Rome

I'm getting ready to head to the airport soon so I wanted to pop in here and do our last post.  Its been an amazing trip.  Rome was just as expected, great sights, great food and great people.  Most things you see here don't seem really.  Its like you are sitting in the middle of a movie set.  I cant wait to show all the pictures.  

Jody left me this morning and it was sad walking around by myself but the people here keep you pretty entertained.  Yesterday we walked down to the Spanish steps to go shopping but all we found was Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Versace, every expensive name brand stores for blocks.  A pair of sunglasses wouldve been too expensive.  We did find a few affordable places but I thought shopping was better in Florence.  We had a great dinner at Le Fric....Jody had the Carbonara and I had a Risotto made with Champagne and smoked cheese...YUM.  The owner recommended that we go to this rooftop bar and drink his favorite drink.  I cant remember the name but its brown sugar, limes, strawberries, and vodka...soon to be served every night at Jody's house. It was good but really strong.  There was only 1 other person there all night but we had a blast.  Good way to end our stay in Rome.  

wish you all were here with us.  

Portofino, Santa Margarita, Florence

Hello all!  So last we wrote we ended in Amalfi and were on our way to Portofino.  It is amazing there.  Its a very small town with multi million dollar yachts that fill the harbor.  We signed up for a tour to see Portofino and Santa Margarita.  We had no idea what we were in store for.  Our guide was very nice and wanted to show us her favorite view from the town at this lighthouse...little did we know that it was a 2 mile hike uphill, steep uphill.  Again, flip flops were not the best choice for walking.  We were walking for about 25min when some people passed by and said we were 1/3 of the way, I wanted to punch them and take their Gelato.  It was a nice view when we got there but seemed about the same as the view a mile back.  When we got back we were hot so we grabbed the most delicious Geltato.  It was amazing.  I dont know why we dont have it everywhere in the states.  Way better than any ice cream Ive ever had (and that includes Jeni's).  We then took a motorboat over to Santa Margarita where we had the best pizza Ive ever had in my life.  I knew when it came over it was going to be good when I could see the cheese bubbling in olive oil.  So we saw the sights and headed back for the ship.  Did we ever mention that everyone thinks we are sisters? Everyone.  If we had a Euro for everytime someone asked if we were sisters.  We would be rich.  

So next stop Florence.  We drove 2 hours through Tuscany.  Beautiful, just like the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.  when we got to Florence I have to say it was a little overwhelming.  So much shopping so little time:)  SO MANY PEOPLE.  Cant Americans find some other time to visit Europe?  We again walked to the sights, took pictures, tried every flavor of Gelato, had Lasagna, Carbonara, did I mention I am 20lbs heavier after Italy.  Food so good. Best part is bargaining for hand bags.  Seems that they do not have fixed prices anywhere.  We got some good ones:)  I talked Jody into buying hers. When in Rome....After 6 hours of walking, eating, taking pictures everyone pretty much crashed on the bus ride home.  

It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone on the ship.  I cant believe we have been gone 2 weeks.  Seems like 2 days.  Today we are going to conquer Rome.  We will be sure to let you know where the best Gelato is located.  We will do out last post later:0 Hope you all enjoyed!  WE DID!!!!

Athens, Day at Sea, Amalfi

So last we wrote we were overnighting in Athens. We decided to hit the town for dinner. We went to this cool Marina area with tons of restaurants and bars. We look at all the menus and I noticed that this one place had Lobster Spaghetti on the menu and I remembered someone telling me that it was a must have in Greece. So here I am imagining spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and succulent sweet lobster pieces. After about an hour of waiting and trying to choke down Ouzo, the biggest bowl you've ever seen came out of the kitchen across the street. Inside the bowl I found fettucine noodles with marinara sauce, mussels, clams, some other seafood and a WHOLE lobster in the shell. The man was kind enough to split the lobster in half. Since I don't like mussels, clams and seafood, I feel I was mislead. I took a bite and choked down the taste of sea life. Jody stared at me while I took my first bite and asked me how it was (since she's just as picky as me) and I told her it was okay. So she tried it and had one bite and that was it. The good news was we found a crepe shop across the street and had already stuffed ourselves with bread and dips before the "lobster spaghetti"! The crepe was amazing and we were satisfied!

The next day we took a tour of the Acropolis. What a nightmare! There were 50,000 people and 500 buses and NO organization whatsoever. It was also about 100 degrees outside. So Jody and I broke free from the tour (we were allowed!) and ran to the top of the 200 stairs and snapped about 4 photos and tried to get back down. That was when all hell broke loose! There were screaming women and children and people getting cut off from their tour groups. Thank God we made it out alive and will be happy to say we went there and saw it but also happy to never go back again.

