From Istanbul to Cairo

This post is a series of post regarding my time in Egypt. On July 27th two nights before we were to arrive in Instanbul, Turkey we received news regarding two terrorist attacks that took place in Istanbul killing 13 and injuring over 150+ individuals. We spent July 28th anticipating a possible change in itinerary awaiting information from the US State Department and other ISE sources. At 6pm on July 28th it was announced that we would be going to Alexandria, Egypt with side trips to Cairo. We all gathered in the union to hear this news. When it was announced the entire union jumped with joy. I on the other hand was feeling bitter sweet. While I agree that it was a good decision to move, we didn't get to process it. For me of the 8 ports that we have/will visit, Istanbul was in the top 2. I had heard so much about it and I was so thrilled to finally get a chance to see its beauty. I am not angry because I never anticipated that I would be going to Egypt and to see the history that I've learned from a young kid until now, this also was a dream come true. I hope there was a similar sentiment amongst my community but who knows. Could you really compare the ruins of some 5000+ year pyramid and tombs to the Hijia Sofia or Blue Mosque? I also want my Turkish Bath but I guess I'm getting a sweet in the desert. 

All in all I got a great deal and just need to put Istanbul on my agenda of places to visit in the  future. I spent all day in Alexandria today and wow talk about culture shock but i'll do that after I come back from Cairo.

And Then Some...

My trip to Italy provided a comparison and contrast between central and southern Italy. Of course 4 days is never enough to absorb the culture and history, it gives you a small taste, urning for the the next trip back. We docked in Naples and similar to Bergen, the city is built on hills, you see layers of homes stacked on top of each other. In Naples you find many things, in this case the most evident is a city trying to put itself back together. A trash strike left the city with trash piled up on streets for over a year. While we were lucky to not have to deal with that. All it took was a street similar to Manhattan to change the feel of the place. You find that people hang their clothes on their balconies. You see the luxurious hotels, apartments, and homes by the water and up on the hills, while the city areas have apartments that in my lens would be unbearable to live in. Again that's where I see my privilege. I led a city orientation where the guide gave us some history behind Naples, once being the capital when Italy was two kingdoms. She left us in the Palace Square to situate ourselves in hopes that we would come back to the palace, basilica, opera house, etc...I went to the place that everyone congrugated: Gambrinus. I enjoyed a cup of Caffe Fresso Con Panna (Iced Coffee with Cream). I entered a happy zone, it was no more than about 4 oz and dark, but somehow I found myself getting 3 cups of it daily for those 4 days. None compared to Gambrinus but they were all good in their own way. We would stand by the counter, have my drink, and be off. This is what people did and I got to do what people who do it on a regular basis do it. After the city orientation, my attempt to visit Capri for the rest of the afternoon failed so I walked around and got lunch at a pizzeria, not knowing that you get a cover charge of 1.50 euros to sit down, I ate the pizza only to pay a bill that I wish I didn't have to pay, but it was pizza and I was in Naples.

John and I headed to Rome the next day, the train ride was 38 Euro's each way so I had to make the most of the $100.00 USD ticket. We walked and walked and saw all the things people tell you to see. We sat at Cafe's, had Gelato, and relived history. Being in the present and now helps you feel so more complete. No longer was I reading books and taught this material, I was seeing it first hand. While traveling in Rome in the summer isn't the most pleasant thing to do, I was able to get us at a nice hotel that allowed for some R&R after a long afternoon. Zuri finally made it to the hotel after not being able to communicate with me (I had no more minutes, he lost his phone). It took us a while to pick a place for dinner but we did, it wasn't amazing but I have never been the biggest fan of Italian food. After dinner, I joined Zuri on a night walking tour of the city, seeing everything I saw in the morning and afternoon all over again. It was a beautiful evening and seeing the lights of the Colliseum was just sooooo cool. We ended up walking into a free play at the Rome Forum which was also really cool. We walked and walked and walked and saw the city and it was great.

