Day 12 – Dubrovnik, Croatia

After a smooth day at sea considering our last full day (where the seas were really rough) and a slight detour to accommodate a passenger who had to be evacuated due to appendicitis, we arrived in Croatia this morning.  Opening up my window you could see the small portside community.  Our tour today took us from the port to the Croatian countryside along the border with Montenegro, and then into the old fortress city of Dubrovnik.

The trip along the windy coastal road was incredible.  Along the way, looking into the water, was a huge private yacht.  I can’t imagine how much that thing was worth.  After about a half-hour trip we stopped off at a small countryside restaurant along an old Roman aqueduct where we had some traditional cured ham, homemade (and milled by the restaurant’s water wheel along the aqueduct) bread, and local wine…  Nothing like me drinking at 9:30 in the morning, but do as the locals, I guess.  The scene there was very tranquil and serene with the water flowing by.  After about 20 minutes there we boarded back on the bus and headed into the old town of Dubrovnik.

Considering that, unfortunately, Dubrovnik was at was as shortly as 15 years ago (it was under occupation by Montenegro and was shelled by Serbia), tourism here is a new but growing industry here in Croatia.  But, because of that, it seems not to be as chockful of the crummy tourist shops that I’ve seen in every other stop (though Dubrovnik had it’s fair share).  It does look like many, many tourist traps are on their way as our guide noted that, because property values and costs in the old town are so high the locals are selling out to restaurants and shops and then moving outside of the walled city.  So there was a lot of construction in the old town of new places to draw in tourists.

But, currently the old town structurally is identical to how it was 500 years ago.  I believe the guide said that only one other building was erected inside the walls that was “newer”, though it was still built 200 years ago).  It was a very cool scene and to one side of the city were mountains and the other side was the water.  But, as our ship is leaving much earlier than our other stops, our tour of the old town was pretty short (a little more than an hour).  Tonight we head out of Dubrovnik and head back to Italy, this time to Venice.  Then, Friday morning our cruising portion of our trip is over and we head by train back to Rome.  Should be fun…

P.S. – Random Eurotrip Moment:  Croatia is the only Eastern European country we visit on our trip.  So I found it funny that the first car that I noticed as we were on the bus leaving the port was an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back.  In the movie Eurotrip, when the kids get stock in Slovakia (another Eastern European, former Communist nation), they’re helped by a local with an ‘80s Nissan Pulsar with a cab-back painted to look like the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.  Unfortunately, the one here was just a boring silver.  Oh well.

Day 10 – Athens, Greece

Today was one of my more anticipated stops on this trip.  As a lover of Greek mythology as a kid I was psyched to go to Athens.  Among today’s stops was the home of the first “modern” Olympics (they were revived in 1896 after being banned for centuries for being pagan) and the Acropolis and Parthenon.

From our ship which was docked in Piraeus, the city’s modern port, to the Olympic stadium in the downtown area about 10 km away took about 45 minutes.  Apparently the rumors of Athenian traffic were true.  But the Olympic Stadium stop was brief as there wasn’t really much there to do (nothing going on at the Olympic Stadium on a Monday morning) so we were boarded back up and on to the Acropolis.  After passing by the Greek National Gardens you could see the Parthenon in the distance.  Of course, with the traffic, it was another 20 minutes to get there.

Supposedly May is a slow month in Athens…  Tourists flock to the city in the summer months to check out the sites.  So, if May is a “less” busy month I can only imagine what it’s like in July & August.  The Acropolis was slammed!  With at least a dozen tour groups and at least two school field trip groups, the path up the Acropolis (only one route up and one route down) was cluttered with people.  And our tour guide was plowing through people leaving us way, way behind.  But, once you do make it to the top, the site is incredible.  The entire site is being refurbished so there’s construction going on everywhere (the guide said that it had been rehabbed several years ago, but the worksmanship was so bad that they’re having to do it again).  So, the scaffolding around all of the landmarks kind of takes away from the magnificence of everything.  But it’s still just awe-inspiring to think of what that site has been through in these thousands of years and the history made there.  Some of the reliefs at the top of the Parthenon still exist and are in exceptional condition considering how old they are.  And the view down to the city of Athens was outstanding (took a great, great picture…  of an IKEA).  So far, getting to see the Parthenon (as well as the Temple of Zeus, which we passed by on the bus) is the highlight of my trip.

