Mediterranean Honeymoon Cruise 2008

30 May 2008 - With our wedding 5 days behind us, Nick and I embarked on our much-needed honeymoon. Nick picked me up from work at 11:30 am, and we drove to Chicago, stopping in Janesville for lunch. I was a little worried that we would be tight on time for our 4:45 pm flight, but we made it to O'Hare with 2 hours before our flight. We checked our bags, and got through security with no problems. Since we had some time, we had a beer to toast our impending adventure. The flight to Madrid was pretty nondescript. Didn't get much sleep, watched The Bucket List.

Cheers to our honeymoon!

31 May - We landed in Madrid at 7:00 am local time. We had a bit of a misadventure at the airport. Just as we were about to go through security to get to our next flight, we were told we didn't have boarding passes (we weren't given them for our connecting flight). That meant that we had to scramble to get new passes with an hour before our next flight left. Thankfully, we managed to get through it and to our next gate just as boarding began. The flight between Madrid and Rome was also uneventful. We were extremely happy to see our luggage at the baggage claim - apparently it had an easier time than we did. After navigating through the airport to the train station, we caught the first train bound for Stazione Centrale - Roma Termini. Our energy level was starting to hit rock bottom - I even fell asleep during the half-hour ride. Unfortunately, we could not get into our hotel room at The Beehive, so we went in search of lunch. The receptionist recommended the restaurant around the corner, so we went there and had gnocchi (me) and tortellini (Nick) and wine. Simple and delicious. Our room was ready when we got back, so we showered and took a much-needed nap. We woke up around 7, then went to find dinner. We ate at a cafe a few blocks away. We got a pizza each 0 mine was tomato and prosciutto while Nick had four cheese. The Gorgonzola made his taste very interesting. We also had wine and gelato. After dinner, we made our way past several site, including Piazza della Republica, to the Trevi Fountain, to get a good picture of it at night. We walked back after that to the hotel.

First European meal

Our room at The Beehive

Obligatory newlywed ring pic

About to demolish this gelato with my tiny shovel

Piazza della Republica

Thank you, vendor, for letting me borrow your rose

1 June - We slept in until 8, then got ready for a big day of sightseeing. We ate a bit of breakfast down at the hotel's cafe, then began walking toward our first stop, the Colosseum. Along the way, I got a picture of a little altar boy going to church. So cute! We took in the enormous Colosseum, Constantine's Arch, The Palantine, and Circus Maximum in one loop. The Colosseum was much larger than either of us expected. We didn't actually go inside any of the sites. From there, we walked toward the Pantheon. There was a wedding ceremony going on inside (how cool), so we had to wait a bit to enter. When we finally got in, it didn't take long for it to get extremely crowded. We didn't stick around for long. Our next stop was Piazza Navone, where I decided we should stop back and pick up a painting to take back with us. From there, we walked across the Tiber to St. Peter's Square and the Vatican City. Again, with the huge line and it being Sunday (tourists in droves) we decided to forgo any tour. We stopped on the way back to Piazza Navone so Nick could buy an Italian leather wallet (a whopping €47). We ate lunch at a cafe near the Piazza. {We both still reminisce about this lunch - the small place, the red & white checked tablecloths, the delicious simple Italian food and the delicious, cheap house red on the table.} It was nice to get off our feet for a few minutes.  It was pretty warm out and we'd walked a long way already. I found an artist who took credit cards and Nick & I selected a painting of the Spanish Steps (an even more whopping €130) to be our one major souvenir and first piece of artwork for our home. We walked back to the Trevi Fountain, this time to toss a few coins. After that, we walked to the Spanish Steps, which we absolutely had to see after buying that painting. Alas, it was not full of flowers like in the painting - only tourists. Our feet and legs were getting pretty sore, so we walked back to the hotel after that. I have a few big blisters even through I was wearing my most comfortable sandals. We showered and spent some quiet time in our room, which allowed me to jot down all that had happened to us this far. For dinner, we went back to Florian's Cafe. Nick had pizza again, while I had risotto with mushrooms. Yum. We sat next to a couple from Costa Rico [Diego and Ani] and chatted with them a bit. We decided to live it up our last night in Rome and ended up drinking more than I should have...

Little altar boy

Hello, self-timer!

