Plaka Plaka Hey Hey

I've really outdone myself with the title this time... I think I can make M cringe so many ways with this one, from the outdated Shakira reference to the sad pun on "plaka", which I understand just means "stone slab" in Greek but is also the name of the neighborhood we spent much of our time in beautiful Athens. Athens, Greece was the last stop on our anniversary cruise after Istanbul. Athens was an absolute dream for the whole family, and I wish we had had more time there!

Our first day we got checked into our hotel and explored the neighborhood in Plaka. I bought some leather sandals, as Greece is known for high-quality leather and shoes. We visited Athens National Garden, a park that had a wonderful playground for S and lifted my soul with all the greenery I don't see much in Dubai. I ate refreshing Greek salad and drank a non-alcoholic mastiha lemonade, which combines lemon juice and resin from the mastic tree that grows on the island of Chios in Greece. They were delightful!

After we left the park, we stumbled upon the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, which hadn't originally been on my list but really caught my eye as we walked past and so we turned back and went inside. I'm so glad we did, because it was full of treasures and fascinating history, from ancient pottery to centuries of currency and cool religious artifacts and art from Greece's history. It's also well-known for a pair of perfectly preserved wood-paneled interiors that were donated to the museum after adorning a wealthy family's house. Aren't those walls gorgeous?

We went to a famous, absurdly thematic cafe called Little Kook that was decked out all the way down the street with Snow White paraphernalia. S loved the staff costumes, props, and extensive selection of desserts. The food was... okay, but we all could see that the quality of the food was not the main draw of the place.

The next day we went to the Acropolis (from where I took the first photo of this post). There was so much to see, and it was packed with people. After the Acropolis, we made our way to the Acropolis Museum, which helped us understand more about the things we saw at the Acropolis site itself. I was blown away by how well so many sites were preserved and the fact that new archaeological research and restoration work are still being done all the time.

Keeping with our spontaneous streak this stop, we also found a walking path as we were leaving the Acropolis and decided to follow it up to another peak with the Philopappos Monument. One our way up, we passed a cave with iron bars that was rumored to be the prison of ancient philosopher Socrates. And at the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Acropolis from a distance.

In between the attractions themselves, we really enjoyed just strolling around Athens and soaking in the beautiful, bustling streets, cute shops and cafes, endless restaurants, and more - all under the majestic, towering Acropolis. There were a lot of short-term tourists like us, but the city also struck me as a lovely place to stay longer. I'm sure we'll be back someday, and until then it's time to bid farewell to the anniversary cruise posts and return to our regularly scheduled life and related programming! Thanks for reading!

Lots of Seeking and Some Finding in Istanbul

After our idyllic visit to Crete, we were looking forward to visiting Türkiye. We had a one-day stop in Istanbul scheduled before our ship moved on to another Greek island, Mykonos. Unfortunately, tragedy struck on route and for the first time we experienced what happens when someone goes overboard on a cruise ship. The Man Overboard signal was transmitted late at night and announced throughout the ship. The captain turned the ship around to where the person had gone over and sent out rescue boats and searchlights over the dark water. They asked passengers to notify crew if we saw or heard anything, and they even turned off the air conditioning and other non-essential electric functions to make it easier to hear if there were any cries for help. Send we were in Turkish waters, the Turkish coast guard joined the search.

The heartbreaking end to this story is the person was never found. After a whole night of searching, Turkish authorities boarded our ship and reviewed the CCTV footage. Later, the captain confirmed it was a crew member who went overboard. Authorities cleared the ship to proceed, and although they never said this explicitly it seems likely based on circumstances that the crew member may have died by suicide.* I learned from other stories online that this happens more than I realized, and it made me so sad to think about how many of the other people I interacted with on ship who might greet me with a smile while hurting deeply on the inside.

With heavy and somber hearts, we continued on our journey with a modified itinerary that removed a planned stop in Mykonos and gave us an afternoon and evening in Istanbul instead of just the daytime. We had no real plan, just a list of family-friendly tourist sites we thought we might visit.

