Split, Croatia - July 16, 2009

Split, Croatia July 16, 2009

Came to Split on a tender, as the ship could not dock because of passenger ferries and private boats, too numerous due to tourist season and them having priority. The tender boats, pick us up and transport us along with some dolphin-suited Phillipinos to the old city and Diocletian's palace. There a very sweet, pretty tour guide shows us the palace, still inhabited.

We enter from the palace's southern entrance which faces the ocean. Diocletian built it as a retirement place after being expelled from the "Rule of Four" by his sons in law. He lived there for 11 years. He had an affinity for the location having been born not far away. The lower level "basement" was used for storing food supplies. The city was partitioned along the Roman plan into four quadrants, bisected by two main streets. The Baptistery of St. John is built on what was then Jupiter's temple.

Croatia is on the kouna currency, not yet part of the EU. It is the birthplace of the krovat, or what would evolve to become the modern men's tie. According to legend, the krovat was tied around soldiers' necks. This is now exploited by a host of tie shops, where I bought one with Dalmatian's on it, for double-reference. Inside the store, there is a flower pattern marking the intersection of the two ancient thoroughfares.

While in the old town, we visit the Jewish quarter and knock on the synagogue's door but there's no answer. We proceed to one of the restaurants, where the waiter demonstrates the catch of the day. I overpower a platter of two bronzini, mussels, and shrimp really meant for two people. We walk through the town's market, offering everything from meat to produce and I buy the best apple strudel I've ever had. We stop by the Internet cafe, charging twenty kouna for an hour of access, about a tenth of what our ship charges.

The smell of lavender is everywhere, with the stall keepers screaming "Lavanda ! Lavanda !" Shayna buys some satchels of lavender, and some of Croatia's famous cherry brandy.

Day at Sea July 15, 2009

Too much rest time -- tired really equals relaxed here. It makes more sense to be relaxed from doing nothing than tired, although Shayna thinks differently today.

I finished reading "Survival of the Sickest", by Dr. Sharon Moalem - fascinating read about how many illnesses conferred survival advantages, an incidental find in the Ship's library.

Reception with the Captain for formal night, our first towel animal greets us when we return, and 70s dance night in the elevator !

Mykonos - July 14, 2009

Mykonos July 14, 2009

Mykonos, one of the Cyclades islands, is unreal in its beauty, one of those places Americans can only compare to movie-sets in its perfection. The ship is not docked off shore, as we are originally told, so we simply walk off on a plank and take the shuttle to town, a trip of about 10 minutes.

The town itself is a veritable tourist trap, filled to the brim with tchatchkes. The houses are beautiful white and blue, like the sky and clouds above them, with shops on the first floors, except in residential areas, and streets designed to confuse pirates.

We walk through the small beach off the downtown area, and dip our toes in the Mediterranean for the first time. We want to go to Delos, the tiny island 40 minutes southwest, where extensive Greco-Roman ruins have been excavated. This is where Leto, pregnant by Zeus, gave birth to Artemis and Apollo. Unfortunately, the last ferry leaves by 11 and we miss it by 15 minutes and returns by 2:30 to allow archaeologists to do their work in the afternoon. No one on the ship told us this and we are disappointed.

We continue north through Little Venice, a neighborhood of restaurants right on the rocks continuously washed over by the tide. We walk past the Paraportiani (Our Lady of the Postern Gate), probably Greece's most photographed Church.

About 30 minutes outside of town, we see a small beach, tendered by a peripatetic beach comber and a taverna. We have lunch inside Niko's Taverna, consisting of a platter of appetizers (roasted pepper, stuffed grape leaves, lamb ball, hummus and just mayo by itself) and a beer.

We have earned the right to lounge on the beach recliners. The water is cold and the bottom is rocky and drops off in points unexpectedly, but once you get used to it, the water seems warmer than the air and it is nearly impossible to get out.

We meander back to town, and pass the bus station. Not sure if we should go to Paradise, the famous, half-straight-nude beach. We decide against it and head back to town, purchasing a few souvenirs. Shayna buys some olive-oil soap she discovered in Athens. We take the bus back.

