Friday 10 September 2010
Well, after sailing all night we came into the city of Athens. It is very hot too.
We had to have our breakfast from 5.45am and had to leave the ship by 7am. It was a very early start and as I’m not a morning person............
We had to pack our 2 large bags last night and leave them outside by midnight for pick up. Also had to tie a coloured crepe paper on so it could be seen as one from Insight.
We got ready to have breakfast and Sandy asked if I had the tickets. Nope!!! He didn’t either. Panic set in “again”. We went all through the room (which is not that big), back packs and turned down the beds. Nowhere to be seen. Sandy was white and I was nearly ready to cry. We didn’t know where else to look. Sandy then lifted his bed and nothing, then mine and there was a little white strap hanging down (from the bed) and when I put my hand under the bed, here was the zippered leather compartment where our tickets were. S... happens but should happen to others, not us. Sandy said that was our punishment for having Wally’s passport. We had our breakfast and took our back packs with us so as not to come back to the room and the staff could start to get our room ready for the next lot of passengers. After breakfast I ended up going back to my room to finish off and they had started to clean up already.
We all had to meet in the theatre room and wait for our call to board our bus for the arrival hall. This call didn’t come until about 8.15 and the Indians were getting restless. Wally had the s...s with the world and wouldn’t wait for the lifts or walk up 4 flights of stairs to our meeting point so he & Helen disembarked on their own and waited for us on the pier!!!!!!
We went to the arrival hall to get our suitcases and here 4 other ships had docked and it was unorganized chaos. There must have been over 2000 people all trying to get their bags and trying to find their bus to go to ‘where ever’. There was no Customs or Quarantine . We finally got to our bus to go to the Marriott hotel where we are staying tonight and our pickup is tomorrow at 1.15 for the airport to go to Dubai.
Our room wasn’t ready this morning but we were allowed to put our bags in a locked room until we came back.
We went to the town by shuttle bus (2e each into town and free on the way back) from the hotel. We then got a ‘hop on/hop off’ bus to travel around the town. There are 3 buses doing the rounds so you have to make sure you get on the right bus. Usually the drivers tell you to get on another bus. It cost 15e each for 2 days and you could get on and off when you wanted. The trip all round lasts 90 minutes, which we did and then decided where we wanted to get off. Kel, Liz, Wally, Helen, Sandy and me did this all together. After going the round trip, we got off at the Acropolis. What a place. You can read all you like about this in magazines but to actually see it in real life it just something. It was so large and the marble on the columns and roads was breathtaking. Even got a stone but ‘nobody knows’. You can see for miles in any direction and the scenery is just awesome. We spent about an hour there then we came back to get on the bus again. Helen got off the bus at the Library as she wanted to see it but nobody else wanted to go. We came into the town and walked to the pickup point for the bus. We just missed it by 5 minutes and we had to wait nearly an hour for it to come back again. It was so very hot and we were tired.
Finally we got the bus and came back to the hotel. We checked in and had to produce the famous passports. Poor Wally didn’t have his ‘again’ as Helen had it in her bag. She ended up getting a taxi back to the hotel (cost 4.50e) and lo and behold, the driver had a brother who lived in Port Kembla and a sister who lived in Hurstville. Small world. We ended up on the pool deck where Kel and Sandy had a swim and we had a drink also.
We ended up going next door for our tea as we weren’t all that hungry. John & Lyn joined us and then Neville & Rhonda came in. We had a good time and Kel & Liz came back with us to Wally & Helen’s room for a bottle of wine as this was our last night. Kel & Liz go to Singapore on Monday and they go home to Newcastle on Thursday. Liz works at Lake Macquarie Yacht Club. We can keep in touch as Kel has an email address.
Liz loves shopping and Kel just shakes his head, same as Wally.
We went to bed in a huge king size bed and hopefully we won’t move.