I can’t believe that we only have two more ports, and in four weeks I’ll be back in Boulder! It’s crazy how so very fast this is going! On Tuesday morning, we arrived in Istanbul, Turkey! This was probably one of the ports I was most excited for. I can remember learning about the Hagia Sophia my first year in Art History, and I hoped that I would someday get to visit it! Well on Tuesday I got to do just that! I managed to get on an SAS tour of Byzantine Art at the last minute, and I’m so glad that I did because it was probably the best tour I’ve done so far. We headed to the Golden Horn (or Old Town) stopped quickly at the City Walls built during the Roman Constantinople. Then we headed to the Kariye Museum, formerly the Chora Church, which means “Church of the Holy Savior Outside the Walls” because it used to be in the “countryside.” Pretty nifty name I think ha ha. This church has some very impressive mosaics, made from various stones and gold leaf. We next went to a mosque affectionately called Little Sophia, and here it began to rain… like hurricane rain. When we arrived, we couldn’t go inside righty away because they had just begun a prayer time, so we ate lunch under some tents outside by the fountain and drank Turkish tea. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to go into the mosque, having never been to one I wasn’t sure how the process would go. However, I found it to be very comfortable. We had to remove our shoes at the door and cover our heads with scarves, it wasn’t required to cover our heads because we were visitors but our guide said it shows respect… anyways, the carpet was very soft and the interior was absolutely beautiful! After a while we headed outside, and one of the professors suggested that we take a small detour to another mosque before heading to the next scheduled stop. The second mosque, I can’t remember it’s name, was even more impressive; and after the visit, our guide took us to an old building across the street which provided an excellent view of that mosque and it’s unique graveyard, and the Bosphorus. We then walked to the hippodrome by the Blue Mosque and looked at the Obelisk of Theodosius, and the Serpentine Column. Our next stop was the Basilican Cistern, which was AWESOME. I don’t know how I can explain this place in a way that will make it sound as cool as it truly is. You walk down some very steep stairs to this 16th century cistern made from brick with marble columns. There is probably a foot or so of water on the ground, and some even drips from the ceiling. We walked on these sort of bridge things around the cistern in almost total darkness. They use the space for art exhibitions, so there were some not so impressive modern art pieces scattered around in the water, which were kind of distracting, but oh well! In one of the corners there are sculptures of the face of Medusa on the bottom of two columns, which are huge… and honestly, kind of random to me! I mean the cistern was used to hold water, some 100,000 tons of water storage, and so they put these fantastic sculptures there? Hmmm… our guide didn’t really explain why they were there, he just pointed them out. Anyways, we next went to the Hagia Sophia that has been turned into a museum of sorts, basically it’s not a mosque or a church, it’s just sort of there. It has the largest dome in Istanbul and these huge medallions with Arabic writing that sit just below the dome. It was absolutely amazing to finally be there! Next we went to a mosaic museum and on the way we walked past the Blue Mosque again… at this time there was another call to prayer, and the feeling of being near that huge mosque with the prayer call and criers playing over the loud speakers was very surreal. I have no idea what they were saying but I suddenly felt like I was in an entirely different world, and we truly were. After the stop at the museum, we went to a building that had several fancy shops in it to wait for the bus. The sales people were very nice to let us stay in there with the wonderful AC and even offered us some apple tea (I found the Turkish people to be extremely hospitable). We got back to the ship around 6:30 and were exhausted, so we ate dinner on the ship and went out to Taksim Square, the more “hip” part of the city, and drank some more tea.
On Wednesday, I joined my friend Kari for another SAS tour that went to four palaces and the Asian side of Istanbul. Among them was the Dolmabahce Palace which was the second residence of the sultans until 1923… this thing is huge! It sits right on the Bosphorus and is elaborately decorated inside and out. There are probably 20+ crystal chandeliers that couldn’t even fit in my bedroom by themselves… it was absolutely nuts! The other palaces were similar in over the top decorations. Seriously over the top, I think I could buy a house with one of the doorknobs! I must say that the strangest thing I’ve experienced so far happened at the last palace, the Kucuksu Palace I believe. So we were warned about these crazy toilets called “squatters” but I had yet to see one. Basically it’s just a hole in the ground, but not like a dirt hole… oh no, there is porcelain and tile all around them, ridged places for your feet so you don’t fall, and a handy bar to hold on to. Imagine the rest for yourselves… I did not enjoy this. The Asian side of Istanbul is surprisingly different from the European side in that it is much more residential and just calmer overall. I think I could see myself living there! Ha ha I know it’s pretty far from CO, but it was awesome!
