Pearls of the Aegean

Corfu Port

2006-06-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

To be honest, downtown Corfu looked a bit of a dump, but apparently the Old Town is the place to go, and the coach didn't drive through this because the roads are too narrow.

We arrived at the port and surrendered our passports and went through immigration and had our pictures taken for our boarding passes.

Next we had to queue again to be allocated a dinner table and then finally we were knabbed by a photographer who made us pose in front of a backdrop of the ship and have our pictures taken. Now, both Pin and I had been travelling for 12 hours by this point and we were both tired, irritable - and not really in the mood for photos!

Day One - Penzance to Corfu

2006-06-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Our holiday began early on the morning of the 16th June. I was to get the bus from St Ives and meet Pin at Penzance Station to catch the 7:47 train. However by 7:04, the 7:05 bus to Penzance still wasn't there so I decided to get the train to St Erth to Rendezvous with the train there instead. As I was walking into the station, I saw the 7:05 bus coming down the hill above the town, late. By then it was too late to go back to get it so I stayed on the train to St Erth. Not that this little setback was an annoyance, rather a pleasure, as the train ride from St Ives goes past some pretty scenic views of the coast.

I caught the train at 7:57 and found Pin at our pre-reserved seats. Now the long wait started. The train wasn't due to get into Bristol till about 12:19, so we had four hours to kill. Talk about cabin fever, even the most disgusting cup of coffee I've had in years (thank's First Great Western) couldn't alleviate the boredom. I did a bit of stitching on Home is Where the Cat is, (until I spotted that I'd made a mistake in an earlier stitching session) and put that away in disgust too.

We arrived at Bristol Temple Meads station and caught the shuttle bus to Bristol Airport, still with over 2 hours to spare until the plane was due to depart. We checked our baggage in, both of us being just under the 20kg limits, and went up to the food court at the top of the airport for food and otherwise liquid refreshment. We were sitting there enjoying a burger king when we were called back to the check-in desk. Oh my god, we both thought, what's wrong now? But it was nothing, they just wanted to change the seats that we'd been allocated. We proceeded through to airport security to the departure lounge.

I was wearing a rather bulky belt buckle on my jeans, when I offered to take it off, the security guy just waved me through and of course it set the bloody alarms off! Next I get frisked by a lady security person, who even thinks I've got something stowed under my hat! Then this other security guy wants to look through my handbag because I've got a camera and a mobile phone and batteries in there. Hey mate, I bet everyone else at this airport has as well - we're off on holiday! Big mistake mate. Do you really want to know how much crap I carry around in my bag? Regular readers of this blog will know that you don't want to go there, but he did - poor sucker. After he'd spent about 10 minutes emptying every single nook, cranny and side pocket he finally said I could put it all back in. Except I left all the unwanted receipts and other rubbish all over his table. Serves him right!

Anyway, without further incident we boarded the plane and departed on time for Corfu. The flight was without incident, except for Pin accidentally chucking her empty half measure sized wine bottle down the cabin aisle! She said she'd never do that to a full one!

After collecting our luggage from the carousel (there's my nice new co-ordinated luggage collection dirty and covered with big black marks already!), we were told to slap stickers on our luggage so it could be sorted at the port and taken straight to our cabins without having to take it on ourselves. Pin and I were allocated cabin 183. We boarded the transfer coach and proceeded through downtown Corfu.

We Board the Emerald

2006-06-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Finally we were allowed to leave the port buildings and walk down to the quayside where the ship was docked.

We took a couple of pictures on the way down to the ship and then after bouncing our way up the gangplank - we were finally on board the Emerald. Our Stewardess met us and showed us down to where our cabin was located. Our luggage hadn't arrived yet, it was still sitting on the dock waiting to be taken aboard by the ship's personnel, so we went up to the Lido Deck, snagged a couple of seats and tried to chill out on deck.

Fashion Faux Paus

2006-06-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

We were sitting up in the Balcony seats (or the Royal Seats as the ship's entertainment team called them - we later learned) and looking down at all the new arrivals sitting and having their first meal and drinks on board. We had missed the reception buffet in the dining room by this time, but the Bistro Buffet was still open. As we were sitting there, Pin looked down on the lower deck and noticed that one of the passengers was wearing a shirt that exactly matched the pattern of the table cloths on the Lido Deck. We had a good laugh at him I can tell you, and jokingly suggested that his wife was a very good seamstress and had just whipped it up for him. I don't think he wore that shirt again during the entire cruise.

We got something to eat from the Bistro and after we'd eaten that, returned to the outer deck where the embarkation party was starting in full swing. We walked in on the middle of it and realised that we were getting in the way of the crew members who were all lining up to be introduced to the passengers, so we quickly found a seat. We had a good night, it wasn't long until we were up there dancing and the first night ended with a conga going around the deck and through the restaurant.

Day Two - Cruising in Style

2006-06-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

After 12 hour journey of the day before, we really needed the second day as a quiet day to chill out and also explore the ship. We went and had breakfast in the posh Chanterelle Dining Room, but having waiter service at breakfast and being seated properly every morning was a bit OTT, so after that first day we just grabbed what we wanted from the Bistro Breakfast Buffet on the Lido Deck (or Canteen - as Faye later called it).

After breakfast we went and found a couple of sunbeds on the deck and waited around until 10:30 for the Lifeboat Drill, which was mandatory for everyone to attend.

Greece Floats Past....

2006-06-26T10:56:00.001-07:00

After the meeting, we went back into the Bistro Dining Hall and had lunch before finding another couple of sunbeds up on the deck to laze away the afternoon and watch the coast of Greece drift past. I got my Greece Lonely Planet Guide out and looked at the map and tried to figure out exactly where we were. In the end I took the book and marched around the ship trying to find a member of the crew who could tell me, the first person I stopped was a waiter, but predictably, he didn't have a clue.

In the end I walked up to the end of the ship and still didn't meet someone in a crew uniform, so I went inside deck 9 (I really wish the ship had one additional floor, because the front top section of the ship was called "Deck 9 - Forward" and this was the only place that topless sunbathing was allowed - wish it was Deck 10 - Forward - trekkies reading this will probably realise why!! lol), and down the stairs and bumped into some guy wearing a Thomson uniform and asked him. He said "who'd you think I am, the Captain"? but he did indicate a general area on the map and said he thought that we were probably around there. I learned later that this guy was actually the Thomson Cruise Director - I do half pick them, don't I?

There was a quiz in the afternoon hosted by the onboard entertainment team who were really good and entertaining. The guy doing the quiz this afternoon was this Thomson Rep called "Kane" who was a loud mouth comic from Blackpool, he always had the audience eating out of his hand. Me and Pin both attempted the quiz as a distraction from sunbathing, and then I noticed a distinctive Island on the horizon with a lighthouse on a peninsular. I checked the map and worked out that this must be Zakynthos and so I finally worked out exactly where we were.

The Swimming Pool on the Lido Deck. They covered this up of an evening when there was entertainment out on deck.

The ship hardly moved at all those first few days, whenever I've travelled on a boat before you can tell you are on board even when tied up at the quay, but the Emerald's 26,000 tonnes didn't move at all. Even at sea, there was no detectable motion. In fact it was only on the fourth and fifth days that we noticed the ship swaying slightly, and that was because the sea was a little rough, whipped up by winds with whitetops on the waves.

The Lifeboat Drill

2006-06-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

At 10:30 they called the whole ship together with their life jackets to the Muster Stations for the obligatory lifeboat drill. Yes everyone had to stand around for about 20 minutes dressed like prats in orange polystyrene filled jackets.

Pin was the first to find her whistle, and soon everyone was blowing theirs too until they told us off and told us to stop blowing them. We had to stand there and wait for the captain to walk past and inspect everyone.

After the drill, we went into the Regency Showroom for the welcome meeting and port showcase where we met the Destination Services Team and learned about the excursions that we could book for our various ports of call. Pin and I had already decided in advance to do the Athens trip, but Pin had second thoughts about accompanying me up the volcano on Santorini - so she booked a trip to Oia village instead which involved a visit to a winery.

Captain's Cocktail Hour

2006-06-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

We left our sunbathing positions and went back to our cabins at about 4:30 to get changed for the Captain's Formal Dinner. We were supposed to assemble in the Regency Showroom for pre-dinner cocktails at 5:30, but when we got there we had to queue for what seemed like forever to have our photos taken, first next to some fake trees, then standing in front of a backdrop of the Titanic staircase and then once again with the Captain.

The Titanic picture turned out great, but I'm not too sure about this one - I look as if I'm pregnant with the Captain's baby! lol (I could of course lie and say that this picture was taken at the end of the cruise and I'd piled on a few pounds by then, but the truth is this was only the second day on board and I was wearing Bridget Jones stomach-holding-in-pants too. Whoops!

As Pin lapped up the Champagne, I stuck to fruit punch cocktails and I was glad to see that another lady had the same reaction as me when she tried the cavier hors d'oeuvres that the waiters were serving from silver trays (I can't stand the stuff).

The Captain came on stage (I don't know why, but he reminds me of a Greek version of Max Bygraves) and introduced all the rest of the senior crew, when they all came on stage one by one in front of the audience, we were shown through in to the Chanterelle Dining room for dinner.

A' La Carte Dining Indeed

2006-06-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

I can't emphasise enough how good the quality of the food was in the Chanterelle Dining room. It was always delicious no matter what I ate. We had three waiters at our table, plus the occasional assistance (and at times hilariouis hindrence) of the Assistant Maitre'Ds. There was a choice of over 5 or 6 main courses every evening together with 3 or four starters, a soup course, a salad course and then deserts and coffee as well. If you wished you could eat five courses every single night. In fact, they offered the same sort of dining experience at lunchtimes as well, but really enough was enough! Pin got talking to a couple who said that they'd been on a cruise once, but had not come back for five years because of all the weight her husband had put on!

Below are some pictures of our waiters. Pictured in the first one are also Faye and Shirl from Wales who were regulars at our table almost every evening.

The only criticism that I can give is that the waiters were usually in a hurry to clear the tables to reset them for the second dinner setting at 8:30, and as I'm a very slow eater and we had six gossiping women on our table who never arrived on time we were usually one of the last tables to leave the restaurant. Of course, having the head waiters come chat to us and entertain us probably didn't help us in leaving the dining room on time - but it was up to them if they wanted us out early!

Our other dining companions:

From left to right: Phil and his father Roger from Warsaw, Pin, Me, Noreen and Pearl - two Medical Secretaries from Cardiff. When we sat down, Phil and his dad couldn't believe their luck being seated at a table with six unaccompanied women!

The No Shoe Blues

2006-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

After the Formal Night's dining experience, we went down into one of the cocktail lounges with a couple of ladies from our table. The Entertainment team put on a quiz game (I was even asked to participate but I didn't want to show myself up on stage). This went on a bit long, and we were relieved when it finished and one of the on board groups "Juice" started playing a set.

The lead singer was a little blonde girl named Ellie from Scotland, and she certainly had a good voice. She was accompanied by a black guy from New York called "J" who played keyboards and sang, a bass player from Holland named Tommy Lee, and a guy from Yorkshire on the drums (can't remember his name).

They started playing a load of blues music, and Pin was really into this. I sat back down at this point, watching Pin jumping around doing this funky dance. She was really jumping up and down and on high heels too. One of the Thomson reps was at our table talking to Faye, she leaned over to me and said, "how much has she had to drink?", I said, "too many to count! I'm a bit worried about those shoes though".

And no sooner did I say that that I looked up and Pin was standing on the dance floor holding one of her black sandles in one hand, and the heel that had just broken off and skidded across the dancefloor in the other. I just completely lost it then in the advanced stages of cracked up laugher. I was rolling around on the sofa in tears of laughter for over 10 minutes. Pin finally sat back down and joined me.

"J" the singer noticed that she had stopped dancing and encouraged her to come back on the dance floor. Pin sat there and held her shoes up to show him what had happened to them. He said "Why are you not dancing, you love the Blues!". Pin said, "yes I love the blues, but I've got no shoes!!". She then asked, "is there a cobbler on board?". The black singer said "I could say something to that but I won't".

So then the singer started up an improptu song, "The No-Shoes Blues", made up on the spot just for Pin, about the lady in the black dress who loved the blues but had no shoes. It was sooooooo funny.

Going....
Going.....
Gone!

Undeterred, Pin shrugged them off and carried on dancing!

On the way back to our cabin we bumped into Dimitrius one of our playful Greek waiters in the corridor, we were both really drunk at this point and still laughing our assess off about the shoe incident. Pin showed him what happened, and he suggested taking the shoes to Reception and asking if the Ship's Carpenter would fix them for her. So that's what she did. When we finally got back to the cabin and got into bed, we still couldn't sleep, we were laying there in the dark still giggling about what happened for what seemed like an hour afterwards.For the rest of the holiday I couldn't top that. Half of the cruise ship had seen what went on that evening. The very next morning at breakfast, the guy on the next table asked Pin "Where do you get all your energy from?".

Day Three - Athens

2006-06-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the port of Pireaus early in the morning, and were were awakened about 6:30 by the sound of the ship's engines as it maneouvered into port. Our wake up call went off about then and we rose to get ready and have breakfast so that we could leave the ship to board the coach at the port to go on an excursion to the site of the Acropolis in Athens.

Pin at the port:

The Acropolis

2006-06-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

This was the view of the Acropolis from the coach park at the bottom of the hill. We started climbing up the steps to the top, stepping over this sleeping smelly old dog:

Modern Distractions

2006-06-26T10:50:00.001-07:00

I caught our Guide on her mobile phone which interrupted her talk at the Parthenon. It was a genuine call though, it was Thomson's calling about a missing tourist who'd got on the wrong coach.

The iron rods at the front of the Parthenon are going to need replacing as well. I hope they don't ruin it when they take them out.

Ancient Temples

2006-06-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

Arriving at the top of the steps our guide bought everyone tickets to go into the Acropolis proper. This was the view of the city that I took while we were waiting to go in:

Down in the valley amonst the trees you can see the Temple of Hephaistos. There are ancient ruins and temples all throughout the centre of Athens.

Excuse the scaffolding - it was everywhere throughout the ancient site. Apparently they are replacing a lot of the supports because they were sheared up at the turn of last century with Iron rods and these are now causing the marble columns to decay. This is the Propylaia, the ancient gatehouse at the front of the Acropolis. In ancient times, this structure contained great doors which defended the temples inside from invaders.

This was the Temple of Athena Nike to the left of the main gate. From here we proceeded through the gatehouse and over some uneven ground with Marble patches (that was very slippery) to behold the Parthenon (the largest temple there) itself.

Our guide, calling the party together in front of the Parthenon for a talk. Looks a bit disturbingly like "Hail Hitler", doesn't it?

The top of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon Cat - they get everywhere, don't they?

Fight! at the Parthenon

2006-06-26T10:49:00.001-07:00

It's a very sad thing, but some people don't really deserve to go on holiday, let alone traverse the ancient wonders of the world. Why? They bring their behaviour with them.

Whilst our guide was telling us about the history of the Parthenon and pointing out parts of it's design, a scuffle broke out in the crowd at the back our excursion party, the first we knew was shouts of "You pushed me", "You pushed my wife". They nearly came to blows. Children please.

The photo above depicts the three participants. The guy in the hat and the lady in the loud shirt were an American couple from our cruise ship. The twat in the T-shirt took real exception to being shoved. (I actually think that what started it was someone accidentally stumbling on the uneven ground outside the Parthenon, but rather than brush it aside as an accident twat in the T-shirt has to make an issue of it).

