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.