Europe Trip October 13-23, 2016

Whew, what a time! I have so much to share!

Europe Trip

Germany

So to start, my amazing sister Julie took me on the most amazing trip! It was kind of last minute--she had planned it and paid for it for someone else, but that fell through. She didn't want it to go to waste, so she took me instead!

This was my flight to Germany--I had a whole row to myself, so I was able to nap very comfortably during the flight. It was wonderful--best flight experience of my life. 

Julie and Tylon made a welcome party for when I got off the plane! I've always wanted a welcome party. :) 

It started out with me flying out to see her in Germany. We went to a lock bridge in Germany and listened to men play accordions. She took me to this cool little mall, and one of the stores sold cute German things (a lot of clocks!). They had Christmas ornaments of different German fairy tales. Of course I wanted to get all of them, but she talked me down into getting just the Cinderella one.

Me feeding the German birds. 

Trieste, Italy

That evening, we boarded a "bus" for the longest bus ride of my life to Trieste, Italy, where we would board our cruise. I say bus, but it was actually a series of buses, and the first one was just a large van. We were dropped off by a movie theater and we saw this big black van... we were kind of like "Should we get in the big black van?" but a man came up and asked if we were Tina & Julie. It made sense, so we got in the van where almost no one spoke English. Fortunately, there was one couple who spoke German and English, originally from America, and if it weren't for them, we would have been completely clueless. 

We took the van to a bus, which we took to another bus stop. We were dropped off at this bus stop with no information, and waited from midnight, till 3 am in the freezing cold, outdoors of Germany. We finally got word that our next bus was stuck in traffic and would be there... eventually. So we finally got on that bus--it was packed, and somehow survived the rest of the trip to the cruise.

On the bus, finally arriving in Trieste. This is Julie's "WE SURVIVED THE BUS RIDE." expression. 

This was all a very enlightening experience for me because for the first time in my life, I am in a place where the majority of people don't speak English. When I think about it, it's kind of ethnocentric that we Americans think that the whole world should speak English. I think it would be great if we all learned other languages as well--super beneficial, and it would be encouraging of more foreign travel! 

One experience I have in this matter was at the first bus stop, when I had to use the restroom. I was running down a bus mall, trying to find someone who spoke English to ask where the restroom was. I picked wrong and the person I asked didn't speak English--he didn't understand what I was saying. Fortunately, another person did. I'll be honest, I did consider doing the pee-pee dance--that's pretty universal in any language. It's interesting because in other countries, they say "toilet", so "restroom" or "Where is your bathroom?" means nothing to them. "Toilet" and "Water closet" are actually a lot more popular. 

In hindsight, we probably should have spent a little more time in Trieste. The ship didn't leave after we got there for several hours, so we had some time, but I know I didn't realize that we wouldn't be back to spend more time in Trieste. As it was, we just got on the boat. (It was just nice to finally be off of the nightmare bus experience.) 

On the bus ride, Julie and I both agreed that we didn't want to do that (the bus) again, so she bought us plane tickets to go back to Germany--it would be expensive, but it would save us so much time and be much less painful. Our ship was scheduled to return in seven days at 7 am. We had a train to catch to Venice at around 8:15 am, and then we would have about an hour and a half till our plane left. It sounded like a plan. 

Our beautiful lunch on the ship with Trieste in the background.

Prepping for our ship safety drill.

Fancy ship beverages!

We had a wonderful lunch on the ship, and then Julie and I went off and took some dance classes. The ship had a wonderful Latin Dance Team. They taught one to two lessons a day, and these became very popular with Julie and I. We went to many of them. We knew all of their names--two guys and two girls. Roland, Camila, Stephanie, and Barnas. All of these guys were SO professional, very talented, and seriously spoke like at least five different languages each. They taught the lessons in all the languages, since they had pupils of every language. 

One of the classes, there was this little old woman who spoke, French, I think, and she joined the lesson late. She was having some trouble with the steps, so I helped her out. She really liked me and we hung out at the next dance class too. We didn't understand each other, but I was somehow able to help her understand. I felt that this was a super beneficial experience for my future as a teacher--kind of gave me experience teaching someone who doesn't speak English. I told Julie about Danielle because I knew she would love her. Julie did. She was so sweet.

That evening, the ship was was having a karaoke competition, so I went down for that. I had really been planning on singing "It's All Coming Back to Me" by Celine Dion, which was what I had been practicing, but that wasn't an option. I ended up going for "Heaven is a Place on Earth", which went pretty well. They said to come back the next night for another karaoke night, and they would select eight finalists to perform on the big stage for "The Voice of the Sea" competition. 