Following the Acropolis, we dropped off some in our tour group in the downtown shopping district, so that was kind of cool to see a modern metropolitan area like Athens on a weekday.  Because of our desire to avoid the traffic (and smog which descended on the city later in the afternoon), our tour was completely done by 12:30.  So after that we just relaxed on the boat…  Something I’ll probably regret as tomorrow is completely at sea as we head from Greece to Croatia.  More then!

Day 9 – Santorini, Greece

What’s up, peeps?  Well, after a rough day at sea we arrived in Santorini, Greece today.  We didn’t really have anything planned for the day, and after getting there I could see why.  Like my trip to Pisa a few days ago, a visit to Santorini can be wrapped up in a half hour.  Go up the hill to the city, take a picture of the view, and leave.

But that’s not to take anything away from Santorini…  Santorini is an island in the shape of a crescent made up of several cities, and in the middle of the crescent is the volcano that created them all (which our boat was anchored right next to, which seemed not to make sense).  The towns of Santorini are built on the top of large cliffs, which are scalable by using a winding road or, in my case, by taking a cable car up to the top.  And, from the top the view is absolutely spectacular.  When I have a chance to post the pics, these are going to be a highlight.  The water was so clear that even from the top of the cliffs you could see the rocks below the water’s surface.

But, other than taking pictures, the rest of the city is just a tourist trap.  I totally get why they do it, but coming from Orlando it seems like each port of call leaves us in the middle of that town’s version of Orlando’s International Drive.  Just gross, cheap tourist stores (one of which sold huge wooden dildos, apparently a symbol of good luck in Greek culture).  So, after about an hour of wandering the side streets of Santorini, we were done and headed back to the boat to spend the rest of the day.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow when we arrive in Athens!  On the agenda is a bus tour of the city which culminates in climbing the Acropolis to visit the Parthenon.  As a huge fan of Greek mythology growing up I’m very excited.  ‘Til then!

Day 7 – Naples & Pompeii, Italy

Yesterday’s stop on our European tour was in Naples, Italy.  A very crowded city it’s built into a mountain and when looking at it from the docks you can see how, the higher up the mountain the houses were, the nicer they were.  The middle levels looked OK and the lower levels appeared to be the slums.  But we didn’t get to spend much time in Naples.  My tour for the day was to go to the ruins at Pompeii.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I can’t describe how depressing the whole place is.  To imagine that one minute you’re just going about your normal routine and the next your entire world is obliterated.  It again makes me thankful that I live in Florida, where our natural disasters are tornadoes and hurricanes…  Things you generally know are coming ahead of time.  But the ruins are really incredible and surprisingly accessible.  For stuff that’s thousands of years old, for the most part, you can go right up and touch the marble columns.  In one instance, a stray dog went right up on one of the altars and looked out over all of the tourists as if he was the priest.  That was another depressing thing about Pompeii.  One of the people in our tour inquired as to why there were so many stray dogs in the ruins (I saw 3)…  Apparently people in the neighboring areas, when they’re tired of their dog, can’t take care of it, or are just going on vacation and can’t take it with them, they’ll just leave them at the entrance to the park figuring that the tourists will feed them.  One poor guy laying in one of the ruins’ storefronts looked really sick.  Just added to the depressing atmosphere.

Once I have a better Internet connection, I’ll post the pictures from yesterday (I think the last day I got up was from Sunday in Barcelona, so hopefully I’ll post the rest soon).  One of the plaster casts, they say, was of a guy who knew he was done for and just curled into a ball and cried and that’s how he was frozen forever.  Another thing that added to it, don’t know if it’s depressing, but my brother went to the top of Mt. Vesuvius and, in their tour, they were told that the cap of the mountain has hardened to a point that if Vesuvius were to erupt again it would blow out the side instead of up similar to Mt. St. Helen’s in Washington.  Should this happen, the neighboring towns would have between 30 seconds and 3 minutes to evacuate…  In other words, they’re all dead.  Very uplifting.

While outside the ruins we stopped off at this little tourist-y area that had a local specialty called limonciello (sp?).  It’s a liqueur made out of lemons and they were giving out free samples.  Expecting the equivalent of a lemon Italian ice it was more akin to milk mixed with lemonade and was absolutely disgusting.  Blech!  That’s what you get for testing the local flavor.  Back to the McDonald’s like in Rome.  :)

Day 8 – At Sea

Well, as for today, it’s another full day crossing the sea as we head from Naples to Santorini, Greece.  Since leaving the port in Naples the seas have been really rough.  Luckily, I guess being an old-hat when it comes to roller coasters and such, the bouncing of the ship hasn’t bothered me much.  But I can tell it’s bothering my mom and grandparents.  And not really much of anything to do today and the boat’s so crowded that I can’t find a quiet spot.  It sucks.  Oh well…  Have a great weekend and tomorrow I’ll be writing from Greece.  Ciao!

