Vacation Notes 2015: September 13th, Port of Katakoton, Greece

Captain’s Log: Cruise Day 12, September 13, Sunday.

It's a late arrival today. We pull into the Port of Katakoton, Greece around 10:00am. This allows for a much appreciated sleep-in and a leisurely breakfast.

The wife, the daughter, and I were among the first to exit the ship. We didn’t have any definite plans for the day but we did have bathing suits.

 

The primary draw of Katakolon is its proximity to Olympia, official sponsor of the first Olympic games -- from a time before you had to pay money to be a sponsor. We’d already opted out of cruise-sanctioned excursions to Olympia. What they all had in common was that they abandoned you for two hours. Olympia appears to be beautiful region, but it’s mostly open fields, so an excursion means standing around in 90-plus degree heat with few places to duck the sun. For a moment we thought we might do this on our own.

We walked into town straight into the first of many car rental agencies in Katakoton. But we were torn between renting a car, and visiting the town, so we delayed making a decision.

It appears that Katakolon exists primarily to provide a stopping-off place for cruise ships. The town is awash in taverns, cafes and tourist shops. They offer genuine Greek food, genuine Greek souvenirs, and genuine German beer trains. There is no evidence of shops that might be frequented by normal residents. We didn’t see any bakeries or butcheries or fresh produceries.

Still the shops are pleasant. Most feature a sidewalk hawker hoping to lure shoppers into their store. Often this person is a pretty young woman or a handsome Greek gentlemen ripped from the pages of GQ.

Naturally, we stopped in a few of these places, mostly in search of a dress for Daughter, and naturally, we made the usual number of unplanned purchases along the way.

At one of our final stops, the shopkeeper, taking notice that we were walking around with swimsuits hanging out of our bags, suggested we visit a nearby beach. It was only 100 meters past the main square/train station.

We walked the 100 meters, until we arrived at the "Marina Fresh Fish"

"Marina Fresh Fish" offered free Wi-Fi, free sun beds, which we typically refer to as beach chairs, free umbrellas and free canoe games. I'm not exactly sure what canoe games means, but there were a couple of inflatable devices at our disposal.

We grabbed an empty station--three chairs and an umbrella--and readied ourselves for a dip in the Aegean Sea.

The beach was sandy, maybe not natural, as most of the underfoot in this region seems to be rock, but it was much appreciated. The water was clear as far down as we could see, which was as far as light could penetrate, which was no less than 6 feet and almost certainly more.

 

The water was warm, not quite spa temperatures, but certainly as warm as the tail-end of a hot bath.

Prior to stepping into the sea I'd wisely ordered a beer for myself and a fruit smoothie for Daughter. The bartender told me to go back on the beach; they’d find us. He did not take payment. I'm not sure how they kept track of us but they did. The server found us on the beach and delivered our drinks. He too did not take payment.

There’s not too much I can say at this point. When one goes in the Aegean Sea time stands still and any desire to leave is… well there is no desire to leave. Eventually, though, that big ship off in the distance started tooting its horn, and we were compelled to heed its call.

I walked to the bar to settle up. My drink was 3.5 Euro; Daughter's drink was 3.5 Euro. In typical Greek the-sticker-price-is-never-the-purchase-price math this added up to 6.5 Euro. It is apparent that price tags in this part of the world represent nothing more than starting points.

The town of Katakolon has only three streets parallel to the waterfront. This time we took the seaside route back to the ship…and as we drew closer to the dock our pace slowed. This was about to be our last moment touching land in Greece. This seemed a significant moment, so we stopped and photographed our feet just before we stepped onto the dock. Goodbye, Greece. Till we meet again.

 –  –  –

Back on board it was formal night. We dressed up such as we had: dresses for Wife and Daughter, dockers and a native Greek shirt – purchased in Santorini – for me. We went to dine at our assigned table. Once again, Jims and Fiona were there to help us dissect the day.

Wife and Fiona indulged in the new-found practice of ordering multiple deserts.

After diner, the wife and I took a walk around the upper deck. Daughter did her usual teen-event thing.

After our upper-deck walk we headed to the Ballroom Theatre early in order to get a seat for the much anticipated big production they called Piano Man.

Unfortunately, whatever technical problems plagued the originally scheduled production returned for tonight's production. As a result the Piano Man show was replaced by a comic juggler. No offense to comic jugglers, but we took a pass.

We stopped to collect Daughter, but it was too early to call it a night. Seeking an alternative form of amusement we headed to the Last Dance ballroom to watch some Karaoke. To gain entry to the "Last Dance" we had to pass through the Schooner bar, and it was there that Daughter noticed the Green Bay/Chicago football game on the TV – without sound. She and Wife took a seat hoping to see some Seahawks highlights. Eventually, Daughter realized she might be able to hear the game from the glowing panel in our room, so we were persuaded to head back.

 

When the game was over – sad day for the Hawks – the wife and I renewed our Karaoke trek.

As we entered the room we noticed that, except for the DJ, the room was empty. Emboldened by this emptiness Wife picked up the songbook and started browsing. While we browsed, some Karaoke regulars – Ron, Yvonne, and Yolanda – made an entrance. Soon the singing began.

Wife finally settled on "Sloop John B." by the Beach Boys. She recruited me and Ron to sing along. Yvonne also joined us to help with girl parts. Yolanda played the part of the audience.

A few more people filtered in, and the singing continued, until… At some predetermined hour Karaoke ended and a take-off on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" that they called "Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire" began. Wife was the first contestant. She answered all the questions, earning herself a bottle of champagne, a Royal Caribbean backpack, a Royal Caribbean hat, a Royal Caribbean multi-color pen, a Royal Caribbean highlighter, Royal Caribbean luggage tags, Royal Caribbean zipper clips and a Royal Caribbean keychain. She donated the champagne to the audience member who’d helped her answer a question about the weight of a Royal Caribbean cruise liner.

After the show we scoured the ship for the usual coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies before calling it a night in our cabin.

My wife has stolen a page from the Dan Post Crazy-Ass-School-of-Medicine and has been attempting to counter future jet-lag with Jedi mind tricks, and plans to stay up all night and sleep during the day. She has clients the morning after we return home. That should be fun. My advice to her was to use the old Marx Brothers trick of painting eyeballs on your eyelids.

Tomorrow is a day at sea. We should arrive in Rome, technically the Port of Civitavecchia, around 5:00am. Our return flight from Rome is 11:00am. There should be plenty of time to sleep on the plane.

Uh-huh.