ANTICIPATION & EXPECTATION

Having felt both of these during the weeks leading up to the big Portugal trip, it's hard to grasp that it's finally here. Tomorrow, Adrian and I will fly to Lisbon to meet my parents and brother, who are leaving today and will pass through London before their arrival in Lisbon. We are both excited to see my family, as well as explore two new places together. Our side trip to the Azores island of Sao Miguel is packed with full-day tours and our time in Lisbon will be equally busy. The crazy thing is that after these ten days, our tour of Europe ends and we fly back to the States. For all the feelings of anticipation for that, there will be much sadness in saying good-bye to what has been an incredible summer. All I can expect is that our fall and winter will only get better and better.

ALL GOOD THINGS...

You know the saying, and as sad as it is, our cruise is nearing its final port and tomorrow we will disembark in Barcelona. We are leaving the ship the night before everyone - most people don't disembark until Tuesday morning, but we wanted to skip the mass crowd of people all trying to leave at the same time. The guest relations officer we dealt with made it seem like no one has ever done this before - we even had to sign a form saying we are actively disrupting our cruise and list a reason why. Whatever. Instead of fighting the crowds, we plan to spend Tuesday doing laundry and practicing our Spanish. "Si, ropas sucias!" We will be in Barcelona until Saturday and we hope it isn't as hot as Nice was today. Nice was nice, but it was Sunday and all the shops were closed, including the chocolatier Jeff de Bruges. You can only get these magnificent chocolates in France and I thought this was my chance, but it was not meant to be. I didn't know how I was going to get them back to the ship without melting anyways. Tonight we had our last formal dinner and then we watched our last cheesy cruise show. We've filled out our cruise questionnaire and we are slowly packing up our room. We're not too sad though, we'll be back soon. Anyone up for a Thanksgiving 2007 cruise from Hawaii to New Zealand? We hope to be aboard.

TOURS "R" (NOT) US

Today, we went on our first and only shore excursion of the cruise. We figured Athens, Greece, would be a pretty big city to cover on our own in one day, so we went against our gut feeling and signed up. And found out we have really good guts. It wasn't that bad; it's just that we like to do things on our own time and way and not so early. We ditched the group as soon as we got to the Acropolis - we were designated two hours to wander four monuments! Way too long. Adrian and I covered it in thirty minutes and then wandered into the city. We found a couple of supermarkets and other random shops - nothing at all exciting, but at least we entertained ourselves. We brought our books and iPods to drown out the sound of the inane chatter of the guide on the bus. And we came back to the ship as soon as we could - no wandering the shopping area on this trip. We wanted our chicken salad wraps and our naptimes.

CRUISING ALONG

It has been confirmed - we love cruises. It's like staying at a high-class hotel, with the added feature of one of the best views in the world and an occasional cool city thrown in for your added pleasure. Today was a sea day and we didn't do too much, which is what you're supposed to do on a day like this. We slept in because Adrian was playing poker until five in the morning, though I only watched until two before calling it quits. I worked out while Adrian played more poker in the Hold 'Em tournament - he made it to the final round, but only walked away with a t-shirt. After some reading on our balcony, we got ready for dinner. Tonight we skipped the normal dining room to dine in the Olympic restaurant, which has an added surcharge, but we heard couldn't be missed. It was all true and more. The service was impeccable and the food was amazing. We're even thinking of possibly going back. Tomorrow we dock in Santorini and we plan to explore the island on our own. Black sand beaches and hot springs with Greek food all around - we can't wait.

MILLENNIUM

We are currently on our cruise ship, awaiting sail tonight at 5p.m. for Croatia. We spent all day yesterday exploring the ship and eating both a main dinner and then a late night snack for Adrian. We watched a little of the movie, we played a little shuffleboard, we bought our cheesy embarking photo for $14.95 because even Adrian agreed, we both look skinny, I got a pedicure, Adrian's currently playing basketball... Basically, we're enjoying ourselves to the fullest and we haven't even moved from Venice yet!

