Week 36 Wrap Up

Whoopsies... Someone (aka me) lost track of time. For those of you who know me from my Project Management days, you'd be shocked to have a conversation with me now. I'm all about living in the moment and experiences; not so much about schedule and deadlines. Which means that I did not prioritize stopping to write these journal entries. However, that also means that I have some good stories to write about!

Schedule

• Thursday, September 10: Athens, Greece

• Friday, September 11: Athens, Greece

• Saturday, September 12: Athens, Greece

• Sunday, September 13: Athens, Greece

• Monday, September 14: Mykonos, Greece

• Tuesday, September 15: Olympia, Greece

• Wednesday, September 16: Corfu, Greece

  
  

Thursday, September 10: Athens, Greece

This dang cold continues to linger, but it’s getting better, so I decided to keep it a light day by just wandering around the shops, over to a few gardens, temples, on and off a bus, and climbing a mountain. You know, light…

Still on a mission to find some shoes that can replace three pairs that I brought with me. I saw these super cute hiking shoes in Copenhagen, but didn’t have time to stop. Since then, I’ve been looking for them again because I think they can replace my hiking boots, waterproof sneakers, and walking shoes. That would make my pack that much lighter and so much more room! But alas, even though I found the same store in Athens, they did not sell the ones I am looking for, so the search continues…

From there, I headed to the National Garden, which happened to be across from my hotel. It was a nice easy walk and shaded. The air temperature was well into the 90s (over 30 Celsius), so getting out of the sun was imperative. On my wander, I stumbled upon a little cafe that had a frozen strawberry lemonade slushy and grilled ham & cheese. Amazing! Definitely needed that comfort food, enjoying each bit of it!

Nearby was Zeus’s Temple, so I pointed myself in that direction and continued to walk. Eventually, I found it, but it cost €20 to get in and was covered in scaffold for renovations, so I passed and kept walking.

Debating about going back to the hotel for a nap, I passed by the Hop On Hop Off bus station and thought that might be a good way to see the city - out of the sun and without more exertion. The key feature for me was they also offered a Sunset tour to Poseidon’s Temple at a discount if I combined the purchase. Given that I still had trouble with breathing, I gambled that I would feel better the following day, so I booked the Hop On Hop Off bus (which included 48 hours of access) and the Sunset Tour for the following day. Thus, I spent the next hour on the bus, seeing different neighborhoods around Athens.

Man, I was tired. Too much activity in the heat in the sun with a cold, so naturally, I went back to the hotel and napped.

After the heat of the day started to break (or so I thought), I headed back to the bus stop to finish the loop. However, after about 15 minutes, a bus still hadn’t arrived. About this time, I realized that I was really only a few blocks from the Acropolis and Parthenon, so perhaps, I should just walk. Off I went with a general plan that if the lines were too long, I’d just come back in the morning. However, no issues with getting a ticket and heading into the historic sight.

As a reminder, I’m at the part of my year that was always a contingency plan, which apparently means that I never finished detail planning or researching all of these attractions. With that said, I didn’t realize that there was no elevator to the top of the Acropolis and everyone had to climb a ridiculous amount of stairs to get to the top. Well, since I had already paid my €30, there was no turning back and up I went. And up I went. And up I went. Did I mention that it’s still over 90 degrees?! And full sun?! The things I do for experiences…

The Acropolis is really just a high city, which housed a few temples and other things. Without a guide, I really am lacking information. However, the main temple is one to Athena. (I'll pause here to let you know that you don't have to go all the way to Greece to see the Parthenon and temple to Athena, you just have to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where they have a full replica plus a full statue of Athena! It's actually kind of better because it's complete vs the ruins you'll find in Athens. Yes, Yes... I know, it's not the real thing, but still more fun to visit than climbing a mountain in the full sun with crowds...)

Even though the cruise ships had left for the day, there were still quite a few large tour groups scattered around, seemingly waiting for the sunset, which was still an hour or so away. I considered waiting, but ultimately decided that the view may be just as good from the top of my hotel.

On the way down, I found Gelato and a chair.