The Palatine's somewhere behind us

Even more newly weds

The Pantheon and oodles of people

Piazza Navona. The artist from whom we bought our painting may be under the navy blue umbrella

Castel St Angelo

Getting water from a spitting dragon, as one does

Two coins in the Trevi, hoping to go back

Spanish Steps

Taking a rest and people watching on the Steps

Saluti!

With new friends Diego and Ani

2 June - At least we didn't have much on our agenda today - just checking out and getting on the bus. it was raining when we woke up around 10. After packing and checking out, we grabbed a bite for lunch and went to the train station. We bought tickets for our port: Civitavecchia.The train (destined for Pisa) was pretty quiet. It was overcast and sprinkly when we got off the train. It didn't take us long to drag our luggage to the waiting port buses. (Nick wants me to add that umbrella salesmen appear out of nowhere when it rains in Rome, and the countryside looks a lot like Wisconsin. Also, Ingmar is a good kitty.) The bus took us to the Costa embarkation center, where we had our passports, bags, and tickets checked several times. Since we boarded the ship just after check-in at 1:45, we had time to kill until the boat sailed at 5 pm. We found our interior cabin on the 6 Deck. It's cozy, but nice. Our honeymoon package was waiting for us - a bottle of champagne, flowers, robes, and a picture frame. Nick was impatient for our luggage to arrive - I wanted a picture of everything laid out, while Nick wanted to put on his robe. When the luggage arrived, we both got our wishes. I found I am sore from walking yesterday. We partook of the welcome aboard buffet. We went back to our cabin afterward to relax, read, and nap before going to a ship presentation at 5:15. We had some time to kill after that, so we looked around the shops (I bought a small purse for €10.99 to carry around my key and ship credit card when I don't have pockets) and then went back to the cabin until it was time to eat at 7. We found we are sitting at a table with two Scots (Margo and Lydee) and two Mexicans (Lucia and Marta), both mother-daughter cruisers. We were joined later by another couple whose names we didn't learn. The menu had many courses. We tried to get different things so we could try more. The stuffed bell pepper I had was very good - I need to try making something like that when we get back home. After dinner, we double-checked our excursion reservations, then cracked into the bottle of champagne. We turned on the TV and found the most interesting thing to watch was the German version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. I was happy that I still remember a bit of German. Later on, we were feeling a bit peckish, so we ordered room service. We got sandwiches/salads. Yum.

New robes, tiny cabin

3 June - Nick and I got our wake up call at 8:20, then we got our breakfast delivered to the room. We had our safety drill and took care of registering our credit card. By that time, we went to go have lunch on the deck. Those buffets are dangerous. At 13:15, we met up with the other people going on the Taormina tour with us. We got a glimpse of the port we docked at - Catania, Sicily - as we went on the bus towards Taormina. Our tour comprised of English and Spanish speakers. Our tour guide said everything in both languages as we went along, which got a little old after a while. Sicily (at least the area we saw) was beautiful - lots of hills, terraces, lemon trees and views of the sea. Unfortunately, Mt Etna was completely obscured by clouds during our entire time there. The flowers and yucca (Nick called them "dinosaur plants") were everywhere and gorgeous. After making our way through the narrow, winding streets up to Taormina, our group plodded along through the pedestrian-friendly streets up to the Greek Theater. After we got our tickets to the theater, Nick and I broke away from the group to admire the views from the top of the hill and theater. We started shopping a bit, picking up a few cheap bottles of wine and a few gifts for friends. We also took out a few more Euros and got gelato. At 16:40, we met up with the tour group and headed back to the ship. Once we got back on board, we had just enough time to get ready before dinner. We were the only ones at our table tonight, which made it seem like we were on a date. We ate fewer courses than last night, then cracked into one of our bottles of wine while watching Juno on the English movie channel. We also watched part of National Treasure in Italian before reading a bit and going to bed a bit early for us.

Tip of Sicily

Taking in the view from the top deck

Taormina switchbacks and sea

We're here!

