Venice pics...

The internet is crazy slow on the ship, so I'm just posting some Venice pics for now... lots of Croatia and Athens pics to post later... (and after tomorrow, Istanbul! :))

Church in Venice...

Glass chandelier at a glass-blowing factory on the island of Murano...


Canal in Murano...


Me (with my bright orange #7 shore excursion sticker... I'm number 7! I'm number 7!)



Some of the colorful houses on the island of Burano...


Rick's parents...


Lynette and dad and I are all very interested in whatever is over our shoulders... I'm sure whatever it was would've made a great picture...


A leaning clocktower -- there were lots of these in Venice, because the soil is so soft... I guess after a while, they'll all fall over and have to be rebuilt...


For Eric and Eric and Debbie -- a Venice ambulance! :)


Another precariously leaning clocktower...


St. Mark's Square, which we didn't actually visit, just saw from afar -- and judging from that suffocating crowd of tourists, I can't say I'm all that disappointed...


Leaving Venice...

Sailing, sailing...

Today is an at-sea day, so I have some time to write as I watch the seemingly-endless ocean pass by my stateroom verandah. Seriously, there is NOTHING out there right now, and it makes me think of how lonely a voyage like this must’ve been for ancient Aegean ships… or whoever was wandering around in this area of the world eons ago. (Except for all those ships that Helen of Troy launched… I mean, supposedly there were a thousand of them, so at least they had company…)

Fortunately, it’s not very easy to be lonely on a ship this big – especially when I’m traveling with eight friends and family members. Our little evening newsletter in our stateroom yesterday mentioned that we’d be passing by several Greek islands today, including Corfu and Zakanthos – but so far, it’s been nothing but water as far as the eye can see. (We’ll probably pass those islands in the middle of the night and completely miss them. This would be not unlike the Mediterranean cruise I was on when the ship passed by the Rock of Gibraltar – we sailed by at around 1 in the morning… I’m sure it was quite impressive…)

We are sailing toward the port of Piraeus in Greece, which is about 40 miles from Athens. We’re hoping to get a cab at the dock and head into Athens, since all of the Athens shore excursions were booked. But that’s okay, since some of us (although not all of us… like mom… :)) prefer the freedom of exploring on our own. We just need to give ourselves enough time to get back to the ship before it leaves without us…

Yesterday we spent the day in Split, Croatia, which turned out to be a much more trendy, chic city than I would have expected. There was history, of course – we walked through Diocletian’s Palace, built by the Roman emperor in 295 AD, and were grateful that the thick stone walls and floors kept the interior relatively cool compared to the Texas-like temperatures outside. Diocletian’s Palace, incidentally, has apparently been converted to Diocletian’s Mini Mall – vendors crowded the space inside, selling little touristy knickknacks and postcards, which made me assume the rest of this area of town would be similar. But surprisingly, the streets outside Diocletian’s Palace were charmingly devoid of t-shirt shops and souvenir stands, and were instead occupied by cafes and perfumeries and shoe stores (and, for some reason, lots of sunglass shops… although it WAS quite sunny…). After strolling around random cobblestoned streets in the oppressive heat, we gratefully stopped for some gelato at a little café in an alleyway – and I loved how we found such great gelato in such an out-of-the-way place. (I hope we find more gelato before we head home… that stuff is sooooo good… :))

Well, I need to call it a night – I have a couple dozen pictures I want to post, but I’ll try to do that tomorrow, since it’s going on midnight now and I’ve been having the hardest time getting out of bed in the morning. I’m not sure I’ve completely adapted to this time zone… I’ll wake up around 7 or 8, and think “I’ll just doze for a few more minutes…” and then the next thing I know, it’s two hours later and I STILL feel like I could sleep longer. Plus, the internet connection here is slooooooooow. But pictures will be coming soon! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Quick update...

This week has been crazy! The first few days of work were really difficult... actually, that's not true -- the FIRST day was easy, because I didn't have to show up until 1:30 and it was all orientation stuff. So I slept in, went out for my usual morning cappuccino with mom, took my time getting ready for work, and then spent most of the day in HR signing forms and listening to explanations of benefits, etc. By the time the HR orientation woman gave me a tour of the various things to see on the first floor (fitness center, conference rooms, training center, break room, outside patio where it would nice to eat lunch when it's not 100 degrees...), and I was delivered to my department on the third floor (where more tours and introductions ensued), it was already 4 o'clock and time for me to head home.

But that night, I had some panicky moments where I realized I had to figure out an entirely new routine, and I had to get up at 5:30 every day, and I had to wade through the dictionary-sized "New Hire Manual" I was given that morning, and I had to figure out where I could eat lunch, and I had to find the time to work out and make dinner and do laundry and take care of my pets... and needless to say, I only got about four hours of sleep before my alarm went off. And I know there are people out there who can get by on less-than-adequate amounts of sleep every night -- but I am NOT one of those people.

But I managed to get more sleep the next few nights, although the whole week felt sort of "off" -- like normal people are not meant to wake in the dark and sit in an office with no windows for hours on end. But I'm hoping that after another week or two (and after I get my first paycheck), I will feel more in sync with my new schedule.

One thing I'm still trying to work out is our dinner menu -- I didn't really "cook" anything last week. Although I did discover an awesome, low-cal, healthy dinner option -- I have some whole wheat wraps that I spread with a thin layer of hummus, and then added spinach and sliced veggies. Then I roll the whole thing up, and viola -- instant dinner. And it only takes about ten minutes to assemble.

I have, however, missed my daily "green monster" smoothies -- I finally made one for lunch today. Check out how green this one ended up!


Now THAT is a green smoothie. :) And it was quite yummy -- we bought some clementine oranges at the grocery store today, so I threw in a couple of those, plus some frozen bananas and frozen nectarines. My cousin-in-law Jess has been making smoothies, too, so we've swapped a few recipes -- she sent me one the other day for a chocolate-coconut smoothie, with chocolate almond milk and coconut extract. YUM! That one sounds awesome, so I can't wait to try it (as soon as I remember to buy chocolate almond milk!!).

And I have to give an extra-special-super-awesome shout out to Eric and his girlfriend Rachel, who both ran a half marathon today -- wow! I am seriously impressed. And Eric so rarely impresses me... (heehee... just kidding, Eric! I was really impressed that day you learned how to tie your shoes -- when was that? Like three or four weeks ago? Yeah... that was impressive... ;)) Seriously -- I get so inspired when I hear about stuff like this, so Rick and I will definitely be doing our four-mile run/walk tonight. (Which, sadly, sounds rather paltry after "half marathon." But you've gotta start somewhere... :))

Okay, I still have a bunch of things to do this afternoon, so that's all for now... hope everyone had a great weekend!