On Thursday Kari and I slept in and then headed to the Grand Bazaar for pretty much the entire day! The Grand Bazaar is absolutely insane. It is the biggest covered market in the world, with 4,000 shops and probably a million salesmen that all want to help you spend your money, and that are not too shy to tell you that you should be spending your money at their shop. It’s crazy, absolutely crazy. Soon after walking in, Kari and I were pulled into a scarf shop, given some apple tea, and had several scarves picked out for each of us. We probably stayed there for 30 or more minutes just looking at scarves, we were out of control. After that shop we wandered around for a few hours, ducking in and out of various shops. We tried not to stop anywhere for too long or you get pulled inside, and if they catch you looking at something for a second they attack you trying to sell everything to you. Craziness. Kari really wanted to buy a carpet so we spent a long time in a few carpet shops. The first one was really nice, they took us to their upstairs showroom and gave us some more tea and threw down 30+ carpets for Kari to choose. She found one that she like of liked but in the end didn’t buy it. We went into another one and basically the same thing happened… more and more tea! Kari had also found a huge blue-ish, turquoise-ish plate that she loved, but it was pretty expensive and the guy wouldn’t lower the price so she didn’t get that either. But not to worry, we spent our money in other ways haha!
Lindsey, Kari, and I went to the Topkapi Palace on Friday morning, which was the first palace to the sultans, and is now a museum filled with the sultan’s jewels and relics of the prophets. It was pretty crowded there so we got in and out pretty quickly. Lindsey had spent the past two days outside of Istanbul and hadn’t seen the Bazaar yet, so we headed in that direction. We first stopped at the Spice Bazaar, which I like much better than the Grand Bazaar. It is much less crowded and the salesmen are not as aggressive. Almost every shop sells huge mounds of spices, tea, Turkish delight, and other goodies… and the whole places smells amazing! We got to try different types of Turkish delight and bought some highly recommended Turkish coffee. We then headed to the Grand Bazaar and Lindsey got her first taste of bargaining and the aggressive salesmen. That day was probably the worst for us as we were hassled by many different salesmen. One wanted to take a picture with me and then tried to kiss me, but I ran away! And then Kari got that plate she had wanted the day before for less than half price and an unexpected kiss… ugh!! She sanitized her face right after, no worries! Ha ha… other than that it was a pretty good day at the Bazaar. We got back to the ship around 5:45 just in time for me to head off to a Suri Dervish ceremony. These “Whirling Dervishes” as they are commonly known, do a ritualistic dance accompanied by traditional music. They wear these long white skirts, white jackets, and tall, thimble-looking hats and spin around for minutes at a time. Through this dance, they are opening a connection with God, and it is a ritual tradition that goes back to the 13th century. This was absolutely amazing. These five men came out and spun around each other so effortlessly for quite some time, and the music was beautiful. We got to sit in the front row so I could feel the breeze made by their skirts, and one of them was going so fast I’m surprised that he didn’t fall right over! It was an amazing final night in Istanbul!
Our last day was spent at the Blue Mosque, which is quite possibly the most impressive in the city. Like the Topkapi Palace, it was extremely crowded with tourists from all over the world so we didn’t spend too much time there. This mosque is so pretty I can’t even describe it. The interior is covered with blue, white, and gold tiles, and has low hanging, simple chandeliers. Ugh I can’t describe it very well… Google magic! The whole time in Istanbul, we had planned to go to a Turkish bath, so after the mosque we went to the Cemberlitas Hamami, a bathhouse built in 1584. I won’t go into full detail about it on here, but it was incredibly relaxing, and an amazing experience. We spent three full hours there and dreaded the idea of going back out into the nasty heat and humidity after we had been scrubbed, bathed, and massaged. Oh it was amazing and the perfect ending to our time spent in Istanbul!
We’re on our way to Egypt now!!! If you know me at all you’ll know that I the most excited about this port… I will get to see the pyramids on Wednesday! THE PYRAMIDS! Ahhhh! Oh and I get to ride a camel which is pretty exciting too! Ha ha
Here are some hilarious “Special Questions/Comments of the Day” from Turkey…
“Why do I need a Turkish Visa when I already have a credit card?”
“I’ve been to the European and Asian sides of Turkey, I wish we were going to Africa too.”
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Channeling Zorba the Greek!
