Saving one of the best for last

Dubrovnik, Croatia was our last port of the journey. I think everyone on the ship would agree that two nights and three days in a beautiful country like Croatia is simply not enough time. The city of Dubrovnik was very different from any other city I have been to this summer. The city is surrounded by large city walls making it look like an old medieval city. The stone walls, marble grounds, and green shutters were an incredible site. Another thing that was so remarkable about the city of Dubrovnik was the damage that was done while they were at war in 1991 with the Serbs. There were pictures and books in every souvenir store which showed the snipers sitting on the city walls killing thousands of innocent civilians. The country has been through an immense about of pain and destruction in the last twenty years, but the city they live in now is one of the most peaceful and beautiful cities all throughout Europe.

At our meeting before arriving, we were told that due to the size of port our ship was unable to dock and we would have to use our lifeboats to tender to land. This was rather inconvenient especially with trying to get back to the ship late at night. The majority of the students ended up getting hotels in town so we didn’t have to worry about getting back in time to catch the last tender. My friends and I booked a three person apartment which was quite quaint right on the main strip. Since our funds have been diminishing for the past two months we decided to put eight of us into a three bedroom room. It actually worked out quite lovely with the use of an extra sleeping bag, blanket, and numerous $5 blow up pool floaties from the convenient store used as mattresses. No one was counting on a good night’s sleep in our last port so it was never really an issue. Although, with no hot water it did make it a little challenging for seven girls to shower and get ready, but we still managed.

So after we checked into our apartment Friday morning we dropped off our stuff, walked through the town and headed to the beach. The majority of the ship all flocked to the beach for an afternoon in the sun, relaxing, playing Frisbee, volleyball and anything else we could get out hands on. The only thing which would have made it better would have been a cornhole set. Next time I go to Europe Ill know what I need to pack. After a day at the beach we all headed back to our home to get ready for the night and head to dinner.

After dinner a lot of us headed to a Latino Club called Fuego for the night. It was a hoppin place and I think the regulars enjoyed 500 Americans invading their clubs, considering 90% of them were females.

Saturday morning we grabbed some breakfast around 9am, shopped around and contemplated our day. Unfortunately while we were there it was over 100 degrees so walking the city walls for two hours didn’t seem to appealing to lethargic group in the morning. Half of the group headed back to the beach whereas the others including myself went to an area we heard about from others to participate in some cliff jumping. To get to the cliffs we had to go through a little archway in the city walls which had a sign for a bar called “Cold Drinks.” The bar sat in the cliffs and overlooked the Adriatic Sea; it was an absolutely incredible view. Once passing through the bar the cliffs were off to the side full of people. Luckily there were levels for every person interested. They had some baby 10-25 foot cliffs, as well as a 50 foot cliff, and the big daddy which is said to be a little over 90 feet. I was yet to do anything very daring in Europe so I knew I had to take part in the cliffs. Unfortunately one of my friends Danielle who I was staying with jumped the day before, landed in a slight chair position and has a bruise on her butt and legs the size of the Grand Canyon. Considering ski season is approaching not to mention a twelve day voyage home I decided to go off the 50 foot one. Once I got up there I was still quite a bit nervous, certainly the highest thing I have ever jumped off. I tried to tell myself it was just like jumping off the pontoon like I’d done 1000 times before, but it was actually nothing at all like that. I even made the 35 foot leap in Bloomington at the quarries, but the jagged rocks and the extra fifteen feet or so made it quite a big difference. I had a few safety nets in the water ready to rescue me but after my five second count down I leaped and came out okay. We hung out at the cliffs for the day, a few people did the 90 and I did the 50ft and the smaller ones a few more times.

