Thursday, August 25, 2011

Italy/Greece : Day 11 - At Sea -> Patras, Greece

We are on our way to Patras, Greece. On a ginormous overnight Ferry. Yesterday was uneventful. We found our cabins, even though the number scheme tried really hard to confuse us! You know Greeks are the fathers of science and math... I think they used some complicated Greek number scheme for the cabins. Here's our cabin. This is top of the line! LOL!

There are different classes of travel on the ferry... There were the cabins which we had. There were airplane seats. It was just a big room with rows and rows of airplane seats. People just slept in the seats. Then there was steerage. Look at the photo below of the deck:

Can you see the people with mats and tents setup on deck? They have a ticket to ride, and they sleep where ever they can find room. I wanted to take a photo inside, but it seemed rude... people were lying all over the floors in the halls and in the stair wells.

The first evening on the ferry, we explored (stepping over sleeping bodies). There was karaoke, casino, video room, a pool and Internet (but the wifi didn't work with the iPad).

We had a nice sit down dinner in the dining room: soup, fish, salad, some kind of meat kabob, chips (french fries) and melon for dessert. Yes, in that order...

We spent the rest of the evening playing cards with the kids in the lounge.

The next morning we passed the ferry heading in the other direction. So you can see what the ferry looks like:

Cheryl is still getting over her cold, so as she was taking a nap, Chris hung out with us. He would like recorded that he beat me at Egyptian Rat Slap, rummy, crazy-8's, two games of rat-a-tat-cat, and speed. I did manage to win one game of slap and one game of speed.

The boat stopped at Corfu. I can't even tell you how many times Fabrizio told everyone, "Do not get off at the first port!" Well, no one got off at the first port, and it was a long wait to get to the second port at Patras.

At the port we met our Greek bus and headed off to Olympia!

The Greek countryside looks a lot like it does at home (just a little more unkempt). Dry low growing brush, and even the same types of trees. The sidewalks are cracked with weeds growing through, the houses we passed were rundown and there was trash all over the sides of the road. I was expecting the worst, but our hotel in Olympia was gorgeous... just what I pictured Greece would look like; white balconies, angular with bright splashes of color!

We got in late and had a buffet dinner in the hotel dining room. Look at the size of this buffet. All traditional Greek food!

I loved the little signs with the name of each dish (in English and Greek). Can you see the dish on the right? That's Cheryl and my favorite... stuffed tomatoes!

I couldn't bring myself to pick off the pig.

Oh, look there's ice cream!... not as good as Italian gelato.

After dinner we went into town where Jim got me a lapiz ring for our anniversary.

Since we got in too late to see the Olympia ruins today, we are doing a double header tomorrow... Olympia and Delphi! Get your walking shoes on!

2 comments:

  1. I've heard that Italian icecream is the BEST!!! I can't believe the size of the ferry. That is just crazy!

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  2. Joni I hear there is a ferry like that that goes to Alaska..leaving from Seattle..
    All the food looks yummy (ok maybe not the poor piggy! HA!) Sounds like a FUN day!

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