"Rich is he who is happy with the least" --La República Dominicana

It's time to celebrate... We made it through the Bar! 

A week after taking the Colorado Bar Exam, Craig and I headed to The Dominican Republic for a week of celebrating and relaxing! Because our first year anniversary was during bar studies, this also doubled as our anniversary gift to each other (first year is paper, and the tickets are paper!) We bought a Living Social escape deal which I highly recommend.  First of all, you have 30 days to return it no questions asked.  And they mean that--we first purchased a deal to Mexico and then I found the one for the Dominican.  I emailed them and they immediately refunded it.  This means you can buy it and then make sure you have can get flights and the dates you want without worrying.  Also, buying it through Living Social is great if you are going with a big group--you can purchase the deal and send the link to your group.  When three people buy it after you, you get yours for free. This way you can all split the savings and among your group and go for even less.

We got a fantastic deal even without that extra savings.  6 nights in an all inclusive resort for BOTH of us was only $600. We stayed at Viva Wyndham Tangerine on the Cabarete beach.  Now, as they say, you get what you pay for and that was true in this situation as well. This was not a 5 star resort and the food certainly wasn't the best I've ever had. However, it was clean, right on the beach, it had great air conditioning, and the food and drinks (even alcoholic ones) were free. 

View from our private balcony. Not too shabby. 

A word of warning, though: Craig and I are avid travelers.  We have stayed in some pretty... interesting situations.  We are used to things going wrong when we travel because that is what happens when you travel, particularly on a budget. We have been stuck in Prague because the entire train system went on strike. We have had to take 12 hour bus rides full of obnoxious people while Craig had food poisoning.  We were basically homeless in London for a couple nights, and unable to get a hotel or hostel (we ended up sleeping in a little apartment above a bar that night).  We are the type of travelers where most things don't bother us.  However, you may not be.  We heard horror stories about the Dominican before we left.  They were mostly about people getting sick from food but there were complaints about many other things as well.  The Dominican is not America.  This is a third world country.  Everything will not be perfect, especially if you are staying in a budget friendly place.  For example, the electric in our room was sort of wonky.  When we had the air going for hours at a time, the power would turn off.  As this was usually in the middle of the night, we had to get up and flip the breaker and it would turn back on.  Sometimes it would go off again after 10 minutes and sometimes it would be fine for the rest of the night.  This would probably annoy some people a lot.  I could see certain members of my family demanding to change rooms over it.  While we would get frustrated, we recognized that these things happen in places that aren't America.  Another example, it rained one of the days we were there.  I have no idea why but our window started leaking and actually flooded the floor. Our suitcases got soaked, and there was still clothes in them.  Luckily our clothes didn't get soaked though--that would have been much worse. As luck would have it, the maid had taken the towels and hadn't brought clean ones back yet.  So we were stuck with a flooded floor and no way to clean it up.  So we ventured out in the rain, found the maid, got some towels, and cleaned it up.  I think this would have really upset some people but we didn't even bat an eyelash.  So, I guess my warning is this: if these type of things would ruin your trip, the Dominican may not be the place for you--and this resort definitely is not the place for you.  But if you are roll-with-the-punches type of people, you will love this country as much as we did. 

Ok--back to the trip... Cabarete beach is on the middle Northern part of the Dominican.  It is a small beach, probably just a mile or 2 long.  It is the kite surfing and wind surfing capitol of the world, according to the locals.  Every afternoon you could see 100 or so kites in the sky--it was really cool.  It was expensive to rent and do lessons for kite surfing but if you like wake boarding, you will absolutely LOVE kite surfing!

Kite surfers in Cabarete

Craig and I like to be both active and relax when we go on vacations.  We have never been the type of couple that wants to sit and drink on the beach for 7 days straight.  Don't get me wrong, we did relax on the beach with our fair share of cocktails, but we also went canoeing, wind surfing, and boogie boarded. Cabarete is a very active part of the island.  

Our favorite part of the trip though was the day we went to the 27 waterfalls (or 27 charcos).  We heard about it from an expat our first evening on the island and knew it was our kind of thing.  We booked the excursion through our resort, and they picked us up the next day at 8:00am in a big open top van/truck. 

