Semester At Sea

2010-06-10T21:26:00.001-07:00

Maureen and I went thrifting today. We found a Polaroid Spectra Instant Camera...released in 1986. Very cool. Problem though...Polaroid stopped producing film for it about 2 years ago. We bought a retro camera for $4 bucks I can't get film for!!!!

2010-06-10T12:20:00.001-07:00

Ive seen zero female moped drivers the last 22 years...today ive seen 3. Am i missing something?

2010-05-29T18:27:00.001-07:00

I just got to see roy holliday pitch the 20th perfect game in baseball history...unbelievable...

2010-05-29T18:26:00.001-07:00

I just got to see roy holliday pitch the 20th perfect game in baseball history...unbelievabe

2010-05-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

Maureen got accepted to the phlebotomy proogram at mdc! Waiting to hear about the LPN next! Power of positive thinking!

2010-05-19T17:24:00.001-07:00

I just saw a giant billboard on I95 of a huge picture of george w bush with the words "miss me yet?" why bush? Let

2010-04-13T21:24:00.001-07:00

It has been a perfect day cruising to the bahamas with a beautiful woman at my side. 2 years!!!

2010-04-13T19:19:00.001-07:00

Besides a lost iphone, it has been a perfect day cruising to the bahamas with a beautiful woman at my side. 2 years!!!

2010-04-01T12:01:00.001-07:00

Maureen just gave me the biggest news of my life...oh man now what happens?

2010-03-17T19:26:00.001-07:00

Today...everyone gets a shot at enjoying my everyday life! Happy st. Patricks day!

2010-03-10T17:48:00.001-08:00

Congratulations St. Thomas University Women's Basketball on a great season!

2010-03-09T18:58:00.001-08:00

My dad was right...research proposal paper on the effect of social media on baseball ticket sales opening my eyes...now if only i'd write it.

2009-12-19T17:58:00.001-08:00

I Walked across the stage and got an IOU for my graduation gift from STU, now on to the real celebration.

2009-12-18T19:02:00.001-08:00

I Quote my sister_bexs: "whats south beach?"

I need a good title

2008-09-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

So yea, I am definitely feeling, thinking, and acting different since I got back from SAS, what that mean's I have no idea, I'm learning more about it each day.

I do however, finally have a car, which should help with, I don't know, getting around town. Maybe working once or twice.

I rekindled my role as "The Don" this past Sunday at the Dolphins game, which they lost by the way, 20-14? I'm not actually sure what the score was. The Don is actually Don Shula, and what I actually do is walk around dressed up as him with a bobble/big head of him and take pictures and do whatever I would like. I attempt to get beers from the bar, annoy the cops, hit on young ladies, you know, the norm. I tried playing football, but dammit, it's really hard to do anything when your head does not move. If someone throws that ball at my chest I can't see crap.

I also applied for a job with Revolution. They are a local music venue here in Fort Lauderdale. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working in the A/V booth on ship, and I wanted to continue working in that capacity, so Revolution it is. I got an interview set up for the 20th at 5 pm, so wish me luck.

Back in the States

2008-08-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

So I have been back in the United States of America for a little over a week now, and all I can say is it has truly been a strange experience being back. Everything just seems different, without me being able to put a finger on what exactly it is. I feel more out of place here, in America, then in any of the other countries we visited, and I find that odd to say. I find myself thinking on past ports, and not really believing that I won't wake up tomorrow in a different country. I keep waiting for the next port, the next country, the next adventure. I don't want to bash on being home, because I am happy to be here, but I am already contemplating my next place to go. The travel bug is infected within me, and I only plan on feeding it. I've talked to a lot of kids that I traveled with this summer, and we all seem to be having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I don't miss my tiny room, but I do miss almost everything else about the ship, even the constant feeding of potatoes. I'm bummed I can't look out and watch the waves pass during class, now I actually have to listen to what my teachers have to say. I don't like not feeling the ocean rolling beneath my feet, and waking up and not seeing the ocean is disappointing. I definitely miss SAS and my summer, but it was only the beginning, and soon I'll set it out my next adventure. I have friends studying abroad in China and India...I think I might have to pay a visit...

Voyage Reflections

2008-08-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

I feel like each summer is better then the last. People are always saying, “This has been the best summer of my life.” So for me to say, this has been the best summer of my life just does not do my summer justice. I spent last summer living at my friend’s apartment, working a summer internship with the Miami-Dade Sports Commission, as well as working my normal job with the chocolate and coffee business. I went to a fencing tournament, help put together and run a golf tournament, research sporting events to bring to Miami, and all and all had a pretty good summer. I spent the fall and spring semesters going to classes, working, hanging out with friends, going to bars, dancing at clubs, being with my girlfriend, and all and all having a pretty good year. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I just can’t properly describe what a ride I went on this year. The anticipation of this trip, the unreal feeling of it finally arriving, the settling in of shipboard life, the rollercoaster that we call a port, and now the unwinding of a life changing voyage. That is the first time I’ve called this trip life changing, and I believe it to be true. I’ve spent the last couple days at sea, as we sail back to America, laughing at how strange my life will be when I get back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to get back, but everything from my major to my views on life have been looked at in a different light. I saw so much of the world this summer, and it changed me so much. It’s funny, my buddy wrote to me on facebook and all he wrote was, “I bet you miss playing video games.” You know what I wrote back to him? I said, “no dude…I miss hiking in Norway, walking along Nevsky Prospect in Russia, riding bikes in Denmark, drinking beers in Belgium, climbing mountains in Italy, seeing the pyramids in Egypt, going to the birthplace of Democracy in Greece, and cliff-diving in Croatia…besides, I brought my PSP.” (I didn’t actually cliff-dive, but I was all fired up and wrote it anyway) My buddy didn’t have much to say about that. I know what I am going back home to, my girlfriend, my family, school, a job, friends and its good. It’s what I want, but at the same time, I wonder about what else I could do. I plan on taking up hiking and camping more often. I want to buy a small 2-man tent as soon as possible and go on weekend trips. I want to see more of the world; I want to do more with the world. I want to climb mountains again, hike through valleys, see more ruins, and learn more about other cultures and ways of life.

It seems like such a long time ago when I was walking around in downtown Halifax, viewing the ship and getting ready to board. Finally getting on the ship and telling people how unreal the whole thing seemed, and waking up early before our first port, and seeing Norway for the first time. I was giddy with anticipation, and I still am giddy with what is still left out there. I want to go back to every single country and spend a whole month there. I missed out on sailing on fjords in Norway, going to Moscow in Russia, seeing the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, touring the EU in Belgium, going to Rome in Italy, going to Luxor and the valley of the kings in Egypt, sailing to a Greek Island in Greece, and traveling to Bosnia or Serbia in Croatia. I did so much during this trip, and there was so much more I could have done. I don’t regret a thing on this trip. I firmly believe I will be back and I will be able to spend more time and do more things. Heck, I practically have my honeymoon all mapped out at this point. My honeymoon, my 30th birthday present to myself, my 40th, my 50th, vacations, business trips, mid-life crisis, lottery winning spending. I want to come back to these countries; I want to go to other countries. This trip has me thinking a lot about my major and what I want to do with my life. I am a sports administration major, but I desperately want to travel and see the world. I hope I can stay involved with Semester at Sea, maybe get a job on another voyage, and maybe sail again as a student or lifelong learner. The program gets so many things right. It creates a true community onboard the ship, and gives you just a taste of what the world has to offer, leaving you salivating for more. It is going to be hard going back to sitting in a regular classroom, when I spent an entire summer with the world as my classroom. I am already wondering what I can do next summer. My friend Elena is spending next school year in India, and how I envy her fortune. I want to travel. I always knew I wanted to travel, and this past summer has given me such a taste of what is out there, I want more.

Some shipboard related things I want to write down. We had a meteorite shower the other night. The ship dimmed its lights on the bow, and we all were out there at 2am, laying on deck and watching shooting stars, it was an incredible thing to witness. The oohs and ahhs as we saw streaks flash across the sky.

We had a crew talent show that was awesome to watch. We have an amazing crew, and it was cool to see them relaxed and having fun showcasing their talent.

We had a play performed, A Doll’s House. It was well done and very enjoyable.

We also had a Work Study Appreciation Social. We got ice cream and the staff thanked us for working this summer, but really, we should be thanking them. They gave me $5,000, not the other way around.

We had our Ambassador’s Ball last night, and it was a ton of fun. I wore my Egyptian robe and turban, and it was a hit. We had a really nice sit down dinner and I sat with Erik, Danielle, Alli, Beth, and Sarah. We had a nice dinner of soup, salad, and an amazing steak dinner. Afterwards there was a dance, and I got to DJ it more or less in the AV booth. There was a play list of songs, and I added a few more. Overall it was a nice way to cap the voyage and relax and hang out with friends in a more formal setting.

One last thing, I’ve spent a few days since I last wrote this, and I want to continue rambling a bit on my thoughts and ideas. I want to travel. I got inspired to travel my freshmen year in college by my professor, but up until this voyage it was all talk. I don’t want to talk anymore, I want to travel and experience the world. I hope to come back to SAS and do a full semester voyage, maybe as a life long learner or even as staff. I don’t want to go back to sitting in a classroom and thinking about traveling, I want to go and do it. There is so much the world has to offer, and I don’t want to get comfortable in one place. I also need to educate myself more on my own country. I met people who understood our politics more than I, and I don’t want that to continue. It is strange referring to America as a country. I don’t think I can possibly explain this, but it was interesting that as we traveled, I felt distanced from my country. My country, that is what is strange. I never referred to it that way, I just felt like I was living in, I don’t even know. I gained a great sense of pride for the country I came from. I think that might be where I’m going with this. I met people from all over the world that were traveling all over the globe, but they all had such pride for their own country, and that is what I gained in these travels. A sense of pride to call myself an American. I know I lied and told that camel driver I was Australian in Egypt, but it was more as a joke than anything else. I am proud to be an American. I had such an amazing time on this voyage, and so much happened, I can’t even properly analyze it right now. I think revelations and reflections will come to me more and more as time goes on.

Triumph of the Will

2008-08-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

This is a film essay I wrote based off of Triumph of the Will, a German propaganda movie.

I chose to watch Triumph of the Will, the German propaganda movie directed by Leni Riefenstahl. It is known as the epitome of propaganda in film history. Riefenstahl used many film techniques that were revolutionary in the 1930s, that are taken for granted today. It is noted as one of the great films in history, and won a series of awards from countries all over. It was an interesting movie to watch from a modern day perspective, because while it seemed innocent enough during its time, it was simply showing the rise of Germany with Hitler at the helm, it seems like a film that toes the line between morality and just filming a documentary once it is viewed again today. It was originally released in 1935, and it really showed Germany’s rise to power, with Hitler as the forefront for this movement back into a great power. It was intense to watch all the German faithful, showing their support and loyalty for a man who went on to murder so many people. From the Labor Service rally to the Hitler Youth rally, you could see the entire German nation rising up at the words of Hitler and his staff, and the willingness to do whatever was asked. It was interesting to listen to the speeches from the heads of all the different departments, and one staff member, who I believe was in charge of the press, asked that the rest of the worlds press tell only the truth about Germany, and not the lies it was evidently telling. I wondered what the world’s media outlets were saying about Germany in 1935, and I wondered who exactly was telling the truth. Some of the men who spoke were people I have even read about, men such as including Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Fritz Todt, Robert Ley, and Julius Streicher. They were all important men for the Nazi party, and I’ve read about a few of them, so it was interesting to listen to their speech and see a true picture of them for the first time. Hitler even spoke to the German youth about hardening themselves and being prepared to make sacrifices, which I viewed from a military sense. I saw all those German youth, and I just wondered how many of them eventually died over the course of the war. It was interesting to note how many times peace was mentioned throughout the film, but history shows us that the words obviously did not ring true. The scene where Hitler marches through all the SA and SS troops is particularly enlightening, as it just shows how many people were willing to do whatever this man asked. I have grown up with history books describing Hitler as a monster, and a madman, and while he was, this film shows him with the support of an entire nation, attempting to unify the nation and raise it from the remnants of what it was after WWI. The closing words of the film resonate loudly and describe exactly what Germany was like during that time. Hitler is Germany, and Germany is Hitler. It’s incredible to view the film, and then realize that in about ten years Germany would lose a world war it started, Hitler would kill millions of people, and ultimately succumb to his own weapon, and the words of peace he spoke of, would in fact lead to millions of deaths from all nations all over the world.

After watching the film, and then visiting Norway and Russia, it is easily evident to see the long lasting affect the war had on the world, and in these two nations in particularly. The Norwegian people proudly proclaim, and I heard it multiple times ranging from the US Consulate to guides giving tours, that Norway attempted to resist the German invasion. All the tours I went on eventually brought up WWII and Germany. The Theta Museum, which I did not get to visit, showed the resistance that was kept up even after Germany occupied the country. I was on a guided tour of the city, and our guide was showing us the great hall near Rosenkrantz tower that a king had built during one period or another. He was saying how it was a great hall, that the people are proud of, and is still used in one capacity or another to this day. He then showed a building directly across from it, and mentioned how the Germans built it. He did not mention what the building was used for, but simply mentioned that they had let weeds overgrow it, and they were quite ashamed of it. He then took us behind the famous buildings on Bryggen, and again mentioned Germany. He pointed out that the buildings were used by the Germans during the occupation, and that the Norwegians in the city would try to disrupt and bother the German occupation however, and whenever they could. Norway in general, and Bergen in particular, were under German occupation for four years, and it was evident from the tour guides and from talking to the people, that it was not the best four years of the cities life, and they had still not gotten over their German resentment. While it seemed like Germans were more than welcome in the city, the people would not forget what their ancestors did to them over 50 years ago. So it was interesting to note, the movie, which showed all this German pride and rise to power, to what it led to, the resentment of an entire nation.

I spent my visit in Russia not particularly seeing any of the same German resentment I noticed more of in Norway. I realized this was because while German invaded Russia, they never truly occupied the country. I saw a lot of capitalist movement in Russia, but nothing I could make note worthy between the movie and Russia. I knew the city was under siege during the world war, but I could not entirely wrap my head around the impact. That is, until my last day in Russia. I went on the Siege of Leningrad trip. We visited the memorial that was erected in honor of the more than one million people who died in Leningrad defending the city when German tried to occupy the city. The very same city I had spent five days enjoying had seen more than one million people die directly because of Germany. The country who less than 7 years before had talked about peace and a great Germany, had caused the deaths of one million people in Leningrad alone, not even including all over the rest of Europe and in the Pacific. I was told, and it is an unbelieving number, that 27 million Russians died during the course of the war. It was a very moving, sobering, and eye opening experience. I wondered how many of those German youths I saw in the film, had fought and died here in Leningrad, trying to occupy the city, but never being successful.

It was incredible to watch this German propaganda film, and then going out into two different countries and seeing what all that German propaganda led to. It lead to death, destruction, and a whole lot of resentment. To raise a great Germany, Hitler destroyed lives, countries, and changed the world. And in the end, there was no great Germany that they preached and spoke about during the film. For a few years they terrorized the world, and not just them, it involved Germany and her allies. It gave me new appreciation for just what America and the rest of the world did to stop this German war machine. From a propaganda film that spoke of unity and power, to the death and destruction of an entire world. That is what I saw when I viewed the film. I correlated the film to what eventually happened. I wondered how many of those Labor Service members, those German youth kids, the SS and the SA, how many of them, so proud and strong, died. All led by this man Hitler, who they so revered, with an almost religious fanaticism. It is easy to watch the film now and see where it was leading, to war. I understand that at the time Germany was starved for a great leader and wanted something to be proud of, and I understand Hitler and the Third Reich gave that to them, but even with that understanding, it was an intense and wrenching film to watch, and then go out into countries that were directly affected by Germany and what this film showed.

Comparison of Scandinavian people to Russian people

2008-08-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is another report I wrote for my global studies class. It is a comparison of the public two Scandinavian countries we went to, Norway and Denmark, compared to public life in Russia.

Public life in Scandinavian countries, like Norway and Denmark, seemed remarkably different compared to public life in Russia. But only on the surface, because as you look closer to organization of public life in these two different regions, such as this paper will argue, there is some significant differences, and some remarkably similarities, and they all are based on the organization and work of their respective governments.

Both of the respective Scandinavian countries enjoy constitutional monarchies, with a prime minister overseeing the government. But it is what the governments do for their people that really define the public life. Both Norway and Denmark enjoy the benefits of beings a welfare state. That is, while they get taxed quite heavily, up to almost 60%[1], all citizens enjoy benefits from the state that include, but are not limited to, free or universal health care, free public education, unemployment benefits, pension benefits, free child-care, paid paternity leave, etc. Beyond knowing the facts about Norway and Denmark’s benefits to public life, it became even clearer the prosperity of these separate countries just by walking around in the country. In both of these Scandinavian countries, I could witness these benefits in the everyday life and actions of the citizens. People looked well, dressed nice, and were some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They loved to talk about their government, politics, or just help out a stranger who seemed lost. What I sensed most about the people was that they trusted their government and its actions. People were out and about, shopping, eating, drinking, and showing all the signs of a highly developed, highly prosperous country. The cost of living in both these countries is high, but people enjoy such high salaries and wages that it baffles me when I compare it to America.

My time spent observing the citizens of Russia were quite the contrast to the people of the Scandinavian countries. The people were aloof, distant, and wanted nothing to do with tourists in general, and it seemed Americans specifically. That is not to say all Russian’s acted like this, as some were more than friendly, but in a general observation of the people, it seemed that way. With Russia being a federation, with a president and prime minister representing their democracy, I was expecting to see a lot of the capitalism I had heard so much about since the USSR fell and Russia became a democratic country. And I did see the capitalism in the country, as I actually had to pay 100 rubles to sing karaoke one night. What was also evident was the poverty, even though only 14% of Russians live below the poverty line.[2] It just seemed like a dirtier, poorer, and more crime-ridden country then what we visited in Norway and Denmark. Economically however, that is not the case, as Russia has become one of the richest countries in Europe, with oil, natural gas, metals, and timber accounting for about 80% of Russians exports.[3] Because of this wealth, Russia enjoys many of the same benefits for their citizens as Norway and Denmark do, such as free education and healthcare. Russia has a literacy rate of 99.4%.[4] The problem that arises in Russia, and why its public life is so different from the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Denmark, is because of its past. The people have a hard time trusting a government that for the longest time spent all its time and money building bombs, sending men to space, and buffing up their army. The people of Russia fell into such poverty during the cold war, which a lot of the older citizens are still adjusting to this new post-soviet life. I believe it was Allen Lynch that mentioned during a global studies class that for the youth of Russia, it is a great time to be a citizen of Russia, because there is plenty of opportunity ahead, but for the older citizens, times are very rough, and it shows because of the mortality rate haven risen by 60% since 1991, with most of the causes being preventable such as alcohol poisoning, stress, smoking, traffic accidents, violent crimes.[5] It is a startling contrast to Norway and Denmark, where all citizens alike are enjoying good times economically and socially. Even with Russia’s economic wealth, the citizens still face many hardships, and it might help to explain why even with the tax rate a low 13%, many Russian’s do not pay their taxes.

I think the main similarity between Scandinavian countries and Russia’s public life is that they enjoy many benefits given to them by the state, such as free education and health-care, but it is the attitude of the people that marks the main difference. They have similar public life on paper, but when one gets on the streets, and sees the people for themselves, the real picture begins to come into focus. The citizens of Denmark and Norway have, for a long time, enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle, and it shows with the character and happiness of the people, while the people of Russia have seen a lot of hardship and poverty. While both governments try to help the people, it is evident as to which governments are doing it better. The Scandinavian governments are much more successful in their quest to help the citizens of their country. That is not to say that Russia is failing, as their education system is highly developed, and the competitiveness to get into higher education is great.[6]

All and all, I believe that while the prosperity of the citizens in Scandinavian countries is more evident within the public life than in Russia. Norway, Denmark, and Russia enjoy a similar approach to help their citizens, as their respective governments employ many benefits that all citizens can enjoy, including free education, and free health-care. Like I mentioned earlier, it is when one ventures out into the streets of these respective countries, and mingles with the people, and sees the public life for themselves, that you can really see the true similarities and differences of the different countries.

[1] Denmark wins highest tax competition. http://jp.dk/uknews/business/article1292920.ece

[2] "Russia’s economy under Vladimir Putin: achievements and failures". http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080301/100381963.html

[3] The World Factbook. "CIA". Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html

[4] The World Factbook. "CIA". Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html

[5] "Heart disease kills 1.3 million annually in Russia — chief cardiologist". http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070214/60721668.html

[6] Smolentseva, Anna. "Bridging the Gap Between Higher and Secondary Education in Russia". http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News19/text13.html

Impressions

2008-08-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I just wrote this for a field report paper due for my global studies class. I thought I would post it here, since it has a lot to do with my trip.

I had an interesting time coming up with my topic for the field report, and I was struck by it in a rather usual way. I was sitting on top of Srd, the hill overlooking the Old City in Dubrovnik. I had climbed up to the top of the mountain and was touring a small museum in honor of the cities defenders that they have set up at Fort Imperial, an old fort built during Napoleon’s time, but used rather extensively during the defense of Dubrovnik in 1991. I was walking around outside the fort, finding foxholes and trenches built by the defenders, and I even found shell casings and the remains of mortar rounds still scattered around the hill. I was in shock over seeing just how relatively close this war was to our present time. I mean, AK-47 shell casings were still littering the hill. It caused me to stop and seriously consider on this trip cities we have visited that had to defend their city, and how some of them were successful. I thought back on Bergen, Norway, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, and realized they all were attacked by a superior force, and in the case of Bergen, they were able to successfully defend their city. I decided right there, at the top of the hill, staring into trenches less than 20 years old, where people died defending their city, and I thought it would be awesome to write this paper on the defense of the three cities we have visited, Bergen, St. Petersburg, and Dubrovnik.

