Seth Goldstein | Philadelphia Web Designer and Social Media Marketer

The Ship

Carnival Magic is a Dream-class cruise ship, and is one of the latest of the Carnival Cruise Lines ships to enter the fleet. Her sister ship, the Carnival Dream entered service on September 21, 2009, and a second sister Carnival Breeze will enter service in June 2012. She is the Carnival flagship.

The Magic is an amazing ship. Fourteen decks full of fun and things to do. At more than 3 football fields long it’s HUGE.

Unlike the other cruise I went on, the Magic never had a lack of things to do. Yes, it still had the typical cheesy cruise ship entertainment, but there was also lots of really good music, comedians and performances of all kinds. We were never stuck watching or participating in just one activity. There were at least 6 different things going on at the same time.

The Ports of Call/Destinations

Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona the day before the cruise. Our goal was to see the city. Because of this we couldn’t rest and recover from the flight. It turned out to be a really long day.

Barcelona is a really busy and beautiful city. There are tons of scooters buzzing all about.

We started our journey on the Turistic Bus. We got off near the Palau de la Musica Catalana and walked around for a bit before our tour. When we took our tour, I managed to fall asleep during the introductory video, I hadn’t slept much on the flight over. The music hall was beautiful and has amazing acoustics. No pictures were allowed but I managed to quickly snap one on our way out.

After we left the hall, we had a bite to eat (some yummy tapas) and headed back on to the tourist bus. We took the bus to the main tourist area called La Rambla. There we explored for a bit before heading up to Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batllo.

What a strange building. It’s beautiful in a Dr. Seuss kind of way. Gaudi had to have been partaking in some kind of fun drugs when he came up with his designs. Imagine Salvador Dali but for architecture. No straight lines!

After that we hopped back on the tourist bus for a loop around the city. When that was over we went to a small tapas restaurant near our hotel, Maitea Taberna.

The next day we got up and hopped back on the tourist bus and headed for theSangrada

Familia, the basilica designed by Gaudi. It is still under construction. The Sangrada Famila is probably the coolest thing I saw the whole trip. It looks like a mix between Dr. Seuss and Star Wars.

After the Sangrada Familia we took the tourist bus to the Parc Guell this is a public park that is all Gaudi. It’s up a steep hill, but it’s worth the walk.

Note on the Touristic bus: The bus is quite popular. You will often have to wait for a few buses to get on. The team running the buses are very professional and run a tight ship. But be aware you’re dealing with the international public. Not everyone is polite and there will be pushing, butting in line and general rudeness. You’ve been warned.

After the park we went back to the hotel and caught a taxi to the cruise terminal.

Boarding the ship was really easy. We were now on our way.

The Ports

The tours that we took were amazing, but tiring. I’ve now learned how to sleep in a bus. All the lunches were excellent except for the Tuscany one where it was quite lame. They gave us some sliced meet a salad and some weak pasta. The tour itself made up for it though.

#1: Nice & Eze - This was a great tour. The total duration was about four hours in length and took us from the Monaco harbor along the Upper Cornice to the small medieval town of Eze(pronouced Ez). It’s a walled city looking out over the Mediterranean. Most of the town is made up of two hotels that use the various houses as hotel rooms. No cars are allowed inside so the people living and working there use carts both motorized and manual to get supplies in.

After Eze, we took the bus to the town of Nice (pronouced Niece). What an amazing marvel of the French Riviera. The town is one of the biggest towns in France and the old section of the town has a outdoor market full of food and goods to buy. Mere and I bought some fresh Brie and Goat cheese and a baguette for lunch and sat by the beach snacking away. As is typical for many European beaches females often go topless. Also the beaches along the French Riviera, for the most part are made of pebbles instead of sand. After relaxing and eating our delicious lunch we headed back to Monaco and the boat. When we arrived back at the port, Mere and I spent the rest of the day exploring Monaco.

