Day 5 Cruise Gwen

We got up for breakfast and then made our way down to the gangway. We were surrounded by taxi drivers that wanted to take us around Athens. We were quoted two different prices till we finally settled on the driver that said he would give us the lowest. We saw a lot: Parthenon, Theater of Dionysus, Roman Agora, Greek Agora, the new Olympic Stadiums (for 2004) and old Olympic Stadium, the Changing of the Guard at the President’s Palace, and at Parliament building. The driver was friendly, chain smoker, and he would gladly take pictures of us in front of places. He made some sexual remark to Beth while we were buying postcards, asking if she liked the picture of the statue with the large ... well you know where I’m going with this. We found out that everything closed at 3 pm due to a strike...so the driver still took us to places but we took pictures from the outside.
The streets were very narrow and we passed by people and buildings with barely inches to spare. Our driver got in two arguments with other truck drivers that were trying to block the streets. We met nose to nose with a delivery truck. We had just come up a hill where the taxi struggled up on a very narrow road and then the delivery truck appeared driving in the opposite direction. Our driver and the truck driver got out and yelled several things in Greek that Beth and I didn’t understand but were concerned. Then the delivery truck backed up enough to let us pull into this small parking lot and then we backed up and continued up the narrow streets. We were taken down to the pier, Beth and I knowing that if our restaurant faced the water, it was going to cost us. We were definitely not wrong in our assumption. The owner or server that “helped” us was very interested in Beth. That’s all I’m going to say about it. We were given Ouzo to drink on the house and I really wanted to toss it out to the stray cats outside the window. “It’s a Greek drink! Everyone loves Ouzo!” said our driver. Except, it tastes like licorice which happens to be the WORST flavor ever according to Beth and I. Once the driver realized we were not enjoying the very tall alcoholic drink that was provided...he bought us two very large full glasses of wine. We sat there in awkward company as the driver attempted to talk to us about “Where are your parents?” “Your boyfriend isn’t paying everything for you?” “You live on your own?!” Apparently its scandalous for a female to live outside of her parents home before she is married and providing for herself. Afterward, we paid the driver but not without a little hiccup, where he wanted to take Beth for a drink before the boat left. I insisted she was mine and we walked arm in arm back to the boat.
Once on the boat we got in the hot tub, drank our alcohol, showered, went to a magic show, and then up to the club for 70s night. Pretty much we represented for the ladies. We might have been a bit tipsy. That also might be putting it lightly. We had a great time dancing around, making a fool out of ourselves with the Cruise Director and his staff (Hencel, Hazel, Kenitus, and Jason). They were all decked out for the 70s. There are plenty of pictures and video. Once about 2 am rolled around, we stumbled back to our room and crashed.