The Rise of Ziggy Stardust

Goofing off in Varna, friends and I found a bar where they were playing 70s, 80s, 90s music. All the above, live band. Lovers of music. Random music, but all in English.

Russian Orthodox Church

Picture taken then prohibited.

More Verboten Bulgaria

Couldn't bring my ice cream in or shoot pictures in most sites in Varna, Bulgaria so you'll not be seeing much here. Some students compared Varna to Panama City Beach spring break. Right next to port was a beach with a volley ball tournament, bars, the Golden Sands Resort. In deeper conversations with locals, however, some on this trip learned about the ambivalence some Bulgarians feel towards being in the EU post communism (1989) due in part to the higher cost of living.

Goodbye Istanbul

My last meal in Istanbul included four pieces of baclava, Turkish ice cream and a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade. Forbidden foods...

Underground Cistern

The Roman cistern existed untouched 100 years after the invasion of the Ottoman empire when it was finally discovered when a man discovered he could catch fish through a hole in the ground.

Target Practice

Windows Beneath the Dome

Note the windows that separate the dome from the architecture below. Seen in the right light (and without current construction) architects have said the rotunda in the Hagia Sophia gives the impression that it is floating above the mosque, held by angels. I have no adequate picture for this.

Blue Mosque Tours

Divisions between men and women seem less defined when a Mosque becomes a tourist site and not a place of prayer.

Inside the Blue Mosque

These beautiful geometric designs were everywhere.

The Blue Mosque

Peggy and I shot up here one day for the Blue Mosque and Haiga Sophia, already sweating like pigs at 9.30AM.

Turkish Baths

These age-old relics are a pain in the neck. For 95 lyra you get a fat old man in a striped towel (towels pictured above) to scrub you down after laying on a heated marble slab, looking into the rotunda's dome. The fat man will spit on the ground you will walk on, and he will bend your body in half while trying to crack your back. If you are anything like me (and afraid of popping your shoulder blade out of place) you will scream, because he will be pulling your left arm up behind you while he pushes the rest of your upper body down. Then--critical moment--he will laugh at you, say in broken Turksih, "you have nothing," grab your head, and snap it left, successfully proving he can crack something in your body. Two days later, you, like I, will not be able to lift yourself out of bed because your neck and right shoulder hurt too much. You will take handfuls of Ibuprofen, go to the doctor, get a bag of Codeine, and finally sleep well--all night, in fact--and then walk around Varna, Bulgaria, still unable to turn your head, but happy you are well rested. You will find a Bulgarian pharmacy with a box of "Nuroflex," sporting bright flashing lightning bolts flying out of a white pill and the word, "Forte" written next to it. This, the monoglot Bulgarian will assure, is Ibuprofen. And whatever it is, it will help you, almost cure you of your pain on the sixth day of immobility.

Last night, I had the pleasure of finally resting my head, without pain, on the beach in Varna--to see the stars. On my walk back to the ship, past all the bars and clubs on the beach where SASers were dancing, I noted a couple snorting coke off the side of a trash can, and I had enough flexibility to turn my head and look back.

Turn Your Love Light On

Some students, back from getting drunk at The Golden Sands resort, Bulgaria, knocked on my door, waking me up at 4AM. Apparently, at the Golden Sands you can get something like 10 shots for a few Euros and then about 20 more shots for a few Euros more or something like that. So I'm posting Turkey photos instead of looking for inebriated students; one of my students was particularly impressed by these inappropriate nut-filled figs, about which he spoke elegantly in class two days ago, using the subjunctive without any mistakes. At the beginning of the semester, he couldn't speak a word of Spanish, so I guess he finally found something he was interested in. I'm on Codeine (I'll tell you why in my next post), and it's starting to kick in--goodnight, moon.

Cool Cat about to Attack

Polyglotism

One of the venders in the market told me he could sell in 11 languages. Spanish prevalent.

In the Spice Bazaar

Met a British gentleman who took this picture. He spoke little Turkish, and his father, originally from Pakistan, owned three of the spice stores in the market. The Turkish men around him did most of the selling, giving off the feeling that you were buying from and supporting them directly. When I asked the British man about haggling, he said you will have to do that with him, pointing at one of his father's employees.

Cool Cat on Ugly Bracelets

The Spice Bazaar

Turkish delight--in many flavors--and spices abound in the market.

