Episode 4 – the Greeks never left – Mykonos

The island of Mykonos is famous for its windmill and nice beaches. The houses are all painted in white as it is the only color allowed by law. There are not much vegetable on the island and the boat is the best vehicle to reach other ports and islands.

It was a quiet village and the whole island is supported by tourist trade. We walked around the town and visited the little boutiques. Upon one of them, a lady came out and spoke to us in English. As the conversation developed, we discovered she was a Western alumnus who graduated around the same year as me. She was born in London, Ontario. She visited the island of Mykonos and met her husband and they stayed on the island and opened a souvenir shop. It was a wonderful feeling and we enjoyed it thoroughly. While the conversation was carrying on, a customer closed by heard our conversation and she confessed she was also a Western alumnus a few years of our senior. That also called for more celebration and we walked out of that shop with a whole load of fragrance soap. There were extra pieces in the deal and yet we questioned did we need that much soap? It is still an unknown whether we go a good deal or we got taken.

Mykonos has wonderful sunshine and it would produce extremely useful solar power for its inhabitants. But there were very little use of solar panels.

We met an old lady who put a water dish by the wall. She gestured to me that was for the cats. Greek people believed in pets, especially cats and dogs. 

Episode 3 kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

The Turkish people inherited the buildings built by the Greeks. The theatres, multi-usage forum, the library, all bore the Greek influence. There were a lot of copycats around in the old days. Who copied whom was unknown but everybody claimed their stuff was the best. Such were human nature.

At one gate there was a human head carved at the epic. Some archaeologist claimed it was the head of Medusa, the lady who could turn everything into stone if you dared to look at her face front. Then a few years later, another archaeologist claimed it was the boy friend of Emperor Hadrian. The image was left on the gate in memory of the boy friend. I totally agreed with the later. Anything scandalous will produce juicy stories that people love to hear. We should support this commercialism totally.

All the walking around created the problem of lack of washroom facilities. There are free facilities yet there are also ones which require a small cash donation before you can use them. This becomes a royal pain since you might not have the exact change and you felt blackmailed if you have to pay too much. The best thing is to buy a bottle of water or a cup of coffee and then use the washroom. Both coffee and water would induce you frequent visit to the washrooms more. So it is the chicken or the egg scenario.

Episode 3 (cont’d) – Istanbul, Turkey

Episode 2: Back on the boat.

One poor thing about a cruise is you can get bored.

The meals were fine, the crew was polite and helpful, the passenger were at their best of behaviour at first, yet by the end of the third day, I explored the whole ship. I even found the chapel amongst the spa section. I offered to marry a couple but the chapel was rented out to some cosmetic company doing some hard-selling technique. I guess when you are on a boat, you have confined customers. It is now or never.

The food was ample and plenty and the fine dining arrangement intimidated people. There was no dress code and yet you tried to behave in a decent manner. This is culture. This is civilization. This is when you hope for some excitement. I also discovered there is a sister ship of the cruise I am on. They are identical. I went on the sister ship for a cruise before. This is double boring now.

People are creatures of habit. After a few days on the boat, you will run into the same people at the same mealtime quite frequently. You can certainly recognize them by face after a week. Our group picked the pre-scheduled mealtime. We were assigned the same team of servers, the same table, and the same location in the dining area. The good thing was, when you sat down, the servers could remember your beverage and you almost did not have to ask for it.

Episode 2 (cont’d) – Greece / Athens

Venice (cont’d)

I had been to Venice before and that was the time when the world did not face too much economic hardship. This time seemed different. There was not much of energy around the city. The tourist crowd grew bigger. The line-up got bigger. St. Mark square got smaller. There were cleaning and renovating everywhere. There was scaffolding surround the tower and other parts of the building. The crowd was big and the bridges all got tourist on them taking pictures. It was quite different from the more reasonable and quiet days of the past. This is the sign of getting old when you are afraid of the noise. It is the same parable that you looked younger of your age because you ignored any thinking.

Dennis and family were with us and we did our usual tourist thing.

I also came here to finish a dream. My wife wanted to take a ride on the gondola. The 5 of us stepped on the boat after hard negotiation on the price by Dennis with the gondolier. This man was rather fluent in English and he explained to us the different points of interest. Venice is filled with waterways and it will be nice if you have a boat of your own. The nooks and crannies hid some of the beautiful hotels. The quiet water and the architecture formed interesting contrasts under the golden sun. We were going through the back of some of the buildings and the occasional balcony filled with flowers offered this moment of peace and tranquility for you to enjoy. If you talked to the gondolier nicely, he might sing you a song. Let it be a quiet and romantic one. You do not want the quietness to be invaded. Every time you turn the corner there was a new scene in front of you. Some of the waterways are quite narrow and you could literally talk with the people living in the houses. They waved, you waved, “Ciao, Averradecci”,

I came here for a purpose. I wanted to find the spot where James Bond was watching the tape on a boat in “From Russia with Love”. Of course there is no James Bond, but I heard a Charlie Bond was living well here.

Evening approached and it was time for dinner. We were to meet with Eric and Judy (Dennis’ younger brother) for dinner. Maria reserved a table in a close-by restaurant. The seats were lined up by the landing patio of the restaurant. You can watch the water padding the pier while you are eating. When night falls, the candles were lit up and it really looks like you are sitting amongst the stars. It was a wonderful place yet it is just around the corner of a very famous bridge. The food was good and I got intoxicated by the ambience and good company. Viva la Vida!