Split, Croatia

Our first day trip was in Split, Croatia. Julie and I took a bus to Krke National Park, which is covered in waterfalls! It was absolutely beautiful, and we had a wonderful time hiking the trails, and exploring the beautiful water areas. I wanted to go swimming, but Julie said it would be too cold at this time of year, and we also didn't have the time.

Julie & I at beautiful Krke National Park in Croatia!

Every night, we met awesome new people from other countries and ate fancy, amazing food at their elegant dining room. They offered a bread basket every night, which Julie and I took advantage of, and as soon as they offered a cheese plate on one of the nights, we were all about the cheese plate. We did a lot of walking on the trip, and stair climbing, but we also probably ate our weight in bread and cheese, so we probably really didn't lose any weight on this trip.

Julie wasn't able to make it the day before to karaoke since she was feeling tired, but she went this night. I signed up to sing another song, but then the woman in charge came and told me that I wouldn't be singing this night since I had already sung the night before, and that if more people don't sign up to sing, then there wouldn't even be a show. I was very concerned that there wouldn't be a show, so I told Julie she had to sing. She was not thrilled about this, but she finished her drink and went for it anyway, singing Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You." She did really well, even though she didn't think she did. 

Everyone who sang sat in the special chairs for the people who sang as they announced the eight finalists. I got called up, and so did Julie! We both made it to the final eight! We were taken to another room with the other finalists and given a sheet of songs to chose from--we were to pick two songs that we would practice and decide between to be our final song that we perform on the big stage. I picked "The Winner Takes it All" and "Bad Romance." Julie picked "Someone Like You" and "Stand By Me." She didn't realize that the "Someone Like You" was the Adele song--she thought it was a different one. Julie was still very angry at me for making her do this, promising to kill me in my sleep. lol (Oh sister love!)  

Kotor, Montenegro

We also did a ship excursion the next day in Montenegro. We took a boat to a tiny church island, "Our Lady of the Rocks". I believe the story goes that two brothers found a flag (or a cross... I can't remember which) in a rock off the coast of their little town of Perast and took it as a sign to build a church there, so they built an island of rocks by bringing the rocks over from Perast, then they built the church on it. They also built another island right next to the church island for the church garden.

The view from our boat tour.

Our Lady of the Rocks

The garden island for Our Lady of the Rocks

Inside of Our Lady of the Rocks

What was interesting about this little church was that it has a lot of weddings. The brides, instead of throwing their bouquet, hang it from the doorways in the church. It is supposed to bring fertility (or something...?) 

After visiting the little church, we went to Perast and checked out a military museum. Leaving the museum, we encountered a family of cats--a mother, father, and two babies. They were so sweet! Not like American cats, who are very rude and will run away, not letting you pet them. Julie and I petted the cats and held the babies. I had a special moment with one of them--so cute!!! I never wanted to leave the kittens. 

We went and had a crepe and a milkshake in Perast before taking the boat back to the ship.

This evening was the first rehearsal for "The Voice of the Sea," where we were supposed to sing each of the songs we picked with a live band, and decide which one we wanted to sing for the competition. This evening however, Julie wasn't feeling well and didn't want to go, so I went by myself for the rehearsal.

I sang Bad Romance first and really got into it! Several years ago, I taught myself the dance from the music video and I had this grand idea that I could sing and dance for the competition and surprise everyone, but the band was having a little trouble with the way the song was cut, and everyone kept telling me they liked my second song, The Winner Takes It All, better, so to honor my childhood, being raised on Abba, I went with that one. 

Katakolon/Olympia, Greece

The ship excursions were a little pricey, and we had only purchased a three pack--Olympia was not included, so we decided to explore on our own this day. 

We started out by walking around the town, checking out the shops. We found so many wonderful souvenirs in the shops--we spent a lot of money here. 

There were people offering bus rides to Olympia to see where the Olympic Games took place at a much discounted price than what was being offered on the ship. Since we still wanted to get the full historical experience, we paid the tour people and took a bus to Olympia. The guy took us outside of the gate of the area where the games took place, and we walked down to see the memorial for where the heart of the Frenchman who rebooted the Olympic Games was buried.

The thing about doing our own tour however was that it didn't include tickets to INSIDE where the actual games took place--we could just stand on the outside looking in. It also didn't include tickets to the Olympic museum either. So basically, we stood outside of a bunch of places looking in.

We did take a few cool pictures outside of the museum we're pretty proud of though, so that was cool. We walked around and went to the gift shops, buying a bunch of souvenirs. I got myself a shirt that says "Keep Calm and Fight for Sparta", which I thought was really neat because we were right by Sparta. The shop owner said that Sparta now exists only in name alone--none of the excitement and fighting that it was known for in ancient times.

