Day 7: Malta - I love this place!!!!

Get ready for a TON of pictures. Malta was my favorite place to visit, and that's saying something.

On the way into the port.



Malta was our next stop. The capital city, Vallette, has the world's largest natural harbor. Malta is also just about exactly in the middle between the Suez Canal and Straits of Gibraltar, so it's in the middle of the Mediterranean. So this little island nation is very important, and was fought over many times by different factions. Eventually a group of knights came to be in charge of the island. They moved the capital from the Medina to Valletta. That was in the Medieval time period. Thus, Valletta has a medieval feel to it, unlike a lot of the other European cities we saw, which were much older. It was very cool looking, as you can see from the pictures.





We decided to explore Malta on our own, rather than with an excursion. So we took the but up to the main bus terminal of Valletta. Actually, first, we took money out of the Bank of Malta, but then tried to get change inside the branch. That took forever, and at first they said they couldn't do it. But we persuaded them. Anyway, we took the bus from the port to the bus terminal. It was a nice drive. We decided to go to the Medina, the old capital, first. It only cost us .47 euro to go there. The bus driver was very nice, pointing out which way for us to go to the Medina.

It was a very nice little town. The actual Medina is walled off, to defend from attackers during the day, but around it is the present town. We were hungry, so we stopped off for something to eat.


We had some good Malta pizza at this place. I really liked it and planned on eating the rest of the leftovers, but we had so much food and we didn't have a refrigerator, so we didn't want to chance it. But it was pretty dang good. There was a nice man and woman who ran the restaurant.

Afterwards, we went on a little train trip around the area.


One of the pictures I took from the train


After that nice little tour around the area, we decided to actually go into the Medina.


Even more beautiful architecture to be found there.



Malta is now known for these cute yellow busses. They restored several of them from the 50s.



We made it back to Valletta and explored the city. It was starting to get dark, and there was so much to see. I definitely need to come back here.


They had set up the Christmas decorations. Although we saw some other towns with their Christmas decorations up, these were the first ones we saw lighted.


And eventually we had to pull out to go to Sicily. Goodbye, my Malta! I miss you! The people there were just nice and a welcome relief after the aggressive Tunisians and the sometimes not as polite Italians. I can't wait to go back!

Day 6: I bless the rains down in Africa - well, except there was no rain

Our welcome to Tunisia!

Originially we were supposed to go from Sorrento to Taormina, Sicily, then Malta, then Tunisia. But the day we were scheduled to arrive in Tunisia is a sacred holiday for the Muslims. They sacrifice lambs (I think), and the cruise line thought that might be a bit much if we happened to see it, so they changed things around. So our next stop was in Tunisia, in Northern Africa. So yes, I can now say I've been to Africa.

They warned us so many times to be careful of pickpockets and not to go into rug shops (because they'd keep you there for hours), so I was a bit worried about going there. But we had another excursion, so I knew we'd at least be with a bunch of other people from the cruise.

We made it to the main theater where we all met for our excursions. They called our number and we went to the bus, where we were met by our tour guide. We drove through Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It was very interesting. A lot of white buildings. I kept thinking I'd see a lot of sand and tents, and it wasn't like that at all. Tunisia is probably the closest ally to the US in the Muslim world.


We found out later we could have taken pictures on the camels. Oh well.


After going through town, we stopped at the Bardo Museum, which has the finest collection of mosaics in the world. Although most of the mosaics here are on the walls, they were originally on the floors of the wealthiest citizens of Tunisia. There are a ton of really great looking mosaics, although they're all pretty much this same color.



Tunis is close to Carthage, one of the first superpowers in the world. That's just a random fact. But it explains some of the historical significance of the area. They had a rivalry with Rome and the original city of Carthage was destroyed by the Romans. The current city of Carthage is a suburb of Tunis.

As we left the Bardo Museum, there were several peddlers trying to sell us cheap jewelry and other trinkets. It's very popular there.



