Day 2:  Sunday, June 4, 2023

I woke up at 5am and looked out my window.  WOW!  The full moon was lined up perfectly to my cabin. 

I wanted to sleep more, so I  turned on my audio book, and it dropped me back into slumber until 8am!  And the vibration of the ship is SO calming to me.

Unfortunately, the ship’s app is not working, so it’s a challenge to connect with the others without a previous plan.  So I walked the various restaurants to no avail and eventually got a cappuccino and a freshly made omelet.  I settled in next to the very small pool and wrote yesterday’s blog post.  I eventually hooked up with the rest of the group. 

About noon, we headed off the ship to explore the seaside area of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, and considered the cultural capital. Of course, we only saw this very small portion as we didn’t book an excursion here. But Pete and I walked all the way down to the White Tower after having a very delicious tiramisu ice cream (YUM!)

The ladies wanted to explore some shops, so Pete and I settled into a lovely restaurant to enjoy a cocktail and the scenery. 

We caught up with the ladies and shared some pizza and pasta.  It’s interesting that tipping is not expected here like it is in the US.  When one does tip, the servers are surprised and grateful.  It’s a nice change from the expectation at home.

We returned to the ship, and I fell asleep once more.  I guess I’m really starting to feel my age!  I set my alarm but failed to turn it on (duh!), so I had to scramble to make it to our 6:45 sit-down dinner.  Another lovely meal and more great servers (we had JoJo tonight). 

The ladies surprised me with a little gift at dinner from their shopping excursion.  Oh, YOU GUYS!!

The show after dinner was truly amazing:  Cirque Fantastic.  It’s a very intimate theatre, and to see the acrobats and dancers up close had us very enthralled.

We tried our luck at the casino again. I think Holli was the only winner; I once again bombed.

But then, we found the DISCO. This was MY winning time today. TOO MUCH FUN!

By 2am, I was DONE. I fell asleep in record time after realizing that in only 2 hours, I had earned over 5400 steps and 123 zone minutes on my FitBit.

Can you say TIRED???