Tammy Trip Reports | Day 9 – Athens and the Inside of the Hospital Onboard!

11 Feb

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Day 9 – Athens and the Inside of the Hospital Onboard!

We were going to Greece today! Yay! We landed in Piraeus which is the port near Athens.

We ate breakfast in Topsiders this morning.

Food!

Here’s the side we disembark on:

And the other side:

I went to see Dad and Mom. She was in the clinic for another IV round and not feeling any better. Dad showed me where to go. If you’ve always wanted to see the clinic, here’s your chance! Without being there for bad reasons!

The clinic was somewhere I had never been, and let me say I was shocked! I pictured one tiny room with a doctor, maybe a bed and a chair. I had no idea it was so big! It was truly like a miniature hospital!

My poor sad mom. Don’t worry, I had permission to take this one.

They saw a different doctor today who told her she wouldn’t feel better for 1-2 weeks!! Weeks!! Dad said if Mom went to sleep, he may try to get off later and go to the Acropolis. They hadn’t been to Greece before, so I hoped he would be able to. I gave him my directions and we were off.

We caught the shuttle to the port entrance. Then started walking.

The walk to the metro was a decent walk. Probably 20 minutes or so. At one point we found free Wi-Fi next to a bus stop and all stopped, of course!

Look! Greek! We really are in Greece!

We hugged the water until we turned into town at one point. My directions weren’t quite right and I was a little worried about Dad trying it later.

The ship is through there!

Right before the metro we crossed a bridge over the street:

We got to the metro where we were warned from the guy at the ticket window to watch our valuables. Apparently we were not supposed to take pictures in the station because this guy yelled at me right after I took this.

We stood next to a train for a while not realizing it was the one we wanted to get on. We figured it out right as it was about to pull out. Stephen stuck his arm in the closing door to try and stop it!! Stuck his arm in a soon to be moving vehicle!! Like it was an elevator or something!!

The door shut and didn’t reopen! I almost had a heart attack.

Thankfully he was able to work his arm back out and we got on the metro with all limbs intact.

When we got off the metro we could see the Acropolis way way far away on the top of a hill. Oh my word it looked far. It’s wayyyy up there:

We started walking:

We passed lots of lovely cafes on the way.

The walk was long but there was a nice breeze. It also wasn’t well marked, but the Acropolis was hard to miss. Getting closer!

Sometimes she wants nothing to do with pictures and sometimes she wants in all of them. Teenagers…

We started up the hill to find the ticket booth.

The ship is wayyyy out there:

There were two ticket windows and the one for the line we were in suddenly closed when it was about halfway through the line. With no warning! So everyone grumbled and moved to the other line. When I got to the front I found out Ally was free! Woo hoo!

We needed sustenance before we resumed the long walk to the top. There was a snack stand across the way thankfully. We bought some frozen lemonade and oreos.

After our snack of champions, we headed up!

I was stunned when we reached the top! Athens is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge! 3.7 million according to Google! It was like this on all four sides!

The flag stand at the top was incredibly windy. I saw no less than 3 pairs of underwear when women reached the top and couldn’t control their skirts.

We walked up Mars Hill before going back down.

We went down a different way. A woman next to me started up a conversation. Turns out she was an American and in Athens on vacation.

Back to the train station:

After we got off the train, we started the long walk back. The walk back was extremely unpleasant. It was soooo hot and there was no breeze! Man I was ready to be back on that ship.

Look, even the pigeons were hot and staying in the shade.

The terminal had free Wi-Fi so we hung out there for a little while too. I went to my parents room to check on Mom. Oh my word they had an ordeal that day. I had no idea. Dad was a little stressed.

The infectious disease doctor from Emory who had seen Mom that morning wanted her to go to a hospital in Athens just to make sure there were no clots. They did and the x-ray was clear. The problem was that the hospital didn’t want to let them leave. They wanted Mom to stay for 4-5 days. Days!!

Dad kept explaining that they were only there for the x-ray and were not staying. The hospital workers were quite insistent and even pretended to agree while they took Dad and Mom into a room. As soon as Dad took one step in the room and realized what they were doing, he stopped and refused to go in. They finally relented and put Dad and Mom in the cab. Then when they got back to the ship, they told the original doctor that the hospital didn’t want them to leave. That doctor (who we are assuming misunderstood their reason for going there) told them they should have stayed. Oh no!

Mom was sleeping in the clinic and Dad was worried that they were going to put them off after she woke up. I felt horrible. I know the ordeal was even worse because they couldn’t get a hold of me all day. There was nothing we could do but wait at this point.

I took a Wave Phone and turned on my cell phone. I told Dad to call me immediately if anyone tried to put them off this ship!

And that was their day while we were off gallivanting around Greece.

My next stop was Port Excursions to make sure Dad and Mom were not charged for the excursion we had planned the next day in Ephesus. I knew Mickey was coming out soon, so I went to do a little character stalking. Here he is! Look how cute!