The next day we woke up as early as we could to see the Vatican City and stopped first at the Sistene Chapel which we dogdged groups and made our way there in a pretty good amount of time. All I can say is that I was taken to another place seeing that piece of art. I felt as if the images were reaching out and taking me into the painting back to where the scenes dipicted were. Now that sounds like an exageration, so I will say that it was really awesome. We walked around more, ate lunch at in Farmosa which I had a nice big plate of lasagna and loved it every bit. We eventually made it back to Naples. So to see the city of Rome and Naples, it was just so different. It's amazing how tourism does impact a place. Naples is trying to up its ante by attracting more people but it was definately a very unique 2 places to be.

I'll keep Capri short because I need to come back and fully experience it. I was trying to meet up with people but that didn't work out so I justed hiked and walked around myself. In the area where we ported, I took the funicular up to the city center and what I got off on was the Rodeo Drive/5th Avenue of Capri. It was all designer stores, expensive 5 star hotels and resorts and you could just smell money throughout the streets. I enjoyed my David time a lot walking down the hills and seeing the blue water so I need to come back and formulate my conclusion about it. For now the blue waters and hot sun cannot be beat.

Amsterdam

The difference you learn about a summer voyage compared to a fall or spring voyage is that you don’t have the luxury of in between time to unpack everything you experience from the prior port. Given that in many ways, I’m also on a more privilege itinerary meaning that aside from Russia and Turkey many of the countries I’ve visited either speak English so it makes communication easy and it’s relatively easy to navigate on your own. I know I’m saying this really early, but I definitely want to come back, this has truly been an amazing experience.

 

When I come to a new place that I have quiet prepared myself for, I get tense. I believe this is the type A personality in me but when I can let my guard down and remind myself that this is the purpose of the journey I find myself ready to learn, compare, and embrace. So a group of us headed over to Amsterdam, the city center right by the train station was busy and I wasn’t really impressed by the city. It wasn’t until after you leave the area that you find the true beauty of the canals, buildings that look slanted, and green trees lined up from sidewalk to sidewalk. Given that the city is built over water, the metro system runs street level and you really need to look left and right before crossing the streets since a train could easily take you with it if you weren’t careful as I very quickly learned while dodging cars, bicyclist, and trains. We all needed to use the restroom and Zuri who has lived in Belgium took us to a café that he knew of and surprisingly enough it was called the “420 café”. So walking in, you find a room that smelled of pot, it was like sitting in a hot box. I couldn’t handle the heavy smells and after using the restroom and looking around, I had to walk out. So given the heavy unregulated use of pot and drugs in Amsterdam, the café/bar sold only water, juice, and drugs. The menu was a list of drugs that you could buy, in order to not mix drugs and alcohol, they could sell one or the other. So that was lesson #1 in Amsterdam. Right across the alley was a pleasant surprise, “maoz”, a falafel restaurant that has found it’s way from Amsterdam/Europe to NYC. I had to try it out and it tasted exactly like the one back in NYC. To another pleasant surprise I ran into “Wok to Walk” which has also found it’s way to NYC. It was really cool to see how much of NYC has imported these unique stores from other countries and truly making it a global city. After eating Maoz, we found our way to the Red Light District. When you first enter it, it looks like any regular street in Amsterdam but boy was it different. Windows one after another with women dressed in bikini’s tapping at the window in hopes of grabbing attention of the patrons on the street. Many of the women were extremely attractive and you start to wonder why they would choose this profession. It was that same moment that I had to step away from my American centric mentality and viewpoint because similar to if they would visit the states, I’m sure there are going to be moments in which they question the values and behaviors. Mixed in between these windows were bars and sex show venues. Most places charged about 25 euros to enter and it would be watching live sex. As we strolled along the way the group of us are called out on the street by our students about 10 of them standing in front of one of the places. They had walked into what was a 2 euro for 2 minute venue where in about 12 doors that would then look into a frosted window until you deposit your 2 euros. At that time you are greeted with a man and woman having sex on a rotating bed. So that felt like the longest 2 minutes of my life. The awkwardness of watching but the even more uncomfortable feeling of being watched by the performers, it is an art in a way isn’t it? After walking out of the show, we all had comments about the action of, but we didn’t really talk about the feeling of. I had always heard about the red light district and while it was stepping out of my comfort zone, I am glad I did go and experience it rather than walk around passing judgments.