My favorite stop by far (as you can tell from the photos) was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, commonly known as the Blue Mosque. It's a working mosque that closes for prayer times but in between is open for visitors to admire the stunning blue tilework from which it draws its nickname. It was an architectural marvel, and I felt so peaceful inside.

I know the Hagia Sophia is even more famous, but from recent reviews I read online it sounds like most of the interior is closed off to tourists and the price was very steep, so instead we admired it from the outside. We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets and getting a feel for the city, taking a couple rides on the tram to explore. It was a little hot and crowded, so we ended up returning to the ship after a few hours.

In the end, I felt like we had only scratched the surface of this fascinating city and I hope we get the chance to visit again someday. Next time, I'll blog about the very last stop on our anniversary cruise: Athens, Greece. Until then, stay safe and hold your loved ones close.

*If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, you are not alone. Please seek help from a professional mental health care provider or at findahelpline.com.

Crete-ings from Greece!

I think my puns may be getting worse as the anniversary cruise posts continue, but that won't stop me from raving about our time in Crete, Greece! After Italy, our ship stopped in Chania, a town on the northwest coast of Crete. This trip, I tried as much as I could to alternate highly structured days with unstructured days. So because on our last stop in Italy I did a tour of Pompeii on my own, we decided to take Chania in a more laid-back way (which always makes things easier when you're traveling with a little one).

I could've spent at least a week in Chania. From the picturesque streets to the bustling waterfront and fascinating history, I was hooked from the moment we stepped off the ship. In Old Town Chania, I visited so many historic buildings but the one that stood out to me the most was St. Nicholas Church. I learned that the church was built in 1320 as part of a Dominican monastery.

Then, Turks came to the city and in 1645 the building was converted to a mosque, complete with added minaret. In 1918 it was converted back to an Orthodox Church, and they added a bell tower. One can't help but be struck by the mishmash of architectural features, a testament to the history of the place.

We passed by a few other historic churches and adorable gift shops and cafes on our way through the old town, and eventually the streets just opened up to a massive plaza and a view of the ocean. We'd made it to the Venetian Port Waterfront. The weather was gorgeous and every table outside every restaurant was packed with people enjoying a beautiful day by the water.

We strolled along the waterfront (the first photo of this post) and visited the Ottoman Mosque, also known as the Kucjk Hassan Mosque. From what I read online, the mosque was built by the Turks after they conquered the city in 1645. I also read that when Nazis bombed Chania during World War II, it destroyed one of this mosque's minarets. I'm no architecture buff, but I was amazed at how much history was held in the walls of these buildings.

We were exhausted from walking so much and decided to return to the ship for our main meal, but I couldn't leave without trying bougatsa (phyllo dough filled with custard). Thankfully, there was a well-known place that specializes in bougatsa called Bougatsa Iordanis right next to the stop for the shuttle bus that would take us back to the ship. It was delicious! It was warm and had the perfect mix of creamy custard and crispy phyllo with a hint of sweetness. I'm pretty sure I could eat it every day.

One day wasn't enough for Crete, but it was such a lovely introduction for our family to this beautiful island. There is still so much history, culture, food, and more to experience - I'll have to save it for our next visit. That's all for now, until I get around to blogging about our next stop in Istanbul!

Pompeii and Circumstance

I'm so proud of myself for the title of this blog post, but M never finds my puns as funny as I do. After Cinque Terre, I was so excited to visit Pompeii (which I've always wanted to do but never have before), so when I saw it was an option from our stop in Naples I booked it early. I remember learning in school about this fascinating and tragic city buried under volcanic ash, providing the most complete preservations of ancient Roman life we have in modernity.

I learned so much on my tour, including the fact that archaeological research is still ongoing on these 2,000-year-old ruins - archaeologists have only uncovered about two-thirds of Pompeii so far and they're discovering new things all the time. For example, recently they uncovered evidence that people returned to live in the ash-encrusted ruins of Pompeii even after the major eruption that buried it.

