MOROCCO!

Hey everyone!

 

I am officially headed back to the United States! Morocco was a great country for a last stop.

The first day I went on a city orientation of Casablanca. We saw their local market, Ricks Cafe-from the movie Casablanca, and the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque is the world’s 2nd largest mosque and it was enormous! It was right on the shoreline of the Atlantic and it was looked very new because it was just finished a few years ago. After my city orientation I and a few friends took a three hour train ride to Marrakech which is the bigger city in Morocco. The train was absolutely packed and we had to stand for the first hour or so. People were smoking on it and there was hardly any standing room with lots of crying babies haha Finally this mom held one of her kids so me and a friend could sit down. We ended up playing with her kids for like two hours, it was pretty entertaining. We got to Marrakech around 11:30 pm and we found the hotel that a SAS trip was staying at so that we could crash in their hotel room for free. After we finally found everyone we convinced them to go to Club Theatre. It was a super nice club, it cost 25 bucks to get into, but it was totally worth it!

The second day we woke up and decided to walk around Marrakech to do a little sightseeing. We ended up walking past a segway shop so we stopped to check it out. The guy that was working there was really sweet, he was some surfer guy who seemed like an american not a moroccan. We made a really good deal with him for a segway tour for all five of us and we even got free t-shirts thrown in haha He have us a little demo on how to ride the segways and I thought we were all going to die! We were really bad at driving them because they are sooo touchy with any movements that you make! but after a little practice we mastered driving the segways. He took us on a good 2 hour long tour of the city and we had tons of fun! When we were done with our tour we decided that we all want to go home and buy segways because they are so fun and easy to drive everywhere. We took them through gardens, down the streets with crazy traffic, on the sidewalks, and even through the bizarre with a pit stop for a fresh squeezed orange juice! It was pretty funny when we drove by other SASers on our segways, I would have to say that they looked extremely jealous! haha Later that day our segway guy took us to dinner at this Moroccan restaurant. We were kind of scared to eat the food there but it turned out being really good and we had grilled chicken with french fries. That night me and one of the girls took the train back to Casablanca to the ship so that we could catch our bus for our trip early the next morning.

The third day we woke up and caught our bus ride back to Marrakech. It was kind of annoying that we couldn't just meet the group there because we already knew where we were staying and everything but SAS insisted that we ride the bus with the group to the city. Anyways, when we got there we went to an herbal pharmacy in the market. They had herbs and spices for absolutely every little problem or disease that you can think of! It was pretty interesting to see and hear about all of them. After that we went to lunch and had more chicken haha and then we did a "treasure hunt" in the town square/ bizarre. It was kind of like the amazing race. They gave us a clue and we had to go find a man in blue standing in the market and buy something that was on the clue with money that they gave us to barter with. Seeing as how it was super hot out, my team gave up after we found the first clue haha So we decided to just barter in the shops for some more souvenirs! The markets were filled with leather bags, drums, and linens. The people in morocco weren't very nice with bartering compared to turkey and Egypt. They would not come down on their prices very much and they were ridiculously expensive! In the plaza there were tons of ladies doing henna tattoos...I got one on my foot, it looks pretty cool... don't worry mom I didn't get any real tatttos :) haha But the henna ladies would literally come up to you and start drawing on you before even asking and then they would make you pay them. The snake charmers that were all over would do the same thing. They would just come up and put a snake around your neck and make you pay them before they would take it off. I managed to steer clear of the charmers because I think I would have died if a snake was on me! They did the same thing with monkeys too! Crazy to see what the people in morocco would do just for a little bit of money. That night we checked into our hotel which was nasty and not very clean at all compared to the other hotels that SAS usually puts us up in. We went to a horse and folklore show for dinner at this huge palace thing in the middle of nowhere! We ate inside these tents and there was a huge horse arena in the middle of them. It was a pretty entertaining dinner and I enjoyed watching all of the Moroccan dancing and horse show and what not.

