Life in the Ancient World: Cruising the Greek Islands

Knock the Greek Island Cruise off the list of trips for this semester. I guess you could say that is a little bit of a misnomer because we also dock in Turkey, right near ancient Ephesus. But I’ll get to that.

The trip started on Friday where we arrived very early at the Port of Piraeus in Athens to depart. We sailed through the afternoon and arrived at Mykonos for the evening. There, we were able to enjoy free time to just roam the island for a few hours.

Students walking through the pedestrian streets of Mykonos.

To get to and from the island of Mykonos from our cruise ship we had to take tender boats. When I was going back to the ship from Mykonos, my sunglasses flew off out of my shirt and into the sea. I tell you this story because I bought the sunglasses there, on Mykonos, back in the spring semester of this year and I lost them there 6 months later. I guess it’s poetic in some way. Anyways…

Saturday began with an early morning visit to the archaeological site of ancient Ephesus. We docked in the port of Kusadasi, Turkey and grabbed our bus on over to Ephesus. On the way to the site we saw a fun little extra thing out the window. We passed by the only remaining standing pillar belonging to the famous Temple to Artemis (one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World). Ephesus is quite a big site, compared to the other places we go. After Ephesus, we drove back to the port and went into a rug factory store. They tried to sell us on rugs, but let’s be honest, no college kid is going to buy a $500 rug.

HUG Fall 2011 in front of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus.

After Ephesus, we had time to chill until we arrived at Patmos that afternoon. Yup, another biblical place to scratch off the list. The group toured the alleged cave where John received his revelation. After that, the group continued on up the mountain to tour a very old monastery that was built on Patmos. Instead of going up to the monastery this time (I’ve been there 3 other times already) I sat at a coffee shop with all the adults, just admiring the scenic view we had from way up on top of the island.

Sunday was the last day of actual cruising with a morning stop to Crete and an afternoon visit to Santorini. This time we did something different at Crete. Instead of taking the group on the usual tour of the Palace of Knossos we just gave everyone free time to explore Crete. I took this opportunity to sleep-in a little because the past two days of leaving the boat at 7 was starting to get to me. I got up and out of the boat around 9:15 and walked around Crete for a while.

While walking around Crete I managed to run into some students and we continued to explore the island together. I was able to find and show the couple of students with me a church that I visited when I was here as a student back in the summer of 2009. It is a church built to honor Titus. Inside, they claim to have the skull of Titus that you can look at. Now, the way that have it sitting in a box only allows you to see the top of the skull. So, it could be just a rock, or another random skull. Who knows?

The Church on Crete that claims to have the skull
belonging to Titus.

Santorini was the final stop of the cruise. This was probably the best visit I’ve had to Santorini. We got on the Island early and were able to visit in sunlight, during sunset and even at night. We were able to see Santorini in all of its beauty, with all different lighting. Here, I replaced the sunglasses that I lost two days earlier at the first stop of the cruise. And with that triumphant purchase my Greek Island Cruise came to a close for this semester.