Once back on the boat, I take a nap and Shayna gets a Ladies' night special at the Spa (massage, mini-facial & foot rub.)

Athens July 13, 2009

Pereus (Athens) July 13, 2009

Woke up and off to brunch. Quiche too salty but we pass the time nicely with a well travelled couple from South Africa and Roddy from England. Disembarked from the ship at the Port of Piraeus and took the tour bus to Athens. Athens apparently has 3 natural ports.

Vicky (real name unpronounceable, like the tetragrammaton), our tour guide, was acceptable. She gave us all the "whisper system" connecting us with headphones and wireless headsets to her microphone. So when I went to talk to her about my wife being in the bathroom, delaying us from heading up to the Parthenon, Shayna heard it transmitted to her stall.

The Greeks still use the phrase "mule of Athens" to describe old people who stay active and busy, and compare them to the mules who dragged marble up to the Acropolis in ancient times.

Vicky tells us about Dracon, who gave the laws and lent his name to the phrase "Draconian", Klisthenes, who in 6 B.C.E. divided the population into tribes rather than by income, paving the way for democracy, and Pericles, who allowed the poor to vote. She told us about the Persian Wars in 5 B.C., Darius, Marathon, Mleradis and Phidipides. She told us about Xerxes and Thermopoli and Leonidas, and the Peloponnesian War .

Our bus drops us off at the Acropolis. Down below we can see the Theater of Dionysus, seating 70,000 people and still used for events. We ascend to the Acropolis. On the way back down to Pereus we drive by the Olympic Stadium. After the 2004 Olympics, the Greeks apparently have more stadiums than they know what to do with. The Olympic Stadium is actually from 1896. The Athens marathon ends there every year, and it can seat 69,000 people.

We pass by Parliament where the guards with the funny shoes are conspicuously absent, National Library, Sculpture of Lord Byron and the Royal (now National) Gardens.

Its strange to think that I am as old as Modern Greece, established in 1974. The bus drops us off at the Plaka, the touristy shopping area our cruise shopping director insists we have to visit. We walk to the Acropolis Museum, which our tour guide never tells us is closed on Mondays. We walk along the sides of the museum, buying a souvenir magnet of an erect satyr along the way and an ice cream bar that somehow manages to hide a Kit-Kat bar inside (delicious !)

At the Plaka, the streets of chatchke stores go on and on. Shayna buys a 9 euro Ring of Life bracelet and I get two 2004 Olympics t-shirts on clearance for 5 euros each. We stop by an Instant Pita place and get a delicious cheese pie with some kind of sweet sauce on top. Taxis are hard to flag down, but finally we get one. Athens flies by: a dirty, polluted, graffitied mess of poverty and small commerce and prideful etiologies.

We have dinner on the ship at the King & I dining room, Thai themed. Entertainment is a great British singer Jacqui Scott (http://www.jacquiscott.com/biography.html) performing Broadway standards from Aida and such. Shayna likes an Edit Piaf song, Theme to Love, she sings. Shayna buys Jacqui's CD. Later we see her carrying her own bags. A minute later we see a gay guy running up the stairs screaming "Jacqui, Jacqui !" and point out her trajectory to him. We are rewarded with the sight of his boyfriend taking pictures of Jacqui and her starstruck fan, and Shayna gets a picture with Jacqui all of her own.

First Day At Sea July 12, 2009

Our first day entirely at sea was boring ! We had gotten up at 10:45 am, 45 minutes before breakfast closed down so we had to rush down to the dining room. We went to an art auction with a South African auctioneer who clearly sold her soul to the devil for commercial purposes. When bidding would turn anemic, she would ask the audience "Who likes just likes ?" to squeeze some nods out of us. Then she would present a $10,000 Picasso print before trying to pawn off a $300 lithograph or Britto print on us.

