Gyros & Lanterns 10/11/15

After the INCREDIBLY long journey of 2 whole days at sea, we arrived (super) early into the port of Pireaus (Athens), Greece! Usually my friends and I wake up to watch the ship dock, but we docked in this particular port extremely early (like 4am early) so we missed it because usually it’s at about 6am. Typically only a small group of people gets up early to watch but I just think there’s something so special about getting that first glimpse of a countries coastline, especially since I know my life is probably never going to be like this again.

That first morning I had my first field lab, which was for my Macroeconomics class. An interesting point of the day was that we got to go to the Bank of Greece, where an official discussed the economic crisis with us, especially since we had a special lecturer on the ship from Greece for a short period of time, and he came in to our class to discuss the crisis as well, so it was interesting to hear both and compare the different spin they put on some topics. After that one-day field trip for class, I woke up super early the next morning to catch my flight to Santorini!

It was so strange and cool to be familiar with and recognize everything in this port and airport, and even the island, even though it’s so far away, in a place I’ve only been briefly. After the short flight we arrived on the beautiful island, at the tiny, 5 gate, single baggage claim airport, we went to our beautiful, quaint hotel! It was right in the middle of Fira, the capital of Santorini, very close to all the shopping and food and nightlife. The hotel had a beautiful view off our balcony, with a luxurious pool area, and it truly felt like I was on vacation. My sister jokes all the time about how I have a vacation every week (“so when’s your next vacation?” “two days”) and while each country has been amazing, this trip to Greece truly felt like one.

While in each country, I am always trying to go to the historical sites, do all the touristy activities, go see all the big churches, and always on the go, but already having been to Greece, and seeing a good amount of those things, I felt okay with spending the time in this particular country to just chill out. Especially since the last time we went to Santorini during the senior year spring break trip (holla) we only got to explore the town of Fira for a few hours, and it was the off-season then so it was not very lively. Of course I still went to the Acropolis, but we’ll save that part for the end of the post.

So to start off the morning we shopped around for a bit, and then sat down for lunch (actually breakfast since it was like 10:30-11am but we’d been awake since 5am) at the most beautiful outdoor restaurant with tables and couch-booths all under trees and vines with fruit on them, giving a cozy and natural vibe. It is so far probably my favorite restaurant I’ve eaten at, atmosphere wise. And the food was amazing. All Greek food is amazing. After stuffing ourselves, we got ready at the hotel then went to one of the beaches for the afternoon.

The beaches in Santorini are not what you typically imagine beaches to be. Instead of fine-grained, or even coarse sand, it was pebbly and much darker, almost black in color. It was very cool, and looked very different, but could sometimes be a little painful to walk on. Not too bad, just uncomfortable. Also, you’d think that the pebbly “sand” would extend out into the water like most beaches we’re familiar with, but here it was almost like a rock shelf just extending out into the ocean. It was super cool at first but later proved much more difficult to traverse and deal with than just sand. It is covered in a lot of moss and algae so its super slippery, and on top of that it’s a rock so it’s not perfectly flat and has dips and divots and declines, but you never know where they are so you just find yourself falling all the time. Despite all this it was super fun. Because of all this it was super fun.

So later that day we found out about one of the tours that is given around the island, where you ride on one of the mini pirate ship boats as if we haven’t already had enough time on boats with a bunch of other people who also signed up for that tour so that’s what we did the following day! So the boat took us from Fira to the volcano crater island, and we got to hike to the top, and back down, then from there it took us to the hot springs near the volcano. So we all just jump off the boat and swim over to the spring area where it is shallow enough to stand. I’m also using the word “hot” springs lightly. Technically that is what it is but it definitely just felt more like a warm springs, where the sea water was chilly and the hot springs water was like lukewarm. It was still super cool and there was a ton of donkeys hanging around on the cliffs.

After that stop it took us to the small island across the caldera from the main island, and we went up the mountain to the small town by the best form of transportation ever…DONKEYS. It was really scary at first because the zig sagging path up the side of the mountain is fairly skinny and the wall to keep you from falling off is only so tall but once you got used to it, it was super cool. Oh and I ate the best gyro ever at the bottom of the island after exploring the town at the top.

The last stop of this boat trip was finally to the town of Oia at the northernmost part of the main island. After hiking up the mountain (because we’d already bought a donkey ride at the other place and that was pretty much the only alternative to walking up the hill), we walked around through the small streets, the whitewashed buildings and numerous shops selling all sorts of beautiful items. It also has perhaps the most beautiful view ever. For once it’s a place where you won’t want to be looking out at the water and nature, but rather the way all the houses, made of white painted stone, with pops of color here and there, nestled into the side of the ridge overlooking the caldera. Many people have seen the pictures but it’s especially intriguing to look at all the luxurious houses and villas and notice the amenities and interesting little things added (like a really cool pool this one place had that was half outside, and went into a little alcove). After shopping/exploring we sat down at a quaint little restaurant to watch the sunset, which is apparently a crazy popular thing to do which we didn’t quite know the extent of. Like people reserve special tables to have a perfect view. FYI to all of y’all who were on the senior year spring break Greece trip with me, you NEED to go back to Santorini and go to Oia, it is the most beautiful little town ever, personally I think much much prettier than Fira.

The following day was a sleep in day and the last day in Santorini, so we woke up and went to breakfast at the most amazing, delicious crepe/waffle/breakfast place (we actually also ate there the previous morning but I totally forgot to mention it then) and I had an amazing omelet, because I’d really wanted a good one ever since being on the ship, and shared a nutella banana crepe with my friend. Highly recommend, A+, 5 stars, two thumbs up. Then we went to Perissa Beach on another side of the island to go parasailing!!! My one friend and I ended up going first, and it was sooooo much fun. After finishing that we returned to the hotel to collect our stuff and catch our evening flight back to Athens!

