On our 12-day journey home from Croatia to Norfolk, Va, These are some exciting things that have happened:
Monday 8/11/08
Today was a class day and a day of paper writing! I did work all day and took naps, I was still tired from all the exploring on land. I stayed up all night writing papers because at 2:30 we were supposed to be able to see a meteor shower and my biology professor told us that it was going on and he’d meet us all on the front of the ship to watch. We stayed out for about 45 minutes laying on the deck and watching the stars. It was absolutely beautiful and we saw quite a few falling meteors!!
8/12/08
Even though I only got a few hours of sleep, I was able to stay awake all day, get some sun between classes, and get a little bit more paper writing done! I was going to stay up all night again to watch the meteor shower tonight as well – our professor told us that it was going to be better tonight – but I fell asleep around 1. I woke up at 2:30 to go out and watch – the crew turned the lights out on the front of the ship -- but it was soo windy and cold, I only stayed out for a bit. I saw a few meteors, but it was better the night before.
8/13/08
Today was a study day, so naturally, we had out last life boat drill at 10am. At 11, I got a hot stone massage (it was a birthday present a la dad – but I decided to get it when I was stressed about finals and papers and really needed it..). It was really wonderful! I wrote papers all day, so I didn’t get to lay out. Around 4pm, we stopped in Gibraltar, Spain to refuel and whatnot, and we were there until about 11. I had a SAS family dinner with my family – minus Joyce (our ‘aunt’) and her daughter Bridget. There was also an auction in the union – I went, but didn’t buy anything. They were auctioning things off like unlimited Internet for the rest of the trip, seats at the captain’s table, a weekend of photography with Photo Mike who does Nikon workshops (which I really wanted, but don’t have $1000 to drop…).
8/16/08
Today was another class day of papers and work. There was a partial moon eclipse that was absolutely GORGEOUS! I didn’t get pictures because I forgot my camera, but I am hoping to snag some from someone!
8/18/08
Yesterday was the global studies final, which totally sucked, but two of the students did a comedy routine at night, so that was some good comic relief. Today was a study day, but I woke up at 7, so I did a little bible study while I watched the sunrise on the 7th deck, it was really pretty. I got breakfast at 8, laid out from 9-12, got some lunch, and studied throughout the day. It was wonderful!!
8/19/08
Today was the last day of finals – I had my Biology final at 8 and my circus final at 1. I woke up at 6 to get outside and study while the sun was rising as well as get a good healthy breakfast for brain food. I took my final and felt really good about it! I went back into the cave (my room) and studied for my circus final, with a lunch break. I took the final and felt really good about it, so I was happy!! I worked out and showered and took my good old time getting ready for the ball since it was only 4 when I was done working out and we didn’t need to be ready until 6. We had pictures with Captain Jeremy at 7 then took pictures out on the deck, but it was soo windy, it was hard to get a good one with my dress and my hair flying everywhere. We got in line for our 8pm dinner and got champaign on the way in. We sat down and ate bread and then we were served bruschetta, French onion sup (my favorite!!!), Caesar salad, and steak and twice baked potatoes as our main course. The dance was going on in the union from 10 – 1 and dessert was being served throughout the ship for a while. We ate our dessert in the fac/staff and Aimee and I were able to get a picture with our biology professor, Iain Cambell, who is from Scotland and the most awesome professor ever (even though he is from Pitt and doesn’t like Penn State). We went back to dance and then got some more dessert and I got a picture with my favorite waiter – Henry. We did more dancing and then when the dance was over at 1, I went to Paul’s room to watch a movie with him, Aimee, Marissa, Emily, and Jackie. I came back and got a shower around 2 and was SO thankful to turn the clock back an hour and get that extra hour of sleep!!!
8/20/08
Only 2 days left. I got up at 8 and got some breakfast. I came back to my room, put my bathing suit on, and hit the deck to get some sun. I fell asleep lying on my stomach for about an hour, so my back got nice and tan! Around 11, a huge gust of wind came along and brought a storm about, so I came inside and got some lunch. At lunch, I got really sad and started crying and then laughing hysterically to cover it up. After lunch, I packed up my stuff, and then went to a reflection meeting of the voyage, picked up my paper from my TA for global studies (I got a B/B- -- points were taken off because I cited Wikipedia), and then went to a meeting held by the psychologists about coping with leaving. Again, I started crying a lot and Marissa joined in with me this time. After, we hit up the pub night and had a drink with friends for the last time!
I have had the MOST amazing summer ever!! I am soo sad to leave it behind, but I have made so many friends and had a wonderful time with them! I cant wait to get home and see you all!!
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog! Stay tuned for the follow up blog to my voyage!
Love,
Kate
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Croatia!!
8/8/08
We are in Croatia!! I woke up early this morning to watch us pull into our last foreign port; it was very pretty!! We didn’t have a morning meeting this morning; we had the meeting last night because we had to use our tender boats for this port. There is not a whole lot of room to dock, so we didn’t get priority and had to be out in the middle of the water and take the tender boats in. We left on the 9:30 tender and got ashore right before 10. There was a large group of us – Heather, Emily, Marissa, Aimee, and Paul – and we walked around, got some money, and hopped the bus to the beach! It was really cool and very downhill, which sucked coming back up after the beach. Anyway, it was a pebble beach with beautiful clear water, which sounded cool in theory, but since we didn’t bring water shoes, it KILLED our feet getting in and out of the water. It was hot, so we managed to get in and out a few times. Around lunchtime, we headed up the hill to get some lunch, and we ended up getting pizza. After sitting there for a long time, we went up the hill a little more to make plans to go snorkeling. The only time they had open was 5:30, so we took it. We had some time since it was only 3, so we did a little souvenir shopping and got a pitcher of sangria to split between us all. It was tasty! We had to walk across that part of the land to get to the other beach at a hotel for the snorkeling. We waited for an hour and the boat finally got there at 6:30, but people who went snorkeling said they didn’t see a whole lot, so we decided to do a banana boat ride instead! It was SO much fun! All six of us fit on the banana and it was attached to a speedboat that pulled us along and occasionally flipped us off! It was sooo hard for Heather and I to get back on the banana because we are taller and have long legs. When we were done, we changed at the hotel and hopped on the bus to go to the Old Town to go to this supposedly cool bar called Buza. We got into the Old Town, which is surrounded completely by walls and had to walk up some hefty stairs to the top right of the inside of the wall to get to this bar. When we got there, it was literally a little hole on the outside of the wall overlooking the water, an island called Lokrum, and the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous. I got a dessert wine and we just sat and sipped for a long time. When we were done there, we walked back down to the middle of the town and got some pizza for dinner. It was fantabulous! Probably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten! We also got some wine with dinner. We hopped back on the bus, went to the post and had to wait for the tender boat back to the ship, took a shower and went to bed! It was a long day in the sun! Can’t wait for another one tomorrow!!
8/9/08
This morning, we were in no rush to get out, so we went out on the 10 am tender to the port – Paul, Aimee and I. We took the bus into the old city, got some ice cream, walked around, and made reservations for kayaking. We decided to walk around the city walls on the top. It was incredibly hot, but so cool to see the city from the top of the walls. After, we stopped at a little wine bar and got a glass of wine. We got hungry after sitting for a bit, so we went to a little seafood place… yes, I said seafood. I got shrimp and it was so good! After, we got more ice cream because it was soo hot. We walked around a little more and then around 2:45 decided to walk to the beach for the kayaking. They told us it would only be a 15-minute walk from the Old Town, boy did they lie. It took about 45 minutes to get there and we had to walk up and down hills and then down these massively steep steps. It was another pebble beach, and it was much prettier than the one from before. As soon as we got there, we jumped right into the water because it was so hot. Our kayaking started at 4 and there were 2 other girls from SAS and then a couple from Dublin, Ireland. Aimee and I were in the double kayak and Paul was by himself. We were supposed to go to the other side of the island that faced the open water, but our guide said that the water was too rough, and it was a little rough, so we went to the side the was closest to the main land, and walked across the island. We walked to a little lagoon and swam for a little big, and then the guide left crackers, bread, and wine. It was a fun little excursion. We had an hour and a half on the island before heading back to the beach. This time, Paul and I were in the double and we kicked butt getting back. We laid out on the beach even though it was 8ish at that time, but it was so pretty with the sun setting over the Old Town. When we were leaving, BOTH of my flip-flops broke, so it was a LOOONG walk back o the bus stop. When we got on the bus, we ran into Caitlin, Carly, and Amber. We sang songs on the way to the ship and when we made it back to the port, Photo Mike and his family were there, so we sang Disney songs to his litte girls – Riley and Rachel who are 3 and 4. When I got back to the ship, I went to the 7th deck to see if I could get a burger or something since I didn’t eat dinner, but they were done serving real food, so I went to my room to go to bed and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin since it was playing on the loop.
8/10/08
This morning, I had to get up early to go to an orphanage and children’s hospital with SAS. We took a charter to the top of a hill and took pictures before going to the orphanage. There were about 40 of us SASers and only 16 kids. The kids were so cute and excited for us to be there. They did not speak any English, but they had their caretakers there who were helping us talk to them. They loved all the gifts we brought them – puzzles, coloring books, temporary tattoos, play do. We were there for 2 hours and when we were done, we headed over to the hospital, but the doctor wasn’t ready when we got there, so we sat for a little bit. When the doctor was ready, we had a tour of the children’s department and then had a Q & A with the doctor. She gave us postcards and with that, we headed back to the port. I decided to go off on my own and explore the city by myself. I went back into the Old Town to shop around for souvenirs. As I was walking, I saw a friend Angela sitting by herself at a restaurant, so I decided to sit with her and get lunch. We sat and talked for a good two hours. And then I headed back toward the port. I stopped at the grocery store to get some snacks before getting on the boat. Since this was our last night in port, we had a BBQ and then a group picture on the back of the ship after the BBQ. We went to the community meeting after dinner and then went outside to watch the sunset and to watch us leave our last port. So, now we are on our way back home and I have a rough week of classes and finals ahead of me! Wish me luck!!
We are in Croatia!! I woke up early this morning to watch us pull into our last foreign port; it was very pretty!! We didn’t have a morning meeting this morning; we had the meeting last night because we had to use our tender boats for this port. There is not a whole lot of room to dock, so we didn’t get priority and had to be out in the middle of the water and take the tender boats in. We left on the 9:30 tender and got ashore right before 10. There was a large group of us – Heather, Emily, Marissa, Aimee, and Paul – and we walked around, got some money, and hopped the bus to the beach! It was really cool and very downhill, which sucked coming back up after the beach. Anyway, it was a pebble beach with beautiful clear water, which sounded cool in theory, but since we didn’t bring water shoes, it KILLED our feet getting in and out of the water. It was hot, so we managed to get in and out a few times. Around lunchtime, we headed up the hill to get some lunch, and we ended up getting pizza. After sitting there for a long time, we went up the hill a little more to make plans to go snorkeling. The only time they had open was 5:30, so we took it. We had some time since it was only 3, so we did a little souvenir shopping and got a pitcher of sangria to split between us all. It was tasty! We had to walk across that part of the land to get to the other beach at a hotel for the snorkeling. We waited for an hour and the boat finally got there at 6:30, but people who went snorkeling said they didn’t see a whole lot, so we decided to do a banana boat ride instead! It was SO much fun! All six of us fit on the banana and it was attached to a speedboat that pulled us along and occasionally flipped us off! It was sooo hard for Heather and I to get back on the banana because we are taller and have long legs. When we were done, we changed at the hotel and hopped on the bus to go to the Old Town to go to this supposedly cool bar called Buza. We got into the Old Town, which is surrounded completely by walls and had to walk up some hefty stairs to the top right of the inside of the wall to get to this bar. When we got there, it was literally a little hole on the outside of the wall overlooking the water, an island called Lokrum, and the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous. I got a dessert wine and we just sat and sipped for a long time. When we were done there, we walked back down to the middle of the town and got some pizza for dinner. It was fantabulous! Probably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten! We also got some wine with dinner. We hopped back on the bus, went to the post and had to wait for the tender boat back to the ship, took a shower and went to bed! It was a long day in the sun! Can’t wait for another one tomorrow!!
8/9/08
This morning, we were in no rush to get out, so we went out on the 10 am tender to the port – Paul, Aimee and I. We took the bus into the old city, got some ice cream, walked around, and made reservations for kayaking. We decided to walk around the city walls on the top. It was incredibly hot, but so cool to see the city from the top of the walls. After, we stopped at a little wine bar and got a glass of wine. We got hungry after sitting for a bit, so we went to a little seafood place… yes, I said seafood. I got shrimp and it was so good! After, we got more ice cream because it was soo hot. We walked around a little more and then around 2:45 decided to walk to the beach for the kayaking. They told us it would only be a 15-minute walk from the Old Town, boy did they lie. It took about 45 minutes to get there and we had to walk up and down hills and then down these massively steep steps. It was another pebble beach, and it was much prettier than the one from before. As soon as we got there, we jumped right into the water because it was so hot. Our kayaking started at 4 and there were 2 other girls from SAS and then a couple from Dublin, Ireland. Aimee and I were in the double kayak and Paul was by himself. We were supposed to go to the other side of the island that faced the open water, but our guide said that the water was too rough, and it was a little rough, so we went to the side the was closest to the main land, and walked across the island. We walked to a little lagoon and swam for a little big, and then the guide left crackers, bread, and wine. It was a fun little excursion. We had an hour and a half on the island before heading back to the beach. This time, Paul and I were in the double and we kicked butt getting back. We laid out on the beach even though it was 8ish at that time, but it was so pretty with the sun setting over the Old Town. When we were leaving, BOTH of my flip-flops broke, so it was a LOOONG walk back o the bus stop. When we got on the bus, we ran into Caitlin, Carly, and Amber. We sang songs on the way to the ship and when we made it back to the port, Photo Mike and his family were there, so we sang Disney songs to his litte girls – Riley and Rachel who are 3 and 4. When I got back to the ship, I went to the 7th deck to see if I could get a burger or something since I didn’t eat dinner, but they were done serving real food, so I went to my room to go to bed and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin since it was playing on the loop.
