The Point Was Never the Heineken

 I woke up Sunday morning and walked over to the curtains and peeked out to see if it was real. Was I really in Santorini? Lo and behold I was.

The view from the ship looked very familiar as the last time I was here I sat and stared at the island all day, unable to walk off the boat. So I know this view very well.

But today will be my day. We got ready, had some room service, breakfast and coffee and then headed down to get our water shuttle tickets. It’s kind of a bummer. Sometimes either based on size of ship or the dock itself you’re unable to pull right up and walk off so you have to use water tenders, which are just smaller boats that come and get you and take you over to shore. It works fine but it’s a bummer because it takes a long time to move 4000 people through small boats. We grabbed a cappuccino and sat down in the Piazza until it was our turn to go.

The water shuttle took us right over and dropped us off and I there I was with my feet on the ground in Santorini! Then we had to wait in a decently long line to get the cable car to take us up to the top of the hill. The other options for getting up there were we could have walked something like 600 steps up a very, very steep hillside or we could’ve ridden a donkey. Now I love donkeys, but I did not want to ride one up a steep Hill.

The cable car was slightly nerve-racking for me as someone who has a fear of falling, but it was so much better than that funicular we were on somewhere in South America that I thought you know, this isn’t bad. There was a Canadian gentleman sitting next to me who was not enjoying it at all, and was quite convinced by the end of it that he had crapped his pants. We had a good laugh over that. And for the record, he did not crap his pants.

Once we were at the top, we meandered around, looking for just the right place to stop and finally have that Heineken together overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We found what looked to be a good spot, negotiated a table right at the front overlooking the sea, and tried to order Heineken only to find out they did not have any. That was no worry because we could go to another place when we were done eating. So we ordered up some delicious food and some local white wine and enjoyed an incredible snack together.

Then we walked on, popped in and out of some shops, took a lot of photos and looked for the next place to sit and try to have our drink. We found the place that looked like it would be the one and went in and grabbed the table.

Now, if you are new to us or this blog and you do not remember the importance of the Heineken, you can go back and find those blocks but let me just say Jason was here on a cruise right after he graduated college and that’s what he did. He hiked up to the top, found a beautiful spot, drank a beer, which happened to be a Heineken, and thought it was the most beautiful place he’d ever been and he promised to take me here. Four years ago we were here and I got quarantined because of Covid and wasn’t able to leave the ship. So now here we are again determined to have the Heineken.

We looked at the menu and yes, they had Heineken. Hilariously the only one they had was zero alcohol. But the point wasn’t really the Heineken… in fact neither of us even really like Heineken so we thought who cares if it’s zero alcohol so we ordered that and a bottle of white wine because,  you know. So we’re sitting there waiting to finally have this moment, and the waiter walks up and hands me…. A Stella! Apparently they were out of Heineken.

 

It took me a few minutes to decide how I felt about that. I mean come on we finally get here. We’re gonna have this lovely moment where we get to have this shared drink that we’ve talked about for so long and then they bring me the wrong drink? But as we were chatting about it, we realized you know what it was never about the Heineken. It was always about the promise of coming to this beautiful place together and here we are!

What a spectacular delight.

We meandered around for a bit after that on our way to the cable car, which didn’t look all that crowded so we decided we better hop on and at least get to the bottom of the hill. Once down there, we weren’t quite ready to get in a water tender to go back to the ship so there was a little café conveniently waiting for us and we just sat there for probably another hour or so enjoying being on this little island that we dreamed about for so long.

Valentin!

 Way back in February of 2023, the Malbec crew was bopping around down in the Caribbean celebrating special anniversaries and birthdays. Ah, the night of the 5 cakes…

Anyway, we might this absolutely delightful young man named Valentin, who was a waiter in the Italian speciality restaurant called Sabatini’s. We, of course, won him over with our laugher, goofiness, and charm and we’d all yell and cheer for him when we saw him. We took a very cute picture with him before we all parted ways.