We next went to the Medina, the ancient shopping center of Tunis. It's kind of a farmer's market, but with goods rather than produce. Tons of little shops, and haggling's the name of the game. Mom checked out some shoes and the guy took her to the back of the store and kept going down in price trying to get her to buy the shoes. Just one problem - the shoes didn't fit. So no matter how low they were trying to get, Mom wasn't going to get them. They went all the way down to $5 (US) and were kind of blocking her way out, so I went along and helped her get back out. They aren't dangerous, just very aggressive sellers. We went around the many hallways and kept having people haggle with us trying to get us to buy things. We did buy a couple of souvenirs.



Then we met up with our tour guide again and made the trip back to the ship. At the port, there were some other shops, and we stayed the most in one little one where the people were very nice. They kept telling us there was no pressure and to keep looking around for what we'd like. My mom came back from their outside display with an object. She told me it was an olive oil holder. It looked like an ashtray to me, but I went ahead and bought one too. As we were purchasing it, they said it was an ashtray. It was made out of olive wood, which is what the lady tried to tell her. Haha, so we now cherish our 'olive oil holders'

So all in all, Tunisia was a very interesting country. I'm glad I visited. I can't say it was my favorite stop, but certainly glad I was able to go.

Day 5: Exploring Pompeii

(Don't forget to check previous entries. This is my third post today!)

Day 5 had us still in Sorrento. We had a scheduled shore excursion at Pompeii. I'm sure you all know what Pompeii is, but just in case, Pompeii was a fairly large ancient Roman city that was completely buried by ash when Mt. Vesuvius erupted around 79 AD. It was known as a very... open society, I guess is what the modern term is (they had lots of sex - with lots of partners).

Anyway, Pompeii was rediscovered by accident in 1748. During all the years farms had popped up over the remains of the city. Even now, only about 2/3rds of the city is uncovered. Archaeologists are so busy taking care of what's uncovered that they're allowing the farms over the rest of it to remain until they can excavate it. But because of being buried, it offers a great glimpse of life back in early Roman civilizations.



It was cool to see the original streets and to find out that they had food vendors by the stadium and how they tried to keep food hot. They also had big stones in the middle of the street for people to walk on when the rains flooded the street.



We didn't really go into any of the red light district places, but let's just say the ancient Romans had a much different view of sex than we do.


This is the Pompeii forum, with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

I haven't included any pictures of the plaster casts of people here, but it was cool how they came up with them. When the hot ash buried the people, it quickly cooled and formed a hard layer. However, the body would decompose, leaving the outline of the person who had died. When archaeologists discovered these cavities, they filled them with plaster, which would harden, and then they'd have a cast of what the person looked like when they died. It's kind of eerie to see the look of horror on most of their faces. Kind of surreal.



So we finished our trip. It was a lot of fun and great learning adventure. I definitely want to go explore on my own (rather than an excursion) some time in the future.

We took the bus ride back to Sorrento and did some more (window) shopping there, showing my mom all the places I looked at the previous day. We did stop at a shop before we left where we got several souveniers, including a nice bowl I bought. It was a great stop and I can't wait to check it out sometime in the summer (not this summer, but some summer).

Day 4: A missed opportunity and a beautiful sea cliff city

(Don't forget to check for previous entries. This is my second post today)

Our first port of call was Sorrento, Italy. It's south of Rome. Sorrento is close to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, Naples, and the Island of Capri. Mom wasn't feeling well, so I went to explore it on my own.

As you can see from the pictures, Sorrento is above the sea level, high above the cliffs. We tendered in from the bay and then you could either pay for a shuttle to take you to the top or walk up yourself. I chose to walk up myself. It's a beautiful city with lots of great shops.

