Category: Uncategorized

We woke up docked in Katakolon, Greece! We definitely slept well! That fan Jackielou found us on day 1 has been a lifesaver.. besides the cooling aspect, the noise it makes-ah that sweet white noise that keeps your head from feeling like it’s going to pop off-Completely necessary!

We had to be up and at breakfast by 8 so we could be at our meeting spot by 8:45 for our tour. Breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, and toast which I made into a sandwich, because-why not? Afterwards we walked down to the meeting spot on the ship to get our number for our shuttle bus.

We followed everyone in our group to the bus outside on the dock area. Our guide, Helen, was an older woman, maybe in her 60s, with white/gray hair. She was hysterical! She taught us a few Greek words throughout the day and had us all laughing. I think she’s been my favorite tour guide yet 🙂 and yes, she does give the best hugs. She kept calling herself out greek mama.

She took us to the ancient Olympian ruins. Without her there to explain things, honestly it would have looked like a bunch of piles of rocks to me. She showed pictures of what it would look back when it was created. She explained the gymnasium area, the bath houses, the entrance to the stadium and the temples of Herra and Zeus. The temples would have been incredible to witness in their prime, today only pillars here and there stand, some of which are only there because they have been restored.

The stadium, where the athletes (like Hercules) competed, was very underwhelming overall. Helen says that was because they didn’t need the stadium to impress the Gods, they needed the athletes to impress the Gods with their abilities. Each distance ran always ended at the same area, so the athletes would cross the finish line by running towards the temple of Herra, to run towards the Gods, in order to be seen. You would never finish a race with your back to the Gods, as that was bad luck. Also, for the record, if you were first, you were the winner, if you were second you might as well have been last. Hmmm.

There were no grand stands around the stadium floor, just grassy hills for the spectators to sit on, and during the Olympic Games, only men were allowed inside. The athletes competed naked, covered first in olive oil and then with dirt so they wouldn’t get sunburnt and wrestlers wouldn’t be too slippery to make contact with their opponent.

History says (by history, I mean Hellen, because I don’t remember much of this from school haha) that the first people that settled in Olympia abandoned the valley after an earthquake destroyed the city, along with flooding from the river through town. The second group of people to resettle in that valley were Christians, because they built a church on top of what used to be a workshop. Archeologists could tell the timeline by the different ways they built their buildings, even if the christians reused the same marble and limestone from the original Olympian people.

Apparently they were wiped out or abandoned the area due to the same thing as the original settlers: earthquakes and floods. It seems they left by choice because they haven’t found human remains left behind from the natural disasters.

From the ruins we went to the actual town of Olympia and had a little snack and walked around the shops. It was a quick break before getting back on the bus and heading towards the “farm” for lunch. We’d be eating at another winery! I knew I’d be happy with that (which is probably why many of the tours I’ve booked include lunch and a winery lol).

The grounds of the farm were stunning, like a movie set from the 1800s. The buildings had vines and roses climbing the walls, and peacocks, turtles, and dogs roamed the grassy paths between them. It is still too gorgeous to even begin to describe adequately. We got to see the old farmhouse that they’ve turned into a museum filled with all of the tools the farmers used to tend to the fields. We also got to see the old ways of turning grapes into wine and olives into olive oil.. and the new way, too.

We ate our lunch out in the gardens with the sea peaking out behind the trees. It was truly lovely. We had a charcuterie board each, filled with salami, cheeses, tomatoes, and cucumbers.. plus white and red wines. Mom tried to like at least the white-but no go. I’m just happy she tried!

Hellen took us back to the ship and we changed into our bathing suits and B lined for the pool. We got to lay out for a couple hours before going to get ready for dinner. At dinner, when they went to sit us at that awkward middle table again, mom asked the man if we could literally sit anywhere else.. he seemed real nervous about it, but went and got his manager anyway. Amor happily sat us at a table for 2 just under the window. We could see the sea from the very back of the ship and we got to watch the sunset. It was magnificent.

