Getting ready...

As most, if not all of you know- Alex and I are about to fly off to Venice, Italy to start our Eastern Mediterranean cruise. Both family and friends have asked if we would be able to keep a blog/online diary/facebook message while we were away so we could keep everyone up with our latest adventures. So here you are. I'm going to try my best to keep this blog updated somewhat regularly throughout our trip, though with spotty (and very expensive) internet on the ship, I may ask for your understanding in a fairly loose definition of the word "regularly" :-)

Most of you also know that we have both just graduated from the University of Delaware, Alex with a major in International Business and a minor in French, Scott with a major in Political Science and a concentration in American Government. To mark graduation, we have been given the opportunity of a lifetime to take a cruise along the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. We fly out of JFK Saturday night and arrive in Venice Sunday morning. From Venice we depart for 12 days on the Pacific Princess stopping at ports in Italy (1 after Venice), Croatia, Greece, twice in Israel, twice in Egypt, Turkey, then we will finish in Athens, spend an extra day there, and fly back home after the trip of a life-time.

So of course, being the mature, prepared, and anti-procrastinating young adults we are we've been packed and ready to go for a day or two, right? Ha. Believe that one and I'll tell you another. Not even close. I can honestly say that I have spent more time shopping in the last two days than I can remember ever before. It seems past few days have been a blur of department store, drug store, bank, grocery store, and dry cleaner. However, *knocking on wood* I believe that all of that is done and all that is left is to put clothes in bags. Though I'm sure Mr. Murphy and that pesky law of his are hiding just around a corner somewhere waiting for us.

My guess (and hope!) is that the next time I write on here we'll be sailing somewhere on the Adriatic Sea, though depending on the wait we have at JFK, I may log on to fill everyone in on what is shore (Get it? I apologize in advance for more terrible nautical puns that may follow that one...) to be a roller coaster of a day tomorrow. For parents/grandparents and other family who will be worrying about us the whole time, every Princess ship had a Bridge Cam that will allow you to not only share in some of our experience, but to sea (there's another!) that we haven't sunk. You can watch here.

Prossima volta dall'Italia!