Wow! Croatia

I cannot say I love Croatia with all of my heart because I wasn’t able to see most of the country, but I do love Dubrovnik, which is quite possibly one of the most picturesque towns on earth. There is natural beauty from every direction. It’s hard to believe there was a war here and the city was under siege only 15 years ago.
One thing I was not expecting was sunny warm weather. Since we are technically farther north than Istanbul I was preparing for snow, but when we ported we could see palm trees and the water was clearer and more crystal blue than in Hawaii. Nearly every yard also had some sort of citrus tree in it too.
Our entrance into Dubrovnik had to be one of the most exciting yet, after Japan of course. Our captain actually lives in Dubrovnik so as we were approaching the city at around 6:30 am he pulled the ship uncomfortably close and loudly blew the ships horn 9 times. I have no doubt that probably every citizen of Dubrovnik jumped out of bed wondering what the heck was going on. When we looked closely to the deck of one of the houses we could see the captains family all waving to us. Apparently the captain was out waving to them too on the front deck. I was on the back deck so I didn’t see him.
After the morning excitement I decided to go back to bed, at least for another hour. When I was sitting at breakfast another much larger cruise ship pulled up and ported right behind us. For some reason I thought cruise season was over. It didn’t matter, they only had a short time in Dubrovnik, they pulled in at 8am and were long gone by the time I returned from the city at 5:00.
I chose to do a city orientation on the first day called museums and churches. I figured it was much easier to not have to deal with all of the admissions fees myself. I don’t know why I chose to do this orientation. Museums bore the heck out of me but we were able to see some pretty cool stuff. The one building I was most excited to see was the Franciscan Monastery. There is an interior colonnaded courtyard that is absolutely beautiful. In the center of the courtyard were orange trees and a large statue like fountain with a small monk on the top. Up near the ceiling of the walk way were large peeling frescos painted on the walls, and there were several tombs of wealthy patrons built into the walkway.
The Museum in the monastery was small. There were paintings on the walls, relics in cases, and an entire wall set up like a pharmacy (this was apparently one of the first pharmacies). All of the items were interesting slightly in their own right but the most interesting thing in the museum in my opinion almost went by unnoticed. I might never have seen it if I hadn’t seen a ray of light shining in from an area where light normally would not shine in. There was a small hole, about the size of my fist, in the wall with a sheet of glass that looked like a porthole covering it. Underneath it was a sign that said “A Missile Shot 6th December 1991.” The missile had gone through the wall and exploded and exploded on the other side. It must not have done that much damage but it was never explained to me what actually happened.
After the Franciscan Monastery we wandered through the narrow back streets of Dubrovnik. These streets were completely European, or at least what I picture as European. They were all narrow. Windows with shutters open lined the building sides. Cast iron balconies stuck out and streams of colorful laundry hung from one building to the next.
Our next stop was the Dominican Monastery. This was a nice surprise because I didn’t even know there was more than one monastery in the town. It actually looked like it could have been the Franciscan Monasteries twin, except it was bigger and there was a well in the middle of the courtyard instead of a statue. Apparently the well was the towns only source of water when it was under siege in the 90’s. An interesting bit of information. The museum here was a lot like the one at the other monastery too. Jewelry, paintings, and relics. They actually had a relic which they claimed was the forearm of the apostle Thomas. Whether that’s true or not we’ll never know but I thought that was pretty cool.
The rest of our tour consisted of a quick visit to a cathedral (they actually had a relic they claimed was Jesus’ diaper) and the city palace. My mind had stopped absorbing information at the monastery. We got about 45 minutes at the end of the tour for free time before our bus was coming back to pick us up. We went to an ice cream shop for some Gelato. It was so good and only 5 kunas (about $1). Then we took it and walked around some of the narrow streets of the town that we hadn’t yet explored. We got lost. There are a lot of dead ends. We were able to make it back to the bus on time, but barely.
On the second day in Croatia I went on my last SAS ever (Thank goodness! Not to say the SAS trips aren’t good, because they are, I just always found that I have more fun when I’m in control and don’t have to follow a guide). It was to Trsteno, Ston, and the Island of Krocula, Marco Polos supposed birthplace. To get to these places we had to drive along the windy coastal highway, with no guard rail. I was convinced on more than one occasion that our massive bus wouldn’t fit around the corner and we would go flying off of a cliff into the Adriatic Sea or some sort of canyon (I was not reassured when I looked down one time and saw several beat up cars at the bottom of the canyon).
Our first stop was in Trsteno, a town which you could blink and miss. It did however have an amazing arboretum. I was amazed that even this late in the year citrus fruits were growing and colorful flowers were booming. It looked like summer but felt like fall. Running through the gardens was an aqueduct that ended in a very Italian style fountain. Large, with three statues that had water shooting out of their mouths. It was actually really cool. Near the plantations house (someone had actually lived in this beautiful place once. Probably a ship-owner who made olive oil on the side) there was an overlook which afforded breathtaking views of the Adriatic below and some of the Islands just off of the coast.
Another 40 minutes down the road we came to our second stop, the town of Big Ston (The big has a purpose of which I will explain later). It was another walled city like Dubrovnik, but much smaller, although the wall was much bigger. According to our tour guide it’s the second biggest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China. I would have to disagree, I saw a very big and long wall near Jaipur India and this one seemed small in comparison, but we still had fun referring to it as the Great Wall of Croatia and climbing up to the lower lookout tower (the upper parts of the wall were damaged in an earthquake several years ago and are only now being repaired). However, what Ston is famous for isn’t it’s wall, but it’s salt. It supposedly has the best salt in Europe. We were able to go out and look at the salt flats. Honestly the large gray flats were less the visually stimulating but now I can say I’ve been to the salt capital of Europe.
We drove up a peninsula for another 45 minutes to get to a town where we would catch a boat over to Korcula. With the size of our group I was expecting to take a ferry or another boat of the size equivalent over to the Island, not the tiny boat we were presented with. We all fit on it though. Most were inside, a few got to sit on a bench in the back, and I was one of the lucky ones that got to sit on a bench in the front. I was amazed at how far out we were able to see the bottom of the water. I love the water here, it’s the clearest, bluest, water I’ve ever seen. Going out to the Island we could see the bell tower of the church rising up in front of us and then looking back we could see the massive mountain on the peninsula rising up behind us.
Korcula was pretty much dead when we got there. Sometimes the off season can be a good thing and sometime it can be really bad. While we were on Korcula I was really hating that it was the off season. Our tour of the city involved going into several churches and museums (it took standing outside of some with our tour guide pleading for the doors to actually get opened). The one things I came to the Island to see, Marco Polos house we only got a quick glimpse at in passing. I was so disappointed. Our tour guide insisted on dragging us around to all of these sites before we were able tog et get lunch so all of us were pretty crabby towards the end.
Going back to the ship we made a quick stop at Little Ston (See I told you it would be important later). Little Ston was definitely, well, little. It consisted of houses and 1 restaurant in which I thoroughly enjoyed a glass of mineral water while we tried to escape from the cold.
