Back in America

Date: September 7, 2008
Location: Norfolk, Fairfax Station, and West Lafayette

I suppose I owe my reading public some final thoughts on my experience on Semester at Sea’s Summer 2008 voyage. How do you simple summarize two and a half months? I was able to see such a diverse number of places, from the stunning Norwegian Fjords, to Red Square, to Flanders Fields, to the Vatican to the Pyramids and the Acropolis; not to mention surviving the cliffs of Croatia. Despite the difficulty, I’ll try.

Europe is truly a fascinating place. The people are similar, yet also very different. Some were extremely friendly and helpful, such as the Belgians and Norwegians. Others were rather standoffish, such as the Russians. Some people were rather conniving and always trying to make a buck off you, such as the Egyptians. Despite these things it was very good to be able to see these things on my own. Semester at Sea is truly an unparalleled chance to see such a diverse spectrum of places and people.

The M/V Explorer finally made landfall at Norfolk a few weeks ago. We were all woken up by Neil Diamond’s ballad “America.” With lyrics like “On the boats and on the planes/They’re coming to America/Never looking back again/They’re coming to America” it was quite fitting. They blasted this song through the ship’s speakers so if one hadn’t woken up to see us sail in, they were up now.

It took a while for the ship to clear customs. The USS Wisconsin, a WWII era battleship that was turned into a museum ship, was docked next to where we pulled up so it was neat seeing that from the observation deck. This caused us to pretty much sit in the dock for some time waiting for the call over the PA system telling us we could get off. This was sort of a mixed blessing because it allowed us time to say our goodbyes to everyone. I met a ton of great people on the voyage and I miss them.

Once my Caribbean Sea was called, I grabbed my bags and headed for the gangway, walking off the ship for the final time. It felt great to finally set foot down on American soil again; however, there was also a tinge of sadness knowing I was leaving such a great place and such great people. I slowly worked through the customs line. After saying I had nothing to declare, I grabbed my bags and walked over the bridge that separated the dock from Norfolk proper.

As I walked across the bridge I quickly met my parents, who I’d last seen in Halifax. They were sure glad to see that I still had a head attached after my Croatian experience. It was great seeing them and we quickly started talking about all I had experienced. We then got in the car and began driving back home.

After the relatively short drive, we were finally home. It was sure great to sleep in my own bed and see my dog again. It’s kind of funny, I can be gone for two and a half months and see half the “old world” yet my dog will be happiest of all to see my dad, who had been gone for two days. I love that little guy.

The next day we loaded up the cars and we were off to West Lafayette, Indiana. We made it there and I began to move my things in and settle into life back on terra firma. It’s great seeing all my old friends from school again. Classes at Purdue have begun and it’s hard to believe I’m a senior now. Every now and then I’ll run into one of the other three Boilermakers who were on Semester at Sea. It’s nice to exchange stories with them for a little bit and remember the good times at sea.

I can’t believe it’s all over, but it sure is nice to be back in America.

I have a few photos that I'll try to put up later. My internet connection here is a bit spotty

Sailing toward America

Date: August 17, 2008
Location: The Atlantic Ocean
Lat: 33° 27.4N Long: 048° 21.50W

Well, we’ve been sailing for a while now. I suppose first things first. My concussion is gone; thankfully I’m feeling a whole lot better. There have been a lot of things happening and unfortunately I’ve forgotten some things.

I suppose one thing I can mention is that we had to stop for fuel at Gibraltar. This was a pretty neat process. We pulled up extremely close to the Rock and I was able to get some absolutely great photos of it. Also, we never actually docked at the port, instead we simply dropped anchor and had a ship come alongside and fill up our tanks. This took awhile but it was a new experience.

After we refueled we headed out into the Atlantic. Since then it has been a lot of work. Pretty much everyone on the ship has been swamped with writing papers. When we’re not writing papers we’re tanning on the deck, so it is not all bad, I guess.

There have been a lot of fun things going on. The Ship’s Crew put on a talent show which was a lot of fun. Usually we just see the crew as a blue uniform that performs services for us. However, it was particularly cool to be able to see their personalities shine forth. This wasn’t too fun for me because of the flashing lights and loud noises still gave me trouble.

We also had a question and answer session with the Ship’s captain and some other staff members. There were a lot of interesting questions. However, there were some absolutely stupid ones. Probably the best was a question on why the ship floats. This sort of caught the captain dumbstruck. He was absolutely hysterical because he answered a lot of questions in a smartass way.

I took the Global Studies final today. I thought it was pretty easy and breezed through it. We have two more finals the day after tomorrow. Looks like it will be more studying and relaxing. Life gets pretty slow on the M/V Explorer when you’re at sea for days.

Jumping Off a 91-Foot Cliff in Croatia: the first 90 feet were great!

Date: August 10, 2008
Location: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Lat: 42° 40.0N Long: 018° 4.7E

Wow, what a long and strange three days. There’s so much to talk about for this port. The last one has sure been a trip.

I suppose I can add some general observations here. Croatia is an absolutely beautiful place. I don’t know about the interior of the country, but Dubrovnik is a gorgeous town. The buildings are beautiful, there are these white houses built into cliffs with red roofs, it looks a bit like California. There are plenty of winding roads. The Croats are friendly people who aim to please. I would be happy coming back here.

Dubrovnik was a bit different for us as it was our first port with tender boats. This means that the good ship M/V Explorer wasn’t docked at the port. Instead we were anchored in the harbor and had to take 90 person ferry boats to the dock. These were done in on the hour and half hour so one could get ashore pretty easily. However, one would turn into a pumpkin at 0200 because that’s when the boats stopped running so the poor soul would be stranded if they didn’t make the boat. It was never a problem for me, but some of my friends got stranded.

Dubrovnik has a very interesting composition. It is comprised of both an old town, and naturally, a new town. The old town is absolutely gorgeous; it has cobblestone streets and stone buildings. It is all surrounded be a beautiful stone wall. The water is a most beautiful shade of blue.

The new town is also very nice. I didn’t spend much time in it. However, it seems a bit like California with the whitewashed buildings and red tile roofs. Everything is most beautiful here.

We all quickly went ashore with our things to check out our beach house. After a short bus ride we met up with the guy who was running the house. It turns out that our small group was actually part of three larger groups of SASers so it was around 30 people who were ultimately convoying together. We eventually made it to the house; however, there was no beach even close. It turns out that the group would be split into two groups. The guys would be in one house, the girls in the other. This was news to us but we made do. Our house was within the walled city of Dubrovnik, more or less, old town Dubrovnik. I’ve heard the other house had an amazing view overlooking the water.

After we had this settled we put our swim trunks on and we went out to find a beach. We found one that was off the harbor. There wasn’t actually a beach here, just rocks. However, there were some nice 15 feet jumps off the rocks into the water. This was a lot of fun.

After we were done with this, we headed out for some lunch. We found an absolutely delicious pizza place. The pizza’s were Neapolitan style and quite tasty. I had one with cheese and prosciutto, it was very good.

Once we had finished eating we heard that there was an actual beach right outside of the walled city. The beach was real lovely, not least because there were some topless ladies there as well. The water was nice and comfortable in the hot sun. We relaxed here for a while and sampled some of the local beers. This was a most excellent, enjoyable time.

While we were on the beach we heard about a cliff jumping opportunity from some friends. Apparently there were 91 foot tall cliff jumps. The funny thing is that the way to find the jumps was that they were at a bar. The way to find this was that the signs said “Cold Drinks and Great Views.” I decided that the best way to find this was to keep going up and up stairs.

While we were heading to the cliffs I stopped by a bar since some of my friends needed to go to the bathroom. I saw a little bit of the Olympic opening ceremonies. I suppose I should mention that I actually only saw a brief snippet. Apparently, Yao Ming was the flag bearer for China. I feel a bit detached from the Olympics. Pretty much the only way to get updates on the sports is by reading Wikipedia. Oh well, it is part of the Semester at Sea experience I guess.

We eventually found the cliffs. Some other SASers were already there so we felt pretty good about things. There are two possible jumping points, a 45-footer and a 91-footer. Our team unanimously decided to do the 91-footer.

One of my friends jumped first. He said that it hurt but he was fine. This made me feel pretty good since I was up next. I looked over, a bit nervous but I was confident. I then jumped. What happens next is a bit hazy. Apparently after I jumped I was looking down at the water. This therefore caused me to pitch a bit forward. My body hit the water first and then my head impacted the water at a considerable speed. I was knocked unconscious. The bartender at the bar ran down to the 45 foot dive and jumped in after me. They also called an ambulance.

The next thing I remember I was up near the bar area talking to people. Apparently what happened was that when I hit the water I was knocked out and received a concussion. I was then floating face down for a very short time. Swimmers quickly swam to me and dragged me to the landing. From there I regained consciousness and slowly walked up to the bar area. I had friends both in front of me and behind me to make sure I was ok. I managed to walk fine on my own. After all this, they realized that the ambulance probably wasn’t necessary

I apparently bit down hard on my lip, causing it to swell considerably. I was given some ice to suck on to reduce the swelling on my lip. I was still totally dazed at this point. I was led by some of my friends to the buses, which I took back to the landing. I then got on one of the tender boats back to the ship.

One of my friends called up the ship doc from the phone by the purser’s desk. My friend explained what was going on with me and the doctor came in around 35 minutes. Apparently he had just sat down to dinner, plus the tender boats make things difficult too.

He started examining me. I suppose he did all the standard concussion tests. He checked if my pupils dilated and if I could stand straight. He also checked my muscle response and things of that nature. After talking to me he said that I should be ok in a few days with some water and bed rest.

I spent the rest of the day and night on the ship. I drifted in and out of sleep. I also had a considerable neck ache and bruises. It wasn’t my best night of sleep to say the least. I stayed on the ship most of the next day. I grabbed some lunch and called home. I had emailed them earlier telling them about what had befallen me. Clearly they were worried. After letting them know that I wasn’t dead, I decided that I was wasting both my time and money staying on the ship.

I headed back to Dubrovnik despite a considerable headache and a other pains. I purchased a bus ticket and started my quest to reunite with my friends. I had some initial problems. The buses hadn’t come for awhile so I decided to walk to Dubrovnik. I got turned around and decided to take the bus since I knew any bus with a 1 (buses 1, 1A, and 1B) would get me downtown.