Bergen, Norway was our first port of call, and it is interesting to think back on the city and look at it in a different light than how I looked at it almost two months ago. The city was so alive and vibrant; it was odd to think of it as being occupied during a war time. Obviously this is rather a naïve viewpoint, as Norway actually played quite a role during WWII, and even though the entire country came under German occupation, they did quite a lot to continue to fight the Germans. Bergen itself came under German occupation on the first day of the German invasion, April 9^th, 1940. The Norwegian army was still trying to fully mobilize when Germany invaded, and even though the war lasted 63 days, they did not have much of a chance. The Norwegian army put up resistance wherever they could, and the allies attempted to help, but it was too little to late. While Norway could not achieve a military victory, the citizens resisted the German occupation all the way through the end of the war. The Theta Museum in Bergen was a tiny room where the resistance movement in Bergen was held. They kept in contact with the true Norwegian government that had relocated to England, and they conducted sabotage operations to harass and hamper the German occupation. Church members refused to preach the Nazi word and resigned their posts, taking their congregation with them. School teachers quit when they were told to join the Nazi party and urge their students to join the Hitler Youth Group. The Norwegian sporting club refused to join and participate in the new Nazi sporting club. The Norwegians harassed and bothered the Germans so much, that 17 divisions of German troops had to be kept stationed in Norway. That is an enormous amount of resources wasted occupying a country that was neutral to start with. The reason they wanted control of Norway was for their harbors and to ensure that iron ore from Sweden made its way to Germany. So I found it quite interesting that while the people of Bergen did not keep the German troops out of its city, they did everything they could to ensure that the Germans would not be happy there. I remember hearing the proud voice of our tour guide when he talked a little bit about the resistance movement. The city is proud of the part they played. I sensed it from the tour guide, and especially when it came up in conversations with the local people. I spoke to a man one night, and coincidently the occupation happened to come up in conversation. He laughed about it, saying the Germans didn’t like being here, because their rooms always smelled of fish. The Norwegians did their part. They did not militarily help win the war, though they did give the allies 1,000 merchant ships for the effort, but they harassed the Germans so much that 17 divisions or 400,000 men had to be kept stationed in Norway to ensure the German interests. I find this fascinating, and I constantly wonder what 400,000 more Germans on the beaches of Normandy would have meant, or 400,000 more Germans throughout France when the allies marched inland would have meant. Or, better yet, what 400,000 more men attacking Leningrad, or St. Petersburg would have meant, which leads me into my next topic.

St. Petersburg is a city that truly is one of the defining examples of defending a city, and the people who lived and died defending her deserve to be recognized as the heroes they are. I didn’t know a whole lot about the siege of Leningrad until I spent five days in the city. For almost 900 days the city was virtually cut off from the outside world, surrounded by German forces. I went to the Defense of Leningrad memorial on an SAS tour, and it was probably one of the most humbling and sobering experiences of my life. I learned so much and had such an appreciation for what they fought and died for. We were told that nearly one million citizens banded together before the siege to help fortify the cities defenses. The built timber barricades, wire entanglements, anti-tank ditches, earth-and-timber emplacements, concrete weapon emplacements, and miles upon miles of open trenches. All in the name of defending the city. Nearly one million Russian civilian and soldiers died defending the city. Civilians and soldiers worked side by side fortifying and defending the city. I was astonished to learn that even during the siege, actors insisted on performing plays to keep morale high, and teachers kept classes in session to keep the children’s mind off things going on outside. There was no power left in the city, so during the winter months even being inside was freezing, but the actors insisted on wearing their proper costume attire, even though they would be freezing cold during their performances. They did it for the soldiers who would come back from the front lines to rest; they wanted to give them something to take their minds off the fighting they would be going back to. Our tour guide said that the cold, harsh, winter months are said to have been the reason the Germans lost. He said that is what he reads in western history books. He was quite adamant in letting us know how it really was. It was the Russians cut off from supplies, forced to ration food, and dieing from starvation, all while the Germans had the luxury of a constant supply route, fresh reinforcements, warm clothing and working equipment. He said the winter did not hinder the Germans as it has been led to believe. It was the Russians who had to deal with the winter more harshly than the Germans. They had to find food, stay warm, and hope that the defense would hold and help would come. They did have a little help coming from Lake Ladoga. They would receive aid from watercraft during the warmer months and trucks would drive over the ice during the winter. During our tour we actually got to see what a daily ration of food looked like. It was nothing, practically bread crumbs, and yet people had to survive off what amounted to a dinner roll. I also learned that they would pack sawdust into the flour to help make the pieces appear bigger, but nutrition wise, this amounted to nothing. I got such a new found appreciation for Russia in general and St. Petersburg in particular. My view on Russia was based off them being our enemy during the Cold War, but when I stood at this memorial, none of that mattered to me. All I saw was people defending this homeland. They died defending what mattered most to them, their right to live. There is so many documented cases in history in defenders rise up to protect their homeland and their city. This is one such case, and such a powerful one at that. A million dead, thousands more homeless or jobless. It was a trying time, but after seeing the city, and seeing the memorial, I could see another side of Russia, one I couldn’t fully grasp until I fully understood what the city and the country had gone through.

Dubrovnik, Croatia, is where I gained my inspiration for this paper, and it is another city where a dawning of understanding came over after spending time learning about their history. I learned more about the city during a tour of the city walls. I learned it was attacked October 1^st, 1991 by the Yugoslavian army (JNA) during the Croatian war of independence. The city itself had little to no defenses. I later learned that beyond a small contingent of men stationed at the Imperial Fort on the top of Mount Srdj, there was no real preparation for defending the city. They were outgunned and outmanned by the JNA forces, yet all things aside, they still managed to defend their city. They received a small amount for reinforcements to help defend the city, but largely they were on their own. This battle is not nearly on the same scale as the siege of Leningrad, but it is important all the same. I read somewhere that Napoleon refused to bomb the old city of Dubrovnik, and instead erected the Imperial Fort to keep an eye on the people, and Hitler refused to bomb the city. None of this stopped the JNA from bombing the city, and it did so with no abandon for who was killed. When I was up on the fort, I was looking at a small museum they have in honor of those who defended the city. They had descriptions of the battle, and it was fascinating to read about how the JNA tried to overtake the fort, but the soldiers kept pushing them back and holding the hill. They knew if they lost the hill, the city would go quickly after that. Almost 70% of the buildings in the old town were hit by projectiles during the siege. It was surreal to walk around the fort, and even at the top, looking down on the city that less than 20 years ago faced utter destruction by a superior force. I also found it surreal to walk around outside the fort and find foxholes and trenches used during the defense of the city. It was one thing to look at photos and videos, another thing to literally walk around the trenches and still find shell casings from weapons fired and mortar rounds. I thought it was amazing to see these lines of defense that were used to defend the north side of the city. If the hill fell, the city would stand no chance, and even though they were outmanned and outgunned, they fought ferociously and heroically to keep the hill from falling into enemy hands. I sat at the top of the hill, and enjoyed an amazing view of a gorgeous city, and I had to say my thanks for the men who fought and died 17 years ago defending the city.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time learning about the military history of some of the cities we have visited. Bergen was attacked and occupied by Germany in WWII, but they resisted in their own way and helped the war effort, St. Petersburg was sieged by Germany for 900 days, but refused to give in and they defended their city, losing a million lives to defend their city, and Dubrovnik faced destruction during their war for independence, but successfully were able to defend their city and the hundreds of years of history their city had. History has shown time and time again people rising up to defend and protect their homeland and their cities, and these are just three more examples of it. Walking around and truly experiencing the history of the city was a great experience. It was interesting to understand the history these cities had gone through, and wonder what it would be like if the cities did not successfully defend the city. What if Norway allowed it successful to be occupied, and 400,000 more German troops were somewhere else fighting, what if St. Petersburg had fallen, and what if Dubrovnik had been destroyed by JNA forces. It was interesting to think about what could have happened, but I have to admit, after experiencing the cities for what they are, I’m glad they were able to defend their cities, as there was nothing wrong with any of the cities we had gone to. It was great to walk around and learn about the defense the city went through in order for it to survive and be the city I got to experience in my travels.

Dubrovnik and Athens pictures

2008-08-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

On top of the Old City walls

On top of Mount Srd overlooking the Old City of Dubrovnik

Sun setting on the MV Explorer in Dubrovnik

Attempting to get to the top of Mount Srd

Cheesy pose

Just a couple BAMF's hanging around Athens

Such a hard life...

I wasn't informed of the pose

Oh Yea

Say hello to the Acropolis

A few pictures from Greece...

2008-08-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

The Olympic Stadium
The Acropolis

The Pantheon

Top of the Acropolis

ARGH! SPARTA!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

2008-08-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I didn’t have any real expectations or preconceived notions relating to Croatia. I expected it to just be everyone’s lazy, beach days, and in some respects it was. It was a whole lot more for me, and I really enjoyed my time spent there. It was a pleasant surprise, and one I won’t soon forget. Dubrovnik is a relatively small city, with only something like 50,000 residents, but it gets a million tourists a year from cruise ships alone, so it goes to show how popular the place is. I was not aware of what the landscape would look like, so you could only imagine my happy surprise when I realized it was a beautiful town of rolling hills set against large mountains in the distance, with most of the town sitting at the foot of the hills next to the water. Croatia has as almost as many islands as Greece, which is saying something, and there were quite a few of these islands surrounding us. The moment I walked outside and saw these hills I said to myself, “I’m climbing them.” I also wanted to swim to one of the surrounding islands, but we can only do so much. Our ship was actually “docked” outside the port. We dropped anchor outside the harbor, and we had to take tender boats back and forth from the dock to the ship. It took about 15 minutes, and was not a big deal at all. They ran every half hour, and the only downside of the whole thing was they stopped running at 2am. So if you missed it, you were stuck outside till 7am, and quite a few people missed it. I was fascinated to learn about the old city of Dubrovnik, as it played a pretty big part in the Croatian war for independence. October 1, 1991, the city was sieged and put under attack from the remains of the Yugoslavian army. Almost 70% of the buildings in the old town had some type of damage done to it. We learned some of this as my SAS tour of the city took us to a rather beautiful spot to take a picture of the old city from a high vantage point. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy and murky, and the pictures didn’t turn out as nice as they could have. We finally made our way to the old city and I realized what all the fuss was about this city. The entire part of the old city is ringed with an immense wall. It’s a walled city. I have been blessed enough to see many castles and fortresses during this trip, but seeing this walled city was awesome. I believe it was built sometime during the 1300 or 1400 hundreds. Napoleon made it all the way to Dubrovnik during his mad quest for world domination. Anyway, it was awesome to see these immense walls surrounding the city. Not the entire city mind you, just the old part, hence, old city of Dubrovnik. The buildings themselves were all closely packed together, and no cars allowed in of course. Any damage from the 3,000 shells bombed on the city could not be seen, as they cleaned this place up rather quickly. Part of the tour was seeing the city from the city walls, and the hour and a half it took us to walk the city walls was amazing. I really got to appreciate the scope and size of the city. The walls themselves were, well, walls, but impressive nonetheless. I was really stoked to see that all the roofs of the buildings were all, well the best way I can describe it is Spanish tiles, the ones that became all the rage in Florida 15 or so years ago? I don’t know, go check out the pictures. Anyway it was cool to walk the walls, and seeing the city from a bird’s eye point of view. At one point I passed a bunch of SASers on the rocks below enjoying the water below. They were cliff-diving and just having a good time. I heard a few kids got hurt doing it, but that’s half the fun. After walking the walls and more or less being drenched in sweat, we walked along the streets and got to know ourselves. I walked in and out of churches, shops, stopped for some pizza, and just enjoyed the history that was once more surrounding me. I need to take another look, but I don’t think Miami has any good history like this, and I’m rather bummed about that. Guess I’ll just have to go make my own history or something. The town was amazing; it’s all I can truly say. I had such a good time. I thought about staying in town longer and making my way back to the ship on my own, but I was literally covered head to toe in sweat, so I was looking forward to a shower. That night we went out to celebrate my friend Elena’s birthday. We actually took a half hour walk into the old city, and made our way to an Irish pub and hung out and had a good time. We didn’t stay out late; as we wanted to make sure we got back to the ship in time.

The second day is in my top five best days of the trip. I had every intention of climbing the rather large hill I stared at all day yesterday. I could see there was some kind of stone building at the top, as well as a rather large cross overlooking the city. I read that a funicular use to take people to the top of the hill, but that was one of the first things to get destroyed during the war, and the remains of it are still there. So someone had mentioned something to me that had almost curtailed my whole hiking experience. They told me to watch out for landmines. Landmines. Can you believe it? The country still has something like 250,000 landmines still active. That’s enough to make anyone think twice about a nice hike. I did a little research online, and nobody mentioned mines in the area, so I figured it was safe enough. I found out about a path that leads up the mountain, and that was my goal for the afternoon. It took me about 30 minutes to get to the path. The town, being situated more or less on the hill, has stone staircases leading up higher and higher, and man it was a workout and a half just to get to the path. I finally found it, and it seemed safe enough, so I headed up. It was a fun zig zagging path that progressively took me higher and higher. I think the hill suffered a fire or something recently, as I went from walking amongst nice shade to being blitzed by the sun with no shade in sight. I also thing the path doubles as some sort of pilgrimage, since there was crossed at each of the turns, numbered with roman numerals. I didn’t keep track, but I think they counted as the Stations of the Cross, and obviously the huge cross at the top of the hill was the climax of the show. I stopped a few times to enjoy the amazing view of the city below me, plus I was a bit winded. It took me about an hour and half to finally make my way up there, and I was surprised by what I found. Turns out the stone building I saw below was an old fort used in the defense of the city, and there was a small museum dedicated to the defenders of the city. I walked amongst the history of this recent war, and was humbled to be there. This war happened in my lifetime, its not some ancient history, but rather recent. I walked out to where the cross was, and just sat on the ledge of the hill and enjoyed some time to take in the view. I was sitting on top of a hill in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Me, Ryan Leavy, just a regular guy, born in New Jersey, raised in South Florida. Who would have thought? As has happened many times this trip, I was humbled, privileged, honored, grateful, and thankful for this gift life had given me. I made my way around the fort and into the hills, and I was numbed to find the remains of foxholes and trenches used during the defense of the city. They were still there. I could not believe it, and better yet, I stumbled upon shell casings from guns, and even found the remains of mortar rounds. I was stunned they were still out there, waiting to be found. I would have thought the city would have removed all traces, but alas that was not the case. I didn’t walk to far off the beaten path, thoughts of landmines dancing in my head kept me from going Rambo out there, but I enjoyed myself all the same. It took me another hour and a half to get down the hill and back to the ship. I was exhausted and of course doused in sweat again. I was surprised to learn that some type of street festival was about to start right in front of our dock, I saw bbq’s being set up and beer stands popping up like popcorn. I was excited and figured this was a great way to end my last night in Croatia, no, my last night in Europe. My friends and I all went out, and it also doubled as a goodbye sendoff to my friend Travis, who was staying being in Croatia and heading to Beijing, China to spend next semester studying abroad. We all had a good time hanging out, listening to the live music, and enjoying our last night out together.

I can’t say a whole lot about my third day, as I stayed on ship and tried to get papers done and things in order. I will say this though; our sendoff was truly one of the shining moments of this trip. The entire shipboard community gathered on the 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th decks for a group photo. There was a special buzz abroad, as we all waved, hooted, hollered, and cheered for Photo Mike taking pictures, and Marlin capturing it all on film. Travis was on the docks, and we gave him a special cheer or two as he watched our sendoff. Afterwards I stayed on the 7^th deck and viewed one of the most gorgeous sunsets of my life. The sky was an unreal barrage of orange and purple set against a gorgeous backdrop of mountainous islands in the distance. I can’t properly describe it, and I refused to take a picture because I did not feel a picture could do it justice. A bunch of kids has busted out the guitar and bongos, and a large group had gathered to just sing song after song after song. It was unreal to watch this amazing sunset with the voices of 20 kids singing any and all song they felt like. I was with Erik, Brittany, Annie, and Kelsey, and we just could not believe how awesome the whole thing was. Once we set sail we all waved goodbye to Europe. Some of us would be back, but for others, it will be the last time we will see her shores. One hell of a trip.

Athens, Greece

2008-08-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

I am just going to put this out there now; Athens, Greece is one of the best cities I have been to on this trip. Why do I say this? I have no idea, since I have been to some amazing places so far on this trip, but I truly enjoyed my time in Athens. I think it has a lot to do with the history of the city. I need not tell you all about how powerful Athens once was, during her time she gave birth to some of histories greatest philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, and is also known as the birthplace of Democracy. Fine work indeed. The city itself is named after the Greek Goddess Athena. And it is all this history that shows why this city was so enjoyable. I could be strolling through some shops, only to turn a corner and see ancient ruins. I did this, many times, and each time was better then the last.

Now we actually were docked in Piraeus, which is the port city right near Athens. It was only a short 15 minute walk followed by a 10 minute metro ride to take us anywhere in the heart of Athens. I want to say this; Athens has one of the finest metro systems around. My friend Elena told me it is because of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, and man, did Athens do one hell of a job. It was so convenient to get anywhere around the city. The first day I had a SAS trip that gave us a brief tour of Athens, followed by a trip to the Acropolis. We drove around, passing all the sights of the city. We actually stopped Panathinaiko Stadium, a 70,000 seat horseshoe shaped stadium built in 329 BC but remodeled and refurbished enough over the years that it hosted the 1896 modern Olympic Games. It is made entirely of marble, and it was truly a sight to behold. We had a great view of the Acropolis from the sight, and that was our next destination. We went into the acropolis through the remains of the gateway called Propylaea. To the south of the entrance is the tiny Temple of Athena Nike. At the centre of the Acropolis is the Parthenon or Temple of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). East of the entrance and north of the Parthenon is the temple known as the Erechtheum. South of the platform that forms the top of the Acropolis there are also the remains of an outdoor theatre called Theatre of Dionysus. The real treat was the Parthenon, it was an incredible temple, built in honor of Athena, and only allowed to be entered by the priests and special visitors. The real shame of the whole experience was that all the buildings were undergoing renovation, and there a lot of construction materials that really took away from the view. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of ancient Greece and of Athenian democracy, and is one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. Oddly enough, a lot of the ground was made out of marble, and it was slippery walking amongst the remains. But it was an awesome experience none the less, and if one closed their eyes long enough, you could imagine the temple in her heyday, beautifully built. Heck, you could imagine the hustle and bustle of the acropolis, with tax collectors, philosopher, politicians, priests, peasants, shopkeepers, sellers, buyers, and just the general feel for the city could be experienced if one imagined hard enough. Not to mention that the view of the city was amazing as well. Alex and I signed off with our tour at this point, as we wanted to explore the acropolis some more, as well as stay in Athens for a bit. It was awesome to see these temples, built atop this hill, overlooking the city below. I could only imagine what it was like during their time period, when the view below was of rolling plains and grassy knolls. We also got to explore around the side of the hill the acropolis is situated on, and walked around where caves of Zeus, Pan, and Apollo once received praise. We ended at the Theatre of Dionysus, which is still used to this day to hold concerts and other venues. We finally walked down from the hill, and made our way into the city. We didn’t have much of a plan in mind, beyond just walking around. It was oddly strange, since we had landed on a Sunday, and August in general or that day in particular had some significance for the Geeks, but the entire town seemed more or less completely dead. Sure souvenir shops and some restaurants were open, but it was a very quite town for a Sunday afternoon. We got to pass the Arch of Hadrian, which is what it sounds like, a monumental arch that led to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which we could see through a gate, since we didn’t feel like going in. All that remains are some rather large columns. Funny store about the Arch though. At the base, there is an inscription that reads, ΑΙΔ' ΕIΣΙΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙ ΘΗΣΕΩΣ Η ΠΡΙΝ ΠΟΛΙΣ, which translates to, “this is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus.” I don’t know who Theseus is, but I can tell you someone did not like him, since on the other side of the arch reads, ΑΙΔ' ΕIΣΙΝ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟΥ ΚΟΥΧI ΘΗΣΕΩΣ ΠΟΛΙΣ, which means “this is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus.” Since it is known as the Arch of Hadrian, I think we all know who won that spat. After walking around for a bit, we decided to call it quits and see what we could do as far as finding our way back to the ship. We found the metro, and after some wheeling and dealing, we figured out and eventually made our way back to Piraeus.

I spent my second day in Athens with a bunch of friends and we headed to Monastiraki, which well-known for its string of small shops and markets, as well as its crowded flea market and taverns. We split off into some smaller groups, and went off on our separate ways. Some people wanted to shop, but I had a goal to get to a hill I had heard about, where Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and other great philosophers use to gather to teach classes and debate anything. So Elena, Matt, and myself made our way, and we passed the ancient Agora of Athens. We decided to enter, and see what was up. It was basically the center of the Athenian Government, and it was the place where things got done. It also had houses, as well as being home to other religious centers. We made our way inside and stopped at the Stoa of Attalos, a 2nd century building which was reconstructed in the mid 20th century. It was a rather large open air building, with some beautiful columns, though it did house a small museum inside the closed in part, which even had a SPARTAN SHIELD. Badass. The thing was huge. We then made our way to the Theseion which is a temple of Hephaistos, god of metal working, and Athena Ergane, goddess of pottery and crafts. You could obviously tell what went on around the temple, all things considered. It was really neat walking amongst the ruins, as you could see the remains of a great and powerful civilization. It was much quieter than the Acropolis and peaceful since we more or less had the place to ourselves. You could once again imagine the ruins being buildings if one imagined hard enough, and you could see the beauty the place once had. Now, only the crumbling remains of the foundation exist, but it is history all the same. We left the Agora, and kept trying to make our way to this hill, but we got sidetracked and ended up spending a half hour sitting outside this church in the shade hanging out. I busted out my phone, and we played some Red Hot Chili Peppers and O.A.R. and jammed out for a bit. Once we decided we had cooled off enough, we went and met up with the rest of the group for lunch. I had some kind of plate called a souvlaki, which was more or less chicken on bread, but really good all the same. After lunch, we had planned on climbing up this rather large hill that held a monastery at the top, but after buying some rather fragile gifts, we called it a day and went back to the ship. I went out a bit later that night, but nothing crazy, just saw Piraeus’s a bit by night.

