Greece.

Greece. Ah, Greece. All the crystal clear blue waters, solid white buildings, beaches everywhere....yea, didn't see them.
Greece for me was Athens. And Athens is a big city, albeit with cute areas, but a big city in its mildest description. Big cities really aren't a favorite for this country girl.

I spent an entire, very hot, sweaty day walking around the city seeing all the major sights. It was worth it, if I'm keeping a checklist, (which I'm not) but exhausting to say the least. I wandered with a group of friends during the day, which led into a restaurant crawl that night (Yes, Elizabeth, I've brought our tradition to Greece!). Unfortunately, we only made it to two places before most of the group wanted to go back to the ship. Oh well, "2's fun and 3's a crowd" has become my mantra these days, so we happily waved good-bye to the group and headed out for a night of fun in Athens.

This night of fun was lots of fun--people watching, aimlessly wandering, drinking--and this is when the night stopped. I tried to amalgamate with the locals as much as possible, gravitating towards local cuisine and liquor, but I was too much of a light-weight. I was ouzo'ed by Ouzo!, or so I so eloquently like to recall my hang-over from hell. Dad, you'd have been so proud. (right)
Yea, it was definitely a night to remember ... or rather, a night I can't remember the end of. Moral of the story, don't drink ouzo. It tastes like black licorice, which is shit anyway.

The next day I literally stayed in bed all day nursing my hang-over, but eventually made it out the next night w/ 2 girls on board to a beautiful outdoor movie cinema. It was directly under the Acropolis, all lit up at night. Fireflies dancing around. Nice breeze. So memorable. I loved it. We went to a wine/ouzo bar, met some nice Greek folk, and had dinner at 1:00 in the morning. Tazaiki. Souvlaki. Feta. Olives. Bread. Oil. My kind of meal.

During the majority of this port, I was on call so I had to be fairly close to the ship, or at least checking in and out, on top of holding 7 a.m. clinic every morning myself. Nice. but, I made it and on the 3rd day got to jet away to an island for the afternoon w/ some friends. We relaxed on the beaches, rode scooters along the waterway and up & around the island, and I ended the day under a tiki umbrella, in the shade, wind blowing, mesmerized by the clear, blue waters. Drunk, I tell you. Sober, but drunk on the beauty of the moment. 3 x 5 photo of it will always be in my head.

I ended Greece by hanging out in Athens again on the final day trying to do all the 'last minute' Athens things. I started out by tagging along w/ the Art History teacher onboard to the New Acropolis Museum, where he was my own tour guide & made the museum come alive to me. We took a break to have a coffee in the cafe on top of the museum & this is where I met Katerina. Her table was near ours and I simply complimented her on all of her artsy funky jewelry that I liked .... and we were off to chatting like old friends. She suggested that I try (what I thought) was a special type of 'Greek tea', but in fact what she ordered for me was this amazing 'Greek cheese'. (tea & cheese get me every time!) I was without liquid of my own, but happy to know of this amazingly, simply stupendous dish.

She offered to take me to the shop in Athens where she bought some of her cool jewelery, so we planned to meet an hour later outside of the museum. Katerina was born and raised, and now lived in the same house, near the Acropolis and knew everything about the area. She was so very kind, offering all kinds of history, commentary, and suggestions for our travel. I ended up buying 3 pieces of 'evil eye' jewelry from this shop--all of which are my favorite purchases so far!

To sum up Athens for me: "ok". Parthenon--"amazingly old, and therefore important". Next trip back: "the islands for the majority of the time/back-road country living".

Next up tom. morning is Istanbul! I'm ecstatic and can't wait!