Unfortunately I happened to take a bus that was going the long way. This resulted in around a 45 minute bus ride. I got to see a lot of small-town Croatia. After this long winding journey I eventually made it to the walled city. I looked all around the walled city and couldn’t find my crew. I then decided to check our apartment. They weren’t there. I then moved to the beach where we started yesterday. Luckily I found my crew and we were reunited. They were all happy to see me and justly concerned about my health. I was really loopy yesterday.

We hung out on the beach for a while and then headed back to the apartment. We got dinner and then returned to relax at our place for a bit. All of my friends started drinking liquor and liter beers; I passed on it because the Doc told me not to, not to mention it already felt like I had a hell of a hangover as is because of the concussion. After channel surfing through Croat TV and coming up empty, we all decided to head out to a beach front club.

This would have been a ton of fun if I hadn’t had a concussion and had been drinking. Unfortunately, neither of those criteria was met. The club was a private hell for me. The flashing lights and pumping noise set my wrecked brain on fire. I mostly hung out on the beach and away from the flashing lights and painfully loud music. After around 4 hours of this torture, I decided to assemble my crew and get us back to our apartment. I was the only one with the key since I was the designated walker and navigator it was up to me to get us moving.

We made it back and piled into the beds. I woke up feeling pretty bad; I suppose strobe lights and loud euro pop techno don’t help the ailing head very much. I handed my key off to a friend of mine, gathered my things and hightailed it out of there. I got a bus back; thankfully it was far more direct this time. I got back to the dock and boarded a tender boat and got back to the M/V Explorer, leaving Europe.

I relaxed onboard the rest of the day, avoiding loud noises and flashing lights. Apparently I’m something of a legend on the ship since most people have heard that someone got knocked out. Even the executive dean’s heard of my problems. Usually when I tell people why my Croatian experience wasn’t the time of my life, they mention that they heard about something like that happening. It makes life interesting and at least I wasn’t seriously hurt.

Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow. I sure hope so because we have classes for the next couple of days and then finals. This is not the ideal time for a busted head. Hopefully I’ll be fine soon. The pain comes and goes, I don’t think it will be here for too much longer. I’ll be able to manage, it’s just pain.

The Greek Islands

Date: August 6, 2008
Location: The Aegean Sea
Lat: 37° 23.15N Long: 023° 38.68E

Well, the Greek Islands are absolutely beautiful. I had to wake up pretty early to make the bus. A friend of mine didn’t have a ticket, but they took his information down and he was welcomed on board, which was nice.

The ship went to three islands, Poros, Hydra, and Aegina. The ferry that took us there was really nice too. They had a bar on board, which I made good use of so I felt excellent throughout the trip. The prices were good too.

However, there was more to this min-booze cruise than booze. The island of Poros was absolutely gorgeous. The island was really rocky and mountainous. There seemed like not much there outside of a marina and some nice little places next to it. The architecture was very pretty. The buildings all seemed white washed so they gleamed in the bright Aegean sun.

After disembarking the ship, a friend and I decided to climb up to the bell tower. This was up on the highest point on the island. We quickly climbed up it and took some excellent photos. Poros was nice, but small. We quickly left after an hour or so on the island.

We were served lunch on the ship. After Italy I have acquired a taste for red wine, so I ordered a mini-bottle of that. It made the food a bit better, which was some beef with a sauce on it. The dessert kind of tasted like a fig newton with strawberry sauce. I didn’t care for it too much and didn’t eat much of it. The odd thing was that there was a type of cream sauce that came with the dish. It wasn’t ice cream since it was warm, yet it wasn’t whipped cream either, it had the consistency of butter. Maybe that was what scared me away.

We then made landfall on the island of Hydra. This was my favorite island by far. We quickly walked to a beach where we proceeded to go swimming. I didn’t have my trunks so I just swam in my boxers. This was a ton of fun. The Mediterranean Basin seems to be very salty; whenever I’ve dried off after swimming I can just brush the salt off me. However, the best part of all this was that there was a cave that went in maybe 20 yards. The roof of the cave was close to where we were standing so we decided to jump off it. This was probably around 20 feet off the surface of the water so it was a nice jump. We did this several times then we high-tailed it back to the ship.

A funny thing about Hydra is that it is entirely car free. The mode of transportation is instead the use of burros. Donkeys transport everything. It’s kind of funny seeing plastic grocery store bags on burros’ saddlebags.

We then moved to Aegina. This was a nice island as well. We headed over to a beach. After some swimming I fell asleep on a lawn chair. I almost missed the boat but my friend woke me up. I thought we left much later than we did. I quickly put on my shoes and we started running. After maybe a ten minute jog, we made it. They were close to pulling in the gangway but we got there in the nick of time. I’m sure glad my friend was on the ball.

After a nice boat ride back we grabbed dinner on the ship. We then headed out to Athens to explore the local night life. We heard that there was a really cool spot that is a huge rock where people go at night and drink wine under the shadow of the Acropolis. We couldn’t find it, but on the bright side, we barely made it back for the last metro. Luckily we didn’t have to spend the money on a taxi cab.

We grabbed gyros at a place near the train station. We then walked back to the MV Explorer and slept. I woke up around noon. I didn’t think going into the city was a good choice as one thing going wrong would make me stuck in Athens and miss the boat. I just grabbed gyros with some friends and watched a bit of the Olympic women’s soccer play, I might not see most of the Olympics, but I saw something.

I headed back to the ship after this and since then I’ve hung out with some friends. Greece was an amazing time; I’d love to come back there. Plans are firming up in Croatia. I’m going to be staying at a beachfront Villa. I might not be getting a lot of culture in Croatia, but I’m going to have an excellent time. It seems like an excellent way to cap off an excellent experience.

Greece Is Great

Date: August 4, 2008
Location: Piraeus and Athens
Lat: 37° 56.31N Long: 023° 38.09E

Well, we’re finally at Athens. It’s kind of a rush to the head to think we’ve seen Rome, the Pyramids, and the Acropolis all in a two week period. This is truly an amazing experience.

After our ship cleared customs, some friends and I decided to wander around Piraeus. The town is the port of Athens and is thusly very close to the big time. Piraeus has a bit of a small town charm to it. There are a lot of friendly locals here who are willing to help you out if you have questions. Unfortunately, Piraeus is kind of ratty. There were no decaying dogs in the street, but everything was really dusty. However, the people all seem really relaxed.

We spoke with a local after he took a photo for all of us. We asked him about which were the best islands to visit and he gave us some good advice. This was all without asking for any baksheesh, changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, right.

When we had finished up with Piraeus we went back to the ship and grabbed some lunch. After that, a group of friends assembled and we headed to the Acropolis. We were going to take the metro into the city but since we didn’t know where it was, we thought it would be more prudent to take a taxi. This was an experience. We had four guys, including me, two of which were 6’3’’+ all crammed into the backseat where the small girl got the front all to herself. They say chivalry is dead, hah.

It was neat talking to the driver. We drove by a market and he told us we should stay away. Apparently, gypsies are not well liked by the other Greeks. He warned us that they were all pickpockets. It seemed interesting to see racial tensions that are so apart from our own.

We made it to the Acropolis. The annoying thing is that student discounts only work for students of the EU so we get kind of screwed over. We paid our Euro and started the climb up. It’s interesting but the stones on the paths were extremely slick. This led to some of us deciding to slide down the stones like they were ice. After a brisk walk to the top, we made it.

The Acropolis is really incredible. The Parthenon is a sight to behold. The funny thing is that apparently the building was pretty well preserved until the Turks stored some dynamite in the building. Apparently something touched it off and the whole thing exploded, destroying the building to its current state.

There were so many fascinating buildings on the Acropolis. However, the coolest thing was the street views. The Acropolis naturally dominates the entire city. This let us take some excellent photos. I have some really neat ones of my legs dangling off the wall of the Acropolis. It was kind of gusty so it was a bit scary but I didn’t fall, thankfully.

Another neat thing is that they have this huge Greek flag there. One thing is that the Greeks are very proud of their heritage. There are Greek flags everywhere. On a metro ride back to Piraeus today, I started talking to a local man. He was a bit older and spoke quietly. However, he said several times how everything is rooted in Greece, medicine, astronomy, democracy, and on and on. Clearly the people here are proud.

After we had finished on the Acropolis we walked down and descended into the Monastiraki. This is basically the flea market of Athens. There were a ton of neat shops. A lot of it was the ubiquitous tourist crap. However, it was neat getting a view of the city from the streets. We had our first gyros here and they were delicious. The tzatziki sauce was really good, but the topper was certainly the fact that they put French fries into the pita. Taste treats for sure.

Another thing that’s interesting about Europe is that there are no open container laws. One can just walk all over with a beer in hand and no one will give you a second glance. I guess its part of an idea that people are more responsible with alcohol. I don’t know, but it will be different when I’m back in the states and can’t just walk around shopping with a miller lite.

After we were done shopping we went back to the ship. After hanging out for a bit and grabbing dinner, we decided to go back to the Monastiraki. There were a lot of neat bars and things. We had a very large group at first, probably around 30. To be fair, it was more a group of people heading to the metro that all sort of pooled together. The metro is a 20 minute walk so company is always nice.

The metro is really the best way around Athens. If one pays €.80 you can ride for an hour and a half. The fare isn’t based on the distance one travels so one can move easy. We got to the street and started having fun. Someone had a bottle of ouzo so we passed that around. I wasn’t a big fan of it; it tasted like licorice which I don’t like, so the cards were stacked against the drink.

It’s kind of funny. We all sort of split up so I was with a group of around ten. I don’t think I actually went into a single bar. Mostly I just walked around and ordered beer from the street vendors. It cost around €1.40 for a tall Amstel or Heineken. When we got tired to walking around I hitched a cab back with a girl and went to bed.

After waking up the next day, some friends and I decided to hit the Athenian streets. The whole ship isn’t feeling too hot after the Egyptian food. I’m not hit too badly with the runs but some of my friends are, still we all have some symptoms. This made us not feel like walking around too much. We went back to the shops and I got two “football” jerseys, one of the Greek National Team and one for Panathinaikos FC. Panathinaikos FC had a really cool jersey, their color is green and their logo is a shamrock with some Greek writing, it is pretty sweet. Even better is that I got both for a total of €30.

When we got back to the ship we all sort of relaxed. Some friends and I gathered together and got some Greek food. I got a chicken and bacon gyro. It was very good, of course. We also got some baklava at a bakery. This desert was extremely tasty.

