I am writing from no
country today. I am lost, somewhere, between Italy and Greece
(hopefully, the people in charge of the boat know where we are better
than I do!). I embarked yesterday afternoon on this ferry boat,
capable, during summer, of holding up to 2000 passengers.
Getting there was quite an
adventure! I only had this very vague map of the city they give at
hostels and therefore walked for more than an hour before finally
finding the part or the port where passengers are welcome. When I got
there, I was directed to the left of a building and I followed a line
of people to a gigantic queue.
I had a vague idea that I
wasn't in the right place because the time of departure indicated for
the boat didn't match the one on my ticket but a nice lady working
for the port told me that everything was okay, that I was in the
right spot and that all I had to do was wait in line for check-in.
It didn't feel right but I
figured “She works here, she knows better, right?”
Yeah... she didn't! After
about half an hour lost waiting for my turn to come, I was starting
to panic because my limit check-in time was coming fast when finally,
I was in front of an employee. She looked at my ticket, looked at her
list of passengers, looked at my ticket again. She then went to
another employee who looked at my ticket, looked at the list, looked
at my ticket again. When they went to see a third employee, I started
loosing patience. It was 11h15 and I had until 11h30 to find the
right place, as it was now obvious this wasn't it!
The third employee came to
see me. She was really nice, and explained that I was in the wrong
place and that I had to go all the way back to the entrance of the
port and take a right turn where I had been told before to take a
left. I started walking very fast, pulling my suitcase and carrying
my computer. I finally arrived at the building she had indicated,
five minutes after 11h30. It was deserted. No one in sight, inside or
outside the building. I was late and thought that check-in was over,
that I had missed my boat and, at the same time, lost the 70 €
my ticket had cost, which I really couldn't afford to pay twice.
I
was understandably upset! I thought of calling my sister or my
parents to vent a little but two things occurred to me: 1. It wasn't
worth calling before having a conclusion to my story to tell, and 2.
It wasn't yet 7 o'clock in Canada!
I
made the right choice in not calling them because, after I decided to
keep walking for a little while, I arrived in front of a building
with the name of the company in charge of my ferry written all over
it. I walked even faster than I had done before and, five minutes
after I had made it to the building, I was checked-in and past
security (and breathing again!) as if nothing had happened!
Anyway,
this is another story where everything ended well (which, by the way,
is the way most of my stories end. Because, even though I have a
talent for getting into that kind of situations in countries where I
don't speak the language, I'm also very lucky and never get into any
real trouble!) and I soon lost all the anxiety it had created in me
when the boat left and I was surrounded by water and had the movement
of waves to get me to sleep in the evening!
P.S. For anyone visiting Venice and trying to take a Minoan Line Ferry, I have put my tag in the exact spot from which you leave!
