In the life of me.

So you wanna know about my cruise, hunh? Well, here it goes. Last Saturday we flew out of Germany before the sun was even up. We landed in Venice, where we caught a bus to the pier. Our ship, Splendor of the Seas, let us board early. That evening, as the sun set, we sailed out of port via The Grand Canal. It was gorgeous!

We were not allowed to go to our room for a couple of hours, but we wanted to know if our key worked since the card had a different number on it than our invoice. Both rooms did not work and we sought out the Purser’s Desk to see why. It turned out that our already awesome room (balcony) got up graded. So not only did we have a balcony, but we had more room. Very nice!

Every night our Stateroom Attendant would create a towel animal for us. Very sweet! The staff all over the ship were fantastic. It made for a rather nice vacation.

Our first port of call was Athens. Here we went on a small walking tour and shopping excursion. We did not climb the Acropolis since I knew it would be a PITA with a stroller and a child who did not want to stay in it. We got to look up at it from the theater below and we then strolled down to where the new Acropolis museum is. The architecture of the building does not match the surroundings at all, rather disappointing. From there, we went shopping. At The Loom, I found a lovely shawl. Later that night beads were falling of it. I was a tad miffed since the cruise recommended that particular store for quality.

By the end of the tour, it started to rain. This is where I call Athenian drivers crazy. The roads were flooding quite fast and some started to look like rivers. They took their nice fancy cars and drove right through the streams that were forming on the roads like it was nothing. Not to mention, Greek drivers are a tad on the nuts side anyway. People think Italian drivers, especially Roman drivers are nuts, they don’t have anything on Greece!

The next day was a gorgeous day and we went to Mykonos. It was the complete opposite from Athens. Mykonos was how most people picture Greece. All of the buildings were white washed with the Mediterranean blue roofs and shutters. The streets were paved with flat grey stones and white grout. When we arrived, several merchants were mopping the street in front of their businesses. There were cats galore in this town too. All but one of them was friendly. There was one that ninja clawed me in a split second…twice. It was so fast, that my husband did not even notice the cat’s paw move when the cat was right up against him.

It was at this lovely town that I found my favorite plate. It is not round, but diamond shaped and it is hand painted by a local artist. It was the cheapest plate we found on our trek around the sea as well. It is a white plate with the little bay of Mykonos showing and their famous windmills.

Also, while here, I managed to return the shawl and get my money back being that another chain of The Loom was there. The owner told me he could send me a replacement. I said, “No, I do not want another shawl. It was sewn poorly, so I do not desire another one. I would like my money back, please.” He gladly obliged as he handed me a home-made frappe. Delish!

The third port of call was Olympia and Katakalon. This is where we saw the ruins of the original Olympic games. Also known as the Ancient Olympic Games. I was there seven years ago and was anxious to see if anything changed. They did excavate a new site, King Philip the II’s rotunda. This particular building was not meant to be on those grounds at all since it had nothing to do with the Greek gods or the games. Inside this round, pillared buildings were mini shrines for his family.

We also had a chance to shop here and it was alright. We were told there would be sales since it was the end of the tourist season, but only two Euros got knocked off the price of the plate we got here. In Katakalon, we had to ask a shop owner to write the town name on the plate so we could remember where it came from. They had Olympia plates there for 20 Euros more than Olympia did when it was only 20 minutes down the road.

Our next to last stop was Corfu, Greece. This one we were curious about since there is a restaurant in Mainz with that name. We have eaten there twice and have gotten sick each time we have gone there. Luckily, the town was nice. Once again, it was more of a shopping day. It was here that we walked into another recommended store by the cruise and were rather impressed.

The store we went into was called Pianegonda. The jewelry was fabulous! Sure some things were a tad on the chunky side for me, but we managed to find a decently priced silver ring for me. It is a stackable ring, with seven rings. Three are thin polished silver that are not perfect circles. Three are diamond cut in the same fashion. And then there is the thicker ring that bears the designer brand on it. http://store.pianegonda.com/prod-Connection_Rings-215.aspx You can twist the rings around to have them line up perfectly and fit together, or, you can twist a different way and make them look like waves. They don’t even have to be worn on the same finger. Quite nice, since I am more of a fan of the thinner rings. For this purchase, they also gave me a pendant worth 80 Euros with a chain. Needless to say, Bry is good on buying me things until Valentine’s. The cruise was Christmas, later you will hear about our anniversary gift, and then this ring, my birthday.

