Chokrun Morocco, You've Changed Me

(Chokrun means thank you) Sometimes things change you when you least expect them. I was looking forward to Morocco but it was the last port of the trip so I hadn't really thought about what I would be experiencing or what the culture would be like. I finally experienced a good deal of culture shock, and I fell in love with it. I love Morocco, the people are all very respectful and adore the elderly and children. Complete strangers will look after the kids and make sure they behave, also the elderly are always greated with respect and multiple families will take them in once they can't care for themselves. Even women are respected, men won't look at a woman unless she looks at him first.  They also do all the hard work, however women can if they want, it's just expected of the men. Thankfully while I was in Turkey I didn't spend very much money so I had quite a bit left over for Morocco. Because of this I was able to pick up a trip to the capital city of Rabat. Where I toured many of the many popular sites. However the highlight was definitely eating a 6 course meal inside of a palace of the royal family. The capital city was about 2 hours away and when we got there we got to see a famous Pastry shop and try mint tea, of which is very good. Being conquered by France was good for the Moroccan pastry makers, I was not disappointed.  Then we went to the current palace of the king and the jewish quarter of which we saw various beaches and a river that the locals enjoy. After all of this is when we finally went to the palace for dinner. We were invited because a member of the family is currently a professor at the University of Virginia and she wanted to take a group of 30-40 students around the city and meet up with some of the faculty she knows. The tile work and place settings were beyond elegant. I felt like I was in a movie of some sort. There was real silver-ware and crystal glasses. Not to mention the food was to die for. Never an unrounded meal. Fruit, veggies, cous cous (not the sandy kind from home, the homemade kind) chicken tangine, fruit juices, and so much more. I took pictures of all the food, so that will be posted on facebook. I may also do a few picture posts on my blog once I get home, but it won't have as many as my facebook will have. After a three hour dinner and about an hour of digestion time on the many pillow couches, we headed back. This should be rather non-eventful right? No, we were all fast asleep as it was 11:30 at night...when the whole bus started shaking and slammed to a stop. We were suddenly very awake...as people were screaming at each other in french and arabic and the like. Everyone was okay, but what had happened was three teenaged Moroccans had jumped up on the truck that was parked on the side of the road pushing a bundle of metal that had been stacked up off the truck. This happened as we were driving past, denting the whole side of the bus and scraping the door. Then it was under the bus and we hit it with the back tires which jolted the bus so bad that the windshield cracked. ...Talk about an intense event. They sent us a police escort and a new bus. This way we weren't run over trying to get to the next bus. This wasn't all bad, because while my friend Stefanie and I were sitting on the bus she invited me to come to Fes with her. She had been telling me about how her boyfriend is Moroccan and how he has family that still live in Fes that he hasn't seen in a few years and how she is going to meet them because they're considering getting engaged and she just happens to now be in Morocco. After the crash she ended up inviting me to join along the next morning with her and her friend Amanda. I was so excited I could hardly stand it, this was the experience I had been waiting for. I packed a back pack and crossed my fingers that all went well. Thankfully Stefanie had an international phone so we were able to stay in contact with his mom that way. She was the only one of the family that spoke english. Families are very tight nit so his uncle, mom, brother and sister (who was only 8 <3) came to pick us up.  We also met his cousins, dad, and neice and another uncle over the course of two days. It was a four hour train ride from Casablanca (where we were in port) to Fes. Fes is an amazing city and her boyfriend Khali wasn't able to come with us. So we had to find his family based on pictures, also they actually live about 20 minutes out of the city. So I got to stay in a farm house in the African countryside. It was gorgeous...and there was a storm at one point too. It was such an experience that words can hardly explain.  As soon as we met the family we went over to a hotel that was still underconstruction. It was being built right into the medieval walls there (you should google Fes, it has an amazing history).  It turns out that Khali's uncle works on mosaics and tile working so we were able to leave our bags there. Thankfully the family is used to the kids eating and drinking during Ramadan fasting time, so they didn't make us fast. They actually did the opposite. Between them having to fast and being very hospitable, we were eating and drinking constantly. Even at 1 a.m. there was a second dinner. After dropping our bags off we found some water and fried snack food type things.  Then we wandered the streets through several markets and tiny walkways, sending me into a whirlwind of culture shock. I thought I had experienced it in Rabat, but being with a family navigating I was able to look around and just absorb more. Also I wasn't with a giant group or a tour guide so I could feel almost like a local. Instead of getting the why are their giant groups of americans here look I was now getting a "oh how do you know my friends?" look. The little girl's name was Mushala and her and I skipped, danced and sang our way through the streets, it was so much fun and she reminded me of myself as a child. After a lot of wandering and some shopping we found a restaurant and got good seats, because the break fast (Iftar) happens at 7:30 with the call to prayer. They drink fruit juices, usually banana orange and lemon, occasionally peach. Also they have soup and hard boiled eggs you can dip in cumin and salt. Not to mention the eggs are fresh from the several farms located near by. The bananas were mixed with goats milk to make it a juice, so it was really good. We also had figs, dates and grapes along with a lot of water. After that we all went over to one of the many carnivals they had. They had juice, snacks and of course rides. Mushala wanted to ride them all, but of course we had to just pick a couple. The bumper cars were the most intense ones I've ever riden haha To get your money the guys would jump up on the bumper part and take it from you...also they went A LOT faster than any I've ever been on. Launched my sunglasses clear off, there were kids riding on the bumpers all over. I also had to do a hand off to get my sunglasses back from a guy who had grabbed them for me. It was also the longest bumper car session I've ever been in. I swear I had whip lash the whole next day. It was so much fun, Mushala was awesome at driving for an eight year old. I seriously had a smile on my face for two days straight. Sadly, the mom had thought we were staying for two nights, but we had only been intending on staying for one and Stefanie had a trip the morning of the second night, so we compromised. We ended up deciding to take the 2 a.m. train the next night (or the second morning, however you want to look at it). However, the carnival was not the end of our night. We picked up our bags and then 8 of us crammed into a TINY little taxi for the 20 minute trip to their house. If I spoke Arabic I could tell you the town, but I couldn't quite catch it :/  I slept the whole way back, partially in Stefanie's lap haha Then we relaxed and watched t.v. for the first time in 2 months and made little beds out of a couch and a mattress...then as one a.m. came around we were informed it was time for dinner ?!?!?!  