It was so nice to be able to return to Santorini and truly explore the island, and get a feel for what it is actually like, as opposed to spending a few hours there. Fun little tidbit: after getting back on the ship, I was looking through all my old Greece pictures from the spring break trip and got to all the Santorini pictures, and found an inadvertent picture I randomly took of a restaurant which we actually ate at while we were there. I was like WOAH.

The following day was our last day in Greece, so my 2 friends and I were like “hey why not go to the Acropolis??” so we went to the Acropolis, and explored, took some pictures and all that touristy stuff, then went to the Plaka district, which is the main touristy shopping/market area. It was so much fun to see this place again because it had become so familiar to me on our other trip since our hotel was a very short walk from this place. The square looked exactly the same, all the shops and food places and Starbucks were all there, and I was very sad that my high school friends who I’d travelled with the first time weren’t there to reminisce with me. So the initial reason we went back to the Plaka district was because my friends had actually been there on the first day in Greece and found this amazing lantern shop, and wanted to go back and buy one.

So usually stores don’t really make too big of an impression on me, even if I find something cool in one, but this store was absolutely incredible. It was a family business and all the lanterns were original, and the one salesman, one of the sons, had actually attended college at Michigan State University. He was very real with the way he sells the lanterns, telling a story about the meaning behind the lanterns, and traditional values about them, and then goes on to describe how he can tell when each person finds “their” lantern. It sounds like a load of bull but it actually works and he was very real with the way he described it, saying, “of course I’m trying to make money but if I can tell you’re not into it, I’m not going to sell it to you, in fact I won’t sell it to you,” and he was right when showing some to us that he could tell we weren’t big fans of. Of course every lantern is beautiful, but to each person there are those few lanterns that have a wow factor. So my friends had gotten the whole spiel before but he gladly retold everything, this being my first time there. The way this store is set up is that there’s different related items on shelves and such, but there are dozens and dozens of lanterns hanging all over the place, from the ceiling and everywhere, all different colors and designs. There are 2 ways the lanterns look, when they’re lit up with light, but also when they’re not lit up. So you can request to see a specific lantern with the light and my friends had managed to pick their lanterns on their own, but I was still indecisive about which ones I’d liked the most. Seeing this, and after asking my preferences, the guy showed me a few different ones where it may not be what I’d initially choose for myself but he describes about the dynamics of the colored light produced and how the light that comes from each is different, and maybe the color you wanted initially, you might like better as an accent color. So he showed me a few different ones, could tell I wasn’t really into them, and eventually I asked to see a random one with light in it, and it was like everything he was initially saying made sense. The lantern was the most beautiful combination and design of orange and many blues. Seeing my face he says, “that’s the one” and of course I agreed. It is easily my favorite purchase thus far on the trip. Sorry for the super long description of a single shop I went to, but it is now my new favorite store ever.

Final Gyro Count: about 7

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Burano, Italy

Abandon your life on land, because now you belong to the sea

Captain Kostas

Turkey? Nah, Croatia. 10/03/2015

So while we were in Italy, we got the news one night that our initial next port of call, Istanbul, Turkey had been cancelled and that we were going to Dubrovnik, Croatia instead. After a few minutes of, “no way, you’re totally joking right?” we all checked our emails and sure enough there was an email detailing the change. Now most of us had heard of Croatia before some hadn’t but none of us knew what there was to do in Croatia, or really much about it at all. We spent a good 15 minutes debating over how to even pronounce Dubrovnik, then proceeding to find it on the map. That’s how much we knew. Everyone immediately began making new travel plans because we were given less than a week’s notice. There was so much excited chatter and a little bit of residual disappointment about Turkey about it when boarding the ship in Naples for the journey there.

We had 4 class days before arriving in Dubrovnik. The interesting thing was that it really only takes about a night or 2 to get there, so we sat in the middle of the Mediterranean motionless for about 2 days. The amazing thing about this whole change was that everything that was planned relating to Turkey was immediately changed to reflect the change of port. One of the nightly voyage seminars that were about Turkey was changed to Croatia. I thought the coolest change was that every single class on the ship changed the items on the syllabus relating to Turkey to be about Croatia, they switched the readings so they’d relate to Croatia, and they also taught little crash courses, before getting to the actual lecture, on the history of Croatia. Coming on to the ship, I knew that the professors taught in the context of the country we were going to next but it was amazing to see that everything was flipped in order to help us gain a better understanding of this incredible country.

This type of flexibility and real world application is one of my favorite things about this curriculum. I love how the teachers are able to switch their lessons on a dime, and how we’re constantly learning about historical events but also learning about the current events surrounding us right now. It truly helped me appreciate the background and roots of this place. Another thing that is always really helpful is a specific voyage seminar they usually do before arriving in port called “Sights, Sounds & Talk/Taste of *insert country name here*”. Three professors lead it and they discuss the culture of the country in terms of their music, art, architecture, food, language, or anything that is a very big identifying factor.

So once arriving in Croatia, a group of us went to explore the old city portion of Dubrovnik (to anybody who’s a fan of Game of Thrones, they filmed part of it here). After getting gelato “no it’s not gelato it’s Croatian ice cream” we walked around and got temporarily lost in the beautiful little side streets, that were essentially neighborhood streets. It’s very mountainous in Croatia, so there’s a lot of steps everywhere, so while a lot of the side streets were flat, there’s a lot that were steps leading up the hill. After this, we ventured up the walls and walked around the walls of the city. The views from atop them are incredible and made for some beautiful pictures. It’s really only like a mile or 2 around the entire city but we kept stopping to enjoy the view and take pictures so it took us about 2-3 hours. Following lunch we went to shop around and go into all the little trinket stores then returned to the ship for dinner. After dinner, we met up to stock up on snacks for the ship whaaaatt no we love ship food…. from this grocery store that was literally right next to our ship (outside of the fence to the port but still right next to our ship) before heading out to find an internet café to talk with family and plan for the week.

