THE cruise.

Jonathan and I took an amazing 12 day cruise with our friends the Harpers and the Rivers from October 13th-25th. We sailed on the Norwegian Jade and our itinerary included: Istanbul, Turkey; Izmir, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece; Heraklion (Crete), Greece; Santorini, Greece; Alexandria, Egypt; Corfu, Greece; Olympia, Greece; and Athens, Greece. All in all, we hit three countries and THREE continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). The trip was absolutely amazing. Instead of hacking every detail of the trip on this blog (mainly because I am too lazy) I thought I would just include some of the highlights of the 12 day cruise. For a more detailed, and better written synopsis of the trip, read my friend Holly's blog (Jumble Life).

In particular order...here we go:

1. Being on vacation with Jonathan! Definitely THE highlight of the trip as Jonathan was away for two months training in the states for his upcoming 4-6 month "business trip" this winter. We planned this cruise as our big trip between the two times Jonathan will be away.

2. Unpacking and not repacking for 12 days. Cruising is amazing. Our normal European vacations have consisted of lots of packing and unpacking, in addition to lugging heavy luggage through airports and train stations, up flights of stairs, down tiny cobble stoned streets, etc. While I am by NO means complaining about some of our other trips, it was nice to go on a vacation where all we had to do was show up and unpack. We would go to sleep at night and wake up the next morning at a new port and/or a new country. We didn't have to lug our bags anywhere, we didnt have to look up train or bus schedules...we didn't have to worry. I highly recommend cruising.

3. Ruins. Lots and lots of ruins. We saw hundreds and hundreds of toppled marble columns, old marble walls and random chunks of stone. The boys (Jonathan, Jeff and Dan) LOVED the ruins, especially when a plaque with LOTS of writing was placed near ruins. The boys read EVERYTHING: every word, every date, every name...EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong Holly, Erica and I loved seeing ruins and learning about history, but when you are looking at a toppled marble column there is only so much to look at and read about. That being said, we did see some pretty amazing stuff.

-----Ephesus: Ruins in Turkey, Ephesus was a thriving city for centuries, but most well known as home to the Ephesians in early AD times. It is said that Mary (mother of Jesus) lived here, and Paul (the apostle) visited often and wrote many letters to the church of Ephesus.

-----The Palace of Knossos: Pretty much completely ruined, but seeping in history. This was the home of King Minos and prior to that was home to rulers and kings as far back as 4,000 BC! Presently, it looks like a bunch of low walls and marble stones.

-----Olympia: Home of the original Olympic games. The temple of Zeus was on this site and was one of the seven wonders of the world. The temple is completely destoryed; every column is toppled and the statue of Zeus is gone (read: stolen), but in its day it was an amazing and sacred sight to the Greeks. It was pretty neat to see Olympia just months after this years Olympics...so much history.

-----The Acropolis: Incredible. Breathtaking. Under RECONSTRUCTION. The Parthenon is incredible to look at in person, but was surrounded by scaffolding and cranes during our visit. The views of Athens from the acropolis are incredible.

(On the left is ruins of Knossos (a palace built 3000 years ago on a sight that has been inhabited for over 6,000 years)

(On the right: Jonathan and I standing in front of the grounds used for sprinting and wrestling at the first olympics in Olympia, Greece)

4. Beaches. When you live in England, being on a WARM beach is amazing, and rare. The islands of Mykonos and Corfu were beautiful and gave us a chance to work on a tan.

A beach in Mykonos
5. Food. When you go on a cruise you eat. If I could have worn elastic waist band pants the whole time, I would have. The food is all you can eat on board, and we ate all we could. Everynight we had 3-4 course meals (desserts ALWAYS included). The food was really good and also gave us all a souvenier: 3-4 pounds of muffin top to bring home with us. (for those not familiar with Muffin Tops: they are indigenous to England (though have been spotted worldwide). Muffin tops are the phenomenon of tummy excess spilling over the top of pants that are too tight. ) Greek food was by far my favorite. In Santorini we ate some of the traditional greek snacks including Hummus, tzatziki (my favorite), and fried filo-wrapped feta cheese drizzled in fresh honey. If I could live in Greece, I would.

6. Egypt. An incredible experience. You see the pyramids and the Sphinx on t.v. all the time, you hear about them, you learn about them in World Civilization in school but seeing them in person is something else entirely. We took a bus from Alexandria to Giz, and when we were finally able to see the pyramids out of the window I was awstruck. They are huge, and considering they were built 4,000 years ago without modern technology it is completely mind-boggling to try to figure out how the Egyptians did it. As amazing as the sites were, it was also shocking to discover that in addition to being an archeological marvel, they are also littered with TRASH. No joke, there were wrappers, empty bottles and camel poop ALL around the pyramids...right up to the base of the stones. Pretty disappointing, but still amazing to see the pyramids.

In addition to seeing the pyramids, we also had the chance to tour tombs with colored writing still on the wall, ride a jeep through the Sahara, and my favorite...we got to ride camels through the Sahara at sunset. (side note: DO NOT try to pet a camel that you have just ridden through the desert...they WILL try to bite you[ahem...Holly]. Turns out they are pretty angry animals. )

I'm going to stop there....because this became a much longer blog than anticipated! If you can't tell, we had a great time on our trip and are highly encouraging all of our friends to try to take a cruise.

Until our next trip....