Arrived in the Greek port city Patras at around 2pm. I was still tired from the night before - I couldn't sleep that well on the ferry deck. It was quite noisy and there was a bunch of Italian guys having a lively chat for hours. And plus, I just couldn't sleep on the floor because the whole ship was vibrating.
In Patras I met three Algerians who were on their way to Athens. Curious whether I was Korean, Chinese or Japanese, they spoke to me and I obviously told them I'm Malaysian which excited them - I was the first Malaysian they've ever met. They didn't speak any English so we communicated in a mixture of Arabic and French (Usman will laugh if he reads this). I knew neither of those two languages but I do know about 20 words from Arabic and 10 from French which I recycled again and again. It was hilarious.
Patras, Greece
It's good that I spoke to them because they were extremely helpful and were concerned that I might get lost as getting to Athens from Patras wasn't a straight-forward affair. We had to change from the train to coach and then take a suburban rail to the city. It took several hours before I got to the main Athens station. One of the Algerian guys took me to my Metro stop first before going his own way. It was extremely kind of them.
What striked me as peculiar is how sociable the Greeks are. They don't sit quietly in an awkward silence on the train. People seem to strike conversations with complete strangers here which was great. I spoke to one Greek from Crete who told me her life stories there and then (her Mom in hospital and how she loves smoking).
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I got to my hostel and I fell asleep almost instantaneously.
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