As spring break came around the corner we did some last minute frantic nice weather shopping at the BX and then we were on our way. We flew out of Stanstead into Genoa. I sat by a short Scottish history teacher that had a laugh that echoed throughout the plane. He told me all sorts of crazy stories. I wasn't sure to believe him or not considering his stories were so off the wall. He was an interesting character and it did make the flight entertaining I suppose. Once we arrived in Genoa, Italy it was fairly late so we just went straight to the hotel, which was right across the street from the cruise ship. That was pretty good planning on our part.
Once we were all checked it we were just enjoying ourselves but then we realized how hot we were. It was starting to get VERY hot. To the point that we were all down to our undergarments. We couldn't get the window open and no one wanted to call the front desk because we were only suppose to have 2 people in our room and we had 4. So....we sweat...all night. In the morning we got up and around and headed for the ship. We were a little concerned because we only received one form of confirmation and we knew others had received more in the mail. Everything went perfectly though. We started off by taking a group picture from one of the MANY photographers on board and located our cabin! We were now at our home for the next week!
We arrived in Naples Monday morning. We had heard that it wasn’t the prettiest place and to be careful because the pick pocketers were terrible here. I would agree on the fact that Naples wasn’t that pretty, but Kassidy and I went on an excursion to the island Capri and it was beautiful. I didn't even know Capri was Capri until I realized it was Capri. Does that make sense? lol Kassidy kept saying you know the arch that you can take the boat through that you see on pintrest? I didn't know exactly, but I acted as if I did. We got off the ship Monday morning and huddled together with our excursion group. From there we got on a ferry for about an hour until we arrived in Capri. It was stunning. The water was the bluest of blue. It was a very picturesque island. We thought going over there that the excursion would take us around the island by boat, but when we got there we realized that wasn't the plan. So Kassidy and I decided to do our own thing and we caught the next boat tour around the island.
We took off in an open top boat with about 30 people and when we started around the corner of the island, I finally realized that Capri was Capri. It is famous of the Lovers Arch. I'm 99% sure the bachelor went on a date here on one of his many romantic adventures. I must say it was a pretty romantic place. Kassidy and I weren't the only ones on the boat obsessed with the views. We were also accompanied but 5 Italian men around our age. I have never seen anyone so obsessed with taking selfies. I take a lot of pictures I know, but these boys were all over the boat snapping pictures. " Take a picture of me. Let me pose like this. Does it look good?" I couldn't stop watching them obsess over themselves. I think they quickly realized I was staring at them but they thought I was staring at them in a good way, when I was actually staring in annoyance. Take this in. Snap a couple pictures and sit down! I should have been more discreet in my fascination with their obsession with themselves because they soon became obsessed with me.
I got a little cold so I went into the wind block part of the boat. One of the guys passed me in the doorway and very aggressively told me I was the most beautiful things he had ever seen. I didn't say a word, I was a little creeped out so I went and sat down by Kassidy. We later realized they were trying to snap pictures of Kassidy and I! We tried to ignore it as much as we could but I was ready to get off the boat when the tour was over. When we got off the boat we did a little souvenir shopping and got some gelato.
We loaded back on the ferry and slept the whole ride back.
On Tuesday, we had made it to Malta. Malta is a country just South of Italy. It is a small island that is known for the place where St. Paul was shipwrecked for a good while until he was able to prepare his boat. How cool is that? In Malta we took a jeep excursion that was totally worth the money. We drove around the North side of the island with about 12 other jeeps making stops at all the sights to see. We saw the Popeye movie set where Robin Williams shot his first film. It was amazing. When we came upon it, my eyes lit up. I didn't even know it was filmed in Malta. All the lumber was imported from Canada and it cost about 20 millions dollars to create. The jeeps took us to many high locations that were breathtaking. We also went to the beach and got to stick our toes in the sand. There is a silent city in Malta that we were able to go to. No vehicles are allowing the in city so we parked outside and walked it. It was crazy how quiet it could be in certain places. The doors were as colorful as ever in the silent city. It was such a cool experience.
