Ionian Sea Day

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Geo: 36.492, 21.286

Ionian Sea DayToday was only one of two sea days we will enjoy on this cruise as it is a port intensive itinerary. Today we spent 90% of the day in the Ionian Sea and as I type this now, around 11pm at night, we are in the Sea of Crete (North) headed up to the Agean Sea. This sea day has been peaceful and good and muchly needed. Kamie and I both fell asleep last night at a decent hour (I believe). I had taken a long, hot, steamy shower, drank a hot decaf peppermint tea (sooo good) and the ever-wonderful Dristan Cold Medicine. I was out at around midnight and slept all the way until nearly 9 am this morning! YAY! Of course, we woke-up and realized the ship gained an hour overnight so it was nearly 10 am. Kamie had already picked-up breakfast on the Lido deck before I was awake so I got some fresh cantaloupe, some raisin french toast, and orange juice. I ate and quickly walked to the main lounge to hear the port information speech the cruise director was giving about our upcoming ports. I like our cruise director. He is hilarious! There was a lady in the front row sitting alone. He asked her to move over a few seats and set with a guy alone. He then called her sleeping husband in the cabin and told him if he could make it to the lounge in 10 minutes, he would win $500! A few minutes later the husband ran into the lounge, breathless, with hundreds of people busting-up laughing at him and the cruise director proceeded to explain to the breathless man that he simply called him because his wife was trying to sit by another man! The crowd went wild! It was hilarious! The guy later got the cruise director back and they did win some prizes for putting-up with his hijinks so all was well. Kamie chose to read on our balcony and skipped the port information talk which was really informative and I liked it. Today I learned some bad things about Greece like... there are "moped bandits" in Greece that speed past tourists and rip their purses from their arms and even watches from their wrists and that Greece is famous for the "bait and switch" purchase where you pay 50 Euros for an amazing item only to return to your cabin and unwrap/open your box and find sand inside. For the good side of Greece... I learned the Parthenon is one of the seven wonders of the world - which I did not know. All in all, I learned lots of neat information for tomorrow's port and for our other upcoming ports. After the fun port lecture I returned to our cabin and decided I was going to take advantage of our sea day and get some muchly needed rest. I took another dose of Dristan Cold and slept from around 1:30pm today until neary 5:30pm! I needed it! I feel wayyyyyyyyy better now!! Thank Goodness! People were starting to look at me funny in the elevators and say things like "I hope you have a nice evening" and then tilt their head in sympathy. Odd, really. I suppose they thought I had been crying all day or I was half-way drunk because my eyes were watery & blood shot and my nose was constantly running and I was carrying tissues everywhere sniffling every two or three minutes. Geez Louise. I just wanted to scream "I can't breathe!" but my voice was too hoarse and I was afraid to breathe on other people. Finally, I have a bit of a cough left and some snot still stuck in my nostrils somewhere, I'm sure.. but I can breathe again and I am on the uphill climb to feeling much better! Tonight was formal night on the ship. I was excited because I had purchased a new dress I am in love with and Kamie has a matching top and his new black Croatian tie. We had pictures taken all over the ship with different backgrounds in our spiffy clothes. It's free to have pictures taken and then they post them on boards on deck 3 and if you want one, they are only $11.99 each. You can have them shredded or you can buy them. You sure can't buy a professional portrait like that anywhere at home. We will look at them tomorrow. Parading around in our elegant clothes...we went to dinner... for Kamie's favorite... lobster! He said the lobster was cooked perfectly. I don't like lobster so I had steak. The waiters & waitress sang "That's Amore" during dinner tonight and Kamie sang with them - hand gestures and all. It was funny. We walked the ship for a little bit after dinner and it was beautiful to see everyone in their formal attire! There were singers in every lounge or hallway or open atrium singing anything from Desperado to Jimmy Buffet, all laid-back and slow music. It was a lovely evening.O... one other note... we had to surrender our passports to Carnival tonight. Our passports will be stamped by Greece authorities and returned to us sometime before we visit Sicily. Which means, oddly enough, we will not have our passports on us when we visit Turkey. This does not make sense to me as we are required to have a Visa to visit Turkey (2 days from now) and according to the port lecture talk, the Turkish authorities will want to see our passport and our Visa prior to entering/exiting their country. Well, no worries tomorrow because tomorrow we are off to visit... THE PORCH OF MAIDENS AT THE PARTHENON IN ATHENS, GREECE!!! Yay!!!

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Photos

Chocolate Cake from room service
Mona ~ this picture is for you! LOL