Just got back last night at 11:00 0r so. Since it was my first cruise I did have some expectations on what would happen to me (mainly sea sickness). fortunately it never happened and as true to my other expectations since modern cruise liners are flat-bottomed they don't roll with the waves. there was a casino aboard but I never went there. But I did get a good chuckle at seeing all the slot machines taken up with old ladies (just like the stories I hear from Vegas). The ship I was on is called the Crown Princess so if you are curious as to what it has to offer then just Google the name.
I first landed in
Rome. Spent the next two day there touring all the old ruins and sight-seeing. I never bothered with seeing the Vatican because to me, that is not Rome. Left Rome, boarded the ship and sailed to our next destination...
Pisa. Saw the leaning tower and what I didn't know is that most of the old buildings there and not just the tower were leaning, though only just. You'd have to look very carefully to see it. Got some souvenirs there such as a mini-crossbow (it doesn't actually fire
) and a spanish-made, decorative black powder six shooter that looks very similar to the Colt-model Dragoon. And yes it's heavy but it does not fire either. We never did go to Florence and our cruise plans skipped Monte Carlo so we headed for our next stop...
Naples. We didn't stick around here as there wasn't much to see. And by that I mean we just we straight over to Sorrento. my mom really loved that city. It is quite cramped on the roads as the whole thing is built on a mountainside. The one thing I liked about that city was seeing some of the older buildings especially this one structure. It was an old ruined building either bombed during the war or fell into disuse and was sitting below the streets in a gorge and was full of trees and other vegetation. These are the kinds of things you'd see in a Tomb Raider game! so that was nice
. On our way back to Naples we stopped off at Pompeii. For a ruined city it sure was big and the tour guide said to see it all would take up to three days and two nights. We also got to the the ancient brothel and the building still had in it, preserved mind you, depictions of sexual positions that you could could select for the women to try out on you.
Back then of course and not now. Do keep that in mind. The one thing that I hadn't thought about was that we were in the red zone of Mt. Vesuvius. Yes it's still active and according to everything I seen about it, the mountain can go at any time now. In an explosive fashion. But here's what I didn't know;
Vesuvius is currently 1,800 meters high. Two-thousand years before the eruption of 79 AD that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, Vesuvius was 2,500 meters high. What took place was an eruption so massive it blew off the top of the mountain and cracked it right in half. What a f**king monster! That eruption was probably equal to if not rivaling the Krakatoa eruption of 1883.
Santorini was the next stop. Originally called Thera before another Volcanic disaster took down the island. originally the island was huge and held a prosperous and powerful nations at that time until the volcano in the center of the island erupted. Apparently the the pressure underneath was so great that the volcano exploded; almost destroying the island completely and those that survived found themselves in a dark age. Everything from disease to cannibalism overtook the populous. There are some who believe that ancient Thera was probably the remains of the civilization of Atlantis. I personally think that is in error. (says sorry to the people of Santorini) While there are some similarities though not many, there are also many inconsistencies. such as Thera lies to the east of the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar Straight) where-as Atlantis is to the West of them out in the Atlantic. Just as Plato described it.
After Santorini came
Athens. Visiting the Parthenon was interesting and it is also nice to see the people of Greece busy restoring the ruins after so many years of neglect, destruction through wars and theft of the decorative marble works and statues.
We then sailed to Mykonos. according to legend this is where the Sun god; Apollo was born. And to me that's no exageration because I got heat and sun stroke there and the humidity was so high that I'm still expelling flem from my lungs
. The temprature with humidity was around 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit). Needles to say this was one of the more negative parts of my trip. If Apollo loves Mykonos so much, he can have it! What was interesting about it was the ancient windmills, the white painted buildings and the rich colored doors and window frames. It is quite the contrast as the white makes all the colors stand out.
Katakolon is another stop we made. This location is actually the birthplace of the first Olympic games. It's original name is of course
Olympia. Most of the ruins were excavated so there was lots to see. And in fact one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; The Temple of Zeus was located here. The temple is now in ruins and the statue no longer exists. Such a shame as I would have liked to see it. I can only guess it met the same fate as the statue of Athena in the Parthenon; plundered and destroyed.
Corfu. we took our time here rather then sightseeing with all the tour groups. We checked out the two fortified structures (the old and the more recent) and spent the rest of the time walking around the back alleys.
Split. Strange name for a city in my opinion
. My Mom was here five years ago and she was shocked as to how much it has grown since then. We went and explored the Palace of the Retired Roman Emperor Diocletian. The palace is still there only it has since been integrated into the city center itself and has shops, residential areas, and churches. But of course the palace is sinking because of all the weight on top of it (The residences). And they've refused to move due to their wanting compensation which is far more then the city can afford to give out. Diocletian was also known for hating Christians as well as being the only Emperor to live to retirement instead of dying in office or being murdered. Because of his hatred of Christians the Christians got revenge on him by moving into his villa and "Christianizing" it. But this doesn't make any sense because Jesus never preached about taking revenge for anything. So I'm guessing these particular Christians were just being stupid.
After Split we hit
Venice. Needless to say I had a lot of Indiana Jones and the last crusade going through my mind as I walked through the city and rode the Gondolas through the waterways. The famed per-miscues man-whore; Casa Nova had lived here and they even sell the mask that he wore in order to hide his identity during his nightly processions. We also got to see the Venetians glass works in action too. They have a man there by the name of George. he's 75 years old and still making fine glassware. We got to see a five minute demonstration of how to make a glass horse from a ball of molten glass. That was impressive. The souvenir I purchased here was a wax-stamp letter seal. I always wanted one of those
.
And that's pretty much it.
Las@
Thanks for the peptalk Las. I don't do it nearly as often as I should. Or at all for that matter. And thank you everybody else. It does feel good to be back now.