Over My Head (Cable Cars)

Our last stop on the cruise before returning to Venice was Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was a beautiful day and really made all of the quaint, red-roofed houses on the hill pop. We decided to start our day by taking a taxi to the cable cars.

 

 

After that, we headed down to the fort on the water to wander around the old town. It was getting to be incredibly hot and we had had many busy days, so Stephanie and Tanya went to walk the walls while the rest of us decided to stay in the town and wander around.

 

We all meandered back to the ship in our small groups, had ice cream and headed to dinner. Afterwards, we split up to pack, make a few stops around the ship and try the show (opera, which we left shortly into because we realized we were not big fans of opera). I also got in one more hot tub, leading me to come up with the list below.

Top 5 Reasons That Evening Hot Tubs Are the Best:

5. No children splashing and/or jumping on you.

4. You can float however you want and take up the entire hot tub.

3. Being able to see the stars as you’re floating and relaxing.

2. No one turning the bubbles on without your permission.

1. The surprised look on people’s faces when they realize there is a person by themselves just chilling in the hot tub.

The Last Greek Island

Our final stop in Greece was Corfu. The island had spent years under different rule, so while it was part of the country of Greece now, the buildings showed a lot of Italian, French and British influence. We started off by wandering the streets and picking up some souvenirs.

We eventually ended up down at the water, where Uncle Brian walked through the fort and the rest of us explored the courtyard areas along the sea. It was just a short stay at the port, as we were off to Dubrovnik the next day and we had to cover quite a bit of ground (water) to get there.

It also happened to be my mom’s birthday, so I had asked our stewardess if she could make my mom a towel animal while we were out and I set out a card I brought along. My mom was definitely surprised! Since there was still a lot of the day left, we headed up to the pool. I had not yet tried out the waterslide and was excited to do so. It did not turn out very well though because, unfortunately, a misbehaving child did not wait until I had gotten out of the way before he came down and I ended up with a big, awful bruise! That was the first and only time I used the slide. Even though we had dinner in the dining room (and mom had some giant prawns), I also decided to try out the room service for a late night snack that night.

Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink

Today was the day! We were getting on our Mediterranean cruise! I stayed back and packed up while the others took Brian, Esther and Betty Jean on a walk to St. Mark’s Square, since they hadn’t had a chance to see it yet. I was on vacation and wanted to sleep in! I also had the surprise of being treated to more buttery croissants when they returned.

Then, we were ready to head towards the cruise ship terminal. We locked up the apartments and headed to the vaporetto station with our suitcases. We were learning that you had to fend for yourself here and had been working on the art of making human walls to stop people from cutting in line. This definitely almost happened while trying to board the boat. They even stopped letting on suitcases halfway through our group because the boat was so busy, but all seven of us managed to rush on, while the attempted line-jumpers had to wait for the next one.

We got off at the final stop, Piazzale Roma, and attempted to find the train to the cruise ship terminal. It seemed like a great idea that there was a train to get us out there. After walking in a few circles, we finally found it. We got settled on the train and quickly discovered that we would only be sitting for about three minutes. Then, we were up again to get off! We thought it would be a quick walk to the terminal because we could easily see it from the platform, but then we had to keep walking . . . and walking . . . and walking. We were at the FAR terminal. We were pretty much ready to pack it in with sore backs and no energy when we finally arrived.

We were able to get rid of our suitcases (finally!) and headed in to register and get our cruise cards. Unfortunately, the ship got in late due to some weather in Dubrovnik and we ended up in line quite a bit longer than expected. We were able to snag some water and juice while waiting though and one gentleman waiting near us took it upon himself to walk up and down the line offering people cups and water.

Finally, we got moving and after going through security, boarded the ship and headed to the lunch buffet! We found lots of great things and once we were stuffed, we went down to the rooms to check them out and get changed into bathing suits for some hot tub time!

We left port around 5:00pm and travelled down the Grand Canal and into the lagoon. It was a little nerve-wracking to see our massive ship try to navigate between the markers showing deep water. We watched from our rooms at the back of the ship and then rushed to get ready for dinner, since we were the first sitting.

We had heard rumours that tap water wouldn’t be automatically ready at the dinner tables (and even available at all), as we had experienced on all of the other cruises we had been on. After sitting down and taking a look at the menus, the drink server arrived to take our orders . . . and the rumours were right! They wouldn’t let us have water, unless it came in a bottle and was of the fizzy or mineral variety! We were pretty surprised by all of this and my mom, being my mom, wasn’t going to let the issue drop. We had heard that Americans got free water tickets for dinner, since it was something they were “used to with dinner.” My mom marched down to Guest Relations and explained the situation and how Canadians drink water with dinner too! She did it . . . she got us our water! It still came in a bottle, but at least we weren’t going to have to lug down tap water in our own water bottles from the buffet.

