Ambassador Ball

Today was the Ambassador Ball which is basically the ship’s semi-formal that celebrates everyone becoming SAS alumni.  I slept in which was really nice and laid out on the top deck for a little before lunch.  Then in the afternoon I finished my short week of spa indulgences with a pedicure – very necessary after walking through 8 dirty countries in flip flops.  I had the early 5:30pm dinner seating so after we got all dressed up (I wore my brown dress with gold belt), I went to dinner with Kaitlyn, Andrea, and Lauren.  As you walked in they gave everyone a free glass of champagne because they did a group voyage toast which was cute.  And the area walking into the dining room was all decorated with photos so it reminded me of a mix between prom and the senior party.  They brought out all the amazing food at dinner – shrimp cocktail appetizer, French onion soup, salad, and I had filet mignon for my entrée (you also had the choice of chicken or fish).  I was afraid the food wouldn’t be all that good but it was actually delicious and I ate every bite.  Then there was an awkward time period of a few hours with nothing to do while the 8:00pm dinner seating went on so we took some pictures on the deck and then watched National Treasure in my room.  Then dessert was served at 9:30pm and it was so amazing!  They had giant chocolate replicas of all the monuments we visited like the Sphinx, Coliseum, and Parthenon – and that was just to decorate the tables!  The dessert was a huge buffet like when we were eating in Egypt with tons of finger food pastries and cakes.  After dessert it was time for the dance where they turned the Union into a hopping dance party.  One of the kids was the DJ and he was playing all the requests that they took from people earlier in the day.  We thought it was going to be kind of lame and weren’t planning on staying very long but it actually turned out to be fun and we stayed until midnight when it ended.  It was pretty entertaining to watch everyone dancing and making fools of themselves while we were all shoved in the tiny union.  After the party we hung out in the piano lounge with people and now I am headed to bed.  I have to have all of my luggage packed by 1:00pm tomorrow so it can be taken off the ship, so I better wake up with time to pack.  Only one more day left until I’m back in the USA!

P.S. On another exciting note, my Cross-Cultural Psych teacher emailed out our grades and I got an A+ for the course!  Yay!!

Shipboard Talent Show

Today everyone took their final exams and now school is officially over!  For the study day yesterday I indulged in a 50 minute Seven Seas massage at the spa which was amazing and so relaxing.  I spent the rest of the day yesterday and most of today working on my essay exam for Cross-Cultural Psych.  It turned out to be a lot more time consuming to put in all the details than I thought, but I got it turned in by the deadline and now I am officially finished with school for the next 5 days before UVa classes start.  To kick off the fun times for the end of the voyage, we had the shipboard talent show tonight.  Some of it was serious people playing guitar and singing, but other people had really funny acts like a dance to make fun of one of the dances that the crew did in their talent show.  My favorite act was two guys who did a series of ads making fun of the “real men of genius” ads, so it was “real SAS-ers of genious” and they made fun of our assistant dean who makes the intercom announcements, the doctor, the hot IT guy, and the Global Studies teacher.  They were so funny and definitely the crowd favorite of the night.  Tomorrow is another fun day of relaxing before the Ambassador Ball!

No More Classes!

Yesterday was the final day of classes on the ship!  The night before last there was a movie night on the ship and they showed The Hangover which was hilarious!  It was obviously a bootleg copy because the movie is still in theaters, but it was so fun to finally see a new movie.  Other than that we have started our first of two study days leading up to final exam day on Aug. 19th.  Today was the Global Studies exam day and final essay due date.  I turned in the paper yesterday and the exam this morning was the same as last time (just 100 matching questions), so hopefully I did alright to keep my A.  The only thing I have left to do now is a 12 pg (single spaced) essay exam for Cross-Cultural Psych that is due by the end of exam day.  I’m planning on being a little bit of a hermit for the next 2 days until I finish my essay exam, so I apologize for the lack of interesting updates.  However, once exams are over we have the student talent show followed by Ambassador Ball!

Just More Sailing...

Today is the third day at sea after leaving Morocco and there hasn’t really been much going on besides classes and everyone trying to get their papers finished.  Since we left Morocco the sea hasn’t been too rocky – I’ve been surviving just fine without any sea sickness medicine.  We are traveling a little bit more southern in the Atlantic which might be helping the waves.  Tomorrow is our last day of classes and Global Studies finished today so I get to sleep in tomorrow!  Although we are gaining an hour pretty much every other night so it is like sleeping in every day.  Everyone always says they wish there were more hours in a day, and it definitely is awesome to have the extra time for work and sleep.  I’ve been working on all my final assignments – turned in my Stress Management paper today and have my group presentation in that class tomorrow.  Then we have the Global Studies exam day where there is no class and just the exam and papers due.  Then Aug. 18th is a study day before finals day on the 19th.  I don’t have any final exams though, just my Cross-Cultural Psych essay exam due that day.  Last night was the 1st Annual SAS Film Festival where people made short films of stuff on the ship or their experiences in other countries or anything.  Some of them were really good (from those people who were good with their computers) and some were really cute, like the kids on the ship making some videos.  Other than that ship life has been pretty much the same, I can’t wait for all the classes to be over with so that we can all just hang out and enjoy the last 3 days on the ship!

Marrakech!!

I am now back on the ship after the last 3 days in Marrakech!  Marrakech is much smaller than Casablanca but has more of what you would think of as Moroccan culture than Casablanca which is pretty European in style.  We left at 8:00am from the ship for the 3.5 hour drive to Marrakech.  I slept on and off catching some of the scenery which was pretty deserted (not as much as Egypt though) with scattered Berber villages.  Berbers are the native ethnicities of Morocco and there are 3 main tribes from which all native Moroccans pretty much descend from.  Marrakech lies on the edge of the Atlas Mountains which creates some beautiful scenery as you get closer to the city because the mountains get larger and larger in the background.

The first thing we did after the drive was stop for lunch at Le Palais de Jbilates which was a really pretty Moroccan restaurant.  We had “salads” to start which are not at all like American salads.  They have lots of bread and then a huge plate in the middle of the table that had lots of different spreads on it.  The center of the plate was rice and it was arranged like a wheel so you could spin the plate around to get the different spreads that you wanted.  There were like 6 or 7 different spreads I think, including bean, tomato, apricot, and some more that I have no idea what they were, but they were all delicious!  Then they bring out little appetizer things that were like rolls of fried cheese (their version of a cheese stick sort of) and a triangle shaped fried piece that was full of beef and tasted like taco.  For the main course we had couscous with vegetables, beef, and lamb.  The meat was especially juicy and delicious, the couscous doesn’t really have flavor because you are supposed to put a sauce on it but I am boring and like plain things so I thought it was yummy all by itself!  For dessert we had watermelon and a Moroccan cookie which has a nutty taste and is really dry and crumbly.  Then we had some mint tea which is so good!  Sometimes it can have a little too much mint in it and it kind of tastes like you are drinking toothpaste even though it is just water, but if you add some sugar to it, it is very refreshing.

After lunch we drove about 20 min to reach the Palm Groves, which is just a large palmary, for camel riding.  They had 4 trains of 10 camels each for our bus and the trains followed one after the other for our trek through the groves.  Before we left they gave us all blue turbans so we all looked so authentic for our camel riding.  Then we rode around on the camels for about 40 min before getting off at a Berber house in the groves.  The camels were so fun to ride at the beginning because we were all excited but then they definitely started to hurt my butt after a while.  When we got to the Berber house we got a little tour before sitting on the floor cushions and listening to them play music and dance a little.  They also served us mint tea which was delicious but not as refreshing because we were so hot from camel riding.  After relaxing there for a little bit we got back on our camels for the 40 min ride back.  It was getting hot because it was the middle of the afternoon so the ride back was pretty tiring, but the camels were so cute!  They were linked together so closely that the camel behind mine had its head right next to my leg.  The girl behind me named her camel Indy and I pet him a lot and we became friends even though he slobbered all over my foot sometimes.

After the camel riding we went to Hotel Imperial Plaza to check in.  It was a cute hotel but the power went out right after we got there which was kind of annoying since we were all hot from the camel riding.  I took like a 2 hour nap and then we went to dinner at the hotel at 8:00pm which was a buffet but not as much variety as there have been at other hotels.  After dinner we went up to the roof of the hotel where they had a pool and bar and hung out there with people from the trip and played cards for a few hours before going to bed.

Our second day in Marrakech we left after breakfast at 8:00am for a full day of touring the city.  Breakfast didn’t have very much variety but was more Moroccan and I had their version of pancakes and syrup which was pretty good but the syrup was not as sweet as ours.  First we went to the Koutoubia mosque and looked around the outside and took some pictures.  The mosques always have the super high minarets as the highest points in the city so the mosque is always an iconic building of whatever city it is in.  Then we went to the Saadian tombs which were old tombs beautifully decorated with tiles in the Islamic style that were preserved somehow because when people came to destroy the city they were afraid to mess with the graves.  It was just a small little garden area with some graves outside with just a decorated tile slab the size of a coffin while the more important people had entire rooms decorated above their graves.  Then we had some free time for shopping at a giant store in the medina (old city in the center).  That took a while because they had like one cash register for the entire bus to buy stuff.  Next we went to Bahia palace which was a really pretty palace that is supposedly similar to the Alhambra.  It definitely reminded of Spain because both palaces have the Islamic colors and tiles.  Then we went for lunch at another beautiful Moroccan restaurant called Palais Chahramane.  We had the same “salads” as the first restaurant with bread and all the spreads.  Then for our appetizers we had triangle pieces of chicken with rice that was fried.  Our main dish was beef tangine which was just beef and veggies in a sauce with rice on the side.  I loved the rice because it was kind of sweet and the beef was juicy and delicious too!

