Thus began a week or so with five of us flying out to Greece, there picking up regular ferries to hop around five Greek islands before returning to Athens and flying home. We took backpacks but no tents and spent the entire time sleeping outdoors in dedicated sites. It never rained, fortunately.

I knew two of the other four people who went on the trip: Jason Roberts (who organised most of it) and Matthew Kopinski. The other two were friends of Jason’s but their names escape me.

Travelling outside the country without parents was exciting, from the flight there to picking up the various ferries jumping between island and island and finding the correct buses to get us to camp sites. Ferry travel was very memorable for the uniformly dreadful conditions of the toilets on board and the extreme tilt most of them had when battered by the wind.

One memory from one of the ferry trips was finding ourselves seated behind what appeared to be gorgeous Greek women, trying to encourage each other to approach them, only to have one turn around and us all catch sight of a pretty thick moustache.

The five islands we hit were Ios, Naxos, Paros, Syros, and Mykonos.

The island featured in the image below holds a special memory for me as one evening before heading out to the nearby bars and clubs we experienced an earthquake. It’s the only earthquake I’ve ever felt and the best way I’ve got to describe it is like a juggernaut thundering past your room only in complete silence; there were vibrations and a feeling of swaying from side to side but no noise at all. It was interesting to see how many other people in the camp site suddenly looked around at each other with the same expression of “Was that a…?” on their faces.

Other memories of the Greek islands holiday:

• Waking up with a rash on my leg one morning I had to visit the local hospital as it was Sunday and there was nothing else available. There, in a room with the door open to other people in the waiting room and in front of a group of three doctors, all smoking, I was gestured to drop my trousers and then given a prescription without a word. I took my pills. I went out drinking. Later that night I don’t remember very much at all other than being told to get off the bar I was laying on by a barman and walking back to the camp site on my own, pausing for a while on the beach to stare at the Milky Way. On my return to England my doctor informed me that I’d been prescribed strong tranquiliser. For insect bites.
• One morning I awoke to find a woman undressing directly in front of me. I pretended to be still asleep but caught the eye of one of my trip companions who smiled at me as we secretly enjoyed the strip show.
• On one of the islands our camping area backed onto a stone wall and we discovered at night that it was home to a large number of rats. One of my companions tried to block up the holes in the wall with containers of jam which the rats took great pleasure in removing.
• We met up with a pair of American doctors at one point who persuaded us to engage in some special dance moves in an otherwise Greek-filled club; most moves were ignored – the fly fishing dance, for instance – but when we all pretended to be Raymond Burr getting shot at the beginning of Ironside and all fell down to the ground as one we found ourselves the centre of a ring of very puzzled-looking people.
• We got boisterous in a bar and started dragging other people up onto the dance floor. I have a vivid memory of dancing to Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds with two Danish girls. I also was thanked profusely by a man who’d wanted to dance, and wanted to dance with one of the girls in particular, but hadn’t worked up the courage until I dragged them up together.
• We walked off the beaten path into a local bar at one point where everyone turned to look at us as we entered. Not wanting to appear scared and back away we asked for drinks from a surly, silent barman – Bacardi and Coke was popular with us – where we discovered local Greek measures away from the tourist areas leaned towards the 20:1 ratio in favour of alcohol. We got very, very drunk.

We finished our trip with a few hours in Athens before flying home.

Whenever we’re flying back from a cruise we always try to arrange the flights late so that if these sorts of excursions are available we can get a last bit of sightseeing in and know that our luggage is being taken care of at the same time; we’d rather not have the hassle of trying to sort out getting ourselves and our cases to the airport and we’ve got no problem with sitting around and reading while waiting for a plane back home so we’d rather extend our holiday time by a little bit than be rushed or simply get off the ship and head straight back to the crushing reality of having to work for a living.

We left the ship early (sad, naturally, despite the problems we’d had on board (see: Review: The Royal Princess Cruise Ship)), picked out our luggage from the terminal, made our way onto the coach, and with everyone else on board soon after headed off for a short drive through Athens. In hardly any time we had arrived at the parking location near the base of the Acropolis and the moaning from fellow passengers had started as some realised that when the excursion mentioned there would be walking up slopes and steps to get to the Greek landmark they hadn’t realised that meant there would be slopes and steps they would have to walk up. An easy mistake. Nevertheless, most persevered (some stayed behind to explore some shops) and we headed up to the historical site.