Our ride for the day

We drove all around the island and got to see towns and cities. One thing that made us laugh was the taxi system.  While they have regular taxis, most of the taxis are on motorcycles.  The drivers wear yellow vests and you will see 1, 2 or even 3 people behind them. 

Motorcycle taxis

During our drive, I was struck by many things.  The Dominican is a country of great contrasts.  One minute you would pass by what Craig calls a "shanty town," with buildings like the above picture. The next minute you would pass mansions on the hills.  On one side of the street you would have greenery... 

Dominican Republic countryside

...And on the other side of the street there would be homes:

Dominican Republic town

It was so fun to see the locals and how they live, though.  I think that many Americans probably never leave their resort while in the Dominican, but I am so glad we did.  Driving around for a couple hours and really getting to see the island was probably my favorite part of the trip. 

After our drive picking up people from all over the island, we got to a very very small town.  There we had a drink (try the Mama Juana!) and our guide told us more about the Dominican.  He explained that the national sport is baseball, and he is right. They loooovvveeee their baseball here. He explained their second national sport was cock fighting. Yep, it is completely legal here.  It was sort of shocking, as it is so violent, but he compared it to the bull fighting of Spain.  Now I have never seen a true cock fight but it seems pretty brutal.  They placed a protective thing over the cocks' pokers so they couldn't actually hurt each other in front of us (he called them boxing gloves haha). And then he let them go at it... 

Dominican Republic cock fighting

It was interesting to say the least.  After that, they allowed us to look through the sculptures and carvings that some of the locals do to support their families.  The funds of this one benefited 20 local families.  They were all really cool and we took one home with us. 

Local art

After that we continued our journey through the small towns to go have a local lunch.  As we were driving the children of the towns would come out and chase the van.  This was one of the things we were warned about before we came--that the children would relentlessly beg from you.  However, that wasn't what we experienced at all.  They did chase after the van and yelled "Manga! Manga!" which means candy.  The tourists, including ourselves, would then toss them candy from the van and they would yell "Thank you baby!" in an American accent.  We really enjoyed it and did not get offended at all.  If you go on one of these tours, be sure to bring some candy for the kids! :) 

Local children asking for candy!

After lunch we went and tried some Dominican coffee and chocolate. "Mama," who has 13 children, is the local expert. They had us put on hats and do the "traditional" dance to grind the coffee. It was really fun and the coffee was delicious... strong, but delicious. 

"Mama" serving us Dominican coffee

Then, we finally got to the waterfalls.  Unfortunately you have to have a waterproof camera in order to take pictures at the falls; we did not have one this time.  I tried to find a picture on google that would show it but none of them give it justice.  If you go to the Dominican, though, you must do the waterfalls. Bring water shoes and a waterproof camera if you can! (You can rent water shoes if you don't have any--something no one told us so we went out and bought some when we got there).  They give you a helmet and a life jacket.  Then you hike with about 20 minutes to get to the waterfalls. Once you get there, you jump in the pool of water and the guides help you climb up the waterfall.  They are very strong guides and could pull up some pretty hefty people.  There we kids on our tour as young as 8 years old.  I would say almost anyone can do this.  After you climb up the waterfall, you end up in another pool of water and start swimming to the next waterfall where they help you climb up again. Our group only did the first 7 of the waterfalls but altogether there are 27. Once you get to the top, you turn around and go right back down.  The waterfalls have formed slides and you can just slide down them.  I was a little bit scared on 2 of them and the guides had to give me a little nudge (and by nudge I mean I sat down, crossed my arms and he said "One.... two...." and then pushed me down!) It was an amazing experience and I cannot stress enough that you must do this if you go to the Dominican. 

And that was it---after a long day of adventures all over the island, we made the trip back to our resort. We were a little windblown and very tired but it was very worth it.

Windblown @ the end of the day

That evening we made our way to our favorite bar (which was an Irish pub, something I am sure is a shock to no one).  The Dominican had won a gold and a silver metal that day--their only of the Olympic games.  There was a PARTY to say the least.  While winning a gold is just another metal to us American and British--this was the 2nd gold in the history of their country and they were very excited.  We celebrated the way they did--with many Presidentes! 