After lunch we went to a Berber pharmacy which is a place that sells spices and herbal remedies.  They explained all of the spices to us and let us smell all of them before giving people time to buy what they wanted which took a really long time again because there was only one cash register.  Then we finally went to the main attraction of Marrakech – Djemma El-Fna!  This is a huge square that has shopping, food, and everything you could want.  The center is filled with snake charmers and people playing music also some people that had monkeys.  The monkeys looked so sad because they were kept in tiny little boxes and were getting yanked around on their leashes.  We had about 40 min to walk around the square before we had to meet back at the bus.  We took the bus back to the hotel and had another nap before catching our bus back to the square at 8:30pm.

Djemma El-Fna at nighttime was a whole other sight to be seen and was incredible!  There were just people everywhere and was the most crowded place I have seen in all of my travels.  First of all, Andrea and I went to the McDonalds near the square for dinner.  The hotel buffet was even more lacking than the night before so we decided to hit up the McDonalds.  It turned out to be a great experience because it was the most crowded McDonalds I have ever seen in my life and they don’t really stand in lines, it is just a free for all mob to get to the front.  The place is also so crowded with people eating inside and out that there were at least 4 security guards patrolling around the McDonalds.  We also saw a man there feeding fries to his pet baby monkey – it was just a ridiculous sight to see.  Then we went back to the square and walked around, shopped, and people watched.  The snake charmers aren’t there at night but it is still full of ladies giving henna (I got another design on my left ankle and my name written in Arabic on my wrist), people playing music, and fortune tellers and stuff.  There was more food stands open and fresh squeezed orange juice stands everywhere since they don’t really have alcohol.  The shops in the square started shutting down around midnight and then we wandered through the various groups playing music on our way out.  We took a taxi back to the hotel around 12:30am and then went to bed after a great night!

This morning they served the exact same breakfast and then we had to be on the bus at 8:30pm to head back to the ship.  We had a 4 hour ride back to the ship and I was back on by 1:00pm.  We ate lunch on the ship and then I have just been relaxing the rest of the day because there wasn’t really anything to do quickly that was close to the port.  Overall I thought Morocco was really great – it was hard to follow up the amazing Egypt trip but Morocco did a pretty good job.  When we were in Marrakech I really felt like it looked exactly like in does at Epcot center with the colors and everything.  Morocco was also great because everything was written in French and Arabic and people spoke some French so it was easier to communicate since some of French is similar to Spanish.

We have now officially left Casablanca and are headed across the Atlantic for Norfolk.  It is such a bittersweet feeling to be done with the last port because I had been looking forward to going all these places for so long and now it is over, but I am also so excited to get back to the USA and see everyone again!  It will definitely be an interesting 9 days with finals and everyone being so antsy to get home.

Casablanca!!

Today was a great day exploring Casablanca, Morocco!  We arrived in the morning after a pretty rocky night – the first we have had since originally crossing the Atlantic.  Customs took a really long time this morning and the ship wasn’t cleared until 11:00am.  I had a great morning and slept in before getting up around 10:30am to get ready.  I at lunch on the ship around 11:30am then had a SAS tour of Casablanca that left at 1:00pm. 

The first stop on the tour was to a large market that sold fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, and even turtles!  Our guide swore that they don’t eat the turtles and that they are just sold as pets but they were lined up in food crates just like the fish so I’m not so sure about that.  Next we went to the Royal Palace of Casablanca.  We didn’t go inside but we went to see the fancy front gate that only gets opened on special occasions twice a year.  We are back to seeing all the Islamic/Arabic influenced decorations like in Spain which is cool.  Then we went to the only church that still remains in use in Casablanca called Notre Dame de Trapani.  The entire sides were stained glass windows so it was really pretty on the inside.  Then we went to the Hassan II Grand Mosque which is the 3rd largest mosque in the world (after Mecca and Medina).  It was so enormous and beautiful!  It also has the tallest minaret of anywhere in the world and you can see it from almost anywhere in the city.  We spent about an hour touring the mosque and it was incredible how modern it was – including a retractable roof to circulate air, earthquake proof retractor things, and even a laser beam that points toward Mecca from the top of the minaret.  This mosque was the highlight of the trip and is definitely the pride of Casablanca.  Then we stopped at the United Nations Square for about 30 min of shopping.  It was fun to look around but I was saving my shopping for the market in Marrakech where I can use my superb bargaining skills.  The rest of the trip was a driving tour around some of the neighborhoods in the city.  We drove by the public beach which was really crowded and then saw the king’s residence including his royal golf course and race track.  The neighborhood where the king lives (only when he is visiting the city of course) was really nice and pretty while the rest was just pretty average.

We got back to the ship around 6:30pm and cleaned up a bit and changed before Andrea and I went out to dinner.  We went to Rick’s Café which was a popular spot for everyone from SAS because it was so close to the ship and was built after the movie Casablanca.  For your information, none of the movie Casablanca was actually shot in Morocco, but it brought a lot of fame to the city so they are proud of it.  Rick’s was built after the movie became famous and was definitely a splurge dinner but was really fun.  It was such a classy place with a live jazz band and delicious food.  Andrea and I had appetizers, entrees, and dessert along with our sophisticated martinis.  My appetizer was a goat cheese salad that was absolutely delicious – probably my favorite thing I ate all night!  It was just lettuce with a vinaigrette dressing with 4 HUGE pats of goat cheese!  (Mom, each pat of goat cheese was like equivalent to 3 from Nibbles so it was like having 12 of those Nibbles ones with an even smaller salad!)  For dinner I had the swordfish which was delicious and came with a pesto sauce.  Then for dessert we split a giant warm brownie with ice cream on top.  It was so delicious and our last free night out of America so we are glad we had a nice delicious dinner even though it wasn’t really Moroccan.

We got back to the ship around 11:00pm and now I am headed to bed because we leave for our trip to Marrakech at 8:00am tomorrow morning.  I have heard that Marrakech is amazing and the best city in Morocco so I am very excited to be headed there for the next 3 days!

Morocco Tomorrow!

Today was another thrilling day of classes before we reach Casablanca tomorrow.  We spent pretty much the entire day anchored in Gibraltar to fill up on fuel for the last time.  Now that we have left we are officially finished sailing the Mediterranean which is hard to believe.  Also since we left the Mediterranean we have hit pretty rough seas again and the ship has been rocking quite a bit.  They told us that for some reason the swells are particularly bad coming in and out of Casablanca so we should be prepared.  Tonight was our final preport meeting of the voyage – it is so weird because it seems like everything came and went so fast.  By now none of the information at preport is new and exciting – just the same old safety stuff.  As far as my plans for Morocco, I am spending the first day exploring Casablanca, including a short city orientation trip.  Then the remaining 3 days I am on a SAS trip to Marrakech which includes camel riding in the Palm Groves.  I can’t wait for another port in Africa, and hope it is fun as the last port of the voyage!

School and Sailing

Today was another regular class day at sea.  Everyone is getting all stressed out about the amounts of work that they have to do but I feel like I am in pretty good shape for all my classes.  I got my third and final field experience paper back from Cross-Cultural Psychology and got an A/A+ so I’m feeling good about that class.  All I have left is a final essay exam due at the end that is 12 single-spaced pages so that is long but shouldn’t be too hard since there are specific questions assigned to each chapter of the book.  I also just have a 5-10 page final paper for Stress Management that is just like a final reflection of us over the entire voyage so it won’t be hard at all.  Then there is a final paper and exam in Global Studies.  The first one wasn’t hard at all but a lot of people did poorly on it so they are stressing about this second one.  I’ve just been trying to use my time wisely and I actually go to class (unlike my roommate and many other people) so I feel alright about everything and hopefully it will turn into all A’s for the summer!  Sorry this post was boring and all about school but that’s pretty much all that’s going on these days.  It’s hard to believe that there is only one port left and it’s feeling like it is going to be a long 10 days back to America but hopefully it will be fun once all the schoolwork is done!

No Class Day!

Today was a day at sea without classes – yay!  We all thought there would be a lifeboat drill like there has been on every other no class day, but instead we were woken up with the Price is Right theme song playing over the intercom at 10:00am.  This was to let us know that the shipboard auction had opened up for the day.  They had been collecting items donated by people throughout the voyage and then there was a silent auction throughout the day and a live auction at night.  I just rolled over and slept in a little more in the morning until lunch around noon.  Then I was productive and got a lot of work done for my classes throughout the day which was nice.  Later I went by the silent auction to see what they had and I bid on a pedicure at the ship salon and also for 2 Chicago style deep dish pizzas to be sent anywhere in the country.  I would obviously have them sent to school which would be delicious, but I didn’t win because I didn’t bid very high.  I went into see the live auction at night which was really funny because they had a lot of the teachers auctioning off items.  There was a lot of cool stuff auctioned off and it went for like thousands of dollars (highest being $2500) so I clearly wasn’t bidding, just watching to see the entertainment.  Other than that it has been a pretty relaxing day and I was productive which was cool.  Tomorrow is another regular class day so that will probably not be exciting but it is good to be all caught up on rest.  We gain back another hour tonight en route to Morocco!

