by Andy W » 14 Nov 2006, 15:23
One option would be to travel from Pireus to Kos leaving on Wednesday or Friday evenings on one of the faster ferries (Blue Star 2 or Diagoras) which get into Kos around 04.35 the following morning, giving a "nice" connection into Proteus on her way south on Thursday and Saturday mornings leaving at 06:00, and arriving Symi at 11:15.
This is actually quicker than GA usually managed on a direct ferry, and you have a fallback if the Pireus boat is delayed on the way south of stopping on it to Rhodes and getting the afternoon ANES sailing to Symi.
Even the pain of making the connection at that time of the morning isn't too bad since Kos has a sea terminal building with a cafe, and how much sleep would you have had on the GA service which often stopped at 7 or 8 islands before they got to Symi, with all the clanging and clattering and loudspeaker announcements!