We’re sitting at the hotel Divani at breakfast, just a few hours before our cruise begins.
It was a little tricky getting here from the metro station yesterday, and very warm pulling our bags. My bag is very full, already! I keep doing a mental inventory and thinking do I really need all this stuff? Should I just post a few things home? But we won’t have to worry for the next two weeks on board ship, and will, in all probability, catch a taxi to and from the airport in Istanbul!
Our hotel room is pretty comfortable – twin beds pushed together so we each have our own quilt. This makes a change from Aris’ apartment where our only covering was a double bed quilt cover! (I think there was a quilt but it wasn’t cold enough to worry). We often had a tug of war during the night when one of us got cold!
As per instructions we labeled our bags with our stateroom and left them outside our room at 8am this morning. They will be picked up by hotel porters and transported by truck to Piraeus and delivered to our room on board ship. We don’t leave ourselves until about 11.45. There were optional tours this morning but it’s nice to sit with a pot of tea (alas only tea bag not tea leaves) and Skype our daughter, and read and write.
Last night we had a drink at the hotel coffee lounge, before heading out for a walk and ending up at a taverna just around the corner for a couple of Greek tapas plates. Simply grilled sardines finished with olive oil, delicious grilled eggplant, bread roll, together with complimentary fresh watermelon slices, made for a light evening meal. Pity we finished with a Greek coffee that was simply awful!
We’re doing a lot of playing “spot our fellow cruisers”. It sounds silly I know but the surprising thing is that we don’t see ourselves as part of that demographic even although we know on one level that we are! Here’s hoping our fellow travellers will be nice, and not too pushy or too loud, and enjoy their privacy too!
Travelling with Teresa 
I have to agree with Jennifer – loving your culinary highlights! Feeling inspired by that sardines with eggplant dish… yum 🙂
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Your trip sounds wonderful. I've just cooked moussaka but I'm sure it wont be a patch on the culinary delights you've been experiencing. Loving the blog and photos, enjoy the cruise. Boronia xxx
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