Ferry survival tips

Friday night Marshall and I took the night ferry "Knossos Princess" to Iraklio (ancient Heraklion), Crete, one day after the others had gone.

Some tips learned from experience:

1. If you can afford it, fly.
2. If you can't fly, reserve a cabin so you can get some sleep!
3. If all you can afford is "deck class," do the following:
a. Bring earplugs, a sheet or blanket, and a sleep mask or some such device. The AC is brutally strong ( I got "cold hives"!)
b. get on the boat as early as you can. This is KEY.
c. The seats are configured in sets of two and three. Immediately go to the economy deck chair section and stake out a block of three seats, the ones whose armrests go up (this is equally key). Put your luggage or, even better, a sheet or blanket across the seats.
d. Now you can wander throughout the ferry until it's time to sleep. Buy a beer (3 euros, but remember it's fairly reasonable for a place that can hold you hostage!) or better yet, defend your position against possible invaders.
e. Then go back, stretch out, and immediately feign sleep. Do not look up for anything (remember what happened to Orpheus and Lot's wife!).

It may seem selfish and cruel to take up three chairs, but you will get some sleep. We did not. We barely found two seats at all, and by some miracle together. Then began the long, long night...The chairs are (mirabile dictu) even more uncomfortable than airplane seats--in fact, they make an airplane seat seem like a SleepNumber bed!The lights stayed on all night. The TV played all night long, loud. But even louder were the "Young Turks" in back of us, who seemed to take some twisted delight in talking AS LOUD AS THEY COULD, and they had many visitors throughout the night, including one whose disregard for the "No smoking" sign was odorifically obvious, and one who decided that the top of my chair made a convenient armrest. The standard glare did not work, so I finally had to tell him to stop it, as he was now thumping it with his hand to illustrate key points in his long, loud conversation.

The chairs were exquisitely uncomfortable, which explains why many people simply stretched out on the floor, as far out of the area of traffic as possible. In fact, after several sleepless hours I finally curled up in the tiny space between our seats and the seats in front of us, with one of Marshall's extra shirts as a pathetic attempt at a blanket, and Marshall tried to drape his body across the two seats, although our armrests did not go up. In this way we managed to snag a few fitful hours of sleep...