Today’s port of call was Messina, on Sicily in Italy. We did get to see
a neat church and a large bell tower. The bell tower was really neat
because it showed the date, time, and the phase of the moon. But the
most interesting part of it was the bronze figures that moved. There
were some that were set up on circular platforms that went round and
round and there were some other figures as well. Unfortunately we were
not there for a big display, all that we got to see was one of the
figures move their arm. It was really cool. We then walked down a street
and ended up at this circular square. I know you are probably thinking
“what’s happened to Sumner, has he gone insane? There is no such thing
as a square that is a circle!?” yes that is true but it was an
intersection that was circular and there were buildings around it. All
the facades were curved to the shape of the square. One of the buildings
on this square was a shopping mall that had been deserted because of the
economic crisis. It seemed recently deserted too, there was a store
whose clock was still accurate and running, if that tells you anything
about the recentness if the closure you’re doing well. There was a lot
of graffiti everywhere but before the crisis I could see it as a nice
shopping mall. Well that was about all, we went back to the boat and
started to pack :( At dinner we had to say goodbye to Mrs. Anne and Mr.
Peter. Let me back up just a bit, I told you before that we have a table
that is ours for the whole cruise, well this table is right next to the
window above the port (left) motor. It is oriented so that the chairs
are perpendicular to the end of the boat. There is another table for two
that is only about two feet from the end of our table on the inside (if
they were on the other side, they would be in the ocean). At this table
Mrs. Anne and Mr. Peter sat on the first or second night of the second
part if the cruise and they liked us so much that they too asked to have
that table for the whole cruise. We became friends with them and we were
sad to say goodbye. They even tried some of the tricks that Jeff gave us
which I will show you if you want when we get home. We also thanked Jeff
because he was so nice to us all and knew what we wanted for drinks and
such. Well, we have to have our bags outside the door by midnight so I
should probably get busy.
Today started off with breakfast and after we had consumed our food we
headed out of the ship and hopped on the shuttle to the terminal. There
we met our guide and walked to their car. We then rode to the acropolis
and parked at a parking lot that was kinda like a valet parking area.
She gave the keys to the guy and then we headed off up the acropolis
museum so that we could hopefully avoid some of the crowds by doing is
before going to the acropolis. Inside we were able to see the many
statues that were found in the acropolis area. On the acropolis is a
temple to Athena. This temple has some statues with the form of a lady
that are used to make the pillars for the temple facade. On one side of
the facade he statues have their left leg forward and on the other side
they have he right leg forward. Now on the boat there is a hallway that
has a little concave opening with statues that are much like he ones on
the temple on the acropolis. While at one of the port talks the speaker
pointed out that there was one thing wrong with the statues on the boat,
this was that the legs on the statues were not different, they were the
same. Later that day we were walking past them and saw that they didn’t
even have either leg forward at all. There were also many other statues
in the museum including the statue of a boy that, for art historians,
marked the begging of truly realistic statues. The third floor of this
museum had the same dimensions as the Parthenon and faced in the same
way. What I mean by this is that on the east side of the inside of the
museum had the same dimensions as the actual Parthenon and faced in the
exact same direction. Now that in and of itself was interesting but the
most interesting part was that the facades were removed from the
Parthenon and moved to the museum. There they are displayed on the third
floor of the building and in the same place that they were originally on
the Parthenon. The front and rear facades of the building that were on
the triangle thing above all of the pillars were displayed to the
greatest extent possible. In some places however, because the pieces
were totally destroyed, there is nothing on display. Around the whole
building was a relief of a scene where people were taking offerings up
to the gods. It started in one corner and went in both directions
meeting on the opposite side where the gods were receiving the gifts. We
then watched a movie about the acropolis we went out on a deck that was
in the third floor and had a great view of the acropolis and then
proceeded onward to he acropolis. It was a fair trek up to the top of
the hill but not too bad. Once there our guide went to get our tickets
and then we entered the acropolis area. From the beginning it was very
neat, almost overwhelming. At the entrance there was an arch and after
going thought the arch on the right side was a wall maybe ten or so
metres high (about 11 yards). This wall was like a retaining wall around
the acropolis. On the ground that the wall is hiding in is a small
temple. It is unique because it is the only temple on the acropolis that
has columns on only the front and back, not on the sides as well. Back
to the entrance in general; although it is in ruins now in its prime it
must have been extremely spectacular. Even now it’s scale is immense.
