The Med Deli is Temporarily Closed: Final SaS Reflections

I was going to save this until I got back to the States, but I like it too much. Enjoy, and as always, feedback is appreciated!

I have been doing some thinking over the past few days. This trip, this voyage, this journey, this adventure, this… whatever you want to call it, is practically over. Get out your tissues, because this entry plucks across heartstrings like they are part of a Santana guitar solo.

What am I going to do when I get home? No more crazy foreign adventures? No more getting lost in unfamiliar places? No more stressful language barriers? No more unbelievable sights and sounds? No more life-changing conversations with locals? No more haggling in markets? No more life threatening taxi rides in Africa? No more hostels? No more danger? No more cliff jumping? No more off the beaten path escapades? No more random Australian, British, Norwegian, Canadian, German, and Egyptian friends? No more pasta and potatoes aboard the MV Explorer? No more shipboard life? No more Semester at Sea? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

At the beginning of this voyage, I was told, along with 740 other students, that I would come out a changed person.  Have I changed fundamentally? No. Have I changed physically? Well, other than my Mediterranean tan and all of the tattoos and piercings I got… no.  Have I changed at all? Once… I need to do laundry. I haven’t taken a shower since the first day either. They were wrong. I didn’t change at all. What I did do, however, was evolve. I am now a level 15 mage in D&D, what what?

Sorry… my sarcasm gets the best of me 99% of the time. Let me be real with you. In reality, I didn’t change. If change is defined as “verb: to make or become different,” I didn’t change at all. I am the same as I was before. I did, however, evolve.

Please, please, please! Calm down. I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers so much. Let me explain my evolution theory.

Before I stepped foot on the MV Explorer, I applied for the Diversity Abroad Scholarship. Although I was not a recipient of this scholarship, I put forth my best effort in applying. Diversity Abroad posed an excellent question that went something like this: “How does a deep understanding of diversity make me a more effective global citizen?” I was going to summarize my answer but I am a lazy good for nothing bum, so here is the unabridged version, straight out of the essay I wrote:

How does a deep understanding of diversity make me a more effective global citizen? I have looked at this question countless times over the past few months, each time trying to figure out how to hone in on the perfect answer…. the end all be all of sorts. One night, at two in the morning, it hit me. There is no perfect answer. There are so many different ways to answer the question. This might be a reach- but maybe, just maybe- the question was written to be so broad on purpose in order to play with my mind and to show me the importance of perspective.

The world is a big place. At least, that’s what I keep saying. My name is Stephen Triest Freudenberg, and I am one. One of many. One of nearly seven billion people that live on this planet. Seven billion people, each with a different perspective; each with a different take on the world. Seven billion different beliefs, values, traditions, ideologies, worldviews, attitudes, opinions, and behaviors.  Seven billion.

In order to become a more effective global citizen, one must find a way to educate him/herself about all of the different people living on this planet. In the United States, this education process starts in schools. In history and social studies classes we gain knowledge about the world and its many people and cultures. The process then branches out to extracurricular activities, through which we learn the general aspects of teamwork, volunteering, and working for something more than our selves. As we get older, the people we see, meet, and get to know play a tremendous role in our global education. If we are lucky enough, we may be able to travel the world to experience its distinctive peoples firsthand. I have been very fortunate, as I have received an excellent education. I have been involved in numerous extracurricular activities. I have also been blessed as I have had the privilege of meeting many people, each with their own beautifully unique characteristics. I have experienced different cultures firsthand through national and international travel. With all of my previous educational experiences, activities, and travels comes an extremely deep appreciation for the different peoples of the world. I have a ravenous thirst that needs to be quenched: a thirst to learn about and experience the world and its people directly by immersing myself in different areas of the world. Immersion and direct learning are the two best ways to gain a deep understanding of diversity, and with a deep understanding of diversity comes an unmatched appreciation for that diversity, which in turn makes me aspire to be a more effective global citizen. This is where Semester at Sea comes in. This June I will attend the summer voyage of Semester at Sea and travel around the Mediterranean. This voyage is a colossal step towards truly immersing myself in different areas and cultures of the world and coming to terms with my place in a newly emerging global and cosmopolitan society. The journey will allow me to learn so much, and with the knowledge I gain from SaS I plan to enhance myself as well as the people around me by sharing my experiences. Through the experiences I encounter on Semester at Sea I will gain a profound understanding of diversity and become a much more effective global citizen, and I hope that when I return to the United States in August that I may influence others to go out into the world and do the same. Thank you so much for your time.

I know what you are thinking. That was BEA-U-TIFUL! Thank you. Corny as it may be, it came from the heart. I have not changed at all. If I were asked that question again, I would exercise the same answer verbatim. Change weighs me down and it makes my wallet bulky. I prefer evolution. If the design of my wallet evolves, I might have more room for change. If you understood what I just wrote about change and wallets, good for you. If you didn’t, don’t worry about it. I am crazy.

I have evolved. My perspective on the world has evolved. While what I wrote for my scholarship submission was how I felt, it was not truly engrained in my mind. Now, all of it is much more than a feeling. Knowledge is power, and I have the power. Read on, amigos.

I am not the most religious person (anymore, at least). Regardless, I am going to throw out some gratitude to my main man up there. I have truly been blessed. Whether or not you believe in a god, an idol, Seinfeld, yourself, Pop Tarts, or Led Zeppelin, you can understand how I feel. This summer has been the most mind-blowing time of my life. I have visited eight different countries on three four (thanks, Turkey!) continents. WOAH. How many people can say they did that in 66 days? I am twenty years old, and I have a long way to go. There are people in this world, many of them, who don’t venture far from home. I am so fortunate to be able to explore outside of the nest. One can learn so much with a formal education. Where would I be without it today? No clue. Probably not anywhere near my current position. College is a wonderful experience and it will get me a job one day so I can support my family and myself; however, as great as a formal education is, there is only so much it can teach you. Nothing beats a good face-to-face meeting. Show me a picture of the pyramids and I’ll think they are cool. Take me to see the pyramids in person and I’ll drool. Tell me about the problems in the developing world (for these purposes, Africa) and I will feel bad for a little while. Walk me through the polluted streets of North Africa and let me see the poverty that drowns the people and I will come out a changed man. I learned more this summer than I have learned in my entire life. It all seems like a blur now, but it’s a beautiful haze.

My appreciation for my life has reached a new level.

My appreciation for my family and friends has skyrocketed.

My knowledge of global politics has gone from zero to hero.

My heightened understanding of other cultures has enriched my soul.

My encounters with people from all over the world have enhanced my mind.

My, oh my! I have evolved.

I have evolved so much that it is too much to fathom. My evolution is intangible; it is something that cannot be expressed in words. I am extremely upset that this trip is over. Before the journey started, I thought I had a “ravenous thirst” to immerse myself in other cultures. I quenched my thirst, that’s for sure. One problem though: I am thirsty again. Maybe I should be the new spokesperson for Dos Equis beer… “Stay thirsty my friends.”

If I were to continue writing about how much I am going to miss this ship and the places it has taken me, I would write entirely too much. My fingers got the idea from the Greeks that they should go on strike if I push them too hard, so they are definitely not up to writing more.

I was given a quiz of sorts by my friends and family to see how much I could really learn on this voyage. Guess what? I am a few days late, but here are my answers:

The top 10 things you all should know:

1. Mom and Dad, I love the hell out of you and everything you have ever done for me. I would write more about how much I love you, but I don’t want to kill too many trees, or else the environmentalists will come after me again.
2. Cara, you are the best sister I could ever wish for. You are such an incredible person and I am jealous of your awesome-ness.
3. Bubbie, Mackie, and Poppie: You all are the best support system I could ever wish for. You three keep the family in check and are the most generous people I know. You tell me all the time how much you talk about me and how grateful you are to have such a wonderful grandson… guess what? I feel the exact same way. I talk about you three (and Zadie) all the time and I tell everyone how grateful I am to have the best family in the world.
4. Mogee, although you can’t read this, I hope someone reads it to you. You are the icing on the cake that is my family… how many people have a 103-year-old great grandmother with them? I wish I wasn’t such a busy young man and I could spend more time with you (that applies to all of you family members). You are an extremely bright light in my life, and I love you like crazy.
5. Extended family- you are all wild and unique. Don’t let me be a stranger, ever.
6. To my worst friends and to my best friends- you know who you are, I love you all. Stay close. How could I float in the pool or pop an eardrum without my pool noodles?
7. To the world and its 7 billion people, each more unique than the other: I love you.
8. Semester at Sea, I think I love you too. Thanks for hooking me up with the world, she is a feisty one but I really like her- I think our relationship might be the real thing. This goes out to my newfound friends (you know who you are) and incredible professors (shout out to Dr. Michael Maniates and Dr. James Danziger!) as well as the staff aboard the MV (Rey- my cabin steward, you are awesome). I also can’t forget the 8 amazing countries that allowed me to penetrate their borders and educate my mind: Canada, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco.
9. I still need to go sandboarding! (Semester at Sea summer 2011? Hint hint, wink wink? Donations are much appreciated).
10. Kodak, I expect a free replacement for my so-called “waterproof” camera. Don’t forget the chocolate chip pancakes either.

EXTRA CREDIT: A long time ago, I wrote a quote that went something like this: “There are people who come and go in our lives. Some are forgotten, and some are forever imprinted in our minds. Cherish your memories while they last, its times like these that remind us to never forget the past.”

Guess what? That quote still applies today. The only problem with it is that no one is ever forgotten. Sure, maybe some people go to the back of my mind. Regardless of where you fall in my life, whether you are family, a friend, a fan, or a foe, you are imprinted in my mind in one way or another.

My new saying: “No experience should be left unappreciated. No encounter should be left unexamined. No event should be left unnoticed. Life is organized chaos, so embrace the storm.”                         © 2010, Stephen Freudenberg

(that copywrite symbol is the best part of the whole quote)

Semester at Sea, thank you. All the forces that enabled me to go on SaS, thank you. Canada, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco, thank you.

I will be back in the United States in 7 days. This is only the beginning of the voyage, so get ready!

Until then,

Serious Stephen

Chukran, Maroc! (Thank you, Morocco!)

The sun will come out, Morocco, one hundred and ten degrees tomorrow, it will be fun… Morocco! Morocco! I love ya, Morocco! I left you, three days agooooooo!

That is how the song goes, right? Maybe not. Regardless, I like my version better.

Morocco. The final frontier. The last stop on the trip outside of the United States.

Get excited, because I am about to tell you all of the things I did with my new friend Mo.

Day 1: Who rides the short bus? I ride the short bus!

After a long week of classes and exams, the MV (Moroccan Ventriloquist?) Explorer landed in Casablanca. I was ready to get off of the ship and explore. For some unknown reason, I had been looking forward to Morocco the whole trip. I had a feeling, wooh-hooh, that Morocco was gonna be awesome, that Maroc was gonna be awesome, that Marrakesh was gonna be awe awe some (What can I say, I got the song in me today).

I decided that I was going to change things up in Morocco. Due to unforeseen tensions within my normal travel group, I broke away from the gang. This time I joined a brand new group. I would detail all of the people in it but there were sixteen of us, so hold your horses Sally. No details for you.

Well, now that you’ve got your hair in a knot I guess I can drop some names on your parade. I will give you the names of the people I already knew in my group: Marquette (my boy from Atlanta), Niko (crazy man from Arizona who I traveled with in Italy for a day), Renee (the girl who broke her foot the first day in Halifax- don’t know if I ever mentioned that), Matt (chill dude in one of my classes), Antonio (my Spanish friend), and Sami (my Saudi Arabian friend). By golly I have so many friends! Just kidding. Maybe I made up those names just to pretend I have friends. How would you ever find out?

So, we waited on the ship for passports to get cleared and we left at around 1pm. Renee had worked her magic and arranged for two shuttles (short buses) to pick us up right outside the ship and take us all the way to Marrakech. Our driver, Tufik, had some awesome music (Girl Talk, Mariah Carey, Rolling Stones, etc…) so we listened to that on the way. The drive to Marrakech from Casablanca is about a four hour adventure, so we made the best of our time. The drive would probably be a whole lot shorter if the maximum speed limit on the highways in Morocco wasn’t 60 kilometers per hour, but that is beside the point.

Halfway through our drive, we stopped at a gas station so Tufik and the other driver could rest up for 20 or so minutes. The gas station had a little playground, so of course, without hesitation, I ran over to the playground screaming like a little girl who had just met Justin Bieber. After I realized that the playground was made for people under the age of five and that I almost destroyed the entire swing set, I headed for the bathroom (because the bathroom is like a playground for old people). For those of you who don’t know, Morocco has quite a bit of French influence. It is closer to Spain, but the French had Morocco under their belt for quite some time. The sign for the men’s restroom said “Toilette per hommes” and I thought it was pretty funny because I am immature like that sometimes. Just thought I would throw that out there. We got some snacks and headed out on our merry way again.