That evening was the second practice, and the competition! I got dressed up in my fancy blue ballgown and did my hair, Julie went in jeans and a shirt. We both looked good! Julie sang both her songs and decided on Stand By Me, which she sounded really good singing--despite what she thinks.

Marco, Sabrina, Luciano, Daisy, and Julie and I. Marco and Daisy worked on the ship and were wonderful! Luciano and Sabrina were other finalists on "The Voice of the Sea!" 

We made friends with the other people in the competition, they were all very nice, and we were all very supportive of each other! There was even a British girl named Daisy who worked for the cruise ship as a performer who was super nice to us! Since most of the people on the cruise spoke other languages, it was me, Julie, and one other girl from New York who were the Americans of the competition.

I began to feel a little sea sick before the actual performance, but I got into it and I think I did pretty good. I was totally in my environment, performing. When the host asked me if I've ever performed on a stage that big before, I said no, because even though I had performed in musical theatre, I'd never done it on a stage as big as something like the Pantages! It was very exciting.

All of my coaches turned around and I picked Matthew, Daisy's English performing partner, as my coach. He was very sweet and supportive. When he picked me instead of the other girl, Mariella, I was like "Yay!" and I clapped. Which, in hindsight, was probably a stupid response, but in the moment, it's what happened. I should have hugged Mariella and told her she did a good job, but I wasn't thinking at the time. I immediately felt bad after when the moment was gone.

I made it to the final three and it was me, a Spanish girl named Christina, and an Italian guy named Jose. Jose was doing the cruise with his new wife as his honeymoon and sang "I Did It My Way" for the competition. The entire audience got voting devices and were allowed to vote on who they wanted to win the competition. Jose won the competition, but I was in the final three, which was very exciting! To even just get to sing in front of an audience that big, with a live band was a memorable experience I will cherish for my whole life! Especially the fact that I got to do it with my sister.

After the competition, for the rest of the cruise, people were coming up to us and telling us how well we did! Many of them didn't even speak English, but I could tell that was what they were talking about, through gestures, or someone who interpreted what they said. This whole trip has really given me an experience has really given me an experience for what it will be like for my ELL students, as a future teacher. It has really opened my eyes and made me see that our "English Only" policy is very ethnocentric and I don't think we're doing any of our students any favors with it. In fact, I think we should all learn more languages instead of trying to narrow it down to one. After this trip, I want to learn German, and Italian, and Spanish, and Greek. All of them!

That evening was the Latin Dance party. Julie and I went to that and practiced some of our new dancing skills! We even got to dance the macarena. It was a lot of fun!

Corfu, Greece

In Corfu, we went out exploring on our own. We paid for a "self guided" bus tour, which gave us some headphones so that we could listen to tour information as we rode a tour bus around and got on and off as we saw fit. 

I had really gotten into the whole "European Tea for Breakfast" thing and had had many glasses of tea that morning as we had decided to do breakfast in bed, and I could make myself as much hot tea as I wanted. I seriously had like, 5 or 6 cups. So we get on this tour bus, and it sits there for about 15 minutes. Right when it's about to go, I realize the grave mistake I had made having 5 or 6 cups of tea that morning, but the bus starts to take off and I realize I'm screwed. It was about a 20 minute drive to our first stop as I suffer in agony wishing I hadn't drank so much tea that morning, progressively hating everything more and more as Julie sits there making fun of me. 

We finally reach our first stop, and I race towards the closest shop, but alas, they do not have a restroom. They do not have one, but tell me that the hotel at the top of a tiny hill nearby has one, so I run up this hill and race towards the bathroom. I make it, and I'm very proud of myself. 

My post-bathroom "I made it!" picture lol

Julie and I decide to start by exploring the hotel we walked into a bit. There was a cat walking around, inside the hotel. He was a very friendly, sweet cat and ended up following us around as we explored the outside of the hotel and their pool area. We found another cat, thinking they might be friends--nope. Definitely not friends. Julie sat down by him to pet him and he chose that moment to pick a fight with our tour guide, managing to scratch Julie in the process. Not the best moment of the trip for her... 

We walked down a local hill and found a peer out to a small island with a church on it (another one--these things are pretty big in Europe it turns out...). On the way across the peer, a man with a boat offered us a ride to "Mouse Island" for a small fee. We didn't take him up on it at the time, but we took the ride on the way back. 

