Athens

September 3rd
Athens, Greece

Today was another one of the ports that I came on this ship to see and have been looking forward to for some time. And not only was I going to be able to check out the Acropolis, but the Navigator of the Seas, my first ship, was in port with me, meaning I had a chance to see some old friends.
I had signed up for a half day on-your-own tour into Athens, meaning I’d have a few hours in the city to do what ever I pleased. The first goal was obviously to get up to the Acropolis. When I got to the entrance of the Acropolis I discovered that there was a 12 euro entrance fee, almost $20, not exactly what I was hoping for. But after searching the perimeter for a good place to jump the fence I decided to try for a student discount at the ticket office. Yep, I still have my student ID from college, which thankfully, doesn’t have a date on it. Instead, Roosevelt always used stickers posted on the back to indicate the semester, something I always figured no one would really pay attention to anyways. So I gave the ticket lady the ID with the 6 euro asking for the discount, she took the card, perused it front and back, and pointed out none of my stickers said “08”…I’d been caught. Surprised, I responded with the best argument I could think of off the top of my head, a totally irrelevant statement: “I go to school in the states,” as if that answered anything. Maybe she pitied me, maybe I convinced her, but she gave me the discount most likely in avoidance of a potential argument with another stupid American which is good enough for me. I entered the park with my discounted ticket and climbed to the top of the hill to spend the next hour admiring the Parthenon and the gorgeous views of Athens and the surrounding cities. It was really amazing, certainly worth my student ticket. When I’d finally had enough of walking in circles and reflecting on how this structure makes me feel about the meaning of life, I made my way back down the hill to climb yet another hill for yet another view.
This next hill wasn’t quite as large and the one that was home to the Acropolis, but was topped with a ruin of some sort and just begged for me to climb it. When I made it through the park and emerged at the top of the hill I took the necessary pictures and looked for a good place to stand to continue my ponderings. That place was standing on top of a vertical pillar near the ruin, about 5 feet in height. It wasn’t long till a man with a radio started yelling at me to get down to avoid hurting myself. I doubted he was really concerned about my well-being and told him “nah, I’m OK,” and went on standing on my pillar. He then asked again, saying “Please get down” in a way that communicated his new desire to hurt me if I didn’t get down, so after slowly contemplating my options I decided to lazily dismount my perch. I left the lookout and he walked over to the pillar to stand guard till I left the hill, stupid tourist policeman. But I was running out of time anyways and had to start heading back to the bus.
The rest of my time was spent walking through uninteresting parts of the city and further deliberation about jumping fences to enter parks I had no desire to pay for. Be it due to the barely intimidating park employees or my 15 minutes remaining free time, I didn’t do anything too illegal and made my way back to the bus.
I ate lunch back at the ship before setting out to find some friends from the Nav. I had emailed the MD on the ship about a possible meeting, and after receiving an email back about his inability to spend the day off the ship and the potential difficulty in finding each other in the large port of Piraeus, I decided to head out on my own to find them anyways. I had no idea where the Nav was docked and hadn’t seen it on my trip to and from Athens, but figuring that it must be somewhere along the coast (being a ship and all), found it 15 minutes later. I walked up to the ship after passing through port security, and recognizing the security guard at the gangway, asked him to make a few phone calls for me to get my friends out side. He managed to get a hold of the MD who immediately came outside to chat for a while about ship stuff. There were still 4 people in the band that I knew, but of whom had gone into the city that day and weren’t on the ship to say hello. But seeing as I had another 90 minutes before I need to be back for a rehearsal, took out a book and sat on the dock waiting for a shuttle to bring my friends back to the ship. By the time I’d left I’d ran into 4 people I knew who were surprised to see “Pottsy” sitting there at the dock totally unannounced. We talked while we could and then I headed out again to get back for a rehearsal that ended up being canceled…stupid ship.
We ended up getting the night off, which resulted in a very chilled out night. I had an enjoyable day and was certainly pleased with the gamble I took in leaving Athens early to try to find some friends. Now begins the process of packing to come home in a few days! Thanks and seeya soon!