Dublin your fun

Another country down. 

I got back on the ship yesterday after four days in Ireland. Four whole days, that's an outrageously long time to be in the same place for me now. It was really weird to be staying in one place for so long but it was awesome. This is the first country I've gone to that I wasn't relieved to be back on the ship at the end, and I've heard a lot of people saying the same. It was nice to be somewhere where people were friendly and actually spoke English. Usually after a bunch of days of travelling between countries and cities I'm so burnt out that even though it's sad to be back on the ship, it's a relief. 

Fun little event the night before we got off, we had our first whale sighting. I can't believe it's taken so long to finally see one. It was right before they served dinner so everyone that was in the dining hall was pushed up against the windows trying to catch a glimpse. Some of the little kids on the ship were in there and it was so cute to see their reactions. 

The whole time in Dublin we stayed at Megan's apartment because she's studying in Dublin (for those who don't know Megan is one of my 8 roommates from last year. It was so nice to be able to stay with her and her roommates who also go to Bentley. Not only getting to see familiar faces but not having to drop a ton of money on hotels or hostels. Those have been killing my budget. 

The first day in Dublin (also my half birthday thanks to everyone who remembers....nobody) we got off the ship and made our way over to their apartment. They were in a pretty good area, only about a twenty minute walk from the Temple Bar area. We went to a little restaurant on the way to that area because we were all starrrrrrrving, like a true Irish girl I got chicken fingers and french fries (don't judge I just want some goddamn American food sometimes okay? It's been awhile) We decided to just make the day a pub crawl because when in Ireland. So we started it there then continued on to a few other bars, including Temple Bar. Temple bar is all for tourists but we wanted to experience it, super expensive though not worth spending much time there. We then split off from Megan and the other girls studying in Dublin cause they had class? Yeah, I don't know weird concept to me too. So we went to another bar ourselves then decided we should probably eat so we grabbed some food on the way back to their apartment. 

That night (this is Wednesday by the way) we went to a club that was close to them. It was really cool because the whole club was pretty much college aged kids. Also, on Wednesdays all drinks cost 2.50 Euros, great deal seeing as an average beer anywhere cost about 5. We stayed out pretty late which came back to bite us the next morning. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early at 6AM to go on our tour to the Cliffs of Moher. We took a taxi to the center of Dublin because we had booked a tour for the day. Our first stop was Galway, where we got a walking tour of the city. It was pretty chilly out and very misty so it was really cute but I definitely know I would've enjoyed it much more if the weather was nicer. I probably would've also enjoyed it more if I had packed a rain jacket to bring abroad, unfortunately I left it sitting on the stairs in my house. After the walking tour we got back on the bus and continued driving. We stopped in a really tiny town to eat lunch. It was such a cute place and the people were super friendly .Next door to the place we ate at was a chocolate shop so I obviously had to stop in, it was sooooo good. After that we took a short drive over to the cliffs. When we got there it was really foggy since it had been raining all day. It made the cliffs kind of eerie because it is a massive drop into water if you go over the edge, and you can really easily go right to the edge. The clouds did start clearing up which was great for us.

Fun fact about the cliffs: In the 6th Harry Potter, the scene where Dumbledore and Harry go to the cave to destroy the locket horcrux was filmed there, I saw the exact spot so that was pretty much the coolest thing ever. 
More fun fact: The screen on my ipod stopped working when we got to the cliffs so I couldn't take any pictures myself (don't worry I used Sydney's camera to take pics)

Anyways, after spending a couple hours at the cliffs we made our way back to Dublin and got back to the apartment around 9:30. Very long day so naturally we were exhausted. We went down the street to get some takeout to eat back at Meg's apartment then mutually decided there was no way we would be able to make it out that night. 

