Chapter 15: 15. Next Stop

Monday was another long stressful day of travel, or at least it was stressful for me. Marianne took it all in stride, and as usual she took charge and made sure we got where we were going and arrived on time for whatever the next step was. And there were a lot of steps.

We were up and showered and dressed bright and early, then packed and ready to go soon after. We had breakfast at the hotel before checking out. Then we caught the bus to Athinios, which was a small port inside the caldera.

That was a hurry up and wait situation, we had to get there well in advance of the ferry and ended up sitting around for the better part of an hour as we waited.

The ferry was interesting, but not necessarily in a good way. Fortunately neither me or Marianne got seasick, because it wasn't a big boat and we were on it for a long time.

It took us a little over three hours on the ferry until we finally docked at Adamas, the port town on Milos. From there we had a short walk to a car hire place. Apparently Marianne decided we'd had enough busses for the time. Or maybe there weren't any on Milos, I didn't ask. Either way she'd already made the arrangements so within fifteen minutes of our arrival we had a little car for the duration of our stay on the island.

From Adamas it was a short drive north to our hotel at the capital Plaka. Or rather, our hotel was just south of Plaka. Apparently you couldn't actually drive in the town, because the buildings were built too close together.

Check-in went smoothly and we found ourselves in another beautiful hotel room which would be our home for the next four nights. Both Marianne and Eva figured that would be enough time for us to search the island and visit the historical sites. I sat down on the big bed and looked out at our balcony, and a picturesque view of the gulf of Milos.

The two of us unpacked and got settled in, then we had dinner delivered by room service. After that we took it easy and basically had a quiet early night.

And on the one hand I was grateful that my beautiful French friend took care of most of those arrangements, made most of the plans, and offered to get room service rather than ask me to go back out to a restaurant. But on the other hand I felt a bit embarrassed and useless. I felt like I was taking advantage of her, even though I knew it was a pretty good deal for her.

Like she was getting a free five-star trip around the Aegean to visit and explore the sort of culture and places she'd been studying. From that perspective it probably wasn't that bad a deal, for her to have to chaperone and babysit me because I was such a wimp about travelling. I still felt bad about it though, and as I drifted to sleep in her arms that night I made myself a promise that I'd get better. I'd get over my stresses and hangups and start pulling my weight.

Tuesday morning after breakfast we set out to visit the capital properly. We didn't even need the car for that, it was barely a kilometre from our hotel to the centre of the old town. So we left the car at the hotel and walked the short distance. That's when we found out the museum was closed on Tuesdays, which sort of messed up our plans for the day. We expected to spend several hours in there.

Marianne checked on her phone and found the other place she wanted to see was open instead so we headed back to the hotel and got the car then set out for the archaeological site of Phylakopi.

The drive took us around the northern part of the island, which also gave Eva a chance to use her magical senses to scan the surrounding area for any sign of her family.

The actual ancient site was interesting, but it wasn't in very good shape compared to what we saw at Akrotiri or ancient Thera. For one thing it seemed like half the site was missing, thanks to erosion a lot of it had slipped into the sea.

What was left was kind of cool, like the site apparently went all the way back to around two-thousand BCE. According to Marianne it was occupied through most of the Bronze Age. But there just wasn't enough of it for the two of us to spend an entire day there.

We got lots of pictures, and Marianne took some notes. I had a feeling she enjoyed the experience, like even though it wasn't as nice as the other sites she was still happy to see it just like she was happy to explore Akrotiri and Thera.

In the afternoon we returned to the car, then rather than head straight back to the hotel we continued going east, out to Apollonia. Then we turned south and basically just drove around, enjoying the ocean views and the countryside.

Eventually we found ourselves passing the island's airport as we ended up back on the gulf side. From there the road took us north, and we finally pulled into the port town of Adamas again. Then it was just a short drive to the hotel outside Plaka, and that's where we decided to call it a day.

We walked back into the town and had dinner at a nice restaurant, then when we got back to our hotel Marianne spent a bit of time working on her tablet while I lay on the bed and talked with Eva.

"What do you think?" I asked her. "We're going to do the museum and stuff tomorrow, then Thursday we can do some more driving and visit the rest of the island?"

My demon ghost lay alongside me, staring up at the ceiling.

She sighed, "I don't think there's that much else here on the island? I believe we've already visited or driven past most of the populated areas. There might be one or two smaller settlements on the south coast that we missed, but I doubt my child would be somewhere so remote."

With another sigh she added, "She is a demon like me, and she fed the same way I do. She would draw out negative emotions from humans, which meant she needed to be among them. Or at least near them. Perhaps not right inside a town, but somewhere close by. And I'm fairly certain we've already seen all the towns here."

"I'm sorry Eva," I replied. And for what felt like the hundredth time, I wished I could give her a hug. "Still, we've only been at this a week now right? We're just getting started."

She gave me a sad smile, "You're right Lexi. And this was perhaps a long-shot. I just thought maybe if Thera got too busy for her, she might have come here instead. It's also sort of on the way between Santorini and the mainland, depending which part of the mainland one's heading for."

I asked, "So what next? Should we head for the mainland too?"