On the church island, there was a gift shop, and there were these two, tiny baby kittens sitting outside the gift shop. Julie and I each picked up one--they fit right in the palm of our hand! We carried the tiny babies around the gift shop, gathering more presents for people. We loved those tiny kitties. If we could take them home as our souvenirs, we would have, but they never would have made it past customs. :( So cute though!!!! Leaving the gift shop, we saw a large pile of cats right outside the church. It turns out, European cats are actually super chill and nice, unlike feral American cats. 

Julie's new friend--one of the kittens we carried around the gift shop!

We took the boat over to, yet another tiny island with a church on it, Mouse Island. This church was on top of a hill at the center of the island. The island was covered in greenery and surrounded by rocks. At the church was another gift shop. I had only seen a dog and a cat on the island, so I asked the shop owner "Where's the mouse?" He told me "Mouse has the day off. Today we have dog and cat." That was cute and funny. 

Julie and I walked around the island and hung out on the rocks for a bit. We Facetimed our mom and told her she needs to come see the beautiful world out there! 

Julie and the gorgeous Corfu sea!
Mouse Island

At the Corfu fountain with the castle in the background!

Eating our Greek lunch outside--like Europeans! 

Coming back from our day at Corfu--look at our gorgeous ship! 

We came back from the islands and took the bus back to the town with gift shops. We explored the shops and had a Greek lunch of chicken gyro's. Julie bought some Greek shoes, and I bought a beautiful Greek dress! I was going to get the cheapest Greek dress, which wasn't bad, but nothing special. Julie said get something I would wear and wanted, so we paid a little more and got a gorgeous Greek dress that I love--it's my new favorite dress. <3 So glad we got that one! Everyone who sees it tells me they love it! 

That evening was the formal night on the ship! I had bought several new formal gowns for Julie and I just for the trip, and Julie wore a stunning, slinky brown dress that looked kind of like something Rose would wear on the Titanic (.......Ok, yeah, it's a good thing we didn't sink.....), and I wore a red gown that I had purchased for the trip. We looked so good in our formal wear! I did our hair, and I did Julie's hair in a french twist, Cinderella-do! She looked so beautiful! 

Check out Julie's Cinderella hair! 

Formal night! Looking good. 

All set for the masquerade! 

Masquerade Dance Party!

That was also "Ladies Night/Masquerade" on the ship and we went down to the dance floor, where all the guys who worked on the ship were dressed in tux's and wore masks. The guys asked us to dance, and we got raffle tickets every time we danced. We didn't win any of the prizes (they had a really cool straightener we didn't win.. oh well. :) ), but it was a lot of fun--especially to get  to practice some of the dances we had been practicing with the Latin Dance crew. 

Dubrovnik, Croatia

This was the day I had been waiting for ever since Julie told me about the trip, and that we would be visiting the place where they filmed Game of Thrones--DUBROVNIK!!! When I found this out, I hurried up and I made myself a Cersei Lanister gown so that I could wear it the day we visited Dubrovnik, and I did! I had curled my hair the night before and I got up early, got dressed and did my hair and makeup so that I was decked out in my best Cersei Lanister cosplay for the visit. 

Having a nice desert breakfast in Dubrovnik before our tour!

These steps have been used in several scenes, but lead the way to the place where the Purple Wedding was filmed.

On our way to the fort where many scenes were filmed, also, you can see Blackwater Bay in the background. It was so windy that day! My dress blew up! It was a little awkward. lol

This picture is seriously perfect because I'm walking the way Cersei was when she was confronted to be arrested. 

The little peer, where Sansa likes to look at ships, right in Blackwater bay. 

Cersei gazes up the steps towards her father's funeral. 

Walking up the steps to get ready to do my walk of shame! 

Who gets to sit on the Iron Throne? Cersei, presently. 

I wore it out around the town, and we took a Game of Thrones walking tour--it was amazing! I didn't notice at the time, I was too busy working on being in character, but Julie said that people pointed and whispered about me as I walked around, and one guy in our tour group was taking pictures of me at each of the locations, to make the visit more meaningful. XD This made me super happy to find out! Very flattering. It was amazing. 

The best part was when we got to the "Cersei Shame" steps. I just had to reenact the scene, and (fully clothed), I walked down the stairs. People in the crowd started yelling "Shame!" at me, and it was very magical! I started out with a straight face, but when people started yelling, I couldn't contain my excitement. Julie filmed it and she said I was much too happy to be being shamed. 

This night, at dinner, they had a performance from some of the wait staff. They had a guy stand on the balcony of the dining hall and lip sync "Volarie". This song had been played repeatedly on the trip and had developed a special meaning for me, since it represented the most exciting week of my life (so far) that I got to share with my sister, so I ended up crying. :') Everyone waved their napkins in the air in a helicopter motion. I believe they did this this night since Venice, Italy was where we would be going the next day. 

