Month: September 2017

European Cruise: Day 11 Kotor

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Reporting to you from Kotor, Montenegro. We are here from 7am-4pm. Really before this cruise I didn’t even know there was a place called Kotor, I think I had at least heard of Montenegro though. Again no excursion or set itinerary. We had to tender in this port, meaning the boat anchored off shore and we took little boats in. 

Killer view right? That’s from our stateroom. It’s a fjord!!!

That’s from our balcony lol. We are traveling in style!!!!

On the little tender boat to Kotor from the ship. 

There was an old fort and inside was the sort of old historic town. 

Really pretty. There was I think a monastery up on the hill. I went in on my own amd looked around and did a little shopping. 

The outside of the fort, it even has a moat!!!

After looking around and doing a little shopping, I bought locally made vinegar, then i sat down and people watched while drinking espresso and listening to the drizzling rain. Then i headed back and read in our room looking at the fjord while a storm rolled in. It was wonderful. 

European Cruise: Day 10 Dubrovnik

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Hello Croatia!!! Nothing on my itinerary excursion wise so its all me to wander around. I do know this is a major Game of Thrones place, I think they have filmed here so I may just do my own little GOT walking tour.

Emily decided to accompany me so we slept in a bit then had some breakfast and made our way into town. From where the boat docked it wad about a 20 min walk to ‘old town’ which is one of thr big draws.

Here is the view from our balcony. Not too shabby huh? 

Old town! This and the day is where most people were. This is where all the Game of thrones stuff happens

The views were amazing everywhere. Walk five it and it was an amazing view from a different angle, and once you got up on the wall that surrounds old town, forget it.  There wasn’t enough time or memory capacity. 

The bay, well one of them

Anyone recognize this tower? When the dragons (when they were still babies) were stolen from Calisi (butchered that name right) and locked in that tower when they were on that creepy island. The sorcerer was trying to steal them and she ran around the base of that crazy tall tower and there was like no door then the door moved and all that. Yep, turns out, towers not that tall after all hahaha. 

I had Bosnian food for lunch. This was as adventurous as i was willing to get. 2 of the cheeses were good and i almost liked the dried beef hahaha. But the sausage was a no go for me. The bread was amazing though.  I didn’t want to be rude so i had them box it up for me and threw it away later. Always need to be careful in foreigner countries, you never know what the local customs are. 

Cappachino ice cream! We have left gelato land. 

Found coffee right before i got back on thr boat!

Bye Croatia!!! Still can’t believe i have been to Croatia. Very surreal. 

Day 9: At Sea

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Today is our first full day at sea. I slept in until 9am then got some breakfast. We did laundry and my roommates watched a movie while I read. Then we hit the gym, 2 miles! First 2 miles in about a month hahaha.

 Then Emily and I hit the steam room to relax. 
After a steam and relaxation I went to a free ladies pamper party. Basically a sales gimick but i got a free little collegan face and eye treatment so I’m all for it and they gave us massage coupons so i upgraded my massage that is planned for 2nd day at see to something better for the same cost. Love it!!
I had a pizza for lunch and got a coffee. 

Then we chilled in the room until the champagne toast at 7pm for formal night. 

The toast was fun, we got to go up and pour in the champagne fountain if desired. At some point I’ll have to do a follow up post with a bunch of photos i collect from other people and when i sort my phone out. 

Formal dinner was really good!!! I had a shrimp cocktail and lamb shank in a thyme sauce with potatoes and artichoke hearts. It was delicious!!!! The sit down dinners here are pretty amazing when i manage to get to them. 

Monday Motivation**September 25, 2017

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, school/studying, training

Happy Monday! Today I am Kotor, Montenegro! I don’t have any excursions planned today I just plan on going for a little run/walk through the town. Head back to the boat for lunch and then do some more exploring. Stay tuned for posts about it all!

(Image from Google)

European Cruise: Day 8 Sicily

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Sicily, Italy! We are in port from 7am to 7pm today. I have no planned excursion today but most of my travelling companions do so I was just gonna walk around on my own. 

I slept in until 8 then got up and went to breakfast then Carra’s grandma and I headed out for a little walk in the town. 

We meandered along looking at the pretty buildings. 

Got cappuccinos

Wandered around some more

Then stopped for wine and bruscetta before getting back in the boat to relax and read. 

We went to an actual sit down dinner that had great food and tiramisu for dessert!!

Then I went with Carra’s grandma to a 50s and 60s music trivia thing then went to a little game show that I was terrible at hahahahaha. I only lasted 8 seconds before I said the word I’m not supposed to. 

Then I wandered around for a few minutes then went to bed. 

European Cruise: Day 7 Naples

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training, travel

Hello from Naples, Italy!!!!! We are docked here from 7am-7pm. From 7:30am-about 3pm I have a planned excursion through the cruise line. We are hiking part of Mout Vesuvius and getting a tour of Pompeii. After that we get dropped back off at the ship where we will leave in search of pizza!!!! Gotta have pizza in Naples, I think its the law, or like a commandment.

Gathering before the excursion. 

Great view from the top!  Well not even the top yet. 

A view of the crater…..there was some steam coming out hmmmmm

Pompeii!!!! It was huge!!! Way bigger than I thought it would be. 

I was really suprised by the ingenuity of people that far back, you could tell which were shops and which were houses. The shops had little groves in the doors where gates were pulled across. There will little pieces of marble in the roads and floors to reflect lamplight at night.  It was amazing all the things they came up with. 

There are some amazing details that have survived this whole time. These sculptures were amaziny still in tact. 

Look at the wall frescoes and that fountain!

Pizza!!!!!

