Now
that we’ve talked
about the ship, let’s take a look at all the places Mr. Rucksack & I visited on our whirlwind
adventure!
Our first day and a half was spent in Corfu, Greece - an island
I cannot wait to get back to.
It was so quaint and lovely that it could have
been created by Disney himself. The air smelled like Greek
doughnuts and espresso, the buildings looked like they were painted onto the sky, and there was even accordion music being
played by street performers as we walked through town and sat for dinner. Of
course, we were also on a honeymoon high which I’m sure helped!
We chose a small bed & breakfast for the night since it was in the Old Town and just a quick couple of miles away from the port. While small, the Siorra Vittoria was just lovely and a perfect place to rest before the rest of our trip.
Stop
1: Saranda, Albania
After
spending a night of the ship, we left Corfu and sailed off to Saranda, Albania. From a little online travel forum
research, I learned that there wouldn’t be much to see in port and that it
would be smart to go on Variety’s excursion – even it did mean spending a bit
of extra money.
I do have to say that visiting Albania was extremely
humbling – and I’m glad that it was our first stop. Albania was a communist country and completely closed off to
the rest of the world until 1992. Once travel was finally allowed, many Albanians
went to Greece to find work and sent money back to Albania. The country went
through a huge rebuilding phase which was sadly put to an end with the Greek
economic crisis. Now the coastline is full of empty and unfinished
construction.
The
excursion took us through town by bus to the Butrint ruins which were built by
the Greeks in the 7th Century BCE, and later rebuilt by the Romans
in the 2nd Century BCE. What remains is a really interesting
combination of Greek & Roman architecture - including statues, baths and a
baptism site.
On the way back to the ship in the afternoon, we stopped
by Lëkurësi Castl, built in 1537 and now converted into a restaurant, for a
quick beer and views of Saranda.
One of the things that most fascinated me throughout our trip was
how combined historical sites and modern life are. Everywhere we went former
castles were being repurposed as restaurants, shops and hotels, and concerts
were performed on walls built hundreds of years ago. In the US, our historical
sites are so preserved that it was really cool to have modern life built up around
ancient buildings.
Stop
2: Kotor, Montenegro
Sailing
into the fjord of Kotor was amazing. We were all called onto the deck as we
entered the bay and given a little history lesson by our cruise coordinator,
Dietmar as we took in the incredible views.
We
opted out of the excursion here and spent the day wandering the old medieval
town. It was definitely a good decision – we had so much fun exploring the
shops and cafés.
After
dinner we headed out with the “Jetsetters” (the other young American couples on
board) to hear a cover band just outside the old town walls. This was the ship crew's
favorite stop and they all joined us late at night for drunken fun.
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| The drink of the evening? Absinthe Side Balls: Gin, peach liqueur, absinthe, and energy drink (Eek!) |
Stop
3: Dubrovnik, Croatia
I was so excited for our
stop in Dubrovnik. We had initially wanted to visit Croatia for our honeymoon,
and I assumed Dubrovnik would be our favorite stop. I was wrong. I do have to
admit that it was partially our fault since we headed straight for
tourist central and took a bus to the old town. Perhaps if we had stayed
outside the town walls, we would have had a nicer time. Instead, I immediately became
claustrophobic with all of the crowds. Mr. Rucksack said he’d never seen me
that way, but stuck in very crowded alleyways with international tourists
shoving me in 95 degree weather – yeah, I freaked out. One of the benefits of
our tiny ship was that we were able to stop in places where bigger ships couldn’t.
Dubrovnik was one of the big ports though, so there were a few very large ships
docked with us that all descended on the town at the same time. Because of this,
Dubrovnik felt the most “toursisty” out of all of our destinations with lots of souvenir
shops and extremely high prices. I don’t even want to think about the extremely
expensive and very disappointing lunch we had.
But there were great
things too! Like walking the city walls with their incredible views:
And this amazing Cliffside
bar that we happened upon while walking up the residential side of the old town
walls:
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| Literally just chilling on an 8 foot wide cliff |
At
this point in our trip, we were in the groove of things and a typical
day went like this: early morning wake-up time of 7:30am, breakfast at 8:00am,
exploring as soon as we were docked, lunch, afternoon nap, toss-up between lounging on the sun deck or more exploring,
dinner, and then drinking/mingling on the ship. It was a good ship life.
Next
up: We continue on our journey through Korcula, Croatia; Bar, Montenegro;
Paxos, Greece; and back to Corfu!
