… I'm back on dry land.

Casablanca was the port where a few unfortunate events all combined.

The first day was very relaxed. Most of my friends were participating in a self organized trip with a tour guide all over Morocco but I had previously signed up for a 3 day 2 night tour in the city of Marrakech. And that trip didn't leave until the second day.

So, I went with three of my friends to explore the city Casablanca (where the MV Explorer was docked). We walked to the souks or the Moroccan version of a bazaar and shopped around. The Medina, or old city, was full of winding streets and old historical sites, but unlike Istanbul and Dubrovnik, this Medina was much less tourist friendly. It seemed like a place where all the locals shopped for all the random stuff they might need. I saw stores that sold chickens and knock off Louis Vuitton belts… a strange inventory.

After walking around for a long while, we decided to head to the famous Hassan II Mosque. This mosque is the 3rd largest in the world and the largest one in Africa. It has the highest minaret in the world (it's taller than the Washington Monument) and can hold 130,000 Muslim worshippers. We walked around the huge complex for a while and explored. The whole mosque is built on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic. The floors in the mosque itself are glass panels and the ocean can be seen running underneath it. Very cool. After sitting around and hanging out with the awesome Atlantic ocean breeze, we decided to head back to the ship to eat and prepare for our departure the following morning.

Unfortunately, my roommate had been sick a few days earlier, and it was the day I was leaving for my camel trek when his virus decided to hit me. I spent all night battling low blood sugars and nausea/vomiting. But, thankfully, I held onto my cookies long enough to get on the bus in time to drive to Marrakech.

The three hours of sleep on the way to Marrakech were glorious. We arrived at our hotel and I immediately took a nap. Then when I woke up, we went to lunch on the way outskirts of town. The restaurant was outside, which really stunk because it was roughly 115 degrees in the sunlight. My stomach was still bothering me so I just nibbled on bread until it was time to go camel riding.

I got a camel affectionally named Martin. We trekked through the palm groves for about an hour and it was awesome. We chanted and walked and continued to walk until we arrived at where we started. The camel's walk was a little rough on my very upset stomach because, believe it or not, camels aren't the most stable form of transport, but I made it. I got some great pictures before riding back to the hotel to shower and clean up for dinner and rest.

The next morning, I slept in and met up with 2 of my friends who were also on the tour and we went into the city center, Jamal El Fna Square, to do some exploring. We walked around the souks and bought a bunch of souvenirs haggling like crazy the whole time. Around sunset, we went to the main square area, watched snake charmers and took pictures with monkeys. The girls got henna and I continued to wander. At sunset we caught a taxi back to the hotel for dinner and sleep.

We spent the next day traveling back to Casablanca and wandering around the city. For dinner we went to Rick's Cafe, from the movie. It was delicious. I ate the best and probably only filet mignon this summer. We just sat and talked and hung out, soaking in the atmosphere and piano music coming from the floor below. We got back to the ship and got a good nights sleep.

Around 11, I ventured out with 3 new friends to go back into the souks of Marrakech. We started with dinner at a great local Moroccan restaurant, McDonalds, haha. Then we walked around for a while buying last minute souvenirs and stocking up on drinks and food for the ride back across the Atlantic. On the way back to the ship, we saw a motorcade and ran to the edge of the street just in time to see the Moroccan king drive by. The Moroccan's really love their king, which is good considering what's been happening all across Northern Africa since April.

We rebounded the ship around 1700 and set sail for Boston, Massachusetts at 2000. We are arriving on Saturday the 20 at 0800. I'm really excited to be home and enjoy some nice Mexican food and drive my car (Which better be in pristine condition, no dents, Mom…. haha)

On board, we've finished finals and now we're all just sitting around catching up and reminiscing. Last night was the Alumni Dinner which was delicious followed by a dance party in the Teacher's lounge, everyone had so much fun and it's going to be really hard to leave all these people.

Semester at Sea has been an incredible experience. I'd go back and do it all over again in a heartbeat. I can't wait to tell you more about it in person.

Thanks for reading…

Robbie

… some more pics of Morocco and ...

... it's a long post; this is my warning and ...

Istanbul was incredible. Now that we're 4 days into our 5 day crossing of the Mediterranean, all I can think about how much I want to go back!

