I Carry Your Heart: Let the Rucksack Recaps Begin!

I am so excited to begin sharing our wedding with you, hive!

The wedding planning process brought on so many emotions that if you had asked me how I was feeling at any given moment I would have answered "I have ALL the feelings." It was all at once stressful and scary and happy and exciting. Literally, it was all of the emotions wrapped up into one tiny little bridal mess.

Via Feelings Poster

I've often heard that brides have feelings of loss after the wedding, or sometimes burn out. After spending so much time planning the perfect day, what happens once it ends? I don't feel loss, in part thanks to Weddingbee. Having the opportunity to write about, recap and review our wedding makes it seem as though it's not completely over. Burn-out however, I totally understand. My blog feed has filled up with wedding planning and inspiration posts, but outside of Weddingbee I haven't had the heart to look at them. I feel like I've just gorged on too much chocolate ice cream and can't bare to look at the stuff anymore. Really the only wedding I want to look at at this point is my own - and the other lovely bees of course!

I also think that delaying our honeymoon a couple of weeks ended up working out perfectly. At first I was a little bummed that I wasn't immediately swept away on a honeymoon able to have lovey dovey realizations of "Oh, you're my husband!" while sipping on champagne in the sunshine. However, it gave us time to recuperate first - and gave me something to look forward to. We were able to pack at our leisure, clean our house up from wedding chaos, open gifts, and write the first round of our thank you notes.

And then there was the sickness.

Via Pet Bucket

Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I get stressed or overtired I get sick. Well, the same thing happened right after the wedding. I'm pretty sure my body basically said "You know how I've been on my best behavior leading up to the wedding? Well, you've put me through hell with all this stress and partying and alcohol, so now your immune system is just gonna go on a little hiatus, mmmk?" The week after the wedding was basically spent fighting a cold, breaking out with zits, and then getting pink eye. I swear, it looked like someone had put a curse on me. So yeah, getting all of that out of my system before the honeymoon was essential.

I can't believe it's already been over a month since we were married. It seems both like it was just yesterday and forever ago. The day went by so quickly that my memory is is already foggy about the details. Which means that I better get to sharing before the details are lost for good!

Bridesmaid Instagram

How did you feel (emotionally and physically) after your wedding?

The Rucksack Honeymoon Adventure: The Whirlwind Tour Part 2

After a wonderful first half of our trip, things just kept getting better as we continued our sail on the Panorma. 

Stop 4: Korcula, Croatia

After a fun morning swim stop and deck barbecue (complete with ouzo, lamb, and grilled octopus), we sailed to Korcula for an afternoon visit. 

This is where we learned that the “siesta” is a very real thing. Most places we wanted to visit (wine bars, obviously) were closed from 3-6pm. We still loved the town, though. Especially since it was much less expensive and less crowded than Dubrovnik. 

Finally open, the bar is overtaken with young Americans with a thirst for wine

Stop 5: Bar, Montenegro

Similar to our stop in Albania, we chose to go on the optional excursion in Bar because the port itself was so small. We began with a visit to an olive oil factory, although the term factory is pretty loose. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the majority of Montenegro’s factories were closed. The outdated machinery was purchased by families and now production is done in smaller batches in what are basically basement factories. 

Basement or not, the olive oil was delicious!

We then went to view the old town ruins:

Followed by a Turkish Coffee break:

Stop 6: Paxos Island, Greece

Oh, Paxos! This island was like true paradise. After another swim stop (seriously, my favorite parts of the days), we arrived in Paxos in the evening. We made plans with the Jetsetters to meet for dinner, but the restaurant we had chosen was closed for a private event. We decided to walk off the beaten path and by a stroke of luck ended up in the most idyllic open air restaurant. 

It was definitely the most relaxing of the stops, and the perfect way to end a wonderful week on the Panorama.

Stop 7: Corfu, Greece

After a full week of exploration, Mr. Rucksack and I were ready to relax. After saying our goodbyes on the ship, we traveled to the opposite side of the island to The Marbella Beach Hotel. When we unlocked the door to our room, I was certain there had been a mistake. We had the best room in the resort, complete with a huge private balcony and a jacuzzi! 

Seriously guys, our room was HUGE. And look at the jacuzzi! BALLER

The view from our room way up high.

Bubbles + Bubbles

We basically spent the next two days eating, drinking, and getting pruney in the saltwater infinity pool and in our private jacuzzi. It was the complete opposite of the first part of our honeymoon and it was the perfect way to come down from all of that sightseeing. 

Most of my time in the pool was spent harassing Mr. Rucksack and making him watch my awesome handstand skillz

Lest you think that all I did was lounge about, I did also manage to fit in some water aerobics

One teeny tiny portion of the buffet. I managed to consume a lot of food.

Lamb and Ouzo!

Two Rucksacks in Love

And then much too fast, the honeymoon was over and we were on our way back home. But not without some layovers in Hamburg and London. Here's where I have to give a big shout-out to British Airways who saved the day when we missed our connecting flight in London. They got us out only an hour later with an upgrade!  (Proof that it does pay to mention "But it's our honeymoon!)

Heathrow Souvenir: My new Paddington Bear

The secret to a good night's sleep on the airplane? Two mini bottles of wine, noise cancelling headphones, & Dramamine!

And now we're back home, adjusting to the real world as a newly married couple. I can't believe it's already been a month since we tied the knot!

The Rucksack Honeymoon Adventure: The Whirlwind Tour Part 1

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 7^th Century BCE, and later rebuilt by the Romans in the 2^nd 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.

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:

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!