The first time that I seriously learned about ancient Greece was in my senior year of high school. I was taking the AP Art History class offered by my favorite teacher, and within the first month of the class, I had fallen in love with the subject. Being on this trip has allowed me to see much of what I have learned about over the years as an art history major. So today, the first day in Greece, I got to do just that as I went on an SAS trip to the Corinth Canal, Epidarus, and Mycenae. The first two sites were pretty impressive… the Corinth Canal is amazing just considering what it took to create it, and the Epidarus theater is awesome. It is the best preserved Greek theater from it’s time, and performances are still put on there today. In the center of the circular orchestra is a smooth stone, and if you stand on it (it’s now level with the ground, very polished and smooth) you are in the center of the acoustics. When you speak, sing, clap or even drop a coin in this place you can hear the sound radiating away from you and the people in even the last row of seats can hear you perfectly clear. Even today they do not use microphones of any kind. As we sat in the top row, other tourists began to sing in various languages and the sounded as if they were just feet away from us… it was pretty incredible!
We next went to Mycenae, where I felt like a failure of an art historian. I completely forgot that the supposed “beehive” tomb of Agamemnon and the infamous Lion Gate could both be found at this site. Fail. Well to my defense, I guess I haven’t truly studied Greek art since that first year of art history. Anyways, the tomb is in excellent condition, it is completely empty, but still has quite exquisite masonry. The Mycenae acropolis is almost in total ruin so it’s hard to imagine what it truly looks like, but the Lion Gate was still in place and clearly depicts the ruler’s power. It was truly a great day for an art nerd like myself, even if I don’t always exactly remember what I’m looking at! That night Lindsey and I walked around the port area of Athens, called Piraeus, ate dinner, then stopped at a little market to get snacks (NUTELLA!) to take back to the ship.
On the second day (at this point I’ve lost all sense of what day of the week it is!) I went on another SAS trip to the Saronic Islands… three islands in one day! The first was Hydra and was probably my favorite. It was the perfect definition of a small Greek town, complete with donkeys! (they really looked more like mules but whatever) We wandered around there for a bit and had some amazing Greek coffee, which is like espresso with milky foam, condensed milk, cinnamon and ice, not absolutely sure though… it’s absolutely delicious, I think I had about 20 in these five days. Everyone drinks them here, they even have reusable cups specific for them that kind of look like frappaccino cups from Starbucks, but with reusable materials, obviously, but seriously everyone has one of these beverages at all times. Cops, taxi and bus drivers, street vendors, pedestrians…. and toursists of course! Anyways… we spent a little bit of time on each island (Hydra, Poros, and Aegina)which took up the whole day. Oh and on the way back to Piraeus, the ferry boat provided some “authentic Greek dancing” (imagine air quotes here) which could not have been cheesier. First a male “comedian” (again air quotes) came out dressed like an old Greek woman and did some awful lip singing to ‘70s music from the States. Then some creepy but “authentic” (so not authentic) dancers came out and did various dances… then again with the “comedian” now dressed as Elvis (oh the horror) and then the ever so creepy dancers. Lets just say I felt embarrassed to be there, and the waiters were even laughing the whole time. Well, it was it was an experience.
On the third day (Friday, I believe) Lindsey and I hit the ruins of Athens hardcore! We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see in one day… the Acropolis, Ancient and Roman Agoras, Hadrian’s Arch and Library, the Temple of Zeus, the New Acropolis Museum…. Oh man my dogs were barking!. All the ruins are so fantastic even in their ancient state… and the Acropolis! Oh man it was AMAZING! Not to mention we ate the BEST food ever It was a very successful day… and we turned in pretty early.
On Saturday we had another SAS trip to Delphi, which is incredible, and is now competing with the Pantheon in Rome as my favorite monument. It lies on the side of a mountain, and you can walk all the way to the top to see the fantastic views of the valley and port below. To get there we had to drive through a small town that is fast becoming a popular ski resort… you can ski and snowboard in Greece! How cool is that?!?! I’m going back for sure! Lunch yesterday was fantastic as well, the Greeks know how to make food that’s for sure! Saturday night, Lindsey, my friend Kari and I were too exhausted to function properly but didn’t want to sit around on the ship because it was still rather early… so we decided to go see a movie! I know, I know… who goes to see a movie in Greece?! But it was a perfect, air-conditioned break! We took a taxi, which was an adventure because the driver spoke about 3 words in English, and the theater was fantastic. Very clean, with assigned seating… pretty fancy! We saw Eclipse ha ha laugh all you want! Our taxi driver on the way back to the ship was very interesting in that he spoke several different languages to us, even though we clearly were speaking English. Within 20 minutes he said “grazie,” “thank you,” and “adios” a couple of times!
