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!

Y’all. What a bummer today was. I woke up several times during the night thanks to the ship rocking side to side. I got a little queasy but tried my best to ignore it. We got up at the same time as yesterday to get to breakfast and to the meeting point for our full day trip in Santorini including a boat tour with snorkeling. The wind was whipping and the waves looked so high from the windows-but I’m no sea captain.

We ate the same breakfast as yesterday and went to the meeting spot only to hear that the current weather had us delayed “for now.” It was 8:45, they’d update us at 9am. Ok-fine. No problem. 9am rolls around and the captain of the ship comes over the PA system to tell us that there are 10ft swells and 60knot winds-it’s too unsafe to get off the boat, waves are literally crashing over the gangway higher than a human. Cool. No worries. They’ll update us again at 10am.

The issue with the updates was that we had to be in a public place to hear them, because they don’t make announcements into the staterooms (fantastic when you’re sleeping, not so much when you want to nap AND be in the know.. ya win some ya lose some..). Mom laid down on a couch in a lounge area that they started doing trivia in. I half listened half scrolled the internet trying to stay awake until 10 to hear the announcement. The whole time you can hear the wind whistling through the doors and windows from the deck of the ship.

As I was watching the waves rolling by seem only higher and higher, I held out hope that the announcement would be in our favor. Absolutely everything in the last 20 days has worked out, mishaps be damned, surely this would, too! The 10am announcement comes on: “we’re so sorry, for your safety we cannot dock at the port nor can we allow anyone off the ship… refund.. blah blah blah.” I was heartbroken! Of all the places.. this is SANTORINI! The captain let’s us know that he will head on to Turkey a day early, we’ll dock around 7:30pm and see how the weather fairs.

To drown our sorrows, mom and I head back to our room and decide to take a nap. If anyone knows either of us well-you already know neither of us knows how to actually take a nap. We were out cold comatose for HOURS of the day! While it was sunny outside, the wind had the upper decks closed, so there was honestly nothing for us to do unless we wanted to gamble, eat, or play more trivia. If Nana and Joe were here-sure-I’d play some trivia and probably get some right (I did get a few correct that I was half listening to, even if I wasn’t officially “playing”), but without the entertainment of them-nah, I’d rather sleep! Drinking was off the table for me, too, thanks to the rocking of the boat from the waves.. the last time I thought I’d drink through sea sickness I ended up on the cruise ship bathroom floor for hours on end and it was quite ugly (not this trip lol). I won’t say never again-but I will say not today!

So, we napped until some time in the afternoon. We whined about not getting to go on our awesome excursion, and then I whined about them crediting our “onboard accounts” (separately I might add) when I paid for them on a card-we’re talking $720.. like-I better get that money back on a card-mine or moms-but not a cruise credit! Lolol anyway, it’s fine, we’re fine, I promise 🥴😬

Then we ate lunch. I read a bit, we went to the casino-mom was bored and went back to the room, I promptly wasted $20.. I was up by $37 and then lost it all-of course. After losing my money and finding no one to commiserate with, I went back to the room too.. I did verify the winds were too high and the pools were still closed. Back in the room, we both started to watch a movie until we fell asleep AGAIN. Yikes! We slept until 8pm! I swear, we have to have a sleeping disorder!

When we woke up, we realized we were about to miss dinner. ONLY THEN did we realize we were docked in Kusadasi, Turkey! We weren’t sure if we were allowed to get off, since they don’t announce in the rooms.. so we went to the buffet to grab some food and ask someone there about getting off. The water was much calmer, even though the wind was still pretty strong, the decks were open, the pools were not-and it was suddenly quite chilly.

After some quick eating (pasta), we went down to the gangway and excited the ship! The port of Kusadasi is absolutely beautiful! Ocean meeting the mountains almost immediately. Buildings and homes built into the cliff side, one area with homes literally painting into rainbow colors.. so so gorgeous. Mom and I walked around, saw the oceanfront-I did my run (1.35 miles) and met mom at a coffee shop. Why we decided to drink coffee at 10pm after sleeping all day-I could never explain-BUT we did! And it was fantastic! I got an iced coffee, for the first time in forever. The Turkish people were all so nice! Even their port security guys were beyond nice.