The next day half of my friends left for the city of Split about 4 hours north of Dubrovnik, and the rest of us got up really early to go swimming in the Adriatic at this little spot that a lot of people from SAS went to. Ok so actually the reason everyone goes there is to cliff jump. So we went and cliff jumped sorry KK it was really fun and I promise I’m ok and it was relatively safe, at least half the ship did it too which was soooo much fun and swam in the most gorgeous, clear water ever for the morning. It was so clear that you could see to the bottom, and see people’s entire bodies even if only their head and shoulders were out of the water. After this we stopped at the most amazing burger & gelato place. The burgers were so delicious but very different from what it’s like in America so that counts as trying something new right? nah but I did have plenty more toppings on it than normal so you should still be proud of me anyways. We returned to the ship for showers and down time before going to a local dinner, which was so good, and I actually tried everything, even if i didn’t think I’d like it.

The next day a few friends and I did the SAS sponsored day trip to Montenegro! The day started with a bus ride to the city of Kotor (with 2 short stops, one at border patrol/coffee shop right past the border, and the other being a photo stop). We had a short walking tour of Kotor and some free time, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was so interesting to notice the differences between Croatia and Montenegro because while there is a lot of shared history and culture, there are very obvious differences, one being the prominence of the Cyrillic alphabet in Montenegro. After leaving Kotor we took another bus ride to the city of Budva, which was much more of a suburban and grassy-with trees type place with a beach influence than Kotor was. We had lunch, which was this amazing 5-course meal in the cutest restaurant that was like half-inside, half-outside right on the marina. The food was delicious and the view was great, after some more free time and gelato we returned to the bus to come back to Dubrovnik. After returning we went to the Internet café again to talk to family (which was really nice and I got to FaceTime dad which was awesome hey daddyo).

Side note: We got a stamp when entering Montenegro! This event was especially exciting because nobody had to get stamped when we entered Italy????? 

So that leaves us with yesterday, which was one of my favorite days on the trip thus far. So to start the day, almost my entire group of friends and I all did the SAS field program of snorkeling and sea kayaking! We arrived at the place where it began, lathered up on sunscreen, got into pairs, and got in our kayaks to start! My partner was my friend named Jordan, and she’s super cool and outdoorsy, and even was a white-water rafting and kayaking guide during the summers when she was in high school. Kayaking the sea was definitely a bit different than kayaking in the West River or on the Fort Ritchie lake. Because of the current, there were so many small waves and it sometimes carried you forward. After kayaking past the old city, we arrived in this enclave type place where we stopped for a rest, and for swimming. The water was fairly active that day (I’m not going to say rough because it wasn’t bad, it’s just because of the way the cave was shaped that made I harder to go out into the water and come back in) and was so much fun to swim in, especially because of the beautiful color of the Adriatic Sea. After getting back into the kayaks, we paddled around the beautiful, nearby island of Lokrum. Once arriving back at the place where we started and getting out, the guide informed us we had kayaked 7.5 kilometers. It was so much fun and I definitely want to do it again in some point of my life. 

After getting back into the city, we stopped for lunch before going back to the cliff where everyone was cliff jumping to hang out of a bit, and also because some people wanted to go who hadn’t. It was like SAS central there, with lots of people from the ship, and we met up with some other friends there. After hanging there, some people decided they wanted to hike to the top of Mount Srdj right next to Dubrovnik, where there is a fort built during the Napoleonic Wars in the 1800s, and was also the sites of one of the fiercest battles of the Croatian War of Independence in the early 90s. Now that was a hike, but once getting to the top we were able to appreciate the beauty and history of such a spot, while watching the sunset over the city.

Croatia was an unexpected twist in the plans of this voyage, but one thing they always try to stress to us is the importance of flexibility and living in the moment. While it is nice to plan things sometimes, it’s also nice to be able to figure it out as you go, because the outcome was one of my favorite days thus far. While I’m still a bit disappointed we won’t be able to go to Istanbul, I’m so happy they chose Croatia as the replacement, because it was completely unexpected, and not somewhere I would’ve thought of to go, but turned out to be amazing.

The David & The Colosseum (Italia Pt. 2) 09/24/15

Aaaannnddd I’m back! So from Verona we had a 3-hour bus ride to Florence (we had a lot of these and they were perfect for naptime) and once we arrived and dropped our bags at the hotel we took a walk along the river towards the city center for dinner! It was a beautiful walk, and Florence is so charming. I know many of these cities, like Venice and Florence, are very big cities, but they are like Charleston in the way that they don’t have the very “big city” feel. Like there’s no skyscrapers, huge roads, and while there are A LOT of people, it’s mostly just during the very middle of the day when the tourists are out.

Once we finished our group dinner we were given the evening to explore and it was so nice to see the city at night, with less people, and all the buildings and statues lit up. The following morning was another early one, and we had a walking tour of Florence including the Galleria Del Accademia, which includes Michelangelo’s David. Seeing this work of art in person was absolutely incredible. Pictures of it cannot compare in any way, and do not do it as much justice as they should. The gallery also included a lot of Michelangelo’s other works, in various stages of completion, which was also really cool to see because you see the process of how such amazing statues are created. After the gallery, we saw the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower, which is where Galileo is buried, and kinda sorta maybe Michelangelo but his remains were brought there so he wasn’t originally buried there. But we saw their graves/shrines so that was pretty cool too. After a bit of free time and more gelato obviously we made our way back to the hotel to continue our journey to the beautiful capitol city of Italy, Roma!

