Day 13 – August 19th, 2006

We write to you from this, our penultimate day on the boat. L We are sad to see our trip come to and end as we pull into our final port tomorrow. It’s back to reality soon. Today was an incredibly relaxing day at sea, but we thought of a few things we can share to give our readers a bit of a laugh.

First, to make you jealous: We slept in, had a nice breakfast, and spent hours at the pool and lounging in the sun. We won $44 at the casino on our last night to gamble. We got dressed up for formal night and had a delicious fancy dinner.

Now, to make you laugh: After searching for a good half hour for lounge chairs at the pool (we slept a little late and the crowd beat us to the pool), we finally found two right next to our new buddies from Florida. We listened to her for an hour go on and on about how she doesn’t speak to her mother-in-law and lost $5,000 in cash out of her purse at home. We definitely know more about this girl and her relationship with her in-laws than we ever should. It made us reflect on the great relationships we each have with our own in-laws. We’re hoping to leverage these great relationships towards future cruise/vacation opportunities – Libman/Brodsky Family Vacation ’08, it’s fantastic! J

But on to the good stuff- we had lunch today in the dining room for the first time. Usually we are off the boat during lunch time, but today we were at sea. When we got to the dining room, they told us we had to change because Seth was wearing a cut-off shirt without sleeves. Apparently they were fine with his swimming shorts and flip flops, though. After changing and going back down to the dining room (this had better be worth the extra effort of changing!), they sat us at a table with two other older couples - both from parts of California. The one guy worked for some sort of music industry, setting up concerts between big name entertainers and concert venues. We heard all about how Stevie Wonder and Jamie Foxx (Jamie Foxx?!) charge a million bucks for a concert but Stevie refuses to play for people who can buy a ticket – he’ll only play for charity events and fundraisers, etc. He also told us about how Los Lonely Boys are falling into a dangerous drug spiral. Los Lonely Boys??! Seth didn’t think they were popular enough to be able to afford a drug addiction. Seth remembered the concerts they were scheduled to play with Guster a year ago when they cancelled at the last minute for “family reasons.” We think we know what those “family reasons” are now. Anyways, he went on and on about how successful he is, yada yada yada. Then he tells us about how much money they spent on this cruise. Their flight that cost $2,100, which they then upgraded to first class seats. They told us about losing an easy 10 grand at the casino, and another 10 grand on shopping. Then we heard all about the 46 carat topaz necklace, earrings, and ring, surrounded by diamonds that he bought his wife. He wanted to get her a gown too, so she’d look proper when they went to all their fancy awards shows and whatnot. He said that he bought it for her to make up for the amount of money he has spent on himself lately - on his 2 new “toy” cars. The corvette he had wasn’t good enough because he wanted a T- top as well. On the way to the dealership, he saw a ’56 Buick original that he had to have. Let’s just say it was an interesting and entertaining meal.

Well, it’s been fun y’all. Tomorrow we dock in Venice and spend an extra night there. We’re a little concerned about getting our luggage from the ship to the hotel because there are no transfers available for our hotel and we’re going to need to take their version of a subway train (but instead of a subway, it goes on water, and instead of a train it’s like a bus, so it’s really nothing like a subway train) to get there. Loading 6 huge bags onto the “water bus(?)” could be interesting for the two of us. But we suppose if we survived our luggage ordeal in Barcelona, we can handle this. Besides, we’re not so sure we’ll be able to fly with any of our luggage back home – it seems as though the luggage restrictions have tightened up over the last week. We’re not sure if we’ll have a chance to post anymore, but we hope you have enjoyed reading about our journeys on our honeymoon. We have loved hearing your comments and knowing that at least a few people care about what we’re up to over here! We’ll be home Monday night and are looking forward to seeing everyone.

We are sitting downstairs in the atrium area preparing to copy and paste all this into the blog. Apparently tonight was the night for the formal champagne celebration. We’re sitting here in our hoodies and flip-flops while everyone else is still in their formalwear celebrating in a conga line to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. Oops.

Day 12 – August 17th, 2006

We woke up this morning to the boat docking in Athens! We’re back in Greece. This trip is incredible! We woke up bright and early at 6 a.m., had some breakfast, and then met our tour. Luckily our first stop on our tour, the Temple of Poseidon, was an hour and a half bus ride away, so we had a chance to get a bit more sleep. The temperature today was scorching, reaching what we think we converted to 104 degrees!!

We got off the bus at the Temple of Poseidon. After climbing to the top of the big hill, we saw the ruins of this grand temple, built 2500 years ago. We are absolutely amazed that these buildings remain from so long ago. It is unfortunate to hear that the reason why parts are destroyed is due to people, not to natural causes or weathering.