On our third day in Croatia, Jess, Chelsea, Hallie, Jennifer and I decided to go to Lokrum Island, a small Island just off from Dubrovnik. We stopped at the Grocery store (the turned out to be one right next to the port) and got some stuff for a picnic lunch then decided to walk into town instead of taking the bus. During the summer the ferry to Lokrum is only 35 kunas. We had to pay 60 kunas but we did get to ride in a glass bottom boat. Although the water is super clear we could only see to the bottom where it was shallower up by the shore. We rode the boat out with 3 others from SAS. When we got to the Island we couldn’t really decide where to go so we just decided we would go the opposite way from where the others went. That opposite way led us to the Islands Nude Beach. Good thing it was summer so no one was out sunbathing. It wasn’t really a beach either. It was more like a bunch of big flat rocks going up the hillside. We really ate our lunch on a nude beach. It’s fun just to say. I finished eating a little earlier than the others so I did a little exploring. When I turned the corner there was a massive cave. Big enough to fit the ship into. There were sheer cliffs on either side of it so there was no way I would have been able to explore it, but it looked cool. It reminded me of the caves on the Oregon Coast, just with tropical water going into it.
After we ate we didn’t really know where we were going so we decided to wander. We tried to find a bathroom, but when we did it was chained shut thanks to the off season. We walked towards the old monastery but got distracted by a group of cats that came running to us along the way. We weren’t distracted by the cats for very long before 3 female peacocks came walking to us. Immediately all cameras came out. We were all down on the ground looking for the perfect angle to shoot these peacocks. Then walking up from behind us came a male peacock (the males are the pretty, colorful ones). Immediately we all did a 180 and began to take shots of the male. This little photo fest lasted for 15 or 20 minutes before we decided to move on. When we finally did move on we came upon even more cats and peacocks, and I mean dozens of them. Who knew peacocks could fly? They swooping down at us from trees at every angle, it was scary. Even the cats were afraid of these peacocks. I got a video of a peacock chasing one. The strangest thing though I would have to say is as we began to walk away towards the fort the peacocks ran after us. We had a couple dozen peacocks chasing us, how weird and frightening is that?
When we finally reached the wooded area they all stopped chasing us except for one playful kitten which we decided to call Mittens. It followed us up the hill for quite a ways. He probably would have followed us all of the way up to the Fort if Chelsea and Jennifer hadn’t decided to stop and go back. (Jennifer loathes any form of exercise so I have no idea why she wanted to go on this hiking trip with us). Hallie, Jess and I continued climbing up to the top of the hill. It was hard, I will admit but we knew the view would be worth it.
The Fort at the top of the hill looked a lot like the tower of a medieval castle. It was amazing. We were the only ones up there so we had all the time we wanted to explore. To get to the top of the fort we had to go through the inside which was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. From the top we could see all of Lokrum Island, Dubrovnik, and for miles down the coast on both sides. It was beautiful. After taking a few group shots (thank goodness for camera timers) we decided to head back down the hill to see if we could meet up with Chelsea and Jennifer.
When we reached the area of peacocks we could only see a few here and there so they were either all up in the trees (which is a terrifying thought knowing they could swoop down on you at any moment), or they had chased Chelsea and Jennifer wherever they went (We couldn’t find them).
On the Island there is a small saltwater lake called the Dead Sea. Jess really wanted to go swimming so she begged us to go there. I’ll admit, I entertained the thought of getting into the water, and if it had looked like the water anywhere else I probably would have. The lake was for the most part shallow and the bottom was covered with a variety of sea creatures. The latter one is the reason I didn’t go swimming. One of my greatest fear is strange creatures on the bottom of lakes, rivers, oceans, etc. Even with the strange creature on the bottom Jess was bound and determined to swim. Me and Hallie rolled up our pants and waded into the water to take pictures while jess dunked herself fully in and began to doggy paddle around the lake while making strange “I’m cold” sounds. It was hilarious. I got it on video, I wish you all could see it.
We spent our fourth day walking around the walls of Dubrovnik. When I say around I actually mean walking on top of the walls which go around the city. Jennifer was going to come with us but I think even the thought of a walk tired her out so it was just Hallie, Chelsea, Izumi and me. In grand total it took us nearly 3 hours to walk around the city. We stopped nearly every 6 feet to get a picture (like I said, Dubrovnik is a very picturesque town). We decided to start be walking towards the water instead of up the hill. It was interesting to see the parts of the wall that were old and the parts that were obviously new meshed together. A lot of Dubrovnik homes were actually built right up to the wall (some even went through the wall, but those were the newer parts). I got a good amount of laundry pictures as we walked around. Once the sun came out that day (it had been cloudy and threatening to rain earlier) everyone decided to do a load of laundry.
By the old harbor there was a large fortified part of the wall with Canons and lookout towers. There was one hole (window) you could crawl through that had about a 6 ft ledge before it got to the outside of the wall. From there we were given an awesome view of the harbor. I could have sat there all day.
The best view of the city came from the tower at the highest point of the wall. We were able to see for miles and miles, it was spectacular. All of the red roofs of the city glowed in the bright sunlight.
What can a group of girls do after a long walk around a city except get ice cream? We had one shop called Dolce Vita recommended to us. Apparently Rick Steves likes it. It was good ice cream (gelato), but I don’t think it was any better than any of the ice cream we had had so far. I got kinder ice cream and it had streams of nutella through it. It was very delicious.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city wasting time looking at shops (everything is super expensive here). Then we went to see a movie at 6:30. They have a cute little modern theater in one of the cities older buildings. We, along with several other SASers saw the movie “Borat.” I don’t quite know what to say about it. I was completely offended at some parts, disgusted at others, but I still laughed my butt off. I don’t know if I would recommend it, but if you see it you’ll definitely laugh.
Our last day in Dubrovnik was really chill. We didn’t do much, I just walked around the city for a bit and did some shopping. Dubrovnik is really just a nice town to sit and take everything in. It’s really great for people watching too. You can sit at the fountain near the main gate and watch as kids walk by with cellos strapped to their backs, old women bustle by with bags of groceries, and tourists attempt to stand for 10 seconds on the wishing stone. After trying several times myself I believe that it is fully impossible unless you are 80 lbs and have very good balance.
I really liked Dubrovnik, and I’m sure I’d like the rest of Croatia. I’d like to come back again sometime during the summer months, maybe like may when everything is open but it’s not super busy yet. Next time I’m definitely going swimming in the Adriatic, it’s just to pretty to pass up.

Right now we’re floating just off of Gibraltar getting refueled. It’s weird to see Morocco on the other side of the waterway, and even weirder because it’s green. Not at all what I expected. Last night we had our winners party for the Sea Olympics. It was fun, just like our last Sea Social except with better music and food. Definitely better food. This time we had cookies, Ice Cream, and a big cake that said Caribbean Sea on it.
Tomorrow we get to Spain. I’m so excited but nervous too. I’m just about to go plan some things out with Hallie. We want to go to Seville and Cordoba. Everyone else is going to either Madrid or Barcelona so hopefully we will miss the huge hordes of SASers. I can’t believe this is our last country! Patrick figured it out today that we have 2 weeks left and one of those weeks is spent in Spain. I can’t believe it. The ending will be bitter sweet. I want to go home, but at the same time I don’t want this to be over. I guess I’ll just have to look forward to new opportunities and new adventures.

