Egypt so far...

Egypt has been an overwhelming country and I've only been here for 2 days. Since i'm positive i won't remember everything i want to at the end i'm writing about it now (the air conditioning isn't 1/2 bad either).

Day 1:
Bridget and I woke up at our normal 8:00 for port days and got breakfast with Taryn and watched us pull into Alexandria. My first question was which way is land because the port made a semi circle and it all looked equally industrial. After breakfast we went back to the room and got ready. I had a S@S trip yesterday called the Best of Alexandria so I went down to meet the buses and they informed us that everyone needs their passports and sent all 3 buses of students up to the 7th deck faculty lounge to get them (aka made us wait in line for 45 minutes because they didn't figure it out the night before). Once I had my passport sat on the bus for another 30 minutes while everyone else got theirs and then finally (an hour and 15 minutes late) we left. That was my first encounter with Arab time.

We went to the catacombs first. They were discovered by accident when a donkey was pulling a loaded wagon and fell down the hill into what is believed to be either a chapel or a place where people were killed. (Kind of opposites eh?) The catacombs had a long twirling stair case with 58 stairs and they reminded me of the Cupola at St. Peter's Basilica but in the opposite direction. In the center of the staircase is a large opening that looks like a well and it is where they lowered the mummies and sarcophagus's down to the tombs via rope. At the very bottom of the stairs there was a room with 3 big tables. The guide scared us at first by telling us that that was where they mummified the bodies but then she said that was false and it is actually where the families of the dead would have meals together to remember the person. After the dining room we went to seen the actual tombs. It was originally built for a governor of Egypt and his wife and son. It was interesting because Egypt has been ruled by many different people in the past such as the Greeks and Romans so all of the art in the tombs had 2 versions of everything, the ancient egyptian version and the greek/roman version. For example, outside of the governor's tomb there was the egyptian goddess of protection (i think her name is Bes? maybe) and also Medusa who was the greek goddess of protection (yeah the lady with snakes for hair who would turn you to stone just for looking at her...). The tomb was originally private and only for that one family but eventually it turned to a public tomb and was used for up to 300 other mummies. we got to walk around the public tomb and it looked like safety deposit boxes in a bank only dustier and bigger. The tomb of the governor and his family was beautiful. There were carvings everywhere and everything had some kind of symbolic meaning (i just had no idea what it was). After seeing the tombs we went and looked at where the donkey fell down (I asked. It was alright and lived) and also saw some rando horses bones. Our guide Miranda didn't know why they were there but some historians think that the area was a chapel to the goddess Nemesis who was the goddess of sports and so horses would be buried there along with their owners. (polo players perhaps?)

The Catacombs are in the 5th district of Alexandria and that is the poor district so my first impression of the city was that it was crowded, dirty, poor, and 100% unsafe to walk around in. That isn't entirely true. There is a much nicer area (which we went to later) and overall Alexandria is really dusty and crowded but it isn't all dirty (well... as dirty as the 5th district) and its not AS unsafe as the 5th district either.

After the catacombs we went to the National History Museum (Which is in the District of the Waterfall aka the rich area). The building started as a private home and then was the US consulate before being donated to Egypt for the creation of the national history museum. We started by going to the basement to see a tomb and a mummy. It wasn't as creepy as I imagined. It just looked like a long, dirty ball of rags with really big feet. After that we looked around at a bunch of statues and jewelry and pottery and pretty much anything and everything that they could cram into the rooms. The last exhibit we looked at was pretty cool. Alexandria is sinking (due to coastal erosion which i can tell you all about thanks to my fabulous oceanography professor) and some tombs that were originally on land are now under water. The last exhibit was all about the underwater excavating that has been going on. My other favorite part of the museum was learning about Hepsetshut (that is definitely not spelled right but i'm doing it phonetically because i didn't write it down). She was a queen of egypt but in all of her statues she is portrayed as a man except for her smile and make up. I'm not sure why she's my favorite. I was tuning out the guide by the time we got to her statues but apparently she was a pretty good queen.

After the museum we stopped by some pretty mosques and went to lunch at a greek restaurant (??). The food was DELICIOUS! I finally got some hummus and a bunch of other stuff that i had no idea what it was. I know one thing was some kind of rice rolled in grape leaves and there was some kind of really salty cheese in a fried ball and then something that had to to with spinach but it was really good. For the main course they gave us a choice between veal and sea bass so i asked if there was a vegetarian option and they gave me some buttered noodles with mushrooms in it (yay!) and then i have no idea what dessert was but it was ridiculously delicious and i think mine was gone in about 2 seconds flat.

After lunch we went to the library at alexandria (they call it the Bibliotecque at Alexandrina and i have no idea why). It was HUGE! 3 buildings, 9 floors, 3 museums under the buildings, a rare books section, whole separate libraries for both children and young people, and more stuff that i can't even remember right now. It can hold 2,000 people reading at the same time and up to 1 million books. After a short intro the guide showed us how to navigate the libraries website. It was really funny because at one point she wanted to show us how to find english documents and she showed us a page with 7 tabs at the top. She said, "You click the 5th button on the top" and clicked the 3rd one from the left. After a second i realized its because she speaks/reads arabic so she starts from the right when she reads! After that we had some free time so me and my friend Melanie went to check out the rare books section. We asked the librarian if it was ok to come in and she said yes but don't touch anything so i walked around with my hands in my pockets. The books were really cool. They all looked really old and had titles in english, arabic, and french. I saw everything from dictionaries of tropical diseases to law encyclopedias to guides to American military weapons. I think they might have all been original copies of the books. After looking through there for a while me and Melanie went on facebook (yay!!!!) and then it was time to go. Thats when the trouble started.

The prime minister was giving a speech/press conference/seminar at the library that day and we weren't allowed to take the stairs up 1 floor to the exit. Instead we had to wait for the elevator which wasn't that bad except that everyone else had to wait too on the lower floors and our floor so they were all full. I somehow got separated from the group and it took me 10 minutes to catch an elevator. Since i left 5 minutes to get back to the bus (where all of my stuff was since you can't take bags inside the library) I was only 5 minutes late. After weaving through the crowd and going to my group's meeting place I was only 7 minutes late but my delightful S@S sponsored tour guide had left without me. Thats right, a female tourist who doesn't speak arabic was left alone in Alexandria by Semester at Sea with no money, no phone, no green sheet, no passport, no ID card. All i had was my camera and a used ticket to get into the library. I looked around for the bus for a while but I didn't want to stray too far and miss anyone who might come back for me. I saw some S@Sers after a while and I asked them if they had seen my group or the buses and they said they had left a long time ago but they were going to the bus station and i had no money and couldn't join them. Then i saw another S@S and asked him the same thing and his exact response was, "you're only like an hour walk from the ship." yeah right!! an hour walk in a country that doesn't exactly see women the way that America does with no passport or money??? HELL NO!

So i went back and asked all the guards i could find if they had seen my group and the only one who spoke english didn't understand or hadn't seen them (i couldn't tell) so i decided to look for any other S@S bus and demand that they let me on. After walking about a block i found one and I asked if they had seen bus 1 and the driver looked a little confused and that is when my bus driver came hurrying up carrying the bus 1 sign that the tour guide had and going "bus 1? bus 1?" Needless to say by then i was crying and was a mix of really happy to see him and really pissed to see him. It was 5-10 minute walk to the bus. They had obviously driven for a while before they realized that they left without me. When i got on the bus the tour guide and the S@S trip supervisor were trying to be all nice and all "Oh Emily there you are! are you alright?" and I can say that i was polite but i can't say that i was very nice.

After that we stopped by the Egyptian president's summer home which is about the size of 30 of my summer home (especially since it consists of 2 palaces) and then we headed back to the ship. I stopped at the tourist stands and got an Egyptian shirt so that i have something i can actually wear in Egypt and morocco and i got a Kartoosh (again phonetic... don't judge) which is a necklace with my name written on it in Egyptian hieroglyphs. And then i had dinner and bummed around the ship.

Whew! just one day took longer than i thought it would so i'm going to go eat dinner and do today later.

ps. i have a sweet bruise from bungee jumping that finally started showing today. it only took 5 days for it to appear. goodness!

Bulgaria

Oh Bulgaria… what an interesting stop.

Day 0:
It only took us a couple hours to get from Istanbul to Varna (just up the Straits of Bosphorus and into the Black sea). So we were anchored in our tender spot by noon the day before we were allowed to get off the ship. Evil S@S… plain evil.

Day 1:
We slept in a bit on day 1. The night before they passed out all the passports because you had to have it with you at all times (which they changed ½ way through the port though because the port authorities kept telling people they didn’t need it to get back in). So the morning was fairly relaxed. We were tendering though so we had to wait for the first 2 S@S trips to leave before we could get our tender tickets and get off the ship. The ship was docked right next to a big park with a beach, an aquarium, a zoo, a dolphinarium (which is my new favorite word!!), and a kiddy park. Me, Bridget, Taryn, and Georgina went to find the dolphinarium and ended up walking for about and hour and 15 minutes. Oh yeah and we met up with Justine, Jordin, Ashley, and Alyssa.

