Tuesday, July 7- Dub Dub
CROATIA IS BEAUTIFUL!! (and we aren't even allowed to get off the ship yet!) I got up at 6am to head outside because last night they announced that the captain will be blowing the horn several times upon our arrival in Dubrovnik. First- three bursts to a church as we first pass by the city and they reply by ringing the bell of the church for a couple of minutes Second- a few bursts as we pass his house!!!!!!
We got out there and I was immediately stunned. Steep sloping mountains/hills with cute little houses of all the same style and lush land and it was just after sunrise.
We were peacefully watching in the front of the ship (right in front of the horns, terrible idea!) until the horns went off. OH MY GOSH were they loud! EVERYONE jumped a mile and plugged their ears as quickly as possible! The echo through the quiet city lasted somewhere between 4-6 seconds, it was ridiculous! Even with my ears plugged I could here the echo and ringing, but it was so worth it! We even saw his wife waving a white towel from his home :)
My roommate unfortunately has 18 hours of dock time today because he had too much fun in Rome on a pub crawl! He was only 90 min. late to his tour the next morning which is a huge punishment, but he even called 3 times and nobody answered so he got totally screwed.. he is super pissed! but he'll be on ship all day today then and he's gonna work on our sea olympics banner.. goooooo caribbean!! Yet another of my roommates (crazy guy from Boston) failed the Gstudies exam that we got back yesterday, calls his mom for like 15 min (about $1.50 per minute) just cussing up a storm and calling our prof some very inappropriate things and just had a rough day.. well he broke into his alcohol that he smuggled on the ship in his boxers or something and was completely smashed all by himself. he was wandering the halls and some kid brings him back to our room and tells us DO NOT under ANY circumstances let him out- he WILL get kicked off the ship if he's caught! Sure enough, 10 min. late he comes staggering out of the room and I have a nice pep talk with him. He heads back to the dooor, I sit back down and continue the symbol drawing for the sea Olympics banner. I thought he didn't have a key to get back in cuz he started walking towards me, but then he just takes off sprinting and jumps over me and was around the corner before I even knew what happened! About 5 min. later he comes sprinting back with the 70 yr old security guy chasing him. he runs into our room and pretended to be asleep. It got to the point that we had 5 faculty members in our room (after we gave them permission to enter bc they have to have permission from someone in the room and phil sure wasn't going to give it!). I'm not sure what happened- he's still sleeping but I'm assuming we'll have 3 ppl in our 4 person room now!
This was by far the best day of the trip so far and will be tough to beat! I was one of the first people off the ship and was going to venture to the ATM to pick up some Kunas, but it turns out that we need our passports to get out of port- something that hasn’t been required and SAS never told us about (I mean why would they tell us anything, they don’t until the last second or it’s too late every time!) so I headed back the 10 minute walk to the ship telling the swarms of people on the way! Everyone was like what!? And the gangway was just mass chaos. That’s okay though because I had running plans with a couple of girls on my floor soon. We took off, lost 3 after like 15 minutes because they couldn’t keep up, then I was with Elena (Aimee’s buddy’s sister) who is a sppeeedd demon!!! If there wasn’t another slower girl with us I would have died and thanks to her we turned around before I was completely wiped out. It was gorgeous though. We took a road around the harbor, around the bay, looking out over all of these islands. (Croatia has over 1000 islands of which I think she said about 100 are inhabited!) The road sort of turned into a path and went past all these pier and a beach. Dubrovnik is the most peaceful town I’ve been to and completely love it and immediately thought, “this would be a great honeymoon spot!”
After showering and eating we had the city walls tour. The old part of town was enclosed as a fortress with large walls and was at one point surrounded for over 8 months I believe, but because of the excellent city planning, they were able to survive. It was striking though that one of the signs mapped out all that places that had been struck by a bomb and nearly the entire walled city had been. Only one of the original buildings remained that we saw. The walls provided a spectacular view looking over the orangy-red clay roofs, islands, bluffs, and even the upcoming location for the World Cliff-Diving Championships. No thank you that platform was like 100 feet up! The exchange rate may be $1 is 5 Kuna, but the prices were the same if not higher. It sure is weird to see 35,00 Kn written as a price though when it should be about 5-7 dollars!