The guide interceded with the shouting started and said that everyone else wanted to hear what was going on and they didn't need to be exposed to childish behaviour like that. But Pin was standing closer to the incident than me, and she later overheard T-shirt twat standing behind the American gentlemen and saying "I'm going to make your life hell back on the ship"!!

After the talk, T-shirt guy continued following the American couple around the ancient site and hassling them further. The American lady was telling him to go away when I took that shot, you can probably tell from her body language. He just had this massive chip on his shoulder - the complete ASSHOLE! He did later apologise to everyone when we got back on the coach following a small shopping diversion, but what a complete twat he was to let it get so far in the first place!

I really hope that T-shirt Twat finds this blog entry at some point in the future and feels rightly embarrased by his behaviour.

Obligatory Tourist Shot

2006-06-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

An American tourist took this shot of us in front of the Parthenon, we did him the same favour in return.

Temple of Erechtheion

2006-06-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

The figures of the lady columns are called the Caryatids.

Theatre of Herod Atticus

2006-06-26T10:47:00.001-07:00

Just outside the main site of the Acropolis, underneath it in fact is the Temple of Herod Atticus. This theatre has been recently rebuilt and now accommodates ballets and concerts. The guide said that it seats about 4,000 people.

They were just setting up for a new show the day that we were there. I went outside the Acropolis grounds to get a better look and take this extra photos of the theatre.

The woman at the gate didn't want to let me back in until I managed to find my sweat-soaked Acropolis ticket in the pocket of my shorts. You know when you accidentally wash paper in your jeans pocket and it gets all mangled up? Well my ticket looked like that, but I got let back in on it anyway. Just as well because Pin thought that she had lost me by this time.

Athens Cityscape

2006-06-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Pin with Athens in the background.

You can see Mount Likavitos in the distance with a ruined church on top.

This is the Theatre of Dionysius

The remains of the Temple of Zeus.

Athens City Tour - Olympic Stadium

2006-06-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Where we just were, you can see the Acropolis in the distance. Oh, there's our coach too.

Pin and me in front of the Stadium

The Ancient Olympic Stadium in Athens.

Athens from the Coach

2006-06-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

The only part of the excursion that I didn't enjoy was that apart from the 5 minute stop at the Olympic Stadium, we weren't allowed to leave the coach again until it returned to us to the port. We weren't allowed off to stretch our legs or take any pictures of Athens, so sorry for the poor quality of the following pictures which were all taken through the glass.

Orange trees grow along the city streets (spot the camera!)

One of the city guards. These guys are like the guys at Buckingham palace, they aren't allowed to move or do anything. I poked my tongue out at him and he just stared back. I jokingly said to Pin that I could get him to move by flashing him!

More guards outside the Parliament Buildings. We had missed the change of the guards at 11:00.

An excavation right next to one of the city streets.

Hadrian's Arch.

Cow Fixation

2006-06-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

While everyone was looking at the guards outside the Parliament buildings, I was looking out the other window of the coach at some strange cow statues that were all over the streets. Our Guide said that they had all been painted up by local artists and that later in the year there was a Parade of Cows.

After that I ignored all the Ancient sites of Athens for the most part and concentrated on cow spotting!

Day Four - Kusadasi (Turkey)

2006-06-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

The following day we arrived at the port of Kusadasi on the West cost of Turkey.

Pin and I had both arranged to do different trips that day, we left the boat together, she boarded a coach to do a trip to a turkish village and winery, and I was stuffed aboard a minibus to be driven to a farm where I was going to do a horse safari ride.

Horse Safari

2006-06-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

It was an interesting journey from the port through the town and the growing tourist attractions along the shore and up into the hills. I passed two water parks on the way - it definitely seemed as if there was plenty to do in this resort - I'd definitely consider coming back here again.

We arrived at the farm and were seated at a little cafe and served apple tea while we waited for the horses to be saddled up and brought around to us. We wondered if we were in the right place to start with because when we arrived there was a line of quad bikes outside the cafe and we thought we'd all been taken to the wrong place, but it was ok, because the quad bikes left from the same place too. We were given helmets and led around the back to where the horses were. I asked the guy in charge if I could ride on a white one and he did. My horse (I think they were only ponies, they weren't quite big enough to be truly called horses) was called Papetierre. I felt sorry for him with my fat arse stuck on his back because he kept coughing and slipping to the back of the line of horses and I had to keep geeing him up to keep up. Poor thing!

I thought I was going to be quite uncomfortable sitting on the horse, as the last time I had done some horse riding (back in 1999, in Cornwall when Sean and I had come down for the eclipse) I was very sore in the rear end for two days afterwards. But this time I was fine. I think it was because I was relaxed, in fact on the way back I was so relaxed I took to riding just holding on with one hand - go cowgirl go! The scenery that we trekked through was very beautiful, full of hills, trees and fields. There was one very pretty scene as we trekked through a cornfield with poppies in it, I tried taking a picture of this, both on the way there and back, but when I checked the pictures on the camera I'd just shot the sky both times - it's not easy trying to take a steady picture from horseback. I am still very struck by how green and fertile the Turkish countryside is - I imagined it to be very dry and arid, like parts of Spain or Tunisia where I have been before, but it is not like this at all. Despite the intense heat, everything seems to be growing in this Eden-like garden.