After going through the columns we got our first view of the Parthenon.
I was expecting it to be in a very ruinous state but I was pleasantly
surprised to find that it wasn’t that bad considering that it is almost
two thousand five hundred years old. They have done a good job restoring
it and it is now to he point where you can get a good idea of what the
Parthenon looked like. Of course all that you can see are the columns on
the outside as well as some of the inside wall that held the statue of
Athena. Four of the columns are not completely restored but all of the
others are. In most places also the blocks of stone over the columns are
in place as well. He friezes on the triangular part of the front of the
building are gone. They were taken from Athens to Britain by the Earl of
Elgin (he is not popular among the Greeks). Only a few parts remained in
Athens and are displayed in the acropolis museum. On the left of the
Parthenon about fifty to seventy five metres is the Old Temple of
Athena. This temple is the one with the ladies that are columns. From
the acropolis we were also able to have a great view of the city of
Athens. It is a city that is very flat without many big, tall buildings.
From this point also we could see the ocean, this is rare because of the
pollution cloud normally hovers above the city of Athens and blocks the
view of the sea. We then walked back to our car and got the key back
from the buy who had parked the car. Now the key was broken to begin
with, it was broken when she had tried to get a copy of the key at a
shop, she had the copy though. When she tried to put the broken one it
it wouldn’t turn. This is because the plastic part of the key was
separated from the metal part so she couldn’t get any leverage. She
honked for he guy and there was a long discussion, then hey tried the
other key. It didn’t work because it had not been made exactly correctly
or something because the car I think could tell that it wasn’t made by
the car company and it had been copied. It then made it so that the car
couldn’t start. We stood around for a while and then she told us that we
would change our plans a little and let the men around the car fix it
while we went to eat. We went to a nice restaurant and had some good
food though it was really expensive. When we got back to the car and
found that it wasn’t fixed she tried frantically to find another car.
Eventually we left the car and went and got on a bus that she had gotten
for us to ride around in. Now, this bus was one of those fifty person
tour busses that we had to go on for a few of our excursions and it was
kinda amusing because we had it all to ourselves. Four people in this
enormous bus. We kept on joking that we might be in someones way. Of
course by this time it was an hour before we wanted to be back at the
boat so we didn’t get much more touring. We did take a peek at the
original modern Olympics stadium, he one that was used when Greece held
the first modern Olympic games. Then we went back to the boat and, since
I had nothing to do after dinner I caught up on my blog.
Today’s port of call was kusadasi (koo suh dah see), which is the port
where cruise ships dock to get to Ephesus, Turkey (ehf-uh-sis need I
tell you how to pronounce the second word?) Anyway we had to get up
early to go off the ship, six o’clock or so. When we had eaten some
breakfast we proceeded down to the pier and met our guide. We walked
through this little “village” that was covered. It was more of a tourist
trap than anything else. It was made to have a village type feeling but
it was all tourist shops. Our guide said that the shops there were only
opened for the high tourist season and then in the winter the were
closed, during those times it is like a ghost town. After walking
through there we went on to the car and made our way to Ephesus. We
decided to try our best to avoid the crowds by going to a temple turned
into church. It was originally a temple to the gods and then it was
taken over by the Christians and turned into a church. It was so cool to
see. In places they had recycled the stone. One such place was in a wall
where they had taken a broken capital from a pilar and inserted it into
the new wall. The area of this temple is a big religious are because
from one point you can see a pagan temple, a church, a mosque, and if
you go over a hill there is a synagogue. They haven’t found the
synagogue but it is written about in the Bible. The nice thing about
this temple was that we didn’t have to deal with anyone else in the
ruins because all of the tour busses were elsewhere. After walking
around the ruins for a little while we went to a mosque and looked
around. And then we got back into the car and went to the main ruins of
Ephesus. It was really crowded but it was really cool to see the very
places where Paul the Apostle went and preached. We saw two theaters, a
library, toilets as well as many other ruins. There I will only tell you
about the theaters, the library and, the toilets. Both of the theaters
were built into the side of a hill and were pretty big. One was only for
plays and the other was mainly for gladiatorial fights. The bigger one
was the one in which they had the fights and the smaller was for plays.
