After one night in the marina, we walked into Chalkida town the next morning and were pleased to see 'Dawn Surprise' moored the other side of the bridge. We met Brian and Sue Ketteridge on their yacht some weeks ago in Leonidion Plaka, and they have now decided to use the boatyard in Orei, too.
Chalkida is a funny town, I haven't completely fallen in love with the place though. It is clearly a popular Greek summer tourist destination, with lots of hotels and dozens of tavernas and cafes along the waterfront both sides of the narrow straits. It is also a relatively short drive from Athens and would attract lots of day visitors. But it is a rather scruffy place, lots of graffiti, some run down buildings and disused parts of town which give it an uncared for feel. I was pleased to discover a decent AB supermarket a few streets back from the waterfront, and who should we bump into, but Brian and Sue! After discussing the peculiarities of the weather and the timings of the bridge opening, we promised to keep in touch and we then faced the task of reporting to the Port Authority office to inform them we wished to go through the bridge and pay the fee.
I could write a whole comedy sketch about Greek Port Police. There always seems to be about five of them in a small office, drinking coffee, smoking, and often with the tv on in the background. We have no idea what they do all day! You would think they would be used to boat people reporting in, bringing their boat papers to be checked etc, and pay the fee, but every single time they act like it is the first time ever that someone has come into their office. "You have a boat?" They ask incredulously. They take our folder of papers and examine each one as if they don't know what they are for, holding them gingerly by the edges, turning them over and over. They spend ages reading every detail of unnecessary papers, like the VHF licence, or the form which says we have paid VAT on the boat, instead of reading the important insurance documents.
"Where are you from?", they ask, even though it says clearly on the papers. "Why are you here?" . I'm sure they draw lots with each other in the office to decide who will deal with these crazy English people, they all pretend they can't speak English but most of them do. They others snigger amongst themselves in the background and make comments in Greek. Then they make a big fuss of filling in lots of forms in triplicate and announcing the charge we have to pay. It always turns out to be something random, like 18.77 euro. You offer them a 20 euro note, but they always pretend never to have any change, so you have to fish around in the depths of your bag, or pockets for the right money, or some times we say tell them to keep the change. I'm sure they have another bet with each other to see how much change they can get out of these foreigners!
Anyway, the bridge finally opened for is at 0245am.....