Capri

After a leisurely afternoon following the Sicilian tour, I was ready for something more adventurous and interesting and I got it in spades in Capri. First, we had to make sure Brianna was well-cared-for on the ship. Unfortunately, not all Holland America ships have their shit together (okay, I shouldn't use trite phrases when real English will do). . . Not all Holland America ships have well-organized port-day activities for the children that coordinate with actual off-shore excursion times. The Zuiderdam in particular had an all-new crew and had only been sailing the prior two weeks, with very few children. So this week, there were more kids for them to look after, but they seem to have this idea that parents should only take shore excursions that correspond to their posted work times (and it differs for each ship, so how would one know which tours to book ahead of time?!?). So I had to make special arrangements to drop off Brianna early to be able to go on my six hour tour. It did at least work out okay as I paid the caregiver an extra tip, and Brianna was just as happy not to go, although I think she might have liked this tour. We started out (Mom and me) on a jet powered catamaran, and from the port of Naples, got to the island of Capri in about 45 minutes. A note on Capri: since it is an Italian island, it is pronounced KA-pree instead of the more often heard French version ka-PREE, and it means "goat". It is very rocky, with its tallest peak lost in the clouds, very vertical, such that you start climbing uphill rather immediately, and gorgeous. Yes, this is one beautiful island, and only the Richest of the rich Italians actually live here. There are lovely hotels with manicured gardens. There are trendy stores and smaller, touristy shops. The road to Anacapri (the city with highest elevation) is absolutely hair-raising! I admit I was holding onto the seat of the bus with sweaty palms, looking straight down 800 feet to the incredible turquoise waters below, and praying to Jesus (which I really do not do unless vertical feet are involved) to keep the bus on the road and the outcropping of rock upon which the road is laid stable. After one thrilling ride, I was up for another. There is a chairlift in Anacapri which takes you up to the peak at the top, and was totally worth the scare and the chill to take. It did really get chilly at the top, but the views were breathtaking. My favorite view was when passing right over the top of a small private garden, obviously decorated by someone with whimsy. It had birds of paradise flowers next to urns decorated by seashells in a mosaic pattern. There was a manequin wearing clothes, purse, belt and necklaces next to a birdbath. There were little seats for resting. And the garden was built on several terraced levels. It was so perfect, I literally shed tears. This is a happy place.
Up at the top of the chairlift were a few gatti (cats) and clouds. In fact, the clouds were below us. I am sure there is a very scenic view off the back side of Capri, but I couldn't see it. It was really spooky to be high up on a cliff, looking down, hearing the gulls' cries echoing off the sheer cliffs, but not have a visual to go with it. I didn't linger, because, being afraid of heights, it was seriously freaking me out. But I did enjoy seeing some of the Roman architecture remaining. The Emporer Tiberius (yes, that one) ruled from Capri, and I could see why he preferred it to Rome. I only stayed a little at the top, and then I was back down to meet for lunch. We watched the local lizards as we waited and marveled at how familiar their actions seemed, not unlike our own lizards back in Florida. Lunch was at La Pigna (the pine) and was divinity Italian style. I love Italian food, and the way they do it. First course is pasta, second is meat. So you don't have to choose; you can have both. Yummy. Followed by tiramisu and real espresso. Exceptional. this is the experience that I wanted to have again, and would want to repeat any time I returned to Italy.
The next point of interest was a gardens with scenic views of the cliffs. This too was just so much beauty that the eyes were full to the brim. Its like everywhere I looked was one paintable scene after another. Now this is what vacation is about. Looking around and enjoying it all.

