This morning, Irakleio, Crete represented a logistical challenge which at times seemed daunting. Driving in a major city is a completely different experience than the rural roads of the west and south on which we had spent the previous two days. Our challenge was to drop the car at the airport, take a taxi to the ferry port and hop the ferry to Santorini. My personal challenge was to leave the car at the rental car agency without a drop of gas in it. That is the way we had received, and I intended to return the favor. 

The next morning we retrieved the car and headed to the airport with enough time, except that we got a little turned around and could not find it. We finally found a sign and followed it through a residential area on a very small street. Unfortunately, the street terminated at larger arterial street where we had to turn left. Note: it is not possible to turn left across traffic in Irakleio during a rush hour. We sat and sat thinking that some kind soul might stop to let us by, but intersections in Irakleio are very complex organisms. The car trying to drive against traffic is much like a virus to this organism - the intersection wishes to fight this effort, deny it access, and stamp it out. All of this occurred to me at the intersection while waiting to turn left. After all, I had plenty of time to think. It also occurred to me that the turn would be particularly difficult to execute if the car were to run out of gas. Leslie had her hand on the door handle with the intention of entering the intersection and stopping traffic for us. That did not seem sensible to me, but I was willing to accept her sacrifice so at least one of us could get to the airport. 

You will be happy to know that a citizen on a motorbike (who obviously got tired of waiting on me) rode up beside the car, chuckling to himself (surely about our ineptitude) and said something to the effect of "let me help you". It was then that he pulled out in front of a truck and served as a shield for our entry into the intersection. Off, we were. 

Do you remember my mentioning that we needed a taxi ride from the airport to the ferry port? Once again, there was a taxi strike so we walked to a bus stop. Luckily, this stop was manned ticket office. There was an employee inside and three men sitting under a tree outside. We bought two tickets for the port, the man assuring us that the bus would be there in 5 minutes. It seemed almost instantly that he called out to one of the men. The fellow jumped up, crossed the street and started up a bus. By the time the driver came around to pick us up, there were several other passengers standing nearby. Despite some tense moments, we made the ferry to Santorini with fifteen minutes to spare.