Norwegian Epic, December 2013

A lot of Spencer's friends seem to be very artistic, and have carved out some pretty cool jobs over the years.  One of his fraternity brothers/roommates/good friends, Kyle, moved out to LA and started working with the Second City training center in LA.  He's pretty good, I'm not just biased.  In 2013 he got a job with the Second City crew that was working on the Norwegian Epic.  He sent out a general "who wants to hang out with me" email and Spence and I decided that, heck ya we did!  We had only done 1 cruise before this, on our honeymoon.  That trip we hadn't done a lot of travel together and stuck to the ship excursions and didn't really venture out of that bubble.  This trip since we knew we'd have the benefit of Kyle having been to all the places before we decided that we'd skip that and just wing it. 

We decided to fly down to Miami the night before the ship left for 2 reasons, (1) I am beyond paranoid about missing things due to travel delays beyond my control and (2) one of my best friends from high school and her husband live in the area and OF COURSE we wanted to get some quality time in with them.  In an amazing twist of fate another one of our friends and her husband were taking a different cruise that left from Miami the same day.  So the 6 of us were excited to have some time to spend together before the ship left the next morning.  We went to a hockey game, a first for me, it was quite exciting and came down to a shoot out for the win!  A tradition is that this team throws plastic rats onto the ice for a win, once I heard that all I wanted was to see people throw rats at the team. No idea why this was so fun to me, but hey, I'm easy to entertain.   The next morning Ash and Lew took us all to the cruise terminal and sent us off on our adventures!

Top Left: after the win, the black dots are the rats! Bottom left: the shoot out for the win

Top Right: our friends when we were at the airport  Bottom right Spence and I at the game

2 of my oldest and most amazing friends.  These women are truly a blessing in my life.

 

Top left: Cuban Coladas aka the best coffee ever. This little cup is supposed to be split by like 4 people.....but I drink my own, its amazing.  Bottom left: first drink on board, vacation had officially started!  Right Photos: views as we left Miami

 

Spence and I before the ship left Miami

 The first stop on the ship was St. Marteen BVI.  The day started out with some rain, and we saw a double rainbow from our balcony before we left the ship.  It rained a bit more after that, but then turned into a gorgeous day!  We walked around past where the shops and chairs were for rent and lounged on the beach with our towels.  For lunch we ate a little beach shack that had the MOST AMAZING seafood nachos I've ever come across.  I'm not kidding when I say I would go back to St. Marteen for these nachos alone.  Not an overly exciting day, but the fact that we were on vacation, hanging out with a friend we hadn't seen in a long while was more than enough to make the day. 

The top rainbow is a little hard to see, but it was such a beautiful view from our room!

 

We waited out the last rain before walking to the beach

Everyone needs one of these photos on vacation right?

 

at lunch, gotta love a beach shack meal

Our beach view for the day

 

Hanging out in the water!

 

The 2nd stop of the trip was St. Thomas USVI.  For this day Kyle hung out with us for the first part of the day and then Spencer and I went out on our own to Megans Bay for some more beach time.  Our first stop was at BadAss Coffee, because the coffee on the ship left something to be desired.  Then we took the sky tram up to Paradise Point for some great views.  After this Kyle went back to the ship and we took off for the beach!  St. Thomas is great because they take US Dollars and because you can use your cell plan.  What we didn't anticipate is that we'd have a hard time finding an ATM.  As a result we may  have run out of cash and almost didn't make it back to the ship!  Thankfully some kind soul gave us cab fare back and we didn't miss the boat!

 

View from Paradise Point

View from Paradise Point



Our ship in the background, at the top of Paradise Point

The best part about traveling so close to Christmas is all the festive trees in tropical settings!

 

We spent the majority of the day soaking up the rays at Megans Bay.  Good drinks, great people watching.  It was one of my favorite stops!

 

 

The last stop on the trip was Nassau, Bahamas.  After 2 beach stops that didn't cost us a fortune we weren't really feeling like paying a lot to go hang out at one of resorts.  I did some research and we decided to the Bahamian Food Tour.  It was a full day of stops around Nassau, and some history about the city along the way.  We really enjoyed the food!  We stopped at the following places (copied and pasted from their website) Bahamian Cookin’ Restaurant & Bar

A three-generation iconic downtown mainstay adored by locals for its mouthwatering selection of soulful traditional Bahamian favorites and warm ambiance (est. 1986).

Graycliff Chocolate Factory
This iconic estate is home to the region’s first 5-star restaurant, an award-winning cigar factory and onsite chocolate factory serving handmade, artisan bon bons (est. 1973).

The Drawbridge Patisserie
A beautifully restored colonial home featuring delicious designer pastries and the island's only selection of Bahamian gelato.

Athena Cafe & Bar
The island’s oldest Greek restaurant and a Downtown Nassau landmark serving original classics including Greek salad and gyros from its family run kitchen (est. 1995).

Genuinely Bahamian Boutique & Confectioner
A local specialty merchant showcasing a unique selection of: native jams, spices, salts, exotic pepper sauces and tea and sweet treats sourced only from Bahamian artisans (est. 2011).

Tortuga Rum Cake Company
Nassau’s premiere rum cake bake shop serving 6 flavors of rum cake baked daily using 5 year aged rum (est. 2005).

Just a little sample of what we had on the tour, I would recommend this to anyone.

These chocolates....I still have dreams.

Everyone needs a picture with a pirate!

Before the tour we grabbed a drink at a bar next to the Pirate Museum.

classic Nassau

 

 

Of course, the port stops are only part of the fun when on a cruise, we spent several days on the ship between stops and had a blast!  One of the things we enjoyed most about the Norwegian Epic is entertainment options.  We saw Blue Man Group, Cirque Du Solai dinner show, all of the Second City Shows (obviously since Kyle was in them) including a murder mystery lunch, the "Legends" show which featured Katie Perry, Elvis and Steven Tyler impersonaters along with the live music, alcohol tastings pool side fun etc.  Having Kyle on board also gave us a "behind the scenes" look at the crew and the other side of cruise life.  Kyle had to get special permission to hang out with us before the trip since crew members are not supposed to fraternize with the guests. 

We always try to get a balcony room, I like the ability to get up early and sit out there while Spencer sleeps in and not have to contend with other people in my space all the time.  The room on the Epic was a slightly strange configuration in a wave, at the narrowest part it wasn't even wide enough for Spencer to put his arms out to the side!  The balcony had plenty of room for Spencer, Kyle and I to hang out after the last comedy shows for the night were over.  It was almost like when Spencer and Kyle were roommates in Lawrence again, except it takes far less alcohol to get us tipsy than it used to! 

Yay we're finally boarding!

 

We're excited to be here!

Our cabin with the wavy walls

Pool side fun on board!

Overview of the pool area

Waterslide fun on sea days!

Having fun after the slides

the set for the Cirque dinner show

Martini tasting, one of the best things we did on board, they were delicious!

Svedka Ice Bar, you go in and they give you 2 *very* strong drinks while you try not to freeze.  It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.

Boy, do we look like we're having fun! (and being photo bombed by the statue)

Views from the balcony on our room, I spent probably 3 hours a day just relaxing with a book and a glass of wine.

 

At the end of the trip we were back in Miami, Ashley and Lew picked us up and we did some sightseeing before catching our flight back to KC.  It was the perfect end to a friend filled trip!



Our (first) Trip of a Lifetime Part 2

Our stop after Rome was Venice.  We decided to take an overnight train, which was only about 6 hours away on the overnight train.  Venice is a place that (in my opinion) you can spend 1 day or 1 week, we clearly did not have a week to spend.  So we literally took an overnight train there and an overnight train out, we didn't even stay the night!  The only structured thing we did in Venice was a tour of the Doges Palace.  We went to the top of the Campanile (highest point in the city) and explored St. Marks Sq.  The best part was that we got into town so early that we got to see the sunrise and experience St. Marks when it was empty.  When I've been to Venice before it was SO crowded in the summer that it was an interesting experience to see it so peaceful.  We talked about taking a gondola ride, but decided that over $100 for a 20 minute ride was more than even our vacation budget couldn't absorb, so we took a water taxi instead! 

On the train from Rome to Venice

Water taxi from the train station to St. Marks

Sun was just coming up, so the lights were still on in the canals

 

Grand Canal

Early morning before the gondolas were out and working

From the top of the Campanile

View of the city from the Campanile

St. Marks

View from the Bridge of Sighs, looking out toward the main walk way

At this point in the trip our whirlwind pace was starting to take its toll, this is kind of how I felt most of the day!

An empty St. Marks, I think this was about 6am



On our way to the train station we stopped for some wine

The canals are all lit up at night, and the buildings take on a magical quality! 