After this was over I headed back to the ship. The terminal we are docked at has free internet so I enjoyed that for an hour or two before boarding the ship. After that I played go fish with some people. I didn’t want to go out because I’m going to tour the islands tomorrow and I need to make the bus at 7:35 so it’s another early wake up call. Apparently the Greek islands are beautiful and I can’t wait to get my own perspective on the issue.

Athens, Here I Come

Date: August 2, 2008
Location: The Aegean Sea
Lat: 36° 18.32N Long: 024° 45.44E

Well, we make landfall at Piraeus, Greece in around 6 hours. I’m certainly excited about it. Athens should be real nice; I hear its nightlife is a lot of fun so that should be good. Baklava and gyros should be quite the taste treat. Also, the Acropolis and all the historical treasures of Greece will be really neat to see; too bad I’d have to go to London to see the best things.

Today was an eventful day on the M/V Explorer. We finally had the Sea Olympics, quite fitting given our destination. The ship’s community is divided into various different seas based on where ones room is situated. I’m in the Caribbean. The community then competes in a large variety of events.

I was drawn into two events today, despite not being signed up in any for today. One of the other members of our sea was already doing too many events so I had to take one off of him. I ended up getting the Iron Chef competition. Unlike the real Iron Chef TV show, where they make some amazing meal with a secret ingredient, we just made put toppings on pizzas.

We were given a large variety of toppings, such as lima beans, peanut butter, chocolate chips, pepperoni, and others. Our team decided to go for an innovative approach of a three course meal. We divided our pizza accordingly with an appetizer, which were mostly vegetables with some soy sauce. The main course had more meat on it. Our desert section was the highlight by far. We put peanut butter on the section with the white chocolate chips on top of it.

The judges came by and gave our pizza favorable ratings. However, we didn’t place, which is a bummer. I later came up and decided to get some snacks at the pool bar. I was then met with a surprise. Our sea was short of contestants for the hot hula hoop contest. I quickly jumped at the chance to help my sea out.

Hot hula hoop pretty much plays out like hot potato. Everyone who’s competing holds hands and passes a hula hoop around while not letting go of the other persons hand. This results in the contestants having to quickly hop through the hoop while a song plays, when the music stops; the person with the hoop is eliminated. I did pretty well here. I got past the first two rounds but I got tagged in the third. I didn’t have a chance as the person in front of me just barely jumped through the hoop when he handed it to me and the music stopped. My fellow sea mate did pretty well, but I don’t think she placed.

It was kind of the story of our Sea at the Sea Olympics. We usually placed around 4th or 5th so we didn’t get any points. This all culminates in the sea that wins the Olympics gets to debark the ship first in Norfolk. The Caribbean ultimately got 5th place out of 8 seas. A respectable showing but I’m sure we’ll do better next time.

When I wasn’t participating in events or cheering our sea on, I worked on writing a paper. We have some downtime now while we’re moving between our last two ports, but after that it’s going to be a paper writing bonanza. I want to get a bit of a leg up on it so I’m not swamped on the slow boat ride back to the USA.

Athens, here I come.

Goodbye, Egypt!!

Date: August 1, 2008
Location: Alexandria and Cairo
Lat: 31° 11.6N Long: 029° 11.6N

Well, we’re finally leaving Egypt and I just want to say, I’m happy. I think one of my problems was that I only saw the people who just sell crap to tourists. Therefore I have a skewed view of the Egyptians. One of the problems is that Egyptians are very friendly and outgoing people. The only problem is figuring out who is being friendly and helpful and who just wants a buck. Usually these people operate the same way so you don’t know if you’re being helpfully led to a place you asked for or if you’re being led to a shop where the guy has family connections so he wants you to buy stuff from his people.

I woke up pretty early to go on the SAS led Classic Cairo trip. Cairo and Alexandria are a good distance from each other so there was plenty of time to catch up on sleep on the three hour bus ride. I drifted in and out of sleep so I was able to see a little of what was going on outside of Alexandria and Cairo. Egypt is an extremely desolate place. Once one leaves the cities its miles and miles of desert. The interesting thing about this is that every so often one sees a walled palace which is an oasis of greenery that looks finer than gold course putting greens. I suppose these are the places where the rich go to get away from the slums.

I guess I have more observations from the bus ride. I have neglected to mention, in the front seat of the bus there was a plainclothes security official wearing a two piece suit. These guys were packing heat, they didn’t show their guns, but by the clip sticking out of the suit they were carrying some type of submachine gun. It seems like everyone has a piece here.

As we approached Cairo we drove through some slums. These were high rises that were typically missing windows and other such basic necessities. The funny thing about these was that it seemed like every one of these things had a forest of satellite dishes on the roof. I guess these people have their priorities.

Our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. This place was absolutely beautiful. I wasn’t allowed to take any photos so I just have my memories. Most of the things were relatively boring, such as clay pots. However, there were some absolutely magnificent items. The huge statues of the pharaohs were really impressive, much more so when one thinks of the time they’ve lasted here.

The trump exhibit of the museum was clearly the treasure from Tutankhamen’s tomb. The Pharaoh’s caskets were quite impressive. The most amazing thing by far was the burial head dress. We’ve seen this thing time and time again in photographs, but it is absolutely mind blowing to see this thing in person. I was stunned by its beauty.

After looking through the museum for a bit we headed out to lunch. The lunch was a buffet style of a wide range of food options. They had some pita bread with a wide variety of sauces to try. They also had a wide variety of other food, such as chicken, beef, and others. It was a real good meal.

Then we went off to the Pyramids. Since our time was rather limited, we only got to go to the Giza Plateau. However, having three large pyramids and the sphinx was quite enough to get my attention. The Pyramids were highly impressive. It’s staggering that something as huge as that could be built so long ago. The Pyramids were ancient when the Romans were around; I can’t imagine having the Washington Monument standing in 6388 AD.

I guess I don’t have too much to say about the Pyramids themselves. They’re huge and impressive. I do have plenty to say about the parasites that surround the Pyramids. Everyone in Egypt is out to hustle you. Everyone wants a buck. Everyone comes with smiles and greetings of friendship, everyone is your brother and everyone is your friend, and everyone wants your money. That’s the thing with Egypt; the friendliness seems so fake, so when a few genuine people try to help you out, you tend to distrust them because of the actions of the multitude.

When we moved from the panoramic spot where one could see all the Pyramids to the base of the Great pyramid, things got from bad to worse. There were a number of vendors at the overlook, but nothing compared to the nightmare at the base.

While I was walking around one vendor ran up to me and threw an Arab headdress onto my head “for free” then he shoved a collection of postcards, two other headdresses, and a collection of three pyramids that had some neat drawings etched on the inside of them. I guess these were kind of cool. He was wearing a Cubs hat too so I guess that was neat. However, the unneat part; nothing is free in this country. Immediately he started demanding for baksheesh, which is Arabic for tipping. I gave the guy ten dollars and walked on my way, despite never actually wanting the things. I guess it wasn’t too bad in the long run because the items weren’t too bad and will be regifted.

However, the bad thing is that the black plastic bag I had from this guy was more or less a bulls-eye. I then got somewhat annoyed at this and decided to return to the bus, having got my fill of standing at the base of the Pyramids. On my way back some Egyptian robber barons with a camel decided to have their way with me. They asked if I wanted to go for a ride and unwisely I accepted, not thinking to negotiate a price ahead of time. I got a variety of awesome photos of me on a camel in front of the Pyramids.

However, they were leading me away from the majority of tourists. I noticed this and didn’t like where we were going but I didn’t think to have them take me back near the Egyptian Tourist Police. So I was gallivanting away from the main group on a camel like Lawrence of Arabia. All good rides come to an end, and unfortunately this one cost me a pretty penny. When they finally set the camel down they expected baksheesh. I, being a good man, decided to reward their efforts with 50 Egyptian Pounds, which is around ten dollars.

However, this wasn’t enough for them, so I opened my wallet again to give them maybe 20 more Egyptian Pounds. This is when they started reaching into my wallet all the while promising to give me change. I was righteously angry about this but didn’t know what to do. I was a bit of a distance away from everyone and I don’t know if these guys were packing knives under their cloaks so I went along with this. Ultimately I lost $22, €5, and £120 Egyptian. They took every bill I had, except for 5 50 Piaster notes. I walked away from this fuming.

I was really ticked off that I got taken advantage of like this. It filled me with a great, great distrust of Egyptian hospitality. However, there were two good offshoots from this, I got some really excellent photos and I didn’t have to pay for trash souvenirs as a method to get rid of my Egyptian Pounds. Unfortunately, it pretty much ruined my Pyramid experience. Everyone takes their lumps here and there. I got swindled, but I won’t let it happen again. I’ll do better next time.

We then went down to see the Sphinx. Given my great dislike of everything Egyptian, at the time, I didn’t exactly enjoy the experience. The guide gave us a ticket to let us get a side view of the Sphinx. I tried to find the entrance to this. I had some problems finding it so I sort of went around the far end. I started to turn the corner and discovered an Egyptian who was willing to help me. He started leading me towards a fence where lots of people were on the other side of the fence. This immediately set my alarms off at full tilt so I turned around and high tailed it to the bus. I ignored his shouts begging me to comeback. Maybe he was being friendly and helpful, I doubt it, and he was probably out for baksheesh. Dan Tison doesn’t get swindled by Egyptians twice in the same day.

After the Sphinx, we headed back to Alexandria. I was looking forward to getting back to the ship. Not just for its ice cold air, but also the lack of people hassling you. I made it back and took a shower and laid down for a bit. I decided that I was done with Egypt and decided to stay on the ship for the rest of my time in the Port.

I ran into a friend at dinner and over eating where we swapped experiences. He managed to talk me into heading back out into the town with him. We agreed that I would be on his tab since I had no money. We quickly assembled a group of ten, him, another guy, seven other ladies, and me. We made it through the three circles of landsharks circling off the gangway.

We headed out around 2100. This is conveniently the time of the call for prayer. This was really neat to hear and it was something I certainly hoped to experience. Another thing, the ladies in burkahs are still very bizarre to me. It just seems so odd to be a prisoner because of your body. One only gets to see out of these two small eye slits. When they’re wearing sunglasses they could just as easily be Cousin It, the hairy, formless thing, from the Adams Family. Clearly we are in a very foreign environment.

