Istanbul, Turkey: A City on Two Continents

Upon arriving in Istanbul, I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. This was one of the few ports none of us had been to. For this exciting excursion, my mom booked a private guide with another family of 5 plus the grandmother. The Denver native family had three kids, a 14 year-old, 12 year-old, and 5 year-old. The five year old, Ethan, was absolutely adorable and the entertainment for the day. Our first stop was the Topkapi Palace, which contains the Treasury filled with jewels, belongings of the Sultan, and religious artifacts. Special religious artifacts too...Moses' staff and David's sword? Hm..not too sure where they got those or how legitimate they are, but they are on displayed. The open palace had a Moorish design and beautiful architecture. Built for the open sun. But on the day we visited, it was far from sunny. Actually, it rained and caught us by complete surprise, of course without umbrellas. We ran through the palace for shelter and quickly left.

In order to avoid the rain, our guide took us to a Turkish carpet store. The salesmen call the carpet industry a dying art. Each carpet had a different pattern, color, and something special. The last time my mom came to Turkey, she found the carpet worthy of bringing home. However, this time she wasn't so lucky to find another that matched. But the grandmother of the other family couldn't resist buying one. After the stop to look at carpets, we ate lunch at the restaurant next door. I never thought I'd like Turkish food as much as I did. It was absolutely fantastic, not to mention healthy. 

Our next stop was the popular tourist destination, the Blue Mosque. In case we were required to cover our heads out of respect for the Muslim religion, we were prepared with scarves brought just for that purpose. When we arrived, we were only required to take off our shoes and cover our shoulders. I had never been in a mosque before and it was quite different than the churches we've seen in Rome. The carpets are comfortable enough to sleep on. The segregation between men and women was a culture shock that I expected, but not to this extent. I didn't feel looked down upon, but I definitely didn't feel like an equal. Eh, I'm not going to get into this...Next, we went to the Hagia Sophia, which is conveniently just across the street. The Hagia Sophia was once a mosque, but now its more of a museum. There were beautiful mosaics of Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist. Our tour guide noted where the Sultan and his family would sit. Since it was older than the Blue Mosque, I found the Hagia Sophia to be more interesting, especially because it had an interesting history. 

Due to the weather, we were caught in traffic worse than rush hour in Los Angeles. The traffic caused us problems in reaching all the destinations we wanted to see, like the Grand Bazaar. But our dinner mates who went to the crazy shopping center said they were harassed to buy items and felt packed in like sardines. So I guess it's not that big of a deal that we didn't go. Instead, we went to a pottery store where they showed us a demonstration on how they made the dishes and cups. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Istanbul. Next stop, Kusadasi!

Mykonos

After a relaxing and sunburned day aboard the ship, we had a later arrival in Mykonos than a few of our other ports. It felt like such a treat to have two relaxing days! My goal was to go to the beach, but since I had enough sun to last the rest of the summer, we wondered around the island looking for presents. As beautiful as Mykonos is, apart from shopping, eating, drinking and seeing the windmills, there isn't too much to do there. So we shopped, I ate a gyro, of course we didn't drink, and somehow found our way to the windmills. We began our walking tour from a side street off of the main port square. As we followed the twists and turns, my mom stopped my grandma and I for a too frequent picture. I heard that the item to buy was leather sandals, but I couldn't imagine how difficult it was to find an open store! Out of no where, we found the windmills, which were farther than we had originally thought we were. These windmills were different from any windmill I've ever seen, although to be honest I haven't seen too many. They had thatched roofs with a white color and were a little short. Inside some of them were jewelry stores. We began making our way back, thinking it would take a bit longer than our journey there. Sure enough, in no time, we were in full sight of the Ruby Princess. Even though we didn't go to the beach like I had wanted to, the day was still nice, enjoyable, and relaxing. 

Day at Sea - Finally!

After port after port after port, this relaxing day was much needed. Until today, I hadn't really felt like I was actually on a cruise because our daily routine consisted of waking up early, going out to port, coming back exhausted, going to dinner, seeing a show or hot tubbing, and sleeping. Needless to say, I enjoyed sleeping in past 6 am. The second I woke up at 11, I quickly got ready for a poolside day. Unfortunately, I didn't put a sufficient amount of sunscreen on for the four hours I played in the raw sun. That happened to be the biggest "oops" of the trip...and I will never sunbathe for that long with so little sunblock again. 

Once I realized just how badly burnt I was, I immediately left the sun and went inside for some shade. We began the long process of hair and make up for our first formal night. Eventually, the three of us made it out the door and at the table. After eating an amazing dinner, I joined some of my new friends for 50's night at Club Fusion and karaoke afterwards. It was a fun night ending in just as much exhaustion as any of our previous ports.