The next day, day 3, we met up with Megan's family who had just flown in to visit her for the next ten days. Her dad was able to get us all a background tour of the Guinness Factory through some work connections he had. We went to the brew house which we were told only about 100-150 people PER YEAR get to go, so that was amazing. We then had a private tour of the factory so we got to skip over lines and stuff which was awesome. I learned how to pour Guinness which is actually very different than pouring anything else. After that we went into a private bar at the factory and got to test out a bunch of different beers. We even got to try one that was released to only Dublin about a week ago. He even gave us each three different types of Guinness to take home. The whole thing was so cool, I was surprised by how much I learned throughout the tour.  

After the tour we went to a pub for dinner called Brazen Head, it's one of the oldest pubs in Ireland it was established in 1198. I got Guinness and beef stew which is like a staple in Ireland. It was so good, I felt like Mia because of how clean my bowl was after I finished eating. After that we went back to the apartment for a little while. Then we just went out to a pub, we were way too tired to have another crazy night like the first one. It was cool though because the bar had people playing live music and there were tons of Irish people around. 

The last day we finally got a chance to get some souvenir shopping done. Then we met up with Megan's family again to do a tour of the Jameson distillery. You may be wondering, "Did tori do anything that did not involve alcohol while in Dublin?" If so please refer to paragraph 7 where I was only slightly hungover for my trip to the cliffs but not alcohol consumption occurred. At Jameson they gave 8 people on the tour a chance to try samples of Jameson, Jack, and some sort of Scotch. Luckily, I was chosen so I got to try them (the lady was skeptical as to whether or not I was over 18...ok cool lady yeah I know I look ten, whatever) After we tried them she asked us to push forward the cup we liked the best, 7 chose Jameson and one lone soul chose Jack. Yeah I love Jack and America, sorry Ireland. I also got a certificate that I am now an official Jameson taste tester or something like that. I also have a certificate that I can properly pour Guinness and if you recall my time in Amsterdam I am also certified to pour Heineken. So I've had an epiphany and am now changing my entire future. Instead of college I think I'm going to be a bartender because clearly I'm already just about there. 

After Jameson we went back to the ship Megan's family, who are all saints and I can't thank them enough for the amazing time we had in Dublin, drove us back to the good ol' MV Explorer. This was the first time I wasn't relieved to get back on there. I'm definitely going to miss Ireland, I think it was my favorite so far. I could've stayed there forever. 

Getting really excited for Portugal and Spain next, we'll be off the ship on Wednesday. I have a surf and yoga trip the first day of Portugal then the second day me and Sydney are flying to Madrid to see the one and only DKoss (another roommate from last year if you aren't aware) and Casey. I'm so excited it's going to be incredible. 

As for now we're moving and the ship is rocking like crazy today. I actually cut my leg (not too seriously though there was no bloodshed and I think I'll be able to keep it) walking from class back to my room because it rocked me into a fairly sharp corner on the end of one of the staircases.

 

Baguettes

It's been a couple days now since I got back from my adventures in
Paris, sorry for the delay but I've basically been sleeping since I got
back.

Paris was absolutely amazing, I spent two full days there. I wish I
could've stayed longer. We got off our 8 hour bus ride from Amsterdam to
Paris at a little before 6 AM. This was great because it was still
pretty dark and we couldn't check into our hostel until 4 PM and we had
no idea where we were. Even better, we hadn't slept the entire time so
we stepped off the bus completely refreshed and ready to take on Paris.
Don't even get me started on the last time we had showered.

Luckily, the girls we had traveled with in Amsterdam had taken a night
train to Paris and got to their hotel at around ten. They emailed us
their address and room number so we could go to their hotel and nap and
shower. GOD BLESS THEM.

After that we headed over to our hostel which turned out to be very easy
to get to and only a few metro stops away from our friends' hotel. Our
group had two 6 person rooms so we were able to drop our stuff off in
the other room which had been allowed to check in in the morning. Since
there were so many of us we split off into a few group to go sightsee
around Paris.

