We started off with a Greek cruise that left from Athens and went to 4 different islands and Turkey. We flew to Athens on the Thursday that classes ended and took a bus to Piraeus the ancient port of Athens. We actually stayed in a super cheap hotel and met the nicest old Greek man who ran the hotel and love the four bubbly girls who arrived at 2 am. The next morning we boarded our ship and I didn't really know what to expect never having been on a cruise before. Not too long after getting on we had to do a lifeboat drill which produced this beauty of a pic.
Immediately after this little party we threw our swimsuits on and sat on the deck for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. After some sun we decided to go to the Greek Language lesson that the boat entertainment was holding and stayed for Greek dancing, salsa dancing, and a Name that Tune game. We were nicknamed the Happy Club that afternoon, and that was definitely not the end of the nicknames that we received on our trip.
That night we docked in Mykonos and explored the island at night. This island is famous for its Litle Venice, where there are little Greek churches and historic windmills that line the coast. We also found a lot of cute shops and had a real feeling of Greece with the white washed houses. After some windy walking around the island we headed back for a nice dinner at the boat where we met one of better friends on the ship. He was the Maitre'd and we had great chats with him every night for dinner.
The next morning was Kasadasi, Turkey. At first I was really scared of this place. We were off the ship really early and we had no idea what to do or see. There were a lot of men harassing us and asking us if we wanted taxi rides. Eventually we made some really great friends with the stray dogs on the island. We found a fortress and decided to explore it just before we gave up on the city. Boy did we have an amazing time climbing and just having our own sort of adventure.
There was a mama dog that never left our side the entire time we were hiking even though it was pretty treacherous. The water was just so blue and when we were behind the fortress it was like we could forget the whole city even existed. When we were walking back to the ship we saw men fishing off the pier and they were catching squid. When we walked with the dogs none of the men who had harassed us before bothered us. Turkey started off rough, but we had a blast and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the deck of the boat getting some much needed sun.
The night had us stopping in Patmos, Greece. The island was small, we could see the water on both sides of the island when we hiked up the hill and looked down on the town. The flowers all over the island were blooming and just gorgeous. We made a horsey friend on the way hiking up the hill to the Acropolis and the church that was on the hill. On our hike back down we wandered through the side streets and found gorgeous houses and little shops. We also had dinner on the boat with our favorite guy. After dinner we were roped in to doing karaoke on the boat and this gave us our new nickname as the spice girls.The last day of our cruise had us docking in Heraklion Crete in the morning. We did a lot of wandering this day, because Heraklion in the capital of Crete there is not a whole lot of sightseeing to do, but we had fun climbing on some of the rocks that lined the coast and we were very very surprised when we were drenched by a huge wave. Again that afternoon we laid on the boat and then got dressed up to go to Santorini.
Santorini was magical. We took an excursion to the village of Oia. This is the village that has the white buildings with the blue domes. We were there when the sun was setting and the village has little streets with a gorgeous view into the Caldera. The island of Santorini was a huge volcanoes that just exploded one day leaving the Caldera behind as well as rich volcanic soil. Unfortunately we did not get to ride the donkeys, but we took a bus up and a cable car down.
We had a great time on our cruise, but it just made me want to go back so badly. The next morning we arrived back in Athens and went to the Acropolis before we left Greece. We were one of the first people there which was good because it filled up quickly. It was surreal standing in front of this monstrosity. We left Athens and took a bus to Patras, Greece. This is where we caught a 24 hour ferry that took us to Ancona, Italy. We had tickets to sleep outside on the deck of the boat, but there was more people working on the boat then actually riding it so we got a free upgrade to sleep inside and use the airplane seating. Stay tuned because there are 4 more posts about this 2 week trip coming up!!!
Auf Wiedersehen,
Chels
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