Pretty buildings and flowers in Taormina

I'd be distracted by the view while watching anything on stage

One narrow alley

I'll take all the gelato, please

Interesting trees in Catania

Sicilian bambino

4 June - Today was our first full day at sea, and we decided to make it a very lazy one. We woke up at 10 am (thank you, 9 am wake up call) and immediately went up for breakfast. It was very windy on the upper decks and also cloudy, which didn't do much for our plan of lounging in the sun. Instead, we headed back to the cabin to rest until lunch. We ate at the buffet lightly, then back down for more R&R. We went up for tea as we passed by one peninsula of Peloponnese. When we got back to the room we watched August Rush before getting ready for dinner. It was Gala Night, and we dressed up for it. Again, we were alone at dinner and sprung for a small bottle of wine. After dinner, we walked up to get a good view of the sunset and the islands we were passing. We saw the sun set behind a mountainous island, and got a few pics of us in front of the sunset. We ordered a corkscrew when we got back to the room and opened up a bottle of red that we bought on Sicily. We put on the BBC, where we found that Barack Obama had enough votes to be the Democratic nominee for president. Woo!

So windy!

The table to ourselves on Gala night

Tiny wine

Sunset at sea

5 June - Nick and I woke up early this morning, up, showered and breakfasted by 8. We got our ticket to disembark and take the "tender" to Patmos. It was absolutely gorgeous out - blue, clear skies, warm sun, light breeze. we were dropped off by the kitschy, touristy shops, then walked quickly away. We found a stone path that led us up, up, up. It smelled summery. We got fabulous pictures of the island. On the way up, we found a souvenir shop with reasonable prices - we got six bars of olive oil soap (one set for us, one set each for our folks), two medium-sized prints for our bathroom, one small print for each of our moms, and a carved wooden box to add to my collection, all for €28. When we walked back down the path to town, we picked up a postcard and a bottle of ouzo for Natalie, and Nick and I got small bottles of ouzo and "distilled grape spirit without anise". We'll have to give it a try soon. We went back to the boat and decided to go for a swim. Our "swim" lasted for only a few minutes because it was cold and über-chlorinated. We dried off in the warm sun. The restaurant just opened, so we grabbed a bite before going back to the room to rest. After a while, I got us each a cup of tea and we watched Juno again (this time in Spanish). We went up to grab pizzas for dinner. After yummy pizzas, we went back to the cabin to finish off our wine from last night while the ship docked in the Mykonos harbor. An old 1940s western came on TV on one of the Italian channels, which was quite humorous, if unintelligible. We waited for all the impatient passengers to disembark before we went up and disembarked ourselves. We had to get a number and wait until it was our turn to take the shuttle bus to the city center. The scenery wasn't as nice as Patmos, but we got a few pictures of the buildings, port, and a pelican that was standing near shore. We walked until we found a gift shop that sold a Greece shot glass. Once that and a Mykonos postcard were purchased, we walked on. We stopped at a bar that caught our eye. We bought two large Mythos beers and were surprised to see VH1 on the TV, playing music videos like "We Didn't Start the Fire". So odd. We walked around a bit more, catching the sunset, then headed back to the ship. We ate a bite more for dinner and retired to the room for a while before going to bed. Tomorrow, we're in Izmir and dock at 8 am. {Still regretting that I didn't get a picture of the shop sign that read "Booze Mykonos".}

Officially in Greece! On Patmos

Revealing the Cave of the Revelation

Town of Skala

Ships at sea

"I wanna take a picture of us holding hands." "... fine."

The waiter made Nick a new hat

Mykonos

Pelican!

Sleepy stray kitties

Not so sleepy shop cat in Mykonos

Yes, I took this picture!

See? I took another one there, too.

