stevenpiziks | The Cruise: The Akropolis

The next morning, we boarded a bus and drove to Athens. Athens didn't look like I'd imagined it. I knew it's a modern city, but I was expecting more of an older look to the place, like Venice. But the Athens I saw was very, very modern.

The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, and, urged on by the guide, we climbed through groves of laurel and olive trees, sacred to Apollo and Athena, respectively. We climbed and climbed. There were lots of other tourists, too. Lots and lots and lots.

When we got to the top, we found the place was packed. So many, many people. It was like visiting Disney World on a weekend. A massive queue maze was set up to handle the line. We worked our way through it. Darwin was nonplused and put off, but the Akropolis is Greek's most famous attraction, and I was expecting this. It was a bit odd, though—the stones we stood on were thousands of years old, but the queue maze was totally modern. However, it occurred to me that this was probably how it was back then, too. The Akropolis was basically a small town with several temples and other buildings. People from all over Greece visited, and they would have been standing in line with their sacrifices of cows, goats, chickens, incense, flowers, and more. It probably wasn't ever quiet or contemplative.

A set of college boys jumped the queue maze line by climbing over some rocks. The line guy caught them and made them go all the way back to the end of the line. Everyone applauded.

Finally we got into the Akropolis proper. I got to see it at last! Ruined columns and broken altars and empty stone buildings. I'm good at using my imagination to "see" what it looked like in its heyday, and I loved it. The crowds were relentless, but I managed to get some photos that made it look emptier.

And it was HOT. I had brought a safari-level sun hat with me. It's ridiculously large and, frankly, ugly. I was hesitant about using it at first, but once I stepped into full sunlight, I clapped that sucker on and I felt the difference immediately. It was like having my own portable shade tree.

When it was time to go, we threaded our way down, down, down the mountain stairs to the touristy shops at the base. We passed several street performers, and I tipped them all, including the guy holding the big sign that said I HAVE A BRAIN TUMOR.

Darwin and I browsed the shops but didn't buy—we aren't big souvenir shoppers. We did stop for some gelato, and in doing so, we broke a gelato rule: never buy brightly-colored gelato stored in big heaps in a display freezer. Such gelato is factory-made for tourists and is nowhere near the quality of the real stuff. The gelato we got was, frankly, awful. Bad texture, poor taste. I didn't know it was possible to get bad gelato, but turns out, it is. We'll never break that rule again!

At last, we were herded aboard the bus and we trundled back to the ship for showers and a delightfully AC'ed cabin.

The ship traveled all night and in the morning when we got up, we were already in port at Melitus.