I went out the third day with a rather new group of people, some I had not really hung out with before, and I’m rather glad I did. Let me see if I can remember some names. Lindsey, Katie, Jocelyn, Amber, Dan, and another girl whose name I forgot, damn, so close. Anyway, we headed back into Monastiraki again, and promptly found a table for lunch. I ordered some pan fried cheese and a side of fries, and it was pretty good. Katie and Jocelyn ordered more food than they could stomach, so I got to pick at their order of calamari, oh how I miss mahi-mahi back home. Afterwards, they all wanted to head out and shop. I used this time on my own to head towards this hill I’ve kept been meaning to get to. I eventually found the hill, called Pnyx. I want to take some text from wikipedia to define what this hill was all about. “Compared to the better-known surviving monuments of ancient Athens, such as the Parthenon, the Pnyx is relatively unspectacular. It is a small, rocky hill surrounded by parkland, with a large flat platform of eroded stone set into its side, surrounded by steps carved on its slope. It is nevertheless one of the most significant sites in the city, and indeed in the world. For the Pnyx was the meeting place of the world's first ever democratic legislature, the Athenian ekklesia (assembly), and the flat stone platform is the bema, the "stepping stone" or speakers' platform. As such, the Pnyx is the material embodiment of the principle of isēgoria "equal speech", i.e. the equal right of every citizen to debate matters of policy. The other two principles of democracy were isonomia, equality under the law, and isopoliteia equality of vote and equal opportunity to assume political office. The right of isēgoria was expressed by the presiding officer of the Pnyx assembly, who formally opened each debate with the open invitation "Tis agoreyein bouletai? "Who wishes to speak?". The Pnyx was used for popular assemblies in Athens as early as 507 BC, when the reforms of Cleisthenes transferred political power to the citizenry. It was then outside the city proper, but close enough to be convenient. It looks down on the ancient Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city. At this site all the great political struggles of Athens of the "Golden Age" were fought out. Pericles, Aristides and Alcibiades spoke here, within sight of the Parthenon, temple of Athena. I didn’t know all this going to the hill, I just found out right now. All I knew was that philosophers once debated here. I didn’t realize just to what extent they did. Knowing all this now just makes my time there that much more special, as I believe my best time in Athens was spent on this hill, completely alone. There was nobody else there but myself. I stood at the bema, and just imagined a figure giving a fiery debate before the gathered crowd. I could feel the history around me, and it was a riveting moment. I made my way higher up the hill, and sat on a rock with a gorgeous view of the acropolis and the hill it sits on. It was all laid out before me, and I just sat there and enjoyed being alone, with nothing but the past all around me, and yet nothing but the future ahead of me. I was there for as long as I could, before heading back down to meet up with my friends at our appointed meeting time. I wish I had just skipped out and stayed up there, as I could have enjoyed my time there all afternoon. In any event, once I got down they all were set to head back to the ship, so I accompanied them down, but truly happy for the time alone that I had just shared back on Pnyx hill. My good buddy Travis is leaving us after Croatia, and he is heading to China directly from Croatia. He and I have been guilt tripping each other back and forth, and we headed out that night to enjoy a beer and to hang out. We went out with a group of people and found a rather trendy lounge near the water to hang out. We took a cab back to the ship after our drinks, and I stole the beer glass they gave me since it had the Olympic rings on the back with the words Athens 2004. Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same.

My fourth and last day in Athens was uneventful, and I didn’t even go into the city. I actually just hung out on ship, only getting off to spend a little time walking around Piraeus again. I have a ton of papers due after Croatia, and I wanted to work on them, plus I was beat. We didn’t get any down time after Egypt, and I just felt whipped and beat after these last two countries. They are wearing me down, but in a good way. It doesn’t seem like I did a whole lot in Greece, as this is probably one of my shortest blog posts, but it’s funny because this was one of the most enjoyable countries. I didn’t go to any of the Greek islands, I didn’t swim in the Mediterranean, but I got to experience and enjoy the history of the city, and walk amongst the people, and it was an incredible experience all the same.

Alexandria, Egypt

2008-08-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

I think it is important to make note that the entire reason we went to Egypt is because 14 people died in a bombing in Turkey. It only really occurred to me today, after I’ve experienced Egypt, and while it was a serious unfortunate incident for the Turkish people, it became a blessing in disguise for us. The day after the bombing in Turkey, we were told to pretty much wait and see. We received an announcement at 8am saying we were not sure what the plan would be, but to wait and let talks between the state department, SAS’s home office, and their security consultant group to play out. Finally, at about 8pm that night, we were told that we would not be going to Istanbul, Turkey. We all pretty much held our collective breaths waiting to hear what would be said next; finally we were told that our new port of call would be Alexandria, Egypt. We would spend the next day at sea going to Egypt, and we would get three days there. I can’t even begin to describe the excitement level on ship after the announcement. People went scrambling to find travel books or anything else related to Egypt. The next morning I was awoken quite early by a knock on my door from a couple of my friends who wanted to tell me all about the field trips that SAS put together practically overnight. Our Field Office did an amazing job being able to put together 7 amazing trips in Egypt on such short notice. I chose the Jeep and Camel tour, and I will tell you all about it later. I spent my day as sea playing a 4 hour game of Risk, that I won, and playing volleyball on the 7^th deck with some friends. But enough of all that, on to Egypt!!!! Alexandria, Egypt to be exact, established 322 BC by Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king. It is known as the “pearl of the Mediterranean.” It has a population of something around 8 million people. Good enough history lesson for you? On we go!

I naturally slept through our arrival, breakfast, and the final briefing like has become the norm. But I was up early enough to get my passport, and sit around to get my cash exchanged. We were lucky enough to have an actual currency exchange right on ship. Anyway by 9:30 am, Beth, Danielle, Sarah, Alli, Elena, and I were off the boat with grand plans of hoofing it to all the major sites around the city. We wanted to see the catacombs, Pompey’s Pillar, mosques, this, that, and the other thing. We were told rather quickly that these things were miles apart, and it would be really hard for us to walk there. We were trying to decide what we wanted to do, and beating off taxi drivers and vendors left and right, when we concluded we would take a taxi to the Catacombs, which seemed to be in the center of the city, and then walk from there. One lucky cab driver happened to come up and bother us at the right time, and we decided for 15 pounds each, which is like 3 bucks, we would go to the Catacombs. Our drive through the city was intense, and we all quickly realized a couple things; one, the distance was going to be intense to walk, two, it didn’t seem the cleanest or safest city (more of that later), and three, I dunno, we were lazy. Our cab driver, his name was Mhanney El Sayed Farag, had been talking in his broken English about taking us all around the city to all the sites, and he seemed honest enough, so we asked him how much for a tour all around the city and he said 20 bucks or 100 pounds per person. We happily accepted. So he took us to the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, and we snuck in for free by following a SAS tour group that happened to be going in at the exact same time. We went off on our own, and walked down a long spiraling staircase that took us deep underground. From my understanding the Catacombs are three levels, with the bottom level being underwater and therefore inaccessible. We walked down a spiraling staircase descending deep into the ground. The center part of the staircase, which was just a round hollow circle maybe 10 ft by 10 ft, I later learned through wikipedia is how they descended the bodies down into the catacombs. I had, and still have, no idea who was buried down there, but it was absolutely amazing to walk around all these, well the easiest way to put it is, graves. There were niches, which housed bodies in the past, all over the place. I kept expecting to turn a corner and see a mummy chasing me, ala “The Mummy”. I was looking for torches hanging off walls to light, or that one place where you throw a match and the whole room lights up from the secret oil stash. It was a really cool experience. I’ll tell you what; I would be one tall ass Egyptian, because half the time my head was cocked to the side so I wouldn’t hit the ceiling. Wiki says that the catacombs were used from the 2^nd century to the 4^th century, and then were rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey fell through the floor. Since we had no guide, we just walked around and then headed out to find Mhanney, who I was calling Hennessey at this time since I couldn’t figure out what else to call him. He told us his name, but I couldn’t pronounce it, plus we didn’t get his card until much later. So he was Hennessey to me. We actually found him hanging out across the street drinking some tea at a local shop. We all went over and he pulled up some chairs and we just hung out. There was a local smoking some hashish, which I suppose is flavored tobacco through a hookah. I don’t know who invented the hookah, but I saw Egyptians using them everywhere. Finally we hopped back into the cab and headed to Pompey’s Pillar. Now Pompey’s Pillar evidently has nothing to do with Pompey, and everything to do with honoring the Emperor Diocletian. I guess the Roman’s renamed it or something. Basically it dates back to the 3^rd century AD and it is a 100ft tall red granite column flanked by two pink granite sphinxes. The entire complex was pretty cool, as there were plenty of ruins at the base of this column. We were heading toward and underground part of the area, that use to a small library according to the sign. This is where I had my first real experience with Egyptian and their retarded trait of tipping. I saw retarded cause it has gotten way out of hand, and I’ll mention more later. In all actuality, there is nothing wrong with tipping people for good service rendered, but its something else to have service, good or bad, forced on you. In this case, as we walked down the stairs, we were approached and subsequently followed by either a soldier or whatever designation they get for wearing the uniform. He spoke no English, and pretty much just motioned around the very exact area we were already walking. He did nothing useful, and he really didn’t even try. If we walked down a tunnel, he walked next to use motioning the way forward, as if we couldn’t get there ourselves. The library area was pretty cool, nothing spectacular, but cool. Anyway, finally we headed out, and our “guide” kept motioning toward himself, and I pretty much picked up on what he was asking. So I gave him a dollar, and he left use alone. I almost feel like I paid to get rid of him than pay him for his service. Anyway, once that was done, we were able to walk right up to the pillar and really enjoy it. Anything that dates back to the 3^rd century is cool in my book. Plus, once you throw in some sphinxes you know you got a great photo op, and we did not waste the opportunity. Once we left the pillar, we headed to the Roman Amphitheatre. It was discovered recently in an area you should all know relatively well, Kom Al-Dekka, ever heard of it? Yea me neither. But we stopped the cab and walked along the fence surrounding the Amphitheatre. We decided it didn’t look worth enough to pay to get in, so we enjoyed our view from the outside and shot some more pictures. It was a small theater, holding only about 800 spectators. It was in an odd location, not for its time, but for modern times, since it literally was off a major road and surrounded by all these decrepit apartment buildings. After about 5 minutes, we headed to our next location, The New Library of Alexandria. I hope you all more or less know the story on the Library of Alexandria in ancient times. It was the epitome of knowledge and learning, housing probably close to a million pieces of writing. No one is entirely certain what happened to it, as it is assumed it was destroyed, but no one conclusively knows how. Anyway, a new library was built, built to be one of the biggest scientific and cultural centers specialized in the region affairs and its culture, science and arts. I was really excited to see this, as anyone who knows me could only expect that all I imagined in my head was ancient rooms filled with scroll after scroll after scroll. You’ll have to excuse me, since I just finished the book The Alexandria Link by Robert Berry, in which they find the lost library of Alexandria, and what do they find? Ancient rooms filled with scroll after scroll after scroll. So naturally, that’s what I expected. What was the New Library of Alexandria? A really big modern library. I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. I got over it though, and really enjoyed walking amongst the books and just enjoying being there. I laughed at some SASers I saw, using computers to check facebook. The legacy the new library has to carry is a big one, and people are checking facebook. Did the Egyptians 2300 years ago check facebook when they were in the library? Eh, they probably had something similar. Anyway, we made our way outside and headed to the next stop on are impromptu tour. Hennessey actually stopped at a curb and got out of the car, mumbling something about being back in a minute, and I pretty much though something bad was about to happen. Cab driver leaves, we get mugged, everyone but us is happy. So you could imagine our surprise when he comes back holding 6 bottles of water for us. He bought us water! He had no reason to do that, but we all couldn’t stop thanking him. It was a really nice gesture. So anyway, we headed to Montazah Palace and public gardens. It was a 10 minute ride to get there, but we actually rode along the ocean to get there, so it was really cool. It seemed like everyone and their mom was on the beach, and it was a Wednesday no less. The beaches were packed. And it was strange because while there were people swimming, it seemed like everyone was just dressed normally, but at the beach. We noticed it did not seem like women swam at all. Another part of the religion or culture perhaps. Montazah use to be the private palace of King Farauqe, who I guess was the last king of Egypt. I was gathering all this from Henney, as he told us about it. It use to be that no one but the king could use the gardens and the grounds. Now it is a pleasure resort, with plenty of hotels and beautiful beaches amongst the garden. There is also the actual Palace, and it was a beauty. He drove us right up to the gate, and we were able to get out and take pictures. He said it is not used unless the President of Egypt is in town, and then he uses it. It is also used to wine and dine foreign dignitaries and what not. It was a start contrast to go from the hustle and bustle of the city to this peaceful, quaint, and beautiful area. It was very calm, and we enjoyed a minute to catch our breaths before we jumped back into the roads. This time we were headed for the Qaitbey Fort. While on our way there we passed the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Evidently it is not just America who cannot keep track of who we send into battle, as Egypt has their own monument. We didn’t go in, just passed by, but it looked nice enough. Fort Qaitbey was built on the original site of Pharos in 1477, which is Alexandria’s ancient lighthouse. The fort was actually built with some of the stones of the lighthouse. We didn’t go inside, but rather just took some pictures outside along the boardwalk near the water. I had a random encounter, when about 5 Egyptians came up to me and asked if they could take a picture with me. I have no idea why, I didn’t really ask, but rather jus smiled with them and went on my merry way, feeling quite important I might add. After the fort, we went to The Mosque of Abu El-Abbas El-Mursi. It is the cities biggest mosque, and was quite an impressive sight. It had four domes and a towering minaret. I actually went inside, through the front door I might add, while my traveling companions had to use the back door since they were females. Evidently women cannot be seen because men cannot be distracted from praying, and seeing women is distracting. I wasn’t overly impressed by the inside of the Mosque, as it just seemed like a big carpeted room with people sleeping, I mean praying inside. No seriously, it seemed like a ton of people were just sleeping inside. I don’t normally pray lounged out on the ground with my bag under my head, I don’t think Muslims normally do either. I got another dose of Egyptian “services” when I had a man approach me after I pulled out my camera to take pictures. He wanted to show me a better place to take pictures, I wasn’t really interested but I needed to head the direction he was going anyway, so I followed. He took me to a couple spots, nothing I could not have done on my own, and I gave him a dollar for his trouble, in which he promptly demanded more money. I should have learned and said no, but I didn’t. Then when he saw my companions come join me, he wanted more money, God knows what reason he was using at that point, but I said heck no and walked away. Finally we were just straight up exhausted and wanted to go back to the ship. Hennessey drove us back, and we all tipped him pretty generously for being such an amazing cab driver. He really was great, he actually had more places he wanted to take us, but we insisted on going back to the ship. We were with him from about 9:45 am to about 4 pm. It was a really long day. We grabbed some lunch on the pool deck, and then I decided I wanted to buy a head scarf/turban thingy for my Jeep and Camel tour the next day. Their was a town of souvenir shops outside the ship, and I wanted to try my bargaining skills, so Elena and I went down to see what goodies we could find. We walked into the first shop we passed by, and the people were pleasant enough. They offered us their hookah and drinks, and while I didn’t accept, we talked for a bit. They all more or less spoke good English, and they all loved Elena. They actually invited us back to their shop that night. I had bought my turban, and we thanked them as we left. I was pretty much done shopping, but we figured we might as well keep walking. As we passed the second shop, the shopkeeper came out and insisted we look in his shop, he said something along the lines of “you only looked at first shop, please come look at mine, why you only look at the first.” So to be polite we went and took a look. It was the best or worst decision we ever made depending on how you want to look at it. He ended up being a pretty cool guy, and I ended up buying one of those long, gah I long to think of another word beyond dress, but that’s all I got. You know those long dresses the men wear in Muslim culture? Well I bought one of those. We have an Ambassador’s Ball later in the voyage, pretty much a fancy sit down dinner and dance, and I have every intention of wearing this at the ball. He also fell in love with Elena, and he kept forcing her to try on dress after dress. She kept insisting she didn’t want one, because she would have no use for it. Finally she settled into a blue dress that fit her well, and after hearing her case on why she couldn’t buy it, he actually gave it to her. Just straight up said, I like you, have it. Women, I tell you, never pay for anything! We went back to the ship for dinner, and then since we had specifically ordered something from him, we went back later that night to pick it up. Elena, Alex, and I headed down to his shop, and since our order wasn’t ready, we ended up sitting around in his shop talking to him. We talked about Bush, Obama, Egyptian life, the pyramids, war in Iraq, soccer, sports, life, and anything else we wanted to talk about. We ended up sitting around his shop just talking for almost two hours. It was an awesome experience, one I truly enjoyed. We ended our conversation by him actually inviting us back to his shop Friday morning, our last day in port, for breakfast. Alex and I said we would be there, even though we weren’t 100% sure. Oh, and Elena got a free scarf and headdress by the end of the evening. I swear…

I was stoked about our second day. I had signed up to go on a Jeep and Camel tour with SAS that would introduce us to the great pyramids of Giza. I was on the bus by 7:45 with Alex, Beth, Danielle, Sarah, and Alli. The bus ride into Cairo was going to take us about 2 and half hours. I tried to stay awake, but was pretty unsuccessful in that regard. The landscape was pretty much small towns situated on the outskirts of the desert, sparse greenery, and generally I felt like I was seeing just a lot of poverty. Now for some reason I had expected the pyramids to be deep in the desert, far from Cairo. I was dead wrong, as it seemed like we literally drove right up and on top of them. I went from looking at buildings to seeing the pyramids looming in the distance, it was a crazy sight. The pyramids of Giza include three pyramids; The Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure. The Pyramid of Khufu is the only remaining structure of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was an incredible sight, and an incredible feeling as we drove up to these behemoths. It gave me a feeling I only experienced one other time, when I stood at the Grand Canyon. It made me feel immensely small, unimportant, and completely irrelevant. Here was a structure that was concluded in 2560 BC. It had been here for thousands of years, seen trillions of people come up to see it, and will probably stand for thousands more. I was just passing through. Time means nothing to a structure like this, and yet it is everything for us. It was an unforgettable feeling and experience. We were warned before we got off the bus that this is a tourist trap, and to expect plenty of people trying to sell us things, among other tactics to get our money. It was a shame because I felt like I spent more time fending off people trying to sell me something than actually enjoying the view. I was with Alex and my friend Rebecca, walking along the base of the pyramid, when an Egyptian and his camel came up to us and started talking to us. We all knew what he wanted. He offered us a ride on his camel, a picture with his camel, the whole shebang. It was just Rebecca and I and he asked us where we were from. I blurted out Australia for the hell of it. Might as well have some fun with the guy. Then he asked if we were married, and since evidently they back off if they find out a girl is married, we said yea. Didn’t seem to stop him, he offered me 25,000 camels for her. I told him I had plenty of camels on my farm back in Australia. Finally he stopped in front of us, and more or less forced our hand. He wrapped my head in his turban, took my camera, positioned me in front of his camel, and started taking pictures. Then he literally picked up Rebecca and put her on the camel, and then raised the camel up. We just went with it, since we didn’t have much choice at this point. We asked us how long we had been married and I said this was our honeymoon. That seemed to send him into a frenzy as he shouted out “HONEYMOON!!!!” and took even more pictures. Finally we insisted, actually angrily yelled that we had to go and she needed to get off the camel. I gave him 2 bucks, and then sent him into a frenzy. He wanted 40 pounds, Australian money, more, more, more. He was quite insistent and it got hairy for a moment. I finally gave him another 2 bucks and then we practically turned and ran back to the bus. It was absurd. I despise their culture for being like that, I really do. One guy had come up to us at the pyramids and said, “here, have this, a gift, now can you give me money? To help my family.” We handed back our “gifts” and turned away. Don’t shake their hand, don’t tell them where your from. Once you do that, your done. Anyway, we boarded the bus and headed to the Great Sphinx. The Sphinx is half human, half lion, and is said to have been built in the 3^rd century BC. It was awesome to see, as you always see it in picture and what not. Our tour guide said one of the coolest things. She was explaining how the Egyptians don’t believe that the Sphinx nose was broken off by Napoleon and his army using it for target practice, because evidently when his army made their way to the pyramids Napoleon said, “be humble men, you stand in front of an ancient civilization,” or something sweet like that. After spending some time there, we boarded the bus and headed toward the Sakkara Country Club, where jeeps waited for us. We got into the jeep and I was expecting a leisurely ride through the desert to where the camels were waiting for us. We were all in for a huge surprise when we figured out we were actually going to haul ass through the desert for some serious fun. We were flying over dunes and around the desert, playing chicken with other jeeps, and going at some serious speed. The coolest part of it was that we did all this with pyramids as our backdrop. There was a crumbling pyramid that was easily visible was we drove. I wish I could have gotten out to explore it, since it looked pretty much abandoned from tourists. But the jeep ride was awesome. We were hooting and hollering and urging our driver to go faster and higher, and he was only to happy to oblige. Finally we drove up, while still in the desert, to a group of awaiting camels. We all were able to hop on our own camel, and off we went on a little camel ride. We were guided by kids, teens, and adults of all ages, walking next to us and controlling the camel. The scariest part of the ride was sitting on the camel as it got up and down. But beyond that, it was awesome to ride on a camel through the desert, just like people have been doing for thousands of years. We rode for probably close to forty minutes or so, and our camel ride concluded back at the country club, where a buffet of food was waiting for us for lunch. After lunch we headed to the oldest pyramid ever built, The Step Pyramid of Djoser. It was built during the 27^th century BC, and was designed by Imhotep, who for some reason I strongly associate with “The Mummy”. The pyramid consisted of 6 mastabas, which got smaller as it went up. It is the first pyramid ever built. It was an awesome structure. Evidently it is just the beginning as far as a tomb is concerned, since there is an entire complex of rooms below it, 3 and a half miles of tunnels, rooms, chambers, do dads, gadgets, whachamacallits, and thingys. After that we went to one of the highlights of the trip, which was a bunch of room with original hieroglyphics on it, which serve to tell the story of the life of the man who was buried there. It was pretty cool. Hieroglyphics are sweet. One picture cracked me up. Our guide was showing the man enjoying something, a show maybe, but he held a torch, and that was a sign of power. The man holding the flame had the power. I laughed because I was like, poor chap, if he came back now, what he would think of us all with our pocket lighters. After that, it was a long bus ride back to the ship. I got back, ate dinner, and passed out.