And I have a little confession. As I was walking around the city, a man rode on his scooter (they ALL have scooters in Italy - such narrow streets) and as he passed, he turned around and talked to me. He was a man in his 30s, cute (not German cute - oh, I didn't mention how in the Frankfurt airport there were tons of hotties - and one I was so close to just going up to and proclaiming him mine). Anyway, he wanted to talk to me and asked if it was OK if we met later for coffee. I told him yes (and would tell him later that I didn't drink coffee and would have something else) and so I was supposed to meet with him. But.... I didn't. Something just didn't jive with me. He couldn't have seen much of me before he turned around (my back was to him) and I just kept thinking something was up. I didn't feel unsafe, just that something was disingenuous about it. I still regret not at least meeting him and seeing what would happen, but I was concerned about my mom and wanted to get back to the ship. My mom told me later, "well, they'll never make a movie about your love life." Ouch! I guess that's a reflection of my self esteem. I just didn't think there'd be any way a guy would be interested in getting to know me more just by seeing my back side for a second. Oh well, maybe I'll get another opportunity for that great love story later on. I guess I'm just weak sauce.

But I did do some more exploring of Sorrento.


From the street level you can look down and see this old building. I have no idea what this is or how old it is, but I thought it looked cool. This is me taking the picture from street level.

Sorrento is known for it's lemoncello, a very strong alcoholic drink. Of course I didn't try it, but the bottles looked cute. Sorrento is also known for its inlaid woodwork. I kept wanting to find a good advent calendar, but couldn't find one. I should have bought something in wood, because it was just so beautiful.


Once I got back on the ship, I watched the sunset. I took many, many great shots of the beautiful sunsets on this trip. But I was ready for the next day and our trip to Pompeii!

Day 3: Boarding the Ship!

I forgot to mention the bus accident! Saturday night (from yesterday's post), had us taking the last of the open air busses from the Rome Termini station (kind of their Grand Central Station). I still wanted to take pictures, so I went to the top, while my mom, to stay warm, stayed at the bottom level. Well, as we were pulling out, our bus driver evidently wasn't paying attention and hit the passenger side corner of the bus with the back of the bus in front of us (as we were making the turn to leave). I felt the bump and a second later heard a woman yelling in pain. I knew who that was, so I leaped down the stairs.

My mom was wearing a slick rain-proof jacket, and it was under her when we hit. She was sitting in a forward facing seat across from an empty backwards facing seat. She slid forward when we hit and hurt her back. After some anxiety, Mom decided she was OK and didn't need to go to the hospital.

So, we took the regular city bus back to the other train station by our bed and breakfast. I kept worrying about my mom's back, but it ended up OK.

So the next day we decided to brave the busses again and use the rest of our 24 hour pass on the bus. I still wanted to check out the rest of the tour we didn't see, and particularly see the Spanish Steps and, since it was the same stop, see the Trevi Fountain again.


My mom feeling better the day after the accident


The Spanish Steps - after all the hype, it wasn't that exciting. It would be picturesque if it wasn't littered with so many people. Still, I climbed up them all, which was kind of fun.


I liked the Trevi Fountain so much, I just had to go see it in the daylight.


This lady is an artist. My mom and I each bought a painting from her. This is my painting, which is now hanging in my kitchen.


As we finished riding in our open air bus tour, I took this picture of the Tiber River.

We got back to our bed and breakfast, took our suitcases, and walked the couple of blocks to the train station. Now, this was the bravest part of our trip. I think a couple of hairs turned gray worrying about this trip. We got to the train station, and it was Sunday, so the normal staff wasn't there. There was nobody there manning the desk. So we had to figure out how to use the kiosks. And it didn't take credit cards. And there really wasn't anything in English. Luckily I found an employee that did speak a little English and he helped us get our tickets. The train ride was really only about 5 euros, which is a lot cheaper than when I was searching on the Internet, so I kept worrying if we were going the right place and if they'd be OK with all of our luggage.


The train station in Rome by our bed and breakfast.

Nobody was speaking English around us and I kept worrying that we'd get off the wrong exit or we'd accidentally board the wrong train. I thought though that we had a few hours to spare. I found out later the time I thought we could board until was actually the depature time. Good thing I didn't know that earilier, or I would have been really worried.

Anyway, we got on the train, and figured out how to get to Civitavecchia, the port city closest to Rome.


