I have been working my way through the photos. I'm almost through Mykonos so I think I may be at the half-way point. A mere 387 photos have been sent to Costco for processing so far. I've got links to online albums per port and a subset is slowly being added to my Facebook page. If you want access to either, shoot me an email and I'll share.
As I relive the trip one cropped photo at a time, I’ve been flooded with all sorts of memories and observations that didn’t make it into any of the prior postings. So here are various things that Didn’t Make the First Cut:
- It was a very good thing that I brought an alarm clock. I had planned to use my cell phone for an alarm – the additional clock was really a sleep-inducing sound machine with a clock thrown in for amusement. Through a fantastic program offered by Verizon, I was able to rent a global phone for less than $15, with promises that it would work in all the countries we traveled through. And yes, it did indeed work everywhere. In fact, in several cases, it was a heckuva lot cheaper to call Rob than to pay the insane Internet connection rates laughingly offered by hotels. No free hotspots or safe-looking Internet cafes to be found either. Anyway, the problem with the rented Motorola was that somewhere around Corfu, it didn’t know the correct date or time. It knew it was in Greece cuz it sent me a free text message welcoming me to Greece and telling me what the country code was to dial out (VERY cool feature!). But, as far as it was concerned, it was mid-April in an unidentifiable year and it was 10 hours later than every other clock around. A free call to Verizon tech support had me take out the battery and replace it 30 seconds later. That found the right date, but it remained 10 hours ahead of schedule until we landed in JFK. So word to the world traveler (or Motorola customer): take a back-up alarm clock.
- I need to talk to a 3rd grade teacher. Apparently they all carry around stuffed animals and take pictures of them while on vacation. Usually people assume I am carrying Piglet for my must-be-with-Daddy child. For whatever reason, everyone on this trip assumed I was a teacher – a 3rd grade teacher to be exact. If I ever decide to make that my career, apparently all I’ll need as a reference is my stack of Piglet photo albums.
- I admit it. 10 days into the trip I finally succumbed to the pressure and bought a Pashmina. It’s a lovely dark red and it will always remind me of Katakolon where I bought it. As well as Athens, Kusadasi, Santorini, Rome, the ship’s gift shop, and the Frankfurt airport where they were also available for sale. Probably PDX, too. I haven't looked.
- While standing in the hour-plus line for the gondola in Santorini, we had great fun eavesdropping on the three women strangers behind us realizing common New Jersey roots. One of them commented rather proudly that she prefers to dress “internationally,” no doubt making her the envy at her local Kings supermarket. Hopeful that “dressing internationally” included wearing a dark red Pashmina, I turned around and saw that no, it meant wearing gold faux-leather gladiator sandals, dangly silver earrings twisted into the shape of a generic Greek god, and a bracelet of turquoise eyes that we saw EVERYWHERE and eventually concluded was some cheesy tourist ploy having something to do with warding off evil spirits.
- Did something happen to the world economy while we were on the Lido Deck? Yowsa! I’m even more grateful now that the final bill for the trip came last July. Good news, though: my Euro souvenirs were a lot cheaper at the end of the trip than in the beginning.
- We ended up not buying the $24.95 portrait of Piglet that the sport of a photographer took on our ship’s second Formal Night. Although Piglet had a spectacular faux-sunset behind him as the photo was taken, the photo itself only showed the black stool he was sitting on and an equally black faux ship part. D’oh!
- In both Venice and Santorini we happened to see a most interesting slice of daily life: garbage pick-up. In Venice, a small boat wandered through the canals and made stops so a guy could hop out and grab the plastic grocery bags of garbage people left hanging on their front door knobs. Judging from the size of the bags, either the pick-up is daily or the Venetians are impressive recyclers. In Santorini, the bags were much bigger. Method of pick-up: donkey. A man and his donkey slowly walked the alleys of Oia. The man gathered up large Heftys and strapped them over the shoulders of the donkey. We didn't observe the entire route but I do now completely understand the phrase Beast of Burden.
- The only people who wear those Greek fisherman hats are tourists. And one exceptionally large Greek man selling potatoes in Mykonos. And one exceptionally proud Greek man who had no business wearing that electric blue Speedo.
- Since I am a tight-wad, I refused to pay $2 for a Diet Coke while on the cruise ship. Instead, I stuck to the free water and iced tea. But, by the time we got to Rome, I was craving my NutraSweet-ness and impulsively bought a bottle of my addiction from a sidewalk vendor near the Vatican. Surely it would be much cheaper than on the cruise ship. Holy God! My pride of Atlanta cost me 3.5 Euros, which was about $5 at the time. Five bucks for a bottle of Diet Coke! Makes the soda at movie theaters seem like a bargain. I should have gotten a glass of wine instead; it’s cheaper than Diet Coke in Italy. Another reason to love Italy.
- And yet another reason to love Italy: their footwear. I started trying to covertly take pictures of people’s shoes but few turned out. All the women – of all ages – had the most fabulous leather boots. Jeans tucked inside, they looked much more chic and stylish and much less 1985-with-a-hair-wall-and-bangle-bracelets. Two more days in Italy and a few points up on the Dow and I would have been sportin’ a pair of my own when Rob met me at PDX. Instead, he was greeted by Piglet wearing a gondolier hat.
- In addition to the boots, I also loved the Italian eyewear. Way more trendy and hipster than Ms. Palin’s. However, one fashion statement I just couldn’t get behind was men wearing light brown dress shoes with black pants. It just looked wrong. At first I thought it was just one clueless guy who was trying to match his brown attaché. Instead, it really did seem to be an Italian way to dress. I suddenly had to rethink my fashion faux-pas opinion of an acquaintance near Woodhaven who usually has brown shoes with his dark suits. Silly me – he’s just dressing internationally!
- We were told that it took over 20 years for an additional subway line to be built in Rome. Everywhere they dug, there was yet another ancient ruin that had to be identified, categorized, and put in a museum somewhere. Good thing all those “all roads” where built when they were!
- I love to visit grocery stores in foreign countries. It is so much fun to see familiar items with unfamiliar words on them. And to see what is important to a culture. Heavily stocked on this trip: olives, olive oil, cheeses, and pastas. Mom was stunned to find a bar of Camay soap in a store in Mykonos. She hasn’t seen that in the US in years. But, even more fun than a grocery store: 1 Euro Village! Walking back to our hotel in Rome, we happened to notice this small version of Dollar Tree. We wandered in and had a fantastic time oohing and ahhing over the great selection of stationery, lotions, and flower pots. Mom bought some lemon-scented soap. I bought a refrigerator magnet of a chicken. Nothing Rome-y about the chicken; it just made me laugh. Meanwhile, I’m sure the nice saleswoman in 1 Euro Village with limited English is still feeling very sad about the apparent lack of shopping options in the US. She seemed stunned by how much fun we were having – and was utterly confused when Mom asked if she could take photos of the store.
No comments:
Post a Comment