Honeymoon Day 5 - Malta

We woke up on day 5 of our honeymoon and were in Malta. Malta has a natural deep water port so we could pull right in and not have to tender into port like we thought we may.
After eating breakfast on the ship we disembarked and headed into town. The town sits up on a hill that is surrounded by walls so it was a bit tricky getting up there. We eventually found our way into the narrow streets and walked around.
Our first stop was the Barracca Gardens. They overlook the port and you can see some forts across the water. They weren't very big, but still nice. After taking in the gardens we wandered the streets. Just walking up and down the streets of Malta was beautiful and relaxing. We did find a church, but didn't take any pictures inside. And since I was wearing a tank top I had to put a shawl over my shoulders.
We did a little shopping as well. I forgot my white tank top and really needed one for some of the tops I had brought so we were trying to hunt one down, but it is harder than you would imagine. We didn't find one, but I did buy a new pair of sunglasses for 2 euros! I'm pretty sure they are kids sunglasses, but they look good on me so I bought them.
After all of the walking Ando and I were thirsty so we decided to grab some water at a café. We ordered a large bottle of sparkling mineral water and when it came we thought we were going to be leaving half of it on the table; it was 1.5 litres. But it turned out that we were thirsty and just like sparkling water and ended up drinking the whole thing.

After our brief rest we went to an archeology museum about Valletta. It was small, but also cheap. We didn't have a whole lot of time in Malta so we didn't want to wander to far. We also went to the "Main Gate" of the city. It is up on top of the walls and the main thoroughfare into the city.

That was pretty much our day in Malta before we headed back onto the ship to sail out. While we were in line there was a family behind us and to sum up there conversation I will give you a quote from them "Remember on the Red Neck Comedy tour when one of the guys said, "You can't fix stupid". "Yeah" "They were so right; you just can't fix stupid" I love when people talk about the Red Neck Comedy Tour! Oh and the mom's souvenir in Malta was a watch. Because you know nothing says Malta like a watch.
When we were back on the cruise ship we ate some lunch and then watched us pull out of port. We then put on our bathing suits for another dip in the pool. The water seemed much colder this time around for some reason. I'm not sure if we were just that much more hot or if they had put new water into the pool overnight. After our quick dip in the pool we headed back to our room to fine our new towel animal. This time we each guess what we thought it would be; I picked elephant and Ando picked giraffe. I won! It was an elephant. I put the sunglasses on for the picture. I had left them in the room thinking they would put them on the elephant, but they didn't.
Once we had cleaned up we headed to the front of the ship for some cocktails and the sunset on the high seas and right by Mount Etna. We passed Mount Etna on the ship and it was perfect timing with the sunset. It was very nice and romantic....except for the couple of other people up there watching the sun set too. When the sun had gone below the horizon we headed for dinner. Again, there was nothing very interesting at dinner. But I did pass up the seafood option, shocking if you know me at all.
Ando and I watched a romantic sunset; no baby on the way to enjoy it with us in the future.

Honeymoon Day 4 - At Sea

Day 4 was spent entirely on our cruise ship. We we heading straight from Barcelona to Malta which takes over a day to get to.
We started off with some breakfast and then headed to the pool for some relaxation. And that is also what everyone else on the ship decided to do as well. We couldn't find any lounge chairs right next to the pool so we had to end up on a lower deck without any sun. It was fine for a little while to just read and relax in the shade while looking out over the ocean, but we really wanted to get a little sun and maybe some swimming in. So, we headed back out to the pool area to try and find any chairs we could.
As we were looking for our chairs some ladies in front of us just randomly said "asshole". Ando and I just looked at each other and had no idea what was going on. She kept talking to her friend out how some guys were assholes. It was really odd and I have no idea what happened. Anyway we finally found some chairs after this little incident. Ando and I lounged in the sun while sipping some margaritas away. We even did some talking to each other. We hadn't run out of things to say yet.
While we were sitting on the poolside deck two guys next to us were talking and one was going to go back to their room to get something and the other told him to get him about five things for him as well. He kept going on about where all these things were in the room, in differnet locations of course, and how to find them all. I don't know why he just didn't go down and get what he wanted himself. If Ando would have told me everything this guy did I would have laughed in his face and told him to go get it himself and Ando said the same thing if I would have asked him.
After sitting in the sun it was time for a quick dip in the pool. It was a little cold, but not too bad. And it was nice because they had two pools on the ship; one was the "kids" pool and the other was for adults only. When we were finished swimming we needed to dry off a little so we laid in the sun with some more adult beverages.
By this point it was time to get ready for dinner. We headed back to our room to be greeted by a nice little rabbit towel. Sorry, we didn't take a picture of our first towel animal, but there will be some later on. In case you don't know you get a new animal sitting on your bed each night from your room attendants. I guess it's a cruise thing.

Since we weren't very hungry at this point, we did eat lunch and snacks I just didn't write about it, while lounging, we sat out on the back deck with some beer and just hung out. We finally made it to dinner, but nothing interesting happened this time. It was actually pretty empty by the time we made it to dinner. And then we were off to bed to get ready for Malta the next day.