We stopped at the gift shop on the way down, where Amy found some books and posters that she wanted for her classroom, then back on the bus for an hour to reach the city center of Athens. We toured through the city on the bus, seeing Olympic stadiums and the homes of the President and Prime Minister. We then climbed our way to the Acropolis. Unfortunately the bus couldn’t take us too far, so most of the climbing was done by foot. It was hot!

Reaching the top of the Acropolis, we saw the magnificent Parthenon. Again, an incredible building still standing after 2500 years! It’s just hard to believe we were looking at something that old. We were blown away by the Greek’s knowledge of architecture and building materials. Again, it was another building that only saw destruction by the hands of people, not by natural causes. After standing for about 2200 years, it was bombed about 300 years ago as part of a holy war.

We spent time atop the Acropolis, then walked with our tour group to the Plaka (or flat lands – relatively speaking), which houses a large shopping district. We had lunch at a local restaurant. It was a traditional Greek lunch – pretty good. We sat with a nice couple from Nashville. They seemed to be pretty worldly, telling us about all of the cruising and traveling they had done. We were a bit skeptical of their worldliness though when they had no idea where Cleveland was, thinking Ohio was underneath Indiana! Oops!

After lunch we had some free time to explore the shops. We were a bit worn out from all the shopping at this point. There are only so many stores selling the exact same replica merchandise that we could handle – especially in the heat. We were happy to get back on the bus to continue our tour of the city and head back the boat.

Upon returning to the ship, we went out to the pool for a while. The sun cooled down big time and it was much more comfortable being up on the deck. Unfortunately, the main pool was crowded with a bunch of mischievous kids, so we headed to the adult pool. The adult pool was completely in the shade of the nightclub overhead, which is suspended over the top back of the ship like a spoiler on the back of a car. For this reason, the pool was frigid. After watching Amy’s teeth chatter away like it was February in Cleveland (note: it’s August in the Mediterranean), Seth decided it was time to get out of the pool and warm up under the sun. We relaxed for a long time, before heading to a late dinner at 9:30 p.m. Amy was so excited that crab legs were on the menu tonight!! Yum! Sittting one table over from us was that rude family from the Italian restaurant – they were at it again. It appeared as though they were having a heated conversation with the waiter, asking to talk to the head chef or something. They got up and left, and our waiter came over to fill us in on what just went down (apparently he could read us well and knew we were into gossip!). Apparently, the food was not up to their standards and they wanted to complain to the head chef that his food wasn’t any good. Keep in mind we just had king crab for dinner tonight. We’re glad we’re not the type of people who can’t enjoy a 12-day Mediterranean cruise because it’s not good enough for us. We’re loving everything about this cruise and would not change a thing (except maybe the length – only 2 days left?!?!). This is the perfect honeymoon. After dinner we went to see the Movie under the Stars – Over the Hedge, and then headed to bed. We’re looking forward to our day at sea tomorrow!

Day 11 – August 16th, 2006

We continue our travels today in Turkey, this time docking in Kusadasi. We’ve decided to explore the port city on our own today, opting out of an organized tour. We slept in a bit, had some breakfast, and then got off the boat when it docked around noon. Seth’s plan was to go up to the top deck and grab a slice of pizza before getting off the boat. When we got on the elevator, he got the best surprise of the trip – the person already on the elevator was holding a Burger King cup! That could only mean one thing – there was a Burger King nearby. We skipped the pizza and he was SO excited to see a Burger King right when we got off the boat. It was like a kid in a candy shop. His eyes lit up bright and wide as he wandered in and ordered his first Whopper in two weeks (they also had a sandwich called the “Big King,” which he can’t wait to see come to the states)! See Todd, it didn’t take too long for him to find his BK!

It was going to be hard to top that excitement, but we ventured into Kusadasi anyway to see what the town had to offer. We walked up and down the streets for a while, seeing the modern part of the city, as well as the Bazaar - second in size only to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. We walked around for a while, but the people were extremely pushy in trying to get you to buy their goods. It got tiring!

After a while, we went back to the boat for some afternoon sunning and relaxing! We then tried out the ship’s steak restaurant for dinner. We were hoping it would be a better, less daring experience than the Italian specialty restaurant. We were not disappointed. Amy’s shrimp cocktail appetizer was delicious and Seth’s 22 oz. porterhouse was just what he had been waiting for the whole trip (and this was in addition to two appetizers, a salad, and a desserts – gotta love cruises)! We were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was and in a nice, relaxing atmosphere. From start to finish, this dinner took about 2 hours, as opposed to the rushed 30 minute dinners we’ve been having in the regular dining room.

After dinner we tried our hand for a bit at the casino again, and then decided to head to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow in Athens!