Later that afternoon we headed to the beach to meet up with the rest of the group for the afternoon. Because it was our last night in port we knew it was going to be a late night, we lounged around at the beach, took naps and later went back to the apartment for more napping and showering. My roommates (8 of us) went to a small restaurant called Wanda in an alley off the main strip. We all concluded it was the best meal we had the whole entire summer. We ordered various bruschetta and other appetizers as well as incredible spaghetti and seafood pasta dishes. The owner also lived in the States for awhile so he felt obligated to give us free dessert and more drinks as well. We of course didn’t want to be rude and decline so we gladly accepted. After our dinner we all headed to the East West beach club to meet up with everyone for the night. Considering the night before at Fuego was literally a heat wave it was great to spend the evening outside in the fresh air. The club had music going outside at the bar and outside club area as well as inside in the dance area. The night continued into the early hours of the morning until we decided to call it a night. When we got back I cuddled up on my floatie for a few hours rest. Our last day in Croatia was spent like the normal last days, spending our last bit of the country’s currency. We bought a few souvenirs and headed back to the cliffs, the view from all of the different landings was too hard to pass up on our last day. We had a few photo shoots with the three guys jumping for the smaller rocks doing dives and flips over each other from 25 feet up. I was a little sore from the previous day’s jumps so I refrained from jumping again.

When we got back to the boat I got to call my parents and talk with them for awhile and tell them about my time in Croatia. I don’t think the 90ft cliff would have gone over too well with them, but considering I don’t have any broken limbs from the smaller jump I think they aren’t too mad.

One main reason I want to come back to Croatia to see the different islands and various cities surrounded Dubrovnik. My cousin, Steve, spent some time working in Croatia and gave me an incredible list of sites to see throughout the country. Due to our time constraints I didn’t make it to many of the sites he recommended. He did reassure I would have a great time just in Dubrovnik for the weekend, which I surely did, I guess Ill have to come back to see everything else he recommended which I missed.

Sunday night we had our last BBQ on the outside deck before setting sail. The photographer on our ship took a picture of the entire community (nearly 1000) as we stood on the back 4 levels of the boat and he stood on land. The rest of the night we all hung out on the pool deck listening to the house band play music and reminiscing about our last eight weeks.

Its hard to believe the voyage has come to an end. In one way it went by in a blink of an eye but it also seems like forever ago when I said goodbye to my parents in Halifax. Im happy to say I took a thousand pictures, kept a journal, and wrote a blog so I can go back and relieve this journey as often as needed. And I think come February in Bloomington when my basketball team is in last place and I still don’t have a job after graduation I will look back over all of my memories from Europe. Im also very glad to say that I’ve made friends from all corners of the country and will look forward to road trips and reunions in the very near future.

Its now Tuesday, our second day into our 12 day trip home. I’ve completed one global studies paper, three anthropology papers, and have two more final papers and two tests to work on in these next few days. Im excited to get the work done and relax for a few days before we get back to Virginia.

I better get back to my studies, I hope you all have enjoyed my blog as much as I have writing it and hearing from everyone. I’ll put up a post later next week after my finals. Hope everyone has a great last few weeks of summer, cant wait to see everyone so soon!

-ANM

ps. Keep the emails coming, being at sea is when I get lonely. :(

It’s all Greek to me

We got to Piraeus, Greece Sunday morning. I walked around the city in the morning waiting for my tour to begin in the afternoon. Around noon a large group of us boarded busses to head into see the sights of Athens and the Acropolis. After seeing the structures in Rome and Egypt it was really cool to see how they all compare. Athens is the largest city in Greece and dates back to 3,000 years. Our first stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch which was actually built by a Roman emperor in 131AD. We later saw the ruins of the Parthenon and Temple of Athena. The Acropolis was cool to see but our tour guide was a little disappointing and the majority of the site was under construction, so in every picture there were scaffoldings surrounding the different structures.

My favorite part was seeing the difference between the stadiums where the ancient Olympics and Olympics in 2004 took place. We got to see Panathenaic Stadium which is the only stadium in the world made of marble. It was used for archery and the marathon in ’04 as well as other events in the ancient Olympics.

When we finished our tour I got to call home and catch up with my parents and Nick and Ted at the lake. After the phone call I called it an early night as I had had a very tiring day out in the 100 degree sun for hours.

Monday I woke up early like a kid on Christmas morning. I was finally going waterskiing! Another girl from the ship and I took an hour long ferry to the island of Poros to spend the day there. Once we got to Poros we took the bus to the ski school. It was a really different from every other place I’ve skied in the past considering it was part of the Aegean Sea and the water was very salty. The place was much more low key than the ski camp I worked at in North Carolina but still had a lot of different activities available. They had three different slalom courses throughout the area and I found the smoothest water and got skiing. I ran the course a few times and the coach helped me kick a few old habits.