Ferries, gloves and Apple Tea: My time in Turkey

Turkey was so beautiful but absolutely freezing. It was nice to finally have a fall season, but it just came as a shock. We pretty much had 5 months of summer and ending that with insanely hot weather in Egypt then going into weather in the 30’s was a big change. I did like that I was able to get out my hats and scarves. That seemed to be the general consensus between everyone too. Everyone was excited to finally have a change and everyday you would see people coming back to the ship with a new hat, gloves, or scarves they bought off of street vendors.
Compared to all of the countries we’ve been to since Japan, Turkey was very expensive. I know people who spent several hundred dollars here. I spent more than any other country since Japan and got half the amount of things. Walking through the Grand Bazaar I saw so many lanterns and painted tiles that I wanted but they were just to much money. It made the atmosphere very bright and beautiful though. Well, as long as you tuned out all of the shop owners asking us where we were from and if we wanted to come into their shops because they had EXACTLY what we were looking for.
The grand Bazaar itself is so big and confusing that I am quite positive although I went there 3 times I still didn’t see the whole thing. Essentially the Grand Bazaar is an indoor market built many many years ago with aisles turning in every direction. From doing a quick sweep you could get the general idea that jewelry was in one section, antiques in another, ceramics in another, and leather in another, then there were several other items such as chess sets and rugs mixed in. I loved looking up at the ceiling because there were painted domes along all of the main thoroughfares. Walking down some of the tighter passages felt like walking through one of the lower levels of Pike Place Market in Seattle. It was just a slight feeling of home.
The first day we were in Istanbul I had a city Orientation with 109 of my closest SAS friends. I guess I hadn’t read the description in the field book well enough because I was expecting to see a lot more than we did. We did a quick drive through Taksim Square which is the trendy happening spot on the new side of the European City, then drove across the Golden horn to the mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent. When the architect Sinan built the mosque he built it as a complete complex with a hospital, soup kitchen, library and schools surround the mosque itself. Most of our tour there was outside looking at these buildings. It was so cold that I was tempted to buy gloves from a street vendor but right as I was preparing to walk over to him the tour moved so I went along with it. We visited a Tulip garden that had no tulips. I didn’t quite understand if it ever had tulips or if it just didn’t because it was the fall (although I did see an amazing amount of bloomed flowers all over the city).
To go inside of the Mosque we had to take off our shoes. This time I was prepared to go inside and was completely covered and had my head scarf. I didn’t want to have to wear an uncomfortable robe again like I had to in Egypt. The inside was beautiful with it’s many domes elaborately painted. My favorite element were the massive chandeliers that hung only a few feet from our heads from wires all of the way up in the dome. They gave the mosque a soft ambience. Since the mosque is still in use we were restricted to a small section. Mosques are segregated so men can worship on nearly the entire floor section, but women are restricted to an area behind a screen. Our guide took us to the side and explained more about Muslim worship. Muslims are supposed to pray 5 times a day, but if they aren’t able to they can do it all at once. I had been wondering about that since Egypt. I would hear the call to prayer broadcasted over the loud speakers and I would expect everyone to drop down and pray but they would just continue to go on with life. I was glad that it was finally cleared up.
After the Suleiman Mosque we visited the Basilica Cisterns which turned out to be one of my favorite things in Istanbul. A remnant of the Roman Empire the cisterns are located underground right next to Haggia Sophia. Twenty years ago there was more water in them and tourists would have to get around by row boat, but to many tourists would get lost (you can actually see how it looked like in the James Bond movie “From Russia with Love”) so they drained part of the water and built platforms you could walk on. Partially draining it was actually a good thing because it led them to discover the head of Medusa carved onto the bottom of the of the pillars which had previously never been seen.
The cisterns had a really ancient atmosphere. I felt like I was in history. With the exception of the multi colored light show it looked completely natural. Whenever the light color of the light setteled on red it looked like the cisterns were being lit by torch. As we walked through the cisterns condensed water on the ceiling would drop on our heads. Some people freaked out because they thought it was sewer water but in reality there are no sewers over the cisterns. In the water there was also a lot of carp. Some of the fish were as large as a cat. We were disappointed when we were told that they were planted there for tourists and weren’t originally there.
After the cisterns we walked over to the Hippodrome which was once the roman racing track with Egyptian obelisks in the middle. The obelisks are still there but nothing else. I was expecting ruins but I guess the original hippodrome is just a memory.
When we were walking to the hippodrome a stray dog came up and started following our group. Some thought she was hungry so they bought a pretzel ring and gave it to her but she just looked at it an kept walking. She had a large smile on her face so I thought maybe she wanted to play so I picked up a stick and threw it for her. Sure enough she ran after it and came running back. It was so adorable. She followed us right into the courtyard of the Blue Mosque but was shooed away.
The interior of the Blue Mosque was the most beautiful of all the buildings we went into. It was covered from top to bottom in Iznik tiles (Iznik is the ancient town of Nicea). They were painted in blue and white and red with flowers and other scenes. Breaking up the tiles in several places were large, brightly colored stained glass windows. It was really amazing.
From the blue mosque we walked a couple hundred feet to Haggia Sophia, the inspiration for the mosques of Istanbul. Haggia Sophia is an enormous church that was built under the reign of Justinian in about 530 AD. When he walked into the church it is said that Justinian said “ Solomon I have surpassed thee.” When the ottoman Turks took over Constantinople the church was converted into a mosque and minarets were built around it. Today it is neither a mosque or a church, it’s just a museum.
Walking into Haggia Sophia really felt like walking into history. From the second we walked in the door we were able to see some of the most famous mosaics in Christian history. The first was of Mary holding a young Jesus in her lap. We walked across the ground floor and up several levels of ramps to the women’s area. Just like in mosques, in the church women we segregated from men and had to stand on an upper level. Even more the empress was able to stand in the very front and every other women had to stand behind her. According to our guide this is where gossip started because they couldn’t see so the women needed something to pass their time. On this second level was also the most famous mosaic of Jesus and two pf his apostles. Half of the mosaic was missing but you could still see the faces.
Standing in the center of Haggia Sophia I felt very overwhelmed. The space was absolutely immense. I was slightly disappointed that scaffolding reached up from the ground and covered half of the dome so I wasn’t able to get the full effect. Although it is probably around the same size as both the Suleiman Mosque and the Blue Mosque it seemed much bigger, even with the massive scaffolding up. In the front of the interior space is and apse where the Muslims placed a mihrab. It is strange to see the clash of religions here. On one side of the apse was a large preaching platform and on the other was an enormous minbar. While we were standing there learning about these things the lights were literally turned out on us. I guess the guards really wanted us to leave.
Originally I had planned to travel to Ephesus with Jennifer, Izumi, Hallie and Rachael. One by one they dropped out until it was only me and Rachael left. We were still going to go, just the two of us but then Rachael decided he wanted to be back for her Byzantine architecture trip on Thursday (originally she was just going to skip it), leaving us with about 24 hours to get to and from Ephesus. With the price of the plane ticket it wouldn’t have been worth it so I made the painful decision the forgo Ephesus and instead we planned to spend a night on the Princes Islands, a short ferry ride from Istanbul.
The ferry left from old Istanbul and made a stop on the Asian side before heading to the Islands which were about half an hour away. On the ferry we met an old man who was a retired literature teacher. He and his wife had a house both in Istanbul and on the second Princes Island. He told us that his wife didn’t really like going to the Island so he was going alone and she would meet him there later. He got off with us on the third island called Heybeli, which is the second largest of the 4 islands. He was going to the market to buy cheese and was going to sit at the café and drink coffee.
