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ShotoJuku’s LEGENDary Mediterranean Adventure

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Cobra1365

Cobra1365

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Fun Day At Sea #1

 

 

As you know, this special cruise was to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary that occurred a few days earlier on May 1st but continued on our first elegant night. I found that the traditional wedding gift for 30 years was pearls so I wanted to give my Bride not only a gift of pearls but also a pearl of a gift. I found a unique necklace of (cultured) pearls in that came in some subtle shades of blue and also another set of 3-bracelets of white pearls with some blue added in as well. To me, each of the 3-bracelet represented the 3-decades that we had been married as well as our 3 children. Of course she absolutely loved them and the symbolism that came with them as well and she wore them to elegant night showing them off to everyone along the way.

 

 

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Ciao For Now!!

 

I gave my wife the exact same thing for our 30th! Good find, Sir!

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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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Athens, Greece

 

One of the best things I really enjoy about cruising is the concept that one is actually traveling on a floating hotel that takes you from different ports and countries overnight in what seems like a mere blink of an eye. Not more than a few hours ago I was in Dubrovnik, Croatia and when I awoke I was in Athens, Greece. Sailing further east required us to turn our clocks forward another hour so now we were 7-hours ahead of EST which for me kind of made it like I was working the midnight shift at home.

 

Athens was certainly more metropolitan that Dubrovnik with signs of a more condensed infrastructure of older and aging buildings crowded upon one another certainly a much larger commercial presence in the port itself. I did get a kick of seeing how so many businesses, buildings, and ships that were painted in the blue and white colors of the Greek flag.

 

 

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Athens (Port of Piraeus), like all the other ports to follow, required you to be up with the sun so that you would be off the ship around 7:45 AM as tours departed at 8:00 AM (with or without you). Ironically, many of our ports of call required you to travel at least an hour or more to the specific sites that you wished to visit unlike visiting say Cozumel, Mexico or Georgetown, Cayman Islands where you basically stay in and around the local area. Today we booked a tour with Piraeus Express, a local private tour that utilized a very large coach bus that seated around 80+ passengers or so. Our tour guide on the excursion was a young lady named Catherine who spoke English very well and she was also very knowledgeable about all of the sites we visited and about Greek history.

 

We left the port as scheduled are made our way through downtown Piraeus towards Athens stopping a few times along the way to see some of the Olympic stadiums that had been built for the 2004 games. Many of the “new” stadiums were sadly no longer in use and as Greek economy itself had hit more than its share in speed bumps many of these magnificent structures sat in a state of disrepair. Ironically yet again though was that one stadium in particular – the Panathenaic Stadium was initially built entirely of marble in 329 BC and has more than 50,000 seats and is the virtual finish line for the marathon run and is actually still utilized today.

 

 

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Not far from the stadium is the nearby Government center and the tomb of the unknown soldier where we stopped just in time for the changing of the guard. For anyone who has seen the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery with the USMC cannot help but be impressed and this demonstration, although different, was very impressive too.

 

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We then visited the archeological site of the Temple of Zeus. Sadly only a small amount of the original site is left with just a few columns left standing. This is where you can purchase your tickets to visit the Parthenon site but I caution you to watch your change as I was shorted 10€ as was another man on the bus however our guide Catherine “The Great” promptly corrected the matter and recovered the €’s promptly; that’s one way to ensure a tip!

 

 

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Before heading up to the Acropolis and the Parthenon site we stopped for lunch at a local Greek café that featured a variety of Greek dishes. We ordered a lamb dish (no pizza here) and some Ouzo, a clear alcohol, to drink. We were warned just how potent ouzo could be so it is strongly recommended that you mix it with water until it becomes cloudy. Ouzo has a sweet licorice taste so I pretty much left it untouched as I’m not a licorice fan however our tablemates made sure it don’t go to waste – Opa!!

 

We then visited the Parthenon itself which is located atop a very high mountain top that pretty much overlooks all of Athens below, truly a gathering place for the Greek Gods.

 

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The Parthenon has certainly seen better days having been built in 447 BC and is currently under a major restoration project with a variety of cranes and other equipment all throughout the site. It was also incredibly packed with many other tourists making navigating around the site difficult to do. We spent nearly an hour before we had to depart back to the ship but grabbed as many pictures as possible.

 

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Once back at the ship our day ashore was complete and returned to our stateroom to settle in for a bit before getting ready for dinner and a show (I don’t recall which one). This night, like many to follow, ended early as other ports of call awaited us just on the other side of the sunset/sunrise.

 

Ciao For Now!!

Edited by ShotoJuku
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Captain Carnival

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Turkey Day – and it’s not even Thanksgiving!



I hope that most of you are “gobbling” up the review so please feel free to drop a comment!

 

 

Today our port of call was Izmir, Turkey that once again was not to be our primary tour destination requiring us to be up with the sun and off the ship by 7:45 to meet our tour bus and leave the area at around 8:00. For this excursion we used another private tour company – the Ephesus shuttle, that for the most part did an incredible job in getting us to so many great sites with just one minor hiccup at the end….they kidnapped us…I’ll explain more later on.

 

As I recall our guides name was “Maiek” (Mike) and he was very well versed on the area historically and culturally and briefed us along the hour+ journey from Izmir south to the area of Selcuk that would include stops at the House of the Blessed Mother, the ancient city of Ephesus, and of course a visit to the nearby town of Kusadasi where we were kidnapped; more on that later!