Both had the half circle shape. We also saw the facade of the library.
It has had to be restored but it still looks really grand. We got some
pictures by it but unfortunately I think we got more of a picture of the
other tourists than the building it was just so crowded :). We also
watched some sort of a gladiatorial reenactment on the road that leaded
to the sea from the theater. The ancient Ephesus that we were able to
see used to be the port, but he river silted up so much that it is now
six miles from the sea. It was actually not he first port of Ephesus
because it used to be even further inland until they moved it to the
place that we went to. After seeing the ruined city we went up a hill to
a place where the Catholics believe the Virgin Mary lived for the last
years of her life. It was more like a shrine to Mary than anything. We
were respectful as we walked through but it really didn’t have any
significance to us. There was also this water that was declared holy or
something by some pope sometime. We had some and it was supposed to have
healing properties. It didn’t do anything but quench my thirst. Then we
went to a pottery selling place. They showed us the process that they
use to make the pottery and then the guy who showed us opened a door to
show us some of their works (aka buy some of these things). We bought
some small things and then went back to the van. We also went to this
carpet weaving place and were shown how the Turkish carpets are made. He
showed us the cocoons and how they were woven into stings. He also
showed us some of the weaving techniques that they use to weave the
cloth. He then said, after explaining the whole process that he would
show us some of the carpets that they make but mom politely said that we
just came to see how it was made and not to buy carpets. Now we were
expecting it to be any uphill battle to get him to leave us alone but we
were pleasantly surprised that he kindly said thank you for coming and
let us leave. That was really nice for mom. Anyway we made it back to
the boat and I tried to catch up on my blog. I’ve had a lot more time to
blog because I don’t have anyone to hand out with at night so that is I
guess good considering we have so many sea days.
Today started out pretty early because we sailed into the caldera of the
Santorini volcano this morning. We were allowed on the bow to see the
arrival into the area. Because Santorini doesn’t have any port remotely
big enough to take a cruise ship we had to anchor out in the middle of
the caldera (cah-ul-dare-uh) and ride the tenders into the port. Mom
didn’t like the ride in the tender but it wasn’t too long. We met our
guide right as we got off the tender and went together to the cable car.
It is much like the ski gondolas a home, just not so sophisticated. It
was six of them grouped closely together on either end (top or bottom)
one goes on the right side and the other on the left and they alternate
places. If that confused you that’s ok because I’ve confused myself
trying to describe it for you. Anyway once at the top we walked maybe
fifty metres or so, if that and then waited as our guide went for her
car. We went first to the village where all of the pictures of Santorini
are taken. This village is very pretty and has the best views of
anywhere on the island. All of the roofs are blue and the rest all of
the buildings are white. These homes used to be the homes of the poor
while the rich lived on the top of the hill. They are now the most
expensive hotels on Santorini. The reason that these homes started out
as homes for the poor is because they were caves to begin with and then
expanded out on the side of the cliff. It was so serene. We walked all
the way to the end and then went to small castle that is now a tourist
lookout where you could see almost the entire caldera (the fog obscured
some of it), the cruise ship, the old port as well as many other things.
