Friday Night: Catching Up

A few miscellaneous things to catch up.

Taxis in Athens are incredibly cheap, as long as you make sure you've gotten one that has a working meter. Our transfer to Piraeus ran about 10 euros. From the National Archeological Museum to our hotel, €2.80. I think that trip would have run at least $15 in New York City. Taxis can pick up other passengers, so they'll tend to pick up only the ones going in the direction of the other passengers, so you may have to call several before you'll get one that will take your fare. We never shared a cab, except when someone from our hotel also happened to be going to the National Archeological Museum at the same time.

Food. We ate in the hotel restaurant for breakfast (which was included with our room rate) and once for lunch, but other than that, we ate at local places. One of the scams in Athens (which you're far more likely to experience as a man traveling alone) is the urge by someone that you come in and have a drink.

Acupuncture. Had my first on-board acupuncture treatment tonight. I told her about my problems with my sartorius and my weak right side. When I went in, I really really hurt due to all the walking -- my lower back was in agony (though somewhat less than earlier in the day). When I left, that pain was gone, though I do ache in certain areas of my body.

Cruise ships have a truly international crew -- our waitstaff this morning came from Turkey (always nice to get suggestions from a native of Istanbul) and Romania. The acupuncturist has a doctorate in Chinese Medicine and hails from Brazil.

With spa services, there's always an upsell; this time was no different. However, she did such a good job on me, especially for someone coming into my situation cold, that I went with her recommendations. My usual anti-pain methods (especially the bath with epsom salts) don't all work on a ship.

It's a good thing I got a good nap today, because it's 12:30 in the morning and my alarm is set for 6 a.m.

Next stop: Corfu. We have a relatively long stop there, so it should be fun.

Saturday: Corfu

I awoke half an hour before our alarm this morning, which means I woke up at 5:30, just before dawn. I watched the sun rise before breakfast came to our room (free room service, yay), then watched as we pulled into Corfu.

Currently, we're late leaving Corfu because someone had a medical emergency and we're waiting for an ambulance. At least they didn't have to have a sea evacuation, but I do feel sorry for whomever it is.

The captain said this might affect our logistics at Alexandria, even with a day at sea. Wow.

More later.

Saturday: Corfu, part 2

Finally pulling out of Corfu. I hope the person with the medical emergency will be okay. Looking over the balcony (yes, I'm out on the balcony, so suffer major envy already), we're passing the new fortress.

Corfu has a neatness about it, and yet the Venetian influence is obvious, particularly in building proportions. They even paint their shutters and leave the walls needing a paint job, just like the Venetians. It definitely feels more organized, without feeling the least bit uptight. I can't explain it, and certainly a few hours doesn't offer a detailed look at a place's true culture.

We went on the "Colorful Towns" tour, which is something of a misnomer. We got to see the Achilleion, which is a large house built by Empress Elisabeth as her refuge. It's dedicated to Achilles; she really loved the Greek lore (I have, by the way, come to really dislike the word "myth" on this trip).

The Achilleion really is a fabulous place, and if you ever go to Corfu, I highly recommend it, if only for the views of Corfu below. It's built on one of the narrower parts of the island.

After visiting, we stopped a few places for explanations, then arrived in Corfu town to see some of the sights. The last place we visited, the church of St. Spiridon, well, my experience is typical with Christian churches -- some mishap always seems to occur. In this case, it was dark inside (very dark), and of course it had been a bright sunlit day outside. I saw a walkway to the side of some pews, but my eyes hadn't adjusted enough to tell me that the walkway was narrow and two levels. Naturally, I tripped, landing with force on one of the built-in chairs on the side wall. Hard. Fortunately, it was unoccupied. Jehovah having some fun at my expense again. I try to be respectful, but it's just not meant to be.

We had a half hour to ourselves, so I found postcards (for those of you wanting Corfu cards, though because I didn't have the addresses with me, they'll be mailed from Crete) and a cool little lidded dish with Poseidon on it. Poseidon is very tied to Corfu, as one might expect from a Greek island (if you want to know more, follow the wikipedia link above to the Corfu entry). Rick had one of the local ginger beers, and I had a Coca-Cola -- the European variety is vastly superior to the American in two respects: 1) made with real sugar, which tastes better; 2) comes in glass bottles which tastes better. American Coke always tastes like peroxide to me; the Mexican and European varieties don't.

At that point, we could have stayed in town for another three hours, or gone back to the ship, which we opted to do. Not only were there no lines, I was tired and sore. Rick and I donned our bathing suits and went up to the hot tub (which should properly be called a lukewarm tub, though the temp was really exactly what I wanted). After bathing, we got an early run at the poolside buffet, and I had a burger the way I like it: with some cheese, a mound of grilled onions, and a couple of slices of bacon.

Rick has found the launderettes, so I'll be off after those in a bit. I've done some handwashing of clothes, but we've been on the road for a week, and I have way more laundry to do than handwashing can reasonably accommodate, especially with drying times being what they are.

Each day, my ability to read and comprehend Greek improves, naturally just in time to be inundated with Arabic and Medu Neter.

One other bit to catch up: the Shore Excursion director mentioned that each of our buses in Turkey and Egypt would be accompanied by an armed guard. Having been to Belfast, this doesn't bother me, but some people suddenly seemed perturbed.

The World's a Small Place

I'm in a writing group with therinth, and she's in a different writing group with Alex. Alex, back when he still lived in the UK, belonged to a different writing group, in which Carl (or perhaps that's Karl) was a member.

I sat across from Carl at dinner tonight; we were seated at the same table completely at random.