8/10/08
This morning, I had to get up early to go to an orphanage and children’s hospital with SAS. We took a charter to the top of a hill and took pictures before going to the orphanage. There were about 40 of us SASers and only 16 kids. The kids were so cute and excited for us to be there. They did not speak any English, but they had their caretakers there who were helping us talk to them. They loved all the gifts we brought them – puzzles, coloring books, temporary tattoos, play do. We were there for 2 hours and when we were done, we headed over to the hospital, but the doctor wasn’t ready when we got there, so we sat for a little bit. When the doctor was ready, we had a tour of the children’s department and then had a Q & A with the doctor. She gave us postcards and with that, we headed back to the port. I decided to go off on my own and explore the city by myself. I went back into the Old Town to shop around for souvenirs. As I was walking, I saw a friend Angela sitting by herself at a restaurant, so I decided to sit with her and get lunch. We sat and talked for a good two hours. And then I headed back toward the port. I stopped at the grocery store to get some snacks before getting on the boat. Since this was our last night in port, we had a BBQ and then a group picture on the back of the ship after the BBQ. We went to the community meeting after dinner and then went outside to watch the sunset and to watch us leave our last port. So, now we are on our way back home and I have a rough week of classes and finals ahead of me! Wish me luck!!
Monday, August 18, 2008
It's All Greek To Me... ;)
8/3/08
This morning when I woke up at 7, we were already docked in Piraeus. Exciting! After the normal morning meeting routine, Tanya and I were off to buy ferry tickets to take us to an island, we were sure which one; we finally decided on Aegina, which was an hour away. After we got our tickets, we headed to the subway to go to Athens! The subway system is not very hard to navigate and after about a 20-minute ride, we were in Athens (by 11). When we got off the subway, we got a phylo-dough biscuit filled with warm feta cheese, it was delicious, as well as a fredoccino (which is a frozen cappuccino). We went to the Acropolis (even though Tanya came to Greece to help with the 2004 Olympics and saw all the sights before) and got the student discount, which was really nice. We had to climb this huge hill to get to the Parthenon, which had a spectacular view; you could see everything! Tanya and I sat up on the wall and talked for a good 30 minutes while just looking at our surroundings! We went over and looked at Athena’s temple, which was soo cool as well. After spending a little time on the hill, we went to this huge rock and sat on there for a little bit, it was where peter preached to 1,000 people many many years ago! When we were done being lazy and sitting and people/city watching, we decided to move along and see a temple that was on a nearby hill. On the way, we stopped at a very old church and went inside, it was only one room with paintings inside that were fading away. I have no idea how it was, but it was pretty cool. After checking it out, we continued toward the temple, but me being the graceful person that I am, I stubbed my toe on a rock. I was just going to let it go, when Tanya pointed out that my toe was basically gushing blood. It was really disgusting, so we went to the little information desk and they provided me with band-aids, saline solution, and iodine. The guy behind the desk even came out and helped me fix my toe up it was really nice of him. We never made it to the temple, on account of my toe being super messed up and it being on a big hill. We were ready to leave the acropolis area and head toward the shops and get something to eat. We walked through the marketplace and Tanya and I got sandals in one of the shops for a really decent price! They are so cool! We continued walking, and one of the shop owners (a fifty some odd old guy) commented on my necklace – my Celtic cross, which kind of resembles the Greek Orthodox cross. He asked where I got it, at home or in Greece, and I told him at home. He then proceeded to tell me his love for America and how he used to live in California for a little bit, and how I look Greek, talked about our plans, and then he said that if I ever came back to Greece, that he’d take me to Santorini since I didn’t get a chance to go this time. Kinda awkward. We said goodbye and kept on keeping on. We FINALLY found gyros, so we got one! They were HUGE and sooo good. I got a chicken one, because I didn’t see lamb on the menu. We walked around a little more through the market place before getting on the subway and visiting the little town that Tanya stayed in when she was there 4 years before, but nothing was open because it was a Sunday and was not a tourist area, so we got back on the subway to Piraeus. When we got back, we got a Freddochino and headed back to the ship to relax. Little did I remember it was my friend Emily’s birthday and we had plans to go out for dinner and some drinks. I got ready quickly and we met on the gangway with some other girls who were coming, including Caitlin, a girl that lives in Windber and was in the Windber colorguard. I had a sandwich and a glass of wine. We were going to find a club to go dance, but no one was feeling well – the ship termed it ‘Pharoah’s Revenge’ (aka bad diarrhea from Egypt), so we stopped at a little local bar by the ship for Emily to get a birthday drink – it was her 21st. I got a red martini since I had never had one before, and it took me like 1 ½ hours to drink because it was pretty strong – it was a small glass, too. There were 2 older men there who were really confused about why we were in that bar instead of at a club with the younger kids. We went back to the ship; I got my computer and headed to the port to get Wi-Fi. I got to talk to the family and wish nana and pap happy anniversary for like 2 minutes but something was weird with the connection, so I couldn’t stay connected; it was still nice to see familiar faces! I went to bed then, because I had to get up early to get ready for the island tomorrow!!
8/4/08
Last night was TERRIBLE! I woke up many times during the night, but I accidentally woke up my roommate up at 5am because I was moaning and breathing heavily in my sleep because my stomach hurt so badly. I had to get up for good at 6:50 when Amber woke me up, I was supposed to meet Tanya at 7 for breakfast before getting out 8 am ferry. I slept most of the hour it took to get to Aegina. When we got there, we went straight to the tourist office to get a place to stay for the night. It was 20 euro each for the night for a double bed, fridge, TV, AC, and bathroom. It was a fairly good deal. Once we got settled, we went to the beach!! It was a good 20 minutes from our room, but it was a pretty walk. We laid out for a bit, got nice and hot, and then got in the FREEZING water. I was only able to stay in the water for a short amount of time because it was so cold, and then we laid out to dry off. We started to get a little hungry and my stomach was still hurting, so we stoppd at a little fruit stand/grocery store on our way back to the room and I got an apple, crackers, and water. We took a nap when we got back to the room, I slept for 2 hours and Tanya slept for 1 and explored around our room for an hour. We walked around once I woke up, and went to a pay phone for Tanya to call with the phone card that she bought. We walked around the outskirts of the island before getting some dinner. We found a cute place off the main street, where I got a crepe and eggs, which turned out not to be the greatest idea because I felt sick after I ate it. We went back to the room for me to lay down and I decided that it would be best for me to go back to the ship tonight because I still was feeling crappy (no pun intended). Tanya’s friends were to come on the 8pm ferry to the island, so she wouldn’t be alone, but they ended up missing the last ferry by 15 minutes, but I really needed to get back to the ship for the comfort of ‘home. I felt really bad, but I left Tanya there by herself; it was a safe island and I, myself would have been fine staying overnight by myself. I took the last ferry – the flying dolphin – back to the ship and it only took 45 minutes. I got some ginger ale, talked to Marissa for a little bit, and then went to bed.
8/5/08
I slept in this morning since I still wasn’t feeling well when I went to bed last night. I got some lunch and saw Jackie who was being a bum that day too, and told her that I was meeting Emily and Heather later when they got back from Athens. When they got back, we went to the port authority and got stamps and Internet. I came back to the ship to wait for Marissa to get back from a trip and watched A Walk to Remember. When Marissa came back, I was feeling much better – not 100% yet – and we went out looking for a theater to see Mamma Mia!, but came up short handed. We decided to go out for dessert and I got a chocolate soufflé. It was SOO good, but I couldn’t finish it because it was so rich. We came back to the ship and I got some Internet at the port building and tried to video chat with Stephanie again, but it didn’t work, so I talked to her and then my mom on AIM. It was my mom’s first AIM chat, pretty exciting haha. Bedtime!! Tomorrow is our last day in Greece!!
8/6/08
I could not get my butt out of bed this morning! Amber and I woke up at 8, went to breakfast, and then went back to bed until around 10:30. Marissa and I decided to walk around and shop a little before meeting up with Heather and Emily for lunch at 1 (since my service visit to the SOS Children’s Village was cancelled). I tried to find some cool sandals for my mom, but the cute ones weren’t in her size ☹. We got lunch at a gyro place and then I got a freddoccino. Emily and I really wanted to find a grocery store to get some bottled water and snacks for the ship, so after walking around and asking multiple people, Emily and I found the store – Heather and Marissa went back to the ship. After shopping, we went back to the ship, I got one last dose of internet, sent my postcards, and then we watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! Perfect way to end Greece!!! ☺
Watch out Croatia, here we come!!!
This morning when I woke up at 7, we were already docked in Piraeus. Exciting! After the normal morning meeting routine, Tanya and I were off to buy ferry tickets to take us to an island, we were sure which one; we finally decided on Aegina, which was an hour away. After we got our tickets, we headed to the subway to go to Athens! The subway system is not very hard to navigate and after about a 20-minute ride, we were in Athens (by 11). When we got off the subway, we got a phylo-dough biscuit filled with warm feta cheese, it was delicious, as well as a fredoccino (which is a frozen cappuccino). We went to the Acropolis (even though Tanya came to Greece to help with the 2004 Olympics and saw all the sights before) and got the student discount, which was really nice. We had to climb this huge hill to get to the Parthenon, which had a spectacular view; you could see everything! Tanya and I sat up on the wall and talked for a good 30 minutes while just looking at our surroundings! We went over and looked at Athena’s temple, which was soo cool as well. After spending a little time on the hill, we went to this huge rock and sat on there for a little bit, it was where peter preached to 1,000 people many many years ago! When we were done being lazy and sitting and people/city watching, we decided to move along and see a temple that was on a nearby hill. On the way, we stopped at a very old church and went inside, it was only one room with paintings inside that were fading away. I have no idea how it was, but it was pretty cool. After checking it out, we continued toward the temple, but me being the graceful person that I am, I stubbed my toe on a rock. I was just going to let it go, when Tanya pointed out that my toe was basically gushing blood. It was really disgusting, so we went to the little information desk and they provided me with band-aids, saline solution, and iodine. The guy behind the desk even came out and helped me fix my toe up it was really nice of him. We never made it to the temple, on account of my toe being super messed up and it being on a big hill. We were ready to leave the acropolis area and head toward the shops and get something to eat. We walked through the marketplace and Tanya and I got sandals in one of the shops for a really decent price! They are so cool! We continued walking, and one of the shop owners (a fifty some odd old guy) commented on my necklace – my Celtic cross, which kind of resembles the Greek Orthodox cross. He asked where I got it, at home or in Greece, and I told him at home. He then proceeded to tell me his love for America and how he used to live in California for a little bit, and how I look Greek, talked about our plans, and then he said that if I ever came back to Greece, that he’d take me to Santorini since I didn’t get a chance to go this time. Kinda awkward. We said goodbye and kept on keeping on. We FINALLY found gyros, so we got one! They were HUGE and sooo good. I got a chicken one, because I didn’t see lamb on the menu. We walked around a little more through the market place before getting on the subway and visiting the little town that Tanya stayed in when she was there 4 years before, but nothing was open because it was a Sunday and was not a tourist area, so we got back on the subway to Piraeus. When we got back, we got a Freddochino and headed back to the ship to relax. Little did I remember it was my friend Emily’s birthday and we had plans to go out for dinner and some drinks. I got ready quickly and we met on the gangway with some other girls who were coming, including Caitlin, a girl that lives in Windber and was in the Windber colorguard. I had a sandwich and a glass of wine. We were going to find a club to go dance, but no one was feeling well – the ship termed it ‘Pharoah’s Revenge’ (aka bad diarrhea from Egypt), so we stopped at a little local bar by the ship for Emily to get a birthday drink – it was her 21st. I got a red martini since I had never had one before, and it took me like 1 ½ hours to drink because it was pretty strong – it was a small glass, too. There were 2 older men there who were really confused about why we were in that bar instead of at a club with the younger kids. We went back to the ship; I got my computer and headed to the port to get Wi-Fi. I got to talk to the family and wish nana and pap happy anniversary for like 2 minutes but something was weird with the connection, so I couldn’t stay connected; it was still nice to see familiar faces! I went to bed then, because I had to get up early to get ready for the island tomorrow!!