oh, what a day

Oh, yes I did - I just posted my first non-caps title ever. I am so exhausted that I can barely hold down the caps lock to capitalize my "I"s, let alone a whole title. We made it to Venice, but I would say this has been our hardest travel day yet. And not in any super bad way - we didn't lose any luggage or miss our flight, it was just doing normal travel things in ninety degree heat while wearing a sweater and jeans. We got to the Marrrrcoooo Pooooloooo airport (sorry, I can't type or say Marco Polo without thinking of the pool game I used to play as a kid) after having to pay extra for one of our checked bags (that's what we get for flying economy). We then walked to the unair-conditioned water taxi which took over an hour(!) to get us to San Marco Square. We were already sweating and we still had to drag our bags to the hotel. A fifteen-minute walk turned into thirty because we had to keep stopping and resting, and I had to keep drying my hands off because they were slipping off the luggage. In any other mood, I might have had a breakdown, but today I was tough. Okay, not tough enough to carry the bags over the little bridges - Adrian had to do all that, but tough nonetheless. We actually walked past our hotel and had to be guided back by a friendly waiter from a nearby restaurant. We literally arrived dripping with sweat. There are sweat drop stains on our luggage. However, the best part of the day was getting to the hotel, for many more reasons than the obvious ones. We are staying at the quaintest (family-owned) hotel ever. It's so cool. Gigi and Matteo met us at the door and could not stop apologizing for the weather. Matteo's wife, Barbara, made dinner reservations for us at a local place (which we ended up not liking, but that's a story for another day - we are gearing up for all the fake enthusiasm we'll have to show tomorrow when they ask us how we liked it). We only hope they appreciated how well we clean up - don't want their lasting impressions of the Liangs to be as "those sweaty Americans with too much baggage."

HAPPY HARRODS

A seven-story department store having a glorious summer sale...did Harrods know I was in town or what? After a very unsuccessful jaunt to the Christian Louboutin boutique nearby, we spent our day, the entirety of it, at the behemoth known as Harrods. We shopped, we ate - at the buffet on the fifth floor, we explored and saw the Princess Diana/Dodi memorial fountain (for those not in the know, Dodi was Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed's son), and then we explored some more. We were there for around five hours and I'm not sure we even saw everything. I have to say that the shoe section was a bit disappointing, but any store where you need a map to get around is still a small piece of heaven on earth.

AIMLESS WANDERING

Some of the best times Adrian and I have when we're on vacation is the day or night we leave our hotel with no destination in mind. After a full day of planned walking, starting with Portobello Market in Notting Hill - the only highlight of that being that I found The Hummingbird Bakery, the best cupcake bakery ever (beats Magnolia Bakery in New York by a mile) and breakfasted on one of their red velvet cupcakes - and ending with us walking from Notting Hill home to Regents Park, we were ready to leave the guidebooks at home when we went in search of dinner. We walked in the general direction of Soho (see how hooked we are!) and wandered around some before Adrian noticed this busy place across the street which turned out to be a Thai restaurant. We were seated at a communal, square table with five other couples, which was interesting to say the least. The food was terrific and we were so happy with our spontaneous choice. We then left Soho to wander in the only direction we hadn't been yet, and we ended up at St. James's Park where we explored the grounds before randomly passing 10 Downing Street, and then we spent some money at a Borders on our way home.

EAT

Old Compton St in Soho isn't very big, but it is packed with some great places. We ate lunch yesterday at Cafe Boheme, and then returned today for brunch at Patisserie Valerie. While headed to brunch we passed a Maoz Falafel, which was one of our favorite places in Amsterdam. We had heard so many negative things about the food here in London and we're happy to say that things must have really changed. We are very picky eaters and while we haven't had an out-of-this-world meal yet, everything we've tried has been really good. We're currently looking into an Italian place for dinner as I'm craving pasta. On Sunday, we have reservations for Sunday roast at Maggie Jones's - recommended by Emilee who still raves about it. On Monday, we plan to eat at one of Harrods many restaurant/cafe choices.

SOMETHING(S) TOURISTY

Our first day in London was such a success. We rode the tube (3 pounds per person one-way! That's equivalent to $5.50!) to St. James's Park and started our day with the changing of the guards. It was as boring as the book said it would be. Plus, there were so many people that you couldn't really see anything once they entered the gates to Buckingham Palace. We then headed to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We didn't go into any of these places - the queues were too long and we really had no desire to actually see the insides of anything (translation: we weren't going to pay for access). We crossed the Thames and stopped for refreshments at the swanky Oxo Tower before heading to the Tate Modern, which we did enter as museum admissions in London are generally free. We then crossed back over the Thames and headed to the Spitalfields market only to find the vendors closing up shop. We came back to the hotel and rested before dinner. We ate right next door to the place yesterday - this time, though, it was a vegetarian Indian restaurant. Even without any naan, the food was pretty good. Tomorrow, we start the window-shopping, as we are headed to Soho and the main tourist trap of Covent Garden.

URBAN DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

We're back in a big, urban city and we couldn't be more excited. Jamaica was great, but there's only so much lying around one can do before getting antsy. The flight here to London was spectacular, meaning that I slept for the whole nine hours. I was sleeping so hard that the flight attendant asked Adrian if I was just tired or not feeling well. Our hotel room is small and cozy and we were able to walk to dinner tonight at a place that came highly recommended from both reviews and friends - The Golden Hind. Yummy fish and chips - and garden peas, if you're like Adrian. We're currently mapping out our week ahead. Tomorrow, I think we'll go with something touristy.