Monday, August 22

Antiquity, Haxan and dinner went a head

Hi there!

It's Monday night, and the ship finally has reliable internet again, so I'll catch you up.

After I blogged, I did in fact complete an intercontinental podcast. I then tried to post it, unsuccessfully, to my idisk. So you'll have to wait a while to listen to it. We headed back to the boat right after that.

The next day was spent at sea, as we travelled down the Italian coast, through the Straits of Messina, and on towards Mykonos. I spent the first half of the day eating, playing some minigolf in a gale force wind (this is something everyone should do!) and looking for a single quiet outdoor place to read my books. About 3pm I found it. We went to pick Max up that night from the kids program. He wasn't there, because he wet himself in all the excitement and had to be removed. This was his one chance, if it happens again he can't come back and we are kind of screwed for the rest of the trip for babysitting. (This is truly a one-off thing. He NEVER has accidents, so I'm not that worried.)

Then on Sunday we were in Mykonos. We took the excursion to Delos, to walk amongst the ruins. Delos is one of two examples of ancient greek culture unearthed intact, and we had an excellent guide. Pictures to come when we get back. Then it was back to Mykonos for what can only be described as one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Nikos Taverna served me a fish plate that tasted like the sea. 66% of my meal still had the head on it! A fresh whole fish (I don't know what kind) charcoal grilled in some olive oil, a GIGANTIC king prawn done the same way, and about a pound of the best calamari rings I have ever had. Plus of course fries and rice. And the best spanikopita I've ever had. And the best Saganaki I've ever had. And a fresh baked loaf of dark dark whole grain bread that I'd willingly kill a man for.

Opa!

Then we just had time to clown around with the very tame and people friendly pelicans (again, pix to follow) and then it was back to the boat. After a day walking around ruins in the hot sun, I happily collapsed into bed.

We were up again at 6:30 this morning, After a quick breakfast we headed into Kusadasi, Turkey for our second set of ruins and -

I have to pause here to just make an observation. I'm writing this at the terminals near the main lobby of the ship. They've switched the live music currently pounding in my brain from horrible lounge crap to even more horrible bouzouki crap. My question is this: are there any greek songs that don't start slowly and just build and build? because I've heard like 10 of these numbers now, and it's always the same bloody thing.

anyhoo, we took a bus to a guided tour of Ephesus, a completely preserved ancient roman city of about 250,000 people at its height. Although our guide was slightly less personable, the city itself was remarkably magnificent.

meanwhile Max and sone of the others went to the turkish railway museum, where Max practiced his photography. He's developed quite an eye, and some of his shots are better than mine or leah's.

Then we just hung out on the boat for the rest of the day, Leah and I got massages, and that brings us to now. We're in athens tomorrow at 7 am, so I've left another 6am wakeup call. I'm going to have lunch near the athens market, so I'll be back tomorrow night or the next with more gastronomic tales to tell.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Listed on BlogShares Site Meter