Honeymoon Series: Split, Croatia

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our sixth stop: Split, Croatia.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Our very last stop on our cruise (but not the last stop on our honeymoon overall) was in Split, Croatia. We visited Dubrovnik, Croatia earlier as the first stop on the cruise, and while we had a blast exploring that town, the weather was nasty that day. In Split, however, that was not the case.

It was bright and sunny, and we made the most of it! We climbed up to the tip top of the bell tower, took way too many photos of the spectacular views, and just enjoyed it. We knew that once we stepped back on the ship, our cruise was essentially over (though we still had dinner and one more night on board). We had a great time walking around Split. I'd love to go back to the region and see more of the countries around Croatia - especially Bosnia. That whole area is so rich with history.

You can tell we had both been enjoying the buffets on the cruise ship at this point... it's a good thing we walked all throughout Paris shortly after we got off the cruise ship!

We were so sad for our cruise to end the morning after we toured Split. We had the best time on that ship, and I can't wait to go on another cruise in the future! 

• Have you been to Split?
• Do you enjoy cruises?

Honeymoon Series: Kusadasi, Turkey

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our fifth stop: Kusadasi, Turkey.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

During our amazing surprise Mediterranean cruise, Dan and I had a stop in Kusadasi, Turkey. I won't lie - I had actually never heard of Kusadasi before. It was so much fun, though! We didn't take too many pictures (embarrassingly only four... oops) because we spent the day shopping at the markets near the cruise port and lying out at the beach, where we both soaked up way too much sun for our own good and ended up looking like lobsters.

We had a lot of fun at the beach, though, and eating a Turkish lunch and enjoying Turkish coffee afterward was really neat. And when we got back on our ship, we were exhausted from so much time in the sun, so we napped... for a long time. But after that, we got all dressed up for our nightly dinner on the ship!

This one may or may not be blurry because we downed an entire bottle of champagne together in our stateroom before we headed to dinner... hey, it was our honeymoon - don't judge! 

Overall, Kusadasi was a lot of fun, and we both want to check out more parts of Turkey - perhaps Instanbul - as soon as we can! 

• Have you ever been to Turkey? 
• What was your favorite thing to do there?

Honeymoon Series: Athens, Greece

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our fourth stop: Athens, Greece.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

When I found out we were going on a cruise (a secret my husband kept from me for a year and a half!), I was stoked. When I found out we'd be stopping in Athens, I couldn't even believe it! I had always wanted to visit Athens, and it did not disappoint.

We only had a day in Athens from our cruise, and both of us are dying to go back. We had such a blast walking around all day and seeing ancient sites that we'd only see in photos before. Greece is somewhere we both want to visit again when we have more time.

We saw Hadrian's Gate, the Parthenon, and the Acropolis. We ate delicious Greek food and the biggest piece of baklava ever. Athens was absolutely gorgeous, so I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

• Have you ever been to Athens?
• Is it on your bucket-list?
• What is your favorite thing to do there?

Honeymoon Series: Venice, Italy

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our second stop: Venice, Italy.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Venice was unbelievably beautiful. The canal was gorgeous, and all the boats seemed so whimsical to me. It was a great city to be in to practice taking photos for sure. Venice is SUPER expensive, though. It definitely wasn't somewhere we could do a lot of things we wanted to do because of how high the prices were there. We had a blast walking around together and exploring the main area, though. We even took a water taxi once!

I also got what I call 'slut-shamed' at St. Mark's Cathedral. I know you're supposed to cover your shoulders and your knees, but it was just downright TOO hot for that. I saw so many people going inside without those things covered, so I thought I'd try as well. They didn't let me. I had to purchase two cover-ups for a Euro each. Blah. I had to wrap them around me, and an entire tour group was pointing and laughing at me at point. THAT was not cool, and Dan insisted on taking my picture... so I glared (see photo below).

I did have THE BEST frozen drink ever, which I bought from a vendor on the street. It was a mint flavored slushie, and it was the best flavor I could have imagine. Mmm.

Overall, we were only in Venice for two days, which I suppose is a good thing because it was my LEAST favorite city of our entire trip! It would be more fun if we had a lot of money, but since we were seeing so many cool places, we couldn't shall out the cash for a gondola ride or any fancy-schmancy restaurants here. Little did I know we ACTUALLY weren't spending a lot of money because the SURPRISE CRUISE was next! Yep, Venice is where that left from, and I had no idea we were going on one until we got off the train next to a giant ship. 

• Have you ever been to Venice?
• What did you enjoy most about it?

A Tale of Traveling {Blogtember Challenge}

Yep, I skipped yesterday. I don't vlog, sorry (yesterday's prompt). I hate the sound of my voice, and I didn't feel like making one. So I decided to take the day off.

September 18th Prompt: Tell a tale of traveling, a city or country you've been to or a favorite vacation. 

Because I'm not ready to share the details of our honeymoon locations yet (not because of anything big... just because I've been too lazy to type them all up and then got sucked into the Blogtember Challenge), I am going to share the Bahamas cruise Dan and I went on in December of 2011. It was a blast!

While Dan and I were on our epic road trip in the summer of 2011 (when we got engaged), we decided it would be a blast to go on a cruise together and booked it from the spotty wi-fi at the Grand Canyon. We chose a Carnival cruise, and we left right when we finished work/school for the semester (December 2011). We flew to Florida, spent the night in Orlando eating out and having fun, and then we boarded the Carnival Sensation the following morning! The ship was beautiful, and it was so cool seeing everything decorated for Christmas!

We spent three nights and four days on the ship, and we also got to go to Freeport, Bahamas and Nassau, Bahamas! We had so much fun together seeing new things, and it was great getting a tan in December! ;) 

Our view from lunch before we boarded the ship!

First evening on the ship :)

Wedding date in the sand! :) 

We had a ton of fun on that trip, and I think that may be what inspired Dan to book us a cruise for our honeymoon (that was the big surprise for me!) We LOVE cruises and wish we could go on more... but unfortunately, we don't live near any ports. Maybe sometime!