Once we got there, we found a couple going on our same cruise ship. Steven and Diane, I think. They're from Georgia. We also found Mario, who told us he'd take our luggage to the free shuttle, so that we didn't have to take a taxi. As we were walking, Mario took off, and we later all admitted that we thought that was the end of our luggage, that Mario was taking off with them. But he wasn't. He walked them down a mile or two to the free shuttle. We gave him all of our change and thanked him for his help.


Our ship, the Azamara Journey. She was a small ship, which was a unique experience after the huge Celebrity Infinity my mom and I were on in Alaska.

There was a mixup with the rooms, as someone who stayed from the previous trip was supposed to move out of her room. So we went to grab something to eat before we sailed off. The buffet was good, and it was nice to just relax at the back of the ship and enjoy our meal. I knew that now that we were on board, we wouldn't have to worry too much about making sure we didn't miss our boat or the airplane the rest of the trip. What a relief.

So after food, we found out they gave us a new room. They said it was better, but it was right by the main lobby, which wasn't bad, except that one of the main tender boats was right above us, so several mornings we were woken by them getting the boats ready. And one time when we docked the gangway was literally right next door, so the set up was very loud. Still, it wasn't bad.

Every cruise ship has to have a muster drill before take off, by international law. That's basically the lifeboat drill. You go to your muster station (gathering place), then head out to where the life boats are.


Having fun at the lifeboat drill.

After that, we went back to unpack our stuff, get settled, and then grab something else to eat, before enjoying the sail from the port. And of course we had the ship's entertainment to enjoy. Then we went to bed to get ready for our first port.

Day 2: Rome is amazing!

Our second full day found us waking up, having our breakfast (a juice, like apricot or something, granola, and yogurt) and learning from the bed and breakfast people the best way to get to the Colosseum, which was the main place we wanted to go.

So we took the local bus 64 from a couple of blocks away and made it to Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier. It's got a different name, but I can't remember it. Maybe it's just 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier' in Italian. It originally was some other palace by somebody, but the Italians thought it was boring, so they finally found a use for it as the tomb of the unknown soldier. It's weird to think that just 60 years ago we were bitter enemies with the Italians. By the way, this isn't my picture. The right side was under a lot of scaffolding. That's another interesting thing about Rome and I think Italy in general. Being such an old city, there's a lot of scaffolding as they restore older buildings and try to keep them up. But on all the scaffolding, they have a picture - well, more like a drawing - of what the architecture behind it looks like. Very interesting. I took a couple of pictures of those - let me see if I can find one to show what that looks like.



So from there we walked down the road towards the Colosseum. Our host at the Bed and Breakfast said we should also take in the Palantine and the surrounding area. The surrounding area were all the forums of the ancient Romans. The couple of pictures I took below of course don't give it justice. But you can see Ceasar's Forum, the Roman Forum, Trajan's Forum, and so many other once great buildings. I think I mentioned on here before that if I could go back to my college days, I'd tell myself to study archaeology. It's so amazing to see these ruins and imagine what they looked like in all of their glory and bustling with life. The Palatine hill is where the rich people of Rome lived, those with connections to the Ceasars.


Overlooking one of the ancient forums. I think this was the Temple of Peace. I could easily do a couple of posts on the Forums themselves. After my mom had to rest (her feet were really hurting her on this trip) while we were exploring, I went all around trying to see new stuff. I went to the hill overlooking the old Circus Maximus (now just a grass field), the former houses of Ceaser Augustus and his close circle of friends. It was so amazing and vast, that I had to stop myself so my mom wasn't alone too long and we could go to the Colosseum.

They called this the Stadium. I guess it was a Circus, but for foot races. It might have originally been built as a garden in the shape of a stadium.

So if you find yourself in Rome, definitely go to both the Colosseum and the Palantine and Forums. Amazing!

So we finally made it to the Colosseum. It's funny that it's actually smaller than you would think. We're so used to our large colosseums and stadiums these days that this ancient wonder seems kind of small. And as I mentioned in yesterday's post, most of the marble in the Colosseum and the Forums was removed when they were building St. Peter's Basillica and other structures. Now the mindset back then was there were all these old buildings nobody's doing anything with, we might as well put them to good use. They didn't think of how people would want to see these structures in their original beauty - it wasn't a concept they could comprehend at the time. Sad, but at least we have parts of it.

