Nothing like traveling abroad to know you miss home

Today. Wow. 

We woke up this morning somewhere in the Adriatic Sea and and took some early morning pictures of Venice and now, 14 hours later, we're sitting in the Philadelphia airport waiting for a flight that doesn’t leave for another 4 hours. It’s been a long day.

Things I Learned While Cruising the Mediterranean...

1. MSC Cruiseline doesn’t have what you need on board. You would think, as a small floating city, there would be some kind of market, a market containing advil, sea sickness medicine, maybe something for an upset stomach, or even socks. But no, nothing. I got pretty good at finding pharmacies in foreign cities. Although I only trusted one.
2. MSC Cruiseline also has horrible food on board. I don’t know if it is the fact that it is based out of Italy, but every meal pretty much sucks. And I don’t get the obsession for cold cuts, they even have them at breakfast.
3. Which brings me to my next point: great Italian food may be a myth. I have yet to have a great pasta meal. All Italian meals are based on lamb, veal, fish, or some other baby animal. 
4. I have a new obsession with sailing. As soon as I get home, I am taking sailing lessons. I also find any man who can sail, that much more attractive.
5. Speaking of, Venice and Santorini have amazing looking guys. Had I not been with my dad, I may have come home married. 
6. Italians are rude, pushy people. They cut in front of you when standing in line, they push their way through service people. Initially I thought they were rude to Americans but I think they’re just rude in general. An experience getting gelato in Athens extends this rule to apply to Asians now too.
7. If there is one thing I have learned this trip, it is that Greece needs money, they are poor, at least according to their tour guides.
8. Internet completely sucks on MSC Cruiseline! You pay quite a bit of money and it’s the slowest thing ever!!
9. When English is one of five languages spoken with every announcement, it becomes a foreign language in itself.
10. US Airways is not a friendly company. Some of the flight attendants were friendly but I’m not impressed with the company as a whole. Our flight came into Philly an hour early. There was another flight out of Philly to Cincinnati that would put us at home 5 hours sooner. However, without even looking at our tickets, the man at the counter said he couldn’t change our tickets, we would need to buy new ones. Our tickets did not sat non-refundable or non-transferable. Oh well. I just won’t fly them again!
11. I would go back to Venice, Santorini, and Dubrovnik in a heartbeat. The others, at least I can say I went.

You know I really got a thing for European guys...

Yesterday was a great day. I know I didn’t post last night, but I had too much fun and was too tired to post. Morning went the usual way, woke up and had breakfast (though we ate in the restaurant downstairs instead of the buffet). 

Sailed past a lighthouse.

We pulled into Dubrovnik around 7:30am. We were going to wait a bit but decided last minute to leave early (kind of an oxymoron, I know). 

We took the shuttle bus into the Old Town. First impression of Dubrovnik is that it is a very clean and beautiful city. 

The Old Town was amazing!!! Old Town, is just that, an old town. It’s a walled city dating back from forever ago. 

It cost 70 Kuna or 10 euro to walk the wall around the city. 

We went up just long enough to take some pictures

And realize too many steps were involved for an increasingly hot day. 

We walked around the city some more, grabbed the necessary ice cream (I managed to get ice cream/gelato in every country and every sea), and had drinks near a really cool farmer’s market in the main square. 

We shopped a bit at the farmer's market (they had great candied nuts). And took an early bus back to our ship. I grabbed a few more hours of sun (at one point rolling over in my chair to see boobs: Europeans, if there is one thing they’re not, it’s modest). Then came time for the farewell reception for Auto-Owners. During the reception, there are free drinks, based on my new found love for the Miami Vice, I got one to have during the reception and another one to take to dinner with me. When we got to our restaurant, someone had taken our table. Being the last night on the cruise, I was bummed the waiter from Montenegro wouldn’t be our waiter again. We found another table nearby and were joined by the other two couples we ate dinner with most of the trip. Lo and behold, we had the same waiter! Dinner was a blast; one of the most entertaining meals we had on the trip. After dinner, we had an hour before the show, in which we were all going to meet on the left side of the stage, a few rows back. Well, of the 6 people at dinner, only 3 of us made it. It was alright though, the show pretty much sucked. And I’m pretty sure the lead singer forgot some of the words to Bohemian Rhapsody. I was so tired from the day that I passed out as soon as I got to bed. Today was a long day, so I was planning ahead :)

Corfu: the beach rocks...

Today was another pretty great day. We woke up early for breakfast, roasted apples have become a staple (Jenny take note, I’ll expect one every morning with a really small glass of water). We weren’t due to come into Corfu, Greece until 2pm so we had a pretty relaxing morning. At about 11am, I went to the Auto-Owners desk to get shuttle bus passes, it’s free for us to use the bus and my goal was to find a taxi to the beach (Corfu is said to have the most pristine beaches in Europe). After talking with the people at the desk, I determined our best path to the beach was through an excursion (both of the people working at the desk, plus a worker from the cruise ship, said we would have to pay for a taxi to the beach, for them to wait for us, and for a ride home, the cheaper option was to take an excursion). So, I booked an excursion to the beach; however, the English-speaking bus was full, so dad and I were booked on the Spanish bus. 

We eventually pulled into Corfu. The ride to the beach was filled with hair-pin turns that were pretty much horrendous in a bus. We eventually got to the beach though, about 30 minutes away from the port. 

The beach was very pretty, our excursion gave us chairs and an umbrella to use and each a drink, which came in handy because the sun was very hot. 

The beaches in Corfu are rock, no sand. 