Presidente--Dominican beer!

It was truly a treat to celebrate with them--definitely our favorite night out of the trip! Also, we asked the bartender to give us the bottle caps from the beers we drank, and we brought them home. You just add a magnet to the back and, voila, you have a souvenir that costs you about five cents! You can add glue but don't have to because the magnet sticks to the metal cap without it.  We've done this with Greek beer, Domincan beer, Denver beer, Saint Louis beer, etc.. And it makes a great gift too. (Our good friend Erica actually made these for us and gave some to our friend at a housewarming!) 

Magnets + Bottle caps = 5 cent souvenir!

Too quickly the trip was over and we left to come back home. But not before completing our new tradition, thanks to pintrest. I packed a chalkboard and we took a picture on the beach counting the year! We plan to do this every year for whatever we do on our anniversary. 

One year anniversary!

It was a wonderful trip and we would highly recommend it to anyone--couples, families, groups of friends! It has everything you could want out of a trip and it's so close to America! We will be back, Dominican Republic, that is for sure. Thanks for the memories. 

The Junk Shelf and a Towel on the Toilet

Craig and I recently passed the 6 month mark!  We had a mini celebration of Greek dinner and beers.  However, while 6 months is longer than Ms. Kardashian, it is not very long when compared to my parents (24 and 23 years respectively) or grandparents (60+ years and counting).  I definitely do not have wisdom to pass on yet, but I do have some thoughts on marriage and newlywed life that struck me today. 
Craig and I lived together for 3 years before we said "I do".  The day we got married, we already had joint credit cards, joint bank accounts, a lease together, joint insurance, a joint cell phone contract, and a lot of other similar ties.  He has supported me financially for the past 2 1/2 years as I have endured law school.  In these respects, you wouldn't expect much to change the day we got married.  Of course, something did change.  Something I can't find a word for, but something that is good. 
The "honeymoon stage" (which I assume most people define as the stage where you are blissfully happy because you don't know any better yet) never really existed for us.  We came back from our wedding extravaganza, and went straight back into real life... bills, rent, law school, stress, immigration, etc... We weren't happy because real life hadn't hit us yet; instead we are (and work hard at being) happy every day despite real life.  While I would consider us blissful, it isn't because we don't know any better. 
I know everything about Craig, in fact. I knew the day I married him the things that would drive me crazy and the things I would adore. I also knew that relationships, and marriages, are about compromise... "picking your battles" is the cliche for this thought.  There are a few things which irk me about my dear husband.  For example, when I walked in the door to my house today, there was, as there always is, Craig's sunglasses and I pod, (as well as anything else he has decided he doesn't want to forget when he leaves) sitting on the ledge of the window in our entry way. I cannot count the number of times I have asked Craig to not put junk on this ledge.  If you consider we have lived here for 3 years, and guess that it has been an average of once a week, we would be looking at minimum 156 times.  Why is this such a pet peeve, you may wonder? Because I think it makes our house look messy.  If there needs to be a "junk drawer" or something of that nature, I want it to be hidden from our guests.  I have tried putting picture frames and candles on the ledge, but the stuff still manages to take up the rest of the space.  The flip side of this, of course, is that I always move the stuff when people come over, and then Craig cannot find it, and we inevitably bicker for a couple minutes about why I moved the stuff, and why the stuff was there in the first place. 
After our "I dos," I think something hit me--maybe something like this isn't going to change and now we are married so it's realllly not going to change.  I have officially realized that no matter how much I nag, he is going to place his stuff on the ledge.  And I am officially am ok with that.  First of all, I do not want to spend the little time we have together arguing about this ledge.  Second of all, there is so much good that Craig does, that I realize the good outweighs the bad (by 1000).  Third, I must remember that Craig also has his pet peeves, and has found a way to let most of them go.  
For example, I always forget to grab a towel from my room when I go take a shower.  I don't know why, but I never remember this simple step in the shower taking process.  This leads to me exiting the shower and running through the house soaking wet to retrieve the towel.  Then Craig enters, and is annoyed that there is water all over the floor.  I vaguely remember him requesting a couple times that I not forget the towel so that there would not be water on the floor every day.  However, I still forget. So instead of nagging at me every day, Craig now goes to retrieve my towel and sets it on the toilet so that I have a towel when I get out of the shower.  It has come to the point where if I exit the shower, and a towel is not magically sitting there, I am quite surprised and yell "Honey! Where is my towel?" 
Craig accepted that I would continue to do this annoying thing, and adjusted his actions to make it less annoying.  I, in turn, will give into his minuscule but annoying habit of leaving junk on the ledge, and set my sunglasses on the ledge right next to his when I come into the house.  As they say, such is life... but I love our life. 

