PokerGrinder Europe 2

Quote: Doc

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m going to be sitting in the airport for a while tomorrow so I plan on updating then.

At Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport??? That's where I reported having collected my own Holland Casino chip that I posted in this thread. Why the big worry about maybe missing out on getting your souvenir chip, if you're just going to be sitting in the airport that has the casino?

I suppose I could be out of date. I got my chip back in May 2015 and posted it just four days later. I haven't checked recently as to whether that casino instillation is still running.
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damn it.. forgot about casino inside Schiphol when i was there in May.

which terminal was it in?
I assume it's located past the metal detectors?

I’m not sure if I conveyed worry but I was never worried. I just said that I was going to check the other casino in town to see if I could get a €1 chip as I would prefer that. I wasn’t so I kept a €5 chip.

I decided to knock some of the casinos I wanted to visit off the list when I got back to Dublin. My first stop was Fitzpatrick’s where they no longer have table games so that was a quick visit. I then walked to the Colossus Casino which no longer has a casino lol. I learned later that night that they were closed for money laundering, I can’t verify that statement but apparently it’s happened multiple times to them. As I was walking away from the Colossus a well dressed man stopped me and asked if I was looking to play poker. I said yes and he gave me the name of a new poker room and I was able to find their Facebook page. I thanked him and carried on. I messaged the Facebook page to see if they run cash games as he only knew of tournaments. They said they do so I figured I’d check it out after what I thought was going to be my last casino stop as it was the farthest from the centre of town. My next stop was an actual open casino with table games. The Sporting Emporium had a €25 fee to sign up for a membership which you needed to enter but they give you €25 in FP chips so the membership doesn’t cost anything. The casinos in Dublin, the proper ones, don’t open until 8 pm. I’m not sure if that is due to staffing shortage or just a choice. When I walked in there was a roulette and BJ game open amongst about 30 tables total. I signed up for the poker list but after being there for almost a hour and the list only having 3 names I gave up and left. Since I couldn’t play poker I collected my chip playing CSM blackjack with terrible rules.

My last stop of the night was the Carlton Card Club a few minutes from my hostel. I got there and was told I had to go put on full length pants to come in. I decided since I was so tired from the tour that day that I would just call it a night and stop at the last couple casinos the next day.

I didn’t have a ton to do during the day but I needed to get laundry done. I grabbed a Cajun chicken salad and then put a load in. Sadly there was a guy there ten minutes before me but since there was only one working dryer I had to wait for his clothes to dry before I could even start mine. I used the two hours to update this thread and upload my pictures to Facebook. Once my laundry was done I walked to Trinity College and Dublin Gardens and spent a few hours walking aimlessly until just before 8 and the casinos were opening up.

I got to Carlton Card Club and signed up for a membership. The membership was €20 but I was given a €20 free bet which is worth about half the value. This was the nicest casino I visited in Dublin by far, heck it was one of the nicest casinos I’ve ever been to and I’ve been to over 1100 casinos. It was very Monte Carlo from James Bond with the dealers wearing bow ties and the decor being very upscale. They had just opened and had one CSM BJ €10 min, baccarat €100 min (table was full) and roulette which I didn’t check the minimum. I played BJ for a bit and had a really enjoyable conversation with the dealer who was from southern Italy. He had been dealing for two years and was both exceptional at dealing the game but also giving me a reason to stay and chat with him. I don’t normally play as long as I did but I was winning and enjoying the dealer. I was between €200-€300 ahead for a while but ended up cashing out when I finally lost my €10 bet when I had €310. I took the profit and ran to my next stop.

The next stop was one of the most interesting casinos I’ve ever been to. I walked 5 minutes down the street to the Phoenix Card Club and I actually missed it on my first walk by as it is just a door underneath a corner store sign. When I doubled back and found it I climbed two flights of stairs and found two doors.



I looked around for a half a minute trying to figure out which door I should knock on when an Asian man walked up and entered a code into the door, I followed him in. When I walked in I found a desk and I asked to sign up for a membership. They seemed very confused why I was there and how I found them. The lady informed me the only game open was punto banco and asked if I knew how to play. I said it’s just baccarat right and she said no. I said it’s ok I’ll figure it out. I googled the game and it was baccarat. The membership was free and I was able to “buy” a €25 match play which didn’t actually cost me any money. I played a shoe of baccarat cause with only one table running in the casino the size of a closet I felt like it would be weird to play a couple hands and leave. I ended up winning under €5 and got my chip. Almost the entire staff was Romanian while all the players were Chinese. They were clearly not used to randoms popping by so the pit boss was enjoying chatting with me cause most of their customers don’t speak English. After the shoe was over I cashed out and headed on my way.



Next up was D1 Casino which was more of a normal casino with slots upstairs and tables and poker downstairs. The membership was free but I was given a €10 free bet and a card for a €25 free bet if I came back in the next month which I obviously didn’t since I left the next morning. I played off my free bet and then my name was called for poker. They were playing 1/2, there wasn’t much action. I played for about 30 minutes and cashed out up €60 or so. I was already tired and still had one more place to stop that night. I also had a 9:30 am train to Galway so I didn’t want to stick around too late.

I took a cab (through Uber, they use meters but charge your card with the app) to the Bonnington Hotel about 10 minutes away where the Dublin Poker Club was held. I got to the 4 star hotel and asked for the poker room, I got slightly lost before an employee led me through a closed dark restaurant, down a dark hallway (yes murder was a worry) and then directed me into a conference room where there were poker tables set up. There was a tournament with two tables (only started with 3) and a 1/2 cash game running. There were about 20 tables total, they apparently run pretty large tournaments. I grabbed a seat in the cash game and proceeded to lose just over €500 in a really good game over the next two hours. The chips were from a company called D4 Events who ran the Dublin Poker Festival. I didn’t find much else about the company but this whole poker room is on the newer side. The players were very friendly and I had no problem understanding most of them. One guy I couldn’t make out his accent at all so another player immediately translated for me every time he spoke. The guy with the thick accent said Canadians must never stop talking based on me, I guess I talk a lot… who knew lol.

I grabbed a cab back to the hostel around 2 am which was dumb but I got about 6 hours of sleep before my train to Galway.

Thanks for the thread. I may have asked this before but if so it was a long time ago.

Do you keep a log of your gambling or at least a rough idea of how you do over time when traveling?

I just wonder how you do overall on these trips. Do you do well enough to help pay for the trip?

So a Canadian in Ireland ends up at a casino run by the Romanians for the Chinese. Don't ya just love globalization.

I do and anything that isn’t positive ev I’m very negative long term lol.

When I was in Asia in 2018 I found enough good poker games that the whole trip cost me about $1000 for 3.5 months not including the rt flight to Thailand.

Poker Grinder did you hear from the Canadian airline yet about your case?

My brother texted me yesterday WESTJET text just in first leg approved for him and wife $2000 coming back. Return trip was delayed even longer..oh wait 5 minutes later second text from them return trip approved $2000 more on the way. Pretty good since he used up all his Westjet points for all the flights zero $$$ out of pocket, $4000 for sitting in the Westjet lounge in Toronto twice drinking and eating for free .

I actually haven’t done it yet.

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.
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Afraid you’ll use the site to crush their casino.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.
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Carnival blocks WoV?
Do they also block WoO?

I’m headed back to the boat, I’ll check. I don’t visit WoO often.

We have a sea day tomorrow so the plan is to catch up on write ups and I’ll post it when I get off the boat on Friday in Estonia since I have to use data to use this site lol.

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.
link to original post

Carnival blocks WoV?
Do they also block WoO?
link to original post

I have a hunch... is the ship flagged in Bahamas?

Quote: Dieter

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.
link to original post

Carnival blocks WoV?
Do they also block WoO?
link to original post

I have a hunch... is the ship flagged in Bahamas?
link to original post

Flagged?

Also I checked wizard of odds and it is blocked.

I’m in Estonia now so I’m about to post a write up.

My train left Dublin for Galway around 10 am after a slight delay. All the seats are assigned and I had a aisle seat but a girl asked me to switch with her so she could chat with her friends. I agreed but immediately regretted being beside the window as the hot sun was beating down on me while the girl was not in the sun at all. The train ride took just under 3 hours and the walk to the hostel was quick at about 10 minutes. I was too early to check in so I dropped my bags at in the luggage room and went in search of, well nothing in particular I was just sort of walking aimlessly.

I walked over to St Nicholas Church which was right beside a small market selling trinkets and a cheesemonger. I stopped in the cheesemonger and got 3 types of meat and one cheese.



The guy working there was awesome, he let me try everything (and tons of cheese I didn’t buy) before buying it and apparently they don’t worry about Covid cause he would sample the cheese when I did. He told me I could get bread at the bakery around the corner so I headed there next. The bread I got didn’t end up being very good but it worked to make a sandwich. I also got a chocolate covered macaroon which was excellent. I grabbed a water at the corner store and went back to the church to eat my lunch on the grass.

After lunch I headed back to the hostel to check in and put my stuff in the room. I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do so I just went out to explore. I found an area on google maps called Salthill about 40 minutes away so I decided I’d take the scenic walk there. On the way there I passed through some cute neighbourhoods and lots of flowers around little bodies of water.



As I got closer to the area of Salthill it started to get quite touristy with lots restaurants and bars with a few casinos on the way to beach area. I stopped in 3 casinos but made a quick exit in all 3 as there wasn’t anything interesting.

Even though it was getting late and nearing sunset the beach area was still packed as was the small carnival across the street. I stopped to take some pictures of the sunset but mostly I walked there and then walked back.



On my way back I stopped at two casinos that I knew would have table games which meant I could collect a chip. The first casino 4 Aces was using chips from a closed casino a hour south of Dublin for their €1 and €5 chips so I was FORCED (🤣) to keep a €25 chip to get one with their name on it. I asked them why they weren’t using their own chips for the smaller denominations and the boss said it was because too many people were keeping them as souvenirs, how ironic. I then walked over to Eglington Casino where they had a slightly bigger casino. I played a little BJ to collect my €1 chip and actually won €100 between the two casinos. I got some very mediocre Turkish donair and headed back to the hostel to call it a night. 4 of the other 7 people in my room were Canadian, I’ve been finding a ton of Canadians on this trip.

In the morning I walked over to the meeting point for the tour I was taking to the Aran islands and the Cliffs of Moher. The bus left at 830 am so it was an early morning. This was the biggest tour I’ve ever been on as the bus was full with I believe 49 passengers. I sat beside a guy from Vancouver who wasn’t very chatty. We drove through some beautiful small villages on our way to Doolin where we took the ferry to one of the Aran islands called Inisheer. Once we got to the island we were given a few hours to explore. We could either rent a bike, take a horse carriage ride or a tractor ride. I chose the horse ride and since I was the last one for that ride I got to ride in the front with the driver.

Our first stop on Inisheer was an old shipwreck from 1960 that had completely rusted over. The ship had been gutted back in 1960 for any materials worth saving and the shell of the ship was just left there to become a tourist attraction. After that the horse ride took us through the hills of the island. There are walls made of rocks everywhere as the locals needed somewhere to put the rocks so that the grass could grow. They figured building walls would accomplish that, apparently the walls have no functional value.



At the top of one hill and the bottom of another the driver told us we could get off here and walk 10 minutes up the hill to see the castle so a few of us did. The walk was insanely steep and I was definitely feeling it by the time we reached the top. The castle was very small so I spent 10 minutes before walking back down the hill and then to the pier to grab some lunch. I had fish and chips from a food truck and then boarded the boat to the Cliffs of Moher.

I made sure to get to the boat early so that I could get a seat on the top deck to have a better view of the cliffs. Once we started getting close I took a bunch of pictures not realizing that the boat was taking us right up to the cliffs and so I got much better pictures at that point. As we were coming close on our approach I went and stood on the front of the boat for the best viewing spot while trying to not lose my hat in the wind.





It really is a beautiful area to visit if you ever get the chance. The boat then took us back to Doolin where we boarded the bus and headed to the Cliffs of Moher to see it up close.

We were given I think 45 minutes to explore, I decided (stupidly) in the extremely hot weather to hike up the mountain to the castle and then take the “we don’t recommend this” path along the top of the cliffs. The path is a very steep hike and that combined with the heat drained me of all my energy. After I got back down from the top of the cliffs I stopped into the gift shop and walked by the name plates they had. After I walked past I realized shit, I’m in Ireland this is the one place on earth that will have my Irish name on something and of course I found it. I didn’t buy it as I didn’t need to spend €10 on a name plate I don’t want but it was still cool cause I’ve never found anything with my name on it before.

The bus took us back to Galway where I spent the rest of the night in the hostel because of complete exhaustion.

My last day in Galway I didn’t have much going on. I tend to schedule extra days in cities so that I’m not forced to go go go all the time, I can have a slow day and not feel like I’m missing anything. I slept in a bit and then went out to play the Pokémon Go event from 11-2. There was a food market set up on the street where I had found the cheesemonger a few days earlier. I walked up and down trying to decide what to get and finally decided on Indian because it had the most reasonable lines. I got some paneer veggie wrap that I honestly don’t know what else was in it but it was pretty good. It did however send me running to the bathroom within the half hour, gotta love my shitty stomach. There were some ladies with some Irish therapy dogs and they were fundraising. The dogs go to hospice centres, hospitals and old folks homes to comfort people. I stopped to play with a few puppies including one that had his tail died rainbow for the pride parade that was going on that day in Galway.



After the Pokémon event was over I took a shower to cool off and just hung out in the common area rehydrating. Ireland like many other places in Europe has been going through a crazy heat wave that they aren’t used to. I met a girl in the hostel from British Columbia and chatted with her for a few hours. She suggested this restaurant nearby that had these duck wings that were like chicken wings. I decided to give it a try for dinner. The duck wings were really good, they had a sweet chili sauce on them.



I also ordered the shrimp and mussels which weren’t great. They were in a red sauce which I didn’t realize and I’m not a big fan of seafood in red sauce. Also they added chorizo to the dish which really doesn’t work well flavour wise. It was still worth trying the restaurant for the wings alone.

The train the next day left a bit late as they were checking tickets before boarding vs checking them on the train like they did on the way down. This created a bottleneck in small hot room. It wasn’t a big deal as my train left just after one and I had a 7 pm flight to Amsterdam. As soon as I got to Galway I grabbed an Uber to the airport. When I got there I found out that Sebastian and Emma the two Dutch travellers I met in Dublin were on the same flight headed home. I hung out with them until the flight left (late).

Once in Schipol I grabbed my bag and failed a few times to get to the right place for the train into Amsterdam. Some locals helped me and I was able to get a ticket and get to the right stop for my hostel. The google maps location of the hostel was slightly off so I ended up walking around the entire building before realizing that I had passed the entrance already. I checked in and found 3 female university students from Bristol, UK there on vacation. We chatted a bit and then I took a shower before heading to bed for the night.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Quote: Dieter

Quote: 100xOdds

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m not sure why but this site is blocked on the cruise wifi.
link to original post

Carnival blocks WoV?
Do they also block WoO?
link to original post

I have a hunch... is the ship flagged in Bahamas?
link to original post

Flagged?

Also I checked wizard of odds and it is blocked.

I’m in Estonia now so I’m about to post a write up.
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Which country is the ship registered (flagged) in?
I should have used less jargon in my original question.

I’m on Carnival Pride, I’m not sure where it’s registered to. We left out of Dover England if that matters.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’m on Carnival Pride, I’m not sure where it’s registered to. We left out of Dover England if that matters.
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Thanks. My hunch was wrong (Panama!), but I'm guessing some admin hit the "block all gambling websites" button on the easy webfilter autoconfiguration and that was that.

Also porn is blocked! Like what the hell? 😂

Quote: PokerGrinder

<snip>After I got back down from the top of the cliffs I stopped into the gift shop and walked by the name plates they had. After I walked past I realized shit, I’m in Ireland this is the one place on earth that will have my Irish name on something and of course I found it. I didn’t buy it as I didn’t need to spend €10 on a name plate I don’t want but it was still cool cause I’ve never found anything with my name on it before.<snip>
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PokerGrinder,

PokerGrinder is an Irish name? 😉

Thanks for the travelog. I have been enjoying the vicarious trip!

Dog Hand

Quote: PokerGrinder

what camera and/or filter did you use to get this great pic?

(I could never take pics like this with my phone camera on auto everything)

It’s just my iPhone 11, no filters or anything. I take a bunch of pictures and pick the best one later.

If anyone is interested I recently found this documentary about the Cliffs Of Moher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4JCeDgcIdI&t=1s

My first day in Amsterdam was pretty jam packed. A friend who lives about a hour away from Amsterdam gave me a whole bunch tips for things to do while I was there. I took the train to Centraal Station and was amazed at what I saw when I walked out of the building onto the street. Amsterdam is beautiful! The architecture is amazing and the views over the canals are perfect.



I walked for about a hour to a market that covers a few blocks with stalls selling food, souvenirs, clothes and artsy stuff as well. The first local food I tried was the raw herring in bread with pickles and onions. I got it without the onions and yet it still tasted bad. The fish had an odd flavour to it and after two bites I threw it in the garbage. Fyi I love raw salmon so raw was definitely not the issue.



The next treat was a stroopwafel which is what looks like cookie dough flattened in a waffle patterned iron and then they put hot caramel on it and then another waffle on top. It was super sweet but also super tasty, highly recommend. The guy who made my stroopwafel said his family is one of the original 4 businesses that make the treat.