While none of the food has really been outstanding, none of it has been bad either.. it’s just hard to really love it after the incredible flavors from the meals we were eating in Italy-even the little cheap hole in the wall places were mind blowing. So, we liked the food-we just didn’t find it as amazing as the other foods we’ve eaten. As a matter of fact, they aren’t really memorable at all. But that’s ok. We’re definitely not going hungry here. Hahaha

We went back to the room and I changed into running clothes to knock out my mileage at the gym. I’ll be honest, even though I was and am so excited about this gym on board, I really despise the treadmill. It’s a perfect means to an end but man does it suck! And on a ship, it can get a little wobbly. Even still, I got it done, before they close at 10pm no less. Thankfully, I had already gotten my 10k steps so I didn’t have to do anything afterwards but go back to the room, shower, and get ready for bed.

Tomorrow we will wake up in Santorini! I’m so excited, it’s my favorite excursion I’ve booked, so I’ve been looking forward to it since the day I read about it-back in November 🙂 Goodnight!

Sometime in the night we switched into the next time zone, but mom and I on our WiFi connection had no idea. I slept awfully, I don’t know if it was just because it was the ship swaying some in the sea, or if it was my mind not allowing me to shut it down since it knew it didn’t have to consider things like train schedules and taxis and the logistics of anything. Either way, at 3 something in the morning, I was thankful for the time difference because Nana was up (it was like 8-9pm Lolol) and chatted with me until I finally got sleepy.

I slept until what I thought was 10am, Mom did too.. and then I realized that it was actually 11am with the time change, which only showed up on the cruise app. I had to manually go in and change the time on my phone.. I guess with my phone being on airplane mode + WiFi only, it wouldn’t swap over automatically.

Because of the time, we missed breakfast.. so we had pasta for breakfast instead at the buffet style restaurant by the pool. I didn’t mind it at all, mom hated it Lolol. We changed and made our way to the pool to sunbathe and swim. The water was still pretty chilly, but we made the best of it.

I started reading a new book, “Get Out of Your Head,” by Jennie Allen. I chose this book on purpose and have been waiting for it to “arrive” on the free Libby app, because I do think I could benefit from learning how to stop my toxic thought spirals. I tend to always consider the worst case scenario, almost like if I think of the worst that could happen, and it doesn’t-then yay! But if it does, my head has already had time to prepare for it so maybe it won’t hurt so bad? It’s definitely a defense mechanism that serves a purpose sometimes, but is usually not a benefit to my well-being.

This way of thinking is definitely NOT helpful in my social life, since I naturally just think anyone and everyone is probably setting me up, or pranking me, or intentionally wanting to hurt me (which sounds crazy as hell when I type that out, but when you’re in a spiral tell me how easy it is to not believe the thoughts your own brain comes up with). It does however come in handy for my work as an ICU nurse.. if I think of all the bad things that could go wrong, I can think of ways to fix A, B, and C when they happen-and then I can think of what to can do now to prevent A, B, and C from ever happening to begin with.. prevention over reaction.

In regular old life, though, it causes problems because I somehow start believing that A, B, and C are probably happening already, or they’re definitely going to happen, and then I set myself up for worry and anxiety over something that probably won’t ever happen-and it affects my mood and how I react to normal things.. and then social media has you tearing down a rabbit hole of comparison and negative thoughts. It’s like always waiting for the other shoe to drop, like I don’t deserve the good things when they’re happening, so I’m waiting for the “reality” to show me I was dumb all along for thinking that I did.. and then that turns into worrying about creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Sheesh, I know it’s TMI, but you’re the one reading this and can choose not to.. hahaha, plus it’s therapeutic for me to type it out.. to see my thought processes.