Bella Napoli - or rather Amalfi and Sorrento

This is my third time coming to the port of Naples, and this is my third time doing something other than seeing the city. Naples isn't the most exciting nor safest city for tourism, unless you want to eat pizza all day. Rather than roaming around a less than spectacular city, we went on our first and last ship excursion to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. My mom had wanted to go to Sorrento, since we hadn't been there and we thought it would be a nice scenic, relaxing day. It was a huge difference from our action packed Rome and Florence adventures. Our first stop on the tour was Sorrento. Normally on ship excursions, they take the tours to some kind of factory with the opportunity of purchasing nice items. We went to an outlet store of beautiful wooden carved tables, chairs, and jewelry boxes. We were then allotted free time to explore Sorrento. We mainly shopped on one of the main shopping streets in search of souvenirs and cough drops. We found both. With Grandma's collection, we now have cough drops in every language!

After a long and windy bus ride, we arrived at Amalfi. On the way, if any of us was awake, we saw a gorgeous coast line, expensive hotels for a future destination, celebrities' villas, and quaint coastal towns. Before reaching our destination, we ate lunch at a four star hotel overlooking the Amalfi Coast. It was absolutely breath taking complimented by delicious food. After lunch, we continued on our drive to Amalfi. The first time my parents and I ventured to Amalfi, I was car sick. I was so car sick I had to keep my head down so I didn't see the windy cliffs we were racing through. When we saw tour buses, we couldn't imagine how scary it would be. But actually, the buses have to go a lot slower than cars, which helps the motion sickness. When we finally reached Amalfi, we walked around the town and shopped. At the local church, there was a wedding and the bride and groom were outside the church taking pictures they will never forget. Although we chose against seeing another church, the church is open for visitors. I would definitely recommend this trip again, because the Amalfi Coast's beauty is difficult to absorb in just one trip.

Roman Holiday

With a relative knowledge of geography, Rome is not directly on the ocean. In fact, it is about an hour train ride or hour and a half taxi ride from the port. Since my mom loves figuring things out on her own, we took the train into Rome and planned to use the subway as transportation from one sight to the other. Our first stop was the one sight my grandma personally requested: the Spanish Steps. My mom and I couldn't figure out why she wanted to see the Spanish Steps so badly. I mean, after all, they are just a lot of steps. And she was slightly disappointed when she looked around and said, "This is it?" On our way to the Trivi Fountain, we made a bathroom break at the most elaborate and exquisite McDonald's in the world. It was unlike anything I had ever seen for a fast food place. This McDonald's was lavishly decorated with marble flooring and a few statues. Although the toilets may not have been up to par according to my high standards, the overall atmosphere of a fancy restaurant in a McDonald's is an experience not to be skipped!

After our lavish McDonald's visit, we followed a tour group to the Trivi Fountain. In such a tourist congested area, it is always important to keep an eye out for gypsy children who can steal all your valuables right before your very eyes. However, I have noticed a drastic improvement from my first time visiting Rome, but it is always important to be on the cautious side. When visitors wish in the Trivi Fountain, each is allowed three wishes. The first two are your free choice, but the last is always to return to Rome, and it has never failed me! Each time I've wished in the Trivi Fountain, I've found myself returning, as well as my other wishes fulfilled. Our next stops to cross off our list were 5 churches that either my mom, grandma or I had never seen before. All of which the American travel phenomenon Rick Steves recommends. The first church we wandered into is my personal favorite church in Rome, St. Ignasis. During construction, the church ran out of money to complete it with all marble columns and the dome. In order to appear lavish, the church painted a three dimensional dome on a canvas and painted some columns as in order to make them look like marble! Pretty clever if I don't say myself. In the end, they made a gorgeous church and the lack of money is not noticeable to the ordinary visitor. The next church on our list was the Pantheon. The Pantheon was originally a pagan and has been recently featured in the blockbuster Angels and Demons. On my mom and grandma's last trip in November, they did not visit the Pantheon, only walked by it. Although the church was in service at the time, we made up for it. 

By the end of our church expedition, it was 12 pm. Not bad to see 5 churches, the Trivi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps in only 3 hours. We then went to lunch in the Plaza Nirvoano. The three of us shared a pizza and salad. Most Americans find Italian pizza disappointing. However, I don't really notice a difference between pizza in Italy and pizza at Italian restaurants. Ordering at Pizza Hut is a different story though. While walking to our next stop, a galleria, we saw one of my best friends from USC, Joey! I screamed in excitement as we crossed paths in Rome! It's always weird seeing someone from home in Europe. Last time, I ran into Kim and Amber from high school, knowing they were in Europe too. But this caught me completely off guard because I had no idea that he was even in Europe! After a short walk back to the Pantheon, we parted ways, but it was still good seeing someone from home. 

