Yasis y’all! (That’s my Greek-Southern blend),
This morning, I looked forward to a sunrise while arriving in Athens' port city, Piraeas. Luckily, I was well rested and ready to get up about 6:30 am when we were pulling in. The sunrise out my porthole was so beautiful and I was really excited to see Greece for the first time! I laid in bed and watched the water and scenery and a Beyonce' concert on our weird crew TV (it's like a stock of programming that plays all day on repeat and changes the next morning).
I got up and headed to breakfast at 8 out on The Garden Cafe' deck (the buffet). Breakfast has gotten amazing with my discovery of the grapefruit station tucked around a corner. Mmmmm makes me happy like this!!
The smell of exhuast somewhat tainted my first experience in the harbor, but I tried to ignore it and just relax and enjoy. The deep breathing was put on pause, needless to say....
I hit the jogging track after breakfast for a brisk walk in the morning air. It's on deck 13 and is really great becaues it's all outside around the edge of the ship. I walked for a mile on there and then went back to my room to get some things ready for the day. We have a show tonight - a 70s revue called "Get Down Tonight", and our tech rehearsal is at 10 am. Our PM (production mgr.) is trying to get us out early so we can get off the boat and see Athens for a few hours. The crew can't leave until all the guests are gone anyway, which usually takes 2-3 hours after clearance at the port. We only were cleared at 9 am, so we've got a while to go. I'm looking forward to my first visit to sort of just take it all in, hit the downtown areas and leave the ruins for the next trip.
Tech rehearsal for "Get Down Tonight" was pretty awesome! Even though last night's was really good, the concept was a little eh... but I love me some 70s music and was impressed that it was not just a run of the mill disco show. There was R&B, Classic Rock, TV Theme Songs and yes, even Karen Carpenter! YEAH! I was dancing in my seat, trying to remember to take notes and listen to Scott's directions. He said it's a really easy show to dress and he's even had to do it without asst. dressers on a couple of occasions, which is slightly scary, but good to know it can be done without too much stress.
This show is also different and really dynamic because the band is on stage with the cast the whole time, mostly in the back, but seen and they do interact on a couple numbers (on "25 or 624", the horns come downstage and do some mean solos...if you know me, you know that kind of made my week to see them jam out to a personal fave :) ). There's also a great "Soul Train"-esque motif in the set design and an elevated walkway that creates some great levels in the performance. All of those things made the tech really entertaining in and of itself to watch.
After tech, I went out to The Garden Cafe' Deck and read up on Greece a little and had some lunch. I ran into one of the dancers and the doctor on board and the dancer and I made plans to go off the ship together and explore for a little while. Eric a ship show veteran and makes his permanent home in Miami. So we went out for a few hours and didn't quite make it to Athens... we finally got out of the HUGE port marina area and found the subway, which runs right into Athens (we were about 30 minutes outside of the city). We made our way on to the correct train with some help from the ticket clerk, but got really confused when the train only went one stop forward and went back to Piraeus! There was some announement in Greek and we were pretty confused. After all that, we decided Athens just wasn't in the cards for us today. There is a 48-hour worker strike planned to start tomorrow in Athens and there was rumblings of an early start. Perhaps that's what prevented us from making it to our destination. It turns out we had an awesome time in the very busy, crowded, and exciting port city! It reminded me very much of Canal Street in Manhattan, with lots of knock-off shops, cafe's, and travelers.
There were tons of motorcycles and SmartCar-sized autos FLYING through the packed streets. Everywhere smelled of exhaust, ew. The Greek people were all beautiful as to be expected, so there was plenty of sightseeing done, despite our stunted trip! Good thing is, I'll be back in Athens one a week for the next 7 weeks, so hopefully I'll have ample opportunity to see lots of the city, it's historical sites, modern culture, and more beautiful people.
Oh, and most importantly, I got to check out a GREAT bakery, which if you know me, you know I adore! I got this incredible round, sort of sweet pastry that was covered in sesame seeds and stuffed with sort of a sweet ricotta-type filling. I'll be getting that again for sure!
“Get Down Tonight” ended up being a great show – the changes are a little easier than “Colorz” or maybe just more spread out, so no worries there. After a long, long day ashore and the show, I went up to the Library, my hideout, and caught up on some blogging and was able to get online! Yay! So you’ll start to see these all appear very soon. Night night mes amis!
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