Adriatic Crossing

7/9

Today I had class again…which was just the absurdist thing after two weeks in Spain and Italy. But, the classes picked up where they had left off, even though the teachers had been traveling around just like we had and I’m pretty sure that their minds were just as far from the course material as mine was.

This evening we passed through the Strait of Messina, right next to Sicily. The strait has two famously ferocious currents, which the Greeks personified in legend as Scylla and Charybdis, two sea monsters (one a whirlpool and one akin to the kraken). It definitely got rougher as we were going through the straits, and I took some seasickness medicine just in case. We also passed near Mt. Stromboli, which was very striking to see rising out of the ocean in the near distance.

Tonight Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is being shown in the Union, our largest classroom that also doubles as a movie theater. I, of course, am going, but I’m worried I might have to leave early to go to bed because it’s only 9:30 now and I’m exhausted and the movie starts at 10.


7/10

Tomorrow we arrive in Dubrovnik! We are officially in the Adriatic Sea now, and the water is calm again. Yesterday evening I saw either dolphins or pilot whales off in the distance, which was very exciting.

We had class again today, and several field reports were due. It feels so odd to be doing homework right after coming off the excitement of being in Italy for a week and right in the middle of my planning for Croatia. But, that is part of the trip, and I’m ok with it. I’m really glad I’ve been keeping such detailed blogs because I can use parts of them as the basis for my field reports and then just add in more academic class-related stuff that I don’t put in the blog because I don’t want to bore you all ☺
I also have tests in the period between Croatia and Greece…which is two days on board and during which I will probably feel even less like studying than I do now.

My friends and I are all really wishing that SAS gave us more free travel sites or had more travel books available for us in the library, because yesterday and today everyone is scrambling to plan their travel through Croatia (and some to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina). I definitely want to see waterfalls at one of the national parks, which are supposed to be spectacular.  I have a city orientation tour planned the first day where I will see the main sites of Dubrovnik and a snorkeling trip for my marine biology class (and fun of course) planned for the last day, so I just need to figure out the two days in between. Now that I’m used to navigating public transportation (and failing at doing so), I’m hoping to be able to hop trains, busses and ferries to the places that are the best balance of awesome, not too far and not too expensive.

I also discovered today that we now need a visa to go to Istanbul. I’m actually pleased about this, because I will have a sweet Turkish visa in my passport. So far, only the Bahamas have stamped our passports, and I was hoping to get one from each country while I was here, but a Turkish visa will have to do. Of course, I still have five more countries where we may get stamps.

I’ve finally slept off all my sleep debt, so I’m back at regular energy level just in time. I think I really overestimated the amount of free time I would have on this trip before I came. I thought I’d have free time to read for fun and plenty of time to write my blog, but as it is I don’t have enough time to do all the reading for my classes and am barely squeezing blogging time in. But the fact that I am so busy makes it that much more important to blog it down to I don’t forget any of the details!

Love from the Adriatic,
Ginny