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!!

Athens!!

Today we pulled into our port of Piraeus, Greece bright and early in the morning.  Piraeus is about 6 miles from Athens.  When the ship was cleared by customs around 9am I went off to wander around the port area with Kaitlyn and Lauren.  We walked around for a while and realized that there really wasn’t much around the port area – just businesses, apartments, and very few restaurants.  We ended up going back to the ship after about an hour.  We all had the same afternoon tour so we ate on the ship around noon then headed back off the ship for the tour.

The tour was the “Sights of Athens and the Acropolis” tour from SAS.  We rode the bus to Athens with our tour guide pointing out sights along the way.  We drove straight to the Acropolis and climbed up to the top.  Our tour guide seemed really flustered with the crowds around and was not being very informative so Kaitlyn and I explored the area on our own until we had to meet back down at the bus.  We saw and photographed all the main sights like the Parthenon, but it was definitely crowded and hot (apparently it got even more crowded later with tons of SAS tours).  Then we went back on the bus and took a driving tour of the city.  We went by the Olympic stadium (built for the first modern games and also used in 2004), Marathon statue, Temple of Zeus, and Arch of Adrian (spelling?).  We also drove by 3 buildings in a row that demonstrated classic Greek architecture: their Parliament, University, and city library.  It was cool to see them lined up next to each other having subtle differences in architecture.  Then we drove back to Piraeus around 5:00pm.

We got back on the ship and ate dinner then used the rest of the night to hang out and plan our last 2 days in Greece.  We used the travel books at the library and a little bit of internet time to decide to book a hotel on the island of Aegina which is an hour ferry ride from Piraeus.  It is supposedly a weekend getaway spot for Athenian locals.  We have a hotel in Agia Marina which is supposedly the beach side of the island and we were able to get a triple room for 50 Euro at a hotel with complimentary buffet breakfast and a big outdoor pool that is just 100 meters from the beach!  We also booked our ferry ride there so we will be leaving early on Wednesday then getting back to Piraeus around 3:00pm on Thursday.  With our port location it is almost easier to get to islands than to Athens which is why most SAS students are doing island trips for at least a day.

Tomorrow I’m on a full day trip to Delphi that leaves really early in the morning so I’m heading to bed early tonight.  I can’t wait to see Delphi and then spend a relaxing day and a half in Aegina!!

Sea Olympics!

Today was the annual Sea Olympics!!  We had no classes today and everyone was looking forward to sleeping in, but then we were woken up by alarms for a lifeboat drill at 10am anyway.  After the drill I came back to my room and hung around and got ready for lunch at 11:45am.  Today they pulled out all the stops and had taco day to celebrate the Olympics!  After lunch we went back and got ready for the day full of competitions.

Everyone living on the ship is divided up into areas named after various seas – mine is the Arabian Sea.  All the seas are assigned a color to wear and everyone gets really into it.  The Arabian Sea was black which was awesome because everyone has black and we looked really badass because we all put the stripes under our eyes to look intense.  We had a section of guys who all wore black Under Armor compression shorts because they felt like it so that was entertaining.  Then everyone proceeded to the Union for the opening ceremonies.

They got really into it and play the Olympics theme song over the loud speaker to have everyone come to the union and to make the announcements all day.  The Opening ceremonies introduced all the teams and all the teams had a cheer.  Some were really well prepared, but ours was last minute and very effective.  It was easy to be intimidating in a group of all black.  (Another advantage for our color was that everyone was completely black rather than jeans and a shirt color.)  Then the events started and went all day including Pictionary, synchronized swimming, tug of war, boat races in the pool, academic bowl, dodge ball, relay races, lip sync, makeover competition, and probably more that I forgot.  There were generally 2 event occurring simultaneously – one in the Union and the other on the pool deck.  I participated in Pictionary and academic bowl.

Pictionary was first and our team started out really strong but then it kind of fizzled so we didn’t win.  The academic bowl was very disappointing because it was totally rigged!  They had some teachers write the questions and each category was so specific like stuff that you would only know if you were in that person’s class and no one on our team was in the classes.  We did pretty well considering that fact, and there was a Michael Jackson category that we dominated, but we didn’t win.  The only event the Arabian Sea did well in was dodge ball because we had those pretty intense guys in their Under Armor and we took second place in that tournament.  For everything else we sort of had a lack of participation compared to some of the other teams, but we finished 4th from last overall I think so at least we weren’t the worst!

After the Olympics were over they had the closing ceremonies in the Union where the announced the winners which was the Yellow Sea.  Apparently the order of finish in the Sea Olympics determines who gets off the ship first when we get back to the USA, so it looks like I might be on for a while.  Dinner tonight was a celebration BBQ with some more great food similar to the 4th of July party, complete with ice cream and everything – so delicious!

After dinner everyone pretty much crashed after a full day of Olympics and then we had our usual pre-port meeting for Greece at 8:00pm.  We didn’t get any groundbreaking info at pre-port, just the usual stuff.  And now I am back in my cabin probably going to get to bed early tonight because we are getting to Greece tomorrow!!  I would love to have time to walk around a little bit before I go on my tour of Athens and the Acropolis.  I can’t believe after Greece we are at the halfway point of our voyage, but I am super excited for a new country tomorrow!

Last Day in Croatia

Today was our last day in Croatia and I am definitely sad to leave.  Last night after we got back to the ship we ate a quick dinner and cleaned up a bit before heading out for our last night in Dubrovnik.  We got some pregame materials at the grocery store just outside of port and then took the bus to old town.  At first it was just Janae, Amanda, and me so we went to the old pier and sat on one of the benches to drink.  It was really cute and picturesque with the cliffs all around and a view of the town at night.  Then we went back into the town and met up with some other friends.  Janae and Amanda went to a bar in old town while I met up with my friend Kaitlyn’s group and we went out to some rocks on the shore.  We all hung out there and pregamed some more before heading to Club Fuego.  Fuego was another tourist bar but you got a free drink with the cover charge so that was nice.  I liked it a lot better than East West because it wasn’t just people from SAS there.  There were lots of people from other European countries who were there on vacation.  Over the course of the night we met people from Paris, Norway, and Belgium.  We were out until at least 4:00am and then took a cab back to the ship.  It was a great night and truly memorable!

I slept in a little this morning which was nice.  I think everyone on the ship had a late start after last night.  I spent the day with my friend Andrea and we had a great time.  We waited to catch a bus to old town for a little while but realized that there wasn’t one scheduled to come for another 20 min so we decided to head to the cab stand.  There were tons of cabs and 2 Australian guys who worked on a different cruise ship asked if we wanted to share so we had a fun ride to old town.  They were telling us all about Greece since they have been there a lot so now we definitely got an idea of some stuff to do there.  We got to old town and the guys wouldn’t let us split the cab which was really nice, and they told us to buy ice cream with the money instead haha.

When we got to old town we found this restaurant called Taj Mahal because Andrea had heard really good things about it.  At first I was kind of wondering why we would be going to an Indian restaurant but it turned out that the name didn’t have anything to do with the food.  It wasn’t on the main road and kind of hard to find which might have been why it was so good.  It was absolutely amazing and my favorite meal from Croatia or probably anywhere.  The bread was the best bread I had at any restaurant, even better than all of Italy.  We had an appetizer of peppers that were topped with lots of ricotta cheese and probably something else.  I don’t even like peppers and thought it was good.  Andrea had something called a Gypsy kabob which had 3 different types of meat on it and a special gypsy sauce that was tomato based.  It was good but my meal was definitely more amazing.  I had a dish called sudžukice which was a sausage dish.  My plate literally was like 5 sausages (about the size of regular hot dogs), mustard, and a baked potato with sour cream.  I was full after eating about half of it but there was no way that food was going to waste.  The flavor of the sausage was like nothing I had ever had before – seriously amazing.  I don’t even like mustard either but it was really good with the sausage and made it taste even better.  It truly was an amazing meal!!