 

The red light district was located next to Chinatown so you walk through it to get to the Chinese community. I always enjoy seeing Chinatowns in all the neighborhood, it gives me a sense of comfort and that I could find a place to recharge even if it meant seeing people, street names also written in Chinese, and the smell of Chinese spices, not I didn’t mention the smell of food. We ate at a Chinese restaurant for dinner and while it wasn’t bad it wasn’t the bed that I’ve tasted, but it was okay I hadn’t had really sit down Chinese food in over a month which I don’t recall ever having done in my life so thankfully I got a taste of home. We walked around to the bars and ended up at this place called “club nasty” it wasn’t really that nasty, they had cheap Heineken beer so that’s all that mattered, by the way I’ve decided to try a beer in each country, yes David is drinking J it has actually been really cool and to see openair bars have been really cool. Being tired from the day, Marco and I called it quits early since we wanted to do some museums the next day so while the others went out more, we hailed our Mercedes taxi, the weirdest thing about Europe is that all the cabs here are nice leather seated Mercedes. Although we told ourselves that we were going to be waking up early, we didn’t get out of the hotel until around 9ish where we went to the Anne Frank House. I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was younger but only bits and pieces remained, so going through the museum and seeing first hand what, where, and who she was writing about was touching. The rest of the day was spent walking around and just being amongst the locals. I didn’t get to talk to any of them, but nonetheless it was some good times.

 

This  trip was mixed with lots of things, the food was great, the people were nice, the emotions ran in a myriad of directions. I look forward to talking to others who have been to Brussels, Amsterdam, Antwerp to hear about your perspectives. I miss the waffles and I learned that Belgium chocolate does not cause me headaches.

Antwerp and Brussels

So we were cleared to take the Kiel Canal from Denmark to get to Belgium which was really cool because for 11 hours I got to see a bit of Germany. We saw mainly land but right at the end of the canal before we hit the rocky waves of the North Sea we were greeted by the community along shore or more so we interrupted the festival that they were having. So while I never got off the ship, I saw a piece of Germany, hope that counts but I definately want to go back and visit.

The shipped docked in Antwerp which is the 2 largest city in Belgium with over 450,000 people. After doing the RD job of passing back passports, I left the ship with Laarni and Marco and along the way we made a new friend, more like a grandpa of sorts. We walked into city hall which we thought was a tourist office and looking lost an older man very enthusiastic and energtic approached us and asked where we were from. We told him we were a part of the ship and he got really excited as well. His name we learned was Jan, age 73 living out his retirement and just happened to be visiting the city, he lived on the other side of the river. Wow, his energy was beyond belief, he took the three of us on a private 2 hour tour of the city. We stopped for coffee at a really nice cafe which used to be a rich persons home converted into a cafe/restaurant, we know this because every rich home would have it's own private altar so that was really cool. Since it was a monday morning and we were looking for a waffle given that it was Belgium after three attempts at the authentic good stuff we find a place. It was like food heaven, a waffle topped with lots of fresh fruit including one orange looking item which I did not know what it was so it was really cool nonetheless. Jan has travelled the world, he spoke spanish, flemish, french, english, and more. He loves Thailand and spends many months there as well. He was a kind man and we really appreciated his hospitality. Lesson learned, get lost and maybe someone will stop and talk to you.