Today we just sort of wandered around Athens… and well, ate. I can’t get enough of this food, seriously, it’s amazing. And at the moment, I can feel the rumble of the engines which means we are on our way to Turkey (or Chicken as one of the very young SASers calls it… when I say young I mean like two or so)!!! Does Turkey count as Asia, I mean it’s technically on both continents so does this mean I will have been to Asia now?! Sweet.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
We next went to Mycenae, where I felt like a failure of an art historian. I completely forgot that the supposed “beehive” tomb of Agamemnon and the infamous Lion Gate could both be found at this site. Fail. Well to my defense, I guess I haven’t truly studied Greek art since that first year of art history. Anyways, the tomb is in excellent condition, it is completely empty, but still has quite exquisite masonry. The Mycenae acropolis is almost in total ruin so it’s hard to imagine what it truly looks like, but the Lion Gate was still in place and clearly depicts the ruler’s power. It was truly a great day for an art nerd like myself, even if I don’t always exactly remember what I’m looking at! That night Lindsey and I walked around the port area of Athens, called Piraeus, ate dinner, then stopped at a little market to get snacks (NUTELLA!) to take back to the ship.
On the second day (at this point I’ve lost all sense of what day of the week it is!) I went on another SAS trip to the Saronic Islands… three islands in one day! The first was Hydra and was probably my favorite. It was the perfect definition of a small Greek town, complete with donkeys! (they really looked more like mules but whatever) We wandered around there for a bit and had some amazing Greek coffee, which is like espresso with milky foam, condensed milk, cinnamon and ice, not absolutely sure though… it’s absolutely delicious, I think I had about 20 in these five days. Everyone drinks them here, they even have reusable cups specific for them that kind of look like frappaccino cups from Starbucks, but with reusable materials, obviously, but seriously everyone has one of these beverages at all times. Cops, taxi and bus drivers, street vendors, pedestrians…. and toursists of course! Anyways… we spent a little bit of time on each island (Hydra, Poros, and Aegina)which took up the whole day. Oh and on the way back to Piraeus, the ferry boat provided some “authentic Greek dancing” (imagine air quotes here) which could not have been cheesier. First a male “comedian” (again air quotes) came out dressed like an old Greek woman and did some awful lip singing to ‘70s music from the States. Then some creepy but “authentic” (so not authentic) dancers came out and did various dances… then again with the “comedian” now dressed as Elvis (oh the horror) and then the ever so creepy dancers. Lets just say I felt embarrassed to be there, and the waiters were even laughing the whole time. Well, it was it was an experience.
On the third day (Friday, I believe) Lindsey and I hit the ruins of Athens hardcore! We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see in one day… the Acropolis, Ancient and Roman Agoras, Hadrian’s Arch and Library, the Temple of Zeus, the New Acropolis Museum…. Oh man my dogs were barking!. All the ruins are so fantastic even in their ancient state… and the Acropolis! Oh man it was AMAZING! Not to mention we ate the BEST food ever It was a very successful day… and we turned in pretty early.
On Saturday we had another SAS trip to Delphi, which is incredible, and is now competing with the Pantheon in Rome as my favorite monument. It lies on the side of a mountain, and you can walk all the way to the top to see the fantastic views of the valley and port below. To get there we had to drive through a small town that is fast becoming a popular ski resort… you can ski and snowboard in Greece! How cool is that?!?! I’m going back for sure! Lunch yesterday was fantastic as well, the Greeks know how to make food that’s for sure! Saturday night, Lindsey, my friend Kari and I were too exhausted to function properly but didn’t want to sit around on the ship because it was still rather early… so we decided to go see a movie! I know, I know… who goes to see a movie in Greece?! But it was a perfect, air-conditioned break! We took a taxi, which was an adventure because the driver spoke about 3 words in English, and the theater was fantastic. Very clean, with assigned seating… pretty fancy! We saw Eclipse ha ha laugh all you want! Our taxi driver on the way back to the ship was very interesting in that he spoke several different languages to us, even though we clearly were speaking English. Within 20 minutes he said “grazie,” “thank you,” and “adios” a couple of times!