So once we had been walking for a really long time and had no idea where we were we decided to ask for directions. So we stopped a man riding a bike in a speedo (thank god that trend never caught hold in America) and he pointed to where we were on the map, which was WAY farther than we wanted to go, so we back tracked and found the dolphinarium. When we got there the show had already started (at noon) and the next one wasn’t until 1530 so we found a nice Bulgarian guy who spoke English and asked where there was an ATM. He told us that there was a petrol station down the street with an ATM and a mall right by there with one as well. We walked down the road for about 15 minutes until we found it and we all got money and then went over to the mall for lunch. I got tortellini and it was delicious! After that we went back to the gas station and got some ice cream for dessert and then cabbed it back to the dolphinarium.

Ok so on S@S before each port we get a green sheet with important phone numbers and the times for the S@S trips and we also get a blue culture card that has some important phrases in the language of the country, common culture things like if tipping and if you should haggle or not, and the top 5 things to see in the port city. The dolphinarium was on the culture card as the #3 must see thing in varna and it was horrible. It was super cheesy and like a worse put on version of the dolphin show at the aquarium in Chicago with dirtier facilities. But we had fun anyway.

After the dolphin show we walked around the park some more and took pictures of things. It was interesting to see a country so defined by war. There were all sorts of tanks and helicopters etc left over from the war used to decorate the park. They even had those little kid things that have springs on the bottom and normally have a horse or something on top and the kid sits on it and rocks back and forth but instead of a horse they had a panda bear, Thomas the tank engine, and a tank.
After exploring the park we walked with Meli (another S@Ser) over to her hotel for a quick bathroom break and walked into town to explore. After that the ship was done tendering so we went back to eat dinner.

S@S has been a little upset because of  bunch of other S@Sers learned how to sneak on alcohol and they decided to crack down. So at preport they announced that they would be making the punishment for bringing alcohol onto the ship more severe and they made the checks more thorough. As a result I got felt up trying to get back on the ship. They went through my entire purse including my wallet and spilled all my lev coins into the bottom of my purse and then after I swiped on the lady who usually checks my purse went all Turkish baths on me to make sure I hadn’t hidden alcohol in my dress.

After dinner we took naps and went out.

Day 2:
I started my day at a nice late 11:00 and headed out to Karin Dom, a rehabilitation center for disabled children. Taryn was on the trip too. We started off by the man who started the center coming out and giving a speech and then the children sang a couple songs for us. It was really cute. One of the older children sang a song for us as well. Then we had to wait for the musicians to show up so some S@Sers sang some songs for the children (You Are My Sunshine, The Eensy Weensy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle). Finally the musicians arrived and played a couple little flute things and some bag pipes and we did traditional Bulgarian dancing and finally got to play with the kids. I got some pizza and pop and chatted with a guy with twin 3 yr old daughters who had a mental disability. Him and his Bulgarian wife had been taking their kids to Karin Dom since they were a year old. After I was done with my pizza I took the trash for the group and then went to the playground to play.

I met this little girl at the playground (I have no idea what her name is. Every time I asked her she talked so quiet that I couldn’t hear her). We ended up going down the slide together a couple times (I counted to 3 every time before I went and before she went) and then she showed me the stickers she picked out and then she went down the bigger slide. I didn’t want to crawl through all the tubes to go there so I waited at the side. When she saw me there she sat and waited. I didn’t know what she wanted and then I realized that she wanted me to count to 3. After a while she ran away and I watched one of the twins try to figure out the videographer’s camera. It was adorable! Especially when the videographer turned the screen around so she could see herself. After a while she lost interest and started looking for these little red beetle things that scared the living daylights out of me. I saw a bunch so I pointed them out and she started walking around looking for more. I followed her and after about a minute she decided that she was going to sit on my lap. Her mom told me that she knew the alphabet song so I sang it and she grabbed my hand and tapped it in time to the music. So cute!! After we sang a couple other songs together (she tried to do the hand motions to the eensy weensy spider… it was funny) it was time for the kids to go so I walked Gabi back and they both looked shocked that she had sat still for so long.

After that it was time for a tour. They showed us the business rooms and the therapy rooms for speech therapy, Montessori therapy (that made me laugh!), physical therapy, music therapy, etc. It was really cool to see things like an alphabet poster and a colors poster in Bulgarian, especially since I spend so much time at Jumpstart putting up posters and have seen my share of English ones.

After that we boarded the buses again and headed back to the ship. I had dinner on the ship, took a nap (yay!), and then went out.

Day 3:
We slept in again and then had lunch and headed out to find the bungee jumping bridge. Taryn had heard that it was a short walk so we headed out in the right direction. After about 20 minutes we were pretty sure we were lost so we asked some truckers via charades where the bungee place was and as soon and we pretended to jump off the bridge they all went “Bungee! Bungee!” and pointed up the bridge. So we walked for another 15 minutes or so and finally found the place. There were 11 people in front of us when we got in line and so we had to wait for about an hour before we could go. Taryn went first and yelled “F***” the entire time. She was the most excited about it because she loves heights. Bridget went next and didn’t even scream. I was getting bundled up in my harness when she went and I didn’t even notice she was gone until I looked down and she was dangling from the cord.

One lesson I learned on the ship before we headed out to bungee jump is that it is a bad idea to do extreme sports on S@S because there are a lot of nervous nelly’s on S@S and they will tell you stats you don’t want to hear such as bungee jumping is the leading cause of detached eyeballs and 1 in every 6 people who bungee jump die. After I was strapped into my harness the dreadlock guy sent me to talk to the guy who would attach me to the actual bungee cord and I decided to ask him if it was actually that scary. His response was, “Oh the first time is not that bad. The second time is worse because you know what is coming.” As you can guess that wasn’t exactly comforting.

The place we were jumping from didn’t have a platform or anything so we had to climb up on the rail to jump and that was the part I was most scared of. I was sure that I was going to fall over backward before I actually wanted to jump. The guy gave me a 5 minute bungee lesson so I’d know what I was doing. I climbed up on the rail and the guy said “ok you can go now” and I turned around and yelled “What?!?” and then I realized that it was time to jump and freaked out slightly. I decided to jump right away before I lost my nerve.

The jump was AWESOME!!!! I felt like I was going to hit the water and seriously thought I was going to die and then the rope pulled me back up and I bounced around for a while. The first thing I had to do was figure out which way was up so I started by looking at my up and everyone elses down (the water) and then figured out where the bridge was. Then I had to figure out what side of the bridge I was on so I looked for the heads hanging over the side and found them. Then I had to grab the rope that the non-dreadlock guy sent down to me and that took a little while. Then I hooked it to me and they pulled me up and I was done! Whew!

Georgina went next and she was really nervous! She literally turned about 4 shades lighter than normal. It took her a little while to work up the nerves to stand up and actually go. She started saying “I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” And we thought that she was going to get down from the railing. But she jumped! And I could see her swearing to herself the entire time : )

After that we caught a cab back to the ship, ate dinner, took a nap, and went out.

Day 4:
I woke up pretty early on the last day to go on an orphanage visit. There were a lot of people signed up for it so they split us up into 3 buses. One for the baby’s orphanage, one for children ages 3-8, and one for disabled children. I picked the baby one (birth to age 3). The bus ride was pretty short and when we got there our tour guide translated for the lady who runs the place and she told us a little about how it got started and what happens with the kids when they get older. After she talked for about a half hour we all washed our hands and split into disabled, baby babies, and older babies (aka 2 and 3 yr olds). I picked the older babies and we went out to the playground.

I had so much fun playing with the kids! As soon as I got out there a little boy came up and said hi so I put down my purse on the side of the sidewalk and gave the little boy a high five. While I was doing that another little boy, Georgi, came up and took my purse. I had to chase the little guy to get it back and once I tickled him enough that he let go he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the S@Ser handing out wafer cookies and got one. He at it in like 2 seconds and dragged me over to a S@Ser handing out pretzels and grabbed 2. He kept going between the 2 until both his hands were full and then he tried to feed me a cookie. I said no and once he was done eating we played for a long time. He was really funny and when he saw another S@Ser using a wheat looking thing to tickle another kids foot he took off his shoe and handed me a wheat thingy and then stole my shoe and tickled my foot. Such a cute kid : ) If it didn’t take a couple years I probably would have adopted him.

After that I went back and ate lunch at the ship and then headed out to town in search of postcards and stamps. This was the first port that hasn’t had a touristy shop with everything from jewelry to postcards to shirts available. It took me an hour of walking to hunt down a place that had postcards. It probably wouldn’t have taken that long if I spoke Bulgarian but the word “postcard” is really hard to mime (I tried… there is a reason I’m not an actress). Once I found the actual post cards it was easy to ask someone where stamps were because I could point to the post cards with the little square in the corner where the stamp goes. I spent the last of my lev on the way back to the ship and wrote my postcards when I got back and then (shocker) I took a nap and ate dinner and then watched Law and Order: SVU with my friends which was funny because we fit 5 of us in mine and Bridget’s room.