After lunch we walked to a really cool beach that was about halfway between the port and old town.  It was this secluded spot that was just like the side of a cliff with a small area flattened out for people to lay out.  You had to climb down the rocks to get into the water, or just jumping off the cliff was the more popular method.  There was a ladder at the bottom for you to get out of the water, but it was really cool since it wasn’t like an actual beach and it was really hidden.  We had to climb down like a billion steps to get there, and the way back up was not fun.  The water was totally amazing too – really blue and warm and it was like extra salty so you could float really easily.  We were there for about an hour and then we walked the rest of the way back to the ship and said goodbye to Croatia.

They actually told us that the ship would be leaving at 8:00pm tonight so we were all back on the ship by 6:00pm like usual and then they made an announcement that we were actually going to stay docked through the night and leave early in the morning.  We all wished that we could stay out in Dubrovnik longer because their big summer festival started tonight, but now we just have to stay on the boat and look at beautiful Croatia through the window for one more night.

Well as you can probably tell I had an amazing time in Croatia.  The people here are awesome and laid back, everything is beautiful, and there is so much to do.  Croatia would be a perfect place for a vacation because you can easily mix beach days with days in town or traveling and seeing historical sites.  I never got a chance to go kayaking around the islands which is something I would love to come back and do as well as spend lots more time exploring.  I think I could stay in Croatia forever!!

Montenegro!!

Yesterday was my SAS trip to Montenegro and it was so pretty because it is completely mountains (the name Montenegro means black mountains).  We left at 8:00am and drove for about an hour to reach the border.  We all had to show our passports for customs and we got held up for a little because a girl on our trip was from Peru and couldn’t go through because of her visa.  Then we drove for another 2 hours just completely around 4 different bays of the Montenegro coastline.  It was really beautiful, but hard to stay awake through all the turning.  We finally made it to a small town called Kotor where we got a very brief tour and then 30 min of free time to walk around a little.  It was a really cute town, very similar to the ones in Croatia that I went to the day before.

After free time we went back on the bus and proceeded to drive up a mountain.  It took almost an hour and a half of crazy driving on a tiny road that could barely fit our bus.  The best part was that it was a 2 way road so we would have to stop and cars pull off or reverse a little until there was an area to pull off if we were going in opposite directions.  It was so crazy to see how close we were to the edge on that mountain road.  Our guide said that they hold races there sometimes and I definitely can’t imagine that being very safe.  Once we reached the top of the mountain we were able to stop and take pictures for a few minutes.  Then we drove to a tiny village called Njeguši.  It was nestled high in the mountains in a little flat valley area.  We stopped there for a snack of ham and cheese sandwiches and a choice of drink (I had some white wine of course).  The sandwiches were really good because they actually like make the ham up there in the town – it was something similar to prosciutto.  Then we drove all the way back down the same mountain road again.

Then we drove to the town of Budva which is a main place for tourism in Montenegro and where they have a lot of big hotels and a great beach and stuff.  We went to a restaurant for lunch where we had chicken noodle soup, salad, chicken, potatoes, and peas.  The food was alright but definitely not my favorite meal provided by SAS.  Then we had another 30 min of free time so we got gelato and walked to the beach and stuff.  There was actually a lot to do in that town so I wish we would have had more time to spend there.  We all got back on the buses and drove all the way back to Dubrovnik.  Instead of driving around all the bays on the way back we were able to take a ferry across the largest bay so it knocked about 30 min off the drive.  We still didn’t get back to the ship until a little after 8:00pm.

All in all, the trip had some of the most beautiful scenery that I have seen, but there was a lot of time spent driving on the bus.  We were gone for 12 hours total and were on the bus for 8.5 hours out of the 12 which is a little ridiculous.  But I am definitely glad I went on the trip because it was an absolutely beautiful place (even prettier that Croatia if that’s even possible).  I definitely have some beautiful pictures and I really need to start planning my vacation to come back here!

Dubrovnik!!

Well we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia yesterday and it is by far the most beautiful place we have been!  The landscape is just cliffs jutting out of the sea with tons of islands and little towns around the edges of the cliffs.  I spent the morning sleeping in for the first time on the ship and then ate lunch on the boat.  Then I went on the city orientation tour at 1:00pm.  We went into the old town which is small, cute and no cars are allowed inside so it is really nice to walk around.  The tour led us to the Franciscan monastery (which had one of the world’s first pharmacies), Dominican monastery, Rectors Palace, and the Cathedral of Dubrovnik.  Nothing was as elaborate as the massive cathedrals and palaces that I have already seen, but it had its own quaint little beauty and fit with the personality of the town.  It was sweltering outside so after the tour finished I got some ice cream and walked around the town some more before returning to the ship for dinner.

