Last Ports!

I'm about out of internet time so I'm going to combine posts for Greece and Croatia.

Greece was fantastic, as expected, but I only got to explore two of the days because I was sick the other two. The first day we went to the acropolis and it was boiling hot but I loved getting to see the real Parthenon! It's fenced off and under construction of some sort, so I couldn't climb around like I wanted, but I suppose it's people like me that are the reason it's got a fence! I ran into a friend of a friend from Nashville (not on SAS) there as well; I thought the location was perfect since I often run into people at the Parthenon in Nashville! We also went to the original Olympic stadium and drove by a lot of other monuments.
That night a bunch of friends and I went to the beach to watch the sun set (except we were on the wrong side of the harbor!) and hung out there, ate pizza (as good in Greece as it was in Italy!) and then went home. Nothing too exciting!
The last day I was feeling better and went to a beach to just relax. They had lots of blow-up toys in the water, including a trampoline, see saw, and an "iceberg" to climb! Lots of fun ensued. Greece has wonderful shopping and I wish I could have spent more time doing that, but I suppose my credit card is glad I didn't!

There was only one day at sea, then Croatia. (Fun fact: The tie was invented in Croatia!) We spent most of the time in Old Town Dubrovnik, which is the medieval part of the city. All the buildings in the Old Town have red roofs! We walked the walls and it was one of the most photogenic places I've ever been. I've also never been so hot in my entire life. Who would have thought that Croatia would be hotter than Egypt? Inside the walls there's a lot of restaurants and shopping, so we spent the rest of the day there. There's also the third oldest pharmacy in the world and the oldest arboretum in the world, but somehow I missed going to both! I slept in the next day and then spent the afternoon at the beach, and went to bed early. (I think I was getting the beginnings of sun stroke again.) The last day we finished up shopping - although it was a Sunday and the one place I wanted to go was closed :( - and went to a cafe that's on the outside edge of the wall by the sea. We watched people jump from 15, 30, 45, and 90 foot cliffs! Occasionally boats would pass and the passengers would cheer on whomever was about to jump. People who were walking the wall did the same. I'm sure my parents will be glad to hear that I refrained from jumping at all! I figure after having done parabungy I don't need any more cool adrenaline stories from this trip! Plus, the lower jumps looked (although everyone insists they weren't) a little too close to the rocks below them and the 90 foot jump was, well, 90 feet high. The water knocked one girl unconscious, busted a few peoples' lips, and just about everyone who did it emerged with black and blue bruises on whichever part(s) of their bodies that hit the water first. I personally think that jumping 600 feet with all sorts of harnesses and falling into nothing is much less scary (and less painful) than cliff jumping! Still, the cafe was the prettiest one yet!

I can't believe we have 12 whole days at sea! In the next 3 days I have 3 papers and 6 field reports (short papers about my in-port experiences) and then after those are all done we have finals. The academic situation isn't the best organized, and it's especially difficult trying to work at sea since as soon as the boat starts moving I start feeling sick. Since I don't want to pay for more internet time this will be my last post, but I'll be home in less than 2 weeks and at school in less than 3! I can't wait to see everyone!

Egypt

Overall, Egypt was my least favorite port. The city was incredibly, incredibly dirty (we even saw a dead horse in the canal!) and having to to wear long pants and long sleeves in 120 degree heat is uncomfortable. The taxis were crazy and terrifying at first - I swear we almost killed dozens of people! - but I got used to them by the end. I did an SAS sponsored trip that took us to Cairo, but I didn't know anyone on my trip, so I think that influenced the fun-factor a bit. 

