Mediterranean Cruise Day Four: The Race for the Flying Dolphin

Sadly, the Celebrity Equinox was spending TWO days in Athens. We knew that one day was more than enough, so we planned to head to a small Greek island instead. We would get way more than we bargained for – in the very best way.

We woke up at 5am to catch the Thunder-Warriors game, also knowing we had to meet our pre-arranged group at 6:45am for the 7am Flying Dolphin ferry to Aegina. Since we had spotted its berth in the harbor yesterday evening, we knew where we were going. Or so we thought. We expected it would be quite a walk, so we allowed half an hour. But as it turns out, distances are deceiving in the world’s largest port. You know how when you are in Vegas and you say, “Oh, sure, I will walk to the Venetian, it’s right there!” And then after 45 minutes of walking, it still looks the same distance away and you are all WTF Vegas!? Yah, it was kind of like that. But worse. After 30 minutes of walking, we realized that we had only 5 minutes left to catch the ferry, and we were about halfway there. I was ready to throw in the towel, when a cab rounded the corner. Adam flagged him down and asked him to take us. The driver tried to tell us, “but it is right over there, you can walk.” I said, “We only have 5 minutes! Go!” as I jumped in the back. He hauled ass and pulled us right up to the gate. Adam grabbed the tickets from my hand and sprinted to the ferry, and held it for me as I caught up. As soon as we stepped on board, they pulled in the gangway and we were off. Our group – 2 other families from California – were already seated and so happy to see us! I melted into my chair for the 45-minute ride to the island of Aegina.

Aegina has a very charming small harbor lined with restaurants and stores. We walked around to the docks on the far side to meet our guide, Cristos, at his small boat. He took us across the water to a tiny beautiful cave and said “ok, swim into the cave.” 

It was about 70 degrees and windy, and the water was COLD. There was zero chance I was jumping in. I knew Adam would agree. As we were talking about what a horrible idea that would be – SPLASH – all the other people on the boat jumped into the water. We watched happily from the boat as they all swam into the cave. They returned with a bucket of sea urchin (urchins?), which Cristos told us we were going to eat. For the second time in 10 minutes, I said “nope!” He cracked them open, scooped out their eggs with a spoon, and everyone on the boat, including Adam, ate them.

We visited another cave, where Cristos drove the boat inside for us to look around. It was very Pirates of the Caribbean, er, Greece.

We took off across the water for another small island that looked deserted. As we pulled up to the tiny dock, about 2 dozen peacocks walked towards us. It was an animal sanctuary island! 

Adam, a peacock, and Cristos' tiny boat in the background

We fed peacocks from our hands and walked around a bit. It was astonishingly gorgeous!

All the peahens lined up on the roof to see us off.

Back on the boat, Cristos told us it was time for lunch, so we sailed towards yet another island. As we approached, Adam said, “Oh wow, look at that little private island. That guy has the life! He has electricity strung across there, and what a setting!” We pulled up to the dock, and Cristos waved to a woman on the shore and yelled, “Hi Mom!”

As we walked to the picnic area, Cristos told us that years ago, his father had asked to camp on the island and the owner let him. After a few years, the owner asked if he wanted to buy the land where he was camping. He did. Then over the next decade or so, he slowly bought up the other 6 plots of land on the island, until he owned the entire thing. Now Cristos and his family live there! WOW!

Cristos' boat at its home island

That is Cristos, on the left

Cristos grilled us fresh rooster, sausages, pork steaks and vegetables. We ate overlooking the most amazing little sparkling turquoise inlet. There was a goat, dogs, parakeets, ducks -- it was pure heaven.  

I walked the entire island, taking in the views and admiring the unique plant life. 

But we had to catch the Flying Dolphin Ferry from Aegina back to Athens to set sail on the cruise ship again, so we had to leave Cristos’ island paradise. 

That's Cristos's house!

Back in Aegina, we decided to find a bakery and buy a small cake to celebrate the 25^th birthday of a girl in our group, Kelly. She lagged behind, so we were able to surprise her when she walked up to the portico where we were all waiting for the ferry. Everyone waiting there joined in as we sang happy birthday.

We made it back to the Equinox without incident and watched the sail away from Athens on the lawn club. 