The last day we got up and took an hour bus ride to the zip line course! It was in the foothills of that Atlas Mountains and it was really pretty. Everybody got fitted for their harnesses right away and the first thing that we did was walk across this super long bridge over a canyon. I thought this was the scariest part of the course because I just kept thinking that I was going to fall and be hanging from my carabineers haha and it didn't help that the guys were of course jumping and shaking the bridge! After we crossed the bridge we did 4 different zip lines and they got longer as we went along. They weren't scary at all! They were just really fun and they went really fast over the canyons. When everyone was done zip lining we had lunch in some nomad tents and then we got back onto our buses and headed back to Casablanca. Overall it was a really fun trip and I am definitely a fan of Morocco.

Now we are headed home across the Atlantic. It is pretty rocky again, but so far I haven't gotten sick which is good! Everyone is really busy writings papers and we have finals in a few days. Then we have the Ambassadors Ball which should be a pretty fun dance besides the fact that there are very few guys to dance with haha  Hopefully I will see most of you when I get home on the 23 and I will try and upload all of my pictures when I get back! Miss you all! Love ash

 

EGYPT!

Hey everyone!

We just left Egypt and it was definitely one of my favorite ports! We did tons of sight seeing and traveling around Egypt and I learned a lot of things about the ancient world.

Day 1:

As soon as we pulled into port my trip for Cairo/ Luxor left right away. There were like four buses for our group and we traveled in a convoy and each bus had a security guard on it with guns and all! It was kind of scary that we needed that much secuirty..not quite sure why because it didn't seem too dangerous. Anyways, we took a 3 hour bus ride from Alexandria to Cairo and we had a really nice lunch at a hotel. We were welcomed with men playing drums and some other instruments it was kind of crazy. The first place that we saw was Memphis, which was one of the first capitals of Egypt. Then we went to the pyramids of Zoser which had one of the very first pyramids that was created. Then we checked into our hotel which was the Marriot. It was a huge hotel and it was soooo nice! It has this awesome pool and all kinds of shops and restaurants and what not. After we went swimming and hung out we went to the Khan El Kahalil Bazaar and did some bargaining. The people in Egypt were really aggressive so I didn't like barging all that much here compared to Turkey, but it was still fun to buy some things. We also had to dress very conservatively the entire time that we were in Egypt so it was extremely hot! Like 120 degrees and we were wearing pants and long sleeves!

Day 2:

We woke up at 4 am to go to the Giza plateau for the sunrise. The sunrise was amazing between the pyramids and I got lots of great pictures. I also went on a camel ride around the pyramids a little after sunrise. I was really scared that I was going to fall off of the camel when it stood up! It was a mixture of riding an elephant at the fair and a horse haha. I went for like a ten minute ride on the camel and that was definitely long enough haha but it was a good experience. After that we walked around the pyramids which were absolutely huge! We also saw the Sphinx of Giza which looked pretty sweet in front of the pyramids. Next we went to the Egyptian Archaeological Museum. Here our tour guide took us around and we saw a bunch of famous statues and we got to see the sarcaughogus of king tut and a bunch of mummies. For lunch we ate on a boat that went up and down the Nile river. The Nile was nothing like I expected, it was really dirty, filled with lots of trash, and there were no alligators, piranhas, etc haha it looked just like any other river. While we ate we watched a belly dancer and some other oriental entertainment, it was pretty interesting haha. After lunch we went to the Citadel of Saladin and the Alabaster Mosque. The mosque looked pretty similar to the ones in Turkey and our tour guide taught us a bunch of info about the Islam religion. That night we went to a sound and light show at the pyramids. It was more like a narrative story explaining the history of the kings and pharaohs and what not but it was still fun to see.

Day 3:

We woke up at 4:30 am and headed to the Cairo airport for our flight to Luxor. As soon as we got to Luxor we went to Valley of the Kings which is where king Tut's tomb was found along with Ramsey's and a bunch of other famous tombs. It basically looked like one huge rock quarry that had a bunch of random tombs underground. The tombs were filled with hieroglyphics and lots of them still had colors on the wall. Next we went to the temple of queen Hatshepsut. It was a huge temple with a ton of stairs, pillars, and hieroglyphics. Luxor was even hotter than Cairo because it was farther south so by the middle of the day everyone was pretty much dead from all of our sight seeing! We checked into the hotel which was right along the Nile and we went for a swim. It was so hot outside that the pool just felt like bath water haha. That night we went to the Luxor Temple and walked around.

Day 4:

We woke up and had breakfast and headed to visit the Karnak temple. It looked really similar to the luxor temple but it was still cool to see. Then we went back to the hotel and hung out before our flight back to Cairo and our bus ride back to Alexandria. We got back around dinner time and then everybody got ready and went out to the mermaid bar. Supposedly nobody drinks in Egypt because of their religion so we were told not to go out, but of course half the boat decided to go out which made it fun. The cab ride was very interesting...the cars here are like from the 1950's haha I don't know how they even run! but we bargained with the cab drivers and on the way to the bar our cabbie just pulled over in the street and ran into a store to buy cigs haha and then we asked him to turn on the music and he offered for us to stop and get into his brothers car because it had a radio! We just stayed in our cab and then when we got to the bar he offered to stay the entire night and take us back to the ship when we were done. So he just hung out at the bar with the rest of the cabbies and took us home at the night of the night...the whole ride cost us $4 haha I can't believe how cheap everything was here and that they would seriously wait like four hours to take us back for that cheap. The traffic here seems super sketchy and dangerous! They seem to turn 2 lane roads into 5 lanes and they just honk and drive like maniacs!

Day 5:

We got up and decided to check out Alexandria since we hadn't really been anywhere around there. We bargained with a cabbie to take us around for the day and he took us to McDonalds first haha sadly the chicken nuggets didn't taste quite right here :( but it was still fun to go to McDonalds and see the sign in Arabic and they had a Mc Arab sandwich haha. Then we went to the bibliotheca Alexandria which was built in 2003. It is the biggest library that I have ever seen and that architecture was incredible! Its like this big circle that is slanted with solar panel things on it and yea it was just cool to walk around inside and check it out. Then I went to a huge indoor mall that was part of the four seasons hotel and they had normal stores like quicksilver and nike. We also hit up starbucks haha I managed to do a little more bargaining on my way back to the ship and I got some cool souvenirs from here. I would definitely suggest that everyone goes to Egypt and checks out the pyramids and the desert sometime :)

BULGARIA!

Hey all!

Bulgaria turned out to be a pretty cool country. There weren't a ton of things to do, but it was nice to relax a bit.

The first day we got off the ship and walked around Varna looking for the zoo and the dolphinarium. We walked for about 2 hours through this huge park that went along the black sea...it was filled with moms and kids in strollers haha We got lost in the park an we ended up walking past what we were looking for, so we stopped and had a yummy somewhat italian lunch. Then we went to the dolphinarium...weird name I know! We bought tickets to the dolphin show and watched them do all kinds of cool tricks! Then we found the zoo which had like 3 animals in it haha so we decided to pass on that. We made our way into town and managed to find a sushi restaurant called be happy. We were told to avoid drinkin tap water in the country and anything that was cleaned in water like veggies and what not, but we really wanted sushi so we popped some peptobismal and had our sushi! None of us got sick from it so that was good. We also found mcdonalds and subway haha After our shopping we headed back to the ship and went out to the bars along the beach!

The second day we hit up the beach which was loaded with umbrellas and it went really far! There was a big volleyball tournament going on that was sponsored by red bull so we watched that for awhile and then I played beach volleyball with some SASers...my team won:) haha Later we walked around town and we saw a guy playing a didgiridroo ( the austrilian instrument) it was really cool to watch him play and it didn't sound like any instrument I had every heard.

The thrid day it was kind of crappy outside so we slept in and then we went bowling! The bowling place was huge and it was a lot nicer than any place at home. After bowling we went to this huge bridge that had bungee jumping! I had originally intended to go, but after I heard everyone saying how sketchy it was I decided that I would just watch some friends do it. It was literally two guys in the middle of a bridge with some ropes and a motored thing to pull you back up, no platform nothing! Hopefully the zip line that I am doing in morocco won't be as scary looking! That night we hit up the clubs along the beach and hung out with everybody from the ship...the crew members were also at the club...it was a little akward seeing them try to dance and what not, kinda creepy!

The last day I went on an SAS trip to the univerisy hospital in Varna. All I have to say is that the US is much more advanced in every possible way and that I would never want to be in the hospital in a foregin country! The hospital was really hot inside, and patients were just being rolled down the hallways next to us! We walked in and watched some guy getting surgery done and I almost passed out! haha I had to go sit down in the hall and I thought I was going to die! I decided I will never be a doctor that works with any type of blood, needles, etc. We also walked through a hall of the hospital where the children with blood diseases stay/live, it was really sad to see. Another thing that I thought was really werid was that they had no patient privacy rights like they were just showing us peoples ct scans with their names and all their info on them. Also all of the doctors and nurses wore sandals and they didn't wash their hands between patients and they were like talking on their cell phones in the surgery rooms...definitly would not fly at home! We were also supposed to go to some top notch eye clinic but we didnt for some reason so I was kind of bummed out about that. Well thats about all for Bulgaria, and we will be in Africa in two days!

TURKEY!

So I just got back from Turkey and it was very different from all of the other that we have been to so far. Overall I enjoyed it, but I was definitely ready to leave after five days!

Day 1:

The first thing that I did in Istanbul was go to the Grand Bizarre! It was a huge market and you could buy everything imaginable in it. I got a pair of pumas for 15 bucks! and a bunch of souvenirs for everyone. They also had gads of fake purses and bags that I had fun looking through. The Turkish guys that worked in the Bizarre got really annoying though because they kept calling us the spice girls, Charles angels, etc. Even though I was wearing pants and a long sleeved shirt they could still spot Americans a mile away! So I just gave up on the whole dressing conservatively because it was way too hot outside for that the rest of the days! After the bizarre we went to the Blue Mosque and went inside of it. It was enormous from the outside, but the inside was smaller than I thought it would be. It was just a huge carpeted area with lights hanging everywhere. We saw a couple of people praying when we were in there and we heard the call to prayer throughout the city multiple times while we were in turkey. We had to have all of our skin covered when we went into the mosque so we got to wear scarves on our heads and take off our shoes and all that good stuff, it was a pretty cool experience. We also toured the underground cisterns. It was this underground place with tons of columns and water on the bottom, so basically their well system a couple hundred years ago. It was pretty sweet to see because it was dark but they had lights so you could see into the water and there were tons of fish and it was just like this underground maze. That night a huge group of SASers went to the hookah bar. They had like a million bean bags there and we just sat and chilled and had tea and some hookah. It was pretty sweet, I guess its like really common for the Turkish youth to do because the Islamic people don't drink.

Day 2:

I spent most of the day walking around town and bartering again! I also went to another mosque and walked by the Higha Sophia, which was originally a cathedral and was then turned into a mosque. It had a beautiful outside with fountains and really neat architecture, but we didn't go inside because it was kind of expensive and the line was super long. That night I went to a soccer game! The Turks played an Italian team and it was awesome to see! Tons of people from the boat went and we all bought jerseys and watched the game. I felt like I was at one of those games that you see on espn so it was really exciting! We tried to do the Turkish cheers but they were pretty hard to catch onto haha. One thing that I thought was pretty interesting was that they had tons and tons of security like the police were all wearing helmets and had shields and had huge guns on them. It was kind of scary to see, and when we went through security the females had to go to the girl police officer which there was only 1 of and there were like 6 guys so I am assuming that like no women attend the sporting events.

Day 3:

This day I wandered around town again and got followed by creepy Turkish boys for like 40 minutes. We tried to loose them but every time we turned around they were right behind us! We even went into a mosque, and into a restaurant, and another shop, and every time that we came out they were still walking behind us! It was really annoying and whenever we told them to get away and that they were creepy they just mocked us! Finally we went up to police and pretended like we were talking about them but really we were just asking for directions! and we lost them for like 20 min but then they found us again! It was so annoying that we finally just walked back to the ship haha Later we took a tram across the this huge bridge that you had to take into town every time, and we got this food that was like a huge loaded baked potato. We had like pickles, ketchup, dill dip, corn, and some other random stuff on them. They were pretty darn good! and then for desert we had these waffles with nutella, white chocolate, strawberries, and bananas on them! My friends and I decided that we want to open a shop at home and sell these because they are soo good! haha That night we went to this place called Taxum square which was where all the nightlife was. It felt somewhat like times square but on a much smaller scale. The streets were all light up and there were tons of stores everywhere! We went to some crazy metal bar and pretended to rock out with the locals haha and then we went to a Turkish pub where half of the SASers were because they bar like wrote welcome mv explorer (our ship) on their entrance sign. It turned out to be a very fun night!

Day 4:

We woke up early for our SAS trip and caught a ferry to the Prince Isles. It was like a 2 hour ferry ride and I think we crossed over to the Asian side of Turkey. When we got to the island we went on a horse drawn carriage ride around the island. The horses we pretty, but they were really skinny so I felt bad for them! but our ride around the island was really pretty and it was definitely the nicer part of turkey with huge houses and gardens and what not. After that we just wandered around the island and then took the ferry back to Istanbul. That night we hit up Taxum square again and we ended up going to McDonalds and burger king haha and then we went to this really classy bar where the people were doing like the waltz or some intense dance. The bar overlooked the entire city and it was an awesome view of all of the lights! We hung out there for most of the night and then we went to a karaoke bar then headed home.

Day 5:

I went to a archeological museum at Topkai Palace in Istanbul for my art history class and looked at a bunch of statues and sarcophaguses. The museum was 3 stories high and it was killer hot inside so we kind of rushed through it... but then we just came back to the ship and went online until we had to be back on board. I also had some really good baklava :) and Turkish tea. I would have to say that the food here was pretty good, I especially liked the kebabs that we had and doners which are like gyros but they are like a wrap with chicken and veggies and stuff in them.

Today we have classes and then we will be in Bulgaria for 4 days. From what I hear, it is a lot like Croatia with lots of beaches and a big nightlife. Maybe I will be able to catch up on my tan because I am looking pretty white :(

miss you all! love ash

GREECE!

Hey all!

Just got back from Greece and it was a lot of fun as usual! It has been killer hot outside, but it made for a nice time at the beach. The first day that we got into port Justine and I went in search of our ferry tickets for mykonos. We had ordered them online, but we had to provide a mailing address so we weren't really sure if they would be at the port waiting for us or not. After we spent like 2 hours walking all over town to try and find our tickets we came back to the ship and tried to see if they came in the mail but it hadn't been sorted yet! So we left at 1 to go on our SAS trip to Athens and the acropolis. We got to see where the first olympics were held in Athens and it was really cool to see the stadium. We also climbed to the top of the acropolis to see the Parthenon. It was cool to finally see it because we learned about it a few times in school and we had been studying it in my art history class. It wasn't as big as I had expected it to be, but it was still neat to see and it made for a great view of the city from the top. We saw a couple of other historic things when we were driving around the city too. That night we went out for dinner in Piraeus, where our ship was docked, and we found a really cool restaurant by the harbor and we had gyros that were amazing!! They were huge and they had chicken and fries and all kinds of good stuff in them, so I am definitely a fan of greek food. haha but we also hit up McDonalds while we were here...tastes the same as at home :)

The second day we woke up early for our SAS trip to Delphi. It was a 3 hour bus ride through the mountains and I slept for most of the ride. I thought that Delphi was a big city or something going into it, but it was just a place on the mountain side in the middle of nowhere! haha We followed our tour guide around the archeological site of Delphi where the oracles were and learned some stuff about them. I have to write a paper on it for one of my classes, and to sum up the day, I decided that I saw a bunch of cool rocks haha me loving history and all. We also went in the museum at Delphi, which I liked better than the archeological site. We saw some statues and famous work that we have also been learning about in class. After the museum we got back on the bus and stopped at a restaurant in the mountains and had an authentic greek meal. We had like a 3 course meal and it was really tasty, I was surprised that I liked it all! Then we headed to a monastery in the mountains where all the girls had to wear some long skirts because our shorts were too short haha they were super ugly, I'll have to post a picture of them. When we finally made it back to the ship, Justine and I grabbed a taxi and headed to the airport in Athens. It was one heck of a crazy cab ride, I think we were definitely going over 100 mph! The entire day we were worried that we were going to miss our flight to Mykonos, but it turned out that we made it to the airport on time, and our flight was even delayed a bit so we got into Mykonos around 11 pm. We met up with our friends at our hotel and got ready for the night! The hotel was really nice and it was right on the beach. It had an awesome pool and the rooms turned out to be really nice. We even managed to fit four girls into our queen size bed for both nights haha it was a tight squeeze! That night we went to a place called Club Paradise. It was right on the beach and it was a huge club, I think we stayed out until 6 am because the clubs don't even open until 1 there!

The third day we got up around 10 and went into town to shop. All of the shops were really cute, but very expensive. I bought a pair of gladiator sandals that I really liked at one of them but that was about all. It was fun to walk around downtown because all of the houses were white with blue or other colorful shutters and it has a very different look than any other islands I have been to. After shopping we laid out on the beach by our hotel and by the pool. We had dinner at a restaurant along our beach and it was really pretty to see the sunset! Then we got ready and went to club Cavo, I guess it is some famous club and what not. It was pretty sweet, it had a huge pool in the middle and it was outside along the ocean and really pretty.

The last day we got up and laid out by the pool before we caught our ferry back....it was one of those huge ones that halls cars and what not. It was like a 3 hour ferry ride back to Piraeus, and then we just got lunch and headed back to the ship since it was so hot outside. A couple friends and I hung out on the pool deck and watched the other SASers run back to the ship so that they could be here on time, it was pretty funny. If your even 2 minutes late I think you get 3 hours of dock time so its super funny to watch people sprint back. Hopefully I never get dock time! haha well I hope I didn't bore you to death! We have one day of class and then we will be in Turkey for 5 days! Not really sure what I am doing yet, but I know we will figure something out!

CROATIA!

Hey everyone! I just got back from Croatia and it was much more fun that I had expected! We didn't have any plans going into it so we weren't really sure what to expect but we definitley found plenty of things to do in Dubrovnik.

Day 1:

As soon as we got of the ship me and a couple of girls headed to the beach! We made a deal with the parasailing guys to let us go for $60 bucks and get a free banana boat ride! The parasailing was fun and I had a great view of the town. All of the houses had red roofs and there were huge hillsides with cliffs on the sides. The banana boat ride was super fun, we had 6 people on it and we fell off like 5 times and went until we couldn't climb back on anymore haha. The water was really warm and clear so it wasn't too bad when we fell off! After our time at the beach, we headed to the old city, which was the main downtown. There we walked the city walls, which is a huge wall that goes around the city and you climb up and walk on top of it. We had a great view of the ocean and all of the pretty cliffs. After walking around old city we got some gelato which has become a normal part of everyone's diets haha and headed back to the ship. That night we went to a club called Eastwest that was right alongside the beach. Most of the semester at sea people went there so it was really fun to party with everyone.

Day 2:

We got up early to go sign up for an island cruise. We left at 10:30 am and returned at 6:30 pm. It was a long, but fun day. We took a little pirate looking ship to two different islands ( there were supposed to be 3 but the waves were too big to make it to the 3rd) and the captain made us grilled chicken and salad for lunch. We just chilled on the boat and checked out the gorgeous beaches on the islands. It was a pretty nice, relaxing day.

Day 3:

We woke up and headed to old city to try and rent ocean kayaks, but little did we know they were all rented out for the week! So we just ended up going to the beach for the morning. The beaches here are all rocky which took everyone by surprise but they were still fun to hang out at. The other thing that we had to watch out for at the beaches were sea urchins because they were all over on the rocks and they sting you! I only saw one guy in our group step on one and he looked like he was in a lot of pain! but anyways after the beach we just shopped around in old city and took a nap. Then my friend woke me up and convinced me to go cliff jumping with her. There was a cute little restaurant up in the cliffs so we went there. We ended up just jumping off of a small one like 15 feet because the big one had huge rocks underneath it and we were scared that we would land on them! but it was still fun, and I am pretty sure that everyone on the trip tried cliff jumping at least once, even though that was the one thing they told us not to do in our pre-port meeting haha That night we went to a club called Fuego and most of that SASers were there again so it was really fun!

Day 4:

Everybody was really tried from our week in the sun so we just chilled and walked around. I spent a lot of time on the internet, and I accidentally booked a hotel in Italy instead of mykonos with 3 remaining minutes of internet time haha good thing we got that canceled right away...definitely never being a travel agent haha

Today we had class and I had an exam so we will see how that turns out haha and tomorrow we have sea olympics on the ship! The teams go by our hallways, and I am participating in the relay race..not really sure what that entails but it sounded better than synchronized swimming or a hot dog eating contest haha supposedly the winning team gets off of the ship first!  Other than that all is well, I am having lots of fun in the sun! We get to Greece on the 13th and then I am checking out Athens and heading to Mykonos with a big group of people!

Italy!

Hey guys! Hope everybody had a fun 4th of July!

We just got back on the ship today and the crew threw a fourth of July party/grill out for us! It was pretty fun, they had the pool deck decorated in flags and they were playing some tunes while we had burgers and ribs and what not. Definitely the best food we have had on here so far haha Venice on the other hand had amazing food!

The first day Justine and I got a ride from Citavecchia to Rome and we met up with her mom and sister. It was pretty exciting to see some familiar faces from home! Then we all flew together to Venice. We got in around 5pm so we explored the city and went out for dinner and had some yummy pasta! While we were at dinner we discovered that kims favorite singer, Andre Bocelli, was having an outdoor concert in St Marcs Square! Since we couldn't see inside the concert we just sat at a cafe outside of it and listed while we had limoncello!

The second day we got up early and walked all over Venice. It is basically one big city that's an island, with a ton of bridges and alley ways that are really easy to get lost in! I was really surprised that there is not even one car on the island and that everything/everyone comes and goes on water taxis! For lunch we had some Italian margarita pizza next to the grand canal and watched all of the boats go by. After lunch, and about every other meal we had gelato which was amazing and came in a million different flavors! Next we went on a gondola ride through the canals with our hot gondolier :) It was really cool to see all of the houses/palaces along the canals...and there was no kissing under the bridges haha later that night we went to a Vivaldi concert.

The third day Alannas friend Kerri met up with in Venice so we showed her around town and looked at all of the shops. I have come to the conclusion that every shop in Venice sells some type of mask-from carnivale, blown glass- from morano, or prada, louis vuitton, channel, gucci, etc but I love looking around in these shops oh so much so it never got boring! haha We also took a water taxi to Morano to watch the glass blowing. It was like a million degrees inside the shop but it was really interesting to see how they made things! Eventually we made our way back to san marco and went out for a really nice dinner. I have a pretty good picture from this dinner with kim and justine trying to touch me with a huge nasty shrimp while I freaked out! haha and we also have a picture of our Italian waiter nick who asked me out on a date since I was "independent" haha how embarrassing, anyways...

The fourth day we got up early to go check out the market. We saw some sweet fishies and fruits, and we bought some yummy strawberries and bananas. We spent most of the day walking around doing some shopping and getting lost in the streets! We had dinner at the hard rock cafe since it was the 4th! and then we went on another gondola ride so that Kerri could experience one. After that we went on a haunted ghost tour of Venice, it wasn't all that scary but it was fun to see some of the court yards and passage ways that you wouldn't find just wandering around on your own.

Overall Venice was really fun, and a much much nicer place than Naples where we returned to today to get back on the ship! We have one day of classes-rough I know, and then we are in Croatia for a couple days!

Hope everyone is doing well, miss you all!