Bad to Worse to Great

I am safely here in Santorini, Greece! More specifically Fira, Santorini.

Santorini has so far been gorgeous. Unfortunately the trip here was not so amazing.

Remember the strike I wrote about yesterday? We are still filling the effects of it today. Because all transportation was put on hold, the ferry boat today had twice as many people on today. It was grossly overbooked.

First off, we barely made it to the ferry on time because of the "only 3 minute" metro ride to the port. But that was only the beginning. Stepping on the ferry, we realize that we have deck seating. This time it really was deck seating - well more like staircase seating. Amanda and I could not find anywhere to set our 40lbs+ backpacks, so we settled for sitting under the staircase. It was actually quite nice because it allowed us to be away from the smoke (everyone and I mean everyone smokes here - no matter what age). Then the ferry begin to take sail; and the wind picked up.

The nice day suddenly turned into bone-chilling wind. Within five minutes, I had pulled out every jacket I brought to wrap myself in. The first three hours of doing this was not too bad. I listened to my iPod (which ended up being a life-saver of the day) and tried to sleep. Then the deck became extremely crowded, and the smoke was inescapable.

Amanda searched high and low for a corner inside the boat for us to sit and returned triumphant! We sat snug in a corner with the rest of our group along with about 30 other people. If only I could show you the pictures and videos of the chaos. The best description we came up with was it was a real-life Dante's inferno.

I exaggerate none. Children were running around like they had never been disciplined before. Screaming, yelling, throwing of objects was the constant occurrence for the next five hours. And these children were between the ages of 11 and 18 - absolute insanity.

The Lord taught me extreme patience today. Because I was in a corner (and kids were running around) I was hit by a metal door six times today and stepped over more than I can count. Oh the experience of an awful boat experience...Also the sea was rough today. People left and right were not able to handle the waves....you can imagine what happened.

Finally we were waiting like packed rats to escape the horror. Once racing off the ferry the owner of the hostel we are staying at met us with his bus. We could not get off that ferry fast enough and begin enjoying this gorgeous island.

Travelling this much and on weekends, we expected to have a rough time with something. Today was the day. Overall we handled it well. Hopefully we will not have to do something like that again soon. But if we do, it is all about the experience. Today may not have been fun, but Santorini is beautiful - from what I have seen so far (which is not much). So I am going to go explore and will inform you all about this later!

Daughter of the Most High King,
Kaitlyn