mascaras meet the mediterranean, part nine: a croatian safari.

The next stop on our honeymoon was to a place that we would never have considered if it wasn't part of the cruise itinerary.  We had never heard anything about Dubrovnik, Croatia until booking our trip, and after booking, we kept hearing how beautiful it was.  "Beautiful" ended up being quite the understatement.  


We arrived in Dubrovnik and added some sunrise pictures to our collection before setting off on our Croatian safari.

Our tour group for the day was only about 10 people, which was a nice change from the large tours we'd taken up to this point.  On the way to our first destination, we stopped to admire the view of Old Town from above.

We took a bus to a hotel where our tour guide was waiting for us.  The guide didn't even check our licenses before giving us the keys to our little Toyota truck. (And to say my husband was a little bit excited about the brand of trucks we were taking would be the second largest understatement of our visit to Croatia).


The safari began with a bit of a roadblock-- cows crossing the street!

When all the cows had crossed, we made our way up the mountains and arrived at the overlook of Sivi Soko.

We hung out with the goats for a bit while learning about the history of Dubrovnik.

From the overlook we could see the town of Cavtat, which is apparently a popular celebrity destination.  Our guide informed us that Beyonce and Jay-Z had just been there a few weeks before us.

We hopped back in our trucks and drove through a few (large!) puddles in the valley to get to our next stop.

We stopped along the coast to admire the beautiful view.  It was so amazing how on the right we could have a gorgeous view of the cliffs and the sea...

and on the left, breathtaking mountain views!

Next, we drove back through the valley and snapped some pictures of the clouds that were coming over the mountains.

We came across a herd of sheep on our way.

We stopped at a stream and took in yet another gorgeous view...

and proceeded to drive THROUGH the stream while praying that it wouldn't be too deep.

We made it across and drove through the countryside vineyards.

Then we stopped for lunch at an olive oil mill that was built in the 1300s.  The mill has been passed down through the family since it was created.  Currently, six brothers and their families tend to the mill, and they've opened it up as a restaurant in the off season.

We learned how the olives are pressed to make the oil before eating lunch.

Then we enjoyed the most memorable (and most delicious) meal of our entire honeymoon.  Everything that was served was grown and made right there at the mill.  The homemade brandy and dried figs we received as a "welcome drink", the delicious red and white wines, and the chicken soup.

The veal and chicken and the deliciously seasoned potatoes...

The cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes for the salad, and the olive oil used to flavor it (it is an olive oil mill, after all!).

We were then served the most colorful fruit spread I had ever seen for dessert, complete with figs, huge grapes, watermelon, and pomegranates.   MMM pomegranates.  They have been my obsession ever since.

After a delicious meal and purchasing a giant bottle of olive oil to bring home, it was time to head back to the boat.  We said goodbye to the mountains and coastal views...

and promised ourselves that we'd be back to visit the most beautiful place on earth again in the future!

mascaras meet the mediterranean, part eight: adventures in athens.

Let's get back into the honeymoon recaps, shall we?  Our next stop after Santorini was Athens.  Unfortunately, this was probably the worst day of our whole trip!  We had booked another excursion to see the Acropolis so we set out for the city in our big bus with blue tinted windows.  As you can see, the blue tint did a little number on the pictures we took on the way there!  This picture still looks pretty cool though.

It took quite awhile to get through the city, as there was a ton of traffic.  Athens is kind of dirty and there is a ton of graffiti everywhere.  It was literally on almost every building we saw.  

We stopped at the Olympic stadium to take some pictures on the way.

After the long battle with traffic, we finally arrived at the Acropolis.  It was at least 90 degrees outside with no shade in sight and the line to climb the steps was insane.  Unfortunately, these were the least of our problems.  Our tour guide was terrible!  For starters, it was really hard to understand her, which mad it kind of difficult to enjoy the tour when no one in our group could follow what she was saying.  We hadn't encountered this problem with any of our guides on our trip so far, so I know it wasn't just us.  Second, she was on her cell phone the entire time!  How could she possibly give a tour while on the phone?  Yeah, she couldn't.  We had to sit there and wait until she finished.  Lastly, with such a huge crowd, it was impossible to stay with the group when she wouldn't hold up the number designating our group!  I think we lost about half of our group by the time we got to the top of the steps.  Another person in our group actually took the sign from her and held it up herself after awhile.  To make things worse, we had wasted so much time waiting for her to get off of her phone that we thought we wouldn't get to see everything!  Since we knew when we had to be back at the bus (and knew how to find the bus) we decided to cut our losses and tour the Acropolis without a guide.  Sadly, we didn't get the history lesson we paid for, which probably didn't help improve our impression of Athens as a whole.  But at least we got to see it...

An ancient theater that is overlooked by the Acropolis.

The view from the top.