8/4/08
Last night was TERRIBLE! I woke up many times during the night, but I accidentally woke up my roommate up at 5am because I was moaning and breathing heavily in my sleep because my stomach hurt so badly. I had to get up for good at 6:50 when Amber woke me up, I was supposed to meet Tanya at 7 for breakfast before getting out 8 am ferry. I slept most of the hour it took to get to Aegina. When we got there, we went straight to the tourist office to get a place to stay for the night. It was 20 euro each for the night for a double bed, fridge, TV, AC, and bathroom. It was a fairly good deal. Once we got settled, we went to the beach!! It was a good 20 minutes from our room, but it was a pretty walk. We laid out for a bit, got nice and hot, and then got in the FREEZING water. I was only able to stay in the water for a short amount of time because it was so cold, and then we laid out to dry off. We started to get a little hungry and my stomach was still hurting, so we stoppd at a little fruit stand/grocery store on our way back to the room and I got an apple, crackers, and water. We took a nap when we got back to the room, I slept for 2 hours and Tanya slept for 1 and explored around our room for an hour. We walked around once I woke up, and went to a pay phone for Tanya to call with the phone card that she bought. We walked around the outskirts of the island before getting some dinner. We found a cute place off the main street, where I got a crepe and eggs, which turned out not to be the greatest idea because I felt sick after I ate it. We went back to the room for me to lay down and I decided that it would be best for me to go back to the ship tonight because I still was feeling crappy (no pun intended). Tanya’s friends were to come on the 8pm ferry to the island, so she wouldn’t be alone, but they ended up missing the last ferry by 15 minutes, but I really needed to get back to the ship for the comfort of ‘home. I felt really bad, but I left Tanya there by herself; it was a safe island and I, myself would have been fine staying overnight by myself. I took the last ferry – the flying dolphin – back to the ship and it only took 45 minutes. I got some ginger ale, talked to Marissa for a little bit, and then went to bed.
8/5/08
I slept in this morning since I still wasn’t feeling well when I went to bed last night. I got some lunch and saw Jackie who was being a bum that day too, and told her that I was meeting Emily and Heather later when they got back from Athens. When they got back, we went to the port authority and got stamps and Internet. I came back to the ship to wait for Marissa to get back from a trip and watched A Walk to Remember. When Marissa came back, I was feeling much better – not 100% yet – and we went out looking for a theater to see Mamma Mia!, but came up short handed. We decided to go out for dessert and I got a chocolate soufflé. It was SOO good, but I couldn’t finish it because it was so rich. We came back to the ship and I got some Internet at the port building and tried to video chat with Stephanie again, but it didn’t work, so I talked to her and then my mom on AIM. It was my mom’s first AIM chat, pretty exciting haha. Bedtime!! Tomorrow is our last day in Greece!!
8/6/08
I could not get my butt out of bed this morning! Amber and I woke up at 8, went to breakfast, and then went back to bed until around 10:30. Marissa and I decided to walk around and shop a little before meeting up with Heather and Emily for lunch at 1 (since my service visit to the SOS Children’s Village was cancelled). I tried to find some cool sandals for my mom, but the cute ones weren’t in her size ☹. We got lunch at a gyro place and then I got a freddoccino. Emily and I really wanted to find a grocery store to get some bottled water and snacks for the ship, so after walking around and asking multiple people, Emily and I found the store – Heather and Marissa went back to the ship. After shopping, we went back to the ship, I got one last dose of internet, sent my postcards, and then we watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! Perfect way to end Greece!!! ☺
Watch out Croatia, here we come!!!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Walk like an Egyptian!!!
7/29/08
So, today, we were supposed to be docking in Istanbul, Turkey, but because of the recent shootings at the US embassy and the bombings that killed 18 people and injured about 150, ISE & SAS decided, much to my dismay, that it would not be in our best interest to go. Because of this, last night we pulled a huge U-turn to head towards…
… ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT!!! As bummed as I was not being able to see Bahar in Turkey, Egypt sounds pretty cool!! So today we had a day at sea to study and/or relax!! The field office was able to put together some last minute trips for us to do. MY friends Emily, Heather, Marissa, and I decided to do the Camel ride and Jeep Safari in Cairo. Since there is not a whole lot to do in Alexandria, we decided we were going to sign off the trip in Cairo and stay the night in a hotel that Heather’s mom booked for us, and then come back the last day and spend that in Alexandria.
7/30/08
When I woke up for breakfast at 7:15, we were already docked in Alexandria. We decided to fill up on breakfast because we were kind of nervous to eat Egyptian food. We were able to get off at 8:45 to get on the bus for our 3-hour drive to Cairo. (We had to take our passports and were DELIGHTED to have it stamped in Egypt!! The last place it got stamped was Russia) 22 million people live in Cairo, which is ¼, the population of everyone in Egypt. We went first to the pyramids – it was SO crazy to see them in real life! They are HUGE! It was pretty annoying that there were guys on camels everywhere trying to get us to take pictures and then pay them, but I was able to avoid them! We took lots of pictures, we were only there for ½ hour but that was enough, there isn’t a whole lot to see besides the pyramids and its MONDO hot there. Next, we drove down the hill to see the Sphinx, which was really cool as well. After the Sphinx, we went to a country club for lunch that was a buffet of Middle Eastern food and it was actually REALLY good. After eating, we headed to a tomb. It was SO hot in there and very cramped, but really really cool to see all the carvings on the walls! The next part of the trip was definitely one of the coolest parts. They took is in Jeeps and drove us all over the sand dunes, pretty fast. It was kind of scary at first, but they knew what they were doing. They drove us to our caravan of camels that were waiting for us in the middle of the dunes. There were over 100 of us, that’s a lot of camels. We rode the camels for ½ hour and that was soo cool. The tour was over then, and the bus was headed back to Alexandria, so we talked to our tour guide about the best way of getting to our hotel and she said that she could have the bus drop us off on their way back to Alexandria. We got dropped off pretty much directly in front of our hotel, which was REALLY sweet. It was called La Meridien at the Pyramids. Our room overlooked the Pyramids. It was definitely the best hotel room with a view!!
After we settled in, we went to the lobby for dinner. They had 3 restaurants in the hotel and we went to the Tex-Mex grill, I had a vegetarian burrito and it was fabulous! When we finished, Heather and I went to the café bar in the lobby and got some coffee. There we met some guys from the US and Australia who were filming an extreme sports show in Cairo. They were really nice. Then, we saw an Egyptian wedding taking place in the hotel lobby. It was crazy! We stuck around to watch. There was an Egyptian man beside us that was part of the wedding and the wedding party had gone upstairs, so we asked him if that was the ceremony or the reception, and he told us the ceremony and invited us up to see the reception, we went, but it was instantly awkward, so we left and went back to the room. Emily and I decided to go back downstairs to hang out with the guys from the TV show, so we went back to the restaurant and got a drink and sat to talk with them fir a while. It was kind of cool to talk to them about their show and how they felt about Egypt and their perspectives. We talked to them for about an hour and decided it was time to go to bed because we were tired. (we fit 4 people in a 2 person room.. mostly because we are poor.. but there were 2 beds that were between a full and a twin, so we snuggled).
7/31/08
We tried to wake up early this morning to watch the sun rise over the pyramids, but we were too tired. We finally woke up at 8:30, went to breakfast, got ready, and left around 10. We got a cab to the Nile River, where we took a little boat across. We needed to find the train station, so Emily asked a guy that was on the boat and he said he would show us the way because he was on his way past it. It was about a 30-45 minute walk there and the guy helped us to get the train tickets for the 3:00 train back to Alexandria. After we had our tickets, we headed to the Kahn El Khalily Bazaar in a taxi. They had soo much stuff there; spices, knick-knacks, scarves, shoes, anything and everything you can think of. We stayed there for about an hour and then headed back to the train station to be there by 2:30 to make sure we were on time for the train. We got to the station and found Aimee and Paul and other SASers. We had 1st class tickets, thank God, because the coach class was ridiculously packed and no Ac. It was about a 2 ½ hour ride back. We had to take a taxi back to the ship and got dinner on the ship. We kind of just stayed in for the night and got some stuff done and watch movies since we were touring Alexandria in the morning.
8/1/08
We missed breakfast this morning by 15 minutes, so when we finally got our butts off the ship at 11, we headed out to find the little bazaar and food in Alexandria. We finally found the bazaar after a little walking around, but it was dirty and gross and disgusting. We decided to walk back to where we started and then go look for food. Aimee and Paul were looking for this one Egyptian dish and when they found it, I got some falafel sandwiches, they were soo good. We were getting really hot, so we – Aimee, Paul, Marissa, Emily and Heather – decided to start back towards the ship. We thought we were heading in the right direction, but we were taking a very long round about way, so we didn’t make it back until 12:45. When we got back to port, I still had 200 Egyptian Pounds left, which was about $40, so we hit the little shops that were beside our ship. I was able to get 4 cashmere scarves for 100 pounds, or $5 each! I thought that was a pretty good deal! We got on the ship and went swimming to cool off because it was a scorcher. I took a little nap before dinner and then we watched 27 Dresses and 13 Going On 30 in Aimee and Marissa’s room. It was fun!
Overall, Egypt was definitely a cool place to go, but I don’t know if I will ever go back. It is dirty, smelly, and the guys look at American women like we are a piece of meat. I definitely had a good time with what we did, though!
So, today, we were supposed to be docking in Istanbul, Turkey, but because of the recent shootings at the US embassy and the bombings that killed 18 people and injured about 150, ISE & SAS decided, much to my dismay, that it would not be in our best interest to go. Because of this, last night we pulled a huge U-turn to head towards…
… ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT!!! As bummed as I was not being able to see Bahar in Turkey, Egypt sounds pretty cool!! So today we had a day at sea to study and/or relax!! The field office was able to put together some last minute trips for us to do. MY friends Emily, Heather, Marissa, and I decided to do the Camel ride and Jeep Safari in Cairo. Since there is not a whole lot to do in Alexandria, we decided we were going to sign off the trip in Cairo and stay the night in a hotel that Heather’s mom booked for us, and then come back the last day and spend that in Alexandria.
7/30/08
When I woke up for breakfast at 7:15, we were already docked in Alexandria. We decided to fill up on breakfast because we were kind of nervous to eat Egyptian food. We were able to get off at 8:45 to get on the bus for our 3-hour drive to Cairo. (We had to take our passports and were DELIGHTED to have it stamped in Egypt!! The last place it got stamped was Russia) 22 million people live in Cairo, which is ¼, the population of everyone in Egypt. We went first to the pyramids – it was SO crazy to see them in real life! They are HUGE! It was pretty annoying that there were guys on camels everywhere trying to get us to take pictures and then pay them, but I was able to avoid them! We took lots of pictures, we were only there for ½ hour but that was enough, there isn’t a whole lot to see besides the pyramids and its MONDO hot there. Next, we drove down the hill to see the Sphinx, which was really cool as well. After the Sphinx, we went to a country club for lunch that was a buffet of Middle Eastern food and it was actually REALLY good. After eating, we headed to a tomb. It was SO hot in there and very cramped, but really really cool to see all the carvings on the walls! The next part of the trip was definitely one of the coolest parts. They took is in Jeeps and drove us all over the sand dunes, pretty fast. It was kind of scary at first, but they knew what they were doing. They drove us to our caravan of camels that were waiting for us in the middle of the dunes. There were over 100 of us, that’s a lot of camels. We rode the camels for ½ hour and that was soo cool. The tour was over then, and the bus was headed back to Alexandria, so we talked to our tour guide about the best way of getting to our hotel and she said that she could have the bus drop us off on their way back to Alexandria. We got dropped off pretty much directly in front of our hotel, which was REALLY sweet. It was called La Meridien at the Pyramids. Our room overlooked the Pyramids. It was definitely the best hotel room with a view!!
After we settled in, we went to the lobby for dinner. They had 3 restaurants in the hotel and we went to the Tex-Mex grill, I had a vegetarian burrito and it was fabulous! When we finished, Heather and I went to the café bar in the lobby and got some coffee. There we met some guys from the US and Australia who were filming an extreme sports show in Cairo. They were really nice. Then, we saw an Egyptian wedding taking place in the hotel lobby. It was crazy! We stuck around to watch. There was an Egyptian man beside us that was part of the wedding and the wedding party had gone upstairs, so we asked him if that was the ceremony or the reception, and he told us the ceremony and invited us up to see the reception, we went, but it was instantly awkward, so we left and went back to the room. Emily and I decided to go back downstairs to hang out with the guys from the TV show, so we went back to the restaurant and got a drink and sat to talk with them fir a while. It was kind of cool to talk to them about their show and how they felt about Egypt and their perspectives. We talked to them for about an hour and decided it was time to go to bed because we were tired. (we fit 4 people in a 2 person room.. mostly because we are poor.. but there were 2 beds that were between a full and a twin, so we snuggled).
7/31/08
We tried to wake up early this morning to watch the sun rise over the pyramids, but we were too tired. We finally woke up at 8:30, went to breakfast, got ready, and left around 10. We got a cab to the Nile River, where we took a little boat across. We needed to find the train station, so Emily asked a guy that was on the boat and he said he would show us the way because he was on his way past it. It was about a 30-45 minute walk there and the guy helped us to get the train tickets for the 3:00 train back to Alexandria. After we had our tickets, we headed to the Kahn El Khalily Bazaar in a taxi. They had soo much stuff there; spices, knick-knacks, scarves, shoes, anything and everything you can think of. We stayed there for about an hour and then headed back to the train station to be there by 2:30 to make sure we were on time for the train. We got to the station and found Aimee and Paul and other SASers. We had 1st class tickets, thank God, because the coach class was ridiculously packed and no Ac. It was about a 2 ½ hour ride back. We had to take a taxi back to the ship and got dinner on the ship. We kind of just stayed in for the night and got some stuff done and watch movies since we were touring Alexandria in the morning.
