Cruising the Greek Isles
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Our hotel/transportation for the week
After Athens, we headed off to cruise the Greek islands plus one stop in mainland Turkey. It was our first cruise experience (other than half-day cruises as a means of transportation), and it was on a yacht with 27 other passengers. Because the boat is intimate, you end up talking with nearly everyone, including the crew, at some point.
Here's a quick snapshot...
-- Six priests. Yes. Six of them traveling together.
-- Three families with kids 12-18 years old.
-- A couple from New Zealand who had just spent 2 weeks in Turkey before the cruise.
-- Three cool people from Colorado. It was a mom with her mid-twenties son and daughter.
--A German guy who works in the travel industry and was taking this trip to scope it out for his clients. He had been everywhere!
-- A young couple. The girl is an MIT student. If you didn't know that, don't worry, she'd tell you in the first 2 minutes of each conversation.
-- An excellent crew! Our cruise director, Thea, was a cute, quirky, sweet and full of information. And George, the hospitality manager, started rattling off names of Ohio cities when he learned where we live. Apparently his son-in-law is from Cleveland. A photographer was on the cruise to get some snaps for the website and brochures. She got herself in trouble by drinking too much wine, having only 1-way conversations (for 3 days she never shut up), and saying things like "I need to get laid."
-- And food. Lots and lots of food, usually buffet style. Breakfast and at least one other meal was served on the boat everyday.
The Stops
Sunset view from Santorini
We stopped daily at different ports and islands. We stopped occasionally to simply jump off the back for a swim in the surprisingly cold Aegean Sea. We took an unexpected detour the first night because of fierce winds. Each of the stops we made was a bit different.
During our day in Santorini, we saw some of those iconic "postcard" views with cliffs, white buildings and blue dome roofs. Kasia and I had time to relax and watch the sunset from a little cafe on the cliff before riding the tram/lift back down to return to the boat.
The scooter was so much fun!
Before we stopped at the island of Patmos, Thea asked the cruisers if anyone wanted to rent a car or scooter or ATV for the day. I think it made some priests jealous that we were able to rent a scooter because Kasia has the "M" on her drivers license to legally drive mopeds and scooters in Greece. We scooted around the island like pros and we were treated to unbelievable views. Yay Kasia! Late in the afternoon we scooted to the beach, we shared tzatziki and tall beer and watched some locals play volleyball. The whole day in Patmos was one of our favorites of the trip.
Fuzzy evidence of Kasia partying like it was 1999
We made other stops to swim on a beach or off the back of the boat. We stopped in Turkey and visited the ruins of the ancient city Ephesus. We visited Mykonos, a notorious party island for the young and beautiful. We are neither, but we pretended anyway. We checked out the beach scene in the day, took a fat nap, headed to town with a couple of peeps from the cruise for the 11 pm World Cup game (as the start to our night out) and ended up seeing sunrise from our boat. We're too old for this shit most of the time, but to experience Mykonos like that the one time we'll ever be there was worth it.
There is a lot to like about the cruise. I like that we only unpacked once. I like that you knew where you were going to sleep for a week, so the travel stress is gone. I liked getting to know some other people from around the world.
At the same time, even on the most lax boat, there's a schedule. You can't stay longer someplace if you like it. You need to show up for meetings about the next port. But it's the only way we could have gotten to experience so much in just one week!
Our German friend took this photo for us to capture the sail. Because of unpredictable winds, the sail was usually down.