Cairo Day Two

Well. We had an interesting night. The window in the room didn’t really close all the way no matter how you fiddled with it and the ac unit was loud. Lol. Despite that, the city is up ALL night LONG! People screaming and taxis honking and babies crying. I’m thinking that the city doesn’t get going until the sun goes down. It’s too hot anyway. Anyway. We were a little tired when we woke up. We had some breakfast, and checked out. We had tried to stay another night, but it was no good. They didn’t have the room. So we went searching for a hostel. The building next door was a whole 13 story building of hotels, one on each floor. So we tried a few of those before we finally snagged one. It was a little nicer than the one before, and it was only like 3 dollars more a person to stay. Sweet! There was better ac, nicer beds and a nicer atmosphere though there was only one computer and it sucked. Lol. Anyway, now that we had a place to sleep, we needed to get our train tickets home for the next day. So off we went. We had heard that the station was close, so we decided to try to walk to it. What a mess. We had to ask a few people and go under some crazy bridge and still it took us forever to find it. When we did we realized our mistake. We had found the bus station. We wanted the train station. We were put off a bit, so we decided to just cab there. We figured they’d know better than us where it was. So we split up into two cabs. James, John, and me in one and the others in the other one. The others made it right there. We had some problems. Our cab driver dropped us off two blocks too earlier and then gave us atrocious directions on how to get there. We had to ask around AGAIN and go OVER some crazy bridge before we finally got there and then we had to find the others. Which we eventually did, after awhile. What a mess. Then we had to try and GET the tickets. Also a mess. There are different lines for different places and then there’s a woman’s side and a man’s side and the people freak out if you don’t figure that one out. Then you had to elbow your way to the front to finally get to the tickets, then you had to hope that they spoke English and could understand that you wanted tickets for tomorrow during the night. We finally got some, thank goodness. We saw a couple other kids trying to get home too. They were trying for that night, and unfortunately, all the tickets were sold out already. We had heard that they sold out fast. That’s why we went a day early to get them. Looks like we were lucky. Other people had to take buses home or stay an extra night. Unfortunate.
While we were there, we met up with three other girls who had been staying and travelling by themselves. Nuts just to start out with. We ended up taking them along with them for lunch and a little walking around. Lunch was another mess. We walked around for ages, starving to death. Lol. To top it off, the girls were total yatches. Hahahha. I feel like I’m complaining, and I don’t mean to. It was a lot of fun. We were just really surprised how mean they were after we took them under our wing. We found a restaurant that looked great, but they didn’t want it, so we walked around for another 45 minutes. Ah well. We eventually found a great restaurant and just settled. Afterwards, we went to the Egyptian Museum and found out that it closed in an hour and it cost thirty pounds. They were leaving early the next morning, so they went in. We did not. Man. What a relief. Hahahaha.
We ended up going into a papyrus shop right afterwards and met up with this guy Ali. Papyrus is something that Egypt is known for, but there are a lot of fakes around the streets that you can pick up for really cheap. Papyrus is basically soaked wood that is stripped to be really thin and then beaten and woven together to make paper. It was the first paper ever created and it’s pretty cool. Ali does paintings on his papyrus scrolls. Very nice. Anyway, it’s with him that our adventure really started up. Some how, some way, this guy convinces us that he has an uncle who does Nile cruises and for super cheap, he can take us around on one. We had done research on the price and it was a great price. So we said ok. We left with promises to meet back up with him later. So we went back to the hostel for a bit, hung out and then went back to the papyrus shop. We headed down to the Nile (which was right there), and eventually found a dock where there were lots of boats hanging out. After a first try that failed, we eventually got into a functioning boat complete with rap music and Celine Dione’s My Heart Will Go On played three times. We danced, we sang, we took pictures and we hung out on this huge boat that could fit fifty to sixty, just the six of us. Freaking cruising down the Nile….No big deal….It was awesome. It was beyond awesome. And beautiful too. We went during the sunset, so we were able to see the sun go down as we drove by.
Right before the tour ended (it was two hours), we ended up asking Ali about the Bazaars around town. He told us that the best one was a night one, and it was the biggest in Cairo. He said he’d take us there and help us bargain. We were totally down. He found us taxis and went with us to the night bazaar. That’s the thing about Cairo. It’s too dang hot in the day to do anything, so everything goes down at night. We went around the bazaar, using Ali as our bargainer. He got us some awesome prices. He’d tell us if the price was “disgraceful” or not, and whether to leave or stay. It was pretty great. Eventually we had him help us get our taxis back to his shop which was close to our hostel. All in all, we paid about 15 US dollars. For the whole thing. Unbelievable. Seriously. Ali was great too. I was scared for the first little while, and it was a little sketch. But it turned out to be awesome. We left him a great tip and then left for our hostel. After getting back we realized we were pretty hungry, so we walked a couple blocks to the main square. We had some fresh squeezed mango juice and had some shawerma, which is like a gyro sandwich with not as good meat. Lol. They’re pretty delicious though on their own. Not going to lie. We hung out for a bit and then decided to head home. We met a man from Sudan on our way while we were sipping on some mango juice who we talked to for a bit. I would have LOVED to talk to him for longer, but our group was leaving and I didn’t want us to have to go home alone. He gave us some fascinating info on Sudan and his ideals of American policy. I was sad to leave him.
The last night in the hostel was a bit better. Nicer AC, not as loud outside. A better night’s sleep though just as short. We figure we want to get the most out of Egypt. It’s worth it.

Egypt Day Two-Cairo

What a day. Seriously. We started out really early, at 7am or so. We went straight outside to the port and picked a bus for a day trip to Cairo! We started out in the first bus, and got comfortable. We always sit in the same seat (near the back exit so we can be first off), and that’s right where we headed. My roommate got on a little later with her group of friends though, so when we saw our friend Matt go onto bus three, we switched and sat with him….Good decision I think. The trip up was not eventful. We slept as much as we could as it was a three hour ride. When we got up, we were right at the Great Pyramids! Holy cow, I went for exhausted to super energized in the span of a second! The pyramids are nuts. They are ginormous and they’re everything that you want them to be from what you’ve heard. There are people on huge camels everywhere and people on horses. There are a lot of hagglers trying to get you to buy things. There are tourists everywhere. It’s an experience for sure. I loved it though without a doubt. We went around the two that we could see with Matt. We took some stellar pictures in front of them and even went inside one of the tombs for the wife of one of the pharaohs who was buried in the bigger pyramid. We had to crawl down into the tomb area through this little cave thing. It wasn’t really intense, but it was still pretty cool. We had to run to get snapshots of the smaller pyramid, but it was worth it. It brings the number of wonders of the world I’ve been to up to three: The Great Wall, The Grand Canyon and the Great Pyramids. Sweet.
We got back on the bus for about five minutes and made our way down to the Sphinx. This was not what I was expecting. It was huge. And the paws of the lion were extremely big. Everyone is so taken by the face that it’s easy to miss the massive lion body that is under it. More stellar pictures here. You can’t actually go into the Sphinx, nor touch the pyramids. But being that close to them is an experience all its own. It’s fascinating to think that people where able to carve and sculpt such detail thousands of years ago. The ability of the ancient Egyptian society was without a doubt some of the most impressive in history.
Next, we moved onto some of the ancient tombs next to the Pyramid of Zoser also called the Step Pyramid. The tombs were beautiful. They had just uncovered another one literally one week earlier, so we were extremely lucky that we were able to explore two of them. These two were above ground, but because of how well they were preserved, you can still see some of the color that was painted on thousands of years ago. The hieroglyphics were to beautiful, and the uniformity that they were able to achieve with hand painting and carving is incredible. We went underground (crazy) to see the last tomb. You should see the video James took. We traveled for about five minutes underground completely hunched over to finally make it to this tomb. It was worth it with out a doubt, but it was an experience getting down there and even more of one getting back up. James surreptitiously video-taped our trip, and it’s worth watching I’m sure.
 Next we moved to the pyramid itself. Zoser is the oldest pyramid in the world, and beyond that, it’s the oldest standing building in the world period. It’s not nearly as big as the Great Pyramids, but it’s still intense. We took some silly pictures in front of it, but I must say that we were the first to make a human pyramid in front of the first pyramid every built. That’s saying something at least. We got a little haggled along the way (see James blog. I’m still too ticked to reiterate it again).
We went to lunch after. We drove through some crazy parts of town to get to a country club that served us a buffet lunch. It was a little disconcerting to see the differences in the neighborhoods in Giza (the town outside of Cairo where the pyramids actually are). There is a nice country club in the middle of the desert, but surrounding it are sheep herders and poor farmers who live next to a polluted river that was filled with dead animals and trash. Our guide said that the people were not upset or discontent with their living conditions. They feel that they will eventually receive their due in either the afterlife or in the life of their children. It’s an interesting philosophy. The children in the neighborhood were cute. Every time we passed by them in the bus they would run after us waving. The day before a man carrying a little girl about a year old told me that his daughter wanted to kiss me and if that was ok. We were outside of a mosque in a big group, and it was a baby. So I said yes and let her kiss my cheek. She gave me this huge grin. It was SOOO precious. She was adorable. The children are cute here, so excited about everything I feel.
Afterwards we went on our jeep safari. We piled six people in a land rover at the country club and headed out to basically off road on the dunes of the Sahara. It wasn’t too crazy, but we did some bouncing and we went up a rather large hill once. I was a little scared, but Matt and James were fine. I liked it. The jeep took us to a huge swarm (?) of camels waiting for us all.
I picked first. Well, I was ushered to one really. He seemed a little ornery, and he kept barking at me. I had expected to ride attached to James, but some how Matt got ushered up next and we ended up riding together. James’ camel wasn’t attached to our train and he was led by a little kid who didn’t understand when James said he wanted to ride near us. We were never too far, but it was funny. Matt and my guide took a picture of us in the middle and said for us to hold hands because he thought we were together….We gave high fives ☺
My camel’s name was Mikah, which I thought was cute for obvious reasons. Matt’s was called Moses. There were about twenty Moses I think. But mine was the only Mikah I found  ☺   James’ was Michael Jackson. He’s just lucky that way. The camel ride was freakin sweet. We went through the desert till we reached the country club again. What an experience. Camel riding is not very comfortable, per say, but I like it!
After our trip, we got dropped off in Giza near Cairo. We met up with Charlotte and got in a taxi heading towards our hostel. It wasn’t a terrible experience. It was a little hot and a little crowded and the man had to ask a few people but we eventually made it to Wake Up! Cairo, our hostel. It was my first hostel experience, and I have to say it was pretty good. The beds were clean. There was AC. The staff was really nice. We had a great little breakfast of bread and jam. The bathrooms were nice enough. There were two computers there with headsets for skype. I will say, it was like a little oasis in the desert and once we got in there, we really didn’t want to leave for the night…but we were really really hungry….and then Patrick (who was there with John from earlier) suggested we order from the pizza hut he’d seen earlier that day….and we haven’t’ had American food yet…all trip! SO we did. We ate freakin four huge pizzas between the five of us. And they were freakin delicious. James, Matt, and I had a little excursion out to go for cheaper cokes and everyone drank two of those along with their six slices of pizza each. I’ve never appreciated pizza hut more.
Then John came back over with a friend who’s studying Arabic in Cairo. She was a family friend and his older brother’s ex girlfriend. She’s soo cute and soooo smart. Her name’s Becca and we ended up staying with her for quite awhile just talking about the cool places she’s been and what she’s doing. We had some great conversation and then she ended up taking us to the best koshery place in town. Koshery is like Egyptian pasta with hotsauce and tomato sauce and lentil beans and some other strange stuff. It’s actually pretty good, though I was skeptical at first. We hung out there for awhile before going back to the hostel. John and Charlotte and Becca stayed out for a little while longer but the rest of us headed home for showers.
You’d think that’d be the end of the day. We’d been up since 7am and we were exhausted. But no. We ended up staying up for prolly three more hours just talking and being extremely loud. The kids we hung out with were a really good time. The whole group is pretty funny. And we like to give hard times. I was an awesome day for sure. I went to bed with a better feeling about Cairo and Egypt in general.