8/1/08
We missed breakfast this morning by 15 minutes, so when we finally got our butts off the ship at 11, we headed out to find the little bazaar and food in Alexandria. We finally found the bazaar after a little walking around, but it was dirty and gross and disgusting. We decided to walk back to where we started and then go look for food. Aimee and Paul were looking for this one Egyptian dish and when they found it, I got some falafel sandwiches, they were soo good. We were getting really hot, so we – Aimee, Paul, Marissa, Emily and Heather – decided to start back towards the ship. We thought we were heading in the right direction, but we were taking a very long round about way, so we didn’t make it back until 12:45. When we got back to port, I still had 200 Egyptian Pounds left, which was about $40, so we hit the little shops that were beside our ship. I was able to get 4 cashmere scarves for 100 pounds, or $5 each! I thought that was a pretty good deal! We got on the ship and went swimming to cool off because it was a scorcher. I took a little nap before dinner and then we watched 27 Dresses and 13 Going On 30 in Aimee and Marissa’s room. It was fun!
Overall, Egypt was definitely a cool place to go, but I don’t know if I will ever go back. It is dirty, smelly, and the guys look at American women like we are a piece of meat. I definitely had a good time with what we did, though!
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...
Day 1
Marissa and I woke up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise as we pulled into Naples, Italy. Holy dream come true. It was pretty much the best thing I have ever experienced in my whole life. We got up just in time to see the sun peek out from behind Mount Vesuvius! It was absolutely stunning. After about a half an hour of being whipped by the wind, we went in to shower, get ready, and eat breakfast! We ate out on the 6th deck so that we could watch as we finished pulling into port. It looked just like all the pictures! We had our boring pre-port and then got off the boat to take our guided 5 city tour of Italy! We headed straight onto a ferry to take us to Capri. It was breathtaking over there. We went on a tram that took us up a steep hill to the top of Capri. We took some pictures and then headed to this garden in Capri that overlooked some gorgeous water and cliffs. We took many many pictures there. We spent a while there and then headed to this cute little place on the top of the hill for lunch. On the way to lunch, we passed a place that sold Lemoncelo (sp?) and our tour guides told us to go in and try it. Let me just tell you that this stuff is like lemon and sugar and 32% alcohol. They gave us a little tiny bit of it and it was more than enough to knock you off your feet. I wanted to bring some home for you all to try since it is pretty popular over here, but we are not allowed to bring alcohol on the ship. Anyway, back to lunch. We started off with bread, then some ravoli, then some nasty fish risotto (I did try it.. I just did not like it.. it had many weird fish in it and it smelled bad). After that, we had some salad with some shrimp as well as some calamari. I did try the calamari, but it was too rubbery for me. It wasn’t tooo bad, but I just did not really enjoy it. We had desert and then headed out to explore the hill for about 40 minutes before we had to take the tram back down. We hit up some shops and then got some Italian gelato! YUUUM. I got Nutella and something that was vanilla with chocolate shavings and brownie pieces. It was goooood!! We headed down the hill when we were done and we were able to spend another 40 minutes at the bottom of the hill. Marissa, Alyssa, and Melissa (tongue full I know!) went to the little waterfront where they had all the boats tied up and stood in the Mediterranean Sea! It was really cool! Of course, we took more pictures!
We then hopped another ferry to Sorrento. It is a beautiful place. As soon as we got off the ferry, we hopped onto a bus to take us up the hill to get to our 4 star hotel. (4 stars here is definitely a little less then 4 stars in the states, but its still nice). I have a random roommate and she is very nice. Our room over-looks the courtyard in the back and has a view of the outdoor pool – which is gorgeous – as well as the water, and a bit of the city of Sorrento. After we got settled, Marissa, Melissa, and Alyssa, and I tried to walk to one of the bigger plazas in the upper city, but couldn’t really find it. Along the way, we had fun crossing the roads – they followed me like little baby ducks running across a road and I had no idea where I was going, but it was HYSTERICAL. Then we stumbled across a little orchard in the middle of the city. It grew Oranges and Lemons. They also sold the Lemoncello. Since I already tried it, I tried the orange version. It wasn’t bad.. strong, but not as pungent as the lemon one. So we walked a little more and then had to head back to get ready for dinner. We went to the 5 star hotel next door for dinner. Boy, it was awesome. It was dinner with the most spectacular view of the sun setting over the water and mount Vesuvius in the back. Wow. We had pasta – SOO good – a ‘hamburger’ that was more like a big sausage patty (it was either that or flying squid – I did try a piece of the squid, but did not like it), a salad, and cake for desert. We also got a bottle of wine to share for dinner. It was a good red wine, I wish I would have looked to see exactly what it was, but we were so overwhelmed with the whole atmosphere – the live music, fun waiters, good food. The guy that was playing guitar sang stuff like “That’s Amore”, and “Fly Me To The Moon”, “New York, New York” (They LOVE that in Europe..), and “Time To Say Goodbye” but all in Italian. Wow. After dinner, the girls and I took the bus into the main square where we walked around and got more gelato. I got coffee and it was probably the best tasting coffee ‘ice cream’ I have ever eaten in my life! We finished up, walked around a little, window shopped, listened to music that was playing in the restaurants, and then headed back on the bus. WONDERFUL DAY!!!
Day 2:
We woke up and left Sorrento around 8am. We went to Pompeii and had a wonderful tour guide named Roberto! He took us all round to see the devastation that Mount Vesuvius had on Pompeii when it first exploded in 79 AD. It was beautiful and sad at the same time, as well as being SUPER hot. After our tour, we headed to a little restaurant and had some AWESOME pizza with buffalo mozzarella. We had a WHOLE plate of it to ourselves. Next, we started our 3 hour drive from Pompeii to Roma!! I slept pretty much the whole time. It was a nice nap! When we finally got to the GORGEOUS hotel, we had about 2 hours to explore before leaving for dinner, so first we got some gelato! It was so good. I got Hazelnut and some kind of chocolate with rum. We still had a lot of time, so we headed over to the shopping district. It took a little bit of time, and a stop at a store to get some water (which ended up being sparkling EW! So Alyssa got regular water and we switched, she likes the sparking!), but we finally made it there. It was cool; there are over 3,000 shops on the street, including Fendi and Ferrari label stuff!! We window shopped for a bit and had to get back to the hotel to get the bus for dinner. We went to this cute little restaurant off the well-beaten path. SAS pretty much took over, but everyone was sitting outside, so it was cool. It was so pretty; there was a band playing fun Italian music! They also put on a show with the band; there were people on the upstairs of the restaurant being silly and ‘fighting’ with the band. After a dinner of manicotti, noodles, and some weird mashed potato thing with ham and cheese in it, and finally ice cream, we headed off for a rushed tour of the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, and a cute square where I got a watercolor sepia painting of the coliseum. We headed back to the hotel, got some more gelato – this time I got pistachio and rice with honey. They were both good, but the rice and honey, although it sounds crazy, was actually very good!! Then, I broke down and bought an hour of internet which was 10 euro ($15) so that I could do a video chat with Steph and mom!!! It was sooooooo nice to see their faces and hear their voices! Tomorrow is a long day! Cant wait!! ☺
Day 3:
We had another 7 am wake up call for breakfast. Today is our day in Roma! Our first stop was the Vatican and we got to pass all the lines of people because we were doing the group tour. We started off with the Vatican museum and got to see a lot of cool art work and history, even the Sistine Chapel (we weren’t allowed to take pictures though). After the museum, we went into St. Peter’s Cathedral; it was so beautiful. There was a corpse of a dead pope in there – he looked fresh although he has been dead for a long time. It was… creepy. We had a little free time in the square, then hopped on the busses and got some lunch on the way to the Colesium. We had salad, bruschetta – which was amazing – and pasta, followed by some delicious fruit salad for dessert. Before we got back on the bus, we snuck over to get some gelato!! It was so cool to go and be able to see and walk around the coliseum.
Day 4:
This morning, we had to get up early again, this time to check out of out hotel to begin our journey to Naples. We stopped at Casserta and got to walk through the palace there. We had a tour aid that you have an earpiece hooked up to a walkie-talkie sort of device that the guide talked into so that you can hear him if he gets a head and so there aren’t multiple tours yelling at their groups. It was super uncomfortable and still hard to hear, so I didn’t get a whole lot out of what he was saying. It was very beautiful though! After the tour, we went back to old Napoli to get some lunch with the tour group. We had mozzarella and tomatoes, pizza margarita, and wine – which for once was included in the meal. It was okay, but the pizza in Rome was much better! The service took forever there as well, we were the last table to get served.. at least 35-40 minutes AFTER the first table to get served.. it was hard because I was soooo hungry. After lunch, we were given free time in one of the main squares by our ship. We were on a mission to find an ATM (since we could use the Euro in Greece) and stamps. We couldn’t find them, so Alyssa and I gave up to go sit by the water for a bit. We stayed down there and people watched with out feet in the water. We only had an hour, so we started back up the hill and got some refreshing gelato, for the last time, on the way back up. I don’t know if you were keeping track, but I had gelato 8 times and 14 different flavors (because I repeated 2 flavors). Gelato wasn’t as good as it was in Rome. Just as we were about to leave, Stefania told us where to find stamps, so we went up there to get some, and we told the guy that we needed to send the postcards to the US. He gave us .60-euro stamps, which was not enough, we later found out. Stefania told us we needed a 1-euro stamp, so she let us give her to postcards and money to cover the rest of the stamps and sent them out for us. How sweet! We got back to the pier at 5:30, had to go through security at the pier, and then had to go through the ship security. It took a little more than an hour and a half to get on the ship because they were letting independent travelers go in front of our large group, and needless to say, we were all getting pretty mad.; especially because they were having a BBQ on the 7th deck. We missed the actual BBQ, but they did keep some food warm for us, although it was not as good as it is when its fresh from the grill.
I LOVED Italy and cannot wait to go back and explore all the things I didn’t get to see in the places I was, and also to go explore the rest of the country!! ☺
Marissa and I woke up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise as we pulled into Naples, Italy. Holy dream come true. It was pretty much the best thing I have ever experienced in my whole life. We got up just in time to see the sun peek out from behind Mount Vesuvius! It was absolutely stunning. After about a half an hour of being whipped by the wind, we went in to shower, get ready, and eat breakfast! We ate out on the 6th deck so that we could watch as we finished pulling into port. It looked just like all the pictures! We had our boring pre-port and then got off the boat to take our guided 5 city tour of Italy! We headed straight onto a ferry to take us to Capri. It was breathtaking over there. We went on a tram that took us up a steep hill to the top of Capri. We took some pictures and then headed to this garden in Capri that overlooked some gorgeous water and cliffs. We took many many pictures there. We spent a while there and then headed to this cute little place on the top of the hill for lunch. On the way to lunch, we passed a place that sold Lemoncelo (sp?) and our tour guides told us to go in and try it. Let me just tell you that this stuff is like lemon and sugar and 32% alcohol. They gave us a little tiny bit of it and it was more than enough to knock you off your feet. I wanted to bring some home for you all to try since it is pretty popular over here, but we are not allowed to bring alcohol on the ship. Anyway, back to lunch. We started off with bread, then some ravoli, then some nasty fish risotto (I did try it.. I just did not like it.. it had many weird fish in it and it smelled bad). After that, we had some salad with some shrimp as well as some calamari. I did try the calamari, but it was too rubbery for me. It wasn’t tooo bad, but I just did not really enjoy it. We had desert and then headed out to explore the hill for about 40 minutes before we had to take the tram back down. We hit up some shops and then got some Italian gelato! YUUUM. I got Nutella and something that was vanilla with chocolate shavings and brownie pieces. It was goooood!! We headed down the hill when we were done and we were able to spend another 40 minutes at the bottom of the hill. Marissa, Alyssa, and Melissa (tongue full I know!) went to the little waterfront where they had all the boats tied up and stood in the Mediterranean Sea! It was really cool! Of course, we took more pictures!
We then hopped another ferry to Sorrento. It is a beautiful place. As soon as we got off the ferry, we hopped onto a bus to take us up the hill to get to our 4 star hotel. (4 stars here is definitely a little less then 4 stars in the states, but its still nice). I have a random roommate and she is very nice. Our room over-looks the courtyard in the back and has a view of the outdoor pool – which is gorgeous – as well as the water, and a bit of the city of Sorrento. After we got settled, Marissa, Melissa, and Alyssa, and I tried to walk to one of the bigger plazas in the upper city, but couldn’t really find it. Along the way, we had fun crossing the roads – they followed me like little baby ducks running across a road and I had no idea where I was going, but it was HYSTERICAL. Then we stumbled across a little orchard in the middle of the city. It grew Oranges and Lemons. They also sold the Lemoncello. Since I already tried it, I tried the orange version. It wasn’t bad.. strong, but not as pungent as the lemon one. So we walked a little more and then had to head back to get ready for dinner. We went to the 5 star hotel next door for dinner. Boy, it was awesome. It was dinner with the most spectacular view of the sun setting over the water and mount Vesuvius in the back. Wow. We had pasta – SOO good – a ‘hamburger’ that was more like a big sausage patty (it was either that or flying squid – I did try a piece of the squid, but did not like it), a salad, and cake for desert. We also got a bottle of wine to share for dinner. It was a good red wine, I wish I would have looked to see exactly what it was, but we were so overwhelmed with the whole atmosphere – the live music, fun waiters, good food. The guy that was playing guitar sang stuff like “That’s Amore”, and “Fly Me To The Moon”, “New York, New York” (They LOVE that in Europe..), and “Time To Say Goodbye” but all in Italian. Wow. After dinner, the girls and I took the bus into the main square where we walked around and got more gelato. I got coffee and it was probably the best tasting coffee ‘ice cream’ I have ever eaten in my life! We finished up, walked around a little, window shopped, listened to music that was playing in the restaurants, and then headed back on the bus. WONDERFUL DAY!!!