When I finally reached my hotel, instead of going to watch the sunset from the rooftop bar, I showered and fell into bed.

Friday, September 11: Athens, Greece

There’s a good chance I over did it yesterday and spent the morning lazily sorting photos and catching up on media organization. Plus coffee and a nap.

Eventually, it was time to go get some late lunch and meet to leave for the Sunset Tour. Yes. That was the extent of the day. Sometimes, I actually need to rest.

For lunch / dinner, I found a local Gyro restaurant that had live music. The food was tasty, but the best part was when the musician started playing the Opa song from the Oceania Vista’s One World show. So many memories started flooding my memory and I half expected to see the Production Cast start flowing in. (They did not, sadly…)

For the Sunset Tour, I booked through the Hop On Hop Off bus company. This made the meet up point super convenient because they offered three different locations that were nearby the city center. Once on the bus, they offered audio guides to listen to the history of the locations we were driving through, tied into the GPS system so it would start automatically when we entered a new area. One of the downsides of this excursion was the time on the bus was longer than the time at the destination, but with the audio tour, it became part of the trip and not just a bus ride.

Just before we arrived at the destination, the bus stopped so we could take a photo of the Temple from across the harbor. I was impressed with how quickly the group was off the bus, took photos, and got back on to continue. Seemed to be completed in all of 5 minutes!

Once we got to the site, the guide confirmed the meeting time and location, then set us free to explore. We had about 2 hours before the sun would set, which was plenty of time to get tickets, go explore, go to the gift shop, and climb another hill. I had to choose where to shoot the sunset - either I stay right next to the Temple with a whole lot of other people or I go a bit further away and up a hill to capture the sunset a bit further from the Temple. I chose the latter.

From the hill across the way, I was able to see the sunset, plus watch boats pass by the hills while waiting for the sun to go down. Not much else I can say about this experience, but it was definitely worth it! Plus, with the combination discount, it was only €23 for a 5 hour tour!

Once back in Athens, I called it a night since we ended up hitting a bit of traffic to leave the sight, getting to my hotel sometime after 10pm. By can it a night, I mean have a nightcap on the hotel rooftop bar 😬

Saturday, September 12: Athens, Greece

With social media and a solid WiFi connection, I can keep up with where friends are around the world, which means that I stalk so many people! One might get a message at any time that says something completely innocent, such as “Where are you? I might be near you.” Or “I see you just landed. I will meet you at your hotel.” Or many people’s favorites, “I’ll be in your area tomorrow. Let’s grab coffee! And can I sleep on your couch?”

Which brings me to meeting up with Lorna and her mom in Athens. I happened to see her post on Facebook, saying that they were on their way, so naturally, I sent a message asking when we could meet. Unfortunately, they hit a ton of travel delays, landing late the night prior, but staying only about a mile or so from my hotel. Seriously, we have almost matching Parthenon photos, just slightly different angles, but both of us were too exhausted to make the mile trip last night. Instead, we agreed to meet for coffee this morning!

In Europe measurements, walking 1.5 miles is like walking next door in the US, so off I went towards their hotel. Instead of just coffee, they got me into their breakfast area! Where I, in turn, had coffee. Since they were getting on a cruise today, we didn’t have much time to catch up, but were able to figure out that our ships would be docked at Corfu on the same day and started planning a longer outing. So I said my goodbye, and headed back towards my hotel.

Since I was leaving on a ship the next day, I figured I should do laundry since it is not convenient on NCL. Gathering all my clothes, I packed and started the trek to the closest laundromat, which happened to be about a mile away. When I arrived, it seems that an entire soccer team was also on the same mission, taking up all of the machines with a line, waiting. Using my handy dandy Google Maps, I saw another place, about a mile away. This time however, the route took me through so many small alleyways packed with souvenir shops and all of the associated tourists. (I don’t count myself as a tourist if I’m in the process of doing laundry. Then it’s just a normal Saturday.)