About a week ago, we were sitting in the dining room and Jason suddenly said, “Is that Valentin?” I followed his pointed finger to see and YES, IT WAS!

We called him over. I pulled up the picture to show him. He seemed so thrilled and said, “thank you for remembering me!”

Well, now we’re hanging out daily in the dining room and we were determined that we would recreate the photo- so we did last night. So much fun. He said he couldn’t wait to share it with his mom. He’s still a very sweet and kind young man with some big dreams to one day open his own little restaurant in his town in Romania. I bet he will!

Athens by HoHo

 We have been enjoying not having planned excursions because that means we can get off the ship whatever we want to and we don’t have any hustle and bustle and waiting with a big group for our number to be called. 

So by the time we got up and going after our big night of staying out late. We walked out about 1030 and were shocked to find that we were still able to jump on the same bus that Rich and Ginny were on. The guy selling the tickets showed us. The route asked us what time we wanted to be back and we said probably around three and so he told us what station to be at at 2:30 in order to get back at three. Perfect. We hopped on and were on our way.

The bus first went through the Seaport town of Piraeus, which was absolutely adorable. Clearly, some money in this town they were all kinds of yachts open air cafés shops. It was so cute and we were delighted to once again have some sunshine. We noted to ourselves that that might be a great place to come back for lunch after we toured the city.

From there we were off to Athens, which probably took seems like less than 10 minutes. We decided we would just stay on the bus to one huge lap and get a chance to see everything. And I have to say this still remains my favorite thing when you see something you’ve only seen in Books or TV with your own eyes so there we were cruising along and all of a sudden Jason points up the hill and I look and there’s the acropolis for crying out loud. Amazing. We enjoyed riding the bus around seeing the sites. It’s a little crazy that it’s this massive booming cosmopolitan city on one hand and also look over to your left and suddenly there’s some ancient building, gorgeous old architecture, destruction… Truly fascinating to see.

We got back around to the stop where we knew we needed to catch the bus back to Piraeus and that’s when we realized there had been slight communication error. We got there about one and asked when the next bus would be rolling up which we assumed would be any minute and they told us 230 and we said well that can’t be right. One comes every half an hour, but apparently not at this stop. It will be there at 2:30. Well shoot that pretty much destroyed our chances of going back to Piraeus to indulge in one of the beautiful open air cafés at the marina. So we made the best of it and we strolled right back down the street found a cute little café, sat down and ordered some grilled halloumi and a picture of local white wine to share. Ginny got what she thought was a piece of baklava but a huge plate of baklava came out instead so we all got a few bites of that too, and it was so delicious.

We got back to the bus pick up area about 10 minutes early to make sure we could get on the bus and we’re told that princess was going to send a separate bus just to pick us up so they were asking us please not to get on the first one that was coming, will that be for people who were not cruisers to take. I have to say, we’ve traveled all around the world and sometimes we face things like this and it turns out not to be true, so we were a little bit skeptical. But before long we looked up and there was a bus coming that had a big banner running across the front that said Princess cruisers only. Low and behold a miracle. Bus took us straight back to the cruise ship- no chance for Piraeus! Nothing that when we come back, we’d skip Athens and just go to this charming town. 

Since it was day one for all the new people, we knew the piazza would be nuts since people tend to congregate there while waiting for their rooms. I went up to the sanctuary sun deck to write and enjoy the last of the evening sunshine. It was a bit chilly so I wrapped some blankets around me. Pretty much had the whole place to myself!

Jason came up and we had our new favorite drink- a vodka soda with a splash of limoncello! We realized we hadn’t had much food so we cruised down to dinner. Our main man Stefan rolled up to help us open our wine and have a few sips. We have him hooked on Nicora! 

And the most exciting thing about this day is that it’s the eve of my chance to finally get to Santorini. Will I make it?!?!?!?!

Starting Over with the Bloody Marys

Today was a good one! In this vindication cruise, Mykonos day is where it all gets set right. 

4 years ago, I was sitting on the pool deck, sipping a Bloody Mary, when my cabin steward came to find me and put me in quarantine. 