Sicily

After a single day at sea, I was ready to start going on some solo expeditions. I knew Brianna was in good hands, staying with her Gramma on the ship. The Zuiderdam docked in Catania on the island of Sicily. I had been to Messina before, and taken an excursion to see a Roman era ruins and a beautiful church on a hill at Tindari. Similarly, I took another half-day trip, this time to the south, toward Siracusa, to see Greco-Roman ruins at the Archeological Park of Syracuse. The tour guides in Sicily are very, very passionate about their history and culture. They are proud to be Sicilian. Our current tour guide argued that there would be no Italy, no Italian culture, without the Sicilian culture as a base for it. The prior tour guide mentioned the organized-crime aspect of Sicily is alive and well, but you really don't see it unless you want to go looking for it. I would not want to live there, but it is a beautiful island. It is quite big, with lots of traffic, and lots of farms and agriculture. The straits of Messina is the location of Homer's famous Scylla (sea monster) and Charybdis (whirlpool), and our tour guide gleefully read us the description from the Odyssey. The island is also the supposed home of the goats and sheep that were not to be killed, alas which, because the crew killed and ate them, they all died leaving Odysseus alone. So it was with great hopes and expectation that I went to the Archeological Park, but like Sicily itself, I kept looking for more than it has to give. The park was interesting, there was a huge Greek theater which was restored and still in use today (not bad for a 2000 year old place!). There was a Roman Amphitheater, mostly in ruins, but you could get a feel for the size of the thing. There was an enormous pit that used to be a limestone quarry, with a few still-standing columns of stone to show where the roof would have been, and how big the cavern was. There was the "Ear of Dionysus" (named by Carravagio, the painter), a large curving slave-carved cave where echoes amplify like that of an ear canal. That was pretty cool, to go into the back of that cave and hear what was being said at the entrance. Of course, enjoying the cave with a hundred other people in at least three different tour groups and speaking in five different languages did maybe dampen the effect a little. I guess my problem with Sicily is that I would like to explore it myself, not with thirty other fat, old people on an air-conditioned bus. I would like to linger and not be a slave to the return time. I want the sole attention of a guide, so that I can interact, ask questions, and share information, not get lectured to. This is not Sicily's fault. Still, Sicily epitomizes the worst of american tourism, that is: getting just a little information, a small scope sighting, and being left to have an invalid opinion of it all.

Sea Day B Day

The next day on our cruise was the 14th, my daughter's birthday. I had packed surprises that waited until this day to be opened. She was delighted when the song was sung to her both at lunch and dinner. And she was presented with a special cake, got to stay up late and see a show. She decided not to go to the kids place for the evening, but spend her special day with my mom and me. It was a lovely day and it was calm seas. The next several days were going to be busy, with myself and mom on tours while she stayed at the Club HAL, being looked after by capable if unenthusiastic staff. We swam at the pool, and Brianna even got to swim to fetch golf wiffle balls for one of the on-ship activities. Fellow passengers tried to chip a ball into a hula hoop floating in the pool, and they mostly missed, giving Brianna and a brother/sister pair ample opportunity to retrieve the balls for the staff. Brianna's swimming was greatly improving! Just the day before she learned how to float, first with me holding her, then gradually by herself. Not everything ran smoothly, though. The ships photographers were a young and untrained group, with only one who knew what to do for portraits, so her five year portraits were not worth buying until we found the one lady, days later. My biggest frustration was with the dining room stewards and their poor performance. On every other cruise I had been on, dining stewards had gathered to sing Happy Birthday to a passenger with gusto and as many bodies as could be mustered for the occasion. But not Ketut. Oh no, he either was on the least-liked list in the dining hall, or he just didn't give a shit, because he only mustered himself. Brianna blew out the candle before we could sing or take any pictures, and I was seriously pieved. But Brianna didn't seem to notice or care. Mostly she just wanted to play ... with her new toys and her mom, and that is what she did.

Santorini

Why do I have that stupid song from Sublime in my head when I think of Santorini? They don't even say it, they say Santeria. But it sounds close enough to make my brain short-circuit and get stuck in the loop. Santorini is a beautiful island in Greece, likely the most famous one. It has the little white "sugar-cube" houses on the cliff-top and the blue-domed churches. It boasts an amazing sunset and a romantic atmosphere which is probably why I was feeling grumpy on my tour. Not only did I have the annoying song stuck in my head, but I was dragging around a cranky almost-five year old on her fourth-day-in-a-row tour, and believe me, the scenery and romance were not doing it for her. I was missing my husband, or more specifically, feeling remorseful because I do not have the kind of husband who would either come here or appreciate it. And I was hard pressed to even remember his good qualities and my daughter's at the moment. The rest of Santorini, outside of the white and ecru houses is so dry it is almost a desert. They grow grapes, but the vines are short because the wind is fierce and the sun scorching, so they grow like little bushes in the volcanic ash topsoil. There are wildflowers on the mountain top that cling to life, and the two cities we visited, Oia and Fira which are devoted to the tourist trade, cling to life on their cliff-side hoping fortune will smile. We did find beautiful souveniers, yummy ice-cream and smooth cobblestone streets. Brianna and I got to ride a cable car down the cliff-side to the tender-dock. We saw the beautiful church domes and bell pyramids. But I wouldn't recommend coming back...without a lover!

