Despite plans to go to Piraeus for the 8am ferry, we wake up at 10:30. Check out and head off to Piraeus. Cathy got bitten by a stomach bug on the way, and collapsed on Omonia Square. A bottle of water and some food later, she recovered enough to reach the subway station. Dead dodgy place, with hundreds of people selling lottery tickets

Subway to Piraeus, where we buy tickets for Crete. Phone Youth Hostel and book a room (more on that tomorrow) and general shopping. Eat in Piraeus' equivalent of Oscar's - nice food, tad expensive. Stagger to ferry and board after a few minutes in waiting tent. Cathy now has diarrhoea and is being sick a fair bit.

[Smogset over the Aegean Sea. ]

We discover that we're deck passage - Cathy fuming, Iain stoic - and that we're about the only English-speaking people on the boat. Cathy's French to the rescue again. We find out that we can sleep on the restaurant floor after it closes at 10:30pm (boat arrives at 5:30am). Not quite what some members of the party had in mind.

We leave Piraeus with a wonderful view of concrete housing and a definite 'house line' on the mountains surrounding Athens and suburbs. Smog floating gently over the conurbation and down to the sea. Yum.

Hostel in Athens still decidedly dodgy, someone tried our door at 3am just after I'd woken Iain, very scared after a nightmare about a stalker. Reception denied all knowledge but were helpful about ferries.

Late morning was my fault this time - I set alarm to pm not am. That's one all. Felt ill most of day. The island hopping doesn't appear to be quite as I imagined. I expected cheap, small boats continuously popping between islands half an hour apart. The reality appears to be huge ferries charging lots of money for 12 hour journeys, and travelling at stupid times. My vision of days on the beach has faded...