So now we come to our Day at Sea. This was a pretty relaxing pool day for us. Although, there was complete drama at the pool with people fighting over pool chairs and some refusing to leave the stage area when the band wanted to play. So if you can picture a man on a pool chair on stage with a 5 piece brass band playing beside him. It was great for laughs! Then we had a lovely dinner at the Italian restaurant on board. Had a few drinks and decided to head to the casino. I played slots and won 46 dollars! Then we decided to play Blackjack and I lost a little bit. Jody lost 40 dollars right off the bat! I decided to move away and play the game I know, Roulette! I played for 5 minutes and walked away with 250 dollars!!! Ching ching ching!!

After the casino, we were hanging outside with lots of other people and we noticed an incredibly fast boat right by the side of our boat an Italian guy hopped on our boat! We had NO idea what was going on! Come to find out, the Italian boat police had to steer our ship through the Straight of Messina b/c it's Italy and they are anal! After we made it through the Straight, the same boat came zooming up and the Italian guy had to hop from our ship back on their speedboat! We got some cool photos to show you!

Today we were in Amalfi, Italy! Italy is beautiful! It was a small town but just gorgeous and tons of shops and restaurants. Jody and I decided to trek uphill about a mile along the coast. Again, not the smartest idea when it's about 100 degrees out and incredibly humid as well. We had sweat pouring down us and probably looked amazingly hot and gross. But we did it and then took a taxi back that cost 15 Euros for a mile. Best 15 Euros I've ever spent! We then got some gelatto that was amazing and headed back to the ship! Now we have to go b/c we've allotted our email time and we'll go broke!

Athens

hi everyone!  we had a little detour today.  we were supposed to go to delos, greece and then to mykonos, greece but when we arrived in delos this morning the water was too rough to take the tender boats to the town.  so they diverted us straight to athens, greece and we are overnighting here!  our first overnight adventure!  we arrived in athens and of course lauren and i found a taxi and headed straight to a beach.  i know, shocker!  it had gorgeous clear blue water and was just amazing.  now we are using the free internet in the port right by where our boat is docked.

yesterday, we had a tour in kusadasi, turkey.  we went to see ephesus and the terrace houses there.  google ephesus, it's amazing!  it's also HOT!  lauren and i were sweating so badly and had to take funny pictures of ourselves looking so gross.  can't wait to show them to you, we look just lovely!  

for dinner we went to our normal buffet of all you can eat sushi, steak, lamb, shrimp, pasta, desserts, etc.  they say that a normal person gains 1-2 pounds per day.  how can that be?!?!  j/k!  we actually have been trying to exercise a lot so that doesn't happen to us.  

besides eating, we went to the spa yesterday and had an amazing massage!  we really weren't productive after that!  but we needed it after all the walking and climbing we've been doing recently.  so now we're rejuvenated and ready to climb the acropolis tomorrow morning!  200 stairs compared to 600 in santorini should be CAKE!  although it is up and not down!

oh and one more thing, lauren won at BINGO this morning!!  she won 82 dollars, YAY!!!!  go lauren! 

Santorini

so Santorini was amazing!! it has definitely been our favorite place so far! it's where the sisterhood of the traveling pants was filmed so you know it's beautiful there! we went into town and walked around all the shops and went to the internet cafe. which btw, is WAY cheaper so that's our goal now, to find internet cafes! then we had a light lunch of what i thought was going to be hummus but was "cheek pees" and was not hummus but still very tasty. don't worry ya'll, we took a picture to show you! at the restaurant we met a nice brazilian girl who told us about the beach and where to rent an ATV. yes, lauren and i headed that way and rented a 500cc ATV. i have NO idea what that means but my motorcycle girl lauren says it's fast! i made lauren drive even though we gave my license since lauren left hers on the boat. i was too scared, the traffic is crazy! so we put on our super sweet helmets and tied up our backpacks and cruised the coast of Santorini to the black sand beach!! it was AWESOME! we didn't stay for fear of not finding our way back so we snapped some photos and headed back.

after our joy ride we headed back to the cable cars to get down the cliff and go back to the ship. we decided to be brave and climb down the 600 stairs that are all slanted down in our flip flops. prob not the best idea we've had so far! we made it through the sea of donkeys and their poo! it was hard with flip flops and our legs were shaky when we reached bottom but we DID IT! you'll be amazed when you see the pictures how high it is. we were pretty proud of ourselves! then we enjoyed a nice dinner and went to bed at 830pm!! what a life we have!

today we are in rhodes, greece and it's hot. we're at another internet cafe and will be heading to the beach soon. rough, isn't?!?!