The walk up allowed for a number of stops to examine some of the stone walls and arches visible on the approach, give the less-mobile-but-determined members of our excursion the opportunity to catch up, and allowed some of us to take some shots outwards and towards Athens from a higher elevation.

The Acropolis is a citadel comprising a number of ruins of buildings of importance to the ancient Greeks. Situated above the capital it is easily seen from miles around and naturally a very big tourist draw. Fortunately, thanks to our early arrival it wasn’t too busy when we got there and there wasn’t a long wait before we got inside for a proper look around.

Our tour guide gave us some history of the main buildings, including of course, the Parthenon temple which was covered to some extent by scaffolding. This was due to the necessary replacement of supporting metal that had been placed in the temple in decades past but which was rusting and in danger of causing more damage. Tip: if you want to see the Parthenon without scaffolding then you ought to wait about a decade. We didn’t think it detracted too much although it makes for slightly less appealing photographs. The important thing is being there and seeing it, though.

On the walk around the Parthenon there were plenty of chances to take advantage of the commanding views over Athens. There was a little haze in the distance as the temperature was starting to rise. One thing we spotted was the Theatre of Dionysus which my wife recalled visiting on a school trip when she was younger. Both of us had been to Athens before – her on the aforementioned school trip and me, passing through for a flight home after hopping around some of the Greek islands with some friends in my late teens – but neither of us had been to the Acropolis itself prior to this excursion.

One of the other, more attractive temple ruins on the Acropolis was the Erechtheion and its Porch of the Caryatids with columns formed from the figures of women.

We continued looking around the various temples and other buildings on the Acropolis as time permitted but with the rising temperature came the realisation that we hadn’t brought any water along and had packed our suntan lotion in our suitcases. There was little we could do about the latter issue as shade was severely limited on the citadel but there were a number of public water fountains dotted around the Acropolis so the need for water was curtailed. I would recommend bringing water with you, though, as it’s far more convenient than the fountains, useful though they are.

Before we headed back down to the base of the Acropolis where we were due to meet up and head towards the coach I grabbed a few more shots looking out across the city towards some of the other ruins in the distance. There is certainly a lot more to do than just the Acropolis in that small area of Athens but our time was limited out of necessity. Opposite the entrace to the temples were a few places selling food and drink so we grabbed some ice-cold slushies and wandered back to the meeting point.

As we waited for everyone to arrive we got talking to some fellow passengers. For some it was their first cruise, for others it was their first Princess cruise, and there was one older couple who were elite passengers and had been in a suite on board. There was a definite split in opinions as to how our time on the Royal Princess had been with those new to the cruiseline and cruising in general thinking it was incredible and those of us more experienced having serious concerns about the service we’d had on board and the ship’s design decisions. At some point we’ll return to a Royal-class ship and see if things improve because sometimes you just have a bad experience.

There would be one more stop before reaching the airport: a photo opportunity at the olympic stadium.

There wasn’t enough time to actually get past the barriers and take a look at the stadium up close but there was still a nice view of the structure from the roadside. With the coach only giving us five minutes at the spot only a handful of us actually got off the coach to take a few photos. The position of the sun wasn’t ideal for photography but the venue looked like it might be interesting to take a wander through if we were to visit the Greek capital again.

Our week’s holiday cruising on the Mediterranean aboard Royal Princess came to an end as we were dropped off at the airport. There we had quite a while to wait until our flight as we’d booked a late one to make sure we’d be able to take in some kind of tour of Athens before leaving. We had expected that we’d be able to get our cases dropped off reasonably early and pass through security in order to relax and read in the departure lounge but the Greek authorities had different ideas and we – along with many others – had to sit around on the floor until any of the few seats in the main hall became available while the check-in desks refused to permit anyone to drop off their luggage until what seemed like the last minute.

The flight back to the UK was fine and made slightly more interesting by flying over the top of a thunderstorm as we passed Albania. With it being dark by this time it was quite impressive to see the huge clouds being lit up by lightning from beneath and within.

As I’ve stated in my review of the Royal Princess for this cruise holiday we had some issues with the ship and its staff in particular but the itinerary was top class. Europe is, of course, a great place for fans of history and it’s quite surprising that we haven’t really done more of it with it being so close. Sometimes, you just overlook what’s right next to you. At some point we’re really going to have to explore more of the Mediterranean region.