We get to Egypt tomorrow and i'm really excited for it!! Yay africa : )
Day 1- S@S trip, The Best of Alexandria (gotta love a city named after Alexander the great : )
Day 2- Cairo day trip
Day 3- Pyramids with Camel and Jeep Safari
Day 4- TBD
Day 5- TBD but probably stay in Alexandria and shop

Alrighty… I’m going to go listen to the deans try to scare us during the preport. Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer and is getting super tan and enjoying America for me : )

Just for fun...

Hey there!

Since i'm too lazy to write my blog for Bulgaria and my mother is impatient (BAHAHA! love you mom) i figured i'd give her something to keep her entertained while she waits to hear about Bulgaria...

Semester at Sea Lingo:

S@S-hole- any student on S@S, also commonly referred to as a S@Ser... it is generally a good idea to refrain from using this term in the presence of life long learners

life long learner- retired or generally older people who enjoy learning so they join the voyage and sit in on the classes, they do everything the same as us except get college credit

pub night- nights they serve alcohol on 7th deck

port night- the night before we get into port when everyone is a lazy bum and pretends like they have no homework, similar to a weekend

ship day- days when we have class and are on the ship

dean's memo- a daily publication put out by the deans that lists all important information such as the movies playing on the tv, requests from the crew (stop wiping make up on the towels, doors aren't to be propped open, etc), any special events going on the union, and many more

bridge report- a report letting us know where we are in the world by latitude and longitude, includes the nautical miles since the last port/to the next port/to the nearest land

"Good morning voyagers..."- likely the start of an impression of our assistant dean, Dia Draper, possibly Dia herself, usually very funny

preport- the meeting the night before we get to a port where they try to scare us into good behavior

diplomatic briefing- when important people from whichever country come onto the ship to tell us about the current situation and any other important information we need to know, i generally sleep through these

LLC- Living Learning Coordinator, pretty much an RA/camp counselor

work study- the students that work on the ship in addition to going to class

RA- the work study position that does basically nothing

cabin- your room

port- left

starboard- right

movie theater status- (this one only applies to my group of friends) pulling down the shade and turning off the lights and turning your cabin into a movie theater to watch any of the seriously lacking movies they show on loop on the TV

Tymitz square- the meeting place of the ship, also where the purser's desk and program desk are, if a student's name is called over the loud speaker to meet here with a man named sean you know that they are in trouble and that is when the rumors start to fly

Rumor Ranger- part of the deans memo that debunks rumors (some are true, most aren't, i have a feeling that most people just get bored and send in random rumors that they make up)

shipwide email- an email to the entire ship, a while ago a couple people sent an email to the entire ship and started a 2 port long thread of ridiculous sarcasm, very entertaining

dock time- an on-ship time out... they get mean and take away your ID card and passport

snack time- 2200 when the kitchen staff puts out the left over desserts and sandwiches from the staff meetings of the day

the grill- the 7th deck food place right by the pool, much better food than the dining rooms

the union- the place where you go to get sea sick, also unfortunately the place where global studies is held

disembark- to get off the ship, remind me to tell you a funny story about dia and disembarking when i get home... its not quite suitable to be posted on the internet

embarkation- leaving a port... for the first couple weeks i was convinced it was called take off

nap time- self explanitory, daily occurence, sometimes multiple times a day!!

Dean Mike- dean of students, has cute kids

Dean Michael- academic dean, funny funny man

Casey- the guy who saves all our computers when we screw them up (he went to DePaul!)

interport student- students from whichever country who join us on the ship from the port before their country until their country, usually hard to find

Ambassador's ball- the dance that is happening on the way back to Norfolk, kind of like a cheaper version of prom

Yeah that's all for now... i'm off to take a nap!

more Turkey!

Day 3:
We started the day at 9:00 with a delicious complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast is the one meal that the ship doesn’t do very well so it was nice to have different fruit for once. Remzie’s 16 yr old niece, Merve joined us on the second day since she is learning English. She was such a sweetheart. She wants to be a cardiac surgeon and likes to sing. After breakfast we went horseback riding at some place that is owned by a lady from Colorado and her Turkish husband.

Since they didn’t have 14 horses we split into 2 groups. I went with the first group. The ride was really pretty! I thought it was going to take us by some fairy chimneys or caves but it didn’t. I kind of felt like I was in Minnesota. Then the next group went and we sat and drank apple tea (a Turkish specialty… they call it tourist tea though because its not the tea they drink all the time) and sat around a table and got annoyed by the flies. While we waited Merve taught us some Turkish and at one point we asked her how to count to 5 and she thought we were asking her how to say Turkey in Turkish so for a while we thought that 1, 2, 3 was Tur ki ye (its actually beer, ick, ung, dir, besh… that’s phonetic don’t trust the spelling). There was a gypsy kitty who came and sat on my lap for a while and then we went in search of some puppies the guy told us about. When the other group came back we still hadn’t found them so as we were paying for our horse rides Merve talked to someone there and they found them and so we got to peek at them before we left. After that we went to lunch and got some gyros. I sat with Amanda, Merve, and Tyler. The food was really good. I had a huge plate of seasoned chicken, lettuce and tomato, and rice. I was so hungry that I forgot to put mine on the bread.

After lunch we went to the underground village (ok… actually I can’t remember and we might have gone to the jewelry shop after lunch and then gone to the underground village but I can’t go back and look at my pictures because my stupid computer deleted most of them). It was so similar to Tanzania and how the Chagga dug the underground tunnels for protection from the Massai except that the Turkish people literally had a whole village down there. Only 10% had been excavated and it was 8 floors down and really wide and long. Being claustrophobic I wasn’t a big fan of the tiny tunnels you had to walk through to get from one room to another but I sucked it up. There was everything down there; bedrooms for the families, a kitchen that everyone shared, a winery, a chapel, a morgue (ew). Everything! After the underground village we got back on the bus and went to a jewelry place to see how they make jewelry. They showed us how they polish the stones and taught us that turquoise is actually Turkish quartz and then showed us the shop. I bought an evil eye necklace because almost every country we’ve been to had evil eyes (they’re good luck) all over. We ran into the S@S Cappadocia trip while we were at the jewelry shop and I talked to Ryder for a little bit. It was funny because he tried to explain the Turkish flag to me and ended up saying something like “It a moon and its special because its little and there is a star.” That kid says the funniest things!

After the jewelry shop (possibly underground village) we headed back to the hotel and had some down time before dinner so I got a head start on my postcards. (To those of you who have been getting them I’m sorry about the short messages/ugly pictures. I feel really awkward writing actual notes on postcards because anyone and everyone can read them and I’m obviously not the most talented artist…) and then we headed out to this place a couple towns over where for 90 lira we could have dinner, all you could eat appetizers (popcorn and fruit), all you could drink (pop, wine, beer, and water), and a show. The first dancers were whirling dervishes aka guys in long white skirts with funny hats on their heads spinning in circles. It was very entertaining! Next came some Turkish folk dancers who did a mock wedding thing (they were better dancers than actors…) and last came a belly dancer. It was really funny because she went around the room and grabbed guys from the audience and the first person she grabbed was tyler! He did pretty good. There was also some rando british guy who was wasted and wearing a fanny pack and a really big, tall guy with a pot belly whose shirt she rolled up. The british guy was my favorite. Dinner was ok but I wasn’t a fan of the meat or one of the appetizers but the rest of it was good. After dinner we all got up and danced with the folk dancer guys who had changed into regular clothes.

Day 4:
We got up a little later on this day (9:30) and got breakfast. After that we headed to a place whose name I can’t remember and we went for a hike. Remzie tried to scare us by telling us there were 550 steps but that was a total lie. The walk was BEAUTIFUL! It looked a lot like the Marangu falls in Tanzania. There were bunch of giant rocks that had slid a bit and made mini tunnels that we had to crawl through and there was a really pretty river that I stood in for a little bit. We found a donkey and went to visit it but we weren’t sure if it was nice or if it would bite us so we left it alone. After the hike we went to lunch at a place along the river (it was crawling with gypsy kitties). They had a choice of 4 dishes one of which was a whole fish (ew) and both the people next to me (Amanda and Angie) got that one. It sucked. Especially since they each named their fish and the dead fishes’ eyeballs were looking at me. I got chicken.