The Princes Islands have so much character. The only people allowed to drive cars are the police and construction workers so everyone else has to get around by foot, bike, or my personal favorite, horse cart. It led to a very peaceful atmosphere. You didn’t really have to look both ways before you crossed the street because you weren’t going to get run over. Our first stop was at a small bakery where we bought rolls and croissants. They tasted amazing. As we walked along with our purchases we stumbled upon an outdoor market which went up through the narrow winding street of the town between rows of houses. Market day is only Wednesday so we were lucky that we came on that day. There were old women selling undergarments and men selling some of the largest vegetables I have ever seen. Seriously I saw some heads of lettuce that were twice as big as my head. Walking by one stand the man pulled up a tangerine, ripped it in half and gave me and Rachael each a half with a large smile on his face. He was so nice we decided to buy a pomegranate from him which he broke open for us and then wanted to have a picture taken with us. Apparently they don’t get a lot of American visitors in the winter. I had never had a pomegranate before. It was good, but strange, like little sweet juicy red corn kernels.
We walked through the market and continued up to the top of the hill where we were afforded and amazing view of Heybeli and the other Islands, along with the Asian side of Istanbul in the far distance. On the top of the hill is an old monastery. We went up to the gate but no one was standing there and we couldn’t read the sign that was up because it was in Turkish and Greek. We stood there for awhile and were about to give up on getting in when an old man came to the gate. Rachael asked if we could go in. He said something in Greek and pointed to the sign on the gate. Rachael and I gave each other looks of complete confusion. He must have read the looks on our faces because he asked us where we were from (probably the only English words he knew). After we told him he motioned us inside of the gate.
Our personal tour of the monastery mainly consisted of him pointing and us looking. I wonder if people are usually even allowed to visit, especially girls because as we came to find out the building is still in use. I’m not sure if monks still live there (I obviously couldn’t understand any Turkish or Greek being spoken to me) but the Bishop does. When we walked through the door of the first building there was a ping pong table on one side.
The first area the old man took us into was the chapel building. It had a large golden screened area in the front with paintings of Jesus and Mary decorating it. In the center of the room where several well polished seats, one of which was obviously more important than the others. Next he took us into a room that seemed to be an old classroom. It was filled with several old fashioned desks. It was here that we learned we were allowed to take pictures. Beforehand we were to afraid to take out our cameras. Next he took us our behind the building where he showed us a large pen with donkeys, sheep, ducks and peacocks. He pulled some lavender off of a bush and gave it to us to put into our pockets. I personally don’t like the smell of lavender but I didn’t want to offend him.
The old man led us to the trail back down to town, wished us good luck and made us promise to visit Greece one day ( my limited knowledge of the Greek language helped in understanding him). He was such a sweet old man. I would encourage any person visiting the Princes Islands to try and get a tour of the monastery.
We walked back down the hill, through the market where we were given another mandarin by the very happy man and into town. We had planned on going back to the bakery to get something else to eat but along the way we passed a small food stand where they were selling some very strange sandwiches. The meat was put up on a vertical rotating pole and a man would slice the meat off of it and put it into a piece of French bread along with pickles, tomatoes, and soggy French fries. He said the meat was chicken but obviously it wasn’t. We think it was probably lamb since the Muslims can’t eat pork. We took our sandwiches and went down to the water to see if the old man we had met earlier was still sitting at the café. He was, so we joined him. When we sat down we were almost immediately surrounded by cats. The Islands are filled with dozens of stray cats and dogs. During the summer they are well fed because of all the tourists but during the off season they are starving because there aren’t many people there to feed them. One cat was so ambitious it jumped up on my lap. I felt so bad for them, I took part of my sandwich and ripped it into several small pieces and gave it to them. They pounced on each other to get it.
While we were sitting at the café suddenly we heard a band start to play. We looked over to the Navy yard and all of the sailors were doing their noon marching exercises. Me and Rachael immediately jumped up to watch. Our old friend was quick to tell us that we couldn’t take pictures. It’s a good thing because I was about to pull out my camera to video them. It was interesting to watch them march in a long line three persons thick doing high kicks along the way. The “show” lasted for about 10 minutes and then they marched back into their barracks.
At 1:00 we caught the ferry from Heybeli to the Big Island. Pulling up to the Big Island you could tell it was much more built up that all of the others. Right off of the ferry the town started and didn’t seem to end. We immediately set out to try and find a hotel so we could drop our heavy backpacks. We searched and searched and searched but we couldn’t find a hotel. Since we were there during the off season everything was closed. Finally we ended up at a government building where a women agreed to show us some hotels, she was on her way to the ferry anyway. The first hotel she didn’t recommend. It was disgusting. I knew that if we slept there we would have lice in our hair and bug bites in the morning. The second hotel she showed us was beautiful but it was to much money for us. Me and Rachael made the decision to just go back to Istanbul that night since there was no way we could stay on the Island.
We had bought a jar of off brand Nutella earlier on Heybeli so we bought a loaf of French bread and rented a horse carriage for a tour of the Island. The carriage looked really cool, it reminded me of a Cinderella carriage without the round cover (basically the seats looks really cool. The rood of the carriage reminded me of the song from the musical “Oklahoma,” “a surrey with a fringe on the top,” there was definitely fringe on the top of our carriage.
Touring the town we were able to see some of the most beautiful houses. I would love to come back during the summer to see the town while it is inhabited and alive. I bet it looks completely different.
After our tour we stopped at a café and got some French bread then went down to the water to watch the sunset while we waited for our ferry. The sunset was so beautiful. First bright red, then orange, and yellow followed by purple and blue. I was able to get some good pictures with Heybeli silhouetted in the foreground.
Walking through Istanbul at night was a beautiful experience. I bet only a few other SASers got to truly experience this because so many of them were to drunk to remember it. Right by the ferry terminals an area that had been wide open during the day was now filled with merchants selling everything from bananas to laundry hampers. The same was true for the Gallata bridge, merchants covered nearly the entire stretch while men continues to fish in the background. Looking on the city of Istanbul seemed to sparkle like diamonds and the illuminated mosques shone like stars. It was a beautiful sight.
Along the way back to the ship we came upon an internet café and decided to take advantage of the $1 and hour access. The internet on the ship wasn’t working because of the hills so we couldn’t do it any other way.
On the next day I planned to go on Byzantine architecture with Rachael, I found a free ticket and everything but at breakfast I met up with the rest of the girls (and Scott and Steve) who were going to go to the Grand Bazaar and decided to go out with them instead. Our group started out as 7. We walked from the ship to the Spice Bazaar and ended up splitting off into three groups. Me, Stephanie, and Hallie went straight up the hill to the grand bazaar. We didn’t really have an idea where we were going. We just walked up the hill through winding streets. We went up through one walking street where there were only scarf shops. Somehow we stumbled upon the Grand Bazaar, it was really lucky. Stephanie and Hallie just wanted to look for the time being. I was OK with that so long as I could eventually shop. I already gave a description of the Grand Bazaar at the beginning of my blog so I’ll spare you another description.