After this an Egyptian guy leached onto us. He took us to the Bazaar, which wasn’t exactly where we wanted to go. The Bazaars are pretty crazy at night. Everyone is out, selling all kinds of things, there were tons of intestines for sale, also skinned rabbits, and other things. There was also a variety of other things for sale.

We tried to lose this guy a few times. However, we weren’t successful as each time we’d reverse course or take a sudden turn he’d stick to us like glue. Eventually we just told him goodbye like four times straight and he left. Surprisingly he didn’t ask for any baksheesh. He was just being friendly, too bad those thieves at the Pyramids ruined my view Egyptian hospitality.

We eventually found a hookah bar. Hookah is a Middle Eastern water pipe that one smokes flavored tobacco through. It has gained steady popularity in the States. One can usually see at least two or three of these going in a given night around the Purdue dorms. The neat thing about this hookah bar was that it was in an alley, between two shops. We asked a local where one was so we found it. The hookah was real nice and got us all a little light headed. It was kind of funny being the only white people in this hookah bar surrounded by middle aged Egyptians playing dominos. Our whole group enjoyed this for around an hour and a half or so. This only cost us six dollars, so it was a steal compared to what it would be in America.

After this we decided to find an actual bar. This is extremely hard as drinking is not a part of the Egyptian culture. We did find a bar. The girls decided to try to find some sort of local Egyptian style drink. Due to the language barrier, they had no luck but Egyptian Vodka and Mango juice. A few of the other people decided to go with the Authentic Egyptian Stella beer. The beers were surprisingly good. They tasted kind of like Miller Lite. The guys and I decided to do a shot of this Egyptian Vodka. Instead of just a normal shot, we probably got around 2.5 shots in a normal glass. We decided that we’d only be in Egypt once and took it down the hatch in one swoop. After another round of beers, we decided to head back to the ship. Drinks for 10 people probably cost us around 20 dollars, which is what one person would drink in a night at the bars in the states.

The next day I woke up and decided to stay in. I had seen all of Alexandria that I had wanted and a lot of parts that I didn’t. Also, I had no money and thought getting more would be a waste of resources. Instead I spent the day working on one of the papers that are due after we’re done visiting ports. I don’t regret my decision at all.

I don’t intend to return to Egypt. I liked my time, the people are friendly. However, their friendship mostly seems to be a facade to get money. I guess I had a bad experience. I saw the Pyramids, they were awesome, and I think I saw what’s good in Egypt. I guess it wouldn’t be easy to be a civilization that peaked 4500 years ago. Egypt doesn’t seem to have much going for it today. They don’t have oil. They’ve lost pretty much every war they’ve fought in lately. However, they do have the Aswan Dam, which has elicited tons of controversy, and a Glorious past that occurred 4500 years ago. The Pyramids are amazing and awe inspiring, however, when one is done craning their necks down at those lofty, manmade mountains, they are greeted with wolves in sheeps' clothing living in a decrepit, poorly maintained land that’s falling apart.

After Egypt, I Realize There's No Place Like Home

Date: July 30, 2008
Location: Alexandria
Lat: 31° 11.6N Long: 029° 11.6N

Well, I have arrived in Alexandria, Egypt and it is quite an eye opener. We aren’t in Kansas anymore. The country is clearly the worst we’ve been to by far. There are a number of things that I have observed about this place that I didn’t care for too much.

First off is the trash. There is trash all over Alexandria. There is an absolutely distinctive smell that one notices immediately while walking around the streets. I can think of a few causes for this. There is an extremely large amount of trash everywhere. In addition, it’s not just rotting garbage, its rotting animals. While walking down a street we observed a decaying dog that must have been there for around three weeks. The skin was barely still on the wretch’s face and the ribs were now exposed to the air.

Another thing is that nothing is well maintained. One can see examples of machinery, such as cars falling apart everywhere. I observed the dilapidated conditions of the houses. It looks like we stepped back in time to observe tenement houses. I guess it would be hard to cope as a civilization when you peak 4,000 years ago.

Finally, I dislike the pushy nature of everyone. I understand trying to make a sell but people hound you a good distance. One can refuse several times and not get anywhere. Everyone’s trying to make a buck off you and you have absolutely no space.

Now I suppose is a good time to walkthrough my day. We cleared Alexandrian Customs around 0900 after docking at around 0600. Some friends and I decided to hit the town. Our first destination was the New Library of Alexandria. We had heard that this was one of the things to see so we headed that way.

Street crossings are a nightmare. In Italy there were painted lines indicating lanes for driving. Now people might drive aggressively and almost hit you, but one had the idea that there was some overarching principle guiding the chaos. In Egypt, all that is thrown out the window. There are no lanes at all. Street crossing is like Italy but only that much more insane. The nature of crossing pretty much works like this; one waits for an opening in traffic, after getting tired of this the person decides to walk out regardless of traffic. This usually causes the oncoming traffic to slow and then work your way further across. Hopefully you don’t get hit by a car; I don’t think they would stop. The whole process plays out like the old arcade game Frogger.

While we were heading to the library, we decided that we were hungry. The whole group had a team consensus that McDonalds was the best bet. The menu was almost identical to the one back home, however there were some alternatives. I went for my personal favorite, the McArabia. This is pretty much a sandwich made on Middle Eastern flatbread. The sandwich consists of two patties, tomatoes, and lettuce. The best part was this divine sauce that was mayonnaise based with some Arabic spices thrown in. I would eat it again, even in America. It tasted absolutely great.

Another funny scene is that one of our crew decided to stop to get ice cream. He paid for it and was walking with us talking about how this was the worst ice cream he’s ever had. The owner of the ice cream cart started to follow us for around 100 yards shouting that he had ice cream for sale. None of us were planning on taking him up on it, but he eventually stopped.

I also walked by a market where I was able to purchase some items. These were pirated DVDs, of course. I just watched The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins on my laptop. The quality wasn’t that good; obviously, it was a guy standing in a theatre with Arabic subtitles. Thankfully, people only got up like twice so the experience was still very good. I think they cut some violence out for the Arabs, but overall, it was a good movie. I also have Iron Man to watch later.

After the market, we arrived at the Library. This was a really impressive building. The building was an absolutely massive collection of books in every language. They also had some really sweet printing presses. In the basement they had a collection of artifacts. These covered all of Egypt, from the ancient Egyptians, to the Greeks and Romans, up to the Islamic period. These were pretty neat and I enjoyed them.

Next we decided to go see the Catacombs. This entailed essentially making a triangle from our current position which was essentially directly straight from the ship down to the Catacombs and then back. However, this was not to be. The map we had did not include street names. This was not a problem when we were hugging the water, but trying to make it across the city just basing it off the number of turns we made was difficult.

We were doing really well for a while, and then we ran into troubles. We were doing a good job; we arrived at the Roman Amphitheater, which was pretty much the halfway point. This was our last landmark. We took a road that seemed like the logical connector to the Catacombs. Boy we were wrong.

We first got our feeling of being off the beaten path when we started seeing more donkey carts than rusted cars. Our hunch was compounded when we saw the dead dog as previously mentioned. This was even more compounded when we saw the buildings stopped looking dilapidated and started looking condemned. Perhaps the final clincher of our suspicions was the bazaar we wandered into. Unlike the normal bazaar that sells ethnic things and tourist kitsch, this was different.

It is hard to paint an accurate picture of what I saw; a photo can’t do it as I didn’t think whipping a camera out would be prudent there. I will try though. Some of the hot items were spare auto parts; I use parts loosely as most of the items were so rusted it was doubtful they could actually work in a car. Another hot item was loose computer cases that either had plants growing out of them; the keyboards had mold or rather plan-life growing out of them too. There were also loose circuit boards all over the place too. In addition, there were people selling toilets, toilet seats, and other items. Also, there were tire dealers who were selling tires with virtually no tread on them; some were selling massive monster truck size tires. This was not a normal bazaar. People didn’t even have tables to lay their wares on; they just sat them on the sidewalk.

We picked up the pace to try to get through here and only ended up in a dockyard. These docks were both a good and bad sign. We knew we could work our way home based on keeping the water on the left side of us. However, since our group was so large, around fifteen or so, we decided to split. The majority of the group decided to take cabs to try to get out. A friend and I, we were both robbed by the cabbie in Naples, decided that we were going to leg this one out and passed up on the cab ride.

What happened next sort of reminded me of the film Black Hawk Down which depicts the US Army’s experience in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. There is a scene where two machine gunners get inadvertently left behind by the column of Rangers and are forced to make their way back to base on their own. That was pretty much our predicament. We had a map which we both felt was probably more detrimental than useful.

We were extremely in the back roads. We were making our way over trash and people who looked like they were at deaths door. Things clearly weren’t too good out there. I guess there isn’t too much to really describe this. We pretty much were walking in the worst area I’ve ever been in. Southeast D.C. may have a reputation, but the Alexandrian ghetto makes Southeast look good. After walking for around an hour we got back to the ship.

I decided to celebrate by taking a shower and just laying on my bed in my room. After a good bit of this, my friends and I decided to head out again. While we were eating dinner, some of our fellow shipmates had native garb of the cotton robes and the headdresses. My friends and I decided that we needed our own so we hit the bazaar right outside the ship. I was able to haggle my way to getting the whole set for just 100 Egyptian Pounds, which works out to around 20 dollars. I think it was a pretty good buy, I’m sure that will be worn at parties.

However, after this we decided to go outside the gates and enjoy some drinks at a local drinking establishment. We were first aggressively hustled by a taxi driver who was discussing that he could take us anywhere real cheap and he knew everything and he would show us everything. We declined as we knew where we wanted to go but he kept following us. Eventually, he backed off and then someone else came up to pursue us.

This guy started badmouthing the cabbies and said he could take us anywhere. He kept pushing us and following us and he asked us where we were from. One of our crew said he was from California and this guy allegedly had a brother in California so that made us all brothers. He led us to the Alexandria Bazaar all the while saying he could take us anywhere. My friend, who I had navigated back to the ship with earlier, and I were wary of where this was going to go. He led my more naive friend to his “family” business which sold pretty ratty jewelry.

He was trying to convince us that these were great and we should buy them. However, my friend didn’t cut him off and say he wasn’t interested. Instead he said he was out of money and he needed to go to an ATM. The guy then led us to one. My friend withdrew money as I stood near the ATM watching the attendants, who were in plainclothes, load pistols.

