Greece

Thursday 23rd August 2007 – At sea of the coast of Greece

Paul woke at 10.30 and after his ablutions, Pam opened one eye and asked for breakfast so Paul went up to the Ocean Cafe, which is just up one flight of stairs, grab a tray of fruit, smoked salmon and juice so I had breakfast in bed/balcony with a temperature of at least 30 degrees. Fortunately our cabin is air conditioned to a comfortable 23/24 degrees. Its lovely being able to turn on the warmth as required. Was a lazy day today as we are still recovering from yesterday and the heat, although we were kept busy with a talk at 1:30 re the next 2 days destinations with attention to shopping and sights of interest. At 3pm we had a matinee performance in the Celebrity Theatre from Mr. Tian Jiang who has played piano all over the world. ?orginates from China. This last piece he played was called The Yellow River which was composed in Shanghai by 4 composers. This was a most magnificent piece of piano playing we have ever seen and heard. He played without any sheet music and was amazing. Such talent. At 4:30 I had my make up done for tonight’s formal night – very interesting – used lots of bronzer which took away my little white face! She said it would make the photos look good. We’ll see! Paul went to a Texas Holdum competition – did not do too well as was back in ¾ hour, but he did have fun. (We also lost $20 each last night on Black Jack). At 6pm we went down to have our formal photos taken – me in my black chiffon shirt/pants and black/gold halter neck top and Paul in a cream dinner suit this time. Had a lovely meal with the champagne that the captain provided a few days before and found out that our waiters are paid $50 per month and live on the gratuities that the cruise line requests us to pay. Paul not happy with the suggested gratuity amount as it would cost us an additional $400:00 to pay the people they recommend we should pay. As a table we have decided just to put in some money for our 2 waiters and we will give a tip to our 2 man servants (treck and his mate). In a minute we are off downstairs for a 9pm performance of Fantasia which is being presented by the ships celebrity singers and dancers. This is usually very good value. Pam was very excited today as she got to sit in the sun for 9.5minutes!!

Friday 24th August - Santorini Greece

Up at the crack of dawn as we sail into the tiny island of Santorini which is the southern most island in the Cycladic Greek islands. This island is the rim of an ancient volcano which exploded some 1500 BC and was the largest volcanic eruption the earth has ever seen. Prior to that it was the site of a very advanced civilisation called the Minoan and the origin of the legend of the lost city of Atlantis.
The ship anchors offshore and you catch a tender into the small port and then travel by donkey or walk 580 steps over donkey poo or catch a cable car to the city of Fira at the top of the cliff. We elected to catch the cable car with our new friends from island who share our dinner table. (Kay and Jimmy and Tony (Kay’s brother) & Mary) who live just outside Dublin. When we arrived in Fira we had a cup of Greek coffee and a lemon juice. The coffee was a small black coffee with 1/3 of a cup of coffee grinds in the bottom. The lemon juice was supposed to be sweetened but tasted like it was straight lemon. Magnificent view more than made up for challenges with the local beverages!. Fira is a maze of narrow cobbled streets which are predominantly pedestrian with a maze of shops including some very high quality jewellery shops. They have the largest selection of branded watches in the Greek Islands. We wandered around the shops and took a taxi to Oui (pro ia) which is a small village at the end of the Island. Pam, Mary & Jimmy had a very hairy taxi drive around the cliffs to this village. This part of our journey was very very hot especially in the square. We eventually found a lovely little cafe on the top of the hill overlooking the most beautiful picture postcard scene and had caesar salad and water. Caught the taxi back to the cable car, Pam bought a white tank top which said Santorini and a gold necklace which represents evolution/eternity. Caught cable car back to bottom of hill where we photographed some donkeys, then onto the tender and back to the ship. Tonight was a Greek night which ran from 7pm – 10pm and we all had a Greek smorgasbord on Deck 10. Watched the sunset over Santorini and thought that the sight of this island with its little lights on at night was breathtaking. Set sail at 10:40pm for Athens in Greece.

Saturday 25th August 2007 - Athens Greece

Had been advised that his port can be particularly hot and we were a little concerned about whether or not we should even go ashore. Eventually decided to meet up at 9:30 with Jennifer who is the shopping co-ordinator to go to the one place we had been advised to see which is called Plaka which is a series of tiny cobble streets and shops. Paul was keen to see the Acropolis so after we meet at 9:30 a group of us walked about 20minutes along the shoreline to the train station and travelled about 8 stops of Plaka where we decided to go straight to the Acropolis before it got too hot. It was around 35 degrees already. Pam walked about half way up to the Acropolis before deciding she was going to die from heat stroke and Paul continued up to the top which some amazing pictures were taken. We then walked down the big hill to a lovely little restaurant called Geros Toy Moria which is the oldest tavern in Plaka. Had a great Greek Salad with taziki? and fresh bread. This little tavern was covered with grape wine and in a lovely narrow steep street. After lunch we talked to the waiter who were watching television about some very serious bush fires in Athens and the rest of Greece which had already claimed 40 lives and had been deliberately lit. Smoke haze and ash were already falling as we were having lunch and we had not realised what the white specks were which were falling on Pams black pants. Continued into the Plaka and looked at the shops, had a coffee and spoke with the waiter who told us that the “rich people in Greece set fire to forests as the law is that houses cannot be built on forest areas so they simply burn them down and then build their mansions”. Pam asked why the Govt. does not declare that these a State forest and would be replanted and regenerated, but was told that they make too much money out of the developments so they do nothing! Caught a taxi back to the ship – had a great taxi driver who pointed out some other points of interest mainly the Greek Orthodox Churches. Pam bought a silver necklace and matching earrings from the ship terminal at Piraeas. Had a swim but the salt water was covered in ash from the fires so had a shower and went to dinner at 6:15pm. After dinner watched a very interesting professional pickpocket who works with Govt Departments. He made his talk very educational and amusing. Back to our room to write up our diary and then in half an hour we had a 50’s/60’s night and bed at 1.30am. On CNN news tonight we have learnt that Greece has been declared a state of emergency because of the fires and have called for reinforcements from other countries to get them under control.