Egypt Day One - Alexandria

So excited for Egypt! Growing up through school, we did an Egypt program every year. I feel like I know a bit about it. Definitely fascinating. Definitely exciting. I couldn’t WAIT to get off the ship and see Alexandria. The original city was conquered during the time of Alexander the Great. Alex was a Macedonian who conquered almost one third of the whole of Asia and the Middle East during his reign (he died at 33). In many of the places that he conquered, he renamed cities after himself (but the feminine version of his name) and ensured that the cities were built up into huge Metropolitan areas. Just a tidbit on how the city got its name. As you can tell, I’m a history nerd BIG time, and Egypt is SO rich in history. Our first day encompassed a SAS trip called the Best of Alexandria. It started early, and I have to say that I think it covered just about all there is to see…
We started around 9:30, as soon as the boat cleared immigration. We have to take our passports around Egypt (which is a little scary) or we can’t get on and off the boat. As we were on the trip, we were allowed to get them first, so we bypassed a HUGE wait. Nice! Haha.
The trip started at the Catacombs of Alexandria, and the bus ride there certainly dispelled some of the notions that I had about Egypt. I knew that it was a repressed country, and that it was on the level of China on human rights and freedoms. I knew that it was a developing nation and that it would not be clean and that there would be a LOT of poverty on the streets. There were beggars in China; there were beggars in Greece. I know what they look like and I know how I feel when I see them. Alexandria tops them all. The place is huge and it’s filthy. There are people who live along the rivers with dead animals in them, especially dead horses. There is trash everywhere. In China, there is a certain level of order. You know that there is still poverty and dirt, but at the same time, there are measures to clean it up to a degree. I’m not sure that there are any measures here. Not in Alexandria at least. It’s definitely the most “developing” (?, pc?) country that I’ve ever been too. Everywhere you look is a little “sketch”.
Anyway, when we actually got to the Catacombs, they were rather interesting. Our guide was a cute little lady and she did most of the explaining outside. The catacombs are basically a public cemetery that is underground. There are huge burial cites where there are multiple bodies placed (in big holes in the wall), and then more exclusive tombs. We went about three stories underground and toured them all. There was a festival room that we went to, and we were even allowed to see the more exclusive burial rooms with the really nice raised tombs. They would actually lower the bodies down into the catacombs and allow the family members to watch it go down the shaft to the burial “holes”. One historical fact I picked up.
After the catacombs we headed to the Alexandria National Museum. This was fascinating for me. The museum was split into different eras in Egyptian and Alexandrian history. I don’t remember it all, but there was a lot of different jewelry from the different time periods and some Hatshepsut stuff (B.A. lady Pharaoh). On the basement floor there was an actual mummy with the sarcophagus intact. There were three layers, and they were all beautiful. I’d never heard of the mummy, but there are an awful lot in Egypt in general…I always feel a bit uncomfortable going into places like that. I’ve read a couple books on Egypt and I hate to sound like a know it all, because I really don’t know that much at all, but I always come off that way. I want to tell James all the things I know, but then other people listen in and I sound like a little professor on the tour. I hate that. Lol. But I think James would rather know than me stay quiet about it…So Professor Jack reigned in Egypt for a few days.
Lunch was after. Really nice place down by the beach and Quaitbay Fort (which is a fort on the beach that literally looks like a ten story sand castle). We ate with the LLCs (which are like the RA’s  (Resident Assistants) of the ship) and a few professors. It’s different, but we relate better…still. Lunch was great, and we got a few shots of the beach the bay with the boats docked. Pretty nice overall.
Next was the Library! Highlight of the day for me! Let me give you some history (sorry):
The original Library of Alexandria was put together by one of the Ptolemys (who were the rulers of Egypt for years and years). This particular Ptolemy wanted to build a grand library, and in it house all the knowledge of the world. He took advice from the greatest philosophers of the time and gathered texts from all over the world: Archimedes, Aristarchus, Eratosthenes (people like that). The museum was huge and it was known throughout the area. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire and all but one scroll was destroyed. Basically one of the greatest catastrophes ever. They’ve rebuilt a new “Bibliotheca Alexandria” in it’s place with a historical museum underground that we toured. The library is huge. It’s shaped like a disk to represent the sun and there is a planetarium dome where they show scientific films that represents the earth. It has a killer website where you can see almost every book in the library. You should check it out. I loved being there. There are students from the university next-door who were studying there and I couldn’t help but think how absolutely lucky they were to be studying in the site of the greatest library in history. I’m sappy like that.
Last on the tour was a palace that we saw from behind a gate and the gardens that surrounded it. Let’s just say that I’m from the desert, and we don’t do gardens. The Sahara is no different than the Sonora in that fashion.
We had dinner on the ship to be heap and then met with James’ roommate and some of our friends to go the grocery store. We split up into two taxies: James, Jack, Charlotte and Patrick, John, Maggie (Charlotte’s friend). Our taxi made it just fine (though we were haggled INTENSELY before hand. It seriously sucked). We waited for thirty minutes for John and the others till we decided to just go in. We finally found them in the food section. I guess that their taxi driver wouldn’t take them to the Carrefore and instead took them to the bazaar (called a Souk here) across the street instead. There followed a huge argument and John and them running from the taxi man till he caught up to them in another taxi and demanded money. Not a good first impression.
We grocery shopped for awhile. Got some coke and other necessities. They were running a deal that you could get three free sodas for every six you bought. We bough enough soda to get 36 other sodas. For free. Hahahahahaha. We ended up selling 24 to my roommate and we have another twelve to barter with. Productive night though the grocery store was an absolute mess and the taxi ride was a little extreme.
I can tell that this place is going to be different. It’s about as Islam centered as Istanbul, but they are more devout here I feel. There are NO women without a head dress. There are even women in full Habib (pronounced Ha-beeb) where there is everything covered except their eyes. They even wear gloves and all black. Our tour guide explained to us that Islam only requires that you dress modestly and have your hair covered as a female. This is called the veil of Islam. You may wear any color. If you are dressed in a full Habib, with your face exposed, then you are a “radical” Muslim. For those who are dressed with all but their eyes covered, then they are not originally Egyptian. Only countries like Saudi Arabia and countries surrounding it use the face coverings. All very interesting stuff. As we do not often cover our hair though and do not own Habibs, we get some different types of looks. And catcalls. And stares. It’s going to be interesting, and for all who aren’t travelling with a guy, I’m interested to see how their travels went.

Last Day in Turkey!

Well, we woke up around 1030 or so and headed out with James’ roommate John and his friend Patrick. We headed straight for the Grand Bazaar one last time. James got his little oil lamp that he was hankering for, and I was able to get one last souvenier. We literally spent every dime we got out here in Turkey. We spent way too much money. Lol. It’s funny. We automatically say that we’re from Canada now. It’s a trip. They ask us where we’re from right after they give their first price. We tell them Canada and their price automatically drops twenty lira. It’s almost funny. Except that’s how little they think of Americans. Rich and snooty. That’s what we heard. One interesting thing: Patrick wanted this scarf for his sister and the guy wouldn’t give him a good price so he asked me to help him out. The guy started out at 40 lira. I went on and on about how beautiful it was, but that I literally had no money to buy it off him, only twenty dollars. We went around and around till Patrick showed up. The guy freaked out when he saw him, and was like this guy just asked for this. Do you know him?! And I was like, “no no no! Who’s this guy?! I’m a girl, you can’t sell this to him. I want it more than him!” Patrick got the hint and left. And the guy made me promise that it wasn’t going to him. I pulled out the twenty. I said it was all that I had. James handed me a five, and said I can tell you really like it. Here’s five, but it’s all we have to spend. The guy totally gave in! I felt a bit bad, because it was for Patrick, but it was just because Patrick is a horrible bargainer that I did it for him. Lol. It was kinda cool. We got to do some more bargaining for some other things and I got some pomegranate tea and spoons for my set. So I was happy.
Afterwards we went inside the Blue Mosque. We went in like ten minutes before a call to prayer too, so we were really lucky. Inside was a trip. You have to take off your shoes and put them in bags to get in and you have to cover your hair. The floor is carpeted with this awesome carpet that is so nice to walk on. The inside was huge, and extremely beautiful. I’ve been in cathedrals and a temple of two and some really huge churches. This was something a little different. Beautiful in its own way.
We returned to the ship next and had some lunch for free which is always nice. We took a little nap (because we woke up pretty early) and then headed out to the hookah bar to skype with the really fast internet. We were lucky. There were hardly any people there smoking hookah. Haha. We bought a coke and got away with it. Made it back to the ship right on time. We had a lifeboat drill, which stank, and got some homework done. Pretty nice day.

