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

The Greek architecture clearly favoured pre-Roman times. They were more rustic than the Romans in many ways. The choice of materials was less refined yet they possessed this solemn stature and stood there like giants guarding their infinite wisdom. The Greeks offered a lot of concepts which we inherited till this day and we have to be thankful to such advance thinkers.
 
Greece is in trouble with its economy and they claimed it was the wrong doing of corrupted politicians. Money had been missing from the treasury. Unemployment is high and yet inflation stays. The younger generation gets angry and yet there is no appropriate solution. There remains a chance that the young people might have to suffer more in debt and hardship before any hope can prevail.

The crowd was many. Tourists were plenty. We went through the usual tourist designations and all protruded was grandness and amazement.

We had the taste of Greek salad. It was made with some tomato and lettuce and feta cheese and olives, tossed with olive oil and vinegar. We ran out of time and we watched the server going berserk serving an invading horde of tourists. He tried. I think he must be saying prayers to Zeus and Athena every night that let all tourists perish with Jason and the Argonauts. Just a reminder, when things go wrong, always claim you are a Japanese tourist.