After another nap time bus ride, we arrived and got to our hotel, and went straight to dinner. On the bus ride there, we were driving through the heart of Rome, passing everything from The Colosseum, and the Roman Forum, to the Spanish Steps. Once arriving, we ate at the cutest, most Rome-esque outdoor restaurant you can imagine, it was next to the restaurant building that had vines wrapping all over it, torch streetlights lining it, candles on the table and everything. It was so gorgeous, the food was amazing so much pasta, and all so much better than ship pasta, and during the meal, there was a band walking around to the different tables and playing traditional Italian music.

Another highlight of the evening included a ‘Rome by Night’ tour where our tour guide walked us around past a few of the large buildings that look very important but I couldn’t tell you what they were (she didn’t really mention some of them either, they just looked grand and important) and the 2 big sites we hit on this tour were La Fontana de Trevi and the Pantheon! They were both absolutely incredible. We got to the Trevi Fountain first and sadly, it has been under restoration for the past few years so it was waterless and there were walls up to block it, but they were clear so we could still see through. What was really cute was that they had a small section in the front where there was a large-ish bowl of water and a small section of the wall cut out so people could still make wishes (ok I know it’s actually to still make the money people throw in the fountain but it was still cute). Apparently, what you’re supposed to do is to use 2 coins, and wish over one shoulder for your return to Rome, and then over the other shoulder with your own wish. So obviously I wished for the Trevi Fountain to be up and working the next time I come.

Obnoxious American Tourist Moment: our friend recorded a group of us singing and dancing to “What Dreams Are Made Of” from the Lizzie McGuire Movie. Absolutely no shame at all because it was fun and other random people were recording us too, so maybe we were entertaining. Also my roommate and I definitely watched that movie once we got back to the hotel….

Per usual, the next day was jam packed in the morning and early afternoon with a visit to the Vatican City, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum! The Vatican was our first stop, and the nice thing about going with a guide is that you get to skip the lines because your guide essentially gets a fast pass for the group, and as long as we’re using the Disney analogy, if your tour guide gets you a fast pass, the Vatican is like Space Mountain. Very long lines. Once getting through and walking the museum portion, with amazing art and ceilings and statues, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. At one section in the museum there is a spot out of the way with pictures and magnified sections of the paintings and the ceiling because you’re not allowed to talk in the chapel, so our tour guide talked to us about it, and it was quite reminiscent to learning about it in AP World History. Every place I’ve gone on this trip makes me think of what I learned in that class. Shout out to Mr. Gannon. So we went into the chapel and it was actually smaller than I thought it was, and quite packed with people, but seeing the paintings in person was absolutely incredible. The colors were much more vibrant than I had expected, and the details were amazing. After that we went into St Peter’s Basilica, and saw where the Pope preaches, so that was pretty cool. The single most disappointing thing about that visit to the Vatican was the fact that Semester at Sea purposefully planned this trip so we’d be in the Vatican on a Wednesday, when the Pope comes out to greet the people and such, and the Pope was actually at my home (aka DC) and all my friends were going to see him....actually so ironic it’s sad.

Once finishing at the Vatican, we went to the Colosseum! A section of it was under restoration (cleaning mostly) just like pretty much everything in Italy, but that’s fine, it was still incredible to see, and was really cool to be able to go inside and walk around. Once getting a lot of pictures, and the mandatory group selfie, we left and had lunch before getting to see the Roman Forum in the afternoon, which was a actually a fairly quick tour but still very interesting to see it. Our guide had this little flip book where there was a picture of whatever monument/building today, and then a little clear plastic type sheet that had filled in what it looked like back in its hey-day.

We were then given most of the afternoon and evening for free time so we just walked around and had some dinner before going back to the hotel for another viewing of the Lizzie McGuire movie because we told other friends that we’d watched it and they wanted to watch it too. Who am I to say no to watching it again???

The next (and final day) we left Rome and traveled to the city of Pompeii. The day started off nice and sunny when we got off the bus, but not even 5 minutes into our tour it started raining, lightly at first, with a bit of thunder here and there, then when we were just walking along, the sky opened up and it poured. After a while, and after everyone was soaked, it stopped raining so we had continued and finished the entire tour. Most of us were even dry by the end of it because it got really sunny and hot after. The tour was really interesting and it was cool to see the ruins of something so destructive, and the fact that mostly everything, except the roofs, was completely in tact.

After lunch, which was soooo good (pizza & pasta obviously) we headed to Naples and got about an hour of free time to get more gelato before heading to the port to get back on the ship. It was almost weird getting back on because I was meeting back up with friends that I hadn’t traveled with and essentially we all hadn’t seen each other for about the same amount of days that we’d known each other to begin with. But it was nice to catch up on everyone’s adventures. Well Italy was definitely an adventure and only the first port??? I’ve definitely already been here for a lifetime and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the semester has in store!