After a long afternoon we headed back to Piraeus for the evening. I was trying to get to Mykonos Island to meet up with my roommate and other friends but the ferries were sold out for the rest of the week so I found someone else to go back to Poros with me on Tuesday. I skied a little better the second day and enjoyed the beach for the rest of the afternoon. One of the instructors at ski school was from Melbourne, Australia and lived in Indianapolis last year working for an Australian racing team. I told him I went to IU and for the rest of the afternoon he was telling me stories and showing me pictures of him in Indy and Bloomington with him and his friends at the Kirkwood bars and tailgates. Quite a small world. Tuesday night we headed back and went out to see the night scene in Athens. It was pretty cool as we found a bar on the beach playing live music all night.

Thursday I woke up and headed to the beach for a few hours. The day turned out to be about 110 so we headed back early so we didn’t melt. I found some free internet, did some research for my classes and caught up with a few friends at home.

Tomorrow we are sea for the day as I expect to be cooped up in the library working on my 7 papers I have due in the next 12 days. We get to Croatia on Friday and we’ll be there for a long weekend. No set plans but we are all expecting lots of relaxation before we have to cram for our finals exams and papers.

Hope everyone had a great week, for those I got to talk to online or on the phone it was great catching up with you. Im very excited for my last country in Europe but getting very eager to see everyone back at the lake and Bloomington.

-ANM

Walk like an Egyptian...

Most people aboard the MV Explorer would agree our change of itinerary was a blessing in disguise. Due to the recent attacks in Istanbul the admin and staff had to reroute the ship and set up trips for all of the students onboard in less than 36 hours for Egypt.

Day 1 When we arrived into Alexandria, Egypt, forty of us boarded two busses on a three hour journey into the desert headed to Cairo. On board we had a great tour guide who knew every in and out of Egypt named Eman. Also accompanying us we had two armed security guards with fire arms every few feet of their body. It was a little worrisome that we needed them but reassuring that we were well protected. Our first stop was lunch at a hotel by the pyramids. After lunch we went across town to the National Archaeological Museum in Cairo. Minus the lack of air conditioning the museum was great. We got to see the famous 23 pound golden mask King Tut was buried in, as well as 143 different pieces of jewelry and hundreds of other artifacts found in his tomb. After the King Tut exhibit I got to check out animal and human mummies which dated back over 3,000 years ago. It was amazing to see how well the mummies were preserved with hair, fingernails, and other details still intact.

After the museum we went to check into our hotel and casino at the Marriott in Cairo which sat right on the river. After check in we headed for our dinner cruise down the Nile River full of entertainment with an Egyptian band and belly dancers. We called it an early night after dinner as we had a very early wakeup call on Thursday.

Day 2 The buzzer at 4:30am came a little earlier than expected. We managed to get out of bed and be on the bus by 5:15am. We had a boxed breakfast on the bus and headed to the Pyramids of Giza to see the sunrise. We took 50 different pictures in every tourist position possible. The camels arrived around 7 and we all got to take rides through the desert. They smelled unusually bad and I thought a few of us might get eaten by them, luckily we all survived. After hours at the pyramids we went to the other side to take more pictures with the sphinx.

After leaving Giza we went to the Citadel to see the Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern day Egypt to learn more about the Muslim religion. Our morning continued with a two hour shopping spree at the famous Bazaar. It’s an area with hundreds of little shops with every magnet, t-shirt, jewelry, and Egyptian attire known to man. We finished the first half of our day with lunch at the hotel and then proceeded to take a very much needed 2-3 hour long nap. We congregated in the hotel to meet for dinner and then went back to the pyramids to for an interesting but a bit corny sound and light show. We all headed back to the hotel later that night and spent some quality time out by the huge outdoor pool and bar and listened to the live band play Egyptian music.

Day 3 We got to wake up a few hours later and got on the bus to head to Egypt’s first capital Memphis. The drive over was really different as we went through an old Egyptian village. There were more people riding goats and donkeys than there were driving cars. Once we arrive in Egypt we got to see an old temple with incredible drawings and hieroglyphics and an ancient cemetery of Sakkara. After checking finishing up all the sites Friday afternoon we got back on the bus to head back to Alexandria.

