Night of Day 6--Mykonos

Day 6—The Night Life—Mykonos

On the evening of Day 6 we ported at Mykonos at 6 pm.  Mykonos is known for their night life and so they had us set up to be there from 6-midnight.  Caleb and I figured we would plan to have dinner and then just head back to the ship.  Once we got off the boat, our thoughts instantly changed!  We docked just walking distance from the heart of the town.  As we walked to find dinner we passed 2 beautiful little girls that were about 8 years old that were out begging for money from the tourists that were getting off the ship.  It was so sad to see them doing this.  It took us a while to decide on a restaurant to eat at.  We wanted to eat at a place with a view, but we are also super cheap and we just couldn’t find a place.  Because it took us so long, we decided to just sit along the beach and watch the sunset and then eat later.  It was the best decision that we made.  The sunset was beautiful and we were able to get some great pictures. 

After the sunset, we were on a mission to find food and a shop that we were told sold olive wood for a great price.  As we wandered we were able to really take in the views of Mykonos.  The buildings were beautiful and were so unique.  Again, you could just take a picture anywhere and it would be great.  The people there were so friendly and it didn’t feel like a tourist trap.  As we were walking along we found a place that had gyros, which sounded delicious.  We each order a gyro and several other things.  It was the best food we had had the entire trip.  We just sat outside and people watched while we enjoyed our food.  Several people were handing out cards for free drinks at several of the clubs/bars.  Of course, we didn’t attend any of these, but it was amazing how many cards we were given.

Once we finished eating and people watching we decided to find the shop that was selling olive wood.  We were able to wander throughout all of the shops and see the uniqueness of this place.  The olive wood shop was neat.  The lady that worked there was so passionate about the wood and she had so many stories to tell.  We walked away with a lot of olive oil soap and some olive wood pieces for souvenirs. 

By this time it was midnight and we needed to head back to the ship.  In the end, we wished they would have given us a while day on Mykonos instead of splitting it between Santorini and Mykonos.  This day was probably my favorite out of all the stops we had been to thus far.

We took this just a little ways from where our boat had ported.

There were little walkways like this all through Mykonos.  Everything was white.

This was our view of the sunset.  It was so picture perfect with the boat there.

This is where we had dinner.  They shaved the meat right off and cut everything right there in front of you.

Day 6--Santorini

I know I am ridiculous at this whole blog thing!  I WILL eventually get our whole trip documented and possibly even update other events from the summer, but for now, I am making no promises.  I'm back to being a working mom and am still trying to juggle everything :)

Today began early because we were porting at our first stop of the day in order to make it to our second port by 6 that evening.  The ship was unable to port right along the island so we took boats from the ship to the port.  While getting ready that morning my dress was having a hard time with its zipper and so while we were on the little boat that was taking us to the port, Caleb was trying to fix my zipper.  The zipper started below my thigh on my side and went up to my armpit.  While Caleb was trying to get my zipper to zip he had to yank on it to get it to go down and it completely ruined my zipper.  We couldn’t get my dress to zip and I was fully exposed!  Caleb and I sat for the entire boat ride trying to figure out what we could do with my dress because we obviously had no way of going back and getting a change of clothes.  We luckily had some towels in our bag and Caleb made one of them into a sash that wrapped around my waist and luckily kept my dress closed enough to not reveal everything!  

Once we arrived at the island we were at the very bottom of the island.  Santorini was built all along the top of the hill and was the most beautiful sight.   As soon as you got off there were all these donkeys and little men waiting for you.  For 5 euro you could ride this donkeys up this gigantic hill to top and get to Santorini or you could walk.  Once you see the pictures, you will see that it was a no brainer to take the donkeys.  These men helped you on the donkeys and then just let them go on their own up the road.  They would all follow each other and try to keep up with each other.  My donkey kept racing to get ahead and Caleb’s would just randomly stop and he couldn’t get it to move.  About half-way up our donkeys all just started running up the hill and we couldn’t figure out why.  Then we looked behind us and this man was coming up behind us yelling something at them and then clicking at them.  It was an adventurous ride to say the least!

As soon as we got to the top we were on a race to get started because we only had a few hours.  We had known ahead of time that we wanted to rent a 4-wheeler or scooter so we could go to the other side of the island to a village called Oia.  One of the travel guys had told us exactly where to go once we left the donkey trail, but for some reason the way he told us did not get us exactly to the place.  So….we were both a little frustrated and irritated because we knew our time was ticking away.  We found a travel agency in town and were trying to ask the gal where we could find a place to rent a scooter.  She was busy with someone else and not too anxious to help us, so Caleb told me to stay there while he went looking around.  I waited and waited and she finally (after at least 10 min) was ready to help me.  She told me it was just a block or so down the road.  In the meantime, Caleb had found a scooter rental and was trying to rent a scooter for us.  The man asked for his driver’s license right away and questioned Caleb about why it didn’t say anything about a motorcycle license.  Caleb was anxious to get this scooter rented so he told the guy we didn’t need those where he was from!  Needless to say, Caleb has never drove a scooter in his life and the guy ( and me) would have to be crazy to trust him to drive one.  Caleb finally gets the scooter finalized and is on his way to come get me a little ways down the road.  He tries to act suave as he leaves so that the guy won’t question his decision to rent the scooter to him.  He takes off with a few jerks and stumbles, but then steadies out and comes and picks me up.  We are finally on our way to Oia.