And the highlight of my entire voyage so far… After we got back to the ship (at the same time as everyone else and had to wait 25 min. to get on) we quickly headed out to the grocery store. I was with 4 others and we picked out dinner. Loaf of bread, fantastic cheese, turkey, half of a watermelon, a bottle of wine, spoons, and each a dessert of our choice. The plan- climb to the top of the mountain right by the city for the sunset and a picnic. Well we didn’t specifically know how to get to the trailhead and our map sucked and the sun was quickly setting so we booked it (me carrying the melon of course cuz I was with all girls) By the time we got to the trailhead we were completely drenched in sweat it was so disgusting. However, as soon as we got above the trees it was breathtaking. We counted 11+ visible islands, overlooking the old town, seeing everything. We plopped it almost at the top and enjoyed our meal which was delicious! Best meal I’ve had so far, possibly because we had to work so hard for it. We were just amazed by it all and sat there relaxing and taking it all in. After eating the sun was still sort of up, so we finished to the top and by the time we got up there the city lights were on. Unbelievable. Dubrovnik is the most gorgeous town by night. We’re all just so excited and didn’t think it could get any better, but on the way down (with our flashlights of course) the full moon rises over the water and islands in the biggest orange orb I’ve ever seen. It was like a dream, really.
Also on the way down this guy runs past us and I jokingly said “he probably doesn’t have a flashlight and he’s getting scared cuz it’s getting really dark!” sure enough about 5 min. later we hear something lurking in the woods and we were kinda freakin out and he’s like “I don’t mean to scare you I’m just lost!” He’s an 18 year old Japanese kid traveling the Balkans alone! He was neat to talk to for the last 10 min. of the hike down (good thing we found him because he had made a wrong turn!)
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!
Wednesday, July 8th- Kayak
This day started off sort of annoying, then was amazing, then was sort of annoying again but I made the most of it!
We originally went to go swim/ jump off some rocks by this pub near the old walled city of Dubrovik that we scoped out yesterday. Well our small group of 4 buddies had leeches grab hold and it turned out to be 10 and it was just super annoying because we had a time constraint and they were lolly gaggin through the streets. My roomie and I just started booking it and said screw it to the point people were getting pissed, but we’re just like you’re not ruining our plans and went with it! People don’t understand that big groups SUCKKKKK. It turned out great though, because the water was too rough for a lot of the people because you needed upper body strength to pull out onto the rocks which none of the girls had so it turned out to be our small group in the end. Haha Swimming in these waters is amazing- crystal clear blue and perfectly refreshing!
Got back in time for my FDP- kayaking and snorkeling! However, we ended up not kayaking to the island as planned which meant no snorkeling because it was too rough and then we only got to kayak 30 min. on top of that! Here’s how that happened:
The place had easy (sit on top) kayaks enough for 20 people and we had 24. They ask for people with experience ONE person raises their hand. Me and Elena (yes Aimee this is your SAS buddie’s sister) said why not to help everyone else out because we felt confident- at least in the fact that we are both strong swimmers! So the on-toppers head out and we have to be given a different spiel because the sit-ins are much different. That takes about 30 min. so it’s already been about 90 min. and we haven’t gotten in the water yet. THEN 4 people decide to show up late! Mind you they have NO experience and the only kayaks left are the tougher ones. We say screw it and get in the water but we aren’t allowed to go anywhere without the guide so we had to wait for them to get the whole spiel again while we just sat there floating! They FINALLY get in and it was less that 2 min. of paddling that some dude flips over, we pause, flips again and again and again and finally they just got the lifeboat to come take him to shore. On top of that the late girls are a bunch of idiots and don’t realize that the paddle has to go IN the water to go anywhere! (They spin in circles or move at –1 mph. ) Elena and I are like okay, we’re gonna try to not let them ruin our trip… we book it (like professionals- we were the best ones there) to where our original spot was and back before they were even halfway there. Haha So we went a long ways in our 30 min. and still had a lot of fun. The teacher was furious with the late people as were everyone else and they will be getting some serious dock time.