We spent some time at and around the Eiffel Tower as our first stop. It
was the coolest thing ever, I've seen pictures of it everywhere but
seeing it in person was incredible. Some of the kids we were with wanted
to climb it but we didn't really want to/were so exhausted we probably
couldn't have even climbed it if we had tried. After we split, we went
to a French cafe and got sandwiches, this is where I experienced my
first real French baguette and it was the greatest thing ever. My entire
diet in France was bread so I definitely did Paris right. When we left
there we headed to the Louvre to check out the Mona Lisa. I hadn't
realized how massive that place was, we actually got lost trying to
figure out how to get out of it. There was so much there that I hadn't
realized, I didn't know how big the actual museum was. The Mona Lisa was
super cool to see but much smaller than I had expected.

It was getting late by the time we had finished everything so we went
back to our hostel where we met up with some of our other friends. We
walked around the area near our hostel and eventually found a really
cute outdoor French restaurant for dinner. It was kind of expensive, but
I'm trying to go out to one nice dinner at each port. Hopefully I don't
run out of money before the end of the trip. The food there was so good,
I had escargo, a shrimp and avocado salad, and some French beef
thing...and of course more baguettes.

The next morning Sydney and I split off from the rest of our friends who
wanted to do more sightseeing around the city. We went to the Longchamp
store in the morning because when in Paris, gotta buy a Longchamp bag (I
got a great deal I promise) then we went to Lauderee to get macaroons.
After that we headed back to our friends' hotel that we had stayed at
the previous morning because we wanted to go to the Palace of
Versailles. We took the train there and met up with some other girls
from the ship that they go to school with.

We spent the whole day touring the Palace and the gardens, which was so
nice. It's definitely an all-day trip, you cannot do that with other
stuff too. I ended up not being able to go to Notre Dame because we
didn't have enough time but I'm okay with it. There's not enough time to
do everything and I don't think it'd be enjoyable to half ass all these
really cool places. That night we went to a market and got deli meat and
cheese for sandwiches (hell yeah more bread) and hung out with our
friends in the hostel. We then went to the Eiffel Tower to see it all
lit up which was so damn pretty.

The next morning we woke up pretty early to get our train out to Le
Havre. By that point we were so dead from 6 straight days of traveling
that we instantly went to the ship. Overall it was such an awesome
experience, I've now been to 7 (8 if you count the US) countries in one
month. I feel like I've been gone for ages.

Definitely missing you all at home, but not ready to come back just yet.
Next stop: Dublin on Wednesday for four days. Let me know some cool
places to check out in the comments!

Above the influence

We woke up at about 6 am to hop on a train to Amsterdam for the day with two of our friends. We got there by a little after 8.

Instantly after walking out of the station we are greeted by the smell of cannabis. SAS drug tests so if anybody were to smoke or consume anything with weed in it I'm pretty sure they are kicked off the ship no matter what. Being the hardcore druggie I am it was hard to resist temptation but I'm happy to say that I successfully did. I actually know a bunch of kids who didn't even go to Amsterdam because they knew they would get in trouble.

Our first stop of the morning was breakfast because we were starving. We went to a really cute breakfast place for pancakes. After this we headed to the Anne Frank house. I actually hadn't even realized it was in Amsterdam. It was super cool/really sad. Part of it was walking through the actual rooms where she and her family hid and part was a museum.

After the museum we went to the Heineken factory, also hadn't realized this was in Amsterdam. I think I can say that this was the coolest thing I've done so far. We went on a tour of the actual factory and saw the history behind Heineken, how they make it, and they had their horses out to look at. After this part you go into a room and it's like a little ride type thing and they make you into beer basically, you are watching it happen on the screen and you can feel what's going on. After this you go into Heineken star shaped bars and a worker shows you how to properly pour and then you get a free glass of it. The rest of it is almost like a club, it's all different rooms and shows their commercials and they play music. I could've stayed there all day. At the very end you can learn how to properly pour a glass of Heineken and you get a certificate (you also get to drink that one that you poured).

When we left that we went to a place to eat lunch then we went to check out the red light district. It was so crazy. It was the daytime still so I can't imagine it at night but...(disclaimer: not suitable for children)... There were weed shops all over the place and hookers in windows and sex shops everywhere. I can't believe that it's a real place, everything on that street would be 100% illegal in the US but it's totally ok there.

