********WARNING
- A BIT BORING THIS POST******** A BIT OF A RANT ACTUALLY**************
Not that
I'm overly superstitious, but my Greek Granny never travelled on a Tuesday as
Constantinople fell twice on a Tuesday, first to the smelly old 4th crusade
Brexiters in 1204, and then in 1453 to Erdogan's forebears. These dates
where both on a 13th but I thought that a 31st day of the month would be safe
enough.
So it
came to pass that we boarded the ANEK ferry Asterion a vessel previously
operated in the English channel under the name Norman Trader. ANEK have got
wise to keeping the old LD Lines name - this vessel is a sister ship of the ill-fated
Norman Atlantic*. It is also quite small and slow compared to what we thought
we had paid for.
Spot the
happy deck campers:
This is deck class, tents pitched hopefully on
vibrating wet steel. This year we were to luxuriate in a cabin.
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Mutti in law is propositioned with ouzo by
friendly Turkish lorry drivers
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Here is the cabin - an air conditioned
cupboard but a haven
|
Next morning we miss breakfast because the ship's
tannoy system cannot be heard from with a cabin. We are also unable to
buy coffee because the ship cannot establish an internet link FFS!
 This small half deck contains all the amenities. |
It appeared to us and many fellow passengers that this is a badly run and organised vessel . This camper van appears to have collected ANEK Lines yellow paint on its way up to the top deck.
This is the second time that the fat Turkish
woman in the Silver Opel Zafira bumped her door into our car - Mrs N
intervenes when the ship docks to discharge at intermediate stop Igoumenitsa
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Igoumentisa - intermediate stop in northern
Greece
|
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|
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| Nice! |
We proceed down to Patras and narrowly miss the
superior Superfast ferry going North
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Due to the various debarcles we arrived at Patras
4 hours late at 1am
|
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| Pleased to be off this ship! |
Thankfully we find a 24 hour fuel station on the
outskirts of Patras - and diesel is cheap!
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In
conclusion:
Do not
travel on this ANEK lines ferry the Asterion which is badly organised and
possible dangerous. The facilities are poor and the onboard stevadores have no
clue how to load this vessel. It is also slow in comparisons to the far
superior cruise ferries which operate this route normally.
*This is
what happened to its sister ship Norman Atlantic in December 2014:
It would
appear from press reports that the crew were no more organised than the bunch
we had.
T
It appeared to us and many fellow passengers that this is a badly run and organised vessel .
The
fall of Constantinople on Tuesday, April 13, 1204 to the Fourth Crusade
was a bleak day for Hellenism. However, Tuesday May 29, 1453, was even
worse, as Constantinople fell again, this time to the Ottoman Empire,
followed by almost 400 years of Ottoman rule across Greece. - See more
at:
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/10/13/why-superstitious-greeks-fear-tuesday-the-13th/#sthash.xp0jAavs.dpuf
Tuesday, April 13, 1204and secondly to Shiteface Erdogan's predeccsssorsANEK asterion
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| This is deck class, tents pitched hopefully on vibrating wet steel. This year we were to luxuriate in a cabin. |
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| As we departed Ancona life looked up in the restaurant |
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| Mutti in law is propositioned with ouzo by friendly Turkish lorry drivers |
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| Here is the cabin |
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| Next morning we miss braekfast because the ship's tannoy system cannot be haerd from with a cabin. We are also unable to buy coffee because the ship cannot establis an internet link FFS! |
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| This is the second time that the fat Turkish woman in the Silver Opel Zafira bumped her door into our car |
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| Add caption |
