An Epic Voyage

I checked out if my hotel in Heraklion at 11am, leaving my bags for the day. I busked for the afternoon, took a break and a short nap lying in the sun on the harbor breakwall, and then performed an evening set. I caught an 11pm ferry to the Greek mainland, where I managed to snag space on a couch where I could sleep comfortably (I'd been too cheap to book a cabin berth). I don't remember the trip at all; I slept from our departure straight through to the 5am announcement of arrival.

I got on a subway in Pireus, the port city of Athens, transferred to a bus for ten minutes to bypass track repairs, then reboarded the subway to a metro station my map said was near the intercity bus depot. Unfortunately the roads that looked clear on the map were less so in person, but I found a pedestrian footbridge to cross the highway between my station and the bus terminal.

I got on a bus to Patras, which should have taken two and a half hours if not for the hour spent stopped on the highway. Again, though, I hardly noticed because I slept through the entire journey. I put my bags into a locker at the ferry terminal and went out to busk, but didn't see a pitch I liked well enough to give it a whirl.

Instead I hiked up the hill to the medieval castle (built over a Roman fortress, itself built on the ancient Greek acropolis) and wandered around before heading back to the city. I picked up my bags, charged my phone (depleted from being my main source of entertainment since it holds a dozen books from Amazon's Kindle store), and napped on a bench before boarding my ferry to Italy.

Considering that this trip was to last 19 hours I'd splurged on a cabin berth. Happily, because of a lightly attended journey, I got the entire cabin all to myself! I tried to stay awake until 10, but gave up at 9:30 and slept until almost 9 the next morning. A hot shower completed the spell, and I felt human again.

Arriving in Ancona I had the extreme good luck to walk right onto a train bound for my destination, the resort city of Pesaro. In the off-season, and unable to find lodging elsewhere, I've gotten an extremely good deal on a hotel room here. I still hope to busk Ancona some day, but Peaaro will still give me my first taste of performing in the Region (ie state) of Le Marche!

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