For lunch we found a small shop just outside of the grand bazaar where you could get bread filled with either potatoes, cheese, or meat and a coke for 2 lira. It tasted so amazing. WE really had no plans for the afternoon so we decided to just walk around. We followed the streets down to the other side of the peninsula. Aside from nearly breaking my ankle on the cobblestone it was a good walk. The old row homes were painted in bright colors. It was such a great photo op but the exposure was so terrible that they didn’t turn out well.
At the bottom of the hill was a small park. We went and sat on a bench next to a boat pond and pulled out a map to try to figure out where we were at. On the other benches were old men sharing stories, a young man talking on his cell phone, and a mother watching over her son with down syndrome. At a playground behind a hedge kids played on the swings and slid down the slide while others laughed while bouncing up and down on the teeter totter.
When we finally found our bearings we headed back up the hill towards the area of the Hippodrome. We passed several recently burned shells of houses and other brightly painted ones. At a park near the hippodrome we came upon a man selling brightly colored ties. Stephanie bought 5. They are very much her style (although she’s giving them to the guys in her life). We bought stamps from a postal stand in front of Haggia Sophia and postcards from a kiosk nearby. We considered taking the train back to the ship but decided to walk instead. I really like walking, you are able to see so many things you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.
On Thursdays the Modern Art Museum of Istanbul is free. It was located right next to the ship and we stumbled upon it so we decided to go. It was interesting. Modern art isn’t my favorite, I’m more of a fan of Tarkay and Van Gough, but it was still educational. The top floor was full of paintings and sculptures by Turkish artists. What I really enjoyed was the bottom floor. There was an exhibition called the Venice exhibition which consisted of several movies. I didn’t quite understand them but they were entertaining to watch, especially the first and last room. In the first room 6 movies were playing. They were all about 1 minute long, starred the same man, and played backwards. The last room had the film projected on the floor. It was like walking on a ground of moving trash. It was a strange sensation and every time it stopped and started again I swear I could feel my body move.
Also downstairs was an exhibition of photographs taken in different countries during the 1960’s. It’s weird to have now been to so many of the countries which were featured in the exhibition.
The next day was pretty much like the day before. A group of us girls walked to the spice bazaar and the grand bazaar. This time our goal was shopping. Not a ton because obviously it was expensive, but the one thing I wanted was a new hat and I got it! Shopping in a big group is really difficult so we split off into two groups and set a meeting time. I went around with Hilary. I wish I had met her earlier in the voyage because we’re so much alike, it’s fun to talk to her.
In front of the spice bazaar is an old mosque where all the pigeons hang out. There are several little stands outside where little old ladies sell plates of bird seed that you can throw to the pigeons. I decided to give it a try and so did Hilary. I only wanted one plate of bird seed and so did Hilary, but when we went to feed them the lady kept throwing other plates of seed in then tried to charge us 10 lira for it in the end. We argued with her telling her that we only wanted one plate but she would not budge. Finally we were able to get it down to 5 lira. That’s the last time I feed the pigeons.
We went up to the same bread shop for lunch as we had the day before and ended up going back again after shopping for an afternoon snack. When in Turkey get Turkish food while you can.
Somehow in the afternoon we ended up back at Haggia Sophia. Stephanie, Hilary, and Chelsea decided to take the train back from there while me and Hallie went to look at an “artisan bazaar next to the blue Mosque. In actuality it was the Arasta Bazaar, not the artisan bazaar and it was basically a classier, more expensive version of the grand bazaar and a disappointment. We walked back to the ship wishing the whole way we had taken the train because our feet hurt so badly.
What can I say, our last day ended up being a slight variation of the last 2 days. We had planned on going up to Taksim square, but we had to go back to the spice bazaar because the shop keepers had given Chelsea two different shoe sizes the day before. Our main goal for the day was to find Apple tea, the main tourist drink which isn’t actually tea but more like apple cider. We weren’t looking for just any type of apple tea though, Chelsea wanted green apple tea which proved really difficult to find. For some reason Chelsea thought you could get it for 1 lira then halfway through our search and the day she remembered it was the normal apple tea that was cheap, the green apple tea was expensive. She finally settled for the regular apple tea. We all bought several boxes of it.
We spent out last few hours in Turkey wandering around the city and going on the internet. It was so cold outside I would have sworn it would snow but it didn’t. Overall Turkey was a great experience. It’s the one country so far that I would live in, especially on the Princes Islands. I’m so excited for Croatia now. I hope that it snows there. It would make everything so magical. I can’t believe that we only have 2 countries left. I looked forward to this semester so much and now its almost over. It was a great time, but I’ll be so sad to see it end.

One more thought...

Oh ya i posted pıctures too. Im havıng a rough tıme wıth thıs strange turkısh keyboard so forgıve my mıstakes. Hopefully ı wıll get my turkey blog posted tommarow but for now Ill say I absolutley loved the country It was so beautıful and we fınally got our fall. It was so cold though, defınıtly no egypt.

EGYPT!

So I wrote thıs before we got to turkey but then the ınternet stopped workıng. :



I haven’t even finished writing in my own journal yet, but I thought I would pound this out for everyone’s reading pleasure before we reach Istanbul tomorrow morning.
I absolutely loved Egypt. I was probably my favorite country so far on the trip. I am thoroughly convinced that we were the first cruise ship to ever dock in Adbiya. Literally when you looked off of the ship all you could see was dirt, a big mountain of dirt colored limestone, and industrial buildings. It was pretty much a cargo port.
Since our trip didn’t leave until the second day Casey, Erin and I decided to go into Suez City the first day. We misunderstood the directions we were given and walked all the way to the ports gate to get a taxi when apparently they were supposed to be right up next to the ship. Walking to the gate we had 3 cars and a truck slam on their breaks the stop and stare at us and all the men working next to the road stopped to stare. They must really not see westerners often, especially western women.
Suez city is really a pretty boring town, and I’m not even saying that from a solely western point of view. Even the Egyptians we met said it was boring. We walked along for while and just observed the culture. The streets were really beautiful in a dirty kind of way. Brightly colored laundry hung from all of the balconies and strings of metallic ribbons and flags hung across the streets, remnants from Ramadan.
Finding lunch was a particularly difficult task. There aren’t many restaurants in Egypt, tourists eat at hotels. We finally asked a man at a hookah bar where we could get food and he led us to a little shop with a crude display of things that looked halfway edible in a glass case. The owner of the restaurant was incredibly friendly, he even offered me his chair to sit in because it was better than all of the others, then he gave us whatever food we wanted, free of charge.. He recommended that we try Egyptian beans so that’s what we asked for. They came plastered inside of a piece of pita bread. They tasted Ok, a little to salty for my taste, but I’m a picky eater. Casey and Erin also ordered potato chips and the funny thing was, they also came inside of pita bread. They were so confused on how to actually eat it. We tried to pay the owner in the end but he would not take it. It was our first taste of Egyptian hospitality.
After lunch we found our way to the Canal. It was a pretty boring view, just dirt and hills like everywhere else in Egypt. The water looked really nice though, I really wanted to go for a swim. We technically weren’t allowed to take pictures, but a guy paid off the police so that we could.