We then left the bank and we said we were going back to the ship. He kept hustling us trying to get us to go back to buy some of the jewelry but we weren’t having any of it. We kept walking and eventually he left us, which I was thankful for.

When we got back to the ship I decided that I really did not want to go back out there. Pretty much the setup of getting off the ship is like this. One first proceeds down next to where the gangway is located at; here one has to show Egyptian officials your passport. After one does this they can exit the gangway. After walking approximately 30 yards, one has to show their passport again. After one exits the initial terminal you have to walk through the first circle of sharks. These guys are running the bazaar just out of the ship where I got my native garb.

If one makes it past these landsharks, one then faces the next circle. These are the taxi drivers. These guys quote ridiculous prices and boast that they can take you to Cairo to see the pyramids in Cairo for 30 dollars each. These guys are pretty pushy.

After one gets by them, you must cross a bridge that just serves to link the dock to a bit further inland, despite the fact that the bridge is over land the whole time; it is probably a security measure. Once here one has to show their passport again to another official. This leads you to the final circle of sharks, these guys are pretty fierce too. These are another round of taxi drivers who are more local who boast of being able to take one anywhere throughout the city. Then there are the locals who boast of being able to walk one all over the city themselves. If one makes it by all these parasites without one sticking too you one is finally home free.

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Despite all these things, I’m really looking forward to seeing the Pyramids tomorrow. I don’t think I’d be unfair to say that that’s probably the last thing to do on my list of things to see of Egypt and then I’m fine casting off from Egypt forever.

Full Steam to Alexandria, Egypt!

Date: July 29, 2008
Location: The Mediterranean Sea
Lat: 32° 37.53N Long: 029° 5.86E

Well things can sure change quickly. We are no longer headed towards Istanbul, Turkey. We are now en route to Alexandria, Egypt. I suppose I’m also getting a bit too ahead of myself.

Apparently there were some bombings in Istanbul the day before we were supposed to get there. It was a pretty professional attack. The terrorists placed a flashbang in one trashcan in a crowded pedestrian mall. After this blew up, people quickly gathered around the site of the explosion. Around ten minutes later, a much bigger bomb blew up in a trashcan approximately thirty feet away. Last I heard, approximately 20 Turks lost their lives. Clearly it is very sad.

When word of this bombing first got out, the rumor mill started full tilt. This built on earlier news about a shooting at the US Embassy in Istanbul earlier this summer. This led to a lot of theories on where we were going. A few thought we would go to Istanbul still. However, there were a lot of thoughts that we would go to Bulgaria, Crete, Ukraine, and other places like that. However, there were also some thoughts that we would be heading to Alexandria.

People speculated all day. It didn’t help that we were told early in the morning that we would have a decision at 1800 our time. This gave us plenty of time to spin all sorts of rumors. However, we were finally told later that night that we were heading to Alexandria, Egypt.

I am pretty excited about Egypt. I have an SAS trip lined up to go see the Pyramids and Cairo for one day. I am also going to go see Alexandria with some friends. There sounds like there will be plenty to do and I’m looking forward to it.

The Sea Olympics is ongoing. After they made their announcement on where we were going, we had the improvisational comedy contest. This was a lot of fun for sure. It seems like most of the jokes were about the short story “Dragon Ride” from the earlier contest or ragging on our professors. It was fun.

We’re all excited about Egypt tomorrow!

The Wonders of Italy

Date: July 26, 2008
Location: Naples, Rome, Vatican City, and Pompeii
Lat: 40° 50.3N Long: 014° 15.44E

Rome is known as Eternal City. I don’t know whether that’s because it has lasted so long, or you could spend an eternity seeing it all. I do know that two days certainly was not enough to see everything, but we made a good try.

I suppose some general comments on Italy are in order. First off, there are wild dogs everywhere. This was particularly true in Pompeii. I have a lot of great photos of dogs just walking around the ruins. Also, there were some pretty big piles of garbage around Naples as well. I guess it might have been worse before, but it is still a problem. The Italians are always hustling. While this is to be expected when one is passing through street vendors, it was particularly funny when you are walking down the street and you start getting invited into restaurants. Also, taxi drivers also hustle the hell out of you, one could say we got robbed by a taxi driver, but that comes later (this foreshadowing is what makes me an excellent writer).

We woke up pretty early and headed out for Rome. We decided to walk to the train station as we would avoid the taxis. It was around a 35 minute walk, so it wasn’t too bad. Well it wouldn’t have been except it felt like hell with each step onto my cut foot, it is better now though. When we made it to the train station we started to use the self-service ticket machines. They had an English setting so that helped a bit. However, we were not in any way home free.

This brings us to robbery number 1. While we were trying to figure the trains out, an old Italian came up on us and grabbed our tickets. He then shoved it into the machine that apparently validates the tickets. He then loudly demanded we give him money for his “services”. We had initially assumed that he was being helpful so we didn’t tell him to back off. We all gave him some money to get him to back off, I gave him a 5 Euro piece and he backed off. Some of our group gave him 7 Euro and he kept demanding more. I guess greasing the wheels is part of life in Naples.

We did make our train though and off we went. I sat next to the window next to some Italians. They were hard at work completing Sudoku and crossword puzzles so there was no cross-cultural communications. In addition, I did not feel very nice towards Italians after the stick-up a few minutes before.

We also made it to Rome. We got off our train and then started off to try and find the Coliseum. I suppose there is room for a slight aside. Rome is clearly an organic city. I mean in the nature of the streets, there is no logic to it at all. Sometimes streets curve into piazzas, other times little side streets shoot off and then rejoin the main road. Navigating Rome is by no means an easy trick.

Our first stop was the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Mayor. These churches are extremely hard to describe. One can only say that the church was beautiful so many times. However, I’ll do my best. The Basilica is situated in a piazza. The front was absolutely gorgeous; there were a series of columns that on the top had statues of saints and other holy people. There were also various angels on the balconies, all together, the front was extremely impressive.

Another fascinating thing was the confession booths. Above the entrance there were placards that stated what language the padre spoke. There were also lights stating which ones were occupied by the fathers. It was a pretty neat system and many languages were represented.

However, after one entered they witnessed the true glory. The interior is covered in gold leaf. The gold leaf surrounds paintings of the blessed Virgin, Popes, Moses, etc. There were also glorious basins for housing holy water. Also there were stained glass windows that were absolutely beautiful with the bright Italian sun shining through. I put a Euro or two in the offering, figured it couldn’t hurt to have God on my side and we were off to find ancient Rome.

The influence of Ancient Rome is clearly a huge factor in the city. For starters, all the manhole covers have SPQR printed on them. SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, or “The Senate and People of Rome”. This is pretty much the standard phrase of Rome, representing all that is Rome. Obviously it is seen on many of the arches and Roman ruins.

We didn’t wander for too long until we found the ruins of Ancient Rome. We first saw the Coliseum. It is truly staggering to witness something you’ve read about for so long. The building is truly massive; it is hard to convey the sheer scale of it. Another thing is the depth of history in Rome. One could say that our history started with Jamestown in 1607; however, Rome has been in existence forever.

We quickly left the Coliseum because I had a tip from my roommate back at school that one should go to the Palatine Hill to get tickets. The tickets cover all of ancient Rome and clearly the Hill doesn’t have the sex appeal of the Coliseum so the line was much shorter. I don’t mean to impugn the hill, it was really impressive. The Roman forum as well as many other ancient ruins was there. It is just so stunning to see all these ancient ruins. After watching all these History Channel specials and taking all those years of Latin class, it is just so awe inspiring to see the areas where these people lived and died.

We then headed off to the Coliseum proper. We ended up getting onto a guided tour. This was a great deal for us since we had already paid for our tickets so the cost was only five Euros. Obviously the Coliseum was impressive. A very interesting thing is that there are a ton of divots in the walls. People like to claim that the damage is due to erosion, however, in actuality, scavengers pulled out metal re-bar that strengthened the building. I guess it is not surprising when something has been around that long that people try to abuse it.

It is absolutely incredible to see these things. We also walked by a museum. We didn’t go in, but there were some really neat statues. I was pretty impressed I was able to pick out some of the figures from history books. I saw a statue of the two Gracchi brothers who were key figures in Roman land reform.

After this we walked to another church, the Basilica Saint Maria delgi Angeli. Now this church was once again, impressive. The fascinating thing about this was that it was built into the Roman Baths of Diocletian. The church was an absolutely gorgeous mix of marble and statues. The altars were particularly beautiful.

Probably the neatest thing about this was the meridian line. This essentially functioned as a sundial, except it was designed to show the progress of time through the year. I guess it is hard to accurately describe, however, it was certainly impressive.

After we left the church we started heading towards the Trevi Fountain. However, I noticed a few things while we were walking there. It seems like everywhere there is some gorgeous marble building there is a Pope’s name slapped on it. For example, a Pope slapped his name on the Coliseum, not to mention the many other buildings we saw. I guess it’s the Protestant in me talking, but it started to seem like it was more about the Pope’s glory than God’s.

Another neat thing is all the obelisks in Rome. There are all these neat Egyptian obelisks with Hieroglyphs all over them. Of course since a Pope made the obelisk possible, there is cross slapped to the top of it. It sure seems a bit out of place walking through Rome and seeing a huge obelisk in a piazza.

The Trevi Fountain is also beautiful. It is kind of a common theme here. The Fountain is pretty much a testament to what human hands can do with marble and water. The Fountain depicts a couple of water horses and figures. I guess it is also a bit hard to describe, but it was equally impressive. We got some great photos in front of it. The legend is that you need to throw two coins into the fountain, the first coin is for good luck, and the second one is for safe return to Rome. I’m covered because I threw my two coins in.

We then headed out towards the Spanish Steps. They were a bit distant so we got to see some pretty neat stuff in the process. One thing we saw was the Column of Marcus Aurelius. The column is approximately 100 feet high or so. The most fascinating part is that instead of boring grooves, there is a relief that spirals up to the top. It was hard to get a good view because of the sun, but it was clearly a triumph of building. In typical style there is a statue of Jesus at the top symbolizing the superiority of God over the Romans.

Our next stop was the Basilica of Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles. There was a bit of an open area in front of the church so paradoxically there was a troop of break dancers. It sure seemed like a large contrast between the two. The Basilica was amazing, as usual. There were beautiful paintings on the ceiling and awesome statues. The neatest thing was the Relic of the Heart of Saint Charles. I wasn’t able to figure out what exactly he did, but it involves his heart somehow. It was on display, I thought it was a bit morbid, but apparently a lot of people pray to it.