#2: Tuscany – Also a fantastic tour, this was the first of our many 5am wake-ups. We arrived in Livorno and boarded our bus for our adventure into the rolling hills of Tuscany. Our first stop was at the medieval town of San Gimignano. Walled for protection, the small town gave off the feeling of a time capsule. The streets were made of cobblestones and were jammed with tourists. On either side old doorways lead into private residences and shops are equally impressive. San Gimigano is a classic example of a medieval town and was really neat to see. Spreading out from all sides outside the walls was the magnificent countryside of Tuscany.

After San Gimigano, we piled back on the bus for the ride to Volterra. Another medieval town, Volterra was much more cloudy. According to our guide, it’s always cloudy there. After walking around and looking at the shops we took the bus back to the ship.

#3: Roma - In Rome Mere and I decided to forgo the guided excursion and venture out on our own. I had been to Rome while studying abroad in Italy so I remembered how to get around. We took the regional rail from the port city of Civitavecchia to Rome’s Termini train station. Once we left the station we immediately headed for the Colosseum.Walking in Rome was a bit tricky for Mere. A month or so before she sprained her ankle. Although all healed, her ankle was still weak. Being an old city, Rome’s streets were mostly made of cobblestones that were at least 400+ years old. So Mere spent most of the time looking at the ground trying not to hurt herself instead of looking around. But she made the best of it.

Leaving Termini we walked down Via Cavour. Memories came flooding back to me from my last adventure in this magical city. This time was just as special because I got to share it with the love of my life. On the way to the Colosseum, we stopped at a pizza place that I had remembered was good. Sadly, it wasn’t as good as I remembered.

Upon arriving at the Colosseum, we went right in. Thankfully we had bought our tickets online before leaving the US and didn’t have to wait in the gigantic line to buy tickets. As to be expected the Colosseum was incredible.

After we explored as much as we could, we walked down to the Victor Emmanuel monument. It’s an impressive sight. We took some pictures of the monument and consulted our map to figure to confirm where the Pantheon was located.

Once we arrived at the Pantheon we got pizza at a place on a side street and a glass of white wine. It was much better than the slice we had before. After lunch we explored the Pantheon and then got Gelato at a place I remember going to when I was there in college.

Next up was the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. I had seen the Trevi fountain before, but to be honest it’s always a sight to be seen. I managed to chuck a 2 euro coin into the fountain and we made a wish. After a little while, we headed toward the Spanish Steps. Upon arriving at the steps, Mere announced that she was thankful we didn’t have to go up them. We took a picture then looked at the map to see how to get back to the train station. Shocked we realized we indeed needed to go up those steps. Slowly we ascended. At the top we were both tired, Mere’s ankle was really hurting. Now off to the train station.

After getting a bit lost, we finally made it back to Termini. We attempted to find our train’s departure time. Each of the boards had something different. We asked a station worker, who thankfully spoke English. He informed us that our train was at the other side of the station. It turned out to be close to a quarter mile away. We missed the first train we wanted to catch but caught the next one. On the ride home we relaxed and that night we slept like babies.

#4: Napoli, Capri & Amafi Coast – The next morning Mere and I woke up in the port of Naples. On the horizon was the volcano Mt. Vesuvius. We met our tour guide on the dock and were lead to a hydrofoil for the 45 minute ride to the island of Capri. We had decided to forgo Naples because I had been there and wasn’t all that impressed.

The hydrofoil ride was extremely choppy. It had rained the night before and the water was really rough. Most of the group got a bit ill. As far as I know no one in our group threw up.

When we arrived, we were all happy to be on solid land. We took the funicular from the port up to the main town of Capri. There are two towns on the island: Capri and Anacapri. We didn’t get to see Anacapri but the town of Capri was amazing.

We took a tour with our guide, bought some souvenirs and got some really great pictures. We then, as a group had a great lunch in a restaurant that looked out over the sea to the mainland.