At the canal we met a guy named Amer. He had been at the ship earlier arranging all of the independent travel for SAS students. His office was right next to the canal and he recognized us from earlier so he came out to talk. We ended up spending the rest of the day with him and he paid for everything. We went to a coffee shop, to a hotel café, out to dinner and even shopping and didn’t have to pay for anything. He even took us back to the ship later.
We actually had a really interesting experience while we were in the city. See, Suez city doesn’t get tourists, there’s nothing there to really get them to come except the canal, and they can go to Port Said to see that. When we were walking down the street that night to find a music store because Erin really wanted some music we ran into a big celebration for a wedding. I felt so sorry for the couple because when we walked down the street all eyes went to us. Little kids would run up to say hi and get their picture taken. When we were in the store they all congregated around the door and the store owner actually shooed them away. I’ve never felt so odd in my life. They were just as excited to see us as we were to see them.
The next morning we had to wake up early for our trip. It was the biggest SAS trip people wise that I’ve been on so far. I don’t know the exact number but we had 4 buses and 4 tour guides. Out tour guides name was Mohammad and he was awesome. The two our drive to Cairo was awful. I couldn’t sleep and I had no music to listen to since my IPOD broke in India. It would have been ok if there had been something to look at out the window, but it was the same view for the entire ride. I’m not even kidding, it didn’t change once. Dirt and rocks and hills. It went on forever.
Our first stop was at a place called Sakkara where the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Zoser is. It was pretty small, but since it was the first thing we saw it was awesome. It was the one place we went to where you where actually allowed to climb on the ruins. Not the pyramid itself, but the ruins around it, and from the top of the wall around the pyramid (which now is just a big dirt mound) you could see a handful of other pyramids in the distance, some of them were really big. I had no idea there were so many pyramids, I thought there was only the ones in Giza and then the step pyramid, but I was wrong.
When we were done looking at the pyramid we drove to the mastabas which were in the same complex. When I first looked at them I thought they looked fake, like they were a little to nice looking to be thousands of years old. When we got inside I got more of an impression that they were old. A lot of the hieroglyphics were completely worn off, but when we got to one of the back chambers many of the hieroglyphics still had their paint. It was awesome to see.
After Sakkara we drove to Memphis. Since it was the first capital of Egypt I was expecting an elaborate set of ruins, a really cool site. Today “Memphis” is a museum with a few statues chained off in a big dirt yard and a colossal statue of Ramses II laying down in a building. I was disappointed, It wasn’t what I thought it would be at all.
After we left Memphis we drove to the hotel which ended up being maybe 2 miles away from the great pyramids, either way they still looked HUGE from it. We stayed in the Le Meridian Pyramids and it was definitely one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in and it was completely overrun with SAS students. Not only was our trip there, but so was the Cairo extended trip and the Cairo/Luxor/Aswan/Abu Siembel trip. I roomed with Chelsea. We were really hoping for a room with a view of the pyramids. We walked into our room and to the window with our fingers crossed and opened it to find a lovely brown hill and a traffic circle. Oh well, I can’t complain, If I went down a few stories to the pool you could see the pyramids clearly. Our room itself was pretty awesome, especially the beds. It was like sleeping on a goose down mattress with a goose down comforter and goose down pillow, like sleeping on a cloud.
Later that afternoon we headed to the Cairo Museum. I was so excited because it was supposed to be one of the most amazing museums in the world. I wasn’t disappointed. Instead of staying with the group Erin, Matte, and I decided to break off and see everything at our own pace. WE headed to the second floor first because of two things: King Tut and Mummies. I honestly don’t know where King Tut’s stud started, or where it stopped. It just kept going and unfortunately only a couple items in the museum actually have descriptions on them. Everything had a number which corresponds to a guidebook they want you to buy, but we didn’t know that.
My favorite room was the room with all of the famous King Tut stuff in it like his Burial mask and 2 of his 3 coffins (the third one and his mummy were left in his tomb at the Valley of the Kings). I honestly don’t know what King Tut stuff is touring America right now because there was definitely a lot of it in the museum. Looking at his burial mask and coffins was like looking at a picture, it was unreal, and it was amazing. The gold sparkled all around the room. It was hard to get a close view because people were crowding from every angle, but after awhile I blocked them out.
At the end of the Museum was a huge hall filled with coffins and mummies, there were literally hundreds of them. It was crazy, they lined the walls and ranged from child size to goliath sized. Some still had the mummies inside but most were empty.
To see the royal mummies you had to pay and extra 50 LE (about $10). At first we weren’t going to do it but then we thought why not? How often are we in Egypt so we shelled out the extra money. The only mummy I remember distinctly was Ramses II. All the rest were a nice mix of a bunch of assorted Ramses’ and Amenhoteps’ with a few other names, queens, and priests mixed in.
After the museum we went to the Khan a Kalili Bazaar. I was disappointed. All that was being sold was a bunch of tourist crap. Magnets, small statues of King Tuts’ head, jewelry that will break in a day. Etc. For the first time in a country I really didn’t feel like buying anything. I guess that was a good thing. I left the market with a pretty pink Tunic and nothing else.
The next morning I chose to get up insanely early to see the sunrise at the Pyramids. For some reason the guides really tried to discourage us from going. If we decided to go we had to sit at the panoramic view of the pyramids for 4 hours while we waited for everyone else to come at 9:00. We couldn’t go back to the hotel without having to pay to get back in again.
I will admit, it wasn’t the most spectacular sunrise I’ve ever seen, but seeing it at the pyramids made it amazing. It seemed to take forever to rise up, a good two hours but that was two less hours that we had to sit in boredom. One weird thing was it actually rained for a little while. It never rains in Cairo, even our guide said it. I knew it had to rain sometime when we were in Egypt. It’s rained in every port we’ve been in so far.
It was funny the panoramic view was on the top of a hill and at the bottom camel and horse drivers paced around taunting us the entire time we sat there. “Do you wanna ride a camel?” “ Camel ride real cheap you just have to come here.” What they knew that we didn’t was that tourists aren’t allowed to leave the panoramic view until the sun is completely up. The guards actually told us that the camel drivers were the mafia to keep us from going down to them.
When the rest of the 120 people in our group came we were given the chance to ride a camel from the panoramic spot down to the first pyramid. Apparently the camel drivers were not in the mafia and the guides from the first two buses (I was in bus 4) had made a deal with them so that it would only be $10 for us. I wasn’t going to but again I thought I’m in Egypt and I can ride a camel. I need to do it. My camels name was snoopy and there was definitely a couple times I thought I was going to fall off. He got mad at the driver and tried to go off a different way, taking me with him. Then going up and down hills was like a skill. You had to lean just the right way to keep your balance. When we got to a flat area my driver made snoopy run and I almost had a panic attack. It’s scary riding a running camel, but I did make it and I came out with a good picture in the end.