Venezia & Verona (Italia Pt 1) 09/24/15

Well after the excitement of the first week on the ship, how can anything possibly get cooler??? Oh wait, we’re on this ship to go to different countries. Oh wait, we’re actually going to Italy?!?!? ← Thought process on Friday night sitting in our ship-wide pre-port meeting.  It was so hard to believe we were actually getting to this beautiful country the next day because we had all just gotten accustomed to life on board the World Odyssey, and then we were thrown into this last crazy week in beautiful, historical Italia. What I think is crazy is that, at this point, we have been in Italy for the same amount of time we’ve been on the ship (about 6 days each). Then what’s even crazier is we have 4 days of classes, and then we’ll be arriving in Turkey Croatia, where we’ll spend another 5 days. (Update: they cancelled the trip to Turkey because of the unrest & refugee issue, so they replaced it with Croatia! Slightly upset about not going to Turkey but it’s all ok)

This past week has been slightly reminiscent of my week and a half in the UK.  “Why?” you might ask, well it’s because we had a whirlwind week of moving from city to city. Except it was less stressful and easier because everything was planned for us and I didn’t have to carry my body bags huge luggage around to every place. So the field program I went on was called Gems of Italy, and it lasted the entire time we were in port, and the cities we visited were (in order) Venezia, Verona, Firenze, Roma, Pompeii, and Napoli! (Bonus points if you’re a smarty-pants who can identify what those cities are called in English without googling it)

So the first day began by waking up at 5:30am to watch the ship pull into the docks at Civitavecchia (Chee-veet-uh-veck-ee-uh) the port of Rome which was such a cool experience, and a double whammy because we got to watch the ship dock but also watch the sunrise. It’s so much fun to watch this type of thing, and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it.

Side note: I just thought I’d let everyone know that this trip has turned me into a huge morning person. I love waking up for breakfast (which is only served from 7:00-8:30) and getting some homework done before my first class at 10:50. I also don’t mind waking up really early to watch the ship dock or on field programs when we have long days ahead of us. Just thought some of y’all would find that interesting.

Another side note: I’ve definitely taken to wearing my chacos absolutely anywhere and with anything. Sundress? Chacos. Maxi skirt? Chacos. T-shirt & shorts? Definitely chacos.

So after watching the ship dock, we gathered as a field program group, disembarked the ship, and got on a coach bus to begin this insane week. We met our guide, Stefania who is probably the cutest, most eccentric, excited person ever. For those of you reading this who were on the Greece spring break trip, she reminds me very much of Nancy and also says andiamo (spell check??) a lot. Once on the bus we drove to the train terminal in Rome to take a 3-hour Eurostar super fast train to Venice! Once arriving, we took another bus to our hotel, which was located just outside of Venice in an area called Mestre and were given some free time to explore that area. Almost the entire group of 20 or so of us got on the public bus to take the short ride to the city center of Mestre. The hour or so we had there was rather uneventful except for the fact we got our first gelato of the trip and walked around a ton. After going back to the hotel for dinner, we were also given the evening as free time, so we had enough time to take the bus into Venice and explore for the evening. I’m so happy we were given this chance because it was incredibly beautiful at night. At our first view of the Grand Canal, all of us flipped out slightly, but not enough to make a scene. Everyone learns about it and knows Venice, but seeing it in person was so interesting because even though you know it’s a real place, it didn’t seem real to me until seeing it with my own eyes.

It was so much fun walking around and exploring that evening, taking in the culture and feeling of Italy. The next morning we got up to go back to Venice, but first we stopped on the Venetian island of Murano and watched a demonstration of blowing glass, with the different colors and shapes, which was incredible. After Murano, we stopped on the incredibly beautiful island of Burano. Do you remember how I said I was moving to London? Well I lied, I’m actually moving to this island because it was the cutest, and most beautiful place ever. Think Rainbow Row in Charleston mixed with the canals and feel of Venice. The houses were every color of the rainbow imaginable and so vibrant.

After the visit to this beautiful place, we went to Venice and after a bit of free time for lunch, we took a walking tour of San Marco’s square and Saint Mark’s Basilica. After the tour we were given some more afternoon free time and sat down in a small café, which had the best cake/scone things. Meeting back at San Marco’s square, we went to a group dinner, and after dinner finally went on a gondola ride! Did you really even go to Venice if you didn’t take a gondola ride??? It was so much fun, except slightly scary because it definitely feels like it’s going to tip over. Backstory: So we had known one of the guys in our group was amazing at singing because he used to do workshops for shows in New York (essentially a test run for producers to see if a show would be worth putting on Broadway) so he has a very good voice and jokingly told him to sing while we were all in our gondolas. Another guy passingly mentioned he could sing so we were like, “yes, sing!” So anyways, we were in our gondolas and the first guy starts singing and the second one joins in and we’re all freaking out because he was sooo good and none of us would have guessed it. It was so much fun and added a nice little touch to the ride. Except my boat’s gondola guy was being kind of rude about it and kept talking and singing and stuff when they were singing and my boat kept shushing him. That was beside the point though because it was still really fun.

The following day we woke up and took a bus ride to the city of Verona! We spent that morning in the city, were given a short walking tour, and then given free time to explore. We went to see the House of Juliet (Casa di Giulietta) from Romeo & Juliet and her famous balcony. So in the courtyard there’s a Juliet statue, and apparently the myth is that you’re supposed to touch her breast and make a wish, so it was quite comical seeing every single person walking up to the statue and taking a picture of them holding her breast. Literally every single person. Including kids. After signing the wall with all the letters to Juliet, a girl I became good friends with on the trip, Sara and I went to shop around. And of course to get more gelato. Then back to the bus to head towards the incredible city of Firenze! (aka Florence)

To be continued in next post……

MV World Odyssey (featuring my cabin)

been meaning to post this for 2 weeks now sry

Seasickness & Sunshine 09/19/15

Well the first week on the ship was nothing short of uneventful. The journey began with most people arriving at the Heathrow Hilton hotel to ride the bus to the port where the ship was. There was nothing but excited chatter, even though none of us knew each other. It was the same way all day, everyone saying hi to every single person who passed and tons of introductions including name, school, and hometown (if different from your school). I can guarantee everyone only actually remembered 10% of the names learned that day.