They’re pretty but I wouldn’t call them the most pristine beach I’ve every seen. Walking from our chairs to the water was like walking on hot stones (not like, was), only to get into water that was cold and you couldn’t get a footing in because of the rocks. We got to the beach about 2:30 and stayed until 5:30. Sun felt good. 

At closer to 5, we stepped into the little cafe to have french fries and coke (you can find coca-cola everywhere over here, never pepsi, and diet coke is known as coke light). Our bus led us to the port, where we had to go through port security which took forever, and eventually to the ship with about 30 minutes to spare before dinner. A quick body shower, and it was time for dinner. Tonight was probably one of the best meals yet (a salad and roasted turkey). We managed to sit at the same table as the past few nights (aka same waiter) and were joined by another couple (Steve and Rhonda) who have ate with us every meal. 

After dinner, I took some more pictures of the sunset. Then, it was time for the show. Tonight’s show was French inspired, there was a lot of can-can. Tomorrow is an early morning in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The city is a UNESCO Heritage Site and is completely walled. Croatia is our last stop on the cruise before heading to Venice and heading home. Until tomorrow...

I went to Athens and all I got was this blog...

Sometimes I arrive back to our cruise ship cabin and cannot comprehend what just went down. This morning we woke up early, I thought we had to be ready to disembark into Piraeus by 7:30am, turns out it was 8:30am, oops. 

Oh well. We caught a beautiful sunrise while getting ready and had a non-rushed breakfast. 

At 8:30, we left the ship and met with a small group of other Auto-Owners people, jumped a bus, and headed for Athens. My oh my was traffic heavy. I swear it took us an hour to get there. Once we got to Athens, we made our way to Acropolis, the original city home to the Parthenon. The place was packed but we managed to get a few photos. 

The Parthenon. 

The temple.

An unobstructed view of the temple. The temple had 6 virgins on the front and an olive tree close by.

Athens from the Acropolis.

After Acropolis, we were given a city tour. For most of our time in Athens, I felt like we were in the wrong end of town. Along our tour we kept seeing these signs (the poster on the pole) and found out they were for the demonstration Athens has been having. There were police everywhere and they had riot gear!

We made our way to Plaka Square.

Where we had a nice lunch (chicken souvlaki is always a safe bet). And a coke; you can find them everywhere, they are easy to order, and seldom come in the same shaped glass bottle as the previous city. This one was square. 

We shopped a bit, had some ice cream, and caught the bus back to the ship. Another nap (can’t say I’m not getting enough sleep on this trip) and then it was time for formal night (not my favorite picture but our only one from formal night). I got ready and dad and I headed to dinner. We ran into the couples we had dinner with the first night (and a few nights after) and grabbed a table. We had the exact same waiter from a few nights ago (a cute guy from Montenegro, he remembered serving us, don’t know if that is a good thing, I’m going to take it as a yes) and Auto-Owners footed the bill for drinks tonight! Our table split 4 bottles of wine and 9 beers (dad and I each only had two glasses of wine, just an fyi). An hour after dinner was the show for the night, I went by myself so dad could sleep. The show tonight was Excalibur in which a lot of river dancing occurred. I’m not sure what I think about these shows, they’re mostly very random. Tomorrow we head to Corfu. My hope is to find an amazing beach! Until then, sorry for the short post...

Santorini cab drivers: like Boston but on a mountain!

Today was an amazing day! We docked this morning in Santorini. Dad and I grabbed a quick breakfast (for me it has become fruit and a muffin, the only stuff I have found that I like) and we headed towards the tender. Being with Auto-Owners, we were able to be the first to board the boats to head to the coast. 

Once we got on the coast, we had to get to the top, two options were available: donkey or cable car. 

Both seemed pretty hairy but of the two, we opted for the cable car.

And saw some goats on the way up!

After a few minutes ride, we were in Theiry. We walked a bit, contemplated renting an atv, but ultimately decided on hailing a taxi to Oia (e-uh). The taxi ride there cost 20 euro, our driver offered to wait for us, said it may be difficult to find another driver, he wanted 60 euro total, we told him we would take a chance. 

Oia was beautiful!!! 

We walked a bit, found a cute little restaurant, and sat and had dessert.

Our dessert was a crepe with nutella and bananas, yum!!! 

The restaurant had an amazing view. 

We walked around a bit more. Then we went to catch a taxi back, there were a ton of taxi drivers waiting. Our taxi ride back cost 15 euro (cheaper). Santorini taxi drivers are like Boston taxi drivers but are driving on a mountain. Mom and Jen, you wouldn’t have liked this stop at all. We got back to Theiry, shopped and walked a bit, and then caught the cable car back down. We could have walked down the stairs the donkey took but it could take 30 minutes and there was no wait at the cable car. 

Once back on board, we had lunch in a restaurant on the ship, better than the buffet, laid out for a bit, took a nap, had a drink...

And in the meantime, sailed to Mykonos. 

We got to Mykonos at about 7:30pm. Mykonos is known for their nightlife, never really been my scene. Dad and I had dinner on the ship and decided to stay in for the night. The only thing to do in Mykonos would have been to have dinner and that can get expensive. I did finally get some pictures of a good sunset. 


Dad wasn’t feeling very well today, no good food combined with lack of sleep and being forever in motion, can do that, plus we have an early morning in Athens tomorrow, so he went to bed early. Since we’re docked until 1am, there’s not a show tonight. That’s okay, I’m good with an early night. Athens is tomorrow. Until then...