Day 13 - Mr and Mrs Corrado

Congratulations Tiffany and Fabio! The reason for this trip was finally here - the wedding!!


We woke up and headed to Tiffs for a crazy morning of curlers, eyeshadow and shoes (and a lot lot lot of tears! Mainly from me!)


We all got ready then waited for the limo to pick up Tiffany. We then headed to the ceremony in the Napoli Naval Base. As the flower girls came down the aisle, I bawled. When I saw Tif, it just got worse!


After the beautiful ceremony, we headed into the reception. After 8 (!) courses, speeches, dancing and wine, we were ready for bed!

1. Making up the bride

 2. OCTOPUS

 3. First Dance

 4. 12.30am. Still going!

 5. Cake

 6. Cutting the cake

 7. My beautiful date

 8. Proud mummy and daddy

 9. Spunky Dan

 10. Daddy

 11. Proud daddy

 12. handsome groom and groomsmen

 13. Beautiful attendants

 14. Bella!

 15. Vows

 16. First smooch

 17. Our table

 18. Me, Tiff and Nicole

 19. Me and Nicole

Day 12 - Sorrento and Positano

As beautiful as these places are, man was I gru-mpy today! We took a train to Naples, then hopped on a bus to Sorrento. We had amazing Pizza then wandered the markets, sampling Lemoncello and buying scarves. 

We then found another bus to take us to Positano, it went waaaaaay too fast on waaaay too narrow roads and induced a huge case of grumpies in me!

Once we arrived safely in Positano (thank you Jesus!) we had a wander, walked too many stairs and took some photos. Tip to the traveler - TAKE THE BUS TO THE BOTTOM, INSTEAD OF GETTING OFF AT THE TOP AND WALKING DOWN SEVEN THOUSAND STAIRS.

We then jumped back on the bus and ran into the Long family (from Bunbury - go figure). We were squashed to the back of the bus and I sat squashed under a chair on the floor, while Nicole was lucky enough to be wedged next to a sweaty mans crotch. 

We got back to Sorrento then headed to the train back to Naples. That night we stayed at the Casadios spanish neighbors house as the Casadio house was full of guests and bridesmaids. 

1. Beautiful Positano

2. Danika at the top of Positano 

3. Nicole at Positano

Day 11 - Pompeii and Tiffs Hens party

It was the 10th of June and we were in a town near Napoli, Italia. 

We woke up and caught the train to Napoli, where we were picked up by our tour guides. We headed off to one of the most heartbreaking places I have ever seen - Pompeii. 

Wiki -"The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of thecomune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was partially destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumicein the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Pompeii was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1749. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with approximately 2,500,000 visitors every year."

The site of the victims of the volcano broke my heart. Huddled, crying, protecting their children, trying to be free from the ash cloud that buried them.

We then headed to a Pizzeria for lunch (nom nom nom)

After visiting Pompeii we climbed the culprit of this heartache - Mount Vesuvius. We looked into the crater (scary!) and bought random nicknacks from the stall holders. 

After our climb we headed back to the Casadio's, scrubbed the volcanic ash from our feet and showered, ready for Tif's hens party :)

We played lots of fun games and celebrated with Miss Casadio for one of the last times. 

1. Hiding from the ash cloud

 2. Trying to escape

 3. Pompeii square, Vesuvius in the background

 3. Brothel - ouch!

 4. Penis of Fertility :S

 5. Another shot in the square

 6. Climbing Vesuvius

 7. Crater of Vesuvius

 8. Danika on the edge of the crater

 9. Nicole on the edge of the crater 

 10. Danika :D

 11. Miss Casadio & Debbie Lee

 12. Partying (and totally buggered as you can see! We did climb a volcano today...)

 13. Bella Tiffany 

 14. The Hen

Day 10 - Colosseo and frantic train ride from Rome to Naples

This day was one massive LOL. 


We woke up in Rome and decided to go see the Colosseum before getting on our train to Naples. We somehow managed to turn a 10 minute train ride from our hotel into a 30 minute walk to get the Colosseum (this was NOT contributed to me [Danika], I swear!) We jumped on a tour and went through the amazing sites of Colosseum (I will never get sick of this place!)