Finally arriving in the correct area, it took me a few different turns to figure out the entrance was actually in a dead-end alley, but I made it! Only to find out that the process of starting the machines was definitely much more difficult than in Barcelona, even though the instructions were partially in English. First step was to load the washer - Check! Next step was to select the program - Nope. Couldn’t figure it out because the machine wouldn’t power on. However, the next step said to pay, but to pay only when you were ready because the machine timer starts once you pay - not once the cycle is complete. It then mentioned that the power might not turn on immediately after paying and may take some minutes to process. At this point, I’m hoping for the best and pay using the QR code, which is somehow connected to the exact machine that it’s taped to, so don’t make the mistake of scanning another of the QR codes. Once I paid, the machine did not turn on. So after some minutes, I called the number one of the other patrons gave me. She said he was able to help her when she couldn’t get it to work. He did not want to help me though. He said to call the other number on the machines. Once I hung up with him, the machine turned on.

However, it only gave me the option to start; not switch programs. So I hit the start button hoping for the best. The timer started at 10 minutes remaining. The program was supposed to take 39 minutes, but possibly max of 49. (Did I mention the signs were kind of confusing?!) Anyway, I thought maybe after the 10 minutes, it would start again at 39, resulting in the maximum of 49 minutes. So I stayed put, watching the minutes count down. Once it reached zero minutes, the machine stopped and the door unlocked. I opened the door only to find that the clothes were barely wet and did not seem cleaned. Naturally, I decided to close the door and press start again. This time, the timer noted 39 minutes remaining…

After 30 minutes, the machine turned off, which means that the final spin cycle did not complete and my clothes were soaked! Naturally, I hit the start button again and the machine timer noted 9 minutes remaining. Lesson to anyone reading this, just keep pressing buttons when trying to do laundry in a foreign country…

Okay, so clothes are now washed, including the spin cycle. Time to figure out the dryers! What I didn’t mention is the whole time I was fighting with the washer, there was another lady fighting with the dryer. She did not know to continue to press buttons and took her clothes out before the final spin cycle, meaning it was taking WAAAAY longer than expected for them to dry. Now, the instructions for the dryers were similar to those of the washer - not very clear. Put clothes in, shut doors, pay, press button, press start. Which button to push before start, no one knows. She dutifully had put in her clothes, shut the doors, paid via the QR code, and the timer started at 3 minutes, instead of the promised 20 minutes per payment, but she hit start anyway, and lo and behold, 3 minutes later, the dryer turned off. So she went through the process again. This time, we figured out to press one of the temperature buttons before start to see if it would set the timer to 20 minutes. It did, so she got a full 20 minutes. However, after the 20 minutes, her clothes still were not dry. Since all of this was happening while I was finishing the washer side, I decided to try my luck and pay for 40 minutes (just an extra €2). Once the dryer turned on, I continued to hit the temperature button until the number 40 was illuminated on the screen and hit start. With the other lady’s learnings, I was successful on my first attempt! So 40 minutes later, my clothes were clean and dry! Hers were still somehow wet… At this point, an attendant had shown up and I left the lady in their hands as I was not much help at all.

Following the same path back, I got to the hotel and packed my bags since tomorrow starts another cruise!

As it was a bit too early to go to bed, I headed out to find dessert. While wandering, I remembered that I was close to a bar that my old boss recommended, so I altered my aim and landed at a Rooftop bar, overlooking the Acropolis. Here, I was sat at the bar, which faced away from the Acropolis. I feel like with that kind of a view, all patrons should be able to see the  landscape, but alas, I was left to stare at the young, handsome, Greek bartenders. Yes, I definitely took one for the team so others could have the Instagram worthy seats facing outwards.

Per social norms, I started chatting with the folks next to me. They were there on their honeymoon from Florida. We got to talking about all things life and travel related until well past the setting sun. Given they were a decade younger than me, they headed towards another club, while I headed to sleep.

Sunday, September 13: Athens, Greece

Sunday Funday! Or in my case, Embarkation Day!

One of the perks of the hotel I picked was they coordinated transfers to and from the cruise port. I’ve learned on all my travels that sometimes having someone else figure out transportation is worth paying extra for the convenience.