After this we were all so exhausted from the day and it was getting late so we went to sit down in a Starbucks to get some wifi and to sit, our friends had a train at around 8 so after they left, Sydney and I ate dinner and tried to find out where to go for our bus to Paris. It ended up being in this super sketchy place just like we expected but there were a ton of other SAS kids on it so it wasn't too bad.

So at around 11 at night we got on our 7 hour bus ride to Paris. It was super uncomfortable and I didn't get to sleep at all. Oh well, who needs sleep?

Why am I paying for condiments?

On Sunday after a day and a half being kept on the ship in port right in the middle of Antwerp we were finally allowed off the ship (not sure if I've explained these "ipad" days. it's cheaper to sit in port than sit in the ocean and we have a requirement of classroom hours and apparently it's a liability to let us on and off. The ship admin tried to get us off for the nights or something but the ISE board shot it down.

I started Belgium on a bit of a negative note because we were informed of our new field lab schedule for the ones that we're cancelled in Africa. I have one day two of Italy which sucks because our port is about an hour and a half from the ship and we have to be at the ship by midnight the night before so I'm essentially losing two out of four entire days of Rome. I know kids who have them three days in a row because of their classes so they basically don't get to see it at all. I know it was a tough position the admin was in but it really sucks to miss out on so much.

The first day of Belgium I had a field lab for a different class, my evolutionary theory class. We went to the Antwerp zoo and looked at the primates then we drove to a botanical garden in Brussels which was about an hour away. Overall, it wasn't particularly exciting. It wasn't bad and I got a lot but I definitely thought it'd be more enjoyable, we didn't get to spend much time at the zoo at all.

I ate dinner on the ship the first night since I was meeting my friends back on the ship to go out. That night we went to a few bars. As usual, the place we were at was mostly SAS kids, this wasn't too surprising though since there wasn't much nightlife to choose from.

The next day most of our friends had field labs or had already left Antwerp. Sydney and I went around the town for the day, there really isn't much to Antwerp so we started out with a nice breakfast of fries. Yes, you have to pay for all condiments, it was a dollar for a really poor amount of mayonnaise, eff you Belgium. After that we did some shopping. At night we went out to a nice dinner, I'm trying to splurge on a nice dinner in each city. After that I was so full but when in Belgium you have to eat waffles so of course I did. Although I easily could have thrown up because of the massive volume of food in my stomach I was so happy with my decision.
After dinner we had planned to go back to the ship and pack but we ran into a couple of our friends that we're going to hang at a bar so of course we tagged along. The plan was to maybe get a couple drinks then get back to pack for Amsterdam and Paris since we had a 7 am train in the morning. Instead, we decided to do an impromptu pub crawl.

Needless to say I packed very poorly for the next two places. Oh well, when in Belgium, right? No regrets over here

PSA

I'm about to post a bunch of blogs in a row. I'm currently sitting on a train to Le Havre, France. I just spent two days in Belgium, one day in Amsterdam, and 2 in Paris. We have to be on the ship at 8 PM tonight, I think I'm going to get on much earlier because I am exhausted.

I'll try to put pictures in these ones and don't kill me if these are completely illiterate I think this is one of my top 5 most tired moments I've ever had.

Beer with every meal

Hi people, I'm currently sitting in class so I figured.. what better
time to blog about Germany than when I'm not paying attention in class?

I got back to the ship last night after about two and a half days in
Berlin. We left Gdansk in the morning on Saturday and managed to get
ourselves to Berlin by about 6 in the evening on that same day. We had
booked a hostel on the ship and it was right by the main train station
which was great because after hours trying to navigate trains I really
just wanted to throw myself in front of one.

Our hostel was pretty nice, it was clean which is definitely always a
good thing. We were sharing our room with some older ladies and then
after they left, three girls from Greece who are going to study abroad
in Germany.