While you admire the view I will pause a moment to tell you some about
the history and shape of Santorini. A long time ago, as in like three
thousand years, Santorini was a large circular volcanic island. Then it
blew up so that it went from being a large mountain to three islands in
a few seconds. It blew volcanic material up something like twenty six
kilometers or something (16 miles). Regardless it was in the twenties of
kilometers which is really high. Santorini is the biggest of the islands
and is shaped like the letter C. There is another island in between the
ends of the c and one in the center that has come up recently… Only in
the last thousand years or so. This middle island is the new vent for
the volcanic activity. Kinda like Mt. Saint Hellens has a new small pile
of material in the center of the crater Santorini has a new one in he
middle of the caldera. Aft driving around seeing all of the other main
sites we stopped at a place called Akrotiri (ak-row-tear-ee). Akrotiri
is considered the best preserved prehistoric city in the world. It dates
back to two thousand BC and some parts are believed to be from three
thousand BC. That’s four to five thousand years old!!! It was kinda
funny because some of the people from our boat, Mrs. Irene and Mr.
NAME, and another couple who they had met who were also from Denver
(Mrs. Irene and Mr. NAME are from Denver) joined our tour for
Akrotiri. Of course they tipped nicely and it wasn’t much trouble for
Georgia (that was the name of our guide) so we let them come along.
Throughout the whole tour we at times had people try to tag along with
us because they wanted to hear what Georgia was saying. It must mean
that she is a good guide. The city that was uncovered by the
archeologists is pretty large. It was probably about one hundred metres
by ninety metres (110 yards by 100yards). And all of it was very well
preserved considering that it is at least four thousand years old. The
walls were intact and still standing, of course they were not complete
but you could tell that they were once walls. There was a sewage system
and the homes had running water and toilets. Very advanced for the time.
We were able to see tubs as well as pots in which they stored goods. All
of which were extremely well preserved surprisingly. I can’t describe
everything that we saw but I will tell you that it was very neat to see
such well preserved homes from so long ago. The last thing that we did
is go to the black sand beach. This beach has black sand made from the
volcanic material. It was like nothing that I have ever seen. Even
though it wasn’t very hot today, the sand was *very *hot. I can’t
imagine what it would be like if it were something like a hundred
degrees Fahrenheit (about 37 degrees centigrade). That was about all
that we did today but I will tell you about one of the tricks that Jeff,
our waiter at dinner gave us. Ok let me back up just a bit and fill you
in. We have open seating at dinner, but we like our table a lot and I
think that they like us so they let us reserve the table for the whole
cruise. Anyway the waiter for the table that we have is Jeff and his
assistant is Weda (mom thinks that there is an e at the end instead of
an a; I disagree). We have become friends with them and every night Jeff
has show us a trick or little puzzle. Today he had a puzzle involving
two glasses and a blueberry. One glass was smaller than the other, this
one was set upright. The other one was put upside down and the blueberry
was put under it inside the cup. Now this wine glass that was upside
down was oddly shaped. The opening was smaller than the rest of the
glass. The goal of the puzzle was to get the blueberry from under the
big glass to the little glass. You could only touch the big glass and it
also had to stay upside down. It took me about two seconds to figure it
out. All you do is ***** *** ***** ****** ***
*** ************ ***** ** **** ** ** **
*** ****** ** *** ***** **** **** **
**** *** ******* ***** *** *** ***
********* ****. I blotted that out so that you can figure
it out yourselves if you want. I’ll show you once we get home. That was
basically the day so I will leave you to wonder what the answer to the
puzzle is. ~Sumner
Today was an early day because we had to get up early because we were to
meet in the Vista Lounge at seven fifteen for our shore excursion. This
is because we did a shore excursion that the ship offers where we go to
Olympia and to a museum. We were on Holland America Line tour six. (as
if you really needed to know that) and when we got to the bus we saw one
of the leaders for Club HAL, Kate. She was going on the tour also. They
have to pay to go but it is greatly discounted. The catch is that you
kinda have to help to keep track of everyone in the tour. We had an
