Back in Rome

Well, I disembarked from the ship this morning at 7:00am and headed to the airport. I'm staying at a hotel in the area. Luckily they were able to check me into my room at 9:30 this morning. I was going to go into Rome but the rainy clouds and my head cold led me to just stick around here.

I just had a great Margarita Pizza for dinner. I'm going to reorganize my suitcase and then turn in for the night. I head to the airport at 8:00am tomorrow (midnight Dallas time) and after a lay over in Chicago, I get to Dallas around 9:00pm. It'll be a long day.

I had a really great vacation! Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful graduation gift! I will forever remember this trip. I look forward to catching up with everyone when I get home. Thanks for reading! I'll keep you posted about the next trip I decide to blog!

Thar she blows!

We sailed by the Island of Stromboli this afternoon. It has been erupting several times a day for over 2,000 years. We didn’t see an eruption, but it was puffing smoke as we cruised by. One side of the Island is lava flow straight into the ocean. Very cool to see from our perspective.

Sicily

Sunrise over Italy

First off, I hope everyone in Texas is safe in this bad weather. I’ve been tracking Hurricane Ike on CNN in my stateroom. Scary.

We had some drama onboard last night. We were about an hour out of Valletta when the Captain came on and announced we were heading back to remove an ill crewmember. It must have been pretty bad since we have doctors on board…and a morgue. Rumor has it one of the cabin stewards was found unconscious in his room. We got an update later, once we had set sail again, that the crewmember was stable and doing better than expected…but no details. Speaking of sickness, 38 people got food poisoning on one of the tours in Turkey. I talked with one of them and they’ve all made quick recoveries. I’ve been a little under the weather for a few days now, but just with a sore throat and congestion. It hasn’t interfered with my trip much, but I do head to bed pretty early. Hopefully it’ll clear up before I have to get on the plane Monday.

Enough about all that, let’s talk about Sicily! The view off my balcony this morning was the Straight of Messina. I could see both Sicily and Italy. I headed off on a tour to Tindari, about 45 minutes outside of Messina, our port city. On the bus we learned that Sicily has been under pretty much everybody’s rule in the area: Greek, Roman, Spanish, French, etc before finally coming under Italy’s rule.

First we visited the Tindari Ruins. Below you’ll see pictures of the Greek Basilica (A Roman structure but using Greek methods and materials) and the Greek Theater:

Next we walked over to the Sanctuary of the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna was a Byzantine statue that according to legend was left behind by unknown sailors from the East after their ship ran ashore. The statue was carried up the hill and a church was erected around it to allow visitors. To this day it is a popular pilgrimage location and the church has increased in size to accommodate visitors coming to see the Black Madonna. Here are pictures of the church, the Madonna, and a mosaic of the statue’s discovery. Little confession, the church had two Black Madonna’s and I couldn’t really understand our guide so I have no idea which is the real one. I’ve included photos of both.

Ceiling of the Sanctuary

Here's a shot of the city of Messina. It doesn't have too much going on but it does have some pretty churches.

The statue on Forte San Salvatore. She is saying (roughly) "I am blessing your city and your citizens." Vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus

Malta

So this morning I woke up in Valletta, Malta. The Knights of St. John ruled this small country until Napoleon forced them to surrender in 1798. The Knight of Malta then left for Italy. Malta was only under French rule 2 years and was then taken over by the British who ruled until the 1970s. Today Malta is an independent country and part of the European Union.

The Upper Barracca Gardens have great views of the Grand Harbor.


Valletta is the modern day capital. St. John’s Co-Cathedral (1578) was one of the first stops on our morning tour. It is large yet simple on the outside but once you step inside the baroque décor is overwhelming. Here are some pictures:


Malta is 97% Catholic and there are about 365 Catholic churches. That’s a lot of mass. The Church of Our Lady of Victory was the first church built by the Knights in Valletta. It was built in 1566 to celebrate victory over the Turks.
Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck houses sacred relics of the saint who was shipwrecked on the island in 60 AD.

After touring around Valletta, we headed over to Mdina – Malta’s old capital. Here is the Mdina city gate:


The Cathedral:

Vilhena Palace – The Grand Masters’ Palace which is now the Museum of Natural History.

And here I am having a little fun in Mdina.

After my tour took me back to the ship, I headed out on foot to explore Valletta some more. I really like the city. It helps that the official language is not only Maltese, but English as well. The buildings are all amazing – limestone and iron with shutters in varying colors.
We set sail tonight for Sicily. Messina will be my last city before heading back for Rome! Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday Isaac!

At sea

First of all, Happy Birthday Jane! I hope you have a great one.

I started of this morning doing the On Board for the Cure 5k Walk. Holland America has been raising money for the Susan G. Komen foundation for a couple of years and raised over $1 million. I signed up, got my t-shirt, and joined a big crowd on the 3^rd floor walking deck. One lap is 1/3 of a mile so our 5k was just over 9 laps.

Other than that I’ve been sunning and lounging around today. For a solo traveler, I definitely have more fun out in the cities, but find on board time relaxing. After several hours out in the sun while in port, your energy tends to get zapped for evenings. Luckily, I’ve had no problems at all with seasickness. I lose my balance every now and then if the seas are rough, but things have been pretty calm in the Mediterranean Sea.

There are roughly 1900 passengers onboard and about 1 crewmember for every 2 guests. Even with those high numbers, the boat feels smaller than I expected. The majority of guests are American and Canadian, but there are also lots of Europeans, Australians, and Kiwis. I would say about 80% of people are over 70, so that leaves about 300-400 under. There are very few children and I would estimate 100 or so people in my age range.

I leave you with some pictures from around the boat. Tomorrow we are in Malta, a country about 60 miles south of Sicily in between Italy and Africa.

The dining room

My Room

The Aft pool with a view of Croatia

Observation Deck up on 10 (there are 11 public floors)

Tied in securely at dock

View of the ship while in port

Turkey

So today I spent the day in Kusadasi, Turkey. It was my one stop in Asia. 5% of Turkey is in Europe, but Kusadasi is not. We started out the day heading up the mountain to the House of Virgin Mary at Ephesus. It is a reconstructed house on top of the foundation of the believed original house of the Virgin Mary, where she lived out her life after the death of her Son. The Vatican maintains this site and 3 nuns and 2 priests care for it.

After that, we headed to Ancient Ephesus to see the ruins. The site is thousands of years old but most of the uncovered sections can be attributed to the Roman times.

Celsus Library

Roman Potties

25,000 person Theater

Photo of a photo I bought in Ephesus

Afterwards we went back to Kusadasi and saw a rug demonstration. It was very interesting but I did not buy a rug as they cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Instead I went to a pub and had some Turkish beer. It was really good, I’ll have to look for it in the states. Carissa and Matt, you guys will have to see if they have it in London.

Well, tomorrow we are at sea all day so I'll be posting a 'life on the ship' blog since I don't touch on that much in these posts. Hope everyone is doing good!

Santorini

This morning we arrived at the Greek island of Santorini. I went to a wine tasting at a vineyard in Oia, toured around Oia (pronounced EE yuh), went to an archaeological museum in Fira and then toured around Fira and had lunch. I can’t begin to describe how beautiful it is here so I will let the pictures tell the story. I took over 100 pictures, but I won’t subject you to them all.








Now after a day touring this hilltop villages, I had to get down somehow....
Meet my new friend.....We set sail for Turkey tonight!