 

 

We took an overnight train from Venice to Prague.  Well technically it was an overnight train to Munich, and then a transfer to another train/bus to Prague.  Once we finally made it to Prague we did a free walking tour of the city, and then immediately turned around and did a beer tour, because, Prague.  We made friends with another couple around our age who live a few hours north of KC, Rainey and Jack.  They were on a similar trip and were also headed to Munich after Prague.  After the beer tour we stayed at the last bar they took us to, which was actually a split bar, one half called the Vodka Bar, and the other half I can't remember the name of, BUT I remember it was owned by a guy about our age who was from Denver. Spencer was so excited to find American football on tv!  The downside of the time we were in Prague is that due to methanol poisonings there was no alcohol for sale over 30% abv.  This was fine for us as we were more interested in beer than other booze, but the bar owner was lamenting the lack of revenue from liquor.  We stayed there and drank more beer, did a hookah (is that how you say that, we used a hookah, smoked hookah? I'm clearly not an expert here).  We stumbled back to our hotel late that night and crashed.  The next day we had beer from St. Norberts, and then went to dinner at Lokal (our favorite food in Prague) with Jack and Rainey.  The next day we took off for Munich!

Drinking our St. Norberts beers

Astronomical Clock

Dinner and drinks at Lokal

At the Vodka Bar, minus any vodka

Hookah!

Photo by the Charles Bridge with the castle in the background

Spencer pensively watching the water and enjoying the views (I assume, its been almost 4 years, he could have been thinking that he was sick of sightseeing)

On the Charles Bridge

Live music on the bridge

Gorgeous white peacocks at the Wallenstein Palace Gardens

 

the super cool drippy wall at the Wallenstein Palace Gardens

 

The Cathedral had some amazing stained glass work, I could have spent a LOT of time there just taking it all in.

 

After Prague we were off the Munich.  We had some big plans for this last city on our trip, a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle and a mountain hike, a visit to Dachau -- not the most uplifting portion of the trip, another free city walking tour with Sandemans and last but not least  by any means Oktoberfest!  It turns out that some of Spencer's fraternity brothers were also in town for Oktoberfest so we met up with them one night at one of the tents.  There was a friend of one of the guys who was procuring beer for us all night (you have to have a seat at one of the tables in order to any food or drinks, she had a seat at a table).  By this point in the trip we were exhausted.  I mean you guys we had a LOT of miles under our belts at this point.  Earlier in the trip when we were done with our planned activities we'd go wander around or find something else to do, not so much by this point.  We went back to our hotel every day and took a nap at some point.  This was the point in the trip where I promised Spencer we'd never do a trip like this again.  We had a BLAST but we probably needed to cut at least 1 city out in order to make the trip more relaxing.  Oh well, live and learn!

 

Work Makes You Free, sign that the prisoners saw on the way in at the top of the gate. It was meant to give them hope that they would be able to leave one day.

Beds in the barracks, as the camp became more crowded they removed the slats to fit more prisoners in per room.

After the slats were removed

The Bunker, a portion of the camp used for additional punishment

 

description of a prisoners stay in the Bunker

The Glockenspiel

we found a carousel bar at Oktoberfest, it actually turned!

Thankfully it turned very slowly, otherwise I think it may have ended badly

We ran into friends in Munich!

The nice girl in the front is a friend of one of the guys in the picture, she had a seat at one of the tables and ordered our drinks for us! (if you don't have a seat at a table they won't serve you)

A view of Neuschwanstein Castle, after the tour we hiked up to see it, then hiked down a scenic path to end the trip.

One of the stunning views on our day trip

Before the tour of the castle, I loved the view of the town spread out below

 

Spencer on the hike back down

 

We celebrated our anniversary in Munich, free champagne from the hotel!

One of the rides at Oktoberfest

 

The last part of our trip was a quick flight from Munich to London and then back home.  We spent 1 more afternoon and evening in London before getting up at 3am for our flight home. My favorite part of this last leg of the trip was our hotel and we went to go see Wicked.  We're from Kansas so we thought it was only fitting to go see a show based on Wizard of OZ on our trip! 

 The view from our hotel in London.  We stayed at the London Marriott County Hall, which is right behind the London Eye, by the Westminster Bridge.  It's my favorite location because when we come back from our  night activities the bridge is usually empty and the view is just so quintessentially London to me. 

Quick stop by Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, we are BIG Harry Potter fans!

 



Trafalgar Square

 

 Euston Tap for a few drinks on our last day in town!

 

We also went to Brew Dog in Camden

 

We had REALLY great seats for Wicked, it was such a great show.

The view on Westminster Bridge, during the day the bridge is teeming with people, but at night it is so easy to get a great photo!

 

 

There are pictures of us travelling home the next day.....but frankly we were a little worse for wear after our long tip and a late night.  I think we were both going on 3 hours of sleep, and I just don't think I want those pictures out in the world! 

 

Hope anyone who is reading this enjoys the trip recaps, there are more to come!