Overall thoughts on Istanbul:
This was one of my favorite ports. Things were different here. You can definitely tell we’re not in Europe anymore. The Middle East is somewhere that I never thought I’d go to, but I’m glad I did. The people are really different. Their culture is really different. It reminds me of China in a way, though I think I like China’s culture a bit better. I never felt scared in China. I was a little uncomfortable one time in Istanbul. Still, the good outdid the bad. Bargaining was fun. Talking to the people was interesting. They were really willing to talk to us and tell us their problems and what we thought. Our server the third day was so open to telling us why he didn’t like Americans and why he appreciated them nonetheless. The people complained about the university, just like I do on occasion, for the same reasons I do.
The city was beautiful. It’s architecture was beautiful. The history is intense. The Ottoman Empire can still be seen almost everywhere and it’s interesting to think that it used to be called Constantinople because it was part of the Roman Empire. I loved it.

Turkey Day Four

Today was our mosque day! We started out at 10am and headed out to see the Tokpaki Palace. This palace is actually a museum, the only one that we’ve seen that that’s way. We walked around, saw the different artifacts. There weren’t any rooms like the other ones, but there were jewels and pearl chairs and gilded outfits. The main one was the Spooner’s Diamond. I guess that there was a huge diamond that someone sold to a peddler who made spoons. I guess the rock wasn’t cut, so there was no way to really tell it’s value, but as soon as the Sultan of the area found out about the stone, he bought the Spooner’s diamond from him and had it refined. The diamond is an 85 carat stone…..85 karats. It was ginormous. The turned it into a turban ornament, but it started out as a ring. Now it’s on display in this huge palace that was built on the sea side. It was pretty awesome.
After the palace, we saw some of the mosques that were around the area. The first was the Hagia Sophia. The color scheme was slightly strange, but this gigantic work of architecture was built in like 500 AD. It makes sense that Istanbul (which was Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire) was once a part of the Roman Empire back when it was in its hay day. There’s some history and really impressive architecture. The St. Sophia mosque is supposed to be the most impressive. Supposedly, the statue of liberty (minus the torch and the base) could fit inside. It did not look that big, but I believe the stats. We walked across this great garden and ended up at the Blue Mosque. This one was a little more exciting. The color is just like it says, it’s a dark blue and light gray color and the architecture is just breathtaking. We went inside just as a call to prayer was happening though. In the Muslim religion, practicers pray towards Mecca 5 times a day. Every so often, you can hear the call to prayer playing from the mosques. It’s basically a man singing in Turkish. Friday, also, is the Sabbath day. So calls to prayer last an hour or so. Lol. We waited and waited outside (because they kick you out). We saw the column of Constantine (400 AD), an Egyptian Obelisk (300 AD), and the Serpent Column. The SC is an interesting story. If you’ve seen 300, you know the story. Basically, the Persians defeated the 300 Spartans at Thermopolii. Then the whole Spartan army came and defeated the Persians and wiped them out. The Spartans took their weapons and burnt them down and then molded the material into a huge column with a serpent’s head. Pretty BA if you ask me.
We ended up not going in. But we might tomorrow. We ate lunch on a fourth floor terrace afterward. We had a really good time. Our server talked to us for a long time about the different opinions he had of Americans and the Turkish government. It was very interesting. Cultural things too. Example: The Turkish think that if people are jealous of something and too many people are, it’ll break. Like our server had really good teeth, so too many people were jealous, so his tooth broke. Interesting thought process. He ended up buying us some Turkish apple tea for free too! Exciting! First time trying it and I must admit that I love it.
After lunch, we headed to the Cistern. This is like a huge underground place to get water for the city that is supported by Doric and Corinthian columns that are absolutely huge. You can walk through and see where the people got water hundreds of years ago. There are also these huge Medusa head columns. Not sure the history on that one, but they were cool to see.
Next was the Spice Bazaar which is just like the Grand Bazaar but only teas and Turkish delight and spices. We ended up getting a lot of different fresh teas and they even air-vacked them for us.
We headed back to the ship and ate a quick dinner so we could make it in time for our last trip in Istanbul: the Sufi dance. We all dressed up and headed by bus to this place that used to be a Turkish bath. Now they have Sufi dances in there which is basically a religious ceremony for a mystical branch of Islam. The Sufi dancers are the men with the weird top hats and the white dresses that spin. They’re called Whirling Dervishes. This is another must see, must do thing in Turkey. The men believe that when they are spinning, they have Allah inside of them and they are closer to heaven. It’s all very interesting with lots of bowing and different rituals. There is a boundary across the floor between the spirit world and earth, and they must bow before entering each one, but when they spin, they are limitless, so they don’t HAVE to bow. The symbolism is all very interesting, but we didn’t talk about it for a good hour as it was so strange. We’re still processing it I think.
Afterwards, we took a quick walk with James’ roommate and some friends. Just for some fresh air. It was a long day. Nice, but we packed a lot in.

Turkey Day Three –Bospherous

So we woke up right at 12:30 and were on the trip at 1:00. Haha. No lunch of breakfast for us…again. We started out our day by going to a museum of the clothing and artifacts of the Ottoman Empire. This museum was pointless and we had a whole hour there. Lol. I feel bad for saying it, but it was boring. The museum was small and the artifacts were small. Eh. We ended up leaving and getting some potato chips and a soda since we hadn’t ate yet.
After the museum (?), we headed off for our actual tour for the day. We ended up on the top floor of a little ferry headed out to the Bospherous, which is a river dividing the Eastern half of Istanbul (Europe) with the Western half of Istanbul (Asia). You can go over to either side by bridge, but the Bospherous gives you a unique perspective as a lot of the larger homes and monuments of Istanbul are built RIGHT on the water’s edge. We saw three of the palaces that we’d seen the day before, but from the water. Way cool. The water here is really choppy. In most ports, we never feel out boat move, but here it does. Basically it’s because there are two seas running over one another. The two currents move in opposite directions, making the water pretty crazy. It’s not safe to swim, though you see locals trying every once in awhile. While we were on the Bospherous, we saw some of the homes that the upper class live in. There were solid wood ones, extremely long ones, and some REALLY pretty ones. The average prices of a sea-side home is around 15 to 20 million supposedly. Lol. Some day I’ll have one….maybe…. ☺
I find that the European side of Istanbul is more exciting, but the Asian side is more beautiful. It’s so GREEN. Seeing it from the ferry really solidified it. We saw some beautiful sights for sure.
After the tour, we headed back to the ship. We almost ran, but we ended up beating 160 kids to the boat. James calls it passing the sass (Semester at Sea). It involves pushing Jack off the bus and running past lots of old people and stressed out kids. Lol. It makes for a slightly embarrassed Jack, but we do get on quick.
After a quick turn around, we headed out to the public city center called Takzim Square. This is basically like the Turkish version of La Ramblas. There are shops and restaurants and street peddlers. There are clubs, and different bars. It’s all really busy and exciting.
We found this restaurant and had some delicious Turkish food. Really the first delicious food we’ve had here. It’s all ok…but very different. And as James and I have rather sensitive stomachs, we’re weary here. Anyway, the food was great and we ended up staying in the restaurant for quite awhile. It was the first real food we’d had all day, so we were ravenous. Lauren and Garrett were freaking out at the amount of food we put away. ☺
Afterwards we ended up doing a little window-shopping. James bought some really nice Nike shorts. Breathable. Haha. They were expensive. We ended up going to a club too. It was called Salsalita. It was pretty empty (Thursday night), and we ended up buying a 7.50 lira water (club prices because there was no cover). There were like 6 people there. Lol, but we danced about two dances and it was fun enough. We didn’t stay long.
We took our first Taxi today. We missed the Funicular (we thought it closed at one..it didn’t). We didn’t really know the way home, and it was late. We figured we’d rather be safe than sorry. It was five dollars. NBD.
After we got home and I showered and was feeling refreshed, I headed over to hang out with James and his roommate John. We love John. He’s hilarious, with some voice volume control issues. Hahaha. Anyway. We’re sitting there, just talking about our day when the boys start talking about kabobs and how great they are in Turkey. James starts saying things like, “Man. That sounds so good. And a coke does too, hmmm.” John starts saying, “Man. That DOES sound good, we should get one…”, and I start saying, “Bad idea guys, no good!”.
Anyway, we headed out at freaking 230 in the morning to go get a coke and some chicken Kabobs. We walked for 15 minutes, finally found a hookah bar that served them and we ended up sitting in some crazy bean bag chairs while we ate a chicken kebab. We ended up getting home at like 330. Ya. Typical boys. Lol.

Palaces and Turkish Baths!

