Cruisin' the Greek Islands

We concluded our semester with a 3-day cruise aboard the Aquamarine. We left early in the morning and drove to where the ship was docked. We all got on board and took short naps before the loud, British lady with a deep, sultry voice (for the first time out of thousands of times to come) came over the intercom to inform us we had a muster drill. We all sleepily gathered our orange life vests and followed the others up the stairs. It was a vast sea of orange and gray. (Most of the other passengers were a lot older..) Our peppy Latin senorita staff member cheerfully explained how to put on the lifevest and showed us where our whistles and lights were. We were joking around and having fun with the drill (not to the point of being a distraction, of course) and this man behind us nonchalantly throws in, "You do know a boat from this company sank near Santarini 2 years ago.." We thought he was kidding, but he told us the whole story and our travel agent from Aristotle backed him up on it. I listened a little more closely. :-)

We landed in Mykonos early that evening. We walked around the town, which is full of white houses, decorated with accents of blue, green and red. I loved the blue window shutters and the bright flowers that decorated the staircases. We saw the famous church, a white igloo-type structure that adorns almost every t-shirt and souvenir from this island. The main attraction on this island is the giant windmills. They are remnant of the old days, with their rooftop hay coverings. Though very practical, I was thankful that they chose beauty over a modern contraption. One of my friends from back home proposed to his girlfriend (the Myhan's daughter) here about a year ago. I remember him telling me about it, but I am so glad that I got to see the spot for myself. It was here that I sat outside of a shop that was playing the traditional Greek music. I was sitting there, looking out at the sea and soaking up my final days in Greece. It was then that I decided I didn't want to lose that moment so I walked in to the music shop and said, "I need this CD. What is this CD?" The lady handed me a Greek instrumental CD and I bought it. My family will be glad to know that when I need to have a "Greek moment" they will hear "Zorba's Dance" blaring from my room-- or maybe even the livingroom. Haha. :-) Mykonos is also home to the hugest pelican I have ever seen. He basically owns the island. He, being a big part of their souvenir profits, knows that he is and waddles with an heir of arrogance. People were lined up to have their picture with him and he would open his mouth (which has a span of about 10 feet it seems) and chomp on their arm. It wouldn't hurt-- it would just make this hilarious noise. Everyone would laugh and he would walk down the street, in and out of stores, if he wanted to. I have never seen such a prima donna bird.

When we boarded the ship at night, we always had entertainment. After a family cruise in high school, I sat back and awaited a band that imitated the Beatles or a Broadway-type performance from a classy woman in a sequin gown. WRONG. I guess the best way to describe their nightly entertainment would be Las Vegas try-outs. Women, with caked-on makeup, diamond-studded bras and sequin underwear that doesn't deserve its place in the undergarment category, emerged from behind the curtain. What I cherished more than this, was looking around at all the shocked faces. I mean, we're used to Harding's editors cutting this stuff out for us. We go to PG movies where they bleep out the word "butt" and here we are with women wearing far more feathers than a bird shaking their bootays while a woman and a man, in Jasmine-Aladdin, type outfits belly dance to an Egyptian number. I was absolutely mortified, yet couldn't quite peel my eyes away from this entertainment trainwreck.

We were lucky the second night to have a Greek-inspired performance, where real Greek men came out and danced to several traditional dances. At the end, some of us went on stage and attempted to dance with them. It was quite a breather from the night before, but the last night was back to the city of sin. Haha.

The rest of the time spent on the cruise ship, we watched movies and played games in the gameroom. They also had a disco every night, which was really fun. It wasn't quite as fun as Egypt because there were other people, highly intoxicated, who decided to get on the dancefloor too. I sat there and watched how they crazily flailed their arms and slurred their words and I saw how much more fun we were having.

Our second stop was Rhodes. This place was mainly for shopping-- I bought a purse here. I spent the first part of the day with Mandy, Bethany, Ashley and Sara and met Lauren, Lacey and Alana for lunch at this rooftop restaurant-- we had some really good pizza! It was Lauren's birthday and I think she had a really good one. Lacey made her a sweet slideshow, with pictures her mom had sent her and pictures gathered from this trip. She also got sang to at dinner and the DJ at disco night recognized her and played, "Happy Birthday." Rhodes, like Mykonos, was a cute little town that integrated charm from ancient days with the style of the present. It had castles and fortress walls, but also stone streets with shops lining every square-inch. Restaurant owners tried to bid you to come in and some even called you beautiful. Very charming little place. It is also home to another one of the ancient wonders of the world: the colossus of Rhodes. Though it can't be seen anymore, it was a huge statue of a man that stood over the dock, letting ships pass under his massive legs.