Today we just sort of wandered around Athens… and well, ate. I can’t get enough of this food, seriously, it’s amazing. And at the moment, I can feel the rumble of the engines which means we are on our way to Turkey (or Chicken as one of the very young SASers calls it… when I say young I mean like two or so)!!! Does Turkey count as Asia, I mean it’s technically on both continents so does this mean I will have been to Asia now?! Sweet.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Monday, July 12, 2010
"The Pearl of the Adriatic"
On the way to Croatia, I read that the brightest blue on Earth, as seen from space, is the Adriatic Sea; but after spending a few days here I don’t think that you need to go to space to discover this. Croatia is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been—well so far—but you get the idea! Everywhere you look is like a postcard… my eyes have been overwhelmed for the past four days.
We arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia Wednesday night around midnight, but couldn’t get off the ship until the next morning because of customs. So on Thursday I took a tour of the Old City Wall, which goes around the entire medieval city. This tour offered excellent views of the Old City as well as the Adriatic and a few of the many many many Croatian islands (I was told there are over 1,000 of them) that lay just off the main coast. After that we walked around the Old City and had dinner there in one of the several little cafés that are scattered around. As we were walking back to the bus station, a salesmen for sea kayaking approached us and told us all about these 3 hour tours you can take and gave us a really good deal for one of them. So on Friday we decided to go sea kayaking! This is exactly what I had in mind for this port, and at 2 pm that day we set off in our double kayak into the blue Adriatic Sea. Our guides were awesome, and two were very attractive… always a bonus! Ha ha We started out right by the Old City and within 40 or so minutes had reached the island of Lokum. Then, we circled the island, which had a lovely nudist beach on one side—scarred for life—and then headed back towards the mainland. We went to a private beach, accessible only by sea, where we snorkeled and ate lunch. Then we returned to the starting place by going around the Old City Walls…. Oh and we passed a café called Buza, where locals and tourists go cliff jumping and drink overpriced beer, and these annoying little kids swam out to us and grabbed on to our kayaks, attempting to flip us all over… little punks! Well we survived that attack and made it all the way back to our starting place. We decided to go back to the ship for dinner and to shower, and then headed out again for a little more adventure.
On Saturday, we decided to take a ferry to another island, Lopud, and hang out on the beach for a while. We went to the store by the port and got some snacks and beverages, then boarded the ferry that goes to three islands just off the coast of the mainland. The island of Lopud is pretty small, and I don’t think anyone lives there for reasons other than tourism, but I could be wrong. Anyways, it was a perfect little spot for some needed R & R. We swam and sun bathed for a few hours, all while trying to avoid spotting old men in Speedos… what is with Europeans and Speedos?! I’ m starting to believe that this is an epidemic. All the people that wear them are those who should never EVER be seen in anything less than something resembling a poncho or something very very large, loose, and conservative. We took a ferry back to Dubrovnik around 7 pm, arriving just in time for dinner and the Germany v. Uruguay World Cup game. We couldn’t understand a word that was said on the TV and my friend Lindsey and I were the only women to be found, but it turned out to be a great night, and Germany won!
Yesterday I spent most of the morning catching up on some homework, and decided to eat lunch on the ship. I sat down at a random table and was soon joined by three of the Life Long Learners on the ship. I ended up sitting there for over an hour with them because they were just too funny! Two of them were a couple, both close to 80 years old, that had been married for over 50 years… oh man they were hilarious! We talked about almost everything, and they told me about how they had walked the Old City Walls in Dubrovnik 25 years ago and that they’d been to Greece several times before… I want to be like them in, goodness, 60+ years! Well after that amazing lunch experience, I headed to the Old City for one last walk around, and was back to the ship just before on-ship time.
Being in Croatia for the past few days has been absolutely amazing. I can definitely see myself returning her for a longer period of time. It’s a perfect mix of a beach city and a mountain city, and has a cultural history that is very interesting. If you are looking for a vacation spot that is different from the typical resort areas, I seriously recommend Dubrovnik… a little pricey, but definitely worth it! And, most people speak English, which is helpful because we seriously tried to speak Croatian and failed miserably. One of our waiters said it was nice to see tourists trying, but it is understood that Croatian is a very hard language to learn… and now we’re heading to Greece, do they speak Italian in Greece?! Ha ha oh this will be interesting!