Crew Talent Show!

It is the end of our second day at sea in route to Morocco, and I am finally caught up on all of the postings about Egypt.  Yesterday and today were just regular class days, and last night we gained an hour on our clocks which was great.  Tomorrow is a free day to catch up on work and such so we don’t have any class, so tonight was the crew talent show!  This was definitely the most fun night I have had on the ship so far!  We are used to only seeing all the crew members, like the waiters and our cabin stewards, in uniforms and tonight they were dressed in regular clothes and got to show off some talents!  We had everything from the Explorer Band, to some solo singing acts, along with bartending skills, and dance groups.  The dance groups were definitely the most hilarious because my cabin steward, Edwin, was in 2 of them and they do dances to hip hop music and they are all so good!  The Union was completely packed with people in addition to the show being broadcast in other areas of the ship so there was lots of cheering and it was tons of fun.  I have heard rumors that we have a morning lifeboat drill tomorrow, but I am still hoping to get in a good night sleep and am looking forward to the free day tomorrow!

Cairo Museum and Farewell to Egypt!!

After our early 5:00am wake-up call we all had to be in the lobby to get breakfast boxes by 5:30am.  These boxes were not as nice as the first ones but had guava juice, a few pastries, and a hard-boiled egg.  Then we all headed to the airport for our 7:40am flight to Cairo.  The flight was almost an hour and a half and I slept a little but it was hard because I was so sad to be leaving Egypt!

After arriving in Cairo we went straight to the Egyptian Archeological Museum.  This was an incredible museum and we only had 2 hours there but as our guide said, if you spent just 1 minute on every item in the museum it would take you 3 months to see it.  The first floor is dedicated to statues and the second floor is all for the treasures from King Tut’s tomb.  Muhammad took us to some of the highlights on the first floor.  I’m not going to lie, a lot of it looked the same but it was really nice to have Muhammad to explain to us why certain statues were special and unique.  Then we went up to the second floor which was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  All of King Tut’s treasures were INCREDIBLE!!  There is a special room that has all his jewelry, the famous mask, and 2 of his coffins.  One of the teachers on our trip started crying a little bit when she was looking at the mask because it really was an incredible sight to see in person.  The coffins were almost even more impressive than the mask because they are just as detailed as the mask but the full size of the coffin.  It was really crazy to think about how much stuff there was in his tomb because he was such a young king who didn’t even really do much for Egypt.  The only reason he is so famous is because he had the only tomb ever discovered that hadn’t been looted by thieves already.  If his stuff could take up a full floor of a museum then I can’t even imagine how much stuff there must have been in the other tombs like Ramses II.

After seeing all the amazing treasures from the second floor we had about 30 min to see anything else from the museum that we wanted.  It was an extra charge, but I really wanted to go into the Hall of Royal Mummies.  This was just one room but it had about 10 mummies.  They were all various kings and Queen Hatshepsut.  This was definitely the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my life and I definitely gagged a little bit when looking at some of them.  Ramses II had the creepiest mummy because it was like reddish in color and his face was just in an awkward position and he still had lots of hair on his head.  Most of the mummies were black and their heads and feet were always unwrapped and some of them had their arms unwrapped.  It was so crazy how these people have been preserved since the BC era and lots of them still even had fingernails!  Anyway, it’s kind of hard to describe but was definitely pretty disgusting yet fascinating at the same time.

After the museum we headed back to the Meridien Pyramids hotel for lunch.  This was the same hotel that we had lunch at on the first day that was right by the pyramids.  They had the band playing again as we all walked in which was pretty funny.  It was our last grand buffet of Egypt so everyone was filling up (especially on the dessert!)  It was really nice that we got to drive by the pyramids one more time because it felt like the trip really came full circle (as cliché as it sounds).  After lunch we all boarded the buses and started the 3 hour drive back to the ship in Alexandria.

It is so difficult to try to sum up the 5 days I spent in Egypt because it really was one of the greatest experiences ever.  I spent the time with a great group of people and had the best tour guide ever.  I also learned so much about Ancient Egypt that I cannot even believe it!  All of the sites were places that you really need to visit in person to experience the awesomeness that I cannot possibly convey through my descriptions.  Basically, I have the best parents ever for letting me go on this trip and giving me the best present I could ever have!!

Abu Simbel and Nubian Village!!

This was the day that we got to “sleep in” because our wake up call wasn’t until 7:00am.  We had to be down for breakfast by 7:30am where they had some more amazing food and another omelet bar.  We all boarded the bus and headed for the airport for our flight to Abu Simbel.  The flight left at 9:55am and lasted another 30 min.  It was definitely the coolest scenery to see from the plane because I had a window seat and we flew over all of the cataracts in the Nile.  With all the cataracts I saw why it would have been impossible to drive even though it was technically a pretty short distance.  We also flew over the Abu Simbel Temple (which was our destination there) as we were landing and it was amazing to see from the height of the plane.

The thing you have to understand about Abu Simbel is that it is actually in the middle of nowhere in the freaking Nubian desert like all the way at the bottom of Egypt.  I thought it was really hot in Luxor (114 degrees) and this was way hotter – it would probably scare me to actually know the degrees. (Anyone who cares to look up the temperature in Abu Simbel on Aug. 2nd I would love to know!)  Upon landing Egypt Air provided buses for our entire plane (mostly SAS people plus one small British tour group and one small Asian group) to the Abu Simbel Temple.  This was the largest temple I have ever seen – every other monument looked like nothing in comparison.  It was just absolutely HUGE!!  It was actually carved out of a mountain instead of being built from scratch so it was able to get such massive size.  And if its size wasn’t impressive enough, the temple had actually been moved in the 1930s because it was threatened by the Nile with everything (including the mountain) reconstructed.  In addition to the main temple, which was built by Ramses II, (obviously, he built all the huge things in Egypt), there was also a smaller temple on the side that was dedicated to his first wife, Nefertari.  This temple was cool because it had scenes of the queen on the inside which cannot be seen anywhere else because women weren’t very important.  The main temple has some of the most famous scenes from ancient Egypt with King Ramses II in battles and killing his enemies.  The entire temple only gets light 2 days out of the year when the sun hits the entrance perfectly.  The back of the temple has statues of Ramses II next to 3 other gods (because he pretty much thought he was a god) and the light hits it perfectly on those 2 days.  There is just enough light to illuminate Ramses and 2 of the gods, and the 3rd god is Pteh, god of darkness, so he is never illuminated – kind of creepy how it works like that!  After standing outside while our guide told us all about the temple (and feeling like I was literally melting away from the heat) we took a whole group picture which is probably my favorite one from the trip because I had such an amazingly fun group!  Then we had about 30 min to look around the inside of both the temples and then head back to the buses.  The same buses took everyone back to the plane where we took the exact same one (with the same crew, seats, and passengers) back to Aswan.

We had lunch at the hotel around 3:00pm and then had a few hours to relax before we all met at 6:00pm for our trip to the Nubian village.  This was the greatest adventure of the trip because the Nubians live more like you would think of in actual Africa.  It is the area in the very South of Egypt before hitting Sudan, so they have darker skin color and pretend like they are their own country even though they are part of Egypt.  We started off the trip by going on a small motor boat for about 30 min down the Nile.  We went through the first cataract which was cool because you can see water flowing in all different directions.  The area also has some of the most unique geographical features because there are several granite islands that have trees growing out of them which is a scientific mystery.  The ride was so fun because we were going through very hard to navigate areas and were so close to all the plants and stuff on the side.  It felt like I was on the Disney World Jungle Cruise ride in real life!

When we got to the village we went to the school first and had a short Arabic lesson to learn the numbers and alphabet (of course I don’t remember any of it).  The classroom was really tiny and was just a few benches with a small chalkboard in the front.  The teacher would say the letters and have us repeat them and then he would point to a letter and choose a person to say it but none of us every remembered so then he would come over and give us a little tap on the hand with his stick – it was really funny.  Then our guide told us a little bit more about the special Arabic letters that we don’t have and he wrote all or our names on the board in Arabic.

After our lesson we walked through the town a little where they totally just had free roaming camels everywhere and kids running around too.  Then we went into a home and all sat down while our guide told us information about Nubian culture.  Meanwhile, the Nubians brought out food and drinks for us – we were a little nervous about eating the food but Muhammad assured us that it was safe.  They served bread pieces with 3 kinds of spreads. The first was made from sheep milk and was really salty and I didn’t really like it.  The second one was made from sugar cane and was like a syrup/molasses sort of and it was really yummy.  I don’t remember what he said the third one was made out of but it was really interesting because it had a sort of flaky consistency but tasted like peanut butter.  I only ate a little bit of each because I didn’t really want to chance getting sick, but I wanted to make sure I tried everything.  They also had drinks for us and I had a glass of a traditional Egyptian juice which is supposedly like a hibiscus juice.  It wasn’t my favorite juice but it was interesting.  I also had a cup of Egyptian tea which was so delicious!  It was a little stronger than normal tea that I have ever made and had some amazing flavors in it or something.

Then they brought out the house pet for all of us to see – a crocodile!!  It was a baby crocodile named Horus but it was still pretty big (maybe about 2.5 feet).  They said that each house usually has about 2-3 crocodiles and I’m pretty sure they raise them and eat them when they get big enough.  We all got to take turns holding Horus and taking pictures.  It was still kind of scary because there was nothing around his mouth to keep from biting anyone.  Sometimes he got a little irritated from the flashes and the Nubian guy would take him because he would start thrashing a little.  He was strong enough to keep the croc under control though.  As our guide said, they keep the crocs as pets but we shouldn’t play with them like they are dogs or we might lose a finger!