We finally got to the city at around 5pm. Because the streets in Marrakech are so small, only pedestrians and mopeds/scooters can fit down most of them. It was a five-minute walk to the riad from the bus stop, and an extremely interesting one at that. Along the way, this disturbed looking guy was stumbling down the path with a violent stride. He got entirely too close to Marquette and squared up with him. He grabbed Marquette’s arm and a local kid came over to break it up. The kid helped us walk away, but the crazy man stumbled over again and confronted the boy by forcefully grabbing his arm. We intervened and scared the guy off, but it was definitely a frightening experience. The boy was shaken up so we gave him some money as our thanks.

Upon our arrival at the hotel (it is called a riad), we checked in and checked the place out. It was huge! There were three floors, six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a huge dining room, a bunch of common areas, a rooftop mini pool thing, and oh so much more. The middle of the place was open to the steaming Moroccan air. Surprisingly, it rained that first day in Marrakech so it was not so hot. Lucky us!

After we dueled for our rooms, the riad people brought us some Moroccan pastries and tea. The tea was good, but the pastries were strange. They were all really good looking and colorful, but none of them tasted like anything. It was crazy ridiculous. Some of the girls got wine and went to town, and we all hung out for a while. At around 8pm we left to go to dinner at a really nice place. I wasn’t hungry so I just got a small appetizer and a drink or twelve. It was our travel mate Charlie’s 21^st birthday so we were having a celebration or two or ten (so many numbers!). Dinner was awesome, and afterwards we headed over to a famous club, Pacha, for the rest of the night. It was really expensive, but there are only three Pacha nightclubs in the world so we had to go. It was a really fun night, and it ended up being an excellent conclusion to my extensive run of crazy Semester at Sea party nights in port.

Day Two: Okay, Okay! For You, My Friend…

This one is good.

I woke up at one in the afternoon because no one realized that I sleep like a brick and in order to wake me from my slumber (hibernation) you have to do one of two things: hit me or throw things at me (not really… don’t do it. That’s not cool, bro).

The boys had gone out to the Moroccan Souks (markets- a lot like the Bazaars in Turkey) and I waited for them to come back. Niko and Marquette are not good at bargaining so they came back with a big load of overpriced merchandise and they were exhausted. I basically forced them to get over it and go back out there with me. We got lunch at this little café because we were told they had free wireless Internet. The wireless Internet was a no go, but the chicken sandwich thing I got was pretty good. After lunch, we went out to shop.

Shopping in the Moroccan Souks is an awesome experience. If you recall my experience in Turkey, I didn’t like it at all. The merchants literally grab you and attack you for your business, and I was not a fan. Apparently the Turkish people gave the Moroccans a heads up that I was coming, because they were all about hassle free shopping. I bought so much stuff it was ridiculous. I absolutely loved the Souks. Not only did they have unique merchandise that didn’t consist solely of knockoff clothing and touristy crap, but they also had some highly interesting people.

The first shop I stopped in caught my eye because I saw a guy sitting on the floor with some crazy contraption and a saw. He was a carpenter, and he had some gorgeous pieces of wooden art in his shop. I stepped in and I was looking around. He picked up this box thing and told me, “This is magic box. You see magic box before?” I looked at the box and I had no idea why it was so magical. I mean, after all, it was a box. He asked me to open it. If I could open it, he would give it to me for free. I kindly obliged. Five minutes later when I was just about ready to smash the box open with a hammer, he took it from me and showed me the magic (a magician never reveals his secrets unless he is really just a carpenter that wants your money). While he was showing me the box, he handed me a picture and said, “Reagan. 1991. He bought box for 300 U.S. dollars.” I put it aside and laughed. My thoughts: ‘that’s crazy. Why would this Reagan character buy the box for that much? He is (mid-thought pause)… Ronald Reagan?’ Yeah. Ronald Reagan. The picture showed Ronald Reagan in 1991 with his wife, the same carpenter guy, and a bunch of secret service guys. Rambunctious Ronald was, in fact, trying to open one of the boxes. How cool is that? I decided that I had to have one of these things. I felt bad haggling with the guy because the merchandise was definitely of high value- I mean, after all, he made it right there in his shop. It isn’t a magic box from China; it’s a real Moroccan cedar wood box. I decided that I would be a better bargainer than my boy Ronny so I got it for a great price.

Onwards I went in this market of markets, until I found more and more stuff. I would tell you what I got but these things are mainly presents for family and friends so I can’t do that. What I can tell you is how fun it is to bargain with Moroccan merchants. Everything I bought in the market was brought down to over 60% off the original price. How did I do it, you ask? I called Bill Shatner and he gave me some lessons. Now I am “the negotiator.” I tried to get him to tell me how to pilot a spaceship too, but he proceeded to tell me that I only had one wish and he disappeared back into his lamp (I should have wished for three more wishes!).

In general, bargaining in the souks is fun because of the reactions you get from the merchants. Let me give you a little text-based reenactment of what happened every time I haggled my way down.

Me: How much for this?

Merchant: For you, my friend… good price.

Me: So how much?

Merchant: Okay, I make you good price.

Me: What price?

Merchant: Good price. (Names some outrageous price, say 400 Dirham- $50)

Me: Ummm… no.

Merchant: Okay okay, what price you like?

Me: What price? This is only worth 20 dirham.

Merchant: 200 dirham?

Me: 20 dirham.

Merchant: Noooooooo! (Grabs chest).

Me: Yep.

Merchant: Okay okay my friend make me good price, good democratic price.

Me: 20 dirham.

Merchant: Okay, for you… 350 dirham. (grabs my hand and starts shaking it)

Me: I’ll just find it somewhere else. (walks away)

Merchant: Okay okay, make me final price. Final price.

Me: 100 dirham is all I have.

Merchant: NoOoOoOoO!!! (Grabs chest again). Make me final price. 100 is crazy.

Me: 100 dirham is literally all I have. (pull out wallet and show that all I have in there is 100 dirham because I already took out the rest of my money and put it elsewhere)

Merchant: no. Not good price. Make me better price.

Me: Okay, bye bye. Sorry my friend. Chukran! (Walks about half a mile down the road)

Merchant (from really far away): Mister! Okay! Okay!

Me (yelling from half a mile away): HOW MUCH!??

Merchant: Okay! Okay! Come back!

Me: HOW MUCH!??!?

Merchant: Okay! 200 dirham!

Me: NO! BYE BYE! (walk further down the road. A minute later, sweaty merchant grabs shoulder).

Merchant: okay, okay, come back. For you, my friend, 180 dirham.

Me: Nope.

Merchant: okay. Just give me 100.

Me: okay. Done deal, Chukran my friend!

And that is literally, without exaggeration, what happens in the Souks. If you see me in person ask me to do a live reenactment of this, its hilarious.

I ended up spending the rest of my day and money shopping. I got plenty of awesome stuff. That night we all hung out at the place and had lots and lots of fun. Things got a bit awkward though because we found out that we had accidentally stolen another SaS group’s riad… long story. Essentially, they were staying at the same place as us and they had also booked shuttle buses to Marrakech on the first day. The riad made an error and only sent two buses, which my group got in. The riad people got mixed up and thought we were the other group so they got stuck with our place and we got theirs. The other group was pissed off, but luckily nothing big went down.

Day Three- Bang, Bang, Choo Choo Train

I woke up at around noon and packed up. The majority of our group, including myself, went to the train station to check on tickets back to Casablanca. I wasn’t ready to leave Marrakech, but no one wanted to stay with me so I had no other option but to go back. Eventually I decided that I was really upset that sandboarding was not going to happen and I was ready to give up on Morocco and just go back to the ship. I had researched sandboarding the night before and found out that the best location was a lengthy eight-hour drive away from Marrakech. That was eight hours more than I was willing to drive. So, I boarded that one o’ clock train to Casablanca with my peeps.

At some point I had bought an awesome drum, and I brought it on board. We got lucky because we had second-class tickets but we got rooms just for our group. The trains in Morocco are ridiculous. They fill up really fast and everyone ends up cramming into these tiny cabins. We had our own cabin at first and we were really excited because the air conditioning was working (it was way over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day). That all ended, of course, when the air conditioning turned off and a bunch of random people crammed into our cabin. The cabin made a nice sauna if nothing else. Of course, being the fun loving SaS’ers that we are, we still managed to have fun. I have some hilarious videos of us playing the drums and making up our own songs. One day we will be famous for our freestylin’ skillz.

We finally made it to the ship, took the best showers ever, and ate (undoubtedly) the best meal that has ever been served on the MV Explorer (barbecued beef brisket, you rock my world). A few of us decided that we wanted to go explore Casablanca, so we went to their souk, the Medina. It was cool but everything was closed. Along the way we saw a playground, a bumper car arena, a gigantic fruit market with a colossal amount of bananas, and some really cool graffiti. Eventually I decided it was time to go back so we called it a night.

Day Four- Quick! Spend All of Your Money, it is Worth Nothing in the States!

The title says it all. I went out early with Antonio to go shopping again. We bought some cool stuff and along the way met these wacko guys who really wanted us to buy some of their stuff. One of them spoke great English and he told us he lived in Santa Cruz for a while and that he used to travel around the world with his band. The guy decided he was going to be our personal shopper for the day. We met a few of his friends, one of whom gave me the nickname Tom Cruise (I called him Vin Diesel because he was bulky and bald), and had some good tea. Antonio and I bought a few things but we had to go back to the ship for food because we were starving.

After a late lunch, we realized that we still had way too many Moroccan Dirham that we couldn’t convert, so we went out to buy more. As we were walking down the street, I heard someone yell, “Tom Cruise!” It was our crazy friend from before. He was literally mentally unstable. I didn’t notice the first time, but he was missing a finger on his left hand, he had a strange dent in his left cheek, he had needle marks on his arms, and he had cuts all over his arms as well. I like crazies, so we stuck with him. He took us around to his friend’s shops and helped us get good prices on a bunch of stuff. Along the way he told me how he loves to smoke hash and he used to do cocaine. He also loves whiskey, women, and weed. The guy was starting to freak me out a little bit and we had one hour before onboard time, so Antonio and I booked it out of there.

That’s all, folks!

Morocco was fun, no doubt about it. I wish I had made it there earlier on the voyage, because I was too burnt out by all of the other ports to really take full advantage of Maroc. Regardless, it was a great experience and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat if some generous soul gave me another 20 grand to blow on SaS. Any takers? Anyone?

Its bedtime now… as you all should know. As per usual, I finished writing this at 3:30am (even though it feels like 7am… we have gained 4 hours over the past 4 days).

I bid you adieu!

~Stephen the Sailor

Shipboard Update

So, I slept forever when I got back on the ship. The journey from Egypt to Casablanca, Morocco, is a 6 day trek. The first day we didnt have class. Instead, we had the Sea Olympics. The S.O. is just like color wars or Maccabiah I used to participate in at summer camp. The ship is divided into 5 decks, two seas on each deck. I decided that I would be really active in the Olympics for my sea (Arabian Sea- Light Blueeeeee!), so I signed up for a bunch of events. Of course I couldnt resist the pull-up competition, dodgeball, lip syncing/dancing contest, and the relay race.

The S.O. were crazy. It was an awesome time. Unfortunately my sea got the short end of the stick, because our Living Learning Coordinator doesnt have that much time to dedicate to us (she is the assistant student dean) and we dont have many dedicated sailors. We toughed it out anyways, and it was party time, excellent. I was basically an unofficial captain I helped the team come up with a cheer (Arabian Sea? Yeah you know me! Who runs the MV? The Arabian Sea? Light blueeeeeee), I organized a flash mob in the dining hall, and I led some other cheers around the ship. The pull-up competition was crazy, tons of people were watching it and supporting people from every sea. I did really well and even though my seas collective score didnt win overall, I had one of the best individual scores. My body was still sore from horse riding in the desert, but I toughed it out. We got destroyed in dodgeball and I got pegged in the face, funzies! The relay race was a disaster too, I was doing the wheelbarrow race and I got kicked in the jiblets. It was still fun though. We practiced a routine for the dance/Ashlee Simpson contest, but unfortunately we had a stage error and our dance got messed up. Our sea ended up getting dead last at the end of the day, 10 out of 10! Great success! We are the first sea to lose to the old peoples sea (teachers, staff, etc) in four years. We even had a 10th place party tonight to celebrate our epic fail. It was awesome. So much fun!
Today was the second global studies exam, and it is a really busy week with academics. I have a paper due tomorrow, I had an exam yesterday, an exam today, and another one on Friday. Yikes! I should probably go do some work (a.k.a. sleep, its almost 3am).