New Experiences!

Palma de Mallorca is an adorable little resort town.  It reminds me of Florida in a way—hotels and resorts, beaches, shopping, great weather, etc… We decided to take it a little easy here, and it was lovely.  

First, we took a shuttle into town and we immediately noticed the city wall, which surrounds the outer part of the city.  It is very large! Right inside the wall is the Seo Cathedral and the Alumdaina Palace which are both absolutely beautiful. The cathedral is from the 13^th century and the ornate interior was partly designed by Gaudi (much about him in my Barcelona post).  The doorway to the harbor is absolutely beautiful.  The palace is right in front of the cathedral and used to be the residence of Arab kings. It is full of paintings now.

After happening upon these impressive and important landmarks, we wandered further into town.  We did some shopping, and had some sangria. After this, we decided to go to the beach.  It was really beautiful on a beautiful day so all in all, we would say we loved Palma De Mallorca!

The next day, we travelled to where we were most excited to visit—Tunisia which is in the Northern part of Africa.  We did not really know this at the time, but it is a very Middle Eastern part of Africa.  All the people are Middle Eastern so they told us to dress very conservatively.  However, we did not even see one woman in a Berka. I still wore a long black sundress and kept my shoulders covered which was brutal in the 100 degree heat. 

We did a ship sponsored excursion this day because we didn’t feel comfortable “winging it” in Africa.  First, we visited a museum FULL of mosaics.  They were extremely impressive.  The mosaics are from all over Tunisia, and they are all from the floors of wealthy homes.  Even though we saw many of the mosaics on walls, that is just because they do not have room to have them all of the floors.  Some of them were simple patterns and some were very ornate.  We learned that the nicest mosaics were only in the dining room, as that is where they were shown off during parties.  They would incorporate different symbols to let their guests know certain things; for example, a wine bottle meant they had a cellar full of wine so the guests can drink as much as they want. 

After the museum, we went to a rug store.  This was one of the most interesting experiences of my life.  Apparently people come to Tunisia just to buy rugs.  The sales people in Tunisia are very, VERY pushy by our standards.  This pushiness, however, is completely normal in their culture.  After an impressive presentation of their selection of rugs, the guide gave us free time to look around and possibly buy rugs if we wanted to.  I wanted to buy one so badly, as we need one anyway.  However, they were definitely out of our budget.   In order to find out they were too expensive for us though, we had to ask how much they were.  The guy was suddenly ON US. “This one is $10,000,” he said.  We replied that we certainly could not afford that.  “What can you afford then? What about this one? This one is only $1200.”  We replied that we would have to think about it—even though that was still wayyyy out of our budget. “No! No! No thinking! Why would you come here and not leave with a souvenir? In America these are 5 times as much!” We understand this, we explained, but we cannot afford it. “What can you afford?! What is your budget?!” Craig refused to give a budget because he knew that would lock us in so to speak.  After about 15 minutes of this, we decided to leave the room.  It didn’t end there however.  He followed us out of the room, through the hall, down the stairs, and through the store.  We started looking at other souvenirs and another guy started questioning us. We quickly left the store. It is very overwhelming. Again, it is just part of their culture but wow!