Ships at dusk in Mykonos

6 June - After showering and breakfasting after most people left the ship, we definitely had a "stranger in a strange land" day in Izmir. Unlike everywhere else I had ever been, there was seemingly no way to understand anything. Street signs were uninterpretable, unpronounceable, and confusing on top of it all. Also, people were extremely pushing the moment we set foot of the port. "No, no, no, is too far to walk. You see everything in taxi (taksi). Only €20 per hour." And no matter how many times you said no, they'd tail you a bit and keep trying. Eventually, we made our way along the waterfront past all the taxi men, postcard & perfume men, and horse-drawn carriage men to an area that was 90% cafes. Some with enormous hookahs. We were surprised to see beer for sale. we managed to make our way near the bazaar without getting hit by the large amount of traffic. Speaking of, there seemed to me to be an awful lot of people beeping. I couldn't tell if it was directed at other cars or at me. It made me a bit uncomfortable, since I had deliberately worn long black linen pants and a t-shirt to blend in better in this predominately Muslim country. We noticed on our map that the Agora {Oren Yeri} (we had and still have no idea) was nearby. It turned out to be a Greek or Roman ruin, one that looked like someone was preparing to reassemble since the largest stone blocks and pillar bits seemed to be organized. We walked back to the bazaar, entering the area on the produce and fresh goods side. Stalls of fish, fresh vegetables, and nuts were occupying this corridor. Nick wasn't too keen on the smell. We reached an intersection, and turning right, found ourselves in the jewelry section. That gave way to fabric, and of all things, bridal and formal shops. Lots of them. We had to shake off a few overzealous merchants. we wandered our way into the "old market" and quickly found a shop with the kinds of goods we were interested in purchasing as souvenirs. we met a nice seller who gave us some info on the small copper-and-silver hookah, hanging lantern, and small dishes we ended up buying. He also gave us our first taste of Turkish coffee. Our verdict: better than espresso. Also a plus was that we were able to pay with a mixture of dollars and Euros. We decided against taking a cab back to the ship and continued walking back along the waterfront. We got back to the ship around 12:30 and ate lunch on the upper deck before retiring to our cabin. We took a nap for a while before waking up and watching, um...., interesting Italian TV. We decided to open up the bottle of white wine we bought in Mykonos. We watched Juno in Deutsch (sorry, I'm distracted trying to translate). It's a lot easier to understand in German than in Italian, Spanish or French. It was Italian night in the restaurant, which made for some spectacles later on. Nick had pork medallions as his main course, while I had swordfish. They played music during dessert, and one f our waiters pulled me up to dance. Then Nick and I danced to That's Amore. :) After dinner, we walked up to take pictures of the sunset before going to a special Honeymoon Cocktail party. We got to meet the captain and another American couple (Kristen and Craig from New Orleans) to do a bit of vow renewing. There were a ton of Italian and Spanish couples. we got a few glasses of champagne out of it before we headed back to the room for an early night. we dock in Santorini and our excursion meets at 7 am tomorrow.

Turkish flag above Izmir

Ruins of the Agora

Fish stalls in the bazaar

Fabric stalls in the bazaar

Another view of the bazaar [Street view from 2018]

Outdoor dining in the bazaar area

Trying hot Turkish coffee on a hot day

So you can feel seasick on land!

Turkish school kids

Our ship, the Costa Romantica

Dancing with the waiter

Sunset pic

Honeymoon Gala

7 June - We woke up at 6:15, got breakfast and were ready for the excursion at 7. We were taken by boat with our group from the ship to get on another boat. This boat was pretty cool - a two-masted sailboat. We sailed to Nea Kameni, where the Italians split up from the English- and Spanish-speakers as we began our ascent. There was black rock in awesome formations everywhere. We made our way up rock-strewn paths past old and active craters. The active crater had sulfurous steam rising from it. By the time we got to the top, which gave us a breathtaking view of the islands of Santorini, it got pretty warm under the cloudless skies. After everyone made their way back down, the boat next went to the hot springs off Palia Kameni. There, those willing to brave cold waters of the Aegean for the hot springs stripped down to swimwear and jumped in. Nick and I leaped from the side of the boat. The water got pleasantly warm as we neared shore. Also, very shallow. I had to crouch to keep most of my body under water. Our tour guide said the mud around the springs was good for the skin, so several of us slathered the brown mud-goop on ourselves. It actually felt like it made my skin feel softer and smoother. The springs were on the edge of a rocky slope which was inhabited by a herd of goats. We didn't get long to stay in the water and we soon got the signal to head back to the boat. The boat dropped us off at the town of Thera. We took the cable car up to the top, which gave us great views of the island system and also nearly gave us heart attacks with how much the car was swaying over the sheer drop. Once at the top, we took a short walk. Our only stop was at a liquor/souvenir shop, where we tried and bought a bottle of dessert wine (Vin Santo, only made in Santorini), as well as a small bottle of oregano-and-garlic-infused olive oil. We walked a bit more and got pictures of the village and islands we stopped at this morning. We took the cable car back down at 11:30 am. It felt great to shower after getting salty while swimming. We ate lunch at the buffet, then tired to the room for a nap. Nick wanted to watch The Simpsons Movie, today's English-language movie offering, so we watched that at 2. After that, I caught up on this journal while half-listening to the BBC on TV. I did a little reading and organizing of souvenirs, also. I went up and got us some tea and a postcard of Izmir since I didn't get on in the city. We ate dinner again in the pizzeria, then went back to the cabin to attempt to understand Euro 2008 soccer. There were two games on tonight. We opened up one of the bottles of red wine we bought in Sicily. I didn't have much because I was feeling off - occasionally getting dizzy and warm. I decided to take it easy and go to bed early. Nick stayed up later than me, still wired from the room service snack we ordered around 9.