So this morning, we ordered Bloody Marys at breakfast- determined to have a full reset! We ran into Mike and Diana in line for a table so they joined us and before long Ginny came down to eat, too. 

There was one problem, however. The weather forecast said it was going to be 60 degrees- which was ok. But, it also said the winds would be blowing at 50 MPH. I thought surely that must be a typo. I mean. 50? FIVE ZERO? Come on.

The good news was, that was indeed wrong. The bad news was, it was 42 MPH. That’s pretty darn hard to walk comfortably in and is honestly just a bit miserable all around.

HOWEVER - we were going to shore, darn it! The others decided to skip in since they’d all been before and I think I would have too in the same conditions.

There weren’t many who went ashore, I have to say! But the shops and restaurants were all open. We meandered around through the adorable little “streets”- which were sometimes not wider than about a foot more than my shoulder span! All the cute blue painted doors, flowers blooming like crazy, brightly colored scarfs and towels for sale blowing around outside the shops. 

We popped into several shops and bought some things- including baklava! I had a terrific sample in one shop. Such a treat. While in there, the shop worker offered a sample to another man who walked in. Here’s how it went:

Lady: Would you like some baklava?

Man: What’s that?

Lady: Baklava!

Man: Say it in English

Lady: Baklava!

HA! He was a good sport and tried it. 

Next, we set out looking for a cafe to sit and linger (our favorite activity) while dining on what was sure to be amazing Greek food. The challenge was finding one that was somehow still outside but not directly in the wind. We went round and round and finally found a few that would work. 

An interesting thing about the cafe culture in Europe is that there is always an older gentleman standing outside by the posted menu to greet people walking by and inviting them in. It’s not pushy or weird - it’s common. We’ve gotten used to it and even enjoy asking them a question or two. One question is always, “Do you have local wine?” The answer is always an emphatic exhale and, “OF COURSE!” Followed by a sweeping arm welcoming us to a table. 

The wait staff are also almost always older men. They are constantly on the move- squeezing in between tables effortlessly while carrying plates of food and glass of wine. They are generally quiet and efficient. Something like, “You are ready to get food, yes?” And you tell them and they leave. 

We ordered a bottle of Greek Chardonnay, some fava beans, and some anchovies. We are obsessed with eating all the small fishes while in Europe. After awhile, we had chicken souvlaki and a pork gyro. Too much food but we just wanted to try so many things and thankfully, normally the portion sizes here aren’t American sized:) What a stinking delight.

Then, we refused dessert but a tiramisu was delivered anyone and sorry…when in Rome and all that. And then, our waiters showed up with their local digestif- 4 little shot glasses for us to enjoy together, which of course we did. 

We then waddled back to the ship trying to not get sand blasted in our faces or blow off the pier! 

Our buddy Stefan, the sommelier, pinged us on WhatsApp to figure out where we’d be dining that night. Thankfully, we had reservations at the Hot Pot (like a fancy soup place) that night and nothing big like the steak house. Definitely not going to be hungry! Anyway, while we were seated in there, Stefan came cruising by with a bottle he wanted to share with us. HOLY COW was it delicious. It was a special partnership between a legendary French winery and one in Mendoza, Argentina. Absolutely incredible- what a delightful treat.

 

At this point, we must have finally become our vacation selves because we somehow stayed up till midnight listening to the house band in the piazza. We probably needed that much time to digest so I guess it all worked out. 

Somehow, the following day we arrived in Athens which meant the first week was up and a whole lot of people were disembarking. This is always an interesting situation when you are staying on board. You never know what the instructions will be as they vary by country. This looked pretty simple - they give you pieces of paper that say “passenger in transit” or something similar to show when you are coming back in so that you don’t have to go through the whole initial onboarding process again along with all the new passengers just arriving. 

We didn’t have an excursion planned so we figured we would wait for all the people to clear out and then grab a hop on hop off bus (HOHO) to take us around town. Rich and Ginny were going to do the same so we had some loose plans to find them for that.