Greece - Hey Ho Adventure!

On Thursday morning Tomek called -Hey. Fast action, are we going to Greece on Wednesday? How could I say no ?! Especially when the Easter turn of winter only persuaded to flee towards the sun, sea, beach and rocks. The plan was this: we fly to the island of Kos, from there we sail to Kalymnos, the Greek climbing Mecca (over 1000 climbing routes).

We had a few days to organize everything, a weekly return flight with Ryanair cost about PLN 900 for both of us, including additional luggage and the rest of the fees, accommodation in this period costs 25 euros for a studio for two people (20 euros for one), we found it for 18 euros and packing, which was not so easy looking at the weather outside the window. There was a snowstorm in Krakow on Wednesday morning. We sat in the plane for over an hour waiting for the plane to be cleared of snow and we could take off. There was stress drowned out by thoughts of sunny Greece. Luuhuu, finally around 11:15 we managed to take off. Around 1:30 pm the turbulence started, we circled something and we landed. What some people started to clap -So Polish. After a while it turned out that we are not in Kos at all, but in Crete. We were told it was just a stopover, they would refuel the plane and we were going on, because there are bad weather conditions over Kos: wind, rain and all the rest. After less than an hour of sitting on the plane, we got new information from the captain - We're going back to Krakow! We will not land in Kos today, you will fly tomorrow. That's when the atmosphere started to get hot! It looked dramatically hilarious. The babies started to get into a row, especially the one who wanted to rebel all passengers against the service. She exclaimed, "Let's not be fooled!" We will not fly anywhere tomorrow! Come on everyone, let's get off here in Crete! The children began to cry, parents exchanged diapers, flight attendants carried water. This atmosphere lasted for about 2 consecutive hours. There were newer and newer information from the captain all the time, incl. that today there is a storm over Kos, so nothing will land there, that there are ferries on strike today, so nothing is sailing. Passengers discussed what to do, called family and friends who checked possible connections from Crete.

Finally around 4:30 PM we were given a final choice. We can get off in Crete, but we still manage on our own, or we stay on the plane, the captain will try to land on Kos and in case of failure we fly to Rzeszów, because there is a blizzard in Krakow. We and our friends were looking at each other, wondering what to do. Tomek and I said 'once a goat's death' - we are getting off! We visit Crete, Rhodos and other islands. We said goodbye to our friends and headed towards the exit. As we stood in front of the steps, we asked a flight attendant named Carlo, with one eye directed at Kos and the other at Rzeszów, what the likelihood of landing in Kos was. He did not confirm us in anything, but we understood that whether we fly to Kos today, tomorrow or next week does not make any difference to us. We returned to our seats. We took off.

Initially, beautiful views, the sea, full sun, clouds and islands and islets. Then we flew into the storm clouds over Kos. They and the strong wind caused the plane to become turbulent, but it worked! About 80% of the climbers headed further to Kalymnos were on board. I think 1/3 of the passengers got off in Crete and they certainly regret their decision. Our flight was supposed to last less than 3 hours, but we spent over 8 hours on the plane. The three of us went from the airport, together with Piotrek, Tomek's climbing partner, by taxi to the port (it costs 16 euros, he charged us 15 euros). We were in the port at 7 p.m. local time (6 p.m. in Poland). It turned out that the closest and last ferry departs at 21:30. We left our luggage on it and finally went to eat. Delicious food and good alcohol cheered everyone up. costs 6 euro / person, it goes sooooo fast, it even jumps from wave to wave. After 25 minutes we reached Kalymnos in the town of Pothia. There were taxis waiting at the port to take us to Masouri. We immediately noticed cooperation between taxi drivers, they asked who was going to which hotel / studio. Taxi prices are quite strange. We stayed in a studio other than Piotrek, and the price was EUR 10 from us and EUR 10 from Piotrek. The prices are set by the taxi drivers, there are no taximeters in the cars. When we got out, a boy was waiting for us, who escorted us to the studio. After unpacking and quickly rearranging the studio, we collapsed from exhaustion.