She brought out fresh pressed olive oil, bread baked by her that morning, figs and cactus fruit from her yard and then a clay pot of sorts with little meat balls and an amazing cumin tomato sauce that we dipped the bread in it and quickly had it devoured. Shortly there after we were all passed out...I woke up to a Rooster and the sounds of sheep and goats in the back yard with a gentle breeze blowing in the window. Unfortunately their bathroom consited of a bucket of water with bowls in it for a shower and a hole in the ground for their bathroom :/  On the positive side their house was four stories high and you could stand on the ceiling to look out over the town on one side (about the size of Hastings, if not smaller) and the horses, sheep, goats and chickens on the other standing amongst the olive groves. <3  I absolutely loved it. We then ate breakfast of which was cinammon rolls, fresh baked bread, olive oil, fruits of different kinds, mint tea, juice, this protein mix that was similar to granola, little pastries, potatoe pancakes and various other foods.  We then watched t.v. for a while and played more with Mushala, at this point Amanda wasn't feeling well so Stefanie, Uncle (as we called him), Mushala and I went up to the top of the mountain for a swim. The taxi ride was a blast playing rock paper scissors and singing old mcdonald with Mushala, Uncle kept turning around in the front seat of the cab with this giant smile on his face, everyone loved how much fun this little girl was having, it was quite contagious...however swimming in a muslim country means swimming in your clothes. It was a river that only the locals new about that came out of the mountain spring, of which is where they all got their water. It was chilly 60 some degree water with plenty of people swimming. There were tents out for people fasting, and some people that were camping. There were also these boats made of painted tree trunks and little paddles...so it was a raft and a paddle boat that had a child that was then decorated with tinsle, and random cartoons. The majority of the locals seemed quite confused as to how these white girls managed to find their swimming holes, but many of them came up to us and greeted us and asked us questions, however we didn't speak the language so it was mostly arm movement communication. This blog entry about Morocco in general will be long enough without me going into that...I will be writing again this week sometime about what this trip has done for me and what I will miss and where I see my future going now. As for dwelling on the past, after that river trip we went back to the house to eat homemade couscous and chicken tangine. Along with amazing veggies, fresh bread, chocolate flan, fruit juice, olives, dates, figs, and other food. Then we watched a few movies and digested as a storm started to blow in. It thunderstormed while we ate dinner, which was fried fresh caught fish in a lemon pepper batter, fresh limes baked with tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. More of the potato pancakes and some of them filled with meat, mint tea, more figs fruits and way more. This isn't the only food we ate, remember how I mentioned that they were always giving us food while we were walking around? Good thing I have practice with my Italian relatives, because I ate A LOT of food. I also enjoyed every second of it. To digest our food Mushala started dancing around and we signalled for Uncle to turn on music on the t.v. and we all danced to Moroccan music for probably a good hour. Her whole family joined in, even her cousin who lived next door. It was so much fun and she got a kick out of it. Even when there's a language barrier dancing seems to be a universal language...that and the Arabic phrasebook Stefanie brought was helpful...haha After this Iftar  and our dance off we went back into the city (Fes) as we were about to get into the taxi a dust storm blew up because there was never much rain. A really bad gush of wind pelted pieces of rock at us and it got in our hair and clothes, and it was hurting Mushala so I picked her up and tossed her into the taxi before getting in and laying on her to protect her from the storm. Her mom was shocked at my reflex, and so were my friends. Actually they were all impressed, yet not surprised at how good I was with kids, even the random ones we found out in the street. They were often playing soccer or just running around like crazy, because that's what kids do. So we went to the markets in Fes and ate MORE food while shopping for traditional moroccan slippers and various other souvenirs. The markets were great, weird food items, traditional muslim dress, random western apparel lol So after some shopping we went to see the Palace in Fes which was quite a site all lit up at night. Then it was off to the train station (every time we travelled there were 8 of us ....in a tiny taxi lol). She helped us get our tickets and we sat and chatted for an hour while we waited. Poor stefanie was getting the usual about to marry my son questions and was trying to explain them the best she could when the mother only understood 75% of what she was saying. Then we got the train hugged goodbye and took our seats. We looked out our window to find her and Mushala staring in our window crying as we were about to pull away. It was one of the most heart warming moments I've ever experienced. We managed to touch people that barely spoke our language, and share our cultures in ways that are next to impossible to explain. I will never be the same, I now realize how real people are. People in other countries aren't just figments, they're real breathing beings, who live and touch and feel. I mean, I've always known that, but now I've witnessed it first hand. Of course this emotional experience started to wear off a bit while trying to sleep on a Harry Potter style train haha We arrived back in Casablanca around 6:30 a.m....I got to watch the sun rise over the desert. We then took a taxi back to the ship..and had to walk thirty minutes across the dock -_-  First thing I did back on the ship other than hand in my passport was take a really long shower. The bucket and bowls just wasn't cutting it in the 120 degree heat of Fes.  It felt like an oven ...all over your body, that you couldn't walk out of. You know how when you open it and go "AHH that's hot" and then close it..well it was that without it closing and your whole body. haha I went and ate breakfast...since I knew I'd skip lunch...then went to bed until 2 p.m. woke up and made plans with people to go out that evening and then went back to bed again. I was thoroughly exhausted. However I did get up at 6 to go to Rick's Cafe for the breaking of the fast. For those who don't know that's where a lot of the classic movie Casablanca is based. I got a tshirt and an awesome tbone steak (perfectly medium rare :)) and a brownie with icecream. I also had the best tequila sunrise I've ever drank. Then we played with a group of kids who were playing soccer and drumming on homemade drums. After that we all just relaxed. Then I went to lunch today and went to the near by bazaar to spend the last of my money. It wasn't much 1 dollar is worth almost 10 moroccan durham. Therefore everything was cheap. However, you can't exchange Moroccan currency back in the states. I then spent my other money on a purse for myself and a few gifts. To keep from spending all my money on everyone I know I decided to keep gift buying to a bit of a minimum and stick to my parents, brother and my grandparents. I'm sorry all, I love you but I was on a strict budget :(   Then I went to a hotel and used their computer and now I'm on the ship for the last time. It's actually rocking...a lot...we just got an announcement to keep our stuff closed up....I'll make sure to blog all about that, final thoughts, and final exams on another day. Wow, can you believe my trip is almost over? 8 more days!  Love to all :) 

