BEGINNING We almost missed the ship. Robyn, her brother, dad, mom, and grandmother, and I nervously worryied. Our connection in Amsterdam took off without us, resulting in a 7 hour layover for a bunch of tired, cranky travelers. I got to hear a lot of Dutch over the PA and try to semi-sleep in a lounge. The ship actually waited for us in Spain, primarily because it was their fault for booking a connection in such a short amount of time.

CRUISING Waking up to the Mediterranean Sea outside your balcony window is an amazing thing.

Breakfast buffet in the WindJammer. Lunch in the WindJammer or Sea View Cafe. Dinner at the main dining hall. Gotta get dressed up to varying degrees for that, but chatting with cool Turkish waiters makes up for it. All the food is really good, if not exceptional. You do see a lot of stuff shared amongst all the eateries on the ship, though, meaning that no matter where you get it, a roll is gonna be a roll.

Napkin and towel folding, origami, trivia, movies, billiards, the occasional drink at a bar, cake-making demonstrations, dancing (not that I did any of it), bartender juggling competitions…there’s a lot to do on the ship besides eating, surprisingly. Sleeping went off without a hitch except for the first night (jetlag) and the last couple nights (choppy waters). All in all, much fun was had while aboard and many pleasant sights were seen.

PORT 1/5: SICILY The island beind kicked by the boot of Italy’s mainland, Sicily is apparently where the Mafia got its start, but I didn’t get offed or mugged. We had no tour to follow, so we all just walked around the busy port city of Palermo, noting Italian being spoken and written. Lots of small cars and scooters on small roads driving aggressively and closely. Once the initial culture shock was over, it wasn’t any different than just walking around any urban city, really. We checked out some gardens, a cafe, and a pedestrian mall before reboarding the ship.

PORT 2/5: PIREAS/ATHENS, GREECE More small cars on small streets. We took a bus tour guided by a small Greek woman named…something to Athens where we saw The Acropolis (but there are several, as “Acropolis” just refers to the highest point in a city where they built temples and shit) and The Parthenon. Walking on ground that Socrates and Plato may have walked on is super cool. It was cold and windy on top of the hill, however, so we took pictures and quickly descended again. We found the only Italian restaurant in Greece and proceeded to eat really good (if not Greek) food.

PORT 3/5: RHODES, GREECE A more peaceful part of Greece agreed by our entire party to be the best place we went all cruise-long. Our guide, Paul, born and raised there, spoke clearly and eloquently and took us on a very nice tour of the island’s acropolis, adorned with BC-era ruins next to a 15/16th century church, as well as a walkway to a cross and an overlook of the surrounding area. We got to see an ancient Olympic stadium (the kind where people did the thing naked) and an amphitheater that’s still used today. Our trip ended at the walled Old Town constructed by the Knights of St. John to defend against attacking hordes. A very cool place, except the watch I bought in a gift shop disintegrated on me in a matter of days. A stop at an actual Greek restaurant and a leisurely walk around on our own terms completed a very nice day.

PORT 4/5: ALEXANDRIA/GIZA (GREATER CAIRO), EGYPT Storms caused us to skip Cyprus and head directly from Rhodes to Egypt, the so-called highlight of the cruise. Yes, I saw the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and even went inside a tomb and saw a huge statue of Ramses II. They were all awe-inspiring things at some point, but the commercialism surrounding them, especially the pushy vendors trying to make a buck off tourists cheapened the whole thing for me, mainly because I was on edge most of the time, avoiding eye contact with locals and feeling constantly watched and analyzed. The rest of the time we were on a bus listening to our guide Sharifa explain various Egyptian minutiae and thanking Allah for Mosart our bus driver as he navigated the completely anarchic roadways and its equally anarchic drivers. Just soaking in the different culture that is Egypt was enjoyable, however, and seeing signs go from one language I had some idea of how to interpret (Greek) to one I had no idea (Arabic) is trippy. Thirteen hours after leaving the ship we returned to a 45-minute line to reboard. Exhausting, indeed.

PORT 5/5: VALLETA, MALTA Maltese is an actual language, didya know? Another island in the Mediterranean Sea is Malta, which felt like a much more rushed version of Rhodes with way too many tour groups and a less awesome tour guide named Agnes. We saw the city, some amazingly decorated cathedrals and went to another Old Town-ish place called Medina. The Knights of St. Joseph had come here after being driven out of Rhodes, naturally. Our time there was short and there was souvenir buying, but before we knew it we found ourselves back on the ship to leave soon on our way back to Spain to catch a flight home.

PORT 6/5: WASHINGTON DC Not a stop on the cruise, but we did spend some time there as a respite from the international travel. Robyn’s cousin lives there and spotted her family and I a place on his floor, which was very gracious of him. Some light sight-seeing occurred, including a trip to the National Mall, an Obama paraphernalia shop (one of many in the area), and nigh-on-certain death if we’d stayed any longer (the wind made it feel like sub-10 degrees F at times).

PEEKCHURS CAN BE FOUND HERE

FOR THE ROAD The cruise and the Euro-visitage, while not well explained well here due to lack of ability to keep typing much longer, was great. I am insanely indebted to Robyn’s family for taking me along and fulfilling a long-time wish to visit Europe. My desire to travel has definitely been piqued and I would like to return to the area again in the future, but it’s good to be back in San Diego where I feel most comfortable.

I journaled most of it on paper (gasp!) for record-keeping, but I don’t feel like regurgitating it all here, so this entry will have to be good enough for anyone can’t see me in real life to get more out of me. To Future Mike, who will surely come back and read this later, scolding Past Mike for being lazy, screw you, man. Read your freaking journal if you want details. I’m out.