When I checked in, I confirmed that they had me on the list for a taxi transfer when I checked out. All things were positive, so when I checked out and asked about my taxi, the confused look on the face of the lady at the counter did not inspire confidence. Thankfully, they are professionals and just called for a taxi to drive me to the port. Turns out, it was the same driver that picked me up just a few days earlier! While he didn’t speak much, if any, English, I trusted that he’d get me to where I needed to go.

However, with the confusion, instead of picking me up at 11:30am, he was there at 11:00am. Normally, 30 minutes isn’t a big deal (better early than late), but I had assumed 45 minute drive to the port since that’s how long it took from the port to the hotel. Without as much traffic, this turned into a 15 minute ride. Again, not normally an issue, but boarding didn’t start until noon and at this point, I’d be at the port sometime around 11:15am. Oh well, I’d figure out what to do when I arrived.

Turns out, I didn’t need to worry. They were already boarding early and had a process worked out where you got sent to a waiting area first, then dismissed by groups to go to the check-in area. Once you got your cruise card, they sent you through metal detectors. This time, folks knew what was expected as opposed to the last Embarkation day where it seemed like a few people’s first time ever going through security. But soon enough, I was on the ship!

First stop, as always, is to check in to your Muster station. This is the place that you will have to go in the event of an emergency. My station was on Deck 7. We boarded on Deck 5. The line for the elevator was a bit long, so I decided just to climb up the 2 flights. Somehow this decision was memorable because later that day I was recognized as the lady who braved the stairs!

Today’s ship is called the Norwegian Pearl. I was super confident that I had been on this ship more than once before. However, nothing looked familiar. Not a thing. I went up and down and around and around, hoping for a memory to pop up and the “Ah ha!” to occur, but it did not. Apparently, they refurbed the ship between the last time I was on it and now, which is why it all seemed new to me. Oh well, at this point, I had wandered so much, I had most of the ship mapped out in my brain.

What I didn’t have was my luggage. Since I boarded early, I thought my bag would be there a few hours later, but it still was not in my room. Not a huge deal since I had booked the Specialty dining that night and therefore packed what I needed in my carry on bag, but still a little concerning.

Putting that out of my mind, I headed to the Brazilian Steakhouse! This is probably my favorite restaurant on the bigger NCL ships! All you can eat meat! And yes, I ate all that I could. Trudging back to my room in a partial food coma, I crossed my fingers that my bag would be waiting for me, especially now that the ship had pulled away from the dock… no dice. Ugh.. Instead of going to the Welcome Aboard show, I was headed to guest services.

As I approached the counter, directly behind the agent was my bag! WooHoo! Now I just had to haul it up 2 flights of stairs… so obviously, I took the elevator. (Hey, I have my limits.)

I rushed and made it only slightly late to the Welcome Aboard show. After which, I stayed to play Deal or No Deal, where we have the opportunity to be randomly picked to play on the big stage, just like on the TV show. However, there were not enough people willing to play that night, so they canceled it and I went to bed.

Monday, September 14: Mykonos, Greece

One of the major benefits of the NCL ships is the Promenade deck where you can walk in shade around the entire perimeter of the ship. It’s also a bit cooler on this deck since it’s also closer to the water. Because I have an Indoor Room, meaning no natural light, when I woke up, I headed to Starbucks on the ship to get my coffee and straight to the Promenade deck to watch the sunrise. Not to make anyone jealous, but these are some of the best mornings, to be outside, at sea, sun coming up, coffee in hand, no one else around because it’s just after 6 in the morning and they all have balcony rooms. Big happy sigh…

Eventually, it was time to get ready for the day, which included a Souvlaki Cooking Class! What I didn’t know at the time is Souvlaki is one of my favorite foods! I just know it generically as Gyros. (Spoiler alert - we learned the difference between Souvlaki and Gyro is really how they cook and cut the meat. Otherwise, the tzatziki, pita, onion, and tomatoes are all the same.)