Day 2:
We woke up and left Sorrento around 8am. We went to Pompeii and had a wonderful tour guide named Roberto! He took us all round to see the devastation that Mount Vesuvius had on Pompeii when it first exploded in 79 AD. It was beautiful and sad at the same time, as well as being SUPER hot. After our tour, we headed to a little restaurant and had some AWESOME pizza with buffalo mozzarella. We had a WHOLE plate of it to ourselves. Next, we started our 3 hour drive from Pompeii to Roma!! I slept pretty much the whole time. It was a nice nap! When we finally got to the GORGEOUS hotel, we had about 2 hours to explore before leaving for dinner, so first we got some gelato! It was so good. I got Hazelnut and some kind of chocolate with rum. We still had a lot of time, so we headed over to the shopping district. It took a little bit of time, and a stop at a store to get some water (which ended up being sparkling EW! So Alyssa got regular water and we switched, she likes the sparking!), but we finally made it there. It was cool; there are over 3,000 shops on the street, including Fendi and Ferrari label stuff!! We window shopped for a bit and had to get back to the hotel to get the bus for dinner. We went to this cute little restaurant off the well-beaten path. SAS pretty much took over, but everyone was sitting outside, so it was cool. It was so pretty; there was a band playing fun Italian music! They also put on a show with the band; there were people on the upstairs of the restaurant being silly and ‘fighting’ with the band. After a dinner of manicotti, noodles, and some weird mashed potato thing with ham and cheese in it, and finally ice cream, we headed off for a rushed tour of the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, and a cute square where I got a watercolor sepia painting of the coliseum. We headed back to the hotel, got some more gelato – this time I got pistachio and rice with honey. They were both good, but the rice and honey, although it sounds crazy, was actually very good!! Then, I broke down and bought an hour of internet which was 10 euro ($15) so that I could do a video chat with Steph and mom!!! It was sooooooo nice to see their faces and hear their voices! Tomorrow is a long day! Cant wait!! ☺
Day 3:
We had another 7 am wake up call for breakfast. Today is our day in Roma! Our first stop was the Vatican and we got to pass all the lines of people because we were doing the group tour. We started off with the Vatican museum and got to see a lot of cool art work and history, even the Sistine Chapel (we weren’t allowed to take pictures though). After the museum, we went into St. Peter’s Cathedral; it was so beautiful. There was a corpse of a dead pope in there – he looked fresh although he has been dead for a long time. It was… creepy. We had a little free time in the square, then hopped on the busses and got some lunch on the way to the Colesium. We had salad, bruschetta – which was amazing – and pasta, followed by some delicious fruit salad for dessert. Before we got back on the bus, we snuck over to get some gelato!! It was so cool to go and be able to see and walk around the coliseum.
Day 4:
This morning, we had to get up early again, this time to check out of out hotel to begin our journey to Naples. We stopped at Casserta and got to walk through the palace there. We had a tour aid that you have an earpiece hooked up to a walkie-talkie sort of device that the guide talked into so that you can hear him if he gets a head and so there aren’t multiple tours yelling at their groups. It was super uncomfortable and still hard to hear, so I didn’t get a whole lot out of what he was saying. It was very beautiful though! After the tour, we went back to old Napoli to get some lunch with the tour group. We had mozzarella and tomatoes, pizza margarita, and wine – which for once was included in the meal. It was okay, but the pizza in Rome was much better! The service took forever there as well, we were the last table to get served.. at least 35-40 minutes AFTER the first table to get served.. it was hard because I was soooo hungry. After lunch, we were given free time in one of the main squares by our ship. We were on a mission to find an ATM (since we could use the Euro in Greece) and stamps. We couldn’t find them, so Alyssa and I gave up to go sit by the water for a bit. We stayed down there and people watched with out feet in the water. We only had an hour, so we started back up the hill and got some refreshing gelato, for the last time, on the way back up. I don’t know if you were keeping track, but I had gelato 8 times and 14 different flavors (because I repeated 2 flavors). Gelato wasn’t as good as it was in Rome. Just as we were about to leave, Stefania told us where to find stamps, so we went up there to get some, and we told the guy that we needed to send the postcards to the US. He gave us .60-euro stamps, which was not enough, we later found out. Stefania told us we needed a 1-euro stamp, so she let us give her to postcards and money to cover the rest of the stamps and sent them out for us. How sweet! We got back to the pier at 5:30, had to go through security at the pier, and then had to go through the ship security. It took a little more than an hour and a half to get on the ship because they were letting independent travelers go in front of our large group, and needless to say, we were all getting pretty mad.; especially because they were having a BBQ on the 7th deck. We missed the actual BBQ, but they did keep some food warm for us, although it was not as good as it is when its fresh from the grill.
I LOVED Italy and cannot wait to go back and explore all the things I didn’t get to see in the places I was, and also to go explore the rest of the country!! ☺
Sunday, August 3, 2008
I'm still alive!
Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I am still having a blast! I have had limited time to catch up on typing up my blogs, but have no fear they are coming! Be on the lookout sometime soon!!
In the meantime - email me at kmvalentini@semesteratsea.net! I wanna hear from ALL of you! :)
In the meantime - email me at kmvalentini@semesteratsea.net! I wanna hear from ALL of you! :)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Belgium - the first land to make me gain weight.
Belgium!
7/13/08
We docked in Antwerp, Belgium last night, 8 hours before scheduled because of passing through the Kiel Canal.. It was pretty cool. I went out on the deck to watch and take pictures! I am having a hard time, though, because I am supposed to go to Amsterdam with some friends, but I feel like it would be too expensive. So, I finally decided not to go, still had to pay for the hostel, but felt like I needed to be in Belgium. I finally went to sleep and we had to wake up early for breakfast and preport. We got cleared and Aimee and I went out exploring. No one from the town was really awake at the time because it was like 9 am. It is a cute little town with many beautiful buildings and side streets. We walked around for about 3 ½ hours and got some Belgian chocolates. They were sooooo goood. We ate lunch on the ship and met Marissa and Heather to go out and explore more. We went to get a waffle with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Amazing! So exciting. We sat there for a while and then walked around more and got some fries. Holy crap, they give you A LOT. They were good. They are served with mayonnaise on it, but I got them without. After some more walking and shopping, we headed to the castle that was right by the ship. We headed back to the ship to rest and whatnot. I decided to get some veggies, so I ate and then did 3 miles in 21 minutes on the elliptical and then another mile on the treadmill! Go me! When I came back to my room, I called Marissa and Aimee and figured that they left without me, so I called Marie. I went out with Marie, Stacey, Paul, Christine, Melissa, Norah, and Erica. We had fun. We went to a little restaurant/outside café and I got one glass of cherry flavored beer called Kriek. It was soo good. I don’t like beer, but it was a sweeter taste and a rosy color. We talked to some local Belgians about life and what chocolate was the best, and they suggested to get it from the grocery store. That is the best. After that, we headed to an Irish Pub where I got a glass of hard cider. That was pretty good as well! I managed to only spend 20 Euro or $30 today! Yay! Anyway, tomorrow I am going to Brussels –the capital of Belgium, with Aimee and meeting Marissa there so that should be exciting.
7/14
Aimee and I, after breakfast, walked Paul to the train station to meet up with his boyfriend from Paris, David (Da – veeed). He was really nice, but spoke little English. We got some coffee and went back to the boat to get ready for Brussels. We headed back to the train station and took the 10 am train to Brussels to meet Marissa. We decided we were going to meet in this one park and that required us to get off at the Brussels-Noord station. Well, we walked around for about an hour and a half and got nowhere.. we got a hold of Marissa and decided to meet at the grand place (pla-ce). We got back on the train – maybe the metro – and headed to the grand place. Around 1 we finally found Marissa and decided we needed foood. We looked for a sandwich that had chicken, fries and mayonnaise on it, it was apparently legendary. We finally found it and it sucked. After that, we decided to walk around and got some chocolate and decided to look for mannequin pis. It was soo hard to find, we walked around for a while asking people. It was funny because Aimee kept making gestures of what the statue looked like to get people to understand. They laughed, we laughed, it was all good. We got some waffles with chocolate along the way and finally found the statue. It was about as big as my foot – sooooo small, almost not worth it. We waited in the grand place for it to light up, but it didn’t happen, so we decided to try to find train station – it took at least an hour even though we were close cause we couldn’t find it. We basically walked all over the city. Finally we found it, got on, sat in 1st class by accident and got yelled at cause we were supposed to be in 2nd. Then we got scared we missed our stop, so we asked the guy by us and he said we didn’t so we were okay. We finally got back to boat after being gone for 10 and a half hours, and I was hungry and upset, so I got a protein bar from ship and then worked out, and went to bed.
7/16/08
This morning, we slept in because we were tied. Aimee, Marissa, and I decided to walk around and go to the museums. We tried to go to the diamond museum, but it was closed, so we decided to get waffles and ice cream instead. It was so good, again. We walked around until we got to the fashion museum. It was pretty neat in there! They had a collection of some fashions that was only in there for a bit, but it was neat to see how it was set up. We decided to go back and take a nap, but I didn’t end up napping, I went to work out instead. We ate dinner on the boat and then Amber, Tanya and I went out with Heather, Raphael, Lindsey, and Alaina. While we were sitting at this little bar, we saw Aimee, Paul, and Marissa so they sat down with us. We stayed out for a little bit and then decided to go to bed!!!
7/17/08
Woke up and Aimee and I went to zoo with Iain Campbell on an FDP for class. It was sweet. We got to the snake house and hold a snake then we went to the reptile house and saw so many cool lizards and turtles. We then went to the aquarium and got a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium and it was pretty sweet to see the tanks from above. After, Aimee and I broke off and went to see the SEALS! We also saw camels, monkeys, chimps, lions, tigers, jaguars, and elephants! It was soo cool to see some of the animals.
After the zoo, we got to go to the diamond museum! It was pretty sweet to see the kind of history of the diamond and how they are formed and whatnot. Antwerp is so famous for their diamonds!! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, which sucked, but it was still neat.
After, we hit up Panos, which is the subway of Belgium. It is sandwiches on a baguette with whatever meat, hard boiled egg, tomato, lettuce, carrots and onions. It was SOOO good. After that, we hit up a waffle stand to get one last waffle in before leaving!! It was amazing and so sad to know I wont be having another one again, or at least for a while!!
We then got some post cards, hit up the post office and sent them out! Yay!
Finally, we hit up the chocolate stores!! YUMMO! I got like $20 of chocolates – yay truffles! SOO FREAKIN GOOD. I ate like 3 pieces of it when I Got back.
We came back to the ship and I conked out for like an hour and a half then went to dinner. Then we had our lifeboat drill which sucked but went faster than the first. Now I have to go study for my circus midterm. Yippee.
7/13/08
We docked in Antwerp, Belgium last night, 8 hours before scheduled because of passing through the Kiel Canal.. It was pretty cool. I went out on the deck to watch and take pictures! I am having a hard time, though, because I am supposed to go to Amsterdam with some friends, but I feel like it would be too expensive. So, I finally decided not to go, still had to pay for the hostel, but felt like I needed to be in Belgium. I finally went to sleep and we had to wake up early for breakfast and preport. We got cleared and Aimee and I went out exploring. No one from the town was really awake at the time because it was like 9 am. It is a cute little town with many beautiful buildings and side streets. We walked around for about 3 ½ hours and got some Belgian chocolates. They were sooooo goood. We ate lunch on the ship and met Marissa and Heather to go out and explore more. We went to get a waffle with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Amazing! So exciting. We sat there for a while and then walked around more and got some fries. Holy crap, they give you A LOT. They were good. They are served with mayonnaise on it, but I got them without. After some more walking and shopping, we headed to the castle that was right by the ship. We headed back to the ship to rest and whatnot. I decided to get some veggies, so I ate and then did 3 miles in 21 minutes on the elliptical and then another mile on the treadmill! Go me! When I came back to my room, I called Marissa and Aimee and figured that they left without me, so I called Marie. I went out with Marie, Stacey, Paul, Christine, Melissa, Norah, and Erica. We had fun. We went to a little restaurant/outside café and I got one glass of cherry flavored beer called Kriek. It was soo good. I don’t like beer, but it was a sweeter taste and a rosy color. We talked to some local Belgians about life and what chocolate was the best, and they suggested to get it from the grocery store. That is the best. After that, we headed to an Irish Pub where I got a glass of hard cider. That was pretty good as well! I managed to only spend 20 Euro or $30 today! Yay! Anyway, tomorrow I am going to Brussels –the capital of Belgium, with Aimee and meeting Marissa there so that should be exciting.
