I just returned from fall break!
And wifi in the villa has been awful so sorry if this took a while…but anyways,
fall break! While others in my program traveled around with their parents, I
went on a cruise with the three other girls whose parents did not come. It was such a wonderful week full of
relaxation, sea, FREE food, and three (well two in my opinion) beautiful
countries. A cruise? But isn’t that so
expensive? Think of it this way, all of my meals (besides one in Greece) were
free. I didn’t have to pay for a hostel of hotel every night. I didn't have to
pay for transportation between places (besides taxis when we docked), which is
easily about 75 euro one way. I was ensured safety and with four females that’s
pretty important. Instead of having to spend a lot of my time waiting around in
either an airport or train station, I could spend my time relaxing by the pool
or climbing up the rock wall. And lastly, for those who do not know, I love the
water. I worked as a lifeguard over the summer, spend many days at the lake,
and go on boats any chance I get. I don’t know what it is, but I love being
around the water so, the Splendor of the
Seas turned out to be a wonderful decision for me.
We boarded our ship in Venice, so
that morning we ended up leaving the villa by 5:30 in order to make the train
to Florence and then switch to our train to Venice. The way to the train station became very
difficult when one of the theater students we were travelling with had the
wheel and handle of her luggage break before we even got into town. So trying
to haul her luggage to the station ended up making us late for the first train
the Florence that had few stops in between which made us then have to wait for
another ten minutes on the next train that had many stops. Long story short, by the time we ended up in
Florence we had five minutes to find the platform for Venice, validate our
tickets, and run to the platform to get on the train. I don’t know how we did
it, but we were able to make our train to Venice.
Once we got on the ship, everything
from there was smooth sailing (no pun intended). We found where we needed to go
in Venice, easily got checked in (even though the lady who was checking us in
was plain out stupid), and got on the ship. We didn't have to wait forever to
get our luggage, there were places already open on the ship to eat at, and
everything was wonderful. We explored
around a little bit and ended up leaving the port about two hours after we
boarded. Being able to see Venice from
the point of view was incredible. Being the expert on Venice that I am, it was
so simple to point out the Basilica di San Marco and its bell-tower, the Doge’s
palace, and other trade marks of Venice from the top of the ship. It was so beautiful.
My favorite part of the night,
however, was probably dinner. Our waiters, Jose and Marcello, were so nice, the
water was free, and the food was delicious.
It’s been so long since I have had a meal like that. And seafood. Oh,
the seafood. It had been months since I’ve ate seafood. Until you have to constantly pay for water
and eat pasta endlessly, you won’t understand how exciting this is.
The next morning we arrived in
Dubrovnik, Croatia. None of us knew
anything about Croatia so we had no plan once we got off the ship but to wander
around and see what comes up. We ended
up taking a taxi to the old town. I can’t
tell you anything historical about the old town since I know nothing about
Croatia, other than that it was beautiful.
It reminded me a lot of Arezzo, since it was small and had a Renaissance
feel to it, but was different in many ways.
The streets were made out of marble instead of cobblestone like the
streets of Italy. Also, the currency
changed to where 100 of whatever their currency was worth like 20 US
dollars. Sounds nice, until you figure
out that the prices were a lot higher in their currency, but overall, things
ended up being cheaper there.
We walked around the town for a
bit, sampled liquors in the local market area, and believe it or not found
ourselves walking around in one of the churches. Dr. Thomas, Dr. Chance, and Dr. Kennedy would
be so proud if they saw us walking around that church, hearing us whisper to
each other about how the architecture was more of a gothic style than a Baroque
and so on. While in churches, I’ve made
it a habit to light a candle in honor of both my grandmothers. I’m not
personally very religious and none of us are Catholic, but I know it’s
something that they would both be proud of.
Another interesting thing we came
across in Croatia was this little street with jewelry vendors selling their
hand-made works. One of the vendors
there was so sweet, bargained with us, and ended up giving us free earrings
just because we were nice. So some of my
friends and family are going to end up with some Croatian jewelry.
The rest of the day we just
continued to walk around. Croatia hadn’t been someplace that I was extremely
excited about, but I turned out to be pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t extremely
touristy, the views of the sea were wonderful, and most of the people there
were extremely nice. It’s not somewhere
I would necessarily go back just because I felt like I’ve seen everything there
is to see, but it’s somewhere I would recommend going.
The girls: Alicia, myself, Kira, and Juny
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