Gwen

Turkey, a Country of Firsts

We spent five days in Istanbul Turkey, and it was wonderful and a bit of the culture shock I was hoping for. In both good and bad ways. Currently I'm sailing between Turkey and Morocco and finally having a 5 day week of classes, of which is why I've been taking a while to make this entry, for those of you who have been looking for my Turkey feedback. One thing that I'm glad that I did was make a list of firsts. After each day I made a list of things I did for the first time. This is helpful because I crammed so much into my time in Turkey that it's almost impossible to tell it all in one blog entry. I will try my best haha  The biggest shock was that there isn't the freedom of speech. You can be arrested if you talk against Attaturk, the man who made Turkey what it is today (everyone is a forced equal, and if the governement messes up the military interferes...for the super brief version). Also, the Christians aren't allowed to have church picnics or outings because that can be thought of as "forced" conversion. If someone wants to convert they have to go through schooling for 2 years (we talked to a greek orthodox priest there from chicago) this way they know they're serious. Because they have people spy on the church to make sure they're basically not being threatening.... Technically the muslims aren't supposed to be allowed to either, but since the current government is muslim (the christians don't have enough people for a member or parliament) they can have big Ramadan Festivals (it was fun) in public and everything. This is odd since the Orthodox version of the pope (patriarch) resides in Istanbul...I know not everyone enjoys politics or history blabber...but it was just weird to go and discuss my faith with someone (which I do quite naturally) and then having to zip my lips. It was especially interesting when we went with a Muslim tour guide to visit the remaining churches in Istanbul. I met a Nigerian residing in Istanbul, who shares his faith as an almost underground thing...doing what we take for granted...in a bit of an extreme situation. We had an awesome conversation...I'm sure in the much more strict country of Morocco it will be even more interesting to see. The churches were beautiful, especially Hagia Sofia, of which is still very obviously a church, with a couple of mosque artifacts tossed in. Thankfully they consider Jesus a prophet so they didn't remove the beautiful artwork in the church. It is one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen.  I went with my friend Ryan and we just spent 2 hours walking around and admiring the intricate details. You may think two hours in a church is a bit excessive, but you have to see it to understand. I have some awesome pictures. Also we got to spend the first day of Ramadan in Istanbul (or Constantinople or Byzantium, whichever you please *cue the old song*).  There was some really good people watching. Technically the Turkish people themselves aren't allowed to wear religious garments (so those full length black face covering muslim outfits, or priest garb...any of that) however the visitors are allowed to. So "Black Birds" what they call the women in full muslim garb are visitors from say Iraq or Iran, somewhere like that. So just watching all the different people was interesting...and everyone looked a lot classier, since it's frowned on for men and women to wear shorts (kids can, I can't remember why). Long skirts and even slacks are quite classy. It was too hot for jeans, so linen pants were the way to go. I also bought a bright blue pair of harem pants that are supposedly what the farm girls where to keep cool in the fields. Idk...they're comfy and cool (temperature wise). I also went to a belly dancing show, it was amazing and most of the belly dancers (except one) kept it classy and were very respectful to their art. It has a respectable history, only problem is that a lot of westerners...like some americans, have turned it into some sort of strip dance...which isn't belly dancing..it's stripping..when I say I'm taking belly dancing please don't take it in that way. It's just another form of dance, that is very complicated and a lot of fun. Plus it teaches everyone to embrace their body, no matter what shape it is. I'm excited to perform in the talent show on the 5th (of August). I also spent the day before the belly dancing show just lounging by the pool...where we were docked was awesome. While I layed out I could see Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sofia, the blue mosque and Galata Tower...pretty much not a better view in town. That and I could watch all the ferries going off to the islands or back and forth between Asia. Oh, that's on the list of firsts, I went to Asia...for dinner haha We took the fairy over, for those of you who don't know, half of Istanbul is in Europe and the other half is in Asia (where the rest of the country is). We ate dinner at an upscale restaurant and watched the fireworks and light up bridge. It was a really good time.  Thinking of food, I forgot to mention the awesome 5 course meal that came with the belly dancing show..we had salad, fresh fruit, an appetizer plate..that I couldn't tell what much was but it was good, the main course was rice and chicken and brussel sprouts. It was all amazing, the chicken was grilled and smoked, and just yum. :)  Also they had a very yummy rose wine that I loved. It was all for about $40 which isn't bad at all. Actually, we got a discount for being belly dance students, it was half off. :)  yay!  Outside of the Blue Mosque was a guy making lollipops, which was really cool. Unfortunately that poor man does that every day all day...talk about boring...I saw so much...I had to just pick a couple things, unfortunately. Okay now for the list of first that I made haha

 

Turkish Firsts

 

Turkish Delight (nut candy with gooey sweet stuff and powdered sugar yum)

Fresh figs

Public bathroom was a hole in the ground....oh the technical difficulties.

