Europe Trip: Cruise Ship & Corfu Island.

We cruised Norwegian Cruise Line on the Jade ship. The boat was nice and had a lot of variety of food and entertainment. The only time you

could really tell the amount of people aboard was on the first and last days which were “at sea” days. Those days I filled my hours people

watching and trying to keep my jaw off the ground.

Our family has this obsession with the song “Hot! Hot! Hot!” It started almost 15 yrs ago when we went on a cruise together. An appropriate

song to be played no less than 68 times a day on a Caribbean cruise, no doubt. The amusing part for us was that Britt despised the song, while

the rest of us danced and tormented her singing it loudly. I knew for sure I’d hear it on our ship, I was just waiting for it to blare over the

speakers bringing joy to my ears. On the boat for less than an hour, I jumped up to record the pool deck dancing hoping to send it to Britt

proclaiming, “YESSSS!”  Except seconds in, I was overcome with this deep sadness. Unexpected to say the least, since the song brought back

such happy memories. I hurried back to my lounge because it was the type of cry that I couldn’t mask with a discrete licking of my lips.

I laid back and tossed my cover up over my face. Ali’s cover up. GAH. And as Adam asked what was wrong I sat up to speak, which I couldn’t,

and off my chair fell my cross necklace made from Ali’s flowers. Again. UGH!!  Thankfully I was able to enjoy the song the other 50 times.

I did all kinds of yoga in our spare time. It.Was.Awesome. I was watching a bunch of hilarious young Italian boys play soccer in an

enclosed area. (Maybe you don’t know Adam and I love soccer) There was also a track and a great workout room, which we never used.

Instead we used the self serve soft serve icecream machine at least once a day.

Want to feel confident about your body? Go to Europe and see all shapes and sizes in (you call that a bathing suit?) bikinis and speedos.

They must not sell adult size swimwear or one pieces because I saw more buttcrack than ever necessary in public. Though Adam convinced

me to stow a bikini to amuse him, I packed all my one pieces. By day two I was all, eff it. If saggy full figured 75 yr old gram and gramps had

less fabric on than me, I was good to go. I was always wanting to blurt out, “Excuse me ma’am, your nip slipped! Oh? You noticed, but don’t

care, I see.” As Sr. Janine Marie used to tell me when I put  my feet up on a desk in HS, “you’re leaving nothing left to be desired.” Ha!

Soooo true with their thin WHITE four triangles of salami size fabric covering their unmentionables. And Mr., Quit shaking it around like

Shakira at the pool, I can see EVERYTHING. Evvverrrrything. Eeew. You guys, the pics below was taken on shore. WHERE ARE YOUR

UNDERWEAR AND/OR PANTS??  On the right, I enjoyed the full bottom coverage of the American mom and also my hottie husband.

“I don’t always wear speedos, but when I do…I wear orange.” Dude, we were convinced this was the Dos Equis “most interesting man in

the world.” Every time we saw him we changed his tagline because we are cool like that. The one night he had a full 3 piece white silk

suit on. YES!! And of course his wife was 20yrs younger and one of the few who I was ok with wearing a thong bikini.

Pumping and dumping. BOO. I carried the pump on my back every day and “expressed” as mom calls it, wherever I could. Daily security

checks explaining via sign language what this machine was I carried. With a honk honk and a cradling of baby, I broke any

language barrier quickly. I tried being “appropriate” about it but quickly got over it and cut to the chase.  I left Nico behind 268 oz with some

help from my friends Michelle and Kelly who had extra milk their kids couldn’t use. Thanks!! I preferred to dump it in plants or the earth

opposed to the sink. Seemed less nauseating when I was nourishing something. I may have actually been killing the flowers though?

Our first stop was the Island of Corfu. We decided to splurge on a long taxi ride to the Paleokastrista Beach because we heard it was

picturesque. And that it was. We were one of the first to arrive out of the 3 cruise ships that were at port there. This picture was

taken just 20 minutes apart from the one below it!

For the record, Adam had on a speedo here. He has a hot bod and totally rocked that shit.

After spending a few hours at the beach we had lunch at an outside restaurant just out of frame above overlooking the water. Twas beautiful. This

was our first taste of authentic greek food. Ummm…BIG BOOO.  I love gyros. This gyro though, yuck. Had some chewy fatty pork with some cold fries

on top. I asked them to add feta for a little flavor which helped. However the 10euro we spent of two small bottles of coke was well worth it! I was sure

to tell our local gyro place here that their gyros were so much better than in Greece! Who knew?

Our cabdriver, Giannies (Yawn-ees), picked us up from the port then came back to get us from the beach after lunch. It was quite interesting to

me how trusting he was about it. He didn’t want us to pay him til after the second trip hours later, which if we were jerks, could have denied him

130USD! American drivers would never take that risk! Right? He was a 27yo who told us all about the customs of Greece as he drove around the

winding bends…while TEXTING and browsing through his iPhone pics to show us the girl he fancies on facebook. What? I smoothly brought up

US traffic laws which transitioned me into how you get a ticket for texting and driving in the States. Funny part was that his answer was how strict

they also are there…as he found another picture of his American babe in his camera library. Ummm?

They had shops where you could sit in a recliner, put your feet in a fish tank and have the fish suck the dead skin off your feet.

This was the only day we had to briskly walk back to the ship loading minutes after the all aboard time. Crew was already breaking down

the gangway, they aren’t lying when they say they’ll leave without you.

Our friend and travel agent, Sheila, put our whole trip together. She’s amazing. Did you know you don’t have to pay extra for her services

AND you don’t have to lift a finger to plan a wonderful trip? Going somewhere? Call her:  248-773-7471 or [email protected].

You won’t regret the little effort you have to apply to traveling. She must have written somewhere that it was our anniversary because we were

surprised with a little celebration one night at dinner! All the sudden we were being sung to and everyone was watching. I hardly ever blush,

but I can assure you both of us were totally red (and not just from sunburn).

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On the right: HAHAHA. As soon as that sun started setting, every woman on that boat would strike a pose on the railing. We

couldn’t get over it. So I just had to make fun join the fun!

The skies truly were gorgeous.

Next up is the place Adam was dying to see, Santorini. Check back soon! Heart, Melanie and Adam.