We headed back to the ship for a trip to Brussels! this city rocked as well. It was what I had imagined as the typical European city, it had more gothic cathedrals, smaller streets, lots of brickstone roads, and tourist! the other places were at least more calm...

getting sleepy, i knew this would happen...to finish tomorrow :)

Malmo and Copenhagen

The last day I took a train into Malmo where you cross this long bridge which I think is called the Osund but I could be messing that one up, i'm trying to write about the last few days. I really liked Sweden and Malmo was a smaller version of Copenhagen. What I really love about these countries is their emphasis on the environment. They all have these really cool self-guided walking tours that are eco-friendly based. To see what these countries are doing by adding bike paths and making it a priority that they don't leave behind a footprint is amazing. I walked through a park the size of central park, it was a beautiful day, I just got lost and kept wondering around. I ate lunch at a tiny cafe and had a salami and brie on a wheat baguette, it was really really tasty. I was there for about 4 hours so I just went from one place to another getting lost along the way. I would definately like to go back and explore stockholm and other places in Sweden but so far Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all have a 2 thumbs up for me :)

I Love Denmark

I love love love....I will write denmark a love song!!! so you could tell that I had a great time in denmark. The ship docked in a neighboring town of Korsor, population size 20,000 with one movie theater, a few small shops, but wonderful people. In doing my planning, many of us were not aware of the distance between Korsor and Copenhagen that many people did not plan ahead for hotels, hostels, how to get there, etc...luckily I bought a rail pass for Denmark since it was the cheapest and was able to take advantage of the benefits for it. so here's a run down of my 4 days in Denmark.

Day 1 July 8th: Once we were allowed to disembark, Kat, Laura, and I headed out for Copenhagen. We walked 3km to the train station, it took us an hour and we stepped out into the central station which in many ways resembled Grand Central Station in NYC. Walking out, the initial image of the city brought me to a calming peace. After the anxiety of St. Petersburg, I was extremely thrilled to just know from the moment I stepped foot into Copenhagen that I would have a great time. We walked to drop our bags off at our hotel located in the city hall area. It was the palace hotel which was being transitioned to a Le Meredien hotel. It was a beautiful room, I got to take a nice bath and sleep in a bed with a down comforter...little things I miss from my daily routine. So we walked around, lots of canals and bridges. The buildings were a mix of old and new. You could see the history mixed with the future. Again you'll see these in my pictures. We walked into Christiania which is a micronation. It was a truly unique experience. You have a very free spirit community of individuals who were enclosed in their time and space and visitors of the area were transiting into their space and time. There was a point of entry and a point of departure, makes you think about how we live in such open space. We saw the sights, everyone was biking and happy. We were told that the Danish were the happiest people in the world and you truly saw this energy in everyone you interacted with. Lots of beautiful attractive people who didn't really care about how they looked. Again the media of the US has created and embedded these images of beauty that to others they just don't care about. The Copenhagen International Jazz Festival was taking place during this time as well, so there were over 500+ performances, it was so awesome to get some food or grab a beer (10 dollars a pint/very expensive) and just listen to great music. Laura and I ended up at a jazz restaurant and we met Mark a fashion photographer who had such a great look at life. "life without expectations and pressure other than what you want is the life worth living." I love that and wished we could do that in the US. Oh back to the environmental issues...wow is all I can say. Recycling bins throughout the streets, more bikes than cars, green space, they care and recognize they need to shrink the footprint. They are concerned about the US and our role and I'm sadden that we don't do more in the states!

Day 2 July 9th: Today was focused on sightseeing and shopping. I only had until 6pm since I was on duty and needed to return to the ship by 8pm. Ate at a chinese restaurant and was able to use my chinese to probe and ask. They had operated the restaurant for over 40 years, the decoration similar to the styles in China back in the 1940s. Over 3 generations of operation. Not only did they maintain their chinese language, they spoke Danish and English! such a multicultural place.

Day 3 July 10th: I went back to Copenhagen with a stop into Sweden going to Malmo. I'm tired of typing so i'll write about this in a little while!!!