Our third and last day in Egypt was interesting. Alex and I woke up and went out to meet our friend for his offered breakfast. He was really excited we showed up, and he had falafels waiting for us, which I think is fried chick peas. I tried it, didn’t like it, and had no idea what to do. I didn’t want to be rude and not eat what he offered, but really, a vegetable? We know I don’t eat these. I came up with the ingenious idea of hiding the falafel in my bag when he walked out of the shop. That way, no hard feelings. The shopkeepers name is Nasser Mohamed Mahmoud. We talked some more about things, and I learned a little bit about his shop, how it is his business for his family, and his family would always have a job working for him, even if they stole and cheat, because they were family. He also insisted anything we wanted to buy, we could for cheap, because we were now family. He insisted that in his religion, if you eat together, you are family, or something like that. He also decided we were trustworthy enough to show us his antiques as he called them. He pulled out of a hiding place 8 pieces that I thought I would only see in a museum. One was a cross legged person, a statue of the cat god, a large statue of those dog looking guards, a small statue of a pharaoh on his throne, and the most amazing piece, was a complete set of four Canopic jars. These jars were used during the mummification process to house certain organs so the person could use them in the after life. According to wiki, the jars were four in number, each charged with the safekeeping of a particular human organ. These four types also represented the four cardinal points of the compass. Each was associated with one of the four sons of Horus. Duamutef, the jackal-headed jar representing the east, contained the stomach and was protected by the goddess Neith. Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed jar representing the west, contained the intestines and was protected by the goddess Selket. Hapi, the baboon-headed jar representing the north, contained the lungs and was protected by the goddess Nephthys. Imseti, the human-headed jar representing the south, contained the liver and was protected by the goddess Isis. I never thought I would ever see anything like these outside a museum, and here I was holding and touching and looking at them right before me. The Canopic jars were particularly fascinating, as I was extremely curious about who they could have been used for, and what the hieroglyphics on the front read. I ended up taking a picture of the hieroglyphics in the hope on one day translating them. Our friend the shopkeeper kept asking what Alex and I thought of it, and if we were interested. I have been obsessed and interested in history forever, so I was particularly fervish about possibly obtaining one of these icons. He asked a price that was way out of my range, and I told him what I was willing to offer. The sly fellow is he, he was like, you are my son, I take your price. A handshake sealed the deal. I ended up buying the statue of the pharaoh on the throne, and Alex bought the cat god statue. I could not believe my good luck, and only time will tell whether these objects are real or not. My friend Dave is majoring in archeology, so I had him take a look at it, and he believes it is legit, and he estimated maybe 1500 years old since that is when the Egyptians began using brimstone, which is what it is made out of he said. He told me my best bet is to take it to a school with an archeology department and let them have a look. I have every intention of doing so. After that crazy incident, I ended up buying a few more things I really wanted to get, including real papyrus scrolls of paintings. Not antiques of course, but I was excited to get a painting on a real papyrus reed. I actually ran back to the ship and grabbed my Miami Heat basketball hat, my STU t-shirt, and a Florida Marlins baseball pen, and went back and presented them as a gift to our friend. He had been extremely nice, and whether he ripped us off or not, he gave us breakfast, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Alex and I dropped off our goodies at the ship, and decided to walk around Alexandria a little more before calling it quits. We walked amongst the streets, and eventually made our way to the food market. This was by far the craziest thing I have ever done. As if it was not striking enough to see women in full burqas with nothing but their eyes showing, crumbling buildings acting as homes, garbage all over the street, stay dogs, and anything else the city offered us, but in the market we saw everything possible being sold as food. I saw a man skinning a pig, fish literally flopping off tables, guts and gizzards galore. The smell at one point was almost overwhelmingly foul, and it was just an intense experience to walk amongst the people buying food like that. Nothing was sanitary about it at all naturally, but it didn’t stop people one bit. Nobody particularly bothered us, and once we made our way through the market we called it a day, as that was more than we had bargained for. It was so strange walking through the street, since the PA system throughout the city was blaring with their call to prayer. The entire time we heard nothing but music being played, and eventually what sounded like a sermon being delivered. It was just an intense experience. When I watched the movie “Black Hawk Down,” they used that same experience throughout the movie, the city wide music and sermons being played, and evidently because of that movie, I got the strange feeling of being in almost a war zone as I walked around. It is an unfair thing to say, as everyone I met was more than nice to me, but there it is, I said it. It was strange, scary, calming, chilling, and beautiful all at the same time. It was so strange to see roads taken by cars to be shared with goats and chickens and horses pulling carts, and whatever else they felt like putting on the roads. It was all just a strange experience, obviously no other country on our trip was like it, and I would imagine no country we head to will be like it as well. It is a country that is 90% Muslim, but for some reason, I never associated them as being anything but Egyptians. It is horrible because Muslim just has such a bad connotation to Americans ever since 9/11, and I should have felt like I was in “enemy” territory, but I never did, and I’m glad I can say that. That is not to say everyone had a good experience, as there was plenty of stories of students being shouted at for being American and told to get out or else. There were also stories of students talking to Egyptians and then being demanded to pay them $10 for “luck” they got by talking to them. Anyway, by the time Alex and I got back to the ship, I was literally sick, and I spent almost the entire rest of the day and night sleeping. Lucky for me I was healthy the next morning, but most of the ship got sick one way or another. Most have recovered, but a strange case all the same.

We only had one day between Egypt and Turkey, and that day was spent having our “Sea Olympics.” My Mediterranean Sea did not do so well, but it was a fun day overall. I participated in tug-a-war, and we actually came in 2^nd place. We lost to a large team, I would have actually been the 3^rd biggest on their team, and I was the biggest on my team, so that should tell you how big they were. The winning team gets to be the first sea off the boat when we land back in America, lucky them. We are now docked in Athens, Greece, and I will tell you all more about that later.

P.S. I am stealing this from Elena’s blog, thought I do say I heard it on ship once or twice, trying to comprehend this trip, to soak in all we do and all we see, is like trying to drink water from a fire hose.

HOLY CRAP

2008-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well I had mentioned that there might be a chance we would not go to Istanbul, Turkey. And it happened. We are now chugging toward Alexandria, Egypt. I'M GOING TO THE PYRAMIDS!!!! I am so freaking pumped about this. We are spending tomorrow heading towards Egypt, and we will spend three days in Alexandria. I am beyond excited.

They said no state department or group specifically said we should not go, but they decided it was in our best interest not to. So Egypt it is. I was looking forward to Turkey, but I think Egypt will be amazing. Time to go get lost in the desert.

Overlooking the Bay of Naples

2008-07-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

2008_0725StPaddys0155,
originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

On top of Mount Vesuvius.

On top of the World...

2008-07-28T13:09:00.001-07:00

2008_0725StPaddys0156,
originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

Or at least an active volcano, Mount Vesuvius.

Naples, Italy

2008-07-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Oh Italy, how much fun thou art. I’ve been slacking on my blogging, and I apologize about that. Italy was a hectic country, and I still despise having to deal with four amazing days in a country, and then thrusted back into a classroom. I get back on ship and all I want to do is relieve the experience, and catch up on sleep. Anyway, on with the show.

I first have to mention that going through the Straits of Gibraltar was an awesome experience. We had Morocco’s mountainous self on one side, and Spain on the other. I enjoyed seeing both countries, while separated by a large body of water, being so close. Africa, Europe…Europe, Africa. Both right there. And as with all things related to this trip, I imagined large armies crossing the Strait, obviously at the narrowest part, and invading and battling and la la la…I need to get a life. Anyway, it was really cool. Plus I just need to say, I crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, so in 15 years when I reread all this I’ll remember how when I crossed the Straits, all I could think of was battling armies of long ago, and laugh at myself. So I’m glad I got that out there.

I want to say I probably had the most fun in Italy out of all the other countries. I was really excited we were back in a mountainous region, as I’ve had that lacking in my life since Norway. I don’t know how I’ve dealt with it for 14 years living in Florida. I love mountains. Our first day in port was spent in two parts. I slacked off again and slept through our arrival, but when I did get up and get outside, I was happy to be greeted by Mount Vesuvius smiling face, err, crater. I went out with my friend Erik and we decided to explore the city. Remember my rant about castles and fortresses in Belgium? How I complained about the size of them and all that jazz? Well I was freaking blessed in Italy. We were docked directly across the street from an immense fortress called Castel Nuovo, which means New Castle, since it was built to replace another castle located in Naples. I was as giddy as a little school kid when I saw this. I couldn’t believe my good luck. If I ever have more money than God, I’m buying castles like candy. I’m addicted. It was not hard to convince Erik we should go explore the castle, and we happily linked arms and skipped across the street. WRONG! Actually crossing streets in Naples is probably the scariest thing I have ever done. I think crosswalks and crossing lights exist, but only in the hypothetical sense. I was on one side of the street, staring at a long parade of cars and vespas flying past, and I said to myself, “huh, wonder when the cars stop coming by,” when all of a sudden an Italian man just throws himself into the street. I was terrified, and his entire life flashed before my eyes, I could not believe I was about to witness a suicide right here, right now. And then, right when I wondered if his shoes would fly off as he got struck by a vehicle, all the cars stopped, and he calmly walked across the street. My shock was over quickly, and we scampered after him. That was my first crossing the street experience. Italians just walk into the street, and cars stop. It’s a wild and crazy system, and I imagined I would see a few traffic accidents in my time there, but I never saw one. Somehow people survive. Anyway, after this horrifying experience, (Yes I classify crossing the street as a horrifying experience, go ahead, you try it!) we made our way into the castle, and I claimed it for the Kingdom of Ryan. I got the title deed and everything. The castle was built in 1279, and has been renovated a few times since. We walked through some of the rooms and saw a lot of the artwork they had on display, and made our way higher and higher to enjoy the views of the city. We met up with Lindsey and Anna, who were also exploring the castle, and we decided to go find some of this amazing Italian coffee we’ve heard so much about. As a coffee barista, I assumed it was my duty to taste and compare the Italian coffee to the coffee we make back home. I’m stilled convinced I make the best cappuccinos east of the Mississippi river, but I’ll give the Italians credit, they made a good drink. I have no idea where we enjoyed our coffee, but it was good and we continued our walk. I have to mention that before we got to Italy, our interport student Allasandro told us that Italians have strikes and protests for whatever reason almost every week. Then during one of our pre-ports they said DO NOT GO TO ANY PROTESTS! Well we eventually walked and found the Piazza del Plebiscito, which is the largest square in Naples. It is bounded on the east by the Royal Palace and on the west by the church of San Francesco di Paola with the colonnades extending to both sides. Well out in front of the Royal Palace, what did we see? A Protest!!!!!!!!! Oh you can’t imagine my joy. And as any good rebel, when told not to do something, what did I do? I ran toward the protest! There were probably a good 400 or 500 people there, nothing crazy. They waved flags and blew whistles and one guy had a microphone that kept rambling on and on. We found a tourist information center, and while getting a map of the city, we asked what was going on. They said they were protesting because of unemployment. The unemployment rate in Italy is like 18% I believe, and it is even higher in Naples, at something like 40%. Really high stuff. So I was stoked to be able to see that. There was some police in front of the Royal Palace, but all and all it was just a peaceful protest. I was waiting for the tear gas and riot police, but it never happened. After we grew bored of the protest, we kept walking along the boardwalk that ran along the coast and watched sunbathers on the rocks, and we could see Castel dell’Ovo, which means Egg Castle, in the distance. I assumed I would go back and see it later, but I never did. We had to head back to the ship since we all had a trip later in the afternoon. I was going on the Mount Vesuvius hike. I should clarify something first, it’s not just a mountain, it’s actually an active volcano, and I stood upon its peak, and stared straight into the heart of this ferocious beast of nature, and lived to tell the tale. What is that tale you ask? Well let me tell you of the danger, the mystery, the intrigue, and the forgotten tale of this tall beast. Alright in all honesty now, we boarded a bus, made the trek up the mountain, which is scary enough in its own right since the road up the volcano is no wider than a regular lane, and yet buses and cars have to go up and DOWN the same road. I learned real quickly on those blind curves, you just beep your horn and pray as you turn. We had to climb the last couple hundred meters by foot, but once we reached the top the view of Naples was breathtaking, not to mention staring into an immense crater was surreal. Vesuvius is the volcano that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD, when it erupted after being dormant for 800 years, and covered the city in ash and dust, obliterating the city, and leaving the ruins available to be discovered again in 1748, and providing us insight into the culture and life of Romans during that time. Anyway, standing on top of an active volcano was especially thrilling. The volcano has been dormant since 1944, and is actually overdue as far as erupting is concerned. It was interesting to learn about the cities plan as far as the volcano erupting is concerned. They have the red zone, which has 600,000 people, and they are required to leave if there is an eruption. The yellow zone is an optional evacuation and something like a couple million people live in it. They expect to know of an eruption within two weeks to 20 days, and the plan calls for buses, ferries, trains, and cars to evacuation all the people to a whole other region in Italy. Nobody knows for sure if it will actually work, but it will be wild to see when it does. From the outside looking in anyway. The actual mood from the people as far at having an active volcano looming over them is rather comical. As far as they are concerned, their not worried at all, and they want to know if you want to go get an espresso, because “hey it’s Italy, let’s go get a coffee,” is the mood of the city. So once we reached the top and enjoyed our views, we actually were offered wine at the top of the mountain. It is a local wine made on the slopes of the mountain, and it is called Lacryma Christi, or the tear of Christ. I quote wikipedia when I say the name Lacryma Christi comes from an old legend that Christ, crying over Lucifer's fall from heaven, cried his tears on the land and gave divine inspiration to the vines that grew there. Lacryma Christi is also mentioned a few times in old poems and stories, and I give you an example here in W. J. Turner's poem Talking with Soldiers, he says:

Mary Magdalena and the vine Lachryma Christi,

Were like ghosts up the ghost of Vesuvius,

As I sat and drank wine with the soldiers,

As I sat in the Inn on the Mountain,

Watching the shadows in my mind.

The wine itself came in red and white, and since I’m not much of a wine drinker I can’t tell you if it was good or bad, but I enjoyed it. After we made our descent back down and got back to Naples, I called it a night and fell asleep watching an episode of The Office, my new favorite show. Great show people! And besides, I had an amazing trip planned the next day, so I needed to get some sleep.

Alright, planned is not actually a great term to use, as I kind of did it on a wing and a prayer, but boy did it work out. I had found out about this hike called Sentieri Degli Dei, or the Path of the Gods. Before I even mention the hike, I need to talk for a minute about the Amalfi coast. The Amalfi coast is THE most beautiful and picturesque coastline/landscape/highways/insert anything here I have ever seen. I didn’t even get to fully explore it, actually I just barely entered it, but what I saw had me salivating and drooling for more. I know where I am having my honeymoon. I can’t even fully explain it. It is just a coastline of towns, built into the cliffs, with the winding and snaking roadway that connects them all is on the side of the mountains, and it is just breathtaking. We took a bus from Naples to Positano, which is a small town that is literally built into the side of the mountain, and descends down to the beach below. It started as a small fishing village, and now tourism is its main industry, but it was beyond beautiful. I wish I could properly describe it, and pictures just don’t do it justice, but we were in awe when we arrived there. I went with Erik and Danielle, and our plan was to hike from Positano to Praiano, which is another town 12 kilometer hike away. Then we would take a bus back to Naples. The plan did not go exactly according to plan, but it was an amazing, incredible, uplifting experience all the same. After walking around Positano for a bit, and eventually finding the tourist information office (Jeeze do I love tourist offices), we finally found someone who knew about the Path of the Gods. She gave us a map of the town and an awesome map of the mountainous area with all the walking paths in the mountain. I’ve always wanted to have one of those badass world maps hanging above my desk, and until I do get one of those, I am happily going to hang this map of the Amalfi coast. We had to take another local city bus to the highest part of the town, Nocelle. We found the bus stop, and stopped to buy some bread and cheese to snack on the trail, and we stopped at a local café for some food before we went off. We made our way up another winding small road, with the bus honking around corners, and climbed up higher and higher above the town. The view of the town, the surrounding cliffs, and the Mediterranean Sea just kept getting better and better. Once we got to the top, we realized all that was there was a bed and a breakfast, and some stairs leading up into the mountain. We choose the stairs, and after wandering around a small villa that was up there, we found another path that crept up higher into the mountain. I was so freaking excited. I just loved the name of this hike, The Path of the Gods. I thought it was awesome, and I dubbed myself Hercules for the rest of the afternoon. Danielle choose Athena, and Erik picked Apollo, just to round it out. We walked for about a bit, and with the sweat dripping, and the heat just becoming too much, we decided to find some shade and enjoy the bread and cheese we had bought. We lucked out and found a small cliff overhang that mimicked a small cave. We stopped and busted out the bread and cheese. We wanted to bring wine as well, and have a real picnic overlooking our view, but it was probably for the best that we didn’t. What did the view look like from up there? It was breathtaking. Absolutely amazing. We could see the town below us, the water ahead of us, and nothing but tower cliffs ahead of us. It was beautiful. The path was pretty clear and easy to navigate, and was extremely enjoyable. My shoes are almost destroyed by now, after all the walking. After we enjoyed our snack, we kept up the walking. We went from walking in the beating sun along the side of the cliffs, to walking down and into what I would define as a gorge. We walked along a rather treacherous path that was probably no more than 6 inches wide, with nothing but a rather steep plunge down into a forested area below us. It was a wild little path. We had to do a bit of rock climbing to reach parts of the path that were hard to access, and after about another hour of trekking the terrain, and reaching a beautiful part of the mountain, we decided to call it quits and head back. It was nearing 5pm, and while I was all for spending the night back at our cave, it seemed my companions were not nearly as keen to do that. I should mention I found an old abandoned one room stone building near our cave. I decided to buy it one day and make it my summer retreat or something. I have no idea how to go about doing that, but you gotta have a plan right? It only took us about 30 mins to walk back, so I suppose we didn’t go all that far, but we had gotten a late start anyway. It was still one of the coolest, nay, THE coolest experiences I’ve had on this trip, and I dare say it would be hard to top. I’ve said I wanted to come back to every one of these countries, but hiking in Italy is without a doubt on the top of my list. Once we made it back to the road and hopped back on the bus to take us back into town, we walked back to the tourist office to find out about getting back. We heard we could take a ferry back to Naples, and we were pretty excited to possibly do that to head back. We found out that the last ferry to Naples, and also the last bus to get back, left at 5:30, we found this out at 5:35. For a split second we were rather nervous on how we were going to get back. While it would have been amazing to spend a night there, it would of also been extremely expensive. We eventually found out, and went with the plan of taking a bus to the city of Sorrento, a nice charming town along the coast. We hopped on a rather packed bus, and headed to Sorrento, only to experience our bus break down. Alright no problem, we just piled into another bus and made it there no problem. The view along the road as we traversed the Amalfi coast was extraordinary, and I can’t wait to go back. Once we got to Sorrento, we got off at the train station, and hopped on an hour long train back to Naples. We walked the 15 minutes from the train station to our ship, stopping for a bit to get a slice of pizza at a small café, and then called it a night.

My plan for the third day was to go to Capri, an island off the coast that was evidently a tourist paradise. It is the home of the blue grotto, which is a cave accessible only by a small rowboat; the grotto has some natural phenomenon that gives off a weary blue light in the cave. I realized that it would cost me almost 34 Euro just to get to the island and back. That is almost 50 American dollars. I went and ran off to Amsterdam, and it would just be way too expensive for me to head to Capri as well. I would end up sending arguably another 30 euros while I was on the island, and I just thought it would not be feasible, so I didn’t go. I woke up at 7am and called the people I was going to go with and let them know I was staying behind. I crashed back into bed, pretty exhausted for obvious reasons, and I didn’t end up waking up again until 2:30pm. I could not believe I slept that long, but I wasn’t to upset since I definitely was exhausted. I ended up just getting up and hanging out on deck enjoy the sun and hanging out with some friends until around dinner time. Then we got dressed and went out to go eat. We went to this nice little restaurant someone recommended, and I got a fried calzone. Oh man it was so good. Ricotta, ham, and mozzarella cheese in fried bread dough. It was delicious. Naples is the originator of pizza; the maragrethe pizza is the original pizza, named after Queen Margaret. After dinner we went out in search of gelato, which is basically ice cream, just made differently. We found some pretty easily, and enjoyed eating it outside the café while doing some people watching. We hung out again in the plaza where the demonstration took place, and generally just had a good evening hanging out.

My fourth day was another one I was really looking forward to. I was going to Pompeii. I mentioned a little bit about it earlier, destroyed in 79 AD, Roman city, yadda yadda yadda. It is a huge tourist destination, garnering something like 2.5 million visitors a year. It was really cool to walk amongst the ruins of this city. Our guide gave us a tour of the main square, the market place, the sauna, the theater, a typical house, and our personal favorite, the brothel. It was fantastic to be amongst the ruins, and experience so much history, ancient history, before us. From the streets made from lava stones, the mosaics on the walls, and everything in between, it was really neat to walk on the same streets that were built thousands of years ago. I love ruins like Pompeii, and I had a great time walking around and soaking it all in. I need to head to the Mayan and Aztec ruins next, or Egypt. I can’t make up my mind if I want to see ruins, or go hiking. Don’t I have to hike to get to the Mayan ruins? I’m going to go become an archeologist, they hike a lot. Is there anything still left to find though? Hmm…going to have to think about this. Anyway, I can’t say anything profound about Pompeii, beyond just the strange feeling you get walking around the town and staring at Mount Vesuvius in the distance, knowing that was the Volcano that destroyed this town. After Pompeii I went out on my own for a little souvenir shopping. I ran into some friends also walking the town, and we decided to head to Grambinus for some more gelatos. Café Grambinus has been the society-hall of Naples for almost 150 years. It is a famous café that has played a fine yet modest role at any public event, either political or social, and as a result it has become a reference point for chiefs of state, politicians, tourists as well as intellectual and common people. Among its famous customer include Gabriele D’Annunzio, Oscar Wilde, Matilde Serao, and Eduardo De Filippo. I have no idea who those people are, but I’m just reading off the brochure at this point. After that I had to wait around for an hour in a line to get back on ship, and I was able to get back on by 6:30, just in time to enjoy the ship bbq and hang out before heading back below deck and calling it a night. That’s a lie, when I say call it a night, I mean watch an episode of The Office as I fall asleep, I love that show. Got all four seasons from someone here on ship. Finished it too.

