When Josh and I decided on our Honeymoon trip, going on a cruise was recommended, and it was an excellent idea. It was wonderful to be able to unpack our bags and move into a hotel room, and yet see many different places. It was like staying in a resort, but having the experiences of a multi-country trip. All in all, cruises are a great vacation idea.

We were on Norwegian Cruiseline, on the Norwegian Jewel. Our captain was Norwegian, and loved to come on the loud speaker in the morning, before we woke up, and say, “A verry verry good morning to you all, Ladies and Gentlemen… this is your captain speaking…” Then he would give a few announcements. Next would come our cruise director, Paul. He would repeat whatever the captain just said (in case we couldn’t understand his accent?). Occasionally our cruise’s activities director would come on and say, “Does everyone know what time it is? IIITTTT”S  BINGO TIME!!” Another reason these announcements became so funny is because we had some members from Second City onboard to entertain us, and they made up a great skit about a man trying to propose, and every time the mood was just right, one of these announcements would come on. Hilarious.

On board we had lots of things to do. Our favorite: eating!

The main dining room: Tzar’s Palace

The main dining room: Tzar’s Palace

We also enjoyed watching the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.

Or swimming in the pool and sitting in the hot tub.

Pool

Waterfall at the pool

Josh and I spent some time playing cards in the game room during our sea days.

Library

Game Room

One thing that was awkward when we first arrived was how narrow the hallways are. They are very repetitive, and confusing at first. After a couple of days though, you might not get lost anymore.

Hallways to cabin

Our cabin

Our cabin

Our bathroom

Shower

Everyone has to do a safety drill when they board! It helps us know what to do in case of emergency. In a real emergency, everyone would panic and chaos would ensue, but we can pretend that people would act with good judgement and all meet in the places they were supposed to.

The Casino

A bar

One of the many lounge areas

A restaurant

The cabana band playing some tunes

The Japanese specialty restaurant

Sushi bar and lounge are below

The Karaoke Bar. Josh didn’t let me sing, but we did play Who Wants to be a Millionaire there.

The Auditorium, during a musical show

One of our favorite onboard activities was the game-show nights. Josh and I went to all of them, and we almost always got to play. It was fun, and we were pretty good. They also video-taped some of them, and Josh’s lack of trivial knowledge amused the whole ship for several days. Luckily, when it was my trivial knowledge, they didn’t record it! For the record, international traffic signs are cicles. America is once again, NOT international in its customs.

I have pictures of Istanbul, but unfortunately, I don’t know what most of the things are. Josh and I had a nice drive though Istanbul from the port to the airport, so my tour guide was my taxi driver, who couldn’t always understand what I was asking, although he was very nice. On a side note, I always feel a little awkward in Muslim countries talking to men because I don’t know if I am supposed to, and I don’t know how to act so that I don’t offend them more than I already do by being a woman and a westerner and a Christian. Turkey was a lot nicer than Egypt though, and I would love to visit there again. It looked like a beautiful and interesting country, with forests and impressive cities and good roads where people follow traffic laws. It’s on my list of places to go again.

Minarets from the many mosques, as seen from our balcony. Our taxi driver explained that there were several famous mosques, I believe that one of the left is - since it has six minarets.

Either this is part of the wall that used to be the edge of the city of Istanbul, or this is an aquaduct. Either way, it’s impressive.

This is part of the wall of the old Istanbul.

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Josh and I woke up to drumming outside of our window, I staggered over to pull back the blind to find this group of musicians making some noise to welcome us to their country. Welcome to Turkey.

Josh and I got going and headed out to find a taxi to take us to Ephesus. All the cab drivers had a set rate to go see the church built where Mary the mother of Jesus lived at the end of her life and died, and to Ephesus. So we got acab to take us out there. The countryside of Turkey was very beautiful, the mountains were amazing, but I don’t have a lot of good pictures because our driver decided that he could drive 120 mph up a very twisty mountain road. It was crazy. The other cars all followed the speed limit… not him.

This is the church built where Mary lived. It’s a really beautiful place, in the woods, very peaceful and soothing. One of my favorite places we visited on our trip.

We arrived in Ephesus. If you want to see good ancient ruins, I would highly recommend this site. It is basically a city, the streets, the shops, the amphitheatre, all still there for the most part. There are arches and the plumbing and sculptures.

This is the little amphitheatre. Basically, town hall. It’s interesting because they followed the same principles that we still follow, to have nice seats in the front, and as you go up, you get the crappy seats.

