Greek Maybe Time

I am convinced that every country believes they are the ones who are always late. The Slovakians called off a revolution for being late, the Spanish eat at 10 because they say they were never on time to an 8:00 dinner, and the Greeks are on Greek Maybe Time, or GMT. Seeing as I am a week late on this article, clearly I am still on Greek Maybe Time. 

Backpacking is not always a vacation, so we decided that chartering a sailboat through the Greek Isles would be a nice relaxing almost end to our adventure. Months in advanced I booked this 44 ft. Sun Odyssey sailboat for a week in May. I rounded up some friends and handed my credit card over to a lady named Francesca. 

The communication was incredible, the reviews were flawless and the whole process was great. But being the paranoid human that I am, until the minute we got on the boat I was almost convinced it was not real and I had just handed over a relatively large amount of money to a fictitious company and there would be no boat. 

We all packed up our backpacks and day bags and headed to the marina. I had a dock and slip number and after two lost 2 Euro coins and a 45 minute tram ride we found ourselves standing in front of the Beauty L. with Captain Harris, quite a silver fox I might add, welcoming us aboard. 

We picked our route: the smaller local islands off the coast of Athens with lots of swimming breaks. When asked what time we will leave and get to port Captain Harris replied: “5/4/4:30 whenever, we are on Greek Maybe Time.” And Greek Maybe Time it was when we set sail toward Poros at 4 something. 

This was vacation, we stopped to swim two hours in diving into freezing cold water while the sun set in the cove of an uninhabited island. 

Docking in Poros we realized we had the coolest captain who knew anyone and everyone with every hookup in the book. He scored us a table at the best restaurant on the water with free freshly grilled octopus. This became a trend, in each port he offered us the best local foods from 2 Euro Gyros to a beautiful meal on a floating dock. 

Much of this trip has been spent in rain, wind, cold, or some combination of the three so this blazing sun, cool breeze, and crystal clear ocean was paradise filled with liters of wine and disposable cameras. 

Each port was different, but all were covered in cats. Roaming around Eastern Europe all you see is dogs, and in Greece all you see is cats. Everywhere. Our favorite was Boat Cat. A fat black and white cat that figured out if he waited around in the marina for people to get off their boats he would walk right across the plank onto the deck and into the kitchen for some snacks. 

The most famous island of the cluster we went to was Hydra, home of a 50-foot cliff that Bella and I jumped straight off. I might have severely bruised my entire body but it was completely worth it. The island had excellent mojitos and lights on the water perfect for a night swim. 

Walking with 20+ pounds on your back all the time is exhausting so it is important to book a break here and there. Stress free floating around in the sun is a good way to take a vacation from your vacation. I’ll eventually come out of Greek Maybe Time but it is a lovely place to be for now.