After a long and drawn out dinner, we headed off to our various activities for the night. Tanya and Stephanie tried to check out the candy store, Brian went to casino and mom, Esther, Betty Jean and I headed off to the show. Our first day on the ship definitely started out as an interesting one!

What Happened?

So, yeah, I haven't really posted in a while. I blame the strike! Here's what's been going on . . .

The Strike

About three weeks ago, the union at the airport announced that they were planning a labour disruption for Labour Day weekend. As of Thursday night before the long weekend, I was going to be spending 36 hours at work in 12-hour shifts for the long weekend. Yikes! Luckily, they settled and I spent the weekend being as lazy as possible to make up for the fact I ALMOST had to work so much. I was a bit disappointed because I would have had a pretty cool job in operations (temporarily anyway).

Aritzia Warehouse Sale

Instead of making money that weekend, I went and spent some at the Aritzia Warehouse Sale. Aritzia was started in Vancouver, so I felt it was appropriate. Totally worth it too, $50.00 is not an acceptable price for a scarf. $14.99 is (especially when it was originally $50.00).

Boat Cruise

Although it might look like all of the boats were in that last picture, they aren't! Two weeks ago we had a "partnering session" with one of our contractors. When I first received the invitation, I thought I was being invited to a work meeting for four hours on a Thursday night. I was definitely not excited. Then, I learned out what a "partnering session" was. Luckily, I had also just received by brand-spanking-new British Columbia's driver's license. We started out at the River Rock Casino (where I needed my ID), then took a paddlewheeler down the Fraser River (where I also needed my ID).

School

I also started taking a Distance Education course. Yay for Introductory Marketing. I also have a very enthusiastic professor. He responded to one of my emails and every sentence ended in an exclamation mark. He's even more bubbly than me.

Tragically Hip

The boyfriend ended up getting some free tickets from work last Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre. We went with a few other lucky free ticket receivers from UBC. I didn't really know the Tragically Hip that well, but the lead singer gets a A+ for enthusiasm. He was very entertaining to watch! I also recognized a few songs, so I wasn't totally lost. We were right behind one gentleman that obviously loved them. He was SO EXCITED the entire concert. It was a great time (although Wednesday was a little tough to make it through)!

Lillooet

This past weekend, we went on another "partnering session" with my team from the airport. Seven of us headed up to Lillooet. It was a beautiful drive up and we drove through Hope, Hell's Gate and Jackass Mountain. The roads got a bit sketchy as we got close to Lillooet. In one section, they just keep cutting the mountain back because the road is literally falling off the edge of the cliff. Lillooet also has the Mile 0 marker of British Columbia, everything used to be measured from there! The house we stayed at reminded me of Girl Guide camp because it was a huge empty building (normally there are renters living in it, but they had recently moved out) and we just put our mattresses and sleeping bags down all over the place. We also made a giant screen out of paper and a projector. I spent the weekend watching kung fu movies and I finally stayed awake for Star Trek.

We went exploring the next day by the river that runs through town. It is like the desert out in Lillooet. There was no shade and just this stagnant heat. We skipped rocks, built rock towers and tested out the water temperature.

We also went and saw the "hanging tree" (which was used to hang people until the late 1800s) and the Chinese rock pilings (they were searching for gold). It was so desert-y that there were even tiny cacti growing!

Then, we headed down to the salmon spawning channels. There were fish jumping everywhere! There was also a floatplane docked and a small train going by (I love trains). The colour of the water was incredible!

Our last stop on the nature excursion was Marble Canyon. We met a duck!

By then we'd had enough nature and stopped by the local beer and wine festival. I had an "Old Jalopy" pale ale. It was actually so good! It was some sort of award-winner. I also got to use that ID again! After sweating way too much, we headed back into town for dinner at Dina's Greek restaurant. Yum!

On Sunday, there were some things to do around the house. On the way home, we stopped at Duffy Lake. There was a really cool log jam and more beautiful water. You could also see glaciers.

We also stopped at a few creeks on the way home (and there was more beautiful water).

We also came home though Whistler and Squamish, which I had never seem before. I'll be doing more exploring up that way when my parents are here!