Anyway, this book so far has had some insight, but I didn’t expect it to be so religion based. I was wanting “when this happens, try this, or do that..” instead I’m reading, “when this happens, lean into God.” Umm-ok.. but like.. how? It makes me think of the episode of Schitt’s Creek where Moira keeps telling David to “fold in the cheese..” if you haven’t seen it, you should Google it.. it’s hysterical. And again I ask, “how?!”

Anywho-a few Prosecco’s and mixed drinks later, I didn’t need to think about spiraling thoughts anymore since I wasn’t having any thoughts at all. Lol we laid out and swam until almost 6pm! It was fantastic! After showering and getting ready for dinner, we went to our specified dining room. They set us at a 2 person table, sandwiched between 2 other 2 person tables. So, it was wayyyy too close to other people. So much so that we had no choice but to hear other people’s conversations and could barely hear each other.

Either way, the food was nice so we made it work. After dinner I ran on the treadmill and then walked around the upper deck until I got my 10k steps for the day (gotta love garmin points for motivation). Because of our lack of sleep last night, we’re both laying in bed watching a movie with our eyelids drooping. I think we’ll sleep much better tonight! We have our first excursion tomorrow, I’m excited 🙂 goodnight y’all!

We got up around 9:30 and made it down to breakfast just before 10. Something told me to double check the port information for the cruise, so while I was sipping coffee and eating my goofy egg & cheese sandwich, I looked it up again. The Celebrity Cruises app says “Venice (Ravenna) Port.” I decide to check out this Ravenna.. ummmm.. it’s 4.5 hours away BY TRAIN. 3 hours by car. Excuse me? Surely this isn’t right.

I get to searching, no where on the celebrity cruises website or emails does it say an address for the port. It just keeps saying Venice (Ravenna). Umm, apparently that’s a BIG difference. And then I remember the tour guide from yesterday saying something about how much less crowded it is now without all the cruise lines and more.. and then I start remembering not seeing a SINGLE big boat anywhere in ANY of the water we’ve crossed in the last 2 days. OH. SHIT.

We have to board by 3:30 at the latest. It was 10:04am. I tell mom the situation. I start to panic, and look up train times.. one leaves at 10:20, 10:40, 11:24, and then not u til 12:30. If we don’t get on the 11:24 train we’ll miss boarding! So, mom heads to the room to start to pack, I go to the hotel concierge that was here last night and tell him the situation.. he says, “I don’t want to say run and make you panic, but you should run..” ha. He said it would probably cost some where between €350-500 to get a taxi or private ride to Ravenna from the Venice train station, so the best bet is to get on that train.

I run upstairs and pack like a mad woman. Mom is just about done, I rush back downstairs to check out and then mom and I are lugging our rollerbags over stone worked side walks to the water bus. The man is standing there so I verify which way we need to go, he says, “this bus now or you’ll wait 22 minutes for the next one.” We go to “validate” our boarding pass from yesterday, it glows red and makes a beep when mom did it-I knew it expired about 20 minutes ago (it’s only good for exactly 24 hours from the first validation).. she looks at me and says, “it’s good, right?” I say, “yep! Get on the bus!” As I validate mine and it also pops up red.

Signs everywhere say it’s a €50 fine payable on the spot if you board without a validated ticket, or on an expired ticket. I silently prayed the whole 4 stops that no one would ask to see our tickets. If we had bought new ones, we’d have missed this bus! It was already 10:30 at that time and we are not ones to show up to the train station late! Luckily, no one stopped us! While we were standing there praying, I quickly purchased our train tickets to Ravenna.

Our first train was just over an hour long and had great WiFi. I uploaded pictures and wrote a bit. At 12:20 we got our luggage and stood at the train door.. when it opened at 12:30, we had to dash out, locate the departures screen, which was down a flight of stairs in a weird alleyway.. note our connecting train was on platform 1-haul ass to platform 1, get on the train, pray it was right and all within 5 minutes. Technically, 4 minutes, the door shuts a minute before departure. Mom asked if we were on the right one as it’s pulling away, and I just say, “God I really hope so..” and wait for the bus to pass one of the signs saying “Ravenna” on it. Once it did, I let out a huge sigh of relief!