7/14
Aimee and I, after breakfast, walked Paul to the train station to meet up with his boyfriend from Paris, David (Da – veeed). He was really nice, but spoke little English. We got some coffee and went back to the boat to get ready for Brussels. We headed back to the train station and took the 10 am train to Brussels to meet Marissa. We decided we were going to meet in this one park and that required us to get off at the Brussels-Noord station. Well, we walked around for about an hour and a half and got nowhere.. we got a hold of Marissa and decided to meet at the grand place (pla-ce). We got back on the train – maybe the metro – and headed to the grand place. Around 1 we finally found Marissa and decided we needed foood. We looked for a sandwich that had chicken, fries and mayonnaise on it, it was apparently legendary. We finally found it and it sucked. After that, we decided to walk around and got some chocolate and decided to look for mannequin pis. It was soo hard to find, we walked around for a while asking people. It was funny because Aimee kept making gestures of what the statue looked like to get people to understand. They laughed, we laughed, it was all good. We got some waffles with chocolate along the way and finally found the statue. It was about as big as my foot – sooooo small, almost not worth it. We waited in the grand place for it to light up, but it didn’t happen, so we decided to try to find train station – it took at least an hour even though we were close cause we couldn’t find it. We basically walked all over the city. Finally we found it, got on, sat in 1st class by accident and got yelled at cause we were supposed to be in 2nd. Then we got scared we missed our stop, so we asked the guy by us and he said we didn’t so we were okay. We finally got back to boat after being gone for 10 and a half hours, and I was hungry and upset, so I got a protein bar from ship and then worked out, and went to bed.
7/16/08
This morning, we slept in because we were tied. Aimee, Marissa, and I decided to walk around and go to the museums. We tried to go to the diamond museum, but it was closed, so we decided to get waffles and ice cream instead. It was so good, again. We walked around until we got to the fashion museum. It was pretty neat in there! They had a collection of some fashions that was only in there for a bit, but it was neat to see how it was set up. We decided to go back and take a nap, but I didn’t end up napping, I went to work out instead. We ate dinner on the boat and then Amber, Tanya and I went out with Heather, Raphael, Lindsey, and Alaina. While we were sitting at this little bar, we saw Aimee, Paul, and Marissa so they sat down with us. We stayed out for a little bit and then decided to go to bed!!!
7/17/08
Woke up and Aimee and I went to zoo with Iain Campbell on an FDP for class. It was sweet. We got to the snake house and hold a snake then we went to the reptile house and saw so many cool lizards and turtles. We then went to the aquarium and got a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium and it was pretty sweet to see the tanks from above. After, Aimee and I broke off and went to see the SEALS! We also saw camels, monkeys, chimps, lions, tigers, jaguars, and elephants! It was soo cool to see some of the animals.
After the zoo, we got to go to the diamond museum! It was pretty sweet to see the kind of history of the diamond and how they are formed and whatnot. Antwerp is so famous for their diamonds!! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, which sucked, but it was still neat.
After, we hit up Panos, which is the subway of Belgium. It is sandwiches on a baguette with whatever meat, hard boiled egg, tomato, lettuce, carrots and onions. It was SOOO good. After that, we hit up a waffle stand to get one last waffle in before leaving!! It was amazing and so sad to know I wont be having another one again, or at least for a while!!
We then got some post cards, hit up the post office and sent them out! Yay!
Finally, we hit up the chocolate stores!! YUMMO! I got like $20 of chocolates – yay truffles! SOO FREAKIN GOOD. I ate like 3 pieces of it when I Got back.
We came back to the ship and I conked out for like an hour and a half then went to dinner. Then we had our lifeboat drill which sucked but went faster than the first. Now I have to go study for my circus midterm. Yippee.
Denmark!!
DENMARK!!!
Day 1:
First of all, the night before docking was hell. We were to be docking in Korsor. Korsor is a tiny town that does not have a whole lot to offer, so most people’s plans included going to Copenhagen, as was ours. Well, we were supposed to have a hostel since Copenhagen is an hour from Korsor. By the time we booked, they were pretty much all filled. There were 9 of us all together. So we went through many hassles to get somewhere to stay and came up empty handed. I had bought a “Let’s Go: Europe on a Budget” book before I left, so decided to give it one more shot. I found a hostel in the bottom of a hotel just outside the heart of the city. I emailed them and they had a room available for the 9 of us. It would be a private room, which was nice. It cost us 300 Danish Kr or $60 for the 2 nights which was a good price. So, we took it. So in the morning, we ate breakfast and lunch on board the ship. Finally around 12 we got off the boat and headed for the 45 minute walk to the train station with our luggage. It was a long walk. So after a long morning, we finally get to rainy old Denmark around 2. It took us about 45 minutes to find our way to the hostel, but we made it and all was good. I bought a lock to lock up my stuff while in the hostel, because I do not trust them at all. I locked up my stuff and my friends Lindsey, Marie, and I headed out on our own – 9 is a big group to travel with. We just decided to wander around and see whatever we saw since it was rainy outside. We made our way to the round tower that was(/still is?) used as an astronomy observatory. It was a windy path up, but we finally made it. It was a gorgeous view of the whole city. Well worth it! On our way down, we stopped at an art gallery that was being presented on the side. They were serving wine, hummus, and bread, so we got a glass of wine, some bread and some hummus as we looked at the art. It was a nice little stop. (My dad would be pleased to know, I enjoyed the hummus).
After the tower, we headed out for some dinner and along the way found a lot of musicians playing music on the street. It was the week of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival! We found a cute little sandwich shop and got a sandwich to go so we could watch some jazz bands play. We sat down at a little café place, but we had to buy something to drink to sit there, so we shared a mini bottle of wine. It was a very cute evening. We had some fresh gelato and I also got a crepe with Nutella! Yuuuum! After we walked around some more, we met up with some other SASers and headed to an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. We mainly went for the night laser show, and it was spectacular. It cost $18 just to get in and at least $12 to ride one ride, so we didn’t ride anything, just looked around. It was so pretty there! After, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed! It was a looong day!
Day 2:
It was so hot and uncomfortable in the hostel, so, I did not get a good nights rest. Two of the girls and I woke up at 6:45 so we could eat breakfast at 7 and head out for the day So after breakfast, we got some free bikes from the city and rode all around town. We went to Christiana, which is a hippie community that has a separate government from Copenhagen, but it still is in Copenhagen. They are apparently allowed to smoke pot there, but luckily we went there early in the morning, so everyone who lived there was still sleeping off the night before and we didn’t run into any of the inhabitants. It was actually really pretty there! After Lindsey made us go to Christiana, I made the girls go to see the statue of the Little Mermaid. It was small, but quite cool to see! I took a few pictures with her! We walked around after returning the bikes, got a smoothie and a scone, did some window shopping and then headed to the botanical gardens (which was not as cool as I would have thunk). There were many street performers, it was pretty cool; there was a guy ‘juggling’ crystal balls (look up Moschen), a man pretending to be a statue, a circus performer, and a guy playing crystal glasses like on Miss Congeniality. That was pretty much it, it didn’t really sound like a lot, but we did a lot of people watching and city touring. It was a lot of fun!!
Day 3:
Marie had gone home on the train last night with Marissa because they had a trip today, so today was just Lindsay and I. We had to check out of the hostel by 10, so we woke up at 9, got breakfast, and checked out. We walked around the city for a while, looking for a Jazz Festival shirt for Lindsey and then I got a crepe for lunch. We headed back to the train around 12 and accidentally sat on the quiet car. Ooops! We were not allowed to talk at all. That was okay though because it gave me time to think about all the things we did and just have me time. When we got back to the ship, I did some laundry in the sink, had some alone time, and then met Heather and Emily for dinner. After dinner, we walked to the grocery store to get some snacks for the ship, but they did not accept our credit cards, so we got nothing. On our way back, we saw a little girl, no older than 9, on the sidewalk with 2 puppies on a leash and crying. We asked her what was wrong and if she needed help, but she didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Danish, so she just kind of stood there for a moment before walking away. It was the saddest thing to see a little kid crying and not being able to help. So after that, we just went back to the ship and hung out before hitting the sac.
Day 4:
Emily, Heather, Marissa, and I ate breakfast on the ship before going out on the town in Korsor to explore where we were docked. First, we headed to the library to get some free internet, which was pretty exciting to catch up on pictures and whatnot. Anyway, Korsor is a very small city, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We just went around and looked in shops and got some soft ice. We went to a few places before stumbling upon an ALDI’S!! It was really strange! It was set up exactly like ours at home, but I couldn’t get anything because they did not accept my credit card and I was out of Danish Kroner. We had to get back to the ship so that I could work on my paper for biology and also global studies, so we went back, ate dinner, and did homework. Boo!! That was the end to a fun time in Denmark!
It is a pretty cool place to go. I just wish I could have explored a little more, maybe in the future. They get around pretty much everywhere by biking, as its relatively flat. This is why they have the free bikes for anyone to ride. Well its not exactly free, you have to put in 20 cents of DKroner (which is $4) but you get it back when you return the bikes. I really enjoyed that and wish we had stuff like that in America, but I feel like that would never work.
July 12, 2008
So, we left Denmark yesterday, but today we were able to experience a little bit of Germany! Captain Jeremy brought us through The Kiel Canal. We started going through around 8:30 in the morning, so my lovely bio professor - Iain Campell (a Scottish professor from Pitt who doesn’t really like PSU at all) let us out of class early so that we could watch our approach to the canal. It was really quite spectacular to see!
Some facts about the Kiel Canal:
• We saved 286 Nautical Miles by going through it as opposed to going around Denmark to get to Belgium
• We are about the largest ship that is allowed to pass through!
• It took 11 hours total to pass through
• It cost 15000 Euro to go through
• It was dug by hand and during WWI was expanded to let German warships through.
• Nationalized in 1930 by Hitler, not enemy or Jewish ships were allowed through
• Connects the Baltic and North Seas
Tonight, I also got to meet the ‘uncle’ of my sea family. Tom finally came on board in Denmark and will be sailing with us until Italy. He is very nice and so is the rest of my family!!
Day 1:
First of all, the night before docking was hell. We were to be docking in Korsor. Korsor is a tiny town that does not have a whole lot to offer, so most people’s plans included going to Copenhagen, as was ours. Well, we were supposed to have a hostel since Copenhagen is an hour from Korsor. By the time we booked, they were pretty much all filled. There were 9 of us all together. So we went through many hassles to get somewhere to stay and came up empty handed. I had bought a “Let’s Go: Europe on a Budget” book before I left, so decided to give it one more shot. I found a hostel in the bottom of a hotel just outside the heart of the city. I emailed them and they had a room available for the 9 of us. It would be a private room, which was nice. It cost us 300 Danish Kr or $60 for the 2 nights which was a good price. So, we took it. So in the morning, we ate breakfast and lunch on board the ship. Finally around 12 we got off the boat and headed for the 45 minute walk to the train station with our luggage. It was a long walk. So after a long morning, we finally get to rainy old Denmark around 2. It took us about 45 minutes to find our way to the hostel, but we made it and all was good. I bought a lock to lock up my stuff while in the hostel, because I do not trust them at all. I locked up my stuff and my friends Lindsey, Marie, and I headed out on our own – 9 is a big group to travel with. We just decided to wander around and see whatever we saw since it was rainy outside. We made our way to the round tower that was(/still is?) used as an astronomy observatory. It was a windy path up, but we finally made it. It was a gorgeous view of the whole city. Well worth it! On our way down, we stopped at an art gallery that was being presented on the side. They were serving wine, hummus, and bread, so we got a glass of wine, some bread and some hummus as we looked at the art. It was a nice little stop. (My dad would be pleased to know, I enjoyed the hummus).
After the tower, we headed out for some dinner and along the way found a lot of musicians playing music on the street. It was the week of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival! We found a cute little sandwich shop and got a sandwich to go so we could watch some jazz bands play. We sat down at a little café place, but we had to buy something to drink to sit there, so we shared a mini bottle of wine. It was a very cute evening. We had some fresh gelato and I also got a crepe with Nutella! Yuuuum! After we walked around some more, we met up with some other SASers and headed to an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. We mainly went for the night laser show, and it was spectacular. It cost $18 just to get in and at least $12 to ride one ride, so we didn’t ride anything, just looked around. It was so pretty there! After, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed! It was a looong day!
Day 2:
It was so hot and uncomfortable in the hostel, so, I did not get a good nights rest. Two of the girls and I woke up at 6:45 so we could eat breakfast at 7 and head out for the day So after breakfast, we got some free bikes from the city and rode all around town. We went to Christiana, which is a hippie community that has a separate government from Copenhagen, but it still is in Copenhagen. They are apparently allowed to smoke pot there, but luckily we went there early in the morning, so everyone who lived there was still sleeping off the night before and we didn’t run into any of the inhabitants. It was actually really pretty there! After Lindsey made us go to Christiana, I made the girls go to see the statue of the Little Mermaid. It was small, but quite cool to see! I took a few pictures with her! We walked around after returning the bikes, got a smoothie and a scone, did some window shopping and then headed to the botanical gardens (which was not as cool as I would have thunk). There were many street performers, it was pretty cool; there was a guy ‘juggling’ crystal balls (look up Moschen), a man pretending to be a statue, a circus performer, and a guy playing crystal glasses like on Miss Congeniality. That was pretty much it, it didn’t really sound like a lot, but we did a lot of people watching and city touring. It was a lot of fun!!
