Hello everyone,
Well a dream that I once had for a few years has now come true…going to Italy especially Venice!!! I just spent 3 wonderful days in the city. Friday morning, I woke up at 6am to see us sail into the city. It was so overwhelming seeing a beautiful sunset while entering one of the most romantic cities in the world. Stayed up there for quite sometime…thinking about the special people in my life that I wish were there to share this experience with me. The early morning Friday we still had alittle more rehearsing to do but as soon as we were done…I got off the ship so fast. We walked down the pier and it was exactly what I thought Venice would be like…looking down the little side streets (or streams) with the buildings in between…just breathtaking.
Spent the first day just getting lost in the many streets of Venice…its crazy….one of those moments where you have to experience it to understand. We walked to the very famous St. Marks Square and I was just stunned. It was just everything I thought it would be. There were SO many people there and the italian music was playing and you could just tell, how awesome this city was. We went up into the clock tower to get a really good view of Venice…it was really great. We spent a good 5 hours in the city, just walking around and just enjoying each others company. At lunch…I ordered a pizza and I swear it was one of the best I've ever had. I didn't realize how expensive Coke is in the European cities but I learned quickly. It was cool during lunch….we were sitting next to Paul Potts (you know, the opera singer that won Britain's Got Talent???) I didn't know it was him at first, but the people from England I was with, knew right away. That was cool!! Later that night we had a lovely dinner…the entire cast and crew…on the river and it was just great. Wonderful food and the wine was SO GOOD. I normally don't like to drink wine but I really enjoyed it. Lets just say…I had a GREAT night!!! haha
Saturday was an embark day…so we all had to work…which was a little interesting haha. Its a normal day of fun duties that you don't get to go around the city and just having to stay on the boat…BORING! So we will go to Sunday. I woke up early so I could get into the city. I wanted to buy a Venetian Mask…its just something you have to do…so I found a beautiful place and bought it. Look at the store I went to…the collections of mask are just beautiful…
After a wonderful day…I got some pizza and sat in St. Marks Square again and just took it all in…just really taking everything in…making sure I understood what wonderful things are happening in my life. Watched the sail away later that night, which I will admit was alittle sad. I really enjoyed my time in Venice and I didn't want my time to end…but we were off and going back to Split, Croatia for the second time.
For this time in Split, I had signed up for a escort/guide position on one of the tours. I asked to do the canoeing trip down the Cetina river (up in the mountains). What a blast that was!!! I didn't think that it was going to happen b/c it started to rain early in the morning but we still were scheduled to do it. I haven't really been the outdoors kinda guy in the past couple of years but I thought…why not, just have an adventure. I will say, getting ready for this tour…made me think of my younger years when my family would go camping…I really miss that. Anyway, I was asked to be one of the "captains or skippers" of the rafts…which means I had the hard job…I had to steer the raft going down the river. You know…it is a lot harder than it seems, especially when there are rocks/trees and rapids down the river. RAPIDS…yes I did just say that. I thought it was going to be a calm canoe down the river…lovely views, animals, mountains…no no…everything plus….rapids. So, lets just say…it was quite an adventure. I had a guy that thought I didn't understand how to do anything, so he kept paddling while I was trying to steer…I wish I could have said, please stop…you are going to make it worse. Well…the entire time…we kept getting stuck on the rocks and running into the brush…it was actually kinda funny….3 1/2 hours of good times. After we got down the river, we had a wonderful lunch and drive back to the ship.
Later that night we had Rocketman and it was a great show…I had a lot of fun with it and the audience responded very well to the show.
Today we spent the day in Dubrovnik, Croatia and what a beautiful city it was. Lesley and I walked around the city, just trying to get lost and found this AWESOME club/beach/swim in the ocean area. We sat there for a while, wishing we had our swimming suits but alas…we didn't. So we walked around a little more and waited for the others to come to the shore and had a great Croatian lunch. Then we went up into the mountains on one of the lifts….SO BEAUTIFUL. We had an adventure when we got up there…we went off the path a little bit and met Stanley the goat. He was very nice and kept following us, which was sad, cause his family ran off after a car went by but eventually he caught back up to them.
Tomorrow we are at sea all day, Thursday we are in Taormina, Italy / Friday we are in Sorrento, Italy and we end the cruise in Civitavecchia, Italy (an hour outside of Rome) for which I have been on the cruise for 3 weeks…time goes very quick.
Well, watching another video tonight on the TV. Did I mention that I get free movies in my cabin? Yeah, I get to watch any movie on the TV for free….456 of them. I think that I'll be okay….haha.
Until Next Time,
Jason
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