Bought fresh spices at the Spice Market (like the powdery funky kind)

Went inside a mosque (which is allowed in Turkey..because they're an odd Muslim country, please ask if you have questions!! :) )

Had yogurt drink called ayran, would taste good if I liked plane yogurt.

I was pick pocketed...too bad for them I wasn't dumb enough to put anything in my pockets...and I hit the lady pretty hard while she was doing it...my friends were impressed...cat reflexes :)

I heard (and recorded) the call to prayer.

Ate fresh kebab carved from that spinning chunk of meat you always see on t.v. YUM  <3 Turkish spice

Ate a turkish pretzel, basically round bread covered in sesame seeds.

Learned some turkish: su means water  bayon means women both important

Went to Asia

Went to the Grand Bazaar (and saw Ben Affleck filming a movie..pretty cool) 3,000+stands/stores

Went to a Hooka Bar

Rode in a mercedes van (they're EVERYWHERE)

Had to cover my head (for the mosque)

Called my mom on a public phone in a port (last time it was outside :))  miss you mom <3

Dobar Dan!

That means Good Day! in Bulgarian of course. I think this is the country in which this whole experience has hit me, and fully encouraged my love of travel. Also I've become even more independent. I'm sure half of everyone reading this is going "oh goodness", and the other half has no idea what I'm talking about :P Part of me wishes this trip was seperated into chunks so that it was easier to digest. I know it's hard to understand, but this is really a quite emotionally and personally stressful situation. In all good ways, but it's not meant for everyone. Many students handle it by drinking themselves into a stupor every chance they get, which I suppose is one way of going about it. I instead write in my journal and try to sort everything out. One thing is that all of Europe can be thoroughly digested by my country, and that I need to explore my own shorelines some, I love just seeing the different types of cultures just from within my own country. We have Texans of whom think they're their own country, I love them, but they're dillusional, it's still attached, and without us (the rest of the country) they would be Mexicans. Also we get a few people who haven't been out of their tristate area, so it's quite a change for them, especially a couple of the southern belles from the Alabama area, they're having a tricky time. I think part of it is how not all men are quite as polite as southern men, but they didn't realize that. So we have that, the shipboard culture "shock" I suppose and then in the countries themselves. Not being able to read road signs because the alphabet is different and in Bulgaria only a handful of younger people actually speak any english. Good thing I talk with my hands already.  haha Okay as for what I've done in Bulgaria...the first day I was still sick and had a fever so I slept until the afternoon, and then my friends convinced me a day at the beach could be therapeutic, and I'm glad they did. The black sea is wonderful, a bit angry, but more like what I'm used to. There were waves!! :)  all the beaches we've been to haven't really had any sort of wave activity. It was also only a 5 minute walk from our ship, and sandy. So I took a nap on the beach and then my two friends Craig and Jill wanted to stay out of the water and my friend Jeff and I wanted to go in. So he and I went and played in the water for two hours. It cleared out my sinuses, lowered my fever and was just fun in general. After that I never got my fever back, I've had a cough but I'm mostly good. :)  They were right, I should have known the ocean was what I needed. The water was wonderful, and that day it was only in the 80's instead of over 100 so it was overall...what you'd expect of a beach day. Then we went back to the ship for dinner and split into groups, I knew better than to go out dancing and such when I was just feeling better. So Jeff and I wandered around, we got internet at a cafe for a while (that's how I found the spot to post all the pictures) There were a lot of street stands selling corn on the cob which made me really happy because I thought I was going to miss out on it back home. Then we just wandered back and forth on the sandy beach. Really this is more a less a spring break for us, I even just found out we don't have real classes between here and Turkey, which is great because I didn't feel like writing papers. I'll probably start my spanish one so I don't forget what happened. Then Jeff and I went back to the ship and watched the 6th harry potter movie, and then it was bed time. We got up the next morning and spent the morning on the internet. Of which is how I posted those pictures on facebook. Sorry, I didn't have time to post any here on my blog. So hopefully you can get them on their, if not I'll be making a scrap book this fall in my "spare time" and I'll show you at some point. After that was another day at the beach, this time the water was too rough and there were jelly fish washed in so we didn't swim. So I read my book and relaxed. Yet again, not too shabby. There were people selling corn and bananas on the beach, but no drinks. I didn't want warm corn (it was hotter this day, probably 90's), or a banana but I would have bought drinks. That was a bit odd, but oh well. This is when I met cuddle bug. Most of the stray dogs you meet just want to hang out with you so you'll feed them. Cuddle bug was different, she refused food and water when we offered it to her. She was wandering on the beach, she's a miniature german shephard of sorts. All I did was call her attention and she came running over and sat on me. Not next to me...haha My roommate and i were super excited. This dog seriously spent two hours with us, eventually she dug a little whole in the sand next to my towel (well she buried it in the process, but oh well) and she spent two hours with us. I had a dog to pet as I read my book, and every so often she'd lay on me if i wasn't being attentive enough. She just wanted a friend, and I always wanted a dog that followed that well. If I went to rinse off in the water she'd come over and play with me in the water. Unfortunately we had to leave her after our day at the beach and I was sad because I lost my new friend. But I really did need dog time and that cheered me up in general. Then we ate dinner at this restaurant built into an old pirate ship that had been brought ashore and then converted. That was pretty cool, except the food was mediocre and cold, and took forever to come out. oh well, it was fun. Then we went into the city and explored the actually city parts. One of my favorite things about the city is the number of trees there were, and how people just come out to walk. This makes for good people watching, and they're not in a hurry because they're not going anywhere. So it's pretty stress free walking amongst these people. Then we went back to the ship. The next day I slept in and then went on a trip to two villages. It was mostly a site seeing thing. I have gorgeous pictures of a cape that has ruins. I met a lovely lady who had a souvenir stand. She wanted me to go to her village and have dinner with her and her family. Which i thought was incredibly sweet. I even managed to get a picture with her. Then we went to the middle of no where, past more corn fields (I can't escape, the corn follows) to where our tour guide said there isn't even cell phone reception. Not an issue for me, since I can't use my phone. Then we went to what was supposed to be a traditional dinner and folk show. The dinner was traditional, and yummy but I could never tell you what I ate...I took a picture...i don't know what most of it was. lol There was about 30 minutes of traditional dancing, and then a lot of dancing geered towards russian tourists, which was lame..and the dancers weren't professional. At the end they at least had a traditional fire dance that was cool, they danced on hot coals. I have a video of that. Then I went to bed, and I didn't go out today because I wanted to start my papers, which is good because they're not due. Now I have the evening free. I have belly dancing practice because a group of my friends and I are learning from our friend from Colombia and we're going to do it for the talent show. It's a good workout, and it's fun. Okay I need to go now :) Off to Turkey!  That should be a culture shock, however I'll be eating lunch in Asia on Friday...so it can't be all bad. haha Love to all!

