SAS lives on

A year and a few months later, and I’m still not over the time I had on Semester at Sea.  Since leaving the MV, I’ve traveled to 5 new countries and 5 new states and visited almost every single one of my close friends from the trip – last on the list is Australia. Might happen next December just saying 🙂

As I move forward in my life, I keep learning from my experience and I try to share my travel obsession with everyone I can. As one of my friends says “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

As I write this, I’m of course on an airplane, but more importantly, I’m coming back from NOLA for my second Mardi Gras. In typical SAS fashion, we packed up to 15 people in a king hotel room and we couldn’t have been happier, well maybe the couple who slept in a corner on the floor could have enjoyed a bed more…

SAS takes on Bourbon St at Mardi Gras 2016

One of the things I’ve learned since disembarking is that the people you traveled to 15 countries with, the ones you stayed up on top deck watching sunrise in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the ones you saw grow into new, more worldly humans are friends for life. They just get it.

I honestly think I might have come back a little too SAS obsessed, sorry to everyone who had to listen to me talking about SAS and my SAS friends too much.  Now I’ve learned to balance and appreciate all the people I love. My high school friends, my friends from SAS, friends in other countries, friends at other schools, friends right here at my own university.  At times, I used to get bummed out that there are too many amazing people in my life that will never all live where I live. Even writing that sounds ungrateful. I’m the luckiest girl in the world. And while bringing my friends who live elsewhere to me via a 5 inch iPhone screen via facetime might not be ideal, I’d rather have them in my life than not at all.

My phone home screen is a little quote that got me through some of the tougher days. The ones where I’d sit on my bed reading the map my friends all signed and remind myself it was real. These people are still a force in my life. It actually happened.  The quote is here:

So anyway, I’m not sure what compelled me to write this- maybe I feel like I just had another port and I needed to reflect. I think I’ve realized I’m ready to figure out a way to use all the great fortune I’ve had and do something with it for others. I can’t help but think I’ve been blessed with my experiences to teach me so many lessons and to prepare me to give back somehow. If anyone has ideas please hit a girl up. I’m also thinking of doing a few posts about applying to SAS and budget management because people have reached out about that (by the way it literally makes my whole day when I get those emails).

I’m going to add an update of a bit of my recent travels too – because why not? Now that I put it in writing, I have to do it. Anyway stay hungry for the word and keep on being your beautiful selves.

xo

Brazilian Birthday Shenanigans: Brazil pt 1

Our time in Rio made every second of those 14 days worth it. Although my birthday really is the 12th, we started celebrating before the first day of port because all of my friends had different plans for most of Brazil. Basically I milked my 21st birthday as much as possible, because after all, you only turn 21 once and why not celebrate it for an entire week?

The Highlights:

Day -1 Nov 7: Fancy Dining with all my faves

Day 1 Nov 8: snooze fest of a field lab, penthouse party in Copacabana

Day 2 Nov 9: acai deliciousness, climbing a mountain and dying, Christ the Redeemer, friends

Day 3 Nov 10: literally flying over rio (hang gliding) hippie market, girls night out

Day 4 Nov 11: heading into the AMAZON ….. To be continued

The deets:

Day -1 (last day of the 14 day voyage)

The birthday began with fancy dining onboard the MV. To those who don’t know, the best meal you will have all of Semester at Sea is fancy dining on the ship. You reserve a table ahead of time with your friends, agree to pay 30$, and eat in a separate room with linen napkins, champagne, and all that rigmarole. My friends and I had not done anything so civilized in a while, well actually probably since beginning the voyage. I almost didn’t recognize them all cleaned up after 14 days at sea letting appearances slide toward shambles. Here’s a pic of everyone at the table:

Here’s a shot of a few of the crew looking pretty snappy if I do say so myself.

The food was also amazing. Five courses and dessert.  Take a look!

I absolutely loved this meal because it was all of my favorite people together with good food to boot. We all couldn’t stop smiling the entire meal. It was also interesting to walk around the ship afterwards because people literally didn’t recognize me with straightened hair looking like a functioning human, let alone a real girl for once. (I usually stick to a messy bun, sweats, and a t-shirt onboard)

Day 1:

Unfortunately I had a field lab the first day, but luckily it was my last one. It was for finance class… joy of joys. Anyway, we headed off to the US Consulate to hear speeches from two SMEs on Brazilian economy – a US Commerce Service representative and a State Department Officer.  We were pleasantly surprised with how interesting it was and it helped us to get a quick take on the intricate and highly nuanced system of government in Brazil.

Then we set off to lunch at Cais Do Oriente, a fabulous steakhouse. It was a beautiful restaurant:

Here we were served my second best meal on SAS, more steak!!

We also got to try the Brazilian soda Guaraná – a sweeter version of ginger ale.

After such a large lunch, everyone wanted to pass out for a decent nap, but sadly we had to do that during our third stop of the lab the Brazilian Development Bank. To be honest, I can’t recall much because it was more of a 2 hr power nap than anything, but they sent us the 75 billion slide power point, so I will definitely be reading that as soon as possible. I just love finance.

Finally, we were free!! My friend Aidan and I set off to go meet the owner of the penthouse we had rented out for the night to throw a huge birthday party for myself and a fellow SASer. We had a bit of apprehension because Airbnbs are notoriously hit and miss, but as soon as we arrived, all my fears were assuaged. The house was beyond fantastic. 6 bedrooms. 12th floor. View of Christ the Redeemer from the balcony. 1 block from Copacabana beach. 5 seconds from a grocery store. Really chill host who even offered to share his food and alcohol. It could not have worked out any better.

We claimed rooms and then headed to grab a quick meal at a ‘by the kilogram’ restaurant a block away called 686. It was quite a random assortment of food, but really good.

Then we met up with everyone back and the house and enjoyed a fabulous night. I had SO much fun and everyone I love on SAS made it over to at least stop by. I can safely call it the best birthday party ever.

Day 2:

The next morning we woke up surprisingly early and bee-lined for a café with acai. If you don’t know what that is, you’re missing out. After two years in Los Angeles, I have become quite familiar with the Amazonian berry and the much-crazed acai Bowls at various juice bars, but let me tell you, acai in Brazil is the real deal. Nekter and Pressed have nothing on Brazilian asci. It was delicious. Here’s a pic before I put fruit and granola on it.

They make a smoothie like dish with the berries and you can add granola and fruit as well. We found that almost every café on the street carried acai, so this was just my first of many times tasting it in Brazil.

After packing up our things at the penthouse, we set off on what ended up being quite the wild goose chase to climb to Christ the Redeemer. Three of my guy friends and I – Mark, Rory, and John (who we all call Bama because he’s from Alabama) – caught a cab from Copacabana to our hostel for the next night to drop off our bags before the hike.

As we were getting out of the cab, another one whizzed by too closely and clipped the side of ours. The other driver pulled over, got out, and proceeded to yell at us in Portuguese. From my handle of Spanish, I could understand that he wanted us to pay for the damage, although we all agreed it was not our fault. Eventually, we conveyed our apology for his erratic driving and escaped the situation with our money and our belongings in tact. We dropped off our things at the hostel – El Misti Hostel – which I would describe as passable. It provided a safe place to sleep and that is about as much as I would give it.

Then we made our way to the metro station a block down the road and bought tickets to the stop closest to the Redeemer. After arriving at that stop, we realized we were still a bit away from our final goal. We then took another cab to the bottom of the tram station that takes groups of people up to the top of the mountain.

We attempted to buy tram tickets, but learned that it was sold out until 4:00 that afternoon. We had planned on meeting up with other friends for dinner and going out that night, so we unfortunately did not have enough time to wait for that tram and hike down afterwards. After running into some other SAS kids, we learned that if we took a quick bus ride, we would end up at the trailhead to hike up the mountain, but the hike was apparently a bit difficult. Our group all agreed this would be ideal, and set off to hike. We had no idea how big of a commitment we had just made.

So far, we have several errors in judgment that I would like to highlight: 1) brining no water for a hike of questionable distance 2) blatantly ignoring the warnings of other SASers that the hike would be rather “strenuous” 3) beginning said hike in the middle of the afternoon and arguably the very hottest time of the day.

I guess all I can say here is you live and you learn. The hike ended up taking us about 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is much faster than the advertised 2 hours, but it could not have been further from a walk in the park. Most parts of it were so steep that we had to use tree roots to crawl up the “path” and one section had a long chain nailed to the wall to assist climbing up. Honestly, the word climb would probably be the more apt term to describe our experience. By the end, my legs were on the verge of giving out completely and all of us were just dripping in sweat. During one of our few rest breaks we did happen to see several small monkeys in the wild and it was really cool, if not a bit scary. They kept jumping on Rory’s GoPro, so that made me a bit nervous.

Of the several hundred people we encountered at the Christ the Redeemer viewpoint, not a single other one had attempted the climb up. At the top, we bought two bottles of water each and sat on the ground for a bit before braving the last several flights of stairs to get to the lookout point. The view took my breath away and made all the preceding events 100% worth it. Take a look:

We spent a good amount of time taking photos and marveling at the amazing views.

After a bit, we decided to head back down and luckily ran into a couple of friends who gave us their tickets for a van ride to Copacabana from the top. They had decided to hike down – the much more logical and intelligent decision relative to ours – and didn’t need the last half of their round trip tickets on the ride-share vans. Rory, Bama, Mark, & I hopped in line and caught a van shortly after to our hostel area.