Best gelato to date! I got coffee flavor and it was to die for!!!

We stumbled upon a giant piazza while walking around. That happens in Italy,  you just stumble upon amazing sights around any corner. 

Tomorrow a slow, relaxing day in Sicily!

European Cruise: Day 6 Rome and the boat!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Day 2 of running around Rome like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get it all in. Boarding on the boat starts at 2pm and we HAVE to be on board by 6:30pm. Here we go!

The others in my group did a more expensive Vatican tour so they left the house around 5am. I had a shorter, less expensive one so i left around 6:45am. I took the metro all by myself! I had gotten directions from a tourist information place yesterday so i knew exactly which lines and ways to go. I navigated it like a champ!!! Hahaha. 

I purposefully got to the meeting point about an hour early because it was a coffee shop. I ordered a large cappuccino with a croissant and enjoyed people watching for 45 min then met up with my tour group.

 

There were so many beautiful things!!!! Everywhere you looked was a photo op

No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel but we got one in the front in St Peter’s square! …….I may have made an Angels and Demons  (movie) reference

It worked out well and both our groups got to the Sistine chapel at the same time. We then all headed back to the apartment, gathered our things and headed for the train station. 

We decided to not wait for the train an hour later and made a run for the train that left in a little less than 20 min.  This was not the best idea as we ended up running for the train with one person catching it by literally about 10 seconds. But what was done was done and we were on our way to the cruise ship!!!

We got to the ship settled in a bit then had the obligatory safety gathering and life vest try-on party….and by party I mean boring talk. Now we have laundry going because we have already been traveling for 6 days!!!! My backpack was getting stinky. 

After the washing is done and we switch it to the dryer we will go explore a few levels. 

We had the obligatory saftey meeting then headed to the deck to watch the departure. 


Then came dinner, calzone!! And more exploring. After looking around we got distracted and watched part of a movie then decided we needed to go to bed instead. 

Tomorrow off to Naples!!! Here we come Vesuvius and Pompeii!! 

European Cruise: Day 5 Rome!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

We have 1.5 days in Rome to squeeze in as much as we can. Get ready to be exhausted just from reading this post.

We started with a 10am tour of the colosseum 

This was out 2nd tour buy the company ‘CityWonders’ I HIGHLY recommend them. Their people are funny, unique, and soooo interesting. They also have lots of different kinds of tours. 

With our colosseum tour we got to enter through the private gladiator entrance with only 1 other group. It was pretty cool to enter the colosseum through the private gladiator entrance. 

This place was pretty amazing.

There are ruins everywhere you look in this area

Pagan arch 


Then off to lunch we went!

More pizza!!!

Tiramisu!!!

After lunch it was off to explore Roma!!

The Pantheon 

Crazy amazing 

Then dinner, then to the spanish steps we went 

And the Trevi fountain!!! Yes, I through a coin in and made a wish.  

And now I am in for the night and ready to sleep.  So far i have been consistently walking about 12 miles a day. Almost a half marathon a day!! 

Tomorrow we head to Vatican city! This will be an interesting day, the other 5 of my traveling companions are taking a different tour than I am (it was too rich for my blood) so I get to navigate myself their and back alone…….I got this!!!……right?

European Cruise: Day 4 VVFPR

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Today is a go, go, go, cram everything in kind of day. We are waking up in Venice and ending the day in Rome.

We got up at 4am (well i woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep) and caught a train to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet! 

We only stayed in Verona about 3 hours, just long enough to catch the major sights. But they were pretty great. We were there right as the city was waking up!

Espresso and a pastry were a must!

We made it to Juliet’s house just as it was opening and beat the crowds, then something amazing happened,  a choir was visiting….just listen.

Found a big church to explore.  It was beautiful inside!

Now its back on the train to Florence!

We stayed in Florence for about 1.5 hours, no where near long enough but I’ll take it over not stopping at all. We got Gelato 

and saw an incredible church

 and some crazy square with insane statues

 and stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for appetizers, thankfully they had a locally sourced appetizer….and it was delicious!! 

We overestimated our time a bit which left us literally running tp catch our train. 

Back on the train for a quick stop in Pisa!

We were here the bare minimum, just long enough to get to the tower, see it lean, walk in the cathedral, get some dinner and its back on the train to ROME!!
I am soooo exhausted am going to sleep so good tonight hahaha. Even though I’m exhausted I am going to take some melatonin tonight to make sure I don’t have a repeat of last night. 

European Cruise: Day 3 Venice!!!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, travel

Today is all about exploring and experiencing everything Venice has to offer…..that I can afford, let’s remember I am on a budget.

Last night we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (that is the tourist spot my friends like to hit everywhere) I get it, I like to get the starbucks You Are Here mugs. 

Then we went straight home and passed out!!!! My bed was a little hard on my back so I tossed and turned a bit but we all slept for about 10 hours!! 

Up at 10am, everyone is showering and getting ready! 

Time to explore!

But first breakfast! Espresso and pastry. 

Oh man, did you know you aren’t supposed to drink the tap watsr I’m Venice? So we have to keep thinking about buying bottled water.  

We travelled around on the vapparetto and saw the outside of islands. 

I had pizza in Italy for lunch!!

Then we hopped off the vapparetto and ended up in an almost empty part of Venice which was amazing!!! 

Totally happy I got to see this classic Italy scene!

Piazza San Marco!

Enjoyed a glass of wine in the afternoon and people watched 

Then we took a walking tour

Saw some amazing things 



Then it was Gondola time!

And of course, pasta!!!!!!

And now it’s back to sleep cause we are leaving at 5am to catch a train to Verona! 

Goodnight!