We hung out and walked around until close to 11pm when we finally moseyed back on board the ship. We showered and got ready for bed, again, and I’m here to tell you it’s not even 12:30 and I’m half asleep already! Fingers crossed tomorrow goes well. We have an excursion planned to see Ephesus along with the home of the Virgin Mary and also the burial site and church of John the evangelist. It’s a long tour-so let’s also hope it’s as cool weather wise as it is today.. because if it’s as hot as Venice was, mom is going to bail! Lolol

Goodnight, y’all. Thanks for following along! So sorry for the delays.. the WiFi onboard does not like to load pictures to wordless-or on Instagram either, really. Lol

It should be shocking that we slept basically all day yesterday (off and on of course) and all night last night, AND STILL struggled to get up this morning.. But that’s what happened. We had to get up an hour earlier than the last 2 mornings because our tour meeting time was at 7:45 instead of 8:45.

We managed. We got to our breakfast spot to find out they open at 7:30.. soooo, we went to the 10th floor to eat the buffet breakfast instead. They had biscuits and gravy! I was SOOOO happy! Until I ate a bite-whew. Those were some hard ass biscuits. We ate them anyway, but my hopes got way too high.

We met our tour group and went to the bus. Today was a biblical Ephesus tour. The first stop: the home of the Virgin Mary. Our tour guide, Volkan (real name) was incredible.. so knowledgeable and informative without being loud or irritating so early in the morning. We went through the house but weren’t allowed to take pictures. It was a small 2 room house and therefore very quick. But it’s neat to say you stepped in the same places the mother of Jesus did.

Once out of the home, Volkan took us into a church on the property and we got to have a catholic mass-thankfully the 20 minute version. Mom and I got the giggles and had to hush each other when we saw the people’s eyes from our group get wide and worried when the priest was breaking the body of Christ bread things for their communion.. that was actually for him-he had small ones for them that didn’t require all the extra touching and breaking, although he did touch each one with bare hands. In the land of covid, it’s crazy how different things have already gotten.

After our service, we got water from the fountains of Health, Love, and Wealth.. three things I don’t mind having in abundance. And then we loaded back up on the bus to drive down the mountainside to the ancient ruins of Ephesus. These ruins have been much more preserved than those we saw in Olympia. Archeologists are still uncovering so so much of the city, everything we saw today is only 20% of the ancient city!

There was a marble road from the beginning of the city that went all the way from the deep valley we were in to the sea at one point.. mosaic sidewalks on each side of that, with such detail I can’t even begin to imagine how long it must have taken them to create.. Roman bath houses at the entrance to the city (Volkan said that was to ensure you were “clean” before coming into the city). The sidewalks used to be lined with shops from merchants all the way down to the huge library. Across from the library was a gentleman’s club and there was a tunnel that led from the inside of the library to the club-so basically men have been up to their shenanigans since the beginning of time.. good to know 🤣

He said Ephesus was abandoned after a lot of people died from Malaria.. the ocean started receding causing swampy lands and mosquitos started running rampant. But the people didn’t realize it was the mosquitos making them sick, they called it malaria meaning “bad air” thinking they air was tainted. So after tons of people died, the rest moved up and out of the valley and into the hillsides.

We got lessons on the different types of architecture and the reasonings behind having certain styles in certain places. Emperors passing through Ephesus had money, so the people would build statues and monuments to inflate their ego, so in turn they’d spend their money in the city.

The Vatican confirmed the religious happenings in Ephesus in the mid 1900s by matching the details from the Bible to the things archeologists found there. Once one of the popes came to visit Ephesus, it became a biblical tourist destination, to where before the town of Kusadasi was more of a fisherman town and rather poor. Our guide said if it wasn’t for that pope (he knew his name of course) in 1965, he’d be fishing and struggling to feed his family today, instead he was leading us around showing us what he loves most about his home town. Beautiful, really.

We were going to watch a play out on by the people that run the ruins, but one of the Roman characters busted his head and was being wheeled out in a wheelchair holding a bandage to his head. Yikes! And another Roman character tried to take pictures (for a charge of course) with everyone that passed him, myself included. Dude, we already snapped those pics! Haha He came over and slinked his arm through mine and so I asked him to lead me to the bathroom.. lol

From there we went to a restaurant at an old train station that now has a rose garden too. It was beautifully set up on a gorgeous terrace. The food just kept coming and coming until I thought I’d pop. My friend from the AT, Poptart, would have been so proud.. I ate the fish that had the bones still in it! I mean, I didn’t enjoy it and after the first crunch when I though I had picked them out and I missed one, I was done-but hey! I gave it my best shot!