After dinner I showered and got ready to go out because Croatia was pretty much the cutest place ever so everyone was going out.  It only cost 10 Kn ($2) for a bus ride back to the entrance of the old town and on the other side of old town there is a bar/club called EastWest.  This is a crazy nightclub that is right on the beach and was completely full of only students from Semester at Sea.  I think this is because it is the only nightclub in Dubrovnik.  I went with a group including Janae and Kaitlyn, so Kaitlyn and I split a bottle of wine and then danced the night away with the rest of the ship.

Today I went on a SAS sponsored trip to Trsteno, Ston, and the island of Korčula (pronounced Korchula).  We had to leave really early (7:00am) which was a little rough after my late night, but we had a nice 30 min ride to the first town of Trsteno.  Trsteno was a cute town that was a place for rich people of Dubrovnik to build summer homes.  We went to the Trsteno arboretum which was a summer house with a huge garden and fountain.  The garden was full of exotic flowers from tons of different places.  We learned that nobody was allowed to build fancy houses on the coast because they didn’t want them to attract pirates so people showed their wealth by having huge exotic gardens.  Then we drove another 30 min to the town of Ston which was supposed to resemble a medieval town.  It was known mainly for producing salt by bringing in ocean water and then letting it sit in pools for about 40 days until it all evaporates leaving the salt.  We had free time for almost an hour to walk around the town so my friend Lauren and I hiked up the city walls and had an amazing view of the town and the salt place.  It was a mighty steep hike though and a good workout for the day!

Next we went on about an hour drive to a small town where we took a ferry to the island of Korčula.  It was a really cute island town with a lot of history around it.  We had our guide show us around their museums with icons, the Church of All Saints, and the big cathedral.  Our guide told us lots of great stories about the history and folklore of the island and how it was created half with curved streets and half with straight sheets to keep the town warm or cool depending on the season.  We also saw a house that may or may not be Marco Polo’s house.  There are several debates about whether or not he was born there but he did live there for at least some time during his life.  After the tour we went to the Hotel Korčula for lunch.  It was definitely an interesting meal of all seafood.  The appetizer plate was 2 shrimp, 2 anchovies, and something else that looked like it was probably octopus.  There was a mayonnaise-ish sauce on the place that I really liked and everything tasted good except the anchovies.  The main dish had 2 types of fish (one was just a fillet and the other had bones and scales still), green beans, potatoes, and broccoli.  Something about the way they did the broccoli was absolutely delicious – the best I had ever tasted!  I couldn’t believe they only gave us one piece!  There was also an apple strudel thing for dessert.  After lunch we had an hour of free time so we got ice cream and went to the pebble beach and waded around in the water for a little before returning to the bus via the ferry.

We had a 2 hour drive back to Dubrovnik that was absolutely beautiful and so scenic to wind around through the cliffs.  It is amazing how these drivers can maneuver the buses on the tiny mountain roads.  When we got back to the ship we couldn’t board because the ship was out at anchorage and the last tender boat had already left.  It was just awkward timing so we had about an hour to kill while the ship maneuvered back into port.  Janae, Lauren, and I went to the supermarket (which turned out to be more like a Wal-Mart).  It was a fun way to pass the time and see all the Croatian brands.  We were able to get back on the ship a little after 7:30pm to eat dinner.  Now I am probably going to have an early bedtime tonight because tomorrow I am getting up early for my trip to Montenegro!

Croatia Tomorrow!

