An Undisclosed Location

Date: 6-7-2010

Location: I'm not telling except that it is a lovely island.

As you can guess, I managed to get an adapter so I'm back up and rolling. Here is a quick rundown of happenings. Let me preface this post by saying that against my better judgement much of this is going to sound like a travelogue... so this may be one of my duller posts and not so College focused. But there are pictures (but none with cadets in them for parents who are reading this)!

After we arrived in Athens, I took leave early in the day and went into the city by myself using the metro. The walk to the subway was rather long, but I think it was closer than Malaga. I landed at the Monastratiki stop and looked up to see the famed Acropolis of Athens.

After wandering up and up and up I found the way in an encountered huge crowds among which I found the SUNY Maritime tour group. They really stand out cause they are the only people in the city who wear ballcaps.

I spoke to a few of them and they were really impressed not only by the ruins, but also by the view of the city...

As well as the dogs that sleep on the steps up to the Acropolis...

After parting ways, I kept on running into our people. This was in part because it was Sunday, and even though there were many tourists, we still had a large concentration of them.

I spent the day wandering the streets, ruins, and tried to find the English language bookstore to by magazines for the library (it was closed). I also went among Roman ruins and found a partial statue of Hadrian, my favorite Roman emperor (everybody has to have a favorite Roman emperor) and then returned to the ship at about 5pm.

After this, I took off for my "undisclosed location" where I am staying until tomorrow. But to give you an idea, I'm on a very quiet island that is about an hour by hydrofoil from Piraeaus... oh ok... I'm on the island of Agristi. I felt the need to check out more of these islands. So I checked into to this nice inn that has fantastic views of the Saronic Gulf...

Today, I visited the island of Aegina in the morning where I saw the Temple of Aphaia, which are very well-preserved Doric ruins...

Also, the view from up there is amazing...

And here is a pic of Aegina town...

And two more photos from where I am staying tonight...

So tomorrow I shall be returning to the ship and then my plan is to visit a couple of museums since they are open a bit later. After that, I can resume in my "sordid" expose of life and times on the Empire State VI!

I also would say that doing tourist-type activity on a Monday is great since there are less crowds. At the Temple of Aphaia, as an extreme example, there were only two other people there with me.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

Joe