excellent guide for the tour, her name is Olga. She really knew her
stuff and gave a great commentary all of the ride from the port town to
Olympia. She had written a book about Olympia and was in the process of
getting it published. We were kinda worried because a lot of people had
said That Olympia is just a pile of rocks on the ground, it might have
been if you didn’t have a guide to take you around and explain what you
were seeing but with the guide it was very interesting. He place must
have been magnificent in its prime. A true sports complex. We saw a
training arena where the athletes were instructed by their coaches. Of
course only the foundation and a few columns are left but it was neat to
stand on the very spot where athletes were once trained. We then went to
a place where the wrestling competition was held. One interesting thing
about this building was the flor. It was made of tiles with little
channels going longways down the tile in it there was sand which was the
indication of how many matches you had lost. He more sand you had on
you, the worse you were doing. We then headed on through a hall which
had on both sides, columns lining the way. Of course only the ruins of
the columns are left but as with all of the buildings of Olympia, they
must have been spectacular when they were new. We then passed a memorial
that Philip the Great built in the middle of Olympia. When it was built
it showed not only political power but also displayed religious power.
This is because Olympia was a religious center as well as physical and
the Olympics were spiritual as well as physical displays of power. Near
this was a fountain this fountain held many different statues that had
been removed to a museum for protection. We then went through an arch
into the race track. As I was walking through the arch I realized that
there is truly not anything new under the sun. It was just like our
modern tunnels that the athletes come out of before a game. I am sure
that it was much the same then as well. Once out of the archway we were
in the running track. There were sixteen or eighteen blocks on the
ground probably a yard and a half in width (1.3 or so metres probably).
These were the starting blocks for the runners. The way that they made
it fair and made sure that no one gets a head start they had a pulley
system in which a wooden board was held above the ground so that the
runner couldn’t get out. The ropes that held the board were held by
someone else behind them and when the signal was given the ropes were
dropped and the runners went off. As the boards hit the stone they made
a large racket, much like the modern pistol shot. Hannah and I lined up
and then had a race, not all of the way but some of the way down the
track. I won. We then got back on the bus and went to the museum. We
stopped at a shop for a few minutes and had a sandwich and then
proceeded to he exhibits of the theater. We went first to a room that
had the pre-Olympian artifacts. Statues, clay figures etc. We then kept
on going and getting more advanced in time and ended at a place with a
large statue of the god Nike. Nike was the god of victory. Here also
were two helmets, one of the Persian army and the other of the Greek.
This was because in the first Punic war during the Battle of Marathon,
The Greeks routed the Persians as they were trying to get organized
after they landed. We then went to the second best exhibit; the removed
statues from the fountain. I won’t bother describing them all to you
because one you’ve looked at them for about ten seconds at the most you
are done. More interesting however was the last and best exhibit; the
facades from the temple of Zeus, the head of the family of the gods.
Before we saw this exhibit we looked at a model of the building that
they statue of Zeus was held in. The statue of Zeus must have been
almost overwhelming because it looked like if he stood up he would bust
the roof. We were able to see the two facades of the building. One side
had a battle of men versus centaurs, half man half horse. This was
symbolic of the battle between men and barbarians. The centaurs because
they were thought to be half beast are represented by the centaurs. The
other facade is of the birth of Athena. The myth is that Zeus had a
headache and so his son took a two sided axe and opened up his fathers
head and out of it came Athena, in full armor and fully grown. She is
the god of war, wisdom, and love (I think). After that we went back to
the bus. The ride back consisted of black, yes I slept all the way.
Tonight was formal night and during dinner Jeff showed us a trick with
corks. They are so hard to explain in writing that I won’t even bother,
you can ask me when I get home to show them to you.
