Tourist Mayhem!

Tourist Mayhem

2^nd May 2011

Once again we are in Athens, Greece. Rather than getting the entire morning off I was out photographing the tours with Jeni, David and Stuart. This is my first time photographing tours and didn’t really know what the heck I was doing. Thankfully, Stu gave me a quick run through. Each photographer was assigned a coach. Mine had 44 guests on board.

The coach drove us around the ports while the tour guide told the passengers about the history of the place, along with some current facts. I didn’t realize Greece had 3,000 islands – approximately 160 are inhabited.

The owl is a symbol of wisdom. It’s a Greek tradition to give gold owls to children on their first day of school, high school, university and when they reach 16. It’s a way of symbolising that they are growing and because wiser. Coming of age.

We arrived at our main stop, the world famous Acropolis. I’d never been before so I was a bit of a tourist myself! The place was heaving… ten buses came from Mariner of the Seas alone!! For me, taking photos of the guest was quite difficult. I didn’t know where's the best place to shoot from, which angle to take. We didn’t have a huge amount of time but I had to have a walk and look around for myself. At least that way, when I go back again, I’ll know a few ideal places to shoot from.

The best part was walking into the Acropolis, when you are right at the top of the hill. There’s a famous Martin Parr photograph showing the masses of tourists that flock to the ruins and the mayhem they cause. The scene before me was exactly like the Martin Parr image. I couldn’t help but smile! Wil would have loved taking candid and landscape shots!

After the tour guide did her bit the guests had about 45 minutes to have a wander and look around. This was our chance to go about taking photos. At first I thought I was restricted to the guests who were on the same bus as me (all guests wear bright stickers with their bus number). When I bumped into Jeni I found out that I could photograph anyone. Silly me! We arranged a time to meet up and head back to the bus together. She went in one direction and I went in the opposite. Smudging has to be more subtle than on the gangway. Although we are allowed to take photos, they don’t like us cruise ship photographers taking photos for financial gain.

Smudging on tours is far more difficult than I originally anticipated. I thought everyone would want their photo taken next to a world famous monument or ruin, but that wasn’t the case. People were saying "no" to me then handing their personal cameras to strangers who’d take their photo. Although it’s understandable, it’s frustrating and sometimes the mass rejection can get you down. 

Again, I bumped into Jeni and then David. I had 16 photos and thought I was doing a terrible job. David was doing worse than me. Jeni was on a roll though! We also posed for a few photos ourselves – it’d be rude not to! I guess that was one way of getting our image count up!

Later on, before leaving the site, Jeni did some smudging for me to get my image count up to 20. She literally just ran up to people shouting “photo, photo, photo” while waving her hands together for the guests to move closer. I’d fail miserably if I did it with my random English accent!!

Again we met up with David. He started telling us that Stu was outside the Acropolis. Our entrance and bus fees are paid for as we are working. David’s tour guide told him at the entrance of the Acropolis that he’d have to pay for his own entrance ticket!! He couldn’t believe it… and neither could we when he told us! Stu, who has been to the Acropolis more times than he can count on both hands, gave David his entrance ticket. In the meantime Stuart stayed outside photographing the guests who were entering and taking stock shots.

Jeni hopped onto our bus and we went on another mini tour through the capital city before heading back to the ship. A couple of people were dropped off in Athens city centre. The architecture is Athens is truly amazing!! Real gold is used in many of the monuments as it doesn’t weather - You learn something new everyday.

We made a pit stop at the Olympic Stadium. I was thinking about getting off but the bus could only stop for five minutes and that’s pretty much how long it took to get the guests off. On the way back Jeni was teaching me little bits of Brazilian Portuguese. At lot of it is similar to Spanish, just with a slight twang/change. Some words were exactly the same in both languages. She’s managed to pick it up quickly because of the similarities. Having a Brazilian boyfriend must help too! In return I taught her the only two words I know in Afrikaans… one is bitch and the other I won’t dare post!

After the tour Jeni headed off to her cabin to get some beauty sleep. I found a note from Luci saying she’s waiting for me in the terminal. 

Spotting Luci, we headed to Carrefour which was a 20 minute walk from the port. The slop chest (ship shop – try and say that a few times after a couple of pints) is way too expensive so most people go to supermarkets on shore. For some reason I thought Carrefour was going to be so much cheaper than what is was. The cost of living in Greece phenomenal, especially when you consider the country is financially up shit creek without a paddle! What shocked me the most was that ASDA in England was cheaper. Anyway, we got what we had to and headed to the Irish pub Stu recommended to use the internet. When we arrived he was already there.

Once again I heard back from some of the guys from the Miami training session – everyone seems to be getting on well. Chet’s ship will be in dry-docked for 10 days. Basically, that means 10 days paid holiday – lucky sod!! A couple of the others are soon going to start their transatlantic cruise which will take 5-7 days depending on where they are and the destination. James is freezing his backside off in Ireland.

Our BM, Jomar signed off today and headed back home to the Philippines. We think 6 month contracts are a long time, he’d had his contract extended and ended up working on board for a whopping 11 months. The new BM, Reuben (India) and AMP Retish (India) have arrived. Not that we know them very well but so far they seem okay. Fingers and toes crossed.

At 16.30 I had to head back to the ship to get ready for work. 

Someone I work with put a complaint in about my sarcasm. Apparently, Natasha, the South African photographer, finds my sarcasm, whether I mean it as a joke or not, offensive. It’s only a bit of sarcasm and banter – no one else has a problem with it. Everyone else laughs or banters back. If Lee was around it’d be something of a sarcasm war. Neither of us will give up so it quickly turns into sarcasm tennis. A fantastic laugh though. Anyway, there were a few other problems that were addressed about me and this other girl. To be fair, I didn’t see anything as an issue or anything to report. The girl doesn’t like me – what can I do about it? Nothing. So I just carry on as normal and get on with the work. During my free time I'm always with other members of the photography team. They don't understand why I was pulled up about my sense of humour either. Oh well, I guess ship happens. Now there’s a bit of banter about my sarcasm. If I say something sarcastic, someone points it out or I retort “Oops. Excuse the sarcasm. Remind me, when we are next in Istanbul, I’ve got to pop over to the Grand Bazaar and buy a new sense of humour! I’ll save the sarcasm for special occasions.” The rest of the team know I don’t mean it in a harsh way and it’s all for a laugh. Shame some people don’t get it.

By the time we finished work and had a meeting in the lab it was 00.30. Instead of going to bed we all headed up to S.O.B. for a few drinks to unwind… as you do.

Jeni at the Acropolis, Athens (Greece)