Me

Greece

What to say about Greece. I'm going to start with some generalizations for an update, but considering I don't feel good I'm going to make it relatively short. The transportation strikes really made moving about difficult, but it was manageable, and it wasn't scary in my experience. There were a few times the cops were shooing protestors out of the way of our buses so we could get through. Also the acropolis was everything I expected, and more. I got to sit on the steps up to the Parthenon as the sunset, watching all different people appreciate the same piece of history. Also there weren't too many people, so it was even more pleasant. I got to sing karaoke in front of the Temple of Zeus, my friend Anny and I sang some songs from the Disney movie Hercules, and a couple of people joined in. The markets were finally what I had been wanting. Merchants selling either their own hand made crafts, like rugs and carpets. Or some things like jewelry. A lot of symbolism could be seen, like the evil eye, which is supposed to keep it away, and therefore is a good luck charm. This is an addition to my sort of good luck charm collection, I also have the horn from Italy made of red coral...sort of looks like a tamale but I think I talked about that earlier. I also ended up seeing Harry Potter twice, since I had enough money from my budget for this country. I also ate a lot of food. I had the best mousaka ever at a little family owned place. Down by their bathroom you could see the owner's wife, mother and daughter cooking the food for everyone. Not only that but I ate a "traditional greek platter" which had stuffed wine leaves, fried cheese, roasted peppers, grilled sausage, and tziki sauce along with a grilled eggplant salad and fish egg salad that was actually really good. Also a fried meatball that was amazing, and spinach pie, the real kind. We also had a glass of wine (we being Anny and I), and a piece of baklava. :) yumm  Walking around in general was just a lot of fun, the greek people are just amazingly friendly even while thier country is under so much turmoil politically and economically. It was wonderful to see, just so much happiness, and welcoming of strangers. Now I'm off to bed and I will try and continue this more tomorrow. Love to all! :)

Gwen

Croatia

Dobar Dan!

