In June of 2010, my family and I flew from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Dallas, Texas then onto Atlanta, Georgia so we could board our eleven hour flight to the city of Venice, Italy. We then boarded our Italian cruise, MSC Musica, to sail around the Mediterranean Sea.
Our first stop was Bari, Italy. My family and I took a tour around the city, seeing all the architecture, going into churches, and, of course, shopping. Everything about Bari was amazing but unfortunately, we had only a few hours to see everything.
By morning, we had made it to our next destination, Katakolon, Greece. However, there wasn’t much you could do in that city so we mainly just walked around. We stopped at a restaurant by the sea where my mom and I had spaghetti. It was the nastiest food we had ever had so the only good thing about Katakolon was the shopping. After just one day, you begin learn that everything in Europe was very expensive.
The next morning we got to Santorini, Greece and it is by far my favorite place ever. As we got off the ship, my parents, my sister and I rode a tram to get to the top of the mountain. The rest of the day consisted of shopping and eating at a small café that overlooked the sea. When it was time to board the ship, we began our descend down the “Donkey Trail.” The trail had 588 steep, slippery steps that you could either walk or ride a donkey down. My mom and I felt sorry for the donkeys so we decided to walk. Word of advice: never walk down the Donkey Trail.
Our next stop was Mykonos, Greece but because it was so far away from Santorini, it took more than 24 hours to get there, making it dinner time when we actually arrived. Since it was so late, we ate dinner by the sea and shopped in the shops that were stayed open late. I best part was standing by the water watching the sunset.
The next morning, we got to Athens, Greece. We boarded a bus and rode around the city. When we got off , we walked to the top of the mountain where we looked at the architecture of the Parthenon. It was amazing. All of the little details that you could see. We also saw what was left of the Temple of Zeus and where the first Olympics took place. It was fun standing at the top of the mountain yelling, “This is Sparta!”
After thinking we had seen it all, we stopped in Corfu, Greece and by this stop we had come to the conclusion that the Greeks were rude and very loud. All they did was yell, though, you have to give it to them. They live in the most beautiful places in the world. We walked to a small beach where we swam. After being in the 100 degree weather all week, the water felt amazing.
On the last day of the cruise, we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was absolutely breathtaking. Of course we shopped and we stood by a small wall that overlooked the sea. One word: Beautiful.
As the sunset and the sun rose once more, we came back to Venice where the next day we boarded a plane to come back to the United States. After being in Europe for a week, nothing in the U.S. is as beautiful as the cities we visited and I would definitely go back in a heartbeat.
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