We docked in the port of Karakoy and woke up to an incredible view of the Hagia Sophia and Topakpi Palace. The MV Explorer was parked in the famous Golden Horn, or bay of Istanbul. The ship was perfectly located. The best location so far this voyage. We were a 7 minute taxi ride or 10 minute tram ride to the Hagia Sophia and Hippodrome.

On the first day I had signed up for a Semester at Sea Field Program called, appropriately, "Istanbul City Orientation." Our charter bus drove us all around the city before stopping at the area of town known as the Old City or the Peninsula. Our bus dropped us off right at the Hippodrome. The hippodrome was once the equivalent of the Roman Circus Maximus. The home of Constantinople's chariot races was once able to hold 110,000 people. Now though, it is basically an open plaza in an elliptical shape. We walked the length of the Hippodrome and stopped in front of the three famous columns that still stand. The first column is a huge Egyptian obelisk made from one piece of marble and carried from Cairo in one piece before being set on a huge bronze platform in the middle of the Hippodrome. The second column was really small and made of bronze. It was called the serpentine column because it was once several yards higher and the swirling bronze lines were capped with two snake heads. The third column is called the Column of Constantine because Emperor Constantine, the Roman emperor responsible for moving the capital to Constantinople, had it built in his memory -- after naming the new city after himself… humble right?

When we were done with the Hippodrome, we ate lunch and then walked the 250 yards to the Hagia Sophia. Once through the security gates, I was dumbfounded by huge the inside of the church was. I thought it was only rivaled by St. Peter's in Rome. The dome of the church/mosque/museum was incredible, not to mention huge. The entire inside of the church was open, square, and vast. The best way to describe the Hagia Sophia is that it is a huge cube with a dome on top. The inside of the church, which was converted to a mosque in the 15th century was very strange because you could physically see the layers of history on the walls. The frescoes of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary had been white washed and covered with Arabic writing and shields. Once the mosque became a museum, they began to peel back the layers so that everyone could get a sense of the history of the building.

Once we left the Hagia Sophia, we walked to the Basilica Cistern, which was across the street. The inside of the cistern was so cool. It was built in 537AD and was lost to history until the 15th century when it was found by a French surveyor. The cistern itself was to collect water for the peninsula and old town area. The interior of the vast water space was filled with long colonnades of huge, beautiful Corinthian columns, dramatically lit, with a foot or two of water at the bottom. The tour group walked along a raised platform all around the beautiful area, so beautiful in fact that one of the dates for the Bachelor took place in the middle of the area. We also passed a pair of columns which had bases of recycled Roman statues of Medusa that had been turned upside down to take away Medusa's magical power.

After walking in the cool air of the cistern we reentered the Turkish inferno on our way to the Blue Mosque. Unlike the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque - although historic - was still an operating mosque. Because of that, the women on the tour had to cover their head, shoulders, and legs out of respect for the Islamic culture. Once through the equivalent of a security checkpoint, that made sure everyone was following the rules, we were greeted by another incredibly huge space.  And because it was still a functioning mosque, we had to take off our shoes so as not to dirty the carpeted floors. We walked around the Blue Mosque, named for the use of blue ceramic tiles on the walls and ceilings, for about half an hour before meeting back up with our bus for the drive to another mosque built by Sinan, the famous architect who built the Blue Mosque and the fantastic Suleymaniye mosque. This mosque, called Sehzade Camil Fatih Camil,  was also huge, carpeted, and beautifully decorated with tiles and Arabic script. Once finished at this secondary mosque we got back on the bus and returned to ship. Just in time for dinner.

Our first day in Istanbul was also one of my friend's, Genny, 21st birthday. So we wanted to go out to dinner and celebrate with her. We found out from some locals that best place to go for dinner and a night out was a 2 kilometer long pedestrian street off Taksim square. We went there and were immediately greeted by Thousands of people. The street was really crowded and we barely made it halfway down before turning back to go to a restaurant called TXM People where we sat, had a drink or two, and ordered some fantastic Mexican food. You read it right, Mexican food. I ordered a quesadilla and it was delicious. Maybe because it has been nearly two months since I've had anything like Mexican food but oh well. It was great. After dinner, we decided to brave the pedestrian street again looking for somewhere to go dancing or a bar to sit and hang out. We asked the concierge at a local hotel and he walked us about half way down the street to a bar a friend of his owned. However, we didn't end up going inside because in our PrePort before Istanbul, the administration had warned us of this kind of scam. Where tourists are brought to a cool club, have a couple drinks then get a $400 bill and are forced to pay it in order to leave. So we decided to not go inside and went back to the ship.
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The next morning, me and most of my friends went to the world famous Grand Bazaar. We got off at the tram stop and walked into the massive indoor structure. The easiest way to explain it is that the whole building was a small city. It had streets and side streets and restaurants and water fountains and over 4,000 shops. Most of them were selling the same types of things, souvenirs, fake designer brands, jewelry and various linen pieces of clothing. We spent the whole afternoon meandering our way around, haggling here and getting yelled at for asking too low of a price there. It was really fun to get the prices down and then just walk away. One of my friends wanted a bracelet that was originally 300 Lyra and talked him down to 7 Lyra, then didn't buy it out of principle. A fun experience to say the least. Some of my friends walked away with Louis Vuitton and Chanel, while I came out with a magnet. haha.

