I took the overnight ferry from Crete back to Athens last night. Since I have 16 hours of flights, 8 hours of layovers and the other usual transit time to look forward to when I leave Athens, I decided to spring for the more expensive (and more comfortable) cabin so that I have a place to sleep.

Now, I haven’t taken all that many ferries in my day. Prior to this trip, a “ferry” was maybe an hour maximum on a speedboat, going to an island in Ohio or New York. Already the Greek version has been an eye-opening experience. The trips can be quite long - 3 hours is short; lots are more like 8 or so - and the boats are huge, with little coffee shops, cafeterias and such scattered about.

But further shock and amazement were in store when I got on this ferry, checked into the RECEPTION desk (the fact alone that one exists on a ferry was mind-blowing) and given a room key! Basically, this was the equivalent of a trip on the Titanic for me. You can take the girl out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the girl and I am still impressed by novelties like this that other people probably find mundane.

Anyway, after taking a shower (!!) in my room, I wandered around for a while checking out the casino (!!), bars, etc. When I got back to my room, my other 3 roommates were also back and chatting away in Greek. OK, slightly awkward, but girl talk transcends language and national borders, and soon (through the one girl who spoke English really well) we were talking about Sex and the City and which characters we would be (me - Carrie; Christina my roommate - Samantha). This totally made my day.

We talked about the US (they are dying to visit, but “no money, no honey”) and where to go (New Orleans and Chicago I approved, Florida got nixed except Miami or the Keys. On that topic, what is the deal with the international fascination with Florida?? I get that it’s exotic by virtue of being far away, but come on… It’s a bunch of tshirt shops, spring break teenagers and Cadillacs). They also told me that they are all friends studying together in Athens, and seemed surprised to find out that I was in Greece on holiday (My reaction - Duh!! It’s GREECE! Of course I am here on holiday. But probably to them Crete is like Florida to me - a nice place, but your home and by definition not a special international destination).

They asked lots of questions about what traditional Greek food and drinks I’d tasted (I think I diaspointed them a bit here; I now have homework to try Ouzo with lemonade), where I’d visited and what I thought of it all. Then they taught me how to say “goodnight” in Greek and we went to bed (after a little more whispering and giggling in Greek).

The perfect ending to my visit to Crete.