Here's the Colosseum. They have some of these weird modern statues all around these ancient sites. Anyway, you can see the inner wall and part of the outer wall that's largely been removed.


The inside of the Colosseum. These tunnels used to hold gladiators and animals before the competitions. It was all covered by a wooden floor and sand, and elevators and pulleys would bring the animals, gladiators, and props up to the spectators. In the back, you can see a recreation of the wood floor. Before these tunnels were built, it was a large tank, and they could fill it and recreate great naval battles for the public to see. Amazing!

Walking around the Colosseum was amazing. Just imagining being there was fantastic.

After we left, we went around to try to find something to eat. Europe's expensive. You have to pay three or four euros for a soft drink (about $6 or $7), and they don't just give you a glass of water.

We decided to get the sightseeing bus tickets to see more of the sites. I got to see the U.S. Embassy (a pink building that used to be a palace), and several other sites. We were told to go see the Trevi Fountain at night, so we made it there that night. IT IS AMAZING. Such a beautiful fountain. And there were hordes of people there. Now, legend has it that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain that you will one day return to Rome. So of course I did.


Just amazing, the Fontana di Trevi!

We then retired back to the room to rest up for our last few hours before heading to the cruise ship!

Day 1: Starting off our adventure: The Vatican

Sorry for the long time, no post thing. Christmas, recovering from the trip, and my birthday kept me busy. Anyway, I want to document my trip, but couldn't figure out how to select only a few pictures. So I'm going to break it up. I'll post each day of the trip as a separate entry. Hopefully I'll get through at least one of these a day.

Anyway, my mom and I started on our trip by getting a ride to the airport with my friend Stephen. But once we got to the airport, we found out there was about a five hour delay. Our aircraft had a hydraulic leak and they needed to fly out a new bird to us. Of course I was glad for the safety, but annoyed we had to wait so long.

Eventually, we got on the flight and after 10 hours (luckily mostly at night so I was in sleepy sleeply land) we arrived in Rome. We ended up paying the taxi service to get us to our stop. Our bed and breakfast was basically part of an apartment, so it was hard to find. It was a nice little place about three or four blocks from the Vatican.

Our first day found us checking out the Vatican. After walking past St. Peter's Square, we went to the Vatican Museums.


St. Peter's Square - where the Pope speaks

The Vatican Museums are a collection of museums, including an Egyptian museum, Etruscan museum, and most famously, the Sistine Chapel. The pictures I have here aren't enough to show you how awesome it is. There is so much art on the walls and the ceilings on the way to the Sistine Chapel, it's amazing. Check my Facebook or hopefully soon my flickr account to see all the pictures. These will be a select favorites.

Just an example of how beautiful the cuppolas and ceilings are.

My mom and me

After going through the Sistine Chapel and leaving the Vatican Museums, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. We started going to the Cuppola, not really realizing what was involved with going there. What it is is a trip up the big cuppola of St. Peter's. Basically, I walked to the top. Luckily Mom realized very quickly she couldn't make it up. I barely did. You walk up these steep narrow stairs, and for the first so many steps, there was no place to pull over and rest and let others pass you by, so you had to just keep walking. It was VERY tiring. It took me forever to walk up there.


I made it to the top. You can see how red my face is from walking up over 300 steep stairs.

St. Peter's Square from up on top of the Basilica. AWESOME views of Rome and the Vatican!

By the time I got down and then rested, it started getting dark, so we made our way inside the Basilica. We got to see so much great architecture and such beautiful decorations (damper later when I realized all the marble pretty much came from the area around the the Colosseum and is part of the reason why that place is so picked over). It is amazing.


Inside St. Peter's is The Pieta, by Michaelangelo, which shows Mary holding the body of her son, Jesus Christ. Just amazing.

After that, we went to find some authentic (but expensive) Italian food. It didn't taste that much different to me. That was kind of a disappointment. Then we went back to the bed and breakfast and rested up for our journey into the rest of Rome the next day.