After lunch, we went to the Spice Market, which was a whole other ball game. Instead of selling cheap knock offs, these shops were selling every kind of spice imaginable. What my friends and I had come for first and foremost though was the tea. Turkish tea is amazing. I highly recommend the apple or mint flavors if you have any way to get some. A few friends bought some delicious baclava and we made our way through the maze that was the spice bazaar. After a whole day of shopping, we went back to the ship for dinner and nap.

Once we were well rested, we decided we wanted to go to one of Istanbul's famous Hookah bars. I had heard from my tour guide that there was a district of hookah bars not 3 blocks from our ship so we headed there first. We went to the first one we saw, called "Ali Baba Nargile." Nargile is the Turkish word for Hookah. They sat all 12 of us down around two big, low tables on big couches. We ordered 4 Hookahs, which was more than enough for the 2.5 hours we spent there just talking and hanging out.  The Owner, Mr. Baba himself came out to talk to us to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. He explained that his family had owned that hookah shop for 325 years. It really was cool, it looked almost exactly like I was expecting. We ordered Lemon-Mint flavor tobacco (which sounds gross but is really good) and just enjoyed each other's company for the evening.
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The following morning my friends and I went with one of our professors for a guided tour of the mosques and monuments. Unfortunately for me, I had already seen all the items on the itinerary so I just went along for the company. We went to the Basilica Cistern, the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. I cut out before the Hagia Sophia (I didn't want to pay the entrance fee again) and went to a small cafe with the other people who had already seen the Hagia Sophia. After some delicious turkish tea and hummus, I had to go back to the ship to attend a required discussion/lecture for one of my classes on the Istanbul Port Authority.

The lecture lasted until the late afternoon so I just waited to have dinner on the ship. After dinner, my exhaustion caught up with me and I decided not to do anything but stay in and write some of the 1000s of papers I have to write to keep my grades up.
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We woke up late the next day, and decided to go over and explore the continent on the other side of the Bosphorus strait, Asia. We got on a ferry, which was right next to our ship, and rode for 20 minutes to another continent. Once we landed, we started looking for a restaurant that had been suggested to us. It took about 30 minutes, but we found it. Everyone ordered Kababs, but I thought I'd try something new. I ordered a Kabap. Basically it was a really thin pita bread stuffed with sliced lamb, mint leaves, cilantro, yogurt, and parsley. It sounds really gross. But trust me, I had the best tasting meal at the table.

When we had paid up, we walked around the Asian side a little bit more, but quickly realized it was exactly like the European side, except a little less touristy. We took another ferry back to the ship around 5 o'clock. I went to a local cafe to get some wifi, then met back up at the ship for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the Hippodrome to watch a very strange ceremony. That day was August 1st and we had the pleasure of being in Turkey on the first night of the Islamic celebration month of Ramadan. As I'm sure you're aware, muslims fast from sun up to sun down during Ramadan. So sunset was obviously pretty important for muslims, they could finally eat and drink.

We went to the Hippodrome because during Ramadan, the large open area is turned into a street festival with tons of picnic tables for people to eat their meals at sunset. It was this festival we went to see. We explored the stalls that were selling and showing Islamic and Turkish food and art. Then, at sunset, the minarets that usually call people to prayer in the muslim faith, erupted into prayer and song, followed by a cannon shot. This symboled that the sun had set and it was acceptable for people to eat. We watched as hundreds of people, sitting at the picnic tables, dug into their huge meals that had been sitting in front of them for almost an hour. Talk about self-control.