Day 6 – Rome Pt. I

What’s up, everyone?!  Well, I just got back on the boat after a couple of hours in Rome.  As we’ll return to “the Eternal City” two more times on our trip, we used this just as an opportunity to take a bus tour around the city.

Our boat is parked in a coastal village called Civitavechhia, about an hour by train from central Rome.  On our trip in, the A/C in our train car was out making it a rolling sauna.  Not the most comfortable I’ve been.  And Rome today was HOT!  And it’s only May, so supposedly it gets much much worse in the next couple of months.  But, once on the tour bus, the air was cooled by the bus rolling.  Doing the tourist thing, we passed by a few of the big sights, first the Coliseum and Circus Maximus, we passed by the Italian Arch of Triumph, got stuck in front of the Vatican as our bus stalled out, and then around to the Spanish Steps and back to the start.  Once there, we again soaked up the local culinary scene this time feasting on…  McDonald’s!  So we’re not foodies.

Now I’m back on the ship and I feel kind of weird…  I’ve worked off-and-on at Universal Studios for nearly 13 years now and I don’t like being back on the other side of the curtain.  I want to know where the ship’s crew live, I want to know what they do during their off-hours (if they have to stick to certain parts of the ship away from guests or if they’re allowed to do what we do).  You know, my brother is getting a tour of the ship’s bridge and all I care about is what the maid does when she’s not making beds.  Oh well, for another day.  :)

Tomorrow is Naples and Pompeii.  My brother is climbing Mt. Vesuvius which seemed like tempting fate a little too much for me.

Day 5 – Pisa & Florence

Well, today’s our first day in Italy as we pulled into the Port of Laverno as I woke up this morning.  An early morning bus trip took us from the ship to the town of Pisa.  As our tour guide stated on our way into town, not much to do in Pisa…  You get there, you look at the tower, take your picture, and leave.  For anyone planning on visiting Pisa, beware of the illegal vendors.  Apparently a guy selling fake watches pulled a knife on my brother because he didn’t want one!  I saw the knife, but because I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I thought he was selling it (which he may have been and we just took it as a threat).  Anyways, got some nice pics from Pisa that I’ll post when I’m somewhere with a better Internet connection.  Did our picture with my grandfather holding up the tower while I try to kick it down, made friends with a cat that lived in the nearby seminary, and we left.

After about an hour and a half trip through the mountains and Tuscan countryside we ended up in the “cradle of the Renaissance” Florence.  We were dropped off at the Church of Santa Croce – burial place of Leonardo DaVinci and Galileo.  There’s also an awesome tribute to Dante, of Divine Comedy fame, but we were told by our tour guide that he’s not actually buried in Florence as he was exiled from the city in his lifetime and thus was buried somewhere else.  In addition, we went to see the “Fake David” and statuary near the Ponte Vecchio, went up to the bridge (didn’t go on it, very busy and not enough time), and passed by the Uffizi Gallery (where the real David is kept, and the line wasn’t really that bad).  On our way back we got some gelato at a small cafe, and headed back to meet the rest of our group.  And, following another 90 minute drive, I’m back on my boat ready for tomorrow – our first time in Rome (of three).

Day 4 – Villefrance de Sur, France

I know that my blog from “yesterday” just went up.  I was uploading it to Blogger when my computer crashed trying to upload pictures.  Now, I’m sitting at the Chez Net Internet Cafe in Villefrance with my brother and grandparents enjoying a very French lunch of…  A hot dog and Coke.  Well, can’t take the American out of me.

This city is beautiful, the water in the inlet is perfectly clear and the city is built along the cliffs facing the water, the buildings are painted in light pastels in a classic villa-style and is protected by an old fort that’s now the city hall.  Hopefully will have pics up later.  Tomorrow, our first Italian stop as we’ll be going to Florence and Pisa.  Until then, bonjour.