Then we were able to get henna tattoos from one of the girls.  She had a bunch of pages of designs for us to choose from and I got a flowery design on my left wrist and the eye of Horus (the god not the crocodile) on my right ankle.  The eye of Horus means that I have protection from all the gods which is why it was a symbol often in king’s jewelry and stuff.  By then it was time to leave and take our boat back down the Nile to the hotel.  It was dark when we left (around 8:30pm) so the trip on the boat was really cool.  We al went up and sat on the roof of the boat and like looked at the pretty stars and talked about how we were all sad that it was our last night in Egypt and that we had the best trip ever!

When we got back to the hotel we had a special dinner in the Egyptian restaurant for our last night in Egypt.  There was an outdoor buffet with grilling and some more Egyptian style food with kabobs, special sausages, and couscous.  There was also the usual pasta, potatoes, and of course loads of desserts.  There was a traditional show going on at the restaurant while we were eating with guys playing music and getting people up dancing sort of like the felucca ride from the day before.  We went up to be at 10:00pm and then Ocean’s Twelve was on one of the movie channels so I watched that and wrote in my journal for the day.  We got a bright and early wake-up call at 5:00am the next day for our flight back to Cairo.

Aswan!!

We had a 9:15am flight to Aswan that was only about 30 min.  There was still the same lack of security and we were on an older plane that wasn’t as nice as the first one and had 3 seats on each side of the aisle.  The flight was over tons of desert and even though it wasn’t a long flight it was easier to fly than have to drive around the curves of the Nile.  It was still cool to always look out and see the Nile while flying.

When we arrived in Aswan we went to the Aswan High Dam.  There isn’t really much to see there, it just looks like a bridge over the Nile where the bus stopped and we got out to take pictures.  But the guide actually told us how the lake behind the dam is the largest man-made lake in the world.  There was more security at the dam than any other monument that we visited and we found out it was because if the dam was somehow destroyed then all of Egypt would flood in 12 hours.  We took some pictures there since the water was really pretty in the huge lake, and then we all got back on the buses.

Next we headed to the Philae Temple.  We drove to the entrance but the temple is on an island so we had to take a small boat to get there.  The temple was actually moved from Philae Island because it was going to be destroyed by the Nile.  This temple is in more of the Roman style than the others in Europe and even has a small unfinished chapel outside that Alexander started building.  As a side note, I noticed that our guide never called him Alexander the Great and I’m pretty sure it is because he was responsible for destroying or defacing a ton of Egyptian temples and monuments because he didn’t like their polytheism.  A lot of the Philae Temple was dedicated to the goddess Isis, so we learned all about her image and how to recognize her (she is always shown with a solar disc with a chair on top).  We walked through the temple with our guide first and then he gave us about 30 min to explore what we wanted and take pictures.

Then we headed to our hotel to check in and have lunch.  We stayed at hotel Isis Island which was on an island in the middle of the Nile which was pretty freaking cool.  Whenever we ate we usually sat by the window and thought about how cool it was that we could stare out the window at the Nile while we ate.  The hotel was huge just like the other one with a bunch of restaurants, shopping, a disco, pool, and even a giant chess board outside.  As the hotels got bigger, the rooms got smaller and less nice, but I think this is just because we were majorly spoiled by the first hotel in Cairo.  In this room we each just had a twin bed but it did have a fridge in the room which came in handy for storing all the water we needed for the desert heat.  Lunch was another amazing buffet and this hotel had a pasta bar where you could choose your sauce and veggies in addition to lots of delicious other hot food and of course a massive dessert section.

After lunch we got to relax and take about an hour nap before meeting back in the lobby at 4:00pm for our felucca ride.  The felucca is a traditional sailboat that travels on the Nile.  Our boat was navigates by 3 Nubians – 2 adults and a smaller boy who looked like he was about 10.  After we got sailing they started playing us Nubian music.  One of the men had a drum/tambourine instrument that he used to play the awesome beats and then the little kid went around and got everyone up and dancing.  We were all dancing around the boat in a circle and chanting with the music.  It was hilarious to see some of the professors getting down with the Nubian beats!  I also had the greatest group of people on my boat and everyone was so into it and having fun dancing around.  We didn’t even really travel very far on the boat which was fine since we were having so much fun dancing.  Then we just turned around and headed back while enjoying the scenery.  The ride was only about an hour but definitely one of my most fun memories of the trip – especially since the songs were so catchy and I can’t get the beats out of my head!

After we got back to the hotel we had an optional trip to go on a ride around the city of Aswan in the horse drawn carriages.  Since I had nothing better to do, of course I went on the trip and rode in a carriage with Lauren all around the city.  It wasn’t particularly beautiful or anything, just so different from anything that I have ever seen with all the Arabic everywhere.  The language and having a completely different alphabet really makes you feel like an outsider.  Our carriage even broke a tire during the ride so we had to stop in the middle of the street to fix it!  The carriage ride ended at the Aswan bazaar which is the largest in Egypt and we spent about 2 hours wandering around and shopping.  This bazaar was outdoors and definitely more of what I thought the Turkish bazaar would be like.  All the shops pretty much sold the exact same thing and the Egyptians selling stuff were very forward and aggressive as usual, but I had pretty much become immune to it at that point.  Some of them were really friendly and for some reason they all think it is a hilarious joke to keep saying “welcome to Alaska!”  It was maybe a little funny the first time I heard it but then it just wasn’t because it was truly freaking hot everywhere in Egypt and all of our destinations kept going farther South.

After shopping we met back up with our carriages and rode them back to the hotel.  This time it was dusk so it was cool to have another perspective of the city on the way back.  We took the boat back across the Nile to get to our island hotel and had dinner around 9:00pm.  We took our time and had a relaxing dinner filling ourselves up with all the yummy food and desserts before heading to bed.  The TV in the room actually had a bunch of English movie channels with Arabic subtitles so I watched the end of The Wedding Singer as I wrote down the day’s activities in my journal before heading to sleep around 11:00pm.

Luxor!!

The second day was the longest and most packed day because Luxor is the city with the most ancient Egyptian sites to see.  I suggest google-imaging the monuments and such if you want to see what they look like :o)

Everyone was sad to only get about 4 hours of sleep in the amazingly comfortable beds, but we got to sleep a little more on our plane to Luxor.  We flew Egypt Air for all of our flights and they are pretty much my new favorite airline because they never make you turn off you electronic devices!  They were so much more relaxed than airlines in the USA.  They never checked your ID or anything and you had to scan your carry on bag once or twice (depending on the airport).  Luckily the planes were always completely filled with SAS students otherwise I would have been a little freaked out by the lack of security.  Also, they don’t really have gates in the airport (well the Cairo one had a few because it was the largest airport) but you just all gather by the gate, which could have several flights leaving from that gate, and when they call your flight you all board buses that make trips back and forth to where your plane is and then you walk up the stairs to the plane.  The flight to Luxor was the only one where we were split onto 2 different flights – the first at 6:20am and the second at 7:00am, hence the early wake up call.  I was on the 7:00am flight so I had a long time to wait in the Cairo airport.  Our plane was also really comfortable with leather seats that were bigger than normal (only 2 on each side of the aisle) so it was easy to fall asleep during the hour flight.  I looked out the window a little and we were definitely just flying over lots and lots of desert and it was cool to see the Nile from above – definitely a HUGE river!

When we arrived in Luxor we went straight to the buses and then to the Valley of the Kings.  The Valley of the Kings is where they started burying all of the kings when they realized that pyramids were a huge attraction to tell thieves where the tombs were.  It was a huge mountain valley and was really, really hot – someone said that it reached 114 degrees, but I’m not sure about the accuracy of that.  We had tickets that allowed us to visit any 3 tombs and our guide told us some of the best ones to see.  King Tut’s tomb is there too but it costs extra to go inside and our guide suggested that we skip it because he was a young king who died very suddenly so his tomb is small, unfinished, and not that impressive.  I went to the tombs of Horemheb, Ramses IX, and Ramses IV.  It is so cool to go into the tombs!  You go into the mountains and the tunnels and chambers that are dug are so impressive and all the artwork and hieroglyphs on the wall are crazy.  A lot of the original paint is still there too because they aren’t exposed to sunlight.  I was a little surprised at how a lot of the walls weren’t protected by ropes or plastic or anything so you can just touch where the carvings are.  All the tombs have a little bit of different character to them depending on the king so it was nice to have Muhammad there to explain everything and the themes that you see in the artwork.

After the Valley of the Kings we went to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.  She was the only ever female Egyptian pharaoh and had the temple built it a very non traditional style.  In the pictures it definitely has a different look from all of the other Egyptian temples we saw.  Unfortunately, a lot of her images were destroyed by her successor because he didn’t like that she was in power but there was one remaining painting of her with Osiris in a corner of the temple.  This was the only temple with different levels – for varying levels of nobility.  We had about an hour to explore the temple and take pictures before getting back on the bus.