The other foods included a garlic cream cheese dip on top of cucumbers, bread and bread and bread, some hummus, goat cheese and pretzels, some type of insanely good soup (didn’t ask what was in it just in case it would freak me out), and then the fish-oh and a salad too! Entirely too much food! There was other random stuff too, like cakes and green beans.. literally so much food I can’t remember it all. Plus wine. There’s always wine.

There was the cutest doggie there, walking around laying under tables and feet.. I went to pet him after he sniffed my hand and came in for a rub-but then he snarled and so I just kept my hands to myself after that Lolol the girl sitting beside mom screamed. She told me later that she was planning to pet him after I did and she screamed so loud because she thought he was going to bite her since her hand was near him, too. I didn’t see her hand down there, but good thing she moved quick, just in case.

After eating and being unable to breathe anymore, we waddled back to the bus to go to our next stop: the ruins of the church built to honor St John the Baptist or the evangelist, I have no clue if those two names are for the same guy or not, but I will say whoever they built this church for was very well loved. It was HUGE! There wasn’t a whole lot of ruins left, but from what was there, it used to be incredible.

His tomb was also there, which was pretty cool. Volkan told us that when they excavated the tomb no remains were there, and that the same thing happened way back when-so his grave site was robbed way before our time. I enjoyed listening to Volkan and his excitement over the history of this area. He spit out facts so quickly but was able to tell everything like a story instead of just fact after fact.

Volkan also showed us an old Mosque from where we were standing at the ruins. He went on to tell us the name of it translates to “the Mosque of Jesus Christ” which is probably the first and only Muslim mosque with Jesus Christ in the name-but it was named after a Muslim leader named Jesus.. but apparently not the same as the Jesus Christ Christians know as the savior-HOWEVER-I say, who’s to say it’s not one in the same? I wish I could retell the story he told us with all the correct details. But alas, my brain can only recall so much. Maybe I need to get put on some Namenda.. haha

After we left the church ruins, Volkan took us to a carpet weaving center. They showed us how they hand spin silk and then dye it. How the “ladies” as they kept calling them, hand wove their carpets and that some take 6-8 months and others are so fine that they take 2-3 years to create. The one girl doing this demonstration looked miserable.. to the point that I wanted to ask her if she was being treated properly. It may sound silly, but I swear that girl was not happy to be there and I don’t know that she really had a choice.

From the demonstration area they took us to a showroom, gave us wine, and then put on a production of having men throw out the rugs for us to see. The second someone whispered to their partner, “oh! That one is pretty!” A salesman was right by her side ready to sell it or “there are many others in different shapes and sizes!” Lolol I enjoyed watching them work and didn’t even get annoyed with their salesmen tactics-I don’t need a rug, let alone a 6 thousand dollar one, so I wasn’t worried that I’d feel pressured in any way.

The way out of the showroom was through a jewelry store.. smooooooth! These guys had a game plan! I personally didn’t think that this would sell or appeal to anyone, mom said they put on the show with the ladies hand weaving then make the rest in the back on machines.. BUT people from our group bought some rugs and some jewelry, too! That night on the boat a lady proudly displayed her 6k one karat ring and told us she got a rug too.. 6k seems to be the going price of all their goodies there! And I’m here to tell you, I have plenty of other things I’d rather spend that kind of money on..

From the carpet weaving place we were taken back to the dock and mom and I went to get an iced coffee from the place by the water from last night. It’s just so beautiful there, I never want to leave! A trip dedicated to Turkey is definitely in my future. We had to be back on the boat by 5:30 for a 6pm leave time. It seemed to come way too fast. We ate in the “fancy” restaurant and the manager, Amor sat us at a pretty window table again. I really like him, I really like that mom spoke up and asked to not sit sandwiched between people.. hahaha

We walked around a bit and sat on the back deck to watch the boat sail through the water at sunset. Then I changed into running clothes and did almost 2 miles around the upper deck of the ship.. there’s a placard that says 6 laps is 1 kilometer.. so 30 laps would be a 5k, which is 3.1 miles.. so I just guessed that 10 ish laps is at least one mile. What I didn’t think about when I started was that my garmin’s GPS would pick up the ship’s speed and not mine-so I wasn’t counting at first (only like 2 minutes had passed).. when it buzzed saying I had a 2:35 minute mile I about died laughing! And then realized i better keep count! It was much more enjoyable than the dread mill.

Anywho-I showered and now I’m happily in bed. We get to Thessaloniki tomorrow 🙂 We have a shorter tour that will take us over the city’s highlights. Which means we don’t have to be ready to go meet for the tour until 1:15.. HELLO SLEEPING IN!! Goodnight 🙂