We also got lost in this city. From where we were, we could see the ship and it was a long way off from where we were. Another family ran into us, equally lost. We were both using the same map, one provided by the cruise line that was not set to scale at all. I was getting frustrated, so was John because he needed to eat. We tried just about everything for him. Finally, we landed at a crepe stand and I bought him one of those since I know he will eat them (honestly, he eats everything, he was just having a rather crabby day). Well, he did not want that either. It was not until we found a massive group of pigeons that he would eat. Did you know pigeons eat bananas and yogurt? One ate yogurt off of my boot and two of them landed on John’s stroller. Crazy! But hey, you do what you gotta do to get your kid to eat, and that’s what did the trick.

Our final stop was Split, Croatia. By this point I realized that I had not spread my father’s ashes like I wanted to. You see, he was stationed in the Mediterranean Sea in the ‘70’s and lost his class ring in a wave. I figured I would get him out of that Ziploc bag and into the sea to find his ring. The sad thing was, the tour was terrible. Ok, more so the tour guide than the tour. He was so pessimistic and negative, it was not cool. Flatly, he said that he did not care if he lost people on the tour. Well, he managed to lose quite a few. We had 45 to begin with and it piddled down to 30 by the end.

Here we saw what remains of Diocletian’s castle. We also got to go into his former mausoleum now turned to a Cathedral. It is there that you can step all over his burial site while making the sign of the cross or while kneeling down to pray where Pope John Paul II did.

That bit was amusing since Diocletian claimed to be the son of Jupiter and people would worship him as a God. Mind you, this was around the start of Christianity too.

By the end of it all, I was fed up with Split, ready to get back on the ship for decent food and a positive atmosphere. I refused to spread my father’s ashes here. This is, until, we found a pizzeria with an intoxicating aroma floating out its doors. The taste was divine, better than any pizza I had ever had. It had a light crust, easy on the sauce, and perfect, seasonings and cheese. We immediately went back in for seconds.

After partaking in some great food, I decided that I had to let go of my father. I was in a better mood, John was now sleeping so not cranky, and we were close to the water’s edge. Right before we pulled out Dad’s ashes, two police walked in front of us. I had second thoughts, but we did it anyway. We sat down on the marble that went right to the water and parked the stroller to block out what we were doing. Bryan did the honors and I cried. It took me five and a half years to let him go. If Bry hadn’t asked if it was ok for us to head back to the ship, I could have stayed there and cried until the next day. Once we got moving, I was ok again.

Now that the highlights of what we saw are down, I want to share with you about what happened on the ship itself.

One night there was an art auction. We snagged a Anatoly Metlan painting for $170, the value is nearly $1,000! It is called Bistro Amy if you want to look it up. At this auction we also won coupons for a hot stone massage. Bry and I both got one, the values of the 75 minute massages were $195 each and we got them for $80 each. We were quite relaxed after the best massages we have ever had.

The first formal night we got to have a babysitter, not cheap, and have our first night alone since May. That night we had a three course dinner, saw Jacqui Scott perform, and met the Captain of our ship.

Now I want to tell you about some of the other performances we saw. First there was Luis Dalton, he is a balancing act. The first night he did the plate spinning with the boat rocking! Several plates spun a bit precariously, but he saved them. Another night we had Los Gauchos (http://www.argentinecowboygauchonoveltyact.com/home2.htm). They played the drums and did dances with whips and boleros. This group was rather comedic at times. The last night we saw Florescence. That particular act has puppets that light up with backlights. The puppeteers dress in all black so you just see the crazy little puppets “move on their own”. Luis Dalton performed on the last night too. His most amazing bit was him balancing on his head on a champagne bottle topped with a soccer ball. Then he let go with his hands and stuck a ring on each leg, and two on each of his arms and spun them. All this while the boat is swaying!

There were 750 Taiwanese on board on a big Amway convention. All of them adored John and took several pictures of us. They were a joy to have aboard! We started to call them the Smurfs by the end of the cruise since they always wore blue windbreakers. There was even one night where all of them renewed their vows.

That same night, a waiter quit. At first we thought it was a joke until he dropped the f bomb in the formal dining room. Sad thing is, he had to leave at the next port and pay for his own way home, leaving his wife, who also worked on board, behind.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I enjoyed every bit of it! Oh, John made several girlfriends, including the Assistant Cruise Director’s two year old daughter! It was too cute!

At this time, I am still uploading pics to Photobucket. You can see what I have so far by clicking on my “My Pictures” link to the right. There is a folder called “Cruise 08” and there lies the photos of our trip.

*hugs*
~Jen