One really cool thing about the tour was the things we had in common with the two other people in our jeep. Since we had 6 people, 1 being Ellen's mom, we had to split up and go 3 and 3 in the jeeps because the jeeps only sat 5. I went with Ellen and her mom. The other two in our jeep were teachers from Australia. That's cool already. Teachers have this bond regardless of subject they teach but what was even crazier is that one was a tech teacher and one was an elementary teacher. Ellen is in elementary ed and obviously I plan on being a education technology teacher so our jeep ride was full of conversation. I later found out that their son is a wedding videographer. So we then talked about his business. It was really cool to have so much in common with someone that lives in a different country.
Wednesday was our day at sea. It was amazing. Katie and I spent most of our day laying out soaking up the sun in the chairs pictured below. The weather couldn't have been better. You would get hot in the sun but if you stood up and got in the shade the cool breeze felt amazing. We played cards while drinking pool side drinks from the bar. In the morning the ship was pretty crowded but by the mid afternoon it started clearing out because people were probably tired of just laying around. We weren't! We stayed out until it was time to get ready for dinner. Our bodies haven't seen the sun or a tanning bed in months. We were trying to soak up as much Vitamin D as we could.
I've always wanted to go to Greece ever since the musical Mamma Mia. I didn't think I would make it to that location on this trip considering there was so much more to see that was closer. I was so excited when were were booking this cruise because it was docking in Greece....... not only once, but twice! On Thursday we arrived in Athens, Greece the home of the Greek Gods. We had booked an excursion to go to the Acropolis. We got on bus 19 to find that our tour guide was amazing. She was this sweet little Greek woman probably in her 30's that was very knowledgeable and spoke very clear English. The worst thing about traveling is getting a tour guide that you can hardly understand. It took us about 30 minutes to get into Athens and to the Acropolis.
There were so many people there. It was a mad house. Everyone was 100% tourist. We all had our cameras out snapping pictures while looking and ahead to find our tour guide holding up a sign with a big 19 on it. It was surreal. Katie looked at me once and said try to picture people walking around in togas and Jesus sandals heading to the different temples to worship different God. It was crazy! The Parthenon and the temple of Nike were my favorite. Construction on the Parthenon began in 447 BC and it is still standing! What a history lesson!
We have a funny story about the Parthenon. I might have mentioned before but we have been getting footage of us dancing in every country that we got to so I can put together a Happy video like Pharralls. What better place to dance in front of than the Parthenon? We were up on some rocks ready to dance. Katie and Jessica did their thing and then it was Kassidy and I's turn. We weren't sure how we should dance so I said "Let's walk like an Egyptian". Everyone laughed and we started dancing. The camera was only on for about 5 second and we hear a stern voice behind us "Hey! You can't do that! I'm sorry! Stop! " We quickly stopped and realized it was a guy that worked there. This wasn't good because I had already gotten caught doing something I shouldn't have earlier as I touched the marble where it read "Do Not touch the marble." A lady came out from behind a pillar and said "I saw you" in a mad, Greek, mother voice and NOW I'm getting in trouble for dancing like an Egyptian at the Parthenon!
We were in shock. We had no idea why we just got in trouble. Our first thought was that maybe it was because it was offensive to the Greeks that we were dancing like Egyptians. We couldn't stop talking about it. Why in the world did we get in trouble? Is dancing offensive to the Greek Gods? What in the world was it? Well.....come to find out, you aren't allowed to take "moving pictures" in front of the Parthenon. Jessica had taken a picture of the Parthenon detailed description and later she was reading it on her camera and it said on there that no movie pictures are allowed. I posted this story on my instagram and one of my friends said they used to have a rule where you couldn't take group pictures in front of it.....strange At least we got 5 second of footage!