So today was eventful. We woke up super early for an SAS trip and headed out to see 4 palaces from the Ottoman Empire. Two on the European side of Istanbul and two on the Asian side of Istanbul (which is a strange but cool conundrum). The first one was massive. It poured on us while we waited to get in, but it was worth it. They gave us little pink shoe covers to wear through it (which was cute). The place was intense. We saw the biggest chandeliers I’ve ever seen, and even the room where the Attaturk died. Just to give you an idea, Attaturk was the leader of the Turkish Empire after WWI in the 20’s. This man revolutionized Turkey. He’s all over their monuments. He’s on their currency. There are paintings of him everywhere. His people call him Attaturk because it means the Father of the Turks. Seeing the room that he died in is like looking at the theater and room where Lincoln died for the US. Beyond that, the palace itself was amazing. Absolutely huge and grand. The chaise lounges and the beds were intense. The Harem was nice too. The royalty is addressed as the Sultan and Queen Mother, but the Harem wasn’t like a brothel for the king. Harem itself means forbidden and the harem was a forbidden place for others to enter because it housed the Sultan’s private life. Interesting.
Anyway, the other three palaces were very nice as well. At one stop we were accosted (too strong a word, more like engaged) by a big group of Turkish tourists who were interested in talking to us and the Asians in our group. We told them we were from France. Lol.
It rained off and on all day. Turkish weather is a little nutty, though our tour guide said it was a little different than was normal. It’s usually a bit drier I guess. Lol. We brought the rain.
After we got back to the ship we had a quick bite to eat and headed out again to meet with Garrett and Lauren. We brought Yulia and her friend Alisa with us too. We met at the Turkish bath, and headed in!
Ok. Let me explain this process:
First, the men and women separate. The women go downstairs and the men go up. You get a little locker and change into some swim suit bottoms and a towel. Then you go down another flight of stairs and enter into a hot room with a huge marble slap in the middle. You basically take off your towel and lay on it on an edge of the slab. An old, really fat, and topless woman comes to you and douses you with cold water. Then she takes a scrubber and rubs you down, your back and your front, your whole front if you know what I mean. Then they soap you up in the same process. Then they take you to a sink and shampoo your hair and rinse your body of all the soap. This takes about twenty minutes, and you see all the dead skin coming off your body. Next you go into a little hot room and sit in the “Bath” or Hamami”. The water is warm, but not as bad as the air. There’s also a hot tub, which is nice. Note that at this time, you are still topless in the water surrounded by your friends who you now know a lot better. Then you go outside of the hot room and cool down a bit with some warmed towels. You drink a freshly squeezed orange juice or something similar.
Next, you wait in line for your oil massage. You go in, are slathered in oil, and then rubbed down and felt up again, vigorously, front to back. Next, you shower in the huge shower that has a spout right in the center of the roof and goes straight down. You cool off for a bit in the cooler room. Then you go back in the bath and talk for a bit with your girlfriends.
It’s a nice experience. Everyone says that you have to do it, or you haven’t experienced Turkey, and I think I agree. I loved it. I adored it, I want to do it every day we’re here! Lol. But we have other things to do. Unfortunately…. ☺
Ate a quick dinner afterward and made it home. What a day. My skin is wonderful feeling, and I’m totally relaxed. Sleepin good today!

Istanbul Day One! 7-20

Man. Today was a trip. Woke up at 7am after going to sleep at four because my roommate was up all night writing a paper. I went to the top deck and saw the skyline as all the other boats in the harbor were leaving. It was a beautiful sight. The sun had just risen, and everything was a little pearly. The skyline was absolutely beautiful. There are mosques and tall buildings, there are spires and things like that all over the skyline. I looked on for a bit, ate some breakfast and tried to go back to sleep. Not successful. At 8:30, we went to a diplomatic briefing to learn a little more about Turkey so we would be prepared. The foreign service officer came on the ship and he was pretty likeable. We’ve had one of these for every port, but this is the first one we’ve gone to, lol. Afterwards, we went to a follow up briefing that lasted another hour (as I was falling asleep), but was also interesting.
Next we DID take a nap, for an hour and a half (we missed lunch, but totally worth it). At 12:15, we headed off the ship and met up with our groups for our FDP. Our Trade teacher who really likes us, and his wife were leading it. The trip was called Advertising in Turkey, and it was basically a trip to the Grand Bazaar (the biggest indoor shopping bazaar in Turkey) where you learn how to barter. We pretty much already got it down though, so we didn’t stay long with the group (plus my roommate was there, so another factor). We ended up getting some awesome stuff! I got a shirt (perhaps a gift, so I won’t elaborate), that we bartered for at like ten different places till we finally found the cheapest one. I got an awesome tea set that is hand painted and absolutely awesome (I also bartered like a Bad BUTT for it! It was the barter of the day. He went from 65 Turkish Lira to 25, heck yes!). James got some tea so we can try it out (they do apple tea here, which is more like a hot apple cider). I bought a head scarf (I know, it’s weird, but they won’t let you into some mosques without them and if you don’t have them then you have to take one from the communal box and that just sounds WAY too unhygienic). The Grand Bazaar was great. A little like the silk street market, but they don’t start as high with their prices, so they don’t go as low. It’s also better stuff though for the most part too, so it’s a compromise.
Anyway, after some shopping, we headed back to the ship and met up with our friends Garrett and Lauren. We ended up going back to the same general place (and saw the Burnt Column or the Column of Constantine, exciting). We went straight back into the bazaar and ended up getting one more thing. Lauren and I got matching Burberry rain jackets. Hahaha. We spent some money on them, but they are completely water resistant, and they look awesome ☺
Got some food afterward (I can already tell that it’s going to be awkward here. Can’t eat lettuce or any ice as they will give you travelers dyherria. You can’t drink the water here). It wasn’t TOO bad, but it was…ok? Lol.
Afterwards, we headed down this alley of clothes and shoes (not a bad alley, part of the Bazaar) and did some more looking around. I am done shopping at this point here, but it’s still exciting to look and Garrett and Lauren wanted to see. Anyway. There was a man there, who was selling cheap cologne and he wouldn’t leave Garrett alone. James and I moved over to tell him to get lost and James nudged him with his shoulder just as I was passing by him. They guy turned around, saw me and freaked a little. He said real loud, don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! I don’t touch America!”. The thing was, I am a woman, and an American. Bad news bears. We walked away rather fast to get away father down the alley. It kinda shook me up. Not going to lie. I hadn’t faced that much obvious hate for Americans yet. First time. We passed the guy later and he started saying stuff again, so we told him we were Canadian and he turned right around. Oh yes! Oh Yes! I love Canadians!
Strange. Not going to lie. We actually spent much of the day saying we were from different places. I was from London by the Thames. I was from Australia. I was from Canada. Mostly from London though. They don’t understand accents, so they don’t care. But America is seen in a negative light. Not the people necessarily. But definitely the politics of our nation. It felt uncomfortable saying I wasn’t American. I’m a pretty patriotic person. I love my country. But I felt safer saying I was from Canada. Maybe not safer, but definitely less stressed. They give you better prices. They give you less hard of a time. It’s easier. I’ve never experienced that before. That’s for sure.
I can tell Turkey is going to be interesting. I like it so far despite its obvious difference. It reminds me of China in a way. Though one thing is for sure that’s different: they don’t believe in Deodorant here! Haha. At all. The tram ride is a wretched 20 minutes. Let me tell you what!
After THAT experience, we headed down to a little theater that James found iff the metro stop and watched Eclipse finally! SOO good! Though they left out the best line in the whole book. Not sure why they did that. It’s WHY it’s called Eclipse. Duh. So glad though. The theater was nice though there wasn’t any AC. Still, SO glad!
Made it home alright after that and watched some of the Lord of the Rings. They finally showed the third one.
I like Turkey. I bought some really cool clothes in Greece to wear here and I love them so far. They’re all really loose pants and nice shirts that are cool. Definitely wonderful. Loving it.

Last Day in Greece!

Slept in till about eleven today. At noon, we headed off with James’ roommate, John and his friends Charlotte and Maggie. Cute girls, and we LOVE John. We headed back to Montasariki, and ended up actually losing the girls. They made it back, but we lost them almost immediately. We ate another super cheap gyro (our last one ☹) and then did a little more shopping for some olive oil. I guess that Grecian olive oil is supposed to be WAY better than Italian olive oil, and I LOVED that, so I’m excited to try some for home. It’s going to be great! We didn’t stay long, and after we headed back, we got right back out and headed to the pier to do some internet time. It was pretty frustrating to say the least, but we got the necessities done and we were ALMOST able to Skype our parents.
We made it back to the ship on time and really relaxed for the rest of the day. Did some homework. Laundry for James. The works.

Overall thoughts on Greece:
I think that we were lucky in a lot of way. We didn’t really feel the effects of the economic down turn here. We came at a really good time I guess. There were no strikes and there weren’t a lot of unhappy people. The people here really like Americans for the most part we feel. They don’t like the politics that our government employs sometimes, but they like us. They were always willing to help and to talk. I loved the sights. I love the history. We haven’t gone anywhere that hasn’t been extremely rich in history. It’s insane. It’s incredible. It’s not what I’m used to. I loved every day in Greece. It was a little laid back. There were some hot days, but it didn’t detract from it. I adore Greece. Never got a handle on the language though. Lol. Not even a little. I know hello, and thank you. But it’s a start.
We did a lot more shopping in Greece than anything else. We saw the major tourist places, but we really saw where the people hang out in this port. It was a different experience, but one that we really liked.
One other thing that’s strange: there are a LOT of stray dogs in Greece. I mean a LOT. Everywhere we went we saw them. EVERYwhere. There are stray cats as well, but not nearly as many. I guess that the people in Greece take care of them too. You see shop keepers putting out plates of food and watering them. They’re like the pets of the city. They’re filthy and full of flees, so you don’t want to touch them necessarily. It’s strange. Our friend Patrick Fogherty was terrified of them. The last day we were walking back to the ship with him from the indoor terminal (where there are stray dogs galore) and he told us about how he was so annoyed with all the stray dogs everywhere and that they were “biting” him, but not really, just super gross. Lol. Patrick cracks us up.
Greece is incredible. And beautiful. Loved it!