Anyway, that was my Naples, Italy trip. I really enjoyed it. The people were nice, and while Naples is recovering from a garbage strike, it was still relatively clean and a beautiful city. I can’t say I fully explored Naples like I feel like I’ve done with other towns, but then again I didn’t fully explore Antwerp either. I am slacking. Have you guys heard about Turkey? Last night there was a bombing in a neighborhood in Istanbul, the exact city we are supposed to dock with in less than 24 hours. They are making a final decision on weather or not we will go there. Between this and the embassy shooting a couple weeks ago, it is pretty much a toss up on whether or not we go there. I hope we do, I want to practice my bargaining skills in the Grand Bazaar that the city is so famous for. I also had a comical revelation while shopping in Naples. I’ve been collecting shot glasses in each country. I tried to collect music, but shot glasses are so much cheaper. Anyway, I bought my shot glass and I was just like, “why do I buy these? I don’t even like shots.” It made me laugh. I’m still going to buy the glasses, but I laugh about it now. So I can’t wait to bargain down a shot glass for a dollar to .25 cents. Watch out now.

The Road Not Taken

2008-07-18T15:11:00.001-07:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken”

I first heard this poem back in the 10^th grade, when I was a sophomore at St. Thomas Aquinas. My English teacher would make us memorize poems each week, and this was one of them. Oddly enough it is the only poem I still remember from back them, which I suppose speaks of how it affected me, enough for me to remember it 5 years later anyway. I’ve had this poem muddled in my brain ever since we arrived in Belgium, and I believe it is going to become my anthem the rest of this journey. I had an excellent time in Brussels, as I mentioned in my last blog, and my time spent in Belgium only got better the next three days. Our second day in port I spent exploring Antwerp. I explored the city, on my own, which I found refreshing when I did it for the first time in Copenhagen, and I was glad I got to relive the experience again. I wandered around the city in search of nothing and everything at the same time. I stopped for a bit at an internet café, and used their computers a bit to make some skype calls back home. I enjoyed the Mier which is a long strip of nothing but stores on either side. I enjoyed my first and only Belgium waffle from a vendor, and it was covered in chocolate, and extremely delicious. I munched on that as I continued my journey. I had overheard someone mention the diamond district is worth a look, and Antwerp is one of the, if not leading diamond centers in the world. I eventually learned much later that I actually walked right past the diamond district without knowing, so I guess it was not that impressive. I again found myself walking through residential neighborhoods, which I enjoyed doing when we got lost in Brussels, so I did not mind walking through it again. It seems every city we have been in has an Asian area somewhere in the city, and Antwerp was no exception. It is making me crave getting some Chinese food, but I have not given in yet. After meandering around aimlessly for a bit, I noticed some spires in the distance. If there is one thing I’ve learned during my time in Europe, it is that spires only lead to cool things. So I made my way over there, and found myself in front of a church that just seemed to be built into the rows and rows of stores and shops. It was not nearly as impressive as some of the other things I’ve seen, but it did lead me to a park. I was rather excited for the park, since by this point my back was aching from my bag, and my neck was killing me. I thought it would be a good idea to just rest a bit at the park, before making my way back to the ship. I had no real plans for anything the rest of the day, so I didn’t mind how long I stayed there. I plopped down in front of a tree, enjoying the shade it afforded me in the grass, not that it was sunny out or anything, but aren’t you suppose to sit under a tree? I thought so, so I did. I used my bag for a pillow, and rather quickly passed out. I was surprised about just how tired I was, and I fell into one of those not quite asleep, not quite awake states almost instantly. I woke up an hour and a half later (alright maybe I was more asleep than awake) to a couple guys kicking a football (as in soccer) around. They were pretty good (Rachel are you practicing?), and I watched for a bit, before realizing I had about 30 minutes until dinner closed back at the ship. So what do you do when the though of free food closing down hits? That’s right, I hightailed it back to the ship, just in time to enjoy dinner. After eating, I chatted up with some friends before making my way back to my room. I wasn’t really up for going out since I had a trip at 8am the next day, so I called it a night and went back to my room to watch whatever movie they had playing that night.

The next day I woke up around 7am, and actually made it to breakfast for the first time in weeks. I hopped on the bus, pretty excited for this whole castle tour. I have been looking forward to it for weeks now, so to say I was pumped is an understatement. We started our tour by heading to the town of Ghent. Ghent has an amazing history about it, which I did not even realize until after I just read a brochure on the city I have to help me explain to you guys what I did. There is evidence dated back to the stone age of inhabitants living in the region, and the city was one of the most flourishing and important cities in Europe from the year 1000 to around 1550. The people of Ghent were headstrong, proud, and rebellious, as earls and princes discovered. They even rebelled against their own child prince, Charles V. The people were publicly humiliated for their rebellion. On May 3^rd, 1540, a procession of Ghent residents walked barefoot, dressed only in a shirt and with a noose around their necks. Then they were made to kneel and beg for mercy before the Emperor. They became known as “Stroppendragers”, or “stropkes”, which means noose-wearers, and it’s a title the people proudly sport to this day. Ghent used to have a passage to the sea, and was quite a sea port, and then somehow, they lose their passage to the sea. In 1816, under Dutch administration, Ghent acquired its own university and ten years late the city again became a sea port with the creation of the Ghent-Terneuzen canal. Anyway, enough of the history lesson. We arrived in Ghent and got off the bus to walk the city. It was an awesome town to walk through, with amazing historical buildings and monuments in perfect contrast with the more modern additions. Our tour of Ghent started with us staring at St. Michael’s Church. Our guide told us an interesting store in which a steeple was planed to be built on top of the church that would be known as the “monument of triumph”. But for some reason, I suppose a lack of funs, the steeple was never built, and finally around 1828 the unfinished tower was given a closed roof. We then crossed St. Michael’s Bridge, which would have been like any other bridge except that it provided one of the coolest views in the city. It provides an amazing view of the three towers we would see, and it showed us where the old harbor use to be before Ghent lost its sea port, it also showed us our first view of the Castle of the Counts, a medieval fortress in the heart of the city we would explore later. The three towers we could see in the distance were St. Bavo’s Cathedral, The Belfry, and St. Nicholas’ Church. St. Bavo’s Cathedral was named after Saint Bavo, a 7th century local nobleman who became a saint after he had given away his possessions to the poor and entered the monastery. We actually went into St. Bavo’s, and had a small tour. I realized quite early on during our tour that while I have seen so many cathedrals’s and churches, I had actually only gone into one, the Kazan Cathedral in Russia. I’m not entirely sure if I made up my mind to go inside more of these amazing works of architecture, and I love seeing the inside, but I am indecisive if the inside is worth seeing. Still, all things considered, the inside was beautiful. I learn more about the place as I do more research to sound smart when I type out these blogs. A small Romanesque church was originally built near the end of the 13^th century. It was then decided to construct a beautiful gothic construction above the old Saint John's church. First, a gothic choir was built above the old choir, and was consecrated in 1353. The chapels around the choir were finished by the beginning of the 15th century. The tower was built from 1462 until 1538. The construction of the aisles and the nave started in 1533. Finally, on June 7th 1569 the construction was finished and the new gothic cathedral of Saint Bavo was consecrated. Interesting stuff huh? It took them almost 200 years to fully finish the construction of this place. The inside was gorgeous of course, and I later learned that the paintings I looked at and said to myself “cool”, were famous paintings such as Rubens “The conversion of St. Bavo” and “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by the Van Eyck brothers. I’m not much of an art buff, so I didn’t even know I was staring at famous paintings till after the fact, my sole reaction has not changed though, as I still think its “cool.” It was a really neat experience, and one I imagine I’ll visit again. I just want to quickly mention the history of the Belfry and St. Nicholas’s Church, the remaining two towers we passed before I get on with my trip. The Belfry represented the power of the city and was completed in 1338. All of the cities privileges, that is important documents that gave the city its rights and freedoms, were placed there for protection. It also served as a watch tower, the headquarters for the cities militia, and also as a gathering point for public meetings and showings. Instead of a normal chicken that normally adorns the top of these towers; a dragon is placed to show the power of the city. You know, those wind chime thingys? Yea, that thing. A weathercock, which is supposed to blow in the wind, yea they got a badass dragon. The last tower that adorned the cities skyline was
St. Nicholas’s Church, one of the oldest churches of the city. An older version stood here until the 12th century until it burned down in 1120 and 1176. Because of their growing wealth the citizens of Ghent were able to construct a new and much bigger church. The present-day version was finished between 1220 and 1250. So that was all interesting stuff for sure, and I am really glad I did my research, as I pretty much learned all that as I typed it out, or copied and pasted some of the dates. (Hey its my blog, I can plagiarize all I want…Right?) So after our tour of the Cathedral, we headed to the Gravensteen Castle, which means the Castle of the Counts in Dutch. It was built on the remains of a wooden castle in 1180 by Count Philip of Alsace. It was the first real castle in our historic castle trip, and I have to be honest, it left me wanting. Don’t get me wrong, it sure was a castle all right, it had the walls, the guard towers, the moat, the high spires, the dungeon, the whole shebang, but I had envisioned grand, huge castles that dominated the landscape, this castle was not nearly the scope of what I was expecting, but it was still really cool all the same. We got to walk along the walls, see the chapel, where it had the holes where the defenders of the castle would pour hot water and oil on invaders, pretty neat. We got to see a trebuchet, which I was pretty stoked about, but like the castle itself, it was a much smaller scale. We then got to see the dungeon, and then made our way up the spiraling staircases towards the top. We got to see a room adorned with medieval weaponry, which everyone should know by now, I was stoked about. Can anyone Photoshop me into a suit of armor? Never mind, I’ll buy some at goodwill or something. We also got to see an authentic guillotine, which was last used sometime in the 1800s and some other torture devices. These people did not place around with their torture, that’s for sure. Some of it, such as thumb screws, is still used today, from my understanding anyway. My pamphlet on Ghent says the fortress was built more to defend the authorities from the city, then to defend the city from the outside forces, which I find comical. It goes back to the citizens of Ghent being headstrong and obstinate. We made our way to the top of the castle, to the battlements? I think that’s what the top is called. “Everyone to the battlements!” Sounds right to me. Anyway it was basically the top of the castle, and we got to see an impressive sight of the city. The three towers dotted the skyline in all their glory, and I could just imagine guards patrolling the walls, or raining arrows down on invaders below. I have no idea if the castle was ever attacked, Wikipedia tells me nothing, but I could imagine it would hold its own against any invading force. After we visited the fortress, we had lunch at a restaurant in town. We had a three course meal that consisted of salad, chicken soup, and desert. I give it mixed reviews since I don’t like salad, and I had more vegetables than chicken, but it was still tasty all the same. Plus they served beer for a eruo, and I borrowed their glass for eternity since it was cool. It has a neck stem like a wine glass, but had a much bigger, errrr, drink holder part. Descriptive, I know. Evidently they have different shape glasses for drinking different types of beer, and God help you if a true Belgium catches you drinking the wrong beer in the wrong glass. Heads have been known to role, governments have toppled, Kings have bowed before peasants, and all sorts of unpleasant things have been known to happen. You know why Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo (which is somewhere in Belgium)? Cause he was caught drinking ale in the wrong glass, true story. It incensed whoever defeated Napoleon enough to cause his downfall. Anyway, after lunch we headed towards our next castle. Turns out there is a difference between a castle and a fortress. A castle is not used for defense or anything like that, while a fortress is for defense of a city. We made our way to Ooidonk Castle. It was built in the 14^th century, and has withstood time, war, and other forms of destruction. It was one of the more interesting castles, mostly because it was occupied by a Count. I’ve never met a Count before, and I still have not met one, but it was weird to know the castle we were exploring actually had people living in it, albeit in a more upgraded section of the Castle that we obviously did not see, but strange all the same. It was an extremely pretty, well decorated Castle that showed how people lived during the time period, I would not call it a fortress by any means, though it was updated in the 19^th century to have modern comforts for the time, so maybe back when it was built it had more of a fortress aspect to it, who knows. Interesting all the same. The city it is located in, Deinze, helps with the upkeep of the outside gardens, but the owners of the house are responsible for the inside. It was also odd to learn that the Count had to work full-time to make a living. I always assumed if you owned a castle you probably were rich and did not need to work. Dumb assumption on my part, but an interesting fun fact to learn. Counts work, go figure. I’m sure having Count to your name helps on the job application process. They don’t even have any live-in help, since it has become too expensive. After Ooidonk, which means something like higher ground in whatever language it is in, Old Dutch I believe, we headed to our next castle. We headed to Slot Van Laarne, which I personally found as the least appealing castle on our list. It had an interesting history, in which it was built in the 14^th century, and was upgraded gain in the 17^th century. It was neglected and was almost reduced to ruins when someone bought it, and then donated it to a historical society, which had no money for restoration. It was actually put on the auction block for 1 franc, but had really tiny print that whoever bought it had to restore it, so nobody bought it. Finally the society slowly and surely put money into the restoration. Now it stands in all its glory, but with nothing original inside, which I was bummed about. I think it was originally a fortress, and then became a castle. It was a hybrid, as we could see the tiny windows associated so archers could fire out but not really bit shot back at, and then big, giant windows when things were added and changed. The one notable aspect of the castle had nothing to do with its architecture or history. Evidently back in the late 80s or early 90s, an old gentleman and his wife asked if they could live in the castle, an odd request I’m sure, but he offered his entire silver collection upon his death. Some people collect baseball cards, this man collected silver. It was a big enough collection where they accepted his “donation” and let him live in the castle. After his death his collection was put on display, and is one of the largest displays of silver whatever around. Silver spoons, cups, plates, pipes, goblets, forks. All sorts of stuff like that. His wife who survived him, went to live in another castle with the same arrangement, let me live in your castle and you can have my silver. A fun fact, a couple months ago someone broke in and stole about 44 pieces of silver. I don’t even know if it made a dent in the collection, as there had to be hundreds of pieces. So that was neat to see, but by this time I was truly exhausted and nobody argued when our guide asked us to head back to the bus. I promptly passed out since it was going to be a 45 minute to an hour ride back to the ship, and I needed my sleep, as I had something special planned for that night.

So you may be wondering to yourself about that quote I had mentioned. You’re probably saying something like “well Ryan, it sounds like your having a good time and all, but I would not call anything your doing off the beaten path or traveling down a different road.” And you may be right, but I had decided earlier that morning during breakfast that there was something I really wanted to do. I just knew I had to do it, and I would regret it if I didn’t do it. I wanted to do it so much that I would even skip a friends 21^st birthday so I could do it. I was going to do it whether someone came with me, or not. And nobody came with me. I had to do it. I wanted to do it. Have I built up the anticipation enough? Let me try again. I wanted to do it, and I would regret it the rest of the trip if I didn’t do it. What could it be? I had thought about it during breakfast, and assumed the urge would wane by the time I got back from my trip, but I still had a burning desire to do it, and do it I did. I went to Amsterdam. Yup, that’s right. Amsterdam, Holland. The city of…Well…stuff. I just had this urge to go and see what it was all about. I think most of our ship went and spent a day or two there, and I skipped out on going to Normandy (My friend actually did go, and had an amazing time) and I decided I really wanted to do this, if no one came with me or not. So I got back from my trip around 5:30, and I ate dinner and left shortly around 7 pm. I just walked to the train station, with nothing but my camera in my bag, and the clothes on my back. I should have grabbed a stupid jacket, but live and learn. I went and bought a round-trip ticket to Amsterdam, with the intent of pulling an all-nighter, and catching the first train back in the morning. I really wanted to go and see the red light district in Amsterdam. I know, I know, how cultured am I? I could have gone and seen Anne Frank’s house, or the Van Gogh museum, but no, I just wanted to see Amsterdam’s red light district. I was lucky enough to run into two guys, Rich and Dan, who were doing the exact same thing as me as I waited for the train. They had also gone on the castle trip, and I hitched up with them. I’m glad I ran into them, as I was cautious about doing this alone. They are both real cool guys, and made the trip much more enjoyable. We actually had to switch trains somewhere along the line, and we had no idea about that until our entire train emptied out, and then the lights turned off. We were sitting there in the dark and I was like, “uh guys, I think we need to get on another train.” The conductor helped us out and it was no problem, but still funny anyway. We got on our next train and made it into Amsterdam at around 10pm. We found the red light district easily enough, we just followed the lights. Now for those who are wondering what is so special about the red light district, I have no idea why it is so popular, but it is the land of legal weed and legal prostitution, both which were in abundance. The smell of weed was everywhere, and “coffee bars”, where people get their hash and marijuana, was in abundance. I suppose the reason the red light district gets its name is from the red lights that emanate from the prostitutes windows. Prostitutes actually sit in front of windows and do their thing to attract customers. If people are interested, they just walk up to the window, negotiate their price, and in they go. The entire place was hopping for a Wednesday night, with plenty of bars, sex shops, sex shows, and all sorts of weird random stores open for business, and tons of people walking the streets. There is nothing like Amsterdam in all of America, and I think that is why I wanted to go. It is something I will never experience in the States, and it just seems like it’s something everyone should do once. So with that in mind, Amsterdam has over 1000 canals that go throughout the city, and we saw plenty on our walk. We eventually ran into a couple girls who were doing the same thing as us, except they had been there since 5pm, and we all went into a bar for a couple drinks to start the night off. I’ve been staying away from drinking excessively, and for the first time in probably forever, I heeded Mom’s advice and stopped at two. Haha. We mostly just walked around and explored what Amsterdam had to offer, and boy did it have plenty. I was amazed by how many people were out and about, but that was to be expected I suppose, it is Amsterdam after all. I talked to a couple guy from Denmark, and we were both surprised because they had run into a couple SAS people in Copenhagen, and were surprised to see us in Amsterdam. We ran into a couple of guys from Australia, and a bunch of American Air Force guys who had some free time and were enjoying themselves. There was also a ton of seedy people around, offering ecstasy and cocaine on every street, and we actually saw one guy, who was hopped up on some sort of drug, get his wallet stolen by about 5 guys, who were slick and kept passing the wallet around as this poor guy tried to figure out who had his wallet, and they just kept denying and denying as they walked off and played hot potato with his wallet. There was not a whole lot we could do, and I felt for the poor guy, but he shouldn’t have been that messed up as to get his wallet stolen in the first place. I’ve felt really safe in the last couple countries we’ve been in, but I still keep all my stuff in my fun little secret necklace holder, for just that reason. I’ve actually wanted to put a fake wallet in my back pocket, and see if I can’t catch someone trying to pickpocket me, and then I could get in a fight in a foreign country, check that one off my list. Kidding! I was kind of Anyway, our entire plan was to stay out until the 6am train back to Antwerp, but we never planned on Amsterdam shutting down shop at 1:30-2:00 am. We were kind of confused when things started shutting down, and we spent a good hour walking around trying to find an open bar or something to hang out at. It seemed like the time when the locals came out to see what they could do to tourists, because guys kept telling us about bars in seedy back alleys and trying to get us to go into shady doors, telling us their buddy had a bar in back. We decided this was not going to work, and we decided to make our way to the train station, we were accompanied by a couple SAS guys who had gotten kicked out of their hostel for reasons unknown. So we all made our way to the train station and were told the next train to Antwerp was at 6am, and it was around 3am, so we just sat down outside the train station and went to sleep on the ground. Dan didn’t like our plan, so he went inside and came out to tell us there was a 3:40 am train to Rotterdam station, where we could take another train to Antwerp, so up we got and off we went on this early morning train to Rotterdam. By this point, we are all exhausted, and we all pretty much fell asleep. I woke up just in time at Rotterdam, and woke us all up and jumped off the train. We ran up to the conductor asking about Antwerp. We wanted to know if the train we were on was heading to Antwerp, and he answered in a riddle me this, riddle me that fashion, as we could not seem to get a straight answer out of him. We ended up not getting on the train, and waiting around until a 6:12 am train. We ended up passing out on the floor again somewhere in the train station, and were rudely woken up by security guards yelling at us about not sleeping lying down after 5 am. It’s ok to sleep, just not lying down, strange rule, but we woke up, and made our way down to our station and just waited around for the train. I can’t tell you how glorious it was to see “Antwerpen”, which is the Dutch or French way of saying Antwerp, on the sign above the station. We finally made our way on the train, and asked the conductor what time we would arrive in Antwerp. He told us 8am, and Rich set his alarm for 8am, and we all promptly fell asleep. I woke up just as we were pulling into the station, and we made the 15 minute walk back to the ship, in about 25 minutes, since we were all pretty much dragging ourselves forward. I had not slept in 25 hours, beyond uncomfortable cap naps, and oddly enough, I felt tired. Go figure. Though I can’t complain too much, I did get some power naps in front of the train station in Amsterdam, inside the train station in Amsterdam, on the train to Rotterdam, inside the train station in Rotterdam, on the platform in Rotterdam, and on the train to Antwerp. I smelled pretty bad by the end of all this. I didn’t get back to the ship until about 8:45, and I went to my room and passed out to the world until about 2:30 or so. I woke up and went out with my friend Elena to get some chocolates, since I mean, we were in Belgium, and Belgium is the chocolate capital of the world. I’m not sure if you guys knew that or not, I feel like it might not be well-known or anything. I also had some more frits, their version of French fries, with some samurai mayo sauce, and it was good. I then took my chocolate, and headed back to the ship to call my trip to Belgium complete. I had a great time, did some amazing things, and regret nothing. Even the hit to my bank account was worth it.

Some random cool things I want to point out. I saw a submarine today, our first day back at sea. I don’t know if I noticed it because it was rising from the water or what, but it was definitely a sub, and it was definitely awesome to see. There was no way to know what country it was from, but I like to think we just have an armed escort to Italy, even if the sub was heading in a different direction then us. I am also calling quits in my pursuit to collect music from each country we got to, as it has just gotten too expensive, so I shall continue to collect shot glasses instead. Belgium chocolate, waffles, and frits lived up to expectation, and their well-known for their mussels, but I didn’t try any of those. Belgium’s government is actually going their some mighty turmoil. Our guide said the government fell, but I have no idea what it actually means. There has been an on-going feud between the Dutch speaking Flanders region of Belgium, and the French speaking region of Wallonia. Brussels is located in the middle of these two regions, and seems to be part of the feud, as both regions want to be separate from the other, but want Brussels with them. It is a very political process, and the issues is almost meaningless in the day to day life of Belgium’s people, as I would have had no idea about it except our tour guide mentioned it. If anyone knows any more about, which I doubt you would even know about it, I’m assuming CNN wouldn’t even cover it. The only reason it is somewhat important is because of the EU and NATO being located in Brussels. Belgium is another country with a Monarchy, but only for show, as they have no real power, and that is delegated to the Prime Minister, who has resigned over this situation by the way, and the government. Anyway, there are some fun facts for you.