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"No," Eva shook her head. "We'll continue our visit here as planned, then we'll head south to Crete. It's a much larger island, it was the home of the Minoan civilization, and I'm sure it's important to Marianne's studies. It's also the next likely spot my child may have moved to, after she left Santorini."

"All right Eva," I replied quietly.

Wednesday morning after breakfast Marianne and I were back in Plaka, and this time we got into the museum. It wasn't a big place, but she was in her element and we easily spent half the day there. I learned about the island's prehistoric importance as a source of obsidian, which was used to make tools for farming along with weapons and stuff like that way back before the bronze age.

When we finally finished at the museum we spent the rest of the day exploring in and around Plaka while discussing the museum, the ruins, and antiquities in general. Which led to a silly little exchange over drinks at a pretty cafe.

"Seriously," I said with a blush. "I honestly thought 'Milo' was the name of the guy who made it? Like the sculptor or whatever?"

Marianne giggled, "It's called Venus de Milo because it was found here on Milos! Actually the place it was discovered is probably walking distance from our hotel? We should go have a look tomorrow."

"Ok," I agreed. "That's kind of cool, like I'm sure everyone's heard of that statue but I never heard of this island before last week. Kind of wild to think it's actually famous like that."

After a sip of my coffee I added, "Actually is the statue around here too? It'd be cool to see that as well, like outside of books or history documentaries on TV."

"No Lexi," she shook her head. "The statue is at the Louvre in Paris. Perhaps I could take you there some time, after we've found Eva's family? I'd love to show you around the City of Light."

I smiled, "I think I'd like that. Thanks Marianne."

She smiled back, and the look in her eyes left a warm feeling in my heart.

When we finished our drinks the two of us continued exploring in and around Plaka, until we eventually stopped again for dinner. And finally it was back to our hotel, where the two of us had a rather romantic evening.

Our view across the bay faced west, so we had a beautiful view of the setting sun as we cuddled together on the balcony. We shared some wine, but instead of conversation it was mostly just a quiet sense of togetherness. We held hands, we cuddled, and we enjoyed each other's company. And some time later, after the sun had set and the wine was all gone, the two of us climbed into bed together and enjoyed each other some more.

Thursday we were mostly on foot again, which left me wondering if we really needed the rental car after all. Apart from the driving on Tuesday we probably could have got by with public transportation.

After breakfast we ventured down a road which zig-zagged as it descended towards the bay. There we toured the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre, then we visited some catacombs that dated from the first to sixth centuries CE. It was all well after Eva's time, and probably not old enough to be part of what Marianne was interested in studying. It was still kind of cool to see the Roman stuff. I found the catacombs a bit creepy but it was still sort of neat to see that stuff.

Then we climbed back up the winding road, and wandered around on foot some more. We eventually found a blue historical sign on the side of the road, declaring that to be where the Venus de Milo was discovered. Though the sign's English text actually said 'Venus of Milos' which made sense. I realized 'Venus de Milo' was the French name, which probably became common because it was in a museum in France.

We rounded out the day with some more casual touring and exploring, but we cut the day a little short and returned to the hotel in mid-afternoon. There was a jacuzzi tub that me and Marianne took advantage of, and generally had a quiet lazy evening and an early night, because Friday we would be travelling again.

Though to be honest we weren't entirely lazy, before dinner me and Marianne made all our arrangements for Friday's journey. She sorted out the actual travel side of things, while I took care of our accommodations.

We'd be going to Heraklion, which was the main port, the capital, and the biggest city on Crete. I found us a nice hotel that was right downtown and near enough to the port that we could easily walk there after we left the ferry. And after checking with Eva, I booked us another five-star room but this time I planned for a two-week stay.

Compared to Santorini and Milos, Crete was enormous. And where a rental car on Milos had been a frivolous luxury, it'd probably be a necessity if we seriously planned on touring the whole of our next stop. The island was around two hundred kilometers from end to end and home to more than half a million people, according to the internet.

I figured we'd probably spend three or four days just in the capital visiting museums and stuff, and I knew there were lots of ancient sites Marianne wanted to see as well. I didn't actually book a rental car though, I figured we'd have a couple days in the city anyways, and we could sort that out after we were there and settled.

Friday morning started off a lot like Monday, me and Marianne were up early, showered and dressed. We had breakfast in the hotel, then packed up and checked out. We drove back to the port city, turned over the rental car, then checked in at the port and waited for our ferry.

From Milos to Crete was more than twice as far as Santorini to Milos, but we'd be taking a faster craft this time. Marianne booked us on a jet-boat which sounded kind of exciting. On the other hand it was still going to take us about five hours at sea, which was less thrilling. At least none of us got seasick, and the boat was fairly comfortable.

When we finally reached port at Heraklion I got my phone out to help with navigating, and the two of us found our way to the hotel. Check-in was relatively painless, and soon enough we were in our suite. We had a nice north-facing view overlooking a marina, the Gulf of Heraklion, and beyond that the Sea of Crete. But as usual I was too worn out from travelling to enjoy it just yet.

Despite being tired, I insisted we didn't need room service this time. Me and Marianne ventured out of the hotel and found a nice restaurant for dinner, but after that I was happy to head straight back to our room. Then I collapsed in bed so I could unwind and relax.