Aboard Abroad

First - beware, dear readers.  We were shocked and dismayed to realize that we're officially 2 months behind on blogging. And they said it couldn't be done! It's our early New Year's resolution to be in real-time by January, so get ready for a blog blitz covering our cruise stops, Italy tour, awkward Thanksgiving, and our olive picking adventures. Thank you so much for reading, and happy holidays!



Cruising the Eastern Mediterranean

Our home for the next week and a half

From the moment we hit international waters, our trip started feeling a lot less international.  We were surrounded by English language menus and signs, American food, and most of all, loud Americans.  We were still blurting out Italian pleasantries for the first few hours, but soon settled into our home away from home.  We were probably the youngest couple on the ship, and definitely the only travelers taking the cruise as one leg of a budget backpacking trip.  We were a bit of a novelty with the older Americans.
So, our foreign experience was a bit compromised when our dining buddies were also from California, and our quick port stops made for rushed itineraries and missing one of our favorite parts of the city, the atmosphere at night.

Our cruis didn't include Venice, but added Naples instead

On the other hand, the major pluses were a plethora of food, no hostel-hunting and no unpacking and repacking for 2 whole weeks, and being able to hit the cities that we thought were too far to reach.  We saw Egypt, Turkey, and Greece on the itinerary and a wrapped up with a stop in Naples with enough time for pizza.

The ship also had an onboard library, movie theater with films not yet on DVD, and a travel expert, so we caught up on our entertainment and learned about places we hadn't anticipated visiting.  Off the bow of the ship, we saw the the Aegean sea, passed by the shores of Troy where the Trojan horse supposedly stood, and the toe of the boot of Italy.

Best Eats:  Plenty.

Best tips:
Cruises usually don't sell out, and the last minute deals are often time 70% off the usual asking price.
Never buy an excursion if you are at all on a backpacker's budget.  If we had purchased the Egypt excursion, it would have more than doubled the cost of our cruise.
Gambling isn't always the best way to break even on a cruise.

Best Laughs:
A backpacker's wardrobe doesn't equip one well for a cruise's formal night, so twice we had to improvise.  Note: Layering multiple semi-formal pieces of clothing does not add up to formal clothing.  But we had panache!

The view from the top deck of the coast of Istanbul