Skipping Christmas - Day 3

Katakolon Greece

Our room on the boat worked out very well. It was actually much bigger than I expected and someone was in our room cleaning / refilling our ice /  leaving random presents at least twice a day. The one problem was we opted for the least expensive option which does not come with a window. This was only an issue because it made waking up in the morning very difficult. It was pitch black in the room and with no natural light it is hard to get up when the alarm goes off. This was one of the reasons we are always running behind! We had a quick breakfast and ran off to our meeting point for our first excursion.

We didn't really want to sign up for an excursion but the boat was going to be parked about 40km away from Olympia which means we needed some help getting to the city. The boat came into harbor in Katakolon; a quaint little harbor that survives off tourism, mainly from cruise ships. There were many guided tours available but Eric and I opted for the basic transportation option (which is what most people did). A bus drove us to Olympia- the site of the first (and many subsequent) Olympics.

We had limited time and so started at the museum. The museum was relatively small but had some really nice statues and we were able to zip through it pretty quickly. We skipped a lot of the pottery and just focused on the more impressive items.

Next we made our way to the ruins- it was great! There were a lot of other tourists there but we were able to avoid most of the large crowds.

Entrance to the stadium.

Eric made us run across.

We were not quite ready to go back to the bus when our time was up but we were still pleased. We got to see pretty much everything there but would have liked more time to wander. When we got back to Katakalon we had about an hour and a half before we had to be back on the boat. We found a nice little cafe that advertised free Internet! We ordered some drinks and enjoyed checking our email. We actually came across several establishments with free internet- proof that they are catering to the cruisers.

We did some shopping in the town where we bought some sunglasses for Eric!! This is only exciting because Eric always needs sunglasses but cannot find a pair he likes / is willing to wear. Not only did we find a pair for him- they are a stylish OSU orange! Looking good Eric!!

 Our giant boat.

When we got back on board we were pretty hungry so we hit the buffet for a light snack and headed to the library for reading and Athens research. For dinner we made it over to one of the sit down restaurants (instead of the buffet which we have done a lot of) and had a very nice evening. Afterwards we got into the hot tub which is always empty in the evening. No room service that night but we discussed the possibility.