Greece/Italy Cruise

My sister absolutely loves to travel. She dreams of going to exotic places on all the continents of the world - countries and places that aren't even on my radar. I'm good staying in the USA where everyone speaks my language and I can get where I'm going without having to spend days traveling. Despite that, she somehow convinced me to go on a cruise to Greece and Italy with her and my parents to celebrate the end of my mom's chemo treatments. (It was originally going to be a girls trip, but my dad didn't feel comfortable sending us to Europe without a man to take care of us. And he did deserve to celebrate too!)

With Peyton in Kindergarten, we only needed to find someone to watch Logan during the day. My mother-in-law agreed to come for a week and Rog was able to take off a few days/work from home to cover the rest of the time. It was only supposed to be a 7 day cruise in October, but we ended up having to wait until November and they only offer 10 or 12 day cruises in November. So we did the 10 day cruise, but with travel that meant I was gone 13 days. And unfortunately the kids ended up having 4 days (out of the 9 school days I was gone) off. But by the time we figured all that out I was committed. Everyone survived, but it was a long time to be away from my babies!

On November 1st I woke up really early, showered, and then Rog drove me to the airport. (One of our home teachers came to stay with the kids while Rog drove me, so we didn't have to wake them up.) I flew to Denver to meet everyone (a terrible flight with the worst turbulent landing) and then we flew to Chicago from there. From Chicago we flew to Dublin. Here we are waiting to take off.

Waiting and waiting and waiting... Our flight was about 45 minutes late leaving Chicago which meant we got to Dublin late. Our flight from Dublin to Rome hadn't left yet, but they didn't want to delay that flight while they transferred our luggage, so they bumped us to a later flight that wouldn't get us to Rome until 7:00 pm. (We were supposed to get there at 9:00 am.) We told them that wouldn't work since we had to get on the ship by 5:00 pm. The only option they could come up with was to fly us to London and then to Rome. We were supposed to get to Rome at 3:30 pm, but because of delays in London we didn't get there until 4:30 pm. The airport was an hour and a half away from the cruise terminal, so we didn't even try to go there. 4 other people were in the same situation as us and 1 of them tried to hire a fast driver to get him to the ship on time. He ended up getting there at 5:15 pm and missed it, so sad as it was, we made the right decision.

The first day of the cruise was a day at sea, so we planned to fly to Mykonos and catch the ship there the next day. We got a hotel room in Rome, ate at a mediocre pizza place, slept on hard-as-a-rock beds, and took freezing showers the next morning. Things were not going well for us! We ate breakfast at the hotel (included with our room and actually very good) and then went back to the airport.

So many times going through security! 😩

We did find some amazing gelato while waiting for our flight to Athens. 👌

From Athens we flew to Mykonos and got a hotel there. Our hotel was up on a hill and had a pretty great view.

We ventured down into town and found a place with excellent gyros for dinner. (One of my major regrets of this trip was only having gelato and gyros once each.)

The beds that night were softer, but tiny! In the morning we headed down into town again to find some breakfast and enjoyed some beautiful views on our journey. We actually lucked out because we had some blue skies in the morning, but by the time the ship got there, it was all gray skies.

We walked all over looking for Little Venice and didn't even realize it when we were looking right at it! 

There are stray cats everywhere on Mykonos.

After breakfast we got ready for the day and then we were so happy to see our ship arrive!

We were waiting when the first tender came over from the ship. (We got a lot of funny looks standing there with our luggage!) Some of the entertainers (a group that does the Beatles) were also getting on in Mykonos, so we rode over to the ship with them.

Getting good, cold water in Europe is nearly impossible, so I was most excited about getting a glass of ice water when we got to our room!

And of course we were very excited to eat at a nice restaurant for dinner that we didn't have to pay for and sleep in nice, soft beds that night!

Our first stop was Athens, Greece. We took a hop on hop off bus to see some of the city's highlights. First we stopped at the Acropolis and listened to a Rick Steve's audio tour there.

We learned they have been working on restoring the Parthenon temple for longer than I have been alive. It's covered in scaffolding and in my opinion, looks terrible. I prefer to see the ruins just how they are or completely restored (which is clearly taking way too long). This is Diana and my mom in front of the Parthenon (with scaffolding and a crane). 

And this is the Herodes Theatre - in ruin, but not covered in scaffolding. (Much better, right?!)

There are some pretty impressive views of the city from up on the hill where the Acropolis is.

After the Acropolis we went on a walking tour around city central and again listened to a Rick Steve's audio tour.

We got to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier just in time to see the changing of the guard. They wear funny uniforms with pom pom shoes and do a whole choreographed routine.

We saw this Birkenstock store while we were walking around and I had to take a picture because it reminded me of Oregon (everyone wears them here and they've grown on me to the point that I just bought a pair for our anniversary).