My time in Cairo was phenomenal. It’s was nice to cross another continent and one of the Seven Wonders of the World off the list. Unfortunately I didn’t get to check out the Lighthouse in Alexandria, but I didn’t miss much as it has been completely leveled by earthquakes in the 1300s. Egypt was certainly a world apart from the other European countries we have visited. It was great to step out of the common Christianity world and see the lives in the Islam society. It’s hard to believe they watch many of the same television shows as we do every day but when they step out of the house the women have their entire body and hair covered and more often than not are accompanied by a man at all times.

Today was our day at sea where we competed in our own Sea Olympics. The student body is divided into 6 seas (I’m on the Bering sea) and we had games like ping pong, basketball, synchronize swimming, lip sync, art sketch, jeopardy, iron chef, mashed potato sculpting, and many others. It was a lot of fun to take a break and have some friendly competition. Our team didn’t do so hot, but the faculty and staff (The Dead Sea) had some really great performances, especially the synchronize swimming.

Tomorrow we’re getting to Greece and we’re all very excited to get back on land and see some of the sites in Athens, relax on the beaches of Mykonos, and for me most importantly water ski. It will almost be two months since I’ve been on a ski so it will be very nice to get back on the water!
Hope everyone had a great weekend. Home in less than three weeks!

CHANGE OF ITINERARY

As most of you have heard Istanbul, Turkey just underwent a terrorist attack this past weekend killing 17 civilians as injuring over 150. The city also experienced another attack about ten days ago when five people were killed outside the US Consulate. After many meetings, phone conferences, and anticipation we have all been told we will now be going to Alexandria, Egypt instead of Istanbul this week. We’re currently 1,000 miles away so tomorrow will be a “sea day” (no classes!) and we will arrive to Alexandria on Wednesday. It was tragic to hear that this event took place but due to safety and liability the administration decided bringing 600 American students into a country that just went through an act of terrorism is never a good idea.

Hope your Monday was less eventful than mine, but I must say Im very anxious to see some pyramids and mummies in a few days!!

When in Rome… and Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri...

Do as the Romans. Ninety-six hours was clearly not enough time to see one of the most gorgeous countries in the world. I started my week on Wednesday porting in the city of Naples. The city was neither the cleanest nor the safest, so the majority of us tried to get out of town as soon as possible. I started out by getting on a 40 minute metro/train to the fascinating archaeological site of Pompeii. I’m currently enrolled in an anthropology class so it was nice to have some background in the area and know what I was looking at. Pompeii was buried in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius killing 25,000 people in 19 hours. The city sat covered and untouched for 1700 years before it was rediscovered. Nearly only 1/5 of the city has been excavated which we all saw. It was incredible to see the preservation of the city overall the years. You could see all the different craft shops, restaurants, pottery, and everything else still standing. After Pompeii I went back to Naples for the evening. I ended up catching up with my parents and Nick for awhile on the phone as well as some others online. After pizza and gelato I ended my night early so I could wake up for Rome.

There were about forty students and ten adults who all took busses to Rome for 2 days. Upon arrival we went to a typical Italian restaurant. We had traditional spaghetti and tiramisu. It was quite delicious; afterwards we headed to the Colosseum which was one of my favorite parts in Rome. The thing is absolutely huge, in modern times it resembled a huge stadium like Fed Ex or Michigan’s “Big House.” It held over 80,000 people. We had a guided tour which bypassed us through the hours long wait to get into the structure. Once we were inside our guide gave us some highlights… There were three sections for seating based on class, they could have it filled in less than twenty minutes, and on average ten people died in the gladiator combats as well as hundreds of animals dying. After our intro we got to walk around and go to the top to take pictures which was an awesome view. After the Colosseum we went to the hotel to unpack our things and then headed to dinner where I had the best meal in Italy. We ended up meeting up with another SAS Rome group, there was about 100 of us plus 10 other tables of other people all sitting outside. The restaurant was on the outskirts of town but it’s exactly how you would picture Italy with a perfect Tuscany setting with old Italian guys playing guitar and the accordion, and big candle torches lit all on the outside of the restaurant. Not only was the setting gorgeous was the food and wine were great too! They served us Manicotti along with other Italian dishes. After dinner we all got back on the bus and headed to the city for the night tour. We stopped at the famous Trevi Fountain. There were hundreds of people there throwing coins in and making wishes. It’s one of the most popular hotspots at night, history says if you throw one coin in you’ll return to Rome and if you throw two in you’ll find love in Rome. I didn’t necessarily need to meet the love of my life at the bar Sloppy Sam I was headed too so I decided to just throw one hopefully returning sooner rather than later! From Trevi we headed to the Pantheon. It’s currently the oldest standing structure in Rome dating back to about 70 BC. The building had gorgeous pillars and scriptures all throughout; from the looks of it you would have never guessed it was over 2000 years old. After the Pantheon we went to Piazza Navona which had lots of street vendors and music playing in the square. At this point the old folks headed back to the hotel and the young crowd went to another square called Campo di Fiore where all the bars were. My dear friend Kim Galloway studied in Italy and recommended everywhere I needed to see, eat, and drink. I hit most of them including the two bars Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sam. They had a really fun atmosphere where we met a few other Americans who were backpacking and studying in Italy, along with many other people from all over the world.

Our wakeup call at 6:30am the next morning came earlier than expected. After prying ourselves out of bed we grabbed breakfast in the hotel and gathered in the lobby. (If I see you this summer remind me to tell you the story about one of our guys who got locked into the bathroom in his hotel for 8 hours. Seems as though the hotel didn’t have a key, screwdriver, or axe.) Anyway after everyone got all of their stuff together we got back on the bus and headed to the Vatican Museum. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the Pope but I did get to stand in awe in the Sistine Chapel and admire Michelangelo’s work of the scenes from Genesis along with the Last Judgment. Although the artwork has been cleaned over the years it hasn’t been touched up in anyway. The color and detail were absolutely unbelievable; every other person looked like they were popping out of the wall. Taking pictures is not allowed but I snuck a few after I saw many other people doing so, unfortunately my pictures w/ no flash don’t do justice to the artwork. At the age of 25 he completed the ceiling in four years and then went back and did the sides years later in another four years, nearly all by himself. After visiting the chapel we went to St. Peter’s Basilica and saw many more pieces of art, sculptures and architecture. When we finished with the tours we had hours of free time. We grabbed lunch, shopped around and then went across the city to see the Spanish Steps. Luckily when we were there it was relatively quiet with many tourists taking pictures; last summer there was a crazy guy who got the great idea to drive down the stairs at high speed, no one was hurt but many of the steps were chipped.

After seeing as much as Rome as possible in 36 hours we got back on the bus back to Naples. Arriving around 7:30 my friend and I grabbed the last ferry at 8:15 to Sorrento, a southern city in Italy on the coast. Sorrento was gorgeous at night time; the entire was city was lit up including all the villas that sat up on the cliffs up above. We began our trek up the mountain to our hostel, after about a 45 minute hike we finally arrived to the beautiful Village Campogaio. My other three friends from the boat, also Hoosiers, were there along with one of my friends Lindsay who recently graduated from IU and is living in Italy for the summer. After checking into our cabin (vinyl siding, no window or light, and a porch door) we found our friends and hung around the campsite and told travel stories for the rest of the night.

The next morning we awoke early to the sun beating down on us. We gathered our things and headed down the cliffs to the beach. After hanging around Sorrento for a bit we caught a ferry to Capri. This island so happens where all of the beautiful rich and famous people spend their summers there. Brad Pitt, P. Diddy, and many others have often been spotted in Capri. I unfortunately didn’t see them, but I did see yachts that could have cost upward to 100 million dollars. Capri was gorgeous, there were huge villas on top of cliffs and restaurants and shops everywhere. We spent the next six hours lying on the beach and huge rocks and swimming in the Mediterranean. Every once in awhile we sat back and got to see what Paradise really looked like. After grabbing my 10^th gelato (at least 2 a day) we took the ferry back to Naples. It was very sad to leave such a beautiful country, especially knowing that I had two 5 pages papers due when I got back. I’m almost half way to Turkey in the middle of the Mediterranean; the water is an incredible deep blue and very smooth. It’s very much a tease as I would give anything to go water skiing right now. Somehow I think I’ll survive though as I go back and look over my pictures from the past four days and look forward to Istanbul, Turkey.