After the rug store and lunch, we went to the city of Sidi Bau Said.  This was like the rug store but slightly less pushy, and times 1000 stores.  I wanted to buy some pashminas so we started looking.  The guy saw us looking and rushed right over.  He wouldn’t give us a price until after we picked out what we wanted.  After showing us his veryyy large collection of scarves, we picked out 3 and finally asked—how much?  He replied: 90 Euros. Hahahahaha. 90 Euros! That is like $140. For 3 scarves which you can buy anywhere! In fact I just bought one for 5 Euros in Pisa. So we laughed at him—told him we were thinking more like 10 Euros and then we began to bargain.  After a while, we got into it. It’s sort of fun.  At one point I actually walked out and Craig looked at the guy and said: “She’s the boss and she says we have to go”.  Eventually we agreed on 12 Euros.  We did this again to get an amazing bowl that I fell in love with—don’t know how we will be getting that home but that is neither here nor there.  After experiencing the culture for a day we really got used to it.  We got 2 of them for 40 Euros, all the way down from 1 for 200!

As we left, we were discussing how it was fun to haggle with the people—and you really begin to tell stories about yourselves.  He has 3 kids at home he needs to support! We are students…on our honeymoon! Ahhh congratulations! We give you 10 Euro discount! And so on. You get to know people this way and I think that is half of the point of it all.

All in all we got to experience a completely different country, continent and culture—and that makes for an amazing day! 

Barcelona--Favorite City of All Time!

So today we arrive in Barcelona around lunchtime and are staying overnight! We take off tomorrow evening at 10pm so we have plenty of time in a city that needs plenty of time.  As most of you know, my abroad adventures began in Barcelona—I spent 5 months here in 2007 before I moved to Greece and met Craig.  But I never mind coming back to my favorite city, and I can’t wait to show the city to my husband.

For those that are planning on visiting to Barcelona: I highly recommend the hop on hop off tour.  I don’t recommend these in every city, but in Barcelona it’s really a great way to see a lot of stuff.  They have a 2 day pass so if you are in the city for 2 or more days, I would do that. There are two companies and they are basically the same. 

 My number one “must do” in Barcelona is Sagrada Familia. It is by far one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  I would put it on par with the Sistine Chapel.  Gaudi was an architect in Barcelona in the early 1900s and he has many amazing works all throughout the city of Barcelona.  The most amazing, in my and most people’s opinions, is Sagrada Familia. It is truly indescribable—when I can post pictures (internet is wayyyy too slow) I will or you could just google it to see what I am talking about.  The church is yet to be finished and I honestly cannot imagine it ever being finished.  Gaudi passed away in 1926 and there is still so much left to be done.  For example: there are only 4 towers finished now and there will someday be either 16 or 20 (can’t remember which right now).  If any of you get to Sagrada Familia and see the line, there is always a long line, and want to turn back—don’t.  It is so completely worth it.  We would also recommend getting the audio tour on the headphones.  It’s only like 4 Euros and the church is amazing but all of it makes way more sense and is far more impressive when you know what you are looking at.

Among many many works that Gaudi has, others I would recommend are Parc Guell, and two famous houses he built—Casa Batllo and La Pedrera.  All are worth seeing and touring.  If you go to Parc Guell, I would recommend going early.  Once it gets later there are just throngs of tourists and it’s not as enjoyable.  It is also quite a hike so those who are not up for that should keep it in mind.  Casa Batllo and La Pedrera are now museums dedicated to Gaudi—with the outside being absolutely stunning and the inside being incredibly interesting.

Another “must do” in Barcelona is Las Ramblas. This is a long street full of vendors and street performers.  It is definitely an experience to walk up and down—I love sitting at the cafes and people watching. You can see anything here—every time I go it’s completely different.  This time, Craig and I saw a John Wayne impersonator, hip hop dancers, a robot, a bunch of guys doing a card trick which seemed like a way to rip people of but we aren’t sure how, and so much more.  Along Las Ramblas there is the Mercat which is a huge market.  Absolutely go into the market—it is such a sight! They have stalls with all fruit, all candy, all nuts, etc… it is so beautiful!  They have popsicle treats and all sorts of fruit to eat on the go if you want to get a snack! This is when I dropped and broke our camera so we didn’t get to take that many pictures.  However, I have some great pictures from the last time I went that I can post!

