It's weird to write about these two countries together since they're so different, but I haven't had any time to really sit down and write anything down yet. It's actually our last day in Istanbul right now before we head off to Bulgaria, and I wanted to make sure and get a chance to write about the past two weeks.
Greece was the time of my life! A group of us went around Athens on the first day and did the whole touristy thing, making sure to see all the big sites. The rest of the time in port we spent on an island called Mykonos. This place is the ultimate college destination in Greece. It had all the appeals of the Greek Islands (picture Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants style) with it's white buildings and blue roofs/shutters, but then it also had amazing beaches and nightlife. On the last night there we went to a really fancy club with some friends and got in VIP seating with all the ritzy people. Very cool! The club we were at was notorious for going until the sun rises and a plane flies over every morning. We were up and dancing the night away (literally!) until 7:30. It was gorgeous to watch the sunrise over the ocean in Greece while hanging out with everyone.
Turkey has been a completly different and more of a cultural experience. The first day we went to this big market and worked our bargaining skills. I'll be honest and admit that I was horrible at first, but with practice I got better. We got some really cute stuff :)
I spent the next few days in Turkey on a field trip to Troy and other ancient battle fields. This was far from my idea of a good time, but it was all part of the experience I guess. My favorite day in Turkey was last night though when Elaine, our friend Mollie (also from Seattle :) ) and I went and saw the beautiful temples and mosques and went to the Turkish baths. The baths were really awkward at first, but it was really relaxing once I got used to it. It was like a huge spa day!
Mollie and I are just sitting at a restaurant at the port right now trying to upload pictures since I've had very bad luck with them downloading on this trip! I'll update again when I can!
:) Caitlin
School
I just realized that all I've been talking about is the social/traveling aspect of the trip... don't worry Mom and Dad... I'm doing great in classes too :) We just got our midterms and papers back and right now I have a 95%! I wish these actually applied to my major! haha
Croatia
I'm finally able to sit down in an internet cafe and get online without having to use my ship minutes! I'm starting to wish I hadn't done this though b/c now I'm overwhelmed with all the emails! ahhh!! But I'll just let those wait until I get home! haha
Lainey, Taylor, our new friend Chelsie, and I are taking a day to relax from the eventful weeks we've had. We're making sure to save our energy for tonight to get to fully experience the Croatian nightlife, whatever that may be like! ( I honestly have no idea yet!) All I know about Croatia so far is how beautiful it looks from the boat. All the white brick houses with the red roofs look like something straight off a postcard.
Our adventures in Italy for the past week were numerous to say the least! We docked in Civitiveccnia and Naples, but spent most of our time in Rome. We explored the city, visited the Vatican, St. Peter's Square, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Treve fountain. That was in a course of two days! The rest of the days I went on Semester at Sea trips to smaller villages in the Italian countryside, which we amazing! If I could speak this language I'd definitley want to study here!
With all the places we've been already, I'm starting to feel more like a travler and less like a tourist, if that makes sense. We don't go around with maps, bulky bags, speak obnoxiously loud in English, and constantly ask for directions. For the most part, I think we can blend in pretty well-until we start talking! haha. Luckily enough though, many people in Italy speak Spanish as well , so the conversation barrier isn't as big a problem as I had expected it to be.
Our time in Capri was my favorite part about our stay in Italy though. The 45 minute ferry from Naples ( the dirtiest city I've ever been to!) to the island was totally worth it! We went on a chairlift to the very top of the island, where we were above the clouds and able to look out on all sides of the island into the clear blue water and into the city. It felt like we were in heaven up there, and I could have honestly spent my entire day up in the sky.
When we had about two hours left in our stay on the island we got the bright idea to rent a boat and go around the island to the grottos. It was totally worth it. Taylor, Chelsie, Elaine, our friend Greg, and I were living the life! It was like a music video, one guy driving a speed boat around a gorgeous Italian island in the sun, surrounded by four girls. He wishes he was so lucky though! haha. Once we got to the grottos we anchored the boat and took off swimming into the caves. The water was so green and clear I wish I could bottle it and bring it home...but obviously that wouldn't have quite the same effect!