After lunch we explored a bit more then took the funicular back to the port and boarded another hydrofoil for the hour ride along the Amalfi Coast to the town of Amalfi. This time we all sat up top on the top deck outside. The sea had calmed considerably and it was a very beautiful day. When we arrived in Amalfi we disembarked and started to explore. It was a nice town, but nothing like it’s neighboring city Positano. There were lots of tourist shops and lots of tourists.

After we spent about 45 minutes there we boarded a bus for the ride back to the boat. We took the Amalfi coast road back and it was certainly exciting. At one point the road got so narrow that the opposing traffic could barely make it past our bus. Our tour guide, a middle-aged Neapolitan, got out and ran down the road to try and direct traffic. She had quite a bit of chutzpah!

Once we survived the Amalfi Coast we took the highway back to the boat. We slept well that night, too.

#5: Sicily, Taormina and Mt. Etna – The next day we found ourselves in the city of Messina on the island of Sicily (insert Godfather Quotes Here). We met up with our tour guide and headed to Taormina, an ancient town (aren’t they all) with a Roman amphitheater. It was a nice town, we got our requisite Gelato (we had been having it in every city in Italy) and tried some pistachios and marzipan (both of which are a specialty in the region).

After a few hours we left Taormina and headed toward Mt. Etna. Mt. Etna is an active volcano and erupted a few years ago. Before we got to the top we stopped at a great Italian restaurant and had some amazing pasta. When we finally reached the top of the mountain it was as if we were on the moon. Volcanic rock was everywhere. Hills and craters covered in loose volcanic gravel were being climbed by everyone. I managed to take a few rocks back home as mementos.

We spent about 45 minutes on the volcano before we had to leave for the long bus ride back to the ship. If we had more time we would have taken the chair lift to the apex of the volcano. Next time.

#6: Day At Sea… Seth get’s sunburn: So finally we reached a day of relaxation. Yes you’re reading this correctly. One day at sea the rest was constant touring. Being that Mere and I didn’t have any tours or trains to make we woke up late (9 am was late considering how early we had been getting up) and laid in the sun, read and enjoyed the ship. At one point I must have fallen asleep out on one of the decks, because I got sunburn on one side of my body. Leave it to me. Now before you start screaming at me, I put tons of sun tan lotion on myself. The problem is that I’m a fur ball and apparently the sun tan lotion got more absorbed into my fur than on my skin. Oops. It wasn’t that bad, but I was definitely redder on one side.

At night the ship had it’s formal night. Mere and I got dressed up and before going to dinner had our portrait taken. We were careful to make sure my sunburned side wasn’t showing.

After dinner we went to a show and went to bed.

#7 Palma de Mallorca, Spain: The next day, Mere and I decided to forego an excursion and venture out on our own at our pace. We left the ship later than we had in other ports and caught a taxi to the main part of town. We saw the royal palace. Then we went into the Palma cathedral. Although the cathedral was in the Gothic style, there were definitely some Gaudi influences. After leaving the cathedral we proceeded to wander around town. We stopped at a restaurant called Cappuccino for some lunch and headed back to the ship.

#8 Marseille, France: Neither Mere nor I were really in the mood to do much here. We left the boat at about 10 am and returned around 2:30 pm. Compared to the other cities we had been to, Marseille wasn’t anything special. It was dingy and dirty. The one redeeming quality was the cathedral at the top of the hill. We took the Little Train to the top of the hill to see the Notre-Dame de la Garde cathedral. Inside it was quite impressive. When we got back to the boat we packed our bags and got ready for the next day. Our flight back to reality.

#9 Barcelona, Spain: We arrived in port around 5 am and disembarked at about 6:30 am. We took one of the cruise sanctioned shuttles to the airport. When it was our turn to check our bags we were grilled by an attendant about our bags. After that we made our way to the gate.

Here’s a hint to all those who are flying internationally from Barcelona: If you have time before your flight, don’t go through customs. There are so many shops past security but before customs. Once you pass through customs you can’t go back. There is not much near the international gates. This makes sense because all of Europe, from Barcelona, is domestic. Just a helpful hint.