After the eating had started, we continued to explore the street festival, which had all the sudden become much more lively! A couple friends and I participated in a traditional Turkish art style of water painting called ebru. Basically, you use oil-based paints on top of water and wallpaper glue then drag the paint around to make calligraphy and flowers.  Once the paint is where you wanted it, you laid a sheet of paper on top, let the paint soak in and then you slid the paper off the water, letting the excess slid back into the pan. Boom. Beautiful flower.

After painting, we went to a local hookah bar in the Backpacking District. There were about 20 of us so we got our own private patio and the bar tender was kind enough/though it would be funny, and played country music all night for us. We were joined later in the night by some really nice Australians who were backpacking around the world for 7 months. When the night was over and the country music XM station had run through, we headed back to the ship.
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The next morning, our last in Istanbul, we decided to go back to the bazaar, pick up a few more things and then go get Turkish baths. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever had a Turkish bath, but let me tell you. As strange as it is, I would do it again in a heart beat. I went to the Cemberlitas bath house that was built in 1547. We paid at the entrance to the Hammas (baths). The men and women separated. Basically, after undressing, I went into the Turkish equivalent of a sauna. With just a towel on, I was told to lay down on this huge piece of circular marble. The marble was hot and the room was steaming. After about 15 minutes of laying on this rock, a Turkish man came in and started scrubbing me with the equivalent of a soft sandpaper glove. Removing all the dry skin. I've never been so violated in my life but when it was all done, I felt really really clean and healthy. After the scrub down, I got a 30 minute oil massage, which was super. By the time I was all done, it was time to go back to the ship to ensure that the Explorer did not leave with out me.

We left Istanbul right as the sun was setting on the city. It was a beautiful scene with the bright orange and red sky contrasting against the minarets of the 2000 mosques of the city.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this out, but it's taken a while to type it all up. We land in Casablanca, Morocco tomorrow and I'm getting really excited! I'll send you that post, hopefully before we land in Boston on August 20th.

Robbie

... I'm running out of witty blog titles and ...

... I don't speak Tukish and and ...

... stopped in two continents and ...

... still finding my way ...

... off the beaten path and ...

Bulgaria was very relaxed compared to all of the other ports. Partly because I had planned SAS Overnight trip and partly because me and all my friends were exhausted and could barely get out of bed! We docked in Varna, Bulgaria which we learned is the summer capital of the country; where all the Bulgarians and many foreign tourists go for R&R and rightfully so. From where we docked, it was a 5 minute walk to a huge, white sand beach. And on the first day, that's where my friends and I parked for the morning. I found some free wifi nearby and enjoyed some time relaxing on the beach while perusing Facebook and catching up on emails. After sitting for a while, we walked into town to look for a place for a late lunch. We found it at a place called Happy Bar and Grill. Despite its incredibly American sounding name, it was a Bulgarian chain kind of similar in atmosphere to a TGI Fridays. We had some kebabs and other Bulgarian dishes before departing for the beach. A few of my friends wanted to explore Varna's famous Botanical Gardens. I went with them and walked around the large park that bordered the beach. There were all kind of stalls selling books and crafts lining the winding pathways. All around us were remnants of the Soviet Union and it was really interesting to see which buildings they preserved and which they let fall into decay. After walking through the park, we went back to the beach. I spent the afternoon just sitting and enjoying the breeze and free wifi -- a wonderful combination don't you think? We had dinner on the ship, for free, and decided to take a nap. This nap did me in. I could barely get out of bed at 9. All my friends wanted to go out and explore the nightlife of Varna, but I couldn't convince myself to get ready and go out. Mainly because I had to leave for my SAS Field Program at 7am the next morning.

Best decision I've made. I woke up and had breakfast and felt great. Other people on the trip were a little more worse for the wear. One guy, Robin, didn't go to sleep. I felt great. We got on the bus and drove about 2.5 hours to the city of Veliko Tarnovo. This is city was the capital of the second Bulgarian Empire and had a beautiful fortress built out on a peninsula, high in the mountains. Two rivers carved out valleys surrounding the fortress. We of course climbed all the way to the top and explored the church/monastery that had been built on the highest point, overlooking the valleys and the city. We climbed back down and walked around the old town for a while. Then we ate some lunch at a beautiful restaurant. The restaurant was built in an old inn and was recently named as the most historic building in Bulgaria. For lunch, we got a chicken and vegetable soup, veal and rice, and yogurt with fresh berries. Delicious.