I was going to write a little more, but I guess we're heading out to town in a little bit. Off to explore the mystery that is Croatia!
:) Caitlin
Lainey, Taylor, our new friend Chelsie, and I are taking a day to relax from the eventful weeks we've had. We're making sure to save our energy for tonight to get to fully experience the Croatian nightlife, whatever that may be like! ( I honestly have no idea yet!) All I know about Croatia so far is how beautiful it looks from the boat. All the white brick houses with the red roofs look like something straight off a postcard.
Our adventures in Italy for the past week were numerous to say the least! We docked in Civitiveccnia and Naples, but spent most of our time in Rome. We explored the city, visited the Vatican, St. Peter's Square, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Treve fountain. That was in a course of two days! The rest of the days I went on Semester at Sea trips to smaller villages in the Italian countryside, which we amazing! If I could speak this language I'd definitley want to study here!
With all the places we've been already, I'm starting to feel more like a travler and less like a tourist, if that makes sense. We don't go around with maps, bulky bags, speak obnoxiously loud in English, and constantly ask for directions. For the most part, I think we can blend in pretty well-until we start talking! haha. Luckily enough though, many people in Italy speak Spanish as well , so the conversation barrier isn't as big a problem as I had expected it to be.
Our time in Capri was my favorite part about our stay in Italy though. The 45 minute ferry from Naples ( the dirtiest city I've ever been to!) to the island was totally worth it! We went on a chairlift to the very top of the island, where we were above the clouds and able to look out on all sides of the island into the clear blue water and into the city. It felt like we were in heaven up there, and I could have honestly spent my entire day up in the sky.
When we had about two hours left in our stay on the island we got the bright idea to rent a boat and go around the island to the grottos. It was totally worth it. Taylor, Chelsie, Elaine, our friend Greg, and I were living the life! It was like a music video, one guy driving a speed boat around a gorgeous Italian island in the sun, surrounded by four girls. He wishes he was so lucky though! haha. Once we got to the grottos we anchored the boat and took off swimming into the caves. The water was so green and clear I wish I could bottle it and bring it home...but obviously that wouldn't have quite the same effect!
I was going to write a little more, but I guess we're heading out to town in a little bit. Off to explore the mystery that is Croatia!
:) Caitlin
Sorry that I’ve been writing so seldom and far between! The internet on the boat is pretty expensive, and there hasn’t been much time to sit around and write this all down. Technically, I should be studying for our midterm tomorrow, but as usual I work better under pressure so at the moment I’m keeping myself busy with procrastination. But I figure, it’s better late then never to fill you in on our epic adventures in Spain!
We’ve been back on the boat since Sunday and are currently on our way to Italy. If Italy is half as amazing as Spain was, I don’t doubt we’ll have lots of stories and hundreds of pictures to share when we’re back from there!
While we were in Spain we went to Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. We spent the entire first day in Cadiz, exploring around the small beach city, visiting the Cathedral, and laying out in the sun drinking Sangria. I’m not a big fan of wine, but Sangria is fruity enough for my taste, and it was the perfect thing to do while laying out under the beach umbrellas watching the locals play soccer along the waterfront. When Lainey and I separated from the group on the beach to explore more of the city, we found lots of cool little areas we hadn’t seen earlier in the day.
Before the trip even started, I decided I want to collect a cross from every country that we visit this summer, so Lainey and I went to several different shops to look for them. I eventually found the perfect one, and it turned out the lady from the shop has family friends who live in Puyallup! We didn’t even bring up Puyallup either, we just said we lived near Seattle and she brought it up. It’s such a small world!
After going back to the ship and getting ready, we headed out to enjoy the Spanish nightlife. The Spaniards’ schedules are drastically different then ours so it took some getting used to! They have lunch from 2-4 (not sometime between them, but the whole two hours!), then siesta (an afternoon nap), have dinner around 9pm, go to the bars around 12am, then the clubs start getting popular around 3am and don’t close until around 6!