Today we stopped at a Grecian island called Corfu. It is in the middle
of the Aegean sea, as most Greek islands are. The first thing that we
did is get off the ship. Profound statement, eh. You know I think that
I’ve been around Canadians to much… Anywaay we had to tender from the
boat to the dock. I was perfectly fine all the way but mom didn’t fare
so well, she was very glad when the ride was over. Anyway we got out and
our taxi guide was right there at the dock. His name is Spiero (I
think). The first thing that we did is drive thought the town of Corfu
and then drive up through a mountain village and to a great lookout
point. Over this point you could see a large part of the island
including Corfu town and the first mountain town that we went through.
As well we could see our ship and a few islands off the coast. We then
made our way thought the mountains seeing all sorts of nice villages. In
one there was a church that was about three metres across at the front
(a little more than 3 yards) and maybe ten metres deep (we kept on going
and on the way Oma took a lot of pictures of the olive trees. You could
tell which ones were and weren’t taken care of. The ones that were small
and pruned were the ones at we taken care of. They pruned them because
they produce bigger olives that way. The ones that were large and looked
almost like a wad of vines were not taken care of and had small olives.
It was kinda funny because the ones that weren’t pruned back and that
hung over the street would drop heir olives and when the cars went over
them it would make the roads very slippery. At home we have snow and ice
to make roads slippery but there in Corfu they have olive oil to make
their roads slippery. We hen arrived at another lookout from which you
could see a beach. There weren’t any people on the beach. It was a great
day for sightseeing because there was some cloud cover and it was just
right as far as temperature. We drove through a few other villages one
of which we got out of the car and walked around in. The streets in this
town literally just footpaths. We wandered around for a little while and
even had a conversation with an old woman. It was all Greek to us, all
English to her. We did have one word in common, salad. Anyway we went in
our way and as we drove a few time Oma got out and made some pictures of
the olive trees. She made at least forty probably. Anyway we came
eventually back down the mountains after going through some other
villages and made our way way to the
Today we came into the port of Dubrovnik at around six or seven o’clock.
We literally went right next to the shore, not more than one or two
hundred yards away, we were able to see the houses and all which was
really pretty. They were all close together and so quaint. We saw all of
this from our table at breakfast and after we had eaten we got of the
boat to meet our guide. Her name was Tanya. The first thing that we did
is go up to a lookout point where we could see all of Dubrovnik. On the
way to he top of this hill we went up a one way road that was used as a
two way road. It felt like we were back in Vietnam driving to Ba Be
Lake. At least our driver didn’t play chicken on the road, they would
pull over and let the other pass instead of just going for it. Anyway
from the lookout point we could see, on the water side, four islands,
three of which were inhabited, as well as the old town and most of the
rest of Dubrovnik including a Costa ship, it wasn’t crashed, listing on
its side. On the other side of the hill was a stretch of about a mile
(that is close to two kilometers and because I am just guessing you can
use that if you like the metric system. I will try to remember to also
use the metric system in my writing because I realize that this is
definitely an international audience that is reading this blog. Just a
side note; this trip has really made me respect the metric system a lot,
it makes so much more since than our “standard” system) wide walking but
maybe half a mile (close to a kilometer) as the crow flies. And then
Bosnia & Herzegovina started. If you looked down the coast about ten
miles (16 kilometers) you come to Montenegro. I know the ten miles stuff
because I had read somewhere that Bosnia & Herzegovina has ten miles of
coast because of some treaty that said that they had to have that much
land on the coast. During the war between Croatia and Bosnia &
Herzegovina (I’m going to call it B&H from now on because it is much
easier to type) B&H shot missiles from where I told you that B&H started
into Dubrovnik. This war occurred in the nineties, a few years before I
was born so not in the very distant past. You could tell which of the
houses in the town were hit because of the roofs, if they were hit they
had very bright new reddish tiles but if they were old the roofs they
where brown. Most of the houses were hit by either a direct missile shot
or by shrapnel form the missiles. We then made our way down to the old
town. On the way we had to stop because someone was pulling out of their
parking spot. We backed up just a little to let them out but there was
another car behind us that came from behind and hit us!!! No damage was
done except in think that mom almost had a hart attack. The drivers got
out of the car and started yelling. Obviously they agreed to go down and
stop in front of the old town. When we got there the other guy came out
and started yelling. I was glad that I don’t know Croatian because it
didn’t look pretty our guide was not pleased that he did it in front of
guests (us). Anyway we let our driver, the other driver and the police
man sort it out. The entire old town was surrounded by a wall that was,
I think she said a hundred or more feet (30 metres) tall and, at points,
sixteen feet (5 metres) wide. These walls withstood the missiles of the
B&H army in the war, it just scratched the walls but it was so well made
that it was fine. We walked first across a bridge and a small draw
bridge into the town. We walked down the streets and it, except for all
of the tourists was very nice we really enjoyed it. There were some nice
little churches and shops. They were shops on the bottom but the tops
were residences. We came to the main square and then went into the
church there. It was baroque in style and it had a modern front altar
because it had to be repaired because of an earthquake I think. In the
middle of the square was a statue of someone, I think a prince that
defended the city from someone sometime but don’t take my word for that.
