Last day in Greece

7/16/2009

At 10am I met up with Jon, Athena and Amanda, and we set off toward the metro.  I timed the walk to be 30 minutes, so we would know how long to leave ourselves to get back to the ship on time at the end of the day.  We each purchased a day pass, and hopped on the metro, intending to get off at whichever stop looked most interesting.  The first stop we chose was mainly residential, and did not offer us much in the ways of entertainment, or even food, so we decided to try again.  This time, the stop we got off at brought us directly to the library, a huge building with pillars all along the front and intricate paintings and carvings.  We decided this stop looked like a much more promising options, and started wondering around some.  We decided to look for somewhere to get food after a while, and ended up at a crepe shop.  They had the most amazing crepes ever!  I got one off the children’s menu, as it had the toppings I wanted most.   It was called snow white, and had strawberries, chocolate, white chocolate, and sprinkles.  The others got different ones ranging from the special, which had about 10 different toppings including ice cream, to just chocolate and whipped cream.  They were all phenomenal!
We ended up back at the tomb of the unknown soldier, where we stayed for a few minutes to watch the changing of the guards, and  then hopped back on the metro.  We indirectly ended up back in the flea market area, and spent a while wondering through the shops and spending the end of our euro, and then headed back toward the metro so we wouldn’t be late for shiptime.  The last day in each port, there is shiptime, which means you have to be back on the ship by a certain time, usually 6pm, and if you are late, it means that you have to wait a given number of hours after arriving at the next port before you can disembark the ship.  Not something I want to get!  Before getting back on the metro, I got a nectarine and some cherries, and I enjoyed them on the right back to Pireaus.  We made it back to the ship with time to spare, and cleaned up.  I had a relaxing dinner, did some sink laundry, made sure all of my homework for our one day of class was complete, and then did a photo exchange with my travel buddies.
The one day on ship between ports was a busy one.  After breakfast, I have a break long enough to check e-mail and get a little homework done before my first two classes of the day, which are back to back.  Then it is time for lunch, and a break in which I attempt to catch up on reading for my last class of the day.  After that class it is dinner time.  I had a family dinner with my extended family, and it was fun to hear what everyone did in Greece, and what their plans were for Turkey.  Family dinners also mean ice cream cake.  This time it was mint chocolate chip, the best flavor yet! After dinner, the inter-port student tells us some about the country, and then we have pre-port, which tells us the basics about what to expect, what to wear, and what to avoid in the upcoming country.