From London to Spain ~ VI

Capri

We arrived in Naples, Italy after a fun and relaxing day at sea. We had a total of three sea days throughout the duration of our cruise - which we found to be perfect opportunities to just chillax and take it easy. On our days at sea we typically would lay out on the pool deck and read. It wasn't very easy to find the prime lounge chairs because the cruise veterans usually staked a claim on those seats the night before the day at sea. For some reason I did not come prepared with something to read for the trip and I ended up being limited to the cruise library selection, where I chose to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I'll admit, this was a pretty intense selection for the honeymoon - but a spectacular portait of Afghanistan and I enjoyed it a lot more than I did Hosseini's more popular book, "The Kite Runner". Days at sea also included a game of poker - where I typically had to convince Adam to play with me in the tournament (thanks to my little brother I love playing No Limit Hold 'Em tourneys) - and after convincing him to do so, he typically was more successful than I and even came in second in one of the games. During the day at sea they always have food out - you eat A LOT on these days. I would go for nachos and cheese like every couple of hours, wash those down with a delicious bevi, and typically follow that healthy selection with some sort of ice cream. And that my friends, constitutes a typical day at sea for Adam and I.

We had quite a few options for day trips in and around Naples and we settled on taking the ferry over to the island of Capri. From the Naples pier to Capri took us approximately 1 hour. We hadn't done a lot of research prior to our time in Capri and didn't really know what the island would have to offer. Once we got off the ferry we saw several signs for boat tours around the island and thought that would be a fun option.

~Sailing through the Faraglione di Mezzo - Capri's famous rocks~

~I loved the incredible rocks along the island of Capri - we didn't see any rock climbers though...~

~I really wanted to get out and swim around with this group - next time I think we'll hire a private boat to take us around the island for sightseeing and swimming!~

~Admiring my new bling and manicure - hey, come on - it's my honeymoon!~

~Another self-portrait~

~Inside the cave at the very top right corner is a statue of the Madonna~

~Mermaid Rock and the Siren Statue: this is believed to be the spot in mythical times where the sirens seduced seafarers with their song~

One of the photos outside the "tour around the island" boat station that caught be attention was a picture of the the Blue Grotto. Our guide gave us the option to wait in the que to experience the spectacular sea cave. After about an hours wait, and observing some pretty entertaining row boat captains (second to the Italian Gondoliers) we were able to experience the Blue Grotto. Sunlight, passing through an underwater cavity and shining through the seawater, creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cavern and I don't think any of the photos I took captures the beauty.

~Waiting to disembark our boat onto a row boat that takes you into the blue grotto~

~on the left you can see the row boat captain pulling his boat through the small cave entrance. on the right you see the most passionate of the row boat captains - he was very enthusiastic as he ordered the other sailors around~

~ Inside the Blue Grotto~

We were hungry once we finished the tour around the island. With the long stop at the Blue Grotto it took us approximately 3.5 hours to circle the entire island. I know this is going to sound very touristy and cliche - but all I wanted to eat the entire time I was in Italy was Bruschetta! Capri had the tastiest Bruschetta of the entire trip! I had to take a picture:

After an enjoyable lunch we decided to take the Funicular up to the top of the island to enjoy the gorgeous views that Capri is famous for. We didn't really know where to go so we just started wandering around and eventually stumbled upon the Giardini Augusto:

~View from the Funicolare on the way up~

~Gorgeous stone bridge, and my handsome hubby~

~The quintessential Capri picture~

Lastly, our trip would not be complete without a sample of the local lemon granita. This was definitely my second favorite drink on the honeymoon, the first being as you may recall Sangria in Venice. I'm not sure what it was exactly - perhaps Capri grows far better lemons than the rest of Italy - perhaps it was the location, or the day, or the view - but I fell in love with their lemon granita and I would venture back just for one, small sip! For those of you who may be traveling to Capri in the not-to-distant future, try the lemon granita next to the Giardini Augusto

Il Finito.

Our Honeymoon - From London to Spain V.

Santorini.
A small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the Southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from Greece's mainland.

~our view of Santorini from the ship's anchor spot in the bay~

Santorini was one of two stops on our honeymoon that seemed more surreal than the rest. One of the first perks upon arriving in Santorini was that we anchored in the bay and had a spectacular view first thing in the morning as we sat out on the balcony for breakfast. You are instantly drawn into this world full of rich, royal blue hues contrasted by the bright, white washed, stone structures that line the cliff side of this modern day, Greek wonder. Once the local taxi boat brings you into the shore you realize that there are only three options to getting to Fira, the town on top: via Gondola, via donkey (surprising!), or via walking - the path happens to be the same trail the donkey takes. To get a jump start on exploring the island, we opted for the gondola route and were surprised by how many people rode the donkeys. For me...donkeys and Santorini just do not mix. I mean Santorini is so beautiful and pristine - why would you want to sit on one of the dirtiest, smelliest animals first thing in the day?