After lunch we went to a rug workshop place where they weave rugs and make thread from silk worms. They showed us how they weave the rugs and I got to try it. I was so much slower than the lady and it took her a couple months to a couple years to finish a rug depending on its size. Imagine if I tried to make a rug. Maybe I’d finished by the time I’m 30 but its not likely. After they showed us how they weave they took us in the back and showed us how they make the thread from silk worms. It was really cool and they let us hold the silkworm cocoons as they were going through the unwinding thing. It felt like the dead worms were actually moving (gross)! After that they took us to the show room and showed us the different patterns of rugs and told us where they were from. Merve and Remzie both pointed out the rugs from where they were from and we drank some delicious apple tea (tourist tea). After that it was time to head to the air port. We dropped off Remzie at his house and we gave him a Semester at Sea shirt that Aubrey had brought with and said goodbye and then Husseyin (that’s the actual spelling… I had it wrong in the other post. Oops!) drove us to the airport and Merve came with to say goodbye and gave us another Turkish lesson along the way. She taught me the most random things like how to say “I see the sunflower.” And “You smell like cheese.” And then taught me the basic stuff like the colors and numbers. It was really sad saying goodbye to her but I’ll probably try to find her on facebook so I’ll talk to her again. The flight home was delayed for a little while and I was too hungry to be patient. When we finally got back to Istanbul ½ the group left really fast so the rest of us waited for people who had to use the bathroom and while we were waiting some people talked to the cab to negotiate the price and the cab driver almost ran over Angie’s foot! So she went to the bathroom to clean herself up and (against her will) rode in another cab back to the ship with us.

Day 5:
Since I had only gone to the Bazaar on my other day in Istanbul I wanted to fit in as much as possible. I got breakfast in the street which was only 1 lira for a big bagel thing (it was delicious). Me, Bridget, and Georgina started by going to the bazaar so that Georgi could get a tea set (I got some apple tea because that stuff is just plain addicting) and then we went to the Turkish bath. The Turkish bath is a public bath where you can pay to have someone wash you. Yes that means naked. I don’t like being naked in public. So we changed into our swim suits and wrapped ourselves in our thin towel thingys and went into a really hot room (sauna style). It was about the size of the atrium in the stu cen and there was a big, circular, heated stone in the center. They told us to lay down on the stone and relax until it was our turn and I started sweating within 3 minutes. Me and Georgina went first and I tried to keep my bathing suit top on but the first thing the lady said was “off off off” and my first words were “F my life.” She started by dumping cold water on me, which took me by surprise, and I jumped and accidentally hit the lady (oops!). I giggled the entire time and Bridget and the lady washing me laughed at me the entire time. It was kind of cool though because they had a big bag that they soaked in soap and then dipped in water and when they opened it up it filled with air and when they squeeze the air out it made tons of bubbles. After they scrubbed us they sent me and Georgina to another room and they came and washed our hair. My lady was super cute and knew that I had curly hair and braided it for me and then walked me over and told me to get in a giant heated pool. I only lasted about 5 minutes in the pool before my claustrophobia got the best of me and then me and Georgi went and relaxed on the stone until Bridget was done. On the bright side there were water fountains all around the room with cold water so I could cool off a little bit. The whole thing was a cool experience and if you go to Turkey I’d recommend doing it but I think that was my one time at a Turkish bath.

After the bath we went to walk to a shopping center and on the way we passed the Blue Mosque so I left them and went to go check it out. When I got in the courtyard I met a couple from Virginia and they said that it was closed to tourists because it was prayer time so I walked over and looked at the Hagia Sophia (I didn’t go in because it cost money and I have a bad habit of ending up with only having like 3 lira/kuna/lev/euro with me). I took some pictures of it and got another bagel thing (only .75 lira) for lunch. I went back to the Blue Mosque and sat around in the courtyard with the rest of the tourists. At one point I went to look in the window so I could see the praying and I was standing right behind the women’s section. It took me a little while standing there but I finally realized that I was standing right behind a woman who was about the same age and me and it was strange because I was standing there all American in my jeans and a tee shirt and she was standing there all Turkish with her long skirt, head scarf, and no shoes but we probably weren’t that different. After a while prayer time was over and I couldn’t find the visitor’s entrance so a woman in a burka with her little kids showed me where to go and I went in and it was BEAUTIFUL! And then I had to find my way back to the ship. I had 3 hours so I wasn’t worried but I had to go through the bazaar to get there and that is a little bit of a nightmare when you look like a tourist, you are a woman, and you’re alone. I made it through the bazaar to the gypsy’s bazaar with limit comments (“Marry me baby” “oh look its Miley Cyrus” “Looking is free”) and then I got to the gypsy’s bazaar and asked which way to the ship and they guy told me how to get there via bus so I asked him where to go walking and he looked at me like I was crazy so I went back through the bazaar to the busy street and got a cab (I had my debit card with me so I put up with the fees and got money out). When I got back to the ship I got dinner and turned in my post cards and took a nap.

I would definitely go back to Turkey in an instant! I’m going to go eat dinner but I’ll try to finish Bulgaria tonight or at the latest tomorrow.

Turkey!!

Ok here is the beginning of my blog... I did a LOT in Turkey so i'm not done yet but i want to go to sleep.
Let me start off by saying that I had no expectations for Turkey. I knew nothing about the country and never expected to visit. I didn’t know any of the major cities or landmarks but I LOVED it! Hands down favorite country.

Day 1:
We were all pretty tired on the first day because we only had one day between Greece and Turkey. Me and Bridget slept in (missed breakfast) and then had to wait around all morning until the landing cards were ready to pass out. In Turkey if you don’t have a visa they can take away your passport so in Istanbul if you are a tourist you have to carry a landing card that says that you are allowed to be there without having to buy a visa. If you traveled outside of Istanbul (which I did) you had to have a visa (which I had : ).  We ate lunch on the ship and then headed out to go to the bazaar. The boat was in a really convenient location so we didn’t have to walk for 30 minutes to get to the actual town for once!!

Once we crossed the Bosphorus river from the asian side to the European side we were instantly in the gypsy’s bazaar. It was ridiculously overwhelming. It was a less fancy version of the actual bazaar except outside and selling cheaper stuff (black market perfume, used xbox 360’s, etc) I could safely bet that a good ½ of everything sold there was stolen and the other ½ was food (spices, roll thingys, fruit). There were TONS of locals and tourists all mixed so there were a bunch of languages being spoken at the same time with the vendors yelling whatever they were selling from every stand. We were walking through there around 12:30 which is one of the busiest times of the day so we had to weave through people and there were people walking around trying to sell stuff and a man walking around in the traditional dress with a giant fancy cooler of something on his back and he was pouring glasses of some kind of drink for people.

We finally got to the spice bazaar and almost immediately tried some Turkish delights. These are little gummy cube things that come in different flavors and are DELICOUS! The nice vender guy let me try a couple different favors and then Bridget bought some and we split them. So then we had to go back through the gypsy’s bazaar to get to the actual grand bazaar and Bridget and Taryn took care of asking for directions (we had to ask about 8 different people before we actually found it). The bazaar was HUGE. If I bought 2 items at every stand I could probably decorate every dorm room in every dorm at depaul. We walked around a good sized chunk of it before actually buying anything. I got to haggle again (just like in Tanzania : ) so that was fun. I also got good at converting from Lira to dollars in my head (you have to multiply by 2 and then divide by 3).

We stopped for some food at the bazaar because we had been walking for a long time so I got chicken schnitzel and it was pretty much a giant chicken nugget on a piece of white bread with cold vegetables on the side. It made ship food look like a 5 star restaurant.

After our snack we went back to the ship and had nap time before dinner. After dinner we went out to a hookah bar. It was really cool because they had these strange shaped bean bag things around tables and giant hookahs all over. It was outside and they had really pretty lanterns that looked cool in the smoke. The best part of the place was the waffle stand. There were a bunch of people walking around selling fruit and drinks (tea, water, pop) and nuts and then there were some small stands for ice cream and other stuff and we went to the waffle stand where they make the waffle when you order so its still warm and they put in your choice of fruit (me and Justine shared one and had strawberries) and your choice of any other toppings (me and Justine had nutella, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate chocolate chips… it was the ultimate chocolate covered strawberries on a waffle). It was probably the most delicious dessert I’ve ever eaten. I fully intend to make them when I get back to America (hopefully before my wisdom teeth disappear… maybe as part of my last meal). So then after hookah I went to bed early.


Day 2:
On day 2 I got up at 6:15 (ugh) because I had to meet the group I was going to Cappadocia with at the gangway at 7 (ew). When I got there I found out that 2 girls had opted to go later to the airport so they could sleep in so only 12 of us were there and we fit perfectly into 3 taxis. On the way to the airport I had a nice overview of Istanbul and I tried asking the cab driver (I was sitting in the front seat) a little about what I should see while I was there but he didn’t really speak much English. He only knew enough to tell me that he grew up in Istanbul.