Today was a pretty difficult day of classes considering we have this one class in between 5 days in Italy and 4 days in Croatia.  Nobody was very focused and classes seemed sort of pointless but that is how it will be for the month of July (we only have 6 total class days the entire month).  We got our Global Studies essays and tests back and I got A’s on both…yay!  Early in the morning we went through the straight that separates the tip of the “Italian boot” from Sicily.  They had an announcement over the loud speaker at like 6am that woke everybody up (luckily I was able to look out my window without actually getting up), but seeing land is getting a lot less interesting since we are docked most of the time.  Tonight we had a pre-port meeting where our inter-port Croatian student gave a brief presentation on Croatia (he was super cute so all the girls were very attentive haha) and then we got the usual safety talks, etc.  I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow since I don’t have anything on my schedule until 1pm, but I seriously can’t wait to get to Dubrovnik since it is supposed to be beautiful!

Naples & Pompeii!!

I arrived in Naples yesterday afternoon and it is definitely different from the other ports we have docked at.  The city is very dirty and lots of people were coming back to the ship saying that the surrounding area is really sketchy.  I know Naples is a popular tourist spot so I feel like we must just be docked in the wrong part of town.  Anyway, I relaxed and ate dinner on the ship last night then went out to do a little exploring with Janae.  Her tour guide from the morning told her the area is alright if you go to the right of the ship and stay along the shoreline, so that is basically what we did.  We went out in search of gelato but it was nowhere to be found.  We literally walked for about an hour looking for anything and I know there were gelaterias on every corner in Rome so I was surprised that there weren’t any here.  The shoreline was still cute and there were lots of people out strolling so we felt pretty safe.  We ended up settling for some freshly grilled corn on the cob from a street vendor which was no gelato, but still pretty good.  Then we went back to the ship and headed to bed.

This morning I had a SAS trip to Pompeii that left at 8:30am.  We took a bus for about 40min and had a tour guide talking to us the whole way about the history of Naples and all the towns we were passing.  Pompeii was really cool because the town is completely preserved – it was so crazy!  Everything built in Rome was really over the top because it was such a large city and gathering place, but Pompeii was just a regular town that used to be right on the sea in ancient times.  The highlights of the tour were definitely the brothel (because they have preserved images that were on the walls to help clients choose what they wanted) and the massive town square.  The city was huge and it was crazy how so much of it was still standing.  The other really neat part to see was an area holding all the things that had been excavated from the site such as pots, tools, etc.  They also have plaster moldings of people who died in the volcano in the exact position that they died in – mostly covering their face with their hands to protect themselves from the ash.  When the ash cloud covered the city it then hardened around the bodies that it covered and then over time the bodies decomposed leaving a cavity in the shape that their body was in, so archaeologists poured plaster into the cavities and now have the molds of these people – it was really interesting to see.

Then we took the bus back to Naples but on the way stopped at this factory to see how they make this special kind of jewelry that is carved out of seashells.  It was really amazing art and the tour company gets commission on if we buy things but I just looked around and took pictures haha.  When we got back to Naples it was about 1:00pm so we had a little while to walk around the town.  We went to get pizza for lunch at Castel Nuovo.  I had an amazing one that was mozzarella, ricotta, and salami folded in half like a calzone – it was delicious!  We continued to walk around and wanted to shop a little but it is Sunday so everything was closed.   We looked at a few street vendors, but there wasn’t anything too exciting so we just headed back to the ship around 4:00pm.

Tonight for dinner on the ship they had a 4th of July themed cookout.  It was definitely the best meal we have had by far.  They had potato salad, macaroni salad, regular tossed salad, ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the toppings on the side.  They also had a giant 4th of July cake and a wide variety of desserts including an ice cream sundae bar.  Even though I was still full from my giant pizza at lunch, I still ate a ton of food because I knew it would be the best we would probably ever have.  As far as the rest of the night, everyone is pretty busy because we always have papers and such due after we leave a port and we only have one day of classes before arriving in Croatia!

Rome!!

Happy 4th of July!  Hopefully everyone is enjoying the holiday!  I made it back to the ship successfully after 3 nights in Roma!  I had a little bit of a rough start on Wednesday, but then had an absolute blast.  Docking in Ciavitavecchia took a little bit longer than in Spain, so everyone was very ready to get off the ship when they finally cleared us.  I walked with a big herd or people from SAS to the train station and got my ticket to Termini station in Rome.  The train was really packed and I had to stand for the whole train ride – it was also extremely hot and stuffy with all the people crammed in.  When I got to Rome I got pretty lost in the train station because I was trying to meet up with the rest of my family who was already there waiting for me.  I finally found them and we checked our baggage at the train station and headed out for a day of sightseeing.

