A Croatian Birthday and Turkish Delights

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We arrived in Venice at around noon the next day. Pulling into the city of Venice by train is pretty cool. You cross a bridge for like 20 minutes that is surrounded by water. We got out of the train station and you walk right out to a main canal and tons beautiful buildings. We headed to the cruise shuttle since we were spending a couple of days in Venice after the cruise. The bus took us to the port and we waited to board our boat called Splendor of the Seas. We walked around the amazing boat of all 11 floors. It has like 5 different bars and 2 pools. We had our first lunch on board, which was a buffet style with lots of different options. The boat set sail at around 3pm and we watching the amazing town of Venice go by. We watched the first show before our dinner. It was an entertaining contortionist act by a couple from America’s Got Talent. We then headed to dinner and met the people we would be eating with for the rest of the week. It was 2 older couples one from DC and other from Miami. The dinner was really fun. We had some really great conversations in English and the food was great. The other couples thought it was so interesting we had lived in Germany. It was also fun to hear about the US over the year from people other than our parents and friends. It was a long day of traveling all day and the next morning we were arriving in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

I woke up the next morning and celebrated my 24th birthday eating breakfast on a cruise ship. I was very excited to be spending the day in Croatia. Our boat arrived at around 8am in the small town surrounded by a wall that was filled with cannons and castle like towers. The town was absolutely beautiful with orange roofs and blue water. Rachel and I walked around first exploring the main square and small streets that walked up to the wall. After exploring we headed to a wall entrance to walk around the top. It took about 3 hours to walk all the way around. The walk was amazing since every couple of minutes you were amazed at the view. We finished the day with a little shopping and eating some amazing and cheap ice cream. We headed back a little early so we could spend some time by the pool. We got ready for dinner and headed down. For my birthday the table sung Happy Birthday and I got a candle in my tiramisu. That night after dinner we enjoyed watching the cruise staff dance around as the village people and try to get old people to join in. We headed to bed after a long day and a great birthday.

The next morning we arrived in Kusadasis, Turkey. The cruise ship offers tours of the port towns and we decided on only one in the port at Turkey. The town of Kusadasis is mostly a summer town and the population explodes during the cruise season. The main attraction was the ancient city of Ephesus. Our tour consisted of visiting amazing runes sites around the coast of Turkey. The first stop was the ancient town of Ephesus and it was really cool. It was suppose to be the area the Virgin Mary died and where Christianity was preached. The tour guide even pointed out symbols on the ancient ground that told early Christians were to meet. The next stop was at an amazing theater that was around 60% original. Our tour stopped at a few more sites before a delicious Turkish buffet and then the amazing Apollo Temple. The temple was amazing with huge columns that were about 50 inches around. After the last temple we got to see a Turkish carpet sales pitch. The rugs were really pretty but a small one cost around $2,000. We headed back to the cruise ship and took a short nap before dinner. This dinner was formal and everyone got all dressed up in suits and cocktail dresses. After the really long day we headed to bed early knowing we have a nice relaxing day at sea the following day.

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Photos

Splendor of the Seas
Me and our cruise ship for the week

Narrow Dubronik
This was from up a narrow street before the top of the wall.

Beautiful Town
From above with the orange roofs and crystal blue water.

Blue Waters
A cove on the coast of Croatia

Amazing Views
From up on the wall looking to the main street below

Great Birthday
I had lots of fun in Dubrovnik for my Birthday and with a great friend.

Library in Ephesus
The amazing rune was the ancient library and center of the old town

Still Digging up runes
I thought it was really cool to see people still trying to piece together a mosaic of a rune

Ancient Theater
This was the almost perfect theater in Turkey

Apollo's Temple
The runes of this amazing structure.

Carpet Presentation
This was after our tour in a carpet sales shop.

Formal Dinner
Rachel and I posed with the sunset before our first formal dinner