The ride was about 1.5 hours so as we got closer and closer to Southampton, the energy in the bus continued to rise until the port came into view. Luckily, I was on the first bus, rather close to the front, so I was maybe the 15th person in line, and didn’t have to wait very long to get through security. Once we got through, there were about 5 of us going to board the ship and we turned into 5-year-olds on Christmas day once stepping outside and seeing the ship for the first time, jumping up and down and squealing. And of course we had to take pictures with it (which I will hopefully be able to post after this) and the guy taking our picture asked “do y’all know each other from before?” and we just answered, “no,” as we cheesed with arms around each other. That’s just how it’s been for the past week on the ship, everyone being so open and welcoming and friendly, and it often feels like we’ve known these people for much longer than a little over a week.

So being the 15th person on the ship has its ultimate perks, a few being not having to wait in line, getting to choose my bed, and being among the first chunk of people to explore the ship, but it also has its downfalls. One of those being my luggage was in the far back of the luggage truck, so I boarded the ship at around 10am, and didn’t receive it at my room until about 6pm. By then I had lost all motivation to unpack, but it had to be done or else I wouldn’t have done it for a week. It also meant I had a lot of downtime because I had no responsibilities yet, so that meant time for socializing, which I enjoy very much.

That afternoon it was announced that the ship would be leaving a few hours early in order to avoid the worst of a storm. Key word being worst, not the entire thing. Which the entire ship experienced the next morning. When everyone woke up it was very rocky and roll-y, the waves were large and the wind was strong. Almost everyone was getting sick, and if they weren’t, then they were somewhere on the nausea spectrum, or sleeping because of meclizine (basically another brand of Dramamine). Sadly, I was the first option because I had not taken some medicine the night prior to prevent it and ended up getting this shot (on my butt) that they were giving to the people who felt it the worst. I believe it was just a form of seasickness medicine in an injection that made you really really sleepy but I wasn’t really concerned at the moment as long as it made me feel better. And I think it also cost some money sorry dad it was necessary. After sleeping for most of the day I felt infinitely better.

The good thing about this all though was that everyone was being incredibly supporting and caring for one another while all this was happening. We were all still total strangers to each other but it wasn’t uncommon for someone random to be comforting you during or after getting sick. It truly made us a closer community as a whole. And don’t even get me started about how amazing the crew was during this day. The same crew cleans our rooms, serves our food, keeps us safe, is generally amazing, and the nicest people you will meet in your life. It was mentioned that 90% of this crew are returning from previous voyages, which I think is absolutely incredible.

So the next day was the first day of our ‘A day’ classes, which was generally uneventful (especially in comparison to the previous day), and was just a continuation of everyone trying to meet everyone. My first 2 classes were pretty interesting, and is an easy way to meet people you hadn’t already met.

Because of the storm we were still not allowed to go out on the deck. The seas finally calmed down the next morning (our first day of ‘B day’ classes) and they opened up the decks and almost everyone was out there breathing in fresh air for the first time in more than 48 hours. It was so sunny and warm and beautiful outside, that I was so disappointed to have to go to a class, World Geography, after only 20 minutes of sunshine. But that class has ended up being my favorite so far because the professor is absolutely incredible. All of the professors on the ship are amazing of course, but this one has such a captivating way of lecturing, adding humor and connecting it so well with our age group.

After that class, I had discovered the way that I have now planned to do all my homework, which is outside and on a lounge chair. A typical day at sea is everyone on the deck tanning and maybe doing some homework. Later that evening, while eating dinner outside, we went through the Strait of Gibralter, which is the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and you can see Spain on one side, and Morocco on the other. Fun fact: the narrowest part of the strait is only about 11 miles wide. At least that’s what I was told by someone (I think a professor said it???) and don’t have wifi to check it so I apologize if that’s inaccurate.

So we were just sitting there, taking pictures, eating dinner, enjoying the view and what not then we notice a guy on the deck on his phone, and initially we wouldn’t give that a second though but then we’re like WAIT CELL SERVICE??? Then a lot of people whipped out their phones trying to get service from either country. I am not ashamed to admit I was one of those people, and I managed to get the Moroccan service, so gave my dad a quick call, which was really nice.

That night was also the first sunset we got to watch on the ship which was absolutely incredible, and one of the most beautiful sunsets ever. But that was also probably a bit influenced by being inside for about 50 hours. We’ve gotten to watch it every night since then so I apologize for the unnecessary amount of sunset pictures that will creep their way into my album on Facebook, especially because they kind have already have. Just sitting there you think “oh just one more picture,” or, “wow this is prettier than 5 minutes ago,” I need this picture instead. Then you go back through your pictures and realize you already have 20 pictures of very similar, if not the same sunset.

So after the first day, which was really rough, everything has been smooth sailing. (Sorry I couldn’t resist the cheesy/bad pun)

Afternoon Tea & Tower Bridge 09/12/15

Two of my new favorite things. After arriving in Cambridge on the train, Sophie picked me up; we somehow managed to shove both of my duffels in her small car.

~tangent~ Everyone in Europe has small cars and it’s weird to them that we drive anything larger than my Subaru Forester. ~end tangent~

So following a lovely evening in and my first home-cooked meal in a week, we had a sleep-in morning and went to see the beautiful city of Cambridge. The university is absolutely incredible, the buildings are huge and beautiful and remind me of castles. The school is so often visited by tourists that they charge admission to certain parts of the campus, which I think is pretty ridiculous, to be honest, because you don’t see Harvard charging people admission into the Harvard Yard. We finally found one gorgeous courtyard section of the campus and took some very instagrammable pictures.

Following a walk through the town, Sophie took me to afternoon tea with her mother and cousin at an adorable tearoom. Like proper afternoon tea. Finger sandwiches, scones, tea, cake, the whole shebang. It was delicious and I really wish it were a thing in America to have afternoon tea daily, as her cousin asked me if we have afternoon tea in America. This is exactly why I love what I’m doing right now. I think it’s so intriguing to talk with someone my age here, and learn about their culture, and while it’s quite similar, it still has its differences and quirks. It’s also funny seeing their reaction to when I tell them about our culture.