Pompeii was obviously a city rich in the literal and metaphorical sense. It amazed me that some of the homes still showed signs of the elaborate architecture and painting, and I can only imagine how lavish it looked before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried it in ash. One of the reasons the disaster captured the imaginations of so much of Europe was because the city had been well-known as a center of trade and culture.

At the same time, there were plenty of the indignities of ancient life to learn about: the example that stuck out to me was how servants would dump human waste-filled chamberpots in the sloped streets and rely on water and gravity to wash it away; however, the horses and animals would still walk in it. I guess they did what they had to do.

They also had an interesting concept of sex back then, and we visited the ruins of several brothels. The women who worked there were known as "lupa" meaning "prostitute" or "she-wolf" and apparently some of them actually howled like wolves to get clients... There was also a street so known for sex work that it had a mounted sculptue of male genitalia attached to the building. (See, these are the fun facts you miss if you just wander the ruins yourself without any kind of a guide.) I learn something new every day.

The Pompeii Antiquarium is also a must, offering a stunning array of artifacts including casts of perfectly preserved victims and well-preserved items. One of my favorite things I saw in there was a beautiful segment of an elaborately painted wall of one of the wealthier homes with what looked like cave art scratched on top of it. A plaque explained children had scrawled their drawings on top of what was likely a very expensive wall, and it occurred to me that children thousands of years ago weren't too different from children today.

For any lover of history and culture, I would put Pompeii on your bucket list. Given that it's thousands of years old, many of the paths we walked were not accessible so I would keep that in mind when planning a trip. And I think you really need a knowledgeable guide (or at a minimum a bunch of advance reading and studying) to get the most out of it. But if you have the opportunity to go, you won't regret it. That's it until next time, when I write all about Crete in Greece!

Fulfilling a 10-Year Dream in Cinque Terre

Our next stop on our 10-year anniversary cruise after Genoa was La Spezia, a port city in Italy from which you can access many famous sites. Originally, we were planning on visiting the leaning tower of Pisa but decided instead to visit Cinque Terre, a series of five towns in the region of Liguria in the Italian Riviera.

This was the culmination of a 10-year dream of mine, because we wanted to go during our honeymoon cruise but we got a late start and missed the train and then it would've taken too long by the time we got into the city. We had to turn back then, hopeful we'd have another chance to visit someday.

So when we had the opportunity on our anniversary cruise, we knew we had to take it. We just had to choose whether to see Cinque Terre from Genoa or La Spezia, and M figured out La Spezia was significantly closer. There are a few options for transiting Cinque Terre: ferry, train, car, and hike. If it had just been M and me as it was on our honeymoon, we would have opted for as much of the hike as possible.

Instead, since we had S with us, we walked the easiest path between villages (Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola) and otherwise took the train between the towns. Even still, it was extremely hot and tiring to explore in the heat of August, and later on the ship we learned it had broken over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day! So much for escaping the heat once we were out of Dubai.

We bought a Cinque Terre day pass that included the trains between the Cinque Terre towns and La Spezia without having to reserve specific times. The ticket came with other perks, too, like free use of otherwise paid bathrooms at the train stations. The Via dell'Amore path did cost extra on top of the Cinque Terre ticket, but having done the walk I think it was totally worth it since it was beautiful, mostly shaded, and recently renovated in 2024.

Online, people recommended you only attempt Cinque Terre with good sneakers, and I'm so glad we listened to that advice. All the towns were hilly, even if we didn't do the big hikes.

One mistake I made was bringing sunscreen and leaving it in my bag. I didn't realize until the end of the day that we hadn't put it on, and by then it was too late. I wound up with a dorky tan line, but somehow the fair-skinned M and S were relatively unscathed... They're better than I am about always finding shade wherever we walk, apparently.