Probably the funniest story of the whole trip happened to me next. Every bus had a bathroom on it, and they’re not like US busses with bathrooms in the back. In these buses the seats are raised up higher and there are two doors one in the front and one in the middle, so the bathroom was by the middle door and down half a level. I had had to go to the bathroom for a good hour and had been holding it in so by that time I really had to go and made my first attempt at using a bus restroom this whole time on SAS and wouldn’t you know it, I got locked in. In between the camel ride and the pyramid parking lot was only a short time so I began to freak out that I was going to miss the pyramids up close. I tried unlocking it for a few minutes but it didn’t work so finally I pounded on the door and got Casey’s attention. She tried to open the door for me on the outside but it didn’t work so then Mohammad came back and tried. He couldn’t do it either. By that time Mrs. Berghoudi had come back and she must have thought I was panicking because she kept telling me to stay calm. I was calm but if I couldn’t see the pyramids I was going to freak out. No one could get it open. Finally the bus driver had to pull the bus over and come unlock the bathroom with his key and even then he had to pull extra hard to get it open. I was so embarrassed. Everyone was laughing and clapping when I came out. From that point on no one would lock the bathroom door, they always just had someone stand guard for them.
I was really disappointed that we were only given 25 minutes up close at the pyramids. We were given 4 hours at the panorama but only 25 minutes up close. One thing I knew I had to do was go inside. Rumor is they’re going to close the interiors of both great pyramids next year so it was now or never. We decided to go into the Pyramid of Kephron (I have no idea if I spelled that right) which is the middle one with the smooth part at the tip. It was only 20 LE to go inside where the Pyramid of Kufu was 100 LE.
The inside of the pyramid wasn’t what I expected. I had this fantastic vision of hidden passageways and hieroglyphics, which it didn’t have. We entered the pyramid through a long passage way that sloped down and we had to bend over to get through. At the bottom it flattened out at we were able to stand up. On the other end there was another sloping passageway going up which we had to crouch down for. About halfway up the roof suddenly rose up and you could turn around and see the original entrance that the Egyptians used. At the top of the passage was the tomb chamber. It was a huge, hot, empty room with an empty sarcophagus on one end and the words “SCOPERTA da g. Belzoni. 2. March. 1818,” painted on the wall. I assume the men that discovered the chamber put it there.
When we got out of the pyramids our time was up but we still hadn’t taken any pictures close to the pyramid so we chose to be late to the bus rather than missing this chance. We took our pictures, got yelled at for trying to sit on a block which apparently counts as climbing and got asked to take a picture with a young Egyptian girl by her father.
Just a quick drive down the road and we were at the great Sphinx. I was stuck by how disproportionate it was. The head is much smaller than the body. I was amazing to see the sphinx sitting in front of the towering pyramids. It was like being inside of a book on Egypt. This was a place I’ve always wanted to go, but never thought I’d actually get to and I was really there!
Next we drove across town to the citadel of Saladin. In the center of the citadel is the Mohammad Ali Mosque which is as white as the Taj Mahal and can be seen across the Cairo Skyline. It was so hot outside. There had been a breeze the day before but that day it was non existent.
I brought a scarf along with me to cover my head when we went inside of the mosque, but apparently that wasn’t good enough. The women at the entrance tied a big green satin cape around me. I wasn’t wearing anything scandalous either, just a t-shirt and jeans like everyone else that didn’t get a cape.
The inside of the mosque was big and beautiful, but at the same time I was somewhat unimpressed and I can’t explain why. My attention span was incredibly short that day. As I walked around the mosque for some reason the song “I’ll fly away oh glory” popped into my head. I can’t explain why. I thought, of all places it’s interesting that I started singing it here.
For lunch we had a Nile rover cruise. I thought it would be on an open air boat but it was on perhaps the ugliest boat I have ever seen. I was called the Nile crystal and definitely looked like it had prisms jutting out of it. The food was decent and the entertainment was interesting. While we were eating there was a lounge singer performing. I about choked when I heard him sing “Aisha.” I thought it was a song that the kid in the Ebaums world made up but no, the surprise of my life, the man was singing it. After we were done eating a man dressed like a Pharaoh came out and danced and he was followed by the worst belly dancer ever. She must have been new because she was terrible. Overall it was still fun though. They pulled unwilling people up on stage to dance with them while a photographer took pictures which were later sold to the participants for 30LE each.
After lunch we were thankfully able to go back to the hotel to take a nap. It was a great nap too. I slept very well until we had to get up for the sound and light show at the pyramids. I wasn’t quite what I expected again, but it wasn’t bad. For some reason I was under the impression that it was a laser show so I was picturing outlines of pharaohs running across the pyramids. Instead there was narration blasted over loudspeakers and at key moments the pyramids or sphinx would light up. They also projected pictures onto the temple next to the sphinx and at times a face was projected even projected onto the sphinx. It was creepy.
The next morning our wake up call was at 2:30 to catch a plane to Luxor. SAS pretty much took over the plane. There were only a few others on there with us. The airline rules in Egypt are so lax. I didn’t even have my own ticket. They just passed tickets out like it was a brochure or something. Some people ended up with first class seats because of that. I can’t say I wasn’t jealous although the rest of the plane was really nice and it was only a 50min flight.
We landed at Luxor “International” Airport at 6:00. I put international in quotes because both times I was there, flying in and flying out our plane was the only plane there. It was very lonely.
As soon as we landed we headed straight for the Valley of the Kings. I couldn’t say how long the drive was because I nodded off. The next thing I remembered was getting a wake up call and seeing brown dirt hills all around me.
From the parking lot we had to take a shuttle a while 100 feet to the entrance. I made me wonder why we couldn’t have just walked. Our entrance tickets were good for admittance into three tombs and we had to get a separate ticket to go into King Tut’s. Mohammad walked us in and stood the group right next to King Tut’s tomb and then made us stand there for half an hour. It was brutal. My attention span is not long enough for that, especially with so many distractions and so many fun things in store.
King Tut’s tomb was actually really small. Usually it takes around 20 years to build a tomb but because he died after three years when he was about 17 there was no time to make it any bigger. We had to walk down another passageway like the one in the pyramid and at the bottom it opened up into a chamber and on the far right was a larger opening where the coffin and mummy were. Behind the coffin were some pretty amazing hieroglyphics. It was amazing to think that all the junk we saw in the Cairo museum could actually fit in here. It must have been jammed up to the ceiling.
Mohammad told us that the 3 best tombs were of Ramses IV, Ramses IX and Ramses III so those were the tombs we decided to see. They were all so much bigger and more elaborate than King Tut’s. I wanted to take pictures so badly. Erin took one and got caught and the man made her erase it while he watched. At the entrance the Ramses III tomb the guard actually let us take a picture but then he wanted baksheesh. I didn’t give it to him. Some of the hieroglyphics were so amazing. My favorites were the stars painted on the ceiling. We actually saw that a lot.
After the valley of the kings we went to the Temple of Queen Hatchetsup, the only female pharonic ruler. The discovery channel was filming an IMAX movie there which I believe was called Mummies II or something along that line, anyway it comes to theaters next March. We were able to talk to the director and we saw them filming one of the dramatized scenes up at one of the tombs on the hill.
The temple was fantastic. It was built onto the Cliffside in three layers. The bottom layer was for the common people, the middle was for the nobles, and the top was for the queen. There were dozens of statues and still a lot of hieroglyphics with paint still on them and again there were stars on the ceiling. I remember looking at an article in Smithsonian magazine before I came about the temple so it was cool to actually be able to see it.