Getting on my last train of my UK journey that evening, thank god  I arrived in London Kings Cross station (and didn’t have time to see platform 9 ¾ sadly) I took the underground all the way out to my hotel for the next 2 nights at Heathrow airport. After a bit of confusion and walking back and forth I finally figured out how to get to the tube. Using the tube/underground was actually fairly easy because a) it in itself is already a great transportation system and, b) it is almost exactly like the DC metro (with smaller stations/lower ceilings).

The next day was my last day before boarding the ship and finally my day to tour London! It is an amazing city that I absolutely plan to return to at some point in my life. I toured around with a girl from Semester At Sea who was also staying at the hotel so it was nice to not have to be touristy by myself.

First, we went to Trafalgar Square. On the way we took super touristy pictures with a phone booth because you’re in London and you have to. Did you really even go to London if you didn’t get a picture with one??? Then we walked over to just see Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster before going to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards, which we arrived approximately 30 minutes early for, and there were already hundreds of people there. It was such a unique ceremony, and so cool to see all of the guards march and step in unison like it was a piece of cake. Following that we walked around Hyde Park, which is so beautiful and large, and like London’s version of Central Park, but I have to say I like Hyde more (although the last time I was in Central Park it was the dead of winter so maybe not a fair comparison). One interesting thing to note was that on the side of the park we were walking in, there was a peaceful demonstration protesting the UK’s anti stance on the immigrant crisis happening right now. Following strolling around a bit we stumbled upon a café next to the lake so we stopped there for lunch and had a beautiful view of the water.

The afternoon started off by going to see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge but we eventually decided to go up in the Tower Bridge and see the exhibit and that surprisingly ended up being one of my favorite moments of the day. Before going up, we had also arrived at the perfect time to see it go up and let a boat pass so that was pretty cool too. Once you’re up at the top you can go to either of the 2 walkways over it and they recently added glass panels to the center of both walkways so you can look down at the River Thames and traffic below. Of course I had to get a lot of pictures with that.

After a little bit of shopping at TopShop (which may or may not be my new favorite store) our last stop was the London Eye! The views were stunning but what made it even more beautiful was that the sun was beginning to set when we were up there so it made for some incredible pictures. It was a perfect way to end to the day.

So basically I’m moving to London.

Heavy Luggage & Lots of Friends 09/10/15

Hello from England! The past few days have been an incredibly busy whirlwind of different flats, houses and trains. To start off with, lugging both of my outrageously large and heavy duffels around to different trains is quite difficult, but it’s getting easier because I’ve got technique to it now. Also because nice people offer to help me when putting it on the luggage racks then proceed to ask me if there’s a body in there yes why do you think I left America.

Once arriving in Edinburgh, (after I found out that they lost one of my bags...) I went from tram to train to taxi eventually arriving at Katy’s flat in Dundee! It was a beautiful ride through the countryside into the city, then from the city to Dundee. It was so exhilarating to finally be here and I was probably more excited than I should’ve been about a simple train ride, but it’s fine I only got a few weird looks although that could also be attributed to the size of my bags. Thankfully I didn’t get lost like I’d anticipated, although I did apparently look a little clueless trying to find the train station as a nice woman pointed me towards it.

After a nice shower, meeting most of her flatmates and some rest time, Katy showed me around the University of Dundee and the city square. Later on that evening another girl from camp, Lauren, came to Dundee for the night, which was really exciting. It was so interesting to notice all the small cultural differences that there are. They were nothing too big, just something interesting to notice. The style is very different and very much like you see in the magazines or how you imagine “British chic” would look like with lots of ripped skinny jeans, chunky heeled boots, leather jackets and scarves, or skirts and tights, and lots of dark lipstick and I actually really like it. There were the obvious differences like the whole driving on the other side of the road thing (which is very disorienting by the way) but small things like how as humans we tend to walk and build escalators on the same side as we drive on. So everything here happens to the left. It’s like an unspoken courtesy rule.

One of the more difficult things to get used to was the quite strange slang words used and certain accents. It was most difficult to understand when two Scots were talking to one another, like when all of Katy’s flatmates and us were hanging out (or Northern Irish as Chrissy was quick to point out). I’ve never said, “What’d s/he say?” so many times in my life. Typically the response was repeating the word accompanied with a translation. It was actually quite informative and amusing as they caught on to when I was confused about something they said and automatically translated for me after they said it, they said they must educate me. They use some really weird words.

I actually felt quite at home on the campus of Dundee because it’s almost the same to any college campus in America in the way it feels. Of course it doesn’t feel like my own campus because it was about 20 degrees colder here and more “campus-y” than that of the College of Charleston but it felt quite like a small version of the University of Maryland. Thankfully on my second day in Dundee, my lost bag was delivered to Katy’s flat.

So after 2 days of clomping around Dundee, I went to visit another friend from Camp Louise, Hannah in Glasgow! After nearly missing my train, I arrived and we spent some time walking around, and visiting the Lighthouse where I got some beautiful panoramic views of the city. After sitting down for some drinks and meeting one of her friends, she took me to see the University of Glasgow, which was absolutely gorgeous and had buildings looked quite Harry Potter–ish. If you’re looking for a place to study abroad or do an exchange program or didn’t receive your Hogwarts letter and are still disappointed about it, I highly recommend this place. At this point I started to catch a head cold, most likely because of lack of sleep and jet lag and not drinking enough water and not taking my immune system supplement like I said I would.