However, I got to go to the pyramids, the sphinx (which is considerably smaller than I expected), the ziggurat/mastaba (the 5000 year old one with hieroglyphs and paint still inside), the bazaar, and the library of Alexandria (which, despite being the "oldest" library in the world, is a a modern building that just sits on the site of the actual library of Alexandria. Disappointing!). The pyramids were pretty cool - I got to go in one and it was so scary! The steps going in are really steep and you have to bend over halfway to walk through the tunnel, then finally you hit a landing and have to do the same thing going up. Then you hit a big empty room with a stone tomb (no elaborate decorations) inside. I pretty much looked around, then booked it out of there! For some reason I seemed to develop a fear of small, enclosed, underground spaces. The temple with the hieroglyphs was cool, but Egyptian art ceased to really interest me after second grade. The SAS trip that I did also took us out south of Cairo and we had a jeep safari in the desert and then rode camels. I liked the camel ride, but felt bad since the guides whipped them. : ( From what I hear, everyone else had a pretty good time, so I guess this is just another country that I'll have to come back to.
Also, I either incurred the curse of the mummies, or I shouldn't have eaten the Egyptian pancakes (they were a bit like sweet pizza dough, fried, with nuts and honey and fruit in them). Either way, I got food poisoning (and sun stroke, but I doubt the pancakes caused that) that kept me inside for two days in Greece.

Turkey? (part II)

We're no longer porting in Turkey. 

Tomorrow we're at sea, then 3 days in Alexandria, Egypt. As cool as Egypt is going to be, there were so many things I was looking forward to in Turkey! Oh well. At least we're not going to Bulgaria (which was the circulating rumor). 

Turkey?

After the shooting outside the US consulate a few weeks ago and the terrorist bombing last night that killed 15 people and wounded 150 more - the dean just announced that we may not go to Istanbul. Where we would go instead is not yet known. The official announcement is they are monitoring the situation, but it seems like they're just trying to figure out where else we could go. (I'm voting Morocco!) I was super excited about Turkey, but I can understand not wanting to let 600 American students out to wander with that going on..... I'll let you know updates when I know more! 

Italy

The first day that we docked in Naples I accidentally slept through my trip to Mount Vesuvius (which I was really really excited about and am so sad I didn't get to go!) because I had a sinus infection...
Second day, however, was much more exciting! We took a hydrofoil (hovercraft) to Capri, and while the ride there was nauseating (rough seas), Capri was worth it. I've never been anywhere so beautiful! (Although I can think of a few other islands to which I would like to travel that might challenge it!) We explored Anacapri, the town on top of the mountain, then went to Faro, which is a little "beach" area (no sand or even pebbles - just rock and then water) which had Caribbean-colored water. My camera, as it turns out, is waterproof but not wholly salt-proof. After taking some fun underwater pictures, the lens wouldn't open the next morning! Thankfully, running it under tap water seemed to fix it. We all agreed that it was a good investment! We took a wrong turn after trying to find the lighthouse, and ended up walking halfway around the island and finding an old medieval fort! After more swimming and tanning (I'm so freckly and tan right now!) we went to dinner. Italian food in Italy is nothing like Italian food in the US. I like it so much better! It isn't heavy at all and there's so much more nuance in the flavor.
The next day we went to an old villa that had pieces of Roman ruins in it. Of course it had wonderful overlooks of Capri and the artifacts were neat as well. I got to touch a 3200 year old sphinx statue! The shopping in Capri is just as good as the food and views! The euro is dangerous, though - everything costs in numbers what it reasonably should in dollars, so it never seems like you're spending as much money as you are! Later we went down to the beach by the harbor.
The last morning we went to the Blue Grotto, which was neat, but not as spectacular as it's purported to be. Back in Naples, I took the bus to Pompeii to see the ruins. I wanted to see Mount Vesuvius and the National Archeological Museum, but I didn't have time for either. Having taken Latin for 6 years, at least getting to see Pompeii was a highlight anyway! Not getting to see everything that I wanted to just means I'll have to come back for sure! Ischia and the Amalfi Coast look wonderful as well. I'd probably do Naples as a day trip, though because it is just as dirty as everyone says! Even though the trash strike was "over" there were still piles in the street and trash all over the ground. I hear there are nicer parts to the city, but I didn't see them!

I have lots of reading and two papers to do by tomorrow, and then on Tuesday we're in Turkey!

