Snapshot Saturday: Santorini

It's been awhile since I posted an installment in our cruise vacation from this summer, so I thought it was time I posted about Santorini.

Santorini was the third stop on our cruise and my favorite. Eight hours there was not enough, I'd love to go back and spend a few days just relaxing on the island. The town we ended up going to on Santorini was Fira. There are 3 ways up to the top of Fira where the actual town is at. Donkey, cable car or you can walk up a million steps. I chose the cable car. Call me lazy!



I'm a huge fan of the white buildings on Santorini. They really make everything around them "pop".



I loved this bar sign, so naturally I took a picture.



These gates looked out on a spectacular view of the harbor. You can't see it, but I loved the gates just as much.



This is one of my favorite pictures I took on the vacation. Unfortunately the ISO was set high by accident and there is a lot of noise in it. Otherwise, I love it!



Looking back at the town of Fira.



This is on the far side of Fira, looking at one of the churches.



This is what I think of when I think of Santorini. I walked all the way to the far side of Fira just to get pictures of these.

And this:







Looking down at the ships in the harbor.

I didn't take a shore excursion here, my main focus was just to go around and take pictures of the island. Actually, that was my main objective on all the stops on our cruise. Plus shore excursions are expensive and...I'm pretty cheap.

Next up in the installment: Corfu, Greece.

Friday Fill-In

Since I'm currently having blog-block and working on editing pictures I jumped on the chance to do these military themed questions by Wife of a Sailor.



1.How did you and your spouse/significant other meet?
MySpace. It's always interesting to see people's reactions when I tell them that. If you want the full story, go here.
2.What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?
The travel opportunities. Although I saw a lot of the U.S. before I married Sean, I'd never lived in another state and certaintly never expected to live in Europe. In the three years I've been an Army wife I've seen places that I never expected to see so early in my lifetime. For that I am very grateful.
3.What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?
The ever-changing schedule and never knowing if something is set in stone. That is my biggest pet peeve with the military!
4.What is your favorite dish?
I live to eat so that's a very hard question. I'm going to go with enchiladas. Love them!
5.If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?
The lack of empathy and understanding that people exhibit towards each other, sometimes it's quite dishearting to see that.

Oh..and here's a sneak peek of upcoming Greece pictures!

I'm Back....

I'm officially back from my vacation!

We actually got back in Italy on Saturday morning, but we spent the morning in Venice and then went to Florence yesterday, so this has really been my first free day since getting off the cruise.

The cruise was faboulous! I had such a good time with my family and then only thing that would have made it better is if Sean has been able to come with us. I loved Greece the most and would LOVE to go back there for an extended stay.

From going to Rome and the cruise I have around 1000 pictures, don't worry, I won't subject all of you to every single picture. However, I'm sure once I get some edited I'll be putting some on here and the rest on my Facebook.

I've missed blogging and I'm going to do my best to catch up on what all of you have been doing since I've been gone.

Wrap-Up of Lake Bled

I must confess I laughed yesterday when you guys thought I'd had some sort of crazy misspelling. Ljubljana isn't that hard to pronounce. It's basically Leeyoob Leeyawna, easier to say than it looks.



This was a sausage platter that we ordered in Lake Bled. I honestly think it might be one of the best things we had. There were about 6 different kinds of sausage with cheese and fresh horseradish to dip it in. Ah-mazing.



Fall foliage around the lake.



This is Boomer trying to catch a duck.



Me with one of the mannequins in the museum in the castle.



Bird through the window in the castle.



The church in Bled.



This is our afternoon treat from the "Brown Bear" in Bled. I got Bled Cake, Sean got pudding and a cappucino. All that for 6 euro! It was amazing too. Seriously...if you're ever in Bled, you must go to the Brown Bear.



The infamous Brown Bear.

In summary...I highly recommend going to Slovenia. The people are friendly and it's very English friendly as well. It's very beautiful, not too expensive like some of the other European countries and has a plethora of things to do. I'm planning on going back to take advantage of some of their many spas throughout Slovenia.