The following day I traveled to Sheffield to see yet another camp friend, Amy! Now Amy will be the first one to tell you Sheffield is not the greatest place you’ll ever be in your life but it was still fun to visit. In the morning she took me to a tearoom that was the most quaint, adorable place I’ve ever eaten at. It looked just like any other house that was transformed into a restaurant except that it still looked just like someone actually lives there, all rooms still the exact size and coziness they looked like they were initially. I’m not the biggest tea fan (I got a mocha which they actually pronounce maw-cuh) but I tried Amy’s and it was actually pretty good. And they also had really good cake. Later she took me to the local mall called Meadowhall, and we shopped around for a while. I got Jess Glynne’s new album, which very recently came out in the UK, and I highly recommend you get it when it comes out in America. I am also absolutely in love with TopShop and I’m going to be so disappointed when I get back to America and they don’t have them anywhere, except when some places do and it’s ridiculously expensive.

And now that leaves today, where I am currently on the train on the way to visit my last camp friend Sophie! I only have about 3 days left before boarding the ship so left on the itinerary is Cambridge and London! It’s still a bit hard to grasp the fact that I’ll soon be on a ship for 100 days because I’ve been living a very nomadic life for the past 6 and I have no idea how people do this for their entire life although they probably pack much less than I do. Also at this point I’ve nearly lost my voice, so I sound very much like a frog, and the guy at Starbucks was trying really hard not to laugh at me. This ended up being a much lengthier post than I had intended, but I also intended to write one a few days ago but sleep was much more tempting considering it still feels like I’m waking up at 4am because of jet lag. Either way, if you read the entire post, or even just skimmed until now, thank you for taking that time! Next stop: Cambridge and London!

Departure Day 09/04/2015

11:15am: Leaving the house to head to the airport and naturally I forget something. What? you may ask. Well I forgot my money something not important to my entire trip at all.

1:30pm: Arrival at Dulles. Amount of luggage: 2 large duffels, 1 smaller carry on duffel, 1 backpack.

2:59pm: Sitting at Dulles airport on those slightly uncomfortable black seats at gate D20. Packing for this adventure was quite the struggle, took multiple days, dozens of and lots of patience, but we can discuss that conundrum later. Currently, the more pressing problem is that I’m still sitting on those slightly uncomfortable black seats at gate D20 in Dulles. Typically, I have very good luck when it comes to air travel, but alas, it wouldn’t be an adventure if something didn’t go wrong.

And we’ll be right back after these messages.....*jeopardy theme song*....

3:15-5:00pm: This was the part where my flight started to get delayed later and later and I started to get panicky therefore putting off finishing writing this until now.

9:30pm: So anyways, the initial problem was that my first flight was delayed and I was in danger of missing my international connection to Edinburgh.

Eventually I went to customer service and ended up there for over an hour and a half (refer to the third time on this post) only to end up on the same flights.

I was that girl walking briskly sprinting to her gate. At both airports.

10:35pm: And now I’m on my flight watching Monsters Inc, so it’s all good.

Welp, this was just an obligatory update because it’s officially the beginning of the most exciting 3.5 months of my life. I promise these will get more exciting and thought-provoking.

10 Things You’ll Need to Know About Semester at Sea

Whenever I first tell people I’m going on this trip, many immediate responses I’ve gotten is “like suite life of zack and cody???” And while there may be a few similarities, there are many differences. So without further ado, this is everything you might need to know about my trip with SAS....

1. The only people who will be on the ship will be with the SAS program, such as students, faculty, crew, etc.

2. We will be in each port for typically 3-5 days although it will vary

3. The ship leaves Southampton, England (where we are boarding the ship for the first time) on September 13th, and will arrive at its final destination, San Diego, CA on December 21st

4. The ports we will be going to are, in this order:

Civitavecchia, Italy

Naples, Italy

Istanbul, Turkey

Pireaus (Athens), Greece

Valencia, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Casablanca, Morocco

Dakar, Senegal

Salvador, Brazil

Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

~Panama Canal Transit~

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

5. My main form of communication while on the ship will be (drumroll please).........EMAIL!!!! We are given 2 free hours of wifi for the semester (yes the entire semester) so in order to give us a way to communicate with friends and family at home, there is a portal through which we’ll be able to use our email without using wifi. [email protected] is my email address if you wanna chat while I’m away. I will have wifi in port so once a week I might be able to talk through social media, facetime, etc

6. There are no weekends. In the normal sense of Saturday/Sunday that is. Every day we are on the ship, we have class, no matter what the calendar says which day of the week it is. My “weekends” will be when we are in the countries.

7. Yes I will have a roommate on the ship, no I do not know who she is yet

8. Each student will be taking 4 classes, which is 12 credits, unless their home school requires 15 credits in order to maintain the status of a full-time student

9. There will be about 500-600 students, from different universities across the country and even a bunch from across the world, that will be on this voyage.

10. I just wanted this list to end on an even number.

Hi everyone! First of all I’d like to thank you for coming to read my blog (even though I might have told/asked/begged/coerced you to) and let you know that it means a lot to me because it’s my first blog ever and I’m just hoping it’s somewhat articulate. Second of all this post is mostly just to explain what I’m doing here in the first place. If you know me, then you probably have an idea already, or you’ve seen the lovely picture attached and can make probably correct assumptions....I’m studying abroad!!!! The program I’m going on is called Semester at Sea. From that name and map above you can proabably gather what the gist of this trip is but I’m going to explain it anyways. I will be traveling the Atlantic via ship and my home for the 100 day journey will be the MV World Odyssey (pics to come). You’re probably thinking right now, “how are you going to go to school or learn then???” Well I will be taking classes on the ship and then whenever we are at port (boat talk for in the countries) then we don’t have classes! I could not be more excited, and I cannot wait to share my journey with you!