Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

On October 11th, after hours traveling by tram, train, plane and bus, we made it to Venice, Italy. We spent one night outside of Venice before leaving on our cruise. We did it on the cheap by staying at a small cabin in a campground. We were upgraded from a fancy platform tent with a shared bathroom to a small cabin with our very own bathroom. Considering how we would be pampered for a week we decided that staying one night in less than luxury was ok. We got up early Sunday morning and caught a shuttle into Venice.



Venezia (Venice)

We took the shuttle to Piazzale Roma which is the "bus station" in Venice. Venice is actually a city made up of over 100 islands. No cars are allowed past Piazzale Roma, the main form of transportation in the city is by boat through the many canals. Instead of buses the city uses boats for public transporation.

When in Venice we first dropped our luggage off at the marina and then walked around the city.

Unfortunately pictures from this part of our vacation may be lost due to memory card problems. However, we have pictures taken from the cruise ship during our return to the city. Here they are:

Public transportation

As you can see from our pictures, Venice is a beautiful city full of canals and narrow cobble stone streets. Lining these streets are restaraunts, shops and beautiful cathedrals. After wandering the city for a few hours we returned to the marina and boarded the Costa Serena.

Costa Serena - Our Italian Cruise Ship

We were immediately impressed by the huge ship, starting with the buffet that had been set up for lunch. We would eat at this buffet everyday filling ourselves with delicious food. Along with the wonderful food we ate throughout the week, we also enjoyed the lounges, the shows, the interesting decor and the number of languages spoken by the staff. The cruise director was able to speak six languages which we heard him speak everyday. Hearing so many languages was nice, however it took a very long time for any announcement to be made.

Craig and our wonderful waiter Irvin who was also a really good dancer. The waiters performed a dance for us which was awesome.

This was a big thing at dinner to wave your napkin in the air. Must be an Italian thing?

We really wanted to have a picture of the two of us with the lovely background. We spent some time trying to figure out how to ask someone to take our picture knowing that there were more than six different languages being spoken on the boat. We learned that when asking for a picture you don't always need words and holding out your camera and smiling is universal. We even returned the favor for the couple that took our picture and they used the same hand gestures to ask us if we could take one of them.

We had some wonderful views.

Bari, Italy

Bari was our first stop after Venice and honestly there really wasn't a whole lot to see. We spent around 3 hours ashore wandering throughout the town. We saw a castle, a few churches and a bunch of old Italian women sitting outside of their homes watching people. We also almost got ran over by motor scooters multiple times. Beneath one of the churches we visited a crypt where we may or may not have seen a mummified body.

Katakolon, Greece

Katakolon was our next stop. This town consisted of a main street and some tourist shops. The real attraction was about a half hour away by bus -- Olympia. We decided to take a shore excursion to this ancient city where a guide led us through the ruins. Our pictures of Olympia are lost, however you aren't missing out on a whole lot. In reality, Olympia is mainly a field of rubble. Our tour guide pointed out ancient buildings such as the government house, the library, the baths and a church, all of which required vast amounts of imagination to picture. The only thing that was whole was the stadium field. This wasn't difficult because it's only a flat dirt area with a few starting stones and grass seating.

We learned some very interesting things about Olympia. At one point this city was completely buried. Since 1875 Germans have been excavating the site and it is estimated they have only uncovered about 15 % of the ruins. Also, we learned that the athletes were held in much higher regard in Ancient Greece. There was only one winner and all they got was a crown of leaves to wear on their head. This person was highly respected for the rest of their lives. Our tour guide told us a story of one town who didn't build a wall to protect themselves from intruders. They claimed that one of the winners lived in their town which therefore protected them from intrusions. This shows the pride and honor held toward the athletes.

The Ancient City of Olympia was not home to very many people. Instead it was only used for government, athletic and worship purposes. One of the stories we were told was that the god Zeus was less than faithful to his wife Hera. Because of this, for every statue or temple for Zeus in Olympia there had to be one for Hera. Gotta keep the women happy!

After visiting some tourist shops we returned to the boat.