We woke up super early on Sunday morning to quickly hit the island of Patmos. A small island that has about 3,000 people, it is where John was exiled along with his scribe. We visited an old monastery upon arrival, along with a museum that houses ancient manuscripts and scripture, but later hit the main attraction: the cave where they say John wrote the book of Revelation. He stayed here for 18 months before returning to Ephesus at age 104. Using this cave for his prayers and meditation, he was shocked to hear a loud trumpet one day, the blast of the horn cracking the cave walls. He was told to write down what he saw and heard and send it to the 7 churches of Asia. Not so surprisingly, this site has become a church. There was a service going on, but our tour guide still led us through. The familiar smell of incense overtook my senses once again. "Young lads," as our British tour guide called them, sang worship chants and it added to the solemn atmosphere. Visiting here made me realize that maybe I should take another stab at reading this book of the Bible. I have been to Bible studies on it, I have tried to talk to others about it-- but I get easily frustrated with its complicated themes. Maybe it deserves another chance. :-) Adding to my impression of Patmos is the fact that Richard Gere and other celebrities own homes here for when they need to "get away." I love me some Richard Gere. I wish I would have run into him, but unfortunately I don't think the Cave of the Apocalypse is the best place to find the man.

That afternoon we arrived in Ephesus, Turkey. We first visited the remains of the temple to Artemis, which consists of marshy swampland, a huge pillar and some huge stones spread throughout the swamp. This was another one of the ancient wonders of the world. With 126 columns, this building would fit about 3 Parthenons inside of it! That blew me away!

We then made our way to the ancient city of Ephesus, where we saw remnants of their way of life. Government buildings, public bathrooms, you name it-- we also saw what was left of Turkish baths, which brought on unwanted flashbacks of the Turkish Bath experience I endured in Jordan weeks ago. (Ask me about it personally and I will be glad to tell you about..once again, not so sure it is worth publishing..)

We saw the world's 3rd largest library, behind the ones in Alexandria and Pergamum. It kind of reminded me of the treasury in Petra-Jordan. Not quite as impressive, but it stood tall and it was easy to imagine how impressive it would have been back in its day. We also visited the theater where the silversmiths met to riot against Paul. Demetrius started riling everyone up when he told them that if Paul convinced people to believe in Jesus, it would hurt their profits. As made obvious by their ridiculously elegant temple to Artemis, she was a big part of life in Ephesus. If people stopped believing in her, then the silversmiths would have lost money from idols and statues that they made of her. I sat in the theater, where years ago, mobs of people shouted for 2 1/2 hours straight, "Great is Artemis, god of the Ephesians!" Paul could have easily been killed by the mob, but luckily he was allowed to spread the gospel further.

This ends my journey of walking in Paul's footsteps-- I love the book of Ephesians and it was neat to see how the people who read it lived. We saw their version of "Rodeo Drive," where all the rich ladies shopped. We saw their fountains and their statues. We saw it all.

We ended the cruise with Captain's night, where we all dressed up some. The boys looked sharp in their shirts and ties. :-) We took lots of pictures and sadly realized that this was the last time our whole group would be together. A little bit of melancholy set over me for various reasons. I tried to dance it off, but every time the techno stopped, so did the distraction. My roommate for the trip, Bethany, noticed that I was kind of down one night and we had a really good girl talk. Covering the usual bases of boys, frustrations with change and the feeling of being often overlooked, we talked for a really long time. A little bit of homesickness swept over me as I took a shower-- the hot water hit my face and tears started to slowly stream down. After putting on my pajamas, I came back into the room and she was already asleep. I saw a small piece of paper on my pillow. In her cute, bubbly handwriting, she had written:

"Ashton, if ever you are doubting just how beautiful you are, then remember these words: 'The King is enthroned by your beauty; honor him, for he is your Lord. Psalm 45:11.' Your beauty shines brighter than you'll probably ever realize. Don't believe the lies that Satan tells you, you are not overlooked and you are not unseen. Keep being patient, and keep being yourself. Love you, don't forget that either." Sometimes Satan works hard on my heart-- but in times like that, God fights back for it.

We have a few more days before we leave for free travel on the 18th. I have to pack because I am shipping all my luggage tomorrow. :-) Better get to it! Love ya'll, Ash