Or
Friends don’t lose Friends in the Tchotchke Shops.
Corfu was another of those time sensitive stops, while not
tendered, was a bit more challenging to get from the port into town thus,
another ship’s excursions.
This one scheduled for Achelleion
Palace, {built by Empress Elisabeth of Bavara, Wife of Emperor Franz
Josef of Austria}, a trip to the beach of
Paleokastritsa, waaayyy across the island, and a planned romp around old tow of
Corfu.
Our guide for the day was the delightful but a bit flakey
Helena, who tried her best to inform and amuse the busload while trying to
teach a few Greek words and pronunciation along the way.
The trip to the palace dedicated to Achilles was lengthy due
to traffic and upon arrival, Helena had a hard time getting anyone at the
ticket office to honor her vouchers. Once in possession of and handing out the
tickets she hands Chucky the group number paddle to keep the crowd grouped
until she can lead the parade to the entrance. Here they run into a mob inside
so a quick retreat has them headed to the elaborate gardens in the rear first, with a spectacular statue of Achilles in full armor which overlooks
Corfu and a stunning
sculpture of the Injured Achilles trying to pull the arrow from his heel.
The tour continued up several flights of stairs to the
interior with stops in each room for descriptions etc, while Chucky was
snapping away with the camera. He could
easily separate from the crowd as they were all wearing “Whisper” earpieces
connected via Bluetooth to Helena.
Then it was back on the bus for the long ride across the island to Paleokastritsa, a cute little beach with absolutely no value other
than tchotchke shops and a reason to kill an hour going, coming and wandering
around for 20 minutes. We really could
have done without this leg as, due to the traffic, it severely cut short and
actually eliminated what little time we had for a romp around Old Town.
As it was, we parked the bus at the main gate of the old fortress,
30 minutes from the time we were due to be back at the ship, for a hike into
the center of town. Helena thought she had enough time to deliver the few
people who just had to see the small cathedral and get back to the bus in time
to get back to the port on time. The Cathedral had to be reached via a tight
alleyway lined with tchotchke shops, and she really thought she could get back
to the bus in 20 minutes.
To complicate Helena’s control of the flock of little chicks
following her, were those that needed to find rest rooms and those stopping
every other shop to haggle for tchotchkes, and those that just had trouble keeping
up.
That’s when the Chaos ensued that caused… we'll just read
on.
WE4 had already queried where the closest market was to pick
up some deli, bread, cheese, olives and water for later and once at the
Cathedral, ducked out the other side and headed for the only supermarket in the
area.
With a 6 pack of liters of water on his shoulder, Chucky and
the rest of WE4 start to hot foot it back to the bus as we were already 10
minutes late for the return to the ship.
Helena followed a bit later rushing her charges along, with
a few panting all the way to the bus.
Now, they are 25 minutes past the time we were supposed to be back onboard and 15 minutes from the ship, when from the back of the bus comes
the cry from a group of Japanese ladies:
“STOP…Our friend in missing!”
In a total panic, Helena starts to chastise them for letting
her get lost, which only made matters worse. The “Friend doesn’t have her phone
and those on the bus are SURE she is lost.
The rest of the bus is all for leaving her, the Japanese are
adamant about waiting, Helena is calling everyone she can for advice, Chucky is
giggling and telling her the boat won’t leave with 50 people missing, and the
bus driver is just laughing out-loud and calling dispatch in very loud Greek.
By now the bus is approaching mutiny when two “friends”
elect to get off to find the missing lady and catch a cab back to the ship, so
Helena lets them off and the bus races… in HEAVY traffic… back to the pier where…
The whole tour must get off the bus, process local customs
and security, x-ray machine and all, where EVERYONE sets off the alarm at the
MAGIC ARCH and have to get patted down,
{Lenny had to make 5 passes} then exit the terminal and hop on a shuttle bus {the
driver is taking a nap in the shade} to get back to the pier and rush to the
gangway as the crew is trying to wrap it all up.
The ship is 3 football fields from the terminal and
apparently some folks did not get the memo about the shuttle bus and were
actually running to the ship apparently in fear that they would be left.
All the while Chucky is laughing so hard he almost fell off
the shuttle bus when it got to the ship.
And of course, at the gangway is an ambulance [apparently
there was a sick guest onboard] but we
were told that the 3 missing Japanese ladies did make it back in time.
A quick fresh up and it was up to the Concierge lounge on
the 11th deck where Alan greeted them with enthusiasm [word of the
bus debacle apparently was the talk of the crew}.
After a couple of cocktails and it was time to head to
dinner.
Rather than recount the menu, etc. suffice it to say, it was
wonderful, and after a trip to visit their money in the casino, it was off to
Nony-Nony land for WE4 as tomorrow was gonna be a long hot day in Athens.
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle Chuck & The
Glad she wasn’t left behind,
Dragon Lady
No comments:
Post a Comment