Hope you enjoyed seeing Slovenia through my eyes!

Ljubljana

The second day we were in Slovenia we decided to head to the capital, Ljubljana. In all honesty I wasn't impressed with Ljubljana. I didn't feel as if there was a lot to see or do there and overall I didn't find the city to be particularly pretty. That being said, I did enjoy the large market that the held in one of the main squares and I also enjoyed the cheap, yet delicious wine. Average price for a glass was about 1.20 euro.



We found a Mexican restaurant in Ljubljana. The most surprising thing? It was actually quite tasty. I enjoyed the flautas the most, but my enchiladas weren't bad either.



A view of the Triple Bridge and the river that runs through Ljubljana.



Some tables at an outdoor cafe



This chef statue was EVERYWHERE. I've not seen it anywhere else in our travels, yet it was a staple in Slovenia.



This was a door of a church, from what I understand these were bishops of the past. Slightly creepy no?



The Dragon Bridge. The dragon is the "mascot" of Ljubljana.



At the top of the castle in Ljubljana, looking down the staircase.



Look closely at the sign...does anything seem slightly odd to you?



Inside the chapel of the castle


I know I promised I'd finish up with the trip today, but honestly there are just too many pictures...so I'll finish up tomorrow.

Slovenia: Day 1

As promised, here are some pictures from our trip. We stayed in Lake Bled in a wonderful little apartment. It was spacious, with a full kitchen, two bedrooms and only cost us 56 Euro a night. It also had free wireless and cable TV. After nearly a year of watching AFN, it was pure heaven to actually watch some cable TV. I may or may not have been as excited about the cable TV as I was about being in Slovenia.

I'm pretty sure Sean and I were one of maybe 5 tourists in the town. While that was good in some respects, in others it kind of sucked, because some attractions were closed during the season. However, the awesome views and delish food made up for that.



All around the lake there were geese, ducks and a few swans. Boomer was obsessed with the ducks and wanted to get in the lake to catch one. Needless to say that didn't happen.



Sean and I walked around the lake our first full day there. It was a beautiful 3.5 mile walk. This is a smaller part of the town we encountered on our walk.



This was one of the boats that takes tourists over to the island. We considered doing it, but I'm cheap and didn't want to spend 13 Euro a person just to get to the island. Maybe next time.



This was the castle above the town. We hiked up there on our last day in Bled. Now THAT was a hike. The castle was fairly interesting. It had a wine shop, a small museum and some great views.



Ok, this picture isn't anything special, but I loved how the trees looked, so naturally I had to take several pictures.



A view of the church and the island. If I ever go back in the summer, I'm so swimming to the island!



Lake Bled is home of a ton of rowing races/training for the Olympics. We got to see a few guys training when we were doing our walk. There is even a grandstand set up so when they have races people can watch.



They had these cute little frog trash cans all around the lake path.



Probably one of my favorite pictures I took of the lake. I like the wide-angle look.

Tomorrow I'll be combining our trip to Ljubljana and our remaining days in Bled together. I'll try not to make it too boring. :)

Veterans Day

Yesterday Sean and I took a trip to the war memorial outside of Florence. Since it was Veteran's Day, a couple of junior ROTC groups from Italy did a ceremony. I have to admit I choked up a bit during a few of the songs. The cemetery was very moving and just incredible in my opinion. It's one of the smaller cemeteries holding soldiers from WWII, but that doesn't make it any less moving.



This is the group from Naples High School



One of three wreaths they placed on the memorial.



More flowers left at the memorial.



Headstone marking the grave of an unknown soldier



Row of crosses. Probably my favorite shot of the day.

Sean and I are off to Slovenia today so I'm not sure if I'll be around much until Monday. We have wireless in our room (supposedly) but we shall see if we even take the laptop.

Have a good (early) weekend!