Then we drove to the Colossi of Memnon which is just 2 giant statues next to each other.  The main aspect of this site is that the pharaoh made a mistake by having one statue cut completely from one stone and the other one made from several stones set on top of one another.  Apparently it is like a huge mistake to have them not symmetrical because everything in Egyptian architecture is symmetrical.  We had about 10 min to get off the bus and take pictures but there wasn’t really much else to do at that site.

Then we headed to our hotel, Nile Palace, for lunch which was another amazing buffet.  Then we checked into the hotel by about 2:00pm.  The hotel was amazing and had like 5 different restaurants in it, shopping, a pool, tennis court, etc.  Our room had a balcony that looked out into the giant courtyard with a fountain.  The room and beds were not quite as nice as the first hotel but we still each got our own full beds (only with one pillow each) and a decent size bathroom.  We had an hour to settle into the room and then we were back on the bus at 3:00pm to continue touring.

We went to the Karnack Temple first which is one of the largest temples in Egypt – it was so HUGE!  There were endless columns completely covered in hieroglyphs and they were the largest ones I have ever seen.  There was also the largest obelisk in Egypt which was built for Queen Hatshepsut, and the oldest Obelisk in Egypt which was built for one of the Ramses.  Our tour guide led us around at first and then gave us about 30 min to take pictures and look around more.  There is famous statue of a scarab beetle on a pedestal and you are supposed to make a wish and walk around it 7 times for it to come true so I did that during the free time in addition to taking pictures all over.

Next we went to the Luxor Temple which was built by Ramses II.  It is not as large as Karnack Temple but is known for having the 2 giant seated statues of Ramses II at the entrance.  We learned that you can always tell if the statue is of Ramses because he is the only king depicted with both the pharaoh scarf and the crown at the same time.  Usually it is just one or the other but Ramses II thought he was the most amazing ever so he is always depicted with both.  This temple had a small area that was made into a church by Alexander when he conquered Egypt so there are several scenes featuring him on the wall.  This temple also featured a lot of the fertility god which we always found entertaining because as our guide says his “obelisk” is always prominently featured.

After that we went back to the hotel around 6:30pm and had time to shower and relax before dinner at 8:00pm.  We had another fabulous buffet with tons of food and desserts galore.  After dinner Andrea, Lauren and I hung out on my balcony and watched this crazy show that was being put on in the courtyard.  There were men and women dressed in crazy Egyptian pharaoh outfits and doing different dances and changing outfits between songs.  The dances were kind of ridiculous and we couldn’t figure out if they were trying to do dances from all sorts of ethnicities or something because there was one dance of this guy spinning a bunch that reminded us of Turkey, some belly dancing, and one were they danced with clicking spoons.  It was very interesting and we watched until about 11:00pm before heading to bed before another early wake up call tomorrow.

Our wake up call was at 6:30am the next day so we could be at breakfast by 7:00am.  This time it was a buffet breakfast with a whole assortment of pastries, tons of hot food, and even an omelet bar.  Then we checked out of the hotel and left for the airport at 7:30am for our flight to Aswan!

Cairo!!

My trip to Egypt was absolutely phenomenal.  Words cannot even describe how amazing it actually was – I was with the greatest group of students and the greatest guide for the full 5 day trip.  I’m going to go through day by day but it might take me a few days to get it all written up since there is so much to say!  Don’t worry because we have 5 days at sea on our way to Morocco so I probably won’t have much to update about.  My descriptions will clearly not be sufficient to explain how awesome it was to see all these monuments and culture, but I will do my best!

The ship docked in Alexandria and then we left on the buses at about 10:00am to drive for 2.5 hours to Cairo.  It was really interesting scenery because it was all sand and there are little huts outside of Alexandria where people live without electricity and got the lad free from the government in exchange for farming some cotton.  On the bus ride we met our tour guide, Muhammad (the name of pretty much everyone we met in Egypt), who was a super cool Egyptologist who is currently working on a book and knew so much about all of ancient Egypt – it was incredible!  He was also really funny and every time we arrived somewhere to get off the bus (even if just for a meal), he would say “ready?...attack!” which was really funny because we always looked like a mob of Americans attacking all the monuments.  Over the course of the trip our group became known as the crocodiles.  Each bus had a different name – one was Isis and the other was Habibib.  We clearly had the greatest mascot and we often talked about how we were the best bus and were going to eat all the other buses since we were the crocodiles.

Anyway, we got to lunch at the Meridien Pyramids hotel which was right next to the pyramids.  It was amazing that you can see the pyramids like looming over the city because they actually are pretty close to everything.  We were greeted by a hotel band dressed in Egyptian pharaoh outfits and playing Stars and Stripes Forever and other American-themed songs and it was funny because Muhammad had told us to attack and this made us feel like we really were.  Lunch was delicious and was a huge buffet with everything you could want to eat – pasta, all types of meats, veggies, potatoes, hummus with pita bread, and a huge array of desserts.  Every meal of the trip was a huge buffet like this and I ate so much because everything was always delicious!!

The rest of the day was spent exploring the pyramids.  We went in three different stops along the way.  The first was at the base of the 2 larger pyramids where we stopped for about 45 min. to look around and take pictures.  When we got of the bus we were immediately mobbed by Egyptians trying to sell little touristy things for like a dollar but they were so aggressive that it was really uncomfortable and it made me freak out a little but once I escaped the mob it was ok.  Then we just walked around and took all sorts of pictures and marveled at how huge and amazing they were.  It was really surreal to be at the pyramids that we have seen in pictures since we were so young.  One thing I was definitely surprised about was how windy it was.  I guess it was a desert wind because someone said he saw a little bit of a sandstorm way off in the distance.  It was still incredibly hot and the wind is not cooling, it just brings more heat and smacks you in the face with it.  The other thing that surprised me was how close they were to the city.  The cities of Cairo and Giza basically blend together because the border is just the Nile River.  But in photos of the pyramids it always looks like they are out somewhere remote in the middle of the desert but they are actually just on the edge of the city of Giza.  Then pretty much everything past the pyramids is desert so all the pictures must be taken from the city side to make it look like they are way out in the desert.

The next stop was a place a little farther away that is the only place to take photos of all three standing pyramids in one shot.  We only stopped there for about 10 min to take our photos because it was definitely out there in the desert and there wasn’t really much else there besides some more Egyptians selling more touristy stuff.  The final stop of the afternoon was to the Sphinx.  It was really fun to take funny pictures by it.  You have to walk through a small temple to get to the good photo taking spot and there we were accosted by Egyptian teenagers who help you take really fun pictures (like you kissing the Sphinx and putting sunglasses on it, etc) but then of course they want you to buy something from them but we were always in a big group so it was easy to get away from them when they started asking for money.  After our photo time at the Sphinx for about 45 min we went to the hotel for check in.

We arrived at the Conrad Hotel around 5:00pm and got all checked into our rooms.  It was a 5-star hotel and was definitely one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in before.  It was directly on the Nile so that is what I saw out of my balcony and we had 2 giant beds in our room.  They assigned the rooms alphabetically so I was with a girl named Megan for the whole trip and she was a great roommate.  The beds were like queen size and had 6 pillows on each one and a down comforter and were so ridiculously comfortable.  There was also a huge bathroom with a giant bathtub and shower and a free bottle of water for each person which was nice because I saved it for brushing my teeth.

After having some time to settle into our rooms we had dinner at 7:00pm which was another huge buffet and also amazing desserts.  Then we left the hotel around 8:30pm to go to the Sound and Light show at the pyramids.  It was pretty cool because they illuminate the pyramids and Sphinx and have lasers and pictures going across the sides to tell the stories of the pharaohs that built each of the pyramids.  It was kind of a long show (about an hour) and since we were all so tired it was a little hard to follow but it was still a really neat experience to see them lit up at night.

The drive back to the hotel was full of traffic and we saw that lots of people were just out on the streets hanging out.  It was a Thursday night which is like a Saturday night in the USA because Friday is the holy day in Islam.   Also since they can’t drink they literally just sit in the medians of roads or anywhere really and smoke hookah or just hang out so that was really interesting to see.  The city of Cairo itself was really cool to see at night because it was all lit up – cars, boats on the Nile, buildings, everything!  Cars would like drive down the street with crazy flashing colored lights and it was completely acceptable and not against the law.  We learned from our guide that there are strict laws about everything in Egypt except for driving which has no rules.  There was even a police car behind us with sirens on at one point and no one pulls over or lets it go by – not even ambulances.  I would hate to have a heart attack or something there because you would pretty much never get to a hospital.  Anyway, we didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11:00pm and I still needed to shower after my day in the desert heat.  Unfortunately our wake up call for the next morning was at 3:30am – yes, you read that correctly.  It was a little ridiculous.  It was nice that the tour company automatically has the hotel give wake up calls to all the rooms a half hour before we have to be ready, but it was a little ridiculous to be getting up that early.  We all met in the lobby at 4:00am where they handed out breakfast boxes which were quite impressive – including like 5 different pastries, meat, cheese, fruit, hard boiled egg, and orange juice all in one giant box per person.  Then we all ate on the buses on our way to the airport for our flight to Luxor!

Egypt Tomorrow!

We actually had 2 days in between Bulgaria and Egypt so yesterday was back to a regular day at sea with classes.  We did yoga again in Stress Management so that felt good to stretch out a little.  I also got my second Cross-Cultural Psych paper back and got an A on it so that was exciting and everything seems to be going good with classes.  Today we had more class.  It was weird to have back to back classes since we haven’t had them all month, but I guess it is getting us ready for the long way back across the Atlantic.

