Mom got here on the 7th and we walked with her luggage from Plaza los Luceros to my homestay about 3 miles away. It was a long hot walk but we did it. We ate lunch with my padres and then my padre drove us the train station. After about 6 hours on the train we arrived in Barcelona. We then got to learn how to the metro system works to get to our hotel, which was on La Rambla. Then we walked around La Rambla and its surrounding streets trying to found our hotel, which was impossible to find, and no one seemed to know where it was. Ended up we walked right past it a few times on the wrong side of the street. We got to the hotel both showered and went to bed. It was 11pm we wanted to be awake for our sight seeing the next day.
We spent the 8th being tourists in Barcelona on the hop on hop off bus. We rode both the red and blue routes and saw all the big touristy things to see. We got off at the Cathedral la Sagrada Familia. It is this amazingly intricate and beautiful cathedral inside and out that was started in the late 1800's and is still being worked on today. They expect it to be finished in about 2030. The architect is Antoni Gaudi. His work is absolutely amazing to look at and it's incredible how different his stuff is yet how cool it is too look at and how well it blends in with everything around it. We also got off at the Park Guell, which is another Gaudi creation only this one is a lot like Central Park in New York only not flat. We did the tourist thing until around 3pm when we went back to the hotel and collected our suitcases before walking the 4km to the ship pulling our luggage. It was a hike but it was fun and it allowed us to get some exercise. We got onto the ship and in our room around 4:30pm and we immediately flopped down on the bed and took a little bit of a rest and nap. Basically just relaxed until we had to go to the welcome talk and then came back and relaxed some more until the show at 8pm followed by dinner at 9:15pm.
The 9th we were in Marseille, France. We took a taxi in and walked to the tourist information center. We decided to do the little train tour of the city. We got to see the Notre dame, chateau d'if and many other sights this way. It was a beautiful city when it came to old architecture but there was trash everywhere. It seemed like the citizens don't even care about their city and had no respect for it either. It's sad how bad off it was. Hopefully there are other places in France (Cannes), which are not as bad.
The 10th was spent in Genoa, Italy. Here we were able to walk into town. We worked our way down to the pier where the aquarium is as well as the visitor's information booth. We got a map there and then walked around and saw all the pretty mansions and palaces as well as the Christopher Columbus statue before we got sick of things and went back to the ship. We sat in the hot tub for a while when we got back on the ship as well as went to tea. We also started off the day by eating in the dining room with our waiter who let me know that I could get "chocolate milk" if I came to breakfast in the morning. Really it was hot chocolate but hey it was still chocolate!
The 11th was spent in Naples, Italy. An excursion to Pompeii was called for in this port. It was a 4-hour excursion that included a tour of a cameo factory and a guided tour of the ruins of Pompeii. Amazing experience. Pompeii was nothing like I pictured at all. It is more modern than I was expecting as it was built more than 2500 years ago and also had much more Roman influence than I figured it would. The romans were apparently there not long before Mount Vesuvius erupted. There was a major earthquake not long before the eruption and the romans just rebuilt everything with brick and painted it to look like marble. It is very interesting to look at as there are things that are half marble half brick. There were 5000 plus people that were killed in the disaster however only 25 casts remain because the King sent people to loot for valuables and these people destroyed many of the casts that did exist.
We spent the day in Palermo, Sicily on the 12th. This is the home to the Italian Mafia. You would think that walking down the streets you would feel very unsafe and scared because you don't know who the mafia are but honestly it was the place where I felt the safest. Mom also said the same thing. Here there was a information station right at the port so we were able to get a map and we also asked the woman what we should see and she actually just drew us out a walking tour to do. We saw the theaters and palaces as well as city hall and some parks. It was amazing and beautiful. Honestly my favorite place in Italy that I have seen so far. (Rome, Florence, and Venice will be added in the spring with others possibly as well) We sat at a cafe and had some house white wine as well to take a break at the middle of our day. We got back to the ship in time to have tea. We were joined by one of the norwegian girls we ate dinner with. She told us that she really doesn't like to speak english but we assured her that she is actually very good at it. We then spent some time in the hot tub/pool before getting ready for the night and taking a nap.
