Day 56: All at Sea

Yesterday was spent at sea as we moved from Bodrum to Itea, Greece. The satellite connecting us to the Internet was patchy and kept cutting out, so I couldn't upload a post. It didn't matter. Days at sea are very relaxing, but primarily because almost nothing happens.

We read books, ate lunch and dinner, played some cards in the casino and went to bed. One interesting thing happened in the casino. The guy next to me at the blackjack table asked for a card, even though he was holding an 18. The dealer tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted. He got a 10. I asked the casino manager if he had seen this before, and he told me this guy was the first person in the history of the casino to actually total 28 in blackjack - which I guess is its own distinction, even if he lost his bet.

One of the strange things about this trip is that the ship is an exact replica of the one we were on in October, only it is owned by a different cruise line - Azamara, this time, and Oceania last October. Both companies bought them from a line that went out of business, so it's understandable that almost everything is exactly the same - even down to most of the furniture and little things like the "Do Not Disturb" signs.

However, if 99% of the ship is the same, it's the 1% that causes problems. Just when you expect something to be in a certain place, suddenly it's not there and you get kind of a Twilight Zone feeling that you've somehow wandered into a parallel universe.

Our friends Jaki and Robert were with us almost every night in the October cruise at the Happy Hour in the bar where they had set aside a smoking section. In fact, if you go back to my blogs at the time, you will see a picture of them with about 8 gin and tonics as they loaded up on the 2-for-1 drinks before the Happy Hour ended. We, of course, were ordering just as many at our table, but he who controls the camera controls what's in the picture.

The smoking section is in exactly the same place on this ship, but this is a picture of the people who were there at 5:30 the other night. Creepy. I almost sounded an alert to look out for the smokers having early drinks, until I realized that even LK was walking past since she no longer smokes.

Today we are in Itea, which from the ship looks like any other seaport town. It is cooler (mid-70s) and overcast as that weather system that has done so much damage in Istanbul works its way around to our location. We will probably just have a wander around to stretch our legs and check out the town.

More later.