As we neared the end of our trek the quad bikes caught us up and overtook us. I thought the horses might get a bit nervous by the engines, but they didn't. The horses were very well behaved, even though we weren't tied together or led, giving us riders the impression that we were actually controlling them ourselves they were so under the control of the horsemasters that it only took a few words of command for them to stop or slip back into line. At one point we even had to walk along the end of a road before we could cross it to reach the beach, the horses didn't flinch at this - I think I was more nervous about crossing the road than my mount. As we approached the beach, the horses seemed to know where they were going because they all speeded up into a trot, like us they were eager to see the sea. We dismounted the horses in the dunes above the beach and went down onto the beach, where one of the horses who had been specially trained was unsaddled and led down into the water.

Our party reached the deserted beach.

We got changed and went into the water with the horse and got on the horse and a guy with a camera took our pictures of us riding the horse in the sea. The horse was trained to rear up and that's when he took his shots, of course that dumped you off into the sea too. The first time I tried to get on the horse (which wasn't the same one that I was riding earlier), with the help of a knee-up from the guy holding the horse I went straight over his back and down into the water on the other side! lol The second attempt worked and the guy with the camera took this amazing picture of me on the horse. If I look like I'm clinging on for dear life - then now you know why!

After drying off on the sand and wishing that I'd brought a towel with me, the quad bikes arrived at the beach and lined up and we all had our picture taken with them too.

After that we got back on our horses for the trek back to the Farm, where a 3-course lunch had been prepared for us. It was soup, followed by a dish of Turkish meatballs, rice, vegetables and chips followed by a bowl of fruit. We knew that the fruit was fresh because we had been picking the same fruit from the overhanging fruit trees as we rode back to the farm. I told you that Turkey is vibrant and growing!

Turkey's Worst Driver

2006-06-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

As there were only a few of us on the horse party, the farm owner didn't bother getting the mini bus back to take us back to the port when we'd finished lunch, he was phoning around his friends on mobile phones to get them to come and give us a lift. We ended up going back in 3 separate cars. On the drive back to the port, I took this picture of this idiot on the main road - can you believe it?

He must love those Turkish rugs!

Ladies Beach

2006-06-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

After laughing my head off at the guy on the bike with the rugs we approached the port. I was quite worried for a minute because I couldn't see the Emerald. I thought "Oh no, it's been and gone without me!", but the ship hadn't left at all, it was just hidden behind this great big honking American Celebrity Cruiseship Galaxy. It was so big that it made the Emerald look like the Scillonian sitting next to it.

The massive "wall" of the Galaxy Cruise Ship Docked Next to the Emerald

As the driver dropped the others off at the port, I asked if he would drive me further up the coast, because I wanted to see Pigeon Island. In the end he dropped me off all the way up at Ladies Beach which was about 2 km up the coast - I paid him a couple of Lira tip because this was way out of his way.

The Promenade at Ladies Beach

Ladies Beach was really pretty, if I ever go back to Kusadasi I would like to find a hotel in this general area. I walked along the promenade to near to the top of the beach, then got down on the sand and walked back along it.

Jade Resort and Pigeon Islands

2006-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

I had to leave the coast for a bit and walk back to the port along the road. I stopped into a shop and bought a bottle of water and asked in the shop if there was a coastal path, but I think the road that I was on was the closest to it because everything along the seafront seemed to be all apartment complexes. I don't quite know what had happened to the pavements on this stretch of road, in some places they were all crumbled and broken, as if there had been an earthquake. I think I heard that there had been riots in some parts of Turkey, perhaps all these broken pavements were the result?

As I walked back to the port, I had my ipod on, walking along the road singing to Madonna. I got some very strange looks, but no one knew me there, so who cares and it avoided having to talk to randy Turkish men too!

Jade Island Resort

Anyway, the road veered back to the seafront and I took some pictures of the Jade Resort and of Pigeon Island as I approached it.

The clear Aegeon waters

Pigeon Island at Kusadasi

Pigeon Island reminds me a lot of St Michael's Mount, a fort on an island joined to the land by a causeway, but in Pigeon Island's case, the causeway is a permanent concrete dock and not subject to the whim of the Atlantic's tides.

I went over onto the Island and walked around the fort. I took some pictures of the harbour and the town, used the toilet and then started back down the hill.

Views from Pigeon Island

2006-06-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Emerald docked at the Port of Kusadasi.

Pigeon Island's Causeway

Kusadasi Town

The Cats of Pigeon Island

2006-06-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

I came across a little tabby kitten on my way down the hill. He was so cute, only about 10 weeks old. I tried taking a picture of him, but he moved, and then another ginger cat appeared, and he started playing with his tail. I petted him too, until I discoverd that he had ticks! Yuk, then a little tortoisehell kitten was there too. Ahhhh. Trust me to make friends with some cats on holiday. I did it last year with Snowy.

This American family were walking down the hill too and they stopped and petted the cats as well. I got talking to them, they were passengers from the big honking Galaxy. We chatted as we walked back to the port together, they said that they had just come from Istanbul on the boat.