When we got to the airport we had breakfast. I attempted to order Turkish Toast and ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich and a brownie. It was really good though! While we were waiting for everyone to get there Paul went to take money out of an ATM and it ate his card. I felt really bad because I had just solved my money problems and his were just starting. So when the final 2 came our whole group was there (Stephanie, Aubrey, Angie, Caroline, Amanda, Sarah, Dan, Alex/Allix (I’m not sure about the spelling), Tyler, Melanie, Cara, Paul, Lindsay, and me). Dan gave us a little airplane lesson because he works at an airport back in america and we got on the plane. The ride was really short but they still gave us a full meal! (I sat next to a 3 ½ year old boy who kept rolling his eyes at me.)

When we got there our tour guide, Remzie, picked us up in our awesome white creeper van (yeah we roll in style) and our drivers name was Hussein (I sat up front with him and Melanie). We went right to a little area off the highway to look at the caves and fairy chimneys and Sarah ended up riding a camel for 5 lira. After a group picture with Remzie giving us really complicated things to say instead of cheese (the name of the place in Turkish… beyond my abilities after getting up at 6:15) we got back in the van and headed to another place that was similar (Remzie called it the grand canyon of Turkey). Next we went to a place that had churches and a nunnery carved into the rocks. There was also a kitchen and dining room for the priests. The churches were really cool because there were frescoes from either the 8th or 11th century (I can’t rememeber which…) all of the pictures were missing chunks and a lot of them were missing their eyeballs and Remzie explained that it was because people were superstitious and would come and scrape off parts of the paintings and mix the scrapings with water and drink it for good luck, to ward off evil, to cure a medical thing, or for fertility. The open air museum had a bunch of random foods growing there. They had apples, apricots, walnuts, poppy seeds, almonds, coffee, etc. Most of us tried some of the poppy seed and dan tried a walnut which was apparently a bad idea. Remzie knew a lot about the area and could answer any question we threw at him. He also started most of his sentences with “My dear friends…” which led to a lot of funny impressions of him.

Finally it was lunch time (2:00… keep in mind we had breakfast at 7:30) and we went to a restaurant and sat on the roof top terrace and I had vegetarian pizza and a pop. They gave us appetizers beforehand and it was bread, salsa, and random vegetables in some kind of dressing. It was a random mix. After lunch we went to another place to see the fairy chimneys and then went to a pottery place to see how they make pottery. After a demonstration they let us try. Amanda went first and then I went (I accidentally broke the clay ball in ½… oops!) and then Alex/Allix went. After that we saw how they decorate the pottery. Then they showed us the store area. The stuff was cool so I got 2 small bowls. Then it was time to go to the hotel. We were staying at Gamirasu Cave Hotel. It was in a really small town and where Hussein dropped us off was a little sketch so I was pretty skeptical but after short walk down the hill we saw the actual hotel and it was BEAUTIFUL! Saying we staying in caves doesn’t even begin to cover it. They were giant rooms and all of them were shaped different with different decorations and big bathrooms. I roomed with Stephanie and our room (#5) looked a little like a cottage but cave style. We had some free time before dinner so I pretty much sat around and did nothing. Though I find a friendly stray cat to pet. (there was a running joke that all the stray animals are gypsies so we referred to every cat we saw as gypsy kitty… and don’t worry mom. I washed my hands!). We had dinner at the hotel that night and it was the best meal I’ve had on S@S so far. We had vegetable soup, Turkish ravioli, salad, and then rice and chicken. I have no idea what the dessert was but it looked like dried grass sitting in a pile on a plate covered in honey. It was pretty good though! We listened to sarah’s Turkish music CD while we ate and since ½ the group had gone into the tiny town for dinner there were only 7 of us. It was nice to be able to hear what everyone was saying and all have a big conversation instead of splitting into little separate conversations. After dinner I took a shower and then we had a bathrobe party on the terrace (aka we drank wine, played backgammin, used the free wifi!, and sat around in our bathrobes).


I'll try to finish the rest tomorrow but since i have a paper due in 2 days it might not happen. Its also harder to do this blog because the hard drive on my computer is almost full and so i had trouble uploading pictures and most of my pictures from Cappadocia got deleted off my camera and didn't upload properly so I can't remember a lot of the names of places and the order we did stuff in.

On the bright side, in 2 days i'm going to be in Egypt!!!! Oh and another thing is that Natalia is the coolest person ever and found us the most amazing apartment for next year!! EEEEEK!!!!

alrighty goodnight

MOM! Stop being impatient!! : )

An update is coming either tomorrow or the next day about Turkey and Bulgaria so it will include Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Varna.

Teaser: I went bungee jumping today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY S. BROOKS!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR S. BROOOOOOOOOOOKS!!!!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

I hope your day is fabulous!! Enjoy Harry potter for me (i'm jealous.) and to everyone else- if you see sarah today give her a HUGE hug for me!!!!!

Greece!!!

I’ve decided that I love Greece and I’m coming back one day when my bank doesn’t suck and I’m not confined to 4 days!!

Day 1:
I started Greece off by getting breakfast with my friends and then going to the purser’s desk every 15 minutes because my debit card had arrived but they hadn’t given it to me yet and every time I went they said “Come back in a few minutes we haven’t gotten to it.” So to kill some time before lunch me, Taryn, and Bridget went to find where the ferries were so that they could check out the prices and I could see where I had to go on day 2. After finding it we went back and ate lunch on the ship. Then a bunch of my friends headed out to the S@S trip to Athens and me, Courtney, and Taryn went to find the Metro and go to Athens. It was a really long walk but we finally found it and got our tickets. When we got on the Metro I was being a stupid tourist and I saw a ΧΩ on one the signs and a Greek guy saw me and started laughing I asked him what was funny and he asked me if I knew what the sign said and I said no and he said that the sign said something like keep the windows closed because the train is air conditioned. We ended up talking to him for a while about what to visit in Athens and what was best to eat while we were there.

When we got off the train at the Thissio stop (Alex is that spelled right?) we walked up the hill to the Acropolis. Greece was completely different than Italy. In Italy if you wanted to see a historical site they charged you for EVERYTHING. For example you had to pay to get to Vesuvius, for a bus ride up the volcano, for a ticket to climb up to the top, for the bathroom, for water, everything. At the Acropolis a student ID got you a half price ticket (only 6 euros!) and the ticket worked at about 6 different historical sites. Not to mention that while we were walking I stopped at a random café to get a cup of water and when I asked how much it was they laughed and said no charge. (Yay Greece!!). I loved the Acropolis! Courtney is taking an architecture class so she played tour guide and told us fun facts like the Parthenon was built for the goddess Athena and there used to be a huge gold statue of her in it. Also, it was built with a slight curve so that to the eye it would look straight. Those smart Greeks.

So after the Acropolis, the theater of some Greek god that starts with a D (Dionysus? Or something like that) and a bunch of other sites we did some touristy shopping and heard from a shop owner that there were some more historical sites one metro stop away. Once we paid and got down to the metro we realized we didn’t know which direction so we asked some randos and they pointed us in the right direction. When we got off the place we were going (I don’t remember the name) was already closed so we walked around until we found a place to eat. I had some kind of Kebap (haha! Aka a kabob) that was really good. After walking around a little bit and shopping a little more we headed back to the ship where I went to sleep right after getting my debit card that had FINALLY been processed.

Day 2:
I got up at 5:15 to catch a ferry to Mykonos with Georgina, Jill, and Courtney. We got to the ferry about 20 minutes early so I tried to take money out of an ATM and had an unpleasant surprise when my pin number didn’t work. Since I didn’t have a calling card and my friends offered to lend me money I didn’t worry about it right away.

After a 4 hour ferry ride (which was fun because there were a lot of S@S-ers to keep me entertained even though I forgot my iPod), we got to Mykonos and waited a long time for the bus for Villa Vissilias (the place where some friends of ours were staying and added us onto their reservation). The Villa was beautiful! It was all white and it had 3 bedrooms with 3 or 4 beds each (which was good because there were 9 of us) since we were all hungry we walked down the street and found a cute little bakery. They didn’t speak English there so we just pointed at stuff in the windows to pick what we wanted to eat. Since pretty much no stores on Mykonos took credit card (which I would have loved if I had money) Courtney paid for me. There was a fruit stand/store next door and when I went over to buy a banana the lady behind the desk gave me a mini greek lesson (Yasoo is to say hello to one person, yasass is for a bunch of people, and to say thank you you say efharisto… pardon the phonetic spelling).

 After lunch we headed back to the villa to get ready for the beach. We asked the lady who runs the villas, Maria, and her dad how to get there and they described a 20 minute walk down the road. It ended up being a 45 minute walk with lots of hills and crazy drivers but we finally got there. The beach was beautiful! The water was pretty nice but 2 girls I know had gotten there early and gotten stung by jellyfish so I was a little paranoid and made my friends swim in front of me and would swim really fast until I got to the deep water (apparently in the deep water they are farther down and can’t sting you).

