Day 5: Innsbruck -> Munich -> Athens

Monday, September 17

Jamie had actually said he'd be back by 10PM on Day 4 to show us pictures from Africa,. We were a little worried when he wasn't back by 11, but since he'd originally said 2AM, I wasn't sure what to think. Daniel had knocked on his door around 10, when we were checking out. Then, before we went to bed, he left his name tag on his door with a note.

Between our early wake up time not hearing Jamie come home, neither of us slept well that night. When our alarm went off, Daniel knocked on Jamie's door and roused him. Turned out he'd gotten back before 9, crashed, taken a shower around 10, and headed back to bed without checking in with us. Daniel and I were relieved because we didn't know what we should do if he didn't.

Our taxi came just before 5 and took us to the Innsbruck train station. We'd looked up the route we needed to take online the day before, but the ticket sales didn't begin until 6 and the machine only sold tickets within Austria. I finally stopped someone who looked like they worked for the railroad and he helped us get our ticket and get on an earlier train than we'd planned on, which was good as our train later was running a half-hour late.

The sun didn't come up until around 7 (equinox time and all) so much of the journey was dark. We also hadn't had breakfast, although I ate most of a Clif bar on the way. We had to change trains in Kufstein and buy tickets to Munich. The train filled up with school children along the way. We got out at a metro stop to change to the light rail to the airport.

We checked in with Lufthansa for our Aegean Air flight. I ran and got stamps to mail the few postcards I'd written in Austria, then Daniel and I found breakfast: I had a croissant and really gross vanilla-flavored milk; Daniel had another kebap.

Our gate was right by an authorized smoking area, which was completely unenclosed. European smoking came as more of a surprise to me that it should have. Thankfully, we ate outdoors almost all the time so it was never too bad of a problem.

On the plane we slept, but I woke up to eat the meatballs they served. When we were waiting to deplane, one passenger already had a cigarette between his lips.

At the airport, we went to the tourism bureau and got a schedule for the ferries. We picked a hotel out of our Lonely Planet guide, got a phone card, and got a room for the night. Then we boarded the expensive subway into Athens, found our hotel, checked in, changed rooms due to a missing toilet seat, and headed back out.

Our plan was to get supplies and figure out logistics to take the 7:25AM ferry to Santorini the next morning. We found a market and then a place for dinner. Daniel was dragging badly. He was out about 8:30PM, after we made the decision to sleep in and take an evening ferry to Iraklio instead.