Next I dared to go into the bazaar for some souveniers, but I quickly got pissed off by the high pressure salesmen, who wouldn't let you look at anything before trying to convince you to buy it. One guy was standing outside his shop and smiled at me as I stumbled on an uneven piece of road as I entered the bazaar. After I gave up with the hassle and started walking back to the boat, I passed this guy again. I had drunk my water by then and was sick of carrying it around, this same guy tried to get me to go into his shop, but I stopped only long enough to say "is there a bin around here mate?", he obilgingly took the empty bottle out of my hand, and I walked off, leaving him standing there holding it. Oh well, you can't win them all!

The Galaxy left the port a few minutes before we did, so we started the custom that we followed every evening when the ship left port, we went up on the top deck to watch the boat leave port. When the Galaxy reversed out of the dock, all the people on the ship waved at everyone on our ship (waving down for the most part, as we waved back up at them) not that we knew anyone on there, but I think that I may have spotted the American family at one point.

Tropicana Deck Party

2006-06-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Leaving Kusadasi, the ship travelled around the coast towards the port of Marmaris, that night the entertainment crew put on a Tropicana Deck Party show on the Lido Deck. All the entertainment staff and waiters too were all wearing the same matching t-shirts, and they decorated the deck with flags, however the wind got up and the flags just did not want to behave themselves, so I took this picture of one of the staff trying to shove the flags along the ropes with a fishing pole.
The on-board band "Juice" played their first set,

Which was followed by the Emerald Entertainment team signing as well.

The Entertainment Director got the crowd going, but check out that extremely loud shirt he was wearing!

They started doing a little competition then, men vs women, at one point the men scored points for getting 10 men up on the dance floor dancing, they only just managed it with the help of the entertainment staff!

The women had no problems in dancing and I think there was about 40 or 50 up there when it was our turn.

Day Five - Marmaris (Turkey)

2006-06-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

We woke up the following morning to be greeted by the sight of picturesque Marmaris Harbour.

And it's surrounding natural inlet.

We went down for breakfast and prepared to leave the ship and explore Marmaris on our own rather than taking one of the organised excursions.

Exploring Marmaris

2006-06-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

To get into town, we had to walk through Marmaris Harbour and the surrounding seafront, we saw some fish in the clean waters as we were walking past:

I took this picture of Pin standing under this beautiful rhododenron bush:

And I took a picture of this Mermaid Statue as we passed all the boats:

Just like Kusadasi, there are plenty of Turkish people trying to sell you things by being "in your face". We were accosted many times as we walked along the seafront by captains trying to get us to go for a ride on their boats, they shut up though when we told them that we had just got off the big one and pointed behind us.

We stopped at a small cafe and had an ice cream which practically melted before we could eat them and also bought ourselves some refreshing drinks, to take with us to sit on the beach.

Josh?

2006-06-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

One of the strangest things we saw on holiday was this sign hanging off the back of a boat docked in Marmaris Harbour:

Now we know a guy called Josh, he owns the pub that we drink in - so god knows what this sign was all about! lol

Our Josh was waiting for us when we got back to Penzance and the Gallowan festival.

Marmaris Beach

2006-06-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Although Marmaris Harbour was spectacular, the actual beach itself left a lot to be desired. The water was pleasantly warm, but there were lots of stones in the water.

The beach consisted over very dark sand, it was as if you were running around in really dry earth it just made everything it stuck to black.

There were some children playing on the beach in front of where we were sitting, they were flinging wet sand at one another and generally getting very dirty. I mean, just look at the colour of my toes.

In the end it got too hot so after stopping at a small kiosk on the edge of the beach for more water, where I jokingly asked the guy in the kiosk if he would rent out his beer cooler - for about a minute I was actually standing in his fridge trying to cool down, Pin and I were off in search of some much needed air-con and lunch.

We found a small internet cafe (with air-con heaven!) and I posted this entry on my stitching blog. It's quite funny really because of the dodgy turkish keyboards all the I's were coming out really strange.

As we were walking along the road in the heat of the mid-day sun we walked past yet another mermaid statue.

This is the view from a little cafe where we had lunch. It was really nice as there were grape vines growing out of the roof.

As we were sitting and eating lunch, we wondered why we were still so hot, we were in the shade after all but we were still sweating buckets. It wasn't until we returned to the ship after doing a little bit more shopping that we were told that the temperature in Marmaris was a cool 42 degrees in the shade. No wonder we were sweating!!

Over the next few days I ended up getting a heat rash, and it probably originated on this day.

Day Six: Santorini

2006-06-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

Santorini was the real gem of all the locations we visited during this cruise.

The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last several thousand years when it erupted cataclysmically about 3,500 years ago, in the Thera Eruption which nearly caused the extinction of early civilisation by generating a nuclear winter effect in the earth's atmosphere. The eruption left a large caldera (crater ring) surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep, generated tsunami which legend tells it washed over the top of the caldera cliffs (300 metres high) and its effects may have indirectly led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (70 mi) to the south, probably by the tsunami.

One popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis, where Plato speculated that Atlantis was built on an "island within an island", and this also explains why no trace of it has ever been found.

A giant central lagoon, more or less rectangular and measuring about 12 km by 7 km (8 mi by 4 mi), is surrounded by 300 m (984 ft) high sheer cliffs on three sides. The island slopes downward from the cliffs to the surrounding Mediterranean sea. On the fourth side, the lagoon is separated from the Mediterranean by another much smaller island called Therasia, also with cliffs. The lagoon is joined to the sea in two places, in the northwest and southwest. The water in the centre of the lagoon is nearly 400 m (1,300 ft) deep, so it is an ideal safe harbour for even the biggest ships. The island's ports are all in the lagoon and there are no ports on the outside of the island. The towns of Santorini cling to the top of the cliff looking down on the lagoon, in the distance they look like icing frosting on the top of a cake.