The food in Spain is absolutely incredible.  Aside from Sangria—my favorite—they have the best sea food you can get.  I would always recommend getting the seafood paella—as it is a Spanish specialty.  However, make sure to get it from a good place.  It can be easy to go to a touristy place in Barcelona and overpay for bad food.  One place you cannot go wrong is the Port.  It will not be cheap, but it will be very, very good.

Something I had never done before that we did this time is stop at the National Art Museum of Catalan.  Catalan is the region of Spain where Barcelona is—and this is the main museum of their art.  It was very impressive, but our favorite part was the view outside.  We got some great pictures from here with the entire city of Barcelona behind us. Definitely worth a quick hop off the tour bus to get this picture!  

I could go on and on and on, as there is SO much to do in Barcelona. Anyone who is going can always e-mail me for more details! We ended our evening at Port Olympic which is a huge street of bar after bar after bar! You cannot go wrong on a night out here! We had an absolute blast!

Craig LOVES Barcelona and it was just as amazing as I remember! I was sad to say goodbye but we have so much more to come! Up next: Palma de Mallorca, Spain and Tunisia, Africa! :)

Monte Carlo and the Flash Mob!

Monaco is a very interesting country.  First of all, it is the 2^nd smallest country—right after the Vatican (which isn’t a “real” country in most people’s eyes—it’s like a city that they call a country because the Pope lives there).  At some point in its history (I can’t remember now because I’m on my 2^nd glass of wine) Monaco lost a lot of its land, and therefore income (it mainly exported fruit).  Because of this, it was pretty much going down the drain when Prince someone or another suggested they open a casino and become gambling town.  

This saved the country, as it became the rich man’s Vegas. A decade or so later, the King made it tax free for the people living there, which obviously attracted a huge amount of wealthy people.  It’s a very small country—they have very little land to work with—so the city has grown up instead of out.  A way it did grow out some was when, about 100 years ago, they decided to reclaim land from the sea and build it up.  About half of Monaco’s square mileage is there because of what they have built up from the sea.  Now Monte Carlo is full of very tall sky-scraper apartments and hotels, amazing yachts, and the nicest cars we have ever seen.

We did a “hop on hop off” tour to see Nice, France, and Monte Carlo, Monaco.  The whole day was amazing, we would highly recommend visiting.  However, the highlight of our day is probably not something that would happen on your trip.  We decided to take a break for a latte outside the infamous Monte Carlo Casino.  This is the most well known square in the city, as the 2 most well known casinos, and a very well known hotel—Hotel Paris—are there.  These are supposedly what put Monte Carlo on the map.  So we decide to have a (quite overpriced) latte at the Café Paris around 2:00pm. When we arrived, there were a bunch of reserved tables spread out in the outdoor patio area.  At one point, we noticed someone setting up a camera.  My first thought is that maybe someone famous is coming in the café, like Oprah, hahaha.  But then, people dressed in jeans and different colored shirts start to walk in and take the reserved tables.  All of their shirts are different colors, but are the same style—plain T shirts.  More cameras are set up and there are lots of people talking to the colored shirt people—do they need water? Are they nervous?  What stands out to me the most is that they are obviously together (with the similar dress) but are not sitting together… they are all spread out.  At some point, I turn to Craig and say, “I bet it’s a flash mob.” Craig replies, “No way.”  He insists for the next 15 minutes that it is not a flash mob, and I insist that it is.

Suddenly the awnings above us retract and one guy stands up and starts singing. Another guy joins him, and then 2 more and then slowly their whole group does as well.  There are about 30 of them and they sing and dance for the next 10 minutes.  Everyone laughs and claps and thoroughly enjoys the performance.  And then, they just sit down like it never happened.  I have wanted to see (well be in, but at the very least see) a flash mob for the past 2 years and seeing this made my day.

After that, we did some walking through an amazing park, bought some souvenirs, and took a “boat bus” back to our ship.  All and all it was a fabulous day! 

The Honeymoon Begins.... First, Tuscany!