 

Once we arrived in the area we went directly to the House of the Blessed Mother so as to avoid the onslaught of the thousands of visitors that were destined to visit that day; they were just behind us by around 20-30 minutes! Just a brief history…Mother Mary was brought to Ephesus by the Apostle John after the Resurrection of Christ and lived out her remaining days there, some 11 years. This is also the site where the assumption of Mary took place as well so were indeed walking on Holy Ground and you could feel it! Perhaps being Catholic gave us both a sense that this was so much more than an historical site but more spiritual, nearly like a pilgrimage to visit the home of the Mother of all of us (as Catholic/Christians) and we were literally shaking!

 

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The home itself is not very big whatsoever and you are not allowed to linger inside or take any pictures as there are literally thousands of people lined up outside behind you waiting for their turn to come in and shuffle on through. There is of course an opportunity to offer a prayer, and thereby “linger” a bit longer in this Holy Home, and that is to do what any good Catholic would do – kneel and pray. Fortunately I eye-spied two kneelers that were placed off to the side of the main room for that specific purpose so we each took one and offered our own heart-felt and prayerful intentions.

 

 

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After getting up we got back onto the shuffle-line and made our way outside where I found a large photo of the interior “altar” so we stood in front and I snapped a quick picture; our faces pretty much convey the overwhelming sense of awe that we were feeling at the time.

 

Once outside the home we found that the area where the spring water that has been blessed by several Popes so we drank some from each spot and blessed ourselves and crosses that we wear around our necks. We were able to purchase some of the Holy “Spring” Water in small glass bottles for your own use. There was one older woman on our bus who was at times not able to make all of the climbs and such, but she always gave it a try, that was not able to get up to the site so I bought her a bottle of the Holy Water and gave it to her while she waited on the bus.

 

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There was another area just down the hill where one could leave a prayerful request and leave it on the “wishing wall” that was covered with I’m sure millions of requests. It was said that if your wish is to be fulfilled (permanently) you must return to the Home and find your written request; I guess we may be going back one day…sooner than later I hope (and pray)!

 

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Standing in front of the prayer request wall wearing a powder blue shirt for our Blessed Mother.

 

 

 

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I don’t have too much time to write today, so I’ll have to write more about our visit to Turkey tomorrow in what might be called “leftovers” so I’ll leave it at that. Oh yes, I will talk about our brush with being kidnapped too!

 

Ciao For Now!!

Edited by ShotoJuku
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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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Quiz Time....

 

I do have just about enough time to throw in an oddly fashioned quiz question....

 

 

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You've got something about you



You've got something I need

Daughter of Aphrodite

Hear my words and take heed

I was born on Olympus

To my father a son

I was raised by the demons

Trained to reign as the one

 

Question: Who is the author of this quote? First correct answer gets a gold star (hint)!!

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maryann2

maryann2

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Upon our return we found the John Heald had personally sent us a few treats - chocolate covered strawberries, a bottle of champagne, and of course a 24-carat gold (plastic) ship-on-a-stick...Gratzi John!!

 

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Ciao For Now!!

What did you do to deserve this LOL. It seems he sends them to his FB followers.

Did he attend your M&G? He was invited to attend ours on the Legend TA but did not show.

I agree his shows are really funny.

 

 

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I love this photo with the people down below and have one like it.

I did the 12 day Med cruise on the Carnival Dream and the 9 and 12 day on the Magic and your review is bringing back so many memories of beautiful places.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review. Have to say you are so romantic.

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maryann2

maryann2

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If you look carefully you will see my prayer intention there.

I loved Ephesus and the House of The Virgin Mary and you are right for Catholics and all Christians it is a very spiritual experience. Always think of the letters of St Paul to the Ephesians.

 

I am sure that you were kidnapped to a carpet salesroom LOL

Edited by maryann2
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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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What did you do to deserve this LOL. It seems he sends them to his FB followers.

 

Did he attend your M&G? He was invited to attend ours on the Legend TA but did not show. I agree his shows are really funny.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review. Have to say you are so romantic.

 

I spoke to John a few times while on board, as well as his assistant Stephanie, and Calvin too of course; a really GREAT TEAM!! As you know already John leads an incredibly busy schedule and we were pleased that he provided some champagne and ships to raffle off. Stay tuned for more of our story as we are not even half-way though with the adventure and thanks for the compliment!

Edited by ShotoJuku
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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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If you look carefully you will see my prayer intention there.

 

I loved Ephesus and the House of The Virgin Mary and you are right for Catholics and all Christians it is a very spiritual experience. Always think of the letters of St Paul to the Ephesians.

 

I am sure that you were kidnapped to a carpet salesroom LOL

 

Amen +

 

No, not a carpet salesman....tune in tomorrow....same CC time - same CC channel!!

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737900Ak

737900Ak

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I just saw this itinerary for the Sunshine, and I am glued to your review. What an AWESOME anniversary gift, what a beautiful wife! Congratulations on 30 years, and I am very much looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip. We would go next year with our two kids (15 and 11 next year). We love the cat pictures, too! One question-the skies look overcast in your photos-how did you find the weather in May?

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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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I just saw this itinerary for the Sunshine, and I am glued to your review. What an AWESOME anniversary gift, what a beautiful wife! Congratulations on 30 years, and I am very much looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip. We would go next year with our two kids (15 and 11 next year). We love the cat pictures, too! One question-the skies look overcast in your photos-how did you find the weather in May?

 

Thanks for the congrats and the compliments, more review, pics, and cats are on the way....tomorrow. This itinerary is just incredible and your kids will love it!

The weather was actually FANTASTIC with some gray skies, very little to no real rain, and temps in the high 70's to low 80's...except on top of Mount Etna (more on that on Messina day).

Thanks for following our continuing adventure!

Edited by ShotoJuku
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