sheila's mediterranean adventure

the photo count

2008-06-23T17:11:00.002-05:00

did you vote?
well, here are the results...
my memory cards said i took about 1400 pictures.
BUT, i narrowed it down to about 800 for my web album (coming very soon!).
i will be attaching a link to my web albums. i am just working on the captions. there are two parts. part one should be ready by tomorrow and it is perfect, because it just goes up to the end of Pompeii!
Next, I will have to update my blog entries so I can then give you the visual with the second part of the photos!

the last bit about naples

2008-06-23T16:37:00.002-05:00

just to finish up. must go in order and cover everything!
after the amalfi coast, we went to Pompeii.
wow. that was very cool. it was a beautiful city... in the looming shadow of a huge volcano!
it was so exciting to see it. it really was like getting a glimpse into the past. our guide showed us how to tell if we were looking a store or a home. the stores had a groove on the threshold that held a sliding door.
the volcano buried Pompeii under many meters of ash and pumice on August 24, 79 (that's right. the year 79!!), and it was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. It had been a thriving city and a great example of life in the height of the Roman Empire.
there were a lot of stray dogs in Pompeii. i wish i had taken pictures of them - at first i thought someone had just brought their dog with them or something. after seeing a bunch of them, i was curious! turns out it is kind of a thing. the dogs of pompeii. so, if you ever visit, you can bring them some food.
i really loved this port. all of it. i will be coming back to drive the amalfi coast again and will have to visit the ruins of Pompeii again, too!

on to naples!

2008-06-11T11:46:00.001-05:00

ok, i know we are back home now and everything, (sorry to ruin the ending of the story... and the jensen family all returned safely to wisconsin and lived happily ever after... after they got over their jet-lag!) but i still want to blog about all of the places we went!
so, naples. the coolest thing is when we woke up and went across the hall to mom and dad's room (we were on the inside of the ship but their room was on the outside!) and looked out over the balcony and saw...
Mt. Vesuvius!!!
very cool. big, black, ominous. active volcano!
so, our tour guide in naples was hands down the second best guide wendy and i have ever had. we had this really cool guide in the highlands of scotland who acted out battles for us and was dreamy.
anyway, manuela was the second best guide ever. she was amazing. she warned us right away in the morning that we were going to be on a tour bus with her all day and that she was going to talk the whole time. she was very funny. and we really were on the bus most of the day.
we drove along the amalfi coast (sorrento peninsula) in southern italy. about 4 towns built into the cliffs overlooking the med. crazy beautiful. the roads were very narrow and our bus driver was phenomenal (he was a local). we spent a lot of time stopped on the road, waiting for traffic from the other direction to clear so we could proceed. manuela let us get out and take pictures, though. and she even got out and started directing traffic once.
she was also super gossip-y. she told us all you could learn about people just by looking at their laundry... mostly you could tell if they were a good housekeeper or not by how they hung it.
okay, this is getting long. more later... i still have to tell you how cool pompeii was!

florence and rome

2008-06-03T04:45:00.002-05:00

i wish i had written down the names of all the places we saw in these two cities, because i am having trouble remembering right now.
the first thing we came upon was a loading dock door that was open when it should not have been. sounds pretty mysterious, right?
well, the Academia is closed on mondays, and we were there on a monday! we knew that in advance, so had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be able to see one very important statue that we all wanted to see so badly.
that open door gave us a quick glimpse into a gallery in the Academia. we were able to peek through the open door and see Michelangelo's David statue... just from the waist down!! even from a distance and only seeing part of it, it was pretty great! the staff inside noticed us crowding outside the door and quickly shut us out - wendy got a picture of just the door, but mom got the statue! i will attach the picture when i get home!
next we saw the duomo, the outside of the uffizi gallery (also closed!!), Santa Croce (Westminster abbey of Italy - lots of famous folks buried there), the ponte vecchio (the bridge lined with jewellery shops). then we had a great lunch and had some free time. we went back to the jewellery bridge and each got cameos (well, not dad... he just paid!!). then we went back to Santa Croce and saw the graves of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Galileo, etc.
Rome was similarly impressive. we had beautifly weather and were able to see lots of stuff in Vatican City. St. Peter's Basillica was breath-taking, the Sistine Chapel was phenomenal! Next, we went to the Colloseum, which was also super cool to see!!
I can't fully describe how amazing it was to see these landmarks that i have learned about, seen pictures of, dreamed of seeing... my whole life!
of course, i have zillions of pictures and can't wait to get them all put into photo galleries on the web.
ok, i will end for now.
next up... naples (pompeii and the amalfi coast) and mykonos. sneak preview... they were both fantastic!

poor marseille!

