Hey! I’m back from our cruise to the Mediterranean. It was a wonderful trip! but I’ll start out with the not so good: our flight home from Venice was delayed by over 5 hours because of a careless remark by a fellow passenger. What was an otherwise seamless transport from sea to air was marred by what the captain of the flight called “an asinine comment”. apparently during the check-in process, someone on our flight made a comment about airport safety – we never found out who it was or what the person said or if the person was detained afterward. We were kept in the dark about the situation until after we reboarded the plane. We had all originally boarded the flight in a timely manner but the plane just sat on the tarmac for over an hour until we we told that due to a “technical issue”, we had to to take all of our stuff and deplane. then we had to go through safety screening again – we thought it was a mechanical issue with the plane so we all joked that we were going through screening again to supply us with “something to do” while they fixed the plane. They had one screening station for the entire flight! The Italian police and fire department were called and the cargo hold thoroughly checked. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 11:30am but we did not leave until close to 5pm. It wasn’t the worst thing by any indicates for us, we just got home later than we had anticipated. but for lots of fellow passengers who had connecting flights, they missed their flights and were put on the next available flight – some were rebooked for flights departing 2 days later! So, please please even if you think it’s a funny joke, don’t utter any comments about airport safety while in the airport / airplane. They take this stuff seriously! I said to the SO, “Imagine if this had happened when we were flying out to Venice and missed the cruise ship?” Ugh!
Here’s a picture to thank you for reading the above. It’s a shot of our cruise ship from a hilltop restaurant in Santorini, Greece.
Now, with that out of the way, onward to the good stuff!
These are mostly photos of the ports we checked out – I’ll devote a separate entry to the cruise experience itself (which I’ve tentatively named “Cruising Life for type A Personalities” ). The cruise was for 7 days and our ports included: Venice (Italy), Dubrovnic (Croatia), Kusadasi / Ephesus (Turkey), Santorini (Greece), and Katakolon / Olympia (Greece). We arrived one day in development of the sail date to have extra time in Venice – and also recommended by our travel agent in case of a flight delay (see above!) so we actually had 2 days in Venice to explore. The weather overall was wonderful, the only day that was a complete wash-out was our first day in Venice – the downpour was so bad that Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square ) was nearly empty. The following day the sun came out so we walked back to the square and saw the difference between empty vs crowded. We also experienced a short flash storm in Olympia, Greece but thank goodness it happened after our tour.
Venezia, Italia
Highlights: canals, St. Mark’s Square, Doge’s Palace
Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square)
Eating pistachio and stracciatella gelato from a shop right in St. Mark’s Square.
One of the lots of breathtaking grand rooms inside Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace). Every surface is covered in ornate paintings / decorations.
View from inside the Bridge of Sighs.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Highlights: Walled City, medieval fortresses, game of Thrones
The weather was much warmer than we expected and so clear that we could see for miles.
This is still mostly a appeal blog! I rocked the Essie Gel Couture polish in Pinned Up for the trip – it wore amazingly well, as expected. Not a chip and I wore it for 12 days in total.
Inside the Walled City – we are so surprised at the polished stone ground, they’re reflective and probably slick when it rains.
Ephesus, Turkey
Highlights: house of Mary, library of Celsus, temple of Hadrian, terrific Theatre
There is a small house which has been confirmed as the last place where Virgin Mary lived before she died (no pictures allowed of the interior – it is very basic and small). Behind the house there are water spouts where visitors can collect holy water.
This site boasts one of the best preserved Greek and Roman ruins. It’s like going back in time and showcases marble streets, a library, and a grand stadium.
I’m not going to post too lots of pictures of my check out to Ephesus – I’ll save that for a detail post on the organized group excursion in a cross over collab post with Joyce of local girl foreign Land coming up in early October!
Santorini, Greece
Highlights: Firá, Catholic Cathedral of Fira, Archaeological Museum
Eating freshly grilled squid / calamari – and Greek salad, of course.
Tip for Santorini – take the cord automobiles up but walk down the path to get back to the port. The line-ups for the cord automobiles are crazy.Stien er pittoresk, men nyt ut for runaway esler og deres poop!
Olympia, Hellas
Høydepunkter: Nettstedet til originale olympiske leker, Hera-tempelet, Arkeologisk museum i Olympia
Nettstedet til de opprinnelige olympiske lekene var mye annerledes enn vi hadde visualisert i våre tanker – det var mye grønnere enn vi forventet.
Og mange av bygningene var ganske mye borte, bortsett fra noen få søyler her og der – mye fantasi var nødvendig her.
Vår ekskursjonsguide var i stand til å levere mye historisk informasjon om hvordan strukturene ville ha sett, og hvilke funksjoner de serverte.
Vi var nesten klare til å gå tilbake til skipet da vi hadde en flash storm, men det resulterte den mest fantastiske solnedgangen den kvelden:
Dette er sannsynligvis en av mine elskede skudd av hele turen, og er nå min telefon tapet.
Hvis tvunget til å velge, var vårt mye elskede sted Santorini, som var en overraskelse vurderer at vi ikke hadde betydelige forventninger som vi gjorde for Dubrovnik (ikke misforstå, vi elsket fortsatt Dubrovnik) – å sjekke ut Santorini gjorde oss lover å gå tilbake til Hellas for å i tillegg utforske landet. Har du vært på noen av disse stedene?
PS. Jeg vet at dette spørsmålet blir spurt, jeg brukte Canon PowerShot SX610, et punkt og skyt kamera, for alle bildene.
PPS. Jeg har vært veldig jet lagged de siste dagene (6 timers forskjell), men jeg har begynt å komme tilbake til å lese blogger. Jeg har observert mange av mine kommentarer, vises ikke på bloggene dine, og jeg tror de går inn i spam-mappene dine – vær så snill å ta et øyeblikk til å sjekke. Jeg antar at WordPress ikke gjenkjenner meg lenger å være borte på ferie!
Ppps. Ja, jeg har fått litt sminke på turen. Jeg skal gjøre en Haul Post neste uke!
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