Greece Day 4

Well. It happened. We missed a trip. It left at 7:45, and we didn’t get around to waking up till 9 or so. James did, he called to say we were out of luck and we decided to just go back to sleep. Which we did, till 1pm. Ah…ya. Pretty disappointing actually. We were supposed to go to Delphi, which is like 4 hour bus ride away and then see some ancient ruins. If you’ve ever read Percy Jackson, Delphi would be exciting for you, and I was stoked. But…it happens. And this was the first one out of many trips that we’ve done.
After the obviously much needed sleep, we headed off for town. We took the 25 minute walk and the metro down to Montasiriki (or however you spell it), and then headed to Plaka again! I wore my Birks out, and they were super comfy, so I was stoked. We ate this AMAZING gyro from a little restaurant that you order to go from. The gyro was only 1.80 and a soda was 1.10. The gyro was HUGE and the best freaking thing I’ve had in Greece yet. They just throw it together really quickly too, which is kinda funny, but man, what an awesome lunch.
After our little sit down, we headed down one of the streets we hadn’t seen yet. We ended up at a Grecian Nike store! We looked around for a bit and I ended up buying a dude type jersey thing. I guess that Nike has a certain type of material called “Dry Fit” and the US soccer team used it for their jersey because it’s very breathable. Well. I’m going to Turkey and to Egypt, and I NEED something breathable, and it fit. So…I bought a dude thing.
Next we went to H&M, which I usually don’t like. There was some CRAZY sale though, and I ended up buying another two pants and a shirt. Hahahaha. Ya. Typical me. Spending more money. I’m happy with them though, I think that they’ll be perfect for where we’re going. Linen like material, and very light.
So next we went on a crazy adventure to the OTHER side of Athens. We took 13 subway stops so we could see the Athens mall and the swimming part of the Olympic stadium (the Olympics were in 2000 or 2004 we think). The thing was, it took 45 minutes for the subway stops, and the subway was down for one of them, so we had to get ferried by bus for the last stop. Lol. The mall is awesome though. It’s a marvel of architecture I guess and it’s changed the way that Greeks look at malls. It’s like 4 stories high, and there’s an awesome looking theater on top. We wanted (I wanted) to see Eclipse and it was playing there, but we told our friends we’d meet them at 8:30, so we had to go back home! It stunk SOOO bad! We ended up being late too because we weren’t positive on the whole bus situation and we got set back a couple of minutes anyway.
We eventually made it back to the boat though, and we ended up going out with Shelby/James and Lauren/Garrett. We went back to Plaka and had another really cheap gyro. Then we went to a little bar place and had a rooftop view of the Acropolis while we ate some icecream and drank a soda. It was pretty nice. We were there for awhile just hanging out. We like the double/triple dates. They’re pretty fun. ☺
So we decided around one to head on home back to the boat. Unfortunately, the subway was down an hour earlier than it was supposed to be, and we weren’t sure how we were going to get home. Luckily, we met up with a SAS trip including a few students and like 8 teachers, one of them being from Athens. SO! We went some crazy way home on a metro that was like 5 flights downstairs and then a bus ride that was super packed. We started at one and we ended up home at 230 or so. It was an adventure, to say the least. Lol.

Greece Day Three!

Today was awesome! We started out almost late to our cooking class and barely made it to the bus on time. We were on the bus for an hour in traffic, but luckily, the restaurant held the cooking class for us! Once we got in, we separated into five different groups. We all got little aprons to wear and we learned right away that the cooking class was more of a competition that anything else. We made like six dishes, and each dish was judged by the executive chef of the restaurant. James and I cooked first. We made this tomato bread dish with lots of feta and olive oil. That’s the thing about Greek food, EVERYthing is made with feta cheese and olive oil. It’s wonderful. We made two salads, some weird potato dish, a couscous dish, and some coffee. Lol. The executive chef came to our table at one point and talked to us about the states. I guess that he’s been to Oregon, and our team leader is from there. He said he really liked Oregon people. Now I don’t know if there’s a correlation, but we totally won! Lol. We got these great little pottery thingys, a cup and a little pot. Super cute. The best part was that we totally beat our Global Studies teacher too. He was team four, we were team five. Side note: James and I did really well on the test! I got a hundred and James got a ninety three! That’s way better than the average too, even after the wicked curve that went on. We studied pretty hard though, so it makes sense really.
Anyway, while we were cooking we got to eat some of our stuff, and surprisingly it was super good. ☺ Pretty cool.
Afterwards, we headed back to the ship and met up with our friends Garret and Lauren again. We had a little adventure and ended up (after some question asking, and some luck) at a sandy beach! Super exciting! The water wasn’t nearly as clean as other places, but the sand made up for it. It felt super nice to get in the cool water after being in the stupid Greek heat for so long. It’s wickedly hot here, and the water is definitely warmer too, but it still feels super good to get in. We didn’t stay terribly long, but James got to try out his new sandals, and I got to use my Semester at Sea towel. Good time all in all. We made a beeline back to the blue shuttle that took us back to the blue bridge that took us back to the metro. We headed back to Plaka. We ate at a little pita place and got a HUGE dinner for another twenty euro. I’m not joking, we though it’d be a little thingy. Enough for two people. These dishes were intense! Piled with meat and that yogurt Papouilles sauce stuff. There was chicken and port and lamb and pita bread. It was so delicious. Everything that we’ve eaten here so far has been absolutely scrumptious. Not quite as good as Italy, but good in other ways. I love the pita bread and that tanziki sauce. I really like the meats too, though you feel like you’re going to explode afterwards because you eat so much.
After we ate, we started out on our mission. Lauren and I were looking for Berkinstock sandals. We ended up stopping a couple times on the way. I got some linen pants and a nice white breathable t-shirt. Turkey is going to be super hot, but it’s also a Muslim country, and they look down on public drunkenness and women who show any part of their bodies pretty much. One of our executive deans on the ship said that he was scared for us because he was pretty sure that there would be at least a few guys who were drunk and walking home and they would get punched out or something. Who knows. I think it’s pretty interesting though. The only thing is, I only have really hot jeans and it’s going to be boiling there, so I needed some linen breathable stuff to wear. Mission accomplished though it was expensive. I’ll get some more there where it’s really cheap.
After the clothes I ended up getting a watch. It’s a Swatch Swiss brand. It’s white and cute. James has been telling me the whole time to get one, and I finally gave in. Within the next thirty minutes I was checkin the time ALL the time. Lol. I like it. After the watch, I got a little souvenir for the fam. More money spent. Then Lauren and I finally found a place that sold Berkinstocks and we got some! They were on sale, and we talked the guy own to fifty. Not so bad compared to the other prices that we saw. We’re pretty happy. Money money money though. I’m spending it like I have it.
We went back to the ship after all that. It was getting pretty late. We have a morning trip tomorrow, at 745, so we have to get some sleep so we’re worth some salt tomorrow. Delphi is where we’re going. Pretty exciting. Greece has been so great so far.

Saronic Islands

Woke up super early today and missed breakfast again. Typical us. We headed straight to the ferry with the rest of the kids on our trip for the day and ended up seeing Yulia. We got together with her and then proceeded to sleep for two hours. After a little nap (we had been super tired), we walked downstairs on the ferry and watched some traditional Greek dances. They were interesting, but pretty cool at the same time. The Zorba dance was my favorite. There were three main dancers, and they were pretty good. After the dancing, we made it to Hydra, the first of three islands we would be visiting today. Hydra was nice. It’s an island where the movie stars go and other rich people. The prices were nuts, but we did some window-shopping. For instance, I really want some Berkinstock sandals (the ones from Germany that are really nice) and they were 80 Euros! That’s nuts! You can get a gyro (pronounced jeero, officially) for 2 euro, but not shoes, man. Haha. We also went to a little rocky beach and did some swimming. The water was warm! Way warmer than the water in Croatia. It was super nice. Just as salty, but eh, at least it was coming off us like at Lokram. Swimming in the Ionian Sea…yup. Pretty exciting. The water is just as blue and just as clean.
After swimming, we went back to the ferry to sleep some more. Haha. Next we got to the island of Poros. We were only here for a couple of minutes really. We walked around, looked at some of the shops. It was nice enough. Pretty hot though. We got some water afterwards to rehydrate and we’d only been at the island for thirty minutes. One crazy thing: There was a huge fire on one of the mountains in Poros as we were leaving! Trees were going up and houses, and there was this huge mansion that was pretty freakin close to the fire. We watched it going up as we sailed away. After that strange experience, we made it to the last island, Aegina.
Aegina was nice as well. It was a little cooler with a lot more shade. We did some shopping, ate a crepe. We did a Greek dance when we got back on. There was a lve band on the ship too. They were pretty darn good. I loved the music. It was very strange, and definitely different, but nice in its own way.
Exciting!: In between one of the islands we saw dolphins jumping! James saw them when we were in the middle of lunch on the ferry. SOOO exciting! So many of the people on the boat saw them on the way across the Atlantic, and I always missed them! So I was so happy to see them. It made my day!
We ended up getting back from the islands two and a half hours later than we expected. So when we got home we scrounged for some food and then headed out to take showers. We wrote some blogs. Ate some pistachios, and watched Memoirs of a Geisha and some of the Labyrinth. Sweet.

Greece, Day One!

