Paris is Amazing Too!!

After out cruise, 6 of us decided to extend out vacation a few more days and spend it in Paris. What an ordeal we had no idea we were embarking. First off, the day we got off the ship was planned we were spending it in Barcelona, which was great. It was perfect weather and bought bus tickets so see as much of the city as we could. We were out all day and saw some pretty cool stuff like building by the famous Gaudi. We saw his cathedral which is still under construction, a few other buildings scattered among the city, then we saw a city park he built which was pretty cool. He isn't my favorite artist because his stuff was so out there, but it was cool to look at. But the story really begins when we get to the train station to catch our train to Paris. We booked to overnight cars, so we could sleep during the night and be refreshed when we arrived in Paris the next day. We were all so excited because non of us had taken a train before and not only that but non of us had gotten a sleeper car before either and we were so excited for that. Well when we tried to pick up our tickets we were told that the French were on strike and the train was not going to arrive. So here we were stuck in Barcelona with no way to get to Paris. We were a little ticked well probably more than that. Plane tickets were too expensive, so that left us the bus. And that's what we did we took a bus overnight and into the day to Paris with everyone else who was suppose to be on that train. Pretty crazy huh. So we hoped on a bus with no bathrooms and rode over night for 15 hours and had the worst nights rest ever. What was also pretty bad was our rest stops. The bus drivers stopped every 3 hours to smoke and of course they didn't stand away from the bus, it was so gross. I was pretty much fed up with the French!!!

The next day we finally got into Paris and it was raining. We tried to catch a taxi, but again every taxi that drove by ignored us in the rain with all our luggage. It was crappy and we were ready to go home. We were dreading the fact that we still had 3 days in Europe. I think we were all ready to go home. Well 2 from our party left the rest of us at the train station and went to get a taxi to bring back, they finally did and almost 2 hours after we had arrived in Paris we finally arrived at our Hotel (which was a hole mind you).

We showered up and set off to at least catch something our first night in Paris, we decided to see the Eiffel Tower. Well I have to say the Eiffel Tower made up for our first impressions of France. The tower was awesome. We got tickets to the top, which was awesome too. I think even better than the top of the Empire State Building. We took so many pictures! After spending lots of time at the tower we did a little shopping, we found some great art and I bought some. We also found a pub and had a nice little dinner in Paris. It got late fast since we arrived so late, and the metro closes around 12:30 or something and we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to the hotel after that. The next day we decided to go to the Palace of Versailles. That place was amazing. The grounds itself was breathtaking. We spend most of the morning and afternoon there, but it was awesome. We did head back to Paris afterwards to get on a river boat and float up and down the Sine River that evening, which too was breathtaking. Before that we did go and see Notre Dame. So amazing.

Our last day in Paris we just explored the city one last time. I went with the guys to The Louve

Museum. We didn't have much time there, but we did our best. We saw the Mona Lisa, and other famous statues and art. We did any other last minute shopping and eating before the day was over. And we left for the states the next morning bright and early. It was a great and amazing trip.

Cruising the Mediterranean

I am the worst blogger ever. I think this should be my standing line for ever post, wait I think it is ;)

So a lot has actually happened since the last post of mine. I've been to several weddings this year, which has brought me to Utah a couple of times and Nauvo for the first time. That was a great trip. I wish I could tell you more but really that was a long time ago what I really want to share is the now. I just got back a couple weeks ago from the best birthday present I ever gave myself. I turned 30 a month ago and I told myself I was going to do something amazing for my 30th birthday and I did. I had the opportunity to go on a 11 day cruise to the Mediterranean and it was amazing. Not only did I do a cruise but we extended out trip for a few days and went to Paris, also amazing well not at first but it turned into amazing after a day or so. This my first cruise and I thought it was awesome, I would recommend it to anyone. It was a Disney cruise and I think it was great. Disney can pull off an awesome vacation. There was so much to do and see. It was a party on the boat all the time and when we were on port we were seeing as much of the countries as we could, it was craziness all the time but wonderful craziness.

I went with a group of peeps from church there were 4 boys and 4 girls all pretty much first time to the mediterranean. We flew into Barcelona, well let's say we barely flew into Barcelona due to 9 delays to get there from Philly from our airlines but we finally made it with a sigh of relief. When we got on board we went straight to our courters and unpacked and freshened up for dinner. Our room was pretty cool we were upgraded to a bigger room which was awesome and we had a balcony, so great! Dinner was amazing and it was like that the whole 11 nights. It was a 4 course meal I couldn't believe how much food there was and it wasn't just food it was gourmet food that made our mouth water with just its smell. The first day we were at sea so we got to explore the boat and see what it had to offer us. They had everything; several theaters, dinner halls, 3 pools, hot tubs, a couple of adult clubs, jazz club, and so much more.