2008-06-03T04:38:00.003-05:00

Marseille didn't stand a chance. first of all, we were all missing Barcelona dearly. second, it was a sunday so most things were closed... it was also mother's day there, so things were even more closed!! third, it was chilly and raining all day. we actually came back to the ship about an hour before we had to!! we didn't book an excursion through the ship (maybe it would have been better is we had?) so we just wandered around the streets.
it was not really bad, just not amazingly fantastic like the other places!!
we did find our way back into some old neighborhoods that were very cool. we also had some delicious pastry. and i got some herbs d'provence, that i am very excited to cook with!

whine, whine, whine

2008-06-02T14:02:00.003-05:00

i know it has been too long since i have written. i am taking motion sickness medication that makes my vision is so blurry that i can't really read, see the screen on my camera to take pictures, and especially look at the computer. it is like when you get your eyes dilated, except for two weeks!!
at least my distance vision is still fine, so i have been able to take in lots of amazing sights and scenery... i just can't tell if the pictures i have taken are blurry or not. i can't wear my glasses. it is better to have no correction than to have the wrong correction! the real problem is with my prescription sunglasses... i had to buy some cheap ones in Turkey.
the motion sickness medication also has the unpleasant side effect of dry mouth. so, i have to drink enough water to wet my mouth, but not so much that i need to go to the bathroom... it is pretty hard to find public toilets in Europe!!
aside from that annoying stuff, i am having a great time. i can't even believe all the stuff we have seen. it blows my mind. and we still have one more day at sea (tomorrow) and two days in Venice (one afternoon of that will be in Verona). we all loved Turkey more that we had imagined. we especially loved the shopping... i even bargained. i was not very good at it, but i did it!
so, like i said, tomorrow is a day at sea, so i will try to do more updates on this blog.
hope you are all well!

what we have seen since last time

2008-05-27T15:00:00.003-05:00

wow.. it is a lot! i think it may be time for another bulleted list.

the rest of barcelona:

we explored a huge city park and the beach areas in barcelona
had a fabulous lunch with amazing sangira and gaspacho
we took a taxi that dropped us off right in front of the ship
we settled in, explored the ship and bit and had a great dinner in the fancy dining room

the next day:

we slept in a bit and made sure not to eat breakfast... we wanted room for crepes and croissants!
we took a quick shuttle from our ship into Marseille
we found a cute cafe and used the phrase book to translate the menu and to figure out what we wanted to say to order. after all of that, they were no longer serving breakfast! not to worry, we found a fantastic bakery around the corner!
for the next few hours, we just wandered the streets and got pretty wet and cold - it rained all day
we came back to the ship and had another great dinner.

don´t get used to this!

2008-05-23T15:14:00.002-05:00

i am back again! so soon, i know.
getting on the internet at the hotel is easy... i doubt it will be so easy on the ship. which we get on tomorrow.

it was a long and eventful day. we are all impressed by how nice the people are here - even the locals. while we were mapping out a game plan on a metro (subway) map, a man told us he was from Barcelona and asked us if we needed any help. and we weren´t even confused! all over, people have been welcoming and friendly. good place.
here is what we did today:

breakfast outside at a cafe on the street in the Placa Catalunya
metro ride (a sort of big deal for some in the party!) to La Sagrada Familia, lift to the top of the church for some stunning views
back on the metro to Parc Guell - the Gaudi park, totally amazing and beautiful. we had lunch on the way at our fist place where no one spoke any english. we had no idea what were ordering, but it ended up being great.
a cathedral and a really cool church (Cathedral de Barcelona and St. Maria del Mar)
snack at the waterfront
walk up the bottom part of La Rambla - the part we didn´t get to yesterday.

tomorrow, we will check out and store our luggage. then off to breakfast and seeing some more sights. then we will go back to our hotel to collect our luggage, take a taxi to the ship, and go to our rooms. then, we will have a coupld more hours to play in Barcelona before the ship leaves at 9pm. looking forward to another great day!

buenas noches,

sheila

arrival in barcelona!

