6:30 p.m. Left JFK Airport for Amsterdam -- 7 hours away. Flight was smooth, lots of food was served, liquor was free. This is good. Two hour layover in Amsterdam, met Mother and Daughter from California who were also going to Greece. They were on a different tour but would be on my cruise ship with me.

Arrived in Athens at 3:30 p.m. I was a litle rattled here, being my first time to Europe and all. Lots of people, speaking lots of languages, soldiers walking around with guns. Seems like chaos. I found the Trafalgar hostess and she put me in a cab to the hotel. Cab driver didn't speak English. I got a chance to try out my little Greek phrases on him. He smiled and answered me in his language. I understood him and he understood me -- COOL!! Athens here I come!! Met the tour group in the hotel for drinks and orientation. Six women, all Virgoes, all birthdays the same week. Watch out. We go to the Plaka District for dinner and sightseeing. Plaka District is small alleys with tavernas, shops, souveniers, jewelry stores, lots and lots of people walking about. Very quaint, very Greek. I love it here.

Went to see the Acropolis, Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus. We climbed lots and lots of marble steps to the top of the Parthenon. The view of Athens is magnificent. Just thinking that people walked this ground 1700 B.C. and earlier is mindboggling. This is stuff I only read about in history books. I still can't believe I'm really here. This afternoon we all went back to the hotel to work on the jet lag thing and were meeting for dinner about 7:00 p.m.

We went to a Taverna within walking distance of our hotel. Taverna is family owned and the food and service was excellent. Meal is prix fixed, meaning about $20 (6,000 drachmas) per person, unlimited pitchers of wine. Very nice custom, indeed. They brought us 7 different appetizers, each on their own little platters, which included calamari, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed mushrooms and tomatoes, a yoghurt sauce (the real name of which I can't spell), some lima beans in tomato sauce. Then came the main course, roast pork, beef and lamb kabobs. Baklava and fresh fruit for dessert. All for $20.

Boarded the cruise ship "TSS Olympic". It took an hour or so to go through customs and get on the ship. Our cabin steward took us directly to our rooms. Our luggage would follow in about an hour. My cabin is very small, but more than adequate. Bathroom is so small toilet is actually part of the shower. If 2 people shared this room it would be difficult, I found it no problem by myself. I have a porthole so I can see the islands as we float by. Piped in music all day which is nice, you can hear the announcements without leaving your room, and it also masks the noise from the other rooms. In 4 hours we would get to our first stop. the island of Mykonos.

We didn't take any tours on this island so we were free to roam around. Quaint shops, fishing boats in the harbor, those lovely white concrete buildings with blue doors and shutters you see in pictures of Greece. They are here and just as beautiful in person as in the travel magazines. The Aegean Sea is as blue and clear as anything I've ever seen. You can see all the way to the bottom near the shore. No pollution here, mainly because there's no industries. People own shops, restaurants (tavernas) and are in the service areas,insurance offices, real estate, tourism, etc. We took off our shoes and walked in the water. This was the only time we got a chance to do this so its a good thing we did this now. The tours kept up hopping the whole trip. Back on the ship at 9:30 p.m. and have dinner. We all find our Greek God and he's waiting on our table.

Our waiter is Manolis from the Greek island of Samos. Tall, dark and handsome with cute dimples. Manolis didn't speak much English but he certainly blushed on que so he got the gist of what we wild, horny women were saying to him. When Gillian asked him if he was married and he pointed to his wedding ring and said yes. I then said, "but do you fool around"? Well, his face turned every shade of red. The 6 of us women wanted to have our way with Manolis, he was just so cute and so nice. He held our chairs out for us, and seated us, opened our napkins and laid them on our laps and we were putty in his hands. Are we 6 desperate women or what? We tipped him heavily at the end of the cruise for what we put him through. He was most fun.

This picture shows some of the islands in the Aegean Sea looking down from the island of Santorini. Santorini was a volcano which erupted many years ago and blew its top off. The city of Thira is on the top of the volcano (the Caldera). There are three ways up to the city, on a hair-raising bus trip, a hair-raising cable car ride or a hair-raising donkey ride. I chose the bus up and the cable car down. I don't do donkeys!

This is the island of Rhodes. Not to be confused with the high school in Brooklyn, OH where mom went to school.

Changing of the guard at the Greek Parliament. Cute shoes!

Tonite is my 50th birthday and our tour group went to a restaurant on the top of a nearby hotel. The restaurant was open air (no windows) and our view of the Parthenon was breathtaking, as this picture can attest to. I can't believe I'm so far away from home and I'm having such a wonderful time. I not only climbed a mountain (the Parthenon) but also climbed a mountain in my own life in many ways. Happy Birthday to me.

This is the last day of my cruise. So as the sun sets on the island of Rhodes we cruise back to Athens for one more day there before heading back to the U.S. This was my dream vacation and now that I've taken my dream vacation I can't think of another place to go -- at the moment. Stay tuned . . .

Here's some additional photos from my trip:

The island of Crete (Notice the Wendys Sign)	We had lunch at this lovely cafe on Mykonos	This tender took us to shore from our ship
View of Athens from atop the Acropolis	Our waiters and us	The island of Patmos
The ancient ruins of Ephesus in Turkey	Welcome to Turkey

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