The galleria we visited was once a palace for a wealthy and influential family. They had a huge art collection, complete with originals and copied works. Some of the copies were so close to the original painting, that it was difficult to tell if the painting was the original or not. At every audio mark, Grandma stopped to listen to the handset. She was enthralled with the collection as well as the elaborately decorated rooms the palace invited guests to dance and dine. Although a house tour and art collection could put me to sleep, it was the highlight of the day for Grandma. After listening to all of the recordings, we headed back to the train station to ensure that we caught our train...but we never would have guessed the trouble it took to get there. 

The lucky day we were in Rome was the day the Giro d'Italia blocked some of the streets, severely inconveniencing some of the tours from the cruise ship and our route to the subway station. At first, the bike race was really exciting! First the cop would come by, then the biker followed by its car with substitute bikes and supporters. As the biker would race by, spectators rattled the gates in support of the biker. Unfortunately, we did not know the race's route. We walked from the monument of the tomb of the unknown soldier all the way to the Coliseum in search for the metro. Towards the end, we were getting a little frantic because we were in jeopardy of missing our train. Finally, we found the station and raced to our train. We were literally minutes away from missing the train. And missing the train entailed missing the boat. But overall, we had a great day in Italy as we sail towards Naples!

Home of the Medicci: Florence!

Today's journey to Florence only took one train ride. Quite less adventurous as a bus and a walk! In order to see different sights than our previous 3 times, we took a walking tour with one of the best art historians I have ever met. This girl knew what the story behind every stone on a building. We learned all about the Medicci family; how they lived, their influence in Florence, and the remnants of their history. When the average person goes to Florence or Rome, he or she doesn't really appreciate each building. I would have never guessed that the restaurant I quickly ate at today dated back to the 15th century. When you learn the story behind the buildings and the feuds between the weathy and powerful families, you really get a profound appreciation for the archetecture that is standing before you. And that was what our tour guide gave us, well at least me.

After the tour, my mom wanted to go see the Medicci Chapel and Saint Lorenzo Church. Well, so much for that...we went shopping instead! Majority rules. My grandma bought a white belt and a new black purse she's been looking for. I bought a purse, a few scarves, and some souvineer gifts for Tommy and Jonathan. Eventually, yes, we did make it to St. Lorenzo and it was definitely worth seeing. After understanding the prominence of the Medicci, we played a bit of art history and figured out some things for ourselves with the foundation our guide gave us earlier today.

Currently, we're on our way to Rome, church capital!!!

First Port of Call: Monte Carlo!

Today, the Ruby Princess docked at Monte Carlo!! Since my mom and I had already been here twice, my mom thought it would be nice to do something no one has done! One wrong direction, one bus ride, and about a mile walking later, we arrived at the Villa Rothschild. Located between Monaco and Villa Franche, it has 7 gardens (4 of which we walked through) and the manor over looking two harbors. In the first garden located outside the manor doors, there was a fountain water show every 20 minutes accompanied by orchestra and opera music. The atmosphere was relaxing, just what we all needed. Honestly, it was gorgeous! Built for a princess. The couple that built the villa died without any children, so it is open for visitors. We ventured through the exotic garden. Well, I guess their idea of exotic was plants native to California, cacti. The garden just below was inspired by Beatrice's visits to Asia. Although my grandma didn't want to walk through, I took the camera and snapped around 20 pictures worthy of a post card. Honestly, you couldn't go wrong! For lunch, we ate in the cafe inside the manor. Interestingly enough, it is located just outside the dining room where Beatrice and Rothschild guests dined on a nightly basis. The view was stunning, and we were sad to leave it.

After walking the same mile and taking the same bus back, I thought it would be a great idea to go to the casino since my grandma hadn't seen it. Even though we managed to get to a villa neither of us had been before, getting to Monte Carlo Casino, where my mom and I had been twice, was a completely different story. My mom thought taking the public bus would be easier than walking. Knowing that we were going to the casino, the bus driver didn't inform us that the only bus stop would be the stop for the elevator, so we missed it. Then, we had to walk all the way back through the tunnel and figure out how to get into the correct elevator. What there aren't signs for is you have to go down one elevator, cross the street underground, and then go up from there. At least if you ever go it will be easier for you.

And there it was, Monte Carlo Casino in all its glory. Parked outside are the Ferraris and Masseratis of the wealthy gamblers inside. This is popular for tourists because its not everyday you see a car worth more than your lifetime earnings! The view of the Med is exceptional from there as well. Although we've been there multiple times, we've never gone into the casino because it costs 10 euros just to get in. Imagine how much you'll lose gambling! Even though it was difficult getting there, returning to the ship was as easy as can be when you take a water boat!

Our next stop is Florence! Can't wait!