Life Through My Eyes

Today was a day at sea as we were sailing towards Messina, which would be our port of call tomorrow. This morning a group of us...Platinum Latitudes Rewards Members, which we just became with the start of this leg of the cruise, were to meet and receive an hour long "Behind the Scenes" tour of the ship. We were given a tour of the ship which included places like the crews area, crews mess area, crews bar and rec room, ships laundry area, part of the meal prep and cooking area for particular on board restaurants along with where they clean the dishes, 24 room service meal prep and cooking area, what they call the I-95 corridor where all luggage is brought on board and taken off the ship along with where all food and other items are brought on board the ship and the a tour of the bridge as seen from the bridge viewing area.
After the tour we relaxed and read books and I squeezed a nap in there at some point in time.
That evening Veronica and I got dressed up and had our photos professionally taken in the atrium area. The photo department does this on several nights during the cruise so we decided to try it out. We have never got our photos professionally done. We were under no obligation to buy anything nor was there any charge to have the photos taken. They have different locations set up for the photo shoots with different backgrounds. We chose 2 different backgrounds and we had approximately 4 different poses shot at each background. When it was all said and done, we ended up buying 5 8" x 10" photos and because we are now Platinum Latitudes Members, we get 25% of the cost of the photos and they had a special going on that for every photo purchased you got a free 5" x 7" duplicate of the same photo for free. So the total cost for everything was $73.00 and now Veronica and I have some real nice photos of us together.
After getting the photos taken, Veronica and I had reservation at Cagneys. We enjoyed our first meal there that we really wanted to go back again. For some reason the waitstaff at Cagneys decided that we were going to be celebrating our Anniversary again. So we got sung to and had another cake delivered to our table.
After dinner we went and saw another show at the Stardust Theater before returning to our cabin for the evening.

Today Veronica and I spent an enjoyable day exploring Dubrovnik with our newly made friends Laura and Ray from Colorado. We first met Laura and Ray in the boat that we were all on during our excursion to Murano and Burano.
Veronica and I did go off on our own for just a brief period of time...long enough to go up to the top of the wall that surrounds the Old Town. The wall runs approximately 1.24 miles around the Old Town.
Below are some photos that were taken both from atop the wall that surrounds Old Town and from within the Old Town itself:

Laura and Veronica buying a souvenir Good Luck Dubrovnik Heart

Various views from atop the Old Town walls

This persons dwelling is right at the top of the wall

Below is a better view of what might be Cafe Buza

Down below is a cafe built into the rocky cliff. I was going to find a well known cafe in the area called Cafe Buza but ran out of time. Not sure if this is it but it could have been. From what I have read, there are 2 Cafe Buzas, Cafe Buza 1 and Cafe Buza 2. Unless you really know where they are, you can only find them by looking for a hole in the wall. Here is a web site with directions to get to Buza

OK...so you are wondering how much everything was. Well first off the Croatian currency is the Kuna. On the date of this writing, 11/2/13, the going rate for 1 Kuna is 0.1901 according to Bank of America. So by using that rate....the pizza was approximately 11.78USD and each Coca Cola was approximately 3.80 or approximately 15.20USD. This is before what appears to be their tax. Total for a pizza lunch and 4 cokes before tx is $26.98USD...Now total for a pizza lunch, 4 coca colas with with wife and friends in Dubrovnik, Croatia while on a cruise....PRICELESS!!!