We headed back after a while and I opted to walk with Courtney and Mehmet to save money. I forgot that since we had walked mostly downhill on the way to the beach it would be mostly uphill on the way back… So we finally got there and showered before heading out to get dinner. Since the bakery was closed we walked around until we found a grocery store and we all bought pizza, sandwich stuff, or pasta and I got cereal and chips as well for the next day (they took visa!!!!). When we got back our villa and the 2 other groups of S@S-ers who were staying at the same place cooked dinner in our villa because we were the only ones with a stove and oven. It was a lot of fun! Our villa was full of people cooking, playing cards, singing and dancing to an iPod, watching the sunset, sitting and relaxing, etc. it was my favorite park of Mykonos. After dinner we all hung out at the villa with the other S@S-ers and some Australians that were staying in the other villa and then went out.

Day 3:
We all got up at 10ish and had Alexa (one of my friends who is a fabulous cook) make us breakfast. Jill and Courtney left shortly after to catch a ferry back because they wanted to see more of Athens. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to go to the Olympic stadium but I shortly realized that since they left I only had 2.73€ left and I didn’t know the rest of the people in the villa well enough to borrow money (Georgina had ended up staying the night with one of her other friends).

I had some of my cereal for breakfast and then walked to the downtown with some of the other S@S-ers. They wanted to go shopping so I told them I was going to find a pay phone and I’d meet up with them later. It took me forever to figure out the pay phone. The first one I went to you had to buy a special card for and so I went to an exchange place to ask how to use it and they said to buy a phone card but the mini-mart they sent me to didn’t take visa but luckily I ran into one of my friends, Justine, and she lent me 5 euros to get a phone card. When I tried the phone again it didn’t work so I asked a random person who walked by and luckily spoke English and greek why and they said there was a phone error. I walked around until I found another phone and this one had instructions on how to place a collect call on it and I called the number Chase bank had given me when I called to tell them my itinerary. I asked the lady if my card had been activated and if the pin number was still correct and she informed me that yes it was activated but my pin number had been changed by Chase even though it isn’t supposed to be when you get a new card and that they couldn’t tell me my own pin number to protect my account and the only way I could get money was to take my passport and card to a bank to get money except that this would cost a 10% commission cost. So after some not nice language I hung up on the lady and attempted to call my house only to realize that you can’t leave a message on a collect call. So I tried Natalia’s phone but I think her number got changed when she got an iPhone because it didn’t work. Since I couldn’t remember the number for my families summer cabin and I don’t have my aunt’s number memorized and I had left my passport on the ship thinking it would be smart for it not to get stolen and my friends had all either not gone to town, were back at the ship, or were shopping I ended up completely alone with no money and unable to call anyone in a country where I can’t speak the language. I ended up walking around Mykonos crying and ended up getting lost. I saw a shop that had a visa sign and I went in to see if they sold any snacks because all I’d eaten was some cereal but they didn’t so I bought some stamps and the nice lady tried to get me to smile (I ended up buying a ring as well because she was really nice and I wanted to give her some business).

I finally found some people I knew but they kept stopping to shop and I wanted to get back to the villa and get my stuff so I could change my ferry to that day so they pointed me in the right direction and I walked the 5 km back to the villa where it was locked. So I found maria’s dad and he opened for me and as I was opening the door some of my friends came back from where ever they had been and Georgina was with them so we both grabbed our stuff and Maria’s dad nicely drove us to the new port to catch a ferry. We ran into 2 S@S-ers there one of which had a ticket for the 5:00 ferry and one of which was trying to change his as well. When we tried to get on the ferry the lady said we had to talk to this other guy. Luckily the S@S-er who was trying to change his ticket speaks greek so he did the talking. The man told us we had to go to the downtown area to change our tickets at the office or to get money out of an ATM (there wasn’t an office or ATM at the new port) but since the 5:00 ferry was the only one to Pireaus on that day and we only had a ½ hour until it left we decided to walk back to the ferry. This time I did the talking and found someone who spoke English and explained that we didn’t have any cash and our tickets were for tomorrow and asked if they knew of any other way to get back to Pireaus on that day and the guy agreed that we could ride back on the ferry and he would go with us to an ATM when we got off. Luckily about ½ way through the ride Nick found his emergency money so we could pay the guy on the ferry and I now owe Nick money too. We got back at about 9:00 and went right back to the ship since we were both starving (I’d only eaten the cereal earlier in the day) so I got back and had the single best burger I have ever eaten in my life and then called mom and aunt and we figure out what to do about money. And then I went to bed early because I was tired.

Day 4:
As horrible as day 3 was is how perfect day 4 was. I got up in time for breakfast and then got my computer and found the free wifi spot I had been hearing about for days. After spending some time on facebook and checking my regular email I went to a bank to try the visa pin number my mom had given me and IT WORKED!!!! I was so relieved that I could finally get money and pay back Courtney, Mehmet, Justine, Georgina, Nick, and Justin. I went to the grocery store after to get some junk food (S@S has the whole healthy food thing covered) and then I went back to the ship in time for lunch. After lunch me and Jill went to Athens because she never had a chance to do her tourist shopping. It was fun walking through the stores and making fun of some of the ridiculous clothes we saw and I ended up buying a pair of sandals because they were handmade by the guy who was selling them to me. We got back to the ship before the line to get our bags checked and swipe in got long and I had just enough time to write my postcards and send them before it was dinner time.

Life lessons learned in Greece:
-       Greek food= YUM!!!
-       Find a bank that takes just as good care of their customers and they take of their customer’s money (I’m looking for one… any suggestions?)
-       ALWAYS put sunscreen on your feet.

The next stop is Turkey and my plans are…

Day 1: Go to the giant market thing and maybe some palaces.
Day 2: Capadoccia
Day 3: Capadoccia
Day 4: Capadoccia
Day 5: TBD maybe visit the aquaduct or the Turkish baths… not real sure yet. Mehmet speaks Turkish and is from Cyprus so maybe I’ll ask him

Dubrovnik!!!

I LOVE CROATIA!!! I’d move there but then I would miss Chicago…

Before I get into what I did in Croatia I wanted to write down some things that I want to remember. I’ve noticed that hamburger, bus, no, and Disney are the same in every language! And according to Bridget so is magenta but I haven’t said that word in any of the countries yet. I’m keeping my eyes out for more so I’ll keep you updated. Also, I’ve noticed that the further we get into the voyage the more delightfully ridiculous the S@Sers are getting. For example, there are now running jokes about Dia (the assistant dean of students) and Roman (the captain… who by the way doesn’t even pilot the ship. It pretty much runs on auto pilot) having a love affair and people using their pillows as shields and running down the hallway and crashing into people. I love it! Its like summer camp but better. Yay S@S!

And onto croatia!
Day 1:
This day was Bridget’s (my roommate) 21st birthday!! So the first thing we did in the morning was get off the ship and get a beer. My first impression of Croatia, besides the clear water and beautiful mountains, was that a lot of people speak English. Their national language is Croatian but all the waiters/waitresses spoke English and explained Kuna to me. The Croatian currency is Kuna and the exchange rate is 5 kuna to a dollar aka. I’m a kunanaire! After sitting at the café (which was in the port… we didn’t get real far) for a while we went for a little walk toward the old town. Cadiz spoiled us and we assumed that most of the ports would be near the old historical parts of each port city but that is dead wrong. It was a 30-40 minute walk to get to the old town (ew). Since only me and Georgina had S@S trips and Bridget, Taryn, and Justine didn’t, me and Georgina went back to the ship a lot earlier than them. My trip was packed! We had about 5 buses of 40 students. We drove up the mountains to this one point where there were pretty views of Dubrovnik. The tour guide was adorable and said, “We start with nice drive up to mountains so you can have Kodak moment.” On the way up she told us random information about Dubrovnik. For example, its patron saint is Saint Blaise, the patron saint of throat diseases. On February 3rd (St. Blaise’s holiday) everyone, including exiled outlaws, go to the cities center to get their throats blessed by a priest. I thought that was hilarious so I bought a St. Blaise statue. If you ever have throat issues come visit me! When we got to the picture spot me and Georgina ended up standing on the guard rail thingy so that we could get better pictures. Then we drove to the actual old town and went on a tour of the city walls. The town is really old and so the walls were built to protect it from invaders. A lot of them were damaged in the early 90’s when the Yugoslav army attacked Dubrovnik. They had a really sad map that showed everywhere a bomb/missile (I don’t know the difference… are those the same thing?) landed and all the buildings that had burnt down. Our tour guide said that the whole town is still really sensitive about it. The walls were awesome! They have beautiful views of the city with the ocean in the background and at one point you can go really high into this old fortress and go into this little room that I call the Batcave (too much time with Zane I think…). The tour was fun but the tour guide was slow so me, Georgina, and Lexi decided to walk ahead. When we got to the ocean side of the walls we saw some people jumping off the cliffs into the Adriatic sea. We wanted to join in but I was a party pooper and forgot my swim suit. So we went and got gelato instead. After that we had to meet our tour guide for the bus ride back. When we got back we got dinner and got ready and went out for Bridget’s birthday.

