Dev, the chicken and I are getting ready to travel to the island of Rhodes this evening on a Blue Star Ferry. http://www.bluestarferries.com. We’ve booked a first-class cabin and will use this travel time to catalogue our photos (and hopefully post the highlights online.) We have taken over 1400 pictures of our trip thus far (and not all of them are of our chicken.)

We anticipate that our 13-hour journey across the water will probably be full of glitches, not because of rough seas or inclement weather, but because at the mercy of a 24-hour transit strike. Even though we have checked out of our hotel room at the Fresh, we are hanging out at the Air Lounge (not a bad deal considering how hot the mid-day sun is and how pale we all are) on the 9th floor until 4:00 PM this afternoon - in order to ensure that we get a taxi to take us to the Port of Piraeus. Our ferry is scheduled to leave at 7:00 PM … we’ll have to wait and see.

Below, is the news article that was published in the Kathemerini English Edition Newspaper http://www.ekathimerini.com/ this morning:

ATHENS STANDSTILL

No public transport today due to 24-hour strike by unions

There will be no public transportation in Athens today because of a 24-hour strike being organized by the Civil Servants’ Union (ADEDY) and the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE). Taxis will be operating in the city, but buses, trains, trolley buses, the tram and the metro will all be at a standstill throughout the day. Some 50 Olympic Airlines domestic and international flights have also been canceled and passengers are advised to call the airline for further information. Hospitals will be operating on skeleton staff. Unionists will hold their central rally in Kotzia Square from 11 a.m. to protest over labor rights and social security reforms. A march to Syntagma Square will follow.