We first went to a small local bar to watch the Spain vs. America soccer match. We were pleasantly surprised that America won! Once we became restless in that bar we met up with about 20 other people from Semester at Sea and went bar hopping for the rest of the night. It was a circus! The people from our ship were so excited to be able to go out to bars, you would have thought they’d never had alcohol before! I guess after a week at sea, tolerances were low and energy/excitement was high. Everyone was in a great mood and it made for some hilarious pictures! Haha
Lainey and I headed home earlier then everyone else (around 3 am) because we had to leave the next morning for our trip to Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. These three cities were a lot of fun but Granada was my favorite by far! I wish we had been able to spend the night in Seville b/c I heard it has great nightlife, but we stayed in Cordoba instead.
I turned 20 on Friday, and getting to spend it in Spain was the most exciting birthday ever! (not that the gymnastics or Oregon birthday parties weren’t amazing Mom and Dad! Haha) I wish I’d been able to spend it with my friends, family, and Michael, but the people I was with were a lot of fun too! We all went down to one of the plazas to have Sangria and tapas (appetizers) then wandered our way through the local shopping areas, street markets, and gelato parlors. Once the festivities of the night kicked in we had an even crazier time!
As 15 of us were walking around trying to find a good bar to go to, we ended up meeting two American guys who were studying abroad in Granada and they showed us around. They took us to a bar called Peo and another one called Chapatura. Since it was my birthday the bar tender in the first bar bought me a bottle of wine and had everyone sing Happy Birthday/Feliz Cumpleanos to me☺
Michael had previously told me about a club built into the hills of Granada, and I had our new Spanish/American friends show us how to get there. It was fun club on the side of the hill, part of it was like a cave, and the other was a big dance floor that looked over the entire city. It was beautiful! We danced the night/morning away until 5:30 when we finally called it a success and headed back to the hotel.
Of course in the three days we toured the cities we did our fair share of sightseeing, but I can’t even begin to describe it all! I will have to download pictures of them when I get a chance, but even the pictures can’t do justice to the beautiful Cathedrals, 22000 sq ft. Mosque, side markets, intricate gardens, and palaces.
All in all, Spain was more then I could have expected, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this trip has in store for us!
Miss you all!
☺ Caitlin
P.S. Whenever I can find some time and get to an internet café, I’ll make sure download some pics of the trip so far!
We’ve been back on the boat since Sunday and are currently on our way to Italy. If Italy is half as amazing as Spain was, I don’t doubt we’ll have lots of stories and hundreds of pictures to share when we’re back from there!
While we were in Spain we went to Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. We spent the entire first day in Cadiz, exploring around the small beach city, visiting the Cathedral, and laying out in the sun drinking Sangria. I’m not a big fan of wine, but Sangria is fruity enough for my taste, and it was the perfect thing to do while laying out under the beach umbrellas watching the locals play soccer along the waterfront. When Lainey and I separated from the group on the beach to explore more of the city, we found lots of cool little areas we hadn’t seen earlier in the day.
Before the trip even started, I decided I want to collect a cross from every country that we visit this summer, so Lainey and I went to several different shops to look for them. I eventually found the perfect one, and it turned out the lady from the shop has family friends who live in Puyallup! We didn’t even bring up Puyallup either, we just said we lived near Seattle and she brought it up. It’s such a small world!
After going back to the ship and getting ready, we headed out to enjoy the Spanish nightlife. The Spaniards’ schedules are drastically different then ours so it took some getting used to! They have lunch from 2-4 (not sometime between them, but the whole two hours!), then siesta (an afternoon nap), have dinner around 9pm, go to the bars around 12am, then the clubs start getting popular around 3am and don’t close until around 6!
We first went to a small local bar to watch the Spain vs. America soccer match. We were pleasantly surprised that America won! Once we became restless in that bar we met up with about 20 other people from Semester at Sea and went bar hopping for the rest of the night. It was a circus! The people from our ship were so excited to be able to go out to bars, you would have thought they’d never had alcohol before! I guess after a week at sea, tolerances were low and energy/excitement was high. Everyone was in a great mood and it made for some hilarious pictures! Haha
Lainey and I headed home earlier then everyone else (around 3 am) because we had to leave the next morning for our trip to Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. These three cities were a lot of fun but Granada was my favorite by far! I wish we had been able to spend the night in Seville b/c I heard it has great nightlife, but we stayed in Cordoba instead.