After waking up with a slight (or strong for others) hangover and flying from Santorini to Milan, (laying over 8 hours), and Milan to Rome, we arrived into Rome very late on July 9^th.  If any of you have heard my “Rome story,” you will understand that I was not thrilled that our honeymoon cruise embarks and disembarks in Rome.  (For those who haven’t heard the story, in a nutshell: myself and 2 of my girlfriends stayed in a horrible hostel, got robbed, ended up in the middle of nowhere with no place to sleep, and were continually followed around by very, very creepy guys. We all swore we would never return.)  However, I sucked it up and went back.  My one condition was that we stayed in a Hilton (or similar) hotel. And we did.  We definitely paid WAY too much to stay in the airport Hilton hotel.  However, walking from the flight to our room after 12 hours of travelling made it worth every penny.

The next morning we made our way down to the port (which is about an hour and half to 2 hours for anyone attempting to do this), and we began our honeymoon cruise.  The AMAZING itinerary looks like this:

July 10^th: Leave from Rome

July 11^th: Livorno (Tuscany)

July 12^th: Monte Carlo, Monaco

July 13^th: Barcelona, Spain (overnight)

July 14^th: Barcelona, Spain

July 15^th: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

July 16^th: At Sea

July 17^th: Tunisia, Africa

July 18^th: Sicily

July 19^th: Naples

July 20^th: Rome

July 21^st: At sea

July 22^nd: Croatia

July 23^rd: Corfu, Greece

July 24^th: Katakolon, Greece

July 25^th: back to Santorini J

July 26^th: Turkey

July 27^th: Athens, Greece

July 28^th: At Sea

July 29^th: Messina, Italy

July 30^th: disembark in Rome to head HOME!

I have only been on one cruise and this is Craig’s first so we weren’t completely sure what to expect.  20 days is a long time to be in a very small room, especially because I get sea sick sometimes.  However, we were thrilled with the ship and room when we arrived.  We have a verandah deck with chairs and tables—where we eat breakfast most mornings and have a drink before dinner most evenings.  3 pools, 8 hot tubs, 11 bars, 7 restaurants, live music all the time, etc… etc…  One (slight) downside is the age of people onboard. To be fair, however, we were warned of this.  It is either older, retired or already dead people or families with kids.  There are VERY few people even close to our age. However, we have met some incredibly interesting people.  Many of the couples we have sat with at night are celebrating their 20^th, 30^th, 40^th wedding anniversaries.  They have also been all over the world.  Everyone is very nice, so we don’t really mind that there aren’t a bunch of mid-20s on board.  Besides, we didn’t come on the ship to meet people, or to watch the shows…. We came for the amazing itinerary. And to be together :)

Our first stop is in Livorno, Italy which is the main port in Tuscany.  Pisa is about 30 minutes from here and Florence is about 1 ½ hours.  A 90 minute drive each way was a little much for us, so we decided to enjoy Livorno and Pisa. 

Many people do excursions at every stop on cruises.  Craig and I, however, feel pretty comfortable going out and doing things ourselves.  Plus, it is way easier on the budget. The excursion to Pisa, for example, was $189 per person.  We spent about 100 Euros total, which is about $150.  This worked out to quite a bit less than half.  That total includes what we spent on eating/drinking/souvenirs, which obviously isn’t included in the excursion.  So, if you don’t mind putting in some effort, waiting in a line or 2, and rolling with the punches—we would say 80% of cities can easily be done on your own. 

In Livorno, we took a quick shuttle to the town and went to the tourist information center.  There, we bought tickets to get to Pisa and back, and then to ride a boat through the canals of Livorno. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most interesting things I have ever seen.  We found out that when the tower began to lean, engineers actually raced to “save it”. They put lead weights in the base to balance it (so it wouldn’t fall) and for 10 or so years, they tried to figure out how to straighten it out.  However, it suddenly became a tourist attraction, and soon the engineers were called off.  These days, setting it level would be “unthinkable”!! “Then it would just be a tower,” Craig said. “Who would come to see that?” And he is right—no one would. Because everyone, including both of us, really only cared about one thing—getting a picture where it looks like we are holding the tower up.  And despite the “police” yelling at everyone for being on the grass, we did just that!