We arrived after not too long and tooled around the market at the beach. After our own stench became too much, we headed to the ship to clean up, grab some free (slash already paid for) food and meet up with the rest of our friends.

That evening, we headed into Lapa, the nightlife hub of Rio and had a blast roaming around the street market underneath the Arcos do Lapa – an aqueduct- and stopping at some bars.

 (pic from google btw)

Yet again, what makes these nights so fun is the amazing people I get to spend them with. My friends and I could probably have sat on a street corner for the entire time and still had a blast. Exploring Rio was even more fun.

 

D3:

We began our last full day in Rio, with one of the most amazing things I have ever done: hang gliding! My good friend Jess had been talking about hang gliding nonstop on the 14 days at sea and she booked it for us as soon as we found wifi the first day. As we drove to the jump site, I could almost see the excitement. Everyone kept exclaiming “We are going hang gliding now!” and we all were surprisingly chipper for 9:30am after a night out.

The weather was absolutely fabulous and I could not wait to fly! After signing the forms and paying, we all split up into our guides’ cars to head up to the jump site, high on Pedra Bonita. Jess and I ended up in a car together with our two guides in the front. To call this vehicle a car is actually quite generous, as it was more of a rickety, popping engine with 4 wheels. As we headed up and up towards the jump site, my fear of jumping off a cliff quickly faded and was replaced by my fear of this sad excuse for a vehicle breaking down completely. The narrow and incredibly steep road seemed to really challenge the car as it jolted and wined upwards. We crawled up the hills, quickly passed by every single other vehicle on the road. Jess and I kept joking that we were more likely to die in the car than hang gliding.

Our fears were soon realized as the car turned toward one final steep hill.  It gave one last sputter and stopped completely. We giggled awkwardly in the back seat as our driver coasted off the road and pulled the emergency brake. Here is a shot of Jess in front of our fabulous ride:

what struggles…

As you can see, things were not going well. Luckily, there were many other guides with much more reliable cars and they came to our aid not long after we stopped.

Then there was nothing between the jump and us.

We arrived to the rest of our group already involved in a flurry of activity preparing for flight. Guides unfurled the sails of the hang glides (is that what it’s called?) and their assistants fitted the next victims with helmets and crash suits. I finally realized exactly how dangerous this activity was and how completely and utterly SOL I would be if anything went wrong.

As I stood on the takeoff ramp, I became even more acutely aware of the possibility of falling to my death.

We were all pretty amped and a little nervous, so I don’t think we fully appreciated the beauty of our vantage point.

After watching almost all of my friends successfully sprint into empty space and survive, it was my turn. My guide, Matty, kept reminding me, “Chin up, loose grip, strong woman.”

He turned to me, after we finally got strapped in and checked twice and asked, “Are we ready to fly?” Despite the butterflies flurrying in my stomach, I responded with what I would like to think was a resounding, “Hell yeah.”

We ran down the ramp for about 20 feet then the ground fell away beneath my feet. We soared over the trees and through the clouds. For the first minute, I’m pretty sure I just sat in awe with my mouth wide open. Then I began to take in the sites of the city, the favela, the beach, the park. Even the favela was beautiful. The silence while flying in the air was shocking and absolute. After the hustle and bustle of a city like Rio, the vacuum of sound was pure bliss.

We flew for about 10 incredible minutes then we came down to land on the beach to a crown of onlookers. Not one of my friends could keep a smile off of their faces for a single minute afterward. Jess was all grins for the rest of the day and so was I.

After everyone landed safely, we headed out to a market we affectionately deemed, “hippie market.” We spent a good deal of time roaming around pursuing the wide array of goods and purchasing souvenirs for loved ones back home. As evening fell, my friends Lucy and Jessy and I headed off to meet up with the group of kids that would be traveling on our Amazon riverboat excursion and the rest of our friends went in different directions for the remainder of their overland plans.

I’m going to leave it here for now, because the Amazon deserves a post all to itself. Even though these days didn’t technically encompass my real birthday, I count them all as heady contributions to the celebration. Honestly after these few days in Rio I was already ecstatic about how my birthday had turned out. Who gets to enjoy a fancy meal with some of their best friends, a mansion party, hiking Christ the Redeemer, and hang gliding for their 21^st birthday? And then I got to head into the Amazon as well! I really cannot explain how lucky I felt to have been able to experience everything that I did and I also am kind of bummed that every birthday after this will probably be a bitter disappointment. Oh well. I am obsessed with Rio and I really want to return sooner rather than later. All I can say is dear Rio, you did my 21^st birthday well.

 

Off to the Amazon to get down and dirty with nature. To be continued…

xo

 

One is Silver and the Other’s Gold: Italy

**awkwardly late post sorry about it**

Picture your best and oldest friends.  The ones that saw you when you had your fat phase or your mouth full of metal braces. The ones who were with you when you got caught sneaking out and the ones whose phones contain so much blackmail of you, your congressional dreams can never be realized.  Now picture those people with you in one of the most historic cities in Italy.  Think about exactly how amazing and unreal that could be.  Then understand that is exactly what I did for this port.

Two of my best friends from my hometown are studying abroad in the beautiful Florence and I got the opportunity to visit them this port!  This was exceptionally exciting because our voyage originally wasn’t routed to Italy. We had to change the Itinerary when Ebola broke out in Western Africa.  Although I still am disappointed I did not get to travel to Ghana and Senegal, I am overjoyed I got to spend a few days with two of my favorite people, Allie and Lara.

Unfortunately I had a field lab the second day, so that put a bit of a wrench in things, but it all worked out just hunky-dory anyway.

The highlights:

Day 1: Moroccan Stomach Virus (terrible), Wifi, Errands, Beach in Civitavecchia

Day 2: Field Lab to a Vineyard – wine tasting for school, The Reunion

Day 3: Sandwiches from heaven, Florence Market, Piazzale Michelangelo, Date with my Al Pal

Day 4: train to Florence and all aboard the MV

The dirty details:

D1:

I woke up bright and early as planned, ready for an entire day of being a tourist extraordinaire in Rome, but unfortunately ended up with my face in the toilet.  It appears Morocco needed to give me one more parting gift.  Besides losing a bit of weight, there was nothing glamorous about this stomach virus.  Although I was nearly in the clear, I decided to forego Rome, as I have traveled there with my family, and opted for a more restful day in our port city of Civitavecchia.

After some rest, I willed myself to head into the city in search of wifi and stumbled upon one of my guy friends already in a café.  I took care of a number of things online including course registration, booking an Amazon trip for Brazil, getting my now-monthly dose of social media, and some online banking.  Please try to understand how precious wifi is and think of us kids stuck on the MV explorer next time you do a Google search in your spare time.  I would KILL to just look something up on Google whenever I wanted… I digress.

When the rest of our friends made it back from Rome, we rendezvoused on the beach and took in the sunset with some vino tinto – minus me – stomach virus, remember?  Although I was feeling much better. One of my friends and I both had field labs, so we started to head back earlier than everyone else because we had an on-ship curfew of midnight in anticipation of the morning lab.

Honestly, we probably would not have made it back in time, save for two Italian port-security men, who offered us a ride in the security car.  During our ride back, they invited us out to the bars, but we politely declined, as we had to be back to the ship.  Thank goodness chivalry isn’t dead in Italy.

D2:

Today we headed out in our European casual for a grueling and academically stimulating field trip to a vineyard.  Yeah, sometimes I have to remind myself this is school and we have lots of real work to do. J But actually, the lab was quite interesting given the circumstances.  My Entrepreneurship course, along with a number of others, had originally planned for a Field Lab in Ghana, so my professor had to scramble to pull together something remotely related to our class in Italy.

We ended up visiting an independent publishing house, an organic olive oil factory/ farm, and a lovely vineyard.  We enjoyed delicious Italian pizza for lunch and we also got to taste some fruity red wine and freshly made olive oil.

After that, we hightailed it to the train station to head off to Florence.  We took a short train into Rome and transferred to a bullet train north to our final destination.  I had planned on meeting up with Allie – best friend ever – in the McDonald’s of the Florence train station.  My SAS friends and I got off the train and ordered some food.  As we finished, I still had seen no sign of Allie.  We gave up after a bit and decided to head to our hostel and search for wifi to contact Allie and meet up elsewhere, then I saw two familiar faces jaunting towards me.

I immediately ran across the station and embraced both of my friends, laughing with a smile from ear to ear. Even now I grin looking back on my excitement.  To my great pleasure, both Allie and my other longest friend, Lara, were there to visit me!! Originally, Lara had told me she wouldn’t be in town that weekend, so I just expected Allie.  I am not sure how to convey how amazing and out of this world this was.  Allie, Lara and I have been friends since the sixth grade. We still talk fondly of our awkward junior high fazes. To spend a weekend in Italy with them, where they live, for a stop on my travels around the world on a gigantic cruise ship, well… surreal is probably the best way to describe it.  I felt as if it all was too good to be true.

I parted ways from my SAS friends for the night, in order to fully immerse myself in the company of my old friends.  We excitedly caught each other up to date on the rest of our summers – we hadn’t seen each other since the 4^th of July – and then about current goings on in our respective study abroad programs.  I got to meet all of their roommates in their apartment and we all bonded over a bottle of wine – or several 🙂

Then, it was off to enjoy Florence, in a way only old friends can, at the local watering hole, Uncle Jimmy’s and then off to Karaoke at Red Garter.  The highlight though, was getting Nutella croissants at a Secret Bakery.  We walked into a dark alleyway and knocked on a door, from which a hand extended and traded us coins for croissants.  It was magical and amazing!  I believe there are four in Florence, but I could not tell you where or it wouldn’t be a secret would it? I can safely say this was one of my favorite nights of semester at sea.

D3:

We woke up bedraggled and exhausted, but still in awe of the fact that we were all together in Italy.  Lara had to head off to catch a plane to visit her family in England, so Allie and I spent the day shopping and exploring Florence.

We got sandwiches at the best sandwich shop in the city.  An Italian subway, but much, much better.

After tooling around the markets of Florence and getting one too many pieces of clothing at the many shops, we headed back to Allie’s apartment for a much-needed nap.  We woke up feeling refreshed and decided to head out to Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset.

We made it just as the sun began to touch the horizon and the view was absolutely breathtaking.  Allie bought us a bottle of red and we sat with a few of my SAS friends that we had run into to take in the beauty of Florence as the day came to a close.  As soon as the sun dipped below the skyline, the clouds that had began to loom opened up and rain poured from above.  Everyone scattered, while Allie and I, Portlanders at heart, enjoyed the downpour and began the walk back to the city.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at Yellow Bar.  We split a caprese salad and I got gnocchi, my favorite.

After some delicious gelato at Edoardo we met up with the rest of my SAS friends at the hostel we had booked for the evening.  We stayed at Euro Student Home, which was really a dreadful hostel, but it has a phenomenal location.

That evening we started at Shot Bar Café, where 1 euro = 1 dollar, and then headed to a club called FullUp.  Both places were quite fun and, but like most locales in Florence, overflowing with Americans and tourists.

D4:

We all woke up, to the sad feeling we get every last day of port.  Yes, we love traveling to new countries, but there are always things left to do whenever we depart.  We stopped at a café for breakfast and then Allie walked us to the train station.  Both Allie and I hate goodbyes, so we parted in front of the station.  It was bittersweet, but we both know we will see each other in December.

I’m so happy I got to see my two loving friends.  This experience made my time in Italy special in an entirely different way from other ports.  It was also so refreshing to spend time with such old friends.  I do love my SAS friends, but it is just a different bond.  I still have a hard time comprehending I actually saw Allie and Lara in Italy, while traveling with my SAS friends is a regular occurrence.   I appreciate both of these friends and I love them both differently, hence the title of this post.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned to hear about my 21^st birthday in RIO!

Ship Life 101: 14 daze at Sea

I recently realized a huge part of this experience is life on board the MV and I have not really documented anything about that – besides my great pleasure at finding it the last days of port.  So, during these 14 days at sea – which have so far been incredibly and surprisingly fun- I figured I’d give you a little insight into what makes Semester at Sea so special.

Typical Day on the MV

Every day is a bit different, but they generally consist of a few activities – as there are not endless possibilities on an 8-floor cruise ship.

Working Out:  The fitness room is small – 2 treadmills, 2 Stairmasters, a few ellipticals and some bikes – we have to sign up to use the machines a day ahead and we are technically only allowed 30 minutes on a machine.  I never sign up and just go for the mystery box workout- taking whatever machine is open.  Although sometimes running on a treadmill while there are 15 degree waves is not the best idea if you are worried about personal safety.  Other times I do fitness workout movies with friends.  I workout almost every day – as long as I still have clean clothes.  We also have an area of free weights on 7^th deck (Top Deck) that are decent as well.

These are shots of the Fitness Room and top deck weights.

Playing Soccer/Volleyball/Basketball:  I really just play soccer.  We have a SAS FC -Semester at Sea Football Club – that organized a 3 on 3 World Cup for the 14 days and my team, Yugoslavia, is currently top in our group!  The court is small, but games are really tiring because they are so fast paced.

Here’s a shot of our court:

Laying out:  This comprises the majority of my free time and maybe some class time…. Sorry mom!.. but this is one of the most amazing parts of the ship.  Here it is entirely acceptable to pull on a dress over your bikini and head downstairs for your hour of class, then come back up outside to your chair where you left all of your stuff.  The SAS dress code is basically as long as you’re mostly clothed, its good.  Makeup is optional, sweats are encouraged and slippers are more than appropriate.

This is a typical school day for us.

Games: We can checkout various cards and board games from the activities desk and a number of kids brought Cards Against Humanity.  Though, I’d recommend not playing Cards Against Humanity every single day because it gets old really quickly and you start to memorize the cards. Insider tip: they have an entire set of poker chips at the Activities Desk.  Although if you don’t like loosing money, I wouldn’t advise that as some kids are pretty serious about Hold ‘Em.

This is the Piano Lounge, where we hang out whenever it’s not warm enough to be outside.

Eating:  The best praise we give a meal is “This isn’t horrible.”  I think that should give you a general idea about the quality of food.  If you love pasta, starches, potatoes and mystery meat – then you’d feel right at home eating on board the MV.  I’ve started to view Balsamic, Tabasco, and A1 as food groups.  Sometimes for a change of pace, I buy food at the Top Deck bar, which is actually decent, but that can add up really fast.  Sorry wallet.

 

Our dining halls… rough life I know.

Snack Bar: I tend to hang out at the snack bar by the piano lounge, because I made friends with the crew when I had all my dock time.  It’s great to know the crew because they are really cool and can hook you up with certain things.  Sometimes I even get free hot chocolate!  ALSO: Snack Time at 10:00pm is a daily staple, as staying full with the horrid food is difficult.  Never underestimate a good PB&J sandwich.  Although I am not sure if I will ever be able to eat one again after this.

 

Hard Drive Sex: Exactly what you’re thinking.  Well… maybe not actually.  Movies and TV shows are a currency on the ship.  If you have a hard drive filled with good films, your value to the shipboard community goes up exponentially.  Who knows? It could even help you find SAS love.  Bringing ample supply is quite recommended.

Work:  I am a work-study student, so I have 2hr daily shifts in our computer lab doing IT Desk duty.  For the first few shifts, this entailed setting up people’s emails, but now it mostly is a mandatory study hour and social time.  It’s quite a chill job and I’d definitely recommend applying for it if possible to future SASers!

 

Oh and I almost forgot: Class! For that, I’d recommend downloading some iBooks – I have all of Harry Potter – or the game Peggle, which is the latest craze for students to pass time in class.  Classes are really hit or miss on the ship. Some professors require unreasonable amounts of work and some don’t give any.  No one really knows until the semester is underway.  Mine are right in the middle.  The hardest part is making myself go and actually doing the readings.

 

We also have loads of activities and events:

Movies & World Cafes:  Every night in the Union, which is the main theater/meeting room, there are ship-wide movie screenings and various talks about current events, interesting ideas, new ways of thinking, and unique cultures.

Neptune Day: When we cross the equator there is a huge celebration.  It’s totally a mystery though.  I’ll keep you posted on that – its tomorrow!

Halloween: Everyone dressed up in surprisingly clever costumes and we had a Halloween dance.  Unfortunately, it isn’t your typical raucous Halloween college party because students are limited on the amount of alcohol they can buy per night.  To combat this, a number of kids started hording wine in their water bottles so they could get a buzz going for Halloween.  Honestly I would say it wouldn’t be worth it because the dance was an hour and a half and there was no room to dance, but whatever floats your boat – hehe get it?

Friends and me on Halloween in our typical dysfunctional fashion.  I was riffraff… the rapper.  Yeah we didn’t have many resources stuck on a ship in the Atlantic, so I went with what I had.

Another thing we have to look forward to after Brazil is the Sea Olympics!  This is a day wide competition between halls with tons of invents including: hula hoop contest, tug of war, knockout, twister, relays, and much, much more.  I got elected to be a Captain of my sea (halls = seas) so I have been already working on our plan of attack with my co-captains.  Spoiler Alert: we are planning on winning.

So that’s a little insight into some of the activities that take up my time onboard the MV.  It doesn’t seem like much, but I love every minute.  One of the best parts is really just the amount of time I get to spend with all of my friends.  I found some amazing people on the ship and I keep meeting more every day.  We stay up way to late talking for no reason and find silly ways to occupy our time.  On the ship, we have danced in the rain, played improve games, made music, gambled, learned origami, played mafia, slept under the stars, stated clubs, held grape eating contests and many, many other things.  Some people on board complain about boredom, but my parents always told me “smart people never get bored,” (to which I always responded – “Well I guess I’m dumb”) But I thus developed the ability to continually find ways to entertain myself and everyone else seems to have done the same.

After all, we’re all in the same boat here.  🙂

I’m a Nomad: Morocco (Day 2-4)

So as a continuation of my last post, we have days 2 to 4.  Lots more great things happened and I can’t wait to share them!

 

To reiterate: Highlights

Day 2: bus ride from hell and/or Disneyland, seeing actual game of thrones land, riding a CAMEL, sleeping under the stars in the Sahara dessert

Day 3: back to the camel again, back to the bus again, coolest hostel ever, bartering our brains out in the marketplace and ending the night smoking hookah under the stars

Day 4: train the way we should have done it, a little more shopping, Great Mosque, back to the MV!

 

The details:

That 7:00 am alarm came far too soon and we stumbled around on the rooftop in the still-dark night trying to find the clothes we had laid out the night before.  Our breakfast was delicious.  Our coffee had ginger and cinnamon in it and is probably one of the most delicious cups of coffee I have ever had. We also had rolls and this amazing fried flatbread fresh from the stove.

We met up with the rest of the group, which turned out to be entirely Semester at Sea students, about 80 of them.  We piled into vans to begin what we thought would be a short drive to the desert.  Nope. Not at all. We could not have been more wrong.  We had unknowingly signed up for an all day drive to Zagora, which we affectionately dubbed the fake desert or baby Sahara because of its proximity to the real Sahara Desert.  It is right on the edge, but not as far out as literally in the middle of the dunes.

Not only was the drive exorbitantly long, but it also was on the most winding, narrow, crazy, guardrail-less, and lawless roads I have ever seen.  Our drivers did not hesitate to go halfway off the narrow concrete to pass slower cars, trucks, and bikers.  We zoomed through the Moroccan countryside on the most illogically zigzagged roads you could ever imagine fearing for our lives all the while.  I tried to capture it in a picture:

We stopped about every hour and a half for breaks and to buy more water.  I probably went through 9 Liter bottles in a day – we were in the desert remember?

We stopped at an authentic Berber Village that has been used in tons of movies and TV shows, most notably Game of Thrones!  Take a look

 

Then we had a lunch of more rice and couscous (food so nice they named it twice)

and continued on our merry way.  We made another quick pit stop for water before really heading into the desert. Here’s a shot of my two best friends and I in front of some mountains.

After almost an entire day of travel, we arrived to our final destination, some pit stop a bit off of the road.  Camels sat everywhere on the sandy ground, looking tired and grumpy.  Moroccan Nomads dressed in turbans and loose dress-like outfits milled around tending to both the animals and some nervous students from our group who already had begun to mount their rides.  My friends and I began to get anxious and joked that we were happy with the trip and decided we’d rather go back to the Riad instead.

The camels seemed incredibly unhappy and just as weary as us.  After getting our bags from the back of the van, our group stood around awkwardly until one of the nomads beckoned me forward to the front most camel.  I’ll admit I was quite freaked out, but I realized there were no other options at this point.  I had already committed.  So, without much grace or ceremony, I swung my leg over the camel, tried to get situated, and let the Nomad pull the rather large animal up to standing.

The rest of our group got on as well and we set off into the Sahara as the sun began to set over the desert.  Yes, that does sound picturesque, but it was also horribly scary because we really had no idea who any of these people leading us into the desert were and we did not know how far to the camp.

Riding a camel is probably one of the least comfortable things I have done in my life, but I fortunately got the one with a much larger carpet-like saddle, so I hunkered in for the long haul.  Eventually we all got used to the fact that we were on camels and began talking with the Nomads in garbled English/Spanish/French while taking way too many pictures.

 

After an hour and a half of bumping up and down on our camels, we finally saw a circle of tents and heard the unmistakable chatter of a group of Semester at Sea students.  The campsite consisted of 8 large canvas tents circled around a bonfire with a larger dining-hall like tent.  We also had a latrine tent further away with real toilets!  I wouldn’t go as far as calling it glamping, but it could have been worse.  Here is a pic of my friend in front of the campsite.

 

I can safely assume that all of us were quite excited to dismount our steeds and get some good food in our bellies.  As the sun set, we enjoyed a lovely Moroccan dinner of vegetables, chicken, couscous, and rice.  We finished the meal with tea and went outside to watch a small performance by the nomads.  Around 6 of the them played several songs on their Moroccan drums.  A couple of us got up and danced for a bit, but we tired quickly as it had been a long day.

My friends and I decided to sleep under the stars on the side of a dune, so we grabbed our thick blankets and picked our spot. The moon was full that night, so we didn’t even need flashlights.  Our chatter died down quickly and we all fell into a deep sleep on the velvety, soft desert sand.

 

D3:

We woke up literally at the crack of dawn to the sun rising and quite cold sand.

We changed and packed our belongings, then met everyone back at camp for a quick breakfast of rolls and coffee.  We all mounted our camels and began to head back to our vans.  Most of us were a little bit sore from our ride the previous day, so it was not without a bit of grumbling, especially from the boys.

We made it back to the vans and prepared ourselves to head back the way we had came.  It was another long day of driving, with a pit stop for lunch, but we made it to Marrakech in one piece.

When we arrived, around 4 pm, my roommate and I separated from our van to meet up with another group of people with whom we had planned on staying our last night in Marrakech.  Although we did not exactly know where the hostel was, we already knew the secret to navigating the maze-like alleyways of Marrakech and after asking 3 different helpful strangers, we finally made it to Riad Dia.  Take a look at the entrance to see why it was so difficult to find.

This Riad was even better than the one we stayed at previously.  I absolutely LOVED IT.  Yet again, we opted to sleep on the roof and we found all of our friends up top.  We all took much-needed showers after two days of the desert and set off for another evening in the Marrakech Night Market.

The market was just as amazing and magical as the first night, but it was even more exciting to see a few of my friends experience it for their first time.  We all had a blast bargaining, haggling, and giving the vendors trouble, while shopping for our various family and friends – yes Mom, I did get your Christmas present.  No, I will not divulge it here!

After some more street food, we headed back to the Riad, to smoke some Hookah, enjoy more Moroccan mint tea, and then tuck in for the night.

 

D4:

We woke up early to make it to the station well before our train because we refused to ride second-class again –as we still had PTSD from the back-to-back, standing room only, 100 billion degree train ride to Marrakech.  We bucked up to the $2 more first class fare and had literally the most opposite experience ever.  The train car was roomy, air-conditioned, and it had assigned seats!  We all passed out for the 3ish hours back to Casablanca.

After arriving in Casablanca, we headed to the market to finish off our supply of Moroccan dirham.  A friend and I mustered energy from somewhere unknown and also stopped by the Hassan II Mosque to get our last bit of tourist out before boarding the MV and heading to Italy.

The mosque was absolutely gorgeous.  Honestly, I want tile like it in my future house and everywhere I ever live.

 It was also overwhelmingly large.  Here’s a shot from afar.

After we tooled around the Mosque in utter shock at its beauty, the sun began to take its toll and we decided to make our way back to our floating home for some much needed shut-eye and good food.  As we negotiated for a taxi ride, a driver decided to take my scarf and wrap my head in a turban, so that was cool.

We finally got a deal and headed back to home sweet MV.

I absolutely loved Morocco because it was such a different experience than any other port.  This port was challenging and scary, but also very fulfilling and rewarding.  We really got to test our motto of: it all works out.  And it still does.  The people were so friendly and hospitable.  I mean how many people in New York or Los Angeles would stop what they are doing to walk you where you are going when you’re lost?  The only thing I did not like would be the Moroccan stomach virus I got shortly after boarding the ship.  But, if we are focusing on the positive, at least I lost 5 lbs?

Anyway the next stop was Italy and meeting some old friends 🙂 I love this trip more and more everyday and I never want it to end.

 

xo

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times: MOROCCO (day 1)

Morocco has been literally out of this world. Amazing. Horrible. Horribly amazing. I loved this port in a completely different way than the past ones. We really played this one by ear for the most part and exercised our ability to adapt and be flexible like no port before.

As a little taste: we didn’t sleep inside for any one of the three nights there. The first day was by far the most insane day of my Semester at Sea journey to date and this was also probably the most blogable port yet, so dear reader, after setting your expectations so high, I hope I don’t disappoint.

The highlights (I’m giving you the overview, but D1 was so momentous that I am splitting it apart, so the rest of this post is only the first day)

Day 1: Casablanca and a magical hotel, trains that wait for you, melting into a sweat puddle on the train to Marrakech, accidentally drinking Moroccan ice, starting a taxi riot, getting lost in a literal labyrinth, being saved by a 7 yr old with a knife, monkeys, snake chargers, henna, sleeping on a roof

Day 2: bus ride from hell and/or Disneyland, seeing actual game of thrones land, riding a CAMEL, sleeping under the stars in the Sahara dessert

Day 3: back to the camel again, back to the bus again, coolest hostel ever, bartering our brains out in the marketplace and ending the night smoking hookah under the stars

Day 4: train the way we should have done it, a little more shopping, Great Mosque, back to the MV!

The details:

Day one we woke up early to rendezvous with a group of kids we had planned on traveling with for breakfast. This ended up being overly ambitious because it takes a great deal longer to get cleared in Moroccan customs as they insist on checking everyone and their passports face to face onboard the ship.

Fortunately, my hall was the first hall called and allowed to leave, but this wasn’t until about 11. I felt bad for the kids who weren’t allowed off, but we decided to head out with a group of three friends and I. We ended up being the first people off the ship and tooled around Casablanca for a bit until we realized we were completely lost and had no idea what we were doing or where to go.

We decided to stop off in a nearby Hyatt hotel assuming they could help us. We were shocked to discover several things. The first: there was security there and a metal detector at the door.  Second the hotel was amazingly luxurious. It was a Hyatt Regency, but we didn’t really expect it to be so nice in Morocco. It appeared to be made for diplomats and Saudis. Anyway we got a map, exchanged currency, and took a restroom break in their beautifully normal bathrooms while enjoying a reprieve from the scorching hot weather.

Then we stopped at the first place we knew would have WiFi, McDonald’s, to get some ice cream and get our bearings – I forgot to mention it was scorching hot outside and we were covered from head to toe out of respect.  After McFlurries, we realized we had 20 min to get to the train station and catch the 12:50 train to Marrakech, so we busted to a taxi, negotiated for what we thought was a fair price, then hopped in and headed off.

We arrived at the station with 13 minutes to spare and a melee of Moroccans and SAS people all vying to buy tickets for impending train departures. We struggled with the ticket machine as time ticked down. With only 4 minutes to go, we realized the machine wasn’t working correctly and we’d have to wait in a decently long line to get to the real ticket counters.

I hopped in line, which by the way, was literally back to back, apparently Moroccans don’t believe in the same personal space as Americans. As the line slugged by infinitely slower than it needed to be, the minutes flew by. I began to lose hope of catching this train and started planning things to do in the next two hours waiting for another.

As the clock hit 12:48, I was three people away from the front, still holding on to a sliver of hope, a growing knot in my stomach. Suddenly, bells from above chimed preceding an announcement in rapid Arabic. The train departure screen’s top entry blinked and a note appeared on the right hand side “détente 13:00.”

The train was 10 minutes delayed!! What’s my motto again? It all works out. And indeed in this case it did. We momentarily rejoiced, then threw money at the teller, grabbed our tickets and ran to Voie 2, where a crowd of people stood expectantly waiting for the train that was 3 minutes away.

Our exuberance, however, quickly dwindled when we remembered a strong warning we had been given the day before: do not buy second-class tickets. We mentioned it to each other and then shrugged it off as the train came. The moment it stopped though, we realized the prudence in this warning; Second-class tickets, approximately 2 dollars cheaper than First, are unreserved. And they don’t limit the number of people on the train.

So we shoved our way onto an overcrowded, smelly, packed train car, with little hope of finding a seat and braced ourselves for a rickety 3-hour ride sweating our faces off, without water, on a moving train with no personal space whatsoever. Here’s a pic

Fortunately, not everyone was going all the way to Marrakech, and a kind old man and his wife offered their seats to us after 30 minutes when they were planning on getting off. He also offered me to come with them to his country house – as translated by a smiling English-speaking, college age Moroccan girl across from us. I politely declined citing our plans in Marrakech and he continued to babble at me in Arabic to which I could only respond by smiling and laughing. His wife was also just as entertained and eager for my friend and I to come with them.

After they left for their stop, my friend and I tried to forget the fact that we could not stop sweating from every single pore in our bodies on the not really air conditioned “air conditioned” car and passed out for the remained of the ride. I cannot explain my relief to exit that train upon our arrival in Marrakech. We all vowed to buy first class tickets on the return trip or else we’d rather walk.

As we left the station, we recognized again that we had not much of an idea where we were, so we stopped to buy water and ambled toward the Medina, city center.  Little did we know, this marathon of a journey was by no way close to finished.

We walked for a good ways until we realized taxis are relatively cheap in the city and that we would be late for our touch-base meeting with the excursion guide whom we needed to pay for the camel trek we’d reserved for the next day. So we decided to attempt to get in a taxi. The first one we stopped, blatantly refused because Petit taxis – the smaller ones – only take three people and we had four.

Then a smiling man with quite good English told us he knew where we could take a Grand taxi – the unmetered, large group taxis. We asked where and he explained he could walk us. Being four girls, we were really hesitant to follow, but we honestly had no other plans or idea as to what to do. We had been warned about false guides that really just want money from tourists, so we warily began to go with the man in the Italia pants and we only walked along the main road.

Eventually, although somewhat unwillingly, we ended up with him at a huge taxi lot, filled with over 100 taxis and drivers waiting for business outside a market. We decided that we could take it from there and began to negotiate with drivers ourselves, mostly because we figured the man who’d led us there would want money and we didn’t want to pay him.

Well, our independence did not go over as well as we would have liked and next thing we knew our guide was yelling at the taxi manager while another driver put him in a head lock and around 20 other drivers all started yelling in incomprehensible Arabic all around us. We had our backs against a taxi and were completely surrounded by the cacophony of disagreements, but seemed not to be a player in any of the arguments. We kept exchanging panicky looks with each other wondering how the hell we had gotten in that situation and how to get out.

We slowly started edging away to the right when there was a break in the circle of men and as we moved further form them, the tension seemed to disperse as quickly as it had started. Then we found a driver a distance away and began to negotiate for a price. We finally agreed and the English speaking man returned as we got in, bombarding us with requests for compensation for his help. One of my friends handed him a few coins and the rest of us said we only had card, then hopped in the cab and spend off toward the hostel where we were supposed to meet our guide.

The driver pulled up to the entrance to a pedestrian alleyway and explained to us our destination was right through there. Seems simple enough right? Just down the road of course. Well, if you are familiar with Morocco at all, that could not be further from the truth. After paying, we got out and attempted to use Google Maps to get to the hostel, but Google Maps marks the entire area as devoid of pathways and roads, a large grey region.  In reality the entire place is littered with winding alleyways and twisting side roads, littered with innocuous doors that open up to amazing hotels and various markets overflowing with a plethora of Moroccan goods.

As we wandered this way and that, trying to angle toward the red dot on Google maps, the sun began to set and our good humor waned. It had been a long day and we were already an hour late for our meeting and we were about to be four lost American girls in the endless dark alleys of Marrakech.

After turning around so many times things started to seem the same and different all at once, a small boy of about 7 years in a red Ronaldo jersey holding a decently sized knife that may or may not have been fake, reached out to us in a deserted dead end and asked in French where we were going. The other girls and I exchanged hesitant glances, then I leaned down and showed him the address (which made no sense to us by the way) and the name of the hostel.

He responded, “I know where it is, follow me.” Not wanting to get into another situation like the taxi riot, I informed him, “We cannot pay you, we don’t have money.” He shrugged to infer that it was ok then turned on his heel with the command, “Follow me.”

Ronaldo, our savior

Yet again, we hesitated, but realized we didn’t have much other hope or any better options and followed little Ronaldo as he deftly navigated the maze without so much as a glance back in our direction, stopping to high five a few friends or acquaintances on the way.  We began to get nervous after a few minutes and we strayed further behind him, until he turned and motioned at us to keep following.

Against all natural instincts, we continued following him toward yet another empty dead end. In this one however, there was a small blue door with red around it and a subtle sign that read the name of the hostel Hostel Riad Marrakech Rouge. We were so happy, I almost grabbed the kid in a hug and spun him around. Instead, we dug into our wallets and threw way too much money at him. Then, without a word he turned and walk back the way he came, forever out of our lives.

We walked into the hostel and found ourselves speechless. The place was fantastic and eccentric. Here is a shot of the entryway:

Three people sat around on the plush colorful couches smoking hookah and drinking Moroccan tea. We sat down gladly taking tea from the hostel worker as he asked us if we had reservations. We informed him that we did not, but we had booked a camel trek through the hostel and were supposed to meet the guide there that evening to pay and discuss logistics for the next day.

As we waited for the guide to come see us, we started discussing the possibility of backing out of our original plans of heading to a house rented by some other SAS kids for a mansion party and instead enjoying a night in the city of Marrakech at that magical hostel. After talking with our guide and paying for the one night camel trek, we decided to pull a complete audible and book beds at the hostel. My two friends went to talk to the manager for a bit, while at sat back and tried to process what all had transpired in the never-ending day. I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome so far as yet again, my motto proved itself true and everything worked out.

Just to push that one step further, my two friends turned around from the reception desk and called to me and my roommate “Soo everything is booked but we can sleep on the roof. You down?” My roommate and I both replied in unison, “Yes!” So they showed us to our rooftop abode and we could not have been more excited. For 8 Euro, we were sleeping under the stars in Marrakech!

After changing out of our thoroughly soiled clothing, we decided to set out to see the acclaimed Marrakech Night Market. We were a little bit hesitant to take on the labyrinth again, but hunger drove us out and armed with both a map and directions, we realized just how easy it was to navigate if you knew the quickest route.

As we stumbled into the plaza, we all exclaimed various amounts of awe, excitement and shock. The place was alive with vendors and people hustling and bustling every which way. Ladies in burkas sat on the ground amongst a sea of beautifully lit metal lanterns calling to passerby to buy one. In the center, smoke rose from the various numbered food carts, where aggressive servers harassed tourists to come to their shop and eat traditionally Moroccan meals, with various guarantees of no food poisoning or Diarrhea.  Eccentricity dressed men attempted to put monkeys on the shoulders of anyone who walked too close and charge them for a picture. Snake charmers sat in the middle of a sea of onlookers making cobras move to the rhythm. Old ladies grabbed the arms of anyone left unaware and starting painting henna, then asked for a ridiculous price. Small shops overflowing with leatherwear, jewelry, tapestries, and an assortment of goods rimmed the outskirts of the vast plaza and Arabic men hassled those who walked past with a variation of English, Spanish, French, and Arabic, “skinny girl, skinny price”, “Eres bonita ven aqui”, “Come in miss! Come in miss!”, “I give you good deal.”

It was impossible to take in all at once and we stood completely dumbfounded for a moment. Everywhere I looked there was something interesting and different to see, foreign and amazing. Of course what was our first stop? Shopping. We took to the shops with gusto, bargaining hard and driving prices down to get the best goods. Laughing, joking, pleading, and hard-balling until we got the prices we wanted or just walking away. One vendor took us inside and dressed us up in “magic dresses” see here

After an hour or so of bargaining, we grew hungry. It was almost 10pm or so, and the market was still pulsating lively. We headed into the center where the street food stands were and began to attempt to decide to which of the numerous shops we should give our business. Out of nowhere I heard my name being called and turned to find a larger group of my friends from the ship eating at restaurant no. 100.

I could not have been happier to run into familiar faces after our crazy day. We embraced and began comparing travel stories everyone happy and excited and loving Morocco. We enjoyed some delicious kebabs and couscous for our first real Moroccan meal –

before:

after:

By then it was getting pretty late and we had an early morning heading out to our camel trek. We stopped by an old lady to get henna and then called it a night, exhausted from everything that had happened that day. Here’s a shot of the henna we got:

I’ll keep you posted with the camel trek, but I think the rest of Morocco deserves its own post after this insane day. To be continued…

Are we having fun yet?: Lisbon and Spain overland

To be honest, I may have had too much fun this port… but I believe it’s excusable as I needed to make up for lost time in Ireland.

I have learned that time flies on semester at sea in one of the most unique fashions. The few days we spend onboard seem like the blink of an eye and those we spend traveling feel like an eternity. I think we can attribute it to the sheer amount of activity and travel and of course unadulterated fun that we participate in during port stays. Regardless, Lisbon and Spain overland was the most fun yet! Although I am beginning to think I will say that about each successive port. Oh well. I guess this trip just keeps going up 🙂

The highlights:

Day 1: Lisbon, the best hostel ever, urban beach club

Day 2: Lagos, Rising Cock (not what you think), best burger ever

Day 3: rock climbing, booze cruise, picnic in the park

Day 4: bus fails, bus successes, Sevilla! Amazing new friend and an unlikely familiar face

Day 5: alcazar real, Mexican and Spanish food, Cadiz!

The details:

D1

The first day was rather uneventful as I had my last few hours of dock time, which basically consisted of sleeping in, eating and laying out in the scalding Lisbon heat on the top deck of the ship. Grueling punishment I know. Then I set out to walk around Lisbon and check into our hostel for the night.

We stayed at the HOME LISBON HOSTEL, which had been recommended to me by a fellow Trojan and did not disappoint in the slightest. It was an amazing hostel with great staff, good location, and fabulous facilities. After checking in, I walked around finishing some errands and shopping while struggling up the many cobbled hills of the city. Here’s a shot of the sidewalk.

Think San Francisco, but with exquisite cobbled roads and pathways, which no apparent organization or plan. I loved it. Then all my friends and I met up and headed to dinner nearby our hotel.

Afterward, we went on the pub crawl hostel by our hostel, which stopped at a few decent bars and ended at our ultimate goal destination: Urban Beach Club.

Although filled with semester at sea students, there still remained ample room for the rest of the fun-loving Portuguese, as the club is enormous. There also was an awesome face painter there.

 Overall, not quite the most blog-worthy night, but definitely a memorable one.

D2:

We woke up late the next morning, with barely enough time to make it to our bus to Lagos, a city on the southern coast of Portugal in the Algarve. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to do real sight seeing in Lisbon thanks to dock time, but that just means I guess I’ll have to return someday as wel. And you can be sure I will.

The bus got us in to the city late afternoon and we headed immediately for the much-acclaimed “best burger in the world” at Nah Nah Bar. Here’s a group shot I took of the crew waiting for our food:

We all got The Toucan Burger, and I’m not sure exactly what they put in it, but I can safely say they should not change a thing. The burger was everything I could ask for and more. It was delicious AND also quite large.

Then it was off to check into what had become a familiar name among the SAS kids, The Rising Cock. Yes the hostel was actually called Rising Cock – a clever reference to the Roster that is a symbol or Portugal. It is apparently the number 1 party hostel in the world and SAS took it over for the next 3 days.

The hostel certainly lived up to its reputation. It was also one of the coolest layouts for a hostel I’ve seen. There was the main location, organized like a typical hostel, with different rooms of a few bunk beds and an open hang out/living room area, but then it also consisted of several other apartments scattered a few blocks away. Essentially, by reserving with so many people, we had an entire apartment of 14 beds for my friends and I. The setup was perfect for our group.

That night we went on the pub craw organized by the hostel, leading to all the cute local pubs in this bitty, yet still bumping beach town with so many twisting alleyways.

D3:

We started our morning with breakfast cooked for us by the famous Mama of the Rising Cock, whom everyone refers to as Mama. She’s a lovely Portuguese lady who makes out-of-this-world crepes as breakfast for all the residents of the hostel. Then we headed to the beach, which was breathtaking.

We climbed all over the rocks, jumping in and playing in the ocean. Every few minutes we’d stop to pinch ourselves and ask if this was real life. Then we’d laugh and all rejoice over the fact that this can be called “school” hehe

After that, we grabbed a quick lunch of paninis before heading off to the Rising Cock booze cruise. Obviously that was everything you’d expect and more: unlimited liquor, party boat, and the open ocean.

I made friends with two of the workers on the cruise though and found them to be the most fascinating people. Charlie, an 18-year-old Aussie girl, had been working there for a few months when she ran out of money in Lagos and decided to stay. The owner of the hostel, a Portuguese American man, who’s mama was actually Mama, explained how he left his life in the United States to come pursue his dream of owning a hostel and has been doing that ever since.

Afterward, we headed back home for a nap before going out to dinner. We ended up just buying food at a market and enjoying a picnic in one of the many parks in Lagos and calling it an early night. The sunshine and booze cruise had really taken it out of everyone and a lot of us had early bus rides to Sevilla the next day.

D4:

Speaking of early bus rides, my friend Lucy and I, although we didn’t have tickets, decided to attempt to get on the 6:30 am bus to Seville because our room was waking up for it anyway.

We ended up sitting outside the bus, unable to communicate to the driver what we wanted or how we knew there would be kids who skipped the bus, watching it drive away. Hahaha oops. In the end though, it worked out even better because we got to get tickets on an afternoon bus chartered only for SAS kids and we had time to go to the beach!

We got some food at a bar on the beach and ended up talking to the petite Portuguese bartender for almost an hour about her life and it was eerily similar to mine. She – Silvia – asked my two guy friends and I what we were studying and they both replied “business” where I informed her I was business/computer science.

She went “me too! I guess the girls pick the hard majors.” Then she explained that she used to be a consultant in Lisbon. To which I replied, “Me too!”

She gave me a look of surprise then asked suspiciously, “What company?”

I told her and she looked utterly flabbergasted. Then laughed and responded “me too!!”

Mind. Blown.

Honestly what are the chances of that?

We talked about how she had a career in corporate for years, then decided to settle down with her boyfriend in Lagos and enjoy a less fast-paced life and how she was still deciding what to do now. She was so sweet and kind. We took a photo with her and my friend even invited her to come visit us haha.

I think we were just so enamored with her ability to pursue what she wanted in life. Anyway, Silvia, if you’re reading this, you rock!

Then it was time to head to the bus, which although was 5 hours or so, flew by because it was only SAS kids. We played games, sang songs, laughed and talked our way through the hours getting to know more people on the trip. I’m really glad we missed the early bus or I guess never got the chance to go on it, because this other bus was such a good time.

When we arrived in Sevilla, we checked into our hostel The Architect, which was another pleasant place, with a great area on the rooftop to hangout. We were all pretty wiped after so much travel, but we only had one night in Seville, so we headed out to explore the lively city.

We stopped at a Tapas bar for some sangria and of course Tapas. I got tortilla Espinosa, my favorite from Spain, and they comped me for my Spanish abilities. I. Love. Spain. Anyway then we just walked around the bustling city – whose streets were filled with people far past the time American bars usually close. It was fun to just sit by the river at a bar and talk to locals.

As we were strolling, we came upon some other semester at sea kids and I head a shocked exclamation, “Paige Kehoe??”

I looked around to find the source and discovered a girl named Kenzie from my high school lacrosse team whom I had not seen since literally graduation over 2 years ago.

What are the chances??

Apparently Kenzie is studying abroad in Morocco and her best friend from college is also on SAS, so she came to Sevilla to visit him. Mind. Blown. Again. Yet another unreal connection in an unlikely place.

It was fun to catch up and talk about old times and I still kind of don’t believe it was real.

My friends and I ended the night with the traditional Chocolate y Churros that I had missed so much since my time living in Spain. My friends were all shocked by how delicious it was. And I’m glad I forced them to try it, despite the late hours and disastrously high caloric content haha

D5:

The next morning we actually went to see the sights of Seville in the day. We stopped by the Real Alcazar, a beautiful cathedral and Christopher Columbus’ tomb. Seville is such an amazing city. I think we all wished we’d had more time to appreciate it. Yet again, another city I vow to return to.

At this point, I think I’m just going to need to travel for the rest of my life. I’m still unsure how I’m going to adjust back to normal life in one city, where I know the days of the week as opposed to simply A day or B day or port day.

The rest of the day consisted of travel and errand running in Cadiz and enjoying some Paella and Sangria before we had to be back on ship late afternoon.

I’ll admit that to those readers out there, this is perhaps been the least interesting post to date. Overall, the thing that made all of these seemingly mundane moments so meaningful was my friends. This port could probably be described as my most hedonistic and also the most people oriented. I attribute part of it to the fact that I missed a few days with everyone in Ireland and that our next stop is Morocco – much more of a cultural challenge and certainly less focused around socialization or clubbing by any means.

Lisbon and Spain were more of our European debauchery, but Morocco will be the biggest shock yet.

Off to Africa! xo

the most picturesque city ever: Amsterdam (overland #2 pt 2)

Amsterdam is probably my favorite city we have been to yet! I loved the young vibes and the beautiful canals that are everywhere and also look unfortunately similar haha

The highlights:

Day 2(night): Reuniting with all of our friends

Day 3: Pancakes! I Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, the coolest apartment

Day 4: cooking real breakfast, Heineken Experience, seeing the city

Day 5: Anne Frank house, nursing my shopping addiction, lots of trains, scary times in France

Day 6: Field lab….. ugh

So we left off with Bryce and I finally catching another bus to Amsterdam and figuring out how to get to the hostel. Our hostel was Amsterdam Center Hostel. I would give it maybe 5 stars out of ten, but being as we really were there for only 10 hours before heading to the apartment we had rented through Airbnb the next day, I didn’t mind. The steep stairs were a bit difficult, but we had a room for all of our friends, so it worked out ok.

Bryce and I set out for our first night in Amsterdam, with only a hope that we would run into the rest of our gang. What did I say in my last post? It all works out. Well, it did! We ran into both groups of our friends while wandering the city and had an amazing time strolling around.

We did venture to the fabled red light district, but unfortunately no pictures allowed there. You will just have to imagine… if you even want to haha

Day 3:

The next morning we were up early to check out of the terrible hostel and venture around the city. A few of us decided to get breakfast at a place my friend Jazz (who goes to USC but is from the Netherlands!) recommended – Pancakes! Dutch pancakes are quite different than American ones, but just as good. Take a look:

Then we roamed around the city, in awe of the number of canals and amazing scenery. We stopped at the famous I AMSTERDAM sign and got a typical tourist picture

Then we headed off to the Van Gogh museum to get cultured. I absolutely adored the museum and Van Gogh catapulted himself to my favorite artist. My favorite piece in the museum was courting couples – (I got a pic from google because you can’t actually take them inside)

After that, we decided to go check out the apartment we had rented for the next two nights and were pleasantly surprised by its spaciousness and location. It was in a cool neighborhood called De Pijp, right next to a beautiful park. Unfortunately there was only one key and about 15 of us, so we made plans of times to meet back before going out that night.

Then we all headed off in different directions.  My friend Lucy and I walked all over and tried some amazing macaroons:

And we finally found a cheese store in which every single cheese was cut into sample sizes. We tried literally every single one and left with the Truffle Cheese. Filling your belly with Amsterdam cheese is probably one of the most satisfying things you can do in Amsterdam, just fyi.

Anyway, by then it was getting late, so we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the night. We rolled out with a huge group, which was a bit unwieldy, but also really fun and we stopped at a number of bars around Rembrandt Square and Dam Square.

Day 4:

The next day a few of our group headed off to Paris and the rest of us slept in for the first time in ages. We woke up to the smell of bacon as my friend Rory cooked a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast. I didn’t realize how much I missed my kitchen.

We got a late start, but at least we were rested and ready enough to head to the Heineken Brewery. There, my friends made me pay 19 euro for the Heineken experience, which we were all pleasantly surprised to find out was amazing and a great bargain. The experience included, tour of the brewery – which had so many interactive activities, options to do a motion simulator where you are brewed into beer, areas to make custom beer bottles with your name, or custom shirts. They also had a tasting of course and we got to play a beer pouring video game. It was actually a lot more difficult than you’d think.  All of us failed…

The last stop inside the brewery was an area where you could either exchange your tokens for two Heinekens or for a Heineken and an official pourer certificate. I opted for the certificate although it took me two tries to get a good pour haha

After that, we got to finish our tour with a canal cruise. Here’s a nice selfie of a few of my friends and I on the cruise.

That evening we played it low key because they all had early transportation the next day.

Day 5:

My friends all headed out early to bus to Paris, but I opted for a later train because I needed a more direct connection to get to Le Havre in a timely manner. I had a lazy morning, much needed after all that travel, then strolled around the city taking photographs in the beautiful morning light.

Then I went to the Anne Frank house, where they do not allow photos, or luggage for that matter. Because of the small spaces, you can only bring bags that you are able to hold on your front.  I really broke a sweat holding my 45 L backpack on my front… a bit of a rookie mistake.

Afterwards, I shopped and shopped and shopped. Amsterdam has an amazing assortment of stores and boutiques near central station. Then I caught a train to Le Havre, with a stopover in Paris.

My transfer in Paris was 45 minutes and I realized as we arrived that I had to navigate the metro to the other main station in the city. I began to get stressed when the metro ticket machine broke. This is where my new motto, It All Works Out, came into play. A random French man, who spoke English, asked me what I needed. I told him, “I just need a metro ticket,” He handed me one because he had ten.

After thanking him profusely, I ran to the nearest train, which happened to be the right one. It led exactly to the St Lazare station, my ultimate destination.

Once at the station, I bought some food and looked around for my train. A man in purple approached me and asked concernedly, “Parlez-vous français?” To which I shook my head. He tried again, “English?” I nodded warily.

He then asked me, “Are you alone?”

I gave him a look that probably said, I do not know you strange man. I would not tell you if I was or wasn’t.

He understood and replied, “I work here. You can tell me,” and he showed me his papers. I nodded, yes, I was alone.

He replied, “There has been a man following you for the past 10 minutes. Watch yourself and be careful.”

I looked around, scanning the crowds in the station, everyone hustling and bustling around me. No familiar faces in sight. I was getting a bit panicky when I noticed four Semester at Sea students sitting outside the train we would be boarding soon. I turned back to the trainman and replied, “I’m not alone any more! Thank you!” and ran over to sit with the SAS students.

I introduced myself, told them my story, and they all were equally as shocked as I. I ended up taking the train to Le Havre with them and everything was fine, but that was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience to say the least.

Day 6:

I had a photography field lab this day and we mostly tooled around Le Havre taking photos. I’ll spare you the gory details by letting you know Le Havre is probably one of the least exciting places I have traveled to in my days and leave it at that.

Next stop: IRELAND  (the homeland)

waffles + chocolate + beer + NATO: Belgium (overland #2 pt uno)

This begins a series of posts detailing my forays into the Benelux region – over what seems live a lifetime, but really only constitutes 6 days. I traveled overland (not getting back on the ship) from Belgium to the Netherlands to France. The trek took a lot out of me, but it probably was my favorite and most eventful port yet. Thus I am breaking it up by country again.

** also apologies for the lateness – ship wifi did not work at all in Ireland

The highlights (of Belgium):

Day 1 – September 14th: surviving the apocalypse and ending up in Antwerp, Belgian delicacies, mystical alleyway, turn up on a Sunday at a karaoke bar and a gay bar

Day 2 – September 15th: field lab to Brussels for Global Security – waffles round two and a visit to NATO, getting lost at McDonalds on the border of Belgium and Netherlands

Day 3-5: Amsterdam – next post!

The details:

Day 1:

Another port, another early morning. I met with a small crew of friends at 9:00am to explore Antwerp, our port city and one of the biggest cities in Belgium. Our plan constituted of searching for Waffles, Chocolates, and Beer – preferably in that order. To our dismay, however, the people of Belgium do not rouse from their post-Saturday night stupor until much after 11:30 or 12:00 – we even saw a club that contained a few people still on the last leg of their nights out around 9:30.

We were walking around an entire city essentially devoid of all life, except for small hoards of Semester at Sea students. It was quite an eerily and disorienting experience. We felt as if the world had ended and the only living survivors were SAS kids.

It took a while, but eventually we found the only waffle shop in all of Antwerp that opened before 11:00am, Désiré de Lille, along with every other person from the MV – and we ordered.. take a guess? Some Belgian Waffles.

  As you can see, mine was absolutely amazing. Belgian waffles are a bit crunchier than American ones, so at first I did not think I enjoyed it, but after the second bite I was hooked and about 2 seconds later I had cleaned my plate ☺

Then we set off to explore the city- that Sunday was a carless Sunday – literally no cars were allowed in the city. It happens once a year in Antwerp and we lucked out to arrive on that day. We saw tons of festival booths being set up promoting bike riding and being green. We also stopped in for a bit of Dutch mass in the main cathedral. Unfortunately, we neglected to realize the service would be entirely incomprehensible to us, until we sat down, but luckily we were not too far up and could sneak out quietly.

After, we wandered around until we found the oldest house in Antwerp, called Vlaaikensgang. (your guess about pronunciation is as good as mine here). A few Belgian students that visited the ship had told us about it beforehand and typed the name in my phone. From the outside, it just seemed like any old alleyway, but inside it was astounding.

Of course, the next stop on our self-led city tour was chocolate shops. We visited several, before all buying lots of truffles. I’ll just say, Belgian chocolate really lived up to its reputation.

 

Fun Fact of the day: Antwerp is named after the myth of a giant who used to cut off the hands of people who could not pay to enter and throw them in the ocean. Ant means hand and werp apparently means throw or throwing. So, of course we bought some Antwerp chocolate hands as well.

Then, we then stumbled upon antique market

We tooled around before our stomachs began to gnaw, so we decided to break for some Sushi, for a change of pace. Yes, I know, Belgian Sushi? Sketchy. But actually it was not at all. I finally satisfied my craving for sushi – which was quite big, being I previously lived in Los Angeles, home to some of the best sushi ever. I am here to say, Belgian Sushi is just as good as any I’ve had before.

We found the day of no cars festival had finally begun and people were cleaning bikes in one of the coolest ways I had ever seen

After that, we tired of being tourists and decided to go local – aka start drinking beer. We stopped at a small pub right outside the festival in one of the main squares. We tried a couple of beers as a group and unsurprisingly enjoyed them all. Here is a shot of my friends at the bar ☺

Then here are the beers:

Some cherry one – Lindemans

Triple Karmeliet

And lastly De Koninck

If you ever go to Belgium, I’d recommend all three. After a few beers, we all realized how long of a day it had been thus far and headed back to the ship for a quick rest before taking off for the night.

Leave it to hundreds of semester at sea kids to figure out exactly how to have a rowdy night in a random port town on a Sunday. I believe the owners of the only open bars – a Karaoke Bar and a Gay Bar – were pleasantly surprised or abhorred with the amount of business they received that evening. I called it an early night though because I had a field lab the next day.

Day 2:

Meet my class at 9:30 with all my stuff for overland travel. I’m sure I looked a bit odd in business casual and a backpacking bag on my back. We took off for Brussels on the tour bus and everyone almost immediately passed out. Our tour guide led us around the city, seeing their huge statue tribute to atomic energy – back when it was viewed more positively I think and a ton of beautiful architecture.

As we were walking, we passed a restaurant called Drug Opera. Everyone had a bit of a chuckle about the name, until our guide led the group right up to it – apparently we were eating lunch at the Drug Opera. To this day, I have absolutely no idea why it is called that. But I swear it really is:

Lunch was, of course, waffles.

Then we headed to NATO, where we got to listen to two amazing speakers discuss the recent Wales Summit and the Russia/Ukraine conflict. I’d tell you what we learned, but then I’d have to kill you… well, not really, but you’d probably be a bit bored. I myself was completely overjoyed and enthralled.

By the end of the lab, a few other students and I checked out from the bus back to Antwerp and detoured to the Brussels train station to catch our various rides to Amsterdam. We are now allowed to check out of field labs at the end, and not ride the bus back to the ship, so that was essentially a free trip to Brussels, which worked out perfectly for my bus to the Netherlands.

I met my friend Bryce at the train station and we hopped on a eurolines bus to Amsterdam. About halfway there, we made a pit stop at a gas station and the driver informed us we had 15 minutes. Bryce and I, absolutely famished as we both had been in Field Labs all day, stopped at the McDonalds right by the gas station to grab dinner. Unfortunately fast food isn’t so fast in Europe because apparently it took longer than 15 minutes. To our dismay, we walked outside, chicken tenders and smoothies in hand, to an empty parking lot.

Immediately, we turned to each other, too shocked to be angry, and both uttered some form of expletive. Then we started thinking about plan B.

The situation: we were stuck at a McDonalds in maybe the Netherlands, maybe Belgium, with around 40 euro on us. I had my passport. We both had our phones. And we had chicken tenders. Location:

The obvious conclusion was: head to the nearest bar and start drinking. Just kidding! First, Bryce drew the word ‘Amsterdam?’ on a sign. We sat outside the station, hoping someone would be heading in that direction.

Then, I pulled out my phone and started looking up the emergency number for our bus company – thank you so much mom and dad for giving me an international phone plan! I called the number and got through immediately.

I went, “So, a friend and I are traveling from Brussels to Amsterdam and we just got left by our bus.” The operator barked a laugh and replied knowingly, “The McDonalds.” Apparently we were not the first to have made this mistake, and undoubtedly we will not be the last.

Luckily, another bus was headed our way in an hour and the other driver could hold our bags at the station in Amsterdam for us. Here is where our new SAS motto comes in to play: IT ALL WORKS OUT. Really, it does. Anyway, we mulled our “misfortune” out over a few beers and caught the next bus to Amsterdam, where our bags were waiting for us at the station and our friends were waiting at the hostel.

I just need to reiterate: it all works out. Throughout all of our travels, in some bizarre way or other, everything always works out okay. Time and time again, we think the worst has happened, but we all go back to our motto: it all works out, and it does. Try it sometime. Positive thinking really does work.

On to Amsterdam… To Be Continued!

the city that stole my heart and the camp that broke it: Poland (overland pt 1)

–disclaimer, this post is quite late due to wifi issues… sorry! —

I can hardly believe we are already on stop number three of the adventure of a lifetime. I have already made some amazing memories and even better friends. This post comes as we ride the train to Warnemünde, Germany to meet up with the ship after what seems like a lifetime off board. My friends and I overland traveled through Poland and Germany, so we did not re-board the ship as it moved between countries and are en route to meet it in Germany now. I’m separating posts by country, so this one is for you Poland!

The highlights: 

Friday September 5th: disembark, tour Gdansk, nightmare of transportation to Krakow, Krakow nightlife

Saturday September 6th: free walking tour by morning, Auschwitz by day, and dreadful overnight train to Berlin with crazy Swedish ladies by night

The details:

Day 1:

The morning came sooner than expected as I headed off to breakfast with my roommate and some friends to get my last dose of free food, however mediocre ship food may be, before catching the shuttle into Gdansk and traveling across Poland. A friend and I had booked a cheap flight from Gdansk to Warsaw and then a short connection to Krakow. We tooled around Gdansk, a beautiful port town filled with old architecture and amazing buildings, but with a name that we still can’t quite figure out how to say.

We also went to a number of street markets to see the locals and shop around. Here’s a shot of an adorable old lady who wanted me to take her photo. 

Then, we hopped on the 210 bus that we hoped would take us to the Gdansk airport. After 30 minutes of scenic countryside and not a word of English anywhere, we finally saw a sign with an airplane on it and breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it to the first step of what ended up being a bit nightmarish journey.

The first flight was delayed 45 minutes so we missed the connection. Luckily there was another plane a few hours later and they gave us meal vouchers, so at least dinner was free. Two 55 min flights later and we arrived in Krakow! After a shuttle too the bus station and a bus to the hostel, we wanted to collapse from travel exhaustion, but we knew we only had a night in Krakow and, being a Friday night, we simply had to go out –it was the only logical thing to do 🙂 .

Our hostel was One World Hostel, right on the outskirts of old town, a perfect location. By the time we got ready, it was about 11:00, so we asked the front desk worker, a sweet 20something named Aggie, where we should go. Krakow is filled with bustling nightlife, so there was a long list of places to see. She made a few calls, however, and sent us off to meet some red-headed guy named Jack who was leading a pup crawl that we could join for free because it only had a few more stops.

We took a few wrong turns in the ancient cobbled alleyways, but eventually found the bar where hopefully the pub crawl still was and we went in search of “Pub Crawl Jack.” After a few run-ins with fake Pub Crawl Jacks (we accosted every red-head in sight asking if they were Pub Crawl Jack, sorry world) we found the correct one and hung out with him and his polish friends who lead pub crawls for work – what a tough job. Anyway the two places we went were Rewolucja and an underground club called, interestingly enough, Prozak.

The venues in Krakow are amazing because at first glance they seem like innocuous apartment complexes, but when you go down winding, narrow staircases, they open up to multiple dance floors, bars and lounges. We thought they were basements, but later learned that the bottom level of buildings in Krakow is the original level of the city from the 13th and 14th century. Amazing. We did not stay out too late though because we had plans to go see Auschwitz- Birkenau the next day. Overall a great night in a fascinating city.

Day 2:

The next morning we woke early to see the Krakow by day before heading off to the concentration camp. We had breakfast of a traditional polish snack called Obwarzanek that is a combination of a pretzel and a bagel. They were sold at little stands like this one all over town. 

We joined a free walking tour headed by a hilarious polish man whose name sounded like “Magic.” He led us around the main square and sites of old town all the while keeping us entertained and educated. I wish we’d had more time to finish the tour, but we had to get lunch before catching a bus to Auschwitz.

We stopped to grab a quick bite before leaving and we tried polish Pirogi – a typical dish in the northeastern parts of Europe. Basically polish stickers filled growth cabbage or some other savory foods. So yummy. 

As we drove the 45 or so minutes on the tour bus, it finally hit me where we were headed. I felt a little bubble of dread in my stomach, but I felt I owed it to humanity to see this tragic landmark. It’s still hard to write about now, and I don’t feel right posting most of the pictures I took, but here is the one I’ll share.  I’ll just say I firmly believe every human should visit a concentration camp sometime in their life. Just seeing the vastness of Birkenau, essentially a macabre mass-grave that eerily felt like some perverse summer camp took my breath away and words still evade me. Although it saddened me incredibly, I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit although I will never return.

My friend and I both passed out on the shuttle back to Krakow, physically and emotionally drained, where we picked up our bags from the hostel and headed to the train station to catch the overnight sleeper to Berlin, where we planned to meet our friends for a little more lighthearted touring and clubbing. Here’s a pic of the sleeper car and of my friend’s horror at the sheer compactness of the space. (she’d probably be upset I uploaded this, but it was too funny) 

Then a shot I got from my lofty top bunk of three, trying to capture the three opposing bunks. 

Our 4 other bunk-mates were non English speaking older women. This is probably another experience I hope not to repeat in the near future and we can leave it at that.

I’ll add a separate post to talk about Germany, because I felt Poland deserved its own. I really fell in love with the antiquated alleyways of Krakow. Aggie from the hostel was definitely correct when she informed us, “you won’t want to leave after one night.” I guess I will just have to return. Until next time, goodbye Poland ❤