We had another pre-port meeting tonight – hard to believe it is our second to last one.  We learned a lot about how Egypt (especially Cairo) is going to be really dirty, polluted, and have a lot of poverty.  It will definitely be something interesting to see.  It is also supposed to be scorching hot, especially in Luxor, and it will be challenging to stay hydrated because we can only drink bottled water.  We even have to brush our teeth with bottled water so that we don’t get sick.  With all the warnings that we got I am very glad to be on a SAS sponsored trip the entire time so that I know I will get to see everything and do it as safely as possible.

Tomorrow when we get to Egypt I am going on a 5 day SAS trip to Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel.  We are visiting all the sights that you could think of that are in Egypt plus many more.  I have probably been looking forward to Egypt the most out of all the countries and I cannot believe we will be there tomorrow!  I’m not bringing my computer so I will probably not be able to update, but you can know that tomorrow night I will be watching the sunset at the pyramids!!

Last Day in Varna

Today was my last day in Bulgaria and I am definitely sad to see it go.  This morning I had a service trip at 9:00am to go visit an orphanage in Varna.  We went to Dom Drugarche which is an orphanage for children ages 3-7.  It is generally for children whose parents cannot afford to raise a child, not necessarily that they don't have parents.  First we listened to one of the directors of the orphanage talk about what they do and we got to ask questions and then we had about an hour and a half to go outside and play with all the kids.  It was so adorable and they all just like ran at us and hugged us – a lot of them definitely just loved getting some individual attention that they never have.  After that trip we went back to the ship and ate lunch.  Then we sat at the restaurant next to our ship, Captain Cook, to use their free internet (which ended up not really working) and we ended up ordering some sushi.  I just had some California roll of course.  Then Kaitlyn, Andrea and I went looking for a supermarket because we each had 20 Bulgarian lev left to spend.  We found a place and stocked up on some snacks for the ship and then headed back.  Now we are back pretty early for on ship time but I have to write a paper about my experience at the orphanage so I figure it is best to do it while it is fresh in my mind.  Overall, Bulgaria was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we came here because it was such a relaxing break from classes and touring tons of historical sites.  It will be really interesting to see if SAS decides to ever come back to Varna since it didn't seen like there was very much to do here, but I know everyone had a lot of fun!

Beach Days and Volleyball

Yesterday and today were completely relaxing beach days and I loved it!  I slept in yesterday and then went to the beach here in Varna with Andrea.  We laid in the sun for a bit before heading to the beach volleyball tournament that was also right next to the ship.  It was the CEV Challenger tournament going on for Friday through Sunday so Andrea and I watched Germany defeat Slovakia.  Then we headed back to the ship to shower, eat dinner, and get ready to go out.

Last night we went out to Golden Sands and had a great time.  We went bar hoping around the beach and went to Bierkonig (the crazy German bar), Admiral, and a crazy Scandinavian bar.  We met a group of Danish guys celebrating one of their 21st birthdays and we hung out with them all night and had a ton of fun.  We ended up getting back to the ship around 4:00am and then it was great to just have another lazy beach day today.

Today I slept in again then hit up the beach with Kaitlyn.  She was really excited to see volleyball since she played for a year in college and it was fun to watch with her because she knew what was going on.  We watched the 3rd place match where Latvia defeated Bulgaria.  Everyone was really energized for that match since it was the home team.  Then we watched the championship match where Germany defeated Brazil.  We got lots of fun blow up stuff from the sponsors and it was a really fun tournament even though it was quite a bit smaller than the AVP on North Avenue Beach.  Then we come back to the ship and had dinner and are relaxing for the rest of the night.

Welcome to Varna!

We finally were able to get off the ship in Bulgaria this morning.  It was pretty much what I had come to expect – very similar to Dubrovnik in the sense that it is a little tourist beach city.  This morning I had the SAS Highlights of Varna tour followed by the SAS Wonders of Bulgaria tour.  I’m pretty sure that after today I saw everything important from Bulgaria, and there wasn’t much to see.

We left the pier around 10:00am after getting everyone to shore using the tender boats.  First we went to the archaeological museum.  There are mostly old icons in the museum but the highlight exhibit is that they have the oldest worked gold in the world.  It was found in the tomb as jewelry for a suspected chief of early Slavic tribes.  Then we went to the center of Varna to the Cathedral of the Holy Assumption which is the centerpiece of the city and has really pretty paintings of icons completely covering all the walls.  Next we went to the remains of the Roman bath from when Bulgaria was occupied by the Roman Empire.  The remains didn’t look like much, but they were the 4th largest Roman baths in the empire.  Then we went to the Bulgarian folk museum which was a small museum with 2 levels.  The first level had all tools and artifacts from farming, fishing, and various other tasks that were done by Bulgarian villagers.  The second level had all clothing that was worn by the villagers which was really cool.  They had one area that had a whole wedding scene set up and we learned that they used to wear wool all year round which seems like it would be ridiculously hot.  After that the bus drove us back to the city center by the cathedral and we had about 20 min to walk around and eat the box lunches that the ship provided.  Kaitlyn and I ate the lunches on the ride over and then walked around a little to discover that there wasn’t much more to see in Varna.  I learned later in the day that all the good stuff was actually by the beach front and not in the city center.

After lunch the bus took us back to the ship and I immediately just changed buses to go on my next trip to the Wonders of Bulgaria.  First we went to the Aladzha monastery which is actually a giant limestone cliff with little cave like areas dug out of the side for 2 stories that were little cubbies where monks lived and prayed.  It was really cool to see and definitely did not look like a comfortable place for anyone to live.  Then we continued driving up the coast of Bulgaria and stopped at the main resort destination about 15min north of Varna called Golden Sands.  This was a ridiculous beach that looked like the Cancun or some other spring break destination of Europe.  There were bars everywhere and people drinking in the middle of the afternoon in addition to the gorgeous beach and water sports that they had.  The bus stopped and gave us about 45 min to explore the area but I definitely want to go back one of the other days.  Then the trip continued on to the petrified rock forest of Bulgaria.  This was kind of cool to see because it is a bunch of hollow limestone rock pillars that are in a big sand field and everyone hypothesizes about how they got there kind of like Stonehenge.  It was cool for a few minutes to take pictures but then it was kind of boring.  After that final stop we headed back to the pier.

When we got back to the pier the ship was moving from its anchor location to the dock so we all had to wait to be able to get on for about an hour.  We were late for dinner but there were so many people waiting to get on the ship that they held it late for us and so we were still able to eat on the ship.  After dinner I was definitely exhausted from my day of touring so I hung out with Kaitlyn for a bit before now, and I’m probably going to bed soon.  It is really funny because our ship is parked next to the Varna Yacht club and it is like directly out my window.  All these people are having fancy dinners on the 3rd floor terrace of this building so it is like right in my eye level out my window and I get to listen to the classy piano music they have playing.  I don’t have any definitive plans for the next 2 days so I’m hoping it will just be really relaxing!

Bulgaria Tomorrow!

It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of July and that I have already visited 5 countries on this voyage.  Everything is going by so fast!  We have actually been anchored just outside of Varna since noon today, but we need the full day for classes and pre-port so we will not be cleared to leave until tomorrow morning.  We will have to use tender boats for the first day in Varna.  The ship is going to remain anchored off shore and we have to ride tiny boats to the shore and back when we want to go to land.  We are the first SAS voyage to go to Bulgaria so it is exciting to get to see a port that isn’t used to floods of Americans coming in all the time.  The pre-port meeting tonight pretty much gave us the usual info about being a smart traveler.  The days at sea aren’t so exciting anymore, just trying to get work done so that I can enjoy my time in port.  Tomorrow I am scheduled to go on the SAS tour of the Highlights of Varna and then the rest of my time in Bulgaria is pretty much open.  I can’t wait to finally get off the ship tomorrow after staring at the shore for practically the whole day!

Final Days in Turkey

On Monday I went to the Grand Bazaar with Kaitlyn and Andrea.  It was not at all what I thought it would be, but it was really cool.  I imagined it being like a bunch of outdoor tents selling junk and stuff, but it was all inside.  You walk into the bazaar and it is just rows and rows of shops basically in a grid pattern.  It is pretty much impossible to see everything but we walked around for hours.  They had all kinds of jewelry, scarves, pottery, rugs, bags, trinkets, etc.  The most fun part of the bazaar was getting to practice our bargaining skills, and we were pretty good at it I must say.  They told us the key was being able to walk away and they were definitely right.  After a few hours in the bazaar we were ready to eat and I must say Turkish food has been the least appetizing so far.  Not to mention that all over Istanbul there has been American fast food and even a Chili’s and TGI Fridays.  So we all caved and went to McDonald’s – I had a McChicken and fries and it was so delicious!  Then we continued to walk back towards the ship passing the Spice Bazaar on the way.  This was smaller than the Grand Bazaar but had most of the same trinket type items.  The difference being that the Spice Bazaar sold fresh spices and teas that you could fill up a bag with what you want and they vacuum seal it so that you can bring it through customs.  It definitely had a strong smell inside, but was cool to see all the spices and especially teas.