Episode 1 – Venice all aboard

The flight was nothing to write home about. The flight was delayed. Air Canada is famous for this. The delay might actually cause some inconvenience as we have to catch the connecting in Frankfurt. Frankfurt airport is under renovation now and the walk from one end of the airport to the other end is a task you might not be able to finish within 1 hour since there are security checks you have to go through. Since you have to get your boarding pass again, it is well advised you should go directly to the gate and obtain your boarding pass there.

Fortunately, the pilot of our plane made up the loss of time and we did not have to face the stressful situation. Once you enter the EU (European Union) countries, you can pretty well fly from one country to another just like a domestic flight. How wonderful this is. You can land in London, get on a plane, go to Milan, do your shopping and back to Paris for dinner within a day. That is living!

Our flight to Venice is just a simple plane ride. Lufthansa is so punctual with their time that it is not even funny. The Venice airport is actually small but there is an information desk right by the entrance door that you can ask for maps and bus routes. Patience is the virtue here. There are massive people waiting in line to get the information they need and the poor receptionist is trying to contend with different languages. If you want observe how the human mind works, here is the place. Here you can see people talking in 5, 6 languages at the same time. It is a miracle they never get their words mixed up. You would hope for a universal language by then.

We waited in line and got our bus tickets. We went outside the airport to the waiting area and it was crowded beyond belief. There were also people trying to sell private bus tickets. The bus fare is almost twice as the public transit and both of them travelled the exact same route. There is 1 exception, the private bus is green and our bus is yellow. It took 30 minutes or so to arrive at the dock. I was falling asleep by then.

Venice is a patch of marsh land. It is easier to get around by boat – water taxi – as they call it. The bus ride was alright except the bus driver was a nascar driver in his previous life. He huffed and he puffed and he put the pedal to the metal. Even the wino on the bus was woken up by the turbulence. He got up and he swore in Italian to the driver since he almost missed his stop and of course, being a friendly person, the bus driver responded with equal intensity. That was my warm reception on Italian soil.

Place de Roma is a place that everyone goes to find their bus. It is crowded and chaotic. The cruise line promised complimentary shuttle service from the piazza to the ship but the shuttle bus could not be found. There were lines of people all waiting for something. We found a driver who initially spoke some English, but when he discovered we were waiting for the shuttle service and would not hire his taxi, he spoke only Italian and no “Inglisse” We found our way to the ship by walking. Try dragging 2 pieces of luggage on a hot summer afternoon on a busy hi way for 20 minutes arriving at the wrong gate and we had to start all over again, was not my idea of a vacation. I got the feeling; my wife and I are travelling like our younger days when nothing is impossible. It was a warm feeling though. My heart was jumping out of my chest when we arrived at the boat. I did not care if the young Italian woman kept winking at me. I must look ridiculous enough she wanted to recruit me for the circus.

The boat did not have enough staff of their own so they hired local help. The young Italian men and women could only speak some English and they were not much help when you want details. The local help was not trained well enough and our questions were passed back and forth between the associates, supervisors and higher level administrators. Frankly, they know beans what was going on and neither did we.

While we were waiting in line for the processing, I walked along the hall and I found Dennis waiting in line with his lovely wife Maria and their son Roger. It was an exhilarating moment. We found each other again. The trip to Provence was shared with Dennis and Maria. This must be the continuation of our journey together.

We deposited our belonging in our cabin and we were out to explore Venice with Dennis and family.

Episode 0 (The Start)

Mediterranean is the offspring of many cultures and Greece is certainly a brilliant example of such a culture. Greece is a composition of over a hundred islands and they have their own characteristics.

The Greeks give us white sand and blue water which is included on their national flag. The Greeks give us the start of democracy which the Romans picked up and developed into a more complete system. The Greeks give us mythology where we can put our heads into adventures and dreams. The Greeks also give us science; architecture, social structure and the realization of man and god are almost the same as one.

All these wonderful things are waiting to be explored. One day out of the blue, I received a phone call from Dennis and he asked if I and my wife would be interested to go on a cruise ship and travel the Mediterranean and Europe with them. There will be 4 couples, all WYK boys, could keep company and visit Greece, Turkey, Italy, Monte Carlo, and finally Spain. The conversation started with me and yet it turned into decision making by the wives. This is a natural course of doing things and no one is going to be bold enough to voice any opposition. I think the Greeks also allow female votes and eventually the men stood in front and the women pulled the strings at the back. This is when the wisest saying of “I know nothing” came about. i non sanno niente. Gentlemen, please do not be-small these simple words for they are the back ground and foundation of everything. The wisdom cemented happy marriage, absolute tranquil life, reduction of noise level and most importantly, this is our fortified shield against everything. You will work less if you know nothing. You will put out less money if you know nothing. I can go on forever with the benefits of knowing nothing.

At the terminal and boarding the ship

Decision was made, money was paid and we are on our way to a cruise. The members in the group were Dr. Dennis Leung and spouse with son, class 64, Eric Leung and spouse, class 65, Danny Ngan and spouse, class 64, and moi (the person who knows nothing) class 64. The good doctor travelled with me to Provence in 2008 and we had a lot of fun. While I know nothing, the good doctor knows everything.