Tunis, Tunisia was next for the 13th. I can now say that I have been to 3 continents and 21 countries!! Tunis was very interesting to say the least. We got off the ship and walked to this market area inside the port. It's like they are working on creating a mock city so that tourists don't have to leave the port area in order to experience the culture and everything. This is very sad to think that so many people are afraid of things they don't know and that are different from them that they would want something like that. Mom and I joined Barbara and Alan (our new friends from Australia) on a taxi tour to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said for 10 euro a person! We started in Carthage which is a city of Roman Ruins which is talked about in several books with we as freshmen at Carthage College were required to read. It was nice to see it and to joke that I had gotten to visit Carthage just not the right one to allow me to have seen my friends. It was very pretty and had amazing views as well as things to look at. We saw Apollo of Carthage and Alan stood on a rock and did poses for us afterward. After that we drove past the royal palace. Next stop was the market of Sidi Bou Said. Sidi Bou Said is a fishing village near the city of Tunis which requires that all of it's buildings be white with blue shutters. The workers of the stalls in the market are very aggressive and will do anything for you to buy what they are selling. Even dropping as much as 75% on the price. I was given lots of attention. This was new for me as in the Us as all of you know if you aren't a stick you don't get attention at all. They even called me Shakira often times. I have many new friends from Tunisia one of whom has professed his love for me twice and wants me to profess my love for him as well as one who I cannot read his handwriting whom I was supposed to send a picture to. We got back on the ship and had lunch before going out on deck to lay in the sun and enjoy the beautiful weather that Tunisia had to offer. Then we went to tea of course...it's a must when on a cruise and you have time. We then went back the room and relaxed and got ready for the night. It was Gala Night number 2. We left the room at about 6pm and went to one of the lounges where we met up with Don and Diane (our canadian friends). There were free cocktails which we each had a few of. We took pictures on the gemstone stairs in the central part of the ship. Then we slowly meandered our way to the theater for the last show of the cruise. After the show we slowly made our way to the restaurant for dinner and ran into Christina and Liv (the norwegian girls). We talked and walked with them towards the back of the ship. We then went to dinner where everyone was dressed in their finest. We all enjoyed ourselves and Alex (our waiter) asked if we were coming for dinner tomorrow and when we said yes he seemed shocked. Apparently no one generally goes to dinner on the day of Palma de Mallorca...
The 14th was spent in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. It was nice to be back in a country where I could speak the language of all the citizens. We went off the ship with Alan and Barbara again. Got us a taxi tour again but he ripped us off major. Took us to only touristy spots which was kind of lame because I want to see what the locals live not what they have set up for tourists to see, but oh well we will live. Last night on the ship. Dinner was bittersweet, we exchanged emails with everyone and I gave my email to Alex. He made me a rose out of a napkin. It was sweet.
October 15th was a bittersweet day for we had to leave our hew friends and what had become a temporary home for the last week. We were supposed to be out of our room at 7am but we got up at 7 instead. Then we went to breakfast in the dining room with Barbara, Alan, Don, and Diane. We had asked Alex to save our table so we could have him as our waiter one last time but apparently we were too early to sit in the section of the dining room. He did get to bring us bread and make me hot chocolate though!! After we were done with breakfast I got Alex's email and then we went to the reception desk to take care of a few things such as the fact that they charged us for something that we had not agreed too as well as the fact that we had never received a comment card in our room the night before. After we did that we had agreed to meet up with everyone in the lounge for disembarkation but they were heading to the exit as we were headed to the lounge. So we went and sat in the lounge and talked while we waited. Then we got off and got our luggage. The rest of the day was sitting around and waiting for things. Not so much fun.
The 16th through the 18th, were spent in Alicante. Saturday we climbed to the castle's summit with my friend Samantha so that mom could see the amazing views. Sunday we laid on the beach all day...I know it's a hard life. Monday, mom came to the university with me and got to see the beautiful campus. She read in the sun while I was in class. We also went to the market so that she and I could find something "American" to make for my family for dinner. We ended up making tater tot hot dish. They loved it. We went out for ice cream with my padres that night as well. She left bright and early on the 19th and has now been safely at home with Duncan and dad for 2 days.
I have been doing well here since her departure. I have gone to class, I have hung out with Samantha and I have done lots of homework. Honestly no different than any other college student except for the fact that the hanging out was done on the beach in the middle of October.
There's nothing else to report from now but I promise there will be much more Spam from Spain in the weeks to come.
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