2008-05-22T14:54:00.006-05:00

we arrived in spain without a hitch! all is very well. we spent one fantastic day already in barcelona and all of us have quickly fallen in amor (love!) with this place!
we did get switched to a different hotel, though. they messed up our reservation. it was no big deal... we actually got a huge upgrade! this hotel is 4 stars instead of 3 and it is much more centrally located. the rooms are huge, as are the beds. and the showers are fantastic.
so, here is our new contact info at our new hotel!
Catalonia Ramblas
Pelai, 28
Barcelona
phone: 34 93 316 84 00

today, we went to see some of the crazy architecture on the block of discord. we toured the La Pedrera (click on title "arrival in barcelona" to see a picture) and learned about the genious/madman, Gaudi. then we ate some much needed lunch at a cafe on the Passeig de Gracia (reminded wendy and i of the Champs d´Elysses (sp?)). after a short rest (none of us slept very well on the plane), we hit Las Ramblas, a pedestrian marketplace street with a different theme on each block (pets, flowers). we had gelato, fruit, and then had tapas and paella for dinner. now we are back at our hotel and are about to get all caught up on our sleep so we are ready for tomorrow!
i guess that´s it for now.
except that i have to tell you how impressive it is that i am not making too many mistakes while typing. the "qwerty" part of the keyboard is the same, but the little extras are all different!

the suitcase, as promised

2008-05-19T15:59:00.003-05:00

here she is. ugh.

getting closer!

2008-05-16T13:03:00.003-05:00

so, we leave in just a couple of days!
i am having for force myself to think about the trip now after taking the past week to think about the wedding! i need to get back into trip planning mode.
i guess this is more of a reminder to me than anything else.

not super related

2008-05-10T23:10:00.002-05:00

well, i have to find a way to relate this to the cruise... because i am having a hard time thinking of anything else right now.

so, jason and i are engaged now!

here is how i am relating it to the cruise:
i figure he needed to snap me up before i met some charming italian who convinced me to stay in roma forever.

that's it for now!

Sachin's guest blog

2008-05-06T16:38:00.002-05:00

My friend Sachin is funny. At least I think so...
Here is what he wrote to me in an e-mail after my post with the link to the ship:

By the way, I think that's the "Love Boat." Tell Isaac, Gopher and the gang that I say "Hi." Everyone, except the Doc--that curmudgeon wouldn't let me sit at his table. I'm kidding. I was never on the Love Boat. I don't think I could handle a cruise ship for more than one hour. I do have interest in the Love Plane though.

the ship!!

2008-05-05T15:16:00.002-05:00

our sort of repulsively large floating hotel/city.
check it out! (hint: click on the words "the ship!!")
wendy and i will be in room a740 - that is on the "aloha" deck - just in case you want to visit us.

pre-trip blog 2, may 2008

2008-05-05T15:04:00.005-05:00

i have surmounted my two biggest obstacles - swimsuit and formal dress. i even found two of each. this is a very good omen.
now i must be ready for the trip. so why is it, then, that i am having a hard time resisting the urge to start typing a to-do list?
hold on...

ok. sorry, i just had to make an appointment with my doctor to get some motion sickness patches.
check that off the mental to-do list (mental, you see, because i have successfully resisted that urge to type it here...).

we have all of our excursions booked and i think it will be a great way to see a lot in our short time in each city. we are going to get to see a lot. yea!!

the map!!

2008-05-05T15:01:00.003-05:00

here is the map (hint: click on the words "the map!!") of all the cities we are traveling to - with comments!
coming soon - a picture of my ridiculous suitcase. i swear it was the only color they had left. it will be very easy to spot, though. must find the silver lining. i think i will name it Barbie. i can't imagine why that name comes to mind when i look at it. i guess i am just really creative.

the flight info

2008-03-03T17:47:00.001-06:00


Chicago (ORD) to Philadelphia (PHL)	5/21/08	11:34 am - 2:40 pm	US Airways
Philadelphia (PHL) to Barcelona (BCN)	5/21/08	6:20 pm - 8:25 am	US Airways

Venice (VCE) to Philadelphia (PHL)	6/06/08	11:35 am - 3:20 pm	US Airways
Philadelphia (PHL) to Chicago (ORD)	6/06/08	5:55 pm - 7:18 pm	US Airways

pre-trip blog 1, march 2008

2008-03-03T16:41:00.000-06:00

well, here we go!
i wanted to have everything ready to go so i am more likely to follow through on this blog idea.
i am getting ready to take this trip with my family and i don't want to get too annoying.
we are going so many places and are only going to get to see the teeniest fraction of what each city has to offer... my natural inclination is to read every book, watch every documentary, ask for tips from everyone i know who has been to any of these places...
but i know that will only make things worse.
now i sound really whiny.
waaaaaaa! i have to go to the mediterranean! and i only get to stay for 2 1/2 weeks! boo hoo hoo!

my plan is, instead of all that stuff up there, i will just... go. i will go and soak it in. maybe take some notes of what i did get to see, places i want to go back to, reflect on how great it will be to spend time with my fabulous family. that's it!

maybe by writing down my goals, i will be more inclined to stick with them.
here's hoping!