Venice, Italy

We had paid for a tour and gondola ride on the ship, but it was canceled on us, which was frustrating--so we went and got our own tour and gondola ride. We did a lot of shopping in Venice, and walked around all over the city. It's a beautiful city! We had several Italian meals while we were here too, which was pretty cool.

Enjoying our drinks in front of the Piazza San Marco, where the bones of Saint Mark are buried! 

Enjoying pizza in Italy--you have to! 

Italian toilets... are really close to the ground. 

We learned a lot of really interesting facts on the tour, like that the whole city is slowly sinking into the sea! That made me sad, and very glad that I had visited before this happened. The city floods all the time, so it's residents don't live on the bottom floor, they have to live on an upper floor. There are no cars in the city, everyone walks to work. Because of this, if someone needs something taken into their apt, a refrigerator or something, they have to pay someone to wheel it through the city, then, they have to use a rope and haul it through one of the upper floor windows. Because of this, many people are moving out of the city. This is so crazy and sad, but I understand the inconvenience issue. 

We also learned that it is the city of glass, and masks. Venice was the first city to think to use glass in windows and mirrors! They make their own special glass called Murano glass. Julie and I both got heart Murano glass necklaces to remember our trip to Venice by! 

The masks are pretty cool because when Venice first became a city and started having their famous masquerades, everyone wore a plain, white mask. This equalized the people--because everyone had a plain white mask, no one knew who was rich and who was poor. I thought this was really neat! Over time though, the masks became much more elaborate, and now, the equalization factor isn't as much in play, but their masks are very impressive! 

After the tour, we had a gondola ride through the city and in the Grand Canal--it was wonderful! So awesome to have gotten to do that! 

Enjoying our gondola ride! 

We found a shop there that had these really amazing, Murano glass wax seals, and Julie bought me some for our wedding invitations! I absolutely love it! We got them in royal blue, one of our wedding colors, and we got an "R". Julie said I have to switch to his last name now that we have an "R" seal! :) 

A beautiful site from the bus-boat back to the ship. Bye Venice! 

And back to Trieste, Italy

The night before we docked to get off, we got our itinerary for our disembarking day and it said that we would be docking at 8 am... well, this was different from the information Julie had initially received in her e-mail about the cruise, which said that we would be docking at 7 am. We had our train ride and plane tickets planned around being able to get off the ship at 7 am! We had talked to the lady at the front desk, who said that the passport security people would be able to give us our passports at 7 am, and we could get off as soon as we got them. So the next morning, we waited for over an hour to get our passports, as the guys looked at them in the glass room, not looking very productive. 

We were fuming mad that we were misinformed about everything. We did not want to take that awful bus ride back, but this situation was also very stressful and unpleasant. 

They finally open the room at 8 am, I get them to give us our passports, and we race off the boat. Julie realized that we would miss the train we had planned to make at this point, and that there was a chance we could still catch our plane if we could catch the next train, so we walked over to the train station. 

We get off the train and take a cab to the airport, but upon arriving there, find a ridiculously long line just to drop off our luggage and pick up our tickets. We determined that it really was no use, and that we were going to miss the flight. Julie got us some new tickets, for a later flight, and we waited around and finally got on the plane. It was a very upsetting time, and a terrible ending to a wonderful trip. 

To make matters worse, when we get on the plane, we are in an emergency exit row, so they tell me I can't have my bag with me--my bag which has all my plane entertainment in it. I resign myself to the awful situation and put my pillow in my lap, and my head on my pillow. I'm pretty upset now about the awful day and want to cry. 

Things can always get worse. A flight attendant tells me that I don't look so good and I can't sit in the emergency exit row if I can't help people get off in case of an emergency. I tell her that I'm fine, and that I'm just having a really bad day. She says she has a different seat for me, and that I still have to move, because she has determined that I don't look so good. 

So now I'm even more upset. I sit by the two strangers, away from mys sister. They probably were like "What's wrong with her?" Julie said that the annoying, terrible stewardess kept looking at her like "Are you sick too? Do we need to move you as well?" She was mad. I was mad. Getting back (and getting there too!) was a bad experience--but the trip was wonderful. 

Julie said that she is going to complain to the ship company for the incorrect information that they gave us, and also to the airline company, for their unkind stewardesses. I hope she did. 

Other than the unpleasantness of getting to the cruise, and coming back from the cruise, it was an amazing trip! I am so glad that Julie and I got to experience it together. :) <3