After finishing exams and saying goodbye to our visitors (and some other notable events including falling into the River Isis during rowing practice, having tea time with Jola at News Cafe, and attending a Garden Party in the Linacre quad), we prepared for the Main Event: the arrival of the Sisti's! Mom and Dad Sisti came to visit us in Oxford for a day and then took us on a European Cruise. It was the trip of a lifetime! We spent a few days in Venice and then hopped on the ship to Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kusadasi, Turkey; Corfu, Greece; and Santorini, Greece. We made so many memories on this trip that it would be impossible to detail all the stories and laughter, but here are some of the highlights, and the pictures...
Venice!
Basically, we toured around the city (after comically missing 3 different buses) and ate our weight in gelato. My favorite memories of Venice include Will dropping his (45th scoop of) gelato off his cone and my mom, worried that he would be upset (and likely feeling the affects of four glasses of Italian wine), picking the scoop up off the dirty Venetian streets and telling him 'Don't be sad! You can just eat the top.' Problem. Solver. Equally comical memory was watching my dad use unknowingly inappropriate hand gestures to question the Italian-only-speaking pastry-shop-worker about what type of filling was in the croissant he spotted. When I saw the look of utter confusion/disbelief on her face, I thought for sure the Sisti's were going to be politely escorted out of the shop. For the rest of the trip, I did all the dessert ordering for my dad. Ah, memories.
Croatia!
We walked all around this beautiful old town, and, of course, ate some gelato along the way. 
After a fantastic pizza lunch (very Croatian, I know), we stopped at this cliff-side restaurant where we enjoyed some wine and the unbelievable views.
Turkey!
We took a really cool tour of Ephesus, an ancient Greek city with tons of Roman ruins. We saw the Library of Celsus (the second largest library in the world), some enormous theaters (like the Colosseum in Rome), and the remains of the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the World). Oh yeah, and I rode a camel.
The next stop was Santorini, Greece. After climbing 600 feet through donkey poop (as tons of people ride donkeys up the hill instead of burning off the calories they gained from the hourly feedings on the cruise ship), we finally arrived at the city on top of the mountain. We spent the day walking around this beautiful city (and trying to rid ourselves of the poop stank).
Thought I was joking about the donkeys? oh no.
Here are 2 of about 200.
The next stop was Corfu, Greece! We took a bus tour of this beautiful island and its Achilleion Palace. Each time the bus turned a corner, we ran into another unreal view of water crashing onto the cliffs, crystal clear blue water, and sandy beaches. When people imagine paradise, it looks like Corfu.
In addition to seeing all these amazing cities, we spent time on the cruise ship laying in the sun, playing TONS of Spades, ordering 5 entrees and 6 desserts EACH for dinners (and then ordering MORE food via late-night room service), attempting to run off all those calories on the gym treadmill, playing three-card poker and roulette in the casino, watching a 70 year-old man in a fluorescent orange speedo do a pole-dance on the pool deck to win a keychain, and generally just laughing, laughing, laughing with each other. We made memories to last a lifetime, and are already looking forward to the next Sisti-Snyder adventure together.
Those poor donkeys ... I seriously feel you should devote an entire post to their plight so that perhaps they can see an improvement in working conditions.
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