Work got crazy again so we didn’t get off the ship until Santorini. And what a good choice! Sure we were on the very tourist side of the island, but it was SO incredibly beautiful!!  We had to tinder over to the island again (take the lifeboat over while docked way out in deep water).  We rode donkeys up the mountain? Hill? They smelled great and were very charming…not so much. It was more like roller-derby donkey ride. They liked to run into each other as well as the people walking up or down the steps. We passed  some of our officers in their white uniforms along the way I am certain I kicked one of them in the nuts and left a dirty streak mark of donkey hair on him. The shopping was spectacular! The cocktails were divine!!!  There is something magnificent about the Grecian sun.  I don’t know if it’s the brightness of the water or the lack of pollution it’s just different.  Not brave enough to take the donkey trail back down the hill, we took the tram…at a ridiculous angle down the hill and post cocktails.  It was new kind of adventure ride.

Athens!!!!! We went to the Acropolis. The lines were too long to IN unfortunately, but we walked around the outside. It’s grander than in my head but not as big. It’s up on the top of a hill and you have to walk through a garden/park area to get there. OF COURSE you would!!  It’s a beautiful walk!  We sat on broken ancient Greek marble columns.  Why is this weird because in the US, old stuff is put in a glass box for us to just look at.  Here’s this piece of stone that has more zeros to it’s age than I can imagine and I can just SIT ON IT???  How many have sat here before me?  Is that gross?  Is that cool?  I can’t wrap my head around it.   We visited Athens on Orthodox Easter so a lot of odd places were closed.  I had been told that there is just a pile of “ruins” randomly all over Athens.  I don’t really know what I thought this meant, but it was definitely NOT what I saw!  A street of stores, a cafe…then a massive hole in the ground with columns and alter looking things possibly covered in moss and plant life and on the far end of it?  H&M.