Belgium (and a Day in the Netherlands)

Fun Facts about Belgium:
1 in every 12 people works for an American company
The saxophone was invented by Mr. Sax
The duffle bag was invented in town called Duffle
A Belgian company just bought Budweiser the other morning (52 billion, I think), making it the largest beer company in the world
There are 3 US military cemeteries from WW1; the Belgians sometimes adopt graves to take care of
The government is perpetually close to collapsing because of the divide between the French-speaking south and Flemish-speaking north and economic/cultural issues related to that. Brussels, the capitol of the EU and NATO, is in the middle. The Prime Minister tried to resign a few days ago because he couldn't find a solution, but the king didn't allow it. If it were to divide, it would likely influence northern Italy, Catalonia (in Spain), and Scotland, all of which have similar problems.

I went to the Diamond Museum the first day. It had a few replicas (which I don't think were even real stones because they were supposedly the largest or only of its kind) but a lot of nice jewelry. I like looking at sparkly things. They didn't allow cameras, though.
Church of Our Lady that housed 4 (of the more famous) Reubens paintings. I noticed on the train and bus rides that even the small towns we passed by have very impressive churches!
I ate a wonderfully delicious Belgian waffle, complete with whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate, and it definitely topped any waffles we make in America! (Sorry, Waffle House. I still love you.) I didn't get a chance to have an Belgian fries (Belgium is actually where french fries were invented.) but they come smothered in mayonnaise and according to my friends, nothing spectacular. The chocolate, on the other hand, lives up to its reputation! I didn't buy any for myself; they gave us a few free pieces before the bike ride in the Ardennes. The last day I bought a box for the family, and I already told Mom this but it's a testament to how much I love them that it will go uneaten!
The bike ride was nice. At least, the countryside that we rode through was nice. I won't be able to show any pictures because we hardly stopped for breaks and were going much too fast to take any proper photos! I'm not horribly out of shape, but I've been getting sick for the past week or so (flu-ish bug, going around the ship) and I'm just not used to not being able to go at my own pace. Summary: It was painful. Plus, the other guy in the back and I got lost because the group turned and went over a hill (Bad outdoorsmanship! One of the first rules of any kind of outdoor sport is always wait for the group at crossroads/forks!) so we got to bike a lot extra while the group waited for us to eventually find them. I also fell over about five minutes before the end and have a big (6x2ish") bruise on my calf and my other knee is scraped up. It's probably a good thing that my parents never let me bike to school! I'm not very good at it. After the bike ride, we got lunch at a fancy pants restaurant (in all our biking clothes!) which was, of course, amazing. I can't praise Belgian food enough! The town, Oudenaarde, was famous for tapestries a few centuries ago, and still has them on display in the church.
The next day I went to Amsterdam by myself, meaning to meet up with my friends, but I'm dyslexic sometimes and I read Jeana's phone number wrong (multiple times) so I never saw them. I wandered around on my own for awhile (In the daytime! No worries, it was perfectly safe.) and then found a SAS group and hung out with them and went to the Anne Frank house. It was really neat being able to go into her room and see the place where her family actually hid. Since I couldn't find my friends, I didn't end up spending the night, so there wasn't time for the Van Gogh museum or Dappermarkt, which is a really big open air market that National Geographic ranked highly. Even though I wanted to see those places, Amsterdam isn't high on my list of places to go back to. It wasn't very clean and was very geared toward the "nightlife" (which was going on at all hours, including 2 in the afternoon!). It did have wonderful pancakes though! (Crepe-like, but much much thicker, with perfectly sweet-but-not-artificially-so syrup!)
The last day I mostly walked around and looked into expensive shops. Antwerp is one of the famous fashion cities, so there were lots of things to look at!

We have 5 whole days on board before Italy. I'm going to be so bored so send me fun emails! (I'll actually have a lot of work to do, but emails are nice regardless!)

In addition to friends and family....

I miss:

driving, Diet Coke (they only have Coca Cola Light here!), small furry animals (mainly Bella and Ashes), going to the gym without having to sign up for a time the night before, Anthropologie, fast internet and sites with pictures, phone calls, Naked Juice, control over inside temperature