Ando and I lounged the day away; we won't have to take advantage of any lounging we can get in

Honeymoon Day 3-Boarding

Ando and I thought we would have about half the day in Barcelona before heading out of port on our ship, but it turns out we were wrong. The day was spent trying to make our way and board the ship. We had free breakfast again before checking out of our hotel to make our way to the pier. We thought about taking the shuttle, but it would have cost 10 Euro a person and there wasn't much info at the hotel about it. So Ando and I headed to the subway to get ourselves to the port for less. It was a bit farther than I thought it would be, walking wise once we got off the subway. We had to walk up a large bridge, but we still made it in one piece.
Once we made it to our ship, the Norwegian Gem, we dropped off our luggage and headed for security. We passed through security and got to have our first cruise picture taken, looking sweaty, and then to a long line for check-in. But while we were in line we did get to fill out our second swine flu form. I forgot to mention that we had to fill out a swine flu form on our Air France flight from JFK to Paris. People really want to make sure we aren't carrying any diseases.

After checking in we headed onto the ship, but first we had to sanitize our hands, which will become a recurring theme on the ship. We weren't allowed in our rooms yet because they weren't ready so we had to hang out in the "lobby"; we did get a free glass of "welcome" champagne though. Our rooms were finally ready so we went and checked out our new digs for the next 7 nights. It was pretty much as small or large as you would expect, but it wasn't like we would be spending much time in there.
After getting settled in we took a tour of the ship since we realized we only had about an hour or so before we left port by this time which meant we really couldn't get off and do anything before setting sail for the high seas. In the meantime we had to do our mandatory muster drill in case anything would have happened and we needed to all get on our lifeboats. This is mandatory in case anyone has never been on a cruise ship and didn't know about this part. This was by far my most laid back muster drill out of the three I have now done. We didn't even get to see where our life boats were located.
The rest of the night Ando and I just hung out and enjoyed each others company and ate a nice dinner, when we wanted without having to share a table with strangers. That is the beauty of freestyle cruising I guess. We did have an interesting couple next to us at dinner though. They were older and the guy ordered steak and when the waiter asked how he would like it prepared he answered "a little pink in the middle". So the waiter said "medium". And the guy came back with "a little pink in the middle". Why he couldn't put a label on how he liked his steak cooked I don't understand, but for the rest of the trip when we saw him we would call him "little pink in the middle". He also wanted to order a Merlot with dinner, but ended up ordering a Chianti instead and had no idea what that was. His wife had to explain it to him that it was different than Merlot. It was quite bizarre that she knew, but he didn't and how old they both were for him not to know the difference.
Ando and I boarded the Norwegian Gem; we don't have our own little "Gem" on the way.

Honeymoon Day 2-Barcelona

Ando and I got to spend day two hanging out in Barcelona before we had to board our ship the next day. We started the morning off with some free breakfast from the hotel, which of course came with all the salted meats you could ever want and some very delicious cafe con leche! On our way back to the room we noticed that there was a race of some sort going on outside the hotel and then realized people were climbing up the emergency stairs to the hotel. It turned out to be some sort of fireman race/drill using the steps, located on the outside, of the hotel.
After leaving the hotel we headed for Park Güell. On the way to the park I realized that we had forgotten to pack sunscreen and it was very sunny out so the first thing I wanted to do was buy some as I didn't want to get burnt on this trip, especially on day one. We found some sunscreen and headed for the park to look around and see some Gaudí. The park was crowded, but very beautiful and quite large.
After Park Güell we headed to La Pedrera or Casa Milà which is an apartment building that Gaudí built. The line to go to the top and see the chimney's was long so we decided to skip it and head for Sagrada Família. Sagrada Família is the church that Gaudí started to build before he died, but was never finished. They are still working toward finishing the church today. It is huge and quite a site. We didn't go to the top, but just the outside and inside was spectacular. If you go to Barcelona this is a must see.
After Sagrada Família we got back on the subway and headed to Las Ramblas. The Ramblas are a stretch of road that carries everything you could think of with some human statue/sculptures thrown in. there is shopping on either side of the street with a walking path down the middle filled with booths of all different things. One stretch has pets, one has flowers, another has jewelry. It is basically an open market to walk around in. After walking around and down some alley's we found a little café and got some afternoon sangria on the street.


We then headed to find us some dinner, tapas. Again we sat outside, something I could really get used to and had some tapas and split a bottle of the house cava. Why not it was our honeymoon right. Dinner took a little longer than expected, but was pretty good and relaxing. We manged to fake our way through the menu and ordering as well, which was an added bonus. They did speak some English, but not a whole lot.

Ando and I were then going to head to the Font Màgica. Which you can imagine by the name is a fountain that "dances" with music. It only happens at night and every 30 minutes till11:30pm, but we stayed out too late and couldn't make it to the last show. Since we missed the show we just headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day....boarding a ship!
Ando and I were in a foreign country trying our best to speak Catalan; there will not be little one to learn the language for us in the near future.