at Pension Sofi, it turned out that it was fully booked! We who had thought we would be the only guests. How lucky we had booked via text message a few days earlier. Who else but us travelling around at this time of year, you might ask. And we did ask. The guests at Sofi came from England, France, New Zealand, Germany, Greece and Sweden. Below us stays a Swedish family that we haven't yet met.

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