Fourth of July in St. Petersburg and also the 5th

So to continue on with my last post. The fourth of July started with me joining Marco, Justin, Kristen, Zuri, and Megan at the Hermitage. We left early because the lines are ridiculous so we left around 830am and walked across the bridge. Before getting there, we saw a baby bear with his with a man and it kinda sucked that the bear was being exploited, he was trained by someone at a circus but his mouth had a guard over it and he looked kinda sad. If people paid money, they would pet him and take a picture. There's always a fine line to walk as a tourist in a different country and having to negotiate the values and ethics that you're used too, at this moment, what ran through my head was that I most likely would never be able to be in such a close proximity with a bear, although I only watched from a distance I did take a few pictures of others with him. You'll see it in the pictures. So I like museums but it's not really my thing, I enjoy seeing it but the Hermitage was a like beauty in the beast. This palace had hundreds of rooms and was large! so imagine that with just rooms filled with art. It was beautiful to look at but overwhelming and exhausting at the same time. It was more of a tourist attraction than a museum. It wasn't well maintained or designed, at least to the standards of other places that I've been too and seen. The walls were dirty, the air conditioner was not on, you had Da Vinci's next to a window that wasn't covered. It was just pictures next to another. I lasted about 1.5 hours and just couldn't handle to massive tour groups in there. After the Hermitage, we found our way to this cafe called the "The Tea Room" it was absolutely delicious, our group ordered a bunch of blintze that were filled with cottage cheese, apples and cinnamon, strawberries, yum yum yum is all I say about that. By this time we were having food coma and tired, plus the group planned on going to another Ballet. I had a ticket but luckily I convinced Kristen to take it while I would hold the duty while she was there.

The night was uneventful and Laarni, Kat, Laura, and I decided that we needed to do the 1:15am-3am white nights boat tour around St. Petersburg. So I got to see the city in the day on foot and boat with Dean and Sarah and then was able to do it again at night. It was just beautiful, peaceful and serene mixed with loud and busy. It seems like a complete contradiction but I can make sense of it. You just block the rest of the world out and see yourself and your friends and the city nights all to yourself!

Coming back to the ship at 3am was upsetting and scary. I won't go into details but outside of the dock is an open air bar where most of the students were drinking. A fight broke out where the locals were running into the streets and a guy who got beaten up really badly. At some point a gun was seen. So rather than slowly make their way onto the ship, they were just there. We went to let them know that we encouraged them to get into the ship because the police were being called and if stories about what we heard were true those that listened were smart. But that was upsetting nonetheless, lots of drinking that were uncontrolled and just added to the image of what others see American's as. We can talk in person about this more!

I stayed up with Marco, Kat, to help Kristen out with duty, it was a pretty hectic night and found myself in bed about 5:30am. The next day was very relaxing and peaceful, we just did one last round of shopping, dropped off postcards at the post office, had lunch and I came back to prepare for the BBQ that we had on the ship that night!

okay so that in a nutshell was St. Petersburg. Lots to do and unpack, I went through lots of emotions here, fear, excitement, embarrassment, serenity, laughter, and lots more!!! 

see pictures soon

Happy 4th of July

Wow,

It's been almost a full week since my last post and a lot a lot has happened so i'll try to recall as much of it! The theme of our summer voyage is Russia and the West and so the entire curriculum is inter-weaved to ensure that in our ports, global studies class, and focus is on how Russia impacts or is impacted by the other places we are visiting. The day before we arrived in Russia, we had no classes and it was "russia day". There was a series of presentations, language workshops, and cultural information to help us prepare for the experience. First the positives: I went to a workshop put on by Photo Mike, the ships photographer and it really made me rethink how I approach my photography. He talked about space and how we need to be culturally sensitive when we're taking pictures. At what point are we disrupting the lives of others for our own benefit. I loved it and want to do this presentation when I get back. I'm going to talk to him about whether he'll let me do something similar! Now the not so good, there has been  a huge emphasis on safety and I completely agree with it but there was a heightened warning about zenophobia and racism especially towards people of Asian/South Asia/Darker Skin. So when you have a small population of staff and students who are of color, this did not make my arrival into St. Petersburg very exciting. I was freaked out to be by myself and travel the streets and at one point asked for someone to escort me to the subway station.