love love love
We arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia Wednesday night around midnight, but couldn’t get off the ship until the next morning because of customs. So on Thursday I took a tour of the Old City Wall, which goes around the entire medieval city. This tour offered excellent views of the Old City as well as the Adriatic and a few of the many many many Croatian islands (I was told there are over 1,000 of them) that lay just off the main coast. After that we walked around the Old City and had dinner there in one of the several little cafés that are scattered around. As we were walking back to the bus station, a salesmen for sea kayaking approached us and told us all about these 3 hour tours you can take and gave us a really good deal for one of them. So on Friday we decided to go sea kayaking! This is exactly what I had in mind for this port, and at 2 pm that day we set off in our double kayak into the blue Adriatic Sea. Our guides were awesome, and two were very attractive… always a bonus! Ha ha We started out right by the Old City and within 40 or so minutes had reached the island of Lokum. Then, we circled the island, which had a lovely nudist beach on one side—scarred for life—and then headed back towards the mainland. We went to a private beach, accessible only by sea, where we snorkeled and ate lunch. Then we returned to the starting place by going around the Old City Walls…. Oh and we passed a café called Buza, where locals and tourists go cliff jumping and drink overpriced beer, and these annoying little kids swam out to us and grabbed on to our kayaks, attempting to flip us all over… little punks! Well we survived that attack and made it all the way back to our starting place. We decided to go back to the ship for dinner and to shower, and then headed out again for a little more adventure.
On Saturday, we decided to take a ferry to another island, Lopud, and hang out on the beach for a while. We went to the store by the port and got some snacks and beverages, then boarded the ferry that goes to three islands just off the coast of the mainland. The island of Lopud is pretty small, and I don’t think anyone lives there for reasons other than tourism, but I could be wrong. Anyways, it was a perfect little spot for some needed R & R. We swam and sun bathed for a few hours, all while trying to avoid spotting old men in Speedos… what is with Europeans and Speedos?! I’ m starting to believe that this is an epidemic. All the people that wear them are those who should never EVER be seen in anything less than something resembling a poncho or something very very large, loose, and conservative. We took a ferry back to Dubrovnik around 7 pm, arriving just in time for dinner and the Germany v. Uruguay World Cup game. We couldn’t understand a word that was said on the TV and my friend Lindsey and I were the only women to be found, but it turned out to be a great night, and Germany won!
Yesterday I spent most of the morning catching up on some homework, and decided to eat lunch on the ship. I sat down at a random table and was soon joined by three of the Life Long Learners on the ship. I ended up sitting there for over an hour with them because they were just too funny! Two of them were a couple, both close to 80 years old, that had been married for over 50 years… oh man they were hilarious! We talked about almost everything, and they told me about how they had walked the Old City Walls in Dubrovnik 25 years ago and that they’d been to Greece several times before… I want to be like them in, goodness, 60+ years! Well after that amazing lunch experience, I headed to the Old City for one last walk around, and was back to the ship just before on-ship time.
Being in Croatia for the past few days has been absolutely amazing. I can definitely see myself returning her for a longer period of time. It’s a perfect mix of a beach city and a mountain city, and has a cultural history that is very interesting. If you are looking for a vacation spot that is different from the typical resort areas, I seriously recommend Dubrovnik… a little pricey, but definitely worth it! And, most people speak English, which is helpful because we seriously tried to speak Croatian and failed miserably. One of our waiters said it was nice to see tourists trying, but it is understood that Croatian is a very hard language to learn… and now we’re heading to Greece, do they speak Italian in Greece?! Ha ha oh this will be interesting!
love love love
Monday, July 5, 2010
Rome wasn't built in a day... uh, clearly!
On Tuesday, we arrived in Civitavecchia, which lays about 80 minutes away from Rome by train. This little town is really quite adorable, and has pretty much everything a person could need, and yet I spent most of my time there in the Subway where there was free internet. Feel free to judge me.
On this first day, my friend and I made our way to Rome on the train and got to Rome around 10:30 am. What a freaking AMAZING city!! I love how the old city has combined with the new city, and everywhere you turn there is an ancient ruin or something equally awesome. We first went to the Colosseum, but didn't go inside that day; then we went to the Roman Forum and the Capitoline Museum... both full of Roman sculptures and ruins which are both fantastic. It was so very hot and humid, so we stoped for lunch at a small cafe and had some amazing pasta. Our waiter was absolutely hilarious, he asked us where we were from, and then did an impression of Eminem hahaha the relevance still escapes me! We then walked to the Pantheon, but found that it was closed because it was a holiday, All Saints Day, or something like that. Bummed out as we were, we found some amazing gelato to comfort us. And I mean AMAZING, holy crap I could eat that stuff everyday of my life! We then wandered around a bit more and stumbled on Trevi Fountain where we made wishes and threw coins into the water. By this time is was getting kind of late, so we stoped for dinner and had some pizza and several glasses or red wine ha ha! Making our way back to the train station was quite a challenge as Italian drivers don't feel the need to stop for pedestrians... but we survived!