We then walked down the main road. There were all sorts of small alleys
in all directions that were so nice and of which we took many photos we
then turned and went through another square. In this square the was a
market and we stopped and bought a bag of sweets, nuts, dates, and
orange peels covered with sugar. Then we turned to a street leading back
in the direction that we had come. On this street we stopped and Tanya
went into the shop and came out with a traditional sweet. It wasn’t very
sweet, typical of most of the world except us Americans. It was kinda
like not sweet donut holes. At the end of this street was the old port.
This port is now used for private boats as well as for cruise ships that
tender from the ship to he dock. We walked around for a few minutes and
then we went back to the van to go to one of Tanya’s mom’s friend’s
house. One of the options for the tour was to go eat with a local family
and so we took up the offer. The family was so nice, there were three
generations there, the girl could speak excellent English, her mom could
speak pretty well but the dad couldn’t. The grandparents couldn’t speak
much at all but we had our guide to translate. The funny thing was that
they grandpa spoke German and so he and mono communicated in that
language because mom lived in Germany for four years and she knows
German. The appetizer consisted of smoked ham and a cheese that tasted
like Parmesan but a little stronger. Then we had a homemade noodle soup,
the noodles were handmade and they grew the carrots as well. It was very
good I had an entire big bowl of it. Then came the main dish. It was
really interesting how they prepared it. They used a traditional method
of cooking food in which they had a huge cooking instrument that was
about two and a half feet wide (70 cm probably; just an estimate on
that) and four inches high (10 cm). This vessel was flat on the bottom
and in it they put lamb, veal and potatoes then they put this in the
area of the fire but not on the actual fire. Then they used this bell
shaped thing to cover it and they put coals on top of the bell as well
as round it to cook the food. After two or more hours it was ready to
eat. It was really good expert it was just too much. For desert we had
this thing that was like crém burle and another desert that was [FIGURE
OUT]. Then we talked about their lives, what they did for a living
besides rent parts of their house and do what they were doing for us
today, where they went to school. We told them about ourselves. There
was an instrument on the wall and we inquired about it they turned on a
traditional song and it used that instrument in it. As we were listening
to it all of a sudden the grandma and the dad were up dancing! Mom
described it as looking like a traditional Greek dance. After having the
windfall meal we made our way back to the ship. Today there was a church
service and so went to that before our dinner. Before that though I
played a few games of ping-pong with Angus. I actually beat him once (he
beat me three times though). In between he service and dinner I talked
to Noah and Elijah’s mom about what we had done for the day and then
watched put the window as we left the port. After that nothing much of
interest happened, the boys were just going to dinner as we were coming
out so I have just been trying to write this blog post. I am glad that I
have some time in which to do this through because Dubrovnik is such a
neat city.
