Tunisia

The second stop on our cruise was Tunis, Tunisia. I was a bit apprehensive about this port city for several reasons, namely that they had been a part of the Arab Spring and a few weeks before our trip there was more political unrest. Luckily, everything was peachy keen by the time we arrived and we had a lovely day!

As we stepped of the boat there were men trying to get us on camels, to hold falcons, to take flowers - all at a fee, obviously. I was fascinated by the camels! The animal lover in me was a bit annoyed as they really should have been allowed to be on the grass because of how violently they crash to the ground on their giant knobby knees. If you've never seen a camel take a knee I recommend spending a moment or two on YouTube finding a video.

No one was surprised when Scotty ended up on a camel. I'm just surprised he didn't end up all the way down the pier.

I handed my camera off to have Melissa and my first step into Africa coordinated and recorded. Massive fail. We couldn't seem to get our feet and steps matching before we let the crowd anxiety get to us. People were piling up behind us and it impaired our walking skills.

The result is this - us laughing at our idiocy. Such a funny memory!

Outside of the pier we got a driver named Mickey who has four daughters, speaks four languages, and feels like life is much better since the revolution. No more curfew! He drove us around all day to whatever sights we wanted to see. We all have a major crush on Mickey.

First stop was Carthage. Old Roman ruins. And peddlers! Each of those bowls were only a euro!

Selfie queen! 

Next up was a church. I don't remember why we stopped there....

The DC crew - Melissa, me, Jeff, Scott

Up next was an awesome street market

Turtles everywhere!

He can take pictures with the lens cap on

Pictures of pictures! Aren't those blue doors gorgeous? Definitely my favorite thing about Tunisia

"Don't take my picture yet, wait until he's done!"

Worth the wait?

Of course they both had to have matching hats. That's Jeff's sister, Vanessa, on the left. She and her friend, Stephanie, came out from Utah.

And another market

Foreign Coke - still gross, but cool to look at

Palermo, Sicily

The first port city on the cruise was Palermo, Sicily. It ended up being a really quiet day - probably because it was Easter Sunday.

We ended up taking lots of pictures of each other

Isn't she lovely? This is one of my favorite photos from the trip

The one thing I absolutely had to see in Palermo was "the fountain of shame". Mission accomplished!

Sicily was quaint and just plain darling

We walked to the catacombs (you MUST read the wikipedia article) and waited for 90 minutes for it to open, then found out that it was closed because of Easter. Argh.

How Jeff waited during those 90 minutes

We got YUMMY gelato (in a roll) right by the catacomb so it wasn't a total loss

Day One - Rome

If you don't Instagram, Facebook, or are my mail penpal (hi Rachel!) then you probably didn't know that I just went on a Mediterranean cruise. Welp, it happened. I went with 3 of my friends from DC and we met up with one of their sisters and her friend who are now new friends to me! Hooray for new friends! (and hooray for gelato because.......hooray, just a big, huge hooray, alright?)

We flew into Rome at 11pm so we just went to bed after eating some amazing pizza. The next morning we only had a half day before we had to board the cruise ship so we all agreed on the Colosseum and Forum. Rome is a very walking friendly city and I was so down with that because you miss so much when you can only take public transportation (and I fully expected to gain about 27 lbs so walking was highly advisable).

I love, love, love good graffiti. Some people might say that no graffiti is good but I like what I like.

He was standing in the middle of the street bouncing a ball on his head because why not? I didn't see him ask for money, he just seemed to enjoy it.

Melissa! You will get to know her on these posts

And that is some good graffiti

Jeff at the Colosseum 

Scott, me, Melissa. He's doing amazingly well at containing his excitement.

You'll see a theme emerging soon enough. 

This was our tour guide. His name sounded like Tiberius and he knew everything about ancient Rome. I wish I had been taking notes because I don't remember even 12% of what he told us.

The inside. We wanted to explore a lot more than they allowed.

We noticed two things about Europe - everyone smokes and there are A LOT of American flags. Most of the flags were on shirts or backpacks and not being worn as capes but yeah, most definitely a shocking amount of the American icon. And smoking.

In front of Constantine's Arch, it's just to the side of the Colosseum. There used to be a huge complex onsite that included the Colossus (read up on it here), the palace and the Forum.  

Not sure if Scotty meant to be photo bombing but I do NOT appreciate it!

Eh, why not?

The Colosseum has been damaged in two earthquakes that give it a lopsided appearance today. The side you see is where some reconstruction and facade work has been done. The rest of it has been retrofitted to *hopefully* withstand any future earthquakes. Fun fact - it looks like it has been shot up quite heavily, no? Well those holes are actually where metal was dug out by scavengers to be sold off. Tragic but it also gives it a pretty cool aesthetic.

To the Forum!

One view from the former palace

Arch of Titus

On to the cruise! We bought train tickets and ended up sitting on our luggage on the floor. It was like riding Splash Mountain for about an hour. 

We embarked and the safety procedures for the ship were bring shown in the cabin. Check out the interpreter!!! Talk about a day full of complete nerding out. The Colosseum, ancient Roman history, plus an international interpreter was almost too much for this geek.

Most posts coming soon!