La Boqueria

These pictures are from the market in Barcelona. I have lots more but these were just some of my favorites!

Just a Few Pictures from Spain

La Sagrada Familia

Fat Tire Bike Tour in Barcelona

Arc de Triomf

LOVE Barcelona

Off to see Italy!

I'm feeling 1000 times better today thank goodness! I have just finished packing and I am about to go have lunch in Naples and see the city a bit, and then head to Rome around 4 pm. I'll be in Rome for the 4th of July, and then leave for Florence on the 5th, then back to Rome on the evening of the 6th. I'll stay in Rome until I have to come back to the boat on the afternoon of July 8th. I probably won't have a chance to get online and update my blog, but I will as soon as I'm back to the ship later this week.

1st Day in Italy and...

I am so sick! I started feeling lousy last night after dinner, and I figured it was just something I ate. But I woke up in the middle of the night feeling awful and nauseas. I'm now sitting in my little lonely room, still feeling terrible. I just went to the medical clinic and they gave me a shot for nausea, because I can't keep down any pills or liquid medicine I take. The nurse quarantined me to my room until later tonight or possibly until tomorrow. Its so frusterating to be in port in Italy and not be able to get off the boat! I just am praying that I feel better by tonight and am able to go on all of my planned trips while were in Italy.

Say a prayer for me please!

XOXO

SPAIN

Where do I even begin? Spain was absolutely amazing. I loved every part of it and wish I could have stayed longer. I would have been content wandering the streets of Barcelona all day for another week. There is just so much to see and experience. The culture is just so different and it is so interesting to me to see how people live and function in these foreign places. I will definitely be taking another trip to Spain in the next few years though.

Although I absolutely did love the city, we definitely had some interesting things happen to us while we were there. Let me start at the beginning:

I planned to travel in Spain with three of my friends-Tiffany, Rene, and Cassidy. We had booked an apartment to stay in while in Barcelona a few months back. We all had field trips the first day, so once we all got back to the ship on Monday night we left to go explore and find our apartment. The taxi driver told us on the way that we needed to be very careful because we might get knocked out and stolen from. A little harsh right? So with that in mind, we got out of the taxi clinging to our purses and backpacks absolutely paranoid of getting mugged. We finally found the door to the place we were supposed to check in to our apartment, and when we get into the office, we all nearly had a breakdown. The apartment building was very creepy looking and old. The manager spoke no English, and since it was just us 4 girls, we were very nervous to be staying alone in the city. We finally got the keys to our apartment, and found out it was not even in the building with the office, but instead off of a side street from La Ramba. We found the street and after wandering around for 15 minutes, finally found the door to the building. It was covered in graffiti and we were all really anxious at this point. We walked up the stairs to the first door we saw, and tried to open it. Without luck, we decided to go to the next floor and try that door. Again, we could not open it. Finally, we went to the 4th floor (although it was supposedly the 2nd floor) and got the door open. We had one more door to get through, and then we walked into our apartment. To our surprise, the apartment was very large and nice. We were all so relieved to find that it was actually clean and felt safe. We all had our own bed, and plenty of space. Once we got settled in, we decided to go and explore La Ramba.

We had heard that there are a ton of pickpocketers in Barcelona so each of us had purchased money belts so we could hide our cash and credit cards. We walked down the street and just kind of absorbed everything around us. La Rambla is full of restaurants, vendors, clothing stores, and of course gypsies (pickpocketers) and is so interesting to just walk down and people watch. We ended up going to a restaurant that night and trying an authentic Spanish/Catalan dish, called Paella, along with a pitcher of Sangria. It was really, really good! After dinner, we met up with some friends and went out to a few bars, where there was tons of other Semester at Sea students. I had a really good time!

The next morning, after getting only about 3 hours of sleep, we did a bike tour through Fat Tire Bike Tours, of the city. It was a 4-hour tour and we biked about 7 miles. We got to see many beautiful sights, including La Sagrada Familia and the Cathedral. Our tour guide-an Australian man named Buddha- was really wonderful. After the tour, we wandered around in the Gothic Quarter and did some window-shopping. Next, we went to La Boqueria, the famous market on La Rambla. I absolutely loved the market, and enjoyed taking pictures of the delicious foods everywhere. (Pictures to come!). After the market, we went to the apartment and got ready, and then had a really wonderful dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.

The next morning, we had to get up very early to catch our flight to Ibiza. We checked into our hotel in Ibiza and then decided to go find some lunch. We found a small café near the beach, and decided to eat there. The menu was a little strange looking, with a hodgepodge of different foods, so 3 of us just decided to get the lunch special, a hamburger and French fries. You can’t go wrong with a burger right? Wrong. The waitress brought out our food and my first thought was that does not look like a real burger. The meat (we aren’t actually sure if it was in fact meat) had a purple tint to it and resembled rubber. I decided to try it, thinking it wouldn’t possibly be that bad, and boy was I wrong. Lets just say that I will never be ordering a hamburger in Europe again. It is still a mystery to all of us what was in that burger, but it was surely not beef or even turkey. Yuck!