Izmir, Turkey

Although Izmir is the 3rd largest city in Turkey, there isn't much to see in terms of attractions. There was an excursion available for nearby Ephesus but we decided not to go.

By staying in the city of Izmir, we were able to get a good taste for what the city has to offer. We walked along the waterfront which was beautiful and then made our way more towards the locals area where we were once again almost run over multiple times. The only notable piece of history we saw in Izmir was the Roman Agora, the ruins of an ancient marketplace.

Our most surprising discovery in Izmir nearly put us into shock.... they had a Dunkin' Donuts.

Istanbul, Turkey

(Our favorite port)

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey and the only city in the world that lies across the borders of two continents - Europe and Asia. We were immediately impressed by the number of beautiful mosques all of which had high domes and beautiful ceilings.

View of Istanbul.

The first mosque we journeyed into.

Another mosque.

Dozens and dozens of men used very big rods to catch very small fish and it seemed like they stayed there all day.

Another beautiful mosque.

Inside the mosque.

Shoes are not allowed to be worn inside the mosque so we ventured inside in our socks.

Feeding the pigeons seemed like a full time job for some of the residents of Istanbul. They set out water bowls and layed out tarps with bird food.

Amy in front of the famous Blue Mosque.

Inside the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

As you can see, in a mosque there are no pews or chairs. This is because prayers are done on the floor. Devout Muslims pray 5 times a day facing Mecca.

The Call to Prayer is an actual call that echoes out from the minarets. As we said this is done five times everyday. The times are not set but rather have to do with the position of the sun. For example, the noon prayer is not at 12:00, it is when the sun reaches the highest point in the sky. Therefore there is always someone praying at every moment, throughout the day, around the world.

Craig in front of Hagia Sophia.
Once a mosque and is now a museum.

Craig enjoying his Turkish lunch consisting of Turkish Beer, a doner kebab sandwich and 8 french fries.

This was Amy's favorite part of Istanbul-the Grand Bazaar. Inside were hundreds of stands and shops selling everything from swords to scarves to carpets. The best part about the Grand Bazaar was haggling. This activity is as much a part of the Bazaar as the building itself and it's fun.

Inside the Bazaar.

Amy was in heaven--look at all those scarves!
Amy showing off her purchase from the Bazaar which her and Craig managed to haggle down to a really nice price.

This is a university in Istanbul just outside the Bazaar. In the Bazaar there was a whole alley devoted to school textbooks.

Bridge connecting Europe and Asia.

While in Turkey we learned about a very interesting program. Throughout the country there are organizations that round up the stray dogs, neuter them, give them their vaccinations, and return them. These dogs are tagged. As opposed to other countries we have visited there were few stray dogs here and those we saw seemed healthy and friendly. The reason there are not a large number of stray dogs is because of this program.

While in the Bazaar we discovered that some of the sellers are creative when it comes to parting words with potential customers who are not ineterested in their product and are walking away. Here are a few examples of what we heard:

1) "Let me help you spend your money"

2) "Let me sell you things you don't need"

3) "Buy this for your mother" "Don't you love your mother!"

4) "Hey cowboy!" referring to Craig's very non-cowboy type hat.

A Day at Sea

We spent one day just traveling at sea. Both of us finished a book and got a sunburn while laying out.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

View of Dubrovnik from the Cruise Ship.

The ship could not go into the small port so we had to take tender boats to the dock.

Old Town Dubrovnik is very beautiful, but is geared entirely for tourists. We read in our travel book not to wander around in the hills above the city. There may still be unexploded land mines leftover from their war in the '90s.

This is the inside of one of the churches. Surprisingly people were still allowed to come visit even though it looks like a wedding was soon to take place.

A draw bridge.

All in all it was a fabulous trip. We traveled a total of 2,536 nautical miles which is 2,918 miles.

As always if you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you!

Our Prague Experience

~Be prepared for A LOT of pictures in this entry :). We couldn't help ourselves, the city is just too beautiful to not take so many pictures.~

Craig and I traveled to Prague last weekend. We had booked a "package" for the weekend which included transport to and from the train station, a walking tour, and a dinner cruise.