Day 2:
We all decided to sleep in a bit on this day and when we woke up the ship was already tendering. Because Dubrovnik is such a popular port there were a lot of ships that needed to dock so the M/V Explorer went and anchored a little off port and we took little boats called tenders back to port. Me, Courtney, and Jill took one together right after lunch and then Taryn and Georgina met us on the dock. Since Jill, Courtney, and Georgina had an FDP, me and Taryn had to figure out what we wanted to do for the day. We decided to check out this tourist store where you could rent kayaks, buy ferry tickets, rent jet skis, etc. We decided on a ferry to an island and we asked when they were leaving and they said now (1:30) or 4:30 so we ran to catch the ferry before it left. They had just untied when we got there so we asked if we could get on and they said sure and pretty much pulled us up and then they asked what island we were going to and we said any island. We bought tickets and sat down and figured we’d just get off at any island when our friend Will who we had hung out with the day before came up and said him and his friends were sitting 2 rows behind us so we went and sat by them and asked them what island was best and they said the second island called Lopud. We got off and walked to the new beach which was GORGEOUS!! We had to walk over a big hill to get there and were gross and sweaty by the time we got there but it was worth it. The waves were huge so after we found a place to leave our stuff we went in and body surfed for a while. Then the guys (Aaron, Will, Casey, PJ, and Will) decided that they were going to launch each other into the waves. It was really funny because they flew so high! I only went twice since I was wear a bikini and they aren’t exactly made for falling into waves. After that we went to the restaurant and got burgers and I got a milkshake (yay!) we sat around for a while and just enjoyed the beach and then we walked back so that we could see the ferry when it came again. We were a little early so we went swimming on the beach on the other side of the island. It was strange because the water was really calm on that side so we just floated around for a while and skipped rocks. When there ferry came we got on and since it was the last one of the day it was packed and we ended up sitting on the front where there weren’t any seats. It was a beautiful ride back and when we got back to the dock the ship wasn’t tendering any more so we didn’t have to wait for another boat. So then we all showered and ate dinner and then some people went out but I was really tired so I went to bed early.

Day 3:
I had an S@S trip to Montenegro this day so I got up early and sat on a bus for 3 hours for the drive to Montenegro. Thank goodness I have the best little sister in the world and she gave me a bunch of CD’s for big sis reveal or I’d have been bored out of my mind! I got in trouble for taking a picture at the border too… oops. We stopped at this little medieval town called Kotor fist. We went to the old fortress and got a tour and then had a whole 15 minutes of free time! (that was sarcastic…). I ended up sitting at a café with 2 of my friends (both named sarah) and talking to the tour guide about the differences between Montenegro and America for one of my classes. Then we got back on the bus and drove up the mountain for about 3 hours (ew) it was beautiful but they only let us out twice, once to take pictures and once to sit in this cute little village and have a snack of ham and cheese on bread. That is pretty popular snack in Europe and that would be fine but the ham isn’t that great (its like mildy cooked bacon and its really hard to chew). So then after too little time in the cute little village we got back on the buses for another hour and a half to go to the main tourist town for lunch. I can’t remember the name of the town because I didn’t like it. The waiter at the restaurant ignored my table pretty much the whole time and when we finally got the lunch paid for by S@S it was mashed potatoes out of a box, soggy peas, soggy carrots, and chicken that was so hard I couldn’t cut it. I was a little crabby about this and then I remembered that Montenegro is a pretty poor country with 30% unemployment and that was probably a really good meal for their country and then I felt bad and ate the food. After dinner we had 45 minutes to walk around but the area we were in was overrun by tourist shops and so it wasn’t very interesting. So then we got back 1 ½ hours late so I got ready really fast and went out with my friends.

Day 4:
I got up super early for some reason on this day and went to the market to get groceries (aka pop). I liked grocery shopping in a foreign country because it was cool to see signs and foods similar to the US but in a different language with slightly different food. So then I got back to the ship and Bridget was awake so me, her, and Taryn went to get lunch. We went to this little sandwich shop and ordered kabobs and strangely they handed us huge sandwiches with gyros meat on it. They were delicious though! They let us pick the toppings so I got lettuce, tomatoes, corn, mayo, and some random other sauce that tasted kind of garlicy. So then we walked over to the old town and I finally got to jump off a cliff!! We had to walk through these curvy and confusing streets to find this bar that was on the outside of the city walls and so we went down and I went first from the higher cliff (40ish feet). I was pretty scared but I didn’t want to wait long to go because then I’d chicken out so I jumped and it was SO MUCH FUN! So then Taryn went off the shorter one (25ish/30ish feet) and then a guy was in line before Bridget. He was really nervous and stood there for a long time so Bridget went and talked to him and said she’d go really fast and show him where to stand and stuff and then we all cheered for him and did a count down for him to go. So then he finally went but when he got in the water he started splashing a lot and after being a lifeguard for 3 years I knew he needed help so I went and got him and dragged him over to Bridget and the two of us same him over to the rocks while Taryn climbed out so that she could help pull him up. On the way there Bridget asked if he could swim and he said, “Not really.”… Ok. Seriously? What kind of dummy jumps off a cliff into the Adriatic sea if they can’t swim?!? So after that we stood around for a while to dry off in the sun and watched other people jump. We ended up meeting some dancers on the Holland America cruise line. They were really funny because they were all scared so I told them it was like a grand jete with water at the end and they for some reason thought that was hilarious and all jumped off… so then we did some touristy shopping and got some more gelato (yum!) and went to take the bus back to the ship. The bus SUCKED. It was packed with people and it smelled horrible and it was so hot but there was no air conditioning. We ended up getting off a couple stops early and walking. The bus was so hot that the air outside actually felt cool! When we got back we got our computers and attempted to get some internet but it didn’t go well because everyone was doing the same thing. So I gave up and went to send out my postcards before on ship time.

Now we have 2 ship days, one of class and one for the Sea Olympics, before Greece. I had a test today in my second class and I’m normally fast when I take tests so I got out after 20 minutes and now I’m really bored. I already took a nap, watched a movie, and did laundry and now I’m pretty much done with my blog and I still have 2 hours until I got watch Ryder…

My only S@S trip for Greece (a service trip to a children’s village) got canceled because of some complication with the people at the village. I’m pretty bummed about that one because I was really excited about it but its fine because now I’ll just spend another day in Mykonos.

My plans are…
Day 1: Athens
Day 2: Mykonos
Day 3: Mykonos
Day 4: either Mykonos or back to the ship… I haven’t decided yet
Day 5: I can’t remember if we have 4 or 5 days in port so I’m not even sure if there is a day 5.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Have an awesome birthday and get ready to celebrate again when i get home!

So much going on!!

Ok first and foremost... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA SCHUBERT!!!! (sorry i'm a terd and didn't put that earlier)

Second... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE W. and HAPPY early BIRTHDAY LAURA OLIN AND LAUREN COLLINS!!! (just because i'll be in croatia and most likely forget the day of). I hope all of your days are fabulous and you eat lots of sugar!

third... Ryder's family had a thank you party on their deck (yeah. they have a deck. jealous!) for all of us who help out with the toddlers and Ryder was ADORABLE as usual. He handed out all the cake and surprisingly made it to the end before stuffing his face.

finally... S@S is probably the best place i could have ever gotten pick pocketed. So far almost everyone i've talked to (including a life long learner and the dean of students) has offered to lend me money until i get it figured out. yay!!

alright its my roomie's b-day tomorrow so i have to go distract her so people can decorate!!!

Italia

So this was an interesting country...

Day 1: Roma!!!
On the first day I slept in until 8:00 and then me and my friends (and every other S@Ser) grabbed our passports from the faculty lounge and headed to the train station. The platform (Binari in Italian) was PACKED because of all of us but we (me, Bridget, Courtney, Lexi, Jill, Tiffany, Georgina, and Taryn) got seats on the train. When we finally got to Rome we walked to our hotel, a Best Western. It took FOREVER! We had to keep asking people where it was and no one spoke more than 2 or 3 words in English and its really hard to give directions in foreign languages so our typical conversation went like this…
Us- (shrugging) Best Western Globus (show then piece of paper with name and address)
Them- (look confused and then figure it out) *random Italian rambling* (points in general direction)
Us- Due minuto? (make fingers look like they’re walking)
Them- *more Italian rambling with lots of fierce pointing*
And then we would finally just walk in the direction they were telling us.

So when we finally got to our hotel it wasn’t time to check in yet so we left our bags in their storage and went to find some food. We went across the street to a gelato/panini place and we all ordered our food by pointing at random sandwiches. I got one with turkey and cheese on really good bread! The people who worked there were adorable and were really excited because they knew a couple English words (aka… they could tell us the prices in English). Then we went to find a place with vegetarian food for Tiffany and Jill and we found a place that had pizza and the Italian equivalent of grilled cheese. They do their pizza really cool. Its really thin (and fairly greasy) but they fold it in half and put it in the panini press so its like a pizza sandwich.