We left the Basilica and then moved onto the Spanish Steps. While the steps are pretty neat; I’m not quite sure what the big deal with them is. There is a church at the top of a series of steps that wind around up to the church. I guess the steps are sort of a place to hang out at; the steps were crowded with people. They were nice.

We were going on a Pub Crawl that met up at the Spanish Steps around 10 so we had some time to kill. We decided to go and get some delicious Italian food. I had an excellent meal of pasta with olive oil and prosciutto. Prosciutto is very salty ham that has been cured for a very long time. We also got a liter of the house red and white wines. All in all, it was a very good meal.

After this we embarked on the Pub Crawl. It cost 20 Euro and you got a cool t-shirt, some pizza, and an open bar for an hour. We had a good time. It was a bit harder to get back to our hotel at night but we made it.

I suppose I should talk about our hotel for a bit. For what we paid, the hotel was excellent. We got four separate beds which was real nice. There was no AC so we just left the window open and let the sounds of Italian street life serenade us. This wasn’t bad at all and gave us a pretty good view in the morning.

The thing that wasn’t so good was the shower situation. First off, the shower was more of a fire hose. This bit me bad as I decided to turn the water on and let it warm up. This was a bad decision because the water came flying out of the shower and hit me full force soaking me, still standing in my boxers. There were some choice words uttered by me, my friends thought I had died or something bad. I persevered and carried on. However, this is compounded by the towels. If one pictures a linen placemat at a fancy restaurant that is pretty much what we had to use. I sure didn’t feel dry after using it, but it got the job done mostly despite its small size.

We decided to travel internationally that day so we headed to the Vatican City. The Vatican is absolutely incredible. We took the Rome metro to get out there. The Roman transit system is rather good, one only has to pay 1 Euro and they are free to go anywhere. This was rather convenient as we quickly got to the Vatican.

We were walking towards the tall walls of the Vatican when we were approached by a solicitor. We first brushed her off since that’s the way to get by in a country where everyone hustles. However, she wouldn’t take any guff and told us in unaccented English that we couldn’t say we weren’t interested since we did not even know what she was selling. She rattled off a quick sales pitch about the Vatican tour they were offering and we quickly got on it. Not only did it enable us to skip the massive lines, we also actually got to know what we were seeing. There is virtually no signage in the Vatican so having a guide clearly helped.

We then began to tour the Vatican Museums. The Vatican has an absolutely incredible collection. Our first stop was the Pine Cone Square. This was a neat place as it combined a massive Renaissance era bronze pine cone, two Egyptian lions that were gifts to Rome from Cleopatra, and Roman peacocks. Also there was a neat statue of a sphere inside a sphere; it looked like a large golden sphere with a large cut in it that exposed the inner sphere.

Our next stop was a gallery of glorious sculptures. It is extremely hard to accurately describe the majesty of these statues. They were absolutely gorgeous. Words can’t really describe these so I guess one will have to wait for the pictures. There were statues of gods, epic heroes, dogs, lions attacking horses, and more.

We also saw some gorgeous tapestries. These were constructed by Flemish tapestry makers. The use of color was particularly impressive. One that was particularly interesting was the Circumcision of Jesus. One sees a Rabbi reaching for Jesus to perform the ceremony and Jesus is clearly not thrilled about it and is leaning away from the priest. Another neat scene is one that depicts Jesus emerging from his tomb triumphantly carrying a banner. These were very neat.

Our next destination was the Gallery of Maps. This was a room full of very ornate maps depicting essentially all of Italy. There were something of the order of 40 maps and they were incredible to see.

After moving through some other rooms that housed glorious paintings we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Obviously the roof is incredible. It is really mind blowing to see something as paramount as the ceiling in person. It was truly an experience. I was able to snatch a few photos despite the frequent protestations by the guards to not take photos. I wanted to really capture it. I don’t think I’m saying enough here but we all know what the ceiling looks like, it looks like the photos, just that more awe inspiring when one views the frescos up close.

We next went to Saint Peter’s Basilica. This was extremely stunning. The size and scope of the building are absolutely incredible. One neat thing is that one of the doors to the Basilica is only opened on Jubilees, so it won’t be opened until 2025. I thought it was neat.

When one enters and looks to the right they are greeted with Michelangelo’s Pietà. How does one put a statue like that into words, I don’t know, but I’ll try. The statue depicts Mary holding Jesus after he has been taken down from the cross. The look of extreme sadness on the Virgin’s face is absolutely depressing. The artist certainly captured the moment.

Saint Peter’s is absolutely massive. Its decorations are stunning. Every surface is designed to further God’s glory; I was absolutely awestruck after I entered. My entire group, even the vocal atheist, was absolutely floored by the building. The floor is extremely high, supported by beautiful columns. Every chapel in the building has a masterpiece of art in it. Typically seeing so many of the same thing would become routine, but not here, not at Saint Peter’s its absolutely stunning.

After we had walked through the building we decided to visit the tombs. There were a large number of Popes buried in the building. Most of the tombs were sort of ignored, with only a little placard discussing what the pope did. However, Pope John Paul II’s grave was certainly different. As we rounded a bend in the catacomb, we saw a large number of people behind a velvet rope looking into a recessed area. As we walked towards it we saw what had the crowd so stunned. JPII’s marble grave was gorgeous in its simplicity. I was more moved by the photos and roses laid at the grave. It was also staggering to see the large number of people crying looking at his final resting place. While I’m not a Catholic, it was very moving.

We then decided to climb up to the top of the Basilica’s cupola. This was a big haul as the Basilica’s dome is huge. We were all sweaty and out of breath when we finally made it to the top. This is kind of funny as at one point the stairs started to curve with the bend of the dome. This made us have to lean in as we went further and further.

The pain was totally worth it as the view was incredible. Rome goes on to the horizon. I wasn’t even able to pick out the Coliseum. The view of Saint Peter’s Piazza was incredible. Geeze, everything about the Vatican was stunning. It is absolutely mind boggling when one thinks of how much of the world’s money is invested in the Vatican. However, I can safely say that they didn’t waste it because the entire complex is just amazing.

Saint Peter’s Piazza was really neat too. There is a large Egyptian Obelisk in the middle. There are also two large wings that go from the base of Saint Peter’s around the square. These form the shape of two praying hands. At the tops of these were statues of saints and things. It was all very powerful and moving.

All of our walking around the Vatican made us very hungry. We found a nice sandwich shop. I got a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich with some bruschetta. The mozzarella was clearly fresh as there was still milk coming out of it. The entire meal tasted excellent and it was pretty cheap too. The hole in the wall food places in Italy are still incredible.

We then walked back to the Spanish Steps. They are sort of central in Rome. After we made it there we moved on to the Pantheon. This huge building was very incredible. One neat feature of the city is the tendency of the Church to come in and slap some crosses on a pagan site and call it a triumph of God’s glory over the pagans. The Pantheon is a great example of this. What was originally a temple to all the Roman gods was turned into a cathedral. All the same, it was awesome seeing so much history. I wish I could have seen it before it was “christianized”. That withstanding, it was neat seeing Raphael’s grave.

We left the Pantheon and headed out to a Piazza. There were some neat shops where I got a t-shirt or two. There were some neat fountains and buildings here. We all stopped for gelato, which tasted delicious, of course.

We then headed back to the train station to get back to Naples. However, before we headed home we wisely decided to stop for liquid refreshment. One of my friends and I broke off and headed to the train-station bar. We got some Peroni, but we were thinking small-time compared to our other two friends. When they came back they quickly revealed four boxes of wine. Apparently on the weekends in Rome, stores can’t sell bottles. This is a safety precaution so drunk Italians don’t break bottles over each other’s heads. The boxes cost 1.80 Euro for a liter of wine. Clearly, we weren’t getting the finest vintage in the store. We split the cost of the boxes and everyone was feeling good.

We took our boxes with us onto the train to Naples and we were good to go. We each enjoyed our box than split the last one. We were feeling quite nice when we got back to Naples. However, this brings up the robbery number two story. As we were walking towards the exit, a taxi driver approached us and told us that he would get us back to the ship for 30 Euro. Despite being a ridiculous price as is we decided to go with it as we wanted back to the ship so we could sleep as we were extremely busy in Rome.

Our driver drove like a madman to get us back to the dock. While we were a bit offset by this, at least we were getting home. However, when we finally arrived at the dock, he pulled a fast one. Instead of going with our prearranged price, he decided to jack it up. He claimed we had agreed to 30 Euro per person, which is absolutely insane. He had the child locks on the doors on so those of us in the back couldn’t get out. However, one of our guys in the front got out and opened our doors. We gave the driver (or should I say, thief) twenty more Euro and he left.

While it was a bit of a down note for our Rome experience, it was absolutely incredible. We all quickly split up and headed to our state rooms. I needed the sleep because I had a busy day seeing Pompeii today.

I suppose there is room for an aside here. I’ve had to cross streets all over Europe and I must say that crossing the street in Italy is probably the worst. While there were crosswalks and such, no one follows them. What a person must do to cross the street is start to wander out, look for an opening and book it despite traffic coming left and right. Clearly it’s a bit hectic.

I use my cell phone as an alarm. I had it set up so I could wake up early; however, apparently during the night my phone lost power. Thankfully my roommate puttering around woke me up. I quickly got dressed and headed outside. I knew I had to get there early because I accidentally had the ticket for the tour which left yesterday. In the guidebook, both Pompeii tours were listed on the same day, however, the tour I was on was yesterday. The field programs staff realized the problem and made every accommodation to help people in my situation out. Thankfully I got on the tour.

Pompeii is an absolutely stunning site. Pompeii was a Roman town that was buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. This served to preserve the town in the state it was when the volcano blew. The town is in impressive condition given its age. Most of the town has survived, obviously in ruins but it still serves as a time capsule.

We toured the majority of the city seeing many neat things. It’s kind of funny, we entered the city through the marina gate where the sea was in 79 AD, yet today the sea is extremely far away. One surprising thing is that wild dogs are absolutely everywhere. It is a funny contrast to see mangy animals wandering around Roman columns.

