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
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Viva Italia!
The last day in Spain was wonderful! Morgan and I woke up at what some people call "6 AM" but what I usually call "What, is the house burning down?" We went into Barcelona only to find out that...well... nothing's open at 6:30 AM. Nothing opens until 8. We walked around the empty city of Barcelona just exploring it with less fear of pickpocketers, which was nice. We finally got into a breakfast place to have the meal Sir David Geiss told the whole ship to have- Chocolate con Churros. It's basically hot chocolate and churros- but hot chocolate in Spain is, as Sir David Geiss put it, "none of that powder Swiss Miss bullshit, it's almost melted chocolate." Sir David Geiss, by the way, was knighted by the King of Spain himself for his work in promoting Spanish culture, understanding, language, and history. He was a guest of the ship from Boston to Spain. He gave guest lectures and seminars to help us all prepare. He's a very funny guy, and I just add the Sir in since he seemed so hesitant to tell us about it, and instead about six other professors mentioned it.
After the near heart attack of Chocolate con Churros (totally worth it by the way. I second the YOU MUST EAT THIS-ness of it) Morgan and I felt like we needed to walk until we felt our arteries open up again. We walked through La Bocqueria, a large open air market. Rows and rows of fish and meat, fruits and veggies, candy and smoothies, and lots of weird shellfish still in their shells. You know those shells you pick up at the beach? It doesn't matter which ones you're thinking of, I probably saw the things that live in them. It was actually incredible. Then we realized that it was about 10 AM on our last day in Spain and neither of us had picked up the souvenirs we had planned on getting. First we found Morgan a T-shirt, which was a process hindered by the fact that both of us were rather exhausted of people following us around souvenir stores saying "oh what about this? You from America? You want this one? We have this in other colors. That's a men's shirt, you should look at the women's shirts." even after we had clearly stated that we were fine and didn't need help. I got my bracelet (to those who don't know, I collect a bracelet from every country I visit. I've stopped wearing them all at once, but I still felt like it was the best thing to do.) We stopped into a grocery store to get a couple gifts but I'm not mentioning those here. Then, after one last traipse through the Barri Gotic (the quarter of Barcelona featuring gothic architecture) we headed back to the ship for on board time. Morgan and I made a mission of eating all the things in Spain. We seem to have succeeded.
The next day was the Sea Olympics. These are a bunch of silly games and things that we do with our halls, and the winning team is the first one off in Boston. My team, the Baltic Sea, was pretty awesome. We won team spirit, and started a dance party at 10 AM that went on so long the staff let us keep speakers up on the sun deck at night. My roommate, Amy, won Dean Says for us, which was hilarious. Mostly because the dean didn't quite get how to be a caller for Simon Says, and Amy finally pulled out all the stops in the tie-breaker by impersonating the best duck ever. The synchronized swimming was likely one of the best things I'll ever see. Groups did performances to Barbie Girl, Single Ladies, It's Raining Men, and so on. Not to mention, my friend Meg was in the one done to Build Me Up, Buttercup, which was adorable. The Baltic Sea came in 4th place, sadly, but we were still awesome. I didn't sign up for any events for a simple reason. The only one still open when I got to the list was Pull Ups. Nobody is confused anymore, are they?
And then we got to Naples. My friend Tyra and I were going to explore Naples the first day. We got off the ship, and after walking about a block, realized that frankly, the end of Naples we were in was sketchy and we didn't really want to go much further. We went to a ticket counter and got a ticket for Sorrento. Unfortunately, we missed the boat by about 30 seconds in the time it took us to run to our rooms to grab bathing suits. Like literally, they were pulling the gangway up as we walked over, and wouldn't set it back down for 2 seconds. Thankfully, the ticket counter exchanged it easily- no cost whatsoever, even though the ferry had already left. We went for lunch, then easily caught our next boat over. Once there we found a beach, and went swimming. Oh we swam. A lot. A pair of Italian men, Antonio and Nino, came over and chatted us up, but given the fact that they were, oh, probably at least 35, we didn't display undue interest. Strangely, to get our attention, and the attention of everyone they were hitting on (they were just making their way down the beach) they kept shouting "wakka wakka!" which made me wonder why they thought Pac Man was a dude to imitate in attempts to hit on chicks. Still, we were swimming in the mediterranean sea, so we couldn't complain. After a good long swim, we caught our boat back to Naples.
I went out for dinner with Stephanie, the girl I met at the Zoo in the Bahamas. She's awesome. I have such a friend crush on her. (to those who don't know, friend crush is a thing where you just really want to be friends with someone really badly.) We had some of the best Arancini and Margherita Pizza in Naples. The guy working the restaurant was amused by us. First he laughed that we sat at a table set for 4 people, when there was one set for 2 behind us- please note that both had 4 chairs, therefore, both could be set for 4 people or 2 people. We moved to please him, and then he was entertained by us photographing our food, and befuddled by the concept of splitting the check. He had a friend come back to our table so that he could make sure we had a picture of him- it's on Stephanie's camera, but it was a silly moment nonetheless. After dinner, we just walked around Naples for a while. Naples is much more gorgeous after dark, and there was a theater festival that involved showing clips of movies on the side of a building. We just kept talking and it was lots of fun.
The next day I went to Capri for the day with Morgan. The beach was full of rocks, but we got some gorgeous pictures of it, had more delicious pizza and gelato, went swimming, shopping, and exploring some. I got my bracelet for Italy- it has a little Bell of St. Michele on it, which is both culturally relevant to Italy given the whole Catholicism thing, and regional to Capri. Capri was gorgeous, absolutely stunning, and those two days of swimming and relaxing were great.
Yesterday, I went to Pompeii. I woke up early, and went off on my own. I know, I know, be safe, and I was. I got directions to the train station from the ship, and even though I did stop to ask a few places, it was always with Police officers and security guards outside of banks and things. A seagull pooped on me on my way over, but I was determined to get to the station before finding a bathroom, figuring that the station was probably at least clean and with some amount of security, which was true. Still, great start to a day, right? A seagull pooping on your shoulder, while wearing a white T-shirt. I'll discuss the train ride in another entry, because it's something I want to be taken seriously. I chatted with a girl from Brazil at the train station, but on the train over, I had to stand and was next to a family going to Pompeii which made me feel better- I knew I wasn't going to miss my stop.
The line to get into Pompeii was absurd, and there was a huge crowd going through the entry, but once you get through the entrance tunnel, you have free reign to the ruins, except the parts that are still being actively dug out. I loved it. Oh my god, I can't even explain it. Being there made this whole trip seem real. It was amazing. I practically tripped over the House of the Dancing Faun, wandered through an area devoted to preserving the paintings, and went through a bathhouse. After about 2 hours, I wanted to be sure I got home on time. I left at 1 PM (keep in mind that we weren't leaving until 8, and 6 was on-ship time. I just wanted to be super sure.) took a train into the city, and then made my way back to the ship. Naples had woken up while I was gone, and I realized what to say about Naples- it's a very jarring city. You see old castles next to tall skyscrapers, hobos sleeping under what look like very regal arches, mounds of trash next to the sea, and the like. It was very hard to form a positive opinion given the negative things- leering men in doorways and mountains of trash stinking up the place, but it was not a bad place overall.
I rested for the rest of the day- after the hiking I'd done all morning, my feet were done with walking for a while. We had a fourth of July cookout that was fun, and we left Naples right as they were shooting their fireworks off, which was nice. You see, it turns out Naples celebrates the fourth a lot because of how many people have family in the US. Isn't that cool? Naples looks gorgeous as you're leaving at sunset with the lights and fireworks and the people I was with were commenting that they wished it had been nicer of a city to let it live up to the view.
And we woke up just outside of Rome. After doing some Hotel research, I'm going to head into the city and figure out where I'm staying there before meeting Morgan at the Trevi Fountain at 6. That will never stop being weird- just "oh yeah, we'll meet at the Trevi fountain, see ya!"
Anyway that's what's happened so far.
After the near heart attack of Chocolate con Churros (totally worth it by the way. I second the YOU MUST EAT THIS-ness of it) Morgan and I felt like we needed to walk until we felt our arteries open up again. We walked through La Bocqueria, a large open air market. Rows and rows of fish and meat, fruits and veggies, candy and smoothies, and lots of weird shellfish still in their shells. You know those shells you pick up at the beach? It doesn't matter which ones you're thinking of, I probably saw the things that live in them. It was actually incredible. Then we realized that it was about 10 AM on our last day in Spain and neither of us had picked up the souvenirs we had planned on getting. First we found Morgan a T-shirt, which was a process hindered by the fact that both of us were rather exhausted of people following us around souvenir stores saying "oh what about this? You from America? You want this one? We have this in other colors. That's a men's shirt, you should look at the women's shirts." even after we had clearly stated that we were fine and didn't need help. I got my bracelet (to those who don't know, I collect a bracelet from every country I visit. I've stopped wearing them all at once, but I still felt like it was the best thing to do.) We stopped into a grocery store to get a couple gifts but I'm not mentioning those here. Then, after one last traipse through the Barri Gotic (the quarter of Barcelona featuring gothic architecture) we headed back to the ship for on board time. Morgan and I made a mission of eating all the things in Spain. We seem to have succeeded.
The next day was the Sea Olympics. These are a bunch of silly games and things that we do with our halls, and the winning team is the first one off in Boston. My team, the Baltic Sea, was pretty awesome. We won team spirit, and started a dance party at 10 AM that went on so long the staff let us keep speakers up on the sun deck at night. My roommate, Amy, won Dean Says for us, which was hilarious. Mostly because the dean didn't quite get how to be a caller for Simon Says, and Amy finally pulled out all the stops in the tie-breaker by impersonating the best duck ever. The synchronized swimming was likely one of the best things I'll ever see. Groups did performances to Barbie Girl, Single Ladies, It's Raining Men, and so on. Not to mention, my friend Meg was in the one done to Build Me Up, Buttercup, which was adorable. The Baltic Sea came in 4th place, sadly, but we were still awesome. I didn't sign up for any events for a simple reason. The only one still open when I got to the list was Pull Ups. Nobody is confused anymore, are they?
And then we got to Naples. My friend Tyra and I were going to explore Naples the first day. We got off the ship, and after walking about a block, realized that frankly, the end of Naples we were in was sketchy and we didn't really want to go much further. We went to a ticket counter and got a ticket for Sorrento. Unfortunately, we missed the boat by about 30 seconds in the time it took us to run to our rooms to grab bathing suits. Like literally, they were pulling the gangway up as we walked over, and wouldn't set it back down for 2 seconds. Thankfully, the ticket counter exchanged it easily- no cost whatsoever, even though the ferry had already left. We went for lunch, then easily caught our next boat over. Once there we found a beach, and went swimming. Oh we swam. A lot. A pair of Italian men, Antonio and Nino, came over and chatted us up, but given the fact that they were, oh, probably at least 35, we didn't display undue interest. Strangely, to get our attention, and the attention of everyone they were hitting on (they were just making their way down the beach) they kept shouting "wakka wakka!" which made me wonder why they thought Pac Man was a dude to imitate in attempts to hit on chicks. Still, we were swimming in the mediterranean sea, so we couldn't complain. After a good long swim, we caught our boat back to Naples.
I went out for dinner with Stephanie, the girl I met at the Zoo in the Bahamas. She's awesome. I have such a friend crush on her. (to those who don't know, friend crush is a thing where you just really want to be friends with someone really badly.) We had some of the best Arancini and Margherita Pizza in Naples. The guy working the restaurant was amused by us. First he laughed that we sat at a table set for 4 people, when there was one set for 2 behind us- please note that both had 4 chairs, therefore, both could be set for 4 people or 2 people. We moved to please him, and then he was entertained by us photographing our food, and befuddled by the concept of splitting the check. He had a friend come back to our table so that he could make sure we had a picture of him- it's on Stephanie's camera, but it was a silly moment nonetheless. After dinner, we just walked around Naples for a while. Naples is much more gorgeous after dark, and there was a theater festival that involved showing clips of movies on the side of a building. We just kept talking and it was lots of fun.
The next day I went to Capri for the day with Morgan. The beach was full of rocks, but we got some gorgeous pictures of it, had more delicious pizza and gelato, went swimming, shopping, and exploring some. I got my bracelet for Italy- it has a little Bell of St. Michele on it, which is both culturally relevant to Italy given the whole Catholicism thing, and regional to Capri. Capri was gorgeous, absolutely stunning, and those two days of swimming and relaxing were great.
Yesterday, I went to Pompeii. I woke up early, and went off on my own. I know, I know, be safe, and I was. I got directions to the train station from the ship, and even though I did stop to ask a few places, it was always with Police officers and security guards outside of banks and things. A seagull pooped on me on my way over, but I was determined to get to the station before finding a bathroom, figuring that the station was probably at least clean and with some amount of security, which was true. Still, great start to a day, right? A seagull pooping on your shoulder, while wearing a white T-shirt. I'll discuss the train ride in another entry, because it's something I want to be taken seriously. I chatted with a girl from Brazil at the train station, but on the train over, I had to stand and was next to a family going to Pompeii which made me feel better- I knew I wasn't going to miss my stop.
The line to get into Pompeii was absurd, and there was a huge crowd going through the entry, but once you get through the entrance tunnel, you have free reign to the ruins, except the parts that are still being actively dug out. I loved it. Oh my god, I can't even explain it. Being there made this whole trip seem real. It was amazing. I practically tripped over the House of the Dancing Faun, wandered through an area devoted to preserving the paintings, and went through a bathhouse. After about 2 hours, I wanted to be sure I got home on time. I left at 1 PM (keep in mind that we weren't leaving until 8, and 6 was on-ship time. I just wanted to be super sure.) took a train into the city, and then made my way back to the ship. Naples had woken up while I was gone, and I realized what to say about Naples- it's a very jarring city. You see old castles next to tall skyscrapers, hobos sleeping under what look like very regal arches, mounds of trash next to the sea, and the like. It was very hard to form a positive opinion given the negative things- leering men in doorways and mountains of trash stinking up the place, but it was not a bad place overall.
I rested for the rest of the day- after the hiking I'd done all morning, my feet were done with walking for a while. We had a fourth of July cookout that was fun, and we left Naples right as they were shooting their fireworks off, which was nice. You see, it turns out Naples celebrates the fourth a lot because of how many people have family in the US. Isn't that cool? Naples looks gorgeous as you're leaving at sunset with the lights and fireworks and the people I was with were commenting that they wished it had been nicer of a city to let it live up to the view.
And we woke up just outside of Rome. After doing some Hotel research, I'm going to head into the city and figure out where I'm staying there before meeting Morgan at the Trevi Fountain at 6. That will never stop being weird- just "oh yeah, we'll meet at the Trevi fountain, see ya!"
Anyway that's what's happened so far.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Goodbye Bahamas, Crossing the Atlantic, and VIVA ESPAÑA!
All right guys, first things first, apologies are in order.
My email, for whatever reason, will NOT send blog posts. I tried to send one twice, and it kept saying that the email server couldn’t connect to the other server or something. Whatever.
We have successfully crossed the Atlantic. It was a lovely nine days of blue water, sunshine, and classes. The global studies professor went to Oberlin, and that makes me have to like him a bit. He’s actually pretty fun and he tries to keep us on an art history/architecture topic, which is really nice. I was scared that it was going to be all history with no cultural considerations. Not so. He also gives about half of his class time to other professors so that they can come in and lecture on whatever they think is important about the cultures we’re discussing. It’s an efficient system.
My drawing class is amazing. I can’t say a single thing against it. I’m really enjoying it so much, and for the first time probably ever, I have work that I’m proud of. My psych class is interesting, but given that some people have very non-Oberlin opinions and given that the class needs to cover things like sexuality and gender, it’s a little tiring. That said, it really is interesting material, although I kind of can’t wait to try to get into a developmental neuro class to see the differences in what is taught and how.
I’ve joined GLTSBA @ Sea, the LGBTQA group on the ship. The people are super nice and a lot of fun, and I’m glad I decided to join. I missed Pride in Columbus, which is sad, because I really wanted to get to go this year, but we’re hitting the tail end of Pride here in Barcelona and almost all of Pride in Athens. It should be pretty cool to see it in this cool of places.
Barcelona is a work of art. The city itself is absolutely gorgeous.
My first day here, I did a tour of Gaudi’s works. He’s an architect who I’m convinced built King Triton’s castle. His works draw very heavily from nature, and use lots of color, even on the façade of the building. First we visited Parc Guell, which was a park he was commissioned to design. He wasn’t even supposed to design the buildings in it, but he went above and beyond to do that. Gaudi himself lived in the park in a house designed by someone else. It’s where his famous Salamander is. There were some random street performers there, including a flamenco dancer and a guitarist accompanying her. I took so many pictures that it’s not even funny. From Parc Guell, we headed to two of his famous houses. In one of them, you can even get an apartment (naturally for some ridiculous price.) And then from those, we headed to the masterpiece: La Sagrada Familia. It’s a church that is still being built. It’s projected to be completed in 2026. Antoni Gaudi has been dead for years now, just keep that in mind.
Okay, I’m going to be honest here, so don’t hate me dad. The outside of the church made me dizzy. Just looking up at it, I lost sense of scale and the ground felt like it was just completely off-kilter. While I could respect the size and the grandness, it didn’t do much for me. I’m not really huge on just hanging out with huge churches. Must be something about the whole not-being-catholic thing. But I was with a tour, they’d paid for my ticket, so frankly, who was I to complain? The sculptures on the façades of the building are grand, huge, and cover the entire outside- we entered through the façade of the birth of Jesus, and exited through the façade of the crucifixion. And while I could respect the work that went into designing and building a church of this scale and grandness, it wasn’t something that I was totally taken aback by. Nothing life-changing. The scale of the artwork and architecture that Christianity inspires is probably the only thing that makes me question my own personal disbelief. Devout Christians are often creating awesome displays of their faith. It’s just not new, even though it was spectacular. Furthermore, without the belief in Jesus as my personal savior, and without a close reading of the bible, I feel like some of the emotional impact the sculptures were meant to engender was completely lost on me.
And then I went in. I swear on my life, walking in, I gasped and put my hand on my chest like old ladies in movies when they’re startled. I spent most of the time we were inside with my mouth agape, and I don’t think I even said anything at the normal volume I speak at. And frankly, I said “Oh my God” so many times that I probably fooled a few people into thinking that I was there early for mass.
The inside of La Sagrada Familia was designed to look like a modernist forest. Each pillar was a trunk, and instead of the standard Corinthian order atop it like youd’ find in most Catholic churches of this grandness, where it met the ceiling was a giant stone set of leaves. If you didn’t know that’s what it was, it would’ve looked like a starburst. There are stained glass windows that don’t depict scenes of Jesus in the manger and the like. It was put best by the head of GLTSBA, Ryan, when he said, “This is what it would feel like to live in a rainbow.” There was a semicircle of stained glass windows around the central nave that was just a fade from color to color around the rainbow, and we happened to be there right at the light was streaming through it. There were spiral staircases and wavy balconies, and other than “oh my God” my most common statement was “I want to live in a world designed by Gaudi.” I swear I did not want to leave, and I couldn’t stop to take really well composed pictures, because I didn’t want to take my eyes off of anything long enough to turn my camera on, and I didn’t have enough time to take it all in so why would I waste the time I had on fixating on a specific spot long enough to figure out what would make the best picture of the place. As a result, my pictures do cover a lot of the inside, but the good ones are happy accidents, and I have a lot that aren’t so great.
That night, I was due to go to the Ice Bar with some friends, but given a few things (namely that I wasn’t really interested in getting drunk, it was a 15 € cover fee, and that I didn’t know how to deal with the potential of being hit on [which has happened plenty of times in Spain] and thus couldn’t deal with it), I ended up staying in and just handwashing some clothes and relaxing. The laundry service on the ship is $6 a bag and I’m way too cheap to do that unless I get lazy or it’s pretty much do that or not wear clothes. Then I’ll do that. But until then, I can handwash things here just fine. The Ice Bar, by the way, is kept at -5° C and they give you a free drink, plus you borrow a giant winter coat and gloves when you enter. The entire interior is carved out of ice. It actually does sound really cool, and if I’d been going with people I knew a bit better, and it hadn’t been over $20 just to get in, I probably would’ve gone.
Yesterday I toured the city with Morgan. And by that I mean, we had maps and planned out places to go, but ended up wandering lost in the business district for two and half to three hours before finally getting back to the Barri Gotic, the gothic quarter of the city and the home of the gothic cathedral, and figuring out where we were. We started off wandering around the Marina and eating food. We took a random turn figuring we’d explore a bit, and then figure out where we were and get straight back to the main street. We stopped in a museum gift shop, where there was a gorgeous version of Alice in Wonderland (no, parents, I didn’t get it, I just (tried to) read it, looked at the gorgeous illustrations, and took note of the translator’s name), a manga version of the Odyssey, and various other things indicating that there may have been an exhibit on illustration in Catalonia. Still, we wanted to wander and so we did so for a while. Then we were going to go back towards the Born district, but need to find a bathroom, which is harder than it seems. We stumbled into a super-swanky hotel (they had free bars of soap in the public bathroom, so naturally we both took them) but by that time, we were far from where we wanted to be. We thought we at least knew about where we were, and were trying to get back to where we wanted to be but ended up in the bowels of the business district. We both still mark that interesting, just because we got to see the people who actually live in this city.
Finally we found a marked street and got back to the Barri Gotic, where my foot spontaneously developed a blister, which then promptly popped painfully. We went into a supermarket and got Horchata (thanks, Kristin) and bandaids. We explored the shops around the Barri Gotic, stopped to get milkshakes, and wandered into the cathedral, but people were in there praying and we felt that it would be disrespectful to wander through more, plus we’d seen what we wanted to of it, and were getting tired. We returned to the ship for dinner and were going to take a nap before going out to see some fountains and explore las Ramblas, the main walking street with shops that connects all the districts. There is a fountain show that is every night from 8-11. We went to sleep at about 7ish, and despite alarms, didn’t wake up in time to get there on foot.
So instead, I went out with another group of people, Shelley, Vicky, Stephanie, Carla, Taylor, Wendy, Brooke, and Michelle. We went out for tapas and sangria- I got queso manchevo, a kind of super rich Spanish cheese, and had a glass of sangria. It was my first time having sangria, which was pretty good. Shelley had a bit more than she intended, and ended up crying and telling us how much she loved us, which was cute. With a bit more food in our systems, we headed to a McDonalds (keep in mind, this is 1 AM) to get some free wifi and work on booking things for further legs of the trip (or, in my case, to check twitter and facebook just because I could). Shelley and Vicky decided to leave around 2, and I went with them. We took a taxi back to the ship because it was a long walk, and we were leaving because we were tired, so taxis seemed like a good plan (it’s about a 2 mile walk just from the entrance to the harbor to the ship, nevermind the amount we’d walked on las Ramblas.)
While out, we saw stilters, a bunch of people selling these things that roughly equaled a slingshot with a lighted skydancer doll (does anyone remember those?!) that you shot out of it, and a building marked as containing a peep show/ sex store. We didn’t go in. Barcelona is known for it’s pickpockets, and I was definitely eyed by a few (in fact, Michelle warned me of one because often if you look at them pointedly, they’ll go away real fast,) due to my camera. Still, everyone I know has kept themselves safe. In fact, the friends I went out with last night had a brilliant plan that I plan on emulating. They were carrying their laptops into a busy city at night, in backpacks (which anyone who knows anything about fending off pickpockets knows are the least practical things and are not very defendable. Annoying, because they’re so easy to carry) but they put a luggage lock on the bag that had the laptops. Sure, they could’ve still had the whole bag taken, but nobody could’ve snuck in and grabbed something without them knowing. I’ve usually kept things in a zipped cross-body side bag, but I have my camera strap around my neck, and then I hold the body of the camera with my hand, usually cradling it in my arms like a real baby. I think if I started singing lullabies to it, people might be confused and not notice that it’s a camera. I suppose I’ll try.
Anyway, on the way to the taxi, we had a British ginger offer to take us all to a bar, pay all our covers and get us all drinks, but we used the phrase we’ve all come to know best in Spanish- “no gracias” and went on our merry way. I got back to my room and fell pretty solidly asleep.
So that’s what’s happened so far. From here, it should be easier to update as I’ll have access to internet connections that work, so I won’t have to rely on the shipboard email deciding not to screw up sending this. It won’t be daily, naturally, but at least I know for Spain and Italy, McDonalds has free wifi.
Hope you’re all doing well. Two more days in Spain and then we’re off to Italy! Sorry this is sort of a novel, but it does cover nearly 2 weeks.
Love, Chelsea
My email, for whatever reason, will NOT send blog posts. I tried to send one twice, and it kept saying that the email server couldn’t connect to the other server or something. Whatever.
We have successfully crossed the Atlantic. It was a lovely nine days of blue water, sunshine, and classes. The global studies professor went to Oberlin, and that makes me have to like him a bit. He’s actually pretty fun and he tries to keep us on an art history/architecture topic, which is really nice. I was scared that it was going to be all history with no cultural considerations. Not so. He also gives about half of his class time to other professors so that they can come in and lecture on whatever they think is important about the cultures we’re discussing. It’s an efficient system.
My drawing class is amazing. I can’t say a single thing against it. I’m really enjoying it so much, and for the first time probably ever, I have work that I’m proud of. My psych class is interesting, but given that some people have very non-Oberlin opinions and given that the class needs to cover things like sexuality and gender, it’s a little tiring. That said, it really is interesting material, although I kind of can’t wait to try to get into a developmental neuro class to see the differences in what is taught and how.
I’ve joined GLTSBA @ Sea, the LGBTQA group on the ship. The people are super nice and a lot of fun, and I’m glad I decided to join. I missed Pride in Columbus, which is sad, because I really wanted to get to go this year, but we’re hitting the tail end of Pride here in Barcelona and almost all of Pride in Athens. It should be pretty cool to see it in this cool of places.
Barcelona is a work of art. The city itself is absolutely gorgeous.
My first day here, I did a tour of Gaudi’s works. He’s an architect who I’m convinced built King Triton’s castle. His works draw very heavily from nature, and use lots of color, even on the façade of the building. First we visited Parc Guell, which was a park he was commissioned to design. He wasn’t even supposed to design the buildings in it, but he went above and beyond to do that. Gaudi himself lived in the park in a house designed by someone else. It’s where his famous Salamander is. There were some random street performers there, including a flamenco dancer and a guitarist accompanying her. I took so many pictures that it’s not even funny. From Parc Guell, we headed to two of his famous houses. In one of them, you can even get an apartment (naturally for some ridiculous price.) And then from those, we headed to the masterpiece: La Sagrada Familia. It’s a church that is still being built. It’s projected to be completed in 2026. Antoni Gaudi has been dead for years now, just keep that in mind.
Okay, I’m going to be honest here, so don’t hate me dad. The outside of the church made me dizzy. Just looking up at it, I lost sense of scale and the ground felt like it was just completely off-kilter. While I could respect the size and the grandness, it didn’t do much for me. I’m not really huge on just hanging out with huge churches. Must be something about the whole not-being-catholic thing. But I was with a tour, they’d paid for my ticket, so frankly, who was I to complain? The sculptures on the façades of the building are grand, huge, and cover the entire outside- we entered through the façade of the birth of Jesus, and exited through the façade of the crucifixion. And while I could respect the work that went into designing and building a church of this scale and grandness, it wasn’t something that I was totally taken aback by. Nothing life-changing. The scale of the artwork and architecture that Christianity inspires is probably the only thing that makes me question my own personal disbelief. Devout Christians are often creating awesome displays of their faith. It’s just not new, even though it was spectacular. Furthermore, without the belief in Jesus as my personal savior, and without a close reading of the bible, I feel like some of the emotional impact the sculptures were meant to engender was completely lost on me.
And then I went in. I swear on my life, walking in, I gasped and put my hand on my chest like old ladies in movies when they’re startled. I spent most of the time we were inside with my mouth agape, and I don’t think I even said anything at the normal volume I speak at. And frankly, I said “Oh my God” so many times that I probably fooled a few people into thinking that I was there early for mass.
The inside of La Sagrada Familia was designed to look like a modernist forest. Each pillar was a trunk, and instead of the standard Corinthian order atop it like youd’ find in most Catholic churches of this grandness, where it met the ceiling was a giant stone set of leaves. If you didn’t know that’s what it was, it would’ve looked like a starburst. There are stained glass windows that don’t depict scenes of Jesus in the manger and the like. It was put best by the head of GLTSBA, Ryan, when he said, “This is what it would feel like to live in a rainbow.” There was a semicircle of stained glass windows around the central nave that was just a fade from color to color around the rainbow, and we happened to be there right at the light was streaming through it. There were spiral staircases and wavy balconies, and other than “oh my God” my most common statement was “I want to live in a world designed by Gaudi.” I swear I did not want to leave, and I couldn’t stop to take really well composed pictures, because I didn’t want to take my eyes off of anything long enough to turn my camera on, and I didn’t have enough time to take it all in so why would I waste the time I had on fixating on a specific spot long enough to figure out what would make the best picture of the place. As a result, my pictures do cover a lot of the inside, but the good ones are happy accidents, and I have a lot that aren’t so great.
That night, I was due to go to the Ice Bar with some friends, but given a few things (namely that I wasn’t really interested in getting drunk, it was a 15 € cover fee, and that I didn’t know how to deal with the potential of being hit on [which has happened plenty of times in Spain] and thus couldn’t deal with it), I ended up staying in and just handwashing some clothes and relaxing. The laundry service on the ship is $6 a bag and I’m way too cheap to do that unless I get lazy or it’s pretty much do that or not wear clothes. Then I’ll do that. But until then, I can handwash things here just fine. The Ice Bar, by the way, is kept at -5° C and they give you a free drink, plus you borrow a giant winter coat and gloves when you enter. The entire interior is carved out of ice. It actually does sound really cool, and if I’d been going with people I knew a bit better, and it hadn’t been over $20 just to get in, I probably would’ve gone.
Yesterday I toured the city with Morgan. And by that I mean, we had maps and planned out places to go, but ended up wandering lost in the business district for two and half to three hours before finally getting back to the Barri Gotic, the gothic quarter of the city and the home of the gothic cathedral, and figuring out where we were. We started off wandering around the Marina and eating food. We took a random turn figuring we’d explore a bit, and then figure out where we were and get straight back to the main street. We stopped in a museum gift shop, where there was a gorgeous version of Alice in Wonderland (no, parents, I didn’t get it, I just (
Finally we found a marked street and got back to the Barri Gotic, where my foot spontaneously developed a blister, which then promptly popped painfully. We went into a supermarket and got Horchata (thanks, Kristin) and bandaids. We explored the shops around the Barri Gotic, stopped to get milkshakes, and wandered into the cathedral, but people were in there praying and we felt that it would be disrespectful to wander through more, plus we’d seen what we wanted to of it, and were getting tired. We returned to the ship for dinner and were going to take a nap before going out to see some fountains and explore las Ramblas, the main walking street with shops that connects all the districts. There is a fountain show that is every night from 8-11. We went to sleep at about 7ish, and despite alarms, didn’t wake up in time to get there on foot.
So instead, I went out with another group of people, Shelley, Vicky, Stephanie, Carla, Taylor, Wendy, Brooke, and Michelle. We went out for tapas and sangria- I got queso manchevo, a kind of super rich Spanish cheese, and had a glass of sangria. It was my first time having sangria, which was pretty good. Shelley had a bit more than she intended, and ended up crying and telling us how much she loved us, which was cute. With a bit more food in our systems, we headed to a McDonalds (keep in mind, this is 1 AM) to get some free wifi and work on booking things for further legs of the trip (or, in my case, to check twitter and facebook just because I could). Shelley and Vicky decided to leave around 2, and I went with them. We took a taxi back to the ship because it was a long walk, and we were leaving because we were tired, so taxis seemed like a good plan (it’s about a 2 mile walk just from the entrance to the harbor to the ship, nevermind the amount we’d walked on las Ramblas.)
While out, we saw stilters, a bunch of people selling these things that roughly equaled a slingshot with a lighted skydancer doll (does anyone remember those?!) that you shot out of it, and a building marked as containing a peep show/ sex store. We didn’t go in. Barcelona is known for it’s pickpockets, and I was definitely eyed by a few (in fact, Michelle warned me of one because often if you look at them pointedly, they’ll go away real fast,) due to my camera. Still, everyone I know has kept themselves safe. In fact, the friends I went out with last night had a brilliant plan that I plan on emulating. They were carrying their laptops into a busy city at night, in backpacks (which anyone who knows anything about fending off pickpockets knows are the least practical things and are not very defendable. Annoying, because they’re so easy to carry) but they put a luggage lock on the bag that had the laptops. Sure, they could’ve still had the whole bag taken, but nobody could’ve snuck in and grabbed something without them knowing. I’ve usually kept things in a zipped cross-body side bag, but I have my camera strap around my neck, and then I hold the body of the camera with my hand, usually cradling it in my arms like a real baby. I think if I started singing lullabies to it, people might be confused and not notice that it’s a camera. I suppose I’ll try.
Anyway, on the way to the taxi, we had a British ginger offer to take us all to a bar, pay all our covers and get us all drinks, but we used the phrase we’ve all come to know best in Spanish- “no gracias” and went on our merry way. I got back to my room and fell pretty solidly asleep.
So that’s what’s happened so far. From here, it should be easier to update as I’ll have access to internet connections that work, so I won’t have to rely on the shipboard email deciding not to screw up sending this. It won’t be daily, naturally, but at least I know for Spain and Italy, McDonalds has free wifi.
Hope you’re all doing well. Two more days in Spain and then we’re off to Italy! Sorry this is sort of a novel, but it does cover nearly 2 weeks.
Love, Chelsea
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Bahamas
Well, I'm here. Flights were long, I finished one of my reading books already, which is useful in that I can foist it off on my parents and don't have to lug it around, but sad because I only have so many and I should probably do my best not to spend all of my money on books.
Met a few folks from the trip in the Charlotte airport (hey, Wendy, Devon and Jamie!) and unfortunately ended up unable to contain my parents as they spent the flight from Charlotte to Nassau chatting with Jamie. *sigh* I suppose I'll survive.
So far we've mostly just explored and slept. No joke, I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going to have to repack my bags to put the heavy stuff in the rolling bag and the lightweight stuff in the backpacking bag. I know, my life is just so exciting. Well cut me some slack, I got up at 4:30 this morning, and I'm kind of running on sugar and willpower at the moment. I got some new pictures, too. (More on facebook and to come and such)
And with that, I'm off!
Love, Chelsea
Met a few folks from the trip in the Charlotte airport (hey, Wendy, Devon and Jamie!) and unfortunately ended up unable to contain my parents as they spent the flight from Charlotte to Nassau chatting with Jamie. *sigh* I suppose I'll survive.
So far we've mostly just explored and slept. No joke, I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going to have to repack my bags to put the heavy stuff in the rolling bag and the lightweight stuff in the backpacking bag. I know, my life is just so exciting. Well cut me some slack, I got up at 4:30 this morning, and I'm kind of running on sugar and willpower at the moment. I got some new pictures, too. (More on facebook and to come and such)
Love, Chelsea
Monday, June 13, 2011
Packed
I'm all packed.
My room is (mostly) clean.
I leave Wednesday at 6:30 AM for the Bahamas, and board on Friday at 8 AM.
I said goodbye to my boyfriend. It kind of sucks, given how new this whole thing is (we've been together for about 3 weeks, because some people have terrible timing, even if they are wonderful people.) Still, here's hoping the fragile thing we have can last 2 months of me having a once in a lifetime experience and seeing whole new places. I think so.
I'll say goodbye to my best friends tomorrow night. And then comes the scary part- making new friends. I don't think I'm completely repulsive, so I'm sure it'll work out, but I think everyone has that paranoid fear that they'll be that awkward kid that nobody wants to be friends with. I suppose if I end up being that girl, I've got my DSLR, circus toys, and so many tv shows and movies on my harddrive that I can survive. But I'd rather make friends, obviously.
Anyway, I should finish cleaning so my mom doesn't have a heart attack. Travel stresses her out, hence why it's best if we get her to a beach. The travel stresses her but then there's the beach and everything's fine. Maybe if I'm done, we'll go get travel snacks after dinner tonight. I like candy xP
Well to the SASers, I'll see you soon! and to the others reading this...I'll update you soon? I'll see you in August, but I'll keep you posted on the excitement here.
Love, Chelsea
My room is (mostly) clean.
I leave Wednesday at 6:30 AM for the Bahamas, and board on Friday at 8 AM.
I said goodbye to my boyfriend. It kind of sucks, given how new this whole thing is (we've been together for about 3 weeks, because some people have terrible timing, even if they are wonderful people.) Still, here's hoping the fragile thing we have can last 2 months of me having a once in a lifetime experience and seeing whole new places. I think so.
I'll say goodbye to my best friends tomorrow night. And then comes the scary part- making new friends. I don't think I'm completely repulsive, so I'm sure it'll work out, but I think everyone has that paranoid fear that they'll be that awkward kid that nobody wants to be friends with. I suppose if I end up being that girl, I've got my DSLR, circus toys, and so many tv shows and movies on my harddrive that I can survive. But I'd rather make friends, obviously.
Anyway, I should finish cleaning so my mom doesn't have a heart attack. Travel stresses her out, hence why it's best if we get her to a beach. The travel stresses her but then there's the beach and everything's fine. Maybe if I'm done, we'll go get travel snacks after dinner tonight. I like candy xP
Well to the SASers, I'll see you soon! and to the others reading this...I'll update you soon? I'll see you in August, but I'll keep you posted on the excitement here.
Love, Chelsea
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Explaining
I'm spending this summer on a boat. I'll have limited internet and not much time. While I'll try to send emails, I figured it might be easiest to keep a blog that will at least give people a little bit of the story as it happens. I'll be using this to talk more about the preparation process, and the general excitement I'm feeling and blahblahblah. And then when I'm there, I'll be using this to talk about where I am, and what I'm doing as much as I can.
So I'm excited.
Like seriously, I can't convince myself not to pack. I have over a month until I leave. When I'm excited for something, I plan it. Over and over and over, I just go through the few things I have planned, and come up with more. Which is what I'm doing now. I'm counting my bathing suits, dresses, shorts, and flip flops in my head, figuring out how much suitcase space to devote to things, and just generally going through everything. I went to Costa Rica and Belize after my sophomore year of high school and was packed a full week early. And I mean zipped up with outfits packed for the remaining week before the trip to adequately ration clothes. I used travel sized toiletries for that week, and I was not yet traveling.
Anyway, I guess that's all I've got for now, except that I'm really glad other people are concerned about the Harry Potter issue that could arise.
Love, Chelsea
So I'm excited.
Like seriously, I can't convince myself not to pack. I have over a month until I leave. When I'm excited for something, I plan it. Over and over and over, I just go through the few things I have planned, and come up with more. Which is what I'm doing now. I'm counting my bathing suits, dresses, shorts, and flip flops in my head, figuring out how much suitcase space to devote to things, and just generally going through everything. I went to Costa Rica and Belize after my sophomore year of high school and was packed a full week early. And I mean zipped up with outfits packed for the remaining week before the trip to adequately ration clothes. I used travel sized toiletries for that week, and I was not yet traveling.
Anyway, I guess that's all I've got for now, except that I'm really glad other people are concerned about the Harry Potter issue that could arise.
Love, Chelsea
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