Bari Italy

Okay, so I know that long blog posts, with lots of reading can be frustrating.  I'm sorry, there's just so much to say about each of the places we've visited, and the cruise.  We've never been on one, so there was so much stuff we had no clue about, and were surprised about.  If you don't want to read, fine, skip over it, the stories about the places we visited are with the pictures......  Now, on to the reading!

Our first morning on the cruise went pretty well I'd say.  We slept in, but woke early enough that we were able to experience the madness of the buffet line.

I don't know who'd heard that in Europe, people don't know how to wait in line, or queue up.  It's more like a free for all.  It's true to an extent.  For example, in a grocery store in America, if a new cashier opens up when the lines are long, usually people will sort of float over in roughly the same order that they were in already (not always, there's usually some politeness).  In Europe, it's more like a mad dash to see who can get to the front of the new line first.  So anyway, we got our plates and started waiting patiently in line to get to the food, and people were shoving, and jostling, and jumping in front of us, and grabbing stuff, and it was kind of chaotic.  Then we had to find a place to sit.  turns out we went to breakfast at the wrong time.  If you go right when it starts, or right before breakfast time ends, you're golden.... in the middle, it's like a shark feeding frenzy.

After breakfast we took Davin upstairs to the Squok Club.  If you've never been on a cruise with kids, here's the run down.  They have a kids club.  It's basically like day care for your kids, while you're on the cruise.  From 3-11 years old, potty trained, you can drop them off, and leave them there while you swim at the pool, eat, go on the excursions, pretty much anything you want.  It's included with the price of the cruise.  It's also open until midnight..... yeah... you could go the entire cruise without really seeing your children.  So we took Davin up, and tried it out.  We walked around the ship exploring, found the pool and a few other things, then went to check on Davin.  He was crying, and pretty unhappy.  I had a feeling Squok and he, wouldn't like each other much.  So we decided to all go swimming.  We got ready, went to get in and found the temperature to be freezing.  Not only that, the pool was filled with salt water.  Definitely not what we were expecting.  I was sitting on the side of the pool, dangling my feet with Tim.  Davin was next to me.  Tayzia was playing with a fountain of water, and the big kids were with Tim learning how to float on their backs.  I was talking to Davin, then turned to Tim, and looked back to find Davin in the water, all the way under freaking out. Scared the living daylights out of me.  I grabbed him, pulled him out, and now he's terrified of the water.

After swimming, we convinced the oldest three kids to try out the Squok Club while we went on the excursion to Bari.  (Now on a cruise, you can choose to pay for an excursion, or you can do your own thing.  We always chose to do our own thing, it's just easier for me to say excursion.)

We left the ship and walked from the port to the customs entry area of Bari.  We just happened upon a bicycle rickshaw.  The driver, Davide started talking to us and offered to take the three of us around the old town part of Bari for 30 Euro.  He'd tell us about the sights, and be able to take us places that normal tour buses aren't able to go.  Since I was still having pain, and a hard time walking, we agreed and off we went.

They were putting up decorations for Christmas as we were riding through.  I wish we could have been there during the evening, and seen everything lit up.

This is the Basilica di San Nicola.  (the St. Nicholas Basilica)  The Basilica was built to hold one of the most beloved Saints.  St. Nicholas was a very real person that lived in Myra, or modern day Turkey.  According to our tour guide, when he died his bones were put to rest in Turkey, but he truly wished to be in Bari, so his bones were stolen, and brought here to be laid to rest.

The outside of the Basilica is fairly plain, but the inside is absolutely beautiful.

Inside the caged area are the bones.  While we were there, many people were on their knees reaching through the bars trying to touch what was inside.  It didn't look much like a coffin, I guess more of a tomb of sorts.  People were of course praying, and some were rather emotional.

These are the ruins of the oldest church in Bari.  I'm sorry I don't know more about the history of it, I was distracted by our four year old.

Our guide next brought us to a courtyard.  The homes here are thin, and tall.  Traditionally in homes like these, the children have their room/s on the top floor.  The middle floor has the parents room, and a bathroom, and the bottom floor is a kitchen.  There is no living room in homes like these.  The courtyard, that is surrounded by four sets of these style homes is the living room.  As we were going through the town, doors were all open.  People were sweeping the streets, or out with others in these courtyards.  Davide told us that in the summer times meals were eaten in large groups out in these courtyards.  Also, the homes are so close that neighbors can't help but just know you, everything about you.  He said that if your neighbor was your friend, it was wonderful, if he was your enemy, then life would be hard.  Generations of families live in the same house, it's just handed down.  It's such a neat history.  I'm sure we wouldn't have learned about it without this guide.

There are hundreds of framed picture type alters throughout the streets.  The story behind these is that long ago, the women of the villages were working, and weren't able to make it to the churches to worship on Sunday mornings.  So people started setting up little alters throughout the town where on their way to work, or on break they would be able to go out and worship.

I can't remember the name of this church, but it's Catholic on the first floor, and Russian Orthodox in the basement!

We then went to the noodle area.  There is a section of the town where all the women make noodles. They've been making them for over 100 years.  They're famous for it, and they were even featured on a food show at one time.  This woman is over 80, and is currently the oldest of the noodle women.

Our guide knew almost all the women her, and he was able to get permission for us to go inside the home of one of them and watch her make her noodles.  Then she sold us a bag of freshly made noodles.  Sadly, they grew mold before we could get them home to cook.

After visiting the noodle women, he took us to what he called the best gelato shop in town, and we each got a free sample of gelato.  It was sooooooooo good.  I wish I could go back and eat another scoop.  It was delicious.

At this point our tour ended, which was perfect because it was getting dark, and close to dinner time. We did make our way back to a little shop to pick up drinks to keep in our room.  If you want to drink anything on the cruise, you need to buy a drink package.  You get water and juice at breakfast, water at lunch, and then any other time you have to pay for it.  We were lucky, because we booked our cruise in a group, we were allowed free water at dinner.  If we had wanted anything else to drink, at any other time, we needed to have a drink package.  I will just tell you that if we had purchased it, it would have been an extra $1000 just for the week.  So yeah, we bought drinks on shore, then brought them to our room, and enjoyed.  The name of the shop we went to.... Titty Twister.  (insert childish giggle here)

Our guide.  We enjoyed him a lot.  He was super friendly, and Davin loved him, so that makes us love him too!

Nothing like a cruise ship at night.

Gattopardo Restaurant, the new dining room.  Pretty sculpture out of the front entrance.

Our first night in the dining room was less than great. Our waiter seemed rather angry the whole time, and the group we were with (we coincidentally booked our cruise at the same time that several other families from a different ward booked theirs. So they invited us to be a part of their group.) were all in separate areas.  So on this night, we were in a different dining room, and we were all supposed to be sitting together.  Our table got mixed up some how, and we ended up off to the side of the group, but our newer waiter was awesome, so we decided to stay at that table.

Our second day on ship was so much better than our first.  The kids had a blast, we had a blast, we got to see a part of Italy that we never would have seen otherwise, and our room steward brought me ice for my foot, which made me super happy!  It was such a great day.