Saturday, March 31, 2018

Odysseys in a Parallel Universe 3

My ship left for Rhodos noon the next day. The Kariskakis was really not a ship, just a big boat,  and my fellow passengers were local Greek peasants, not foreign tourists.
We all hunkered down in the hull together, encircling the engine cover for warmth.
It was noisy: the engine was loud enough by itself, but the gregarious Greeks shouted even more loudly to make themselves heard above its clanking and this all made for an even greater cacophony!
No one spoke English. I could only manage a little German with a young girl + that was it for communication.  
For much of the trip, I sat stunned by my quick change of events, but fled a couple times up on deck just to get some breathing-room, both literally and figuratively.
I was at such a loss of how to keep myself occupied that I even bought a pack of cigarettes; but I only smoked a couple and gave the rest away the next day. I was already counting the days till the 22nd would arrive.
We stopped in 3 other islands along the way: small towns with no marinas or docking facilities, so they had to send even smaller boats out to pick up + drop off passengers.
I watched in amazement as the crew spread a board out between the two vessels, over the choppy waves: people had to literally ‘walk the plank’ as it heaved and hoed + they did too!
Timing was absolutely crucial in the success of these transfers for while one boat was riding the wave’s crest, the other was bottoming out and the walk in between was anything but secured. Even athletic, youthful passenger-types  found it difficult to navigate this tumbling tightrope, but when a couple of seasoned, quite hefty Greek grandmas stepped out, they gave the heaving seas little more than passing notice and fearlessly forged the gap!
The next leg of our passage proved to be even rougher seas, however;and as we huddled more tightly around the engine cover, the grandmas didn’t hide their utter dislike for sailing. They let it all out! Every time our boat heaved, they did too: their voices and stomachs heaved together as one with the boat and pretty soon the stench in our close-quartered hold became unbearable!
It all made for a truly memorable journey!
But we finally made it safely to Rhodes that night. There was no longer any Colossus to greet us; only windmills flapping their sails in the wind! Thankfully, I got a place for the night: Nikos’ Pension: cheap, less than $1/day … but it turned out to be for 5 days!  = 1/9th of all I had!
Rhodos is a very old, beautiful + intriguing city: Old Town is surrounded entirely by a Crusader castle wall.
Its history has known one wave of conqueror after another. The Knights of St John left the wall; the Turks unfortunately took more than they gave for the following 400 years they were here.
Over my next few days, another wind blew out of Turkey… a very cold wind + with central heating unknown in these parts, we had only Nikos’ space heater to huddle around in the common room + somehow get warm.
Other travelers were waiting for boats too: some wanted to get to Turkey and on further to India+ Kathmandu.
A couple others had heard a boat to Cyprus was coming… just nobody knew when… maybe next week?
I became increasingly suspicious that this ‘coming Cyprus boat’ was a mirage on the horizon + each extra day in Rhodos was only shrinking my $45 cash-stash without getting me any further to Israel!
It seemed impossible to find a reliable and predictable ferry schedule: one Travel Agency promoted sailings which others knew nothing about; still other others countered that no such sailings even existed! 
Prices too conflicted. Some disavowed Student Discounts which their own brochures clearly offered.
Finally, one agency informed me they had a confirmed ticket price for a real boat: $20!
The precise info was good news, but the bad news? …this would eat up over half of my remaining funds!
Neither could anyone give me any information on how much money Cypriot Customs required for a traveler to enter their country.
The whole scenario looked bleaker day by day + getting off Rodos before Christmas seemed an improbable dream , let alone making  it all the way to Israel in time to meet my friend again!
One of the guys in the pension got very sick: a bad cold from traveling without even a jacket; he never left his bed for next few days. I was thankfully spared with only a couple sniffles!
I cooked all my own spaghetti to try + save money. Cats crawled all over the kitchen; one little black monster made his home in the kitchen sink + just about became part of the sauce!
And every day the wind out of Turkey seemed to blow harder + colder + we waited around our heater + froze!
Things were so confusing by the 4th day, I considered taking any boat available: either back to Athens or Turkey?
A couple travel agents advised via Turkey would be even cheaper, but when it came to details, they gave me only speculations. Greeks apparently did not want to give unnecessary business to Turks?
But when it felt truly hopeless, then hope + good news arrived + was confirmed:  a boat was suddenly departing for Cyprus that very night, with an added plus: the agency gave me a generous $1 student discount!
By that time, every dollar saved was gold!
Sure enough, the Knossos actually showed up that night, sailed for Cyprus and I was on it!
I was finally making forward progress!

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