We now have five days at sea while we head to Naples, Italy, which I am looking forward to. I’m not looking forward to this whole “going back to classes” thingy majigger. Oh well. We have a mid-term assignment due on Sunday, and oddly enough, one of the topics is comparing and contrasting the Scandinavian people to the Russian people, which I wanted to do anyway, so now I can just use it as a paper for my mid-term. That worked out well. We also have the Sea Olympics coming up soon. We are divided into different seas, and I am in the Mediterranean Sea. Our RA joked that we will have home sea advantage during the Olympics since we will be in the Mediterranean Sea pretty soon. I am all signed up for volleyball and the tug-of-war. Grr!!! Go Mediterranean Sea! Anyway, that’s all I got for now. Off to Naples, Italy, to see where the road leads me next.

P.S. I want to direct you to my friend Elena’s blog. She is a great writer, and is a really good blogger, and if you want a different perspective on the trip, I invite you guys to follow her journey as well. www.esp-at-sea.blogspot.com

P.P.S. I'm having some trouble uploading pictures, so I will come back and add them later. From top to bottom you have, a cool water picture, St. Michael's Church, The Three Towers, St. Nicholas Church, and The Belfry.

Last thoughts on Denmark, Hello Antwerp, Belgium

2008-07-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

I was kind of under the impression that once I left Copenhagen, my Denmark trip would more or less come to a conclusion, but oddly enough, Denmark had a lot more up its sleeve for me than I realized. I am now currently in Belgium as I write this, but I have so much more to say about Denmark, before I even recount my day here in Belgium. I was able to get onto the train and back to Korsor easily enough. As I got off the train, I realized I had no freaking idea where the ship was in relation to the train station, so what did I do you ask? Easy, I just followed all the American looking people. They were all headed to the bus, and I thought to myself, aw crap I don’t know if I have enough money for the bus. I walk up to the door and a couple students and I ask how much it is for the bus, and if it is heading to the docks. He asks us if we are on the Explorer, the ship. We say yea, and he just smiles and says “hop on, and don’t worry about paying.” Three cheers for the bus driver! At first I wasn’t sure how we lucked into this, if the ship was paying the bus system or what. I have since come to a conclusion about this, but there is more. Now you have to realize I have not spent more than 5 minutes up until this point in Korsor. I went straight to Copenhagen as soon as we docked. Well we all got to the ship easy enough, and even in time for dinner to boot. Afterwards, I met up with Travis, Annie, Beth, and Alli, and they said they were going to try to find internet. Once we walk outside, Travis and I decide to go explore the town a bit, since neither of us has really seen it. We immediately realized this town was dead. Wikipedia has nothing more on the town of Korsor beyond its population, of about 12,000. I actually tried to edit Wiki and let Korsor know we were coming to town. They already knew, because like I believe I mentioned, they had a band playing jingles and tunes as we docked, and they rolled out a red carpet on our boarding ramp. It was not until I was walking around town with Travis that I fully realized what was going on. Everyone had complained about why we couldn’t just dock in Copenhagen, since they had a port. Someone commented, and they were probably right, that it was just really expensive for us to dock there compared to this small town. I realized while walking around town that our ship coming to their dock was probably the biggest thing to happen to this town since, I dunno, their bell tower was built or something like that. That explained everything, the band, the red carpet, the friendly bus driver. Our ship was a big deal. We were docking with 1,000 people on ship, and people that had money to spend. Our four days in port probably boosted the local economy tremendously, even if most of us went to Copenhagen. It was while walking and discussing this with Travis that we met up with some other SAS kids strolling around, and then we were approached by a man asking us if we were from the ship. We said yea, introduced ourselves, and told him what states we were from. He then went on to tell us he had graduated with his MBA from NYU, and he was actually the Denmark representative to the New York Times, or something to that affect. He talked to me about his vacation a few weeks ago at South Beach in Miami, and how now was the time for him to buy a little summer home somewhere in the states because of our weak dollar. He had actually been to quite a few states in the US, and expressed a desire to see Chicago. I really wanted to ask him about how he ended up in Korsor, if he had been born here, but I felt that mildly inappropriate and assumed he would offer it, which he did not. I also wish I had asked him about how our ship being there had affected the town, but I did not think of that question till much later. I asked him what there was to do in town, since we had one more day in Korsor, and he told me to take a train to Copenhagen, which I found comical. After we parted ways we found a bar packed with Karaoke singing SAS students, and outside was a crew member with a bit of shore leave. We recognized him as someone who worked in the kitchen, and introduced ourselves and asked him how he was enjoying his free time. He kind of shrugged and talked about how it’s hard for him, since he evidently does not make a ton of money working with SAS, and how there is much more money to be made working for Royal Caribbean or any of the other bigger cruise lines. He was from Guyana, and he said he has a family there, and is still trying to pay off his mortgage. A lot of our crew members are from the Philippines and it was nice to talk to, Damien was his name, for a bit about SAS and Denmark and how he liked traveling to these countries, though he had to watch his spending while he was allowed off the ship. Once we said goodbye to Damien, we resumed walking and passed a candy shop, with the door open, but it had the look of the owner just sweeping up before closing for the night. We asked if we could come in and look around, and he beckoned us in. It was an impressive shop, and I bought a tub of gummy bears with the last of my kroner. We could tell the shop keeper was of Middle Eastern descent, and Travis asked him where he was from. He told us he was from Iraq, and had come over to Denmark about 6 years ago. Travis apologized, and I joined in, on America invading Iraq, and the man just smiled and nodded. He spoke with broken English, and I’m not even sure if he understood us. He finally asked if we were from the ship, and we said yes and he handed us an extra piece of candy. We happily thanked him and left with our wares. We walked off back to the ship wondering what his real thoughts were, as someone who had immigrated well before the war, on the invasion and America’s occupation in Iraq. It ended up being a really interesting and enlightening night. Like I said before, “The Ship”, and I felt like it became known as, was a big deal for the town, and they really seemed excited to have us there, and the people were just extremely friendly. From the bus driver, to our NY Times friend, to the shop keep, it all just added up to an incredible day after I left Copenhagen. I wish I could say the next day was just as exciting, but I woke up rather late, and went to the public library to use the internet. Beyond that, nothing particularly noteworthy took place.

I mentioned that us being in town was a big deal, well I realized just how big a deal it was when we were scheduled to set sail. About 50 people showed up to wave us off from port. Unfortunely, something had happened that changed our departure time from 9pm, to 4am the following morning. The ship intercom buzzed on and thanked Korsor for their wonderful hospitality, and informed them about our departure change, but readily thanked them for coming out and waving us off. I was in my room during this, but I could imagine the disappointment the town folk felt. I was not up at 4 am to see us off, and I doubt anyone else was either. What caused this drastic change you ask? Well we found out just before we got off the ship in Denmark, that we had received permission from Germany to use the Kiel Canal to transport from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. The Kiel Canal is owned and operated by Germany; it divides Germany and Denmark, and is THE busiest artificial waterway, busier than the Panama Canal. Our schedule had us (you might want to look at a map for this one) sailing around Denmark and then on into Belgium. The Kiel Canal saved us somewhere up to 11 hours of sailing time, and an estimated $10,000 in fuel. I think we had to pay Germany $10,000 to use the Canal, but it’s the thought that counts right? So because we would arrive in Belgium extremely early if we set sail at 9pm, it explained why we waited around until 4am to set sail. Sailing through the Canal the following day was awesome. We got into the lock at about 8:45am, and I was up and on the deck to check it out. Into the lock, pump the water, and off we go. It took us most of the day to sail through the canal, but it was so awesome to be able to eat on deck and be outside and just see the German countryside as we sailed by. Farms and fields and woods oh my. We went out on deck and shouted out random German phrases to all the people we saw on the shore of the canal. I don’t know if I can officially say I was in Germany, but I have technically been through it. Passage through the Kiel saved us so much time, that we actually docked in Belgium at 12 midnight on Sunday, 8 hours before our scheduled dock time. We still just docked and had to wait around until the morning, but it was pretty cool. Anyway, that leads me into my first day in Belgium, which I think I’ll write about another time…NOT! Ah sorry, had to lead you on a bit.

I have to admit, my original plan for the first day in Belgium was to hop onto a train and head to Normandy, France with my friend Dave. I still wish, and I’ll probably regret it in the end, not going, but I felt it would be a really expensive day, and I was not interested in blowing all my money going to Normandy, no matter how awesome it would be. We were going to go to see the D-Day beaches, and the WWII museums on the site. We are technically not even allowed to go to France, as SAS tells us which countries we can go to, and France was not on that list. It didn’t stop Dave from going to Berlin, Germany while we were in Denmark, and I doubt it stopped him from going to France. But I did decide to go to Brussels with Beth, Annie, Danielle, Sarah, and Erik. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, and the headquarters for NATO, and the EU. It’s pretty much a big deal. We took the train to get there, and from there we were off. We dropped Annie off at a hotel so she could meet up with her Dad, and we went off into exploration of the city. We decided we wanted to see the giant Atom; I’ll call it since I can’t remember the scientific name. It was at their expo center, site of the World Fair back in 1958, if I recall correctly.
St. Remy's Church

It was built specifically for the fair if I remember right. Anyway, it took us something like 3 hours of walking to find it. We got lost, plain and simple, but lost in such a good way. We ended up walking through a lot of the neighborhoods and seeing just how culturally diverse this city really was. While walking through the neighborhoods we could plainly see the Italian area, the Middle Eastern area, and subtle differences such as a random Turkish flag, an influx of Middle Eastern restaurants, and lot of pizzerias, really helped define the neighborhoods and make them stand out in their own. We would pass kids playing soccer in the street, open taverns already filled by early afternoon with patrons, couples strolling along the parks, and parents pushing strollers on the sidewalk. It was not the part of town normally seen by tourists, and it was an awesome experience to walk through. We eventually, finally, at long last found the Atom, and at this point we were near exhaustion and frustration from so much aimless walking. But in the end it was really cool to see, and beyond the aesthetically pleasing exterior, there was not a whole lot to do with it beyond taking pictures, which we readily did, more so in a “we walked all the way out here, you can damn well bet were taking pictures” than anything else. We also had heard about this “Mini-Europe”, that we were interested in seeing, but it cost 12 Euro to get in, which is like 20 bucks, so we passed in favor of lunch. Belgium is evidently the fries capital of the world, since people love their fries, or frites as their called. Most gyros to pitas come with fries stacked high on the sandwich, topped off with all sorts of variations of mayonnaise. I got a lovely platter of meat and fries. I suppose it might have been pork, but it was a huge stack of meat and fries, and it was delicious. After lunch, we needed to head to the Grand Place in time to meet Annie at 3:30. Now I just laughed at this notion of meeting her in time, since we didn’t leave lunch until 3, and it took us a good two hours to walk out to where we were. After a lot of soul-searching, map-digging, and common sense, we decided to take the metro back towards the center of town. Why we didn’t take the metro out to where we were, I have no idea. I wanted to rent bikes, but was waved off as a dumb idea. Well I got the last laugh, I’ll tell you that. We finally got to the Grand Place at about 4:15, and Annie was nowhere to be found. The square we were in was amazing, as it was surrounded on all four sides by magnificent structures, topped up with an amazing cathedral, that I think was not really a Cathedral, but rather the town hall, according to a sign I saw inside the door anyway. But it was an amazing structure, with intricate designs on the outside, and incredible spire reaching up to the heavens, and amazing carvings of saints and other random figures on the outside of the building. I’ll eventually get a map with the name of it, and I’ll inform you all later, but it was a serious structure, that’s for sure. We waited around for Annie for a while, and eventually gave her up as dead. Well that was harsh, and not true. We asked from SAS people we saw if she had been seen, and eventually assumed she just latched on with other students walking around. We met up with Travis just as Erik and Sarah were heading back to the train station. So the new group of Travis, Beth, Danielle, and I kept up our search of the city. We eventually stumbled upon the mannequin piss. Which is an amazing statue, of, well, uhhh, a small child pissing. The story goes that back in the day, a fuse was lit that led to a stack of firecrackers, which could have blown up the whole town, and out came a small boy who courageously put out the fire by pissing on the line. I think it was led to believe he put it out on accident, but an incredible story none the less of heroism in the face of defeat, is it not? From there we kept on our little walking tour of the area, and eventually sat down at a little outdoor café for dinner, or as much as a plate of fries can be distinguished as dinner. We enjoyed our frites, and had a great conversation talking about the city and what not. We finally called it quits after a while of people watching and talking, and tried to orient ourselves to where the train station was. We happened to be in the bar, restaurant, chocolate stores, souvenir shop, and whatever can be bought section of town, with small, winding streets, which made it difficult for a bit. Lucky for us, Travis is quite the world traveler, and he has not met a town’s layout that has conquered him yet, and he bravely forged the way to the train station. He went off in the direction of Amsterdam for the night, and we went back to Antwerp, and the comforts of our ship. A lot of people are heading to Amsterdam from Belgium, and I considered being one of them, but I had my fun in Copenhagen, and I’m not too interested in repeating the process of hotel, train, and food prices again. Tomorrow I plan on exploring more of Antwerp, and Wednesday is my big day, when I go and meet the destiny that awaited me 500 years ago, a medieval castle tour. I’m telling you, and I feel like Wednesday’s trip is only going to confirm it, I should have been a knight 500 years ago!!!! I hope everyone is doing great, and I love and miss you all.

P.S. There were a few things I really wanted to point out about Copenhagen, and a comparison of Copenhagen against St. Petersburg. I’ll save my comparison for a blog of its own another day. Copenhagen has to be one of the nicest, prettiest, and friendliest cities I’ve ever been in. Bicycles rule the road, but not in the sense of how they do in third world countries, it’s more because cars are expensive, but I got the sense that there was no reason for a car, a bike could take you anywhere just as easy, and it was cheaper, and safer for the environment. Copenhagen is the city that went green 15 years ago, before “going green” wasn’t even an idea. Actually Denmark in general just seems like the country taking an initiative for care of the environment, and the practicality of bikes.

2008-07-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hey All

Denmark is quite the stark contrast to Russia. I don't have to much time to get into all of my thoughts and feelings between the two countries, but I did want to recap my visit to Denmark so far.

I tried really hard to wake up in time to see us dock into Denmark, but my plan failed miserably and I woke up in time for our pre-port meeting that we have done through the US Embassy. These things have become quite a bore, and they don't tell us anything profound or interesting. It's all stuff we have already heard. I went outside to get my first look at Denmark, and let me tell you, Korsor is nothing special at all. We were docked 90 minutes outside of Copenhagen, and Korsor is just a quiet town of about 14,000. I heard there was a band that played outside when we docked, but I missed it. It was a rainy day, and it did not let up for the entire day. I went outside for a bit to walk around, got completely soaked, and decided to go back to the ship and just wait for my Copenhagen city orientation tour which was at 11:00 am. The drive to the city was pretty uneventful and while I stayed up to check out the scenery, eventually our windows fogged up from the rain and I passed out into a nap. Our city orientation tour eventually took us to Christiansborg, which is home to the government. We had a real nice tour of the place done by a congressman. From there we went to visit Amalienborg Plads, which is where the residence of the Queen and King of Denmark is, if my memory does not escape me. It was a really nice area, with a large plaza in front of the residence, with Royal Guards patrolling the area.

Then we visited the most famous spot, and easily the most photographed piece in Copenhagen, The Little Mermaid. It is a statue in honor of the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen, who is famous for his fairy tales, which also include The Ugly Duckling. The Little Mermaid tale does not have the happy ending Disney gave it. The statue is nothing special, but it is a must-see right?
Oh So Pretty
It's tiny, but what you going to do? You just have to get artistic with it....

Once our tour was over, I hopped off the bus and met with my friend Sarah, and we went in search of our hotel and the rest of our group. We stayed at the Cab Inn, get it, Cabin? It was a really tiny room and I slept on the floor, but a room is a room and even though we fit 5 people in it, it was comfy and fine. We went out that night, and I ended up singing karaoke again at a bar called Sam's Bar. I sang "All-Star" by Smashmouth, and I loved every minute of it. It was a good night, with a lot of people singing, and I enjoyed myself, even if my company got sloshed drunk and I had to direct them home. It was still a good time. That was my first day in Denmark.

I started my second day by meeting up with some people who had stayed at a different hotel, and we went in search of the free bicycles the city is known for. I have so much to say about the city, and I promise when I have more time I will explain it all, but you just have to go with it for now. We ended up not ever actually finding any bikes until much, much later, but we ended up walking all around the city for a good 6 hours or so. I got to play tour guide again with my friends as we visited Christianborg again, then moved along and got to see Amalienborg as well. I pretty much played tour guide to everything I had visited the day before. I was perfectly content to revisit the places again, as I did not get enough time the first time through. We walked all the way to see the Little Mermaid, which is quite a ways from our hotel. We got to pass through the Kastellet, which is an old military fort that still has some use with the military today. From there we knew it would be an insane walk back, as we were all pretty tired, so we hopped on a city bus and took it to Rosenborg Slot, which is another Royal Residence. It is located near the Royal Gardens, where a ton of people were out picnicking and enjoying the day. There was also a rather large crowd gathered for a concert going on, as it is Jazz Fest this week. There are concerts going on all over the place. But we sat down in the grass and enjoyed the gardens. I had finally found a free bicycle, and we took turns riding it around the park. We wanted to go inside and visit Rosenborg, but it was closed when we came in, so we just visited the outside. From there we walked across the street and went to the to the Statens Museum for Kunst, or the National Gallery of Denmark. They had a lot of modern art, as well as a lot of the older paintings. It was an experience for sure, as they had some really freaky stuff. We stayed there for a bit and enjoyed the works of art, then hopped on another bus that we hopped would take us close back to our hotel. We found dinner at a buffet pizza place. Food is extremely expensive, so a buffet style was the way to go. Then I found another bike and took it back to the hotel, the rest of the group just walked back, since it wasn't that far away. I used the bike to meet up later with the rest of the group, since we had split during the day. We went out back into the nightlife, and while I was exhausted, I stayed out for a bit and experienced Sam's Bar again, and listened to some of my friends sing. I then went home, skyped with Maureen for a bit, and then crashed back on the floor.

The next day, well, today, I set out on my own on a bike I was able to snag. I wanted to visit Christiania, which is a self proclaimed free state/utopia that is basically separate from Copenhagen (even though its in the city). In the early 70s, a bunch of hippies took over the area, which used to be 19th century military barracks. It is now a haven for hippies and God knows what else. It's a cool little area filled with all sorts of random people. The buildings are all graffiti with all sorts of sayings, slogans, and political stuff. It was really neat to see and spend some time in. From there I came back to the hotel to grab my stuff, and have been typing out this blog and skyping to people back home. I got to talk to my parents and Maureen for a while. It was good to hear all their voices again. I am going to hop on a train and head back to Korsor as soon as I am done with this post. I am going to add a few more pictures for all your viewing pleasure. Take Care all, and as always you can find most of these pictures on my flickr account.

St. Petersburg, Russia

2008-07-06T13:07:00.001-07:00

Oh Mother Russia, USSR, CCCP, Russian Republic, and all that jazz. After spending five days in St. Petersburg, or Petrograd, or Leningrad, I’m not quite ready to call myself Russian and move out to the Motherland, but it really was a beautiful country and I had a great time during my stay there. Everyone knows the history of Russia, the Bolshevik revolution, Communism, the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and all that. I was feeling pretty wary of the country as we got closer and closer to the day of reckoning. They had a whole cultural pre-port, where it seemed like all they did was tell us to watch out for pick-pocketers, muggings, beatings, bits of racism, and an all around hell wrath of scare on Russia. I walked out of the pre-port wondering if we could skip Russia and move right on to Denmark, where everyone’s a pony, and they poop out butterflies and rainbows(Sorry, obscure movie reference there, anyone get it?). But beyond the fear factor they instilled on us, I was still looking forward to seeing some of the sights I’ve heard and read about, and some that I have not. Plus, isn’t Russia where they do that badass dance? Where they fold their arms, almost sit on the ground, and kick their feet out? Russia, right? Man, I had to see that.

