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Published: October 10th 2016
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It has been probably the most crazy few weeks of my time out at sea so far. I spent a 10 day cruise with my girlfriend Adina onboard, signed off in Athens, flew to Sydney, and joined the Radiance of the Seas. We’re on the way out to New Caledonia at the moment – honestly it’s not a place I had even heard of but it’s an overseas French Territory which should be nice.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The cruise with Adina was fantastic, it was a busy week but well worth it. We got off the ship for my first time in Mykonos. Usually we are tied up at a pier, but a bigger ship was in port with us so they took priority. Usually having to deal with tenders and everything is kind of a pain – but in the case of Mykonos the tenders drop you off right in the town as opposed to being a couple km out at the pier. Mykonos Town is the picturesque Greek town; lots of domed churches, little streets and paths, and bright colours in a white washed town. We also found the town mascot – Petros the Pelican,
I had read about him but would have thought it was just a figurehead type of thing with lots of Pelicans around. But actually there’s just one Pelican who hangs out in the city. Some greek food in our bellies we headed back to the ship.
We also got off the ship in Kusadasi and Messina – both of these places I had been before and were more about just getting off the ship and spending time with Adina. Plus I bought some spices and some Turkish delight in Kusadasi – the spices didn’t even get taken away despite the very strict customs laws in Australia.
I had hoped that signing off in Athens was going to be great. I had found out that I would be able to get off the ship by 9am which was awesome as I could then drop off my things at the hotel and go sightseeing. I had always wanted to go to the Acropolis but something seemed to always be in the way – and having 36 hours to kill in Athens seemed like the best plan for the Acropolis, not having to worry about the time, or the ship leaving
Adina and I
We asked a guy to take our photo - he kept snapping after we had posed and this was by far the best one. me behind, or anything like that. But sign off day was a little more difficult – there was some customs backlog and I didn’t get off the ship until 4:30 and ultimately wasn’t cleared for customs and able to leave the Terminal until 7, an hour after the ship had left mind you. So if there was a customs issue and I wasn’t cleared I think the Greeks were SOL. Anyways my plan B was to get up early and go to the Acropolis in the morning – this plan failed as the agency wasn’t interested in making multiple trips to the airport and I had to go really early in the morning even though my flight was at 2pm. I ended up being at the airport 4 hours before my flight and having to wait with the taxi driver who was holding my passport all the way until passport control as per some Greek customs rule.
Eventually after flying for 20 hours I landed in Sydney – the next morning I boarded the Radiance of the Seas. So that’s where I leave you. We have a couple cruises to some south pacific islands, a long circumnavigation of Australia
which also has stops in New Zealand, and then a cruise which goes all the way to Fiji and Tonga before I sign off in Auckland. Today is the best hump day every as I’m essentially half way through this contract now. I haven’t spent this much time away from home in a row since 2011, and I wasn’t involved in a relationship then. But this will pay off with being closer to home in the long run. With that - the next blog should be chock full of life in the Southern Hemisphere. Stay Tuned!
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