We got back on the bus and drove up into the mountains and stopped at a small village called Abernassi. In this village, we visited a preserved Turkish house which was pretty cool. Then walked to a small church just up the street. The Church of the Nativity was very bland on the outside and didn't even look like a church (it wasn't allowed to because of the Muslim Turks who ruled Bulgaria when it was built). On the inside though, there were 2,000 beautifully preserved frescoes. Breathtaking pictures in paint and gold leaf of 1,500 saints and biblical stories. We weren't allowed to take pictures which stunk. But oh well. After the church, we got back on the bus for our 1.5 ride to the town of Tryavna where we would spend the night. Tryavna is famous for its wood carving, so we stopped at the wood carving museum before heading to our hotel for dinner and sleep. After dinner, we went to a small club/bar called Cucaracha in the small town of 10,000 people. We were the only patrons and enjoyed talking with and getting to know each other. That's one of the benefits of doing Semester at Sea trips, you get to meet people outside of your friend group.

The next morning we had a traditional Bulgarian breakfast. Which was not good. But I suffered through. Then we got on a bus and took ridiculously winding roads up a mountain to a small Ethnographic preserve called Etar. It was a lot like a Bulgarian version of the Log Cabin Village. The small town was based around a small river that powered the primitive machines. We enjoyed our time there, not only because it was quaint but also because the weather was great! Finally! It was about 75 degrees with a nice breeze. We stayed for about an hour and a half and packed up the bus to go another hour over the mountains. We stopped at huge Russian style church built on the side of a mountain. It looked like we had stopped somewhere near Moscow. It had the golden onion domes and everything. Even some of the text on the church was Russian. It was beautiful. But we only stopped for about 30 minutes before we drove to the capital of the Valley of the Roses.

Bulgaria is world famous for its rose oil production. All of the rose oil for France and 85% of the world comes from Bulgaria because its of the highest quality. 1 kilogram is worth about 4,500 Euro on world market. Fancy right? In the city, I forgot its name, we stopped at Thracian tomb and another ethnographic preserve. This preserve was designed to demonstrate how rose oil was refined in the middle ages. We got to taste some Rose Brandy, which kind of tasted like you were drinking liquid flower, but it wasn't horrible. The rose preserve also offered some beautiful picture opportunities. All of the flowers in Bulgaria were phenomenal, super bright and healthy. Which was strange seeing as it was late July. After a visit to the gift shop, we got back on the bus for our 3.5 hour bus ride to the seaside town of Nessebar.

Nessebar is really interesting because the whole city is located on a small peninsula, barely 1 square kilometer. And on this square kilometer were 43 churches. The saying among Bulgarian tour guides is, "Nessebar's ABC: Another Bloody Church." Basically the whole city was a giant tourist island. There were all kinds of tourist shops, I bought a fake Armani watch to replace the Timex I lost while cliff jumping. After walking around for a while, we went to dinner at a restaurant right on the ocean. Once we were finished with dinner, we got back on the bus and drove back to the ship.

The next morning, I got up and went to the Varna Grand Mall with a couple other friends who I hadn't seen in a while. I was surprised with how modern the mall was. It looked like a European Ridgmar or North Park. Everything was in Bulgarian, but we made due. Best of all though, there was a target sized super store in the basement so I got to get a 24 pack of Diet Coke to bring with me back on the ship. After shopping, we caught a taxi back to the Explorer and left the city of Varna behind, kind of. We actually anchored out in Varna's harbor for a full 24 hours because the trip between Varna and Istanbul is so short. The ship just now started moving and we will be in Istanbul at 8am tomorrow!

I'll write again after Istanbul!

Robbie

... more and more strikes and ...

... we're on strike and ...

Greece.

First of all, I want to apologize for any glaring punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. I'm writing this on a bus while trying to listen to my tour guide's Bulgarian-English explanation of Bulgaria's economy. That aside. Greece….

My first stop in Greece other than Piraeus, the port city where the MV Explorer docked, was the small island of Mykonos. We caught the 5:45pm ferry from the port terminal, a 7 minute cab from our Cruise terminal. And man were we thankful for that cab, it was our only cab ride of the entire 5 days in Greece. The staff and faculty on the MV had thankfully warned us that the entire taxi service in Athens was going on strike the second day we were docked. So were we glad to be getting out of Athens.