Once we got back to the hotel, we had to repack my suitcase into a new bag as the old one had busted. We   realised we were running short on time so started a fast paced trot to the train station. My new replacement bag started to fall apart at the seems (great buy!) and had completely lost the plot, it's handle and a wheel by the time we got to the train station. Nicole was nice enough to buy me a suitcase at the train station as my pay hadn't come through (eep!) and we ran frantically, repacking my bag as we ran, to find our train (by this time we were almost about to miss it).


We found a lovely policeman who pointed us in the right direction and put us on the train (we rewarded him with the new bag that had fallen apart) and stood on the train, which was packed to the point we almost had to stand. 2 very nice looking Italian men offered to squish up together so we could have a double seat, and hoisted my 25kg suitcase up onto the luggage rack. 


We set off for Naples on what proved to be a thankfully boring trip. We arrived at the train station and were very happy to see a familiar Bunbury face, Stef Casadio. We headed to his apartment and were reunited with Debbie Lee, Tiffany and Daniel. 


Tif, Nicole and I headed off to see the sites of the Casadios new home.

1. Nicoles first view of Colosseo

2. Inside

3. Tadaaaa!

4. Palatine

Day 9 - Flying from Athens to Roma, Italia

Today we had to leave the beautiful city of Athens to go to the beautiful city of Roma. We arrived and found our beautiful little hotel right at the top of the Spanish Steps, and checked in. We managed to score an email address from a creepy good looking Italian guest (don't worry, we didn't pursue it!) then went for a wander through the streets near by in search of Fontana di Trevi...

1. Toss a coin into the Fontana di Trevi and you will return to Roma. This has been proven from Danika's previous visit and Nicole's returned visit to Rome. And it certainly won't be anyones last! 

2. The Spanish Steps 

3. Danika at Fontana di Trevi

Day 8 - Arriving back in Athens

Overview.


It was an emotional day. The night previous we had to say goodbye to Richie and Brent, who were getting off bright and early to get on a flight to start their next adventure, so we woke up 2 members short. After a veeeeery early breakfast we disembarked the Aquamarine for the last time and headed into Athens. 


Nicole, Tara and I had decided to do the Athens tour, we were the only ones and although it was a wonderful tour I think it would have been better to do on a day where we had had more sleep the night previous. After following the Green Umbrella through the sites of Athens we retired to Plaka Hotel, where we ran into a bunch of girls from our group. We decided to meet that night for dinner, which we did. We were given roses and sung to - aaahh, Greek men!!!!


Photos:


1. At the Temple of Olympian Zeus 

 2. Us overlooking the city of Athens 

 3. Green umbrella guide lady

 4. In front of Athens sporting stadium
(Tara on the left)

 5. Erechtheion 

Day 7 - Cruising to Crete & Santorini

Cruising to Crete & Santorini

Overview:

Last day on contiki. Dank and i slept through breaki so decided to grab brunch in Crete. Crete was not what i expected and was probably the most disappointing place we have been. Was just a business city, shoud have slept longer but we can now say we have been there.

had late lunch on the boat and a couple of drinks, played more Blackjack then got ready for Santorini. We had to jump on tender boats to reach tthe port, rocky yet fun.

30 min bus ride to get to thira and look out over the ocean and down the cliff face at all the houses. Was stunning!!

We got back to the port by riding donkeys down a zig zag cliff face path. Very fun but felt mean making them walk down stairs :( looked hard on them. Tendered it up back to the ship and got a glimse of the sunset through the clouds. Very pretty.

Had a final dinner together and danced it up. Had to say goodbye early to the boys as they were leaving at 5am. So sad!

Photos:

1. Streets of Crete, 2. Eating Crepes for breaki, 3. Sun through the clouds at Santorni, 4. Danika against the view over the cliff face, 5. Myself against Santorini, 6. Santorini, 7. Donkeys, 8. Riding the donkey down the cliff, 9. Sunset while boarding from tender boats, 10. drunk shot, 11. Some of the group, 12. Ozzies!

Nicole & Danika xxx