All around Pisa there are the tourist booths that sell everything from pasta to picture frames to all sorts of Pinocchio items (apparently he is from Pisa? We aren’t sure but we bought a Pinocchio wine opener just to be safe). You find these shops in any touristy area, and we love them.  You can always (and should) bargain down the prices and you can find some great things! We left with a picture frame (which I get from each place we go), a fridge magnet (our new thing we decided to do), a wine opener (too cute to pass up), and 2 pajminas (because 5 Euros each is a great deal!).  After a Tuscan meal and some Tuscan wine, we were very satisfied with our day and returned to the ship!

Next stop… Monte Carlo, Monaco! 

The Ceremony and Reception!! The definition of perfection!

So after the near death experience and complete freak out, we arrived back the hotel only an hour behind schedule.  This wasn’t really an issue though, because my appointments for hair and makeup had yet to start. I came into the bridal suite and all the girls were in their adorable red silk robes getting ready! I am so glad we got the robes because everyone looked so cute.  I showered and put on my white robe, and the fun really began.  Hair first, then makeup, and of course eating a gyro (only in Greece will a bride be getting her hair done while eating a gyro).

I had taken my dress to be steamed the day before (on the back of a quad no less) and it was picked up and arrived in plenty of time.  As my brother was bringing it in, however, he went to hang it up and knocked over a glass of RED WINE.  My mom, in a superwoman moment, moved faster than the speed of light and hit the cup in the other direction.  She literally SAVED the DAY! I was turning away from her as it happened but the make-up artist said she had never seen anyone move so quickly.  The red wine was quickly put away. What we were thinking having red wine there in the first place is a wonderful question.  Brides: don’t follow in those footsteps.

After doing pictures of the dress, Emily, the photographer, went down to do the boys getting ready pictures.  All the boys in the bridal party wore kilts which was awesome.  They all looked so great and it was so much fun! However, kilts are very, very hot, because there are many layers and it is made of wool.  As my brother Chris was super hung over, as per usual, and it was 90 degrees outside, he wasn’t feeling so well.  Right as Emily was taking a shot, Chris turned and threw up.  Emily said in all the weddings she has ever done, she has never ever seen that take place. I am glad to say I did not witness it, but the story was told over and over throughout the evening, as it will continue to be for years to come I am sure.  

As soon as everyone was ready, we did more pictures and soon it was time to head to Santo Wines.  A bus picked up everyone besides Kayla and I, and we were taken in a private car.  The driver honked the horn the entire time, and we waved to everyone we passed.  It was almost like being an actual princess.

The ceremony went smoothly—and it was truly amazing.  I walked down the aisle as the sun was beginning to set, and as we said our own vows to each other, I had the overwhelming feeling of calm, happiness, and perfection.  I married my best friend, with loved ones around, in the most beautiful place in the world.  Literally nothing could be better than that.

After the ceremony, some pictures, and some Santo Wine, we got in the bus/car and rode up to Fira for the reception dinner.  Fira is an amazing town on the cliffs of Santorini.  All the houses and restaurants are built with literally no room in between them.  There are cobblestone roads that lead up and down so that people can get to the top and see the incredible view.  (Walking up the cobblestone stairs with 4 inch heels and a huge hoop dress was quite interesting to say the least—but with my new husband, maid of honor and best man, we made it all the way up).  If you have seen many pictures of Santorini, Fira is very well known for the long, bending road that leads all the way down to the water.   It is also well known for the donkeys that take people up and down it. (Donkeys are sacred to the Greeks—they are considered the lost souls of their people.  However, there is also a cable car for those that are not a fan of riding the cute little donkeys, such as me).  At the top of the mountain, there are many restaurants with the amazing view of the sea and volcano.  At Argo, where we chose to have our dinner, there is a large balcony that can seat 70.  We rented it all out so that we could have a little privacy to drink and dance.  Just as we arrived, the sun was setting in the horizon, and the view was absolutely breathtaking.  Michael Danby, a great friend of ours from Australia, played his guitar and sang all our favorite songs.  The dance floor was full the entire evening.

 As people started to taper off and go home in taxis, the younger crowd was not ready to end the thus-far perfect night. So, instead of taking taxis to the hotel, 4 loads of us took them to none other than Beach Bar.  In our dresses, and kilts, we continued our reception at the place where it all began. 

<3