I wanted to go to a local brewery that was suggested but they only do tours on the 3 days of the week I wasn’t going to be there so I settled for the Heineken Experience. I hate Heineken beer but I figured I should go for the experience and maybe the beer won’t taste as terrible as it does back home (it did). I was able to walk up and buy a ticket for the next tour which started about 20 minutes after I got there. The tour was interesting with each part of the tour having a guide to talk about different parts of the history of Heineken and the process of brewing the beer.



They had a “ride” where you become the beer and go through 3 rooms with lots of lights and shaking floors to go with the large screens. They are trying to make it feel like we are in the video, it didn’t really lol. After we were brewed, packaged and then sold we got our first taste of Heineken and like I said it still tasted like crap.



The last stop of the tour was our two “free” beers that we paid for. I got them both and drank them because well I paid for them. The second one I got to pour myself. They had 4 taps and would get 4 people to pour themselves a beer and the person who poured the perfect beer with the right amount of foam won… nothing but bragging rights I guess. The guy asked me if I had poured out of a tap before and I said I bartended for 3 weeks when I was younger so clearly I was experienced lol. I ended up winning the competition mostly cause pouring a beer out of a tap isn’t that hard. I drank my second shitty tasting beer before heading out.

On my way back to the hostel I stopped and got food in a Surinamese restaurant. It was noodles, mushrooms and teriyaki chicken in a Chinese take out box.



The lady asked if I wanted it warmed up and then proceeded to microwave it forever. It still tasted really good but I burnt the shit out of my thumb on the steam when I grabbed the box. I also stopped at a grocery store and bought some mystery cheese which was mediocre and meat which was also mediocre for breakfasts at the hostel the next few days. The bread was super fresh and yummy though.

That night I walked over to the casino that was 7 minutes away. When I tried to go in a man approached me and asked if I was staying at the hotel, I said no and wondered if I had to be to go in. He said are you staying close by and I said yes. He then informed me that athletic shorts are not allowed and asked me to go change. I walked back, put on jeans and then headed back to the casino. The casino was small but nice which isn’t surprising as it is quite new. I won just over €100 but actually didn’t collect a chip as no tables had a €1 chip so I decided to wait until I checked out the casino in Amsterdam since they might have them. If not I would just take a €5. At that point I called it a night and walked back to the hostel.

I read online in a travel blog about these cookies that this little store sells in Amsterdam. They are apparently the best cookies the blogger has ever had. The interesting part about the shop is that they are open 10 am until whenever they sell out for the day and there is always a line. I went to their website and found that you can preorder them and skip the line so that is exactly what I did. I paid for 2 cookies and when I got there I showed my confirmation number and immediately got my parcel. The cookies are chocolate with a white icing centre, it honestly was one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.



I walked from Centraal Station to the cookie shop and on the way stopped for a bagel with lox. Before I knew what was happening the woman panini pressed my beautiful lox sandwich and cooked the salmon… so sad. It still tasted good but the fish is not supposed to be cooked.

I walked around for awhile and ended up at the Royal Palace, I took a few pictures but the best part was there was a guy dressed like death with a “I ❤️ Amsterdam” on his chest. Weird but ok.




NSFW pictures incoming!!!
After the weird death guy I walked to the Sex Museum for a weird hour. There were two floors of sex sculptures, artifacts and porn pictures going back to the 1800’s. It was actually quite interesting to learn how sex and porn has progressed over the last 150 years. There was a group of 5 guys around 18-20 walking around giggling like they had never seen a naked person before which just seemed silly to me. You know you’re going to a sex museum right?

I know AxelWolf will enjoy these.






From there I walked around aimlessly for awhile just looking at random things in the city. I found pretty flowers, more canals (obviously) and even a lizard sculpture garden not sure the reason behind that last one.



Fries are a really common snack in the Netherlands so I stopped at this shop and got sweet potato fries. They offer about 15-20 sauces that you can add and I chose peanut sauce. It was a slightly odd combo but it worked. I figured peanut sauce is good on Vietnamese salad rolls so why wouldn’t it be good on sweet potato fries.



My next stop was at the Anne Frank Museum where I had a tour ticket. I booked the tour a month prior because the tickets sell out very fast. It’s a self guided tour with an audio guide in whatever language you’d like. I chose Swahili, just kidding, just English for me. The audio guide was easy to use, each room had a sensor on the wall and you pointed your machine to it and the audio would begin to play. I went to Hebrew school for 5.5 years as a kid so I obviously learned all about WWII, the holocaust and Anne Frank but I learned so many new facts in this beautifully set up museum. I really enjoyed being able to learn more about the 8 people who lived in the annex for 2+ years while being able to walk through the actual building, the actual annex and to see things like the actual bookcase that was used to cover the door to the attic. It was definitely surreal. At the end of tour there was a video on display, the first one was talking to some celebrities about Anne. The next one was her diary as a vlog if she had video recording abilities back then. It was an interesting take on the diary.

I finished the tour and went to the gift shop to buy a paperback copy of the diary. I was supposed to read the book in school but I don’t think I did as I was never a good student lol. I’ve been reading it here and there in the two weeks since I bought it (yes I know I’m very behind on writing this). After I got the book I sat down on the couches at the end of the museum to just, I don’t know unwind, I don’t think that’s the word I’m looking for. The museum while amazing was very tough, hard and sad to take in. I just needed some time to relax although again that’s not the word I’m exactly going for.

I left Anne Frank’s House and went to the casino of course! I got there and the wait list for poker was insanely long, I gave up waiting a collected my chip from the BJ table. As I thought this casino didn’t have €1 chips either so I kept a €5. I left the casino around 9 I believe and walked back to the Centraal Station taking some pretty night photos but sadly the photos don’t do it justice due to the street lights glare.





The plan for my last day in Amsterdam included a canal ride cause that is a must in Amsterdam. I’m dumb though and didn’t think to check the weather so instead of taking a canal ride on the two beautiful sunny days, I took it on the day when it was supposed to rain all day. It hadn’t started raining yet when I got to the boat but as soon as we left the dock it started to pour! We had slight covering but where I was sitting I got soaked. The guide gave me a rag so that I could sop up the water on the bench and ring it out over the boat. The boat ride was very enjoyable even with the downpour. The rain did slow to a drizzle after about 40 minutes so the last little bit of the ride was easier to enjoy. It was a small group, a couple from Italy and couple from Saudi Arabia joined me on the boat. After the canal ride my entire left side was dripping wet so I went I took the train back to the hostel to change and ended up falling asleep for a few hours.



A lot of the houses along the canal are tilted due to being made with poor quality wood.




That night I went back into the city and checked out the cannabis museum and the Hemp museum which you get into both with one ticket. The cannabis museum was interesting and I spent quite a while in there but I zoomed through the Hemp museum. I’m not sure if I was just done at that point or the hemp was less interesting. I then bought a weed brownie but I don’t think I bought a strong enough one because I didn’t feel much to be honest. I haven’t smoked weed in probably 8 years so I got the most mild brownie but like I said I didn’t get much effect out of it. I did however have one the best sleeps of my life that night which made the £12.50 totally worth it.



My last stop for Amsterdam was to visit the Red Light District once it got dark. Honestly not sure what all the hype is about, it was quite weird to me. There are sex shows, girls in windows everywhere and a few strip clubs. I went into one of the “live shows” which was very odd. You go into a booth and put €2 in the slot which opens up your window and there is a naked woman putting on a show. The weirdest part is you can see the faces of the people in the other booths. I’m not sure why people would enjoy that but I left when my €2 was up. Not my cup of tea at all. Overall I wouldn’t give the “attraction” a very high rating. To each their own I guess.



I’m not sure if I mentioned previously but Schipol airport has been having massive issues with lines for the last couple of months. Baggage taking hours, security and customs taking 4-8 hours which obviously causes people to miss their flights. I got there about 3.5 hours early and between dropping my bag, going through security and customs I think it took maybe 30 minutes. Not going to complain, happy to sit around the airport for 3 hours rather than worry about missing my flight to London.

I got to London, took a bus and two trains (maybe one, can’t remember) to the hostel. I got off one stop early by accident so I had to walk 20 minutes with my bags and I was very sweaty by the time I got there. I checked in and found 3 girls from southern Czech Republic. They didn’t speak a ton of English but one of them kept asking me questions about where I’m from, what I do etc etc. She apologized half way through and then asked if she could ask more questions. Despite wanting to take a shower I said sure and continued answering questions like I was in a tv interview. I’ve had this happen many times over the years when meeting people from other countries. When they were done I grabbed a shower and hit up two casinos. I collected chips from both before walking out with less money than I walked in with. I actually tried to visit 4 casinos but two are permanently closed. After walking for about 2.5 hours I gave up and took a bus rather than walk the last 40 minutes.

Quote: PokerGrinder

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When I was in Amsterdam back in May, I went on a food tour and sampled pickled raw herring.
I had it with onion. the pickle made it palatable.
Like you, I'm ok with raw salmon but i guess the color of the herring turned me off to it.

The waffles are Stroopwafels and can be bought at Amazon.
Obviously, buying fresh tastes much better. (Also had a sample from food tour)

My Heineken pour:

I came in 2nd and could drink my pour.
Winner drank his pour and got his token back so he could get another sample sized Heineken.

As for the Red Light district, I was surprised on how small of an area it was.
When I was there, there were a few college guys standing on a corner with one of them wearing a Scottish kilt.
They were encouraging girls passing by to lift the kilt and/or put their hands down the kilt.
I found the girls reactions more entertaining than strip clubs.


- What store was the chocolate cookie at?

- I didnt know there was another casino that had table games besides Holland casino.
I thought all the rest were slot parlors so I didn't bother. :(
Name of table game casino that made you change cloths?

I won and drank my beer but didn’t get my token back. Van Stapele is the name of the cookie place. As far as the casinos they were both Holland Casino, one was in central and the other was Holland Casino West.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I won and drank my beer but didn’t get my token back.
Van Stapele is the name of the cookie place.
As far as the casinos they were both Holland Casino, one was in central and the other was Holland Casino West.
link to original post

google says holland west is 3.3miles away from the other.
1hr walk.
taking public transporttation is 30min?! for 3 miles?

so thats 3 places to visit if i go back:
1) cookie
2) holland west
3) holland casino in schipol airport

Did you notice any vultures at Holland West?
(There were a few at the other)

Holland west had a few machines nothing special. All the Holland Casinos use the same chips btw.

Thanks for the Amsterdam report! My brother-in-law is leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow, so I sent him your report!

Questions and comments:

—So the herring in your sandwich was simply raw? Not pickled? If so, yuck!
—I tried Costco stroopwafel, and am not a fan, but I'd definitely try a fresh one!
—I'd also think and hope Heineken tastes better there, so I LOLed when you said it didn't.
—Was the NSFW flasher at the museum an animatronic?
—My one cannabis experience was also a great night's sleep, so I'm glad you got that — you deserved it!
—I can't remember now, but one of the late night talk shows did a bit where someone was trying to promote something — including from the middle of one of those peep shows that you described. My YouTube search skills are failing me!

Sorry I just saw this.

Yes the herring is raw as far as I can tell, definitely not pickled. Pickled herring is very popular with Jews, my mom loves it but I can’t stand it.

It’s very sweet but very good fresh.

Well I mean Guinness tasted better in Ireland so I was holding out hope that Heineken would follow suit.

Ya it moved back and forth opening its coat and laughing.

Haha thanks, I’ve been thinking of trying edibles to sleep better for a couple of years but my worry is becoming dependent on them to sleep. If I become dependent then what do I do when I’m in a country that I can’t get them. Or is dependency on them to sleep not a thing?!? So many questions.

I can’t say that I’ve seen it but I don’t watch tv.

I woke up the next morning and Danelle and I had a slight communication error about the plan for the morning. We had to go get antigen tests for the cruise, I thought she was coming to the hostel from the airport and then we’d go from there and she thought we were meeting at the testing site. Luckily she was running late because I hadn’t left yet at 9:40 for a 10:00 appointment and the taxi would take about 30 minutes. We got there, got tested and got our negative results about a hour later.

I went to high school with Danelle but we didn’t become friends until she needed travel advice in 2018 and a mutual friend told her she should message me. I visited her in Palm Springs about 16 months ago but I hadn’t seen her since then. We walked around the corner for breakfast, I had beans and spinach with a poached egg on multigrain toast which was very good but made my stomach unhappy.



We then walked to a tattoo/piercing shop so Danelle could get new gauges for her ears as one fell out on the plane from Minneapolis. When we got there my stomach started acting up so we went next door to the pub to grab a drink so I could use the bathroom. We ended up staying for quite a few midday beers and got a tad drunk. We made our way to see Big Ben as they FINALLY took the scaffolding off after 5 years of work. When I was in London for the first time in 2017 I was very sad that it was covered up as I love clock towers.



I didn’t do much the rest of the day except laundry and possibly a nap. I did manage to smash my head going down the stairs to do laundry and still had a bump a few days later. That night we went for Indian food and again my stomach wasn’t happy. Some days it doesn’t matter what I eat, my stomach will reject it. That night I got another terrible sleep in the hostel as the bed made noise with every movement and my feet overhung the bed as it was so short.

I woke up in the morning and Danelle was very sick. She was throwing up, we figure it was a mixture of a hangover and dehydration from the day before. After the pharmacy where she got drugs I witnessed projectile vomiting out of a horror movie. We got back to the hostel and she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth etc while I waited in the communal area. Two people were sleeping on the couches and the other person and I were watching whatever he had put on Netflix when this guy walks in blaring (bad) music on his phone with no headphones. He woke both people and we couldn’t hear the tv. I walked over and nicely said people are trying to sleep can you put in headphones. I walked back to the couch thinking he would but he didn’t seem to care. I walked back over and said ok, people are sleeping and we can’t hear the tv have some respect and turn that crap off. His response was to walk away or he’d make me walk away. I laughed called him an asshole to his face and very loudly told the room (so he could hear me) the asshole wouldn’t turn his music off.

Danelle came and got me and we grabbed a taxi to the bus station to catch our bus to Dover. Danelle slept most of the ride. We were originally supposed to take a train but there was a 4 day workers strike. We had trouble finding the bus stop but got there on time even though the bus didn’t. The first bus dropped us off and we grabbed a connection to Dover. We had a 15 minute walk to the hostel that was an old house with a bar downstairs and rooms upstairs. The bed sank on both sides and sounded like we were rolling on paper every time we moved which meant for a third straight night I was going to have a terrible sleep and I did.



We climbed up the white cliffs to the first view point and I almost died from the steep climb. The full climb takes another 45 minutes but I never would have made it. We then headed to the pier and went to this restaurant called Dover Port that was recommended by the hostel worker. When we got there we were told we had to wait for a hour until a table would be ready, it smelled great so we figured it was worth the wait… it wasn’t. Outside there was a humongous furry dog that we played with while chatting with the owners of the great ball of fur.

Finally our table was ready with a great view. I ordered the fried calamari and mussels. The mussels were tasteless and the calamari was 6 of the smallest, greasiest and most over-coated pieces of calamari I’ve ever had. My calamari almost didn’t come until I asked about it after all our other food had come, I wish I hadn’t asked. Danelle ordered the smoked salmon appetizer but they brought the salmon dinner instead by accident. They said she could exchange it but she decided to keep it and they only charged her for the appetizer. Back at the hostel we met Steve and Lorrie from Austin, Texas who were going on the same cruise as us. We printed off our boarding passes and luggage tags before going to bed.

Our boarding time was 1:00 so we had a couple of hours to kill. Danelle did some work on her laptop and I went for fish and chips on the pier at a little pub. When I got back the two workers said they had driven Steve and Lorrie to the port earlier and offered us a free ride as well. They might have terrible beds but the hospitality there is amazing.

Our first night on the boat Steve and Lorrie asked us if we wanted to go for dinner with them. Lorrie’s parents also joined the 4 of us. It was a very fun but weird dinner. Lorrie’s parents are nice but her dad is quite the character. Steve and Lorrie’s dad have this weird relationship where they rag on each other but also Steve seems genuinely annoyed by his father in law. Lorrie’s mom is a sweet little lady and was celebrating her 60th birthday that night. We spent most of the cruise with Steve and Lorrie as they were roughly our age and very enjoyable to be around. The only night we didn’t have dinner with them was the second day when we for some reason didn’t meet up. After dinner we all went to the comedy show. The comedian’s material was good but his delivery was terrible. I figure this was due to the very very drunk lady in the front row yelling nonsense at him the whole show. A couple nights later they saw him again without me and said he was much better without the drunk heckling him.

Steve and Lorrie are from Corpus Christi, Texas but now live in Austin. They both use to work for the government doing… ah something with the army?!? Steve planned to quit and take his part time gig as a comedian full time when he got Covid a year ago and almost died. He spent 2.5 weeks in a coma and 3 months in the hospital. When he woke up from his coma he had to relearn everything from walking, talking and even eating. He’s doing well now but gets tired easily and has quite a bit of memory loss. He’s been a full time comedian since 3 days after he got out of the hospital and just taped his first 90 minute special so I guess it’s going quite well.

I’m just going to give an overview of the ship and sea days as I don’t remember what we did each day anymore, all the sea days have blended together. I finally got some sleep on a decent bed in the room. The room was basic, two beds, couch, bathroom and an ocean view window that didn’t open. The food on the ship was mostly buffet style other than dinner. They had breakfast, Asian, Mexican, pizza, salad bar and burgers depending on the time of the day. They also had a seafood place and a sushi bar but those two weren’t included in the cruise price. There was also a pay to eat steakhouse for dinner if you didn’t want to dine in the main dinner area.

I found that there were way too many sea days and only so much to do to fill the time. Throughout the cruise we played card games, went to trivia competitions, ate nonstop, a couple of movies on the projector by the pool, I played basketball any day we weren’t at port but still there just was way too much time to fill. The casino was small and mediocre, they didn’t have poker and there were very view machines to vulture. I think I was up about $1100 on the cruise. The dinners were good but the portions were weirdly small. This was fine as you could order as much as you wanted. On lobster tail night I ate 4 lobster tails with my steak and although they were small I left feeling ill. I was definitely not blessed with self control.



Downsides of the cruise I guess would be the food during the day was very hit or miss. Some days it was great and others I wouldn’t feed it to my dog. The pools weren’t heated and since they were on the top deck they were freezing cold, I didn’t use it at all. The hot tubs were warm not hot and we only used them once.

The ports were fun but I enjoy slow travel and spending multiple days in each city so I had to get my head in the right frame of mind to not be disappointed with what we couldn’t do and enjoy what we could.

Alcohol was free for us in the casino since my free cruise was booked using a casino offer. The downside to this is apparently Danelle really likes to drink and doesn’t control it well. The 5th day on the cruise we were having drinks with Steve and Lorrie, I called it a night around 1 and Danelle came stumbling in after 2. She was so drunk that she almost fell off the bed and kicked me multiple times which is a talent since we had two beds. I ended up not sleeping until about 6 am because she kept me up. I decided when I went to bed at 6 that I was going to skip the port in Tallinn, Estonia since I am going back there on September 14. I slept until about 2 and told her when she got back she kept me up all night and I would appreciate her not doing that again. She was very sorry and then proceeded to do it again 3 nights later… The second time she got even more drunk and stumbled in, I heard her fall in the bathroom a few times and knew it was going to be an interesting night. She was rolling all over her bed, honestly she looked possessed. She fell off the bed and landed in the small gap between our beds. I had to tell her she had fallen and to go back to bed. She continued flailing around the bed until she fell again this time hitting her head on the nightstand. At this point it was 3 am and I was angry. I got out of bed, moved the table away from the couch and set up the couch for her to sleep on. I told her to go to the couch, she wanted to stay in bed so I yelled at her fine but go to sleep then. She immediately laid down in bed and didn’t move again, I guess I should have done that an hour earlier. The next day I told her I was not babysitting her again and luckily we didn’t have any more issues. L

The first port was Copenhagen. We walked for 25 minutes until we found electric scooters to drive into the city centre. We rented them using an app and then thought we could drop them anywhere but when we got to the city centre we found out that we were in the middle of a very large no drop zone. We then had to drive about 15 minutes away to drop the scooters but now we were nowhere near where we wanted to be. We stopped at a cute cafe and grabbed a snack. Danelle went to an art museum with a local friend and I went in search of different things to see since I have zero interest in art museums.

A lot of the buildings have plants growing on them.


I went to the Tivoli Gardens but didn’t go in cause it was very expensive. I went to city hall, climbed the Round Tower, went to the Rosenburg Castle and Christiansborg palace before walking around the very colourful Nyhavn area.

Climbing the Round Tower


I then tried to go to the casino and found out the tables don’t open until 7 and then did a 180 to start heading back to the port. I took a water bus 3 stops without paying (they don’t sell tickets and the app wouldn’t work) to the Gefion Fountain and then the Little Mermaid statue.



As I was leaving the statue to walk a hour back to the port I found two people going back to the same cruise and their tour guide was explaining how to take the subway back cause apparently it was faster. Turns out it wasn’t as we walked 15 minutes to it and then over 30 minutes back to the boat from our subway stop. It was a good idea in theory I guess. About halfway though the day I got frustrated cause there was a market I wanted to go to but it was too far to make it there and back to the boat in time. That was when I realized I had to lower my expectations of what was possible in a port day.

Our next port was Berlin sort of. Berlin is landlocked so the port was in Warnemunde about 3 hours from Berlin. The train to Berlin takes 3 hours each way and costs about $180 USD. You only get 6 hours in Berlin which is totally not worth the time on the train or the money imo. We had the same problem with the other German port. We both decided that we would hang around Rostock which is a cute little German town close by. It was enjoyable but didn’t take more than a few hours before we were done. We went to a Stasi prison which was cool to walk around but everything was im German so we had to translate all the info boards and that got old quick. Summary, they were abused and kept in suboptimal conditions. Remind you of anything Germany?!?



We walked around after for a bit looking at pretty buildings but the heat got to us and we gave up.



Back at the boat I took a nap before heading back out and going to the only casino that was open earlier enough to visit due to the early all aboard times. I played BJ to get my chip and after getting a BJ the dealer paid me and then picked up a €1 chip and said for me? I was stunned and annoyed, I was even more annoyed that I didn’t say no but the count was high and I wanted to continue playing the shoe so I figured pissing them off over €1 was dumb. I left the casino still fuming at the nerve of the dealer and pit boss for doing that to customers. By the way I wasn’t even up when he did it.

Oh by the way I talked to Steve and Lorrie who did the cruise shore excursion to Berlin (for $375 each yikes) and said the 6 hours on the train wasn’t worth the time they had in Berlin which made me happy with my decision.

The next stop was Tallinn which as I mentioned I skipped due to lack of sleep. If I wasn’t going back I wouldn’t have skipped it, I would have sucked it up and gone out but I didn’t need to.

The day after Tallinn was Helsinki which is a beautiful city. We all signed up for a free walking tour but only Danelle finished it. She was enjoying it but Steve, Lorrie and I wanted to explore rather than sit around and learn about the city. We found a weird sloped area that looked like it would be heaven for a skateboarder. We climbed to the top of the slope and took some pictures and videos of us running down the steep incline.

Yes those are chairs on the wall, no idea why.


Steve was pushing his abilities after being sick from Covid and Lorrie was very anxious about it. Everyone was fine, Steve checked his oxygen levels and HR which were fine but we joked Lorrie’s HR was probably high and it ended up being quite high, oops. Our next stop was the public library which in Finland means a very different thing than back home. Their “library” has everything from study pods, 3D printers, sewing machines, screen printing machines, video games, recording studios, a kitchen and yes an actual area with books but they also have movies and video games that you can take out. Crazy place. We grabbed some expensive gelato outside and headed back. I found Danelle (Steve and Lorrie went to find nail polish remover) and had a reindeer sausage. It tasted like a normal hot dog to me, sorry Rudolph.

Rudolph the red nosed hot dog


The next day we were supposed to go to Stockholm but sadly they cancelled the port due to weather but a lot of staff had their own suspicions about the cancellation from Covid in Stockholm to a riot. Guess we will never know as there was nothing in the news about Stockholm.

Two days later was Kiel, Germany 90 minutes from Hamburg and again it wasn’t worth it to go into Hamburg imo. This port stop was much shorter than Berlin and we would have had to take two specific trains to get back in time. It was 90 minutes each way and only 3.5 hours in Hamburg and even though it was only $66.50 each I still didn’t think it was worth it. This was the morning that Lorrie tested positive for Covid so she got moved to a new cabin to quarantine and Steve was tested (negative) but for some reason still had to stay in his cabin for 10 hours… science lol. It would have made sense if they tested him again or cleaned his room at the end of the 10 hours but no, they just let him out and he was free to roam. Danelle and I both took tests and were negative luckily since we had been with Steve and Lorrie every day for a week. We walked around for a hour or so before taking a bus to a World War II bunker. We saw some very nice graffiti but there was also a lot of ugly tagging graffiti all over the city.





Kiel wasn’t pretty like Rostock. The bunker was kind of boring for me, it was just rooms with info on the walls but everything was in German. They did have some huge bombs both exploded and not that were neat. The exploded ones looked like the hulk tore them to shreds like a normal person would do to paper.



After the bunker Danelle headed back to the boat to pack and head home to Kassel, Germany where her and her wife have been living for a year now. She decided it was worth it to miss the last port and take a train 4.5 hours rather than go back to Dover, take a train to London, a flight to Frankfurt and then a train to Kassel. I went to buy a magnet from a touristy spot nearby we had seen earlier. I got a German bratwurst which was amazing and then ice cream in a charcoal waffle cone. I’m not sure why they made a black cone but I decided to get one. The lady said it had no flavour but I swear the cone had a weird taste so I ate the ice cream and threw out the cone.



When I got back Danelle still didn’t know if they would let her leave cause she didn’t tell them earlier. They were calling immigration to try and eventually they got her off the boat in time due to her having a German residency card. If she didn’t have that she wouldn’t have been let off.

Lorrie was sick but nothing too serious. She slept most of the next 3 days until she was feeling better. They had originally planned to go to Paris after the cruise but obviously couldn’t now. They planned to quarantine in London but after 5 days (4 on the boat) Lorrie felt better and was testing negative so they went to Paris to finish their vacation. Steve and I spent most of the next few days just the two of us since Danelle was gone and Lorrie was in Covid prison. My host in the casino comped us $80 for the sushi restaurant and $120 for the steakhouse. The sushi was amazing but reasonably priced so we ate way too much for $80.

This was only $8


The next night we had an amazing meal at the steakhouse and a horrible bottle of wine. We were limited on which wines we could have for free and chose very badly. I had mushroom risotto, lobster bisque and a filet that came with mushrooms and bacon Mac and cheese. For desert I had cheesecake I believe but don’t quote me on that. Steve likes to tell dirty jokes and had the staff laughing quite a bit except for one guy who suspiciously never came back to our table lol.

The last port stop was Gothenburg, Sweden. Steve didn’t want to go to the city without Lorrie so I went alone which is no problem for me as I enjoy my alone time. I found out we were at the far port that takes 45 minutes by bus to get into the city rather that the close port where you can walk. I found out how to take the bus from the port to the main station where you can take a bus or a tram into the city centre, I took the tram. I walked to the Haga District and was able to get a magnet using cash, that was the last place I found that day that accepts cash. I found out that Sweden who was the first country to issue banknotes and the 2nd (by a week) to have an ATM will be 100% cashless as of March 24, 2023. I personally hate this as it allows the government way too much control and makes it easy for them to track citizens every move. No there is no need for that in a free society. I’m glad I got to collect a banknote from Sweden before paper money becomes obsolete as I keep a banknote from every country I go to.

A lady I bought cake from later said she hasn’t used cash in two years. Now the cake! The cake was chocolate on the bottom and a huge amount of caramelized coconut on the top. Coconut is one of my favourite foods so I was very happy.



As I was walking around I found a bunch of art made with broken coloured tiles. I found art like this at both the tram station and in the city.



I’m Batman!


I took a canal cruise which while nice wasn’t worth the money, the canals are less interesting than in Amsterdam but this time I didn’t get soaked so that’s a win I guess. The guide was a younger lady who told us that Swedes love a good pun and she held true to that with a bunch of horrible puns in both Swedish and English. She did the tour in both Swedish and English, first in Swedish and then repeated everything in English.

Danny Devito was taking the same canal cruise. (I know I’m going to hell, I’m ok with it)


So that was the cruise, for the price we paid which was port fees and gratuity (about $500 USD) it was worth it but for the actual cost of about 2-3 grand I would never have done it. Some people love cruising, I personally really enjoy backpacking around slowly. We met people who had been on anywhere from 15-105 cruises, it’s definitely a lifestyle. Lorrie’s parents were on 3 back to back cruises on the same boat and another couple had been living on Carnival Pride for 4 months and had another two months left. I say all this while I am currently writing on the pool deck of the next cruise I got on right after the first one but I’ll get to that in my next post.

The disembarkation happens very early starting at 5:15 am. I figured I could sleep until 7:30 as the latest you can get off the boat is 8:15 but they start making announcements in everyone’s cabins at 6:15. I grabbed breakfast, packed and headed off the boat. I took a bus to the train station and then a train into London with a connector to Gatwick airport. That night I flew to Athens, Greece to meet my friend Leor for the next cruise two days later.

As always, quite a post! I would NEVER risk a post that long. After typing for the hours you must have I’d be afraid I’d somehow erase it before posting!

Remind me…. These cruises are all ‘free’ from casino play?

Thanks for the report!
I've never been on a cruise and doubt I ever will. But never say never.

I got a kick about the sloped place people were walking on. Some of those looked pretty steep. I can't imagine something like that would be approved in the US. (Unless they put them in a bubble first).

Soopoo me neither. I write it in my notepad and then copy and paste it to this site afterward. I don’t delete it until it’s posted.

Yes the first cruise was $350 plus gratuities each for 12 days through a Carnival tier match and the NCL one is from Caesars and was less free but it was only $20 each per day plus port fees so like $300 each before extras and gratuity for 7 days.


It was fun running up to the top of the slopes, they were pretty high and I’m afraid of heights. The picture I have of me up there I wouldn’t stand fully upright cause I didn’t want to take my hand off the slope lol. I’m a wuss.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Soopoo me neither. I write it in my notepad and then copy and paste it to this site afterward. I don’t delete it until it’s posted.

Yes the first cruise was $350 plus gratuities each for 12 days through a Carnival tier match and the NCL one is from Caesars and was less free but it was only $20 each per day plus port fees so like $300 each before extras and gratuity for 7 days.
link to original post

nice write up!
Too bad about your friend getting on your nerves.
Did you 2 leave on a good note?

Which ncl ship that you were able to vulture $1100?
Was it mostly from 1 big win? I go so, which game?

She didn’t get on my nerves, I just didn’t want to babysit a drunk person. We had a great time, I mean at least I had a great time with her. We left on great terms imo.

I vultured $1100 on the carnival cruise, I’m still on the NCL one.

I’m skipping ahead cause this thread is a bit behind to say that it’s near impossible to get to Casino Loutraki outside of Athens. They offer a bus service since it’s just over a hour away but the phone numbers they list don’t work. I tried for a while today since I had 10 hours to kill before my flight and it just wasn’t possible to get there. Oh well 🤷‍♂️

I once talked to an Alaskan native that hunted reindeer and had tried commercially available reindeer sausage. He said the commercially available stuff tasted just like a hotdog.
doing a bit of digging, most commercially sold "reindeer" sausage has very little reindeer meat actually in it due to cost. Which is sad because actual reindeer tastes good.

My flight landed in Athens a few minutes after Leor’s flight from Israel. I walked down the longest walkway (took over 10 minutes) and went through customs without them asking a single question. Leor caught what at the time he thought was a cold from his little cousins at the wedding he was in Israel for. Sadly it ended up being a chest infection and he spent the whole cruise miserable. The subway into the city took about a hour which made it around 10 pm when we checked in. We got a 4 star hotel for about $110 a night and which surprised the hell out of me. The room was nice, I moved my bed away from Leor’s to avoid his coughing and try to not get sick. I grabbed some spanakopita and a ham and cheese thing as well next to the hotel for dinner, I didn’t have the energy in me to go find an actual restaurant.

The next morning we needed to get antigen tests for the cruise the following day. I found a place about 20 minutes away but figured the front desk might know a better place and they did, it was literally across the street. We walked over and got our tests done and for only €7 each rather than the £35 Danelle and I paid in London. We were both negative but we knew that since we had both taken home tests in the previous days. There was an older couple going on the same cruise that couldn’t figure out the online registration so I ended up signing them up under my email so they could get their tests. They said this was going to be their last cruise because of all the stuff they had to do online to go on the cruise. I’m not actually sure what they are referring to as I was locked out of my NCL account and never completed the pre check in. Didn’t matter, the boarding process wasn’t slowed at all by not having the online stuff filled out.

After the test I went back to the room and took a nap for a couple hours. That afternoon I went to the Acropolis. It was about a 20 minute walk each way and I spent around a hour at the top checking out what’s left of the Acropolis and Parthenon.







This was all done in very uncomfortably hot weather. I bought a 1.5 L bottle of water on the way there and then refilled it at the fountains at the Acropolis and still I don’t think that was enough. On the way back I grabbed a gyro and a magnet before checking on Leor. When he got back from wherever he was I told him I was going to the casino that was north of the city. He decided to join so we walked to the free shuttle bus the casino offers. I grabbed some cake from a bakery that was way too sweet to finish and then we took the bus around 35-40 minutes north of the centre of Athens. From there we took a cable car for about 10-15 minutes up to the casino.

Regency Mont Parnes was a pretty big casino with your standard large selection of slots and table games. After about a hour they opened up a second poker table and we played 2/5 for a couple of hours before we decided it was time to head back to the city. I think I won €90 and Leor won double of that. In Europe you have to sign up for a club card to get into casinos (everyone that I’ve been to) and they give you some welcome gifts. We got €5 slot play, a beer, a hot dog and beer and then some coupons for food. I took two sips of the beer they gave me and left it at a slot machine as it tasted terrible. Before we left the casino we tried to get the free hot dog which sent us on a wild goose chase for what would turn out to be THE WORST HOT DOG I’VE EVER HAD! I honestly didn’t know that a hot dog could taste that bad. We took the cable car down to bus and then got trapped in a conversation for the length of the bus ride with an American man from the poker table who has been living in Athens for a decade or so. I gave so many hints that neither of us had any interest in chatting but he wouldn’t give up. Leor felt like shit and I had a massive headache. I was so happy when it was our stop just so we didn’t have to listen to him yammer on about nothing any longer. I grabbed another spanakopita next to the hotel and we called it a night.

Both nights Leor coughed through the night keeping himself up but I was able to sleep because of my ear plugs. He would spend the whole cruise coughing nonstop and although the ear plugs helped I think he kept waking me through the night which stopped me from ever getting a consistent sleep, instead I got a bunch of 1-2 hour chunks of sleep every night. I definitely felt tired most mornings even though I had slept for a decent amount of time.

The day of the cruise we checked out and grabbed a cab to the port. Since I was locked out of my NCL account I didn’t know the exact location we needed to go. The driver found someone, I asked where the NCL boat was and the driver was then able to get us to the right spot. The check in process took a lot longer than the previous one with Carnival. We waited around 20 minutes in the sun to drop our bags. From there we waited to be called up to check in and then we had to go through Greek customs to get onto the boat. The whole process took about 90 minutes I think.

We had an inside cabin which I actually preferred because A) we didn’t hear any noise in the morning at the ports like I did on carnival and B) without a window the room was perfectly dark which I enjoyed. I think if I go on another cruise I would actually choose an inside cabin over a window or balcony.

NCL is a much nicer cruise line than Carnival. Everything is modern and very chic. For food there were a mixture of options on the 12th deck throughout the day and there were also a few restaurants that we could order food at. At night there were two fine dining restaurants serving the same menu for dinner. The food was both better and worse than on carnival. I’ll explain, the good food was better than on carnival but at the same time the bad food was VERY bad. I’d call it a wash. There were a mixture of shows twice a night from singers, musicians and magicians, most of them weren’t my cup of tea. We walked out of the singer the first night who was performing Adele songs and enjoyed the magician on the 3rd night. The only real downside to NCL was the basketball court was closed at 5 pm everyday which is beyond ridiculous, it made it hard to ever use it since we had port stops every day. Also the wifi was so bad that it was almost unusable but luckily on the 12th deck I was able to get LTE service at most times even in the middle of the water.

The first port stop was Kusadasi, Turkey. We got off the boat and found out that there isn’t much in the way of public transportation so a taxi would be our best option to go to Ephesus 25 minutes away to see the Roman ruins. A taxi driver tried to tell me it was €70 rt to Ephesus obviously giving us a ridiculous rate. I said no he went to €60 which we walked away from. Another guy came up and offered it to us at €50, I said €40 he said he couldn’t so we kept walking. He yelled after us that he would do it for €40. He drove us to the top of the hill to the entrance and then waited for us at the bottom of the hill where we got to about 90 minutes later. We didn’t pay him until the return trip, I’m not sure what’s stopping someone from ditching him and finding another taxi back but I guess it works for them.

Ephesus was very cool (not temperature wise, that was insanely hot). The entry fee was 250 Lira which is almost €14. We walked around checking out the ruins which to be honest looked pretty much like the other ruins I’ve seen previously in Europe but it was still enjoyable.



Leor was having trouble because of being sick but was able to keep up for the most part. About 2/3 of the way through the ruins there was a museum which is a giant residence that is still standing (with help) that they have built a shelter around to keep it intact. Leor didn’t enjoy the 15+ staircases throughout the museum. The museum was fine but nothing spectacular as it was just a bunch of broken/rebuilt rooms with information boards explaining what they were back in the day.



We finished making our way through the ruins including the old theatre before exiting the area to find our driver.





We grabbed some ice cream and I got a magnet before heading back to Kusadasi. Back in Kusadasi Leor went back to the boat and I tried to find a new day backpack since mine was ripped while travelling. I didn’t find anything to my liking but I did find some yummy food for exactly the amount of Lira that I had left, two birds one stone. I had chicken and beef doner with tomatoes, lettuce and some pita or whatever they call it in Turkey.



The next port was Rhodes, Greece. We started the day by walking about 35 minutes to this beautiful park that I found on maps. It was absolutely gorgeous with all the trees and the water running through the park.





We hung out in the park for about a half hour enjoying it and avoiding the heat. Leor forgot to bring any Kleenex which was dumb because his nose kept leaking. He needed to blow his nose so I told him to use the big leaves which I thought would work but it was mostly a giant mess. I laughed a lot while he struggled with leaf after leaf. Next we headed to a giant palace and stopped at the staircase of knowledge on the way which I was pretty sure was going to be a waste of time and it was but it was one the way. All it was were some stairs and each one was painted to be a Greek book. Yay!



The palace was large but you had to pay to climb the tower so we just explored the grounds of the castle.



At this point Leor gave up and headed back to the port and I continued onward. I walked to the throne of Helios only to find out that it was a movie theatre not a monument or whatever I might have thought it was. I made a stop at the casino but sadly their table games didn’t open until after I had to be back on the boat so I couldn’t collect a chip. I walked along the beach very shortly before heading back to the boat.

The next port stop was supposed to be Mykonos but due to the weather they couldn’t safely operate the tender boats to bring us to the shore. I wasn’t too worried, I spent the day just taking it easy and reading Anne Frank that I bought back in Amsterdam. My goal was to finish it on the cruise so that I didn’t have to carry it with me. The book was interesting, I enjoyed the inner look at the problems of living in an attic with 7 other people and how much they got on each other’s nerves. I finished the book on the last day of the cruise and left it in the library with a note that I was giving it to them. Leor was feeling really sick so he went to the onboard doctor who did every test you can think of and after 3 hours handed him some pills and a bill for $1400. Leor thinks his travel insurance will cover it. Two days later when the pills weren’t working and he felt even worse he went back for an IV dose of drugs and more tests that racked up another $2100 or something like that in bills.

Argostoli was next and I loved Argostoli! On the tender boat to the dock a couple told me they were taking a cave tour so when I got to land I found a travel company and they had a tour going in about 20 minutes for €49 plus €5 to get into the cave so I booked that. (Leor stayed on the boat)

This was a viewpoint we stopped at before Agia Effimia


Our first stop was in Agia Effimia which is a little town on the water. We had ten minutes so I walked down the street and found a little shop selling small fresh spanakopita, I grabbed 3 and headed back to the bus. The spanakopita was the best I’ve ever had and I actually walked back and got 3 more before getting back on the bus. We then went to Melissani Cave Lake and had to wait in line for about 45 minutes but it was very worth it. You eventually get on a small boat that carries around 12 people and is rowed by the guide. The whole boat ride is less than 10 minutes but it was well worth it. The water is sooooo blue and the cave is beautiful. At one point the passage is only big enough for the boat so the guide has to pull us along the wall by a rope since there is no room for the paddles. The guide was funny telling jokes along with his story of the cave.



After the boat ride we waited for everyone to get back to the bus and then drove to Drogarati Cave. We walked down about 8 flights of stairs (I knew that was going to suck going back up) into this massive cave. The cave was absolutely gorgeous with its blue, red, orange and green rock formations.



There was no guide so I’m not sure the reason for the many colours but it made for a great view. As I thought going up the stairs was not fun at all. I was very out of breath by the time I got to the top. That was the end of the tour other than driving back to the original location. I got back to the boat and immediately went for a swim and a soak in the hot tub after being out in the sun all day.

Leor skipped Corfu as well since he was still feeling horrible. I walked to the city and had two goals in mind, find a new backpack and go to the banknote museum. I found a market area and was able to get a great backpack and haggled the price down to €25. The bag ended up being a godsend as it’s about 50% bigger than the ripped one was so I have so much room for my stuff that was exploding out of the old one hence the reason it ripped. Next I found the banknote museum and spent just over a hour learning about the history of banknotes and the drachma in Greece. The first coins were half the size of my finger nail and the banknotes were really cool to look at as they changed over 200 years until the euro became the currency in 2002.

First coins in I think 670 but don’t quote me on that


Like the euro banknotes the drachma notes got bigger as the denomination got bigger. The 1000 drachma bill was about 7-8 times bigger than the 1 drachma coin bill.





The reason it’s called a coin bill is because anything under 5 had to be a coin but when metals became harder to get they made coin notes. The banknotes came from the central bank but local banks could make coin notes. That was pretty much all for Corfu, I walked around and looked at the forts, some buildings and a random pirate ship before making my way back. That night we went to the steakhouse which was included in our cruise package. The food was excellent as expected and I somehow ended up drinking a whole bottle of red wine by the end of the night, I was a tad drunk. I had the best lobster bisque of my life and some giant prawns as an appetizer before the main course where I got a porterhouse.



I’ve never had a porterhouse but I was very impressed. It’s a bit harder to eat because of the bone but the meat on the bone was super tasty. We had chocolate cake for desert, I finished my wine and we called it a night.