Each town had its own charms. Here are some of the highlights:

• Manarola had the best scenic viewpoint, with the perfect snapshot of the town's colored buildings contrasted with the gently rolling ocean.
• We had spectacular gelato at Alberto Gelateria in Corniglia. The Basilico Speciale is a must, with creamy basil ice cream made from basil from their own garden topped with local olive oil.
• We didn't have time to experience them ourselves, but the beach clubs in Monterosso looked amazing. We glimpsed the iconic orange and green striped umbrellas from above.
• Vernazza had great shopping and smaller/calmer swimming areas than Monterosso.
• We just passed through Riomaggiore to start Via dell'Amore, but the town looked fantastic and I would've loved to spend more time there if we hadn't had a deadline.

We really had to rush to cram in all five towns in a single day and make it back to our cruise ship in time, so I can totally see why people stay in Cinque Terre for a week or more. It's one of those places that completely lives up to the hype. The towns were so cute, with colorful buildings lining the vineyard-striped mountains and crystal-clear blue water below. I would definitely come back again. Wouldn't you? That's all for now, until I blog about our next stop, where I visited Pompeii.

Eating Our Way through Genoa

Our 10-year anniversary Mediterranean Cruise stopped in Genoa, Italy following our time in Gibraltar. (Fun fact: did you know it's "Genova" in Italian but "Genoa" in English? I didn't until our trip.) Originally, I planned a complicated itinerary involving lots of train travel around the region, but M talked some sense into me and instead we spent the day exploring the city of Genoa itself as a family.

I tried three of the most famous local dishes: fresh Genovese pesto (which apparently is supposed to be made at room temperature fresh and never cooked but merely added to a dish at the end, oops) with focaccia, pansotti pasta with walnut sauce, and panisse (chickpea flour fritters that look identical to thick-cut potato fries). (I heard farinata, a fried cake of chickpea flour, is actually even more iconic in Genoa but I didn't have room for a heavy, creamy pasta and a full fried flour cake.) We also got gelato (because how can you not when visiting Italy), and it's always phenomenal.

Throughout our trip, S's appetite continued to amaze (especially when we found some of his favorite foods out and about in the wild, like grilled squid in Genoa). He was also a huge fan of panisse. To my surprise, focaccia was not so much his thing. It was nice we had plenty of options without allergens that he could enjoy, and he's getting old enough to understand that's why we sometimes can't share all the food on the table.

Besides eating our way through the city, we walked around without a particularly detailed plan or guide. One of my favorite things to do in an old European city is visit old churches, and Genoa had plenty we could stumble across and explore (as you can see by the dominant theme of this post's photos).

My favorite one we saw was the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, which has a unique striped design on the exterior and interior that sets it apart. (The black and white stripes also made S go, "It looks like Halloween!" - which I'm sure is not what the architects were going for there.) That church was built around 1098; the time scales are mind-boggling and it's amazing to think about when you're standing inside and enjoying such historic buildings and art.

We wrapped up our time in the city with a visit to the local aquarium, partially to get a break from the August heat and partially to do something more fun for S than seeing old buildings. Although we all had a good time, I agree with reviews online saying the tickets were quite expensive and the aquarium was overcrowded despite doing timed tickets only. I personally prefer the value in terms of quality for the aquariums in most other places we've been, but we did get what we needed out of it and learned a few things. My favorite things I discovered were about dolphins, including the fact that some species of dolphins form nursery pods where aunties and sisters help dolphin moms with their babies. Isn't that so sweet?

Eventually we returned to our cruise ship and watched the first part of Moana 2 for the umpteenth time at S's request. (Yes, we are those parents who stretch our normal screen time rules on vacation. We love family movie nights when we travel!) By then, we were grateful just to be back in an air-conditioned room and no longer dripping sweat from our summer stroll. It was a low-key day full of wonderful family quality time, and I was glad we took it easy because the very next day we went on a much more rigorous adventure... Cinque Terre! You can read all about that in my next post, but for now I hope anyone reading this is staying cool.