Day 3 – On a Boat

What’s up, everyones?!  Today is Day 3 of my vacation and I’m currently on the Celebrity Summit in the Mediterranean along the French Riviera.  The haze has been pretty thick all day, meaning that all I can see is water along each side of the ship, though we should be within a distance that we could see the shore.  Oh well.  I’ll be taking a tour of nice tomorrow while my parents go to Monte Carlo to see the Grand Casino.

Barcelona

I didn’t get much of a chance to say anything about Barcelona in my last post, as I was packing up my room in order to get on the ship.  But Barcelona was a cool, cool city.  I think it was added by the fact that yesterday was the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, so the city was packed with people from across Europe and the world.  We stayed a cool little trendy place called Hotel Denit which was just off the Placa de Catalunya (sp?), which is like the central part of the city.  From there, we took a bus tour around the city, featuring some really cool sights.  Hopefully, if my computer works properly (it’s 48 cents/minute to connect to the Internet and, of course, all of my offline tools like Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Gmail don’t want to work) I’ll be able to post them shortly.  The highlight was this incredibly huge church called Anglecia Familia (well, instead of putting “sp?” next to everything, lets just say I have no idea how most of this stuff is spelled).  Hopefully the panorama pic I took of it comes out OK.

We also passed by some other incredible stuff, but missed a lot too.  I was hoping to check out Barcelona’s central market La Bouqueria, but ended up crashing out after we got to the hotel.  Along the tour there was also some great things that I would have loved to have gone to had I the time like the home of Spanish team FC Barcelona, a museum dedicated to the architect of the above cathedral as well as many other structures throughout the city, Gaudi.  And, personal face coming from Orlando, they have a theme park at the top of a mountain in town.

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On A Boat

Today is a total day on the ship, and I have to say, I’m bored as #$%&!  Not that it was totally unexpected, my total ADD personality would make it hard to cater to every impulsive thing that I want to do at the moment that I want to do it.  Plus, the types of things that appeal to me probably doesn’t hit the general cruise target market of like 70 year-old retirees who are passing by me near the computer lounge as I type this and a live band plays Dream A Little Dream of Me the deck below me.  The boat has two pools and multiple hot tubs (I don’t swim), I’m sitting next to the ships casino (but I don’t gamble), a huge theater (which does lame Vegas-type shows), and a host of all-you-can-eat restaurants (eating too much makes me sick).  So far the only on-ship entertainment I’ve taken a part in was yesterday’s showing of Iron Man in the ship’s movie theater (making it the 6,241,977th time I’ve seen that movie).  Luckily, only two more of these all-day at sea days to go.  Tonight’s the big “formal” dinner.  Another annoyance, you have to like dress up every night of the cruise, yet there’s no way to like press your clothes without paying them to do it for you (I guess they’re afraid that, if you had an iron, you’d set the place on fire).  So all my stuff is wrinkled because it has been packed in a suitcase, so how nice can one look?  Oh well.  Speaking of the formal, it’s about time for me to start getting ready.  My computer says 11:25AM which means it’s 5:25PM here.  Have a great day Florida peeps!

Day 1: Barcelona, Spain

Well, we all made it to Spain in one piece.  We're just lounging at the hotel as we landed in Spain at 9AM local time, or 3AM Florida time.  So we were pretty beat.  I've posted some pics to my Flickr account from our trip into town from the airport.  But we're fixing to head out now to check out some of the sights.  So, hopefully, I'll have more in a few hours.

Flickr - jcoriddi

Getting Ready for Europe

So, last weekend was my last one home before I head out to Europe for my vacation.  See that my boys the Magic'll end up playing Boston in the second round of the playoffs.  Was pulling for the Bulls to support my boys from Chi-town (also the Magic would have had home-court advantage), but either way I think the Magic will have a shot to advance to the conference finals against a rundown and battered Boston.

Random Thoughts

Well, just one...  I just thought this story was funny but a little too long for a Twitter post.  I was hanging at my aunt's community pool yesterday in Daytona and another family was there, a dad and a few kids.  One of the kids was a cute little girl about 10 or so.  What was funny is that, apparently to get her dad's attention as he was lounging in a deck chair was to stand over him on the chair and jump up-and-down above him.  Just the whole scene is reminiscent of what some guys pay $20 in other parts of Daytona for.  The thought just had to come to mind that the dad should probably make her stop doing that while he still can.

Upcoming...

Stay tuned as I'm going to post a daily blog (and possibly vlog) while I'm away in Europe and will post them here.  First post will be Friday!