Serbo-Croat looks scary on paper but it actually sounds a lot like Russian when people are speaking it. Every time I used one of 20 words I knew they assumed I spoke it fluently, so I just decided to only speak in English since they all spoke it pretty fluently. It was interesting hearing people talking about before and after the war, it's amazing what people of my generation had to endure in another country. I could finally talk to people about that sort of thing because there wasn't such a language barrier. Yes in Spain and Italy they speak English but it is usually quite broken and more complex things like cultuaral debates and political discussions just aren't reasonable. However, the people now-adays seem quite happy, this may have been due to the big music festival that was happening while we were there. Unfortunately a lot of the events actually were quite expensive. Some music was free though, there were quite a few free outside concerts in the middle of the Old Town. Anything big though like the Folk Festival and the National Symphony were about $60 for cheap tickets. Not kuna, dollars. Even though the conversion was 5 kuna to 1 dollar they just charged a lot for everything, probably because they wish they were using the euro, everywhere excepted them. I did go to a supermarket and everything was cheap. For instance I got laundry detergent for 24 kuna, that's $4.80.Also they had a conversion spot right near the port, and I made sure to go to the one with the best conversion rate. 5.20 kuna per dollar versus the port authority which was exchanging for 4.70. As for the city itself, Old Town was one of the most unique places I have been. There is the new city which was built around the Old Town. The Old Town has the oldest complete set of walls in Europe. I am happy to say that my first day in Dubrovnik, Croatia I hiked the walls. And I said hike due to the number of stairs up that I took in 105 degree weather -_-  It was gorgeous and a lot of fun, and yet another test of my defeat of my fear of heights. Also when you walk in the town itself there are NO CARS you only hear people's feet and clothes rustling. Yes, clothes rustling, which was awesome. It looks like you are walking inside a castle, which I was nerding out about since I love medieval history. People also knew a lot about the history of my name here, which was rather random....In Old Town you can tell the road is old because it literally shines from wear. Unfortunately I saw this little girl slip and break her leg because of the slick worn down surface :( The ambulance had to come and get her) on a brighter note...that night my friends and I decided to get dressed up and go to a fancy dinner in Old Town. We ate at a place called Renaissance, the food was the best I've had so far. I had an amazing seafood rissotto that I split with my friend Caroline. Along with a really yummy tuna salad. Yes, I said yummy and tuna in the same sentence, I usually hate it. However, when it was swimming around earlier that day it's hard not to like. We spread that on bread and then we all got free applecake :) This is because we followed the man handing out advertisements to everyone and he said if we went there we could have free dessert. It had an amazing caramel sauce. Then most of my friends except for Caroline wanted to shop and then go back to the ship, we however decided to do some exploring. This is when we met the merchants that wanted to talk about the war. We were sitting on a pier enjoying the quiet and the water, when these two merchants were greeting us to their country and asking us where we were from etc. etc. We ended up talking to them for at least an hour if not more. Then we ended up wandering back to the ship...well we took the bus..it's about an hour and a half walk from the ship to Old Town. The next morning I had a snorkelling trip. I went to an island...idk which one...haha there was a cave about 5 feet under the water that you could swim through and into a little lake. This lake had another cave that you unfortunately needed dive equipment to explore. This trip has motivated me to become dive certified, so hopefully I can save up and get mine during spring semester at my school. They have it available as a class, since we have Lake Erie :) There still weren't very many fish, this is mainly due to their fear of people, also there are less in general because of the higher salt level in the mediteranean. I was fascinated by the lake though. There were also a lot of tidal pools that I took my fins off and just crawled around them. Thankfully I have to write a paper on my snorkel trip anyway so my general curiosity will pay off. I did step on a little sea anenome and for a couple days my baby toe was all swelled up. That fate was much better than the couple of girls who were dumb enough to step on sea urchins. They're the size of my hand...how do you not see them? That made me laugh, I seriously felt like I was in my prime just crawling around on these rocks poking sea urchins and star fish...I watched a starfish suck a mussel out of its shell. It's actually a little gross how they do it so I won't go into detail, but since I am a biology major I was quite fascinated by it. I made decent friends with one of our tour guides who was amused by my curiosity. He's the one who had convinced me that swimming into a dark hole in the rock under the water was a great idea. Then we were taken back to the hotel where the snorkel company works out of. There I did a little swimming, by this time it was around 11 in the morning. That day got up to 111 degrees, (44 celsius) which is really hot. So I would lay out in the sun maybe 20 minutes and then jump into the water. Needless to say I am quite tan. I was a little burnt but between my spf 15 and Italian blood I managed to not turn all lobstery like many other people. I was happy because they made sure you had snorkel experience first so we didn't have to wear a vest or a wet suit. I was able to go under easy and explore more, but I was much more tired after this trip. I ended up showering and sleeping until after dinner. Then I found my shipboard mom Jeanne. Her and I walked around the dock and looked at all the private yachts, sail boats and other various types of boat. Then we stopped at a little restaurant and had some variety of custard that's supposed to be the dessert of Dubrovnik or something. It was amazing, and she made it her treat so that made me happy. Then I went back to my room with the intention of watching Harry Potter before bed, it's the only thing that was playing on our t.v.s. But I ended up falling asleep at 10:30. Then the next morning her and I headed over to the island Lopud. I think I found my absolute favorite beach there. It was called Syjab or something like that...the names are nuts. The island was a 50 minute ferry ride across the adriatic and there were a lot of shops and a mediocre beach right off where the ferry lets you off. There are no cars allowed on the island except a few transfer golf carts and tractors. I have never been so happy to see a tractor in my life. I just really miss them from back home, and big cities don't tend to need them. Sort of how I felt when a staff member treated me to a glass of milk, which I haven't had in a month :) Well they needed these transfer vehicles to get to Syjab. Jeanne and I decided to walk since it was in the woods. You could hear the locusts singing all over the island, and it sort of sounded like they were chearing us on. Thankfully it wasn't as ungodly hot (90 some vs 100 and some) so hiking wasn't so bad. We made the hike, which was a trek over the mountain over to the other side of the island on a little trail. Just past where the path to the beach was was a dirt road. This also made me really happy. I was in nature and there were dirt roads and such. This is good because one reason I was spending time with Jeanne other than I really enjoy her as a mentor is that my friends and I have spent too much time together and we were all starting to just rub each other the wrong way. So we all split off into different directions for a little while. When we got just above the beach we had an amazing view of the mountains on the island along with the beach, and all the boats and little sail boats that had pulled right up to where the bouys were that marked off the swimming area. People were swimming right out of their boats and people would drive their jetskis right up to the beach. Then we walked down to the beach and we rented two chairs and an umbrella (I didn't really need any more sun). I napped and read a book and even enjoyed a Pina Colada :) Then around 3 we headed back to the other side and had a super late lunch. I had grilled shrimp that were very fresh. She had fish, cabbage and potatoes. It all was really good. Then some man that was sitting near me couldn't eat his sundae so I helped him with it....it was a fruit salad! They take fruit and rum and mix it up and then stick a few scoops of icecream on top and THEN put whiped cream and chocolate sauce on it. I was overly excited when he gave me nearly half of it. I suppose he didn't realize the size of it when he ordered it. After that we did a little touristy shopping and took the ferry back. Then we had to wait for the ship to come back because it had to move to let a few other cruise ships in. Then I went out with my friends for gellato, and everyone seemed to be in a better mood, including myself. I'll admit I was cranky, I needed some nap/sun/outdoorsy time. We ate our icecream on the pier and it was nice to just sit outside and chat. Then we decided to go to the bar called skybar. We had a few drinks and then listened to the folk music playing outside and headed over to the club. You may be wondering why I've decided to inform my blog of this. Well the club was inside a CASTLE. So we went dancing in a castle, pretty much the coolest place I've ever had a drink in my life. If you looked up it was all old brick and everything. It made for a strange accoustic, and people could smoke inside so it was like a fog machine. I also met an Australian guy named John  and we had a funny chat about animals. I told him he should go visit Locrum (another island) because of the peacocks that live there and since i hadn't gotten to see it. He wasn't that excited since duh Australia has them, then he was shocked that I've never really seend  a kangaroo. Those sort of things are what I really enjoy learning about people. After that my friends and I headed back, and then I promptly slept until 1 the next day haha I had lunch and then that was when we went grocery shopping. Which isn't as easy as it seems. Nothing is in english so telling laundry detergent from softener is quite tricky, or conditioner from shampoo...this is unless you find an american brand. haha I bought a couple funky types of granola...well what I think is granola...it might be Croatian Surprise for all I know. We can't have twist top bottles on the ship because people might try and smuggle alcohol on board..and they don't want us drinking anything except their alcohol...so I bought juice boxes. I also got a couple snicker bars for when I crave chocolate. Oh, and more shampoo I'm almost out. Then I just sat outside and chatted with my friends while they used internet, I was going to use it, but they had stopped selling passwords because of the sheer number of people using it. So I just updated facebook using Jeff's computer, but then I forgot a few things. So yet again I will try and get dependable internet in Piraeus, Greece. Of which is our next port of call, and is 20 minutes from Athens.. There's not a heck of a lot to do in either place, so I may end up seeing the last Harry Potter movie after all. I spent the night still meeting new people on the ship and doing homework...I miss Croatia it was the prettiest place I've seen so far...maybe second to the Tuscan Valley. Well I need to get to bed....I will try and write about Greece in multiple writings instead of just one. Sorry about that!! :-/  I hope all is well. Hug a maple for me. Seriously, all the foliage is different here. haha