Once at the top, we headed out to rent scooters. I was really looking forward to driving around the island, sun on my face, wind in my hair. However, as we were about to rent our scooters we realized that we hadn't brought our ID's. So Adam had to take the gondola back down, taxi out to the boat, pick up our ID's and turn around and come back. I have to include this little anecdote because it's the kind of small, annoying thing that always happens to the two of us on trips...I think we forget things more often than anyone else. And these little slip ups/annoyances really make us grumpy. While I waited for my hubby to save the day, I wandered around taking pictures of the city. The truth is, you can't be grumpy for too long in a magical place like Santorini.

~If you look closely, you can see a few of the donkeys ready to ride up to the top (left). We definitely took the gondola (right)~

Due to strange insurance requirements, it's apparently safer to rent a 4 wheeler than it is a scooter. Here's a little tip for folks considering a trip to Santorini - try and get the scooter and pay for the additional coverage. The 4 wheelers are SO slow and you wind up getting passed and honked at, etc. We still had fun...even though we were only able to go 2 mph up hill. I'm sure it must have been funny to watch us - two extremely tall people, squishing together, sitting on the world's slowest bike.
We hopped on the 4 wheeler (with me in the driver's seat - DUH!) and slowly plodded along from Fira to Oia - the northern tip of the crescent shaped island - this took us about 30 minutes. Upon arriving in Oia, we walked around and looked inside the shops and admired the art work. When I'm looking for a keep sake to bring home from a trip - I'm looking for something that stands out from the rest of the touristy rift-raft out there. Based on the number of purchases Adam and I made on our honeymoon - you can easily conclude that we ate and drank more than we bought things. In fact, we only purchased three things - two of those three things were Starbucks mugs from England and Spain. The mugs don't really fit into the meaningful, extraordinary items category that I mentioned above - but, I did start a collection upon moving to DC - so I figured, what the heck. All that to say, there is an artist in Oia that took my breath away - they have these over sized, mixed medium (that include stone, wood, and other natural pieces) paintings that were so alive and beautiful, but out of the budget (especially after paying for some of the wedding and honeymoon). Anyhow, the artists' website is really bad and doesn't do the artwork justice...in fact, it makes it look kind of cheesy. Trust me on this, in real life, these are incredible.

Now, here comes one of the most amazing parts of the day...we ate lunch on the rooftop of a restaurant that overlooked Oia and the bay. The food was so fresh, I had the best Greek salad with tomatoes, feta - that makes you want to import the cheese from Greece, olive oil, local wine...and the only faux pas I committed was when I scooted all of the olives to the side of the plate, creating a little wall of olives. You see, I was too scared to ask for the Greek salad without olives in Greece...I thought they might laugh at me. They probably noticed the wall of olives once they collected my plate, but I was gone by then - and avoided the shame of looking at the waiters face while I rejected what is probably the people of Greece's favorite thing to eat.


After lunch, we walked around Oia a bit more, enjoyed the views and took the quintessential Santorini pictures:

~I had to include this picture of me because I loved this JCREW beach embossed dress and I now refer to it as the Santorini dress, don't you think the color of the dress fits in perfectly? ~

After a nice afternoon in Oia, we decided to hop back on the 4 wheeler and hit the beach. Since it was already late in the afternoon, we decided to look for a beach closer to Fira and our ship. We found one that was okay - it was a rocky beach - with the hottest black rocks I have ever stepped on! You had to sprint to the water before your feet blistered. I guess this could be helpful if you are the kind of person who is always hesitant to get in the water...the hot stones will force you to get right in and cool off! We had a tricky time getting the 4 wheeler back to the rental place - there are several one way streets in Fira which were not obviously marked and I believe we broke the law several times before getting the 4 wheeler back to it's rightful owner. At this point we are completely out of money - well, I think we are litterally like 50 cents shy of a gondola ticket and we only had Adam's credit card on us which consistently rejected ATMs throughout our trip. This forced us to just walk down the donkey path - which was the WORST. The entire path is covered in donkey dung that has been sanded over, but you still step in it and it's so smelly, and slippery! I almost fell in it several times on our walk down. I don't recommend this route. It doesn't really fit in with the rest of Santorini and I think the donkeys should be shipped out :)

Here are a bunch of pictures that I took throughout the day: