Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... and Everything Else...

I have never taken so much public transportation in my life. I have already traveled by:
•       Taxi
•       Bus
•       Train
•       Plane
•       Ship
•       Water bus
•       Metro/Subway
•       Tender boat
•       Bike taxi
•       Tram
•       Trolley
•       Shuttle
•       Hydrofoil
•       Minibus
Transportation to come:
•       Camel
•       Raft
•       Horse
•       Safari Jeep

I never really realized how much my parents spent on vacations before this, especially transportation, but traveling this way is actually really fun. It gives so much insight into cultures and it is so cheap! It is also really liberating because you have to figure everything out on your own and you feel a great sense of accomplishment when you make it to where you want to go, safely. The biggest downside to public transportation is that body odor is significantly abundant, so sometimes it is difficult to breathe without gagging. The other downside is that it can get really cramped on the larger modes of transportation (buses, trains, subways, etc.) so you have to be really aware of your belongings, which isn’t too bad if you are a savvy traveler.

Istanbul, Turkey

Everything that happened after the epic concert:

Day 2 – After the crazy night before, I decided I would sleep until my heart was content, which ended up being 12:30 p.m. But, EVERYTHING in Istanbul was closed for a religious holiday so there was absolutely nothing to do, so I didn’t feel too bad about wasting half of my day. Sarah and Audrey were both gone on an SAS trip so Autumn, my roommate, and I , hung out and watched movies. It was nice to relax after the intense day of rocking my face off at the festival.

Days 3, 4, 5 – I can’t quite remember what day was which so this is just going to be a spilling of all the events in a non-chronological order. The Grand Bazaar is one of the main tourist destinations of Istanbul. They have everything from pacshmina scarves to handmade lights, carpets, and tapestries. It was a fun place to go because I love to barter. In fact, my main objective for Turkey was to buy a carpet, also known as a rug, because I regretted not getting one when I went last summer on my cruise of the Greek islands. The carpet store I found was very reliable and, of course, in true Turkish fashion, very hospitable. I did not plan on buying a handmade carpet because they are exponentially more expensive and I don’t really support how they are made. Anyways, I fell in love with this one rug that cost 900 Euro, or 1,200 USD. My bartering skills then kicked in and I got the rug down to 300 USD! The guy was really angry about making the deal, so I know that it was a good deal. Although I spent way to much money overall, I got a majority of my souvenir shopping done!

I believe it was the 3rd night that Sarah, Audrey, Autumn, and I decided to go see Harry Potter. When we arrived at the movie theater we were disappointed to find out the last showing started at 8:30 and it was already 9:15 p.m., so we headed out to find somewhere to get dinner. Right as we walked outside, we stumbled across a hookah bar. It was such a great atmosphere and, as usual, the Turkish people were super nice. Hookah is really fun, and not bad for you. Mom, I know what you are thinking, but its not. Anyways, we got double apple, which was really tasty. We also decided to get some Turkish tea. The tea comes in a bunch of different flavors, my personal favorite being kiwi. Aside from Hookah, backgammon is a huge part of the culture. While we were in the hookah bar, we made friends with the owner and asked him to teach us how to play. At first it was difficult to catch on because he would get frustrated with how long it took us to make a move, he would just do it for us. Eventually he left to serve other customers so we were able to really catch on. The next day I went back to the grand bazaar and got the most beautiful backgammon board and we have been playing it on the ship since. Actually, the first place we played it was right after we left the grand bazaar. We went back to the hookah bar, got some “tost” (pretty much a grilled cheese) and tea, and played on my backgammon board. Pretty cool story as to how I learned how to play!

While walking through the port one day, I met a guy named Volcan, who worked in customs, and wanted to exchange emails with me. Excited for another foreign friend, I of course said yes, and we have been emailing back and forth. I have been so taken back by the culture of this country. Everyone is so accommodating and so nice it is ridiculous. The people are so nice that if they came to the states, our culture would label them as creepy or “sketch”, but really they aren’t, it is just part of them to be extremely friendly.

The last day, Sarah, Audrey, and I got up early to see the famous Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. They were both incredibly beautiful and, ultimately, like most things, indescribable. The Hagia Sophia (pronounced Haya, not Hag-ia), to my suprise, was originally a christian church, that later was turned into a mosque, and finally, a museum. Had we gone later that day to the Blue Mosque, around 12:00 p.m., Anne Hathaway was there. WHO KNEW!? A little disappointed I missed seeing her, but as I am not a huge fan of hers as it is, it wasn't too much of a disappointment. After all of our early sight seeing, we sat down for some lunch right near the ship because Sarah had an afternoon SAS trip to catch. Audrey and I decided afterwards to go grab our computers and head across the street to a small cafe with free wifi! I love getting internet, especially when it is free!

The one thing I will not miss about Europe in general is the constant bombardment and harassment a visitor will face when going to see “the sites” or in large shopping areas by tour guides and shop owners, respectively. I have never been told “I Love You” and asked “Will you be my beautiful customer?” so many times as when I was in the Grand Bazaar.

I did eventually see Harry Potter and was thoroughly disappointed.

I will definitely be going back to Istanbul. It may even be my favorite stop yet! The thing I loved about it most was the culture, if that wasn’t already made abundantly clear. The culture was finally rich and distinctive. It was so easy to feel and sink into, it really gave great insight into the country as a whole.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Pictures have been posted on my facebook for Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Greece. Turkey pictures will be up in the very near future! Also, if there is a particular souvenir you would like from either Egypt or Morocco, email me and let me know and I will be happy to bring it back for you!

31 days until I return to America! Miss and love you all!

Rock n' Coke 2009 Istanbul!

I can’t even begin to describe this day. It was absolutely incredible. I went to one of the biggest festivals in Turkey, the Rock n’ Coke 2009 Istanbul Festival! First, let me just say that I have the some of the best luck in the universe. I was really concerned on how to get to the concert and who to go with. To my surprise, both Sarah and Audrey already had tickets to go as well! This took care of who to go with… then we just had to deal with how to get there. If you have never been or looked at a map of Istanbul, it is the biggest city in Europe, so we had no idea where the concert was or how long it would take to get there. With our great luck, we met a group of people going to the concert, one of them a Turkish native and his father works for Coca-Cola. With that being said, we were able to get on a private minibus that took us to the Asian side of Istanbul, 45 minutes away right to the entrance, all for only $10 USD. We arrived at the festival around 12:00 p.m. and immediately got free cokes and bought some lunch. We then wandered from tent to tent where we got free t-shirts, bought a few t-shirts, listened to music, played guitar hero on a big stage, sang karaoke, and soaked in the atmosphere. We also got chips on a stick which are full potatoes that are cut and spiraled around a stick, then deep fried and sprinkled with your choice of seasoning. I got BBQ, Mexican Chili, and Cheese Onion on mine, it was delicious. We decided to chill for a few minutes and in that time we started talking to some of the locals who were attending the concert. We met a photographer and she gave me all of her info, she said I could come work for her someday, so I will be keeping in touch with her! I also made another Turkish friend who visits Dallas a lot and got her info so that she can come hang out with me there!

Now, on to the actual concert part. It started off with a Turkish band called Aylin Aslim, then the Howling Bells, and another Turkish band, Emre Ayden. After those bands finished, the crowd cleared out quite a bit so we decided to go up and wait at the front. Ends up we stood front and center for the next 7 hours. It was insane! We saw Juliette Lewis, Jane’s Addiction, Duman (the biggest band in Turkey), Nine Inch Nails, and The Prodigy! I can’t even explain how incredible it was.  Not only did we get to stand up front the entire time, we met a ton of more people, including two guys, one who worked in an ADVERTISING firm, and one who was a small business owner. We met one of the bouncers, named Alp, who had gone to LSU for school and then moved back to Turkey. He was super cool.

It was so cool how well the night worked out. The two guys we met were really cool, trustworthy people and bought us drinks and food all night and would bring it to us so we didn’t lose our places. Of course, we were really smart about it, switching off and on, drinking what they gave us to make sure it wasn’t drugged or anything. We also met a bunch of guys who were some of the best “moshers” I have ever seen and were incredibly nice. It was great meeting all of these guys because I tend to attract creepers and they would protect me from them.

The music was so different to what I normally listen to, but I loved it! I was always kind of scared of the “hardcore rock” crowd, but the people ended up being so real and nice, not scary at all! Being in the front, the bouncers would occasionally bring out water hoses and spray everyone down. Since Alp knew me, he would literally spray me right in the face so that I was drenched from head to toe by the end of the night. I still can’t believe how close I was the artists last night. O, and I got a guitar pick from Duman, the biggest band in Turkey! Go me! We then met up with the rest of the SAS crowd, got on our private minibus, drove back into Europe, and arrived back to the ship around 4 a.m. What a crazy day?!

Greece

Day 1 - Back to Athens! It is so cool that one year ago, I found out about Semester at Sea in this very port of Piraeus, Greece and I am back actually on the ship this time. Another great thing was that I really remembered Athens and how to get around… well, at least in certain areas. Audrey, Sarah, and I set out for Athens early in the morning. As we searched for the metro, we started to get frustrated early on. We found a place for lunch in Piraeus and regrouped our selves. We found out the metro was actually about a 30 minute walk from the port. Finally making it into Athens, we got to the Placa where the best, flea market shopping is. I got tons of souvenirs, found my artwork for Greece (I am getting artwork in every country I go to), and even found some jewelry for myself! We then caught a  tram that looked like a “choo-choo” train to get to the acropolis. I decided to skip the acropolis as I had just gone a year ago and wasn’t all that impressed the first time. While they explored the acropolis, I hung out below, got an orange slushy and people watched. It was great! About 45 minutes later, Sarah and Audrey came disappointingly down the hill as the acropolis didn’t live up to the hype. We then went to catch the tram and go to dinner. For dinner we went to Politico! Politico was my favorite restaurant from last summer because it has the best hummus I have ever had. It was still a good as I remember! We then found a great internet café, made some Skype phone calls and leisurely surfed facebook. Exhausted, we decided to head back to recharge for the next day on the ship.

Day 2 in Greece was a trip to Delphi through SAS for my philosophy class. We traveled by bus for three hours to Delphi. When we got there I was taken back by the history of the place. I took tons of pictures for the voyage book and finally got a great place to use my wide-angle lens, I was excited! Before the three hour trek back to the ship, we stopped for lunch near Delphi where I had one of the best meals of the trip. We started with these little spinach pastries that were incredible and then was followed by chicken and rice that was cooked to perfection. Dessert was super fresh watermelon.

That night, Sarah, Audrey, Tim, Dan, Nesthy, and I decided we wanted to go out in Athens. We first went to a karaoke bar in Piraeus where Audrey and Nesthy blew us away with  their amazing voices. Sarah and I made an embarrassing attempt to sing “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. After that, the night ended up being a bust and we didn’t find a good place to go out to. In our cab ride back, the driver showed us where all of the clubs actually were and we felt like fools since they were very close to where we started. The driver also dared us to name the 12 Greek gods/goddesses for a discount. We got 10 out of 12 and I offered up about half of them, so, I was still satisfied.

Day 3 – Audrey, Sarita (Sarah Cogdill), LaSarah (Sarah Morgan), Tara, and I headed to Hydra Island by hydrofoil. The island was super authentic and was not one I had visited in my previous trip to Greece. The whole island was completely free of motor vehicles, everything was done with donkey’s or wheelbarrows, SO COOL! It was quiet, yet rich with culture. The shopping on the island was somewhat expensive but great. For the first couple hours we walked around browsing the shops and taking in the simplicity of life on the island. We then decided to get an afternoon snack. I had been craving a crepe the whole time so I ordered a chocolate and strawberry crepe. Unfortunately, the crepe pan wasn’t working, so I had to settle for a waffle… tough life, I know. It was the best waffle of my life. No exaggeration. It was absolutely incredible. The chocolate was thick and creamy, and the strawberries tasted like they had just been picked out of the most perfectly ripe field. I cannot describe it other than if heaven was a dish, it would have been that waffle. After we were full on waffles and coffee, we decided it was time to go cliff diving and cave swimming. The water was even better than Croatia, which I could not believe was possible! Jumping off of the cliff was so much fun and the cave was awesome. I got some great pictures of myself underwater with Tara’s underwater camera.  Sarita tends to hurt herself constantly and pulled a leg muscle while jumping off of the cliff so she was content with laying by the beach for a while. Audrey and I decided to go wander some shops and find a good place for dinner. We ran across this restaurant that had the most incredible view. It was right on the water and overlooked where the sun would set. The only downside was that it was really expensive. We had discussed earlier in the trip wanting to have a really nice dinner and then decided that this would be it. We convinced the other three to go and we ended up getting the best seat in the house. Our table was jutted off from the rest of the restaurant and was just indescribable. I had the catch of the day which was a succulent sea bass with roasted vegetables and fresh lettuce. We split two bottles of wine and had great conversation. It was one of my favorite nights of the trip so far. Afterward, we went bar hopping around the island and laughed the night away.
Tara headed in early and when I got back she was asleep. I quickly changed and got into bed. The small air conditioning unit above her bed then started pouring water. She didn’t wake up, so I put some towels down and turned the A/C off. This proved to be awful later in the night as I woke up sweating.

Day 4 – The group got up and headed to breakfast before we had to catch our hydrofoil back to Piraeus. I started my day with a sorbet smoothie and toast. It was incredible, as usual with my meals in port. After a few more hours of roaming around, Audrey and I went to catch the hydrofoil. On our way we stopped to buy crepes for lunch that were insanely good, again, as usual. We both were dreading getting back on the non-air-conditioned, cramped boat, but were completely surprised when the boat was much nicer than the first time and we had a table and really nice, wide, uncrowded seats. Along the ride, the national new was shown on the TV and to our surprise, there was Semester at Sea! So cool! Upon arriving back in Piraeus we went to a local grocery store and stocked up on snacks for our rooms to save us from the vial ship food. I spent the remainder of the day uploading photos, hanging out in Sarah and Audrey’s room, writing postcards, and having some resting time.

Today on the ship has been stressful at best. As I am excited to be in Istanbul tomorrow, I will have four papers due between Turkey and Bulgaria, which is only one day so I have to get them done now if I don’t want to do them while in Turkey.

Croatia

Croatia was absolutely incredible. I had no idea what to expect before visiting the country, and it absolutely blew me away. The city was really cool because it was guarded by huge, “castle-like” walls. The view from the walls was astonishing. The water was crystal clear with beautiful greens and blues. I spent the majority of the first day running around with my trusty travel buddies, Sarah and Audrey, as well as another Sarah, Tim, and Dan. We ate delicious, Croatia pizza (they are known for their pizza), had some amazing gelato, and walked the city walls with fresh squeezed orange juice. After walking the walls, we decided to wander the backside of the city and found a small restaurant on the side of a cliff that had a stairway down to the ocean. This was were a bunch of locals were hanging out and cliff diving (basically a sport in Croatia). After seeing the water was safe to jump into, the cliff jumping commenced. That night we followed dinner on the ship with going out to a club called East West. It was fun. The end.

The next day, Sarah and I decided we wanted to go to Bosnia. We walked around for a good hour trying to find a bus to Bosnia and after many failed attempts, we decided to give up and find an island. We looked at a map, pointed to an island, and went. The island was insane! It is called Locrum and is the national park of Croatia. As we walked on the unpaved path past wild peacocks, we found a beach… a nude beach. Since we are both always up for new experiences, we decided to go. The beach proved to be, well, lets say, interesting. It was mostly men which made us a little uncomfortable, but we got use to it. We climbed the rocky beach over to peak of the island and found a mostly, private area to lay out in. The view was nothing short of perfect and the waves crashing on the rocky shore was all you could hear.  In a moment of stupidity, I decided I wanted to climb down and get in the ocean. In my defense, there was a ladder used to get into the water, however, the ocean was really rough, so the waves were about my height, or higher once I got down to the bottom. A man from above shouted, “You shouldn’t go there” right as I was being thrashed by a tsunami like wave. At this point, I had pretty much figured that out, turned around, stuck up my thumb and said “thanks!” Sarah could not help but laugh at me… for the next 20 minutes… Both “you shouldn’t go there” and “thanks (with a thumbs up)” is part of our daily conversation now.

So, after my near death experience, we headed back towards the main beach to go swimming. The water was perfect. A few minutes later, three extremely attractive men anchored their boat right in front of us. As Sarah and I had gotten out to dry off, we immediately decided we should get back in. We swam up to the guys playing water polo and asked them to teach us how to play. I was actually really good at it! After playing water polo and talking with them for about half an hour, we missed our ferry so the guys offered to give us a ride back to the old city in their boat. As I have a wonderful judge of character, I had no reservations about these guys, they were really trustworthy (trust me and don’t tell me to be careful on this one…). We got out, dried off, got in the boat and headed toward the mainland. On the way, we found out that one was a doctor and one was an entrepreneur who had a laundry service that served the entire island. They then dropped us off and asked us to meet them later that night at a local bar. We quickly ran back to the ship to tell Audrey our story and to get ready to go out. It was exciting to know where the locals go because we were really tired of going to clubs that were run over by SAS kids, otherwise known as SASholes (just kidding). I have found that talking to locals is one of my favorite things to do in these countries as they give the best insight into the culture of the society, plus, it is really interesting to find commonalities between myself and someone who lives on the other side of the world from me. When we went out after dinner, we ran into the guys and had a great night.

The next morning I got up to go on a kayaking trip for my oceanography class and was excited to find out that both Audrey and Tara were in my same group! I decided to go with the advanced group in the sit in kayaks and we kayaked over to Locrum Island. ☺ After swimming and snorkeling for a while, we kayaked back to the beach we left from. The total kayaking experience was about 4 miles or so. After the upper body workout, we got in a lower body workout when we had to hike back up to the bus from the beach. We went up about 300 steps to get to a hill to hike up another hill. Exhausted, Audrey and I decided we would have a chill night and go to use computers in a nearby internet café. After skyping for an hour, we both got hungry and asked some locals where the best pizza in town was. We went to the suggested Mia Culpa and had the best tuna pizza in the world! It was so incredibly good!

The next morning I got up to go kayaking, again! Audrey had planned an independent trip and a few people dropped out so, luckily, I got a spot even though there was a long list of people that wanted on the trip. Ends up, the trip was booked with the same company we went with the day before and I had the same group leader. He was awesome though, so I was fine with it. The trip was much longer and much better. This time, we got to kayak all the way around Locrum Island with a break in between. During the break, the group went to a restaurant where I had the best salad I have ever tasted. It was fresh corn, beans, lettuce, prosciutto, cheese, oil and vinegar. I can’t even describe the freshness that was the corn. IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD.  After our second kayak trip, Audrey and I only thought it right to go back to Mia Culpa for dinner. I was then on a corn kick, so we split a margarita pizza (cheese pizza) topped with corn. Delicious! I then rapidly ran back to the ship in order to finish postcards and get them in the box before 6 p.m. Even though I was able to finish them, most read “I miss you, love, Kelly.” As this was true for everyone I was sending them to, I wish I would have had time to expand more.

One day of classes and the SEA OLYMPICS until we are in GREECE!

Italy!

While in Italy for a second time I visited two cities I had previously been to, Rome and Venice, and three places I had not, Naples, Pompei, and Mount Vesuvius.

Day 1
The morning began with the typical announcements from one of our Dean’s saying “Good Morning Voyagers…” Followed by the days instructions for disembarkation. After receiving my passport I was packed and ready to go. I met up with my newly found travel buddies, Athena and Amanda, and we headed for the train from Civitavecchia to Rome. After waiting at the train station for 30 minutes in the hot sun, the train finally arrived. With no seats left on the extremely crowded train, we stood without any air-conditioning for the hour ride into Rome. Once we made it to Rome Termini, we quickly set out to find our hotel, which luckily was not far. Well, that is to say, it wasn’t far before we got horribly lost. Eventually, we found it, hoping to find our friend Whitney who had a SAS trip into Rome earlier that morning. While awaiting her arrival, we decided to eat some lunch outside the hotel. We all got pizza and it was of course incredible! Two hours after our meeting time, Whitney still had not shown up. We decided it was in our best interest to leave a note and head in to Rome as we only had ½ a day to see it. As I had already seen Rome, it wasn’t as big of a deal to me, but I did understand how they would want to make it there. We headed strait to the Metro and got off right in front of the Coliseum. In my previous visit to the Coliseum, I did not go inside, so I was excited on this trip to do that. After being hounded by 30 people inviting us to pub crawls that evening, we made it inside. It was truly incredible. I can’t describe the feeling of being in the middle of so much history in one place. During our visit rain began to pour from the sky for about 1 hour, keeping us in the walls of the Coliseum. Afterwards we explored the forum and the surrounding historical areas. It wasn’t until 10 that night that we returned to find Whitney sitting at a restaurant outside our hotel eating for free because she made friends with the owner. He then proceeded to give us free glasses of the house champagne and then we left for a good nights sleep. Athena and Amanda had a 6 a.m. flight to Venice making them leave at 3:30 from our hotel. We talked about them staying with us in Venice at our hotel as Whitney and I were sharing a room there but never made any definite plans.