Wednesday morning came much too soon, and at 8:30 am, I joined a tour group called Rome on Your Own, and that's just what I did, sorry Mom! I felt completely comfortable in this city and there was so much that I wanted to see that I didn't really feel like waiting for a group of people to form. I made my way across the city by metro to the Colosseum, where I didn't have to wait in line, thanks to our excellent guide that drove us to Rome that morning. The Colosseum was beautiful despite its state of ruin,and provided great views of the Forum and Arch of Constantine. I stopped for a quick lunch of handmade pasta, YUM, and then went to the Pantheon for the second time. I'm so glad that I did too because this building is spectacular and I think I could have sat there for a few hours at least. I stopped again at the same gelato place as the day before, and then began what I'm calling a "Where Did Tom Hanks Go in Angels & Demons?" tour around the city, and finished it with a tour of the Vatican the following day.
St. Peter's is absolutely HUGE, very intimidating and beautiful at the same time, and the lines weren't too bad! It was so amazing/weird to see all that I had studied in the past few years in my art history classes in one spot! The Vatican Museum was equally amazing, and I heard that if you were to pause and look at each piece of art there for 5 seconds, you would be in the museum for 8 years... sounded crazy to me at first, but after walking through the many many galleries, I started to believe it! The walk through the Vatican Museum ended in the Sistine Chapel... Holy crap I've been to the Sisten Chapel! ha ha I'm starting to feel like an art history badass, or just more of a nerd... either works for me. On Friday I had a SAS tour that took us to some ancient Roman catacombs and this super creepy church with rooms decorated with the bones of monks... eeekk! The catacombs were very creepy and the tunnels extended for 20 kilometers below the surface, just enough space to get completely lost in! Every once in a while the lights would go off while we were down there, of course we would freak out and our guide would just laugh at us.. but come on, that's pretty scary! This tour ended at about 12:30, and having seen most everything that I could think of to see in Rome, I headed back to Civitavecchia and the ship. (my feet surely appreciated this!)
Saturday was our first day in Naples, Italy, and I joined to girls on a day trip to Pompeii, which was a challenge! In each port so far SAS has provided a shuttle bus to get us out of the port area and into the city... but this time it was a total FAIL! The shuttle driver didn't seem too pleased to be driving us anywhere, and when we finally got off the bus, we had gone in the complete opposite direction of the train station. Walking back was super creepy, ha ha one guy offered to drive us to Pompeii and back for 70E... when it only cost us around 16E plus admission into the ruins. What a creeper that guy was! We finally made it to Pompeii and walked around for a long time in the crazy humidity and heat. Mt. Vesuvius lay off in the distance with an eerie puff of cloud/smoke/something scary coming out of the top... which was really unsettling considering I had plans to climb it the next day! Once back in Naples, we found some fantastic pizza and headed back to the ship absolutely worn out!
Yesterday I safely hiked up Mt. Vesuvius, which was an amazing experience... I mean it's a volcano! It was really humid so the views weren't that great as there was a blanket of clouds between the peak and Naples and the other surrounding cities. But it was still beautiful! Having realized that it was the 4th of July, we celebrated by drinking wine that was made from grapes cultivated on the mountain (you can't pass up three bottles of really good wine for 8E!) We went out for pizza again last night, and found that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. We were amazed to find a little place was still open, but didn't expect anything amazing! We were wrong. Naples knows how to do pizza, well it was invented here right?! I would be disappointed otherwise. Today is our last day in Italy, man it went by really fast!! Tonight the crew is doing a 4th of July cook out, and I guess they do this very well! I'm looking forward to it, but am sad that I missed out on Granny potato salad!
We'll be in Croatia on Thursday!! I don't really know what to expect from this port, but I've heard it's beautiful, but also that there are nudist beaches, which I will be avoiding at all costs!
