We had a bit of drama last night while retiring to bed. Jane climbed into her bathrobe while getting ready, only to discover it had been swapped for a new one. A nice clean bathrobe is always welcome, unfortunately the old one had her handkerchief in one pocket and her eye mask in the other.
Cue lots of searching to make sure she hadn’t left the eye mask somewhere else, as apparently it’s impossible to sleep without one. I did suggest on several occasions that, if it was that desperate, she should page Moses our butler, but she decided to wait until the morning. In the meantime, neither a black slip nor a wash flannel proved an adequate substitute for a proper eye mask.
Morning arrived, but the eye mask did not. Jane grilled Medwin our steward to find out whether he had replaced the bathrobe and, more importantly, whether he had seen the missing eye mask. The answer was yes to the first question and a resounding no to the second, although he promised to enquire with the laundry team to see if it could be located.
We had intended to spend a relaxing morning aboard ship before heading out for a nice seafood lunch in Piraeus, but the eye mask situation changed all that. After breakfast and a bit of laundry, we decided to see whether Athens might have such an item available.
There was a distinct lack of shuttle buses into the centre of Piraeus, which seemed a bit poor considering we were docked in the Themistocles port, a good 40-minute walk away. Luckily there were plenty of buses just outside the port entrance, and we jumped on an 843 — Google was my friend here — which dropped us at the Metro station for the princely sum of €1.20 via phone swipe.
At the Metro station I decided to buy a couple of daily travel passes because Jane was worried about currency charges on her HSBC account. At around €4.10 each they were a bargain, giving unlimited train, Metro, and bus travel throughout the Athens area.
We took the train into Athens and then switched to the Red Line for the four-stop journey from Larissa to Syntagma, where we emerged in the middle of a protest against genocide. Not wanting to get involved in such trifling matters when we had an eye mask to find, we squirreled our way through the crowds and into the shopping district.
Surprisingly, finding the eye masks was easy. Sephora was our first port of call and, after Jane asked one of the assistants, we were pointed towards Hondos Centre. Sure enough, there they were on the first floor: pink and perfect.
Suitably relieved, we stopped for a very nice coffee accompanied by a fruit punch that was unexpectedly delicious. Finding the eye mask so quickly meant we had time to wander around the Plaka area, taking photos and generally behaving like tourists, before heading to Monastiraki to catch the Metro and a bus back towards the ship.
Once back at the port we returned to our original plan of having lunch at a nice seafood restaurant in Piraeus. Google Maps claimed it was a 19-minute walk, but failed to mention the mountain we’d have to climb before descending back towards the shore by the Naval Academy.
Halfway down the hill I managed to turn my ankle on what seemed an entirely insignificant irregularity in the paving slabs and went down like a sack of spuds, grazing both knees and injuring my pride more than anything else. After picking myself up and dusting myself down, we walked the remaining hundred yards to the restaurant where I cleaned myself up.
Lunch, however, was excellent. We shared a fantastic mixed fried seafood platter — essentially the Greek version of calamari — along with fried gavros, sardines, Greek salad, and bread. There was enough food to feed an army and we barely made a dent in it, but it was absolutely delicious and came to only €46 including two beers.
The walk back to the ship was thankfully easier. Once aboard we headed straight up to the Grills Terrace for some sun and relaxation after what had turned into a surprisingly stressful day. I aided the relaxation process with a Doom Bar while Jane enjoyed a couple of Dark ’n’ Stormies.
Eventually it was time for dinner, which neither of us particularly wanted after the seafood feast. Jane had the Dorset lamb while I opted for the seafood skewer before we headed back to the room and were in bed before 10pm.
V609 – Greek Islands Daily Programmes
V609 – Greek Islands – QG Menus