When we arrived at the farm, I managed to be one of the last ones off the bus, meaning I was at the end of the line, following the guide into the restaurant area. As we paraded through the farm area, we passed by these cute little goats, so I stopped with one other lady to take some photos. Out of no where popped this very old man who spoke zero English, but motioned for us to follow him. Naturally, we did because at no point did we suspect trouble from a little man that we didn’t understand in a foreign country as he lead us away from the rest of our group. Best decision ever! He lead us over to where Tarzan, the donkey, was waiting and let us feed him (the donkey, not the old man). Then, back to the goats to get some photos and more feeding of the animals.

After about 10 minutes, the other lady and I agreed it was time to figure out how to say goodbye to the old man to rejoin our group since at this point, we have no idea where they went. But they didn’t go too far and we found them in one of the pavilions at the top of the hill.

They did not wait for us to start and the English speaking old man started the lessons. Thankfully someone was listening because this was apparently when he explained the difference between Gyros and Souvlaki, which I heard later while we were eating.

He showed us how to prepare the meat kabobs, make the tzatziki sauce, and cut the onions & tomatoes just right. Then when all ready, how to properly hold the pita in order to get all the flavors in each bite.

Oh it was sooooo good! They gave us the recipes, so there’s a chance someone might benefit from my love of this Greek dish! Maybe that person will even let me sleep on their couch!

Following the class, we were taken to the Old Town of Mykonos. The guide explained we could either come with her for a guided tour or go on our own, but didn’t have time for both. I opted for my own exploration and off I went. We only had about 45 minutes before having to be back at the bus and since the bus parking lot was about 10 minute walk to the Old Town, I quickened my pace.

Without much time, I didn’t form a plan. Instead, I just Leandered, but quickly. When I felt that I was too far from the sea, slightly lost in the maze of narrow alleyways, I turned back to find where I was familiar. At some point, I went as far as I could go without swimming in the sea, where I saw a sign for a water taxi back to my ship for only €2. I seriously contemplated it, but had told the guide that I’d meet her back at the bus. Not wanting her to worry or wait, I headed back towards the parking lot.

Arriving just before the agreed meeting time, I got on the bus, along with about 4 others who had ventured on their own. As we were settled, another tour group started getting on the bus. Turns out we were all sharing the same bus, but somehow the times overlapped. Since our guide was running late with the group to get to the bus, we ended up riding the bus back to the ship with the other group. All this is to say that I could have stayed longer and taken the water taxi back to the ship. Oh well…

Tuesday, September 15: Olympia, Greece

It’s raining.

Yes, I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve uttered that phrase, but it made me grumpy. However, because of our time in the UK, I had remembered to pack a rain jacket for this trip, so I grabbed it before heading out on the excursion.

Today’s excursion took us to Olympia, which is the birthplace of… you may have guessed it - The Olympics! We learned a whole lot, but I remember some. Initially, they were competitions to pay tribute to Zeus, but only men took part; women weren’t even allowed to watch, probably because the men participated naked. Something about that being to honor the gods… They also slaughtered many animals to Zeus during this time. I think she told us a whole lot more, but that’s all I remember. Yeah, definitely the most important details.

In my defense, I was distracted by the iPads! The excursion I signed up for is called Olympia in 3D because they gave us iPads that showed what the areas looked like back in the day. So you pointed it at a landmark, pushed a button, and the rendering appeared! In some of them, you could push another button and a video would play, such as the foot races in the stadium! As mentioned, the original olympians participated without clothes, so we saw lots of bare butts in this video… It was one of the last stops, so no, this is not the main reason I was distracted from listening to the guide. The main reason was the rain and trying to balance holding the iPad, holding my phone and camera, and keeping the silly ear piece on my ear to hear her.

It was a pretty quick visit to the site. This is one place that would have been nice to have an hour of free time to explore on our own, but that’s one of the downsides of ship excursions, you are on their schedule.

Back at the port, we had quite a bit of time before All Aboard and with the port in walking distance, I headed to find food! Yep, they had Gyros! Seems like all touristy Greek cities will have Gyros and I will never complain about that.