The run down of where we went:

Like I mentioned we flew into Barcelona and boarded the ship immediately since we were so late arriving so we didn't get to explore Barcelona the first day. The second day we were on the ship heading to our first destination. Our first destination was Malta, it's a small island the furthest east of the Mediterranean we got. It was a beautiful island and we took a tour to the Blue Gratto. I don't know how to explain in except its where the filmed part of the Count of Monte Carlo and Popeye movie. It's absolutely gorgeous and we took a little matise fishing boat into the gratto and saw the caves. We also explored their fishing village too, which was great. Here are a few pictures of that.

Our second destination was Tunisia which is the north tip of Africa. Now that was an interesting place, not my favorite although still pretty cool. We also had a tour planned for this day. We got off the boat and onto our bus to the ruins of Cartridge just after a photo opt with a camel. Cartridge was amazing I wish I knew more of the history, but it seems like the Romans conquered Tunisia at some point and there were their ruins. After that we went to Medina which is the city. Now this place was interesting, it was a little sleazy. It was just a huge bargaining market place and if you were bad at it you lost money. I did buy a piece of art there, which I found interesting it was a sand painting done on camel skin, but even with that I got ripped off. Oh well. We actually spend more time if Medina which we were pretty bothered by since Cartridge was the real cool place but we wouldn't have known that so it was an experience and I now know better for next time. When we got back to the ship there were camels out front you could ride for 10 euro before leaving Tunisia. My friends jumped on immediately but I didn't have any euro left so I opted to take pics for them. Well during this they were making pretty good friends with the guy who owned the camel and were cutting deals with them. They told him I hadn't gotten to ride the camel yet and he looked at me then he turned me around and looked at me, I had no idea what he was doing then before I knew it he bent me over and smacked my butt. Yes I was man handled by some crazy man from Tunisia, he laughed and said free camel ride for you. I was in shocked but I was on a camel for free it was hilarious.

The next few ports were Italy. Out of all the places we went Italy was probably my very favorite. We first stop in Naples first and explored the coastal areas of Positano and Sorrento, then on our way back to the ship we hit Naples and Pompeii. It was all so amazing. The next day was Rome. Boy were ran all over the place to get as much of Rome as we could. We saw the Colosseum, The Trevi Fountain, St. Peter's and St. Paul's Cathedral, The Pantheon, The Vatican, and whatever else we could squeeze in. We drove by the Spanish steps but didn't have time to stop. It was craziness all day but so amazing. Everyone in Italy was so friendly and great too, we had a blast. We then had a break on the ship but the next day we did Florence which was just as amazing as Rome. The only sad thing was it took 2 hours to get there so we really only had 4 hours in Florence and that was not enough time at all. We hit a few museums, saw the famous bridge, and the David. It was all breath taking.

The next to last port was Corsica which is an island off of France. This was probably one of the the most fun and relaxing places we stopped. This was because we didn't have a schedule we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted and that was great. A few of us rented electric bikes and rode on the coast of the island. There was a great market place so we did lots of shopping. Also Corsica is the home of napoleon bonaparte so we took pictures in front of the house of coarse. Oh and did I mention the island was gorgeous.

The last port was Nice and Monaco. This too was very beautiful. I don't know if it was my favorite, maybe I wasn't impressed with the tour and that's why because it should have been up there. I did like Nice a lot, it reminded me a lot of Italy with the market places and narrow streets. The shore was very interesting, it wasn't sand like we are used to in Cali, but the beaches were full of pebbles. But overall Nice was beautiful. Monaco was interesting, we had lunch in this old medieval town with a castle on the top of this mountain. We didn't have much time there before we knew it we were on the bus headed to see the rest of Monaco and then Monte Carlo. In Monaco we saw where the royalty lived and were the prince married Grace Kelly. The cathedral was beautiful. Then when we got to Monte Carlo we saw the grand prix, which was still set up a bit from their big race a month or so earlier. We also saw the Grand Casino. We got to walk into the grand hall way but that's it. And it is one of the richest places of have seen. The people there are loaded and the cars are amazing. It was an interesting place but not one of my favorites.

So that was the last stop of the cruise, well besides being dropped off back in Barcelona. The last day of the cruise was an at sea day so we spent that day relaxing on deck and taking a few tours. We got a tour of the stage area where they preformed all their broadway type shows and we also got a tour of the Engine control room, which was cool. I thought I would just post a few pics of us on the ship over the course of the cruise. I am also posting a clip of me eating escargot, it's pretty funny.