TAIA

See Part 1 Exploring the Magic of Paris: My Unforgettable Journey https://taia-books.com/2017/04/14/first-blog-post/

 

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ” Henry David Thoreau

By Natalya K. 

 

After 4 Days in Paris, we flew to Barcelona. It was a quick flight, around 2-2.5 hours. One tip worth pointing out here is that when you pack, please keep in mind the luggage/baggage limitations for ALL your flights. Our flight from SF->Paris allowed for 2 bags per person with a weight limit of 50 lbs per bag, however the Paris->Barcelona flight had a different limit so we had to consolidate.

We spent 2 days in Barcelona, stayed in a beautiful Vincci hotel, saw most of the city on a Hop On/Hop Off Bus, visited La Sagrada Familia – (what a magnificent piece of work!), visit Park Guell, walked La Rambla Street, ate paella and went to a beach (even saw a few  women topless).

At the Barcelona port we boarded Celebrity Equinox ship for our 12-night Mediterranean cruise. Our first stop was Marseille, France and second stop was Nice, France. We visited the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. Did you know that residents of Monaco are not allowed to gamble or even enter the casino!?

Next was Italy, we stopped in Livorno and went to see the leaning tower of Pisa. Next stop was Rome and we almost didn’t make it back onto the ship in time! The port of call is Civitavecchia which is about an hour on a fast train from Rome. Even though we left the ship early, there is so much to see in Rome! Our top choices were the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel,  Colosseum and St. Peter’s Basilica. We gave ourselves 2 hours to get back, keeping mind that the train ride was 1 hour, BUT we got on the WRONG train!! And rode that train for about 15 mins the wrong way, asked 5 different people if it was going to Civitavecchia and ALL 5 said yes (they didn’t speak very good English lol). Anyhow, we eventually figured it out, got off and had to wait 30 mins for the RIGHT train and in the end were on the LAST shuttle bus to our ship and as soon as we got on, literally minutes later it left the port.

We often reminisce what a nightmare that would have been because the next day was at sea, and we arrived in Valletta, Malta. What a beautiful island country! We got on the Hop On/Hop Off bus there and visit Blue Grotto among other incredible stops.

After another day at sea, we arrived in Greece. First city was Mykonos (so much beauty) and the next day was Athens (so much history). Then we arrived in Turkey! Kusadasi – where we stayed. 

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