Love yall,
Stephen the Stallion

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Oh Man Let Me Go!

This one is long overdue, my apologies.
Egypt.
What can I say?
I don’t really know what to say or how to say it.

This is where my journal might stumble a bit while traveling across the politically correct high wire. By stumble, I mean fall off. As a disclaimer, I do not intend to hurt or harm anyone with my words. I do not mean to offend anyone, and most of the political/cultural assertions that I make are of my own crazy mind and are developed from my collective knowledge and observations. Make sure to eat a full meal beforehand and to drink a full glass of water while reading this log. Possible side effects include but are not limited to: bloating, cramping, laughter, tears, confused feelings, anger, a monthly subscription fee of $200, acid rain, camels, Bedouin tents, and concussions (yeah, concussions.).

Here we go. Buckle up for safety. Helmets are for the weak.

Flashback! Pre-Semester at Sea. My loving father had warned me many times about the dangers in Egypt. I don’t know if you have been keeping up with current events, but Egypt and Israel are not doing their best right now. They had a really awkward breakup with their third wife, Turkey, and Egypt is angry. With that breakup comes some collateral damage, if you want to call it that. They have also had other major problems over the years since 1948. Deductive reasoning- Egypt doesn’t like Israel at the moment. Israel is the Jewish State. Therefore, Egypt doesn’t like Jewish people at the moment. That may be an unreasonable assertion, but hear me out.
My dear old dad told me he would really prefer if I could be as safe as possible in Egypt. I thought he was crazy. I am an idealistic college student who has everything to gain and nothing to lose, so I refused to believe there was any danger in my path.

Flash-forward! Egypt Pre-port. The staff aboard the MV Explorer warned the students that Egypt does not love the United States at the moment, and told us we had their permission to tell Egyptians we were from Canada. Oh, Canada. That is totally fine by me, I told everyone in Turkey I was Canadian too. The global perception of America is not too great right now in these parts, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. The staff aboard the MV Explorer then went on to warn that if any students were Jewish, we should avoid telling people that or letting them presume that we were Jewish. They gave American Jewish kids permission to be Canadian Methodists. That gave me a little scare. If the staff aboard the ship are publicly announcing this at pre-port, it is actually a big deal.

Flash-forward! Egypt Day One.
I was fairly nervous as I prepared to debark the ship and head out into Alexandria. Not only had I heard rumors that Jewish people and Americans should be careful, but I had also heard from many people that Egypt is nasty. Just imagine how excited I was to get off of the ship! On a scale of 1 to excited, I was at about a 1. Turns out that many Egyptians actually do have a moderate problem with Jewish people and Israel. My friend Jordan told me that when he got off of the ship the port agents interrogated him and harassed him because they thought he was a Jew (he has a crazy Jewfro in his passport picture, no joke). Thankfully I don’t look too stereotypically Jewish, so I made it out alright.

Paul, Heather, Hannah, Sophia, Lexi, and myself decided we were going to head to the famous Alexandria Library. My sources (Professor Wikipedia and the hobbit underneath my bed) tell me that the Alexandria Library burned down a long time ago, and many academics believe that if it hadnt burned down, we would be a much more advanced people today. Just throwing that out there. Didn’t I just blow your mind?

The library was nice, but other than looking cool and modern, it didn’t have much of a historical feel to it. All of the other SaSers were in the library too because no one knew what they wanted to do in Alexandria. My friend Marcus came by and gave me his internet password he had paid for so I could use the rest of his unneeded minutes. I left the group and went over to the internet to research sandboarding (basically snowboarding on sand It is one of the only things I wanted to do in Egypt other than see the pyramids). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on sand boarding so I left the computers empty handed. I got lost in the massive library for an hour before finding the rest of my group, and we headed back to the ship. We all stayed on the ship for the rest of the day and that night because we were too afraid to venture around the insane streets of Egypt.

Day Two
At the last minute, I decided that I should jump on an organized Semester at Sea trip instead of trying to travel around the country with my usual group. I jumped on the one day camel and Jeep safari trip in Cairo, and Paul followed me aboard the bus. They only had two open spaces left, so it worked out perfectly. Even though I heard that SaS trips are pretty lame, this one was a great experience. I really liked being with a big group of SaSers, many of whom I met on the bus.

I was freaking out the whole ride to Cairo. Alexandria and Cairo are attached by a 3 hour long stretch of highways. Highways have lanes in America- not in Egypt. In Egypt, driving is more of a sport than a method of transportation. It makes the drivers in Italy and Greece look like amateurs. Four lanes on the highway? Why not make those four into six? Cars ride by each other at high speeds with horns honking from all directions. They don’t weave through traffic in Egypt, they swerve. They dont need mirrors because no one uses them. Egyptians only utilize four things in their automobiles: the horn, the accelerator, the brakes, and the steering wheel. I felt like I was in a bumper cars arena but instead of going 5-10 miles per hour, I was going 55 miles per hour. Safety last!

When we finally got there and I was done making out with the ground I looked up and saw the pyramids. WOW. The wow factor didn’t really hit me at first because I felt like I had already seen the pyramids. So many movies, popular references, history classes, and pictures show me the pyramids all the time. After a few minutes I realized the beauty of it all. The pyramids are colossal, and Paul is absolutely convinced that aliens constructed them. They are perfectly symmetrical, they have nearly perfect geometry, they are aligned with the stars, they are thousands of years old, and they make regular tombstones look like tombstones for ants.

Even cooler than the 9 Pyramids is the Sphinx. That thing is amazing. I hope that one day when people construct monuments in my honor they put a carving of my head on a camel. It will be called Stephen Camelberg, and its hump will be a constant reminder of the bloating I get daily from my IBS.

The day went on and we did some more touring of museums, ancient tombs, etc… I even got to climb down into one of the pyramids. It was pretty crazy. Random note: Egyptians have this thing called Baksheesh. It is essentially a cultural thing that is really hard to understand, but it involves tipping. I automatically assumed that it was being used to take advantage of tourists, because the people want money for every single thing they do. I had to pay a guy off for taking a picture in one of the tombs because he was trying to take my camera. The place is insane. That is the only way to put it. It is such a poor country with so much corruption. So many people live in poverty. So many people lack a good education. It is the first stop on our voyage where I really got to see the beginnings of the Global South, or developing nations. Yikes. Some more problems with Egypt: pollution, corrupt government, tax evasion, extremely dirty water, unemployment, and a lack of jobs.

For all of you Americans who complain about your crappy low paying job or your terrible living situation due to unemployment: come to Egypt. Explore Africa, then see how much you can complain. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Egypt does not have homeless people because the government gives out free public housing, but many of the people still have no money. Some of the things I saw really tug on those heartstrings. The thing that bothered me the most was definitely the pollution. All over Egypt, even around the pyramids and in the desert, pollution runs rampant. The place is like a giant landfill. It was a whole lot worse than Naples, Italy. The water is so polluted and dirty that you cant eat anything in Egypt unless it is cooked thoroughly or prepackaged, and you can’t drink water unless it comes from a sealed bottle.

Sorry about that little rant- let me get back to what I did in Pharaoh land. After all of the sightseeing, we got lunch at a country club. The food was incredible- I had a pita with cinnamon rice, chicken skewers, and some veggies as well as this awesome wheat based sugary dessert. I ate two huge portions (the food on the ship is getting nasty, so I eat as much as I can in port) and then I was ready to go. Afterwards, we went on a camel caravan around the pyramids and a Jeep safari trip in the desert. I have done the whole camel thing before so that wasn’t incredibly exciting, but the Jeep safari was neat. At the end of the day, we signed off of the trip before it went back to Alexandria and went to the hotel Cat and Marla were staying at to meet up with them. That night Colin and his family came over and we all had a good time in the resort. It was a late night at the hotel. Although I normally refrain from making alcohol references here, I am changing my rule just for a second. This is too good to leave out. After a crazy night, Paul, Marla, Colin, Wendi (Colins sister), and Mrs. Pentz managed to kill all of the hotel’s tequila. We tried to order another round and the waiter came over to me and said, “Tequila? No. You finish all of tequila.” Of course as you all know, the Arabic word for water is tequila, and we sure do love our water in the desert!

Flash-forward! No, you went too far flashback for a second. Okay. There you go: Day Three.
Day three was a relaxing day at the start. I woke up late and hung out at the hotel pool all day. I was still too scared to leave the hotel’s bubble. While at the pool the waiter from the night before came by and asked, “tequila?” What a joker! He was a real straight shooter. After I was all rested up, we were ready to go. Marla was sick, so she stayed at the hotel. Paul, Cat, and myself went to the Pizza Hut (they are everywhere in Egypt) by the Sphinx to get some dinner and watch the light show on the pyramids for free. We met up with our friends Bryan, Marcus, Trevor, and Brandon. We watched the lightshow for a few minutes, tried to take some cool pictures, and then we rolled out.

I went with the boys to their hostel in downtown Cairo and went out on the town. Downtown Cairo is like a totally different place, and it is absolutely ridiculous. People shop 24/7, and I am pretty sure the stores never close. That night I was in dire need of food because I didn’t eat at Pizza Hut and there was nowhere safe to eat, so I had to get McDonalds. That night was the first time Ive eaten nasty American fast food in over six years, and it might be the last time I ever eat nasty American fast food (that is, unless I am in Egypt again). I met this cool Saudi Arabian couple on vacation and talked to them for a few minutes about how much I loved living in Canada. It was a pretty interesting conversation, and the guy stumped me because he knew a lot more about my home and native land than I did. The night got crazy and I ended up falling asleep downtown in the hostel rather than taking the 30 minute cab ride back to my place.

Day Four? Already? Wow.
I woke up in the Reagan suite to the sound of Bryan’s alarm (I forgot to mention before that the hostel was called the American, and each suite had a different presidents name on it). I ran out into the street and caught a cab back to my hotel because I was late for checkout time. I was supposed to bring Trevor with me, but I was in too much of a rush and I forgot. The previous day, Trevor and the other guys told us about this cool Bedouin named Ishmael that they had met the day before. They called him the godfather, and they were telling me how he had invited them to hang out, ride horses, sleep in the desert, and even go to an Egyptian wedding. They were too sketched out by the guy, but I was sold on him. I convinced Trevor to stay an extra day in Cairo so we could go meet the godfather and have a crazy good time.
Trevor caught a cab to the hotel, we left our luggage, and we called the godfather. He sent a driver to us and we went to his place. It seemed ridiculously sketchy at first- the roads were unpaved, uneven, and extremely dirty- but it ended up being alright. Ishmael really was a crazy guy.

It was at this point that my Egypt experience really turned around. I went from being completely freaked out and hating Egypt to having the most incredible cultural experience and enriching 24 hours of my life. I have encountered some remarkable things on this trip; however, nothing compares to my exceptional Egyptian excursion. I had already done everything I wanted to do on the trip to this point other than two things: eat a legitimate home cooked meal with a local family and have a great political and cultural conversation. I got both in Egypt.

As I noted on mini Steve Jobs, Ishmael is actually pretty damn cool. We hung out for a while. He got us some sodas, water, and tea and we let the conversation flow. Ishmael is more of a joker than anything, he didn’t want to talk about religion or politics at all. He told us stories and jokes, and then he set us up with some horses and we headed out into the desert with his friend.

Prior to this day, I had never been on a horse. I think it is awesome to be able to say that the first time I rode a horse was in the Sahara desert, overlooking the pyramids. Ballin! Not only did I ride a horse, but I galloped for two hours in the Sahara. Towards the end of our horse ride, we stopped off at what I would call a desert convenience store. A local Bedouin guy who lives out there sold us some sodas and waters and we hung out for a bit in an attempt to refresh our bodies after being in the blazing sun all day.

We got on our horses to go back, and Cats horse ran away with her on it. We were all dying of laughter because we thought she was doing it on purpose; after all, Cat rides horses every now and then at home. Eventually, Cat was almost a half a mile away. Our guide was yelling to her, but there was no way she could hear. He had a pretty weak voice. We were all still laughing, but then Cats body tipped off to the side a bit and she almost fell off. The laughter stopped. I started yelling too, but she was way too far away to hear a speck of my voice. Suddenly, she fell off of the horse. It was a really solid crash, and she didn’t move for a good minute. The horse disappeared and kept running. All of us bucked up on our horses and yelled yallah (lets go in Arabic). Pauls horse was terrible so it didn’t run. Trevor, myself, and the guide all galloped over towards Cat. She still wasnt moving. An ATV darted out of the dunes toward her with a few guys from one of the base camps and they helped her up. By the time we got over there our guide was off trying to find the horse. Other than a few scrapes and some tears, Cat didn’t look too bad. We thought she was okay, maybe she just had the wind knocked out of her. Paul finally made it over, we found the horse, switched around, and went back to Ishmaels.