Istanbul and Mitilini

Hello from Greece! Yesterday we took a tour of Istanbul and went to some interesting places. They were correct that some of the toilets are a hole in the ground. We didnt use that one:) But got some good photos. We went from place to place on a large tour bus and driving in Istanbul is scary to say the least. I think we almost hit close to 50 people on the street. I asked the tour guide if there were many traffic accidents and she said not really, hard to believe. She said that people follow this rule.....Who ever has more courage has the right of way...scary...Once back from the tour we saw a beautiful brown bag sitting in front of our door! Jody's bag just in time. We then had to report with out life vests to the Muster Staion. It was packed and we sat in chairs, soon a woman with a cane hit Jody's foot and asked if the elderly could sit down. We obviously stood right up:) Then we were laughing on the way to the lifeboat and some woman yelled at me and told me this was serious....I said, YES IT IS! and told Jody to shut it up. A side note. NO ONE WORKS IN TURKEY...or Greece. There are thousands of people in the streets. Today we were in Mitilini (Lesbos) and went to this rocky beach. The water is freezing but refreshing. After realizing that not 1 person speaks english we bought out Ouzo (42% alcohol) and headed back to the ship. I had some great pink grapefruit and Campari sorbet (mom you would love). Jody had Creme Brulee icecream..yummy! Everyone for some reason thinks we are from England not sure if that is good or bad, Santorini tomorrow and we here you can rent ATV's for the day. That will be interesting. Sorry this is random but I am typing fast for this is .95 cents a min. We love and miss you all. Peace.

Life after Asia

Guess what, Asia Turkey looks just like Europe Turkey...imagine that.  We ate at restaurant that was built in 1933.  As some of you may know Jody and I are picky eaters...the table was full of historic Turkish food but we had beef stew.  Not sure what part of the cow but it was tasty!  We did try some rice until Harry mentioned that the liver we well with the currents....Jody dropped her fork immediately.  However we did like 3 out of the 5 desserts!  YUM.  Well we are off to the boat now and not sure when we will be back on but will try soon!  Miss all of you.

p.s. we also walked by a lovely fish market, it smelled really delicious...PSYCHE

Lunch

So we are sitting in my Mom's friend Harry and Karen's room and are going with them to lunch in Asia!  Yes, I said Asia people....apparently Asia is a short boat ride away!  Can wait to see what kind of food we eat.  We are being picked up in about 15min to catch the ferry boat.  Once back we will head over to check into the cruise.  You can always go to the Oceania website and see a live cam (the ship name is the Nautica).  I can actually see the boat from Harry's room.  Jody's bag still a no show but at least I have clothes for 2 months so she can borrow. :)  Talk soon! 

day 1

first and foremost, WE MADE IT!!  and are at a gorgeous W Hotel, will send pics later.....but we didn't make it snafu free!  of course, right?!?!  let's see....it started with lauren almost missing her flight Philly to Frankfurt.  luckily, she ran FAST and made it with only 5 minutes to spare.  phew!  i had a tight connection in DC but i made it, can't say the same for my bag though :(  somehow i knew that was going to happen.  good thing i brought a carry on!  next, when lauren and i met in Frankfurt, we had to stand in about 5 different lines and no one wanted to help us.  they have great customer service, lufthansa all the way baby!  after we arrived Istanbul, we then had to wait in ANOTHER very lovely Visa line.  once we arrived the counter, the cute Turkish boy told us we had too many Visa's and sent us yet to ANOTHER line!  AWESOME!  he did tell us though that after we waited in that line, we could come right back up to his counter.  pretty sweet right???  WELL, guess again!  after the lady at the Visa counter had no idea why he sent us over, we went back to his counter while a foreign lady screamed at me pointing at her watch.  she screamed and screamed and we didn't understand one word....but she was MAD!  so the Visa boy said something to us in Turkish and we nodded and said yes and finally got the stamp!  woohoo!  next we come to baggage claim.  lucky lauren found her bags ASAP while i stood there looking for my poop brown bag to roll by.  NO LUCK.  hopefully it will be here before we board the ship or i am SOL.  then we had a roller coaster ride in the "taksi" and almost got in a few accidents.  but we're alive and it's been so worth it just from the hotel we're at!!  i just KNOW we're going to have more great stories for your entertainment!  stay tuned!!

Packing

So….I started to pack yesterday. How does one pack for 2 months??? I basically have laid out enough stuff to move to Europe forever. Lloyd walked in the room and told me that I was crazy and there was no way I would get less than 50lbs in each bag. I accept the challenge. He also reminded me of my shopping skills. Well, it’s only the first round. I need to go through and weed out all the duplicates. For those of you that don’t know…when I like a shirt I buy it in multiple colors. I also believe I won’t need 7 pairs of shoes but I WANT ALL OF THEM ANYWAY! What’s a girl to do?

Purpose

Lauren and I thought this may be a fun way to keep everyone up to date on our European adventures as we leave VERY soon! We figure we won't be able to keep in contact that much with most of our friends and family so this could be a good way to let everyone know what's going on while we are gone. However, if you know both Lauren and I, you know that between the two of us, we are going to have some GREAT stories to make you laugh your hiney off and what better what to do it than with a blog! Lauren has already told me how a co-worker was in Istanbul and her mother was offered 15 camels for her! I'm hoping Lauren and I get offered camels too! What do you think is reasonable? 20??? j/k!

So, I hope everyone will enjoy our blog! Hopefully we will be able to update every day or two on the ship. Stand by for some great stories!