... 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

... a few more pictures and ...

These are a little boring since they don't have people in them but they are so cool! I loved Rome!

Roman columns next to the Colosseum.

Olive tree near the Arch of Titus

The arch of Titus

The temple of Vesta.

... still bringing you up to date and ...

Me and some friends at a Semester at Sea dinner in Rome on our last night.

Bernini's canopy inside St.Peter's

The sign prior to entering the Sistine Chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside, but don't worry. I did...

In the Vativan Museum, they had an animal gallery. What do you know, a purple horned frog. There you go Dad, Aunt Susan, Aunt Mindy, and Aunt Robin! Get em.

... I'm trying to catch up on my blog and ...

Me in front of the Trevi Fountain

One of the fountains in Piazza Novella

My scavenger hunt team after a grueling 5 hour hike through Rome in 100 degree weather. Go Team Wolfpack

My friend Tierney and Me on the Spanish Steps.

... a quick jaunt through Italy and ... (part 2)

Some more pictures for you.

Robbie

... a quick jaunt through Italy and ... (part 1)

Despite the title of the blog, it might be the longest blog post ever written, ever. I have a lot to talk about considering I went to 6 Italian cities in 6 days… I will do my best to cover the best information without drowning you with negligible events. I've decided to break it up into chunks so there will probably be 4 or 5 long posts. Aren't you lucky?

As soon as we docked in Naples, I got on a bus and headed straight for the train station. And from what we drove through in Naples, I wasn't missing anything. There was graffiti and trash everywhere and it just kind of seemed gross. Especially after the beauty that was Barcelona. We got to the train station and met our tour guide, Anna, a wonderful 50 something woman from outside of Rome. She introduced herself as Anna but said we were only allowed to call her Mama Anna. But at the end of the trip it became Mama. She is great. Anyway, we caught a train to Rome where we had a 20 minute layover and then took a four hour train to Venice. We found out that our hotel was in a small town outside of Venice called Mestre, which was kind of like a suburb I guess. Oh well. It was a 10 minute bus to the actual island of Venezia. We found that out after dinner and pretty much my whole "Gems of Italy" trip piled into a bus and went to explore Venice. 30 Americans dropped off in downtown Venice, with no tour guide (Mama said we could go out on our own), and pockets full of Euro. Great combination right? It was awesome though. Pretty quickly we broke off into groups. There was a group went to a bar, a group that caught a water taxi, and a group with me who just wanted to get lost. And get lost we did. We just meandered through the city, at one point making only right turns, just for fun... We ended up in all these crazy alleyways and crossing tiny canals with gondolas going up and down. It was so much fun. Then I decided I wanted to see St. Marks Square. I wanted to find it without using a map (after all none of us had one anyways). And I am proud to say that my superior navigation skills got us there in time to hear a live string quartet playing a cafe on the square and to see a drunken Italian bachelor's party making a bunch of hilarious noise right outside the basilica. After having our fun on the square, we remembered that the last bus back to the mainland was at 12:30. And it was 11:45, so we high tailed it back across the Grand Canal (twice) and made it in time for the bus (which was so crowded it felt like a Sardine can).
 
The next morning we began our tour of Venice by jumping on a private water taxi. Mama explained that we were going to see several of the islands making up Venice before stopping on the actual island of Venezia. Our first stop was an hour and a half boat ride north, Torcello. I later found out that this was the first island settled, around 500 AD. Torcello was pretty small, very few inhabitants, and its only real draw for tourists was a Byzantine era church built around 800-900 AD that was still in pretty good shape. The floors and ceilings were the most important parts of this building. They were both completely mosaic and beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures though.... :(. After exploring this small island, we got back in our boat and went south to the island of Burano. You might have seen pictures of Burano before because it is Beautiful. They paint their houses really vibrant colors, like electric blue and hot pink. It was incredible. The story goes that the women would paint the houses such incredible colors so that their fisherman husbands could separate their houses from the Sea. Nowadays Burano is famous for its silk and they had street vendors everywhere selling it. It was so cool. After we left Burano, we went to Murano. Murano is wold renowned for its glass blowing factories and we went to tour the first factory ever built, that was still operating today. We saw a glass blowing demonstration and it was so incredible. I didn't realize how quickly everything had to be made, like a 7 inch tall glass horse... 1.5 minutes. Crazy. Then we had some free time to explore their ridiculously expensive, but beautiful inventory where they had everything from cutlery to 60,000 Euro glass statues of horses heads.
 
After Murano, we went to Venice and explored the island. We pretty much did everything that we had done the night before on our own, except we went inside Saint Mark's Basilica. It was so awesome on the inside, the whole ceiling was gold mosaic and the whole floor was ceramic tile mosaic. But again, no pictures (I snuck a few). After walking around the square for some lunch, we went to a small cafe and I got some Margherita Pizza which was delicious. Then we went on a gondola ride through the city, It was so cool, but unfortunately we couldn't get our gondolier Mario, to sing for us. Oh well, once we got back we had some more free time. I bought a cool glass fountain pen, and after we met back up for dinner: veal, tortellini, creme cake, and a bottle of red wine for the table. Delicious. After dinner we met back up with our private boat and set sail around Venice on a sunset cruise to our bus to take us back to our hotel. A thoroughly satisfying and busy day.


Robbie