Greece is great! We started out a little early and headed out to Piraeus, which is like the harbor part of Athens way on the outskirts. It’s a little nuts here. There’s hardly anything in English, and the Greek letters are strange, not Cyrillic, or Latin like ours. I’m pretty sure that the Greeks are the only ones who use them (except for the Sororities), and that it’s the strangest language ever. Interesting though. There are not a lot of English speakers in Piraeus, but there are a lot in Athens. After we walked around a bit and discovered that there’s absolutely nothing in Piraeus (except for a LOT of bare breasts and a dirty theater, not joking. Gross), we headed off with our tour to the city center of Athens. We saw some of the sights of Athens on the bus ride over, but eventually we made it to the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is basically a holy hill to the Ancient Greeks. There were once temples to different gods and the Parthenon, which was dedicated to Athena, much like the other temples on the hill. From the Acropolis, you can see the whole of Athens. There are great views and it’s strange to think that the Parthenon was where people like Socrates and Aristotle studied and spoke. Plato was once in the same place. Rome was exciting because it was the home of one of the most advanced civilizations ever, but so was Greece. The ancient Greeks were just as advanced. I loved Rome for that reason, Athens is still setting in I think. After we explored it and sweated out most of our bodily fluids (it is SOOOOOOOOOO hot), we headed down and met up with two other couples to explore some more of Athens. On the way we headed to the Acropolis museum, and saw some of the original artwork that they have removed in order to keep it preserved. The marble was intense.
Garret and Lauren go to Oregon State, and Garrett is in my marketing class. Shelby and James are from California, and Shelby works with James (my James) in the student bookstore. They were great to hang out with. We made it out of the museum and headed to a square/road called Plaka. This place is awesome. There are stores everywhere and people milling around. There are restaurants and shops. You can buy clothes and watches and purses. Fur coats are everywhere. There is jewelry. It’s like a shoppers paradise. I tried on a few things looking for outfits for Turkey. You have to be pretty covered there. The next three ports are all Muslim countries, so in order to not spur on too much attention, you have to be pretty covered up. I’m on the lookout for linen clothes.
When we got to the center of Plaka, we found this nice little restaurant. We ended up doing a shared dinner. We got a mixed appetizer and a mixed grill dinner. It was huge! Every Greek dish, I’m pretty sure that we had it. The Tsaziki is soo good! It’s basically like a yogurt with spices and olive oil and cucumbers. It’s supposed to be the goat cheese type thing at Papoulis. It’s like 50 times better. After dinner, we walked the rest of the street looking at different things. We got some souvenirs and James got the most HIDEOUS pair of shoes I’ve ever seen. Ever. Ever….They’re wretched. Lol. Him and Garret got a pair. I think Lauren is as horrified as me. Lol. They’re traditional style slippers that men use to wear. I hope that it goes out of style forever soon. Lol.
We eventually made it to the subway and then back to the ship. It was a wonderful day. It was hot, beyond hot, but it was nice too. Hanging out with everyone was super nice and the day was a good one. After we got home we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was more hilarious than I remember. Good day.

Mediterranean, Two Days:

Went back to school for two days in between ports. I’ll just give a brief overview. We were able to watch the world cup final! It was so fantastic. The only sucky part was that I had a marketing test that next day, so I had to do some studying during the game. Luckily, I’d been reading for that class every night in port, all through Italy and Croatia. I guess that most of the kids were super behind in the reading. The test was on so much of the reading too. I ended up getting a 72.5%, but that was the highest grade in the class, so I got a hundred when it was all said and done! Woop woop! I also just found out that I got a hundred on the global studies test too! Which isn’t exactly true. It was curved too, but still got top marks! I got a ninety on my trade test, but that was the highest score too. I’m not sure about that class. It’s a little nutty. To say the least. Got some rest on the ship sorta. Took long naps, though they didn’t necessarily help. Haha. Getting behind in sleep! Excited for Greece!

Last Day in Croatia!

Woke up a little late today, but we made it ok to the meeting point! Crammed on a public bus and then sprinted through the old city to try to find a tour agency that we had scheduled kayaking through. We finally found them just in time. I ran to the restroom and had a pleasant surprise. Squat toilets, like back in China. Didn’t think I’d see them so soon again.
We got situated and then we headed on out. We went with two girls and a British family as well. We were situated in two person kayaks so James put me up front for the way up. Basically, we kayaked along the City Walls of the Old City that were erected in the 1400’s to defend the city. It was incredible. Then we kayaked along a little channel to Lokrum Island. We docked on a little rocky cove thingy and then had a short tour of the island which is inhabited by peacocks, thousands of them. You can hear them from EVERYwhere on the island. There are no natural predators, so they are able to flourish very easily. We even saw little baby ones!
We ended up walking along some of the cliffs of the islands. James didn’t have his shoes, and the rocks were a little jacked, so we took our time. James jumped from one of the cliffs (though not too big), and I swam out in the ocean to meet him. The water is so nice there, and the beaches are so clean. You can see to the bottom even in deep waters. You don’t have that in San Diego. There’s no animals peeing in the water or people throwing trash. There are strict rules as to what you can have at the beaches and how they’re treated. It’s nice. Anyway, after his dive, we headed inland a little to a small little pond that was super salinated. We swam in there for awhile and James did some rock climbing. It was all really relaxing. Afterwards, we headed back to the kayaks and went around the rest of the island. We visited a cave that ships used to hide in, went around a nude beach (predominantly men unfortunately, and very old ones at that), and then saw a swimming area that had a lot of people and more naked men. We finally made it back around the channel and docked up. What was nice was that the tour had gone an hour longer. Our guide was young, and pretty cool, so he let us stay on Lokram for an hour longer!
We ate right away after that, and devoured a pizza and some pasta. We ended up sitting next to a little family from Florida who was on a Croatian cruise as well. The mom was hilarious. We talked to them for like an hour and a half. No joke. We mailed some postcards. Went back to the ship. Ate some more (I’m getting SOOOO fat), and then unwinded. I have a test tomorrow in my marketing class, so I hit the books. Pretty nervous! But it’ll be ok. I’m shooting for an A, but only have to get a C. So I’m not terribly stressed.

Overall Thoughts on Croatia:
I liked it. The place is probably the most beautiful that we’ve visited before, though I think that Rome and Italy in general definitely give it a run for it’s money. The people are nice, and the views are constant. Everywhere you look is another place that will take your breath away. I would definitely recommend it to a honeymooner though it’s not really super exiciting. It’s just a good place to relax. You can take a load off here. The pace is slower, and no one really cares what time it is. Even the clocks only go by fives. ☺

Montenegro

Interesting day today. We woke up pretty early, though still late. We missed breakfast, but we made it to the bus at 7:10. We didn’t leave till 7:35 cuz some dumb kids didn’t get their passports out. The ship keeps them for us during the journey, but we were going to another country…obviously you’re going to need a passport to get in. Finally we were off. We ended up on the bus for three hours. It’s only about an hour and some away form Dubrovnik, but we got caught up at the border for another hour and a half. Made for an interesting morning. We finally made it to Montenegro (which translate to Black Mountain as the mountain of the country look black from the dark trees that grow on the sides of the mts). We stopped first at the city of Kolor, which was a quaint little place. We met our tour guide (who had waited for us for an hour and a half without a call from anyone saying where we were, ya our bus tour guide didn’t call her to tell her we would be late. Wacked). We had a quick tour through some churches and then about thirty minutes of time to check the city out. We used this time to hang out with our Belarussian friend Yulia, and to get something to eat. Then back to the bus! We drove for another forty five minutes to another Old City named something starting with a B. We were never really quite sure. There we had lunch for an hour and a half with my marketing teacher and Yulia. The conversation was pretty interesting. We got the ship gossip and all the grisely stories from past voyages. Like one dean a couple years ago locked herself in her cabin for the last three weeks of the voyage. Stuff like that. Then we had twenty minutes to look around that city before we got back on the bus for the two and a half hour ride home. Ya….we were on the bus WAY more than we were in Montenegro, but the views were nice, and we got to sleep on the way up. Interesting trip. I can’t say it was bad, I just wish we had more time in the actual place. After we got home, we ate dinner on the ship and then got ready to go out!
Luckily enough, it is the Summer Festival going on in Dubrovnik, and it started that night. It’s basically their independence day festival, and the whole government goes to the Old City in Dubrovnik and there’s a giant celebration. We walked there and saw the fireworks, watched the last twenty minutes of the Germany game, and then watched a concert in the public square.
There was a woman singer….but she sounded more like a man than anything. I swear she sang at a tenor. Then she sang Time to Say Goodbye, and she sang the man part...for the whole song. I have a video that I’ll post. It’s insane a little.
Trying to get out of the Old City was intense too. There were hoards of people trying to get in and a prostitute who was trying to get out who cut us in line. The bus ride home was free though, so we were pacified.
Made it home, safe and sound and went to bed asap. Early morning tomorrow.

Croatia Day Two!

Woke up super early today. 6am! Ate some breakfast and headed out to the bus to make our tour. Joe and Susie were our group leaders so it was nice to see them and the Gellespies were there also. We started out with a bus ride to the city of Tresteno where we visited the Botanical Gardens that were there. They were intense. There was a little fountain in the middle and an awesome sea view. It was nice. Not too long of a visit, but nice. We hung out with our friend Matt who we’d gone to the beach with the other day. Next stop was Ston, a little further down the road. We saw the salt fields here. Basically, they drain ocean water into these little fields and wait for the water to evaporate. Then they collect the salt and sell it off.
Quick visit. Short stop.
We were on to Korcula (said Core-chu-la, with the emphasis on Core). We toured a church, a museum (James bought a watch during this time, a nice one) and then finally had lunch. It was a lot of fish, a lot of seafood, a bit of coke, and some pretty nice cake there at the end. Afterwards, James, Matt, Yulia, and I went off and found a little rock beach off of a battlement. It took us awhile to find, but we found one that the locals were at as well, so we felt good about it. The water was freezing! But at the same time it was amazing. The water is so clear, you can see to the bottom no matter how far you go out. It’s unbelievably salty, so you can float no problem. You don’t want to touch the black crustaceans, but it’s no big (hopefully, knock on wood) as you can generally see to the bottom anyway.
We were floatin out there, just looking around when it really hit us. We’re swimming in the Adriatic Sea…we’re in the freaking Mediterranean Sea, swimming on an island off Croatia in the bluest, clearest water I’ve ever seen. It was an intense moment.
We meet right after to take the ferry back. The bus ride was two hours and when we got back we grabbed some dinner on the ship. Then we really have taken it easy for the rest of the night. We watched The Last Samurai, which was good and caught up on some stuff. I had some serious blogging to do, so I’m all caught up at this point. Croatia is incredible so far! Ready for tomorrow and Montenegro.

First Day in Croatia!