In the centre of the lagoon is a relatively new island which has been generated by volcanic activity over the last five hundred years. The last eruption to occur on this new island happened in 1950. The inhabitants of Santorini number no more than 13,000, but there are over 600 churches on the island ring, their congregations praying that the cataclismic eruptions will never happened again, but the scientist in me knows that this is only wishful thinking, there is a major volcanic fault under this island it's going to blow again. It may not happen today, tomorrow, next year, next decade, but it will happen again it is only a matter of time. I think that was part of the visiting this place, knowing that you are standing on a potential boiling cauldron.

Sunrise at Santorini

2006-06-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

I had requested a 6:00 am alarm call so that I could get up on deck to watch the Emerald approaching Santorini's island ring, but we were awakened earlier than this by the ship's maneouvering engines as it was already approaching the caldera.

By the time I'd grabbed a cup of coffee and made my way up to the front of deck 9, we were already well inside the caldera, and passing the new volcanic island of Nea Kamini (map above) to the port (left) of the ship and rapidly approaching the port of Fira. The sun was rising above the tall cliffs as I took this shot.

Final Approach

2006-06-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Even though I'd missed the first glimpse at Santorini by 6:00, it still took a further hour an a half's maneouvering before the Emerald could actually tie up at the port of Fira.

Santorini's villages and towns all cling to the top of the caldera. The buildings and houses look like ice frosting on the top of a cake. It is a very usual place. On the other side of the sheer cliffs, the land drops back down into the sea in a seas of rolling hills, much more gentler than the sheer drop caused by the remnant of it's explosive past.
The lagoon harbour is quite deep (there were about 4 cruise ships due to dock there that day and the Emerald was one of the smaller ones), but it was still too big to tie up at the quayside, so there are several docking bouys a few hundred yards out from the dock.

After we'd tied up we went in to the Bistro to get breakfast. We sat out on the deck eating it and enjoying our spectacular surroundings.

Tender to Shore

2006-06-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

Because the cruise ships have to dock on bouys in the Harbour, a Tender service is provided to take the passengers over to the shore. Like the day before, Pin and I had decided to do separate excursions today. She got on one tender to get on a coach and go and visit the wineries and Oia Village, while I was going to get on another boat and go over and visit the volcanic landmass of Nea Kameni.

To get to the Tenders, we had to go down through the bowls of the ship through the crew quarters and finally out the side door of the boat down at the water level. As we left the ship, I took some pictures of the Emerald as we passed it.

Finally we approached the port of Fira.

Pirate Ship to a Volcano

2006-06-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

As we left the Tender, the Pirate ship that was going to take us over to Nea Kameni was already waiting at the dock.

The journey over to the volcanic island seemed to go relatively quickly.

It didn't take long to dock in the little harbour over there before we proceeded up the first volcanic hill to the first crater.

Craters and Sulphur Plumes

2006-06-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Crater No. 1

Crater No. 2

Crater No. 3

Sulphur Deposits on Crater Rim. In the distance you can see our cruise ship has cranked up it's engines and is expelling smoke from it's chimneys.

The Hot Hole.

There is a fissure in the crater rim here it goes down quite deep and the heat from the magma chamber under the island is welling up through this gap. If you put your hand down this hole you can feel the heat rising up.

Sulphur Clouds

This stank of rotten eggs. Phew.

There's always one.....

2006-06-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

I don't know how many times we were warned by the guides about wearing suitable footwear over on the volcano. They made it clear that we were going hiking and we should wear appropriate footwear, and that it would be quite a strenuous walk. This is why Pin went over to Oia Village instead of coming with me, because she was worried that the hike up the volcano would set off an asthma attack.

I wore my hiking boots that I'd used to hike around the St Ives Coastline earlier in the year.

This silly woman wore satin slippers.... I guess they were suitably ruined.

Top of the World

2006-06-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

The view from the top of Nea Kameni was quite spectacular, after the harsh heat of Marmaris the day before, the cooling winds were very welcome, and it was blowing a real gale at the top of the island.

In the distance I could see not only the Emerald, Fira, but the other villages on the island ring all sparkling and gripping on for dear life at the top of the surrounding caldera. The first picture below shows the ancient city of Akrotiri where ancient relics are currently being excavated.

This was the island of Thirasia and the port of Manolas. Our guide said that they didn't have electricity on this island until the 1980s.

This picture below pics out the nearby island of Palia Kameni where we were scheduled to stop at the hot springs that are another sign of the continued volcanic activity in the island chain after we had got back on the pirate ship.

Here was a monitoring station box to keep track of any increase in volcanic activity on the island.

Looking back towards Fira, there's a large cruise ship now docked near the harbour.

And finally, here is another shot of the end of Thirasia island with the Town of Oia Village clinging to the top of the Caldera on the opposite shore. The funny thing was, whilst I was volcano hiking and taking this shot of Oia Village, Pin was in this village standing back and taking pictures of Nea Kameni at the same time. Shame she didn't have a massive zoom and captured me on there.