We ate spaghetti gelato (best thing on the ship! At the deck 5 gelato bar!) dinner at the buffet and retired early.

Tomorrow: Mykonos, aka Mykonostinky

Xoxo

Mediterranean Cruise Day Three: Athens is BS

I’m still being affected by jet lag, so I only got 3 hours of sleep, then woke up naturally to watch the Cavs game at 3am. When the sun came up, we were docked in Athens at the world’s largest port -- Piraeus. Adam went out on the balcony to survey the scene and said, “Babe! Come here!” I joined him on the balcony to see hundreds of tents housing Syrian refugees on the other pier. We had read in advance that half of the Athens Port was being used to house refugees. But I expected they would be in a terminal building – not in tents on the pier. We saw women in full hijabs walking to use a long line of port-a-potties and children playing next to the water. It was sad to think of them living like that for so long, and we wondered what they must think of us pulling in on a giant luxury cruise liner right next to them.

From atop the Acropolis looking over Athens

We hopped in a cab to head to the Parthenon, Athens’ must-see. As soon as we got in, Adam looked at me and said, “it smells like Pirae-ass” and I had to stifle giggles the whole way. It was a 20-minute ride and there was nothing – and I mean nothing – to see. I’ve never been to Russia, but Athens looks like how I imagine a big Russian city full of 1970s architecture. All beige, all square. Booooring. It's like they did the most amazing things in 400 BC and then just gave up.

We got there early to try to beat the crowds, which turned out to be a good call. But we had to climb about 500 million stairs, all made of slippery marble. It was cloudy so I said, “I sure hope it doesn’t rain because these stairs would become treacherous.” Apparently, at around the 350 millionth step, I looked at Adam and growled, “Athens is bullshit!” -- though I don’t exactly remember that because I was suffering from a lack of oxygen to my brain. However, it would become our tagline for the day.

Adam tagged his initials on the marble. (JK! It was already there.)

We finally got to the top of the Acropolis, where we listened to the Rick Steves audio tour on my phone, with earbuds and a splitter. I kept forgetting we were attached, and walking away. Oops! We put Rick on 2x speed because nobody has 45 minutes to listen to him babble about ruins. So we basically had the chipmunk tour of the Parthenon. It is 2500 years old, blah blah blah. Just as we were finishing, the skies opened up and POURED rain on us. This of course meant we had to very carefully descend 500 million marble stairs that were now WET. I mean, duh, ancient Greecians! People don’t put marble on their bathroom floors for a freaking reason!

The sun broke through while it was still raining!

By some miracle, we made it down in one piece and walked to Anafiotika, which Rick Steves calls Athens’ most charming district. It was literally covered with graffiti. Adam called it Greek-fiti. Some of it was quite good, but it also kind of ruined the old-world charm. 

Next we walked through the Plaka district where we did some shopping. I bought a few bracelets, the requisite Christmas ornaments and body butter made from olive oil.  We found an amazing old bar called Brettos. If you are in Athens – GO HERE. They have 200 different flavors of vodka, which are beautifully displayed on a backlit wall.

The bartender recommended a restaurant called Byzantine/Vizantine (in Greek) for lunch. As we were deciding what to eat, the owner said, “do you want to see my kitchen?” Awww. We had amazing oregano potatoes, chicken, greek salad, leek croquettes and salmon. 

                         

Then we walked around some more, taking photos of the Acropolis from the bottom. All the pedestrian streets are marble too. WTF, Athens? I guess slip-and-fall lawsuits are not a thing here.

Marble streets! 

A column that fell. Probably slipped on wet marble!

We were kind of over it, and really tired, so we grabbed a cab back to the ship and stopped in the Duty Free store in the terminal building. We bought some liquor made of pistachios called Mistral Tears, purely because the name made us laugh. We had no problem smuggling it onto the ship.

Back on the ship, we saw the Flying Dolphin Ferry come in. We would need to take that ferry in the morning to escape Athens on Day 2 in this unattractive port, so we followed it and carefully took note of where it docked.

We ate dinner in the main dining room, which consisted of the Top Chef winning recipes from past seasons – while we overlooked the refugee camp across the way. That was enough Athens for us, so we went to bed at 11.

Greek Kitty

Tomorrow: Athens redeems itself in a big way (mostly because we leave!)

xoxo