Cruise

We took a 7 night cruise which left from a seaport right outside of Rome called Civitavecchia and traveled to Messina (Italy), Athens (Greece), Kusadasi (Turkey), and Chania (Greece). The cruise was a much needed, relaxing vacation. We had amazing weather almost the entire week—it was about 80 degrees and sunny, with a nice breeze.

The Royal Caribbean ship we were on was called the Navigator of the Seas. It wasn’t the newest ship, but everything was maintained very well. We had an inside stateroom, with no windows, so naturally we did not spend much time in there. We took advantage of the pool area, spending time both in the sun, and lounging on chairs in the shaded areas. The shaded areas were really nice because the chairs faced large, glass windows that looked out at sea. Of course we were both excited that most of the food was included in the purchase price of the ship. Even though we ate our fair share of dessert, we were most excited by the variety of foods (since we had been lacking variety in Rome), and the healthy foods, such as salads and lots of fruit. Almost every night, except for the “formal nights,” where everyone was dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos, we ate in the dining room. We were assigned a table with the same waiter every night. The ship also included a nice fitness center, which Jazz visited all but one day.

The first stop on the cruise was Messina, Italy. We arrived the morning after departure from Civitavecchia and we were both exhausted from our traveling from Napoli. There isn’t too much to do in Messina, and we weren’t as excited to visit there since we had been living in Italy. We got off and walked around a little bit, got ourselves a Sicilian cannoli, and then headed back onboard the ship. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool.

After leaving Messina, we had a day at sea before reaching Athens early Tuesday morning. We left the ship around 7:00AM, to make our way into Athens. It took about a two mile walk (which is nothing to us now, since we have gotten used to walking everywhere) and a metro ride to reach Athens. Once we arrived in Athens, we headed straight for the Acropolis. We were glad we left so early because we beat all the crowds, who were arriving as we were finishing. After seeing the Acropolis we walked to the first Olympic stadium in modern history. Then we went into the Museum of War, which had a lot of war artifacts, like guns, knives, uniforms, etc. Once we finished in the museum it was lunchtime, and we went  in search of gyros and baklava (a delicious dessert with layers of pastry dough, a walnut and raisin filling, drizzled with honey), which we eventually found. We had a really good day in Athens, and made it back on the ship in the late afternoon.

The next morning we woke up in Kusadasi, Turkey. The main attraction in this tourist town is Ephesus, which is about a 30 minute drive outside the city. Ephesus is a former Greek town, turned Roman city, famous for having the temple of Artemis (one of the ancient wonders of the world). While walking to find the transport to take us to Ephesus, we met a nice British couple who was also going to Ephesus. The van didn't take us to the entrance of Ephesus, but instead dropped us off at the base of the mountain. We were told to walk left, about 5km (3.2 miles) around the side of the mountain to the entrance. Well, half of the people in our bus went straight, and we turned left like the guy who gave directions said. We were still with the British couple, so that provided some nice entertainment for the walk ahead. It seemed like the road was leading nowhere. We passed multiple cars and buses, a few fields with cows, and a field with women working in it (they all stopped and stared as we walked by). Finally, about an hour later, we reached the entrance of Ephesus. It was incredibly crowded, with tour groups everywhere. Despite the crowds, we were extremely impressed with the old city. The amount we saw covered a lot of ground and we considered it to be large, but in reality only 10% has been uncovered. We found out later that if we had walked straight instead of left you could enter through the exit, which was about 200m from where we got off.

The fourth city we stopped at was Chania, located on the Greek island of Crete.  We had to take a short bus ride from the cruise ship into the city center. We first went into a large, indoor market, which was right outside the bus stop. After looking around in there, eating the best baklava we’ve had, and utilizing the free wifi offered (you had to pay for internet on the ship and it was very expensive), we headed out of the market. Upon stepping outside, we were greeted by strong winds, light rain, and a very cloudy sky. It looked like it was going to storm really badly, so we made the decision to catch the bus back to the ship. We were disappointed that the weather looked so terrible because the city was very walkable and looked like it had a lot of shops and things to look at. It was also unfortunate because we left this port much earlier than all the other ones—at 2:30 instead of 4:30—so there was no chance of going back into town if the weather cleared up.

The cruise came to a close with another day at sea, and then arriving back in Civatavecchia the following morning. We departed the cruise at 7:00 in the morning and made our way to the Rome airport to leave for Prague.