We left on Friday after I got out of school and went by train. The total travel time there was 4 1/2 hours, with us switching trains once in Dresden. Once arriving in Prague, we had someone pick us up from the train platform. We felt important when we saw our names on the sign :). The driver took us on a very scary drive to our hotel. We were trying to look around at the sites as well as hang on as the driver sped through the city.


We arrived safely at our hotel and were starving. By this time it was around 9:30 pm, so we decided to head out to find a nice restaraunt for a late dinner. We hadn't researched the area in which we were staying in Prague, and learned quickly it probably wasn't a place to be out in at night. We were walking around trying to find a place to eat and we heard some sort of "scuffle" taking place. We then saw a group of boys running in all different directions and another group walking quickly after them. At first we thought maybe they were just playing around and then we saw a guy with blood on his face, I'm guessing from a bloody nose. That's when we ducked into the McDonald's for some quick food we could take back to the hotel. We decided to leave our exploring for when it was daylight.

Oooohhh... look how rich Craig is ;). Just teasing.

In the Czech Republic they use Krowns. 25 Czech Krowns = 1 Euro. So, if you bought a meal at McDonalds it would come out to be around 125 Krowns. That is hard to get used to.

I find this at a lot of hotels in Europe. This is supposed to be a queen bed. But, we know better. It's actually 2 twin matresses on a queen frame.

On Saturday we got up early and enjoyed the complimentary buffet at our hotel. They had a great spread of food, however a Czech breakfast is a bit different than an American breakfast. My plate consisted of a deli roll, ham and cheese. Yes, I had a sandwich for breakfast and it was delicious :).

After our meal we decided to take the subway into the Old Town. This was a bit of an experience. We watched others use the ticket machine and thought we could handle it, but the machine ate our money. I actually think it was broken. We tried explaining this to one of the workers, but that whole language thing kept us from getting our point across. We then decided to stand in line to buy a ticket, only to learn we were in the wrong line. Finally, we found the right line and bought our tickets. I am happy to say that by the end of the day we had mastered Prague's public transportation :).

The Old Town is absolutely beautiful! It is also very crowded. Prague is a big tourist destination. We read that in the summer there are 9 tourists for every 1 citizen of Prague.

This is a very old and very big clock in center of the Old Town.



There was a wedding going on in the church to the left of the clock. I thought that it has to be cool to get married in such an awesome place. However, my view changed when I saw the bride leave the church and saw another one enter. I think that would take away from your moment a bit to see another bride entering the church you just got married in.

We spent an hour exploring the Old Town and then went to find our tour. We had scheduled a four hour walking tour of Prague. The following pictures and information are from our walking tour. It was very informative. Our tour guide spoke brilliant English but was born and raised in Prague. We learned that this is not only a beautiful city, but has a great deal of history.

In the first church we went into we saw this hand hanging from the wall (picture below). I am not for certain on the exact story becuause while we were listening to the tour guide we watched this mom smack the face of her little girl so hard it rocked the stroller. I was a bit mortified and missed a bit of information. Nonetheless, it is a hand of a very important person.

Pope Benedict XVI was in town this weekend also. Supposedly, he was going to be preaching at this church on Sunday (we were there on Saturday).

One of the streets we went down is known as the "Jewish Ghetto" or "Husband's Hell." This is the most expensive street in Prague. A long long long time ago it was where the Jewish people were forced to live. If they left this part of town, they were required to dress so that others would know that they were Jewish.

Below is a picture from the Jewish Ghetto. It is a Jewish Cemetery. Because they didn't leave this area of town, they buried the ones who had past here. The cemetery is up high because they would pile the bodies on top of one another. We learned that not only do they bring flowers to the grave but rocks. The reason for this is because when they were migrating from Egypt, people died along the way. Because they were in the desert they could not bury their loved ones. They did not want the animals to eat their bodies, so they put stones over them. It is still a tradition to bring stones to put on the grave.