Pedestrian traffic jam.  That is NOT our tour guide holding up the sign.

The Propylaea.

The Erecthion.

The Parthenon.

View of the Temple of Zeus.  I love this picture!

About a half hour before we were supposed to be back at the bus, we started back down the steps.  Good thing we left early, because we got stuck in another pedestrian traffic jam and were stopped for about 20 minutes!  We finally made it down and back to the bus, and passed by a few monuments on our way back to the boat.

Hadrian's Arch

The Parliament Building at Constitution Square.  We got to see the guards out front do their little dance!

When our less-than-stellar tour had ended (thank goodness) we decided that Athens was not our favorite honeymoon stop.  Thankfully, the cruise line refunded half of our money for this excursion because so many people (including us) complained about our tour guide.

Though our time in Athens was less than ideal, we were glad we got to see it.  We said goodbye to Greece and boarded the ship to head to our next stop: Croatia!

a special delivery.

Wow, it's been awhile. With all the holiday hustle and bustle (and making most of my Christmas gifts) it appears I've fallen off the honeymoon recap wagon.  That is about to change though, because a special delivery that arrived right before Christmas has given me new-found motivation to finish blabbing about our honeymoon.  

That special delivery, in the form of a shiny piece of plastic in a metal case wrapped with a bow (and a snowflake!) was from our photographer.  Yes, my friends, it's our wedding pictures!  Stay tuned for the last three chapters of our honeymoon adventures, and then let the wedding recaps commence!

mascaras meet the mediterranean, part seven: a Grecian adventure.

Another country, another sunrise!  After a day at sea, we arrived in Santorini, Greece on the seventh day of our Mediterranean cruise.  

We had an early excursion called the Hot Springs Tour, so we got dressed in beach wear and met with our tour group.  The ship was tendered, so we got picked up by a smaller boat that looked like a pirate ship and set out to sea.  

We passed the volcano that actually created the island of Santorini, and admired the gorgeous views from the boat.  

When our tour guide told us we were getting off on the volcano and climbing to the top, we felt a little, umm, unprepared!  Nowhere in our itinerary did it say anything about hiking up a volcano, which is the reason I wore flip flops.  Several other people in our tour group were in the same boat (ha!) as me, so I didn't feel quite as stupid for wearing sandals.  The soil was a bit rocky (read: painful) but we were in Greece and there was no way I was going to miss out on climbing to the top of an active volcano.  

We took in the views of Santorini and the sea, learned a little about the history of Greece, and after about an hour we were at the top. It was hot, smelled of sulfur, and was quite a workout, but it was worth it.  I'll let the views speak for themselves.

Proof that the volcano is still active: you could actually see steam coming out of the craters, and it was really hot if you put your hand near it.  

No wonder it smelled like sulfur...

The hike back down was much quicker and slightly slippery, but we survived!  We got back on the boat and headed to our next destination: the hot spring.  The boat parked a few hundred feet away, and we jumped in the sea and swam to the spring.  

The spring itself wasn't as warm as we expected, it was more like little pockets of warmth that would move around.  You know when you feel a warm spot in a lake and worry that someone just peed there?  That's what it felt like!  Not as luxurious as it sounds.  The water was really glittery and red because there was so much iron in it.  It actually stayed on our skin when we got out which was a little gross.  Honestly I much preferred the swim TO the hot spring more than I enjoyed actually being in the hot spring, but overall it was a fun and totally new experience for both of us.  And the views from the spring weren't too shabby either.

I would definitely recommend taking a hot springs tour in Santorini if you can!  
After the tour we went back to the ship and showered (we were sweaty and covered in iron!) and then took a tender boat over to the island.  We took the cable car up to Fira, which was an adventure in itself.  We feared for our lives a little and prayed that the engineers that built those little cars up the side of the cliff knew what they were doing.  We tried not to look down, but we couldn't resist.  

Thankfully we made it up safe and sound!

We ate lunch at probably one of the most touristy restaurants in Santorini, but we were starving and it was one of the first places we saw.  I had the stuffed tomatoes and peppers and have been craving them every day since!  They were delicious.  My husband (I still don't get sick of saying that) had the Greek sampler, which came with a stuffed tomato, moussaka, and some kind of potatoes, all of which were also good.  I should know, I sampled all of it.

When our tummies were full we walked around and peeked into some of the gift shops in search for souvenirs and gifts.  We wanted to walk to the black sand beaches, but we didn't have a map or much time left and it was starting to rain.  So instead we walked off the beaten path a bit to take in a little more of the Grecian scenery.

Then it was time to head back to the boat.  We thought about taking a donkey down the cliff, but we felt so bad for the poor little guys we couldn't bear to make them carry us down!  So back to the deathly cable cars it was.