When we got to Ishmael’s we rode donkeys for fun and then he sent us out with his main man Mohamed to go get our luggage from the hotel and to grab a quick snack. Marla was still at the hotel feeling awful, so she got a cab back to Alexandria. Cat was supposed to go with her, but she decided she was having too much fun to go. Ishmael had invited us to eat dinner with him and to hang out all night in the desert riding horses and camels, and she didn’t want to miss that. Who would? We got our stuff and went back to the same Pizza Hut by the Sphinx. I didn’t eat anything because I wasnt hungry and neither did Cat. She was starting to act strange, but all of us ignored it because we were too busy having a great time. I was fairly sure at this point that she had a concussion when she fell off of that horse, especially considering her medical history of 5 previous concussions. I didn’t want to send her back to the ship alone and none of us were willing to leave, so she stayed along. Egyptian hospitals were definitely not an option.

We went back to Ishmael’s and there were lots of people there hanging out. We met this one guy who was loaded. He drove a big BMW sport utility vehicle and he had a stable next door with four beautiful horses. At first I asked the guy what he thought of America. Turns out he loves it, and he and his family vacation there all the time. He was telling me about this awesome villa he always rents out in Orlando, Florida for months at a time with his family. He is a mechanical engineer and (somehow) has done really well in Egypt. The talk continued and it got more political. He spoke nearly flawless English so I felt as if there was no language barrier at all.

Prior to this trip I was not a big fan of politics and I could care less about it; however, now that I have traveled through so many different countries, I realize the importance of politics and the impact that political systems have on their respective nations. I am taking a Comparative Politics class on the ship, and our teacher warned us about asking too many political questions to Egyptians.

A quick political lesson about Egypt: the President is Mubarak. He has been president for 32 years, and he is 80-some years old. Egypt never had elections until it recently (5 years ago) gave into international pressure and had a democratic election. Truth be told, the election was not democratic at all. Mubarak essentially has a dictatorship, and he controls the elections. There is a ton of pressure on Egyptians to support him, or else they can get into some major trouble with the law. That is why our teacher didn’t expect much real political conversation to come our way.

Luckily, Dr. D was wrong. We had an hour long conversation with our new friend, and it was incredible. We threw every question that we had at him- from questions about the way women are treated in Egypt, to his views on the Muslim Brotherhood, to Mubarak, to the future of Egypt, to American politics, and even all the way to Egypts internal struggles as a country. With no hesitation at all, he told us that he hates Mubarak and he hates what Mubarak has done to his country. It was an unbelievable conversation. He said that he doesn’t like the direction his country is going in, and he thinks something big is going to happen soon (Viva Revolucion!).

After the awesome conversation, we parted ways. The godfather rounded up a few camels and horses and we went out into the desert again. That night we played games, rode horses into the wee hours of the evening and morning, ate the most amazing home cooked Egyptian meal ever, camped out, told stories/jokes, taught each other Arabic and English, drank nonalcoholic beer (no lie), and had a real Bedouin experience. I never went to sleep because we were too busy having an awesome time and riding horses with Ish. Paul and Cat slept most of the time, with Cat complaining of a massive headache and randomly wandering off and falling down. At this point we all knew she had a concussion for sure. While they were resting, Trevor and I were getting wild with Ishmael, Mohamed, and Ali. We literally galloped on horses all night. We even meditated at one point, looking at the stars above the pyramids. We wanted to climb the pyramids, but the security guards weren’t having it. Apparently back in the day you could bribe the guards to let you do it at night, but some guy climbed the middle pyramid (it still has slippery limestone at the top) and he couldn’t get down. They had to airlift him out, and ever since then sikuritys bin tite. Even without the climbing, it was one of the greatest nights of my life.

Day Five
Around 5am it was freezing so we all laid against one of the camels and had him block the wind for us. We lay there waiting for the sunrise, but it never came. That is how polluted Egypt is. It was so dirty and smoggy that you literally couldn’t see the sun.

We went back to Ishmaels place, gave him some money for all of his services, and went to the train station. Trevor and I wanted to go to the Egyptian museum, but we had to be back at the ship by 6pm and the only train going to Alexandria that wasn’t full left at 2pm. That cut it too close, so the four of us split a cab back to the port. It was a long and hot cab ride, and we were all completely wiped out. We slept most of the way. Our cabbie had no idea where he was going once we got to Alexandria, but after he asked a good ten people for directions he finally figured it out. We all went back to the ship, ate lunch, got Cat some medical attention, took some much needed showers, and passed out.

That night on the ship I slept for a good 18 hours, it was perfect. What an experience Egypt was! I don’t know if I will ever go back, but it was definitely a journey I will never forget. I only hope Morocco can come close. I have been excited about Morocco this whole time, and I think it will be an awesome experience. Right now the plan is to go with my friends Nico and Marquette and the rest of their crew to Marrakech for most of the trip. We found a place to go sandboarding— I am entirely too excited for that.

So, Egypt, thank you. I am sorry if I misjudged you, but the cultural distress you presented me with is more of a lightning bolt than a static shock. I didn’t like the living conditions of the place, and I certainly didn’t like the external appearance of the place. What I did like was the deeper side of Egypt: a people who are not as afraid to speak out, an ambitious people, a fun people, a tolerant people, and a people that really are not as different as they may appear to be.

16 Days of Adventures Left,
Stephen

I’m A Comin’

Good Morning, good afternoon, and good evening!

Right now it is 1pm aboard the MV Explorer. I got back from Egypt two days ago, but so much has been going on that I haven’t had time to write a new entry about my travels. For those of you who don’t know, I take my chicken scratch extremely seriously- I am super cereal about it. Normally, it takes me a good 3 to 4 hours to compose a new blog about each country. So, please, bear with me.

After recently realizing that my grades on this ship count on my overall GPA at the University of Georgia, I decided it was crunch time. I have three exams over the next two days, as well as a big paper or two due. So for now, I have no time for you people. What do I mean you people? I stereotype, get over it.

Hopefully I will be back online in the next day or two; however, until then, you are forced to wait in a colossal sea of anticipation and suspense. Good luck!

Love you all, but now it is time to study for Comparative Politics, Energy and Society, and Global Studies.

As my Egyptian friend Ishmael would put it, "later mister alligator, bye bye crocodile."

You’re A Turk! (I Know)

Istanbul, not Constantinople. Istanbul, used to be Constantinople. Istanbul, the city that runs across the border of two continents. Istanbul, the golden horn of the Mediterranean, the trading Mecca of the world, the peacekeeper of the middle east, the biggest city in Turkey, one of the biggest cities in the world.

When I previously mentioned that Florence, Italy had the perfect mix of old grace and new pace, I wasn’t lying; however, Istanbul takes the cake when it comes to old age customs and new age consumerism. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I thought it is the greatest place in the world, because I definitely don’t think it is. As Colin might say, this blog and everything I say in it is legit, because I am a “straight shooter.”

Istanbul is a massive metropolis that has a mesmerizing mix of Muslims and merchandising. That’s an ‘m’ bomb for you. But on the rizzle, Istanbul is an intriguing place. Correct me if I am wrong (but don’t really- I am never wrong, and you don’t want to get on my bad side, or else I will have to do somethin’ crazy), but I believe Istanbul’s population is composed of 98% Muslims (or people of Muslim descent) and 2% of other persons, places, things, and ting tings. So you say, “What is so impressive about that? A high percentage of Muslims is to be expected… I mean Turkey is right next to the Middle East.” Clever you! Clearly someone paid attention in Geography class. Or math class. Or you just googled Istanbul, Turkey. Whatever the case, congrats. You forgot to check one key stat on wikipedia though… Istanbul has a population of around 15 million people. That’s just Istanbul. Do the math. That is a lot of Islam for one city. Did I mention that Istanbul is one of the world’s largest business centers?

So, what exactly am I trying to get at here? Let me lay it out for you. My preconceived notions led me to believe that Istanbul would be more of an eastern-hemisphere country (despite my knowledge that they want to join the European Union and that most Turks want to be considered European rather than Asian). Let me tell you something little man… my preconceived notions were shot down immediately upon setting foot in Istanbul. The place is crazy. Best adjective I’ve got: bustling. In the following few (phew!) paragraphs I will explain to you exactly what I mean. Let me take you on a ridiculous adventure through my hectic 5 days in Turkiye.

Day Woahne.

Still exhausted from Greece, I woke up at 9am after a good nights sleep, brushed my shower, took a teeth, put my socks on my hands, my shoes on my feet, my shirt on my waist, and my pants on my head (I really was exhausted).

At every port an American diplomat boards the ship and leads a briefing that all students are required to attend. My comparative politics class required that I stay behind and ask the diplomat questions for an extra hour, so I did that. Funzies. I was supposed to go out and about with Paul, Colin, and Mike, but Cat was all by her lonesome so I decided that we would run the town together. I put on my sun cream (hah… my British friends still haven’t figured out that its actually called sunscreen) and I was ready to go. Cat and I checked out of the MV Explorer and checked into Turkey.

Cat and I had done our research, so we knew what to do. We found the metro (it was above ground, totally cool) and went straight to the famed “Grand Bazaar.” The place lived up to its name. It was grand, it was a bazaar, and it was bizarre (pun intended). The grand bazaar is a huge market that was built years and years ago, and it is ridiculous. It is also huge. Unfortunately, due to a disgusting amount of tourism the GB is no longer fully genuine and it definitely caters to the touristy industry. Regardless, the thing is outrageous. There is a shop every 4 feet, each with salesmen standing outside grabbing all spectators that stroll by. “Hey lady, lady, mister, mister, yes please, come in look, yes please very nice things.” That is basically what all of them said when you walked by their stores. Although they were polite, it was fairly (well, really) annoying. One possible advantage though- if you are starting a business back home and you need some good salesmen, go grab some men from Istanbul and teach them English- they are natural born entrepreneurs.

The idea of hassle free shopping never made it to Istanbul. I was freaking out. I just wanted to browse, but I was being grabbed and things were being shoved in my face every five seconds. The GB is organized into a few sections: gold, silver, miscellaneous jewelry, clothes, textiles, furnishings, food, leather, etc… and there are also tons of people in the middle of each street/alley selling random things like socks, water bottles, food, belts, watches, sunglasses, shirts, and tissues. That is just in the main covered bazaar area. Outside of the bazaar is a colossal amount of shops selling everything known to man. Sounds like a shopper’s paradise, right? Wrong to the fifth degree. Like I said before, the place was crazy. Not only that, but it was knockoff heaven. Everything was a knockoff of something (clothing wise). Knockoffs are cool and all, but what ever happened to regular, quality built products? Also, the prices were inflated like that blueberry girl from Willy Wonka. In order to get a decent price on anything, you have to haggle like a champion. Too bad Bill Shatner wasn’t there to help me out on the first day… after all, he is ‘The Negotiator.’

So, now that I have that out of the way, let me tell you about my first day at the marketplace.

AHH! That is about it.

Cat and I walked around for a while, ran into a bunch of other SaSers, and shopped away. It rained fiercely for a while, so we were stuck in the Bazaar (the first time it has rained since Halifax!). I needed going out clothes, so I got a pair of fake Adidas, a fake Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, and a pair of Levi’s jeans for 120 lira. (Lira are the Turkish currency, there are about 1.5 liras per USD. Turkey wants to be in the EU but the EU has them standing by so they still use the Lira instead of the Euro.) While 80 bucks seems like a good deal for a full outfit, I didn’t realize what a rip it was. If you are a good haggler, you can get stuff dirt-cheap. I didn’t learn that until day 2.

One crazy thing that happened- while walking around, I saw two familiar faces. I don’t know if you remember, but I do… in Florence, Italy, Colin and I met two cool German girls. They told us that they were traveling to Greece and Turkey at the same time as us, and Colin and I didn’t believe them. As it turns out, they were actually in Istanbul. I walked right by them with Cat. They didn’t see me, and I was too freaked out to say anything so nothing happened. I sent them a text later on, but no response was given. It was worth a try. Crazy enough, right? I told Colin that night and he flipped out.

After a long day of walking around, being attacked by salesmen, and eating at Doner’s (Turkish fast food, kebab style), Cat and I went back to the ship to get a free dinner. We walked back even though it was a few miles because the metro was gross. Smelly Turkish men dominate that trolley. That night I went out with the gang to a cool hookah bar under the bridge and we had a grande ole’ time.

Day Toomuchbazaar

Woke up, ate lunch on the ship, and headed out with Andrew, Marla, Travis, and Cat. Guess where we went? I’ll give you a hint- the Grand Bazaar. I am bad at hints. We walked around the city, saw the grand bazaar, and went to the famous Spice Bazaar. It was this day that I realized how much of a rip-off my jeans were from day one- I bought a pair of fake (but still really nice) Diesel jeans for 15 liras. 15 liras! The Levi’s were 50 liras. At least I made up for my glitch.

The Spice Bazaar was cool, but it was essentially a small version of the GB with tons of spices. I was still upset about not saying anything to the German girls the day before, and I hoped that I would see them but they were nowhere to be found. The five of us headed off to a traditional sit down (on the floor) Turkish dinner and had a great time. The waiter was from Turkey, but his wife was from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was really excited that I was from South Carolina. He was probably the only Turkish guy I met who genuinely liked Americans… everyone else added on the BAT (being an American tax) to all of my purchases.

After a great dinner, we went to explore some more. We went to Takxim Square, a famous (and big) street up on the hill. Takxim is filled with clubs, bars, restaurants, shopping, and people galore. I was still cringing from my fear of naked men that I acquired in Spain, so I was happy to find out that there were no naked men in Istanbul. There were tons of people though- bigs, smalls, tourists, locals, and Muslims. So many Muslims! It was crazy seeing such a booming, westernized city filled with so many women covered from head to toe in garbs.

As this trip has gone on, my energy level has been falling faster than the fanbase from the television show Lost fell when the writers started doing hard drugs. While walking around Takxim, my body decided it was time to go take a nap. I was strolling around with my head down, weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic, when I heard the words “Oh my gosh!” followed by my name. I looked up to see Mia and Laura, the two German girls from Florence, run over to me. They seemed really thrilled to find me and they told me that they were ‘couch surfing’ with a nice couple who lived right around the corner. The conversation got a bit awkward when I asked Mia about my text from the previous day and she said that she got it and hadn’t had time to respond, but I made a quick recovery. The girls excitedly said that they were going to get in touch with me later and that they wished Colin was there, but they had to go. Pretty crazy, huh? I didn’t expect much of anything to happen, and I was right. They never contacted us, and that was that. Nice knowing those two girls… too bad I never got a picture or their last names so we could be friends on facebooooooook. Who knows, maybe I will run into them in Egypt, Morocco, or Virginia. Maybe they are German spies trying to find out our secrets. Too bad I only had one unicorn and I traded it to a Turkish merchant for a fake Burberry purse.

What was I talking about again? I don’t remember. The Ginko Bilboa isn’t working. Anyways, the rest of the night was pretty fun. I went out with 9 girls from the ship and we had a great time exploring the nightlife of Takxim Square.

Day Three (I have run out of clever wordplays)

Woke up, ate lunch on the ship, and rolled out with Colin, Paul, Mike, and our friend Jandice (two girls we call Jandice. Don’t worry about it). We had no idea what to do, and we had heard about a cool shopping mall right outside of the city. I wanted to go to another city in the middle of Turkey called Cappadocia, but no one was down for the long haul there. The six of us crammed into a four-person taxi and went to the mall. That taxi ride was definitely the most uncomfortable car ride of my entire life. I have yet to mention that people in Istanbul drive like car-yielding assassins. I just mentioned it- did you catch that?

Blinkers? Pshhhh.

Brakes? Pshhhh.

Police? Hah.

Traffic Laws? What?

Stop lights? Pah.

Pedestrians? If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a car.

So, I was crammed in the back of a taxi with four other people on top of me while I rode in a speeding car wreck to be without air conditioning for thirty minutes. Funny story, I was told by a girl who I met that night in the city (I don’t know how true this is) that many Turkish drivers, due to their Islamic beliefs, agree that if they get in a car wreck it is only God’s will, so they don’t really try that hard to avoid accidents. After seeing the way they drive, I would believe it. The place was wayyy worse than Italy.

We finally got to the mall, and the place was unreal. As Colin and Paul so nicely put it, we “came to Istanbul today only to go back to America.” This mall was massive. It has six floors, including a mini amusement park, a movie theater, an arcade, and a bowling alley on the first floor. For those of you accustomed to the Citadel mall in Charleston, this mall is about ten times the size of the Citadel mall. It was insane. We went shopping, bowling, and even rode a roller coaster. Yeah… there is a roller coaster in there. I snuck my camera onto the roller coaster and took a video (it was wild, and I almost lost my camera). On the way back we discovered that the train station is connected to the mall and we could take a train for 3 liras all the way back to the ship instead of paying 5 liras each for a horrifying and steamy taxi ride. Good deal.

We went back to the port and changed into our swimsuits. Shortly after realizing that my bikini was not appropriate for the nightlife in Istanbul, I put on my new jeans, kicks, and Euro-trash shirt and went out on the town. It was a fun night involving nasty popcorn from a street vendor, a crazy late night restaurant experience, a scary cab ride back to the ship, and a run in with three kids- one from England, one from Sierra Leone, and one from Atlanta- who all lived in Turkey for a few years. I talked to them about how I wanted to go to Cappadocia and on the ship that evening I used my precious internet time to find out how pricey the flight would be, only to discover it was way out of my price range. If you don’t know what it is, Cappadocia is one of the wonders of the world. Look it up. I need to go there one day, and so do you. Afterwards, I said goodnight.

Day Four

Oh, day four. Stress levels were high. It was hot hot hot. Not a good combination. Colin, Mike, Paul, and myself heard from some girls that there are natural hot springs around Istanbul. I didn’t believe them because I had looked through a travel book that morning and I found nothing about hot springs, but the boys were determined. We found a cabbie that claimed he knew where the springs were, and we rolled along with Colin rocking the shotgun seat.

The taxi driver was mentally insane. The guy was blasting music and telling Colin that he knew a great place for American tourists to get prostitutes. It was funny at first, and then things got freaky Friday frickin’ fast. The guy almost ran over two pedestrians- a man selling water, and a little kid. When I say almost, I mean our taxi came within centimeters of both people. What did our driver do? He laughed. Not cool bro. Not cool at all. Shortly after the funnies wore off and we realized this guy was not a straight shooter, Paul and Mike noticed that the taximeter was movin’ on up (to the eastside) really quickly. We all looked around and realized that the guy had driven in circles and he took us practically nowhere in 15 minutes. He was trying to rip us off big time. We told him to pull over and he claimed we were almost there so we shouldn’t fret. Finally, we got him to pull over. We got out of the crazy taxi and Mike, despite our whispers of not paying this crazy guy, handed him a 20-lira bill for our 19-lira fare. In the blink of an eye, this wacko switched the 20 out for a 5-lira bill and started yelling that we still owed him 14 liras. We had been warned about this kind of thing by the Semester at Sea staff, so we basically told the guy to f-off. He sped away and we walked quickly in the other direction.

The four of us went into a hotel and asked about the hot springs. The hotel people told us that there are not any hot springs, the closest thing to hot springs are the saunas in the famous Turkish baths. Crap. Change of plans. I wanted to go to a Turkish bath, but the boys wanted to go over the Bosphorous River Bridge into Asia. I got really frustrated and when we found the metro station I split off on my own. I ventured over to a part of the city called Sultanhamet, home to the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Both mosques are huge and they are amazing architectural feats. For some reason, Istanbul has free citywide wifi in between the mosques, so I hung out there for a few hours calling and texting people on my phone. Good times. Afterwards, I walked around and found this really cool park. I explored the park/garden for a long time, and then dinnertime came along so I went back to the ship.

I was exhausted from my long day and I decided that for the first time since this trip had started, I would not go out on the town that night. I went to bed early and prepared for a long last day in the city.

Day Five- Bye Bye, Turkiye

Despite going to sleep early, I had trouble waking up. I finally got up at 10:30ish and went out on my own. The rest of the gang was still passed out from a long night.

I went to the outskirts of the GB to find some presents for family and friends, and despite my terrible sense of direction, I made it there. I got a small lunch and walked around. At first, I was doing really well. Things change rather quickly sometimes, don’t they? I got lost. Despite turning in different directions, I kept ending up in the same place. The city is like a maze. Finally, a few hours later, I found my way out. I was exhausted, sweaty, hungry (hungry hippos), and stressed out. I decided it was time for a Turkish bath. I found a nice looking one and went in for the kill. 60 liras for a traditional Turkish bath and massage: Excellent! I put on a towel, locked up my belongings, and was directed by a big guy into a little sauna room. There was a couple in there from Ireland, and we lay there sweating together. The woman had to switch into a different room, and the Irish guy and myself were scrubbed down and washed by two big and hairy Turkish gentlemen. It was an interesting experience. Afterwards, I went upstairs for a massage. I got some nice hot apple chai tea, talked to my new Irish, Turkish, and Canadian friends, and headed out. I walked around the town in a vigorous search for postcards for my mom, but I couldn’t find any. It was time to get back on the MV Explorer, and luckily the duty free store in the port saved me with a hefty helping of postcards.

I was worn-out all day, and for some reason at 12am I got a random energy burst so I wrote this. It is now 3am and I actually have class tomorrow so I should go to sleep.

A few final thoughts:

Istanbul used to be Constantinople. Istanbul, a bustling Muslim behemoth of a city. Istanbul, you were a cool place, but I don’t expect I will be back. The mosques were beautiful, but the city was too huge and dirty in most places. It was entirely too touristy and sleazy. Taxi drivers are scammers, salesmen try to rob you of your hard earned money, and even some restaurants try to add random charges to your bill (that’s another story or two, but this entry is way too long and I have to go to sleep now). The apple chai tea is amazing. The religious aspect of the city is intriguing and the Bosphorous River is mighty. The whole two continent connection thing is cool. The culture is unique. Istanbul, you have your pros and your cons, just like everywhere else; however, you are not for me. I saw some cool things; I saw some not so cool things. I experienced some unique experiences, some much less desirable than others.

Advice for future travelers to Istanbul: don’t take taxis. If you do, don’t. Take a Tylenol or 24 before you go to the Bazaars. Don’t tell people you are from America. Learn Turkish. Get out of Istanbul and explore the other amazing places Turkey has to offer. Go to the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Check out the museums. Get a Turkish bath. Try to explore the not so touristy parts of the city. Go out in Takxim Square one night. If you decide to do business, do it with older gentlemen- they are awesome people who have no interest (most of the time) in scamming you or endangering you in any way.

Stay thirsty for adventure my friends,

~Stephen

Greece-d Lightning

Am I on a ship or a speedboat?

They say that time flies by when you are having fun. No one ever told me that Father Time ran track in college…. that guy is entirely too fast.

Today is July 19^th, 2010. I have been on this trip for 37 days. Slow down there, time!

Stephen’s Seriously Stacked Shipboard Stats:
-Countries: 5

-Cities: 14

-Friends: 100’s

-Euros: Too Many

-Gyros: 2

-Pyros: 3

-Cairo: I’ll be there soon!

-Liver Transplants: 5

-Stomach Aches: hah.

-Gelato: GelatWOAH.

-Magnums (they are ice cream bars. Get out of the gutter): 5

-Minutes: 525.600

-Pictures Taken: lots.

-Videos Taken: lots.

-Cameras Broken: 1

-Cameras Remaining: 1

-Time it has taken me to make this terrible list: 10 minutes

-Time I will spend on this list from right… now: 0 minutes

-Time I spent thinking about continuing this list after the last point: 1 minute

So, word around the grapevine is that you want to hear about my time in Greece. I can sum up my trip in Greece in a few words, listed chronologically and each one followed by a rather lengthy and boring explanation that is completely unnecessary, yet you still have to read it because you have no choice and it’s the only way to get out. Out of where? If you don’t know, its too late already. You ready? Put on your ponchos!

• Gyros: I ate a few too many, they are delicious!
• Souvlaki: Greek food is awesome.
• Parties: I was on Ios for 3 days and two nights. As much as I would like to tell you all about my time in Ios step by step, inch by inch, I can’t. That is all going in my personal journal. This blog is rated PG. Sorry kids! Go eat some Fruit Loops and drink Sunny Delight.
• Ouzo: Greek people love their Ouzo (on the rocks, please!). It is meant to be a social drink that gives you a good buzz, but you can rely on Americans to mess it up and drink it straight out of the bottle. America! The red, white, and the blue!
• *Athens, The Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Pantheon: While Greece seemed to be one giant party, I did do some touristy things on the first day. Gale, Colin and myself took a train from Piraeus to Athens on day one and we went to the Acropolis. It was pretty cool, although I was turned off by all of the construction equipment and the renovations going on. I definitely liked ancient Rome more. Another thing I noticed- Athens is a bit dirty, and it is a huge city. HUGE! The view from the Acropolis was amazing, and we had a good time. That night we went back to the ship and went out in Piraeus for the rest of the evening.
• VIP Tables: The first night in Greece, we traveled to the outskirts of Piraeus and went to club Sheesha. Turns out it was a celebrity party, so we got a VIP table and had a blast. If you want to know more, read my personal journal or ask gossip girl.
• Ferry rides: Oh, ferry rides. The morning after Club Sheesha, I had a ferry to catch to Ios at 6am. People in Europe party until about 7am, so I didn’t sleep at all. It was a rough walk to the ferry and I almost missed it. To make matters worse, my stomach decided it was angry towards the end of the ferry ride so I had to use the W.C… when I came out of the restroom the ferry was leaving Ios on its way to Santorini. Woops! At least I got more time to sleep on the way back from Santorini to Ios and I can officially say I have been to Santorini. I finally made it to Ios 3 hours later and found the gang.
• Broken Toes: Paul broke his toe at our junky hotel in Ios because the bed’s foundation was built into the floor and he decided to kick the bed just to make sure it was sturdy enough for him and Mike.
• Green Lasers!?!?! Don’t ask. Not yet, at least. Mike and I were stalked by creepy green lasers one night in Ios and it scared the life out of both of us. The Greek aliens tried to get us. Either that or it was the green lantern making sure we were okay.
• Australians/Norwegians/Brits… they are everywhere. Ios must have been full of 80% tourists and 20% locals. It was like spring break on speed. Paul and I met this one Norwegian guy Erich who was really cool despite being a chronic drunken liar. Best lies from Erich: South Carolina is his favorite NHL team (we definitely don’t have an NHL team. Sorry stingrays.), and he was drafted in the 10^th round of the NHL draft in Norway (according to Paul there is no 10^th round in the draft). Woooooo Norway! He is also apparently the son of a billionaire, he was in the army, he has multiple girlfriends, and he got into Harvard but decided not to go.
• Golden Pita: Only the greatest street side Gyro vendor in Ios. Three words: A Maz Ing. (ß I just did that.)
• Train rides: Public transportation (aka trains) in Greece is actually really simple and really cheap. 3 euros for 24 hours! We took trains everywhere (other than the islands).
• Flea Markets! Athens had crazy flea markets.
• Headphones! After a long, strenuous search for headphones, I finally found some in the Athens flea markets. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO for music!
• Speaking of Music: House music. It is everywhere in Europe. At first I was not a fan, but now I love it. House music is awesome for parties, and I danced my nights and days away to house music in Ios.
• Nausea! The ferry rides were terrible. I fell asleep in the bathroom for 2 hours on the way back, just waiting for chuck to come up. Thankfully, he never came.
• Beaches: The beaches in Ios were  pretty and they were funzies as well.
• Goldfish! I can’t remember when, but I came back to the ship one night and at my last huge bag of goldfish from Costco. As delicious as they were, and as much as they smiled back before I bit their heads off, they made me feel pretty sick.
• Nutelleria! There was a place in Ios called Nutelleria Creperie that was all nutella. It was amazing, and it was the best way ever to get a sugar hangover.
• ATV’s: did I ride on one? Did I rent one? Does ATV stand for all terrain vehicle or All Three Virgins? You may never know. Regardless of what it stands for, they were everywhere and they were crazy.
• Trees? I climbed up more trees in Greece than in any other country, and my arms have the battle scars to prove it.
• Donkeys! Paul and I wanted to rent a donkey in Ios, but we couldn’t find a place to do it. We saw a guy riding a donkey through the streets and Paul tried to talk to him/take a picture with him but he shooed Paul away.
• Dancing: House music. What whatttttttt?!
• The Gazi Strip: Gazi is a crazy strip of clubs and restaurants all around the Acropolis. I went there on my last night in Greece and got wild. It was a fun night, and I made a bunch of new SaS friends.
• Wet Hot American Summer: I watched this movie last night with a bunch of friends. What a ridiculous movie. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have seen it, go to summer camp.
• Oscar the Grouch: I bought a bright orange Oscar the Grouch shirt in Athens, and I am wearing it right now. Just thought you should know. I looked everywhere for a genuine European banana hammock but I couldn’t find one, so I bought this shirt instead.

So, ladies, gents, and other things, that is it for Greece. Sorry this entry is so succinct, but Greece was 99.9% partying and food. If you want to know more about what I actually did (the other 25 percent- I am a math expert), go to Ios and do it yourself. Or make out a donation to the “Help Stephen Survive IBS in the Mediterranean” charity and deposit it directly in my bank account. You will get a letter confirming your adoption of a manatee, a thank you note, a banana, and a copy of my personal journal telling you all about the stuff that goes beyond my blog’s PG rating.

For now I need to go do some research on what to do in Turkey. I will be there tomorrow! Much love people, be swell!

~Stephen

Living the Dubrovnik Dream

I can now officially say I have lived in Croatia.

Dovidenja [goodbye in Croatian] and Hvala vam [thank you], Dubrovnik! We had some great times. I can all but guarantee that I will be back for more, so you better be ready. When I graduate from college as an instant billionaire (from my famous book based off of my SaS blog and its hit movie counterpart, ”Can You Sea Me Now: an Epic Voyage”), I am moving to Dubrovnik for a year. Or two. Or thirty five. All of my retired Jewish friends will be moving to Boca Raton, Florida, and I will be in Croatia. For those of you who are worried about political correctness, don’t worry: I am Jewish, so I can safely make that joke.

My political science teacher said it perfectly earlier today: “Dubrovnik is enchanting” (That is about the only thing I wrote down in class today).

A plethora of adjectives that sufficiently describe Dubrovnik: enchanting, delightful, captivating, charming, adorable, lovely, attractive, appealing, engaging, winning, fetching, winsome, alluring, disarming, seductive, irresistible, fascinating, and FREAKING SWEET (all adjectives courtesy of the Oxford American Dictionaries on my computer, with the exception of one… take a guess, win a prize!).

Throughout my voyage, I have been carrying mini Steve Jobs (my iPhone) in my pocket for a few reasons: to check the time, to check the date, to try and find free wireless internet so I can call/text people, to take quick snapshots, and so that I can make notes of the things I do on a daily basis so I don’t forget. There is so much going on during this trip that I don’t trust my memory to recall everything I do in each port of call or dining hall (I’m a poet and I definitely know it). So, here lie the remnants of my iPhone notes… I will make sure to follow it all up with a more thorough analysis and explanation of my steps and missteps. Enjoy, but don’t enjoy it too much- I am not liable for any type of mental or physical illness caused from the reading of this journal.

4 days ago- Jul 9- 13:54

Dubrovnik, Croatia!

This place is incredible. I think I want to move here. The people are friendly, it’s gorgeous, English is a second language, and it’s cheap. I seriously would love to live here.

Day 1 recap: got a bus into town, exchanged some Canadian money for Croatian Kuna, rented an amazing apartment overlooking the old city and city walls for three days, was in a bad mood (gelato withdrawals) so I went off by myself to get a burger for lunch, them met back up with the group.

Croatia is so beautiful that my description, regardless of its immense detail, does it no justice.

Broke off from the group with Car, walked around, climbed on a house, bought some raspberries, happened to walk by the McEnroe tennis match, tried to watch it, went cliff jumping, I climbed up the rocks, checked out the city walls. Went back to the boat for dinner, took a shower, changed, and went back. [EDIT: The part after this is taken out because it involves things that some viewers might not find appropriate… you know: textbooks, studying, being a wonderful and scholarly young man, making friends, going to ‘academic’ clubs, etc…] Had a good time. Heather got into a fight, kicked some girls [backside]. I missed it. I wore Paul’s clothes out and I actually kinda like the look, sexy sexy.

Day 2 recap- it’s 3pm right now and I still haven’t left the apartment. Woke up at 9am, hung my clothes out to dry. Cat made an awesome scrambled eggs breakfast. Felt like [bleh] and it feels amazing outside on the deck so Paul and I got some sofa cushions and turned the deck into a giant naptime bed. Nice. Best decision ever, and best nap of all time.

The rest of the group is out at the beach/cliff jumping. Think I might go see the city walls.

Update: Paul and I tried to go see the city walls but he didn’t have his student ID, so we came back and chilled. I talked to family on Skype. Cat and I went back to the boat for free dinner and we got some stuff from the boat, walked back to the villa. Found a cool secluded park but it was dark so we decided to go back later… Ran into a bunch of SaS people and invited them over for [a study session… more studying occurred, etc…]. We went out with Marla, Andrew, and Travis. Met a random Brit and American army dude and we got crazy. Ran into LLC’s [living learning coordinators (like Resident Assistants on the ship] at a Croatian [place]. Came back, I drank an energy drink so I was up until 5am Skyping. Paul and all of them came back trashed and told some funny stories, went to bed.

Day 3: woke up at 12, chilled.

So, that is that with the iPhone notes. Sorry if you were expecting a more notable and noteworthy experience (haha!). Judging by the looks on your faces right now, and judging by the eyes on the back of my head, you are confused about a few things and you have some questions. No no no, I can’t read minds (or much of anything for that matter); however,  Bob (my big toe on my right foot) knows a future interrogation when he sniffs one out (little known fact: my toes have noses and my nose has a toe. Don’t worry about it).

Questions that Bob anticipated:

1) Croatian Kuna? What are those?

2) You rented an apartment for 3 nights in Dubrovnik, Croatia?

3) You ate a burger? You never eat burgers… Was it made with grass fed, eco-friendly moo moos?

4) Your description of Croatia does do it justice- you are like a magician with your words! How do you do it?

5) In the 8^th sentence of your iPhone notes you said that you broke off from the group with Car… who or what is Car?

6) You climbed on a house?

7) What McEnroe tennis match?

8) Why did you wear Paul’s clothes and why did your clothes require hang drying?

9) You chilled on the 3^rd day? Nothing else? What about the fourth day?

10) “You ate a whole wheel of cheese? I’m not even mad, I am impressed!”

Listen up please, ladies and gentlemens. The answers to your queries lie below this sentence.

Answers to the questions that Bob anticipated you asking:

1) Croatia was previously part of Yugoslavia, but they ain’t wit dem no mo. The Croatian Kuna is Croatia’s form of currency. While I was in Dubrovnik, one Kuna was equal to somewhere around 5.6 U.S. dolla dolla bills, ya’ll. Croatia is trying their best to join the European Union, and despite a great economy, they still have to wait another year or two before the EU adopts them. So for now, they have Kuna, and for the future, if the Euro survives the global financial crisis, Croatia may have the Euro as their primary currency. (Side note: the British guys I met In Dubrovnik called the Kuna a “Kahuna.” Crazy Brits.)

2) I did rent a place in Croatia for three nights— this is why I previously stated that I can officially say I have lived in Dubrovnik. Myself and 6 other friends (Colin, Cat, Paul, Lexi, Sophia, and Mike) rented a beautiful, small, and cute little villa up on the hill. It was a great place, and getting to and from the villa was an awesome workout too. I don’t think I have ever climbed up and down so many steps in my life- not even in Cinque Terre (Italy).

So you want to know more about the place, eh? I guess I can oblige, considering I can’t show you all my beautiful pictures for quite some time.

The villa was rented from a Croatian native, Stephen (no joke- Stephen was the English version of his name) for the mere price of 3300 Kuna for three nights. After all the math was done, I ended up paying around $90 USD for all 3 nights combined. BOOM. Done deal. That deal was as big and wide as Dwight Howard’s shoulders. The place was above Stephen’s place, it had a bathroom, kitchen, living room with pull out sofa bed, two bedrooms, a front porch, and a side veranda. The side veranda was the only place I could pick up free wireless internet, so I spent a good amount of time there.

For those of you who had the opportunity to Skype with me, congratulations! You were there with me. For those of you who didn’t have the opportunity, I will take a check in the amount of $50 for psychological damages (I figure if there are at least 240 of you who actually pay up, I can make most of my money back from the trip)… or chocolate chip pancakes (yummm).

While I could have stayed on the boat for free, the villa was definitely worth it. Advantages: a beautiful view of the city, free wifi, a kitchen, a washing machine, a fridge, a semi-comfortable bed, great times, hanging out with a local Croatian family, becoming an expert stair master, and bonding with 6 other roommates rather than just two. I’d pay $90 in a heartbeat for all of that, would you?

3) I ate a burger! While at home in the Estados Unidos I had been trying to stick to a diet involving grass fed beef and organic chicken only, I have had to make some sacrifices on this trip. I bought a money tree but turns out there is no such thing, so I bought a gold egg laying hen instead. Turns out the hen didn’t lay any eggs at all, it just ran around wreaking havoc all over the ship. I went to Willy Wonka’s factory and stole an Oompa Loompa. My plan was to force him to make me delicious chocolate so I could sell it on the black market, but turns out the Oompa Loompa I stole was actually just the Travelocity gnome, and nobody likes that guy so I threw him overboard.

Due to the aforementioned unfortunate events, I was forced to cut back and stop eating high quality foods for the duration of the trip (I still won’t eat fast food or fried food though).

I even tried a cheeseburger for the first time ever a few weeks ago- contrary to popular belief, cheeseburgers are not the greatest thing ever. Sorry, King.

Since we are discussing food I may as well put this out there: one of the top priorities of most world travelers is to try the local cuisine. In Spain, I tried paella (chicken and rice). In Italy, I tried pizza and pastas. Croatia’s special food is seafood… that just about says it all. Sorry Croatia, I don’t do seafood, only sawfood.

4) Why thank you! I actually don’t write anything at all, I simply turn on the blog app (there’s an app for that!) on my iPhone and it magically writes everything for me (I wish).

5) Car. Oh, Car. Don’t get too excited. Car is a spelling mistake. Car should be Cat, short for Catherine. I spelled it wrong and decided that instead of correcting it immediately I should drive you crazy with anticipation only to later reveal to you that nothing cool happened at all. (Come to think of it, Cat’s last name starts with an ‘R’, how cool would it be if her middle name starts with an ‘A’?)

6) Yep, I climbed on a house. That house was not the first one either. I am taking pictures in every country of me on top of random things… that’s right, I was not joking in the last journal entry when I told you that. Walls, houses, streetlamps, street signs, fences, ropes, statues, structures, trees, mountains… you name it, I climb it. My climbing exploits have earned me many awesome pictures, funny looks from tourists and locals alike, respect from locals thinking I am a professional free climber, and the nickname “Jewish Spidermonkey” (courtesy of the British guy Chris that I met in Dubrovnik. If you meet a British person with a thick accent, ask them to say spidermonkey… its hilarious).

7) As Cat and I were walking around the Old City on day 2, we happened to see tons of signs for a tennis match. We went to ask who was playing, and turns out it was a match between American tennis legend “Jonny Mac” McEnroe and a professional Croatian player Ivanecivic (sp?). I wanted to get tickets, but they were 1000 Kuna ($200 USD), so I didn’t go in, but I did manage to get a program and to watch McEnroe warm up. He is getting old, but he still rocks the racquet. The match was raising money for the renovation of a children’s hospital in Dubrovnik, and it was pretty awesome. They set up a tennis court along with hundreds of seats in the middle of the city, and it was all gone the next morning.

8) I wore Paul’s clothes to go out because prior to coming on the trip I did a terrible job packing and I only brought one nice polo for going out. I had already worn the polo a few times and it was dirty, so I wore Paul’s Jersey Shore style clothes for a change. Turns out while I felt awkward at first, it was actually a pretty good look for me. Fist pumps all around!

I hung my clothes to dry because we had a washing machine in the villa, but no dryer. So I did all of my laundry and hung it out in the hot Mediterranean heat. My clothes came out all nice and crispy, and I was pretty pleased with myself for experiencing the old school method of clothes washing.

9) Oh, the third day! I did chill on the third day. After I was done chillin, Catherine and I made the house a nice lunch/dinner in the kitchen. Pesto pasta and grilled chicken, yum yum in my tum tum. After that, we walked around town and found a beach outside of the old city full of locals. It was beautiful and it provided an excellent view of the island across the harbor (Loki? Locai?). It was a long walk there, so we hung out and then took off back to the villa for a night out on the town.

To fill in the gaps: day four! Day four. What did I do? I lived it up.

I was supposed to go kayaking and snorkeling with a  group of girls I had talked to on the boat the night before, but I had no way to contact them or to meet up with them, so I hung out with my crew instead. We woke up late, cleaned up the place, checked out, said our goodbyes, and went back to the ship to put up our stuff. After I put away my crispy clean clothes, we rolled out fresh and clean clean.

We went to the harbor and rented a boat with 4 other SaS’ers that we had just met, and rode around Croatia on a boat for 3 hours. The boat dudes took us to a secluded beach filled with tons of other boats. We all jumped off and swam towards the beach. On the way, we passed a boat that was blasting old school American tunes (like the YMCA and Madonna) over its speakers, so we danced in the water. The party boat invited us on, gave us a few drinks, some great conversation, and the opportunity to jump off the top of their boat into the water. The people we rented our boat from came over too, and it was an awesome time. There were four people on the boat, and they were all originally from Barcelona. We talked to them a bit about our experience in Barcelona, and one of the women told us that she owns an apartment that she rents out in Dubrovnik, so if we ever come back we have a place to stay.

I swam back to my boat to get my waterproof camera so I could record the excellence; however, at some point my waterproof camera decided to stop being waterproof and it soaked in the salty water. Thanks for making a crappy product, Kodak. I expect your CEO to bring me a new camera and some chocolate chip pancakes when I get back. What am I supposed to take sand boarding with me in Egypt now? Phooey. We never made it to the beach… we swam back to our boat and went snorkeling for a bit. Colin and I tried to climb up the side of a random cliff to jump off of it, but we reached a dead end and had to climb back down. It was a valiant effort, nonetheless. We went back to the port, got some food, tried to find some free wireless internet, bought some food at the grocery store KONZUM (I ate an enormous organic chocolate/hazelnut candy bar that made me sick), and went back to the ship. Bye bye, Croatia!

10) Woops! Sorry about that- sometimes Bob gets his anticipated questions confused with quotes from the movie Anchorman. Bob is a huge Will Ferrell fan.

So, that is that! My summary of Croatia, right there. Dubrovnik is definitely the big vacation spot of my summer 2010 voyage. It has great history, but a huge portion of Croatia’s GDP comes from tourism, so Dubrovnik doesn’t look very old or broken down in any way. The remnants from Croatia’s war with the Serbians are almost all gone. Dubrovnik possesses a charm like no other place I have ever been, and I think it is definitely a place everyone should visit. I had the option of going to Bosnia or Montenegro, but I was too tired to venture outside of the old city. My crazy sleep schedule and all of this room for activities (“so much room for activities!”) is draining me dry. When I got back to the ship I slept from 7pm-12am, and then from 12am-12pm. After all of that sleeping I was even more tired and I couldn’t function at all. I was Freudenzombie for the day. Now it is 2am and I should probably go to bed, so I will leave you here.

I will be in Piraeus, Greece in less than 48 hours! Gyros, mythology, democracy, recession, and riots here I come!

Sending my love from the computer lab of the MV Explorer,

~Stephen

So, You Wanted to Know What Goes Through My Crazy Head? Here You Go.

Here are some things I wrote down in my personal journal a few days ago that I thought you all might like to see. Check it out!

Thoughts: this trip is amazing, and I love every second of it. The only thing I dont like is taking assessments. The classes are great, but exams? Really? How can you expect anyone to take an exam after vacationing for 11 days in two different countries? Its ridiculous.
The boat is docked in Croatia (Dubrovnik) right now, and we get off in less than 10 hours, its pretty sweet. I have no idea what the plan is, but I have to go to this diplomatic briefing thing for my Comparative Politics class before I debark, so hopefully the group doesnt get too impatient and leave me. I need to go to sleep. I ate enough nutella today for 8 people, hopefully Paul doesnt find out I drank it all today. I plan on buying him more- don’t fret.

Some goals for the trip include but are not limited to: having the time of my life, making as many friends as possible, learning as much as possible, enriching my life and the lives of others, remembering the little things, getting lost, getting found, singing, dancing, loving, leaving, meeting random strangers, seeing amazing sights, going on countless adventures, kayaking, rafting, skydiving, snorkeling, spelunking, cliff diving, adventure sports, running around foreign cities, sparking deep conversations with new friends, self exploration, self enrichment, living in the moment, letting go, letting loose, setting myself free, appreciating every opportunity for what it is and more, appreciating the people who helped me get here, appreciating the people I meet, appreciating the places I go, and appreciating the experiences I encounter. Summer semester 2010— carpe diem, live it up, live it down, live it all around.

There we go: goals. Goals are simply a function of the mind that allow one to enable him/herself to go out and to achieve. No matter what you set out to do, no matter who you set out to see, no matter where you set out to go, goals are the first step to getting there. The rest is attitude- the attitude you take is the attitude you make. Live for today, learn for tomorrow, and love always.

Goodnight from room 4141 in the MV Explorer,
~Stephen

Napoli, Italia. Ciao!

Italy, it was nice knowing you. You and your expensive, stylish clothing. You and your expensive everything. You and your pizza, pasta, and panini threesomes. You and your beautiful countryside. You and your brilliant history. You and your massive amount of gelato. You and your confusing train stations. You… oh you. I can’t exactly remember where I finished off with my last entry because I don’t have it in front of me. I am pretty sure I stopped on the train back from Cinque Terre, so I will begin with the third day in Italy, and the first day in Rome.

A few notes: sorry if my jokes (from the most recent blog on Italy) offended anyone. To clear up some issues: when I said “on the sex day…” in that last entry it had nothing at all to do with what you sick people thought it did… sex = 6 in Swedish. Also, sorry about the Clinton joke. I had to do it. It was too good to let go, even though it was moderately (okay, more than moderately) inappropriate. My bizzle. Much love.

Hello family and friends STOP

I am currently in route to Rome STOP

Italy has been treating me well STOP

I am now an expert gelato taster STOP

Did I say the third day in Italy? I meant the second day in Italy. That was a telegram above if you were wondering. So, second day in Italy, post-Cinque Terre. We went to Rome, all sweaty, sticky, sunburned, cut up, tired, and gross from our long hike through Cinque Terre. Nico split off and went to meet some friends in Florence, so it was just Paul, Heather, Colin, and meself. Luckily, we had booked a hostel in Rome while in Cinque Terre, so we didn’t have to go through the trouble of getting rejected again due to a full house (whatever happened to the days when hostels were for random traveling visits?). We arrived in Rome in the eve, around midnight. Checked into the hostel, put our stuff down, showered, used the glorious free wireless internet, and went to bed to get ready for a long day in the morrow. We didn’t have a private room this time, and our roommates were two girls from somewhere in the U.S. I met only one of them- she stumbled back into the room drunkenly at 2am telling us her whole life story. She had been in Italy for about a week, and she had been traveling around Europe for a while. She was forced to go back to the Yellow Hostel by her friends in Rome because she had a plane to catch at 5am from one of the numerous ancient Roman airports, and she needed to sober up and get her stuff together. We talked to her (and by we I mean I talked to her while everyone else tried to tune her loud voice out and go to sleep) for a while, laughed at her for longer, and even offered her help with her trip to the airport. She refused the help, laughed with us, and talked to us for quite a while. After telling her we had to go to sleep, we all passed out. I woke up to the sound of her suitcase punching the walls at around 4am, so hopefully she made her flight back to Chicago (that’s where she was from!). The other girl’s stuff was gone in the morning, so I assume she made it out late at night too.

Day Dree

The next day, we woke up fairly early and went out for a day on the town. We got breakfast at this place that looked awesome, but turns out looks can be deceiving. I got a mushroom/cheese omelet for 6 euros and it was big enough to feed a small army… of ants. Everyone else had pretty bad food too, so we were upset. After breakfast broke our wallets and shrunk our stomachs, we headed out to explore the ancient city of Rome. There was a walking tour that a ton of people from the hostel were going to, so we decided we should check it out. The tour cost 18 euros and it didn’t even go into any of the places it visited, so we decided that we would just follow it around and try to get by without paying for it. After walking with the tour for a few minutes, we realized it was terribly boring and slow so we went out on our own. I mean, the guy spent ten minutes talking about an ancient Colosseum that didn’t really exist anymore (with the exception of a few ruins). I led the way. Why did I lead the way, you ask? Because I am a natural born leader, like Julius Caesar? No, no. Because I walk fast? No, I don’t. I lead the way because I was on such a massive sugar rush from the 50 tons of gelato I had eaten over the past couple of days that I could have participated in a tri-triathalon and scaled a mountain or two. Or three. So we walked all over. We saw a random church and went inside. There are so many churches in Rome! I have heard that Charleston, SC is called the holy city because of all of its churches… I think Rome takes the cake. And the frosting. Not the sprinkles though. After exploring lots of churches, we walked around some more and came upon another church, but this one was famous! The Santa Maria in Trastevere church, which www.wikitravel.org says is a symbol of early medieval Rome.

After exploring the Santa Maria, we made our way towards the ancient Roman forum. On the way we met two 30-something year old guys from Chicago… turns out that one of them lived in Florence for a year and he knows all about the history of Rome. They took us to a small coffee shop on top of an empty museum, and there we had a view of the entire ancient city. It was incredible, and I got some great photos. The guys were really nice, and we talked to them for a while. They were jealous of our trip, and they wanted to help us maximize our Roman experience. From our rooftop perch they pointed out the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the ancient Synagogue, the Piazza Navona, the Vittorio Emanuele monument, the Quirinal Palace, and the direction of the Vatican city. After a great convo, I decided that we had to go to the Synagogue, pronto. We put on our ponchos and said goodbye to Bruce and Bronto.

The synagogue was awesome, and I got some cool pictures of the outside. Unfortunately, tourists cannot enter the temple without a tour guide, and despite numerous efforts to convince the guards that I was a freelance writer for Frommers, I never got in those big bronze behemoth doors. So, we ventured onwards. Things we did: Walked through the Roman forum. Got gelato. Walked back through the Roman forum. Walked through an ancient theatre. Walked to through random alleyways and found some other cool stuff that only the most adventurous tourists dare to see: real Romans, real gelato, real oompa loompas, and new Rome. It was pretty awesome.

We ventured back to the main road, and walked straight toward this huge structure in the middle of the road: the Colosseum! Interestingly enough, I did a big project for my history class during my last semester at the College of Charleston all about ancient Roman gladiators and the Colosseum. I didn’t learn too much, but upon further research and grueling library hours, I discovered that Russell Crowe was never actually a real Roman gladiator! Too bad, he played the part so well. What a shame. I would give you a little history lesson here, but knowing my generation and myself for the better, I will skip all of that. If you are really interested, pay attention in class. If you are more interested, do some research. If you are obsessed, go to Rome and get a tour. I am obsessed, so I wanted to go on a tour; however, the rest of the group didn’t agree, so Paul and Colin went in to walk around and Heather and I went back to the Ostello Yellow. (On a side note, for those of you who are interested in my eating habits on the boat, they have been great. Off the boat- not so much. Food is not cheap, so a good meal is hard to come by. Due to a lack of adequate food during my 6 day trek in Italy, I just ate a whole bag of goldfish and a bunch of other stuff. It wasn’t a small bag of goldfish either, it was the Costco size. I feel sickly now. It was definitely worth it).

Heather and I decided to go to an ANCIENT Laundromat to clean our dirty clothes, so we did that and got ready for a night on the town. Paulin (Paul + Colin) never came back to the Ostello Yellow, so Heather and I picked up our laundry and headed out for a night to Romember (get it? get it???). We met an extremely happy and peppy Canadian fellow, Mike (it just so happened to be Canada day that day as well, woohoo, eh), as well as two girls from Long Island, Nicole and Liz. The five of us went off to find the bus station to get to the bustlin’ and hustlin’ part of town. I was starving to death because it was nearly 11pm and I hadn’t had much to eat at all that day, my last meal being at 12:30pm, so we stopped at a restaurant to get some grub. I got ravioli with spinach, mozzarella, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and it was delicioso. The restaurant manager was awesome too because it wasn’t a touristy restaurant so the food was excellent and he was as friendly as friendly gets without getting too weird. After dinner, we went out for the night. Turns out Rome has a great nightlife that really helps cool off crazy American/Canadian/Australian students after a long hot day of tours and historical exploration. Oh what a night, doo doo doo do do, late June in It a ly.

Day Foyr

Woke up early after a great three hours of sleep, feeling like P. Diddy. Paulin was nowhere to be found, so Heather and I angrily packed up their stuff and checked out of the Ostello. I still felt like P. Diddy, but I don’t think that says much at all. The hostel offered free luggage storage for the day, so we put it in their hands, met up with the girls from Long Island, and were about to head off to the Vatican when Paulin showed up. We ate a quick breakfast and rolled out. On the train to the Vatican city, a crazy guy who looked like Luigi jumped on the train and whipped out an accordion, it was fantastic. I got a great video of him and this other guy on the train booty dancing to the music. What a great way to start your day! Folgers may wake me up and Cheerios may reduce my cholesterol and future risk of heart disease, but booty dancing to fast paced accordion train music is the best breakfast I think I have ever had.

The Vatican was crazy. I got an audio tour, hoping that I would learn something or at least be able to understand all of the history and Catholic symbols, and I actually learned quite a bit despite being so tired. The place is huge (literally the biggest and most art-rich place I have ever been in) and it is worth a fortune. The statues, structures, and steeples are serene and sophisticated. The artwork is awe-inspiring. The history is hella (shoutout to my California peeps) complex. There were visitors from all over the world. Even if you don’t believe in Catholicism- or any religion for that matter- you should still go see the Vatican. Wow. I also walked around St. Peter’s Basilica and the rest of the city. Unfortunately I missed the Sistine Chapel due to a lack of hustle. Sorry Michelangelo! I guess that just gives me an excuse to come back on Semester at Sea next summer (you thought I was joking? Oh no you didn’t). During the tour that Heather and I took, Paul and Colin walked around and the girls went to the museum. We were supposed to meet up with the NY girls later, but we couldn’t find them, so we went to get food instead, then went back to the Ostello and got our stuff. We ran into Canadian Mike and he told us some crazy stories about the night before that are not rated PG, so you don’t get to read without your parents. Sorry.

We went to the Rome Terminal and decided to take a train back to Civatevecchia. The ship was still there and it was scheduled to leave that night to go to Naples, but we wanted to go back for a quick shower and free meal. Unfortunately our train was delayed, and by the time we got back to the boat we only had 10 minutes to get off. Paul and I rushed on, repacked our suitcases, showered, and ate some snacks (four chewy bars for me!). Heather and Colin were not quite as quick, and they didn’t really do anything useful on the boat. I had put on sandals and tied my shoes to my backpack for comfort, and on the way out of my room one of my shoes fell off of my bag (unknown to me). Later that night I discovered that I only had one shoe, and it was too late.

The four of us had no idea what to do after getting off of the ship, and we were upset that we didn’t travel with it to Naples (there was a form to fill out before we arrived in Rome on which we had to tell them whether or not we were traveling with the ship to Naples from Civatevvechia, and none of us said we would go with the boat. Too bad the decision could not have been reversed, because we would have saved a good 30 euros each on travel, food, and lodging expenses). We decided to go back to Rome for the night. We got there late, found some friends, and went out with them. I slept on the floor of a friends apartment for free, woohoo! We stayed up late and had some great conversation, drinks, and Italian heat (there is a lack of A/C all over Italia).

Day Fyfe

Woke up at 8am after five good hours of floor sleep. Paul and one of the girls got a train back to Naples, and Colin and I decided that we wanted to be cool and go to Florence instead, so we convinced three girls to come with us. I forgot to mention that we sort of lost Heather the night before, so we had no clue where she was.

The train ride to Florence was long, and I forced myself to stay awake because I figured if I fell asleep I would be even more tired when we got there. In the train station in Firenza (Florence), Colin and I met two cute German girls, Mia and Laura, and gave them my number so that we could meet up with them later (the girls we were with from SaS had to go back to Napoli Centrale later that night).

Florence was awesome! It was so beautiful, and it was the perfect mix of new age consumerism with old time history and grace. The statue of David was impressive, and David certainly hasn’t lost any of his vitality over the years, if you know what I mean. I tried to give him my number, but he didn’t have a cell phone. Too bad. After walking around all day and getting some excellent pasta for lunch, the girls had to go. On the way to the metro I bought a big backpack from a street vendor and haggled him down to 13 euros, it was pretty awesome. Colin and I dropped the girls off and made sure they were alright, then we went to find a hostel. We got a little apartment room that was great, but it was hot hot hot and the shower had no curtain.

We got ready and met the German girls at the Duomo, a huge church in the middle of the city. We walked around and saw the famous bridge thing in Florence (no clue what it was called) and then found a little beach by the river with a bunch of kids on it. They were playing the Spain vs. Paraguay football (soccer- America: always too cool to conform to the rest of the world) game on the jumbotron, so we watched the game and had some great conversation. The girls were awesome. Colin and I were freaking out because we realized how amazing it was that we were in Florence, Italy watching the world cup on a jumbotron in the middle of the city while surrounded by tons of crazy Espana fans and talking with two completely random German girls that we had just met. Talk about venturing out of your comfort zone and really living life (Living Immediately For Everything). As Cali Mike would have said had he been there, we were “getting wild, brah.” The night went on after the game, and we walked around some more with the girls. Around midnight they decided they were exhausted and they were going to bed- they were in the same hostel as us, but Colin and I were not ready to call it a night and the girls weren’t down to get wild with us (thanks, Mike. For those of you who don’t know, ‘getting wild’ is partying/having a good time- just that. Don’t take it too far you crazies). We said goodnight and split up. Colin and I walked around a bit, met a few drunk Americans, Brazilians, Israelis (I talked to them in Hebrew and felt really cool), and Canadians. Eventually we called it a night and went in to get a good nights sleep.

Day Styx- 7/4/10- Happy Independence Day!

Colin and I woke up after a good 7 hours of sleep, showered, and checked out. We went to the train station, dragging hard due to a major lack of adequate rest over the past five nights, and hopped on a train to Napoli Centrale. I basically slept the whole way, drooling all over my arm for four hours. I felt awesome after my nap, and I was excited to go to Naples. We got off the train and set out on another adventure.

Prior to exiting the tram station, I knew nothing about Naples other than the facts that it is old, big, and Italian. A few adjectives I didn’t know about and left out: disgusting, polluted, corrupt, nasty, dirty, and mistreated. I have never been in such a dirty place before. Colin said it was like Tijuana, Mexico. I wouldn’t know, but I do know that Naples needs some major help. Trash covers the streets and floats in the water, graffiti swamps just about every building from churches to offices to government centers (like Kudzu in Georgia) and the roads are littered with a ridiculous amount of beaten up cars and mopeds. Not to mention the fact that no one there cares about traffic laws whatsoever. I can’t even tell you how many mopeds/cars came within inches of running over Colin and I on our way back to the ship. Naples reminded me of Gotham city in the old Batman movies. I wouldn’t advise anyone to travel there unless you are a graffiti artist, you are looking to open up a garbage removal business, you are an architect who specializes in building restoration, you are really into anarchy, or you are crazy. Colin and I rushed to the ship and got some food, talked to some friends, checked our emails, and showered. I went out later that night with a couple of friends for pizza and when we came back I passed out.

Day Seyvn

Woke up at 10-ish. I wanted to go to Capri, Pompeii, or Vesuvius, but the boat was leaving that night and on ship time was 1800 hours. I met up with Colin, Mike, Marla, and Catherine and we went off into town to try and find a famous pizza restaurant (Pizzeria di Michelle, where the Margherita pizza was invented). Marla and Cat were starving so they stopped off at a restaurant to get some coffee and pastries while Colin, Mike, and myself went off to find the pizza place. The plan: go find the place, come back and get the girls, go back to the place, eat some pizza, and go back to the boat. What actually happened: we found the pizza place after a long search and lots of confusing Italian directions. It was a good 2-3 miles away from where Cat and Marla were sitting. We were told by the cashier at the pizza place that if we left to get the girls the restaurant would be totally packed by the time we got back, so we decided that one or two of us should stay. I had running shoes, athletic shorts, and a t-shirt on, so I was voted off the island.

I ran back in the direction of Marla and Cat. I ran. I ran some more. I may have challenged Forrest Gump’s record. I got lost. Whose idea was it to send the kid with a terrible sense of direction running off in the middle of one of the dirtiest and most dangerous cities in the world? I got lost some more. After 20 minutes, I gave up on finding the girls and decided I would go back to the pizza place. I turned around and ran. I ran some more. I ran way too much. I crossed over a bridge. I asked for directions, and no one knew what I was talking about. I found a random alleyway with wifi and tried to text people, but no one got my texts. After another 60 minutes of running and asking for directions, I finally got decent directions and made it back to the pizza place to see Mike and Colin waiting outside by a huge line of people. Apparently they were trying to delay as long as possible by having a beer drinking contest and the owner finally made them leave because there were too many people waiting outside and they were not eating anymore.

During my run I saw some crazy stuff- the Naples Museum, a protest/rally, a choir singing outside a church, lots of more graffiti, and that little leprechaun from the lucky charms boxes. He thought he had me fooled, but I wanted those “hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers and blue moons, pots of golden rainbows, and me red balloons.” After getting over my delirium the three of us went back to the boat and I stuffed my face with food. That was that. I didn’t want to go back into Naples, even though I gave myself a great tour with my 5 mile run. Now it is 12:35am and I have to go to class tomorrow for the first time in 10 days, so I need to go to bed. I will be in Dubrovnik, Croatia in two days. The adventure never ends!

To Italy- we had some good times, some bad times, some crazy times, some confusing times, some incredible times, and plenty of times when I managed to get lost. I wouldn’t change a thing if I could, it was perfect.

Absolutely loving my life in all directions,

~Stephen