The ferry we took to Mykonos was more like a plane than a boat. We had assigned seats, snack bar access, and most importantly, air conditioning. The four hour ferry ride was peaceful and relaxing, but didn't hold a flame to the relaxation we would get at our hotel in Mykonos. When we arrived at the terminal at 10:30pm, we called our hotel and got a free shuttle to our 4 star hotel on the south side of the island. Hotel Acrigiola was right on the beach and was beautiful, even in the dark. We owed a lot to Madison Hurwitz and her mother for booking it.

The next morning, we did absolutely nothing and it was glorious. We went to the free breakfast and then straight to the crystal blue water and the bright white beach. I can honestly say I have never seen such perfectly clear water. There's a reason Mykonos is famous for its beaches. We had a delicious lunch at our hotel's restaurant, which is well respected even among the locals. I had some delicious lamb gyros and went straight back to the beach. And that pretty much sums up my day. We had dinner at the restaurant at our hotel again and it was, again, delicious. After dinner, we went downtown to Mykonos' old city and had some more gyros at a local pub. Even better, now that we were back on the Euro, they were cheap! We explored all over the small town that looked exactly like the Greek Isles are supposed to. We went to Little Venice and the Mykonos windmills. Wandering through the small, twisting, streets was awesome and really fun. One of the guide books we read said that downtown Mykonos was made to explore and it was so true. After dinner and downtown, we caught a bus to Paradise Club and spent the night listening one of the coolest DJs around.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel at 11am but thankfully didn't have to leave the hotel's area (which was good because our ferry didn't leave until 9:20pm)! We spent another relaxing day on the beach and caught the bus in town, just in time to meander around a little bit before the fantastic Mykonos sunset. After sunset, we waited at the port's ferry dock and thankfully ran into a Semester at Sea planned trip! We were thankful because they had a charter bus waiting for them to drive them back to our ship after the ferry docked. We on the other hand, did not. And because of the taxi strike, all 6 of us were going to walk the 30 minute trek to our ship. Thanks to my plea to Dean Hellwig, we caught a ride on their bus and were spared the agony of carrying all of our luggage halfway across the city. '

The next morning, we wanted to go to Delphi. However, the taxi strike threw another kink into our plans. We found out, about an hour too late, that in order to get to the long distance bus terminal, we had to get to the metro station (a 20 minute walk). Then take the metro to the local bus station (20 minutes). Then take a bus to the long distance bus station (25 minutes). We found all this out at 11:45 and the last bus for Delphi leaves at 1. So, we decided to see the sights of Athens instead.

But first we met up with Madison's best friend from Vandy, Patra. Patra's whole family has spent their whole life in Greece and Athens so it was refreshing to meet and get advice from her and her parents. They told us a back way to get the Acropolis and then had to go meet their grandparents. We said good-bye to Patra and went to Athen's flea market, the Plaka. We wandered through the streets and dabbled in all the hilarious and touristy shops. After a while we became hungry, and following the advice of my friend and roommate Steven Johanson (who spent the spring of 2011 in Athens) we went to a Taverna just off the main flea market streets. At this taverna (or restaurant) I got some delicious Mousaka. Which had a strange sweet, pumpkin flavor but was still DELICIOUS. After this great meal, we walked the 1000 vertical feet to the top of the Acropolis.

Once on top I was in shock. I couldn't believe I was actually standing on one of the most historic sites in the world. All around me were ruins that were over 2,500 years old and I couldn't help but be impressed. The entrance to the acropolis was impressive and had huge columns and an impressive marble roof. But, the Parthenon itself was HUGE. Just as impressive as my professors and teachers had always told me. The only downside was that there were cranes and all kinds of scaffolding inside and outside, ruining my pictures. But it was still incredible. My friends and I took our pictures and enjoyed the view of the entire city. We could even see the port of Piraeus. It was beautiful.

After a while, we walked back down the heights and took a stop at the ancient Agora, which we figured out was something like the forum in Rome. However, this Agora was not really all that ancient. John F. Kennedy had funded the reconstruction of it in the 1960s… But it was still really cool. Then we walked around the Plaka again, doing some serious shopping. We were just trying to bide our time until our after dark plan. We walked around all over the old city and eventually ended up in the National Gardens. The day ended really well when we saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. In English. With Greek Subtitles. In an outdoor theater. In the National Gardens of Athens. An awesome day, capped off by a great movie.