This train was a regional train, so it made many more stops and had no WiFi-which was maybe a good thing because I had the potential to not get us off in the right spot. At 2pm, we got off in Ravenna, found a cafe to grab something to eat, and went to search for a taxi. Thankfully a taxi stand was in sight just across the street from the bus terminals. I ask the man if he could take us to the cruise port.. and to my absolute delight, he says, “yes! 10 day celebrity cruise today!” Oh my sweet baby Jesus! Someone finally confirmed that this is indeed the correct place we’re supposed to be!! I couldn’t get anyone on the phone to verify this morning AND there was no port address ANYWHERE online stating that yes, this cruise you’ve chosen does actually leave out of Ravenna and not Venice, even though Ravenna is in parenthesis and doesn’t seem that important to know.. haha

He dropped us off just before 3pm.. he was so kind and told us all about how Ravenna is getting much more tourism now because of the cruise terminal being moved here, and then also apologizing for his “bad English” which was no such thing. He spoke so well! I tried my Italian out with him and he laughed but seemed grateful that I was trying, too. We were so grateful to him for getting us there (quickly too, he was flying down some of those roads), that Mom left him a nice tip.

We walked over to the check in terminal. We had to tag our luggage, then show our passports and negative covid test results from yesterday (we took an “at home” test and logged it into an app that came with the test, while we were honest with our results, I can see how it would be so very easy to fake it..) and then our boarding passes to about 3 different people.. before during and after security.

After that, we simply walked down the long stretch to get on the boat.. we sanitized our hands, got a cold wash cloth to wipe our faces and hands with and told we were free to go to our rooms to get our sea passes. We actually got an upgraded room, to our surprise, and everything was right where they said it would be! We got our passes, went to do the safety briefing (a whole 5 minute thing, total), and went to explore the ship.

When we got to the spa and gym area, I was THRILLED! They apparently have a full gym and I was under the impression you can only use the equipment if you pay extra for their classes.. NOT TRUE! I told the man I need to run at least one mile a day and asked him how do to go about doing that.. He laughed and said, “well miss, you come over and get on a treadmill and run your mile or more..” hahaha they’re open from 6am-10pm every day! Yay! No fears of ruining my running streak over an equipment issue 😉 (now a drinking too much issue is a totally different thing!). I decided to stay and run 2 miles then (I was already in shorts and a tank top), and mom ventured back to our room on her own to get ready for the pool.

After running, I went back to our room and changed into my bathing suit. Mom was already ready, but we were getting a little hungry, so we checked out the food situation by the pool, got cheeseburgers and then laid in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. The water is super cold, but they have several hot tubs too.. which are very hot.. Sooooo, I just stuck to the pool. Just a quick, refreshing dip is all I really require to be happy anyway. Around 6:30 we planned to go to the room, shower, and go to dinner.. but as we walked by sushi restaurant, the man said he’d set us in our pool cover ups-so-we let him!

The sushi was great, no Thaicoon on the Marietta square for sure, but great all the same. The lady tried teaching mom how to properly use chop sticks-it didn’t work.. haha she got a good laugh out of it before she gave up on it! We ate and laughed talking about silly things that the two of us tend to do and find funny. We are so very similar in so many ways, which is phenomenal most of the time, but beware if one of us is ill! Lol the other good thing is we tend to get over things quickly, at least when it’s just the two of us. For anyone else, we’ll probably hold a grudge until we die.. Lolol

Mom was able to get our room attendant, Jackielou to find her a box fan for our room.. trust me, it benefits me too! So now, we’re laid up in our twin beds, freshly showered and full. Hopefully here comes a great night of sleep! We don’t have any plans for tomorrow except to lay in the sun at the pool and eat the free food! I’m already excited about it!
Goodnight!