I turned 20 on Friday, and getting to spend it in Spain was the most exciting birthday ever! (not that the gymnastics or Oregon birthday parties weren’t amazing Mom and Dad! Haha) I wish I’d been able to spend it with my friends, family, and Michael, but the people I was with were a lot of fun too! We all went down to one of the plazas to have Sangria and tapas (appetizers) then wandered our way through the local shopping areas, street markets, and gelato parlors. Once the festivities of the night kicked in we had an even crazier time!
As 15 of us were walking around trying to find a good bar to go to, we ended up meeting two American guys who were studying abroad in Granada and they showed us around. They took us to a bar called Peo and another one called Chapatura. Since it was my birthday the bar tender in the first bar bought me a bottle of wine and had everyone sing Happy Birthday/Feliz Cumpleanos to me☺
Michael had previously told me about a club built into the hills of Granada, and I had our new Spanish/American friends show us how to get there. It was fun club on the side of the hill, part of it was like a cave, and the other was a big dance floor that looked over the entire city. It was beautiful! We danced the night/morning away until 5:30 when we finally called it a success and headed back to the hotel.
Of course in the three days we toured the cities we did our fair share of sightseeing, but I can’t even begin to describe it all! I will have to download pictures of them when I get a chance, but even the pictures can’t do justice to the beautiful Cathedrals, 22000 sq ft. Mosque, side markets, intricate gardens, and palaces.
All in all, Spain was more then I could have expected, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this trip has in store for us!
Miss you all!
☺ Caitlin
P.S. Whenever I can find some time and get to an internet café, I’ll make sure download some pics of the trip so far!
Off to Spain!
After an entire week at sea, it is so exciting that we will be arriving in Spain tomorrow! Finally! This trip has been amazing so far, and I wouldn’t change anything we’ve done so far, but I’m definitely ready to get to port. We’ll be arriving in Cadiz tomorrow morning, and as soon as this boat is cleared by customs- I’m off to explore… with all our new friends of course ☺
As much as I miss all my friends and family back home, the people we have met on this trip have been amazing. The guy-girl ratio on the ship is 23-77. So it’s pretty safe to say the guys are outnumbered! But even though it’s so unbalanced it hasn’t been weird at all. The friends we’ve made are from all over, and we’ve become close already. Taylor, Elaine, and I have met on other guy from UW named Zack, and there’s two other huskies on here that we’ve yet to meet but I’ve been trying to figure out who they are! I’m bound to meet them at some point though so I’m not too worried.
Classes have been going pretty too well. If I had one complaint about it- it would be that the ones I signed up for are almost too easy! I know that sounds like a weird thing to be whining about, but it’s really hard to focus on meditating ( in my stress management class) or on analyzing my personal beliefs ( my beliefs and perceptions class) when all I want to do it travel and experience things. I am really grateful for them at the same time though, because there’s practically no homework in two of them. In our global studies class( which is my favorite by far, and is really interesting/applicable to the places we’re going) we have a midterm and paper due soon. It was so nice to write the paper today sitting out on the back of the ship and watching the sun on the water and the ships off in the distance. I still can’t believe I’m getting college credit for this!
Tonight we’re going to be preparing for tomorrow and heading to bed early. We want to make sure to get the most out of every minute of the trip, even if it means getting up at the break of dawn! The time difference has been killing us so far (it’s about a 9 hour difference), but we’re wanting to catch up on as much sleep tonight as we possibly can!
Miss you all back home, and I’ll try and keep updated as soon as I can!
Adios ☺
As much as I miss all my friends and family back home, the people we have met on this trip have been amazing. The guy-girl ratio on the ship is 23-77. So it’s pretty safe to say the guys are outnumbered! But even though it’s so unbalanced it hasn’t been weird at all. The friends we’ve made are from all over, and we’ve become close already. Taylor, Elaine, and I have met on other guy from UW named Zack, and there’s two other huskies on here that we’ve yet to meet but I’ve been trying to figure out who they are! I’m bound to meet them at some point though so I’m not too worried.
