I’ve written a fair amount about the incredible hospitality of the Greeks. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been the recipient of hundred of acts of kindness on the road, but never as often, or as much as I’ve been helped by Greeks. (Just another reason to visit their beautiful country! :))
So on this particular occasion, I was making my way to Patras, from Piraeus. The two ports of Athens are, sadly, nowhere near each other, and the transportation between the two of them is nothing short of an absolute nightmare. I’d arrived into Piraeus in the early morning (around 7am), and my ferry to Italy would leave Patras later in the evening. I knew, in theory, that I had lots of time. But tell that to ‘I-didn’t-splurge-on-a-room-on-my-overnight-ferry-and-i’m-so-exhausted’ me, and things get more difficult and more frustrating.
At that time in the morning, all the tourist information booths were closed at the port. The reception desk on board the ship couldn’t give me any information, short of saying that it was about a 3 hour drive and a taxi ride would cost well over 100 euros (definitely blowing any semblance of budget I had). But short of telling me that I shouldn’t have to do that, they couldn’t direct me any farther.
Thankfully, the port had reasonably reliable open wifi, and I was able to get some sort of public transportation guide from google maps. As a backup, I managed to look online for some other routes people had taken in the past. Between the two, I hoped I would make it.
Essentially, the journey would be a bus to downtown Athens, then a short walk to the bus station, then another bus to another bus station, then a long-distance bus to Patras, and then another bus to the port. Are you with me so far? I was definitely only somewhat confident.
I was waiting for a bus when all of a sudden, I saw my backup option bus pull up. Deciding on a whim that I should take this bus, because who knew how often then came at 7am, I jumped on. I tried, unsuccessfully, to ask the driver for a ticket. Unsure of how to obtain one (stay tuned next week for an awful story about the time I didn’t validate my tram ticket in Ukraine, and just barely got away with paying a fine…), and getting nowhere, I took a seat, praying I’d make it under the radar.
Several minutes later, I had exchanged hello-smiles with an elderly woman beside me. I pulled out my phone with my map and showed her, asking/hoping she might know the stop and tell me when to get off.
She shot me an apologetic smile and shrugged – the universal sign for ‘sorry, no English’, but her neighbour asked – in English! – where I was headed. I told him Patras, and insane miracle of miracles, he was too!
We continued for several minutes in silence. I then asked him about buying a bus ticket, as I hadn’t been able to get one from the driver. He wasn’t sure, being a bus pass user himself but told me that I shouldn’t worry about it.
Not even a minute later, someone taps me on the shoulder. Behind me was a man about my age, and he smiled, and handed me a bus ticket. He’d overheard that I hadn’t had one, and had purchased one just for me. Totally blown away by his amazing thoughtfulness, I held out my hand with some change, unsure of the cost, but not wanting him to have to pay for my ticket. He shooed my hand away, smiled and went back to sitting quietly and reading his book. No getting kicked off this bus for me!
Finally, my new travel partner and I got off the bus. I’d been following along on my map, and it appeared that we’d gotten off a little early, but it seemed to be at a central bus station. He gestured for me to follow him, and then, apparently ever a gentleman, helped me and my backpack (at this late point in the trip, it had become a separate entity…) off the bus.
We arrived at a massive and very confusing bus station. I’d worked hard to learn some basic words in cyrillic but unfortunately, it didn’t translate well (read: at all) to the Greek alphabet that was everywhere in Greece. Thankfully, my travel friend was Greek, and he couldn’t help but laugh at my absolute confusion.
Hoping and likely being kind, he encouraged me to see if I could locate our destination ticket booth. Of course I didn’t, my eyes frantically scanning the station stops, hoping for a P, an S…some letter that I recognized. Feeling pity for me, he pointed it out, and we walked over the the counter to purchase our tickets.
We’d arrived in plenty of time, and he stopped at a small cafe for some coffee and breakfast. Before I could get the words out to treat him, and set my backpack down, he was in line and treating me for breakfast. When I tried to repay him, he answered that in both Greece, his homeland, and Australia, his adoptive land, it was customary to treat visitors well, so that they would return happily. He insisted that it was his privilege to treat a tourist to coffee; so rarely did he get the opportunity to do so in his home country.
Eventually, the time came to head to our bus gate. The bus ended up being quite full and we sat together. He took it upon himself to point out the amazing sites we passed, and gave me a full history of the area. He was so very proud of his home country, and he reminisced about growing up just outside of Corinth.
We finally arrived at the Patras port. He walked me into the port and pointed out where my ferry would likely come in later that evening. All of a sudden, I realized that I would be saying goodbye to this person that, 6 hours before, had been a total stranger, but now, was an amazing travel friend. I promised to write him a postcard from Canada, a country he hoped to visit one day.
Not wanting our day to end, I asked where he was off to. He replied that he wasn’t taking a ferry, but that he had just been returning to his home town for some much needed holidays. I asked if he had far to go from Patras, and he replied that home was back in Corinth – a town we’d passed a good two hour bus ride ago.
I protested that he really hadn’t had to accompany me the whole way, but he replied that he had had nothing else to do that day; that his sons wouldn’t be getting off work until much later that night, and like he said earlier; The privilege of helping visitors was something that was very important. He wished me well, and proceeded to line up to board the bus back to Corinth.
There you have it. Hospitality like no other.
Have you ever had someone help you whose kindness just blew you away?
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