We took a Med Cruise!

A few months ago, some family friends came into town via cruise ship. Marito and I went to greet them and show them around just a bit. After saying our goodbyes, Marito got the itch to go on a cruise. I started to do my home work on cruises from here, and being a loyal Royal Caribbean Cruise goer www.RCCL.com was the first place I looked (it also helps that the currency is in dollars, electricity is 110 v and the staff speaks English). At the beginning of November there was a 7 day Med Cruise for $399 a person!!! Granted it was an interior room, but still! After taxes and gratuity it came out to be under $1100 for the both of us to cruise across the Med Sea. I was hooked. Unfortunately we had plans to go to Oktoberfest at the end of September, and it was one or the other.

I had gone back to the states for a quick visit to be there for the delivery of my niece, and upon returning Marito and I quickly learned that we too were expecting, about three weeks along! We had planned to go to Edelweiss with another couple for Oktoberfest, but their leave chit wasn't approved for that time. Marito didn't want to go just us, because now he doesn't have a drinking buddy- being pregnant means no alcohol for this girl! In place of Germany, we routed a leave chit and made plans for our backup vacation! CRUISE TIME BABY!

We hopped on the train to Rome, and then from Rome we took another train to Civitavecchia. When you get off at that stop, we just followed the crowd a few blocks down towards the cruise port and waiting for us was a free shuttle bus to the terminal! Awesome! No Taxi! Woohoo!

Check-in was a breeze, and we dropped our bags off to be delivered to our room. Some people tote around their carry on bags, but when you cant get into your room for a few hours, that seems like just a hassle to me. My stuff will be at my room shortly.. nothing I MUST have while exploring this grand ship.

The Costa Concordia set sail and hadn't done their
safety drill. Resulting in a fatal day.

The first day of course you must do the safety drill before setting sail. Y'all remember the Costa Concordia right?? We don't want a repeat of that, now do we? We met our dining room neighbors, Marito and I felt like the youngest couple on the Ship- how many young couples can afford to fly to Rome and take a Cruise across the Med and fly back? Living in Europe has it's perks when it comes to things like this!

Our first port call was in Naples. And yes, we did get off the ship! It was actually really nice to feel like a legit tourist. We walked our way over to Christmas Alley. At the beginning of November it wasn't in full bloom just yet. I did find a guy selling hand painted Demi Johns and roof tiles. The Demi John would have been a pain to carry around, but they were stunning- I want to go back and get one, until then I have my roof tile with a Napoli scene painted on it. Not Christmas-y so I can have it on display year round. Then we headed over to Da Michele, which is the famous pizza place that Julia Roberts ate at while filming her movie Eat Pray Love. They only serve Marinara or Margherita pizza. The price is decent too. That was the extent of our day in Naples.


Next up was Messina Sicily. It was originally suppose to be Malta but bad weather rerouted us to stay north of the storm. Being in Italy still, I whipped out my phone and started looking up things to do while I still had cellphone signal. I mapped out the closest train station and times to get to a town called Taorimina. We easily found the train station and hopped onboard. When we got off at our stop, we saw taxis, but didn't want to pay. Little did we know if we waited a bit there are buses that will take you into town. We also didn't know that this town was up on a cliff. Being the adventurous, penny pinching, thrill seekers we hike it up this mountain. Remember I am like 15 weeks pregnant here! Up this trail with a million switch backs, that average out to be 30 degrees of incline the entire way, we finally made it to the top. The picture doesn't serve justice at how much of a B this thing was to climb. If you've climb Vesuvius, increase that slope and add more switch backs, I know y'all know Mt. V isn't an easy hike.

This town Taormina, reminds me a bit of Capri. A lot of tourist shops, selling ceramics and all that fun stuff. From here you can get a decent view of Mt. Etna- which was erupting quite a bit just a few days prior. I was determined to climb Mt. Etna, but after what I just wen through.. there was no way. I was really bummed that it was overcast and the clouds covered the peak, so I didn't get to see any volcanic action. No worries, my amica (friend) is moving to Sicily this month, so I am sure I will make a trip back. after strolling the beautiful Sicilian streets it was back to the train station... which was waaaaaaaay down this mountain. Let me tell you, walking down that goat trail was much better than walking up, just gotta be careful of the loose gravel.

We had our day at sea following Sicily. There was a lot of motion in the ocean (actually it's a sea). The belly flop contest was postponed because the water in the pool was sloshing out about 3 feet above the pool edge. So it was a good day to sleep in, catch some rest and get a massage. I got a 30 minutes back massage (they knew I was pregnant), a body wrap, foot massage, facial and scalp massage for $150 after tip. It was glorious.

Next on our agenda was Sardina. Again I looked up on my phone things to do (since I'm still in Italy! Gotta love that internet connection!) Marito and I decided to walk through town and find their largest indoor market. I love the markets! We find it, and it is a two story building. We walk inside and get taken aback from the smells. There were vendors selling, meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, seafood. Pretty much every type of food was being sold there. After 45 seconds my sensitive nose couldn't take any more, so we tried the second floor, hoping to find clothes, trinkets and such. Nope! the whole market is all food. A little disappointed, we left and walked around the building. There are some vendors around selling things, but nothing fabulous. We made our way back to port and meandered around the shops aimed for tourists. I helped some lady asking about the flavored salts, and I helped her translate them- fortunately I can read Italian better than I can speak it! When the day came to an end, Marito went and played on the pool deck. He won first place in a little golf tournament, and came in third place for the belly flop competition. He is such a goober!

Palma De Mallorca (otherwise known as Palma) is a place I have very much so been looking forward to going to. A few years back, Marito ported here when he was on the USS Enterprise and made some poor decisions (nothing incriminating!) and I am just the curious type, I wanted to go where he has been and see what he has seen. Well that didn't happen, since the area that he went to is pretty much a few blocks of bars, tattoo parlors and of course the nude beach- all of which isn't where a pregnant woman should be at. Instead we walked around, found their shopping district. It reminded me a lot of London meets Paris, minus the crowds. Gorgeous architecture, friendly people, wide streets. Marito found
 a Cigar shop, which made him happy. We set out to find a bull ring, got lost a little bit but eventually found it. As we are walking around the property we can see in the fence there the place looks deserted. Finally, we come to a gate that is open... do we go in? Is this trespassing? The hell with it! I am here and if it's trespassing I don't know any better. The entrance into the ring was open, so I go in. Marito being more hesitant questions whether or not we are allowed in. I mean I walked into the center of the bull ring. Not a single soul was in sight. I'm here, I am going to explore every nook and cranny until someone tells me otherwise. I found these two red doors that I assume are the hallways from the bull cage. I thought it was pretty interesting. After exploring for a solid 20 minutes,
Marito and I climb to the top of the arena and see some people enter. At first we though it was the owners until we realized that they were tourists. This alleviated that feeling of being somewhere that we aren't suppose to be. As we headed out of the arena, about 5-7 tour buses pull up. I must admit, it was such a cool feeling having the bull ring all to ourselves. It felt like we were exploring some ancient, abandoned place.

 
 


Next up was Valencia! I must admit, I did not have enough time in

 Valencia. The cruise shuttle dropped us off near the historic center of town and where I wanted to go was 2 miles away. So Marito and I didn't waste any time, we walked through the Gardens that goes through the center of town. A lovely walk that took us directly to the Science and Arts Center. Here is where you can visit a Hemispehere

(Planetarium), a hands on Science museum, as well as one of the largest Aquariums in Europe. You could easily spend two full days between the three places. First we checked out the Aquarium, which is above ground and underground, and cover quite a bit of land.
We saw penguins, seals, otters, walrus', sharks, and more. They have the underwater tunnel you can walk through- which is pretty darn neat! We watched a dolphin show while we were there, very fun! We then trekked next door to the Science Area and got to play around with gravity,
balance, look at the stages of pregnancy, and more. Again very interesting. We were losing time and still needed to get lunch, so we hiked our way back to the historic center, ate some paella and did minimal shopping. Valencia is a gorgeous city, and I hope to make it back one day.

Our last port was in Barcelona (the cruise ship did not go back to Rome, as it was then going on a transatlantic cruise to Galveston Tx). Two miles away was our hotel, and again we walked it. We stayed at Hotel Lloret Ramblas, which is a great affordable hotel on Las Ramblas. Not only is it between two metro stations, just steps away, it is also less than a block away from the Airport Shuttle pick up and drop off location. I highly recommend it! After dropping off our bags we quickly made our way to Sagrada Familia, and enjoyed a Starbucks at the foot of it. (Starbucks with a view? Can't beat it!) We didn't go inside Sagrada Familia, instead we went to Casa Batllo, which is designed by the
 same guy who did Sagrada- Gaudi. This house was fascinating! Gaudi designed it using no straight lines, the doors and windows are all custom made. Such a creative place! I loved it! Gaudi also designed a park and a couple other places. All of which are very interesting. As our day in Barcelona came to an end, Marito and I dined on paella again and said Adios to Spain.

I found that Marito and I prefer Caribbean cruises over Med cruises, in terms of excursions. We didn't sign up for any, since most of them were walking tours, and checking out churches, very history focused. That may be your thing, but I enjoy swimming with stingrays, jet skiing, and drinking on a sand bar. I did have a blast, and it was wonderful seeing places that not many people have to opportunity to visit.  I find cruises to be perfect for seeing places you don't necessarily want to spend an entire vacation at. I suggest looking at cruises during the off season, to get the cheaper rates, which may be difficult to do when you have school aged children. I'm just thankful that we were able to do this trip!