Day 3:
Marie had gone home on the train last night with Marissa because they had a trip today, so today was just Lindsay and I. We had to check out of the hostel by 10, so we woke up at 9, got breakfast, and checked out. We walked around the city for a while, looking for a Jazz Festival shirt for Lindsey and then I got a crepe for lunch. We headed back to the train around 12 and accidentally sat on the quiet car. Ooops! We were not allowed to talk at all. That was okay though because it gave me time to think about all the things we did and just have me time. When we got back to the ship, I did some laundry in the sink, had some alone time, and then met Heather and Emily for dinner. After dinner, we walked to the grocery store to get some snacks for the ship, but they did not accept our credit cards, so we got nothing. On our way back, we saw a little girl, no older than 9, on the sidewalk with 2 puppies on a leash and crying. We asked her what was wrong and if she needed help, but she didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Danish, so she just kind of stood there for a moment before walking away. It was the saddest thing to see a little kid crying and not being able to help. So after that, we just went back to the ship and hung out before hitting the sac.
Day 4:
Emily, Heather, Marissa, and I ate breakfast on the ship before going out on the town in Korsor to explore where we were docked. First, we headed to the library to get some free internet, which was pretty exciting to catch up on pictures and whatnot. Anyway, Korsor is a very small city, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We just went around and looked in shops and got some soft ice. We went to a few places before stumbling upon an ALDI’S!! It was really strange! It was set up exactly like ours at home, but I couldn’t get anything because they did not accept my credit card and I was out of Danish Kroner. We had to get back to the ship so that I could work on my paper for biology and also global studies, so we went back, ate dinner, and did homework. Boo!! That was the end to a fun time in Denmark!
It is a pretty cool place to go. I just wish I could have explored a little more, maybe in the future. They get around pretty much everywhere by biking, as its relatively flat. This is why they have the free bikes for anyone to ride. Well its not exactly free, you have to put in 20 cents of DKroner (which is $4) but you get it back when you return the bikes. I really enjoyed that and wish we had stuff like that in America, but I feel like that would never work.
July 12, 2008
So, we left Denmark yesterday, but today we were able to experience a little bit of Germany! Captain Jeremy brought us through The Kiel Canal. We started going through around 8:30 in the morning, so my lovely bio professor - Iain Campell (a Scottish professor from Pitt who doesn’t really like PSU at all) let us out of class early so that we could watch our approach to the canal. It was really quite spectacular to see!
Some facts about the Kiel Canal:
• We saved 286 Nautical Miles by going through it as opposed to going around Denmark to get to Belgium
• We are about the largest ship that is allowed to pass through!
• It took 11 hours total to pass through
• It cost 15000 Euro to go through
• It was dug by hand and during WWI was expanded to let German warships through.
• Nationalized in 1930 by Hitler, not enemy or Jewish ships were allowed through
• Connects the Baltic and North Seas
Tonight, I also got to meet the ‘uncle’ of my sea family. Tom finally came on board in Denmark and will be sailing with us until Italy. He is very nice and so is the rest of my family!!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Roosyia!
Hey everyone! Sorry this is a little bit late, but better late than never right?
Anyway, Russia was great, definitely not what I expected. My roommate and I woke up at 5:30 to watch us pull into port. It wasn’t too exciting. It was very industrial. We had to get our passports before they would let us off the boat. This was because we had to go through emigration every time we wanted to get on and off the boat. Also, the police have the right to stop you at any time and ask for your passport to make sure you are there legally. It was scary carrying them around everywhere because pick pocketing is so prevalent. Luckily, it didn’t happen to me there. We got off the ship, but just to get to an ATM. We all had trips to do in the early afternoon so there wasn’t enough time to go anywhere.
My first trip of Russia was a home visit. I was nervous about this trip, but it turned out to be a really really good trip. The couple that we visited did not speak English. Their names were Oleg and Helena. Oleg was in his early 70s and Helena was in her late 50s. They were very nice and made us tea and we had many many different kinds of Russian cookies. It was interesting to hear all their stories, one in particular was kind of crazy. Oleg was on a ship that was bringing missiles for the Cuban Missile Crisis.
After the home visit, we rushed back and I took a shower to get ready for the RUSSIAN BALLET!! It was soo cool, we saw Swan Lake. We didn’t get to to the big theater, but the theater that we went to was nice. We had kinda crappy seats, it was a box seat up high and in the back and was a little hard to see from. I had fun though. It was not really what I expected. When I think of the Russian ballet, I think of dedication that rivals Julliard dancing. It was a little off at times and not quite on. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. After the ballet, my friend Marissa and I had to hurry and get to sleep for our 4 am wake up call for Moscow the next morning!They provided a small breakfast for us in the lobby while we were waiting to get to the airport. We left around 8 and got there a little before 9:30. I slept most of the way because I was dead tired. When we got to Moscow, we loaded the bus and headed to the Kremlin. This is the central government located in Moscow. It as pretty cool, it was mostly a museum inside, at least the building we went in. There were a lot of old garments and dresses and thrones. We quickly were getting bored because it was around 11 or 12 and we had not eaten in a while and we were very hungry. After the Kremlin, we drove past Saint Basil’s Cathedral but they wouldn’t let us out to look for a few minutes because there were 90 of us. I was a little mad because it is such a huge landmark for Moscow. So around 2 or 3, they FINALLY took us to lunch. It was at a pretty neat Russian restaurant that looked like a paradise. When we walked in, there was a weird ham and potato salad waiting for us on the table. I tried it, but it was not very good. It was smothered in some kind of weird creamy sauce. The next portion of lunch was soup. I got really excited in anticipation for the soup, until I realize what it was. Borscht. Ew. I did try it, staying true to trying new foods in each port, and I didn’t really like it. It was not terrible, but it was not enjoyable. For the main course, we had something that I previously thought was a German dish – beef stroganoff. Apparently it is a Russian dish, and thank God it was good. After eating lunch, we headed out to the Red Square which was named after all the red brick that it took to construct the buildings and the road. We were so excited to see that St. Basil’s was located just behind the square!! Marissa and I took like a billion pictures here! I took a sweet jumping picture in front of it which some of you have had the pleasure of seeing. It was so cool to see in person. After, we went to the airport and got on a teeny tiny airplane with no room, which was a huge contrast to the very spatious and comfortable plane we took to Russia. We got back to the boat around 1 am – just shy of missing the bridge. The bridges are low to the water in Russia and at 1:30 every night, the bridges go up to allow boats to pass through. If you get stuck on the wrong side, you are basically stuck until 6ish in the morning!!
Day 3 in Russia was pretty filled as well. In the morning, I had the ‘Russian Cuisine’ class. It was not really what I had in mind. I was thinking that we would walk into a place and it would be more like a home-ec set up to learn how to make food. Instead, we walked into a restaurant and all 70 of us sat down. There was a table for 10 people to learn how to make our dinner. So only 10 could go up at a time. Basically all we did, to make Pelmeny (which was in fact really good) was get a small piece of dough, roll it out, stuff it with meat and seal it up. It wasn’t much of a cooking lesson as much as follow the leader. It was really neat to make it though. Obviously after, we got to eat it! After the cooking lesson, my friend and I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. It was a really neat place to eat, there were ponds with coy fish and turtles and a bird in a cage. The only thing that sucked was the fact that they did not speak English and we did not speak Russiam. We were able to communicate a little bit, enough to get our food and pay. It was SOO good! After lunch, we headed back to the ship to get ready for our white nights tour of St. Petersburg. Again, it was not what I was expecting, but it was great. There were so many of us that they had to split us up into 2 different groups. One went on the canal tour first (aka my group) while it was only 6pm. It wasn’t much of a white night as it was a white day. Then we headed to some famous Russian composure’s house – I cannot remember his name! Ooops! After the tour of his very hot, non air conditioned house, we went to the bottom floor and a young Russian opera singer put on a concert for us. It was so good; it sent chills up my spine. After the tour, a group of us went out for drinks and desert. I got warm chocolate cake and an Irish coffee. The Irish coffee was terrible. It was very strong, and I was not expecting there to be a lot of alcohol in it. The cake was soo good though. They make it fresh when you order it. We stayed until 1:30 and went outside to watch the bridges go up. It was very pretty! I took pictures, of course!
Day 4 aka the 4th of July was pretty cool. I went to the Hermitage with my friend Melissa and some other SAS kids. We only got to spend about 45 minutes inside because Melissa had to be back for a trip. That was not enough time in there. What the Hermitage is is the old Winter palace for the royal family. It has been turned into a museum with so many art pieces that if you spend M-F there taking 1 minute to look at each piece of art, it would take you 9 years to get through. I ate lunch on the ship and after went to St. Isaac’s Cathedral with my friend Jackie. That was beautiful. All the artwork on the walls and ceiling was made out of tiling. On the way over to the Cathedral, we had to have seen like 8 weddings going on. These Russians are crazy with their weddings. After the cathedral, we came back to the boat and hung out on the deck and enjoyed the warm weather.
On the last day of Russia, I went back to the Hermitage with some other friends. We spent like 2 hours there that time. Before heading back to the ship, we hit up a little outdoor souvenir market where I bought some Russian nesting dolls. We went back to the ship early because we were having a 4th of July BBQ on the deck. (So maybe it wasn’t the 4th in Russia anymore, but it was still the 4th in Hawaii!!) It was a lot of fun, there was live music, good food and ice cream!
Overall thoughts:
I had a busy 5 days in Russia and really did love it. It sucked not being able to drink the water because of bacteria; everything we drank had to be bottled. Russia was a lot cheaper than Norway. There were 25 Rubles to $1. Russians drive ultra crazy. I don’t even know how to explain it, but I felt like we were going to be in an accident every 2 seconds. But I never saw one. The weather was very nice, a little hot at times. It was weird being there in such a huge city. It was almost like NYC, but with midget buildings. The buildings had to be shorter than the Hermitage. It sucked having to carry around the passport, but luckily there was nothing scary that happened to me there. One last thing – mullets were everywhere. They were taking over. It was quite scary, haha!! I did have one shot of Russian vodka. You cannot go to Russia and not taste it. It was okay, not my favorite thing in the world, or even close to being my favorite thing in the world.
I will try to post Denmark’s blog before I get to Belgium, but no promises. If not, I get free Internet in the hostel I will be at in Amsterdam. I will be visiting Amsterdam for a night while I am in Belgium! I am looking forward to seeing Anne Frank’s house and whatnot in Amsterdam and eating chocolate and waffles in Belgium. I do not really like the taste of beer, but apparently Belgium has some pretty good Belgian brewed beers, so I may just taste one for the sake of trying something of the culture.
Shoot me some emails! I am still using kmvalentini@semesteratsea.net! Let me know what you think of my blogs, keep me updated with information in the states, with your lives! Miss you!
xoxo Kate
Monday, June 30, 2008
Come sail away with me!! :)
Norway was so great! We docked in Bergen, Norway on Tuesday, the 24th. The first day, I didn’t really have any plans besides getting to the Aquarium for my biology class. I have to write a paper on it. The aquarium was pretty cool, but it was 150 Kroner. In case you are not fluent in exchange rates, there are 5 Kroner to 1 USD. Basically, it means that everything was REALLY expensive. So going back to the aquarium – or Akvariet, in Norwegian – it being 150 Kroner, that was $30. Ouch! But I did get to see penguins, SEALS!!, and a bunch of really cool fish like Dory, Nemo, and Marlin (for all you kids that like Finding Nemo!). After that, my friend Emily and I went to the fish market (where I tried Moose & Reindeer jerky). After looking through the fish market, which also had trinkets and hats and shirts..) we went to lunch at the Harbor Café. We each got a hamburger and a coke light (which is their diet coke) and the check was 414 kroner together. That was about $40 each. Luckily, they don’t really believe in tipping. This is good because they also do not really believe in costumer service. It took them FOREVER to wait on us and for us to get the check. That is normal in Norwegian culture.
After eating, we just kind of walked around for a bit and met up with some more friends for dinner which was 150 Kroner, or $30. I REALLY wanted coffee, but they really do not believe in taking out coffee from cafes, so I went to 7 elevens and little shops to try to get coffee, but the machines were too difficult, so I just gave up. It was alright because I didn’t need to be caffeinated, I had to get up early on Wednesday! I went back to the ship around 9 and we stopped at a little shop – called Joker (VERY common) like our Sheetz or a Wawa (for all you Virginians). I got this AMAZING cone of frozen yogurt dipped in a chocolate powder. It was SOO good. I got back to the ship and had to get ready for the next day for my 3 day trip to the Fjords and Glaciers. (A fjord is a valley that was carved out from glaciers moving through many thousands of years ago.)
I got up around 6 on Wednesday & we left the port around 8. We were traveling on a bus to go up north to see the Briksdal Glacier and quite a few fjords. We had an Italian tour guide staying with us for the whole 3 days, Emiliano. He was a pretty fun guy! We drove along and saw many beautiful waterfalls and lakes on the way to Geiranger, which was our first overnight point of the trip. We stopped along the way to get lunch, stopped at a HUGE waterfall, took a 20 minute standing room only ferry across a fjord, went up on top of a HUGE mountain – where it SNOWED!, and ate dinner at the hotel. It took us a total of 10 hours to get to Geiranger from Bergen! Looong bus ride.
