We slept in, played morning trivia and were eating lunch when we pulled up to dock in the town. I guess most people were more than ready to head out by noon, as soon as the gangways opened there was a streaky stream of tourists leaving the ship to go explore.
We were docked up in a bay with nice views all around:
Lots of people we had talked to were planning to go to the beach (there are a couple of nice ones only a short taxi ride away). With temps in the low 70s and lots of sunshine it was certainly the nicest weather we had had for that all week.
The other thing that gets a lot of recommendations online is to rent a car or scooter and explore the entire island. Apparently you can drive all the way around it in only a couple of hours and it is very scenic--this is where the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin was filmed.
We were taking the lazy way out and only planned to wander around the immediate port area a bit on foot. We headed out and turned left off the dock (it was clear from on board that there was nothing really to the right) and enjoyed a short walk into town.
There were many bright, airy shops with decent prices. Nothing crowded or dark--it was very pleasant to browse. If you were looking for touristy types of souvenirs (t-shirts, pot cards, trinkets, etc) this would be the best port to shop in by far. Local made honey is also something sold everywhere.
I am not much of a shopper, so all I bought were two post cards which we then took to a cafe to fill out while having a drink. The drinks came with small snacks--much like in Italy (but smaller and not as good):
After our drinks, we headed back towards the ocean and strolled for a while down the really nicely done seaside promenade:
It was a VERY pleasant walkway with pretty views out across the bay. After an hour or so of walking, we were heading back in the direction of the ship and it occurred to us that we could pick up cold drinks from one of the stores and sit with them on one of the shaded benches along the walkway and that would actually be more pleasant and less costly than sitting at another inland cafe. Three Euros later I had an ICE cold Coke and Dave had an equally cold Hard Lemonade and we did just that.
There were benches every 20 or so meters along the entire walkway.
Mmm, a Coke and a view!
So, we wiled away some more time, and then mosied back towards the ship (getting some nice photos of her along the way).
All in all it was a pleasant port. Clean and with very nice people--easy to walk into town an those who took taxis to the beaches all said the taxis were reasonably price and the beaches were fabulous. It's too bad for Argostoli that it comes right after Mykonos on the itinerary, almost anything does pale by comparison the the postcard perfection of Mykonos.
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and playing trivia games.
That night's show was by a group called Viva Voce. It was a group of four men (from four countries) singing and doing some basic choreography. They were all talented--no doubt. But, they lacked charisma (small talk and jokes between number fell totally flat, for example), and the selection of songs did not flow well at all. There was a mix of opera, pop, and film selections, which could work if the themes went together, or the rhythms flowed into one another or soothing--but from what we saw, they did not. We left after about 20 minutes (having wisely sat in the back this time).
Dinner was good, but I was starting to come down with a cold an turned in right afterwards, rather than attending the 70s dance party in the Centrum, so I have nothing more to report on the ship from day 6.
--Hadley
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