To do's:

Cause I am a massive planner/ listmaker, over the past few months I've holed up in Barnes and Nobles and used their travel section for free (yes, I am a freeloader too haha). So I've come up with a general idea of what I would like to see in a few of the countries.

Spain: 

• La Sagrada Familia: unfinished cathedral

• Las Ramblas: a market strip that is apparently stellar at night
• Montserrat: a cool monastery
• Flamenco shows
• Wine tasting
• Barceloneta: Barcelona's fishing town that most tourists don't visit
• Bullfighting: I don't think it's in season, but I would totally wanna go even though I would most likely bawl throughout the entire thing
• A soccer game

Italy:

• Mt. Vesuvius: I'm hiking this with my geology class!
• Naples pizza!
• Pompeii (obviously)
• Normal Rome highlights: Vatican, The Coliseum, Forum, Catacombs, ect.

• Explore cities outside of Rome
• I'm taking a cooking class in a village! So excited.
• I would like to hike Cinque Terre, which is a 5 village seaside hike in northern Italy, but I may not have time :(

Croatia:

• A day trip with my Anthropology class to Medugorje in Montenegro.
• Hike the lakes and waterfalls of Plitvice

• Explore Dubrovnik
• Korcula

Bulgaria:

Since this one is the most recent change to our schedule (Egypt...), I haven't had much time to research it. I have signed up for a Bulgarian Village visit, but that is it. I heard REAL gypsies are there, so maybe visit a few of those? We shall see.

Greece:

• Mykonos: plane and hotel are booked with people I have only met on facebook! YUSSS

• Athens: the norm (Acropolis, Hadrian's Arch, Hephaistion, Kerameikos cemetery, Tower of the Winds, ect)
• Meteora: I would like, but I don't believe there will be time.
• Olympia: same as above :(
• WATCH HARRY POTTER! (with greek subtitles)

Turkey:

• Ephesus (roman ruins)/ Cappadocia (houses carved from natural rock formations): tour is booked with, again, people I have never met. Sweet.

• Grand Bazaar: huge market in Istanbul
• Hamams: a Turkish bath where they scrub you and make you feel amazing. So excited.
• See a dervish whirl performance
• Olympos: jungle-y ruins next to a beautiful beach (no tourists)

• Mt. Nemrut: carved heads of old kings that are thousands of years old. But, it is on the complete opposite side of the country (next to Iraq and Iran and such!) so I won't be going :(
• Eat kokorec: street food of lamb intestines on a sandwich, yummm.
• Blue Mosque

• Hippodrome
• Lycean rock tombs

• Hookah

Morocco:

Nothing is planned officially, since hopefully I will have friends to hang out with at this point. But a few ideas...

• Stay in Marrakesh a few days. They have better markets than Istanbul and are cheaper too!

• Visit a few mosques
• Ride a camel?
• Travel to Fes
• See a snake charmer

• Get a tattoo? Haha mother.
• Hang out, relax, and enjoy the culture

Now, besides the ones I have paid for or put a deposit down, all my ideas will change. I won't see everything on this list and will see things I don't have on it. My goal is to be flexible and go with the flow; I don't want to be rushing, rushing, rushing everywhere when I am in these countries. I want to see more than the inside of a train for 4 hours in order to see 1 hour worth of country. No thanks. I would rather be immersed in a culture at the same city and see a few historic things than spend my time surrounded by other tourists pushing and shoving to get that perfect shot of some old rock and traveling 24/7. I like old stuff, but when I have only 4-7 days in each country, I would rather see culture than ancient stuff that will still be there in another 20 years. 

T-Minus 21 days...

I'm about to start freaking, no joke. Only 3 weeks until I have the greatest adventure of my life! I feel like there is still so much to do and not enough time to do it! I literally just got back from a weeklong community service project with A&M in South Texas and now I have less than 3 weeks to prepare. Throw in my cousin coming to visit on Friday, my best friend from California coming in less than a week, and my other best friend from Sweden coming on the 1st, this is gonna get wild.

For those of you unfamiliar with Semester at Sea, it is a study abroad opportunity that is the best of both worlds. Basically, you get on a massive cruise ship with 700 other students, lifelong learners (basically old people who take the classes for fun and not credit), and professors and take classes for college credit. The best thing about it is that we are visiting 8 countries- the Bahamas, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Morocco. Even better is that we get to do whatever we want in each country instead of following a tour guide around. We only take classes when we are at sea so we can get the full experience of the countries we visit. We do a few tours through SAS only because they are required for our classes. For example, for my Geohazards class, I have to visit Pompeii with our professor and write a paper on the experience and the geology of the area. Pretty sweet huh?! Besides the ones required for the classes, I am also doing tours through SAS that I couldn't do by myself; for example an Italian cooking class, a Croatian folk show, and a visit to a Bulgarian village. Everything else I am planning while at sea with my new friends!!

I really hope I have the time to update this with photos and memories, but I cannot promise much. We have limited internet while on the ship (to go over= BIG BUCK$!) and I doubt I'll wanna waste precious time in Turkey sitting in an internet cafe... so just don't expect much. I will be writing in a journal for sure and sending postcards though!

Anyways, until next time:)

“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson