The Floating PALACE

From Athens to Venice, Explora I takes us on a Mediterranean odyssey in lavish style and comfort.

- CRYSTAL WOO

The beauty of every different medium, be it a film, book or a journey, is that they leave room for more.

The good ones grow over time, securing a liminal space in your “innie” despite never quite revealing the full picture. The adventure aboard the shining Explora I, seafaring through multiple countries in the Mediterranean, is an example of this—one that makes you say, “I can’t believe that just happened.”

DISEMBARKING FROM GREECE

Flying from Kuala Lumpur and transiting in Dubai, my Emirates flight soon enough lands in Athens, the capital and largest city in Greece. Steep in Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman history, in Plato's ideas, the arts and philosophy of over 3,000 years, Athens needs little introduction and a visit to the Acropolis is nonnegotiable. This is a city named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom though others say the daughter of Zeus took her name from Athens.

At the summit, the Acropolis Museum presents three levels of rare antiquities from the Greek Bronze Age through Roman and Byzantine Greece. The museum is built over an actual archaeological site, and glass floors in the courtyard allow visitors to glimpse the excavations beneath their feet. Acropolis means “high city” in Greek. Resting next to the museum on this slope is the mid-5th century Parthenon, a familiar icon with countless appearances in films, postcards, and TikTok videos.

I must return to see more of Athens, but for now, Explora I waits for no one, so onwards to the port of Piraeus.

ABOARD THE EXPLORA I