LOVE LOVE LOVE
On this first day, my friend and I made our way to Rome on the train and got to Rome around 10:30 am. What a freaking AMAZING city!! I love how the old city has combined with the new city, and everywhere you turn there is an ancient ruin or something equally awesome. We first went to the Colosseum, but didn't go inside that day; then we went to the Roman Forum and the Capitoline Museum... both full of Roman sculptures and ruins which are both fantastic. It was so very hot and humid, so we stoped for lunch at a small cafe and had some amazing pasta. Our waiter was absolutely hilarious, he asked us where we were from, and then did an impression of Eminem hahaha the relevance still escapes me! We then walked to the Pantheon, but found that it was closed because it was a holiday, All Saints Day, or something like that. Bummed out as we were, we found some amazing gelato to comfort us. And I mean AMAZING, holy crap I could eat that stuff everyday of my life! We then wandered around a bit more and stumbled on Trevi Fountain where we made wishes and threw coins into the water. By this time is was getting kind of late, so we stoped for dinner and had some pizza and several glasses or red wine ha ha! Making our way back to the train station was quite a challenge as Italian drivers don't feel the need to stop for pedestrians... but we survived!
Wednesday morning came much too soon, and at 8:30 am, I joined a tour group called Rome on Your Own, and that's just what I did, sorry Mom! I felt completely comfortable in this city and there was so much that I wanted to see that I didn't really feel like waiting for a group of people to form. I made my way across the city by metro to the Colosseum, where I didn't have to wait in line, thanks to our excellent guide that drove us to Rome that morning. The Colosseum was beautiful despite its state of ruin,and provided great views of the Forum and Arch of Constantine. I stopped for a quick lunch of handmade pasta, YUM, and then went to the Pantheon for the second time. I'm so glad that I did too because this building is spectacular and I think I could have sat there for a few hours at least. I stopped again at the same gelato place as the day before, and then began what I'm calling a "Where Did Tom Hanks Go in Angels & Demons?" tour around the city, and finished it with a tour of the Vatican the following day.
St. Peter's is absolutely HUGE, very intimidating and beautiful at the same time, and the lines weren't too bad! It was so amazing/weird to see all that I had studied in the past few years in my art history classes in one spot! The Vatican Museum was equally amazing, and I heard that if you were to pause and look at each piece of art there for 5 seconds, you would be in the museum for 8 years... sounded crazy to me at first, but after walking through the many many galleries, I started to believe it! The walk through the Vatican Museum ended in the Sistine Chapel... Holy crap I've been to the Sisten Chapel! ha ha I'm starting to feel like an art history badass, or just more of a nerd... either works for me. On Friday I had a SAS tour that took us to some ancient Roman catacombs and this super creepy church with rooms decorated with the bones of monks... eeekk! The catacombs were very creepy and the tunnels extended for 20 kilometers below the surface, just enough space to get completely lost in! Every once in a while the lights would go off while we were down there, of course we would freak out and our guide would just laugh at us.. but come on, that's pretty scary! This tour ended at about 12:30, and having seen most everything that I could think of to see in Rome, I headed back to Civitavecchia and the ship. (my feet surely appreciated this!)
Saturday was our first day in Naples, Italy, and I joined to girls on a day trip to Pompeii, which was a challenge! In each port so far SAS has provided a shuttle bus to get us out of the port area and into the city... but this time it was a total FAIL! The shuttle driver didn't seem too pleased to be driving us anywhere, and when we finally got off the bus, we had gone in the complete opposite direction of the train station. Walking back was super creepy, ha ha one guy offered to drive us to Pompeii and back for 70E... when it only cost us around 16E plus admission into the ruins. What a creeper that guy was! We finally made it to Pompeii and walked around for a long time in the crazy humidity and heat. Mt. Vesuvius lay off in the distance with an eerie puff of cloud/smoke/something scary coming out of the top... which was really unsettling considering I had plans to climb it the next day! Once back in Naples, we found some fantastic pizza and headed back to the ship absolutely worn out!
Yesterday I safely hiked up Mt. Vesuvius, which was an amazing experience... I mean it's a volcano! It was really humid so the views weren't that great as there was a blanket of clouds between the peak and Naples and the other surrounding cities. But it was still beautiful! Having realized that it was the 4th of July, we celebrated by drinking wine that was made from grapes cultivated on the mountain (you can't pass up three bottles of really good wine for 8E!) We went out for pizza again last night, and found that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. We were amazed to find a little place was still open, but didn't expect anything amazing! We were wrong. Naples knows how to do pizza, well it was invented here right?! I would be disappointed otherwise. Today is our last day in Italy, man it went by really fast!! Tonight the crew is doing a 4th of July cook out, and I guess they do this very well! I'm looking forward to it, but am sad that I missed out on Granny potato salad!
We'll be in Croatia on Thursday!! I don't really know what to expect from this port, but I've heard it's beautiful, but also that there are nudist beaches, which I will be avoiding at all costs!
LOVE LOVE LOVE
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