06 Nov 1985, Posted by Scott An Chora in Travelogue, No Comments.
11/06 Nikolaos, Greece
I woke to the sound of wind that seemed to be gaining strength. It sounded like cats crying in the distance but no, it was closer. I went out onto the balcony and noticed two of our lady friends down in the street trying to get somebody’s attention. Apparently the door was locked and they had no key. We had an early boat and needed to get moving. Elspeth discovered her girlfriend never made it back from last night and she presumed she may have gotten lucky. Either way she wasn’t going to hop on the ferry without her, so we left the two behind.
The Canadian flag sewed to my pack didn’t go over too well through customs. The combination of a Canadian flag and an American passport just lead to lots of unnecessary questions. They tried to make me feel as if I were a mouse cornered by the household cat. “Spell your name” spoke the frozen face as he shuffled through index cards. He attempted to give me the impression that he had found something. What is your “Father’s name? Mother’s maiden name? That was the entertainment that came along with the job. The others waited at the exit. It didn’t end there. Next they pulled the three of us into small room and made us wait until some type of decorated officer showed up and sat across the desk from us. He just sat there staring at us. Eventually he opened up his mouth and slowly asked us “You know why you’re here, don’t you?” In the silence after his question he continued to stare. “You know why you’re here, don’t you?” he repeated. We had no idea what in the hell he was talking about and stared back across the table and said nothing. “Did anybody give you anything’? He asked. “Like what”, I added. “You know”, he replied. In a joking manner I questioned “Heroin, Diamonds?” “Lots of diamonds” Dave added. It was obvious they didn’t want to be involved in any type of comedy. “Did anybody give you anything to bring on board”? “No” we replied bluntly and then they showed us the door.
We scrambled to find a good location on the deck and claimed one of the flat life jacket containers above the deck. Most all of them had a canopy to protect us from the sun and possibly rain. They were also large enough to accommodate all of us plus a few girls if we were fortunate enough. It wasn’t long before the deck was covered with wall-to-wall sleeping bags. Through the grapevine the word was that an elderly man had persuaded a young girl to carry aboard a package for his nephew. It turned out to contain explosives. It would have been nice to have known that type of information in advance of boarding and to have had the choice to say no thanks.
We had an eight hour stopover in Cyprus giving us plenty of time to wander about and grab some food. We walked up and down the streets and along the water front, but saw nothing exciting except for the town’s pelican. He was guarding some drying octopus and all he needed was a gesture and he was in your face. He was something to watch. He believed he ruled the city and there wasn’t anybody going to tell him otherwise. We stood off to the side for a while watching the other groups from the boat wander up, “What a cute pelican” Surprise! We spent the rest of our time under the sun out on the city’s outer wall and decided to pitch in on a bottle of rum so we divvied up and I tackled the pushing and shoving of the duty free line before boarding the ferry.
Post time was nearing so I angled over for a better position and ended standing next to an absolutely gorgeous Norwegian and another Scandinavian. She and her husband were on holiday. I then noticed a little blond haired girl struggling to purchase a pack of cigarettes. I added her cigarettes to our order of rum so she didn’t have to wait any longer. Her name was Jenni and she explained that she was originally from New Zealand. She was also was heading to Israel and so she joined us on our container. Jenni sat next to me on the deck and we talked for some time. When a chill came up she was kind enough to share her sleeping bag and kept me warm. It was about half past midnight when it began to rain and it didn’t take very long for the deck to gather enough water to create waves. First those not up on the containers ran inside for immediate cover. Eventually the rocking of the boat eliminated the advantage of the canopies and we too ended up inside sacrificing leg room and oxygen to keep dry.