Day 2
The day was all about getting to Venice. I, unfortunately, had a different flight from the rest of my travel group including Whitney, Audrey, Sarah, and Tara. I got up around 8:30 to get to the Rome, Fumicino airport for my 12:10 flight to Marco Polo Airport in Venice. I took the train and arrived at the airport in a very timely fashion. I checked in, had a window seat, got to my terminal with some delicious breakfast, and simply waited to board for 2 hours. By 11:45 I was concerned as why we were not boarding yet. I checked the monitor and it still read “Venencia” and was my flight number. 12:10 rolled around and the screen all of the sudden said some other obscure city. I then went to the monitor on departures and found that my flight had just left. After a slight panic attack, I found where I needed to go to try to get a new flight. Luckily, the woman was very understanding since there was no announcement made in English about the gate change and didn’t make me pay for the second flight. I really lucked out and still had a window seat, and furthermore, no one sat in my row! It was beautiful. I then got off the plane, caught the public water boat, got to the island Lido where I was staying, and found my hotel. It was so liberating and exciting to travel by myself and figure it all out so easily. I immediately checked in and took a nice long shower, I dried my hair, got all ready, and hoped that the rest of my group had arrived. After they hadn’t I decided to go get some food. Lido was incredible, it was quiet and quaint, it wasn’t touristy because it was mostly locals who lived there. I found a restaurant on the main strip and had the best gnocchi I have ever eaten with a glass of red wine. I made friends with the waiter and he told me some good places to go while in Venice. When I got back to my hotel, Sarah, Audrey, Tara, and Whitney had arrived! As they had not eaten yet, we walked Lido for a while and then found a great little restaurant in the back of town.  We saw the sunset over Venice and had a wonderful night.

Day 3
 We wandered around Venice all day long. I did, unfortunately, get heat stroke and started violently shaking for a while until I rehydrated. Then I was fine for the rest of the day and got some amazing pictures. That night, we returned to our culturally injected restaurant in Lido where I had the best Lasagna I have ever tasted.

Day 4
4th of July!!! We started the day at the beach in Lido and then had to leave due to flights to Naples. It was weird to be in Italy on the 4th since no one else was celebrating, but I did have a beer in the airport while I waited for my flight. My flight, unfortunately, was an hour later than everyone else, but I made it to the ship safely. Naples was probably the sketchiest place I have ever been, but we still went out to celebrate the 4th. Getting there was interesting as the port is in the sketchiest part of Naples. We walked for a good mile before we found a cab and then piled about 7 people into the 4 person taxi. Needless to say, it was interesting. The night was super fun and I met a ton of people.

Day 5
Started far to early for following the previous night. I purchased a day trip for Pompeii that started at 8 a.m. with my great friends, Sarah and Audrey. Upon arriving in the historically rich Pompeii, we promptly ditched our tour group and explored on our own. If you don’t know much about Pompeii, it is a booming city that was covered by an explosion from Mount Vesuvius in 78 CE. It was incredible to see how the ash had preserved the city. We actually snuck into the restricted areas (sorry mom) and it was incredible! There were all of these underground tunnels that connected the whole city! After walking through the majority of Pompeii and the incredible “Mystery City” we decided to hike Mount Vesuvius. After arguing with the train ticket vendor who was trying to sell us an excursion, waiting 45 minutes for a train, and taking a 30 minute bus ride, we made it to our hiking destination. The smell that the flowers created was absolutely astonishing. I have never been so overwhelmed with such an illustrious scent before in my life. It is indescribable. The whole area was covered in yellow and purple from all of the flowers. We made it to the top after a grueling hour hike and were taken back by the huge crater we stared into. After tons of picture taking, we decided to pull a Garden State and yell off the top. With a 1, 2, 3, the three off us screamed at the top of our lungs off the side of the volcano.

Also, I hiked through Pompeii and Vesuvius not only in one day, but I did it in flip flops. BAMF.

There is so much more that happened in the port, but these experiences are just that, experiences, its not something you can describe or detect, its something that you live through, and it has been the best thing I have ever done.

It is only one day at sea and in classes, until we hit Croatia!