After lunch, we ran into three guys from Semester at Sea, and spent the day with them at the beach near the Bora Bora Beach Club. It is basically a bar on the beach that is a really fun hang out place for all the young people on the island. We didn’t see one other American there, and spent the day and early evening hanging out with people from England and Australia. Once we left the beach club, we headed back to our apartment to get ready for the evening. We then went to a nightclub called Space, which is supposedly one of the top clubs in the world. I had such a great time, and danced and talked to lots of people we met. We finally went back to our hotel around 4 am (which is apparently very early to be going to sleep in Ibiza!) and go at few hours of sleep before having to catch our flight back to Barcelona.

By the time we got back to the ship at 12 pm, I was so exhausted I could barely function. I came to my room and fell asleep for 6 hours! When I woke up, I took a shower, and apparently while I was in the shower, the Dean had come over the loudspeaker that goes throughout the boat and said, “If anyone knows where Alexandra Crowder is, please come to my desk right away.” I didn’t hear this though, so as I was getting dressed, I hear a knock at my door and open it, to find that there are at least 10 people crowded outside my door, looking very concerned. The dean, crewmembers, a steward, and several of my neighbors were all standing there looking at me. I was so confused! Apparently, when I had gotten on the boat, my card didn’t register so they didn’t know I was on the boat. Everyone thought I was still in Ibiza or Barcelona and was missing, when in fact I had been asleep in my room all day! They told me that they had been looking for me for hours! I was so embarrassed, but it was pretty funny. Everyone kept coming up to me on the ship tonight asking where I had been and if I was okay. I guess next time I need to double check that my card is swiped correctly, because I caused quite a scene!

That’s all for now, but I have so many other things to write about Spain. I’m going to try to get some sleep for now, since I need to be well rested for Italy on Saturday!

What a Beautiful World

Today, I have been truly amazed by God. Everywhere I look around me, I am surrounded by beauty. The sky tonight when the sun was setting was just absolutely amazing. There is just no way you can look at a sunset like that over the ocean, and not have faith there is a God out there who created it. I wish I could post pictures right now of what the sky looked like. They will be coming soon enough though.

Besides the beauty of the sky tonight, I have really just had a wonderful day and have felt so blessed. I spent the day going to class then laying at the pool, and then after dinner I met with about 35 girls who are all Christians and want to be apart of a Bible study this summer on the ship. We all just kind of told a little about ourselves and got to know one another. We are going to start having a women’s Bible study at least once a week for the rest of the trip, and I am so excited to meet other girls who share my faith. After the group meeting was over, about 8 of us girls went out on the deck and just talked and shared our stories. It was really great to hear everyone’s stories and know that everyone has struggles in life, but because of our loving Father, we can get through anything we are faced with, and our faith will only grow stronger.

I think this trip is going to just continue to make me more and more aware of what an amazing God we have. There are so many beautiful and surreal things I know that I am going to see on this journey. I will continue to be in awe of God and in wonder of all the things he has created and the beauty of this life because of Him.
We are now only a few hours away from arriving in Barcelona. I’m just packing up my things for the next few days, and I am so ecstatic to see the city! I will take tons of pictures, and I will update you all as soon as I get back on the ship on July 30th.

XOXO

We Made It to the Mediterranean!!

Just a few hours ago, the ship went from the Atlantic through the Straight of Gibralter into the Mediterranean Sea. I was taking a nap when we went through, but when I woke up, I was amazed to see the coast of Spain only a few hundred feet away! We are currently docked so that we can refuel, and will be at a standstill for 5 hours total. Its hard to believe we literally jsut sailed across the entire Atlantic Ocean.

I was so relieved when the ship stopped because I have been battlng sea sickness for the past 24 hours. Its so nice to walk down the halls without running into them! Yesterdday was a tough day at sea, with very rough conditions. The waves were huge and the boat was rocking back and forth all day and night. Almost everyone was sea sick. Even with the sea sick patch I have been wearing, I still felt terrible. I ended up going to the Health Clinic downstairs and receiving a shot to help with the nausea. It took awhile to kick in, but thank goodness it did!

Although it seems like we are so close to getting off the boat, we still have all day tonight and tomorrow to sail to Barcelona. We arrive in Barcelona at 8am on Monday morning (thats 11pm Sunday in California!) The first thing I am going to do is find some good food to eat! Ive heard that the Spanish eat up to 5 times a day, so I will definitely make up for the small amount of food I have been eating on the ship!

We have one more day of classes tomorrow, and then we have a 2 week break before our next class. I am really going to enjoy this break and take advantage of all that time to relax and just enjoy Spain and Italy. I had two tests this morning so I have had a busy week of studying and writing papers for my psychology class. I am just relieved that it is over temporarily!

I will hopefully be able to post pictures very soon. I have some great ones that I took today of the coast from the boat.

I miss everyone at home! Thanks for following my blog, and don't forget to email me!