The day we got into Russia started like any other day of my life, I woke up at 6am (That’s a lie, I wake up earlier than 10am about 75 times a year, I used a variable square root times an anomaly log plus an old oil painting I saw once, then I subtracted it all by the prime factorization of 6 to come up with my answer. Impressive huh?) Anyway, I woke up early so I could see us come into port. Coming into Norway was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, coming up out of the ship and seeing all the mountains and towns dotting the landscape are a scene I’ll replay in my mind for years to come, so with these thoughts in my mind, I was really looking forward to what I would see when I opened the door and saw Russia for the first time. So I’ll actually do an entire play-by-play of what happen and my reaction. So I opened the door, proudly walked out, chest held high, looked beyond the railing outside and saw…….a freaking industrial harbor, that smelled, and was ugly as hell. Well maybe there are mountains in the distance, let me look, oh no, freaking cranes and smokestacks, EVERYWHERE! Needless to say, Seeing Russia for the first time was everything I was not expecting. At the same time, it was interesting to note the contrast, and honestly, I should not have been expecting the beautiful scenery of Norway, as Russia is not the land of the fjords. Still, would have been nice. Anyway, I was left staring at this industrial harbor on my right, and evidently we passed the projects on our left, looked that way anyway. Well anyway, after taking some pictures, and realizing the view really wasn’t going to get any better, I headed down to grab some breakfast. Eventually we docked, and the view got a whole lot better. I guess I should explain about St. Petersburg a bit, before I delve into my tale of mystery, horror, deceit, betrayal, and oh right, my life isn’t a novel. Yet. Ah, I’m just filled with all sorts of jokes today huh? St. Petersburg was constructed in, ah crap, I think it was the 1700s? Don’t quote me. Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, I think, constructed the city because it was viewed as a way to connect Europe to Russia. It would allow Russia to finally have a true port to open up trade with the rest of the world. The city was unique as far as European cities are concerned, since it was predetermined exactly how it was going to be built. They literally built the city on marsh lands. But I guess they knew what they were doing, since it’s a thriving city still to this day. The city is actually a system of closely linked islands, and as such, it is filled with bridges and canals, much like Venice in Italy. So much so, that it is actually called the Venice of the East, or the 2^nd Venice, something classy like that. As a lot of older cities are built small, and gradually expand in whatever direction they feel like, St. Petersburg was built exactly how it was constructed to be, with wide roads, and straight streets, and all that fun stuff. There are no trees dotting the roads, since that was not part of the plan, though whether on purpose or later added, the city is filled with parks, big and small, and oddly enough, people use them. There are just parks everywhere it seemed like. Filled with statues and fountains and trees oh my. Alright, enough with the parks, where was I? Back to the beginning, so we finally docked, and the view got a lot better. We were docked right next to a beautiful Orthodox Cathedral, and we could plenty of other Cathedrals dotting the skyline. The land of the crosses, though it should be the skyline of crosses really. I found the real beauty of St. Petersburg was that no building went past four or five stories tall. No skyscrapers. During the Tsar rule, which ended with Nicholas II murder of himself and his family in 1917 I believe, no building could be higher than the Winter Palace, which I guess is four or five stories tall itself, and I guess they have kept with that tradition, since no skyscrapers dot the landscape. By the way, incase you missed it, the Winter Palace; well it was the Tsar’s palace…during the winter. Alright good, just so we are clear. From our ship we could see St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the pointed spiral of the Admiralty, the dome from The Church of the Spilled Blood, and a few of the many bridges St. Petersburg is known for. White nights people! That was what we were told this town was known for during this season, and it did not disappoint. Our biggest concern heading into Russia, unofficially anyway was the fact that our ship was docked across from the main island. Unlike in the States, when the bridges go up at certain times, all the bridges in St. Petersburg go up at the same time, 1 am, and they stay up until 5 am. So for four hours, except for a brief period from like 2:30 to 3:10 am where one bridge goes down, all the bridges stay up for ships to go deeper into the city. So if your get stuck on one side of the island, your staying there for a bit. So when we finally did dock, we had a briefing from a couple of Embassy Consulates who briefly discussed Russia and St. Petersburg, as well as another safety briefing. Then we had to wait for our ship to be cleared by Russian customs, as well as collect our passports, which the ship normally holds for us. We had to have our passports on us at all times when we were in Russia. We were told that if a police officer asked us for it, to show them the photocopy the provided us, or just the passport. Cooperate with the police, and then ask to call the American Embassy if things got hairy. That was their advice anyway. So finally, around 11 or so, I was able to collect my passport and take my first steps in Russia, or so I thought. In Norway, we could leave the port and come and go as we pleased, no checks or anything until we boarded the ship. Not so in Russia, we had to show customs our passports every single time we entered and left the ship. They also had to stamp our passport the first time we went through customs, which naturally takes a bit of time. When 800 students, teachers, and staff all try to leave the boat at the same time, and customs has to check and stamp our passports, it creates a line. A line doesn’t even begin to describe it. It took me an hour and a half, closer to two hours, waiting in line until I finally was able to get through customs. People waited in line for hours. It was crazy. It was a pretty cordial line though, all things considered. Even though everyone had city orientation tours and what not at set times, we were told the buses were waiting and all was well. When I finally got through, I was able to just barely make it onto a bus set to drive throughout the city. It was officially called the Imperial St. Petersburg tour. We got a guided tour through the city, and made stops at the Rostral Column, we drove passed the Admiralty, which our guide book describes at the “city’s architectural center with its golden spire that is one of St. Petersburg’s most renowned emblems.” We made a brief stop at St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the world’s third largest domed cathedral and the monument to Tsar Nicholas I, who reigned from 1825-1855. We also made a stop at the Field of Mars, which is a burial ground turned memorial park for victims of the revolutions and civil war. From there I got my first real glimpse of the Church of the Spilled Blood, which is just a colorful, beautiful cathedral. We also passed Peter and Paul’s Fortress, which was built, I don’t even know when, to defend against Sweden. We drove for a bit down Nevsky Prospect, which is the main street of St. Petersburg, where all the hustle and bustle happens. I am actually reading my city orientation description from our field guide book, and I feel like I didn’t see half the things they mention, but what do I know really. It was a pretty good tour, I enjoyed it. After the tour I came back to the ship, and stuck around for dinner, while waiting for more of my friends to get back from the various other city tours most of them were on. After dinner, and once we all met up, we decided to go out and explore the Russian nightlife. I like to make it seem like we were experiencing the culture, but honestly, we found out rather quickly that Russia has like $1.50 beers, and we thought it was our civic duty to taste their beer, and then compare and contrast it to beer back in the states. We also decided to observe the drinking habits of Russians and note the similarities and differences that the culture of drinking provides. We started our cultural look into the drinking habits of Russians at a seriously convenient outside bar that is literally right outside the dock to our ship. Convenient doesn’t even properly describe it. After wafting at the $3 dollar price tag, we decided to, as they like to say, “do as the Russians do”, and we made out way to a quickie mart down the block, and learned we could buy drinks there for half the price, and then just walk back to our little outdoor bar and consume there. Don’t call us dumb Americans. We tried Russian vodka shots at a bar across the street, and I took the shot class since it was my first and last drink of Russian vodka, I wanted to memorialize the occasion. We eventually made our way to another outdoor bar down the street, which was near the bridge, and it was pretty cool. Making our way home was my cultural indoctrination into Russian life. While walking back, we were hollered at and eventually approached by about 4 or 5 Russian teenagers that wanted to practice their English, and I think hit on the girls that were with us, but that’s another story. I can’t lie, I was originally really nervous when they started hollering at us, but once we turned around with big smiles on our faces, it turned out to be a pretty cool walk back to the boat. They used their English, we practiced our Russian, and we learned nothing of importance about each other. Damn language barrier. They wanted us to meet them the following night, but we knew we were going to have none of that. I think I actually have one of their phone numbers programmed into my phone. I need to delete that. So you’re probably wondering what my thoughts and feelings are on the culture of drinking in Russia, well that lack of open container laws is awfully nice, they drink way to much, and its about all it is cracked up to be and then some.

The second day I met up with Travis, his roommate Taylor, Alex, Danielle, and Beth and we decided to just go walk throughout the city. We set out and crossed the bridge over into the main island. We found the statue that honors Peter the Great, founder of the city. We went and passed St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which is everything it’s cracked up to be, and eventually made our way over to the Hermitage, which is in the Winter Palace I had mentioned. We eventually found Nevsky Prospect, and explored up the street, stopping and entering Kazan Cathedral, which was beautiful inside and out, and found the Church of the Spilled Blood, going over to it and taking pictures. It really is a beautiful cathedral. We saw so many people getting married throughout the city. Everyone gets married real young, but the divorce rate is about the same that it is in America. We realized rather quickly, while we were making our way back to the ship, that we were a pretty good distance away from the ship. I had a folklore show I had signed up for at 8 pm, so at about 5 pm, we started making our way back to the ship. We took a long, leisurely route, stopping by Peter and Paul’s fortress, and walking along the “beach” and seeing all the Russians enjoying the Neva River. The beach is actually just the cobble stone or grass along the river, and they all hop in and enjoy it. The water is beyond polluted, but it does not seem to stop the Russians from enjoying the beautiful weather we had. Russian men rock the Speedos, let me tell you. We had turned the corner around a wall, and the first thing we see is a man posing, in his Speedo, with his hands clasped behind his head. It was crazy, we were like, and what the hell is he doing? Then I realized that he was tanning. They tan standing up, go figure. We went through the fortress, which was pretty cool, before finally making our way back to the boat, just in time for dinner. We spent a solid 6 hours out walking throughout the city. I then had to quickly get myself ready for the folklore show. The show itself was really cool. We were taken to this really nice room with a stage, and they sang, and danced, and played traditional music, using traditional instruments. The entire highlight was getting to see them do that nifty, traditional Russian dance, the one I was raving about earlier. Oh yea, I saw it, and I got it on video. It’s crazy. You got to be real strong and real flexible to pull it off. After the show, I went back to the ship, and had no interest of going back out, I was exhausted from all the walking, and I was in the middle of just hanging out watching a movie, when at about 12am, I got a knock on my door. Low and behold, it was all my friends coming back from a night of documenting the Russian drinking culture again. They all clambered into my tiny room after a crew member told us we were being loud and had to leave the hallway. We were all just hanging out talking about Russia, and life, and the trip, and it was pretty cool. That pretty much concludes day 2, as I kicked them out of my room around 3 am so I could get to sleep.

The third day in Russia was my relaxing day, as I had no other trips. I woke up and went out with my friends Erica, LaShonda, and Alex in search of a post office. Erica wanted to send her boyfriend a bottle of Russian vodka. She was unsuccessful, though she told me she was able to send it later in the week. We also were in search of wifi, so we could access the internet. We walked around in search of a hotel, and we actually stopped for ice cream from a vendor, and walked through on the many parks, though I think this one was the Alexdrevsky Park, and ate our ice cream. It was pretty cool. We found our way to the Astoria Hotel, one of the most famous in St. Petersburg, and were able to get on the internet. The Astoria hotel was to be the hotel where Hitler was going to stay when he finally conquered St. Petersburg and Russia. He actually had cards drawn up to invite people. He was obviously unsuccessful. Alex and LaShonda had left early, but Erica and I stuck around, and decided to get dinner at McDonalds. I know, I know, but in my defense, I wasn’t looking to spend a ton of movie, and does anyone know what cuisines Russia if known for? Me either and I was not looking to find out. Well Micky D’s was packed, so we made way for Subway. I got a meatball sub that was not nearly as good as it is in the states. We eventually made our way back to the ship, and that pretty much summed up my third day.

I had mentioned the Hermitage earlier, and I was awoken early by Danielle, who told me to get my butt up and go with them to the Hermitage. I was reluctant, but when I found Alex, Beth, and Danielle standing at my door, I knew I had no choice. We got there early, about 9:30 am, even though the doors did not open until 10 am, and already there was a huge line outside the gates. We finally made it into the museum at about 11:30 am, and it was a crazy long line. We were able to get in for free with our SAS ideas, and that was pretty cool. We explored the Egyptian art section, statues from the Roman Empire period, and found the Italian art section as well. I can now say I have seen Da Vinci’s work, as they had Madonna and Child on display there. There are over 3 million works of art at the Hermitage, and it rivals the Lovure as far as the Zen of art museums. We did the math, if you spent 10 seconds in front of every work of art; it would take you nine and a half years to see it all. Visiting the Hermitage was a neat experience. I am not much of an art buff myself, but I really liked the Roman statues. It was really cool because there were a lot of statues with fig leaves covering the male privates, or the entire organ was ripped off, and then I remember that there was a pope, who ran around and tore off all the male parts or covered them with fig leaves. Supposedly there is a store room somewhere in the Vatican with a lot of, interesting, replicas. After the Hermitage, we came back to the ship and grabbed some lunch. My friends had a trip to a Russian Banya, which is like a steam room/bathhouse, so I took the time to take a nap. I woke up for dinner, and then went in search of my friends. They were all up and wanted to go out. I figured since it was my last night in Russia, I might as well go out and get one last look into the Russian nightlife experience. There were about 10 to 13 of us at one point, and we followed this guy who evidently knew where he was going. He had found this bar earlier, where, get this, they serve shots of Absinthe, which I guess is illegal in the states from what I understand. About 6 people tried it, not me however. It was a serious shot to take, as they set it on fire and burn the fumes into a glass which is turned upside down with a straw sticking out. What you do is drink the shot, inhale the fumes, and then chew the coffee beans that are in the shot. Crazy to watch, can’t even imagine actually taking it. From there we walked around and tried to find another place to go to, and we eventually walked around for close to an hour just hanging out and talking until we finally found ourselves by the outdoor bar that is close to the bridge, we heard some nice dance music emanating from it, and figured this place was as good as any. I have to clarify something before I get more into what happened. I have been singing random, crazy songs this entire voyage, and I had said back before we even got to Norway that all I wanted to do was sing karaoke in Russia. Well this bar let my dream come true. I actually had to pay five dollars to sing, capitalist Russia at its best, but I could care less. I sang Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Russia. I could not be more pumped about it. There was anywhere between 20 to 25 people from SAS at this outdoor bar, and I ran from table to table before my big performance telling them they needed to be there when I started singing. They did not disappoint, as we all sang the song and had a great time. Travis was right there beside me singing back up vocals, and he even busted out the worm. I have no idea who has pictures of it, but I am stealing them. I was beyond excited, and once it was over what just on top of the world. Another girl sang Baby One More Time by Brittany Spears to close off the night, and it was just as cool. As we were walking home, Travis decided he wanted to go swim in the Neva River, so he did. That concluded our last night in Russia.

I had decided I really wanted to do a trip called the Siege of Leningrad, and I was able to buy it from my friend Alex for $25. Let me say something before I delve into the trip. From the moment we were docking in Russia, and all throughout my previous days there, I was honestly expecting to see some kind of seedy transaction take place. Men sliding manila folders into their jackets, secret conversations in the park, something like that, something left over from the cold war. Spy games, that sort of thing. I was also looking for some leftover remnants from when the Germans siege the city during WWII, bombed out buildings, bullet strewn areas, but I never saw any of that. Nothing, zilch, zip, nadda. I knew very little about the siege, but I assumed it was something like building to building, block to block type of fighting. I learned a ton during this trip, and it was an awesome conclusion to Russia, and I am seriously glad I bought it off Alex. From September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, the city of Leningrad was besieged by the German army. The city was blockaded, hundreds of thousands of shells destroyed its buildings, palaces were looted and its population systematically starved. It was a 900 day battle, during which 1 million Russian people died, 600,000 by starvation. Most of the city was evacuated, but there was still plenty who stayed behind, including the army of course. They never did let the Germans into the city, being able to fend them off. We visited a memorial that was erected in honor of those who died protecting the city. It was a beautiful memorial, and beneath the memorial was a small museum, again to honor those who died. It was a very sobering, and moving experience. I couldn’t help but to compare it to the many memorials we have in America to those who have fallen. We have the same memorials, to memorialize different people, but both who had fallen during the same war. It was incredible. From there we went to another museum that had a lot of artifacts from the war and the siege. It was really cool to see the propaganda posters that were meant to keep morale high during the war. While it seems like we grew up fearing the red army and all that, it was refreshing to seem posters meant to inspire and instill pride in the red army. We really got to see how the city suffered, and it was a truly moving trip. I spent the last few hours of my time in Russia souvenir shopping, and stocking up on some food for the room, and then I found another internet hotspot and went on the internet for a bit longer. I ran into Travis on my way out of the bar that had wifi, and went with him since he was in search of bootleg DVD’s. We eventually found some that went for about 50 Rubles, or about 2 bucks. We then made our way back and boarded the ship and said our last goodbyes to Russia. They had a 4^th of July BBQ on ship for us, since it was technically still the 4^th in Hawaii, and it was a neat way to hang out and eat good food during the last few hours of our stay.

Some random things I noted while in St. Petersburg. We really lucked out with the weather; it was a beautiful five days. All the buildings in St. Pete are different random colors. We were told this is because during the winter, the place is so drab and dreary, that the colors are meant to keep the city vibrant. I had no trouble with anyone discriminating against me since I was American, and the language barrier did cause some difficulties, but nothing that I was not able to handle. Some people noted they were refused service in some restaurants, evidently they did not care to deal with the language difference. I really enjoyed my stay. I would have liked to explore Moscow, as I heard it was really neat as well, but I am happy with what I did, and as I am sure I am going to say with all the cities, I would love to come back. I am also getting a slight, albeit passing itch to learn another language. I tried my entire life with Spanish, and no luck, so I don’t know why I should try another. We get to Denmark in a couple days. We actually dock in Korsor, which is about 90 minutes from Copenhagen. My friends booked two rooms at a hotel for two nights in Copenhagen, and we are all planning on staying in the city and exploring the sights. I think we have 10 people who are definitely staying with us, and as far as I’m concerned we should find 10 more. The more people the better and the cheaper the hotel gets. I am really looking forward to it. Denmark is going to be awesome. These blogs get really long when I try to recap a country all at once. I’ll try to break things down more next time. I hope everyone is doing well at home, and just know that I miss you all. P.S. this is a 4,726 word blog. HAH.

Real Quick...

2008-07-03T10:14:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

I'm still alive and kicking in St. Petersburg, Russia now. Expect a full blog and report on it either Saturday or Sunday. I just wanted to let everyone know I uploaded a few pictures on my flickr account, which you can find here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26111603@N06/

Happy 4th of July everyone. Love you all.

