Oh the Innefficiencies!

Here is our How to get out of Greece free checklist:

1)  Went to the Harbor Master at Gauvia Marina in Corfu.  They were able to check us INTO Corfu but not OUT of Greece.  Go to the Port Authority they said.

2)  Took a taxi from the marina to the Port Authority near old town…cost 15 Euro.  The taxi takes us to a building but says he will wait to see if that is the right place…turns out it is NOT and we have to go clear across port to Passport Control.  Got back into the taxi who takes us to Passport Control.

3)  Taxi leaves.  Doors to building are locked.  We find a back door open and someone to direct us to the right office.  They stamped our Passports with the EXIT stamp.  They have an issue with John not having an entry stamp (a whole nother story…later) but turns out OK after much discussion.  We tell him we are leaving tomorrow and he tells us he is stamping us out today and we should not leave the boat…yeah right!

4)  Left Passport Control, walked back across port to Customs.  Go through Security.  He cannot help us until we have the right “stamp” from Port Authority in our Transit Log (this is a document that we had to have stamped at every port we visited in Greece that had a Coast Guard or Harbor Police.  We also had to pay each time)

5)  Off accross Port again to Port Authority where much stamping and discussing is done amongst the Greek co-workers.  She tells us we are missing some stamp but will let us proceed…Thank You!

6)  Again, back through Security and into the Customs to hand them our Transit Log.   OK, you are finished.  Goodbye!

7)  Want to tour Old Town so we wait for the local bus.  We wait, and wait, and wait.  I go across busy street and ask for the schedule.  It comes every 20 minutes they say.  We have already waited over an hour.  There is a woman and her 4 year old, Sophia, who we get to know very well.  They even sing Happy Birthday to me.  Finally, we go find a taxi, tour town, find the bus back to the Marina and all ends Happily Ever After…I guess

8)  Believe me, there were many moments today that we considered just bagging the whole thing and leaving the country.  I asked, what could they do to us?  We don’t have the answer to that and we always go through hoops to do the “RIGHT” thing…which we definitely did today!