Oia Village Interlude

2006-06-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

While I was volcano hiking, my friend Pin went on a tour of a winery and visited Oia Village. These are some of the photos that she took. Oia Village looked as though it was very pretty.

This is where I was while Pin was here.

One of the traditional blue-domed churches of Oia Village.

And another:

More traditional blue paintwork.

This hotel complex looks lovely, would love to stay there if ever I make it back here again.

Donkey attack! Pin was just taking some photos when this donkey came clattering down the steps and nearly knocked her flying. This was not going to be her closest encounter with an Ass today!

The Hot Springs of Palia Kameni

2006-06-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Our Pirate ship left Nea Kameni and went to the nearby island of Palia Kameni to let it's passengers off to swim in the hot springs just off the shore that are supposed to have therapeutic properties.

I didn't join them, because you had to jump off the boat and straight into the water and swim about 30 metres to the springs. Maybe if I had had a rubber ring or armbands I would have risked it, but I'm not comfortable getting into water where I'm out of my depth, so I stayed on board. The returning swimmers said that the water was about 28 degrees C - not as hot as promised, but still refreshing.

The swimmers in this pictures are going past yet another church - one of the many that are dotted all over the islands.

On the other side of the natural harbour from the church was this weird looking shack. It has been built into the side of the larva. This fisherman lives there like a hermit six months of the year. It seemed like a pretty lonely existence until I saw him coming out to chat on his mobile phone. Modern technology reaches everywhere.

Ascension Problem

2006-06-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

On returning with the Pirate ship to the port of Fira everyone was faced with a problem with three choices:

How do we get up to Fira Town?

Walk - 30 minutes up a 1:1 (the green path) hill guaranteeing you a heart attack when you get to the top.
Cable Car - outlined in Pink on the diagram - yes those little dots are the cars, it just goes to show you the scale of this place.
Donkey ride up the zig zag path (outlined in green).

As there was an hour's queue for the cable cars (there were two cruise ships that had recently docked and everyone from these boats was trying to crowd on the cars), it was hobson's choice: yep ride an Ass.

My ass, not the Donkey that I was snapped standing next to (thank god, my fat ass wouldn't have done that little fella much good) - he was actually the one with the orange cloth on his back.

The Ass started off on his own as soon as I got on his back. There were some tourists coming down the steps as my Ass careered off up it, I said, "get out of the way, I'm not steering this thing". But after the first bend the Ass stopped and waiting for his handler to catch up with some other tourists. It was a pleasant if lurching ride up the hill and it certainly let me take in the scenery of this amazing place as I mounted the sheer cliffs.

Fira Town

2006-06-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Arriving at the top of the cliff and smelling ever so slightly of Ass, I started exploring the ancient town of Fira. It was your typical tourist trap, just like St Ives and there were certainly enough tourists, most of them clustering around the cable car station now trying to get back down and causing complete and utter chaos. I walked around the town for a little bit, browsed in a couple of shops and then took this picture of interesting building detail at the top of an alleyway.

I was standing in the main street buying a tea towel set (of all things) as a souvenier when I bumped into Pin. She had returned from her Oia Village trip and like me was now exploring the town of Fira. We decided to have lunch together at a local cafe that had spectacular views of the whole caldera.

I don't think I can emphasize enough how spectacular this view is, it has got to be one of the most magnificent views in the entire world. I just sat there throughout the entire meal just eating in the view.

Here's another picture I took of our almighty cruise ship - looking like a dinky toy as it was dwarfed by the huge cliffs.

Here was some more of Fira Town, just barely clinging to the top of the cliffs.

I hope no one suffers from vertigo reading this, this was the view down to the harbour from where we were eating lunch:

This is Pin at the cafe. As you can tell from her hair, it was blowing quite a gale up there as the cliffs are 300 metres high, but it is a nice wind, a cooling wind, a bit like being here in Cornwall, with just enough cooling air to stop you from totally cooking.

After the 42 degree plus temperatures we had experienced in Marmaris the day before, this cooling breeze was a welcome relief. It was probably the only time during the heat of the day that I actually felt comfortable throughout that entire cruise.

Anyone for a beer?

Looking back now it's hard to believe that we were really there!

Cascading Asses

2006-06-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

After lunch, and following a little bit more shopping and sightseeing, octopii anyone?

The only thing that remained to do was to make our way back down to the ship's tenders to return to the cruise ship. The queues at the cable car station kind of put us of waiting there although they had diminished considerably since this morning. So we decided to walk back down the steps and take in the view. But as we started down we passed a Ass Herder, and following the visit to the vineyard and free tastings this morning, a further glass of wine and a beer at lunchtime, Pin was a little bit more open to riding a mule than she had been earlier.

I got on one too and we literally cascaded down the hill, clippery cloppody all the way down, holding on for dear life so as not to be shaken out of our saddles as the mules pitched their way down the steps. We had to hold on to the back of the saddles so as not to pitch too far forward and fall off but it was a lot of fun.

There were some girls on the mules behind us and they started laughing, so we joined them. We must have been laughing 2/3rds of the way down those steps during the descent, it was a hoot!

Goodbye Santorini

2006-06-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Leaving Fira on the Emerald

Going:

Going:

Gone!

And it faded into distance and memory as though it never existed.

Tomorrow's stop: Katakolon, Greece.