Mediterranean Cruise

April 5-12

Cruise = Most relaxing way to see six cities in one week.

Now, what I am saying here is:  If I had to pick...out of all the ways to see six cities in one week...which is the most relaxing, it would be a cruise. We just parked our belongings in our cabin, and were someplace new each morning! No hassle! No trains! No "dragging luggage all over the place"!

Though it was indeed a cruise (a vacation most of us correlate with relaxing, entertainment, eating, sleeping, beaching, eating, lounging, and eating), I was, actually, downright worn out by 10pm each night.

This is practically the only picture I took ON the ship.  This was moments after we boarded, while we waited for the arrival of our cruising buddies, Jamie and Ross!

 Most photos were taken during our day excursions. 

.....Though thinking back, I TOTALLY should've taken photos from the onboard Samba class that Greg and I took.  You can imagine with my expressiveness and ungraceful clumsiness just how this looked.  ;)

     We cruised with Costa Cruises, an Italian cruise line.  To be honest, before the trip, I had read some really bad reviews. There were complaints about announcements being made in five languages, small food portions, and poor service.  Well, I am here to tell you NOT to trust every review. Sometimes you must make your own opinions because:

 1) the five languages were not bothersome to me. I found myself trying to see how much of the German and Russian announcements I could understand. 

2) We didn't eat the equivalent to our body weight for every meal...which was completely fine with me.  The portions were perfect! Besides...with hot tubs, swimming pools, and beaches...I did NOT want to bloat myself into oblivion.  Seriously. 

And 3) The staff which I interacted with was very polite and helpful...and entertaining! One of the last nights, the dining staff just busted out in a flash mob dance to a fast-paced version of "Volare". I thought it was electrifying. Maybe I'm just easily entertained, but I don't know who rolled out of the wrong side of what bed and wrote that review. 

    By the way, the cruise took off from Savona, a city in northern Italy.  This was my first time in Italy. Strange how this expressive and loud land of people felt so familiar to me. I really loved it. So many facial expressions I recognized from just about every Christmas with my mom's side... :p

Greg said that people knew we were foreigners in Italy because we were the only ones who turned to look when we heard someone yelling (talking). 

    

    This post will mostly be pictures, by the way. I will share photos from each city, followed by a highlight from each!

1. Rome, Italy and the Vatican

 Seems silly to put a caption under this photo.

He is doing it all wrong.
But check out that boy's backpack ;)

 Pantheon ...

HIGHLIGHT: We got to hear the Pope speak from his window in the Vatican. We were here the day after Easter (Pasqua..in Italian), and he was blessing everyone. 

He lost me after "Buongiorno". 

More from the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica 

You can barely see, but the Pope is in the window above the long red flag.  I got a video, but I can't find the patience to wait for it to upload to my blog. :p

Inside of the Basilica:

 ...several former Popes are laid to rest in St. Peter's Basilica.

2. Palermo, Sicily 

HIGHLIGHT: 

Sailing into the port!

You know, I couldn't choose which one of the millions of photos I took to put here. So I decided it would be best if I just posted them all. 

..yes, all these photos are of the same thing. It was gorgeous, and I loved it, and taking pictures was like giving this scenery a huge hug. 

Justified??

Wait until I show my rolling into Malta pictures. 

     While in Palermo, we went on a catacomb tour. The catacomb was filled with mummified/embalmed important people of Sicily from around the1700/1800s on. We saw intact eyeballs...finger nails, hair (mustaches), some left over skin, etc. But the thing that caught my eye the most, was to see the clothing these people were wearing! They've had the same outfit on all these years that they have been placed into the catacomb. It was interesting to me to see the clothing from those days. It was forbidden to take pictures in the catacombs...so no photos for you. 

       The rest of the day, we toured some King's summer palace (we cannot remember which King..), as well as the Palermo Cathedral. 

First, the summer palace:

 This palace was built in such a way that in the hot summer months, it would feel like it was "air conditioned". Something about the way the windows are, and wind would blow.

Lovely view from the palace.

Palermo Cathedral: 

 ...we snuck away from our tour group to this little alley to get cappuccino.

Leftover Palermo Photos:

3. Mdina, and Valletta, Malta

Hands down, Malta was our favorite place, and Mdina...the favorite city!

First, here are photos as we rolled into the port: 

Just breathtaking. Literally. 

Last time I experienced wind as intense as here...was when I jumped out of an airplane back on 2010. I'm not even being dramatic. It was THAT windy as we drifted to the coast. 

The whole day of touring Malta was great. In fact...Malta may very well have been the highlight of the whole trip. 

Mdina: 

View from Mdina

Valetta:

Malta is famous for its glass. So Greg and I bought a cute little Maltese glass vase, and I bought Maltese glass earrings! (barely seen in picture above).

We also ate the most delicious fruit from some guy selling it in an alley.

...that doesn't sound weird...does it? 

Nah.

4. Palma De Mallorca, Spain:

   I've actually been to Mallorca a couple years ago, but I stayed on the other side of the island! So all of this was still new to me!

The Palma Cathedral 

 The highlight was that Palma was the warmest city that we had visited during the cruise! It was nice to walk around without a jacket. I'd say the temperature throughout the trip (in fahrenheit) was in the 60s. But in Palma...I'd say it reached mid-70s!

5. Barcelona, Spain

 The highlight in Barcelona was checking out the food market. The very BEST part of the food market, was the fresh juice. I've never had juice as good as the juice I had in Barcelona.  Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of said juice...but instead here are a few of some chocolates and fish:

     Our cruise docked in Savona, Italy. We spent an extra night there. Maybe you  have noticed that as the trip went on...I took less pictures. Well, I only have this one from Savona:

Exciting, I know. We spent the afternoon exploring a fortress, and relaxing on the beach in Savona, which had some lovely views. 

  So the next day, we headed to the train, for our 9 hour journey back to Stuttgart, Germany. 

  Going home from a trip is never the most exciting thing. :( 

After our full day of traveling, we finally made it back to our apartment around 10:00 pm, only to find that we did not know where we put our apartment keys! Right there, in front of our door, we had to unpack our bags and search for the key! Eventually, Greg found them. :)

  Shortly after we returned home, Frulingsfest (spring festival) had started! Frulingsfest is basically much like Oktoberfest...only in the Spring. Greg and I threw on our Lederhosen and Drndle get-ups, and joined the fun!

...so coming home from our cruise wasn't all that bad after all!

   Next weekend is our 1st anniversary! Greg and I decided to spend it in the land of cuckoo clocks, cake, and Grimm's fairy tales. We're going to the Black Forest, here in Germany!  Just a short few days after our weekend get-away, we are flying to the States for our friends' wedding, and then some family time! 

-Gina