The first hotel was pretty nice It was called Hotel Union and was right up the hill from the town of Geiranger, which was home of 400 people. We really didn’t do a whole lot in the town because it was so small, but the hotel had a little pub down stairs and a live band. It was soo strange because they were playing American music. Music from the 80s, mostly. There was 5 of us girls and we all got a long island iced tea. It was pretty good.
Thursday, we had to be up for breakfast and out of the hotel by 9 to catch yet another ferry. This one was an hour and was a little more cozy than the other ferry. There was 2 observing decks and an inside lounge with a little café on it. We got to see a waterfall that is pretty famous in Norway. It is called the 7 sisters waterfall. There are 7 waterfalls that all run beside each other. When we went past, there was a rainbow going through them, it was so cool! After the ferry ride, we got back on the bus to head to lunch & to hike to the Bridksdal Glacier. It took about 45 minutes to hike up to the foot of the glacier. It was a very pretty and scenic hike. You could see the glacier from most of the trail and there were SOO many waterfalls running from the glacier on the way up. It was a pretty warm day, but it was very windy and a little chilly by the glacier. There was a runoff pool of water at the bottom of the glacier and many many rocks left behind when the glacier was retreating.
We were only allowed to get so close, probably for good reason – there was some loose ice ‘rocks’ that were falling when we got there. Buuuut, being the adventurous little Americans that our group was, we went past the ropes and went up and touched the glacier. It was AMAZING. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been in my entire life. It was another 45 minutes to walk back down and then we headed to the hotel. This hotel was so pretty. It was called the Hotel Alexandra. My roommate had not showen up for the trip at all, so I had this amazing room all to myself. It was small, but bigger than the first hotel room. I had a balcony that overlooked a lake and beautiful snow-capped mountains. We had a buffet dinner that was pretty much amazing. (Any food we get off the boat is GREAT!) They had a little dance club on the 1st floor of the hotel, so almost our whole group went down there to dance after dinner. It was so much fun!
On Friday, we had to go to the glacier museum. On the way to the museum, we stopped at another smaller glacier right off the side of the road. We only had 50 minutes at the museum and we spent it on a little climate exhibit and a 20-minute documentary showing the tops of glaciers. We had we had to hop another 20 minute standing room only ferry and rode to a stave church dating from 1150 AD. That was pretty interesting to see. It was getting renovated on the outside because the wood tiles on the roof are rotting. It was a very small church that used to be a Christian church for people around the town. There were windows in the back so that lepers could be a part of the mass without being in with the people. There was also another window in the back for pregnant or women who had a baby within 4 months. They were thought to be unclean and were not allowed in the church with the people. I thought that was strange.
After the church, we drove through Voss and stopped at the waterfall of youth. It was simply amazing. It was very big and had many many pieces of the water flowing all different directions. It made me feel so insignificant, like so many of the things in Norway did. The waterfall was the last stop on my wonderful Norway journey. After that, we had to get back onto the ship so that we did not receive dock time. For every 15 minutes you are late, you get 1 hour of dock time that you are required to spend sitting by the pursers desk at the next port. HOPEFULLY that never happens to me.
The roads in Norway are completely unbelievable. You would think that they were one way. It was pretty scary going up very very winding mountain roads when another bus was coming along. The bus driver would SLAM on his brakes and one bus would have to pull to the side so the other could get through. There were like no guard rails either. So sometimes you would look out the window, look down, and see very scary views of the steep mountain. It was pretty intense. Everytime we would get into a situation when we would have to get past a bus, the tour Emiliano would play the James bond theme song. HAHA!
The weather in Norway is pretty much 50% chance of rain all the time. The first day we got there, It rained in the afternoon, but by late afternoon it stopped raining and didn’t really rain again until Thursday afternoon. We pretty much lucked out with the weather. I ran into an older lady from England who said that her and her hubby were there for a 10 day vacation and it rained the WHOLE time.
So overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of Bergen just because it was mostly a huge tourist area. A LOT of cruise ships come into Bergen, so that’s whey it is so touristy. It was cute though. It wasn’t really what I was expecting for Norway, but my fjords and glacier trip was definitely what I was expecting of Norway, the huge mountains and beautiful water. Oh and pretty much EVERYONE spoke English, which was really nice.
So, tomorrow we dock in Russia. I am a little nervous for that. Apparently people are all about stealing American passports and selling them for a lot of money on the black market. So today, I bought a money belt in the school store because we are REQUIRED to carry around out passports.
My itinerary for Russia is visitng a Russian home, the Russian Ballet!!, White Nights (which is a cruise down one of the rivers and a concert of some sort under a sun that never sets), a Russian cuisine class with a master chef, and a day trip to Moscow! So, aside from being nervous, I am really excited. After all, how many people can say, “I have been to Russia!!”?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Birthday and whatnot
I was just writing to say that I had a great birthday and thanks for all the birthday wishes! I did have class on my birthday, pretty much for the first time ever, and that kind of stunk,. But, I got to take a tour of the bridge! That was pretty exciting. I got to see all the machines and whatnot that they have up there to keep things in order and safe! My friends helped me celebrate, sang to me, and we had a dance party in the cabin. We all had a glass of wine to celebrate my birthday (the drinking age is 18 on the ship). When we were in line to get our wine, Emily (who lived above me at my apartment at school) got everyone to sing happy birthday to me!! It was nice (slightly embarassing being the center of attention haha).
Today, we had a day off!! Yay!! I slept until 12! It was MUCH needed after losing 4 hours of sleep to date. We lose another tonight and another tomorrow and then we are done until we head to Russia (we lose 2 more in 3 days! YIKES!). So today, I woke up in time for lunch & we caught some sun as we read outside on the deck. For dinner, I met up with my 'Semester at Sea Family'. I signed up to be a part of a kind of 'family' for the summer. It is a woman and her daughter (her husband will come on board in Norway, I believe.). Her name is Joyce and she is in her mid-thirties and her daughter Bridget who is 13. There are 3 other students that are with us, Kelly, Laura, and Jess. It was kinda fun to get to know them and have dinner with them. We are going to get together for dinner like once a week and if we want to do more, we can. After dinner, there was a talent show. It was SO fun to go and watch it. It was about an hour and a half and there were 18 acts. Everything from singing, to dancing, to poetry, and piano playing.
So that has been the last few days for me. Lots of work and lots of fun. Wish the food was better. I find myself hungry pretty much ALL the time because I pretty much just eat salads, veggies and rolls. The meat is... well, questionable. thankfully there was some REALLY good pork and broccoli for dinner, so that was yummy!! Don't you worry, I have been eating protein via beans and nuts. I have also been working out on the ship. THAT is an interesting experience. Trying to use the elliptical while the boat rocks side to side and front to back proves hard to stay on, but maybe it will help my leg muscles get into better shape!! :)
OH OH OH!! We also saw like 4 or 5 dolphins playing around in the ocean today! They were flipping and jumping!! It was SOOOO cool!! YEah! Apparently there are a TON of whales around, but I have yet to see them. Oh, yeah. Its like 9:30 and it is BRIGHT outside. It doesnt get dark until like 11:30 12 ish. SOOOO WEIRD! yay for inside rooms and not having to worry about it not being dark when I go to sleep!!
Well, I love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!! Don't be strangers to e-mailing!!
Love,
Kate XoXo
Monday, June 16, 2008
Yay for being at sea!!!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I got to Canada and onto the ship safely! Canada was pretty cool. We got a cab from the airport to the hotel -- it was 38 km.. im not completely sure how far that is in miles. When we were on the highway I saw the speedometer hit 120 and I was freaking out (inside) until I realized it was kmph. Haha! Anyway, we walked a little less than a mile to get to the pier (it was a pretty day outside!) and I got onto the boat early!
The room is small but very functional for everything! I take up more drawers than my roommate but, it works out very well and no one is complaining!! The bathroom is a good size. I was worried about it being small, but its bigger than I thought. The toilet scares the crap out of me (no pun intended) when I flush it! It sucks it right down. The shower is slightly small and hard to shave in, but we manage!
I unpacked, met my roommate Amber and met some people! I am having a blast! The meals are alright, people probably think I am a vegetarian because all I have been eating is veggies and salad because the meat/fish don't look to good. (For those of you who don't know, I am starting to eat fish) I have met quite a few people and they have all been so nice and so fun to get to know!!
After we left the port of Halifax at 7 (which was delayed 2 hours because of luggage and people missing.. 60 people lost luggage!!), we had some informational meetings until about 10. Amber and I went to bed around 11, which had turned to 12 because of turning forward the clocks.
I had broken my little travel clock, but was finally able to get it back together after playing around with it for a bit. So I set the time and the alarm and went to bed! Well, when Amber woke up, at 10 till 9 (we had meetings at 9) we were freaking out trying to get ready! We missed breakfast but made it to the meetings on time. Then we had lunch and more meetings! Between Meetings and dinner, Amber and I went to the gym. Boy was it strange doing the elliptical on the rocky boat!!
I haven’t been too bad with getting sea sick. Nothing major, just a little queasiness here and there. I have been wearing my sea band bracelets which have been helping a good bit. When I take them off, things get worse, so I keep them on. It’s become quite a fashion trend on the boat haha!!
Tonight (Monday, June16th) we had a dessert bar around 9ish or so, it was nice because it had some left over sandwiches from dinner. I was kinda hungry from not eating too much at lunch or dinner! So yay!!
Tomorrow, the 17th starts classes!! I have Modern Evolutionary Theory at 8 am (!!!), Global Studies (which everyone has to take) at 9:20, and The History of the Circus at 1! I already have homework! Boo! It is also Amber’s birthday! She will be 19. (She is a sophomore at Pitt. Boo Pitt. Haha, Just kidding, but seriously.) She gets 10% off a massage or facial or whatever she wants from the spa!! Can’t wait for my birthday haha!!
Well, that’s all for now! I hope to hear from you all through my FREE email account here on board ship!! kmvalentini@semesteratsea.net. Hope everything is well in the states. And until next time..
(I don’t know.. I don’t have a catchy line to come after that..)
Love you all!!
Xoxo Kate
Friday, June 13, 2008
Oh Goodness!!
So, I just got to Virginia from the beach and finished my packing. It was a rough time saying goodbye to my family, but I am excited for my trip and I know they are excited for me as well. I can't believe that I am flying out to Canada later today!! WOW! In just a few short hours I will be getting on the boat and kicking off my summer! I am so nervous and excited to meet all these new people and explore Europe - which is something I never thought I would ever get to do!!
This is our EXACT itinerary for the trip:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/current-voyage/itinerary.php
If you would like to send me something, this is when/where/how to do it:
http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/summer-2008/staying-in-touch.php
Well, I will be posting whenever I can during the trip!
:) Xoxo Kate
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Packing
So, I knew I would have a LOT of stuff to pack, but I didn't really realize HOW much I would need to pack. I am trying to pack lightly -- we all know how I like to pack. I have one bag pretty much packed up with all the miscellaneous things I will need for the voyage - books, makeup, shoes, all that jazz. That weighs in about 37 lbs as of right now, so I can still add a few things! I have yet to pack my clothing because I have to go through it and see what t-shirts and pants I need to bring that I already had. Good thing about all my clothes is that I will be wearing them all for the beach next week. So when I am done with the beach, I can just wash them and re-pack them into the bag for SAS.
I have been trying to get everything together, talking to future SAS friends, and even reading the voyager handbook. As I sit here and do all of that, it starts to really hit me... I will FINALLY be sailing on the M.V. Explorer. Something I have been waiting for for a little over a year! I can't believe that this is actually happening!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pre-trip thoughts..
I just wanted to try out my blog! I am really nervous and VERY excited for my summer with Semester at Sea. I will be flying into Halifax, Nova Scotia to catch the M.V. Explorer to set sail on the summer of a lifetime!
We leave from Canada on June 15th.
Our Itinerary for the 69 days I will be away is:
Bergen, Norway
St. Petersburg, Russia
Copenhagen, Denmark
Antwerp, Belgium
Naples, Italy
Istanbul, Turkey
Piraeus, Greece
Dubrovnik, Croatia
We will come back into the United States on August 22, in Norfolk, Va, where my Dad will probably be picking me up! I have to be thankful for that, because I don't have to take all my extra luggage with souvenirs onto an airplane!
I have signed up for a few pre-sale trips!
First, I will be hiking Fjords and the Briksdal Glacier in Norway.
I am doing a biking trip - A Tour of Flanders in Belgium.
I am going to visit a Russian home, see the Russian Ballet, spend a day in Moscow, take a Russian cuisine class (& eat the food we make!), as well as a concert during the 'White Nights' in St. Petersburg all in Russia.
Then in Italy, I will be taking a 5 city tour - Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, & Naples. I am the MOST excited about this trip because I have been wanting to see Italy for a long time.
I am so excited to learn how people live in these different countries and what their different customs and foods are. I am going on this trip and trying to be as open minded as possible. I think that way I can learn more.
I will be taking the required global studies class, history of the circus, and a biology class that is modern evolutionary theory. (It was not the bio class that I intended to take, but the Infectious disease in humans class was filled!)
I will be posting as much as I can throughout the trip and will post pictures when I return to the States! I will miss everyone so much and hope that everyone has a safe and exciting summer!
xoxo Kate :)
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