Back to the real world

This morning, with friendly but ruthless efficiency, we were evicted from the Silver Spirit and cast out into the wide world. After nine days of being cosseted, no-one's looking after us any more, supplying us with every possible need and want, making suggestions for our entertainment, or rocking us to sleep at night. Harsh.

It's especially a shock to the system since we're in Piraeus, which claims to be the Mediterranean's busiest port, humming with ferries and not concerned in the least with being pretty. So there's litter, graffiti, stalled roading and construction projects, double- and triple-parked cars, homeless people (some of them begging), thin stray cats and dogs, and even a seagull dropping a dead pigeon onto the roof of a car driving past the big church whose roof it had been perching on. There are also fancy shops and a private marina thick with the masts of some very expensive boats - but mostly Piraeus is not a place to linger. Nor would we, except that we have an early ferry to catch tomorrow, to somewhere much more photogenic and touristy. Yes, that Instagram staple: Santorini.