Behold - the arch!

The city street.

This was a fountain, I believe.

This is the huge amphitheater that the Ephesians dragged the Apostle Paul, shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” It’s HUGE. It’s so incredible to walk on the same roads that Paul did, stand in the same buildings. It seems so remote, yet they are still there.

A larger view of the size of that amphitheater.

The best sign… found just outside the Ephesus ruins.

At the end of the day, a peacock awaits us in our room.

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Today Josh and I were in Santorini. We signed up for one of the cruise excursions: a trip to a live volcano. So, early in the morning, Josh and I met with the other people in our group and got on a smaller boat to go over to the volcanic island.

When we got there it was very interesting looking. The whole island was created out of dried lava, but not in big slabs, it was in small pebbles and dust. We hiked up to the top of the island, maybe 2 miles, and the tour guide showed us some places where the steam was billowing out of the ground from the volcano. They are always monitoring it, to make sure it’s not about to erupt, but it was still interesting to think about it suddenly exploding. I was disappointed that it wasn’t like in the movies, where you can look down and see the lava bubbling. Instead, it looked like a desert, with only minor traces to indicate that there really was an active volcano underneath.

The volcanic island

Steam issuing from a hole in the ground

Look! An alligator! This is actually the edge of the island of Santorini, and it’s amazing likeness to an alligator.

I love the boats. These ones were beautiful.

After out volcano tour, we headed over to Santorini. This island is very interesting, in that half of the island is lined with cliffs of black rock from the volcanoes, and the other half dips into the ocean with beaches. Our original plan had been to travel to the other side of the island and hit the beach, since it was a hot day. We were docked on the cliff side, and in order to get onto the island, there were only two choices. You could hike up a winding road that zig-zags to the top (or buy a ride up this road on the back of a donkey), or you could pay to ride the lift. We opted for the lift, and rode in the little 4 person car up to the top.

Almost all the buildings in Santorini are painted white. I don’t know if that is to keep them cooler, or just to look nice for the tourists coming in on boats. The white houses on the black cliffs are beautiful.

The island of Santorini

An amazing sail-boat. It was gorgeous and huge.

We walked through the streets, and it was a maze. We got some lunch, which was not nearly as good as the other places we’d eaten, and more expensive. Then we attempted to get to the beach. We couldn’t even find a road that had cars on it for a long time, at the coast, all the traffic is pedestrian, so there are only pedestrian roads. When we finally found the real city behind all the coastal shops, we weren’t able to find a rental car, or a bus stop, or anything. We tried to walk there for a little while, but we were both hot and tired and getting grumpier by the minute.

We headed back to the shops and toward the ship, and finally made it to the cliff. The line to go down on the tram was winding itself through the streets, seemingly endless. Josh and I figured that walking down the cliff would be a lot easier than walking up it, so we decided to attempt it.

The road down was awful. I highly recommend the tram to all. The reason the walkway is so bad is because of the hundreds of donkeys that walk up and down it every day. It’s covered in manure, and stinks to high heavens. The manure is also hard to walk on, not because you’re trying to avoid it, but also because it can be slippery, and the hill is very steep. We didn’t fall, but it was tricky.

There were some tourists who rode the donkeys down. They were screaming and yelling like they were about to die, since the donkeys RAN down the steep hill. It was very funny.

The donkeys to carry you up and down the cliffs

The trail to the bottom

Taking a break from dodging asses, about halfway down.

It was a long day, and we were so glad to get back to our lovely ship and rest.

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We sailed into Iraklion, which is on the island of Crete. It was a beautiful, but very windy day. The Mediterranean Sea is always so beautiful - it’s the color of aquamarine that you always imagine when you go to the ocean, and then the water is usually a gray or blue instead.

Very close to the port was a long walkway that jutted out into the water, and had an old fort attached to it. Josh and I decided to walk down it and enjoy the beautiful day.

That’s my windy-day hairdo.

The fort - called Castello del Molo.

We went inside the fort, and it was pretty interesting. Very tall, with a lot of different rooms. I mean, it’s still an old fort, basically big stone walls and empty rooms that used to be used for soldiers quarters and supplies. But this one had a gorgeous view from the top of the city and the sea.

After exploring the fort we headed into the city to find some lunch and see what else there was to see. We found this old church, that had a very interesting chandelier… it had miniature stained-glass icons decorating it. You can see it closer if you decided to look at all the pictures.

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