Santorini cliffs at dawn

Greek flag on Nea Kameni

So close to the caldera

I claim this land for me!

Unnerving being on an active volcano...

One of those was our excursion ship

About to leap

Blue on blue

Thera on the edge

Cable car view

8 June - For some unknown reason, our 8 am wake-up call never came.We ended up waking up at 9:10. There was a disembarkation presentation that we wanted to attend at 10, so we had to get ready quickly and eat a quick breakfast from the buffet. We regretted going to the presentation after being informed all of the information would be delivered to our room later today. Nick and I took it easy today. We packed everything up except the clothes we were wearing today and what we are wearing tomorrow, as well as PJs and toiletries. Nick watched The Golden Compass this afternoon while I napped, then be both read a bit before going and reclaiming our passports. Not long after that, the ship sailed around the volcanic island of Stromboli. It was very cool to see the caldera with smoke rising, smelling sulfur in the wind, seeing the side where lava flows have occurred, and wondering why any of the ~400 inhabitants would live there. It was quite windy on deck and actually chilly, so we didn't stick around up there long. We retired to the room until it was time to go to dinner, watching the first Euro Cup match of the day (Croatia vs Austria). We ate our dinner in the restaurant again. The sea was a bit choppy, which made me a tiny bit seasick (seriously - only a little bit). We went back to the room after dinner to finish packing and watch the 2nd game (Germany vs Poland). I was feeling pretty tired, so I didn't stay up too late. They've asked that everyone be out of their cabins by 8 am. Our disembarkation time is 10 am.

Passing by Stromboli

Not much else to see, so more Stromboli...

9 June - Today was a rather boring day. We were out of our cabin at 8, then had breakfast. In order to kill time until our 10 am disembarkation time, we played rummy in the car room. We had to change rooms at one point because our table was joined by shouting old Italians. We managed to leave the ship before the rush of our group, and got on a bus to take us to the port entrance area. We dragged our bags to the train station and bought tickets to Fiumicino Airport from Civitavecchia via Rome. The train rides weren't bad - with one exception. One the second train, there was a guy sitting by himself signing along to his mp3 player in an insanely high-pitched and dreadfully (not a word I use lightly) off-key voice. Cringe. From the airport, we had to take a taxi to our hotel in Fiumicino. We checked in, found out our departure time made us ineligible for both the airport shuttle and breakfast. Damn. Since it was 1 pm by then, we set out for lunch. We got paninis at a little roadside cafe along with a liter of sparkling white wine. The wine and the traveling made us tired, so we returned to the room to nap until dinner. Unfortunately for us, we found more restaurants here are closed on Monday, and we weren't able to pay with a credit card at the restaurant we ate at for lunch. That necessitated withdrawing another €50 from my bank account. We ordered pizzas and beers, which ended up being paninis and very large beers. Being rather far from the beaten tourist path, we didn't come across many people here who spoke English. After dinner, we got gelato (coffee and hazelnut for Nick, black cherry and pistachio for me) and returned to the room. We ensured we would have a taxi in the morning to take us to the airport and put on tonight's Euro 2008 games. First up, France & Romania. During the game, I read a bit and made sure everything was packed and ready to go.

Fiumicino view

Contemplating keeping the beard

Giant Peronis

Gnam Gnam

10 June - It's a long day that keeps growing longer. It is 2:20 local time in Madrid and our 12:05 flight still has not taken off. The mechanics are checking an replacing a pressure sensor that, if it doesn't work, will require the near-capacity passengers to change planes. Argh. It's been a long day so far - up at 5 am, caught a taxi to the airport, had to wait in line after a 95-member high school band group on both our flights, forgot about the carry-on liquid limit and had to check our back with all of our souvenirs and breakables, and now we sit here. "At most an hour to change it." Right. At this rate, we won't get home until Wednesday if at all.

{Post script - we did make it home before Wednesday. I don't remember the details, so it couldn't have been too terrible, right?}

Last sunrise of our vacation

My Happy Hippo's eyes begged me not to eat him. I ate him anyway.

All honeymoon pictures here.
{transcribed 1/29/20/20}