Bog!

Gwen 

Arrivederci Italia

I didn't enjoy Naples as much as I had hoped, and I was slowly starting to think that Italy wasn't going to meet my expectations and then we moved over to Civitavetcchia...and I'm absolutely in love with it. But before I get there I need to tell you all about my last and favorite day in Naples, which was July 4th. I got to hike Mount Vesuvius and it was the most spectacular view I've seen in my life, argueably better than the view from Capri. I tried to upload pictures today but so many people were using the internet that it wouldn't go, so I did try. :(  Mt. Vesuvius was awesome. It was a nature park first, so I finally got to get out of the city and away from so many people for a while. It got pretty busy as we were climbing down because it was 11ish when we were leaving, but it was relatively empty until then. I'm pretty bummed they cancelled the hike I was supposed to do in Tuscany now, I loved having nature time. A lot of people complained about the difficulty of the hike, but really you only hike the last 600 feet. Which on a 3600 foot mountain isn't that much. It was different from what I'm used to hiking because it was all just up instead of the Appalachian stuff I'm used to which is more winding of up and down both ways. I loved it though, my friend Katie and I started singing the national anthem and a bunch of other americans that happened to be there plus other SASers joined in, and people from other countries cheered us on. So that was fun. It was kinda cool because the mountain had a high humidity level, especially since half the time we were IN a cloud...pretty much moving humidity. But it was nice because the water in the cloud was cool so it felt good, and thankfully we went in the morning before it got to be too hot. Today was much cooler than yesterday, probably about 80 verses Capri which was a little over 90. I miss having a pool, this one is always full of people, and I like to go in the evening and they close it up by 6 at night. They threw us a fourth of july barbecue after my trip to Mount Vesuvius with real charcoal grills, that I'm convinced they should use every day. They had burgers, hot dogs, potatoe salad, baked beans (that I put on my weiner of course) and yummy icecream. Also the best lemonade I've ever had. They also played American classics like Journey, and Billy Joel, and then they'd play some country and some patriotic stuff. They also had flags everywhere and such. Another cruise ship was near by and there were some Americans on it who were chearing for every new song it was pretty funny. The couple of Italians that were on board were pretty impressed actually. Idk, it was just fun to feel American again for a while. That night we came over to (what we have now nicknamed Civy because we can't pronounce it haha) Civy of which is a "city" similar to Meadville. Basically it's Meadville on the ocean, it didn't even feel like a port town until today when tons of people were loading onto cruise ships and such. Until then it was relatively quiet and there are actual Italians who only speak Italian. In four days I have learned a significant amount, much more than I learned in Naples where it was hard to find people to talk to.  I want to save up to come back in the near future. There was a restaurant right outside of where we were docked with the nicest bartender named Arnoldo. The first thing I did here of course was a trip to Rome. We spent the day there, and I absolutely loved it. I am glad however that I went on a Tuesday, it was incredibly crowded. I was glad to see the museum, I saw the she-wolf and some original Caravvagio's. Then a group of about four of us walked over to the Colosseum, which is impossiblle to capture in pictures. It's funny because the thicker the crowd got the closer you knew you were to a monument. Then we went up to the fontana di Trevi, Trevi Fountain. Then we ate lunch, I had proscuitto and melon along with half of my friends pizza she couldn't eat alone, with an amazing cappucino. Then we had to meet back up with our tour guide and headed back. It was a short trip, but for this time of year it was the cheapest and best way to do it. Don't worry, i made sure to do the coin toss. That night is when I met the awesome bartender. He's a jolly old fellow, and I will really miss him. Through an array of events i ended up meeting this guy named Fabbio of whom I ended up spending all of my evenings here with. He taught me quite a bit of Italian and kept taking me places where he could get free stuff, and he bought me wine and such. It was really fun, and not scary because my tour guide actually knew him. He was her friends son. The next day though I spent the whole day up near Florence in Siena and San Gimagnino. Siena was interesting because they have two big bareback horse races a summer, one had just finished a few days before we arrived so each area of the town were flying their flags. Especially the "goose" section which had just won the race. Driving through Tuscany was a definite favorite of mine, the sunflowers are just amazing. I had relatively forgotten about Fabbio, figuring I wouldn't find him again but when I got back from my trip he was at the restaurant that Arnoldo works at. So I took my stuff back on the ship and met up with him there, and i spent time with him last night as well. Unfortunately he works until 7 at night and we have to be back on the ship by 6 so I won't see him today. Hopefully I'll have a pen pal now, that will help keep me motivated to learn more Italian. I was getting pretty good at it, but after a few more countries I think I might lose some of it. I'm definitely better at learning it this way than trying to study it in a book, I'm starting to hate my spanish class. He gives us far too much work to do in comparison to other classes. Yesterday I just spent the day wandering around Civy with my friend Jeff, we layed out on a few rocks for a while, and I bought a phone card and talked to my mom for a while. I will try and call her again today. Then since Fabbio is a fisherman he had a restaurant owner friend of his make us a special dinner. We had this awesome shrimp and homemade spaghetti, then these giant shrimp-lobster things that were firegrilled and amazing. Also we had the best Tiramasu ever. They had a really good white wine that we drank, and Limoncello is becoming one of my favorite drinks. They have a lot of it here since Capri is right here. They have GIANT lemons there. There's this little carnival next to the water that him and I went to, and then today I just went to the internet cafe and worked on homework. I'm sad to leave but I'm excited to see what the other countries have to offer. Croatia is next after a couple days at sea. We will arrive in Dubrovnik on Monday the 11th. I hope all is well :)