I guess it gets old to say we went here and there and saw some old columns, but Pompeii was so neat. The streets and stepping stones which allowed foot traffic to avoid stepping on the streets, which were used as sidewalks, was very swell. We went into the Roman baths which were incredible. There were frescos that were still intact which were very cool.

Perhaps the funniest thing was the brothels. As far as the archeologists know, there were around 25 brothels in Pompeii. We visited the best preserved one. There were stone phalluses pointing in the direction of the brothel. Once we entered there were a series of erotic frescos. The Romans sure had some crazy ideas.

After Pompeii was finished, we got some Italian Ice outside the town. The lemon flavor was real tasty after the hot day. When we made it back to the M/V Explorer, a friend and I decided to have some pizza as a last Italian meal. We first ordered an appetizer; we both thought we were ordering a bruchetta type dish. We were a bit off as what we got was a fist sized hunk of mozzarella surrounded by cut in half cherry tomatoes. However, this was also very good and I ate it happily.

I then ordered a pizza. Given the menu was in Italian, it’s a bit like playing Russian roulette. I got a pizza covered in oil, mozzarella, tomatoes, and eggplant. I was really full from my appetizer so I only ate half of it. However, it was very good and was a fitting sendoff to Italy.

I then headed back to my stateroom and took a two hour siesta. When I woke up, I attended a cookout the ship had. This was pretty tasty since there were ribs and things they don’t usually serve. The ship’s band also played so it was fun listening to my classmates play some tunes.

After that I started typing this with a few breaks here and there. I think we’re near Messina now, but I could be wrong. It’s a warm night, around 80 degrees with a nice wind that keeps the temperature down. The Mediterranean is a gorgeous sea and Italy is a gorgeous country. I had a great time there and would love to go back.

Capri and Real Italian Pizza

Date: July 23, 2008
Location: Naples and Capri
Lat: 40° 50.3N Long: 014° 15.44E

Well, the good ship M/V Explorer has finally made it to Italia. Naples is a pretty nice place. Sure, there is still trash on the streets because the Mafia controlled garbage men went on strike after the government made a play against the organized crime, but it is still nice. Though, to be fair, I have not spent a lot of time in Naples.

After we landed, a few people and I headed out for Capri. Capri is one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. Fortunately the ferry landing out to Capri was right next to where the ship docked. This made heading to the ferry extremely easy for us. We quickly boarded it and we were on our way. It was perhaps a 45 minute ferry ride out there. Auspiciously, there was a bar on the ship which enabled us to quickly acquire some red wine. This made the ferry ride that much more fun.

Capri is absolutely stunning. The island is surrounded by the glorious Mediterranean blue that is indescribably magnificent. The island is sort of M shaped with two large plateaus on opposite sides forming a valley in the middle. This valley is where most people live. There is hardly any flat land at all on Capri; however the natives did not find this a problem. Instead, every building is carved into the cliffs at an angle. There was a reason that the Roman Emperors chose Capri as a place to get away from the duties they were already neglecting.

Mount Vesuvius’ shadow looms over the entire area. I was able to take some excellent photos of it. Hopefully it will put the ruins of Pompeii in a much better perspective when I see them in a few days.

Once we made landfall, we got some food. I ordered a glass of wine and a Margherita pizza. This is the classic Neapolitan pizza; it just has mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil on it. This meal was excellent.

After we had these affairs settled, we quickly headed towards the beach. This is kind of bad, because while swimming in the Mediterranean was excellent; the beach isn’t nice sand, but rocks. There are some jagged rocks out in the water and as I was swimming a good ways I cut my foot on a rock. It hurts, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I am a bit gimpy, but I shrugged it off. I also managed to cut my shin, but after a little bleeding, it is fine.

After we finished swimming, we decided to head towards the town center of Capri. This took a bit out of us because the center is up on a great height. We moved out along a road that winded back and forth between houses and such things. It was a pretty tight squeeze for traffic, but these European cars are so tiny they easily fit.

Once we got to the center, we celebrated our accomplishment with some gelato. I thought it was really good. We also got some Lemoncello. This is apparently a delicacy of Capri. It is pretty much lemon-flavored hard liquor, it can be adequately described as if someone had some vodka and dropped a lemonhead in it and let it dissolve. We mixed this with some lemon slushies, it was an excellent treat after all the walking on a hot day.

We took the funicular back down the mountain. We explored the local shops for a bit and I grabbed a Capri t-shirt. We then took the ferry back to Naples. Once we made it back we decided we were all in need of a break. We took showers and relaxed for around an hour. After this we decided to set out to find “the best pizza in the world”.

The Washington Post apparently sent a correspondent out to Naples at some point. The columnist said that the Antica Pizzeria Da Michele was the best so we set out to find it. The article sort of played up Naples as some sort of Pirate Island Mecca. Naples is not that bad. If you keep your head up and play it safe, you’ll be fine. The pizza joint wasn’t exactly in the nice part of town, but it was by no means in the ghetto.

It took us some time to find it since it was a good bit off the beaten path. We had to wait for around thirty minutes, but it made the pizza that much better when we got it. The menu is extremely simple, there are four drink options (Fanta, Coke, Water, and Italian Beer, all costing the same price) and there are two pizza options, pizza with cheese and pizza without cheese. Despite this, or perhaps because of, the pizza tasted outstanding. The sauce was impeccable, and the cheese tasted exceptionally good. I don’t know if I’d declare it the best pizza in the world, but it is certainly skewing towards the upper end.

I also managed to receive an excellent tan in the process. I look quite dark and am fitting in with the locals, skin-wise anyways. After our pizza experience, we headed back to the ship. I wanted to sample the night life, but I had to make the smart play and defer to my better judgment. The game plan is to head out for Rome, the Eternal City, around 0730 tomorrow. I need to clobber together a pack for a night before I sack out. Another day and life is outstanding.

Life is Great on the Mediterranean

Date: July 22, 2008
Location: Mediterranean Sea off Naples
Lat: 40° 12.84N Long: 012° 48.19E

Well, the days blend together when you’re at sea. I guess I can talk about a couple of things. First off I can talk about the geography. We’ve come a long way since Portugal. We passed through the Pillars of Hercules a few days ago. It’s too bad it was foggy and we weren’t able to get a good view of the Rock of Gibraltar. I still got a few snapshots of it, hopefully they’ll turn out. The African side was far more impressive, there was this tall promontory that was real impressive. We also passed Sardinia earlier today. The island was pretty impressive from the sea, a lot of impressive green mountains that dropped directly into the sea.

Shipboard life is going well too. Classes are classes, I turned in my Global Studies mid-term, now that I know what they want; the papers are not hard at all. I also have been doing well in my classes. I received a 95% on my Russian Culture midterm. I also received an A on my Russian Economic class quiz. I might be able to pull off a clean-sweep 4.0 (knock on wood, of course) which would be excellent.

Now that we’re in the Mediterranean Sea, life is great. I’ve gone to my classes in board shorts the last couple of days. Also, there is plenty of time to just lay out in the sun. Living on a ship full of women who all have bikinis isn’t a bad life at all. I figure I should have a great tan going by the time I get back to the Old Dominion. Also, there’s always a volleyball game going or maybe some hoops. Some friends and I played for a round of candy bars today. We lost so I have to pay up on that debt, oh well, we’ll get them next time. It feels like we’re all at Spring Break someplace.

Intramural sports are going well. I haven’t played a volleyball game in a while. I think our captain doesn’t have her heart in it. I suppose she never did because she lost the round-robin rock-paper-scissors tournament for it. However, our basketball team continues to pile up wins. Of course this is only when the other team doesn’t show up. We won another game by forfeit; I guess our team’s best asset is its punctuality.

There was also a talent show. This was a lot of fun. It was the standard mix of singing and piano playing and what not. It was a pretty standard show, except for one thing. One of the kids on the ship read a short story entitled “Dragon Ride”. This would be alright, except for the fact that it was more or less a hardcore tale of Human-Dragon love. It’s been the talk of the ship, probably the best remembered act of the show, though obviously not the best act. The kid who wrote them put them on the public folder on the shipboard computer network so I have them saved for posterity; they’re always worth a laugh. The best part of this was the reaction of the lifelong learners. These are generally retirees who just want to see the world. The kid had a passion; it just was not the right venue for it to say the least.

Plans for Italy have firmed up. Tomorrow some friends and I are heading to Capri. Apparently this is one of the most beautiful islands in the world and is a place where millionaires go to throw money away. I don’t know if I’ll be doing any of that, but it should be fun.

After Capri, some other friends and I will be heading to Rome. Here we plan on seeing the Vatican and Ancient Rome. We’ve also heard of a great Pub Crawl that leaves from the Coliseum, so that should be excellent. It might be being a tourist, not a world traveler, but it will certainly be fun.

After spending two days in Rome, the last day, we’re planning on seeing Pompeii. I’m really excited to see it but I’m also frustrated. I thought I got a trip that went on the last day with SAS, however, there was a problem. Instead the trip I paid for leaves the second to last day when I’ll be in Rome. The trip was like 60 Dollars, so it is not an obscene cost, I’m just mad that the mistake was made. I assumed both trips left on the same day since they were both under the last day in the program guide. Oh well, I’ll see Pompeii independently, they have plenty of tours there so it shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Italy should certainly be a blast. The typical US view of Italian food mostly is derived from southern Italy. I’m really looking forward to wine, pasta, pizza, and ancient Rome. Life is excellent.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

On To the Mediterranean

Date: July 19, 2008
Location: Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Portugal
Lat: 39° 46.7N Long: 010° 6.68W

All is well on the M/V Explorer. We finally had a day worthy of the Mediterranean which we are rapidly steaming towards at 21 Knots. We should be in the Med after I wake up tomorrow, I guess I’ll miss the Rock of Gibraltar but I’ll see it on the way back.

Shipboard life is going well. We have a midterm that’s due in a few days. It was going to be due tomorrow, but there were some problems with the computer system so they pushed the date back. I guess it’s nice, I can spend some more time editing the paper and making it gleam. We didn’t have any class today so there was plenty of time to catch some rays. I took my laptop outside and typed my paper out with my shirt off, getting some nice sun in. I’m a bit burnt (sorry mom, I’ll put sunscreen on earlier next time) but it isn’t too bad. A little bit of red’s always a good foundation for a real solid tan anyway.