Yesterday I went on a SAS tour of Byzantine architecture in Istanbul.  As we were driving toward our first place, our tour guide had us get out to look at a new excavation site.  They had started digging an underground tunnel to go across the Bosphorus when they discovered that the area was part of the old harbor and they have discovered over 60 ships in the excavation.  We couldn’t really see much though; it just looked like a construction site.  Next the bus dropped us off at the entrance of Old Town and we walked to the Seven Towers Fortress which was part of the old city walls.  Then we walked through the town to see an old church.  On our walk back the tour guide got us all sesame rolls to try.  They were good and basically like soft pretzels but covered in sesame seeds.  Then we went to the Kariye museum.  It was originally a church, then a mosque, and now a museum.  It was interesting to see all the detailed mosaics that were inside.  Then we drove to a pretty central part of Istanbul to see the rest of the sights.  First we saw the Obelisks (one from Egypt and one from Delphi) that stand in the center of what used to be a chariot racing track.  Then we went to a mosaic museum where they have uncovered and are piecing together huge mosaics because that used to be how floors in all the houses were done.  Then we went to the underground cistern which used to hold all the water that the city could use.  It is just supported by lots of columns and arches and has really neat lighting now.  Then we went to the main attraction of Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.  It was also originally a church then turned into a mosque but is a museum now.  There was lots of scaffolding there because hey are restoring the mosaics of the dome, but it was still really cool.  There is still a bunch of stuff from when it was a mosque, but they are also uncovering the old Christian mosaics that were there even earlier.  The last stop of the day was to a mosque still in use called Little Hagia Sophia.  It is 10 years older than Hagia Sophia and was supposedly built as a model for the larger Hagia Sophia.  It was the only actual mosque that I ever went inside so we all had to take off our shoes, but there was no one there because it wasn’t a prayer time.

Today I had an SAS trip for my cross-cultural psychology class about student life in Turkey.  We went to Bosphorus University which is a top university in Turkey and 1 of 5 that teach completely in English.  The campus was really beautiful and surprisingly full of lawns and trees for being in such a large city.  We sat on one of the lawns while a panel of about 6 students talked about the educational system in Turkey and then it was opened up for questions.  It was very interesting to learn about, but not a very exciting way to spend the last day in Istanbul.

Overall, Istanbul was the first port city that was genuinely a lot different from our culture.  It was interesting to be walking around normally and hear all the calls to prayer coming from the mosques.  Not everyone in Istanbul wears the full Islamic dress because the country is trying to become more westernized, but there were lots of women with the full head scarves.  We were all told to dress more conservatively as well, so I’m very glad it was cloudy most of the time so it didn’t get too hot.  A lot of Istanbul is surrounded by water so there was generally a nice breeze too.  Now I am back on the ship and ready to start doing all the work I have for class tomorrow before the 6th port – Bulgaria.

Palaces and Football

Today was a great 2nd day in Istanbul!  This morning I woke up early to go on a SAS tour of the palaces of Istanbul at 9:00am.  The first place we went to was Dolmabahce Palace which was by far the most impressive one we visited.  We got there earely so there was no line but when we drove by later we saw a crazy line at least 100 people long to go in.  It was huge and we toured the whole thing.  They make you wear little plastic booties over your shoes the entire time (which was very interesting with flip flops on) because they lay down lots of carpet that they don’t want us to ruin.  All the rooms were originally furnished and the palace was extremely gaudy and lavish.  Our guide explained that it was more in a European style than Turkish style which is why it didn’t look much different from palaces we may have seen in Western Europe.  Then we boarded the bus and headed to our next palace which was in Asia!  We crossed the bridge over the Bosphorus and saw the official ‘Welcome to Asia’ sign so it was pretty cool to hit the 3rd continent of the voyage.  There we went to the Beylerbeyi Palace which was a summer residence for the sultans and looked pretty similar to the first palace on a slightly smaller scale.  Then we walked to a nearby park on the Bosphorus shore where we picnicked and ate the box lunch that was provided by the ship.  So I can officially say that I went to Asia for 3hrs and to eat lunch.

After lunch we went back to the bus and drove back over the bridge to the guest palace for the Yildiz Palace.  Apparently this particular sultan was buddies with Kaiser Wilhelm II and he stayed in this little guest palace whenever he visited Turkey.  There was a History Channel documentary being filmed while we were there so there was film equipment and stuff set up all around so we didn’t get the full palace feel.  The crew filmed our group walking down a corridor and looking around so we will have to look out for the documentary.  Then we went to the main Yildiz Palace which was sort of a disappointment because most of it was closed for restoration.  We were able to see the garden and museum area that had some sample rooms and stuff.  But by the time we were on our 4th palace for the day I don’t think any of us really minded the break.

After the last palace we took the bus back toward the ship and our tour guide said he would take us to a Turkish café for coffee and apple tea (a yummy Turkish specialty).  It was really close to the ship so we all went in to find out that it was definitely what we would refer to as a Hookah Bar in the US and we all sat on beanbags and had drinks.  It was really hot so I just had a 7up instead of tea.  After hanging there for a little while my friend Betsy and I walked back to the ship but stopped at a stand selling chicken kabobs for 1TL.  It wasn’t the best food but the fresh chicken was really good and it was a nice cheap snack.

When we got back on the ship I found a really awesome note on my door from Janae saying that she and Kaitlyn bought 4 tickets (for themselves, me, and Andrea) to the soccer game tonight for one of the Istanbul teams.  They said they would just sell them to other people if we didn’t want them but I was definitely going to go!  I was so pumped because I knew European football was something I just had to see!  So we all met up for dinner then left with a large group of people from SAS to go to the game.  It was about a 20 min walk to the stadium.  It was right across from the first palace we had visited in the morning and I remembered our tour guide telling us how the team won some sort of championship last year.  The Turkish team colors were black and white and was called Beşiktaş (pronounced Beshiktash) and they played a pink and blue team called C. Catania that someone said was from Italy but I have no idea if that’s right.  The name Beşiktaş is just an area of Istanbul, so I’m assuming the city has many teams, and probably ones that are better than this one.  It was a preseason game and they tied 1-1 but the soccer just wasn’t all that great.  The cheering fans and everything were out in full force (at least the hard core ones) so that was really fun to see.  After the game we walked back to the ship with the herd of people from SAS, and now it is time for bed because we are getting up to go to the Grand Bazaar tomorrow morning!

First Day in Istanbul

Today was a very interesting first day in Istanbul.  I slept in a little bit because I had to go see a speaker on the ship for my cross-cultural psychology class about virginity testing and honor killing in Turkey.  The speaker was a woman from a shelter in Turkey called Purple Shelter that works for increased women’s rights and helps women who may no longer be virgins.  It was an interesting presentation but the speaker used an interpreter so sometimes it was hard to follow because the interpreter would mess up the English sometimes.  After the presentation I ate lunch on the ship with Andrea before beginning our adventurous day.

We left the port and decided that we would go check out the Turkish Bath houses.  There are several, but one in particular seemed touristy and clean because it was in all the guide books, so we asked the cab driver to take us there.  He dropped us off and we are pretty sure he didn’t really know where the place was because he made a gesture indicating it was just somewhere around where he dropped us off.  We were in a pretty main touristy district and the streets were lined with shops so we were sort of walking around and looking at stuff and trying to ask people where the bath house was.  People in Istanbul were very into bothering you to come into their store if you were American because they know that you have money with you to spend.  It was hard to not be rude sometimes, but we just tried to keep walking generally.

We finally found the bath house (called Cemberlitas Hamam) and checked it out to make sure it looked nice and it did so we bought the basic package that included the 15min soap rub down.  Basically we went into the building and there were lots of old Turkish ladies telling you where to go so we went up the stairs where they gave each of us a locker and there was a place to change into your swimsuit.  Andrea and I put on our full swimsuit, but they also gave you a sarong thing in case you decided to go topless.  We went back downstairs and into the steam room that is apparently an original dome that was built in 1584.  It really was a beautiful room with stars and moons cut out from the ceiling for light.  Then an attendant lays your sarong down somewhere on the giant heated marble slab and you lay down on your stomach.  You lay there for a little bit to start sweating and the attendant prepares for your bath.  She comes over and makes you take off your top (so that was fun) and then unknowingly comes up behind you and dumps buckets of water on you.  Then she rubs you down with soapy water on both sides and then exfoliates you with a special scrubber on both sides which actually did feel good afterwards.  Then the last thing was the soap suds – they have some crazy thing that makes soapy water turn into pure suds and they squeeze them all over you and rub that around a little with a little massaging but not that much.  In between all the steps she generally dumps buckets of water on you which is kind of awkward since you never know when/where they are coming from.  Then you stand up and walk over to the water spout and she flung a bucket of water pretty much at my face and then had me sit down and she shampooed my hair (more like just threw some shampoo on it and let it run down into my eyes while dousing me with more and more buckets of water).  Then I was finally done so I was able to go to the cold water pools.  This was just another side room with swimming pools (chlorine and everything) to sit in after being in the hotter room for a while.  It felt good and I snuck my swimsuit top back on and waited there for Andrea.  When she was done she was pretty much just as freaked out as I was so we left like immediately.  Apparently you can hang out and lie on the marble and go back in the pool as much as you want, but we really just wanted to leave all the scary Turkish ladies.  So we went back upstairs and changed back into our clothes.  They also had hairdryers which was nice so we weren’t complete messes when we left.  It was definitely an interesting cultural experience and I’m glad I went otherwise I would have wondered about it, but I don’t ever have to do that again…ever.