It was about a ½ hour scooter ride to the village.  Caleb was a little hesitant with the scooter at first, but he caught on quickly and we had some wonderful views along our way.  When we drove into Oia it was beautiful.  When we pulled into the town, we weren’t sure where exactly to go so we were kind of stumbling along roads trying to find the best place to go.  We went down one road and it had this pothole in the center of it.  Caleb tried to get us around the pothole and instead drove us right into the back of a van!  It was so embarrassing!  This man asked us if we were o.k. and luckily he did start yelling at us about having just ran into a van.  Luckily, no harm was done to the scooter, only a little red paint was rubbed onto the back of the van.  When we hit the van, I fell forward and my leg touched a hot part of the scooter and so I received a nice burn on my calve.  The area was full of white buildings with blue tops and it was right along the coast.  I found myself taking pictures everywhere.  It seemed like every time you turned around there was something neat to take a picture of.  We weren’t able to stay long due to the time constraints, so we kind of rushed through Oia and just tried to take as many pictures as we could.  After getting all our pictures we started heading back to Santorini.  Again, it was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair and the scenery. 

Once back to Santorini we returned the scooter and then looked through some of the shops for souvenirs.  We were able to purchase a few things and then it was time to head back to the boat.  In order to get back to the port we had to trek down the huge donkey hill we came up.  You could take a donkey back down, but we chose to walk it.  The rocks were so smooth from all the traffic that was on them that you would just slip all the time.  It was very steep and you had donkeys coming down behind you as well.  It was a relief to get back to the bottom. 

After getting onto the boat, we laid out and sunbathed on the ship.  It was a really hot day and it was nice to enjoy the cool water.  That evening the ship was going to be porting at Mykonos for the evening and so we began getting ready for that.

Heading up the donkey hill.  Notice the towel I'm sporting.

Caleb's donkey would just randomly stop and take a break all the time.

A view from the top.  We were surprised we survived!

A view of Santorini from the top

This was along the way to Oia.  We thought we were getting close, but weren't even close.

Oia village

We took this on our way to Oia.  Oia village is in the background.

This is a view from the top looking down on the donkeys.  They were just all sitting there waiting for someone to ride them. 

Day 5--Olympia

This morning we woke up and had the breakfast buffet on the ship.  The breakfast was really starting to get old because there wasn’t much to eat and the food was just not good.  We ate and then waited for them to tell us that the boat had ported and we were able to enter the city.  We ported and then a tour bus took us in groups into the center of Olympia.  We were headed to the Olympic ruins in Olympia.  When we arrived we were dropped off at the top of the hill and then rocked down into the area of the ruins.  There were a couple of groups of tours and we were all standing outside the entrance waiting in the heat while our tour guides tried to figure out the tickets.  We continued to stand there and our tour guide was handing out tickets and was just handing them out to anyone standing there.  In the end, we were missing tickets and the tour guide kept saying that some of us must have moved groups after they told us not to and that was why we were short a ticket.  Once she got over that we were short a ticket and we weren’t getting in without them she got us the extra ticket and we were able to enter.  Again, the tour guide had a very thick accent and it was very hard to understand her and she talked a lot!  She took us around the ruins and explained what some of the pieces were prior to being ruins.  It was really neat to see the ruins and hear the stories.  After a little while, we took our own tour around the ruins because we couldn’t understand our tour guide anymore!  On the outside of the ruins was the Olympic track.  As you entered in, there were pedestals just outside the entrance.  These were where the cheaters had to stand and people would see these cheaters as they entered into the track. 

Once we were done with the tour they gave us some time to wander in the shops and then it was time to head back to the ship.  After we did some shopping in Olympia we boarded our bus and headed back to our docking area.  We decided that we wanted to do some looking around where we were docked.  We looked through some of the shops and then Caleb decided that he wanted to get himself a gyro.  He wandered off and I decided to sit on a bench and wait for him.  We were to be boarded at 5:00 and this was around 4:30.  I sat for about 20 min. and then worried that I had maybe missed seeing Caleb come back around and so I started going up and down the street looking for him.  We were needing to be on the boat in less than 10 min. and I was starting to get really worried.  I kept thinking about what we tell the kids when they get lost and wondered what Caleb would do if he was lost or looking for me.  I tried to stay in the open and was thinking that maybe I should just start heading to the ship.  As I was headed that way, Caleb spots me ( he is close to the entrance for the ship) and he is yelling my name to hurry.  You could tell he was panicked as much as I was that we were going to miss our boat!  All in all, we made it on time and learned our lesson about sticking together.

That evening we had our usual 5-course dinner and then went to the show on the ship that evening.

The Cheaters!

The Olympic Track

Day 4--Bari

Day 4--- Bari was the destination for the day and we arrived in port.  We disembarked and decided to go it along for this day.  Bari had two destinations we were to hit and it was the Saint Nicholas cathedral where Saint Nick was laid to rest and the other was the castle.  Bari came in with low expectations but we really enjoyed just walking the streets and enjoyed the castle and cathedrals in Bari.  They had two and they were both neat to walk into and see how beautiful they were.  The cathedral set up was a main sanctuary adorned with gold trimmings and beautiful wood work all over.  Behind the pulpit for lack of a better/right term was a stair case that went below ground and there was another area it looked like to pray and worship.  However this area was very plain except for the pictures of Mary and Jesus and the candles that were lit in different areas.  The walk was a bit long but we did see most of the island as the castle and the cathedral of Saint Nick was on opposite sides of the island.  Overall we enjoyed Bari.  Once back on the ship we got ready for dinner and like every night went to eat was AO people where we were served a 5 plus course meal every night.  However that night the food for a second straight night was just OK.  That night I had to convince Kim to go to the theatre again but we made it by ourselves and we were entertained with a juggler, dancers, singers, and a Fabio like dude that spun to ball around and clicked them on the stage.  All of it was very entertaining and we enjoyed it.  After that it was off to bed.

This was a gas station along our walk.  Totally different than ours!

The castle of Bari

If you look really closely at the sign, it says there is no speed limit.

The church of St. Nick

A statue of Saint Nicholas just outside the church.

A view of the ceiling from inside the church