At sea - a day of rest

September 24th we were at sea for the entire day. It was very uneventful and nice to have a quiet day. We slept in!!! With excursions you need to be ready by about 8:00 a.m. so we would get up at 6:00 a.m. But on this day we slept in until 8:00. Then we went up to the 9th floor and ate breakfast at a cafe close to the pool. Lattes and croissants with some fruit and an omelet (for Tim). It may have been this day that we did laundry.

There is a laundry room with 6 industrial washers and dryers, complementary detergent and two irons with ironing boards - on left-handed and the other right-handed. There were about 600 people on the ship - some had complementary laundry while others opted for the paid laundry service $4.00 per small item. It adds up quickly. Many of us decided to do our laundry in the free laundry room. Firstly, you needed to be there early or during meal times when people are not thinking of laundry! Secondly, you had to act like an Italian or French person - pushy! The laundry room was no place for the faint hearted. Once you procured a washing machine you put your laundry in, pushed the button and set a timer so you hopefully could transfer it to an empty dryer.

This is where things break down. People recounted tales of their wet laundry being removed at the end of the cycle and dumped in a laundry basket. Others had tales of their wet laundry being removed from the dryer and dumped while someone else used the dryer! What evil lurks in the human heart! While most attendees were women, the odd man would wander in. Oh, did I mention there was a T.V. If a man was in the room he would turn the T.V. To a sports channel. When he left one of the women would turn the T.V. Off. It was like a sauna in that room what with 8 washers, 8 dryers and often 2 irons were giving off steam. There was a lot of comradery among the ladies and we had some good fun. One man reportedly got upset because someone had removed his dry load from the dryer and placed it in a laundry basket. He left in a huff and his wife later came to report that two of his socks were missing. They were located and off she went to report the good news.

I am posting a few random pictures of the ship for your edification.

On the day at sea we also listened to a British history professor, Dr. Gary Sheffield, give a lecture. He presented 5 talks in all. From “What Did We Get From the Greek Civilization”, to “The Battle of the Dardanelles” and talks on Winston Churchill.

We also laid on deck chairs reading, sat in the hot tub and pool and had an afternoon nap. We also packed our bags. We left Crete at 8:00 p.m. and arrived in Malta on 6:00 a.m. the following morning and disembarked at about 8:45. Now almost back to reality!