The following morning, after a free breakfast. I left the ship by myself and took the Metro downtown to the Acropolis station. I had to change trains and time it perfectly so that I could… Meet up with my good friend and roommate Cole McIsaac! His family was on a Celebrity Cruise around the Mediterranean and our itineraries crossed in Athens. Meeting up with him was great. It was nice to be surrounded by southerners again haha. With him and his family, we went to the Acropolis again, but I am so glad I went the day before because when we went the second time, I felt like a sardine. There were 5 cruise ships in port and all of them brought tours to the acropolis before noon. It was crazy crowded. But still awe inspiring.

After the acropolis, we went to the New Acropolis Museum which was just down the hill. The new museum was also really crowded but we eventually got inside. The museum was really cool because it had a lot of original statues that had been removed from the Parthenon to preserve them. It was also kind of sad because there were a lot of replicas and plaster casts of statues. The originals of these statues are located in the British National Museum because a British Lord had removed them without the permission of the Greek people. In the New Museum, they have big open spaces to put all of the statues when the British give them back, however unlikely.

Once we were finished with the museum we went to the Plaka and caught up with some other members of Cole's family who had wanted to eat. After wandering around some more, I directed them back to their bus stop and we said good bye until August 21 when I move into my new house with Cole, Steven, Aubrey, Scott, and Oliver.

I met back up with my friends who had been shopping. In order to get there I had to go through Parliament's main plaza (Syntagma) where people have been protesting with tents and signs. They had set up a small city, with water, shopping, restrooms, and food storage all within one square city block. I left quickly though, don't worry. I met back up with my friends, and walked around a little more before catching the Metro back to Piraeus and the MV Explorer.

Robbie

... we stopped in Paradise and ...

Croatia.
One word. Beautiful.

We woke up on July 11th to a view of a bay and houses on a hill over looking the crystal clear, royal blue Adriatic. Later we learned that you can see down into the water 30 meters (almost 100 feet). Me and my friends got up and went out into the old city of Dubrovnik for lunch. We ate at some cafe off the main street. The whole of the Old City (within the 1000 year old walls) was pedestrian only and CROWDED with tourists. At the cafe, we tried some new foods, kabob sandwich, and some familiar, open faced ham and cheese omelet. Everything was fantastic. We were so pleased too because FINALLY, the currency was in our favor. The Croatian Kuna is about 1/5 of an American dollar. It was super. After lunch, I had to get back to the ship for one of my prepaid programs through Semester at Sea. During this city orientation, we were supposed to walk the walls of the city, about 2.5 km, at 3pm. We did just that, and it was so hot. The tour guide said it had been unusually hot the past couple days. Of course. When we pulled into Dubrovnik, it was 104. And on top of the city walls, it was scorching. But, it gave us phenomenal views of the old city and bay.

After the sweatiest of walking the walls, I met up with my friends Thomas, Boyd, Christine, Lizzy, Clara, Molly, Madison, Jillian and Paige at the beach. Apparently, most beaches in Croatia are pebble. The beaches hurt your feet a little bit but you eventually got used to it. We sat out, people watching for a while before deciding to head back to the ship for a free dinner. We did just that and after a quick nap decided to go explore Dubrovnik's night life. We went to this Latin Dance Club called Fuego and it was so fun. The MV Explorer was the only ship in town so we dominated the club. I went back to the ship and got a good night's sleep because I had to be up at 8am to go on another SAS trip.

At 8am the next morning, I was with one of my professors and 30 other people on our way to the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was strange, on the 3 hour car ride there we had to cross 3 borders. One from Croatia into Bosnia, one from Bosnia to Croatia, and another from Croatia to Bosnia. But we eventually got there. And the first thing that struck me was that, unlike Croatia, Bosnia very much looked like what I expected a former soviet state to look like. Everything was concrete and straight lines and falling apart. Some of the buildings still had bullet holes and shrapnel marks. The city of Mostar was a major battle zone during the break up of Yugoslavia. The story of Mostar is that it was once a multicultural city on two banks of a river. Islamic Bosnians, Orthodox Serbians, and Roman Catholic Croats lived together and there was a beautiful bridge, closing the gaps between the neighborhoods. During the war in Bosnia, the bridge was blown up and the city's ethnic neighborhoods turned on each other. After the war, the city and the bridge were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 10 nations donated money to rebuild the bridge.

