Home Sweet Home

Well it is hard to believe that our nine week trip has come and gone after dreaming about it for fifteen years!! But it was all we had dreamed it would be and more, we thoroughly enjoyed it all, We visited 12 different countries and experienced a big variety in the places we visited. We were lucky to have had a safe and hassle free holiday. Thanks to those people who have read and passed on their positive comments about our blog. No doubt over coming months it will be something that David and I and Jenny and Joll look back on with many fond memories.

Hong Kong

We arrived into Hong Kong from Heathrow and were all a bit weary after the long flight overnight and also losing 7 hours with the time zone change, so after a quick shower and a power nap we went for a wander around the streets of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a lovely island, with so much development, highrise buildings everywhere, some beautiful big bridges and they also have some nice beach areas and hilly landscape.

We went on a city sightseeing bus tour which took us to Aberdeen Harbour where we had a ride on a Sanpan through the harbour which was bustling with lots of other Sanpans and heaps of fishing boats of varying sizes that all were mostly moored in the harbour having arrived back from fishing. The water in the harbour was really clean and clear and we would see fish swimming around in it. We saw the largest floating restaurant in the world which is on Victoria Harbour too. After that we visited a gold jewellery manufacturer and shop, saw Jackie Chan's big house overlooking Stanley Beach, visited and wandered around the Stanley Markets (and saw another resident market cat!) which were interesting and enjoyable to stroll around, it is just complicated dividing the Hong Kong dollar by 6 to work out how much everything costs in Australian dollars, but luckily I had David with me to work it out!!! Then we drove up to the top of Victoria Peak for the good views, but due to the misty atmosphere and drizzle we couldn't see anything much, we took the fenicular tram back down to the bottom of the mountain. It was an enjoyable tour as our Chinese Tour Guide was very funny, actually to say it like him, he was "Berry, Berry Funny!!!". Then it was back to the hotel, collect our bags and head for the airport for the final leg home, an another long overnight flight!!!

Dubrovnik

Our last port of call on our cruise before returning to Venice was at Dubrovnik where the cruise ship put down anchor out in the bay and we had to go ashore using by tender. As with everything else on the cruise it was very well organised, trying to get a couple of thousand or more people ashore by lifeboat isn't a small task but although it took a while it was efficiently done. Dubrovnik according to the information onboard the ship has a population of 5,700 people although it looked larger from the sea. All the buildings appeared to have the same colour roof tiles and external wall colour so it all looked very neat and tidy! There was a man dressed up like a pirate with a parrot, a cockatoo and a Macaw in the street. The streets were paved with a pale coloured stone that had a real shine to it and it looked like a nice place to spend a night or two. There were lots of shops and restaurants and it had a city wall as well.

Turkey (Izmir and Istanbul)

Izmir was a big city that we called into as our third port of call, we went for a wander around the streets for a while, it was almost 30 degrees so it was fairly hot.

The cruise ship pulled into Instanbul early and we had the whole day there, sailing again at 6.30 pm. We watched the people leave the cruise on the organised excursions and according to our taxi driver there was over 50 buses there to take people on their excursions!! After they had all left we left the ship and hired a taxi driver who for a set amount (which we had to bargain down a bit as the taxi drivers were all there hassling us to go with them the minute we got off the ship!!). We really didn't want to do the organised tour thing and walk around all day with guides, we just wanted to have a look around ourselves at our own leisure. We first visited the Topkapi Palace which is like the Buckingham Palace of Istanbul! It housed their crown jewels plus a lot of other old artefacts like many outfits worn by the various Sultans over previous centuries which were all in excellent condition. It was an interesting place to visit and very different to the palaces and museums of the other cultures we had been to on our trip.

Our second stop was to visit the Blue Mosque which was really big, we had to remove our shoes and the women had to wear a scarf if they were showing too much skin before entering the mosque. Again this was something new and different for us to see. The mosque was very decorative inside and had really soft carpet on the floor for those who pray there to kneel on. The carpet on the floor has markings on it, so that if you are there to pray you know how much space you are allowed to take up!

Our third stop was to the Grand Bazaar. It was very clean and big and obviously had heaps of shops in it. The shopkeepers were all very friendly, I had an Australian Cap on (as it was 30 degrees and hot) and they all seemed to like "Aussies" as they wanted to stop and talk to us and tell us about the Australians who had a carpet shop at the Bazaar which we had already met. There were lots of shops selling the usual take offs of the big brands like Ralph, Louis Vuitton etc. When we were walking past one of the stalls the owner said to us, come and have a look at my wares (which were Ralph polo shirts), he told us as a selling point that "they are all genuine, first class fakes!!!". It was very funny. We loved wandering around the Bazaar looking at all the different things for sale. There was a cat asleep on one of the market stalls oblivious to all the action going on around him. Before we went back to the cruise ship we went to a coffee/chocolate shop in the main part of Istanbul and had a really nice coffee (and the chocolates were nice too!), whilst we were there David got chatting to a lady who was Australian who knew our friends from Rockhampton as they used to be next door neighbours on their farms! Small world.

Bari (Italy) and Katakolon (Greece)

We visited the city of Bari on the first port of call on our cruise. Bari was a lovely seaside city and we did the tour organised by the cruise ship which took us around the old city wall and we visited the Basilica which has the tomb of St Nicholas (as in Santa) in its basement.

Our second port of call was at Katakolon in Greece, where we just walked off the cruise ship and along the promenade of the small town and wandered around the shops, market and listened to the Greek singing and dancing as we enjoyed a coffee on the waterfront. A very relaxing place to spend an hour or two.

All Aboard the Costa Serena

We were all excited when we came around the corner on the bus and saw our cruise ship, it was HUGE!!! We found out that it was actually 290 metres long, 36 metres wide and can hold 3780 passengers and 1100 crew!!! We had booked a cabin with a balcony on deck eight, so we were very high up and the cabins were bigger than we had expected, and had a fairly normal size ensuite which was good. The cruise ship was only built in 2007 so it was all very new and very glitzy and glamorous (unlike us!!!). As it was our first cruise I was a bit worried about being sea sick, but when we left Venice on day one, I didn't even realise we were sailing!! And it was like that for the whole cruise, the water didn't look that rough anyway and occasionally you could feel it rock a bit, but it was so smooth and quiet, it was really good. It had several different restaurants, the main ones having two sittings of which we were allocated a time to turn up for dinner. The food was excellent, you could have five courses for lunch and dinner if that is what you wanted!! But the thing that we enjoyed was the service, the staff on the boat (well the waiting staff that we spoke to anyway) are employed for a eight month contract. Lots of them were from the Phillipines and India, they work seven days a week, 11 hours a day, usually two shifts of 5.5 hours with a break during the day between shifts, they don't get a day off in the eight months and on the days that the ship is to change over passengers, they have to clean rooms etc as well. But they all seemed happy and said they were well paid, they really looked after us well. And as we would go to happy hour each day at 5.00 pm and to know a few of them they were even more friendly. One of the waitresses called Ramona who was from the Phillipines called David and Peter "Sir David" and "Sir Peter". The cruise ship had lots of different bars where they would have a variety of different singers each day and night and also had a big theatre that had a different show like comedy, gymastics, classical music or magic shows on each night. There were a few duty free shops on board as well as a casino, a really big day spa, pools, gym and a water slide! (No I didnt go down the water slide!). Also each morning and afternoon there was a art/craft class which I went to a couple of times and Jenny and I both went and learnt how to fold serviettes one afternoon!! There were lots of activities to do, they ran gym classes and bingo, heaps of different things, or you could do nothing, it was just so nice lying on the bed or sitting on the balcony, reading or watching the water or land pass by. The cruise ship organises excursions as it generally would sail over night and arrive at a new port each morning or by lunch time, we did the organised tour in Bari but all decided that it was probably good if you were only on your first week of holidays and were interested in hearing the history of the town and the churches etc, but as we were in week eight we were fairly well over hearing history and visiting churches and walled cities so after that we decided to just do our own thing when we came ashore. We all really enjoyed our week on the cruise ship, we decided we were lucky there was four of us as we got to sit as a group at dinner whereas if we had been on our own (like the only other couple from Australia that we met on the ship) we would have been seated on a larger table with people who most likely wouldn't have been able to speak to us in English. All the announcements on the ship were done in several languages and English speaking people were definitely in the minority. On our second day aboard the entire ship had to do a fire drill, it is bad enough doing them at school, let alone having to do it on holidays, but it was very organised and only took about 20 minutes to get the entire cruise ship ready to board the life boats, life jackets on and all!! I celebrated my birthday on the cruise which was very nice, David organised a birthday cake for me for after dinner and the some of the waiters sang Happy Birthday to me! A cruise is definitely something we would like to do another time.

Venice

Venice was really nice, we arrived by train from Milan which took just under three hours. The weather was beautiful, around 24 degrees and sunny, we caught a water bus and checked into our hotel then had a nice pizza sitting outisde in one of the narrow streets enjoying watching the world go by. After Jenny and Joll arrived later in the day, we wandered around Venice checking out all the shops, there were so many shops selling souvenirs and Murano glass! We along with the other thousand people went to the Rialto Bridge and St Mark's Square. It was very busy, it was a Saturday and the weather was lovely so I suppose that contributed to the crowds, or maybe they are just always there. We had a lovely dinner sitting outside along the Grand Canal. The next day we did more wandering around then caught a water taxi and onto the cruise terminal. The taxi drivers name was Giovanni and he was telling us that he got hired by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for eight weeks while Angelina was filming "The Tourist" recently in Venice