Getting back to the ship we had to tender to it… tendering is when the ship is anchored offshore because the pier is full and we get to ride in the sweet lifeboats. (only they are packed and hot and smelly so not so much fun) After that we went out on the town and had a lot of fun!
Thursday, July 9- Montenegro
For only $90 I went on a 12-hr trip today into another country, saw the amazing landscape of Croatia/Montenegro, stopped in the town of Kotor and climbed the mountain for an hour, went on the most ridiculous and amazing road ever created, stopped in some town I can’t pronounce for an included snack (cured pork sandwich and a beer), continued to another city to enjoy a 5 course meal, and took a ferry across the fjord. Holy crap!
This was the best SAS-ran trip ever which made me really happy since I was debating selling all my remaining ones after yesterday’s kayak fiasco. The description was totally inaccurate, but I was pleasantly surprised.. It said a 1 hr drive to Montenegro which was true for the border, but it forgot to mention the 2.5 hr drive around the fjord to town one, the 2 hr INSANE ride up and over the mountains, or the 3 hr. ride back (which we got back over 2 hours past when we were supposed to) and ferry ride. However, the scenery was incredible and I enjoyed every minute of it. Of course there were the complainers and people that slept most of the bus rides, but my friend Kate (who is the happiest person I’ve ever met in my life and is just a riot) and I were both fascinated by everything. There was one point everyone on the bus was passed out and her and I were just all hyper because it was so cool- and then someone dropped their camera in their sleep and everyone jumped out of their sleep looking like hell and we just laughed!
But this road… supposedly a two-way road but our tour bus could barely fit on it it was that narrow. We seriously did over 100 hairpin turns, climbed around 1500meters and were just on top of the world when we got up from sea level into cloud level. It’s great coming around the corners, slamming the breaks because a car is coming, and watching them have to reverse it until the first “pullout” if you can even call it that! It was the sketchiest road ever (I even put on my seatbelt) but totally worth it. And after that crazy ride at the top just over the ridge there’s just sittin this quaint little town waiting with snacks for us.
In short- these two countries= LOVE LOVE LOVE
Future plans- it is on my bucket list to return to Montenegro and “rough it” for a couple of weeks climbing from peak to peak backpacking/camping. The views are incredible and the peaks are barren enough that you could safely climb between them with a good map.
Friday, July 10- Jump… oops!
Last day of Croatia :( We only had a couple of things we really wanted to do today- one which won’t be discussed until I am safely home and can just show the picture (which is amazing and totally worth the little wound!!) and the other to purchase a gift that I already had picked out for someone.
The Croatian lady behind the counter had told us where to go for activity A, and it took an hour to walk there. From the day that I ran, walked all day, and then climbed the mountain for dinner my knee was pretty messed up! Well by the time we got to the location, we found out it was the Croatian summit and we were walking through all the suits and police officers and police escorts with every important person from their government there (some big cheese just stepped down so they had some stuff to figure out!) my knee was killing me! It was so bad that I was walking like an old man with a serious gimp. We had to walk to an alternative location that took another 45 minutes and when we got there I couldn’t even go down the stairs… uh oh… Well good news though- activity A was super fun! :)
As for shopping- that was a complete bust! I hobbled to a few different shops and it turns out my desired item wasn’t what I imagined and the one “okay” one was 350 kunas! ($80) Sulking, I went to spend my last 100 kunas on a calling card. Turns out that the Croatian calling cards can only be used in Croatia because their payphones are different, so I bought a $20 calling card that could only be used within the next two hours! Well this wouldn’t have been the worst if I knew people would be up but it was only 9am. Arg. Haha If I was home I would’ve been pissed for getting ripped off, but here I guess it’s part of the experience! Getting back on the ship EVERYONE was exhausted.. but as for me, I had an art project, 8 drawings and a paper to do.. I went to sleep at 4am- ew
Saturday, July 11- sleep
It was pretty rough getting up at 7:30 to write my paper due at 11. I skipped my first classes of the voyage, felt like complete crap, wrote the paper in an hour half asleep and half sea-sick and just went back to sleep from 8:30-11:40. I went to one of my three classes since I was feeling a bit better, but still went to sleep again from 1:30-3:45. I don’t believe I’ve ever napped that much, but I was still tired! The rest of the day was just preparing for the Sa Olympics.