Next was Rhodes, Greece. There wasn't too much to do or see there, so we weren't expecting much from this day. Diana and my mom went on a hop on hop off bus (which ended up being a waste) while my dad and I just explored the fortress that was within walking distance from the ship.

These huge balls were fascinating to me because they were bigger than cannonballs and we couldn't figure out what they were used for.

There was an impressive wall that went around the castle and the main city.

I bought Peyton (and the baby I thought I was pregnant with) Greek dresses here. I was debating between these and some that were blue and a little more modern looking. Those didn't have sleeves and were a little more expensive, so I went with these, but I'm not sure I made the right decision.

This day greatly exceeded my expectations. The fortress was much more impressive than we thought it would be, we had perfect weather, and it was fun to spend some one-on-one time with my dad.

Next we stopped in Santorini, Greece. This was the place I was most excited to see and it did not disappoint! The views were just incredible. 👌 

It almost didn't even look real. 😍😍😍

This cat (that looked just like a cat we had growing up, Whiskers) was very friendly.

I was tempted to buy one of these, but decided to take a picture instead. I did buy an ornament here.

We decided to walk down the stairs instead of taking the famous donkey ride since I'm allergic to horses and I figured I'd probably also be allergic to donkeys. 

We walked past the donkeys on our way down and I don't think I would have taken one even without my allergy problem. They are stinky and a little scary.

My dad didn't let us take many pictures of him, so I'm glad for the ones we did take. All dressed up for dinner that night.

The next morning we were in Chania, Crete for only a few hours. We took a bus into town and walked down to the Venetian harbor. 

Apparently this is the oldest lighthouse in the world.

I love an excuse to get dressed up. We missed the first formal night when we were on our unplanned adventure. Good thing there were two formal night, so we could catch the second one!

This dessert was by far the best thing we ate on the cruise ship. It was a mango tapioca pudding from an asian restaurant that we ate at a few times. I was hesitant to try it at first, but ended up getting it three times (on three different nights). 

Next we stopped in Valletta, Malta which is a country I didn't even know existed. 😲 We could have paid a Euro to ride this elevator up, but we took the 283 stairs instead. 

There was a beautiful view at the top.

We didn't do too much here. Just walked around the city.

And enjoyed the views.

We got back on the ship and later enjoyed some more views as the sun was setting and all the city lights were turning on.

Next we had a rainy day in Messina, Italy. We had heard there was a cool clock tower that played music and moved at noon. Diana and my dad were off on a different adventure, but my mom and I stayed behind to see it. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to find it and ended up getting there way too early. There were only a few crappy shops to look in and really nothing to do while we waited. And of course it really started raining right before noon, so we had to stand out in the rain to see the "show". I wish I could say it was worth it, but it was a bit disappointing because it moved very, very slowly. The coolest part was the lion roaring at the beginning. (Video of that here.) I did buy a train set for Logan that spelled out his name from a street vendor after the clock tower finished doing its thing.

Our last day was Naples, Italy and it more than made up for our dismal day in Messina. We took a bus tour and our tour guide was excellent. She was funny and quirky and had the best Italian accent. Our first stop was Sorrento where we learned about inlaid wood, did some shopping (I got Italy shirts for Corbyn and Rog), and had amazing pizza (that made up for the mediocre pizza we had in Rome on our first night).

Next we drove along the Amalfi Coast. It was beautiful, but suffered in comparison to Santorini.

We stopped at a Limoncello factory which would have been more interesting if we drank alcohol 😉, but we got to take pictures in this fun yellow car.

Finally we travelled back in time to Pompeii. It was fascinating to see the ruins that were perfectly preserved when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in ash in 79 AD.

An amphitheater.

A pizza oven.

Amazing detail on this entryway trim.

During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash where human bodies had been.

We had a lot of time to kill after we got off the ship. We took a few trains to get to the airport and then left our luggage with my dad while the girls went on very quick (wild and crazy) tour of Rome. We enjoyed one more Italian pizza.

Then followed another Rick Steve's audio tour and saw the Pantheon Temple and a lot of fountains. We ended at the famous Trevi Fountain.

I had seen an advertisement for a Disney Store and we somehow amazingly found our way there. I bought this (overpriced) Italian Mickey which made that adventure worth it.

By this point it was time to get back to the airport. We took a taxi ride from a taxi driver who didn't speak any English!

From Rome we flew to Dublin where we spent the night trying to get some sleep on questionable airport couches. In the morning we flew to London and then to Denver (a 10 hour flight 😱) where I said goodbye to my parents and Diana. One more quick flight and I finally was home with my little people and my amazing husband who made it possible for me to go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip!

It was an amazing vacation with so many good times (and a few not so good times there at the beginning especially 😂). I'm glad I got to have this adventure and spend some good quality time with my parents and sister, but next time I go away, it will definitely not be for such a long time. I missed my family way too much! Thank goodness for FaceTime or I wouldn't have survived!