So I'm going on a cattlecar tour of southern europe
 

My grandparents are taking my mom, myself, my little sister, my little brother, 2 of my aunts, 7-10 of my cousins, my cousin's kid, and a few spouses on a 12 day Princess Cruise of the mediterranean going from Barcelona to Venice.

Don't think we'll have much time in barcelona, but here's a list of the places I'm visiting. . . (some of the places you have to take a tour to get to. . . kind of lame, but some of them they'll have an optional "X on your own tour" where they give you a map and a time to get back to the bus, so I'm gonna do as many of those as possible

Marseille- not sure if this the port we use, might dock downcoast, regardless, I'm walking off the boat and not taking a freaking tour

Florence/Pisa- going to take a bus to Florence and go to the Accademia to see David, I don't think the boat docks in either Florence or Pisa but rather some small town, so I won't get to see the leaning tower after my 6 or so hours in florence, but I'd rather see David

Rome -going to take the bus and do my own thing. . . I mainly want to see the colluseum

Naples -taking a walking tour of pompeii then I guess walking around naples afterwards

Mykonos -no idea what to do there, we only get a few hours, so I don't know.

Istanbul- Going to explore myself. Maybe I'll try to smuggle some hash and be sent to prison for 7 years.

Kusadasi- Taking an Ephesus tour and visiting the basilica of st. john then explore kusadasi a bit myself

Athens- taking the bus there and exploring myself. . . I think I'm gonna go to the parthenon.

Venice- I get a full day there, then we leave the next afternoon.



So yeah, I get a free vacation to europe at age 21. Any tips, suggestions?

I'm trying to figure out how much money to bring. Tours are covered by my grandparents. Food is free on the ship. Alcohol isn't. I know I'll need 20 euros to get into the Academia in Florence. I'm sure I won't be paying for every meal off the ship. . . but I still will have to pay for one here and there I'm sure. So. . . I'm thinking 100-200 euros for admission to places, booze, and the occasional meal. Although. . . I'm a beer drinker not a wine drinker, and we're gonna be in southern europe. Damnit. I wish we were doing northern europe. Or better yet, central europe and no fucking boat.

I think when I go to Europe on my own terms I'm just going to go to good ol' Deutschland and maybe the Netherlands.

Quite the little tour you got there.

Did I mention that I'm going with my family and on a big boat called a cruise ship?

Cruise ships are not as glamorous as implied. Although the last time my grandparents did a cruise (it was a carnival "trailer park of the sea" cruise to jamaica, grand cayman, and cozumel) I was 15 so I couldn't drink, couldn't party, couldn't gamble, etc.

you might wanna bunk that €100 - €200 up to about €400 - €450

just to be sure;)

I've always though that the biggest problems on a cruise ship are the other 1,500 passengers.

Ouch. I'd want to hurt myself if I spent that much in 12 days on 4-5 meals, entry to a museum or 2, and booze.

The biggest problem is that when you aren't at port there isn't much to do.

I was in Europe last year for 10 days. Went to Venice, Florence, Pisa, Monaco, Nice, and Paris. All in all, only paying for one meal a day with soda, gifts, etc, i spent around 450 euros. I cannot express enough how much you need to have a good DIGITAL camera with tons of batteries and extra memory cards. Venice and Florence are absolutely beautiful beyond words. PM me if you have any specific questions you'd like to ask.

Enjoy yr trip!

bring your collection of woody allen dvds

Haha. The bitching I would hear from my grandparents if I forced them to watch woody allen would be priceless.

Or I could bring my copy of Me, and You, and Everyone We Know. My aunt says that that movie is demonic. (she's a born again, ugggggggg, born agains are so fricking annoying- they are like the johnny come latelies of Christianity, but instead of "have you ever listened to Joy Division?" the question is "did you know Christ was a jew?")

I'm trying to decide if I should bring anything musical- I'm thinking a small sized acoustic for example.

If that happens, Kegmama, you will come and visit me, won't you?