I am not an Olympian

Once we got on board the ship, we decided the safest and most effective way of seeing everything there was to see would be to book excursions. I was mostly worried that we would somehow manage to miss the boat if we were out wandering on our own, and I guess Melissa and Steph were as well because we decided to do excursions in Katakolon/Olympia, Izmir, Istanbul, and Venice! Our first stop was in Katakolon, Greece.

The excursion we booked was called "Olympia and Shopping." Perfect, right? Guided tour of the ruins/historical site and then they drop us off at a shopping mall basically built for cruise ship customers (they also had deals because we came with the excursion rather than by ourselves, although everything was still greatly overpriced). Olympia was BEAUTIFUL. The weather had said it was going to be in the 70s, so the three of us decided to wear shorts! Bad idea. It may have been warm, but it was pouring rain outside! We had hoped it would stop on our half hour long bus ride to Olympia, but of course it didn't so if we look soaking wet in the pictures it's because we were.

Olympia is the site of the first Olympic Games. It was pretty crazy just being there, but everyone was even more excited because it was an Olympic year. We made friends with a nice British couple from Manchester who were also in our excursion group and also unfortunately forgot their rain coats and umbrellas. Being drenched was a bonding experience, I suppose. As we walked through the ruins, the rain let up a bit, but we were still wet so I suppose it didn't really matter. We saw a lot of things, including where they lit the first Olympic torch and Zeus' Temple. It was pretty awesome. I have learned that I have a deep appreciation for history and ancient things, at least, more so than other people. I just wanted to run around in the ruins all day long! We basically left our tour group (our guide was excruciatingly boring and talked for far too long) and just explored the ruins ourselves. This worked out nicely until one of the guards with a whistle whistled at me to get off the rocks in front of Zeus' Temple. SORRY, SIR. Anyway, right outside the "Main Section" of the ruins, I suppose you would call it, was the Olympic track!! Like, the track that the first Olympians actually ran on. Of course, bazillions of tourists have also now ran on said track, but still. Even though I despise running, even I took my stance and ran the track. The tour guide was very convincing ("How many people do you know have run an Olympic track? Let alone the FIRST Olympic track? Not many! Now you can brag! You will not forget! Don't fall in the mud!") and so I went for it. I was mostly afraid of slipping and falling in the mud, a la the five year old that ran it at the same time I did. "It happens" - wise words from our tour guide.

yes, people loved THIS beauty

We left Olympia and took the bus back to Katakolon for some shopping. At this point, it had stopped raining for the most part. Unfortunately, this was just the calm before the storm. As we stepped off the bus it started thunder storming. The store owners lowered their awnings to try and shield us from the rain, but at that point it was basically worthless. I wandered through the stores because there was nothing else to do, and I even got suckered into buying a few things. The Greek shopkeepers are mostly old men who like to compliment you into buying things. Obviously, when someone tells me I have the most beautiful eyes they've seen all day and another that they've been waiting their whole life for something as beautiful as me to walk into their shop, I am going to buy something from them. Especially when they give me a nice discount on their already-overpriced things. One of them (the beautiful eyes man) even tied a bracelet on me and practically demanded I buy it because it just "goes so perfectly with your skintone." I bought it. And then the bus came and we headed back to the boat!

It was around 2 or 3 when we got back on board, and we were starving for lunch. Of course, so was half the ship. The buffet was crazy crowded, and I ended up staring down an old couple as they finished their drinks and I had to fight off two other families to get a table. But we ended up with the table, so whatever works, right? After lunch, we went back to the room and watched the excursion channel to get a preview of Izmir, our next port. It was also the Captain's Gala, which meant formal dinner! Melissa decided to take a whack at curling my hair, which worked, and then we headed down to dinner. I had carrot and broccoli flan (NOT good), Greek salad (because apparently I prefer salad to pasta now), and filet mignon!! It was probably one of my favorite meals, aside from the flan. For dessert I had some chocolate gelato. After dinner, we had our pictures taken with the Captain and then watched the show which consisted of some circus freaks, basically. There were three guys who all stood on top of each other and a contortionist girl who could balance by biting on some stick thing. It was cool to watch, but I was also frightened for everyone's safety. There was also an unfortunate singer who butchered When You Believe which was sad because I love that song. We also met a nice Swedish lady who was sitting next to us (she will come into play later, I promise). After that, we checked out our photos from the Photo Gallery and then headed off to bed!

Next up: Turkey! Izmir/Ephesus and Istanbul!