We walked around the city for an hour, visiting a Mosque, a Turkish house, and then old bridge. All the while, we were sweating gallons. We nearly died when we found out our lunch restaurant didn't have air-conditioning. But, it was covered so it could have been worse. We ate some typical Bosnian food, which was mainly meat and then had some time to explore the shops. I was so hot I could barely count my money to give to the shopkeepers. We made it back to the bus, and on the way back to Dubrovnik, our guide informed us that it was registered as 114 degrees in the sunlight. And to top it all off, she told us that since this weather is odd, the bus' air conditioning couldn't handle it and it would take a long time to cool it down. Nothing like sweating on a charter bus for 3 hours with 45 other people? I have never been so happy to get back to the MV Explorer's super air-conditioning. That night, my friends and I decided to just stay in and breathe in the air-conditioned air. It was great to go to bed early and wake up refreshed.

The next day, we went to the beach for a while and then decided to go cliff jumping. You read write Mom…. sorry…. There's this bar on the edge of the city walls called Cafe Buza where you can just hand out and chill or you can jump off the cliffs into the Adriatic. I did it. There were 3 different levels. One was about as high as a high dive, 3 meters or so. Another, the middle was about 8 or 9 meters (25-30 ft). And the hardcore high one was about 40 feet. It was so cool because there were so many people around cheering you on if you got nervous and so many people were jumping off it had to be safe. We asked the locals how to do it and they said to just make sure you enter straight up and down, like a pencil. And you'll be fine. They were right. It was so much fun! After cliff jumping for a couple of hours, we went and grabbed lunch at another back alley cafe. Then a couple of my friends checked into a hotel right outside Old City… I went back to the ship… Little did I know, that the ship had left the dock for the day to make room for a Royal Caribbean cruiseliner. They were running tender boats and I missed the last one by 10 minutes. I had to wait and hour and a half in the terminal for the MV to return to dock. While waiting, I ran into some other friends and they invited me to a place for dinner that they heard of when talking to a cab driver. It was about 20 minutes north of the tourist Croatia and was known as the hot spot for anyone who knew anything about Dubrovnik. And let me tell you, it was the best food I've had on this trip so far. The restaurant, called Gverovic Orsan, was on a terrace, out on the Adriatic. I ordered Black Risotto. It was black because they used Squid Ink in the recipe and the entire dish was jet black. In the risotto was a prawn, a couple muscles and a few clams. SO GOOD. I'm not generally a sea food eater, but I could have eaten this risotto for every meal for the rest of my life.

After dinner, the same taxi driver recommended this bar that had just opened the night before and was run by one of his family friends. After the pub we went to a club built into an old fort. This club was huge and still showed remnants of the stone vaulted ceilings and huge arches. It was really beautiful and hilarious to see a bunch of people dancing all over it haha. After the club, I went back with a group of girls who needed an escort, and we made it back to the ship.

The next morning I went cliff jumping again with some friends who didn't go the first time. Then we went to the beach to parasail, but it was closed because the wind was too light. Instead, we just sat on the beach and relaxed again. After it got too hot, we went into old town to find a place to eat. We ran into some other SAS kids, who I hadn't met, and they told us they'd been recommended to eat at this pizza place just outside the walls called Pizzeria Tobasco. Apparently it was the best Croatian pizza. It was so good. I ordered their version of a calzone and they topped it with sour cream and tomato sauce, which sounds gross, but it was delicious. After lunch, we wrapped up our Croatian experience and headed back to the port and our home away from home.

Hope you liked my novel of a post. I had a lot of free time to type it on my ferry ride to Mykonos! Enjoy. Remember, if you want more details or to hear about some thing specific, email me at rfcook@semesteratsea.net

I'll write soon.

Robbie

... Italy by pictures and ...

Yet another self explanatory picture.

Me in Florence with Ponte Vecchia in the background.

The Florence Cathedral, the Duomo.

In Verona, hope of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet story, there is a statue of Juliet and if you hold her right breast and make a wish, it's said to come true.

These pictures and Venice was my Italy experience. I'll update you all on Croatia soon. I just wanted to bring you up to date so I could keep writing. I'll tell you all about it the next time I see you. I promise. We're about to land in Greece! Talk to you soon. I promise.

Robbie

... getting closer and ...

The one with all the people is my tour group. Gems of Italy. Go Semester at Sea for planning this all.

The inside of the Colosseum.

St. Peter's Square at Night on our first night in Rome.

Pretty self explanatory eh?



Robbie