Me

The Island of Love

Capri is known as the Island of Love and is visited by millions of people each year and is a famous spot for the extremely wealthy. It was gorgeous. I have many pictures that look like I am either taking a picture of a poster or that I am in a poster. However, when I went there were 8 cruise ships near by, so there were a lot of tours. Also there were 90 people on my particular tour, so their was a lot of waiting and such. I have discovered my own independence on this trip. I was so afraid to leave and go off on my own. Now I lead groups of friends around cities and organize people. It's not always me, but that's a part of me that was always waiting for an opportunity to be used, but never had a chance. A lot of things weren't included that had been listed as included in our tour, so I didn't get to go on the boat tour of the island to see the mansions and the caves. That's okay because the caves themselves ended up being closed due to the raised water level, that I would have stayed later to see and explore. Also there was a sky lift to get to the highest point of the island that would have been fun to see, but it was 13 euro for the lift and the boat tour was 17 euro. I decided to spend the money I saved on a gorgeous dress that I found. I love saying I got it in Capri, and one way I had saved money for the trip in general was to tell myself, if you don't buy it here you can buy it in Italy, and usually that was about dresses. Also, I've decided not to go to stay in a Hostel in Rome officially, I just don't have it budgetted, and I will get to see the city. I may actually enjoy Citavetchia more because their will be more locals and personal culture there. I was lucky enough to wander down a street with my friend Chad in Capri that lead to where the locals live. They all seemed rather impressed that we found their neighborhood. We just sat on a step and observed them wander by. It was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. I would be interested to see what the culture there is like in the off season, like in February, when there aren't thousands of tourists on the island. It was only an hour hydrofoil to get to the island, which wasn't bad. After we got there half of the group went to the boat tour and a few of us went to the beach. Giant rocks killed my feet but the water was wonderful, yet incredibly salty. It was a brilliant blue green color and about 74 degrees. I was glad we were at the beach from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. because after that it got very busy, and it was only mid 80's at that point. By the end of our stay in Capri, until about 5:00 p.m. even the Texans and Floridians looked a bit sunburnt and were searching for shade. My friend from New Mexico isn't real sure what to do with the humidity haha We had a lunch included. We had penne pasta with a basil eggplant sauce. You could definitely taste the fresh olive oil used to saute the eggplant. I could have eaten a whole bowl of just the eggplant. Then we were promised chicken caprese but received fried chicken and french fries...which was odd. The fries were good though :) Granted, I miss heinz ketchup haha. Over all it was enjoyable but I think it would have been cheaper and more enjoyable independently. I've finally gotten my skin to the point where it just gets a darker brown/native american color instead of red. I don't want to push it though so I will probably where a t-shirt on my Mount Vesuvius Hike tomorrow. I'm enjoying the room to myself tonight because my roommate is staying in Capri over night. It's nice to finally have some alone time, too bad I'm exhausted and will probably go to bed soon. Especially since I have to catch a bus at 7:30 a.m. Thankfully I found a good luck charm I wanted for 6 euro instead of the 20 they wanted at pompeii. It's a small peice of red coral in the shape of a horn (often people think it's a pepper, but it's a horn). So I got a necklace piece for that, I just need to find a chain. I felt like I really got a good deal on that especially since red coral is becoming more rare, and I got to see some while I was snorkelling last week in Spain. As far as the evening went we all got dinner on the ship and then washed up to wander Naples for a while. Then the boys wanted food so I had gelato and 2 glasses of wine, Anny and Caroline had these donuts covered in Nutella, and then Jeff and Todd split beer and a giant salami and ham calzone with riccotta and mozzarella in it. Then we all "rolled" back to the ship, and here I am. I need to do some laundry (hand wash is the way to go) and then head to bed. Also before I wrap up, I know i promised pictures but three people had their laptops snatched at the internet cafe today, so I'm not going to risk it unless I have a big group to go with. So I will try, but I don't want to risk losing my computer....I need it :)

Love to all!!

Me