Greetings from Athens
I am truly blessed to be able to write this from a beautiful cruise ship in the Mediterranean. I am working on the systems here, but I’m also doing my best to take advantage of the opportunity being here.
Last night I went for a walk around the hotel in the narrow little streets in Piraeus, a coastal port in Athens. The keepers of tiny shops were packing up for the night, bringing in their stuff from the sidewalks and feeding their dogs. I tried to take a picture of one dog that seriously barked at me, but as soon as I pointed the camera at him he shied away and hid. I tried again when he came out, but he did it again. Leaving the dog behind I eventually ended up down at the port a short way from where the ship docked the next morning. We had dinner at the hotel and ran into a couple of the ship’s Hosts who were coming on board today as well. They gave us some tips on seeing the Acropolis.
This morning, I got up pretty early for a Skype call home and then JR (the other Windstar IT guy with me) and I took off for the Acropolis. We took the train, and it’s incredible how easy it was for us to figure out the system of colors and stations to get where we were going. I’m very impressed with it, but I suppose nearly any place in Europe will have better public transportation than Seattle.
The Acropolis was fantastic. There was a great moment as we walked up the street and then through the olive trees I could see an old stone wall and some pillars and other stone work on top. We only had about an hour, which was enough to take pictures of everything at the top and the view over the city before we had to get back to the train. Athens is full of 4-8 story apartment buildings, all the same white color. I didn’t see any other kind of housing and only a few office buildings. Of course it would have been so great to have time just to hang out and soak in everything, but being there at all was unbelievable, so I have no regrets.
On our return, we promptly checked out and got to the ship. It’s taken most of the afternoon and evening, but I think I know my way around pretty well now and shouldn’t get lost any more. I got some great pictures of the sunset and different parts of the ship, though, between doing work in the communications room.
I’m trying really hard to take some time to connect with the Lord while I’m here, too. We’ll see how that goes, but I’m trying to take this opportunity to really make sure our relationship is sound. I’m ‘seeking his countenance.’ I’m also looking forward to getting to bed, although I think I’m handling the jet lag well, I’m still beat.
In the hotel, how did you know the people were the ship’s Hosts? That was a great resource though. Go God!
That was pretty neat. They and JR recognized each other from his trips to the other ships. It seems that most/all of the ship’s crew work on a contract basis, so they’re on for a while and then they have a chance for some time off before they go on again, and so they tend to work on more than one of our ships, depending on what contracts are available.