Harry Potter and Mr. Popper's Penguins Are Really Not The Same Movie.

Kalimera! I’m here in Greece now and thought I’d try to update you all.

Croatia was wonderful- easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I suspect that as the dust settles from their recent civil war, it’ll develop into a huge tourist site for people looking for beach vacations and adventure. While there, I went to Plitvice Lakes, which was amazing. I mean, getting there from Dubrovnik isn’t exactly easy, but it was worth the 10 or 11-hour bus rides and the absurdity of the bus system. My knee didn’t like the up-and-down hiking, but I sucked it up because it was so gorgeous.

I also spent a couple of days in the old city. One day, I went cliff jumping at a café that is apparently famous for overlooking an often-used cliff-jumping site. I mostly swam and only jumped twice from the smallest rock. There were people jumping from all kinds of heights- apparently on other days people jumped from the city walls. I say you couldn’t pay me enough, but then again, I’m a wimp, so it makes sense.

Greece has been my favorite so far. I may have to be dragged kicking and screaming onto the ship later today. I saw the Parthenon and the Agora and the Parthenon Museum and the new Harry Potter movie and some islands and so on. I saw Hydra, Poros and Aegina on a boat tour of the Saronic islands one day, the Parthenon and downtown Athens on another tour and explored the rest on my own. Our global studies professor is an art history and architectural history man and he was telling us about the new Parthenon Museum as an architecturally stunning building, which it was. Looking at the friezes and the sculptures, it was amazing. Not to mention the exposed excavation site that visitors can look into.

I got a cooking lesson here. My team made the best tzatziki- a dip made with dill, cucumber, and Greek yogurt (among other things) and thus, I think it’s fair to say that we won at cooking. I saw Harry Potter here twice, which was awesome. The movie was well done, and seeing it twice was perfect.

Well I’ve only got 30 days left on the ship, and I have 2 people who need to see all of Doctor Who, Season 6, so I should probably go. I’ve taken probably 200 good pictures per port- it’s been fun, and I’ll work on getting them onto facebook as soon as possible.
Hope you’re all enjoying your summers!
-Chelsea