The end... Im going home!

The rest of my time spent in Morocco was not as eventful I ended up just walking around the souks and the main square.
When I got back to the ship from Marrakech I knew I was entering a new faze of my voyage, the time where I was preparing to get off the ship, going home.
I had mixed emotions about coming home because on the one hand I was happy to be coming back to my family, my own bed, and a wider variety of clothes which I missed. But I was sad because I felt like I just made some of the best friendships that I have ever had.
I finished my final exams with passing grades of course, actually I got quite good grades.
We had a gender bender performance and convocation for the graduating seniors and all of us who were becoming Alumni, and of course we had the Alumni Ball.

We were served a beautiful formal dinner all of us dressed in our best attire. The Captain of the Ship Captain Krstanovic who took photos and was present at both dinners for all 650 of us.

I ordered the Steak with the Bruschetta appetizer. The food was delicious.

After the dinner was a dance party on the pool deck where one of my friends who is a DJ played music for us all.

We had a blast until 11:10pm when they made us stop the music, but everyone decided that they wanted to stay out longer so everyone sang songs together, it was a very exciting moment and I felt like we all were sort of united after the long time we spent together. It was also a little sad because it felt like we were saying good bye.

The next following days I spent packing and mentally preparing to go home, but I don't think that it is possible for me to go home.

I am never home, I am always at another stage in my life that is leading me to an unknown destination.

I flew home at 4 pm on Saturday August 20th. I arrived at Palm Springs airport at 9:30ish pm and was picked up by Tom, whom I am very thankful for picking me up and helping me tremendously in preparing for this whole trip!!!

I entered an empty home because my mom was out of town until the next day. I went straight to sleep because I was so tired from all the excitement of being home and all the traveling that I have been doing.

Right now, I am taking life slowly, making sure that I have all my priorities in order before I make any rash decisions. What will happen I do not know.. but time will tell... hopefully another adventure that I can cherish in my memories forever.

The life of a Sultaness!

I came to Morocco 2 days ago and did not expect greatness out of it because our ship docked in Casablanca and as the wikitravel page said, there is absolutely nothing to do there apart from going to Rick's Cafe and seeing the Mosque that is there.
So my friends and I decided to get a VILLA... yes indeed it is a villa. When people talked about these I thought that it would be costing a lot of money, but in fact when you put 3 people in each bed, some people sleep on the couches, and some people sleep on the lounge chairs on the terrace, and you fit 20 people all together it is really really affordable.
So where is this VILLA you may ask?
It is in Marakech, if you still do not know watch the last season of America's Next top Model because the show was in Marakech, Morocco.
How we got here?
Well we took a train and before we got on this train we were expecting to be in comfortable first class where there was air conditioning and and designated seats. We did not get this!
Because there was so much people going to Marakech that were on the ship, there was no more first class seats left and all of my group and a lot of people from the ship had to be in the second class, only other class there is. This class consists of seats where you may find them, and if you are unlucky you stand in the hall. There was no air conditioning so it was really really hot, and we all crammed ourselves into one compartment. 8 people in a small compartment with tinny openings for windows and limited airflow was very painful for all of us, but we survived through it.
When we finally got to Marakech it was already 2:30 pm and we were starving so since it is currently Ramadan in Morocco most restaurants are closed until sundown. So we went to Mcdonalds.
After eating we got taxies. The taxies literally drove through the smallest streets that we did not expect the taxies to fit, somehow we survived and fit in them.
The area looked horrible, we were in fear of what this Villa was going to look like, it was dirty and horrifying ugly in the alleys. Then the taxi drivers got into an argument, well a fight, they were yelling really loudly and the other taxi driver made our friends get out of his taxi as we drove away. We were scared for our lives because we did not know where we were, where the taxi driver was leaving our friends, and where we were going. Our taxi driver parked in a square that looked like a trash dump, maybe not as horrible, but it wasn't all that great. We saw our friends from the other taxi emerging from an alley and it took some of the fear away. They walked us through alleys and into a little street where little 5 to 10 year old boys decided that it was okay to slap mine and the other girls butts, pinch us, touch us, and yell different words at us. This was not okay and I did not want to be there at that time.
He finally knocked on a door and a man opened it. As we stepped through this door we entered a palace.
Literally this place looked so beautiful, that is when I knew I was in the right place, except I was shocked as to how cheap it cost for the looks of it.
When we entered the door in front of us was a courtyard with a small pool a living room next to it, and a dining room next to that when we stood in the center of the courtyard we saw a balcony that went all around the top floor. and above that was a tarp through which we could see the sky.
This was unreal to me. The man that greeted us showed us our rooms and we just took a room on who called it first. They were all extravagantly beautiful!!!
All but 2 rooms were on the second floor, one was on the bottom floor and one next to our private terrace where there was also a laundry room and a massage room.
This place was incredible!! and all to us.
There is breakfast included in the price and we can go on camel rides, and get massages and hamams and pedicures and anything imaginable for not very high prices.
So that night we went to walk around and see what is situated in what area and we wanted to sleep early so that we could go camel riding in the morning.
The next morning I woke up at 8am and walked down to a really delicious breakfast. Then we went Camel riding which was a lot of fun. After camel riding we went to a restaurant to eat lunch and then we walked around the new town area. After all of that we took taxies back to our VILLA and swam in our pool.
I am loving Morocco and advise everyone to come here!!!

When in Istanbul do as the Istanbulu's do...