A few comments on the weak part of the ship. Granted this is one of their older vessels, even the captain admitted their lack of amenities compared to the new mega ships like Oasis of the Seas. The excursion crew lacked knowledge of the ports and just tried to sell you on RC's own excursions while keeping mum on any details that may steer you away from their appointed destinations or approved shops. We even went to an information session for Athens, which turned out to be nothing more than a hawking session for shops that Royal Caribbean approves. In one of the most important cities of the world, all our ditzy Shopper-In-Chief could advise us is to go to a jewelry shop called Georgio's, whose unbelievable tag line was "If he loves you, he'll buy it at Georgio's!" so we left.

Wasted time at lunch and dinner. Saw the show. Shayna reluctantly played Roulette and won $85.

First Evening Onboard Ship July 11,2009

Once on board, we had the mandatory safety drill. That evening we saw a Magic Show and had dinner alone at a table for two. The head waiter, Rolly, offered to change us the next night to a more social table with two old Americans and two old Norwegians. I was happy with the arrangements the way they were.

We walked around the boat and went up to the 10th deck where the dance club was, clutching our mugs of hot tea and glasses of water from dinner, like a couple of senior citizens. We met the French-Canadian couple we had met before on the water taxi and talked to them a bit before returning to our cabin and falling asleep.

Venice 2nd Day - July 11, 2009

Venice July 11, 2009

Our second day in Venice began with breakfast at the hotel, served on the first floor, with an added nicety of individual-sized Nutella jars (who knew !) We ascended the Campanile bell tower (although we should have gotten the city audio tour sets downstairs to get a narration of the beautiful vista we were seeing). The Basilica and Palazzo lines still looked too long, although later we heard that you could get in quickly. We went to the post office instead and asked for Francobolli, to which the Universally Pissed Federal Post Office Worker snidely replied "Where to? America".

Continued walking to the tostini place Frommer's Venice Day by Day recommended as the best panini and crostini in Venice, by the Accademia museum. Walked by numerous chatchki stores and the Prada store, with a swarm of Chinese tourists inside and Africans selling fake Prada on the street. We crossed the Grand Canal at Accademia. There was a huge poster of Vladimir Klitchko representing the Ukraine pavillion at the Venice Exhibition. Accademia has a variety of art mostly rescued from church walls during Napoleon's occupation. One of the characters in a painting looked exactly like Robert Downey Jr.,

After wandering for quite a while in Ponte San Trovaso, unsure if the hole in the wall with many locals hanging out, was really our place, we walked in. Behind the vitrine were about 20 different kinds of crostini topped with cheeses, vegetables, smoked fish, meats, etc., Luckily the lady behind the counter understood the word "tuna", since I couldn't find it in my guidebook dictionary. We got some of the most delicious tuna and whitefish crostini, topped with red currant berries, as well as crostini with Caprese and a cheese and hazelnut mixture. The gentleman behind the bar spoke not a word of English, but I showed him the Frommers mention of his bar, and he got me a beer. We ate outside, by one of the canals, and it was the most pleasant experience. As we walked around the corner, we saw the first female gondolier of Venice, who we had heard about on our tour, sailing by.

Since we were already on the southern tip of Venice, we walked along Fondamenta Zattere P. Lungo, along the Canale della Giudecca, to Gellatto Nico. Nico is also mentioned in Frommer's as the best gellatto in Venice. Suddenly we realized how little time we had left before we had to be at the port for our cruise ship. We rushed back to San Marco, buying two beautiful leather note pads, inlaid with glass medallions from the nearby island of Murano. We picked up our luggage and dragged it back through dense waves of Chinese tourists. As we left San Marco for the last time, the orchestra at the cafe played "More", our wedding song.

We found the Vaporetto water taxi to Stazione Marittima. It would have been logical that tickets would be sold by the dock, but no such luck. The dock man told us that the ticket-station was closed for 5 minutes, and made gestures to the effect of the ticket attendant going to the bathroom. The pier was filled four-across with people, and everyone was going to "Marittime". Luckily the grandma in a wheelchair made it to the head of the line, and like Moses splitting the red sea, made a channel for us to drag our luggage through. The trip to Marittime took 15 minutes, and we walked 2 minutes to the Royal Caribbean line, where as Crown and Anchor elite we got champagne and a small slice of cake.