Today was my first sea day that I didn’t have Colton to hang out with.
Luckily however I found some other boys that are nice. It just wasn’t
the same t I still had fun. The first thing that I did was go to the
meet and greet hosted by the cruise critic people. At the beginning one
of the crew members spoke and hen people got up and started to make
announcements. Mrs. Irene asked me if I wanted to make an announcement,
meaning of course about having an iPad class. I made an impromptu
announcement. And I sat back down with an iPad class at three. Then I
went to find someone to play with. I found Noah, Elijah, Logan, and
Hannah in the Lido Dining Room. We decided to go play chess on this big
board with huge pieces we played Noah, Elijah, and me against Logan. We
got into a stalemate. Then we played another game “Go-For-It” style. We
kept on attacking with our king and we were doing pretty well until we
realized that the king was kind in danger without anywhere to go for
protection. We lost that game. At that point I had to go and do my iPad
class. A lady came to me and said “So what are you going to teach me?”
she got out her tablet/computer (she had an Android tablet with a
keyboard attached. I had never seen one but like I told Mrs. Irene later
I think I looked intelligent enough, anything that I did was more than
she knew. That took up the first part of the class and then I helped out
Mrs. Irene a little bit. She has three different accounts, and it’s a
mess figuring out what has what and which one has anything etc. with no
Internet connection. I found the boys again in the Lido Restaurant and
we decided to go swimming. Only Elijah Logan and I got in. Then they had
to leave and I played a game or two of ping-pong with a boy named Angus.
He’s an Australian and he’s good at ping-pong he won. Twice. Anyway then
I went back to my room to get ready for formal night. After dinner I saw
the boys going to dinner but on the way we stopped to listen to a string
quartet. They’re from Russia and played some songs that I think Hannah
has played before. Anyway, after that I went to the Loft to see if
anyone would come. No one came but I played games with the leader until
bedtime.
So today we were docked at a port which I won’t tell you the name of
because I can’t even spell it let alone say, or pronounce it. I will
tell you however that it is close to Rome so I will just call this port
Rome for simplicity sake. In this port one cruise starts and another
starts, like I told you about in the last post. Therefore we had to get
up early to get packed up to move cabins (if you recall, we are
upgrading to a room with a balcony/verandah). I wnet looking for colton
to say goodby to them, I couldn’t find them for a while but then I found
them and was able to say goodbye. It has been nice for the past few
weeks to have someone to hand out with on the ship and so I was pretty
sad to see them go. Luckily I have their email so we can stay in touch.
It will be hard to find someone to take their place as boat-friends but
it doesn’t matter so much for this part because there are a lot of ports
and not so much time on the ship. Then we had to wait a while they got
our room ready. After our room was ready and they had already moved our
luggage in we came in and out our stuff down. Next we went up to the
Lido Deck for lunch. As we were eating we looked out the window and
watched all of the people come in. At one point a family with two boys,
Noah and Elijah, we assume that they were Christians because before
they ate they prayed, I never got to really ask them. Anyway, Noah is
fifteen and Elijah is thirteen. Another family also came in with kids,
one is named Hannah (I don’t know if she spells it with an “h” at the
end or not). She is eleven. Her brother name is Logan. He is fourteen
and looks about sixteen or seventeen or so. The girl as well looks older
than she really is, she looks to be about fourteen or so but as I said
she is only eleven. After lunch mom and I went to go see a talk about
some of the ports that we are going to in the Vista Lounge. It was by
the official travel guide along with another lady and all that they did
is advertise the ships shore excursions. We were a little surprised
because the other talks that he had done were actually interesting, not
just “Oo ah, buy our shore excursions, yay”. Anyway at right I went up
to The Loft to see if any others would come. It was just me and her
leader for most of the time, one girl, from the Philippines came for
half an hour, maybe fourty-five minutes, somewhere around that. We just
played some games and then when Hannah was done with her stuff we went
back to the room and got ready for bed.