First we went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  The museum wasn’t that interesting, but once we got to the Sistine Chapel, I had the Rick Steves’ audio tour on my iPod so he explained everything about the artwork which made it especially fascinating.  After that we headed to St. Peter’s Basilica which was REALLY impressive.  It was gigantic and had so many sculptures and artwork, including Michelangelo’s Pieta.  I listened to another Rick Steves’ audio tour which was great so that I knew what I was looking at.  We were all starving by this point so we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Borgi Nuovo.  Then we went back to Termini station to pick up our luggage and headed to the hotel named Hotel Golden.  It was a cute little family-run hotel with only 15 rooms.  Mom and Dad had their own room while I shared a room with Mary Kate, Brian, and Brian’s friend Jill.  We were pretty exhausted from a long day of walking so we all took a nap and then went to dinner at San Marco.  I had a 4-cheese pizza, but was so full from lunch that I could only eat half of it.  Luckily we had a fridge in our hotel room so we were able to bring it home to eat later.  After dinner we got some gelato (I had a chocolate with hazelnuts) and then just hung out and drank wine before going to sleep.  Lucky for me, my family had bought 8 bottles of wine when they went wine tasting in Tuscany and I got to help drink them!

The next morning started off early again.  The hotel had a nice little breakfast with lots of breads, spreads, pastries, and some meats.  Then we headed for our day touring ancient Rome.  We had audio tours from Rick Steves for all the places we went that day: Colosseum, Forum, and Pantheon.  These places were all really cool to see because they are so much older than anything we have in the US and it is amazing to think about how they built all of that stuff without the technology that we have today.  The Pantheon was my favorite place though because I realized that it must be what the Rotunda at UVa is based off of.  I’m sure if I ever went on a historical tour I would learn that, but it was a really pretty building and reminded me of UVa but in Rome!  Then we found a restaurant for lunch and headed back to the hotel.  The walk to the hotel was really long so we stopped by Trevi fountain and had some delicious gelato (I had half Nutella and half caramel crème).  We all took another nap in the hotel after an exhausting day while Mom and Dad were nice enough to go to the laundromat and wash all of our dirty clothes.  After we were all rested, we headed for dinner at Il Pomodorino.  After that we retired to the hotel for some more wine and then bedtime.

We woke up early again on Friday morning to get to our 9:00am appointment at the Borghese museum of Renaissance art.  The first floor was entirely sculpture and the second floor had paintings.  It would have been nice to have an audio tour to talk about the artwork but it was still nice to look at.  Then we met up with Brian and Jill and decided to go to the Rome Zoo because it was close to the museum.  None of us had been to a zoo recently so it was fun to look at all the adorable animals, and a lot of the zoo was in the shade so it helped with the heat too.  Then we walked to the Spanish steps and relaxed there – I can see how it would be easy to sit on those steps and people watch for hours.  Then we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and back to the hotel for our daily nap.  The nap was great and then we walked to Campo di Fiori to have dinner.  After dinner Mom and Dad split off to have a nice walk around Rome at night while Brian, Jill, Mary Kate, and I headed to a pub crawl.  Apparently there are lots of different crawls that go on for the tourists and stuff.  We did the Forum pub crawl and went to 3 different bars and got the t-shirt.  We successfully requested Michael Jackson at all the bars so we could dance!  We went back to the hotel afterwards for my last night of sleep in Rome.

This morning we all woke up and had to go our separate ways.  Jill left for the airport to fly back to Chicago and I went to the train station with my family but they were headed to Venice while I was headed to Naples to meet back up with the ship.  My train ride back was just over an hour and Mom had splurged for a first class ticket so I had a very nice ride.  I took a cab from the Naples train station to my ship, and it was definitely nice to come back on and get unpacked and settled again.  I had such an amazing time in Rome, and am so glad that I got to hang out with my family for a few days!  Tomorrow I have a trip with SAS to Pompeii so that should be really fun, and then I will be back on the ship for another day at sea!