The last port was the most anticipated, Santorini. Leor despite still not feeling great decided to join me. I booked us a tour to climb the active volcano which leor would highly regret joining me for. The tour also included a swim in the hot springs nearby. When we got off the tender boat in Santorini I bought a cheap hat for the hike in the sun as I didn’t want heatstroke. I stupidly left my hat on the first cruise purposely because of a lack of bag space but now I have a “cool” souvenir hat. We got on a boat with around 100 people and headed to the volcano. The volcano hike took about 30-40 minutes or would have if Leor wasn’t struggling so much. We were some of the last people to make it to the top as I kept waiting for Leor to catch up. He was miserable! We got to the top and he thought he was going to see lava or something so he was super disappointed. I on the other hand knew exactly what was going to be up there as I have climbed a volcano before in Italy.



View looking back at Santorini and the cruise ship from the top of the volcano


On the hike down the volcano I honestly wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. Every step was a struggle and he wasn’t rationing his water well so I ended up giving him mine as I had more on the boat.

When we got to the boat he grabbed some waters and a coke for the sugar. He didn’t go swimming in the hot springs cause he still had the IV port in his arm under a bandage in case he decided to get IV treatment again as it’s like $300 to put a new port in. I jumped off the boat into the water (about 10 feet) and swam to the hot springs. I didn’t take the floaty noodle cause I’m a good swimmer but 15 minutes of swimming to the hot springs was quite the effort. I was so happy when my feet could reach the ground finally. The hot springs honestly didn’t feel too hot until you left the hot springs (26 degrees) and got back into the open water (18 degrees). There was a spare noodle in the hot springs that someone left so I used it and had a much easier swim back to the boat. I got dried off and changed into normal clothes on the boat while we made our way back to the main island. I was thinking of going into the main area of Santorini but I was exhausted from the day in the sun and decided to go back to the boat with leor.

That night we packed up our things and got some sleep before we got off the boat around 9 am the next morning. We grabbed a taxi into Athens and leor then taxied to the airport for his flight. My flight to Malta wasn’t until 7:30 pm so I walked around Athens a bit, found a pretty park and got eaten alive by some bugs. I had chicken doner with pita and tomatoes. The chicken was great but way too much, I should have ordered some feta cause that would have made the good food even better.



There was a Pokémon Go event for 3 hours so I played for about 90 minutes with some locals I met before taking a taxi to the airport.

That’s all for Greece. I found most of the islands to be very similar to each other but very beautiful. While beautiful I would still never want to live there, just too secluded for me. The food was good and the people seemed very welcoming. The cruise was a perfect way for a non beach person to see the islands in my opinion. I don’t enjoy sitting on a beach for days at a time so I’m not sure what I would do if I was stuck on a single island for 3-7 days.

When I got off the cruise I was feeling burnt out and honestly having a lot traveller fatigue. I even looked into flights home in case 3 days relaxing in Malta wasn’t enough to fix the fatigue. I stayed in an atrocious hostel in St Julian’s area of Malta where it was a billion degrees and the bed was like sleeping on springs but honestly it was nice to do a lot of nothing for 3 days. Most of the touristy stuff in Malta involves boating, caves and hot springs so seeing as I did that in Greece a few days before I had no interest in doing it again.

From my limited experience in Malta everyone who is young that goes to Malta is just there to sit on the beach during the day and get black out drunk at night. Not my type of vacation but to each their own. I basically ate and gambled my whole 3 days in Malta which most people would say the same thing back to me about my time there.

There are 3 casinos in St Julian’s and one on the eastern part of the island near the water. The first casino I went to was Portomaso which was right across the street from where I was staying. They were the only casino that had poker every night although it was hit or miss how long the game would last. I think I played about 8 hours over the 3 nights and broke roughly even. The games were nothing to write home about (yet I am) but it was something easy and relaxing to do. Portomaso had about 100 slot machines with a decent amount of small vulturable stuff to play. They had 8 table games or so I think but the main use of space in the casino was dealers for online casinos. They had probably 20+ nicely dressed mostly female dealers dealing baccarat, bj and roulette to a live online audience. The only online table that was playable in the casino by patrons was the one baccarat table. I guess they don’t have a ton of baccarat players coming in day to day. Overall the casino stayed busy for the 3 days that I was there.

The second day I visited the other 3 casinos mostly to collect chips but also to see what vulturables they had. Dragonara Casino is part of the Westin Resort that had its own beach. I signed up for a club card and went in. They had less vulturable machines than Portomaso but still had enough that a made a few euros during my visit. They had a few more slot machines than Portomaso and around 10-12 table games. I won €100 playing bj to collect my chip. This casino was much less busy than Portomaso but still enough to justify being open.

Next up was Casino Malta which is the newest casino in Malta and owned by Olympic which has casinos in the Baltic states, Italy and Slovakia. They used to have casinos in Poland but sold them recently. Casino Malta was easily the biggest casino and is in the middle of the most touristy area as far as I could see. Even still it wasn’t very busy, busier than Dragonara but less so than Portomaso. Casino city says that Casino Malta had 300 slot machines which seems about right and they had 29 table games mostly in the smoking room. I made almost €700 picking off the machines for any vulturable plays. Oh one weird thing about the club card with Olympic, the card is only good in that country so in each country I’ve gone to since that has Olympic Casinos I have had to sign up for a new card. Seems like a really inefficient way to handle it but whatever.

The last casino was Oracle Casino that unlike the others was not in walking distance. It took about 40 minutes by bus but Malta has an amazing bus system so it was very easy to get there and back. Oracle is owned by the same company that owns Portomaso so I didn’t have to sign up for a new card. This casino was dead! They had 150 slots give or take and a room full of closed table games (except 2). There were only 10 vulturable machines and they were all picked over unlike the other casinos. I played a few hands of bj to collect a chip and walked away with €35 from the match play and wining most of my hands. I found a souvenir shop to buy a magnet and headed back to St Julian’s to play poker at Portomaso.

Other than that there isn’t much to tell about Malta. I did find an amazing sushi place just down the street from my hostel that I ate at on the 3rd day and again the next day before my afternoon flight. It was the conveyer belt style sushi restaurant where you take what you want and the prices are based on the colour of the plate. 95% of the sushi they made was different than the stuff that I’m used to in North America but it was fantastic other than one really bad roll that I got. The roll was black rice which has a funny taste with salmon, cream cheese (didn’t realize it had cream cheese in it, gross), avocado, prawn, beetroot, mayo and coconut. Not sure what they were going for but it was awful. The waitress said she didn’t like the black rice rolls either cause the rice had a funky taste, I should have listened to her and avoided it but I was curious. The salmon sashimi came on a bed of seaweed salad with edamame and was the best part of the meal both days.

🤮



Salmon and red snapper


That was the end of Malta for me, I grabbed two buses and got to the airport for my direct flight to Tallin, Estonia.

Outstanding trip report. The anecdotes about questionable food and Leor's medical care expenses were enough to prevent me from wanting to adopt your lifestyle and adventures.

Pokergrinder, you write some of the best trip reports that I have read. I plan to renew my subscription soon.

Quote: Hullabaloo

I hope he didn't go to Russia while carrying hash oil.
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I do, I do.

Quote: AxelWolf

Quote: Hullabaloo

I hope he didn't go to Russia while carrying hash oil.
link to original post

I do, I do.
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PokerGrinder sharing a cell with Britney Griner. That would be some comedy.

Lol I’m going to pass on visiting Russia for the near future.

Quote: DRich

Pokergrinder, you write some of the best trip reports that I have read. I plan to renew my subscription soon.
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As always I appreciate the kind words Drich

I got a repeat offer from Carnival based on my play from the cruise I went on at the end of August. It’s the same offer with everything free except the port fees. I had to book it by tomorrow so I booked a southern Caribbean cruise out of a Baltimore for January 8. I don’t know who I’m taking but I had a deadline to book it so I’ll worry about who’s going later.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I got a repeat offer from Carnival based on my play from the cruise I went on at the end of August. It’s the same offer with everything free except the port fees. I had to book it by tomorrow so I booked a southern Caribbean cruise out of a Baltimore for January 8. I don’t know who I’m taking but I had a deadline to book it so I’ll worry about who’s going later.
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Do they really do cruises out of Baltimore in January? That seems strange. You may need to wear a parka the first couple of days.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Lol I’m going to pass on visiting Russia for the near future.
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Good idea.

Of course you'll only be be a little over 200 miles from Saint Petersburg so you might want to pack some potassium iodide just in case.

And if for some reason you land up in Russia make sure you are NEVER NEAR a window in a hospital. For some reason lots of people fall out of them.

And thanks much for the report and keep em coming.

Quote: Hullabaloo

Of course you'll only be be a little over 200 miles from Saint Petersburg so you might want to pack some potassium iodide just in case.

I thought I was the only one that kept KI handy for radiation emergencies.