The first night we were not really functioning so we just went to a bar
with some SAS kids we met on the train, they were cool and their friends
told us about this cool place so we decided we might as well go out. It
was a pretty early night, we made it back to our hostel around 1:30 (yes
this is early in Europe). We had used cabs the first night out which
sucked because it was really expensive but we had no idea how to use the
public transportation and didn't have the patience to do it until we slept.

The next day we slept in a little then went to the train station to
figure out public transportation. It took a while and wasted some of the
day but we ended up being about to get a pass for 4 people for two days
for only like 8 euros a piece. Also we figured out the subway system
really quickly it's really similar to the T except that they have an
S-Bahn and a U-Bahn which are two separate systems, one is above ground
and one is below.

We went to this really cool flea market day one (Uncle Larry if you're
reading this you need to go to Berlin and find this flea market). There
were hundreds of stalls and so much good food. I didn't end up buying
much there but I probably easily could've spent a week looking at
everyone's stuff. After that we went to the Berlin Wall which was so
cool. The murals that artists painted on it were amazing. Afterwards we
went to a food stand and got sausage and currywurst and french fries it
was so good, German food is great.

We went out that night to a club that was full of so many Semester at
Sea kids, it usually ends up being that way. I obviously was only
drinking water there because although I'm technically legal to drink
alcohol in Germany, I'm not in the United States so I think I'm just
going to wait until I turn 21 to try alcohol.

The next day we went to some more of the tourist spots in Berlin. We saw
their government buildings then went to the Holocaust Memorial. We were
super upset because the museum part of the memorial is closed on
Monday's so we couldn't get in. We then went to the Topography of Terror
which was the main center of Hitler during his time ruling Germany (I'm
pretty sure this is right but not 100%). It had original pieces of the
Berlin wall and a free museum that went from the rise through the
holocaust to the downfall. It was a big open room and you walked through
and looks at pictures that told the story, it was really cool I don't
think I've ever seen a museum like it. After that we went to Checkpoint
Charlie and randomly found this beach thing in the middle of Berlin and
hung out there for a while. After that we went back to our hostel to
take a break.

That night we decided we couldn't handle going out again, instead one of
my friends found this really good burger place called Burgermeister so
we decided to venture there for a late dinner. It was in the middle of
the ghetto so I felt very at home there, it was just like being back in
Brockton. The food was by far the best I've had so far abroad, I'm going
to have to see if I can get it delivered to the US.

When we got back we book our transportation for the next port. We
definitely learned our lesson from this one about waiting until the last
second to book stuff. The next morning we had a bus ride back to the
ship in Rostock and got right back on the ship exhausted from the last 5
days.

We're getting off the ship next in Antwerp, Belgium and I'll be spending
two full days there. Then on the 16th I'll be in Amsterdam for the day,
then I'm taking a night bus on the 16th to Paris where I'll be from the
17th to the 19th when I'll be taking a train back to the ship at Le
Havre. I'll try to post again sometime during that trip.

Poland take two

I was just informed that my entire blog did not post. Therefore, here is the rest of that one copied and pasted continuing from that small piece that posted a couple of days ago: 

We got to port on Thursday by they wouldn't let us off the ship until Friday morning.. Bastards.

We spent the day there in gdansk. We had wanted to go to krakow then Berlin but thanks to lack of functioning internet we went straight from gdansk to berlin yesterday. It was an awesome 8 hour train ride.

There isn't much too do in gdansk but it is such a beautiful place. The streets were cobblestone and all the people were so friendly. It was also super cheap which was awesome because Germany sure as hell is not. 

We spent most of our time there walking around and visiting the little shops. We also, of course, had pierogi for dinner which were so delicious. It was a nice change from ship food. 

I'm currently sitting in my hostel in Berlin(This is no longer true, I'm in my cabin now) I'll post about my time here later in the week. I leave on Tuesday (now today) Special Poland shout out to my favorite person, Mary Waldron! 

I was in a fairytale kingdom yesterday

Seriously, Poland legitimately looks like something out of a Disney movie. If you do not believe me see below (unless it's not below, seriously I don't know how this blog formats itself)

I survived..