Bergen, Norway

2008-06-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose the question everyone is asking is…How was Norway? Well let me tell you, Norway is, was, and will always be amazing. Before I get into how Norway was, and let me give fair warning, I’ve just woken up from a nap, and I am feeling quite refreshed with nothing vitally important to do besides write this blog, so it might be a long one. Anyway, like I said, before I get into my time, thoughts and feelings on Norway, let me just provide some fun facts I learned before heading into the country. Ahem…So up until the 1960s Norway was an extremely poor country. It is a seriously mountainous country with no real natural resources going for it, that was until they discovered oil in the North Sea in the 1960s, and now Norway is the 3rd largest distributor of oil in the world, I had no idea. Did anyone else know this? So now it has become an extremely wealthy country, and from learning about the country, it seems to be heading in the right direction. It taxes its citizens almost 70% of their income, if I remember correctly, but every Norwegian citizen is taken care of. Medical, retirement, unemployment, education through college, childcare, it’s all taken care of by the government. They have like a 2% unemployment rate, and if you are unemployed, they will provide an income until you get a job, and the government will even pay for a technical trade school for the citizens to help them land on their feet. If a woman becomes pregnant, they can get almost a year full paternity leave, and a father can get something like 6 weeks. Norway has become the place to go for refugees in the Iraqi and Afghanistan war, providing a safe haven for refugees and helping them land on their feet. Maureen even told me a high figure head from Zimbabwe has fled to Norway, I had not heard, but it does not seem to surprise me. The oil that was found is all country controlled, so the country receives all the revenue. Their revenue far outweighs their yearly expenses, so it has led to them being a very rich, very wealthy country, with a lot of money to spend. They have built a very rich infrastructure of roads and highways all throughout the country. With the country being very mountainous, tunnels are everywhere and the influx of money to spend has really helped the country safely connect their towns and cities with roads and railways. They have something like 400 billion in savings, and since the country is smart and knows that oil will eventually run out, they are using their extra money to invest in the country and invest in business and stock markets and all that. I heard a fun fact story about Norway being invested in Wal-Mart, but they were upset that Wal-Mart was not allowing unions, so they pulled out their investment. Norway uses the Kroner, or Krone, or Crown as their national currency. They have rejected joining the European Union twice, and really, why should they? They are an extremely wealthy country, with a strong currency, and a whole lot going for it. The people are evidently proud of their country, because they were the ones who voted to turn down the EU. One American dollar is equal to about 5 Krone. It sounds like a lot, but woe to you, its nothing!!! Norway is an expensive, expensive, country. The land of 4 dollar sodas, 10 dollar beer, and 3 dollar hamburgers from Mickey D’s, you know, the same that cost a dollar in the states. Anyway, enough of my ranting and raving, on to what you all really want to hear.
The day we pulled into Norway, I woke up at 6 am, because while we were not scheduled to dock until 8, they had said the show would really start at 6am, so 6 am I was up and heading for the decks. The harbor pilot was getting on ship at 6am, so that was their recommendation as far as getting up. I assumed it would be cold so I was bundled up in a jacket I had bought and a sweater on top of that. I get up to the deck and the view was breathtaking. On either side of us were mountains upon mountains, and islands dotting the water. It was slightly overcast, with the sun trying hard to pierce the clouds, but to no avail. It made for a majestic setting as we made our way through the channels to the harbor. Houses literally built into the side of mountains overlooking the water. I could see towns just built onto the sides of mountains, using the terrain like it was not a big deal to build a house with its back wall backed up on a mountain. Norway is known as the land of the fjords and trolls, and our early morning trek through the water, with the mist and fog building and rolling through the terrain on either side of our ship, made for an atmosphere only seen in movies. I was not the only person up, no sir, I think most of the ship had risen for the occasion. People were on all sides, all levels, and on both the bow and the front of the ship. Snapping pictures, smiling, enjoying the scenery, the buzz of excitement was evident from the get-go. After all this time, we were finally in Norway. It took us almost 2 hours to navigate the channel and finally get to the town of Bergen. In the meanwhile, I snapped a ton of pictures, ate breakfast, and enjoyed the ride into harbor. When we docked at 8am, a representative from the US Embassy made her way on ship and gave a short presentation on Norway. The atmosphere was electric. We were excited. After her whole spiel on the country, we were allowed to disembark. I went to grab my bag, (Dad, backpack was an amazing idea, thanks for forcing me to take it) and then met up with a group and hit the town. I went out with my friends Alex, Eric, Beth, Allie, Annie, and Sarah, and I mean honestly, I went out with the entire ship, because we all left en masse. It was a mad scramble to find an ATM or a bank or anything, because the kroner is the king of currency in Norway, they don’t want our dollars. We passed maybe five or six ATMs, all lined up with kids trying to withdraw money. We walked passed Bryggen, which is their famous street, and the fish market, which is filled with fisherman selling their wares, and vendors hawking their souvenirs. We finally did find a rather empty ATM, and it was right next to a currency exchange center. I was looking to exchange cash, and they actually wanted to charge me $20 American dollars just to exchange cash to kroner. I was not about to do that, since I was only looking to exchange $75 bucks. My plan all along had been to find the information center, and I was lucky enough to eventually stumble upon it. Alright maybe I didn’t stumble, considering it was just across the street from the ATM, so I just walked over. Anyway, they did money exchange without the 20 dollar charge; they just gave you a less favorable exchange. The bank did 1 dollar for 5.18 kroner, while the info center did 1 dollar for 4.80 kroner. Not a huge difference and I happily exchanged my money for kroner. From there we decided to just hit the streets and see what we could see. Bergen is a town unlike any I’ve been to. It’s not built with skyscrapers like NYC or Miami, but it’s busy with tourists, business people, and regular Joes alike. The buildings are all closely packed, and the streets are busy with traffic, cars and pedestrian alike. We walked along and found a square that’s closed off to traffic, but open to walkers, and filled on both sides with stores. I had said Norway is a wealthy country, and it extends to its citizens, these people have a ton of stores, which I can only assume means they spend a ton of money. We found the statue of Ole Bull, a famous Norwegian composer, and had walked far enough to find their art museums before it started to rain. A couple people in our group had city orientation trips they had to do, and since we were looking to save money, we went back to the ship to get lunch and so they could do their trip. Afterwards, I went out with my friend Beth since we didn’t have any city tours and we went looking for the public library, because we were told they have free wifi for laptops. I found my friend Erica going to use the library as well, and after a while we all went to the Art museum to go check it out. I’m not much of an art person, but it was interesting to go through the rooms and check out the artists and their art. Beth is a big art person, or at least truly understands what’s going on, and did a lot of explaining for me. They most famous artist in Norway, at least to my understanding, is Edvard Munch, so I was really looking forward to seeing his work. His most famous painting, “The Scream”, was unavailable for show, but I still got to see a lot of his work, and I enjoyed the museum. It was like 40 kroner, or 8 bucks, and it got us into all 3 art museums located right next to each other. After that we headed back to the ship for dinner, again, save that money! After relaxing for a bit I headed out with the group in search of this rock bar called The Garage, Eric had heard about. We eventually found it, and it was alright. Eventually if became filled with SAS students buying cheap wine since it was $22 bucks American a bottle. We left around 10 since it just got to be too much. I bought one beer that was nothing special, and that pretty much concludes my first day. Crazy thing about Norway, the sun doesn’t set until almost midnight, and then it is still light for most of the night, and the sun rises again at like 5 am. It’s crazy.
The second day in Norway, I had a hike up one of the mountains surrounding Bergen. It’s called Mount Floien. Our guide was named something we all could not pronounce, so we called him Tor, or Thor. He gave us a quick guided tour of Bergen, which has burned down to the ground 8 or 9 times, its crazy. Anyway eventually we made it to the funicular, which is a tram that goes from Bergen, 4 minutes up the mountain to the top. From there we have a breathtaking view of the city, which I posted in one of my photos. After viewing the city for a bit, we started our hike higher up the mountain. There are trails that lead all over the mountains surrounding Bergen. The land, which is all available for the citizens to use as they like, is beautiful. There are no “no trespassing” signs in Norway, as all privately owned land is still available for people to hike, camp, or swim in its lakes. We hiked for a good hour and a half or so, always going up higher. Eventually we made it to a breath-taking view on top of the highest mountain, as far as I could tell. It was awesome, we passed some sheep on a path, and there were great views all over for pictures. Once we got to the top, we realized we had an hour and a half to get down the mountain and get some lunch on the ship, so we high tailed it down the mountain and headed back to the ship. After lunch I was exhausted, and took a nap. I woke up later in the evening and I was in no mood to be going out again and sending a ton of money, even though a lot of people were heading out. I had learned that there was free wi-fi in this random spot in the port right on some stairs, so I headed out there with my laptop and was able to skype with Maureen for a bit and check some things out. I then went inside and spent a while up with some other people on the ship just talking about Norway and things in general.
The third day was by far my best day in Norway. I had my trip called Norway in a nutshell, with hike. Our bus did not show up at the ship, so we had to hightail it over to the train station to catch out train, which was like a 20 minute walk. We made out train and headed to the city of Meryle. It was a two hour train ride. I sat next to my friend Lisa, and we talked about concerts and music, and eventually the talk turned to sports and we sparred over the Bills and Dolphins. The ride itself was awesome, as I really got to get a great look at the countryside. Once we reached Meryle, we got off the train and started our hike. Basically it was a two hour hike to meet this train that would take us into the town of Flam. It was an awesome hike. We started at the top of a mountain, and winded our way down the mountain. It was awesome because there was a waterfall off the side of our path, and the view got better and better as we got lower down the mountain. Once we reached the bottom of the mountain, we walked down into a valley and really got to enjoy the views. We had towering mountains to each side of us, a beautiful freshwater stream next to us, and just looking up you could see the path winding through the valley, high snow capped mountains in the distance, the stream turning to rapids in the distance, and it was just an incredible hike. It was dulled somewhat by our guide, who was rushing us to go meet the train in time, even though all we wanted to do was just enjoy the beauty around us. Lisa and I became picture buddies, as we took pictures for each other with all the incredible views around us. I was also walking with Alex, and another girl named Brittany. We all really enjoyed the hike, especially since eventually our guide walked ahead of us and we could really enjoy it. We eventually walked into a herd of goats, and they came up to us and wanted to play. It was really cool. We lucked out and it was a truly beautiful day for our hike. It was slightly cloudy, and kept the sun out, but the temperature was perfect. We finally made it to the train station, and made it in plenty of time for the train. From the train it was about a 10 minute ride to the town of Flam. Flam is considered the gateway to some of the more famous fjords of Norway. We had a buffet style lunch at a local hotel. From there, we boarded a bus to go back to Bergen. Our guide gave us plenty of history of the local area, and the bus ride itself had some harrowing moments. We had to climb up the mountain, and it included 13 hair rising turns. There was only enough room for one car at a time, and I give some mad props to the bus drivers who have to navigate those roads, because one wrong move does not mean just an accident, but a long fall as well. We stopped for a half hour in the town of Voss, and we all just explored the town for a bit. Voss is hosting an extreme sports week festival, and it includes concerts every night. I had considered spending the rest of the day in Voss and seeing the concert, but I would have had to get a hotel and catch a train in the morning, and I didn’t want all that hassle, not to mention spend all that money. The total time it took us to get back to Bergen was almost 3 hours. I eventually fell asleep on the ride back. Once we got back, I was able to snag some dinner and make plans for that night. I went out with Eric, Danielle, Alana, and Helena, and we found a music pub, where we met a local Norwegian. He might have been a little buzzed, but I enjoyed talking to him comparing Norway to America. We talked about the Bush Administration for a bit, before turning it to local customs and acts. He recommended a local beer called Hansa that I gave a try. It was alright, nothing special. We then went to this dance club they had heard about that was a complete bust. The only people dancing were the girls they hired to dance. I was telling the group this after they left, and they all couldn’t believe me. I was like, come on now people, I’m a business man, that’s their way of trying to promote the place, so it’s not a complete bust when people do walk in.
I used Friday, our last day, as a chance to sleep in a little bit, I had done a ton of walking in the last 3 days, and I was starting to feel it a little bit. I woke up and went out on my own to go hang out in the town one last time. I went to the post office and mailed out some things I wanted to send, and walked around the town a bit more. I went back to the ship around four and that brought my trip to Norway to a close. We had a shipboard time, which means we had to be on the ship at 7pm, we get in trouble if we are late. I went back to my cabin and took a nap around 6pm after dinner. I was hoping to wake up in time for a post Norway town hall type meeting to discuss Norway, but I missed it.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Norway. The people were nice; it seems like a well-run, beautiful country I can’t wait to visit again. I never got a chance to really see a true fjord, but I plan on hopefully seeing one again in the future. I can’t wait to visit again. This whole late night sunset’s phenomenon is still so strange to me, but I am really enjoying it. I had such a good time hanging out with people on the ship in Bergen, as well as meeting and mingling with the local population. On Tuesday, our first day in port, I had walked into a local music store and asked the person behind the desk about Norwegian music, because I had heard that Norway has an excellent rock music scene. I basically asked him to point out some local rock to enjoy. I ended up buying a CD from a local band in Oslo, the capital city. The CD is in English. I had thought about buying a CD in the local Norwegian language, but ended up going in the other direction. I’ve listened to it a few times, and it’s a really enjoyable CD I am really digging.
I can’t believe I have to go classes in the morning. Such changes to go from hanging out in Bergen, Norway, then have to go back to classes. But we are now heading to St. Petersburg, Russia, and this trip should just get better and better.

Group Shot

2008-06-26T11:36:00.001-07:00

2008_0624StPaddys0005,
originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

From left to right....

Me, Annie, Sarah, Eric, Allie, Beth, and Alex

Rock on...

2008-06-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

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originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

On top of the World...or at least Bergen

2008-06-26T11:25:00.001-07:00

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Picturesque Spots...

2008-06-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

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Velkommen to Norway

2008-06-26T11:18:00.001-07:00

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originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

Chillin with the Trolls of Norway

2008-06-26T11:17:00.003-07:00

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originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

12 pm Sunsets...

2008-06-26T11:17:00.001-07:00

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originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

On top of Bergen, Norway

2008-06-26T11:16:00.001-07:00

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originally uploaded by ...BAMF....

A week at sea...

2008-06-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

It has been interesting to watch groups, or cliques if you will, develop so rapidly onboard the ship. I had never really thought about whether or not it would happen on this ship, and it would have been naïve to think that it would not happen. We have been on ship a full week now, and it seems that the groups are defined, and the same situation that is so prevalent among schools across the country has taken hold on ship. I’m just as guilty of it. I have been drawn to a certain group of people, and we hang out. There is nothing wrong with being part of a group and hanging out, but it has been interesting to watch the transformation from 583 strangers, to what we have a week later. While the first couple days at sea were filled with “hey, what’s your name,” or “hey, where you from,” it has slowly taken form to curt smiles and quiet ‘hellos.” I didn’t expect it to continue, but it has been an interesting development.
I’ve become good friends with a nice group of people onboard. Erik and Alex are roommates on ship that I hang out with. Erik just recently graduated from the University of Arizona, and Alex goes to school at the University of South Carolina. Beth hails from some tiny women’s college in New York. She has had the unfortunate pleasure of being the butt of everyone’s jokes. I’ve joined in on the charades, and I told her she’s our groups Karen, for any Dane Cook fans out there. Alli is a really quiet girl who I can recall nothing about. Annie is from Naples, Florida and goes to the University of Michigan, and I can’t remember where her roommate, Sarah, goes to. That’s not to say that’s all I Hang out with. Travis is an international relations major at a small school in Chicago. He has gone on a SAS voyage before in high school because his mom was, and is on this voyage, the nurse on ship. He gets a nice discount. He is actually going to spend next semester going to school in China, and the following semester in Turkey. Jason just recently graduated from an engineering school in California. He joked that this is all one big graduation trip for him. He spent a month traveling in Vietnam and China before coming on this voyage. He has a job all lined up when he gets back with a company that designs rockets for NASA, talk about banking. There are plenty of other people that hang out with us as well, and they all have interesting stories. From surfers to horse riders, meeting people and hearing what they have to say, about themselves, this trip, their life, their ideas, their views, their goals, and their dreams, has been a colorful and eye-opening experience. Learning to listen more and say less. People have surprised me with their stories. You learn so much about people and things you would never expect.
We had a talent show last night, and it was a great time. Two girls did an incredible Irish Step Dance, and quite a few students are gifted at the piano. One kid wrote a song he played on his guitar about our voyage so far, another student did an excellent stand up comedy routine, and some kids have great voices. My own roommate, Josh, who is from Texas A&M University, put together a nice rap song about our voyage.
I have really enjoyed hearing people’s stories. I am quite a talker myself, but I can already feel myself talking less, talking quieter, listening more, and learning a lot about myself and the people around me, and I’ve only been on this ship a week. How bout that?
Some other random things I’ve thought about and wanted to jot down. Losing time sucks. We’ve lost about 5 hours or so since Halifax. It’s been a serious pain, but we should lose another hour tonight and then time “stands still” for a little bit, at least until we heard to Russia. This ship, our home, is about 600 feet long. That makes it a rather large ship, but because it has such a shallow, is keel the word? Basically she sits high in the water. Most cruise ships sit deeply in the water, and that makes it rather smooth sailing, ours does not. So we have felt every wave and bump in the water that this baby has gone through. It is comical to walk around the decks and see everyone walking around like a drunk, wavering one way or another as the ship pitches. We have not hit any bad seas up to this point, but it is still felt. My cabin is toward to front of the ship, and I can literally feel the ship rising and falling in the water, and I can hear the slap of the water has the ship hits the waves. Speaking of my cabin, it has become a joke among the ship about how small our cabin it. I wouldn’t even say it is 6 feet across, and its maybe 15 feet long. We have a tiny room, to say the least. I have the bottom bunk, while my roommate has the top. Let’s just say we don’t spend a whole lot of time in the room.
Anyway, we hit Norway in less than 48 hours, and this whole shebang truly, truly, begins.

I'm at sea!

2008-06-17T13:46:00.001-07:00

So my semester at sea has finally started at long last. It has been a long process to get to this point, but I can officially say I am writing this upon the M.V. Explorer, cabin number 3312, my home for the next 68 days. I got on the ship on Friday, got lost about the ship, before heading to the work study orientation. They gave us a chance to pick what department we wanted to be in. I ended up in the audio/visual department. My supervisors name is Courtney and a crew member named Allen works with us too. We’re in charge with all the audio/visual related things in the classroom and in the Union. We help the professors troubleshooting issues and fun things like that. After our meetings I went out to explore the Halifax nightlife with some of the other work study students. We just found a nice bar to hang out and talk and get to know each other. Saturday I had to be up and working at 9. Jerra, the other a/v work study student and I had to go to the classrooms and make sure everything was ready for classes. I had missed breakfast, naturally, but lucked out when Courtney offered us coffee and a bagel at Tim Hortons, which reminded me of a Dunken Donuts basically. We also learned all the ins and outs of the classroom technology. The actual a/v room is pretty cool, lots of buttons and things to touch and mess around with. I’ve figured out how to work the live feed controls. Sometimes we have events that have more people attend than we can fit in our union, so we have live TV feeds going on of the event. I got to fool around with the music for the end up of event. I picked Sublime, good stuff, hope all appreciated it. But I am getting ahead of myself. Once we were done with working, I was able to link up with some SAS students named Travis, Jason, and Marci. We made our way downtown and saw the Incredible Hulk. Good movie. Then we went back to the ship and changed before gathering up and heading to the Westin Hotel across the street which is where a lot of other SAS students were staying. We all met up and introduced ourselves before heading out again to explore the Halifax nightlife. Let me say, Halifax is an amazing city. Nice people and I had a great time. There is a ton of history related to the town and there was a fort and a maritime museum I wanted to visit, but didn’t get the time.

The next day was embarkation day. The day 583 students have been waiting for for months. It was controlled chaos to be sure. I spent a lot of time just directing people through the many stations they had set up. Then it was just a great day meeting everyone. We had another orientation meeting, as well as tons of meetings the following day. I realized pretty quickly that outside of all the meetings and work study stuff I have to do, there isn’t a ton of stuff to do on the ship. So naturally I’ve played a lot of card games. Spoon has been the fan favorite so far. Sitting around and talking and playing games seems to be the norm, but theirs nothing wrong with that. We set sail 2 hours later than scheduled because students had missing luggage and there was even a bunch of students who had canceled flights and what not. All the students made it on board, the same cannot be said about the luggage however. Anyway, when it was time to set sail we all bombarded the decks, cameras in tow, and just enjoyed the moment. It was surreal to finally get going and heading toward Norway, our first port of call. I was able to sign up for some trips in Norway, and I’m excited for them. Both are hiking trips. Anyway, life so far on the ship is sweet. The extent of my seasickness has been a headache that went away quickly, though I’ve heard some students have been throwing up. I’ve seen available barf bags everywhere on the ship. The rocking of the ship has become a nice lull, I feel like I’m being rocked to sleep at night, and many a students have said that they have slept like a baby. Some students saw whales this afternoon. I missed out, but hopefully I’ll catch some later. It’s all starting to hit home. Where I am, what I’m doing, and where I am going. Let’s get this show started.

Are you scared yet? No? BOO AH HA...How bout now? No? Dammit...

2008-06-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

So it's finally here at long last. I am currently sitting in front of my gate in Newark Intl. Airport. I took a flight from Jacksonville to Tampa, which let me let everyone know...It only had 18 seats total. It was a tiny little prop plane. Oh man did I worry. From Tampa I flew to where I am now...Newark. And in in a little less than two hours I will be flying from Newark to my ultimate destination, and the start of this whole shindig...Halifax.

Tomarrow I board the ship for the first time, and the journey truly begins. I am truly going in practically blind considering I've done almost, alright...I've done no research on the countries I'm going to and the places I'll visit. I'm truly winging it, and I'm oddly okay with that.

I've been following with people on facebook on finding independent trips and what not. Who knows what will happen.

All I know is that I know this trip is going to dramatically alter me and everything I do from here on out. I can sense it. This will truly be a trip to learn a whole lot about the world I am ignorant of, and myself who...shoot I'm ignorant of as well.

At long last...

2008-06-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had a chance to come on here and update what has been going on with my Semester at Sea. A shame since that's what this blog is all about.

Anyway, without further ado, I will update on what is going on.

I have finally found a way to pay off the last remaining debt on my account. My grandma came through in the clutch and offered the last amount of money I needed. Of course I plan on paying her back, but it was amazing what she did for me. Thanks Grandma! While I'm still waiting for the check to clear so I can send it in, it is a big burden off my shoulders to know it is taken care of. I'll also have a little bit left over to spend, which is sweet.

I'm all registered for classes. I'm taking History of Russian Economics from a European Perspective, I think that's the one, and a Family Business course, as well as the Global Studies class that is required. I'm vaguely curious if adding a 4th class costs anything. I'm planning on finding out on the ship, and seeing what else I could take. I still have no idea what my work study will be, but working 3 hours a day on the ship should be a breeze, and well worth the money I'm saving because of it.

I also recently lucked out because I got put into the Super Super Economy Cabin. They had found some smaller rooms and offered them at a $1000 discount. Of course I jumped on it, The more I can save the better. I have no intention of ever really being in my room beside to sleep, so I could care less how much room I have. I have it envisioned as a glorifed closet, and I'm totally okay with that. It saves me more money, and that is always a good thing.

My main problem now has become trying to get up to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada where the ship is sailing from. I was originally going to drive up with my Dad, but that is not going to work out. Then I thought it would be cool to take a train from Jacksonville to Portland, Maine. Spend the night in Portland, wake up and catch the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and then take a shuttle or bus from there to Halifax. I thought it would be a cool adventure and save me some cash in the process. Then I realized I would literally be traveling a full day and a half to get up there, with most of it being spent on a train. Once I added up all the tickets, hotel stay, and food, I figured I might as well fly. So that has become my new way up. I'm just going to fly. I haven't booked it yet, I really need to get on that. I would fly up the 12th, spend a night in a hostel and exploring the city, and the 13th I move onto the ship since Work Study students have to be on the ship a couple days early.

A girl has taken it upon herself to plan a group dinner of the 14th for anyone that wants to go. I have no idea how many people are signed up for this, but just from reading wall posts and discussion boards on facebook, it seems like it is going to be huge. It's enough people where we had to order our dinner ahead of time.

Anyway that is all I got for now. I'll keep everyone updated.

Let The Countdown Begin

2008-03-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

It is less than 3 months till the voyage.

I find out next Friday what my financial aid will look like. I applied and will hopefully get a work study position on the cruise. If I got it, I would have to go to the ship a few days early, and work 3 hours a day while we were at sea. That is more than fine by me, I really hope I land the gig. It would give me about $5,000 for the trip, which would cover almost half my cost.

All the rest of my papers have been turned in. The only thing left to do is wait for my Russian Visa, and enroll in classes. I still need to pick which 2 classes I will be taking. I am curious about the field excursions I will be doing. I haven't decided if I should sign up for things with SAS or just wing it and do it on my own. Not my biggest decision right now.

Regardless what happens, this is going to be good. I already booked myself a bed at a hostel in Nova Scotia. I plan on going a few days early to see the town a bit.

The Beginning Continues...

2008-02-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

So today I dropped down my $1,000 dollar deposit. I got a little bit of a refund from school, plus some of my own money, was able to get me to the amount.

I am getting a much bigger refund from a loan I took out at the end of the week. That will of course, go towards the cruise. But the point is, I am definitely going!

Semester At Sea...The Beginning

2008-02-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

So this blog site will cover my entire Semester At Sea Experience. I had never heard of Semester At Sea up until a few months ago. I randomly ran into a flyer posted in my school, which no one in my school has any idea got put up, but I ripped off the mailing thingy, filled it out, sent it in, and then went to the website.

Let me start off by saying I use to hate to travel. My parents would take me and my two sisters all around on vacations, and I always hated going. The only vacation I ever looked forward to was going up to Smugglers Notch in Vermont for a week of snow, skiing, and hot chocolate. I don't know why I disliked going and traveling so much. I think it had something to do with being in the car with my family for long hours. I don't think any of us enjoyed that part of the trip. It wasn't really until my first semester at college that I realized I want to travel. I have a professor who travels constantly. He has an easier time telling people where he has NOT been then where he has been. It was his class, and listening to him talk about all the places he has gone, that I got the itch. I wanted to go out and explore other countries, cultures, and places. I have always loved history, and I wanted to explore the history and past of other nations, and see first hand the ruins of lost civilizations. Needless to say, I've wanted to travel for a while now. I had planned on backpacking through Europe with my buddies once I graduated. That's still up in the air, but Semester at Sea is not.

After randomly learning about SAS on a board in school, I visited the website, and within 10 minutes, I had made the decision to pursue SAS for the summer. I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity within that 10 minute span on looking at the website. I could earn 9 college credits, live on a ship for 65 days with 600 other students, visit a bunch of different countries, and have an experience I would never forget. So I made the decision to apply, not matter what the cost, this was something I was going to pursue.

I was lucky enough to learn that the MV Explorer would be in the port of Miami in December. I was able to visit the ship, ask some questions, and apply right there. Visiting the ship was unreal. It was basically an Open House. I toured the ship, got to meet some of the staff that was exiting from the fall semester trip, and apply. I was accepted!

That was in December, I have spent the past 2 months preparing for the trip, in a sense. I had to apply for a loan, which still has not come in, so I could give them my deposit. I believe I should give them my deposit by the end of the next week, and I should be good to go. I have talked to my advisor's about which classes I should take that could count when they transfer over. Nothing is official yet on that agenda, but it should be taken care of by the time I have to enroll.

So that is how it has began for me. The Summer session starts June 15th, in Nova Scotia, Canada. I'll keep this updated as new developments happen.