Craig is standing in front of a statue of books. This was inside the library. I love this picture :)

In the distance you can see the castle and the castle's cathedral. The castle actually doesn't look like a castle at all. It is the row of buildings in the background.

The Charles Bridge. One of the most famous bridges. This is a huge tourist spot but it holds a great deal of history.

We learned that the people in Prague are very superstitious. On this bridge there are two pictures. If you rub one you will have good luck and if you rub the other you will have wealth. The pictures are actually of a priest being thrown from the bridge to his death (I don't see what's so lucky about that). The reason he was thrown was because the king's wife had made a confession to the priest. The priest refused to say what that confession was. Because he refused to speak, they threw him from the bridge.

So many people.

This is another sculpture on the bridge. Our tour guide told us that Mom's will tell their children if they are not good than they will put them in this cage :).

Another statue. We caught on quickly that religion was a cause of a lot of violence :(.

Creepy......

This is a picture from another church. Here, we actually barely missed seeing the Pope. Inside this church is a small, doll type, figure in a glass case. It's actually a bit silly because the statue started out as a wedding gift a long long long long time ago. When Prague was attacked, the statue was stolen. Prague was then able to regain the statue which now sits in this church. She has different dresses and someone actually changes her dresses. On this day she was wearing her best dress because the Pope was coming. We saw on the news the next day that he brought her a crown. Our tour guide told us that he was also supposed to bring her a new dress.

We walked up the massive hill to the castle. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the Pope being there. We were told that these guards change every hour. Still, how do you stand so still for an hour -- it's amazing.

View of Prague from the top of the hill.

Me in the Old Town.



After our 4 hour, very interesting but very exhausting walking tour, we had a dinner cruise. We scored some seats by the window and were very excited. The buffet was delicious. It consisted of stew, rice, french fries, sausages, deli meats, rolls, desserts... yum.

The only bad part of the cruise was there wasn't much "cruising." We had to go through a lock because of the dam and it took forever -- not as exciting as we thought it would be. We then ended up sitting for quite some time in the same place. During this time I had ordered a cola which the waiter didn't bring. Craig went and asked him again for a cola. He then explained (in English) that the machine was broken and I would get one in 30 minutes. So, we went to the top deck of the boat. I started noticing that there were people from other boats taking pictures of us. Hmm... that's when we started wondering what was going on. We then saw another boat show up. I thought they were here to bring me another coke, which by that time I didn't really want anymore. We then started noticing some people on our boat standing on the other boat (we are so observant!). We decided to go ask what was going on. So, we went to the same waiter and asked why people were getting on the other boat. "This boat is broken, you must get on the other boat to go back," he said. Ahh... so I guess that's what he meant by "the machine is broken?" I was surprised that they didn't announce this to everyone on board. Craig and I went over to the other boat and noticed a couple sitting by themselves on the first boat. They sat there,alone watching the other boat fill with people, for probably about 20 minutes until finally someone told them they had to get on the other boat.

This is our "what is going on?" face.

The next day we got up and enjoyed another wonderful breakfast buffet. Our hotel was so kind as to let us leave our luggage at the front desk as we went out for a bit more of exploration.

This is actually above the entrance to a church. If you click on the picture it will make it bigger. This picture is actually really violent.

I was in awe of the pink shopping center. What girl wouldn't be?

Yes, my friends, we found a TGIFridays and it was good, sooooo good. We eat very well here in Germany, but sometimes you just want a taste of home. Well, we got that taste and ate it up!

Need a toilet, here's one on the sidewalk . Very convenient.

We had heard that the castle would be open Sunday afternoon, so we decided to take another trip up the hill. This time we used the tram :). The castle still wasn't open but the cathedral was. This was an amazing place. Below is a picture of the Cathedral.

It is massive!

Inside was incredible!

It was also a little creepy. They have people buried inside the church.

This is an example of one of the caskets in the church. They were all very decorated and there were several like this.

Overall, Craig and I had a fabulous trip in Prague. It is certainly a city you have to visit. I would recommend a tour, because it is such an interesting city.