Hiking the Mediterranean Steps in Gibraltar

M and I just celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary and decided to do it with a two-week Mediterranean cruise, just like we did for our honeymoon except better with a few more stops. I decided instead of trying to cram information about every stop into one mega-blog post I would break it up so that I could give each place the care and attention it deserves. Our first stop was Gibraltar, a British territory attached geographically to Spain. I learned a lot of fun facts about Gibraltar on this trip, including:

• English is the official language but most locals also speak Spanish and Llanito, a specifically Gibraltarian dialect that merges English and Spanish with words from other languages such as medieval Genoese, Hebrew, Maltese and Portuguese.
• The local currency is the Gibraltar pound, tied to the pound sterling, but they print their own banknotes that are distinct from the pounds you would find in Great Britain.
• There is one university in Gibraltar, established only a few years ago, which is best known for biomarine science.
• Morocco is only 9 miles (14km) away across the Strait of Gibraltar.
• The whole of Gibraltar is only 2.6 square miles (6.8 square km), but over 30,000 people live there.
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married there.

Cool, huh? I was excited to see a hike on our cruise ship's list of excursions for Gibraltar, and then I was even more excited to see the hike labelled "strenuous" because sometimes I'm disappointed when what's billed as a hike turns out to be more of a leisurely stroll by my standards. So I asked M if he wanted to join and when he said no (as he usually does for that sort of thing) I booked the excursion with a tour group for myself. This hike was up the Mediterranean Steps, the challenging ascent up the Rock of Gibraltar, a 200 million-year-old Jurassic limestone formation that dominates the Gibraltarian landscape.

Our group drove up part of the way and then began our hike. The path was easy to follow and well-labelled, with restrooms at the entrance to the hiking path. At first, we moved very slowly as a group since the tour guide asked the more experienced hikers to stay in the back and let slower folks set the pace. About halfway through, though, he took pity on us and let folks go at their own speed while he stayed in the back to help the slower people. Unfortunately, this delayed the tour group quite a bit, with some members seriously struggling with the difficulty of the trail. It was challenging, and I would not recommend it unless you're in shape and have hiked before. Because the last folks in the tour group were running hours behind, I and a few others who finished the hike first ended up breaking off from the official tour group (letting those who stayed know we left so they could tell the guide) and finding our own way back down the mountain via cable car.

The view at the top, which I heard is normally excellent and allows hikers to see from Spain on one side to Morocco on the other, was completely obscured by clouds on the day we went. Although this made the summit a little disappointing, it led to some stunning photos on the way up with the sun filtering through low-hanging clouds and reflecting on the misty ocean. I enjoyed stopping at various points throughout and capturing the movement of the sun, clouds, water, and boats as the morning progressed.

At the top, we visited O'Hara's Battery, a must-see for military history buffs. We could visit the engine room and see the ammunition and the cannons that hint at the site's past. The exhibits were quite minimal by way of explanation, so if you're really interested in this topic I recommend you go with a proper tour guide or at least an audio guide.

Another surprise of my time on the Rock of Gibraltar was the prevalence of Barbary macaques, monkeys that can be found all over the Rock of Gibraltar. Our tour guide warned us to give them their distance and he did not need to tell me twice. I'm not here to disrespect wild animals or tempt fate by teasing or feeding them. (I saw one group of tourists getting the monkeys to jump on their shoulders and pose for pictures, and I gave them a very, very wide berth.) That being said, I did enjoy taking photos from a distance. The monkeys were everywhere! I even saw several sweet little baby monkeys with their moms.

After finishing my hike and getting down by cable car, I met up with M and S in Gibraltar City for lunch and a nice walk around. I had the best fish and chips of my life at a pub called Lord Nelson, and I understand Gibraltar is well known for British pub fare and Spanish tapas. By the time we finished our food and explored a bit, though, we were really sweating. Once we all got back on the ship, we were so relieved. S laid on top of our cool bed sheets and said, "Ahhhhh, I like cold things." I guess living in Dubai has given us as much a taste for appreciating air conditioning as tolerating the heat. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about our time in Gibraltar, and I look forward to sharing other stops on our 10-year anniversary journey in future posts, starting with Genoa! Until then, I hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are.