Corfu.......I want to go back! It was beautiful. We arrived there on Friday and it was a little overcast but that didn't effect our day one bit. By this day we had wizened up a bit. While we were on the cruise, we had talked to multiple people that didn't go on excursions that the ship provided. They just get off the ship and find a taxi and have the taxi driver take them around. We were paying about 55 Euros an excursion but we could get a taxi to take us around the whole day for 100 euros and divide it by 4. So that is what we decided to do in Corfu and it worked perfectly. We are always excited to get a taxi driver that speaks English semi-well, but our driver spoke it perfectly. We had such a good time with him. He took us all around the island. Everywhere we went he would offer to take our pictures for us and he was very funny as well. We had such a good time with him. We saw everything from the beaches to wild/tame donkeys. Still upset I didn't get a picture.
After we had a tour around the island we were dropped off in the city center to do some shopping. I could have spent the whole day there. So many unique stores and great food and spices. Greece is known for it Olive trees so I was sure to buy some olive oil while I was there. There were a couple things we had on our bucket list for Greece and we weren't sure if we would be able to fulfill them. One was going to a fish spa and getting a pedicure from little fish nibbling on our feet. As we were walking through the city we just stumbled upon a fish spa! It was so cool. We were so excited. We saw the spa and were in a seat in no time. It was so cool. Some people say they hate it, but I loved it. It tickled a bit but once you accepted that fish were eating the dead skin off your feet it was quite relaxing.
I had heard from my friend Sam that Corfu was her favorite place in Europe. I would have to say it is definitely in the running for being my favorite as well. I would go back in a heart beat if I could. They say it's even much more enjoyable in June and July. Possible honeymoon? ;)
Dubrovnik was so cool that I have had dreams about it. Dubrovnik was our last stop before we disembarked in Venice. It was a beautiful day and we once again decided not to go on an excursion and just explore the city ourselves. Dubrovnik has a walled city that is full of cafe's and places to shop. We spent almost the entire day in the walled city. We had been pretty adventurous the whole trip so we took this time to shop till we dropped. The problem was....I never dropped. Croatia's currency is the Kuna and it is dirt cheap especially compared to the pound. For 200 Kuna it was only $38. This means I was about to spend a ton of Kuna, and I did. I bought all sorts of things from Dubrovnik. I even bought myself a pair of Croatian heels. They were only 20 US dollars or 150 Kuna. I loved it. Walled cities are so interesting to me. The alleyways are like our streets. They are the way to people houses.
After we decided to stop spending money, we wanted to adventure to the top of the walled city but didn't want to pay the money to get there, so we started wandering through the alley stairways and getting as far up as we could. We finally reached the highest point that we could go, we were out of breath, but it was amazing. I could have spent a couple more days in Croatia. Just living the Croatian life. Everything is so simple over there. No stress about anything. People just come and go as they please and life seems.......easy. I'm sure it isn't easy but there is a feeling of simplicity and calmness in the air as you walk the streets.
Back to the ship we went!
I want spend more time in Venice. We arrived in Venice around 8 in the morning but weren't able to get off the ship until about 9:30 once we figured out exactly where we wanted to go it was already 10 and we needed to head to the airport at noon. We went to the city center and caught a water taxi through the gondola of the city. We rode for about 30 minutes and got off. Once off, we realized we were at a different airport than Ellen's mom. That could have been tragic. So we said our goodbyes to Lisa (Ellen's mom) and got back on the water taxi to go back where we came from. I realized I must miss home when I couldn't stop crying when we said goodbye to Lisa. It wasn't an ugly cry...just a couple tears. Venice seemed so cool but we didn't have time to explore. Hopefully I will go back some day.
Overall the cruise was a huge success. It is the most enjoyable way to travel. We were a little worried with some of the reviews we were seeing with MSC cruise line, but I had no complaints. I have only been on one other cruise and I would say was just as pleased with this one as I was with Carnival. The only thing we didn't get was towels in shapes of animals on our beds, but who even notices that anyway? The food was great and the drinks were even better! You never have to worry about entertainment. There was a show every night. I am a huge show girl so we went every night. There was live music in every bar on certain nights. In my opinion it is the best way to travel if you are trying to see multiple countries. It was so relaxing. All you have to worry about is what time the doors open to disembark and when the doors shut to embark. We had a blast. Let's just say we were not ready to go back to school.