After that we went and checked into the hotel and got a metro map. We then bought our metro cards (I felt like I was back in Chicago!!) and we decided to go to the Colosseum first. We got off the metro and walked out and it was RIGHT across the street, which was crazy! So we walked for a little while before a guy recruited us to go on his tour of the Colusseum and the Roman Forum for only 5 euros over admission price because we were such a big group. While we were waiting for the tour to start some guy selling necklaces walked up and put one on Bridget’s neck and was trying to make a sale when the police came and chased him  away because he wasn’t supposed to be selling stuff there. But he didn’t get the necklace back before he ran away and we couldn’t find him later when we got out of the Colosseum so Bridget got a free necklace. I didn’t really listen to the tour guide much but I did hear some cool stuff about where the kept the lions and why the fighter-guys were called gladiators.

I LOVED the Colusseum though! It was really cool and I remembered seeing pictures of it in history classes but I never thought that I’d ever see the actual thing! So then we walked around the upper levels by ourselves for about an hour until it was time for the Roman forums tour. Then Jill, Courtney, and Tiffany left to go find a place to stay since we couldn’t fit more than 5 people in our hotel room and the rest of us (me, bridget, lexi, taryn, and georgina) went on the next tour.

At the beginning of it was getting really hot out so we all found a fountain and were refilling our water and were all slightly crabby from being so hot but by the time we had walked to the big area where they had sporting events the sky had turned black over the Colosseum and we could see the lightning coming (I got some really cool pictures). We got a little farther into the tour before it started downpouring. None of us had an umbrella or anything so we stood under a tree for a while and then Taryn said that she wanted to see the circus where they used to have chariot races so we walked around in the pouring rain for a little while and never found it. When we were completely soaked we decided it might be a good idea to head back to the hotel so we walked back in the rain to the metro. When we got out at our stop (Policlinico) it was barely drizzling any more…

So we all took showers and got ready and headed out to a Canada day bar crawl at the Spanish steps. I had a good time and it was crazy because there were about 250 people there and the vast majority of us were S@S.

Day 2:
We (me, bridget, georgina, taryn, and lexi) started the day by waking up early for the free breakfast at the hotel and then heading out for the Vatican. We waited in line outside for a while. The big square/circle area out front was really cool. I was talking to someone when we got back to the ship and they said that it was supposed to resemble a keyhole for some reason. So we finally got inside and went to the basement to see the graves of the dead popes. It was pretty interesting but a little creepy at the same time because there were a bunch of statues of dead people all over…

So then we went to St. Peter’s Basilica and looked around for a while. It was HUGE and beautiful. It was really cool too because the way the windows were put in made it so that there were beams of light like spotlights. We took a bunch of pictures and then Lexi wanted to go to the gift shop so we went there. Unfortunately the credit card machine there was broken so the nun’s running the counter had to call the credit card companies to charge people and they kept dialing the wrong numbers and typing in the wrong things… So the rest of us had to wait while they tried to figure out Lexi’s card and they ended up accidentally charging her 136 euros instead of 30.60 euros. So once she got that all sorted out we decided to climb up to the Cupola. The first stairs lead up to the circular area in the ceiling of St. Peter’s and we were so high up that all the people looked really tiny. Then as we were heading out we saw a sign that said Cupola and had an arrow pointing to more stairs so we climbed all the way up them and they were really small and twisty and reminded me of climbing down to the catacombs in Paris except that they were going in the other direction. After a lot of climbing we FINALLY made it to the top and it was so cool! You could see all of Rome and it was all a similar color scheme (orangeish/redish colors) so it was hard to tell where one building ended and another began.

We made the long walk all the way back down and headed back to the hotel because I forgot my debit card (foreshadowing maybe?) and we ended up taking naps before heading out again to a Roman Forum bar crawl.

Day 3:
Since this was our last day in Rome we decided to fit in as much as possible. We went to Trevi fountain first and I threw in a coin. The funny thing about the coin is that on day 2 before we went out I bought a pop and I had given my money to my friend to hold because she had her wallet with her and I didn’t and she told me that she would probably lose the 20 cent coin that I gave her but the rest of it would be fine and miraculously, even with all the dancing we did, my 20 cent coin made it back to the hotel that night so I threw it in the fountain. After that we got gelato and walked to Piazza Navona. On the way we walked by the Pantheon (or was it the Parthenon… I don’t know I can’t tell them apart. Whichever one is a really old church). And we walked around there briefly and took some pictures. On the way out I went to take a picture of these 2 guys sleeping against one of the pillars out front and one of the guys woke up and gave me a really weird look…

So then we finally made it to Piazza Navona  and we walked around for a little while. After that it was getting kind of late so we headed back to the hotel to get food from the little sandwich shop again and get our bags and headed to the train station. It took us a while to figure out how to buy the tickets and find the platform. We got back to the boat (and didn’t get dock time! Yay) and sat around until it was time to head out.

Day 4:
When we woke up we were already in Naples so we got ready real fast and went to head to Capri but when we got to the ferry station it was 29 euros just for the boat ride there and back (and since its really touristy its very expensive) so we decided to go to Pompeii/Vesuvius instead. It took FOREVER to find the train station. We had to ask for directions about 20 times and no one spoke English so it was like being in Rome again except that Naples is a lot sketchier. We (me, Bridget, Taryn, and Georgina) finally made it to the train and all fell asleep on the way there. When we got off we got gelato and went to Pompeii. Unfortunately it was 11 euros and Taryn had forgotten her credit card so we decided to go to Vesuvius instead. So we got bus tickets that would take us most of the way up the volcano. Since the bus didn’t leave for a while we got giant calzones for lunch and waited around. The bus ride up was beautiful and nice and air conditioned (it is really REALLY hot in Italy) when we finally got to where the bus stopped we had the nasty surprise that we had to buy tickets to climb the rest of the way so we got our tickets and headed up. I looked ridiculous because I was still wearing my swim suit, dress, and flip flops that I was going to wear to Capri and carrying a big old bag with a towel in it… But I climbed all the way up and we got beautiful views of the bay and looked in the crater, which was pretty cool. So then my friends tried to trade me for some Pringles and Lemoncello (jokingly! ☺) and we headed back down to the bus. When we got back we had dinner on the ship and went out with the rest of the S@Sers to celebrate the 4th.

Day 5:
This day sucked. I wasn’t feeling well and Naples is sketchy so I was going to stay on the ship all day and try to get some free internet but I had some last minute shopping to do so my friend Jill and I headed out. We got to the first store and I found a dress that I liked a lot and went to try it on. When I went to check to see if I had enough money to buy it my money belt was gone. We hurried back to the ship so I could check and see if I had accidentally left it in my cabin (which I hadn’t). Thankfully I have the best mom in the world and she called the bank for me right away to get my debit card turned off and figured out how to get a new debit card to me (hopefully by Greece). Then the whole ship took a picture out on the decks and when we took off I went to see Dr. Milt (who we sometimes call Dr. Tallywacker because of a very funny speech he gave at a preport lecture) and he told me that I caught a virus that’s been going around the boat and I should take ibuprofen and rest a lot.

Overall I felt like Italy was like Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde (yeah that’s probably spelled wrong but you know what I mean). I loved Rome and it was beautiful and I had a great time but then Naples was dirty and sketchy and all the girls here could be dressed like nuns and still get whistled at in the street on top of being sick and getting pick pocketed. I’m excited to get to Croatia and lay low for a little while.

Until then I’m taking as many naps as possible. S@S is really tricky because you only have 4 or 5 days in every country so you have to make the most of it and then you have 1 or 2 days of class in between countries so you have to get all your work done really fast and wake up early for class. I haven’t been this sleep deprived since high school.

Tomorrow I get to croatia and since I only have 100 Kuna ($20) I am being as cheap as possible. I do have a couple S@S trips (a city orientation, some island trip, and Montenegro) but other than that i'm going to have to get creative.

LIZ CADWELL AND SARAH SHIELDS READ THIS POST!

Hey friends... i don't know why but my email won't let me send anything your email addresses. I have a post card to send you but no address! can you email it to me? preferable by 11:00 AM your time (6:00 my time) so that i can send it from italy but if you can't thats fine i'll just send it from croatia.

oh yeah almost forgot HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!!!

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAIMEE AND MEGAN!!!!!!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Jaimee and Meeeeeeeegaaaaaan...
Happy birthday to you!!!!!!!!


ps. sorry about the ridiculous use of all caps...

Independence day!!... with gelato

Hey friends!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! and happy birthday Jaimee and Megan!!! (i'd type out the song but i'm lazy and its 2:47 AM right now...)

i'll post about italy eventually... and by eventually i mean in 2 days when we have a ship day between croatia and italy (yay! i'm tired! i have been going on 5 hours of sleep a night for the past 2 weeks!)