After the bath Andrea was so freaked out that she just wanted some comfort American food so we settled for a Mexican restaurant called Torito.  It wouldn’t have been my first choice of restaurant but I wasn’t even eating so I didn’t really care.  Andrea had a variety plate of tacos and shared one with me, and then the server brought us some apple tea on the house.  The tea tasted really good, the only problem being that it was hot tea and we were eating outside where it was also very hot.  After lunch there was an ice cream stand right on the street corner that we had been watching throughout the meal.  My Cross-Cultural Psychology professor had told us about the ice cream so I knew I wanted to try it.  It is different from regular ice cream in that it is still cold but the consistency is more like a soft chewy caramel.  You have to like bite through the ice cream rather than just lick it.  I had a cone of chocolate and it was such an interesting texture but still very good.

After lunch we decided that we had had enough cultural experiences for the day and headed back to the ship.  We really just wanted to shower after our supposed bath that left our hair coated with kind of disgusting shampoo.  The taxi back took a while because there was a bridge closed and tons of traffic.  We finally made it back to the ship around 4:30pm and showered before going to dinner on board.  I spent the rest of the night working on the paper I had to write about the presentation from the morning.  I figured it would be easier to knock it out while the information was fresh in my mind.  Since we have 5 days here, none of us are feeling extremely rushed to see everything because we have plenty of time.  As of right now I have a kind of crazy whirlwind impression of Turkey, but tomorrow I am touring the palaces of Istanbul with SAS, so that should be a little more like what I am used to.

Turkey Tomorrow!

Today was another super day of classes before having another 5 days off.  This is the first time we are going to be docked in the same place for 5 days, and I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to be doing the full time yet.  There are a few things that I definitely want to get to and a few SAS trips lined up so hopefully everything will work out.  Today we are traveling really close to land toward the Bosphorus.  During dinner we passed a huge WWI monument on the left side of the ship and Troy on the right side of the ship.  I was looking at it trying to imagine the movie and all those soldiers making a sneak attack from the sea.

We had pre-port again tonight and this was the first time they were pretty serious about the fact that we are entering our first Muslim country so we all have to start dressing really conservatively.  I’m not sure how fun it will be to wear jeans in the heat, but everyone will be so it will be doable.  It is even supposed to be a little bit cooler that it was in Greece which will be nice.  Well we were told at pre-port that the sunrise over Istanbul is one of the most beautiful sights of our trip so I will be getting up bright and early at 6:00am to watch it then clearly go back to sleep before an exciting first day in Turkey!

P.S. On another note, our ships intranet might not work depending on where we are docked, so if I don’t have any updates for 5 days then that is why.

Aegina!!

My trip to Aegina was absolutely amazing!!  I had so much fun and it was almost like a vacation from SAS sightseeing.  Andrea, Lauren, and I took a ferry yesterday at 8:00am from Piraeus to Aegina Town that took a little over an hour.  Then we rode a bus for about 30 min. to go to Agia Marina on the other side of the island.  From our research, Agia Marina was supposed to have better beaches which is why we stayed over there.  We got off the bus when everyone else did and then asked a local where our hotel was.  It was a short walk up a little bit of a hill, and we found out that there was actually a bus stop right in front of the hotel but we weren’t paying attention the first time.  The people at the hotel were really nice and helpful.  We were able to check in right away – Lauren and I were in a triple room (Kaitlyn was meeting us later) and Andrea bought a room for herself.

We all got settled in and then went down to the town for lunch.  We ate at a place called Big Banana (haha I know, but we didn’t even know the name of it until we left).  I had an appetizer of feta cheese cooked with fyllo dough and topped with honey.  It was the same dish they served us in Delphi the day before only much better because it was so fresh.  For lunch I just had a chicken sandwich with eggs, lettuce, and a really good dressing.

We went back to the hotel and decided to check out the huge pool and we ended up staying there the rest of the afternoon.  It was amazing and there was a cool bartender who was talking to us and practically like no one else was there.  It was really relaxing so much fun.  We went inside around 6:00pm and after like 5hrs in the sun I had gotten a pretty bad sunburn.  We all got showered and changed to go to dinner.  While we waited for Kaitlyn to get there we all enjoyed using the free wifi and I even got all of my photos uploaded to Facebook!  Once Kaitlyn got to the hotel she changed and then we went to Andrea’s balcony and tried some Ouzo which is pretty disgusting and tastes like black licorice, but it is a famous Greek thing so we had to try it.

Then we walked back down to the town around 10:00pm for dinner.  We ate at a beautiful restaurant called Kiriakakis that overlooked the water.  We all shared some house wine and appetizers of Greek meatballs and ham and cheese pie.  Both the dishes turned out to be fried but were so good.  I had the swordfish for dinner which wasn’t a normal fillet – it was a circle with the bone still in the middle.  It was interesting and very delicious.  They brought us all complimentary slices of an apple cake dessert thing that wasn’t the best (we think they were trying to get rid of it), but was still good.

Then we headed out for the night and walked around the town until we heard some music and went into a bar called Café Jimmy because it was playing popular music.  It was more of a chill bar rather that one with dancing, but the bartender was great and we asked him for something really good that was different from normal and he brought us these giant drinks with huge pieces of watermelon on them and like 3 umbrellas.  One was green and one was red and he said he just made up the recipe.  The red one even had a lit sparkler thing on it so we took a picture of course.  The drinks were delicious and we were talking to a bunch of the people there then we decided to walk around more in search of a place to dance a little.

We ended up at a place called Zorba’s Castle (ridiculous, I know) that had like dancing inside but there was no one there because it wasn’t a weekend and the locals told us that the island is like a weekend getaway for people so there was nobody out on a Wednesday night.  Some random guys outside the club paid our cover to get in which was cool and then we just hung out there for a while.  We went back to the hotel around 4:00am.  It was a really fun night out in Greece and it was great because we only met Greek people and didn’t see anyone else from SAS the entire time.

Today we woke up at 10:00 am and had our hotel breakfast which wasn’t much but I just had a bowl of cereal.  Then we all changed and went to the beach.  The beach itself wasn’t that nice but it was a sand beach which they didn’t have most places.  We had some lounge chairs and a floating raft that Andrea bought so it was a eally relaxing morning.  We went back to the hotel around 1:00pm and showered and packed everything before taking a taxi back to Aegina Town on the other side of the island.  We were early for our ferry so we grabbed lunch at a cute restaurant near the pier.  We split a bunch of food because we were trying to use up Euros.  We had tzaziki, fried cheese, vine leaves stuffed with rice, and meatballs.  It was all really good and I’m glad I tried some stuff that I probably wouldn’t have in other places.

Our ferry back was the flying dolphin which goes fast so it only took us about 30 min to go back to Piraeus.  Then we walked back to the ship and got there around 4:00pm.  The boarding process took a while because everyone was getting back on ferries from various islands.  But I made it back onto the ship on time after my first travel adventure that I planned for myself!  I am so glad we took the trip because it was a great break from intense sightseeing, lots of fun, and I have great memories from the trip!

Delphi!!

Today I had a SAS trip to Delphi which is about 3.5 hours north of Athens.  The drive to get there was kind of long, but I slept most of the way.  When we got there we walked up what used to be the sacred path leading to the Temple of Apollo.  There was a famous oracle at Delphi so people from all over Greece (but mainly Athens) traveled there to seek her guidance because she supposedly shared the word of Apollo.  Delphi is settled in the mountains of Greece which were really pretty but nothing compared to the scenery in Croatia/Montenegro.  It takes a little imagination to put together the ruins of Delphi in your mind, but the path winds up through a bunch of “treasuries” which housed hundreds of statues and was preparation for entering the temple.  The Temple of Apollo is the main focus, but also there was a really big theater above it.  There was also a lower area with the Temple of Athena (a place where women come for healing) and a place for athletes to work out.  All in all it was a pretty cool place to see, but we did not have the best tour guide so I couldn’t really understand a lot of the stories she was sharing.

After walking around the ruins we went to the Delphi museum which had examples of things that used to be in the town such as some of the statues and columns.  The highlights of the museum were two Korous statues, pieces of a silver bull statue, and a famous charioteer statue.  The museum was definitely required to help put together the pieces of what Delphi actually looked like in ancient times.

After the museum we went to lunch at Chalet Maniatis where we had a 4 course meal.  The appetizer was a slice of cheese pie which was delicious and made with feta cheese and a flaky crust (definitely my favorite dish of the meal).  Then there was a pretty plain salad followed by a main course of pork, rice, and gravy.  For dessert they gave each of us a giant plate of watermelon and honeydew.  It was tasty but I probably don’t need to eat anymore watermelon for a long time.

After lunch one of the buses went straight back to the ship while the other one went on to a monastery.  The monastery trip was going to get back to the ship late which is why some people opted to go back after lunch.  I figured that since I was already out there I would go see it.  Luck for us we got to switch buses and have a really awesome tour guide for the rest of the trip.  I learned more at the one stop with her than I did in all of Delphi!  The Greek Orthodox monastery was really pretty and built in the year 1000 AD.  It had 2 churches inside that were full with mosaics that must have taken forever to make.  I guess it would be something good to do with your time when you are a monk in the middle of nowhere.  After the monastery we went back to the buses and got to the ship around 8:00pm.  Another 12hr trip day left me pretty exhausted so I just ate dinner at the ship and am going to turn in early tonight.  I have to write a paper for one of my classes about Delphi, so I am going to do that while it is fresh in my mind.  We are leaving for Aegina early tomorrow and I cannot wait!!