Since we were taking off from Lisbon, we decided to go a couple days earlier to experience the city. The people in Lisbon seemed very nice and helpful right off the bat. One thing I really liked about Lisbon was the pretty black and white tile that every sidewalk was made of. One night Alex and I were on a walk kind of late and saw that the sidewalks were being hosed down - we saw this tile in cities later on and decided Lisbon's was probably the cleanest because of this.
During the two days there, saw St. George’s castle and Santa Justa Elevator, then headed to Belem, an area on the outskirts of Llisbon.
After a couple of days in Lisbon we boarded our ship called Splendour of the Seas, and were on our way. Our first port was supposed to be Gibraltar, but we actually had to stay on the ship because of the weather. The swells in the bay were too large, and it wasn't safe for us to get off, so we just saw the Rock of Gibraltar from the ship.
The ship did a good job of keeping us entertained since we couldn’t get off the ship and also for the couple of days that were at sea between ports. We saw a Beatles imitation concert, watched a love and marriage game show, played some trivia games, did some putt putt and shuffleboard, and danced to 50’s music. The cruise people made a joke out of the dinky prizes they gave out for the game shows and trivia which was pretty funny. I was a part of two winning trivia groups and got some key chains!! (one was naming TV theme songs so I don’t know if I should be proud of knowing a lot of those :/ ).
We had a couple of really fun waiters each night at our table; a couple of times they showed us some brainteasers/tricks that stumped us all. I especially thought Mitchell would like this because he is really enjoys playing little tricks on people. Here was our favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiviW_rMQNE&feature=related.
We also had a retired professor aboard the ship who gave presentations on each port the day before, so I got to learn a lot about the places we were going from those.
Recognize Shannon and Lauren C. from basketball? And Lauren W. was in London with me and Shannon also. Erica and Dylan are also studying industrial engineering, so Alex and I have a lot of classes with them at Iowa State. And Kyle is just a tag along, I guess :P (He is in Alex’s fraternity at Iowa State)
Our first actual stop was Cartagena, Spain. It was so nice out; we saw a bull ring, a roman theatre, and their city hall. Cartagena was also birthplace to Issac Peral who built the Peral Submarine, the first electric battery powered submarine. The hull of the submarine is now housed in Cartagena.
Sorry I don’t have more to see from Spain, we all found the other ports a bit more interesting. Next, was Valletta, Malta. I had been having major hip pains since Lisbon, and at this point I was ready to find a chiropractor. It was a bit more difficult that I’d hoped it would be and instead I saw a general practitioner at a health center. It was a pretty dodgy center and since they have socialized health care, I was able to walk right in and talk with a man who had long hair in a pony tail about the pain I was having. He prescribed me some muscle relaxants, which I was able to get at a pharmacy in a more attractive part of town. They really helped, which was awesome, but I really did not enjoy the experience and am not looking forward to the kind of socialized healthcare America is headed toward. Yes it was convenient to be able to walk right in and not have to pay for my visit, but from my experiences (I’ve also gone to Swansea’s hospital for neck pain because I’m too nervous to find a chiropractor here) the quality of service is lacking in these systems.
Besides that experience, Malta was very pretty and we saw some cool things – Barracca Gardens, City Gates, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, and tried a Maltese dish for lunch.
Their official name is the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta, (pause for breath) the Ecumenical Order. It was an order founded in 1023 for the poor, sick and injured of the Holy Land. The Hospitallers have been in Malta for 268 years. I thought I’d give you the not so interesting information on them because I did find it interesting that their tombs made up the floor of the cathedral.
Split, Croatia was the last stop on our journey to Venice. When we arrived the ship actually didn’t port, we had to get numbers and wait for smaller boats to take us to shore. Well, there was something wrong with one of the boats, reducing the rate at which they could get us all to shore, and the system of getting us to Split was terrible – Alex and I joked that they needed to hire some industrial engineers to figure out the logistics problems! Once we got there we saw Diocletian’s Palace and had a seafood platter for lunch, which included whole fish.. kind of grossed me out but not enough to not eat.. you’ll see!
Next up is Venice. I think I’ll give both you and me a little break and blog about that later in an Italian post! Enjoy!
what an educational post! i had no idea that Troy was shot in Malta, that the first submarine was in Spain OR what a hospitaller is.
ReplyDeleteI learned more reading your blog today than i did going to school today :-x