Another interesting tid bit we learned from our tour:

The people of Czech have 365 Czech names. When you have a child, you have to choose from one of these names. On the calendars they sell you can find a name for each day. So, even though you are born on the 23rd of September your name might be from the 5th of May. You then have a birthday and a name day. We were told that on your name day you get little gifts and flowers too; just like a birthday. How interesting!

Thank you for taking the time for reading this :)

Coming Soon....

Hello,

Sorry we have not been posting more on our blog. Our lives have become very.... ordinary. Which is a good thing, because it means we have settled in, but a bad thing when it comes to coming up with stuff to blog about. So, I wanted to let you know that we will have some exciting updates coming soon!

Next weekend, September 25-27th, we will be traveling to Prague to celebrate my (Amy) birthday. We have booked a "package" deal which includes being picked up at the train station, a nice hotel, a walking tour, and a dinner cruise. We are really excited!

The following weekend we will be traveling to Stuttgart for Oktoberfest. The BIG Oktoberfest takes place in Munich, but in Stuttgart they will have tents set up along with carnival rides. We will be traveling with two friends of ours and driving a car to Stuttgart. I think driving a car in Germany will be an adventure in itself. Thankfully, they drive on the same side of the road as in the States.

The weekend after Stuttgart, Craig and I fly to Venice, Italy where we will board a cruise ship for a 7 day cruise to Bari, Italy; Olympia, Greece; Izmir, Turkey; Istanbul, Turkey; and Dubrovnik, Croatia. We did not take a honeymoon after we got married due to the BIG move to Germany. So, this will be our honeymoon.... finally!

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. As always, if you have any questions please contact us.

Amy :)

A Bird's View of Leipzig

Simon came to visit us this weekend! We to the top of the Panaroma Tower and had a great view of Leipzig. Here are some pictures from the top!

Just a Few Tid Bits of Information

Hallo,

Craig is away this weekend rock climbing in a place called Sachsen Switzerland. It is near Dresden, Germany. He was invited to go by a woman he meets with once a week who is from Leipzig, Germany. She is Craig's language partner which means they meet once a week and she teaches him German and he teaches her English.

We had a moment last weekend where we realized we were not tourist anymore. We spent our weekend as ordinarily as could be and realized at the end of it, that it was so ordinary it was weird. We didn't have any trouble catching the bus to go out to IKEA and we didn't walk around confused as to the world around us. We met up with friends, we went to church, and we went shopping. Needless to say, we are settling in quite nicely.

An interesting piece of information I have learned, and would like to share, is that everyone in Germany speaks German differently. Which, we know in the States, everyone speaks English differently too. Supposedly, Leipzigers speak a really "different" form of German. Both my German teacher and Craig's German teacher said they would NOT teach us how to speak German like they do here in Leipzig. We have been told that if people from Leipzig travel to Bavaria, they can't understand what is being said.

Another thing that is different is how they say time. In Leipzig, if they say "a quarter nine" that actually means 8:15 and "half nine" means 8:30. Usually, when people are talking about time, the conversations ends up with "what exactly do you mean???"

Going with the topic of "language," at my school I am asked to speak "British English" not "American English." So, along with learning German I am also learning English :). In the States, when referring to the mark at the end of a sentence, we say it's a "period." However, in the UK they say it's a "full stop." Also, instead of going to the "pharmasict" they go to the "chemist." In the alphabet the "z" which we pronounce as "zee" is actually pronounced as "zed" in the UK. Your "mom" is "mum" and words that are typically spelled with a "z" such as organization are spelled with an "s" like this: organisation. Words such as "flavor" and "color" are spelled "flavour" and "colour."

I have a list of American words and then their UK translation posted into my planner as an easy reference. It might not seem like a huge deal, but when I am teaching Grammar to 10 year olds it comes in handy not to appear that I am "mispelling" words. Plus, if I taught it different than they learned it then it would just confuse them to pieces.

Ok.. now that I have supplied you with your language lesson of the day, I think I will go and finish my coffee.

Post comments!

Thank you for taking the time to read this :).

~Amy Goodwin