CORFU, Greece

I am going to make this post short and sweet, because that's how our day in Corfu was. I have to preface this day with a little story that still makes me sad. We decided early on, on this cruise that we were not going to do any of the excursions that the cruise had to offer. Because, they were all upwards of $100 per person, and we figured we could just do our own thing for much cheaper(that worked for every other city except this one). We regretted that we didn't do the excursion at this city. The problem with this port was....the cruise ship didn't dock at a pier like they normally do, where you can just walk off with no problem. At this city they had to "park" in the water and use the emergency boats to take everyone to shore. As you can probably imagine trying to get nearly 3000 people off the ship in boats that hold only 30 people max was quite a time consuming procedure. On top of that they give you a number for when you can get on your tender boat and ours was like number 45 or something crazy like that. We had about 8 hours in that city, I think we docked around 8am and then had to be back to the boat by 4pm or something. Anyway, around eleven they were just barely calling number 23, and by this time we were pretty confident we were not going to get the chance to even get off the boat, for it to be worth it to even see the city. Side note: They allowed the people who bought the excursion packages to get off very first because they had buses they had to catch at a certain time. So we were just chilling on the boat by the pool and we saw one of our friends, and we were telling her how we were kinda disappointed we weren't going to get to see the city, and she happened to have two express passes to get on a tender boat whenever she wanted, and she offered them to us!! So, we gladly accepted and went to the express lane and were escorted past the long line to get off the ship! It was really awesome! So we got off the ship and at this point we only had a few hours to explore this huge island. I'm not gonna lie, the road next to the port is pretty ghetto, and not very pretty. We decided we would take a boat off of the island to another island called Vido, it was really beautiful, there were wild turkeys, and bunnies and the beach was really nice! We swam there for about an hour or so and then it was time to head back to the island of Corfu and get back on the cruise boat.
If anything this port taught what not to do on our next cruise. We were happy that we were able to even get off the boat and see a little bit of the island. But, we know people who took the excursions and they were able to see a completely different part of the island that we never got to experience. I'm not trying to make this a sob story. So, sorry if it comes across that way. I just want to let whoever is reading this, if you ever go to Corfu, you should definitely do the excursion! Overall, we had fun of course and we were happy to visit Corfu, maybe someday we will go back there and really experience it :) Here are some pictures from our short stay in Corfu. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading! 

>>>>>>Click here to watch the video from Corfu!<<<<<<<

mykonos, GREECE

You guys!! This was the country I was looking forward to the very most, as you could imagine!! Who gets to go to Greece?! I was so excited, and I am sad that we didn't have more time to explore. But, the amount of time that we did have was awesome!!! We hung out with one of the couples we met on the cruise again in this city. It was really fun! We got off the boat, and it's just as you would imagine Greece to be. White buildings everywhere, blue doors, everything is so beautiful! We had a few hours, so we decided we were going to take the local bus to this beach that was recommended to us, which was about thirty minutes away from the port, it was called Elia. It was of course a gorgeous thirty minute ride, once we got there it was the most beautiful little private beach, with crystal clear water. It was perfect. As soon as we stepped into the water it was so refreshing, I wish we could have stayed there forever! We swam in the water and enjoyed being under the cutest little palm tree umbrella's  (we had to pay 7 euros each to sit on). It was worth it though, that beach was amazing!! So of course my boyfriend was playing in the water with his new GoPro, and I started getting anxious to get back to the boat, because if  we didn't get back by 2:20, they would leave us. So, we got out of the water around 1:00 pm and asked the waitress at the restaurant when the next bus back into town left. She kindly said, "the next bus leaves at 2:20". At this point I started to get a little worried! I figured we could just take a taxi back to the port, so we asked her to call a taxi for us. She then called us back over and said, "all of the taxi's are busy". We all then started to get really worried! We needed to get four people back to the cruise ship within an hour, or the boat would leave without us.  So, I decided to go into the parking lot and look for someone with a big enough car that could take us back to the town. Just as a walked into the lot there was a cute couple coming out of their car to go to the beach. I asked the lady if they spoke English, and I probably looked panicked because of the whole situation. But, she said "yes" and then I told her the situation, and she was so kind to take us back to the city! I seriously felt like it was a scene from the amazing race. We were so happy that they were kind enough to take their beach time to drive us. We then walked around the water back to the ship and made it happily back to the boat just in time for it to leave to go to the next city :) Here are some pictures from our day!

Thanks for reading!!

>>>>>To watch the video made from this day click here<<<<<

Kusadasi, TURKEY

We visited Kusadasi and Ephesus in a very short few hours that were really fun! We met two couples on the cruise through our travel clubs mix and mingle events! We decided instead of going on the cruises expensive excursions, that we could split a taxi with these other two couples in order to save money, and it was really awesome to have people to travel with. As soon as you walk off the boat into Ephesus you are dumped into a local market that is swamped full of tourists and people from all of the other cruise boats. They do have some pretty neat stuff, and if you know how to barter...you could probably get some pretty good deals! We didn't buy anything there though.  From there we started our search for a taxi driver. Of course the taxi drivers right outside the market are very expensive, but if you keep on walking you can find better deals. We found an awesome driver who was willing to drive us all over the city and up to the Mother Mary's home, and over to Ephesus. I think we only ended up paying $40 each couple for the whole day. Which was really good, because he waited for us at each place we got out and visited. I think he probably waited a whole hour while we were exploring Ephesus. It was really great! The first stop we made was the Virgin Mary's House( It's believed that the Virgin Mary had spent her last days in the vicinity of Ephesus and that she had died there). It's really beautiful and peaceful there, you can light a candle outside of the home, and there is even a well that people fill their water with. I enjoyed going there a lot.  From there, we had our taxi driver drive us over the Ephesus which was according to Wikipedia: an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, three kilometers southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era it was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. The city flourished after it came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. According to estimates Ephesus had a population of 33,600 to 56,000 people in the Roman period, making it the third largest city of Roman Asia Minor after Sardis and Alexandria Troas. Ephesus is really cool to see, it's crazy to think that there are cities that were thriving and so advanced that many years ago. It was really hot so we left and drove back down into the city.

After we experienced The Virgin Mary's house, and Ephesus. We went to take a swim in the ocean right next to the city of Kusadasi. Then we had to head back to the ship, but on the way we walked through a local market and tried some Turkish donuts, and some other things. Overall Turkey was really fun, although it was really hot! We were happy to have people to experience it with! 

Thanks for reading! 

To see video created for this trip, click here!!