More happened today then just laying in the sun. I also had an intramural basketball game. We won another game by the usual way. The other team didn’t bring enough players, our whole lineup made it so we grabbed the big W via forfeit. The funny thing is that I was matched against some huge guys. I was matched against a big guy with maybe a hundred pounds and a half foot on me. I had to use some of my hockey skills to contain it but it was a mess. When he got winded, they brought in a guy who’s a skyscraper, around seven feet or so. Our team got whipped, the skyscraper was throwing down alley-oop dunks; it was all in fun. I made a basket though so it was pretty exciting.

After the hoops I decided to jump into the pool to cool off. I decided to go for a dive that sort of resembled a Fosburry Flop from the high jump. This went well except I overestimated the depth of the pool. It wasn’t like Greg Louganis or anything, but I conked my head so there’s a little bump.

However, that bump is nothing compared to the indignity of the college quiz bowl. The M/V Explorer’s cabins are divided into seas. The seas all compete with each other in events that comprise the sea Olympics. There are many fun events, such as a toga modeling contest where the toga can’t be made from a sheet. There is also a mashed potato sculpting contest where the contestants have to make a sculpture out of the potatoes following a common theme. The event I signed up for was the college quiz bowl.

This was essentially following the jeopardy format. This would be wonderful if it wasn’t for a huge format problem. There was no clear way to signal in. The way that was determined to be the best was to have the contestants stand up if they knew the answer. There were two judges who had no stake in the contest to judge who jumped up faster. This led to obvious problems. I stood up to try to answer questions, and I knew virtually all of them, yet I was only picked to answer one question out of perhaps 30. This was extremely frustrating when one person gets picked repeatedly when it is clearly not a runaway victory. Of course since the one guy who I was in the round with got an obscene lead and singlehandedly won the contest.

I had fun but it was just dumb how the format was. I suppose not having buzzers severely impacts the methodology of the game. I’m just annoyed at the principle of it because it seems that being selected was predicated on either height or location. The contestants were in a semicircle so the people that were more or less directly across from the judges were picked most often.

Apparently I’ve spent around 300 words on this. I’m not really mad about it or anything, it’s a stupid quiz bowl, and it just is a bit annoying on the principle of the thing. It was a fun time and it’s a bit ridiculous how fired up everyone got. It was fun.

Life is going well. Classes are going by; life at sea is far more fun without classes. I have plans coming together for Italy that I’m excited about. I’m going to Capri for a day, and then out to Rome for a night and most of a day, this is being rounded out with a visit to Pompeii on the last day. I’m looking forward to seeing all of Italy. Italian seems to be very similar to Spanish, so hopefully I can get someplace with the locals. I wish I could get up to Florence but it’s too hard given only having four days.

It’s another day on Semester at Sea: aint life grand.

Belgian Battlefields and Night Life

Date: July 17, 2008
Location: Antwerp
Lat: 51° 13.3N Long: 004° 23.71E

Belgium does four things excellently: beer, waffles, chocolate, and frite. Frite is basically French fries, but they do it so much better. Also, mayo is the customary topping, and it tastes outstanding on frite. The beer tastes excellent, the variety is outstanding, and it tastes outstanding. The variety is staggering, plus the assortment of glasses is absolutely amazing. The waffles are also stupendous. It’s more than just a simple waffle; there are all kinds of toppings. Fruit is a good option; however, whipped cream, ice cream, and chocolate syrup are the way to go. Belgian chocolate tastes great; I skipped the chocolate mostly because I was focused on beer and frite.

I wasn’t able to fall back asleep after my late nap so I hung out for a while and then did some cardio. After I was done with this, I went on a tour of the De Koninck Brewery. This was really neat. De Koninck has strong ties with Antwerp as it’s the only brewery in the city. The beer is also very good; they brew pretty strong beers, their lightest is 5% and the strongest is 8%. The beer tastes excellent which can make the beers sneak up on you. The brewery tour was much more serious than the Alexander Keith’s tour.

The brewing process is rather fascinating. They have kept most of the older equipment intact to be able to show how it used to be brewed. They also showed the new, more advanced brewing technology. What was probably the most fascinating part of the tour was where they allowed us to walk through the bottling facility. They had a machine that brought in old bottles and cleaned and sterilized them. The bottles are mostly of a standard size here so bottles from all types of breweries were brought in and used. After the bottles were through here, they cycled over to the filling station. The bottles then spun in a big circle where they were filled; the capper also quickly put caps on after this.

After this, we were taken to a bar where we were allowed some samples. They gave us full sized glasses which were nice. I also went over to the gift shop and I got a De Koninck shirt and some glasses. The glasses have the hand of Antwerp on them, so they are more than just a beer glass.

Once the tour was over, we returned to the ship. I grabbed some food and then went to the zoo with a friend. The Antwerp Zoo is absolutely beautiful. We saw a large number of animals, such as penguins, gorillas, flamingos, lions, and they even had some fish.

An interesting thing about Belgium is it is much more diverse than the previous places we visited. There was a good number of racial diversity, which was interesting to see again after the whitewashed Scandinavian countries. I suppose part of that is due to the nature of Belgium. Belgium isn’t a nation-state in the classic sense. There is no homogenous group of people there; instead it’s a mix of Flemish, German, and Francophone speakers. I found this to be very fascinating.

While we were walking back from the zoo, I noticed that one of the major streets in Antwerp is named Franklin Roosevelt Plats. Clearly this is a tribute to the former president. I’ve heard stories of the Belgian devotion to American service graves, so naming a major street wasn’t a huge shock to me. However, it was interesting to see personally.

When we made it back to the ship we all headed out. It’s kind of funny, the night started as just having a few beers with a friend. However, eventually we ran into another group of people and joined up with them. One thing led to another and we all ended up at a Karaoke bar. This was an absolute blast as we were singing songs and having an absolute blast. I’m not sure what time we got back, but there was some dancing and songs sung.

Unfortunately, the alarm rang early. I was smart enough to set it before I headed out. I was a bit dehydrated, but besides that I felt great. I grabbed a few rolls at the dining hall and headed out to tour the Ypres battlefield. Ypres is some distance from Antwerp so I slept a bit on the bus ride over. Flanders is a beautiful area. There is rolling green fields, some wheat, and the occasional copse of trees. It’s staggering to think that such a beautiful place could endure so much suffering and bloodshed.

Our first stop was the Tyne Cot Cemetery. We went through the visitor’s center first. The set-up of the building was particularly fascinating. I’ve been to more than my fair share of Civil War Battlefields and typically the center is like a huge temple to the battle. It typically stands out. This was not the case here. The majority of the building was underground. Also it was behind a slight rise so it was not visible from the cemetery. Perhaps the most haunting thing the center did was that it showed a photo of a dead soldier and then read his name and age. It was tragic hearing how many of the fallen were my age or even younger. The center also had some quotes of the cost of war, such as: “The thought that Jock died for his country is no comfort to me. His memory is all I have left to love.” -John Low’s fiancé, January 10, 1918. Clearly, this is not a place where war is glorified.

We then walked through the graves. The cemetery is a Commonwealth Cemetery where soldiers who served for the UK and its colonies are buried. The headstones were very elaborate, they featured a huge cross, symbolizing a sword that’s been planted in the ground to symbolize the end of the battle. They also had the unit crest of the unit a soldier had served with. Tragically, there were a large number of graves with only: “a soldier of the great war known unto God”. The amount of dead in Ypres is stunning. Another interesting thing is that some headstones have interesting quotes on them, very British style quotes, such as: “the path of duty was the way to glory”.

The cemetery was also immaculate. It was very serene. The caretakers have planted flowers amongst the graves, making it almost into a garden. Another interesting feature was that three pillboxes were integrated into the cemetery. Overall, it was an extremely moving experience.

We then went to the town of Ypres. Ypres is a very fascinating town. It’s full of gorgeous cathedrals, churches, and other medieval architecture. This isn’t surprising as all of Europe has such things. However, what makes this really stunning is that the town was leveled during the war. All the fabulous, medieval architecture was built in the 1920s and 1930s. Churchill wanted to leave the town a ruin as a monument to the toughness and terror of war. However, this wasn’t realistic as the Belgians wanted their town back.

We then went to a rather fancy restaurant. One good thing about Semester at Sea trips is that they feed you real good. This was a three course meal with a tasty fried shrimp and cheese combination. Then the main course was chicken in a creamy wine sauce, and this was topped with strawberry ice cream.

After stuffing our faces, we toured the Flanders Field museum. This is about the war and the battle. This was extremely fascinating as it touched on pretty much every facet of the war. A nice personal touch was that each person is given a card with a barcode on it. This allows the visitor to follow their soldier’s story through the war. The person I got was a German soldier. He lived through the war and was taken as a prisoner of war to the Russians after World War II, which he fought in. He disappeared there and was never heard from again. Truly sad.

We then walked through the Ypres cathedral. This was also impressive. However, it was nowhere near as intriguing as Saint Georges Memorial Church. This was a church constructed through donations by the British and the members of the commonwealths. The church is very impressive as the seat cushions are all needlework regimental crests. There were also stained glass windows that were commemorating the various units. It was truly an impressive experience.

We followed this up with going to a cemetery that was the resting place of mostly Canadians. There are perhaps 5 or 6 Canadians on the tour so the guide was mugging for them. However, this wasn’t a bad thing as this cemetery has a connection with John McRae’s famous In Flanders Fields poem. McRae’s close friend, whose death inspired McRae, is buried in the cemetery.

We headed back to Antwerp after this. A friend and I decided to go bar hopping for a bit. Ultimately we ran into another group and we all headed to a Karaoke bar. Apparently Karaoke is the thing to do in Antwerp. We also went to a shop called Number 1 Frite at both the start and end of the night. Frite is an amazing thing. Mayonnaise is truly a wonderful topping to put on fries.

The Karaoke was a good time; I sang Thriller and was part of a group who sang the Backstreet Boys' I Want it That Way. It’s kind of funny, we got lost heading back. The bar was probably only 200 feet from the ship, however, we walked for around an hour trying to get back to the ship. The problem was that we walked parallel to the river, oh well; we made it back to the ship.

The following day was pretty relaxed. After waking up around 1300, we decided to go into the city for a bit. We weren’t in the mood to sample the Belgian beer, so we settled for a waffle. It tasted great. After this we grabbed our laptops and connected to the internet. Now the ship’s on its way to Italy. I’m really excited about this, it should be great. It needs to be great if it’s going to top Belgium.