Travels to the capital of the EU, chocolate, beer, and diamonds

Last Monday we arrived into Antwerp, Belgium. A vast majority of our 600 students hopped on the train to travel two hours to Amsterdam, Holland. I was lucky enough to meet up with my personal tour guide for the day. I think we established he was my second cousin in-law. He’s my sister in law’s cousin, so we’ll go with that, anyway his name is Sebastian and he’s lived in Holland his entire life. Sebastian and his friend Kevin met up with my three friends and me to take us around the city. Our first stop was our hostel to drop off our belongings. After that we walked around the city for awhile as they pointed out all the key tourist areas, souvenir shops, upscale shops, the royal palace, grocery stores, etc. After walking around for awhile be ventured to the city park to relax for awhile. It was a huge open area with lots of people reading, playing Frisbee, and chatting with each other. It was great to get out of tourist mode for awhile and sit and people watch for bit.
After the park we went to one of the most popular museums, I’m sure you’re all excited to hear about the famous Van Gough artwork I saw, but unfortunately I didn’t make it there as we decided to go to the SexMuseum instead. I’ll let everyone use their own imagination; let’s just say it was very informative and graphic. Once we were done with the museum, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our evening. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to Amsterdam’s popular comedy show, Boom Chicago. The four person cast was from the states; the show was completely improv and they just worked off the audience the entire time. It was quite hilarious.
After the show we went to some bars by our hostel in the red light district. It was quite an adventure. They had some great beer on tap, both Dutch and Belgium beer. It just so happens that about ever 20 ft there are classy women standing in glass doors trying to get guys to come in and have a nice conversation with them from $75-$200. Sebastian and Kevin took us back to our hotel and they headed back to their place about 20 minutes outside the city.
Tuesday, Steph and I did more sightseeing and tried to meet up with various friends who were in the city. After walking in circles all over the city we found the Ann Frank House Museum. The museum was very enlightening. The house and attic where she and her family hid out for years still stands and has been redone as to what the attic would have looked like in the 40s when she was there as a little girl. There were a few three minute videos to watch, they were interviews of people who either knew Ann Frank or were in that area at the time. The museum also had quotes all over the walls from her diary. The tour ended with a video of Otto Frank, Ann’s father, and how he was given her journal years later, it took him a while to read it but once he finally did he helped edit the book. The diary has been translated to 65 different languages and is still one of the bestselling books worldwide. To think that a 10 year old girl went through all of this was absolutely tragic to see. If you ever make it to Amsterdam the Ann Frank House is certainly a spot that you have to see.
Later that night, Sebastian came to meet up with us to hang out for a bit. The night consisted of more people watching and pub hopping in the red light district.
Wednesday morning we took the train to Brussels, the capital of the European Union, NATO, and Belgium. The city was phenomenal. We started our day with Belgium culture of course. Fries and beer....both excellent. Then we proceeded to check out all the sites. We went to an incredible church, Cathedral de la Kapelle. It was gorgeous, after visiting this church Steph and I decided we were going to attend a church service while we’re in Rome next week. My favorite part of Brussels was the Royal Palace and Parliament. There was a huge area of grass with a few fountains that sat in between the two buildings, much like the National Mall in DC.
Once we finished all the hotspots in Brussels we grabbed a waffle for the road and headed back to the ship in Antwerp. It seems as though the entire shipboard community decided to go a bar recommended by a local which so just so happened to be a karaoke bar. It was quite comical seeing all the guys up there singing oldschool Backstreet Boys songs.
On our last day we went to the famous Antwerp Zoo. The zoo opened over 150 years ago and had over 5,000 different animals. It was quite impressive, the chimps and tigers were my favorites. After leaving the zoo I found some free internet where I got to catch up with a few people on instant messenger. Im now currently at sea heading to Italy for the next five days. I have midterms in all of my classes so it’s going to be a busy few days. Hope everyone has a great weekend, shoot me an email when you are all back at work on Monday!

-ANM

Copenhagen, Denmark- The Happiest Place on Earth

It’s true... My Lonely Planet book states this country has been named with the happiest people in the world. I think it’s a very safe bet. These past four days have been the best yet by far. I may be saying that after every country, but Copenhagen was absolutely incredible and blew Bergen and St. Petersburg away.