Sunday, July 12- Sea Olympics!
Oh baby, here it is- the big day we’ve had “sooo much time to prepare for” haha NOT! As a sea captain I was told basically nothing. The night before we were told what the events were because the deans vetoed most of ours deeming them inappropriate! (ridiculous, especially because they vetoed most of them, and took basically anything funny or fun for that matter out!) We were all pretty pissed but tried to make the best of it.
There was a tonnn of spirit today, the Union was extremely loud, the bookstore made a crazy profit from people buying their sea colors, and there was a lot of fun too! Imagine 700 college students who are all really competitive going at it all day… I’m actually exhausted right now!
I participated in the paper boat race and the relay race. For the boat race, we were given 3 sheets of paper and one straw and had 15 min. to construct, then a race across the width of the pool with a 15 min. max time. Well as an engineer, this task was perfect for me! I practiced for an hour last night with the help of a fellow Olympian, and we came up with a catamaran (basically two hulls connected with one sail). It was awesome, and our ship looked unbelievable compared to everyone else’s! However, the contest was pretty hilarious because the pool tide goes back and forth with each wave, and we weren’t allowed to leave the side to blow, so all the boats went back and forth in the middle! At about 8 min. people’s started sinking, and there were only 5 left after 15 minutes with no winner. They disqualified about 7 seas for “cheating” (touching the water) including us so it was a total bust! Haha but everyone commented on how sweet ours was :)
We were in 3rd before the last two events, so if we won the last two we would win the Olympics (which means we get to disembark first back home, which would be nice since I have an early flight and could hypothetically miss mine if we’re last!). I was in the final event which was the relay. It was incredibly unorganized, there was a mystery task at the end which every other group knew about except for the first two teams (us) and the lady in the rock paper scissors game didn’t even know how to play so that cost us about 15 seconds! I was the mystery task, which turned out to be label all the port cities on a map and locations- no worries, I kicked butt! But we had a huge disadvantage going first and kinda got screwd over but still got 2nd! Overall then we ended up second, so I am a silver medal Olympian! (the prize for this is a pat on the back haha)
Greece tomorrow!
OH WAIT.. DRAMA
---our roommate Phil (the one who was drunk on ship that one night and might even be kicked off still) has some serious beef with us now and it might be a really awkward time with him from now on. Last night we were trying to get him to sign up for the Olympics, and it came down to “if you don’t find anyone else for the lip sync, I’ll do it” Well at the meeting (which he didn’t go to for the third time in the row) someone (who has been to every meeting) really wanted to do it (with backup dancers) so we gave it to her. Well Phil comes in the room today and says “I just turned in my song”. So it was a big uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh moment. We had to tell him that someone else was doing it, and he just flipped out on us. He went and was yelling at the girl that took it until my roommate went and started yelling at him. In short, he is basically not on speaking terms with us and will be doing a lot more “lets close the blinds in the room whenever the sun is out so I can lay in my bed and rap to myself because I think I’m Eminem.” (this is what he does every day for about 6 hrs, so the steward can’t even get into our room to clean because he’s ALWAYS in there) It’s pretty frustrating and makes me really appreciate my roommates at Madison!!!
Another tidbit- I saw doctor about the knee and everything appears to be fine- he said it was probably just some sort of tendonitis and gave me a whole lotta ibuprofen. It only hurts when I use it a lot at this point.
COMMENTS??? click here |