Odysseus' Ithaca

Our next port visited was a different Greek Island in the Ionian sea named Cephalonia or Kefalonia. I mentioned having read Homer's The Odyssey just before embarking on this trip, yet I had no idea that we would be anywhere near the place described. I enjoyed The Odyssey, and I was impressed by Odysseus' descriptions of his beloved Ithaca homeland. He noted its rocky scrub lands, not very suited to cultivation, its many goats and sheep, and its beauty. I took a tour, and imagine my surprise when told by the guide that Ithaca was the next island over across a short bay from Kefalonia. In the meantime I was enjoying the beauty of the island I was on. We went to the Dragorati Cave. As caverns go, it was fairly big, but not as large as Carlsbad or Mammoth. However, it had good acoustics, which was demonstrated by an enthusiastic opera-singing visitor. My mother didn't dare descend the hundred steps to go in the cave, but it was a relatively easy entrance and exit for me. The photos didn't turn out well, but I enjoy a cave anytime, whether it is at home or abroad. The second site on our tour was the Melissani Lake. This too was a cave, but in this case, the chamber was filled with water. Also, the roof was open to the air. It was closed, but the roof fell in following an earthquake, leaving the lake to be discovered, and a tourist attraction built. The lake was accessed by a sloping corridor that had been bored into the limestone. Once at the water, a large rowboat could be boarded with a Greek oarsman to steer you to the middle of the water and to the section of the cave that still had a roof and a very high ceiling. My mother was up to the sloping corridor, but not the boarding of the rowboat, so just Brianna and I rode out. It was a beautiful site with the very clear cerulean water below (very deep) and the arching ceiling above. The section of cave that still had its roof showed what the other section would have looked like, but I cannot imagine any one wanting to enter that expanse without the sunlight shining in! The water was a mix of salt and fresh, and was a cold ultrafiltrate of the island's rain water mixed with the ocean's input thirty kilometers away. No fish or sea-life lived in there because they had no way in, so the water stayed very clear. Neither of these caves were mentioned by Homer, but then we went on a scenic drive around the island, where we saw the rocky land with very few farms and tons of semi-wild goats. The goats were on and off the road, and we stopped by this overlook which not only allowed us to photograph the goats, but also the poppies and the amazing color of the coastal water. We saw this fantastic beach which was accessed only by a five kilometer long steep, winding, hairpin-filled, one-lane dirt road. The sandy beach was long, and very private, and the beautiful water... Lets just say that I never knew the true meaning of Azure before seeing this beach. It was the truest blue color of water, better than the caribbean, better than anything I had ever seen. This had to be one of my favorite spots on the planet. I would return any time! No wonder Odysseus was proud. On the way back, I just kept watching the coastline and the amazing water and beaches the whole way. Our tour guide then explained that no evidence of Odysseus' magnificent palace was discovered on Ithaca, the neighboring island. Rather, in the south of Kefalonia, the ruins of what must have been a large estate have been discovered. And it is proposed that Ithaca was once both of these islands, merged together. Only more recently have they been separated by the frequent earthquakes of this area, with the Ithaca title going to the smaller chunk of land to the east. I was so excited to hear that I had been exploring the very island of Odysseus' home.