So once we got through customs we found a spot to sit. The terminal was quite hot. It was all glass and it was a sunny warm day. The plane managed to be delayed almost an hour-and-a-half as well. And before any of us could board the plane attendants had to ask us if our luggage had been out of control since entering the airport. Talk about thorough.

The Plane Ride

Let’s just say LONG! 8 hours there and close to 9 hours back. The USAirways plane to Barcelona was an older model with really tiny seats that were so uncomfortable. Neither me nor Mere slept much. On the way home we had a newer version of the same plane but we left in the morning so we didn’t sleep but the seats were much better.

Overall Impressions

The trip was fantastic. In all I managed to take close to 2,400 photos, many of them of the tiny European streets that all look the same. I can’t even begin to think how much that would have cost in the days of film.

Would we take a Mediterranean cruise again? Probably not. It’s not that it was bad, it was just a whole lot to do in a short amount of time. The ship was fantastic. The ports were excellent (except for Marseille). But it really felt like a Readers Digest or Cliffs Notes version of a European vacation. We both feel that next time we venture to Europe we’ll pick one place and do day trips to the surrounding areas. But that won’t be for a very long time.

Have you taken an European cruise? What did you think? Where did you go? Would you do it again? Share your thoughts in the comments.

So as many of you know my Grandma (Sylvia Goldstein) died this morning at 7:20 am. I found out around 10 am as I was finishing my morning walk.

Grandma was 95 years old. She had recently fallen into the grips of Alzheimers and for over a year she had her good days, her bad days and her horrible days.

My grandma was a very independent, strong and loving woman. She was without a doubt one of the most important women in my life. Since I was little, we always and a very strong bond. She knew how to relate to me. She would come visit from the Bronx to my then house in Yardley (Pennsylvania) and we would play and talk and have a wonderful time together.

As I got older my relationship with my grandma grew. I would visit her at her place in Fort Lee (New Jersey), she had since moved there from the Bronx, as much as I could. When I was dating someone it was very important to me that they met her and when I finally met my wife, Meredith, my grandma quickly met her (and approved, I might add).

We Were Prepared

Grandma’s death was not sudden, we knew it was coming. She had been gradually getting worse. Last Thursday night she slipped into a coma and we all thought it was the end. She was in a nursing home in North Jersey and for a number of reasons I couldn’t make it up. Grandma held on for some reason. Sunday morning my father called me so that I could tell her goodbye. When I did, according to my aunt, Grandma, upon hearing my voice raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. It was as if she knew it was me.

Grieving and coping

To be honest, everyone deals with the death of someone dear to them differently. With sadness comes the need to cope and how you cope is different for everyone. In the Jewish faith, we sit shiva. Shiva is a time, around 7 days, where the mourning family spends time together and remembers the person who died. It’s a coping mechanism and it works.

My family, though doesn’t really sit shiva, it’s a personal choice. After burying our loved one we get together and have lunch and spend time together, but after the evening draws to a close, everyone goes their separate ways. In a way it is a shiva, in miniature form.

Everyone copes differently

With her death, I felt like I needed to do something to deal with the pain of losing such an important person in my life. And though we’re having the funeral in two days, I’ve started to sit my own version of shiva. Being a creative person and having done a Website for my Uncle Lee when he past on, I decided to make one for her. (Click to view)

I’ve also be sharing my feelings publicly with my friends in the social web, Twitter and Facebook and blogging mostly. Many people have asked me why I’m being so public with my grief. All I can say is that I’ve made a conscious choice to share my life with people through social media and by sharing my grief with others, I’m coping and also relating to others who might be going through the same thing I am. The out-pouring of support has be amazing.

All in all, these are my ways of sharing with the world how much I loved her (always will) and how much she meant to me. It relates what I do on a daily basis, Web design, social media and journalism, and helps me deal with the loss.

How do you cope with losing someone special? Do you do anything unique? Post your thoughts below in the comments.