Entries about dance

Happy Birthday Robin. Face book and text messages have been sent and Robin was wished a great birthday. I was going to say wish we were there, but the better choice would be, wish you were here.
Charlotte had given us Priority Tender passes so we got ourselves ready and we were the first ones on the first tender. Another ship arrived later and docked. To dock means a bus ride into town. I prefer the tender. We had wandered through the town as it was coming awake and found a beach and were in the water by 9am. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves the whole morning. Clothing optional beach as it turns out. We started wandering back and mad a stop at Nick's taverna for pop and espresso before wandering again. There are some old windmills on the point and we wandered into one. It stunk!!!! It was full of feathers; dead birds, eggs and when you walked up the stairs you met the birds and local cats. There are cats everywhere and many of them look terribly unwell.
The roads/lanes are various widths and pedestrians share the road with, bikes, something like a golf cart and cars. You just step to the side and let them pass. One car almost took the cloths off a window display as it squeezed by. One lane was so narrow I had to take off my backpack to get through.
The Island is only 33 square miles and the population is only 5,000 that swell with tourists who are there for the beaches and nightlife.
We did not meet him, but the town mascot is a pelican named Petro II, Pertos I was struck by a car some ten tears ago.
The houses are box like which is a little unusual for the Islands. The maze of streets is pretty standard as they were built this way to confuse attacking pirates. Villagers, who knew the town could lead the pirates into an ambush. While searching for the 'Chinese' store to look for some pants that the server at the taverna was wearing we stumbled into a little jewelry shop where we made a small purchase.
Finding our way back to the tender we had our usual salad and headed to trivia, as the seniors were nowhere to be found. We won the first game, but really there was only the three of us playing, although our score was pretty good. Did you know Thomas Jefferson was the first president to sit on a toilet in the Whitehouse? The second game was a tie and we had to have three tiebreakers to pull into first place. Jonathan from Mexico was our activity staff member. He speaks five languages, but he still has to work some as his dad spoke nine.
Turns out Joyce and Doris braved the tenders and had wandered through the stores at the port and arrived back a little later ready for a drink. I love that the Celebrity meets you at the dock with couches, tents, cold towels and a cold drink before you board. Ahhhh...I also love the looks from envious passengers on other cruise lines.
We caught the show Remix, it was good, some numbers were not very tight but this group is on a new contract and it will tighten up. The tapping was better than the other night. I was tired and drifted through some of it.
We moved to the entertainment court so that we could get seats for Joyce and Doris for the Dancing with the Stripes. Charlotte came over and already had our names down for the competition. We owed her for the tender tickets so we agreed. Roger ended up with a wonderfully talented young women, I got Boris and Tracy got the head chef. I danced off against Tracy and they did lifts and dirty dancing so there was no competition ... Tracy and the chef moved onto the next round. In Roger's group the couple that beat them went on to win the whole thing. It was wild and fun and some times it was even dance. Each group got three dances chosen randomly. There was cha cha, ballet, interpretive, bollywood, and so on, the final dance off was a merenge.
Tonight sitting on the veranda writing this it is hotter than last night and muggy. Time for sleep.

The day isn't over yet, but I have to do my notes when I can. I write this sitting on my balcony in the moonlight off the coast of Greece. So today is Athens. We did see the protesters camp, but things are quite enough for us to go into port, apparently a few weeks ago the ship did not go in, then the next time then were given cards with emergency contact numbers in case of an emergency. Anyway we did a ship tour just because that's the way things worked out. Joyce and Doris did their own sites of Athens for those with limited mobility and we did a drive by sites with the main stop at the Acropolis. So much history to see and it is so hard to keep it all straight. The ruins were pretty amazing and are being restored. You can see what has been done already because of the colour of the stone; the white stone would be the recent repairs. One thing is amazing to think about how slippery the rock surfaces are due to the thousands of feet that have worn the rocks down. The other thing that I found interesting is all the big, well-fed and unleashed dogs. They are there to guard. At night they will leave police alone, and workers but will go after the illegal immigrants who pilfer from the ruins.
We hesitate to call them Gypsies, but we are warned time and time again by the locals to not buy their products and to safe guard our personal items from pickpockets.
The temp is 36, but it is manageable. I managed to get into the WC during a lull. Just as I was warned, squat toilets and no paper.
We dozed a bit during the return trip. They dropped us off in Piraeus to get some stamps and mail some post cards. I also tried to get Euros, but no luck. It appears they have canceled my cards. Good thing I had a second one on the ship and it worked just fine.
Lunch, line dance, nap, lots and lots of water and Tracy and I took first place in the Bocce tournament. Roger and I went for a tour backstage where we learned about the audition process, rehearsals and life of a dancer and singer in the shows. One month of rehearsals to learn the big production shows and three more weeks if you are one of the dancers who fly. You may not gain or lose more than five pounds, as one of them said, you are a commodity.
We picked up Tracy from the Cha Cha class and headed to dinner. Another fun night with our excellent servers! More tricks tonight. The balancing pop can, the precut banana, and the pop can stuck in the can and the upside down glass.
The seniors have gone off to see the comedian, while we hit the dance floor and play the night away.

Today was at sea. The ship is busy with many families and lots of action. We started slow and managed to grab a light breakfast before we joined the cruise critic Mix and Mingle to meet the people we have been chatting with on the Internet. We met Chris and Donna, Millie and Lenny, and Bert and Jane who will be going to Ephesus with us. We met Marylou and her group who were an interesting bunch, also Carol and a few others. We left Tracy and the seniors still in bed.
The seniors find us, but it takes longer to find Tracy. She had gone to line dancing, Bocce with the officers, and finally we met her at the rumba dance class. Roger and Tracy dance and I danced with a stranger. Later when we do the Waltz class I get Roger and Tracy got the stranger. There were two instructors, Lindsay, female, and Sanci a guy. Tracy volunteered to join a dance competition and when Sanci asked what type of dance she preferred he noted Rumba, which is the dance he is doing in the competition.
Today's lunch was a salad and Mexican. Roger had a salad and copious amounts of meat. Grandma is eating very well!! Tracy is finding lots of veggie choices.
We finished the afternoon doing the battle of the sexes trivia. It was a close game and will continue on the next sea day. Then it was time for wine for Grandma and Roger and a gin and tonic for Doris before we got ready for our formal dinner.
Everyone looked lovely and the dinner was tasty. Adrian brought Tracy's menu in Spanish. Our room steward brings her daily activity schedule in French. She's having fun speaking to so many people in their own language. The section of the dining room we are in has a room of tables with Canadians, from coast to coast. We gave Adrian and Paolo Canadian flag pins and made them honourary Canadians.
Tonight was challenge night. We showed them the cork trick and Adrian put a plate on the table, poured some water on it and placed a water glass upside down in the water and challenged Tracy to get the water into the glass without touching the plate. She couldn't do it and Adrian light a lighter held it in the glass and placed the glass back on the plate. The water rose up into the glass. He also did another one with pepper in a plate of water.
We went to the theatre for the Captains toast and the show. It was a fun night.