Corfu

I have been putting off writing about Corfu for a while now. I want the travel blog to go in order of what I have seen, but I didn't want to write about this day until I had gathered my thoughts more and put into (better) words what I didn't like about this place. Corfu is one of the islands in the Ionian sea off the mainland of Greece. It has a lot of culture and history, and I had only just begun to delve into Greek history myself before the trip (mostly by finally reading the Odyssey). Could they have described the roastings of lambs' legs any more frequently in that book?!? But I digress...We arrived in Corfu Town and had to rush to get ready for our morning tour. We had Palaces of Corfu on our agenda which sounded spectacular, but the morning was met with gray, gloomy, windy, misty weather and our first view of Corfu Town was of this long strip of road that looked like anywhere else: car dealerships, commercial bakeries, tire stores, travel agencies. Oh sure, the writing was different (it was all Greek to me, HAR!), but it was very modern, over crowded, dirty, and distinctly lacking in culture or foreign-ness. The weather cleared slightly and we found ourselves one of at least seven busloads of people all going to see the Achilleion Palace. As Palaces go, well, I was underwhelmed. I shouldn't have been expecting Versailles, and it didn't even come close. Basically it was a large house with tall ceilings, the upstairs was closed off, the lower rooms were taller than they were wide, and were set up like a museum so that you saw pieces of art displayed. There were some nice architectural elements and some nice sculpture based on traditional Greek themes, but that was it. It was built by the Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria (wikipedia her for more info), wife of Franz Joseph, the 'Emperor of Sorrows', as her home away from hubby. Elisabeth liked to travel, and she liked to be thin and pretty, and she liked her Greek-themed art), and that was it. The garden was pretty, the overlook terrace view would have been stunning on a clear day. The statues and art were good. The Palace was also owned by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, a relative of Elisabeth.
What was more interesting than the palace, was the apparent love and respect of Elisabeth by the people of Corfu and the tour guide in particular. They adored her! She knew Greek and Greek myths "better than any of the bavarian greek queens" (but really, how many of them were there?!?) After the Palace, we went past a staircase (the Kaiser's Bridge) that went from the palace above to an elaborate stone dock on the coast. It was somewhat in ruins from the world war bombings, but gave a better feel for how wealthy and elaborate the palace was. We continued to a second palace-turned-into-museum, even less memorable than the first. And I was right there with my daughter, saying"When is this tour going to be over?" Which is unfair. After all, the weather was looking better, the lizards were out, and I even caught one. It was absolutely lovely, with teal beads by his head and a bright orange underside. We saw some ancient roman ruins (but had no time to explore them), and drove by two castles on the way back to the ship. We also saw Mouse Island and the tiny monastery nearby. It was near the airport and we got to see a plane land very close up. But, I really wanted to explore the ancient castles, the old one being from the 1200s and the new one from the 1400s. Plus there was a pretty park connecting the two and a monument to world war soldiers nearby. However, it would have been a long walk back to the ship. By the time I considered more touring, there wasn't quite enough time or money to go to the castles. So I was left with the feeling of having picked the wrong tour, and seeing the wrong part of the city. It was very frustrating, but I was still trying to find my explorer's groove. That zone where you feel comfortable taking on the challenge of going off on your own and seeing what you want to see, and of seeing a city so thoroughly that you could be the tour guide for someone else. Barcelona was that city for me, but I need another crack at Corfu.

Croatia

Early in the morning, I could see the coastline of Croatia. We had crossed the Adriatic Sea and were landing in Dubrovnik. I remember a friend from college who was proud of her Croatian roots, but I was not sure why. I had never heard much about it until the war with the Serbs in the early nineties. I knew the Croatians used a cyrillic alphabet, but it was not the same as Russian. The coastline was very rugged, rocky, and hilly. It looked as though life would be difficult there. Still, it had a beauty, and nearing port, I saw a lonely building on a rocky outcropping with a cross on top. It was a monastery, and it looked as rough and difficult a life as I could ever imagine. Upon entering port, however, the whole scene changed. It had a very riviera-like feel, a world-class scuba diving port, beautiful new buildings, modern roads, and an extremely tall, long bridge near which the ship anchored. We couldn't see the old walled city-fort from our pier, but I got a good view of it from the road to Cavtat (pronounced sahv Taht). One noticeable discrepancy was that all of the roofs were new. This city had been bombed and in great disrepair just fifteen years before, but you could not tell there had been a war, except for those new clay tile roofs. On my tour, the riviera-feel continued at the villiage of Cavtat, and indeed, it was a place where the upper class europeans summer. Croatia had its own currency, but frequently accepted euros. I was hoarding my euros, so I went to the banks, but found them closed. Finally I went back to the equivalent of a western union office to exchange my dollars and found the same old lady arguing with the clerk for the fifteen minutes it took me to find the closed banks. I made a few small purchases and looked at beautiful crocheted tablecloths. I found the local churches and the bell tower. There were huge pine trees that shaded the crushed shell walkway and rained small cones everywhere. I also discovered the clearest seawater in any harbor I had ever seen. It was so clear you could see the fish and the sea urchins on the rocks underneath the tied dingies. Still, I was glad to be on my way as it was quite hot and sunny, and I was wearing long sleeves and no sunblock. We then went to watch a folk dance performance. Originally, I meant for Brianna to see it, but my mom took her only to the walled city. The dancing was fantastic - really well done and absolutely worth the time and expense. It started with 14 and 15 year olds, with progressively older age groups coming out to dance,most of them no older than 25. The guitar and mandolin players were older men. There were elements of square dancing, the quick-footedness of Irish dancing and beautiful period costumes. Afterwards, I walked through the walled city over stones smoothed by hundreds of years of thousands of feet. The ramparts could be hiked, but it meant an expense of an additional 15 euros for the priviledge and the shuttle back, so I declined. The main drag of old town Dubrovnik was like a shopping mall set in a 400 year old fort, with the addition of a bunch of sidewalk cafes and a thousand gawking tourists, so I just kept walking through to meet the bus and go back to the ship. I would love to visit again, show Brianna the dancers, and walk the ramparts.