Classes have been going pretty too well. If I had one complaint about it- it would be that the ones I signed up for are almost too easy! I know that sounds like a weird thing to be whining about, but it’s really hard to focus on meditating ( in my stress management class) or on analyzing my personal beliefs ( my beliefs and perceptions class) when all I want to do it travel and experience things. I am really grateful for them at the same time though, because there’s practically no homework in two of them. In our global studies class( which is my favorite by far, and is really interesting/applicable to the places we’re going) we have a midterm and paper due soon. It was so nice to write the paper today sitting out on the back of the ship and watching the sun on the water and the ships off in the distance. I still can’t believe I’m getting college credit for this!
Tonight we’re going to be preparing for tomorrow and heading to bed early. We want to make sure to get the most out of every minute of the trip, even if it means getting up at the break of dawn! The time difference has been killing us so far (it’s about a 9 hour difference), but we’re wanting to catch up on as much sleep tonight as we possibly can!
Miss you all back home, and I’ll try and keep updated as soon as I can!
Adios ☺
First Few Days
So the adventure begins! Lainey and I are now settled into our room… which is surprisingly roomy. It may not be a luxurious suite, but considering the fact that it fit all of our luggage (about 200 lbs of clothes, school supplies, toiletries, laptops, towels, shoes, etc) with room to spare, I’d say it’s quite sufficient ☺
After decorating our room with pictures and a huge world map, we spent yesterday exploring the rest of the ship and familiarizing ourselves with our new home for the next few months. We wandered the 7 floors to see the gym, spa, classrooms, dining halls, lounges, and pretty much every door that wasn’t locked. Lainey’s favorite spot was the front of the boat, and I’d have to agree that it was a great spot with a beautiful view! (though the spa looked pretty amazing to me too! Haha)
We’ve met some really nice people on our trip so far. We started off our trip meeting some fellow SAS-ers on the flight here, and since then have been doing our best to get to know the other 700+ students and 200+ staff on the boat. There’s people from almost every state, and over 10 countries on the boat, so there’s a lot of diversity.
As I’m writing this I can feel the ship rocking back and forth. The water out on the Atlantic right now is pretty rough and a lot of people are getting sea sick. Luckily we’ve been fine though, but we’re taking the sea sick meds just in case! We’ll be on open ocean for the next week until we dock in Cadiz for our first port!
I’m sure things will continue to get progressively more exciting and I can’t wait to experience the adventures that await us!
Adios amigos ☺
After decorating our room with pictures and a huge world map, we spent yesterday exploring the rest of the ship and familiarizing ourselves with our new home for the next few months. We wandered the 7 floors to see the gym, spa, classrooms, dining halls, lounges, and pretty much every door that wasn’t locked. Lainey’s favorite spot was the front of the boat, and I’d have to agree that it was a great spot with a beautiful view! (though the spa looked pretty amazing to me too! Haha)
We’ve met some really nice people on our trip so far. We started off our trip meeting some fellow SAS-ers on the flight here, and since then have been doing our best to get to know the other 700+ students and 200+ staff on the boat. There’s people from almost every state, and over 10 countries on the boat, so there’s a lot of diversity.
As I’m writing this I can feel the ship rocking back and forth. The water out on the Atlantic right now is pretty rough and a lot of people are getting sea sick. Luckily we’ve been fine though, but we’re taking the sea sick meds just in case! We’ll be on open ocean for the next week until we dock in Cadiz for our first port!
I’m sure things will continue to get progressively more exciting and I can’t wait to experience the adventures that await us!
Adios amigos ☺
Packing
Between finals today, Mom making me get my Typhoid shot, and buying last minute things before packing... today has been hectic to say the least! I still can't believe we're leaving so soon! I really want to keep in contact with family and friends back home. If you want, send me your email addresses so I can email you!
