Venice, Italy

Travel Diary Day 13
Venice, Italy

1. This makes our 3rd time to visit Venice. This place never gets old and I hope we continue to come back many more times.

2. We ordered room service for breakfast so we could enjoy the sail into Venice on our balcony. Sailing in and out of Venice is a highlight in itself.
3. For the first time in 2 weeks, we had cloudy skies and a cool breeze today. It felt amazing!! It looked to be a potentially rainy day, but that was okay because I always pack ponchos. Before every trip, I go to Walmart and buy a couple $2 ponchos. We almost always use them at some point on a trip.
4. In the past on our visits to Venice, we have ridden the gondolas, stayed in the Hotel Rialto, eaten at the cafes and restaurants, visited St Marks Square, seen the famous landmarks along the canals, etc. But what we had not done before is visit the popular islands of Murano and Burano that are a short distance from Venice. So that was our main plan for the day: visit those two islands.
5. We got off our ship and onto a small boat which took us to Murano first.

6. Murano is an island known for its glass factories. On the island, there are multiple factories that make various glass items, from chandeliers, to cups, to vases, to just about anything.
7. We visited the Marco Polo factory and were shown a demonstration of how they create what they do. It's amazing and the glass items are stunning!!

8. After the demonstration, we shopped the showrooms. The prices are insane but when you consider what you are getting and the authenticity of it and the talent/time it takes, it makes sense. We saw chandeliers for $250,000, glass animals for $120,000, etc.
9. We thought this would be a great place to get the girls a souvenir. Not the place to get Nick a souvenir though- highly doubt he's into glass figures.
10. We got both girls a special (small) gift there that is specific to their likes. I know the girls will treasure them - well, we hope they do.
11. We left Murano and sailed over to Burano. And Burano is where I end up wanting to stay for the rest of my life. No kidding.
12. Burano is just a sweet, charming, colorful, quiet island. Yes there are tourists, but probably never enough to disturb the charm of this island.

13. The whole time we were there, I kept telling Brent "This is it. This is where I could live forever. It's like a story book ending". If you know me well, I'm not a city girl. I'm a bit of a homebody. I'd rather come to your house or you come to mine for dinner, rather than meet at a restaurant. If we do meet at a restaurant, I want to be able to walk there. I want to live in a small place where you walk into the cafe, and the owner knows you. I want to live in a small area, where neighbors and friends feel more like family. I could tell this small, charming, colorful island was just that.
14. Brent has some city boy in him so living there would bore him to pieces. So maybe he can retire in Naples, FL (which is already the plan) and I'll just make my way over to the island of Burano. We can visit each other right?
15. Burano is known for its lace. There are several lace shops on the island. We didn't buy any lace but they make some beautiful pieces.

16. The only thing we bought in Burano were some sweet treats from the bakery. They have a special cookie they make unique to them so we decided to try it. It was like a shortbread cookie with a taste of lemon. Pretty good!
17. With the cloudy skies all day, it finally decided to downpour during our visit in Burano. Didn't stop us from enjoying the place, but we did have to utilize those ponchos!

18. Overall, today was fantastic. Venice never disappoints, the dreary weather was welcoming, the glass factories on Murano were interesting, and the charm of Burano won me over. Double thumbs up!
19. Venice is our last port on this memorable two week adventure! Tomorrow morning (early!) we start our journey back home.
20. I'll do one more travel diary entry tomorrow during our layover in London. It'll consist of our favorites, as well as other events in the past 2 weeks that we simply won't forget.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Travel Diary Day 12
Dubrovnik, Croatia


1. We have visited Zadar, Croatia before but not Dubrovnik. We've always wanted to visit so we were excited to be here today.

2. Dubrovnik is on the Adriatic Sea and is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean.
3. Today's crowds proved the above to be true. Lots of traffic, lots of tourists.
4. Dubrovnik is among the 10 most preserved medieval walled cities in the world. So that's where we started our day: touring the Old City Walls.

5. There were steps to climb and the sun to battle, but the views were worth it. It takes about an hour to walk the entire wall around the old town.
6. Water sports are popular on the Adriatic Sea. Many people kayaking, parasailing, jet skiing, swimming, and boating. The water is crystal clear and we could see 20-25ft down.

7. Lots of private yachts docked here too. As much as we love the sea, if Brent ever has a winning lottery ticket, the first selfish move we will make with the money is buy a yacht to sail across the seas. No joke.
8. What makes Dubrovnik so beautiful? It's a city filled with history, stone buildings/homes with orange roofs, it's on the gorgeous Adriatic Sea, and the city itself is spotless. I kinda think I could live here.

9. After walking the old
City walls, we were beyond hot and sweaty. The heat just drains everything out of you no matter how much water you drink.
10. It was time to be adventurous and find a beach. You never know when you will come
Upon a beach and have time to jump in, so we always take a bag ashore with our swimsuits.
11. We started to search around and ask the locals for beach recommendations. We found a guy who was willing to take us to St Jacob beach in his boat.

12. St Jacob beach is about a mile from the old
City. You can relax on the beach with views of the old city in front of you. So we jumped at the chance and hopped in his boat.
13. The beach was great. It definitely wasn't sandy. Small rocks on the beach and larger, slippery rocks as you enter the water which made for an adventure in itself, but it was so much fun!

14. This small beach had a restaurant where we decided to grab some lunch and enjoy the local beer. Great food/beer for a great price.

15. We had told our boat guy that we wanted to spend 2 hours at the beach. He agreed to come back and pick us up then. Well, he never showed up. Thankfully another guy came over in his boat to pick up some other tourists and he gave us a boat ride back to the town. Super nice guy!
16. We have fallen in love with Dubrovnik. We want to come back and stay a few days next time. It's definitely in our top 10 favorite Mediterranean cities now.
17. Oh!! And today is Bismarks birthday. He is the big 8 now. Can't wait to celebrate him when we get home 🎉🐶🎉

Albania

Travel Diary Day 11
Durres, Albania

1. We spent our day sightseeing and learning about Albania. Albania is a place we have never been, nor knew much about.

2. We got off the ship early in the morning and met our tour guide who we both loved! He was born and raised in Albania and is very proud of his country. He can also talk for 5 hours straight without taking a breath.
3. Instead of touring the city where we docked (industrial and dirty area), we drove an hour to the capital city named Tirana.
4. On our drive, there was a motorcade transporting their Prime Minister that passed us. That was neat.
5. This country is very poor. The unemployment rate is 26% and lots of Albanians immigrate to other countries simply for work.
6. They speak their own language here. It is nothing remotely close to Greek or Turkish. They use the Latin alphabet but other than that, it's a language that belongs to them only.
7. 56% of the country is Muslim.
8. From 1946-1991, they were a communist country. We even walked by the house where the dictator lived during their communist years.

9. Fact for the day- Mother Teresa was Albanian. She was born in Macedonia but to Albanian parents. She only visited Albania twice in her lifetime. She wanted to visit more but because it was a communist country for many years, she couldn't. The airport is named after her.
10. We did a walking tour of the capital city, Tirana. It was yet again, HOT!!
11. There are a lot of old and dirty buildings, but in the last 5-7 yrs European and Chinese investors have built some nice hotels and buildings. So all around town, it's really a mix of dirty/old and new/clean.
12. They don't have a McDonalds but a KFC is coming soon. I prefer KFC over McD's anyways so they made a good choice.
13. Lots of gypsies around. We know their tactics, so i always held my belongings tightly and stayed alert.
14. We had a stray dog walk around town with us for 2 hours. He went everywhere we went. When we would visit inside a building, he would wait outside in the shade for us to come back out. I fell in love with him. I shared my water bottle and my granola bar with him. I'll miss that guy.

15. We visited the mosque which is the oldest building in town. Everyone has to remove their shoes and Ladies have to cover their head to enter so I stole Brent's ball cap off his head so I could go in. It worked and they let me in. Didn't snap any pictures inside.

16. Ended the day by visiting the National Archeological Museum which is the largest building in town. Our tour guide wanted to walk and talk us through every item in that museum. The museum was 3 floors and had no A/C. Thought we were going to faint...or just die. Bless the guides heart. He's such a proud Albanian...But we struggled through the museum and were just ready to be done for the day!

17. So overall, I'm glad we experienced Albania and we certainly learned a lot. But it's still a very, very poor country and has a long way to go.

Corfu, Greece

Travel Diary Day 10
Corfu, Greece

1. Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It's a very popular tourist destination.

2. We were actually in Corfu last summer, so we were familiar with the port today.
3. Last summer we left Corfu with mixed reviews. We had visited the town first thing in the morning and none of the cafes or stores had opened for the day. We had planned for the afternoon to be beach time, so we left for the beach before anything opened in town. Our time in town was disappointing and that's how we remembered it.
4. Knowing that we were to visit Corfu again on this trip, we opted to stick with a day at the beach since we knew we enjoyed that last time.
5. There are 5 popular beaches within a 40 min drive of the pier. Taxis are available at the pier to take you to any one of them. Last summer we visited Glyfada Beach and loved it. But today we switched it up and opted to visit Kontoyalos Beach.
6. We got to the beach around 10am and didn't waste any time jumping into the Ionian Sea. The clear blue water felt great, and the waves were rowdy. Excellent boogie boarding waves, if only we had a boogie board with us. 7. We spent 4 hours at the beach playing in the waves, sitting on the sun beds and walking the beach.

8. A local dog befriended Brent as we were walking the beach. The dog followed Brent, waited on Brent, and would sit next to him. It was so sweet.

9. After the beach, we came back to the ship and realized we had a few hours until sail away. We both decided we had enough time to take the shuttle into town and grab a bite to eat.
10. I'm so glad we opted to go into town. Like I said above, last summer we missed out on what the town is like. This time it was the late afternoon and everything was open and busy. So fun! Loved the town and so glad we gave it a second chance.

11. Since today is our last Greek port to visit, our mission in town was to grab some Greek food one last time. We settled on a pork gyro and a lamb kabob. So yum!! We love Mediterranean food, especially Greek!
12. It was a busy, full day! So glad we experienced Corfu, Greece again!

Sea Day

Travel Diary Day 9
Sea Day

1. Not much to report on today. It was a scheduled sea day meaning the ship didn't dock or anchor anywhere. We've been sailing since we left Santorini yesterday and will arrive in Corfu, Greece tomorrow morning.
2. The seas have been calm and we've had clear beautiful skies.
3. As much I love traveling and seeing new places, sometimes I tell Brent we need to book a transatlantic cruise, meaning the ones where they reposition the ship from one side of the ocean to the other. Days of being at sea with no stops. That's how much I love being at sea.
4. I'm almost finished with the book, Cancel the Wedding. I couldn't put it down today. I'm dying to know how it ends! I'd say it's been a great book so far.
5. Today we sat out on the deck for a couple hours, took a nap, watched the news, read, ate, and then repeated it all again. 6. I couldn't post this without some sort of pictures attached so I snapped a few of our "home away from home".