After celebrating our final night with the entire Contiki group in Athens, it was another early start for our departure for our three-day Greek Island cruise. About half our original tour group was going on the tour extension. Others were embarking on the seven-day cruise and a handful were going home. Our half was to be merged with another Contiki group, the Concept crew, that had finished the previous day in Athens too.
After being picked up from the hotel about 8am it was a half hour bus ride to the port. Our new Contiki tour manager, Dom, filled us in on how the embarkation process would work, including the fact we would have to hand in our passports (eek). The cruise company collects all the passports for the purposes of obtaining visas as we visited the different islands and left and re-entered the European Union from Turkey. For many, the idea of handing over our passports was a bit scary, being that for those travelling for many weeks and months, it was our sole form of identity.
But, as promised by Dom, when we arrived at the port, the handing over of our lifelines went off without a hitch. We also had to sign health declarations introduced apparently since the swine flu epidemic.
Our ship was to be the Aquamarine, operated by Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines. It wasn’t a big ship, taking only 1200-odd passengers and 300 crew.
Once inside, this being our first time on a cruise, we didn’t really have any sort of expectations except perhaps what we had seen on the cover of P&O brochures.
Well, this was not like what we had seen. It was an older ship, built in Finland in 1971 our Cruise News informed us and the décor had obviously not been changed since.
Sam and I had opted for the “balcony” upgrade which turned out to be a window. This was only a slight disappointment and didn’t bother us beyond the initial “oh OK, no worries”. There were no balconies at all on this ship so it wasn’t like we had missed out but to hear some of our tour mates carry on you would have thought it was the biggest let down since the Sex And The City sequel.
It was simply furnished, with twin beds, the window between and a small bathroom with a tiny shower. But it was clean and private and we did at least have some sort of view that others within the ship did not.
So after checking out our digs we almost immediately had a meeting with our tour manager in one of the lounges, up one floor.
Here she explained how the disembarking procedures worked when we would leave the ship on excursions and also explained what those excursions were. There were several more than what had been outlined in the Contiki itinerary and Dom had highlighted those she recommended. The excursions were open to everyone on the ship so if you didn’t do what the majority of what the Contiki group wanted to do, you would end up in a group of old people.
We were by far the youngest group on the ship by at least 20 years and easily the loudest.
Each port had two excursion options, the first stop being Mykonos later that afternoon.
By this time it was about 11am and we were to set sail shortly. We would arrive in Mykonos about 6pm that night and only have about four hours on shore to explore the town.
However, before we could kick back and find the pool and the bar, we had an emergency drill. This involved getting our life jackets out from under our beds and heading up on deck to stand with the rest of the people that in the event of the ship going down we would be sharing a boat with.
And I’lI tell you what, had there been an actual emergency, we would all be at the bottom of the Aegean Sea right now because it took forever. It wouldn’t have been half so bad if they hadn’t insisted we all stand so close together, with the men at the back and oldies and women in front. It was stifling hot and some had no concept of personal space.
So finally, after our cabin numbers had been checked off and we had waited for all the stupid people (there were so many on this trip) to get up on deck, we were released for a few hours of leisure before docking in Mykonos.
It didn’t take me long to find the pool, which for the record looked nothing like an inviting crystal blue oasis but more a green, kinda dirty looking backyard swimming pool.
Sam bailed, slinking back to the cabin for a sleep. I opted to lay in the sun. And it was soooo windy. Up on the sun deck, it was blowing a gale you didn’t notice just a few steps below where the pool was, protected as it was by glass walls.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the cruise ship lost at least 50 pool towels each cruise from unwary passengers who didn’t hold on to them tightly enough while on deck. Even sitting upright on the sun lounge was a struggle. But it did make it much cooler that what it would otherwise have been. It was also one of those rare occasion where we had free time and weren’t stuck on a bus or ferry or in a room.
The hours whiled away and soon it was time to head back down to the lounge to meet with Dom to disembark for Mykonos.
The wind was so strong that where the ship normally docked was impossible which actually worked in our favour. Had we docked we would have had to catch a shuttle bus at a cost of eight euro to the town centre. As it was, the ship dropped anchor just outside the town port and tender boats pulled up alongside the ship picking up about 40-60 passengers at a time to drop them into the town. It was free and much more convenient.
And it was just as windy. Mykonos is apparently the most windy of all the Greek Islands and today it was proving that.
Unfortunately many of the girls in our group, including myself had been getting around in short dresses for days because it was so hot and today was no different. I’m sure plenty of tourists on the island that day have plenty of shots with my bum flashed for all to see.
But apart from the wind, which disappeared once you escaped into the maze of streets and whitewashed buildings, it was beautiful. It’s a town just like a postcard; all the buildings are white washed twice a year and the windows and doors all painted blue only the shade varying. The narrow streets made of stone were clean and all around were shops selling beautiful jewellery, restaurants with the freshest seafood and bars everywhere. Mykonos is renowned as a party island. Unfortunately our ship was leaving at 10.30 so there was no time to check out the nightlife.
We wandered the maze of streets with a few of our tour mates we had become good friends with and found the old windmills that were used to grind grain back in the day. We walked through what’s called Little Venice because of the buildings built right onto the sea walls. Then the hunt for fried calamari began.
All our meals throughout the three-day cruise are included in our package, if you eat on board. Mykonos would be our only port where our time spent on shore would coincide with the dinner hour on the ship. We could return if we wanted to but the lure and smell of fresh seafood was strong.
After comparing the prices at a dozen restaurants we ended up at the one our tour manager had recommended. It was reasonably priced, out of the wind and the food was good.
Everyone got their fried calamari, seafood risotto, grilled octopus or whatever else took their fancy. There was a slight incident when a gypsy girl (they are everywhere) tried to insist we buy her flowers. We have seen gypsies begging everywhere we have been, particularly in Florence, but also people selling flowers, usually at night in restaurants. They are however, usually men. But last night in Athens in the bar we were having our farewell drinks in, a girl who couldn’t have been more than five years old was walking around a dark bar trying to selling roses. It was probably well after midnight and no parents seemingly in sight.
It was the first time I had seen them use the children in this way and then it happened again as I said, in Mykonos at this restaurant.
She put the flowers on the table in front of Sam and we said no, as we always did. The little viper said “yes”. “No” we repeated. “Yes” she said, this time more aggressively. Each time I said no, the little brat yelled yes until what had been a cute little face was twisted into an ugly expression that certainly wasn’t going to win her any sales.
I ended up having to pick the flowers up off the table and throwing them down behind me, where no one was sitting.
And just like that, she picked them up and moved on to the next person at our table. However, she seemed to get the message more quickly this time and moved on to another group.
After dinner, Dom was meeting the group to take us to a bar she had persuaded to open early so we could experience something of Mykonos night life.
But I was buggered, and so was everyone else we had eaten with and we opted to return to the ship.
We had an early start in the morning as we would wake up in Turkey at the port of Kudasai. We were going to explore the ancient city of Ephesus that many have claimed is even better than Pompeii. We would see.
Alysia (August 27)
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