With a full belly and it still raining, I went back to the ship. The downside about an inside room is the cell service does not penetrate that far. The upside of this trip is that I invested in a pass to the Thermal spa, which includes hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, and very comfortable lounge chairs. While by the end of the trip, I didn’t use the pass as often as I had hoped, it was nice today!

With the extra few hours before leaving port, I was able to sort through a lot of photos to consider entering them in any contests and scroll mindlessly scroll social media. You may have hoped that I would have used the time to journal so that this Wrap Up wasn’t so late to be written and posted, but I’m getting a little lax in my ambition. I’ll admit that I’m writing this on September 21 from Venice and really debated about skipping the week entirely. What changed my mind was knowing that someday, I’d want to read these again to remember all these details, so you all benefit from my selfishness.

Wednesday, September 16: Corfu, Greece

Thankful to Lorna, she found and booked today’s excursion! Since we are on different ships, we couldn’t just opt for a pre-planned adventure. After a few tries for me to find something on limited WiFi and poor searching skills, she offered to take the burden, resulting in a private boat tour for the day!

Our ships arrived about the same time, but I was off and moving before them. Since it was only a mile or so to the pick-up point, I suggested we meet there so I could find some coffee on the way. (It really has become a thing that a mile is a short distance to walk.)

After getting coffee, we convened at the little boat port where we boarded a cute boat that would be all ours for the next four hours! The skipper, Alex, told us the plan, which all I remember included a few swimming spots and potentially a coffee stop. Didn’t matter what we did at this point because it was sunny and warm!

He took us by the old fortress and explained the history of the city. Please know that Google is available if you ever want to know the details of these things because asking me will do you no good. I just heard there is wine, beer and water available on the boat.

Our first stop was a place to swim with a little beach. After he dropped the anchor, both Lorna and I jumped in! (Lorna’s mom opted to stay on the boat and keep the Skipper company.) We swam to the shore only to find that the beach was indeed covered in very slippery, slimy rocks, which we awkwardly crab walked over to get to the dry area, which was also very rocky and painful to walk on. We took the photo to prove we were there and headed straight back into the sea.

The water was mostly warm, but had these odd, yet refreshing pockets of cold water. And it was salty. To wash out the salt, we opted to have some beers. Yes, Skipper Alex delivered the drinks to us in the water. Given that for 6 months, we were not allowed to have any drinks in the pool on Vista, it seemed illegal! We did not get into any trouble and eventually got back on the boat to head to the next spot.

The next spot was very much like the first and after some time, we headed to the next.

The third spot included a cave and tons of fish! For those of you who know me, you may be wondering why I’m so excited about a cave. In honesty, I was not. However, pushing my fear of small, enclosed, dark spaces to the back of my mind, I blindly followed Lorna into the cave. Blindly because at some point, you actually could not see. Alex told us once we were in, turn right and you’d see the sun shining through and to swim towards the light. None of this is comforting to someone facing a bit of a fear, but once we were in, I saw the light and swam towards it. (Lorna opted to go back the way we came, which didn’t quite help me face my fear.) As I approached, I realized that it was only a very short distance to swim underwater to get back outside the cave vs going back the way we came. However, as the waves continued to push their way into the cave, it created a force that you were helpless to counteract, which at some point meant that I slammed my knees into the rocks. So without further ado, I held my breath and what I’d like to describe as a natural, effortless, beautiful torpedo was probably more like a flailing, panicked, windmill of a body trying to propel myself through the hole to the light. I survived. With two bloody knees. (Yes, actual blood, not the English slang words for having two knees.)

Thankfully, they were small cuts that managed to stop bleeding before we arrived at the last stop, which was just another swimming stop. Here, we spent as much time as Alex would allow in the water, knowing that the end was near.

Eventually, it was time to go and we headed back to the small boat pier. Then to the big boat pier, where we said our goodbyes and boarded our different ships.

Yes, I know you are waiting to hear all about the other days since I’m over a week overdue, but you’ll just have to wait. I promise to finish telling you about the rest of the cruise and then what comes next because I’ll admit that while I’m already exhausted thinking about this next section of my Fall travels, it is the part that I’m most excited about!