Tuesday: Our boat was about an hour from Copenhagen so we all took the train to the city and booked out hotels and hostels for the week. We all looked like very American tourists with our huge backpacks and maps as we came out of the train station. The city was very compact and really easy to get around. Everything was under a twenty minute walk, very much a relief compared to Russia. Our first day we hit the sites and hung out in the Radhuspladen central square which was right in the middle of the city with live music and food carts everywhere. Copenhagen was having their annual Jazz Festival so everywhere you looked there was Jazz music going on. It was awesome; there were even a lot of the Jazz guys from Chicago there which was really neat to see.

We later went out to enjoy a night on the town. We met some great locals and we talked with them all about their lives in Copenhagen and how we loved their city compared to Russia. We really know how to win people over. In return they taught us a drinking chant which I’m sure many of us will try to bring it to the states.

Wednesday: Unfortunately for our wallets this city is known for their shopping and ice cream. I of course took complete advantage of both of these. This occupied half of our morning and then we later walked to the harbor and took a boat cruise which took us all around the city of Copenhagen for an hour. It was absolutely incredible, our weather was perfect and our tour guide was very informative about all the sites we saw. The huge Opera House and library sit out on stilts in the canals; they are huge glass and granite buildings. We also saw Slotsholmen which is where a lot of government buildings are located, Frederiksstaden which is the home of the royal family and the Marmorkirke ; an elaborate church with a huge dome inspired off a church constructed in Rome. Copenhagen is also famous for the Little Mermaid Statue; it’s similar to the Mona Lisa in Paris. You have to go see it when you’re there, but once you do you become very disappointed with the size of this historical famous piece of artwork. Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote children stories like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and Thumbelina, lived in Copenhagen in the 1800s so much of the city has little things in honor of him. The Little Mermaid being the most famous, it was a mermaid statue about 3 feet tall with about 500 people crowded around it trying to take their picture with it.

After the boat tour Steph and I hopped a thirty-five minute train to Malmo, Sweden for shopping and dinner. She later went on to see an old friend and then I turned around to head back to Copenhagen to meet back up with my friends. It’s hard to believe that two cities so close to each other have a completely different languages, government, and currency. Due to the close proximities much of their cultures are interchangeable.

Thursday: Since the majority of my normal travel group went to Sweden for the day I spent the next two days with my roommate, Maribel, and her normal crew. We shopped a bit and then went to Tivoli Gardens which is their famous amusement park which sits right in the city of Copenhagen and has been around since the 1840s. Most of the rides they have look like they could have been there from the 1800s. Many were old and rickety just as I expected. There were tons of cute shops and restaurants all throughout the park. They had a swing ride which took you up a few hundred feet and gave you a view of the entire city. The site was gorgeous; it was certainly the best seat in the house to see every corner of Copenhagen.

After reliving our days as kids in amusement parks we went back to our hostel to get all dolled up for our evening. Our night started with about 50 kids from SAS going to a very small bar. This bar was called the ABSOLUT ICEBAR. When you walk in the employees hand you a huge oversized coat and gloves to put on. As you walk into the bar everything is ice, the benches, your glassware, the bar itself, tables, the menu, etc. Due to the temperature and demand you are only allowed to be in there for 45 minutes. After leaving this bar we all head to other bars before we head to one of their famous clubs in the city, Luux. One of our friends was gracious enough to make a few phone calls and put down some money to reserve entrance for 100 of his closest SAS friends at this club. Since there aren’t many clubs in Bloomington I didn’t have much to compare it too, except my South Beach experience this past April. They were relatively similar, last night we had much more fog and trance music. And I’m quite certain the Americans outnumbered the Danes in the bar. Whereas in Florida, the Americans were the minority.

Friday: We had some last minute souvenir shopping and grabbed my first international McD’s for lunch. Very tasty, less greasy, but you had to pay for the ketchup.
It was very sad to depart from Copenhagen, but I know when/if I ever make it back to Europe this will certainly be one city I will be sure to hit. The whole experience was incredible and I even got to catch up with my mom and my brother, Ted on the phone.
I have a two day travel to Antwerp, Belgium where I’ll then hop on a train first thing Monday and head to Amsterdam for two days. I’m even lucky enough to be meeting up with my sister-in-law’s cousin, Sebastian, who has lived there his whole life. He’s going to show us around the city all day and we’re going to a comedy club that night. The other two days I’ll spend in Brussels and Antwerp, Belgium.

It’s just after 9pm here, I think I’m going to bed, have a great weekend. -ANM