After the temple we made a brief stop at the Colossus of Memnon for pictures and that’s really all it needed, they really weren’t that interesting. Then we headed to the hotel. Again the hotel was amazing and so much more than I expected. It was from the same chain as the one we stayed in in Giza, but it was called the Le Meridian Luxor. It was very much in a European Mediterranean style. From the lobby there was a big open courtyard where room with balconies lined the edges. On the other side was another exterior courtyard also lined with terraced rooms which had the pool. The hotel itself was perched right on the edge of the Nile river with the mountains containing the Valley of the kings looming in the distance.
After lunch we had a 4.5 hour break. Me and Chelsea planned on taking a nap but it took forever to get our room because it hadn’t been cleaned yet. Our crappy view in Giza was completely made up for in Luxor. We got a HUGE room with a terrace overlooking the Nile. It was amazing. I felt completely undeserving. We actually made a quick glance at the prices when we walked down later and the room we were in was $250 night! It wasn’t something I would stay at for any other reason, I had no control over where I stayed but it was definitely amazing.
We did get to take a wonderful nap again and woke up in time to go see Luxor Temple illuminated at night. The only thing that was crappy was that my camera sucks at taking night pictures. I’m totally glad we saw the temple at night though. It looked like it was from a movie because the color of lights they used made it look like torch light. I could imagine having stumbled upon the temple 100 years ago when most of it was buried in sand. It had actually been so buried that a mosque had actually been built over one section. It’s still there, but it’s not used because the entrance is about 25 ft in the air.
Guarding the entrance to the temple are two towering statues and right outside is an obelisk. There used to be another obelisk on the other side of the entrance, and the base is still there but the obelisk itself was hauled off to Paris awhile ago. Inside of the temple were a ton of columns with hieroglyphics decorating them and many other statues. There is also a pathway leading up to the temple that used to connect Luxor and Karnack temples and is lined with sphinxes. It looked really cool, unfortunately I don’t think any of my pictures turned out.
The next morning our wake up call wasn’t ‘til 8. That’s sleeping in! It felt really good too. Me and Chelsea got all of our stuff together and checked out although we technically didn’t have to do that until lunch time. We spent our morning at the Temple of Karnack, which was even bigger and more impressive than Luxor temple. The deep hieroglyphics on the columns is really what stood our the most. Even though I could take pictures of them I still wanted to draw some of them like I did at the Valley of the Kings. In one part of the temple is a statue of a scarab which was the god of good luck for the ancient Egyptians. Apparently if you walk around the statue 7 times your wish will come true within three days. I’m waiting for an answer.
The temple complex is so huge it’s hard for guards to watch every place. I’m sure me and Laina walked on some rocks that we shouldn’t have. I know we went up a staircase we shouldn’t have because we got yelled at for it. We didn’t know though. The gate had been moved away and we had seen other people climbing it so we just followed them. I got some good pictures on it and from it so it was worth it. My favorite part will forever be area with all of the columns though. They just looked so cool. The temple of Karnack was exactly how I pictured ancient Egypt.
Unfortunately visiting the Temple of Karnack was the last event on our tour. When we got back to the hotel we still had a few hours before we had to be at the airport though so Chelsea, Hallie, Laina, Professor Vetters wife Val and I all rented a Faluka (Egyptian sailing boat) for an hour. It was called the Princess Diana. Unfortunately there wasn’t much wind, but it was nice to just be out on the Nile river and to be able to say we sailed on the Nile. The water was beautiful and peaceful too. I wanted to go swimming and it would have been safe because they don’t have crocodiles in it anymore. When they built the Aswan dam they all got stuck in Lake Nasser and all the ones that were already below it were killed off.
The plane we flew on back to Cairo was amazing. Possibly the nicest plane I’ve ever been on. It was the type that had 2 seats, then 5 in the middle, then two seats again. On the TV screens we were actually able to watch the plane take off and land. It was the weirdest feeling I’ve ever had. The plane ride back seemed even shorter than the one two luxor. I planned on getting some good journal writing done but I was only able to get about a page and a half by the time we had to put our tray tables up again. The worst part was the 3 hour drive to Alexandria once we got back to Cairo. Me and Hallie played cards for awhile, but that got really old really soon, especially flying over bumps and not having anything to put the cards on except out purses.
On our last day in Egypt, Laina, Hallie, Val and I went out to explore Alexandria. Chelsea was supposed to come too but she wasn’t feeling well. Right out of the port we got a horse carriage to take us to the catacombs for 5 LE each. Riding in a horse carriage was fun. I had always wanted to do it in downtown Seattle and in Central park, but it’s always been so expensive. At first our driver took us to Pompeii’s pillar. It was cool but that’s not what we wanted to see and the police at the pillar must have realized it because they told our driver to take us to the actual catacombs.
The catacombs were cool but I’m sure they don’t compare to the catacombs in Rome and Paris. In all it was relatively small, about the equivalent of a house underground with passageways going here and there. A few painting survived and it was weird how they combined roman and Egyptian ideas, trying to combine hieroglyphics in Roman art.
After the catacombs we headed for the famous Library of Alexandria. We were under the wrong impression that we could walk there, and we walked for awhile but eventually we gave up and got a cab which was a good idea because the Library was actually very far away.
No part of the original Library actually survives and the Library that is there now was built only a few years ago and it’s absolutely gigantic. I think our free Library tour guide said full capacity is like 8 million books and they only have around 700,000 now. It was completely evident when you got close to the book shelves and they were only half full. They also have 300 computers with free internet which I took advantage of, and the second largest internet archive in the world. I could have spent a great deal of time in the Library and I’m pretty sure Hallie could have moved in.
After the Library (Which I forgot to mention was on Alexandria Harbor) we ate lunch at a restaurant which ended up taking two and a half hours because the service was so slow. Afterwards Hallie went back to the Library and Laina, Val and I continued walking along the harbor through back streets. We saw the furniture and gold markets and again got a lot of stares.
Finally we made it to as Mosque that Val really wanted to go to. I actually thought it was prettier inside than the Mohammad Ali Mosque. By that time we had made it so close to Fort Quaitby, which is on the spot where the Lighthouse of Alexandria once stood, one of the Ancient Wonders of the World, that we decided to go see it. I’m sure it would have been much cooler if the lighthouse were still there. Afterwards Laina went out to dinner with some other SAS girls and me and Val took a taxi back to the ship. I spent my last few LE at the little shops next to the ship and was ready to say goodbye to Alexandria. I loved Egypt but Alexandria wasn’t my favorite city.
Unfortunately I was unable to say goodbye to Alexandria. Because of bad weather the captain decided to delay departure until the morning and then in the morning it was delayed ‘til 12:00 noon then delayed again until 5pm. Finally we cruised out of the harbor at around 6pm. It was brutal having to sit in classes and stare out at the port. We just wanted to get moving. When we finally got out to sea we were hit with the waves that we had been trying to avoid they ship rocked back and forth and slammed back down into the water sometimes causing things to fly off of our shelves. The sea was completely calm by the time I woke up this morning though. We’re trucking though the water. By the end of global studies we were passing the Island of Rhodes on our starboard side. Apparently the captain turned on 3 of the four engines and last time I checked we were going nearly 23 knots so we’re actually going to make it to Istanbul on time although we left a day late.
Now for Istanbul it should be an experience. It snowed there last weekend and they are expecting rain. Rachael, Jennifer, Izumi, and I are going to try to make it down the coast to Ephesus. I hope it all works out. It should be a fun time either way.