Walk Like An Egyptian

Hi all! Egypt’s been so great so far! Time to catch up on the last few days!

We docked in Alexandria on Tuesday morning. Most people left for long trips early on, but I had a day trip that took us to the best sights of the city. During the trip, we got to spend time at their brand new library…and it was so COOL! That sounds really lame…but it was honestly the coolest library I’ve ever seen. They spent 20 million bucks to build it. The ceiling is this cool tilted glass circle thing, and there are blue and green lighting fixtures embedded throughout it. Seriously…Google it. Bibliotheca Alexandrina. I’m seriously considering going back to get a library card. 

The next morning, I woke up early for a two day SAS trip to Cairo. We drove three hours from Alexandria to Cairo, where we headed to a buffet lunch that was delicious! After that, we went to some museum, where they had a bunch of King Tut’s stuff (thrones, beds, jewelry, etc.). I also got to see some mummified animals, which was, sadly, the highlight for me. Those ancient Egyptians sure did know how to preserve crap.

After our museum visit, we headed to the hotel we’d be staying at. Our tour guide informed us that Obama stayed there during his last visit to Cairo, so I figured it’d be up to standard...and it definitely was! And the view from my balcony was of the Great Pyramid. SO COOL! We got a little bit of time to nap and freshen up, and then it was off to a Sound and Light show at the Pyramids. It was really cool to watch. They used lasers and lighting techniques to write in hieroglyphics and project pictures on the Pyramids and Sphinx as some voice told stories about kings of Egypt while some cheesy music played. After the show, we headed back for another delicious meal at our hotel and then to bed.

The next morning, we got a 4:15am wake-up call and headed to the Pyramids to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely breathtaking! Of all of the things I’ve seen in the last 5 countries, this was, by far, the most INCREDIBLE. After the sun came up, we all got to take camel rides…which was even more terrifying than my donkey ride in Santorini! To make it easy to get onto the camel, it sits down…but then to get up, it quickly throws itself forward…and if you’re not holding on for dear life, good luck. Thankfully, it was just a nice little 15 minute trek…plenty long enough for all of us to acquire this really awesome camel stench, though.

After the camel rides, we went closer to the Pyramids to get some better pictures. As I walking around, one of the many Egyptian dudes trying to sell crap came up to my friend and I. You’re basically supposed to just ignore them so they go away.  He started talking to me and said, ‘Hi! You are Egyptian, yes?’

‘Nope.’

‘Ah, but you look like Egyptian princess.’

‘Uh, thanks?’

‘Yes, you are beautiful princess. You look like the Cleopatra!’

What is this guy, blind? Let’s get to the point. ‘I don’t have any money.’

‘No. No money! Do you have boyfriend?’

Learned my lesson before. Always. Say. Yes. ‘Yep.’

‘Oh…luckiest man in entire world! Are you going to marry him?’

My fictional boyfriend? Oh yeah..there's a real future for us. ‘Uh…maybe?’

‘That is too bad. If you no like him, you come back to be my wife.’ Tempting…but I think I’ll pass.

Then, he pulled out a white cloth thing and a rope and said, ‘I give this to you, free, since you are my beautiful Egyptian princess.’

Free? Yeah, right. ‘No thanks…I don’t want to buy it.’

“No! It is free for you!’

Before I could stop him, he put the cloth on my head, put the rope thing around it, and poof! I had a turban-type thing.

Then, he said, ‘I take your picture!’ Okay. Whatever. Maybe he’ll go away after.

He took a picture of my friend and I, handed me the camera back, put his hand out, and then looked at me and said, ‘Can I get something American?’

Something American? What’s he talking about? I fished around in my purse, and the only thing I could find was a packet of Wet Ones. I pulled it out and said, ‘Look! This is American! I got it at Wal-Mart! Have you ever heard of Wal-Mart?’

He looked at me like I was an idiot (a look that I’ve gotten accustomed to receiving) and said, ‘No, my princess. Some American money. You have one dollar?’ Ohhhhh…that’s what he meant by American. So does that mean he doesn’t want my Wet Ones packet?

Hmph. I thought my cool turban thing was FREE. Apparently, being an Egyptian princess doesn’t get you shit in this world. I handed him 5 Egyptian pounds (less than a buck), and he walked away happy. I got played. Shocker. Oh well. It’ll make a nice gift for Daniel. Get excited, little bro.

After our trip to the pyramids, we went to a small bazaar for a couple of hours. I thought the guys in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul were pushy…but they had NOTHING on these Egyptian dudes. They were SO aggressive! I went into one shop that had really pretty vases and saw one I liked for my mom. I asked to see it and noticed that there was some writing in Arabic on it, so I asked what it said. The clerk replied with, something, something ‘Allah’…at which point, I decided to pass. I figured the Jewish mother probably wouldn’t appreciate a vase with some Islamic saying on it. Unfortunately, that’s not something I could explain to the clerk. So, as I was walking away, the guy kept following me, offering lower and lower prices. It took me forever to lose him.

After our trip to the bazaar, we took a lunch cruise down the Nile. There was even a belly dancing and whirling dervish show. I saw a whirling dervish ceremony in Turkey, and it was super boring, so I wasn’t expecting much. It was basically a bunch of guys in dresses spinning around for a long time. This guy was way more exciting though. His dress thingy was super colorful, and he had this umbrella-type thing that he spun around his head. While he was dancing, he went around to all of the tables so people could get pictures with him while he spun his cool umbrella thing. He stood behind my chair so my friend Caitlin could take a picture of us. Then, before I realize what’s happening, he picked up my water glass with his free hand and starts to shove it towards my mouth. After I awkwardly drink from it, he picked up my napkin and wiped my face off. It was funny, but slightly embarrassing since the whole room was turned around watching. Made for some good pictures though. After our Nile cruise, we got back on the bus and headed back to Alexandria.

It’s past midnight, so I’m gonna hit the sack. Thankfully, no early morning plans for tomorrow!

Egypt tomorrow!

I'm so excited to get to Egypt in the morning!...although, they really did a good job of scaring the shit out of all of us tonight at our Pre-port meeting.

They did a 'What Not to Wear' shindig about our clothing in Egypt. Basically, I better look like a nun tomorrow, or else I'll be harassed like no other. Also, we have to be careful about some of the souvenirs we buy..especially stuffed animals and whatnot..because apparently, it's not uncommon for you to bring your exciting new souvenir home, and after a few days, see a bunch of bugs start popping out of it. Gross!...but it'd make a great gift for someone you hate!

We also got the weather forecast for our 5 days there...looks like it'll be well into the 100s. Yippee! Thankfully, that four dollar, neon green fan I purchased from Walmart before my trip should come in handy! I can't wait to make everyone jealous. Not only will I feel cool, but I'll look cool too. Score!

We dock in Alexandria bright and early, and I've got a day-long trip to see the sights.  I'll update on my first day's adventures tomorrow night!

Confession, Here I Come.

Hi all!

Just left Istanbul! Overall, definitely a great port.

Recap of the last couple days:

After the exhilarating Turkish bath experience, my friends and I took a motorboat tour that through the Bosphorus. The next day was spent almost entirely at the Grand Bazaar. Shopping has never been so exhausting! Having to haggle and bargain for every little thing you buy gets pretty tiring. On the bright side, I had about 7 cups of free tea. When you go into stores and are trying to decide whether or not to buy something, the owners usually offer you and your friends a place to sit and give you each a cup of tea to mull it over. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

While we were at the Bazaar, Carmella bought her brother a hookah, with the intention of sending it home since that was at the top of our prohibited items list for the ship. When we went to the post office, though, we found out that there was no cargo service. She’d paid about 100 bucks for it, so she was really upset about it. We sat down to eat and pulled the hookah out to examine it. We started taking it apart and realized that, although it was large, it was made up of a bunch of small pieces. Since we’d bought so much, we figured we’d try our best to sneak it on. The worst they’d do is make you throw it out, which is what she’d hafta do anyways if she couldn’t send it home. We strategically wrapped the pieces up separately and stuffed them into compartments of our bags.

When we got to the ship, we realized that the man checking bags was the super-intense, look in every nook and cranny guy. And he was even using scissors to cut open everything that was wrapped up. Crap. We were screwed. Nothing’s getting past this guy. As he started going through our bags, we were all holding our breath wondering when he was going to find the first piece of it. All of a sudden, I saw him pull out the long, skinny part that’s really decorated. He asked us what it was and one of us mumbled that it was a candle stick. Satisfied with this answer, he quickly interrogated us about having candles. Then, he went through the rest of our bags, and to our shock, he didn’t find anything else! Success! Getting something like that past ship security was quite the ego boost for us.

Later that night, we all got ready and headed to dinner at Taksim Square. Although we didn’t intend on doing anything beyond dinner, after a few beers, my friends were starting to think that going dancing might be fun. So, off we went, in search of one of the many dance clubs we’d heard about. We were wandering around aimlessly, so Katie decided to ask one of the hosts standing outside of a restaurant where the nearest club was. He was a nice old guy, and he offered to walk us over to it since it was just one street up.

We followed him to Club Purple, which looked to be pretty hoppin’. When we went in, he decided to have a beer with us. He sat down at our table and immediately took a liking to Carmella. He started asking us if Carmella was single and talking about how he was divorced, but wanted to find love. And this guy was OLD. Like almost Grandpa old. It was hilarious. And the pictures we have of he and Carmella are priceless. Sadly, 'old, creepy, Turkish man' isn't her type. Picky, picky.

While he was taking a break from hitting on Carmella, he pulled out his cell phone and called his uncle, or some guy that he referred to as his uncle. He passed around the phone so we could all say hi to whoever the dude on the other end was. Apparently, our hellos were well-received because, after hearing them, his “uncle” decided to come hang out with us too.  I’d been hoping that he meant that his nephew was coming, and he just didn’t know how to say it in English, but when his “uncle” got there, he turned out to be just another old guy…with a posse of more old guys. And we got the enjoyable task of entertaining them. Lucky us. 

After we’d had enough advances from gross old men to last us a lifetime, we went to the bar to pay for our tab. We had already realized that we didn’t have enough cash to cover our drinks since it was the last night and none of us had a lot of Turkish currency left. We figured one of us would just pay with a credit card, and we’d divvy things up later. When we went up to the bar, though, the bartender informed us that they didn’t take credit cards. What kind of club doesn’t take a credit card!? Crap. What now?

We looked over at all the creepy old men that we’d had to fend off all night, and they started waving, trying to get us over to dance with them. After a couple minutes of mulling it over, one of my friends leaned over the bar and asked the bartender if the old guys had a tab…and, sure enough, they did. What we did next probably should’ve landed us in a Turkish prison…but considering the fact that we couldn’t pay our bar tab…we had no other choice, but to tell the bartender that the old guys would be paying for our drinks. Then, we asked where the bathroom was, told the old men we'd be back...and instead of going to the bathroom, we bolted. And literally started running through the streets of Istanbul trying to get as far away from the club and the soon-to-be really pissed off old guys as quickly as possible. Probably not our finest hour…and I did feel kinda bad about it after… but it was the least they could do for us being forced to deal with their creepy advances all night, right? I’m sure my mother will be proud…

Since I felt so bad about it, I decided to go back to the bar and say sorry…okay, not really. But here it is now…Sorry that you’re out 200 bucks, old creepy Turkish men from Club Purple! Don’t worry…I’ll be heading straight to confession when I get back. After my night of sinfulness, I spent the next day doing wholesome things, like visiting mosques. Also, I uploaded pictures! Only through Spain, though…and not even all of them…but it’s something, at least!

I’m off to study for the economics test that I have tomorrow! Adios!

Elaina Goes to a Turkish Bath...and Second Base!

After a lot of convincing, I managed to get my friends to agree to go to a Turkish Bath. I didn’t really know much about it, but I’d heard it was one of those must-do things when you come to Istanbul, so I figured, why not?

We woke up early and grabbed a taxi to one that was close to our port. We walked down a weird alley and found the bath at the end of it. I mindlessly wandered into the first entrance door that I saw, looking for a reception area. Unfortunately, I can’t read Turkish. If I could, I probably would’ve known that the entrance that I went into said ‘Men Only.’  You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after the accidental men’s bathroom incident in Rome…but, apparently not.

 I peered around the corner of the main hallway hoping that someone official-lookinh would appear, but, sadly, no one did…so, I walked in a little further. ‘Elaina’s an Idiot’ Moment #32418. I found someone, alright. Peering back at me, in all his naked glory, was an old, wrinkly Turkish man with a big, creepy grin on his face. Suffice it to say, I’ve never run faster in my life. Call me crazy, but naked, old men just aren’t my thing. Especially that early in the morning.

As I was bolting out the door, one of the men that worked there, started running after me yelling, ‘No! No! Wrong room!’ No shit, Sherlock. I think I figured that one out already. He came out and pointed us in the direction of the women’s bath. When we went in, the nice little old lady told us that the best bath was the full service for 95 lira or 60 bucks. You got the bath, a scrub, and a massage. Okay, sounds good.
 
She led each of us to our own changing rooms…which were basically glass closets. I was shielded from seeing my friends…but my door and the entire front part of my room was all windows. So much for privacy. I asked the lady what I could keep on and she kept muttering, ‘Take it off. All off. Everything!’…Oh God..Everything?!...I mean, I’m comfortable with myself and all..but EVERYTHING!? Not happening. So I ignored the lady and kept my underwear on, secretly satisfied with myself for strategically picking a cute pair that morning.

I wrapped myself in the towel they’d given us and made my way into the lobby. We were led into the main bathing area, which was this huge marble room with colorful skylights and a big chandelier-type thing. Before I knew it, the bathing lady pulled the towel off of me, and there I was….in my birthday suit. Well, mostly. She directed us to the big marble platform and told us to lie down…face up. Greattt. As if being naked isn’t awkward enough, we all had to lie down next to each other, face up. It was at this point that I started wondering what I’d gotten us into.

After lying on the hot marble for 15 minutes, I heard the door open. In came the little old lady who had been behind the reception desk…and she, like us, was now naked. And holding a sponge and a bucket. Oh dear lord. They scrub and massage you while THEY’RE naked too!? Alright...maybe this wasn’t my best idea.

While my walk to the marble platform was more like an awkward walk of shame, my lady confidently strutted her stuff as she made her way to where I was lying. Then, she started scrubbing. And, boy, was she thorough…really thorough. As in, I definitely got felt up. A lot. And it didn’t help that throughout the whole awkward feel up, she kept muttering, ‘Is good for you?...You like?’ Who knew that getting groped by a naked 70 year old woman was included in the full service option? They really should advertise that more.

After my grope session was over, the lady led me to a fancy looking sink where she rinsed me off…aka threw buckets of water on me as I gasped for air. Then, it was back to the marble platform to get soaped up. During my soap scrub, we took another trip to second base, which was just as delightful as it had been the first time around. For a few brief moments, I tossed around the possibility that my lady swung for the other team…but then I realized the ridiculousness of such an idea. Do Turkish lesbians even exist? Surely not. How would they ever decide the number of wives that a Muslim lesbian was allowed to have? Way too complicated.

When my soap scrub was done, we headed back to the fancy sink for ‘let’s try to drown Elaina with buckets of water’ round 2.  It was swell.  After that, my lady washed my hair using only the finest Turkish products…Head and Shoulders, I believe it was. And then I got a complimentary hair-braiding after. I’m one lucky gal, eh?

All in all…an interesting experience, to say the least. FYI-I went back to the boat and promptly showered. More about Istanbul soon!

Istanbul, Not Constantinople

Day two of Istanbul...and I still love this place. If things keep up like this…Istanbul might end up being my favorite port city.

A recap of my day:

I woke up early for an SAS trip that was headed to the Prince’s Isles, a group of islands off the Turkish coast. We took a ferry over to the biggest island, where we got to take horse-drawn carriage tours around the entire thing. It was super pretty—kinda reminded me of a Caribbean island more than something you’d find in Turkey. We grabbed lunch, and I had a delicious (and cheap) lamb kebab. Turkish food is definitely right down my alley.

After we took the ferry back to Istanbul, I showered and met up with Carmella and Brianna. Then, since they hadn’t been yet, we headed to the Grand Bazaar.  Yessss. I’m estimating that at least 1/3 of the time I spend in Istanbul will be at the Bazaar...which I definitely don’t mind.

I’m not sure if it was because I was freshly showered and looking in tip-top shape or if the clerks were desperate at the end of a long day, but every clerk that we passed went out of their way to get our attention and get us into their shop. As aggressive as I’d thought the clerks were yesterday when I came with my class, they were ten times more aggressive when it was just us three girls.

As soon as we walked into the Bazaar, a guy (who, might I add, was actually really cute) walked up to me and said, ‘Didn’t I see you last night?’…Since I’d been there the day before, I figured maybe I’d come by his shop and he remembered me. So in my usual, witty fashion, I stammered out an, ‘Er, umm…maybe?’ He looked at me intensely as he nodded and said, ‘Oh yes. I definitely saw you last night…I think you were in my dreams.’…Oy vey. Should have seen that one coming. I guess crappy one-liners aren't exclusive to sketchy American guys. Good to know.

We spent the rest of our time in the Bazaar hearing a variety of different things...all along the lines of:

‘Where are you from? America?...American girls are my favorite!’

‘Omg! Are you the Charlie’s Angels?....because, if not, you can be MY angels!’

‘Where are you from? Canada?...Canadian girls are my favorite!’

‘Are you the Spice Girls?! You could definitely spice up MY life!’

…and the list goes on. We were pretty popular…along with every other girl in the bazaar.

After we’d been flattered enough, we headed to dinner…where I got lamb kebabs. Again. And they were delicious. Again. And then we headed back to the boat for an early night. Which is where I am now. My roomie’s gone for the night, so I’ve got the cabin to myself, which is a super rare occurrence. I’m gonna watch a movie and hit the sack...what can I say? I'm a party animal. 

Turkish bath in the morning! Should make for quite the story.

Bargaining 101

Hello from Istanbul!

Yep. I’ve finally made it. I’ve only been here a day…but so far so GREAT! I love this place! Walking down the street, it's normal to see a woman completely covered from head to toe in full Muslim garb standing next to a girl in shorts and a tank top. They weren't joking when they said this place was where east meets west.

It took a little while longer than normal to clear customs than it usually does in other ports, but I got off the ship at about noon and headed straight on a trip for my Econ class. We headed to the Grand Bazaar to learn how to bargain. For those of you who don’t know, the Grand Bazaar is basically like shopping Heaven. It’s this HUGE shopping district in Istanbul that has over 4000 shops! I saw scarves, rugs, jewelry, leather, knock-off bags, lamps, etc. You name it, they have it.

Anyways, my professor, Dr. D, is this cute, little Indian man who’s traveled a ton and knows like 5 languages. For our class, he wanted to teach us how to bargain and help us get some good deals along the way. When we first got there, it was so overwhelming! Not only are there 4000 shops, but there are also 4000 shop-owners who are using whatever tricks they have up their sleeves to get you to come into THEIR shop and not the shop two doors down that’s selling the same thing.
Before we started looking for stuff to buy, Dr. D gave us some rules on how to bargain. Basically, if you find something you like, you ask how much it is. The shop-owner will then tell you some price that’s really inflated. At that point, even if you’re willing to pay that much, you have to pretend that that’s an outrageous price and not something that you could even think of affording. Like clockwork, the shop-owner will then offer you a new, lower price and tell you that since you’re a ‘special customer,’ they’ll make you a great deal.

Here’s where you actually have to think about how much you’re willing to spend. You, then, offer your own price, even if it’s much less than you think they’ll accept. The shop-owner will either accept it or offer you a new price that was lower than the one before it, but still not as low as your offer. A little confusing, but a pretty simple process once you get into it. Also, number one rule—NEVER start bargaining unless you’re actually serious about buying whatever it is you’re looking at. The process, depending on what you’re looking at, can take like 15 or 20 minutes…so it’d just be a waste of time if you weren’t actually gonna buy it.

After his explanation, Dr. D decided to show us how it was done. One of the kids in my class wanted to buy a lamp…one of those antique-looking, Aladdin-style lamps (you know, the genie pops out kinda lamps). The price that the owner first quoted was 45 lira (or $30). The student Dr. D was bargaining for told him that he didn’t wanna pay more than 30 lira ($20) for it. So Dr. D went to work…

Dr. D: ‘Is 45 the best you can do for my wonderful nephew, here, who’s just a poor, poor student?’
Owner: ‘Yes, I’m sorry, but that’s the lowest I can go…’
Dr. D: after a longgggg pause…. ‘Well, does it at least come with a genie?’
Owner: ‘Oh, yes! It definitely comes with a genie! But you only get to see the genie AFTER you buy it!’
Dr. D: ‘Hmm…Are you sure you can’t do ANY lower than 45 lira for my poor nephew?’
Owner: ‘Okay…for you, I make a deal. I’ll give you the lamp..PLUS the genie for 40 lira!’
Dr. D: after another longggggg pause…. ‘How many wishes will the genie grant him?’
Owner: ‘As many wishes as you want! A million wishes…after you buy it, of course!’
Dr. D: ‘Wow! A million wishes!? That’s wonderful! A lamp, a genie, AND a million wishes for only 40 lira!?’
Owner: ‘Yes! For just 40 lira!’
Dr. D: ‘Well, that’s just great!...but, you see, my nephew, here, doesn’t want the genie or the wishes. He just wants the lamp. So what is the price WITHOUT the genie and the wishes?’
Owner: ‘…Okay…without it…I give it to you for 35!’

….Eventually Dr. D managed to get him down to 30 lira…which is exactly how much the kid wanted to spend! Also, the kid wasn’t related to Dr. D in any way haha. He was just kinda dark-skinned. So, you can imagine the look on the kid’s face when Dr. D kept going on about his wonderful nephew.

I didn’t end up buying anything today…which is a BIG deal considering the fact that I have little self control when it comes to shopping. I was too overwhelmed by everything to figure out what I wanted. I’ll definitely be heading back there, though! I'll keep ya posted!

So long, Greece. Part 2

After our donkey ride, we got dinner and headed to the airport for our flight back to Athens. The next morning, we got up early to go to the New Acropolis Museum, which was cool to see. Then we walked around Athens for a little while until we grabbed a taxi to take us to get one last gyros before we had to be on the boat. When we got into the taxi, we told the driver we wanted to go to a really good, cheap gyros place. He didn’t seem to understand English really well, but he seemed to get the gist. He kept muttering, ‘good food, we go to seaside’…okay, sounds good.

On the way, our driver, whose name was Pol, told us all about his 28 year old son named Socrates. Pol asked us how old all of us were, and since Brianna was sitting up front, I decided to gush about what a coincidence it was that Brianna was 28 too! Fyi-she’s 19. Pol thought it was so great that she was his son’s age and continued to tell us about Socrates and how he looked just liked David Beckham—unlikely considering what Pol looked like..but we went along with it. Pol seemed to take a liking to Brianna and told her that his son would really like her. She laughed and gave us the ‘oh God, what have I gotten myself into?’ look as Pol told us that Socrates would be visiting America soon. He asked if any of us lived near New Jersey, and Brianna said she did, since she’s in Connecticut. Pol’s face lit up and said that that’s where Socrates was flying to. He then proceeded to ask Brianna if she would meet him at the airport. At this point, Carmella and I were almost in tears laughing in the backseat. In ten minutes, it seemed as though Brianna had managed to find herself a potential husband.

After passing a billion great-looking gyros places, Pol stopped at a nice restaurant and told us that was where we should go. We all nodded our heads, knowing that as soon as he drove away, we’d walk to one of the other places he’d passed up. Before we knew it, though, he parked the car, got out, and made his way into the restaurant. Is he seriously coming in to eat with us?! The three of us had no idea what to do…so we followed him in. He was weird…but harmless. He asked for a table and sat down with us to eat. Although this wasn’t what we’d wanted, we figured we’d at least get gyros finally. Once we got the menus, we quickly saw that, unlike every other restaurant that we’d encountered in Greece, apparently this one didn’t serve gyros. Great. At this point, we gave up and just ordered food.

Pol kept talking about Socrates and how much he would like Brianna. He also told us how he knew good Greek boys for Carmella and I. Thank God…because I was getting jealous. Pol ordered octopus and insisted that we try it. After a few minutes of cajoling, we all took small bites…and then proceeded to spit it out into our napkins when Pol wasn’t looking. It was absolutely disgusting. When we got the check, Pol told us he’d go start the car…yep, he split. So we were stuck paying for his disgusting octopus. We got back in the taxi, and he took us to our port, and we were all so happy to finally be back. We figured since we’d bought him lunch, the taxi ride wouldn’t cost us much. Before we got out, though, he said, ‘15 euros each’ (fyi-a taxi ride from the main area of Athens to our port was about 15 euros TOTAL)…is this guy SERIOUS!?! We bought him octopus and listened to his stories about Socrates for over an hour, and now he wants us to pay another 15 euros for the stupid taxi ride!?! Ughhhhhhhhhh. We didn’t really have much of a choice, though. Note to self: you’re all idiots.

In other news, we’ll be in Istanbul tomorrow! And I’ll be staying on the ship every night, so I’ll be able to keep up-to-date with this thing way more frequently!  Hopefully I’ll have some good stories!

So long, Greece. Part 1

Hi all!

Greece was so fun! Lots to catch up on!

On the second morning, I woke up to catch a ferry to Mykonos, a Greek island that’s about a four hour ride away. When I got there, I dropped my stuff at the hotel, and left for the beach. We’d heard it wasn’t uncommon to see celebrities there, so we were excited! It was super pretty, and I was thankful for the sand, since the Croatian beaches had been pebble beaches. After hours in the sun, and sadly, no celebrity sightings, we decided to head back and get ready for dinner. Although we’d walked down to the beach, it was all downhill…steep downhill, so we decided to have the beach bar call a taxi for us. Unfortunately, none of the only 30 taxis on the whole island was able to come pick us up…so we started walking up…Let’s just say, I’ll never complain about walking from lower campus to upper campus ever again.

After about an hour of walking and accidentally getting on the wrong bus, we finally managed to snag a taxi and share it with two girls from Australia who were heading in the same direction as us. As I was introducing myself and telling them where I was from, one of the girls looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God! Your southern accent is SO cute!’…my southern accent? You mean, my almost nonexistent southern accent (unless I’m saying ‘ya’ll’)? Hmm…interesting. I said thanks, and she continued on in her cool Australian accent with, ‘Wow! You, honestly, sound JUST like Britney Spears!’…WHAT!? Is she serious!? Wait…should I be flattered or insulted? Regardless...it’s settled.  This chick MUST be deaf. We parted ways with our new clearly hard of hearing Aussie pals and went back to the hotel to prep for dinner and dancing.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch a ferry to Santorini. When we got there, we found a hotel to stay at near the main area of the island, Fira. We got showered, had dinner, and did some shopping around town. Whenever we’d go into stores, people would ask us where we were from and before we could answer, they would say, Canada??....so, we went with it. We told everyone we were from Halifax…which was partially true…I mean, that’s where the boat started from.

On our last day in Santorini, we went up to an area called Oia, where all the pretty white houses with blue roofs are! We found the post office that was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, too! We wandered around town all day and took a cable car ride down the side of the mountain. On the way back up, we opted to ride donkeys…which was terrifying. It was only 5 euros, so I figured sure, why not? Plus, I went to horse camp in the 5th grade (don’t judge)...how much different could it really be? How about…a lot different. I mean, there was a saddle-type thingy that I got to sit on. And a weird metal bar thing that I got to hold onto. But the donkey driver totally creeped me out. And he smelled worse than the donkey did. When I asked if my 5 euros included insurance, he looked at me like I was the dumbest person to ever walk the planet…so I took that as a no.

My donkey (whose name I never even learned) kept going way too close to the edge for comfort. And when I would tell him not to, he wouldn’t listen…which I figured was because he probably only spoke Greek. I spent the entire 15 minute ride talking about how I was too young to die, but rejoicing in the fact that death by donkey would make for a pretty cool gravestone. I’m sure my friends were thrilled they’d brought me along. When we got to the top, the creepy driver helped me off my donkey, and my foot got stuck in the foot holder thing…which was interesting since I was wearing a dress. Brilliant planning, Elaina. All of Santorini got a free show. At that point, though, I didn’t care. I was happy to have my feet firmly planted on the ground…even if it meant flashing some Greeks. 

It's all Greek to me!

Phew. Day one of Greece was a success, and I’m absolutely wiped!

First, I went on an SAS trip to the Acropolis (where the Parthenon is) with a few friends. After climbing about 2.5 million super slippery steps, we finally made it to the top. It was so cool to see the real Parthenon! I mean, our Nashville replica is great and all, but it’s got nothing on this one. The view from the top was amazing!

After about an hour of snapping pictures and standing out in the hot sun, we made our way back down the slippery steps, which was substantially scarier than it had been walking up. We headed over to La Plaka, an area with a bunch of cute streets lined with shops and cafes. We stopped at a restaurant for some drinks and baklava, which was absolutely delicious!

After our midday snack, we did a little more shopping. When we got to the last store, we looked around for awhile and bought a couple things. As we were walking out, one of the clerks who had been helping us asked me my name. I told him, and then he politely continued to ask everyone else’s names. After we’d all given him our names, he looked back at me, pointed, and said, ‘I like you the best.’ I was a little taken aback, but hey, who wouldn’t be flattered? I looked disgusting and sweaty, and this guy still liked me. Score! I smiled and started backing away when, out of nowhere, he grabbed my arm and proceeded to ask, ‘do you have husband?’ IS HE SERIOUS!? I gave him a wide-eyed, deer-in-headlights look as I so cleverly responded with, ‘er…umm…well…uhh.’ Apparently any wit I may possess flies out the door when a Greek man questions my marital status. Good to know for the future.

As I continued to stammer unintelligibly, he kept shaking my arm and saying, ‘if you no have husband, I will be husband.’ Clever response number two: ‘I…umm…don’t want…umm…don’t need…a husband…’ Clerk: ‘Okay…I will be boyfriend!’ Boy, this guy doesn’t take a hint. Maybe I’d have considered him if he was ten years younger and not already balding, but what can I say? A girl’s gotta have standards. I continued to awkwardly back away, this time having to tug my arm out of his grip.  To his chagrin, I finally managed to wriggle loose. He continued to excitedly say ‘Husband! Husband! I am good husband!’ as I walked away. Once we rounded the corner, my friends and I all started laughing hysterically. A few hours into Greece, and I’d already gotten a proposal!? If this is any indication of how Greece is going to be for the next five days, then I’m excited.

After my proposal, we found a restaurant that promised to give us an authentic Greek experience. We went in and saw that all the waiters were wearing togas! And the waitresses had on pink ones! As I read through the menu, I realized that there were very few entrees on it that I was willing to eat. I wasn’t really in the mood for rabbit, duck, or pig’s liver…so I went with one of the few entrees that I thought sounded safe: a good ‘ol steak. How can you go wrong with steak, right?

When my meal arrived, the steak looked delicious! One problem, though. All they gave me was a spoon and knife. I summoned one of my toga-ed waitresses over and asked for a fork. For some reason, she looked at me like I’d just told her to slaughter her first-born and replied with, ‘We do not use forks here. They are a sign of war. We, Greeks, do not like fighting.’ Is this chick seriously telling me that I’m supposed to use a SPOON to eat my steak? She’s gotta be fricken kidding me. I continued to look up at her waiting for her to crack a smile, and say ‘Gotcha!’…but that never happened. Well, here goes. I wanted an authentic Greek meal…and apparently, I’ve got one. So, I dug into my steak, spoon first. It was an interesting experience. Cutting a bite of steak took more effort than I’ve ever had to spend on eating. On the bright side, by the time I managed to saw off a piece, I’d probably already burned off the calories from my previous bite. After I managed to cut my whole steak, I was absolutely exhausted. Which is where I’m at now. Completely exhausted. Sadly, we didn’t get to go see Eclipse tonight…but I just found out that my roommate bought a boot-leg version of it today…so, I know what I’ll be doing when we leave Greece.

I head to Mykonos bright and early tomorrow morning! I’ll do my best not to get proposed to again, but I can’t make any promises. :]

Opa!

I'm in Greece! We docked into Piraeus, which is the Athens port, late last night around 2am or so. We couldn't get off the ship, though, because we had to wait for customs officials to come check our passports and clear us early this morning. Now, I'm sitting in the port terminal using the free internet with about a bajillion other SASers, or SASholes, as we're so affectionately called. I've got a trip in an hour, so it wasn't worth it to leave the port area. Unfortunately, the internet is superrrrr slow, so uploading pictures on Facebook didn't work out so well. I promise I'll figure out a way to get some up somehow!

I've also been diligently working to figure out times for ferries to the islands and whatnot. We're going to Mykonos tomorrow, and from there, the plan is to head to Santorini. During our pre-port meeting last night, they warned us about ferry strikes and public transportation strikes, etc. Basically, they told us to get our asses back to Athens before the last day because if you don't make it onto the ship by the time they need to leave, then you're stuck here and you've gotta figure out a way to get yourself to Istanbul. Sooooo, the plan for now is to make sure we're back here on the night before we leave...because getting left behind would suck. And I'm sure a plane ticket to Turkey isn't cheap.

Today, the plan is to hit up all the major sites, i.e. the Parthenon, etc. We've also been looking into going to an outdoor theater tonight to see Eclipse. Some people on the ship managed to get it boot-leg in Croatia, and we've heard it's really good. Plus, being deprived of the entertainment world sucks. I miss TV! They broadcast the World Cup Finals the other night on the ship, though! (Yay Spain!) They usually only broadcast super important stuff like presidential inaugurations, so it was pretty exciting that a soccer game qualified as super important.

I'm off to grab lunch before my trip! I'll post more later about my day 1 adventures in Athens!

Dubrovnik or Bust

Hi all!

We left Croatia yesterday and now we’re Greece-bound.

I went to Montenegro on an SAS trip the day before we left, and it was so pretty! I don’t really know much about Montenegro (I probably should’ve listened to the tour guide instead of putting my headphones in on the drive there…), but it was pretty similar to Croatia, except the food in Croatia was better. Other than that, though, Montenegro was nice to see! 

When I got back from my trip to Montenegro, I met up with Brianna and Carmella in Dubrovnik for dinner. We went into Old Town again because it was the first night of their big summer festival. We found a cute restaurant by the harbor and watched fireworks as we ate. Our restaurant had tons of super cute waiters…but, as fate would have it, we got stuck with the one dud of the bunch. Thanks a lot, hostess lady.

After dinner, we wandered around and found a cool bar that sold drinks in BUCKETS! Cheap buckets! And you even got a glow stick with every drink purchase! Whoever came up with such a brilliant idea should be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize or something. While we were there, we met some kids from Ireland who were equally enthralled with the bucket idea. It was kinda hard to understand their accents, but they smiled a lot and remembered our names, so they seemed like decent kids. 

After the bar, we headed to a club called Fuego, which was a lot of fun. As we were dancing, I saw Luis, the cute officer who gave us the bridge tour! To my dismay, he was already occupied with some scantily-clad chick. I must say, though, without the white uniform and the official-looking pins and badges, the intrigue just wasn’t there anymore, so I wasn’t quite as heartbroken as I would’ve been if I’d seen him in uniform.

After we left the club, we were all super hungry, so we stopped at a late-night, sub-par pizza joint. The Golden Crust of Croatia, anyone? Sadly, there was no buffalo chicken pizza to be had…but there were plenty of drunken messes hanging around. And there was even an awkward couple making out in the corner…strangely, though, our waiter was half of that couple. I’m all for young love and crap, but come on…I shouldn’t have to pull you away from kissing your girlfriend to order another soda. I guess that’s just how they do it in Croatia.

We spent our final day in Dubrovnik just walking around Old Town picking up souvenirs and whatnot. We had our last delicious Croatian meal and went to an internet café, where I got my usual Facebook fix and tried to get up-to-date on the most important current events…i.e. that Carrie Underwood finally married that cute hockey player. I spent the rest of the day bumming around and napping since I was exhausted.

Today, we had classes and in bio, we had to get into groups of three. Being the lucky girl that I am, I was with SAB #1. Heck yess. We had to simulate evolution using dry beans and utensils that our professor had stolen from the dining room (which is a big no-no since they have strict rules about taking ANYTHING out of the dining room). It sounds weird, but basically we had to use whatever utensil we’d been given to pick up as many beans as we could in 30 seconds to simulate how those who are given better tools or traits in life had it easier than others. I got a spoon, so I was golden. After a few rounds of evolution, SAB #1 and I got bored and slowly digressed into sword-fighting with our utensils instead. Real mature, I know.

One more day of classes until we get to Athens!

Croatia. Is. Awesome.

Who knew that the place that I was looking forward to the least would be so much fun?

We docked in Dubrovnik, which is on the coast of southern Croatia, yesterday morning. It's absolutely gorgeous here! Cute white houses with clay-colored roofs everywhere. As soon as we got here, I headed out for a kayaking and snorkeling trip for my biology class. (Side note: our kayaking guide was so cute…which is apparently a recurring theme with Croatian men). When we got there, we all had to get into pairs for our kayaks. I didn’t really know anyone, so I was paired with some kid from California. He wasn’t much of a talker, but I figured as long as we could kayak over to the island without any problems, then we’d be good. I got in the front, he took the back, and we were off. Not very gracefully though...we veered to the left. And then back to the right. And then we were turning in a circle. And it was just bad all around. He and I couldn’t seem to get in sync with one another for the life of us. We hit other people’s kayaks about 20 times, and they started to just get out of the way when they saw us coming. Like I said before, he wasn’t the communicating type…so when I tried to figure things out, I would only hear unintelligible mumbling and the occasional grunt. After a few failed attempts at communication, I decided to give up and just start paddling the way I wanted to. And somehow, we managed to get over to the island.

On the island, they handed us snorkels, and we headed off in search of marine life. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see. Actually, I probably saw more beer cans than fish. After about an hour and a half of beer can sightings, we got in our kayaks to head back to the mainland. I’m not quite sure what happened to my kayak buddy…but he was WAY more talkative this time around. This chatty new side to him made it way easier to maneuver our way back. We didn’t hit ONE person this time, and we even managed to get a nice rhythm going. To the shock and awe of our fellow kayakers, we somehow managed to race ahead of most of them. It turned out to be pretty fun…but also unbelievably tiring. My arms were super sore when I woke up this morning.

After kayaking, I headed back and got ready to go to dinner. I met up with my friends, and we headed into Old Town, which is basically…the old part of town. Shocking, I know. It’s actually really pretty though. There are these big fortressy-type walls that surround the whole area and when you go inside the walls, there are a ton of cute little restaurants and shops. We had a really, really good dinner, too. I’m not quite sure what Croatian food is exactly, but so far, the food here has been my favorite. I had zero expectations about this place, so I’ve been really pleasantly surprised. Since we’d all had a long day, we decided to call it a night early…well it was midnight, but that’s pretty early considering some of our other nights.

This morning, Carmella, Brianna, and I decided to do a boat tour that took us to a few islands off the coast of Dubrovnik. (Turns out sky-diving, our original plan, is apparently not something that they do in this part of Croatia much. We were misinformed by some dude on the ship). The island tour cost 230 kuna (or about 50 bucks) for all day with lunch and unlimited drinks included, so it was a pretty sweet deal considering how expensive everything has been lately. After we got onto our cool piratey-looking boat, we saw our Dean of Everything (I’m not really sure what his title is…but basically he’s the main dude in charge of the whole shebang) and his wife and their son and daughter-in-law get on too. My friends and I gave each other ‘this could be awkward’ looks, but we said hi to them, exchanged pleasantries, and went our separate ways on the small boat. As soon as our Dean and his family were out of hearing distance, Carmella looked over at us and in the most serious tone I’ve heard from her yet, whispered, ‘I will not, under any circumstances, let the Dean see me in a BIKINI.’ Fair enough.

We went to a total of three islands. We spent an hour at each of the first two. Both were pretty, but there wasn’t much to do at either of them besides take a few pictures here and there. At the third island, we were given a little over three hours to explore. As we started walking, we realized that we were right behind the dean and his family. Although they were walking super slowly, we didn’t want to be rude by passing them, so we continued to walk slowly behind them. After about ten minutes, the dean’s wife turned back to us and said, ‘We have no idea where we’re going, so you probably don’t wanna follow us.’ Oh gosh. We decided to stop at some random shop to avoid having to awkwardly seem like we were following them anymore.

After delaying ourselves for a bit, we wandered to the path that led to the other side of the island where the Grand Beach was. There were a lot of golf-cart type things that were offering to drive you to the beach for 20 kuna a piece (less than 4 bucks). We looked at a map, and Carmella decided that the beach didn’t look too far, so we’d save a buck and just walk along the path. Talk about an idiot move. We walked. And we walked. And the more we walked, the steeper the path got. And the steeper the path got, the more my body hated me. And the more carts of happy, un-sweaty people that zoomed by, the more I resented Carmella’s decision-making skills. After about 25 minutes of intensely-inclined walking, we finally reached the top and started to make our descent. After about 20 more minutes of walking down, we finally reached the beach. We searched along the beach to find three chairs for us and kept walking until we spotted a few together. Triumphantly, we hurried over to some chairs and plopped our stuff down before anyone else could snag them.

After we disrobed and applied sunscreen, we all sat down ready to get our tan on. At this point, I started to take in my surroundings. It was a gorgeous beach. Pretty sand. Lots of cute Europeans strewn about. And…oh God…is that the dean and his family? In the chairs RIGHT NEXT TO OURS!?!? Please don’t tell me that in our mad dash to get chairs, we’d picked ones that were oh-so-conveniently next to them! I looked over at Carmella and Brianna who had apparently come to this same realization. So much for the dean not seeing us half-naked. We did our best to avoid eye contact and pretend as if we’d never seen them. Which was half-true since we hadn’t seen them at first. Oh well…not much we can do about it now. After laying out and swimming for a couple hours, it was time to head back to our boat. We had yet another awkward exchange with the dean in which he made a ‘following us, again?’ kind of joke. On the way back, we took a cart. It was the best four bucks I’ve spent this whole trip. Our driver was yet another super cute Croatian guy. He was thrilled to learn that I came from Tennessee, where his favorite drink, Jack Daniel’s, is made. I told him he could come visit anytime.

When we got back from our island tour, we headed back to the ship, where we freshened up. We went into Old Town in search of another good restaurant. After walking around for awhile, we found one that had a great view of the harbor and mid-range prices, so we decided it was perfect. After we sat down and were given menus, I took a look at the tables around us. And guess who was there…THE DEAN! And his family. AGAIN! Of all the bajillion places to eat, we just so happen to pick the SAME EXACT restaurant as them!? As if things couldn’t get MORE awkward with them. At this point, we all kind of gave up on caring about whether or not they thought we were following them. We waved hello and tried to ignore the slightly creeped out looks on their faces. Dinner was delicious, and we wandered around for a bit before heading back to the ship.

Tomorrow, I’ve got an SAS trip to Montenegro, which I’m super excited for! Also, we hear that Croatian nightlife is pretty good, so we’ll probably try to hit up a dance club tomorrow night!

Italia, part two!

After we left Venice, we took a train to Naples, where our ship had moved to. From there, Carmella and I grabbed our computers and went into Naples to search for an internet café so we could upload pictures. After a couple hours of walking around, we finally managed to find a McDonalds. We were so excited until we realized that in order to get the internet, you had to enter an Italian cell phone number so they could text you your password. Boo. So much for pictures. We met Brianna for pizza and to catch up on the past few days, and then we all went back to the ship and hit the sack early since Carmella and I had been up about 43 hours or so at that point.

The next morning, I headed to Capri, an island off the coast of Naples, with an SAS trip that I’d signed up for. I went last year with the family and loved it, so I figured it’d be fun to spend the night there. When we got there, we took a little tour of the island. We couldn’t check into our hotel yet, so we were all still carrying our backpacks around. They took us to this chairlift thing where we all went up, one by one, to the highest point of the island. Being the non-skiier that I am, the whole chairlift thing kinda freaked me out…especially since I had to lug my backpack up with me. As I was going up, I looked down and saw a variety of things that people had apparently dropped along the way...a couple hats, a pair of sunglasses, the occasional flip-flop. Psh. Idiots. Why wouldn’t you hold onto your stuff for dear life? When I got to the top, the view was amazing! We spent about half an hour up there until we got into our one-person chairs and headed back down. On the way down, I was holding my backpack in front of me again and focusing on taking pictures. All of a sudden, I heard the girl in the chair behind me yell ‘Oh no!’ and then there was a big bang on the ground below me. Oh. Crap. What the hell did I just drop? I looked down and saw that I still had my backpack. Okay. Check. What else did I bring? A purse. Oh gosh. Please...tell me it wasn’t my purse. Anything, but my purse! I quickly looked to find my purse and was relieved to see that it was still there around my shoulder. Okay. Good. Then what the hell was it? I hesitantly peered over the side of my shaky chairlift and looked down. Is that a water bottle? Wait, it’s MY water bottle! Yes! I couldn’t care less about that! Guess I won't judge people for dropping crap on the chairlift anymore... 

After we got off, we went to lunch where I met up with Carmella and Brianna who had ferried over to the island on their own. The three of us spent the rest of the day just wandering around town before we headed back to their hotel to get ready for dinner and dancing. We’d been scoping out restaurants all day and had decided on a cute one just down the road from their hotel. When we got there, we were ushered to our table by a cute host named Marco. As we sat down, our tables were set by an even cuter waiter. Man, does this place know how to pick ‘em or what? We ordered our drinks, and our waiter, whose English wasn’t great, mumbled something about the specials, so we all nodded our heads waiting for him to tell us what they were. Strangely, though, he proceeded to immediately walk away. We were all a little confused until a couple minutes later when we looked up and saw that he was coming our way. Uh oh, in our poor communication did we accidentally order something already? He plopped the tray down directly in front of me and on the platter was an assortment of dead fish. At this point, I was lingering somewhere between completely disgusted and on the verge of laughter. I looked up at Carmella and Brianna who shared the same grossed out/unbelievably amused expressions as I did.  As if we weren’t weirded out enough, the waiter then proceeded to pick up the fish and flail them around in front of our faces to show them off. Slightly unnecessary, but hey, at least he’s dedicated, right? Suffice it to say, none of us ordered the fish specials that night.

After dinner, we went dancing, and sadly, there is not one noteworthy person to tell you about. The club was fun…but the people were pretty boring. One thing I have noticed in all the European clubs, though, is that there always seems to be a lot more guys than girls. And they all dance! Which surprised me a bit considering the fact that most guys in America have to be forced onto the dance floor. Although, now that I think about it, the European guys were actually all fairly comfortable dancing with one another. Hm. Maybe we’ve been going to gay clubs? Beats me. I’ll pay more attention in the next few ports. 

We left Capri the next afternoon and headed back to the ship to set sail for Croatia. We had classes yesterday and today, which was tough after 13 days of traveling. I got my grade back for my bio test that I took awhile back, and I got an A! Yay! Considering I’m awful at science, I was pretty excited! We also had our first Global Studies midterm last night after dinner….didn’t do so hot on that one, though. There 35 questions total and I missed…14. Yikes. That’s a 60. BUT, that’s one of the highest scores I’ve heard! And apparently all 700something of us did horribly, so they’re curving it. I think I’ve complained before about Global Studies, but basically it sucks. And I’m thinking that after getting all these failing grades, the professor is probably going to realize how much we’re not learning.  

In other news, if all goes as planned, it looks as though I’ll be going sky-diving the day after tomorrow! I’ll keep my fingers crossed that my mother doesn’t kill me when she reads this and finds out (surprise, mom!).

Croatia, tomorrow! Farewell!

Italia, part one.

Hi all!

It’s been a longggg time since my last post so there’s a lot to tell! I went to Rome for a night, then to Venice for two, one night in Naples, and then Capri for a night. Now, I’m back on the ship and we just set sail for Croatia.

Okay, so going back a little while…I went to Rome with Carmella and CJ for the first day of our trip. As I was boarding the train to Rome, I noticed what looked to be like a cute Italian guy dressed in all black in front of me. He turned around, and what I saw was possibly one of the most GORGEOUS men I have ever seen in my life. Tan, dark hair, chiseled face…but, wait, is he wearing a white collar? DAMN! He’s a PRIEST?!?! Just my luck. Too bad because tall, dark, and handsome is definitely my type…tall, dark, handsome, and celibate? Not so much. Thanks a lot, God. Way to steal all the potential eligible bachelors.
 
When we got to Rome, Carmella, CJ, and I went to our hostel to put our bags down. I’ve never stayed in a hostel before so I was a little wary of the whole situation and expecting the absolute worst. As we opened the door to our room, I braced myself…but to the surprise of all of us, it was SO nice! I’d never been so excited to see a bathroom in my life! When we booked, we chose shared bathroom to cut costs, so we were expecting a dorm style bathroom…but what we got was basically a hotel room. There was even a mini-fridge and a flat screen TV mounted on the wall!  For 22 euros a piece, this place was pretty damn nice.

After we dropped our stuff off, the three of us went exploring and hit up the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Colosseum. Later that night, we met up with the other two girls, grabbed a taxi, and told the driver to take us to his favorite restaurant nearby. He took us to this great place that we would’ve never found on our own. At the end of the meal, the friendly restaurant owner came by our table to say hello and give us complimentary restaurant calendars. I thought it was such a nice gesture…and I could definitely use a calendar in my cabin! I opened my calendar to July and was a little taken aback at what I saw. It seemed that every day had a pair of contorted figures in various positions…Did this nice old man really just hand each of us sex position calendars!? With the logo of his family-owned restaurant on it!?! Wow…welcome to Europe.

After dinner, we found a cheap bar to hang out at. At the bar, Carmella and I spotted a group of super cute European guys. We figured it’d be awkward to approach them, so we just ogled from afar. After that, we all went to a club called Mood. When we headed to the bar to get drinks after we’d been dancing for awhile, I accidentally bumped into some guy. As I turned around to say sorry, I realized it was one of the cute European dudes that we’d seen earlier!

I couldn’t let such a perfect twist of fate slip away, so I introduced myself and we started talking. I learned that his name was Stanley, he’s from Paris, and he just graduated from med school. Yep. Stop there. That’s all I needed to know. It was at this point that I started to consider the option of bailing on SAS to run away with him. And, boy, was he HOT. Super hot. We talked for about half an hour and all the while, I imagined my future as Mrs. Elaina [insert sexy French last name here]. It’s got a nice ring to it, eh? As he told me about his hopes of becoming a plastic surgeon, I fell deeper and deeper in love. We were about to go dance, so I turned to tell my friends where I was going, when I saw that one of the girls that I was with looked really sick. Damn…Do I stick around and help her or do I go off with Dr. Stanley and potentially ensure my future as a doctor’s wife? A tough decision…but sadly, I parted ways with the gorgeous Parisian. So long, Dr. Stanley. Perhaps, I’ll look you up one day when I’m in need of a facelift.

Although it was sad to say goodbye, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on what came next. We went outside to grab a taxi, and found that none of them were willing to take us when they saw the shape our lightweight friend (who’d clearly overestimated the amount of alcohol she could handle) was in. After many taxis passed us, Lightweight said that she was feeling a little better and that she’d do her best to act okay when the next taxi pulled up.  Satisfied with this, I waved down another taxi. We all piled in and made sure that Lightweight was by the open window so she could get some air. Our hostel was about 10 minutes from where we were, so she just had to make it through that and we’d be okay. About 2 minutes into the taxi ride, though, she looked over at me and gave me an ‘I’m gonna hurl’ look. Crap. I quickly tapped Katie, who was sitting in the front seat, on the shoulder and told her to distract the driver. Katie complied by whipping out her huge map of Rome and asking the driver to show her where on the map we were. As she was doing this, I heard Lightweight heaving out the window. Completely gross…but if the taxi driver realized what was going on, he was going to leave us stranded on the side of a sketchy Roman street…which was NOT happening as far as I was concerned. Sitting in the back middle seat, I maneuvered myself in between the front seats to block the driver from seeing anything. At this point, I was practically sitting on his lap. The more we heard Lightweight heaving, the louder and louder we got. The conversation with the driver went something like this…

Me: “HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO THE UNITED STATES!?!?!?”

Driver: “Yes. I go to Boston.”

(Simultaneously) Me: “BOSTON!?!? WOOOHOOOOO!!! I LOVE BOSTON!!!!!” 
Katie: ‘WOW!!!! YAYYYYYYY!!!!! I’M FROM BOSTON!!!’
Carmella: “YEAAAAA, BABBY!!!! BOSTONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!”

Me: ‘WHO DID YOU GO TO BOSTON WITH!?!?!”

Driver points to the gold band on his left hand ring finger.

(Simultaneously) Me: ‘OMG!!! HE HAS A WIFE!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!”
Katie: ‘WOW!!!! THAT’S AWESOME!!!! YOU’VE GOT A WIFE!!!!!”
Carmella: ‘YAYYYYYY FOR WIVES!!!!!!’

…clearly, we were a bit desperate. As our conversation got progressively more ridiculous, we all started hysterically laughing. I looked over at Lightweight, whose head was still out the window, and saw that she, too, was laughing. I’ve never before seen someone puke and laugh at the same time, but it makes for a quite an image. Thankfully, the taxi driver, who seemed amused by his obnoxious American customers, never noticed what was going on in the back seat and got us to the hostel safely.

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early to catch a train to Venice. After our 4 hour train ride, most of which I spent asleep, we arrived in Venice. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! Katie, CJ, Carmella, and I took a bus to our hotel, dropped our stuff, and headed back into the main area of Venice. We took a waterbus into Saint Mark’s square and met an American family with some kids around our age along the way. We started talking to Peter, the oldest one, and decided to meet up with them later that night to hang out. Then, to solidify our plans, he asked if he could get one of our numbers so we could figure out when/where to meet. We all looked around at each other waiting for someone to offer up their phone and realized that Carmella, Katie, and I had all left ours at the hotel…leaving CJ (who’s a guy, fyi) as the only one of us who had a phone. CJ hesitantly pulled out his phone  and the two guys proceeded to awkwardly exchange numbers. Suffice it to say, the rest of the night was spent cracking jokes that were generally along the lines of ‘five minutes into Venice and CJ already managed to get a cute guy’s number!’

After that, we explored the city some, had dinner, and quickly came to the realization that Venice was as expensive as it was beautiful. Restaurants all had a cover charge (I thought only bars did that?) and a service charge tacked on to the already outrageously high prices. After dinner, we met up with our new American pals and walked around Venice for a couple of hours before heading back to the hotel.

We spent a majority of the next day wandering around getting lost in Venice and exploring all the cool shops. Every other shop was filled with super pretty Murano glass. I picked up some gifts for the familia, and then headed back to the hotel around 4 to take a power nap and get ready for dinner. We decided to go to a local place near our hotel for dinner to give our wallets a bit of a break. It was a good decision on our part since it was way cheaper than what we’d found anywhere else. At dinner, Carmella suggested that we keep an hourly video log of our night since we planned on being out late. (If you’ve never done this, I highly suggest it. Watching our videos the day after was absolutely hilarious).

We’d asked around the day before and found out that there was one dance club in all of Venice, and we were determined to find it. We met up with our American buddies again and headed to a bar first. After the bar, we grabbed a map and walked around Venice for an hour looking for the club. Thankfully, we ran into a couple of Italian guys who worked at the bar we were just at, and they led the way. We finally made it to the club, which was called Piccolo Mondo (which I think means small world?). It was lucky that we’d found the guys to show us where it was because this place looked like a hole in the wall from the outside. We ended up having such a great time and danced the night away. At around 4:30am, we left the club and walked our American pals back to their hotel. From there, we had to take both a waterbus and a regular bus to get back to our hotel. We got back to our hotel at about 6:30am…which gave us just enough time to shower, pack, and head to the train station for our 9:20am train to Naples. To say that we were tired would be the understatement of the century…but we’d had so much fun the night before that it was worth it.

Okay….time to go study for my Global Studies midterm that’s tomorrow. I’ll fill ya in on the rest of my week in Italy tomorrow!

Also, I have a new cousin named Jonathon! Congrats, Aunty Lorena and Uncle Zeyad! I can't wait to see him!