Sign up to Simon Calder's free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder's Travel email Get Simon Calder's Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy "Piraeus?" asked the taxi driver. Yes, that was my destination.
"Problem," he responded. Fortunately, at this location on a lonely road in the wilds of the Greek peninsula of Methana, it was one that he and his Mercedes were uniquely placed to solve. He drove the 10km to the port, also called Methana, swiftly, skilfully and silently.
A man clearly given to one-word questions, his next enquiry was: "Ticket?" No, I needed to buy one. That was the essential information he needed to know about whether to drop me at the Saronic Ferries office rather than the quayside. "Eight," he said, helpful holding up the requisite number of fingers to indicate the fare.
The driver was well worth the €10 I handed over. He was the final element in a journey that had started early and optimistically on the island of Poros. I was booked on the last British Airways flight on Friday from Athens to London Heathrow.
I could have taken the high-speed ferry from the island of Poros to the main Greek port of Piraeus, followed by a train to Athens airport. But I had arrived in that fashion, and I wanted to explore more of Greece on the way to the capital. So instead I hopped on a shuttle ferry to the mainland and proceeded to hitchhike north.