Super excited! Croatia is beautiful, we can already tell just from the view from the boat. We slept in for a bit today, but not terribly much. We ran to the grocery store that was right out front of the pier and stocked up on some snacks and soda. We headed to the ATM as well. For a 24 pack of little baby cokes for James and me it was 112 kuna, which is the Croatian unit of money. We thought that we would be getting a really good rate because the kuna is 22 cents to the US dollar. So, five kuna is a US dollar. It’s not so though. A pizza is 55 kuna. A soda is 13 kuna. Hahahaha. It’s ridiculous. Really, it’s about as expensive as the other places though.
We headed out for our city orientation at one o clock. It was…horrible! It was really the first time we had a truly bad trip (besides the one in Rome that we didn’t even go to because it was a rip off).
We started out by going to this wack little synagogue. The way that they described it was that it was like this awesome old synagogue that’s all famous in Croatia. It’s like a little down ally and it was itty bitty and it didn’t look old. Then we went to a museum that was also itty bitty. Also lame, and we couldn’t hear the guide anyway. Then we went to an aquarium that looked like a bunch of little kid fish tanks that they threw together. The student registrar went with us and even she (who is an eternal optimist) said that it sucked. I hate to sound like any part of this was a bad day. I wouldn’t say that. There were still incredible views. There were still amazing things to see that were interesting. It was jut a little…different than we were used to. We were determined to have an excellent day still. So we signed off our trip and stuck around in the city.
Dubrovnik is split into two mini cities almost. The first is Old Dubrovnik. This is the historical part of the city that is surrounded by the city walls. These are huge walls that everyone says we have to see while we’re here. We haven’t had the chance yet, but we plan on making it. We ate lunch with our friend Yulia who is from Belarus. She looks freakin 22 I swear, but she’s almost thirty. She’s in my marketing class and I really like her. We hang out every once in awhile.
We tried to get some internet and got a little, but not enough to do much damage.
We took the bus back to the boat and put on our swim suits. We were headed to the beach. We actually ended up meeting up with some other kids who were also leaving while we were waiting for the beach. We changed our minds and headed out with them to a beach that they said was absolutely amazing. It took us about thirty minutes to walk there, and I’ll admit that it was a beautiful beach. It was also a pebble one with no sun. The water was FREEZING! We ended up staying for awhile despite the fact that we didn’t do much swimming. We threw rocks that made some crazy sounds plopping in and just sat around and talked for a bit. It was nice. Relaxing. That’s what everyone says Croatia is about, relaxation and taking in the beauty of the place. Everything is a little slower. The people are nice and polite and many speak English. Everywhere you look is beautiful. We definitely had some R&R with some nice people. We headed back after we dried off and got some stuff done. I had a lot of blog to write and some studying as well. I have a marketing test first day back and I want to be prepared. Studying all the time, even in port. Student through and through.

Mediterranean, 2 days:

Got some stuff done. We took two tests. The first was Global Studies and the second was for International Trade. Global Studies was super hard! We studied the whole day for it and it was still intense! The majority of the kids got a C or worse, I’m sure. Some didn’t study at all. I studied like crazy. James too. We were awfully glad that we did. We also were able to watch Sabrina, which is a great movie, and then to take the International Trade test, which was one question on China. I’ve lived there. No Big Deal. We got ready for Croatia, and tried to sleep as much as possible! Ready for chapter three!

Napoli Day Three! Pompeii.

Woke up early today. We hung out with Sabina and rode out to Pompeii. What can you say about Pompeii? It’s underneath Mt. Vesuvius which erupted in 79 B.C. burying the city and those around it in tons of volcanic ash. Years ago they found it and they have been excavating since. It’s intense. From looking at the city, one is supposed to be able to tell what Roman life was like. Some interesting things:
First of all, the Romans were obsessed with sex. Gaudy, public sex. There is a whole street of Red Light District. It was accepted that all men went there. If you weren’t sure where they are, no problem, just look to the road where carved out penises point the direction. There are penises on the wall that show vitality. If you go inside a brothel, you can pick your service by pointing to the appropriate painting (porn) that is above the room. The beds were made of stone, so things were hurried along. Ridiculous! Have the tour we talked about how baudy and constantly aroused the freakin Romans were. The other half was viewing the solidified bodies and looking at some of the architecture that was being excavated. There were some fascinating things besides the penises, I promise. For instance, the roads were built on an incline so that the water that would come with the rains would flow to the bottom. There were stepping stones that were put on all the streets so that when the water was flowing, you wouldn’t get your feet wet. Lol. They were all about their style and their clothing I guess. They loved to dress richly. They made the first carts and there were specific dimensions that are still used for railroads so that all the carts could make it through the stepping stones. They would put marble specs in the road, so that they would act like reflectors on dark nights. There were lanterns, but it wasn’t always safe on the main road, so they liked the reflectors to add a little light. They had fast food restaurants back then. They would store food in jars that would keep for the whole day and sell it for cheap. The people would nap in the middle of the day even back then, but they stayed up late as well.
The ruins are wonderful. It’s so intense to see how much they have excavated. There are full houses and different places that you can walk through. It was really pretty amazing.
After Pompeii, we went to Sorrento, which is where Sabina is from. This town was beautiful. We had lunch, which was nice, and then walked around the streets and shopping centers. There is a view of a beach there that give Capri some serious competition. We had twix flavored Gelato and bought some things. It was a nice place. After getting back to the boat, we had a nice little fourth of July barbecue (on the fifth, I know). Afterwards we studied for our test the next day, Global Studies. Napoli was nice. Different, but nice. The sights were amazing. Capri was great. Pompeii was awesome. I love Italia!

Overall thoughts on Italy (short):
I think that I like it a bit better than Spain. The history is so rich and the sights are amazing. The people are just like I’m use to (The Celenza’s are legit), and the way of life is a lot different but in a nice way. Oh. The most important thing. We all know that Bentley is a little smarty pants, but we didn’t know just how smart. We thought she was talking baby talk whenever she wants a drink of coke. We’re totally wrong. She’s just askin in Italian, Coka. ☺

Napoli Day Two: Capri

What a day! We started out early again with Sabina as our guide. We headed straight to the pier and went off on a “Jet Boat” that lasted forty-five minutes to the island of Capri (it’s said a little strangely, CAP like a baseball cap then pri. You have to stress the cap part), which has to be the most tourist visited place near Naples. Ten thousand people were on the island and only four thousand live there. Someone said they saw Magic Johnson hanging out and we’re pretty sure that Bill Gates was there in a HUGE HUGE yacht. You can tell that the island is extremely wealthy. It’s so beautiful. The water there is crystal blue. It’s turquoise, it’s indescribable. We started the trip by going up on a chair lift to the top of the island. The chairs were little whicker things. They didn’t look too terribly sturdy, but they made it all right to the top. The sights were beautiful. I know I keep saying that, the same thing over and over, but this was legit. This was incredible. I’m sure that you can google it. Going up on the chairs, you can see the whole island. There are vineyards right underneath your feet and villas. It was a trip. After touring around AnaCapri, which is just the top of the island of Capri, we were treated to lunch at one of the island restaurants. Not good. But the company was, so it made it bearable.
We took a bus down to Capri and walked down the main street. Louis Vuitton, Guess, stores like that. We visited the Botanical Gardens that were there and saw more amazing sights. Capri is intense. Capri is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. It’s a paradise.
Right before we left, we walked down the main street back to the pier to take the Jet Boat back when we saw it. The store. The store to trump and trample ALL stores. A shoe store that makes shoes, to YOUR feet! We went it. I picked my style. I picked my color. Then they fit a leather sole to my feet. They measured where my toes were. The cut holes and nailed things in. Then they measured the leather laces to the size of my feet! They cut where my foot stopped and everything. My shoes are incredible, and the Italians are known for their leather. I didn’t get a leather purse, I didn’t get a leather coat, but I got some b.a. shoes made from leather that were custom fit for me. I showed EVERYone. It was AWESOME! Definitely an experience that I didn’t even know I had to have in life. I love them.
After Capri, we found a little internet café and did some catch up. We found another pizza place and had pizza WITH cheese, and then made it back home to the ship before dark.
Let me tell you about the Gillespies. I could wait one, but I won’t. The Gillespies are a couple who are both teachers on the ship. They’re theater teachers. We spent every day in Naples with them, and by the end, they loved us. I have to say, I love them too. They’re a little older, but they’re SO sweet. Capri was the first day that we really talked to them a lot. Mrs. Gillespie pulled me aside when we were waiting to meet with the group near lunch time, and she said, “You two are a wonderful couple. He treats you so well, and I can tell you’re just the nicest couple. I’m glad you’re together.” No joke! How freakin nice?! I was like, “Thanks!....wow. Thanks”. Or something awkward, I didn’t even know what to say. Since then we’ve been buddies. We walk around with them. We’ve had breakfast. They’re really nice, and they like us a lot I think. Another couple we found are the Barazas. Joe is the security officer on the ship. He walks the halls at night and is a retired LADP officer. His wife is named Susie. We ended up walking with them on the way from a restaurant one night. Somehow we got to talking about China, and by the end of the conversation, they pretty much told us they could get us a teaching job with crazy pay and nice living arrangements! It sounds like a sweet deal, and if we could do it, it’d be perfect. We’ve seen them quite a few times since then too, and I think we’re building a good rapport. Another example is the Daneyshares (or some other crazy spelling). Dr. D is our international trade teacher, and his wife is named Kathleen. Dr. D likes us because we pay attention in his class and we’re polite. We’ve talked a few times outside of class. Yesterday he told us that if he had grandchildren, he hoped they were just like us and that we were the nicest couple he’d met on the ship. His wife agreed.
Old people like us. Plain and simple. I think it’s because they can tell that we’re old spirits. We’re young, but we make old people decisions and we want to SEE things rather than just party every night. We haven’t gone out. One time. We’re polite. They can tell that we’re into the school portion of the trip too. They like us, and it’s funny. But at the same time, we like them too. We can relate to them. Makes me want to laugh a little.
Sorry for the aside. Just another passage to show how lame-ish we are for our age. Haha. Incredible day I’d say. Capri is intense.