The first day we arrived was a mess, we had to get our passports stamped by customs which took a total of over 3 hours waiting in line. A lot of students missed the scheduled tours that were to take off 3 hours earlier. Nonetheless, my first trip that I signed up for was to visit a russian family. Along with 7 other students we visited the home of a ex-ballet dancer and her mother. She also has a daughter who was away at university. We were greeted with tea and desserts which was fantastic. She has made the napolean herself the morning off. We talked about where we were from and the stereotypes we had about Russians and vice versa. The only barrier was that none of us spoke Russian and she did not speak English. We had a translator there and she helped us explain everything. I'm not sure where the home was located but it was a fairly large apartment built in the 1800's. That was the best part of it, rich history. Along with the cultural experience, what I was able to walk away with was a revisit of the privilege that I have. I'm so fortunate to have a nice home and sometimes there's too much value put on making the place look good that I forget that some of the most simple things can do just fine. So that was great!!! 

The next thing I had planned was the Russian Ballet and so after returning from the Russian Home visiting, grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed off to the theatre to see SWAN LAKE. I was blown away!!! it was the most beautiful and moving piece I've seen. The talent on stage was amazing! The theatre felt like a theatre, we dressed up and I put on my suit, we had our own box of 4 chairs and it was shaped like a U. The only problem was that it was not air conditioned and really hot. I almost passed out a few times so other than that it was great!!! After I got home I had a huge headache which I tried to get rid off but had to assist with an incident that happened the morning off so for the rest of the second day my muscle was tight and I walked around not feeling so well.

Day 2 in St. Petersburg! I woke up after not getting a full nights rest and having to assist with the incident to meet up with Sarah and Dean who were in town for a conference and celebrating their honeymoon. We went by the Church of Spilled Blood and had lunch at a cafe eating Beef Stroganoff. Sarah ran into a small injury which made it difficult for her to walk around the city and I had a headache so we called it a day! I went back to the ship to sleep off my headache and after feeling better, Megan, Kristyn, Zuri and I went to dinner looking for a Georgian restaurant but ended up eating amazing sushi!. Sushi is a national dish so being close to the water, it was fantastic some of the best that I've eaten!!! We then met up with John, Caroline, Sarah (another person on ship) and went to a few bars! Carl and Abbey showed up and enticed me to join them for a 1:15am boat tour of St. Petersburg (at night the bridges go up so that ships can go past it, St. Petersburg is known as Venice of the North so lots of canals and bridges). We ran for our lives to get there but missed it by 1 minute, how awful is that! In Russia, pedestrians do not have the right of way so at points we were dodging cars! Not only did we miss the boat tour, we missed the window to cross the bridge back to the ship so we needed to wait it out until 3am to cross over. During that period of time, we got food at Hotel Astoria the swankiest hotel here in St. Petersburg. I just had fries but it was too salty. When it came time to either getting over the bridge during our 30 minute window or waiting until 5am, the hotel hailed a cab for us, one that we were told never to take but it worked out and we got over the bridge and I got to go to bed!

Day 3 I met up with Sarah and Dean again, we had lunch and because of Sarah's injury and wanting to walk close we ate at a sushi restaurant as well. go figure I come to Russia to eat sushi! After that Sarah said let's take a boat tour and for 20 dollars we got to see all of St. Petersburg on water. It was definitely really pretty and we got to see everything!!! I parted ways with Sarah and Dean but it was great to see a familiar face so far away! They went back to Paris to finish up their honeymoon! I was so tired from walking around the city that I just stayed local, we finally ate at a Georgian restaurant and the food was amazing. The flavors were rich and refreshing, it was like a mix of all types of cusines. LOVED IT! 

I'm tired now so I'm going to stop writing and will post about today later! sorry, this is extremely long and unedited