We made it down alive, and hitched a tender boat back to the ship.  We said goodbye to Santorini knowing that we will be back again someday.  It was one of our favorite places we've ever visited.

married life crisis.

Okay, so maybe it's not a crisis, but after planning our wedding and getting married, I've began to gain interest in topics other than weddings. Shocking, isn't it?  To feed my desire to plan, craft, cook, and in general just write about things other than weddings, I started a new blog!  Not to worry, I'll still be filling you in with all the details of our honeymoon (I'm almost done I swear) and of course the wedding here at a small town bride, and I hope to continue sharing other wedding-related topics on this site in the future!  But I would love it if you stopped by my new blog, bijou lovely, to say hi and hopefully you'll like it enough to continue reading in the future!  Merci my lovelies!

mascaras meet the mediterranean, part six: pompeii and naples.

After spending time in Florence and Rome, we continued down the coast and arrived in Naples. We took yet another tour bus to the ancient city of Pompeii.

Here are a few things we learned while exploring:

1. The city was buried under ash after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, and was rediscovered in 1748. You can see Mt. Vesuvius in the background of most of the pictures.

2. The bodies that were buried under the ash can be made into molds and poured to resemble the shape of the people that were buried. Creepy? Yes. Kind of cool? Also yes.3. Pompeii in September is HOT. No shade + lots of sun = redness + thirst. Sunscreen and water are your friends.4. These street names go way back. They used pictures of people and animals instead of words (the marble tile was added later).5. Speaking of animals, there are plenty of them wandering around the streets of Pompeii, in the form of stray dogs. They will really like you if you give them a drink of water.6. Some people in Pompeii were rich. So rich they had houses that were the size of a city block with gardens inside of them.7. Fast food is not a new concept. This is the ancient version of a fast food restaurant. I wonder where they made the fries?8. I'm glad I'm alive in 2009 instead of 79 AD, or I'd consider this a toilet.9. The Pompeiians (if that's the right word?) knew how to build! There were tons of artifacts and ruins to look at. We didn't even get to go through the whole city and we were there for about 4 hours.
10. Pompeii is a beautiful place to visit!

Naples had some lessons for us as well:

1. It is okay to give up after walking several miles if you still cannot find the restaurant that your travel guide recommends. The random restaurant you walk pass while searching will probably be better anyway. If you find this restaurant, eat there. Trust me.
2. Caprese salad is always the best kind of salad.

3. It should not be assumed that pizzas in Naples are meant to be eaten individually even though they are only 6 euro. It should be assumed, however, that the pizzas will be the most delicious pizzas you will ever eat in your life, so you will be happy when you don't have to share!

4. Naples is a dirty city. And it's a little scary. Most buildings, even the old churches have graffiti on them. Here are a few of the prettier places we saw while trying to find our restaurant...

We definitely gained some valuable knowledge on our trip to Naples and Pompeii. Next up, we're off to the beautiful island of Santorini, Greece!

mascaras meet the mediterranean, part five: the eternal city.

On the fifth day of our honeymoon, we arrived in the port of Civitavecchia, which is the port near Rome. We had a full day excursion ahead of us so we grabbed some breakfast and set off with our tour group.
We traveled the hour by bus to Rome and admired the view of the ancient ruins as we drove through the city.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. This was my husband's favorite place we visited the entire trip. I think it might have something to do with his engineering degree. We enjoyed a very thorough history lesson and wandered around the amazing structure for most of the morning.

We had some pretty amazing views of some other famous monuments from inside the Colosseum, including the Arch of Constantine.

After our tour of the Colosseum, it was lunchtime. Our tour group stopped at a hotel restaurant and had another delicious lunch that included baked pasta, wine and gelato.

When our tummies were full, we piled back on the bus and drove to the city-state of the Vatican.
We spent the part of afternoon at the Vatican museum, admiring the amazing architecture and beautifully painted ceilings.




The Sistine Chapel did not disappoint. It was absolutely breathtaking, and overwhelming to see so much detail that we did not even know where to look first. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but the huge bouncer-esque guards would have yelled at us if we would have even thought about snapping one, so I kept my camera off like a good tourist. Upon exiting the chapel, we took a second to admire the gorgeous bronze Holy Door before entering St. Peter's Basilica.
The Basilica itself was also very detailed and intricate. Pictures do not do it justice. I found myself unsure of what to even take a picture of, because seriously everywhere I looked would have made for a beautiful photo.



After another very long history lesson and about half of a 2GB memory card, we took a few minutes to check out St. Peter's Square.


After another long day of walking and soaking in as much as we could of what Rome had to offer, we headed back to Civitavecchia and the ship.
It's true what they say. Rome was not built in a day. While we didn't get to see even close to everything in the eternal city, we did get to see two of the major highlights and saw enough to know we want to go back sometime in the future. But for now we were off to our next Italian destination: Naples.