Olympia, Corfu, and Split

It's our last full day on the ship and it's hard to believe the trip is almost over! I think it's because our days have been really full and so they fly by. This is the first time I've ever been on a cruise and it's been a really curious way to travel. I really like how convenient things are. I can leave the room with nothing more than my room key (SeaPass, as they call it) and find food, coffee, souvenirs, books, you name it. Unlike staying in a hostel, this is absolutely like staying in a floating hotel. I can call for cookies at 10pm, no questions asked (and have totally taken advantage of that at least twice). Dinner is a multi-course, linen table cloth, silverware laden affair (which is quite a nice change from my good but repetitious dinners of penne with pesto). I don't have to pay for towels or wear shower shoes or wonder about the 12 other people in my mixed dorm. It's also a study in efficiency (I blame my productions class for even making me think like that). I mean think of it...hundreds of staff, thousands of guests, food available practically all day, dozens of daily shore excursions, bingo, a casino, nightly shows...it's just amazing to think of how spot on they have to be in terms of forecasting what they need and figuring out where they'll store it. I want to ask half the staff I see questions about that sort of thing, but I imagine they hear them all the time and get sick of answering. Speaking of staff, that aspect fascinates me, too. How do you decide one day that you want to spend at least 6 months at a time on a boat with a few hundred other workers, all of whom have basially the English language in common (as a second language, that is). I think it'd be pretty cool, though...you'd have friends from literally all over the world! Anyways, bottom line, it's pretty great.

I suppose people might want to know what we've been up to since Mykonos, so I'll do a brief recap of that. We woke up in Katakalon, the port city for Olympia, and took a bus trip to the site of the ancient Olympics. Although a lot has been lost, archaeologists have managed to uncover enough for people to get the general gist. Our tour guide was great...she's from Amsterdam, but now lives in Greece with her husband. They met when she was only 19 and leading tours for groups that left from the hotel her now husband was managing. She chose to study Greek at university and moved there to marry him. Pretty nifty. After she dropped us off in Katakalon, we did some shopping (I got more sandals...that I definitely don't need, but shhh). By then it was almost dinner time, and we pretty much crashed after dinner.

The next day we woke up pretty early on the island of Corfu. We hopped on a bus to see the Achilleon Palace, which was a secondary residence for Elizabeth, a German princess. The palace was beautiful and had amazing views of the ocean. Our guide brought us back to the port on the bus and gave us time to explore and shop a bit. Of course I was the one who ended up buying something (again!) and got a cute sundress (no comments about how impractical it is at this time of year...). We had to set sail in the early afternoon yesterday, so it was another formal dinner night (they try to select nights when you have plenty of time to get ready for formal attire). I read quite a bit that day, which is honestly (dorkily) one of my favorite things to do. I sat out on the deck by the pool and just read and watched the port (and then the ocean as we started to sail away). I also tried to do some law school application stuff, but decided that it's vacation and I deserve a break!

Today we arrived around 8:30 in Split and quickly got off the boat to take a walking tour of the old town. Our guide was a character...the first male guide we've had all trip. He led us through the basement of this giant castle/summer residence/fortress. The entire upper part of the building is actually inhabited now by Split natives, which is pretty cool if you think about it. After our tour, Mom and Dad came back to have lunch, but I wasn't hungry so I poked around and just walked up and down as many streets as I could without getting lost. I ended up buying a few things...some shampoo from this place I first discovered in London (Lush, it's called) and then I got two little containers of lavender that was grown in the mountains outside of Split and "will smell like this for FIVE years" (or so the vendor told me...I'll let you know come 5 years from now how true that was!). The market where I bought the Croatian lavender was incredible. They had fish, meat, veggies, fruit, candy, nuts, clothes, lavender, postcards...you name it. And it was just massive. I loved how bustling it was...full mostly of native citizens and not boring tourists like me! On my way back to the ship, I kind of thought I was going crazy...first there were these insane people scuba diving in the main path of the ferries pulling in, then this man practically leaped on to a tender boat sailing away because his wife was "not well, NOT WELL," then I ended up next to a guy sporting the most intense handlebar mustache I've seen...ever. Let's just say I was happy to get back to my stateroom! This afternoon, I tried, in vain, to work on my personal statement essays (clearly I'm not to good at holding myself to the "it's vacation" mantra)...but the more I work on them, the more I hate them! I mean it's only one of the most important parts of the application aside from my test score and GPA...no pressure, right?

It's been a great trip, but I'm excited to get back "home" in Venice and have some time there. I miss all the kids in the group...not being able to walk downstairs and see them whenever I feel like hanging out is just weird! So far, no one has called or emailed me from the group, so, fingers crossed....it seems like they all survived the first break! Now it's time to plan the second...