The day before we got to Istanbul, Turkey we had to go to Pre-Port which is basically the Deans telling us all about what the country we are entering is like. We learn about the economical standing, what to watch out for, like pick-pocketers, what not to do, what to wear, and whole bunch of other information so that we don't end up in a jail. One of the presentations was on the top 10 things to do in Istanbul as an Istanbulu would do them.
So they counted as:

1.Turkish Bath (Hamam)
2. Turkish Delights
3. Apple Tea
4. Nergali (shisha, hookah)
5. Blue Mosque
6. Hagia Sofia
7. Grand Bazaar
8......
9......Other things which I do not remember because I did not do them.....
10.....
So yes I did not complete the list of things to do in order to be like the people of Istanbul, but I did do some things that I didn't expect to do.
On my first day upon arrival I went to the Grand Bazaar with a class tour, I also went to the Spice market on this tour. I was able to purchase some Turkish Delights which were delicious of course. The Grand Bazaar was big and filled with people, a lot more than I expected. The shops themselves were a lot different than I expected as well because it looked more like an indoor mall than a Bazaar.
On the second day I was going to walk around the city and maybe make a reservation for a Hamam (Turkish Bath), but after I entered the Hamam the next thing I knew I was handing over my credit card to the people at the front desk and them handing me a little tile with some words on it and a scrubber. I did not know what to expect. I entered through the entrance to the women's side and I was handed this towel like thing and underwear that I put on. I was led then into a large circular room with a risen platform made of marble in the center this lady took my towel off laid it on the circular platform and told me to lay face down on it. I laid not knowing what to expect. She then used the scrubber and scrubbed me clean from head to toe. It felt great because it was like an exfoliating massage. After I went into a Jacuzzi and a warm water pool. All together I stayed for maybe 3 hours at the most.
The third day I took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul, which was not very interesting, it was more of a spot to say that I was in Asia and that is all. Then I went to see Hagia Sofia which was really big and looked a lot like a Mosque, but it was a museum at the time. Then we went to the Blue Mosque which was closed at the time for prayer so I could not go inside.
On the fourth day I decided to stay on the boat and tan because in the early morning I had a boat tour of the Bosphorus which was really interesting and I was able to see a lot more than I expected. I saw a lot of palaces and universities and expensive homes.
On the fifth and final day I set out to see the inside of the Blue Mosque and it was big, but I was expecting it to be more spectacular. Although thinking about how the whole thing was hand painted was pretty cool.
So that is my 5 days in Istanbul... Can you count the extra things that I did and the things that I was able to check off of my list???

The Land of the Roses.... Bulgaria!

Oh Bulgaria….
I was in Bulgaria for 4 days and I enjoyed each and every moment of it.
Well maybe not all of it because on the first day I had a Field Program for my Economics class that was on The Communist monuments and such things that are still standing in Varna. If I knew that it was going to be the way it was I would have not gone on it and just written a paper with all that I already knew from my family.
There was an older tour guide lady who told us her life story pretty much and how she couldn’t baptize her children in the city and how the only reason she had a passport was because her job provided it for her, but in reality it wasn’t hers at all.
She talked a lot which was what bugged a lot of the people that were on the trip with me. We thought it would be like interesting and we could see photos and maybe some museum, but we were sitting in a bus the whole time while it drove around and she talked and occasionally pointed out things that we drove by.
Although the next day I had a Jeep Safari trip. This was probably the best trip that I signed up for out of all the countries that I have been in. We took 10 Jeeps and drove through the forests and we could see what was around. Then we went to a sunflower field and to a little village where we tasted Brandy. The Brandy did not taste that good. I had it barely touch my lips and my whole mouth burned. After that we tasted Honey and that was delicious. Then they drove to a spot where we shot air-soft guns and finally to a spot where they gave us lunch. We had Shaschwicks and Tomatoes and cucumber and it all tasted so good. We drank beer with it all and they played music for us and sang and even taught us a dance.
At night in Bulgaria I went out dancing with my friends and when I wasn’t on a trip I was at the beach near a Volleyball stadium where they were having European Beach Volleyball competition. I actually met 2 guys that were from Poland also that were playing in the competition which made me happy.
I watched some of the games that I could see from the beach, but mostly focused on my tan.
Overall I enjoyed Bulgaria because it was a good break from the strikes and protests in Greece.

"How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens" -Alexander The Great

This quote speaks the truth... I did a lot in Greece, and not much at all at the same time....
Why is this???
Well Greece is going through some financial difficulties as a country and they have a budget deficit of about 145%, which yes is a lot. So it was very difficult doing much especially since on the first day Hilary Clinton came to Athens to give a speech at the Acropolis Museum and then wanted to see everything that there was to see in Greece. Because of this almost all the streets were being shut down for her to get by without traffic.
That first night I also went  to see the brand new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 2.
The next day all taxi's went on strike and blocked all the streets so that tourists could not get anywhere. I believe that the government was making changes so that it would be cheaper and easier to obtain a taxi license and they thought it was unfair to them and they decided to hit where it would hit the most, the tourist industry.
Luckily for me I was able to see the Acropolis and the Museum the first day. So the rest of my stay in Greece I pretty much spent on the boat, apart from going out to dinner on the second night and on the third day I went to the city to go shopping with a friend of mine. At 9pm we decided to take a bus back to port, and the bus went on strike. I made sure before we even started shopping that the bus would be running and how often it came to a particular stop. We waited for almost an hour for the bus to come, and it never came. So we ended up asking a nice gentleman on which metro to take and how to get a metro ticket and all that, he was kind enough to take us almost all the way to the port.
I also went to get some wine the last night with a couple girls and we had cherries with it. The man that served us wouldn't take any money from us so we left him a tip which he tried to give back to us 3 blocks away from the restaurant, we refused to take it.

Here is a little song to honor Greece...

So yes this was Greece... I survived.