First Day In Naples 7-3

Naples: “The Arm Pit of Italy” to some. I personally wouldn’t agree, but it ain’t no Rome. I’m somewhere in the middle I think.
On the first day, we slept in a bit. We really needed it. We were so exhausted from the heat from the day before. Before we headed out, James’ roommate came in. He’s been gone for a few days. I guess that he went on some wine tour of a vineyard in Florence, and on the way there, the van driver hit an old lady going 50 miles per hour. He said that it was pretty gorey and she had a bone sticking out! An ambulance finally got to her after two hours, but she was breathing when she left! CRAZY!!! He was a little shaking up, you could tell. Who wouldn’t be!?
Anyway, we barely made it to our one o clock city tour. The tour was amazing. We had a guide named Sabina, who was absolutely wonderful. We ended up having her all three days, and she was so great. She was loud, and excited and she knew her stuff you could tell. She was pretty too, as James liked to continually point out, but I liked her so much. We had a few good conversations with her over the three days. The first day was awesome. We started by viewing an opera theater that is in the wealthy shopping district in town. I never really thought that I would be too interested in something like that, but you’d have to be nuts not to think it’s amazing. It’s all done in red and gold, and the thing is shaped like a horseshoe. We got to go in the king’s box and see the stage. It’s one of the oldest in Europe, so when I say King’s box I mean it literally. That’s where the king went to see the theater. Very impressive, and the guide was a cutie pie. Her English was impressive.
Afterwards we took a panoramic tour of the city. I have to admit, from the outside looking in, Naples is beautiful. The beaches are really only big rocks, but the water is incredible. There are villas on the outskirts that would blow your mind and boats that are in the dock that have to be worth millions. Everything is done in a certain architectural style, so while the buildings of the city differ to a certain degree, they’re all similar enough to have a cool effect. The city was wonderful, and it was a good introduction to our stay there.
There are four major castles in Naples, and they’re legitimate. They’re huge buildings with the ramparts and the draw bridges. It was interesting to see. That was definitely something that I was NOT expecting to see there. We visited two cathedrals as well. They were nice, though not the most impressive. I think it’s going to be hard to compare after St. Peter’s. One of them was a Jesuit cathedral that was still an active church. I don’t know much about confession, but they do theirs in public. There is no little box. The people are right outside talking to the priests. Interesting I thought.
The rest of the night was taken up with us finding a place to eat. On the way there, we saw why Naples is called the armpit. It’s a little sketchy, a LOT dirty, and a little scary to tell you the truth. We made a decision the first day that we would be inside the boat by nightfall every night. We figured it’d be safer. And the mob is totally there. No myths. They run the place.
We have ate nothing but pizza every meal in Italy. We had lasagna once, and it was great! But man. We’re into pizza, and Naples is supposed to be the best. Funny story. Our first meal on our own there, we go into this place, get some incredible bread and then order a Pizza Napoli (Naples in Italian). Turns out that that particular kind of pizza is one without cheese. No joke, a pool of sauce, that’s what we ate. Haha. Serve us right for not looking close enough. It was interesting, and I’m sure that if it had cheese on it, it might have been one of the best I’ve ever had. It was an interesting day.

Last Day in Rome! 7-2

Today’s the day. Our last day in Northern Italy. We wanted to make the most of it, so we woke up pretty early. 6:30! Woop. We headed down to the train station and waited around in Civ till 7:30 when the train got there. We ended up in Rome at about 9am. We hit the ground running. We went straight to the metro again and stopped off at the exit to the Vatican. We had heard the other day that the line to get in was three hours long! So we wanted to beat as much as the crowd as we could. We ran off the metro and headed straight to what we thought was the Vatican Museum. The line was long, but not terribly so. It took us about twenty minutes to get to St. Peter’s Basilica. We saw the Swiss Guard on the way, which was exciting. We learned later that the Swiss Guard are young men who serve as the guard to the Pope and the Vatican for a period of five years. They have to be single, and they have to be dedicated. They’re outfits are pretty nuts. You should google them. They look a little like clowns, but at the same time, they all stand to stoically and they have these crazy hook things that they carry around. All quite interesting. As well, we learned that the whole reason for the Vatican’s location is that it is location that many believe is the burial place of the Apostle Peter, himself. It’s called St. Peter’s because it’s supposed to be where he’s buried, somewhere underground.
St. Peter’s Basilica is intense. Going inside is like walking into a gilded cathedral full of marble and windows that shine the lights throughout and the marble busts are insane. There are wax bodies of old popes, and there is a huge chapel that you can see and walk up to. There was a room we went into that is just for praying and the busts are absolutely beautiful. There are huge marble sculptures and the ceilings are insane. I haven’t seen anything like it. I would have to say that it’s the craziest thing I’ve seen yet. The dress code there is really strict too. Really, it is for Europe in general. If you have a sleeveless shirt or your shorts aren’t long enough, then they won’t let you in. It’s pretty intense, but it’s really a respect thing. I didn’t want to take any risks, so I wore some long pants and a shirt that was a little thicker that had longer sleeves. It was hot, but I wasn’t getting turned away.
After awhile, we realized that we weren’t anywhere near where we thought we were. We needed to get to the Vatican Museum, not just St. Peter’s. We asked a nice chubby little priest where we should go, and he gave us some good directions only at this point it was already ten thirty, and any line that we had originally tried to beat was in full force. We saw it, and we realized it was a good two hour wait. So! We cheated. We bought a guided tour throughout the Vatican Museum. They told us we’d only wait twenty minutes or so, but with all things in Italy, you have to double the time they say. Well, triple more like it. We were able to stop and sit down for a bit though. We had some croissants (which I’m totally a fan of now), and waited for our tour guide to come. She ended up being a British red headed woman who was a little spicy to say the least. She made quite a few sexual jokes, but eh. When in Rome and all that. They’re all like that.
We finally made it in. When you get a guide, you get to skip the whole line and walk right in. It’s pretty nice, and I’d say that it’s totally worth it. Once we got into the museum, the guide took us aside and explained in detail the Sistine Chapel. Everyone’s heard of the Sistine Chapel, everyone’s seen the Adam creation painting. It’s in Michelangelo’s in Tucson on the ceiling. I’ve read about Michelangelo in school and I’ve even seen a few of his sculptures in books. I really didn’t understand though. This man was a genius. Pure and simple. Here’s an example. When you look at a painting from someone like Raphael, or anyone else from that time period, the bodies of the people in the painting look like “painting” people. This is hard to understand. For instance, people’s knees. They look like smooth joints, smooth knees. When you look at a Michelangelo’s paintings, the knees look like knees. There are lines where the cap is. There are joints. When there is a painting of someone’s chest, there are muscle groups. We learned from our tour guide that Michelangelo knew about muscle groups that physicians didn’t know about for a full two hundred years. The man was brilliant, and he showed off his brilliance through his works. The man was also crazy. He learned all the stuff from dissecting people. Ya. Gross. Still, you can’t deny his genius.
We went throughout the Vatican museum for about 3 hours before we made it to the Sistine Chapel. Once we were inside, it was so intense. More so than I thought. It’s almost overwhelming. The painting on the side of the wall of the chapel was almost just as intense. There’s a picture of Jesus right in the center, which was the first time that someone had done that in a famous painting of significance. One of his hand is lifting up, the other is pushing down. On the one side he is rising the good up into heaven. On the other he is banishing the others to hell. It’s an intense painting, well wall really. The whole of the museum was intense. There are like miles of hallways and different places. Artifacts upon artifacts upon artifacts. But it’s hot. Like, no ac in the middle of the summer in Rome hot. HOT.
Afterwards, we headed over to the OldBridge Gelato place. SOO good! Gelato is awesome because it really doesn’t get to my stomach! It’s not necessarily icecream, and I haven’t had any problems with it! Which is super nice. My nose found it too. We were passing it (though we didn’t know it at the time), when I said out of the blue: “Man, we forgot to go to that Gelato place the interport student told us about”. I turned my head and there it was! Bang! Super exciting. James’ nose has been guiding us this whole trip, so my nose had it’s own experience too.
After the Vatican and OldBridge, which took five hours, we headed over to the Pantheon. Unfortunately, it was under construction, so it looked a little interesting, and the inside is now a church….but it’s still cool to say we’ve been there, I guess? I was a little surprised to say the least. But I’m glad that we went. I was expecting something more like the Acropolis, but we’re going there too, so it’ll be ok. Afterwards, we walked to the city’s supposedly best square of bars and restaurants: Campo di Fiori. We didn’t eat there, though we did look at the score of the world cup game that was playing.
As we were walking to find a place to eat, I had an experience. I’ve lived in the desert my whole life. I know what heat stroke is, and I know how it feels. Well. This time, I was a little unprepared. Usually you get a head ache, or a little achey in general. I went from a little warm, to dizzy as heck to muddled thoughts. It was horrible. James’ was talking to me, but I wasn’t sure what he was saying, and it wasn’t until he turned back to look at me that he realized that I was in trouble. James’ really saved the day. He took control right away, and took care of me. We walked me to a store where he bought me a water and sat me down. We started for the train station so we could get home, and he made me stop every once in awhile and rest. He took pretty good care of me to say the least. It would have been horrible if I’d passed out in the middle of Rome….We made it to the train station. Got on one going home, and made it a ok. We got some snacks so we weren’t dying and waited till we got home to go to a little pizza joint to eat. What a day.
All in all, I loved Rome. It was amazing. The sights, the people. My favorite part was that there are trees there. Huge Cyprus trees, and these other ones that are super tall with leaves only at the top. It’s green. It’s SO green. I know it prolly sounds weird, but it really struck me. I loved it. Rome was incredible. Prolly my favorite place so far. One could spend days there and not see it all. The sights and the history make Rome a pretty rich place. I feel lucky to have been there.