After a very hazy morning and quick breakfast we set off to the port of Piareus where we were greeted by our ship: a massive cruise liner called Aquamarine. Okay, massive is a bit of an exaggeration because it's actually one of the smaller cruise liners (it holds 1400 passengers) but it looked massive to us because we've never been on one before. Our cabin was pretty small but all the essentials were there (we had to pay extra for a port hole and we thought we could live without one for three days). We were greeted by an enthusiastic Greek called Dimitri who took us through the procedures. Basically, another tourist trap. The ship is full of American tourists, the entertainment is C-grade (a bunch of washed-up performers playing old folk songs and the like) and the food, well, I doubt it's anything special. We met up with a couple from our old land tour (everyone else was doing the seven day cruise) and they're quite nice. A brother and sister called Lyn and Willy from the Philippines, who are very sweet. Lyn is totally taken up with Darryn since she found out he's from the Philippines too and they've been very kind to us. All the crew onboard are also Filipino, and because Lyn speaks the language, she's been able to sus things out. Dimitri gave us the usual spiel about the optional excursions: that they're a must, they're fantastic, they're wonderful, great value for money and include a few trips to some 'authentic' pottery houses. Yeah, right. Darryn and I had a good chuckle at that. We've learned our lesson. Anyway the only excursion we were thinking of taking was the one in Turkey, since it is another country and probably not as safe as Europe. But after we heard Dimitri talk us through it we discovered we'd be paying $100 each for a one-hour tour of an archaeological site (i.e. more rocks). We then decided to go it alone, like on all the islands, and just hire a taxi for an hour or two to do a tour of the city and bazaar. Lyn and Willy were delighted with this idea and they asked the crew if it would be possible. The crew told Lyn there was nothing better than doing exactly what we'd planned, so we're quite happy with ourselves.
Before lunch Darryn and I visited the Sun Deck, where the pool, deckchairs and bar kept us happy for a few hours. Of course, it's not all great. We found out that drinks are actually not included in the price, so we basically have to drink water if we want to save money. I have no doubt the food they'll be serving will be stupid crap like hamburgers and fish and chips, but we'll see.
I was totally right about the food. We lunched in the restaurant (as opposed to the Bistro or Taverna), so presumably, it was the classiest place onboard to dine. We met up with Lyn and Willy and when I saw the menu I nearly fainted. Hamburgers, fish and chips, carrot soup, snitzel and hot chips. Great. I ate barely anything and when the boat got moving I started to feel a little sea sick, so Darryn and I went back to our cabin for an afternoon nap. We got up and got dressed and went ashore on Mykonos, a lovely and rather small island with a maze of very narrow streets. Dimitri took us on his 'tour of goodies', which lasted about twenty minutes, and then we had about two hours of free time to explore. I was really hungry and thirsty so we went to a small cafe to have some baklava and ice cream - with two beers - and then walked around the streets and took hundreds of photographs, including a few of the beautiful sunset. We also came across Mykonos's mascot, Pete the Pelican. Pete is a one metre-tall island pelican with pink feathers who got stranded here some years ago and the locals took to feeding him and parading him around as their mascot. Anyway he's really cute and he had a small procession of tourists following him around for some time, cameras at the ready. We got back onboard and went to dinner, where we weren't actually allowed to sit where we wanted. We got put on a table with two Canadians, one French couple (oldish) and one American couple (youngish), none of which spoke to one another during the whole meal. Darryn and I of course got the giggles pretty bad so we were sitting there talking crap and laughing while they were all looking on, thinking we were crazy. After dinner it was time for the Latin Fever night show (a bunch of crappy entertainers - including our drill sergeant for the boat drill earlier that afternoon - in feathers and glitter dancing to Spanish music), which neither of us enjoyed very much because we were feeling sick from the boat motion.
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