Genoa, Italy

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Geo: 44.4063, 8.93386

September 28, 2009 ~ Genoa, Italy

Today was a good day in Genoa, Italy ~ pronounced Genova or Gen-eeww-wah, depending on who you talk too. Hubby & I were up at 7:15am and decided to have breakfast in the dining room where we sat with two older ladies from England that spoke and had mannerisms exactly as you would imagine two older ladies from England would speak and act ~ I was fascinated! They take this cruise every year and had several suggestions for our day tomorrow, in Villefrance, France. They were also a delight to be around and I loved them. The other tablemates were a talky couple from Boston that were also incredibly interesting and quite entertaining. I thought breakfast was a joy and could barely quit smiling or laughing whereas I believe my dear hubby was just proud to have his eyes open at such an hour after our being awake in the middle of the night last night, yet again.

So, off the boat around 10am. We walked down the pier and took a boat shuttle to the old town area. We went to a little cell phone store and they had one digital camera for sell ~ 70 Euro – awesome deal! It met all the qualifications I had. I said we'd look around and be back. The next camera store wanted 198 Euro for their cheapest camera. We quickly left and returned to the other store and I left with a Kodak digital Easyshare camera, black, works great, takes my SD card, uses batteries, and for around 100 U.S. dollars, we now have pictures of our trip again. So worth it! We spent the day strolling the upper and lower streets of Genoa. Frankly, I'm even amazed at how much Hubby & I can walk. My legs are tired and sore and I am tan, practically sunburned, from all the walking. However, today was perfect weather ~ I think the port cities are cooler because of the wind from the Mediterranean. We bought a few small souvenir items, walked around drinking grande Heinekens (in front of policeman, to hubby's amazement), and had yet another gelato ~ lemon and Malaga again. I love that stuff. O! I almost forgot, hubby wanted to take these side alleyways which looked dangerous and ridiculous and I kept resisting. Finally, he said we were taking one and I didn't get to make the decision. Well, Mr. Smartypants took us straight up prostitute alley (we saw a real alive prostitute – ha) and into the front steps of a full brothel ~ where there was waiting a plethora of ladies to serve. I don't know if it was his male instincts or his death wish for his wife to murder him so early into the marriage, but we did quickly divert from the area. The only thing we didn't quite understand was that two or three "policia" were monitoring the various entrances and exits to this area. Hubby said he was unsure of the laws in different regions in the areas but some areas let women be prostitutes if they have monthly health checkups, etc. Regardless, hubby doesn't know if he is proud of himself or not for making me walk down that alley! LOL

Well, with a few purchases in hand and more Debbie Gibson impersonators passing before our eyes, we finally walked to the boat/shuttle and went back to our ship's port. It was a good day out. We tried to bring on a bottle of white wine but the Royal Caribbean alcohol-monitors-from-hell made us check it and we can't pick it up until the last day. At least we tried. We came back and took naps. Actually, Hubby slept and I took a shower and then slept. Tonight was our first of two formal nights and I forgot one of my formals so we decided to order room service – at dinnertime (only) you can order the dinner menu in your room. We had escargot (Hubby had this and loved it), Caesar salad, roasted duck with green beans, black angus sirloin with mashed potatoes, broccoli, & candied carrots, rolls and butter, two double-strawberry cheesecakes, and iced teas delivered! It was magnificento!! The room service people like to deliver to us because we have the Just Married decorations everywhere and they always congratulate us ~ plus we tip ~ and one of the bartenders told us the other night that the staff can buy bottles of beer for $1 a bottle ~ compared to the $5 a beer they want from us. Ugh. Oh Well. We ate a lovely dinner on our balcony and shared everything and it was just that ~ lovely.

So, with our bellies full, we went for a ship stroll. For starters, I went to the photo department (which is only open in the evenings) and they had our 4gb card I had left there last night! Yay!! So, we haven't lost any pictures! Yaaaaaay!!!!! Then we strolled the jewelry for sale and Hubby picked-out a ring he wants to buy me. A pretty dinner ring. I love it. I told him to wait because we may find something in Spain less expensive or something somewhere else that I like more. We shall see. In the meantime, I am quite excited about having a piece of jewelry, all be it sapphires and/or costume jewelry, but a piece of jewelry from our honeymoon it 'twill be! Which also reminds me, I am sick of myself and my new completely stupid accent ~ I am somehow mocking all these people and their accents ~ Hubby and I, being Americans, are by far the minority on this trip ~ there are Australians, Italians, British, Spanish, etc… but Americans are not that common and so our accent sticks-out and I have somehow started integrating all these other accents and it sounds ridiculous. Seriously. I am so confused at times, I don't know whether I should say “grazie” (Italian), “merci” (French) or just a simple thank you. It is hard because you want to be polite and attempt the other persons language but I have no clue what to say with a moment's notice so I'm always saying something like “gra-erci-you” ~ okay, it's not that bad, but geez o' geez it feels stupid.

Well, Hubby & I strolled the entire ship tonight and had a wonderful time. He's on the balcony reading and I am in my pajamas and we are both going to attempt to be in bed by midnight tonight ~ 20 minutes away. Tomorrow, the ship stops in Villefranche, France

– which is just 2 or 3 miles from Nice, France

~ a bus ride away for 1 Euro. It is also only 6 miles from Monaco

and I would like to go see the home of Princess Grace Kelly but Hubby is resisting. I think I will win but tomorrow's blog shall tell.

O, something else… Hubby and I are super sleep-deprived ~ to the point my eyes hurt and I write things like “right” instead of “write” and “bought” instead of “boat” ~ it is horribly embarrassing but I like thinking maybe some of you are enjoying these blogs and I like having a record of what we did every day ~ I'm going to print my blogs when we return, tweak them a bit, and make a little travel log for us. So, on day five of our honeymoon, I am going to attempt to sleep the night through and get at least 6 hours asleep. I wrap-up today by saying it was the best hooneymoon day yet ~ I have learned some patience, Hubby has picked-out jewelry to buy me, we have ate wonderful food and walked it off, we are in love.. all is good... My Cup Runneth Over.

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