One port down and I managed to survive. I'm completely exhausted right now but we have to recover super quick because we get to Poland on Friday. We port in Gdansk then plan to travel to Krakow on Saturday to visit Auschwitz theeeeeeen we're hopping the border to Germany and going to Berlin then meeting up with the ship in Rostock. This is our plan. Whether or not this is what will actually occur is beyond me. If anyone is feeling wealthy and wants to donate like $1000 to me that's totally cool and maybe even tax deductible? Probably not though I don't really know I'm not an accounting major.

Anywho

Russia Day 1:
    I had a field lab which is like a field trip you go on with one of your classes, we have one for each class and they're worth 20% of our grade. We went to Peterhof in the morning which is this huge palace with a bunch of gardens and stuff. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures in the palace but everything was so intricate and gold. I could totally be down to live there (so if you know any single kings or princes let me know). After that we went to this fancy restaurant/banquet hall place and had a really really delicious meal consisting of a salad, this chicken thing, and some pastry/cake that we all decided was rhubarb. We couldn't ask because none of the wait staff spoke English.
    After the palace and lunch we traveled to the apartment of Dostoyevsky (?sp) the author of Crime and Punishment. It was really interesting to see the history in Russia and hearing how important these historical figures are to them.
    Our professor made the bus we were riding pass some of the main tourist sites in Russia on our way so we got to see the Bronze Horseman, St. Isaac's Cathedral and a few other cool things.
    That night me and a couple of my friends were going into the city to meet up with our other friends who hadn't had field labs. Thanks to a lack of internet access we could never find them so we ended up going back to the boat. Thankfully, although we had no idea where we were and couldn't ask people for help, my extensive Russian knowledge got us back to the ship before 1.
    Fun fact: All the drawbridges in St. Petersburg go up at around 1:30 and our boat was on the side opposite all of the attractions and fun stuff. So if you miss it you are fuuuuuu...screwed.

Russia Day 2:
    Nothing too exciting just basic sightseeing and stuff. I also did some homework on the ship before we went out. Some of our friends made friends with a local Russian girl the prior day so she and her friends were really helpful for us to get around and know where the best places to go were. We decided to book a hostel so that we could stay out late. It was really cheap and very very clean so we were happy with it. We also had six of us to a six person room so it was private. We went out to a couple bars and a club with our new Russian friend, since it was Sunday there weren't many people out. We were with a lot of other SAS kids so it was cool to get to know some of them better. Russian vodka is really great, I would suggest it to anyone. We stayed out really late, I think we got back around 4 or 4:30 (sorry fam). Some of our friends had stayed out until 7:30 the night before so not bad in comparison.

Russia Day 3:
    We got to get some of our shopping done, I didn't end up getting a ton of stuff. We went to breakfast at this cafe. I got quiche lorraine....it had a lot of fish in it and was covered in caviar so it was definitely not my favorite meal but I was desperate for any form of food. We were all struggling quite a bit, probably just the food because I can't imagine why else we would have not felt well. We went back to the ship by around 3 in the afternoon and watched a movie and tried to catch up on all of our work. I was passed out by a little after ten.

Overall Russia was so cool and the people were a lot different than I had originally expected. Most of the buildings were really brightly colored and it was just so different than anything I had ever seen. There were also about 5000 weddings while we were there. I'm really glad to have gotten the chance to go to St. Petersburg and am getting really excited for Poland and Germany!

Voyage Update

So we aren't going to Ghana or Senegal which really sucks buuuuuuut they
just informed us of our new ports sooooo

We're going to Civitavecchia in Italy (right near Rome) from October
15th-18th and Barcelona from the 20th to the 23rd

I'm so excited I could probably die.

We then have a solid 14 day journey across the Atlantic Ocean right
after that which will be completely miserable. That consists of one
study day, so that's 13 days of classes with one day off. My grades may
absolutely tank but whatever.

Leave gift requests in the comments.

Stay tuned for my post about Russia.
DEUCES