Istanbul from the Ship

At least five mosques visible directly from the ship. Imams could be heard praying throughout the city and on deck.

Sunrise over Istanbul

The Acropolis

One of the most astonishing architectural feats in Greece. It was in the middle of renovation that day, but what Melinda, Danny and I found most remarkable was the number of languages being spoken on the same hill. With thousands of people visiting the site daily, I often stopped walking, like a fish midstream, to hear the many sounds coming from all directions. Babel on a site built for the gods.

Agistri

On our penultimate day in Greece, Patty and I took a hydrofoil to the island of Agistri. We were going to rent bikes, but opted for something a bit faster. In the picture, I'm learning how to ride before I rent my own and go motoring through the island.

Ancient Water Clock

In the National Archeological Museum, Athens

The Home of the (Real) Olympics: Athens

The Cheering Seas Teams

Each sea sang its own song before the competitions began.

So We Do Party: Sea Olympics 2009

Between Dubrovnik and Piraeus, Semester at Sea hosted the Sea Olympics, where teams of students, named by the seven seas, competed against each other in events like synchronized swimming, lip synching, and the sea makeover (I'll let you guess what that means). Teachers had a fun time watching, judging and cheering on their students. At the end, there was a post-Independence Day barbecue on the pool deck with ribs and ice cream. Below: meet Peggy (media studies), Patty (drawing), and Danny (oceanography) as we stand at the bar to share in the festivities.

International Stardom

My Croatian friend, Maja, was watching Croatian TV the other day when she saw a piece about Semester at Sea. Then I appeared, which explains why there were random camera men taking pictures of me on the pool deck while in Dubrovnik (I must have been the only one working that day). Ironically, Dubrovnik proved to be the least culturally interactive for a good number of the students. So much so that after our first night in port, one bar--called, "EastWest"--left a sign on their door stating, "No Americans." I'm told that, in addition to breaking glasses and vomiting on the dance floor, women in heels had been dancing on the leather furniture, leaving holes in the expensive fabric. In the photograph, I'm revising my next exams.

Cliff-Jumping in Croatia

6:30AM. I'm staring at my ceiling, in bed and wondering if I want to get up for a 7AM run with Danny, Patty, and Jason. The day before they'd invited me to join them in their jog up the steep hill toward Old Town Dubrovnik, at which point they would make a break from the road to find the cliffs the Semester at Sea pre-port team had warned us to avoid--on a previous trip a student had leapt to the Adriatic only to be flown home due to major back injuries.

Like most pre-port advice, many students had already disregarded the message and taken the leap, the first day, with rave reviews. And now that teachers were joining in I finally decided, to my great delight, that I would too. If my friends jumped from a bridge...

Running to the cliff, a local boat-dog joined the pack, following us all the way, barking and biting at people who blocked our path. After I jumped into the water, he did too (from the lower rocks) and subsequently swam up to each jumper, perhaps to check if we were OK. After all the jumping, our dog followed us back to a cafe near our ship, barking all the way, and left us when we sat down for our morning pick-me-up.

Pompeii

We all know, since third grade, what happened here. Vesuvius irrupted, the lava flowed, ashes flew, and the people fled. They didn't die immediately, but returned, when the trembling was over, to check if their homes and their belongings were safe--their fatal error. They died breathing in the poisonous gases, and were preserved beneath mounds of ash.

Check out the body and the pots.

Sunset Leaving Ischia

The Island of Ischia

Ischia is the Hope Town of Napoli. The island is surrounded by boats, beautiful beaches, bars, restaurants, stores with great sales, and an Island of Ischia film festival (Cleopatra and the Talented Mr. Ripley, among many others, were filmed here). Here I am on the beach, kicking myself for not having brought my bathing suit for the day. The water's perfect, and the sun was beating down past 7PM.

PS. Be careful, though. This evening, I spoke to some students who spent the night in Capri. The only room in the inn, according to the hotel manager, cost 400 Euros. The students, with no other options, paid.

No to Naples

But if you do go, take a ferry out to Ischia or Capri and stay there. In Naples, yes, you will find maybe the best pizza you have ever eaten (that’s right, friends, I’m going all gluten here). You may even share a bottle or two of wine with three friends, and you may even pay less than 10 Euros each for your individual pizza and your wine.

But, on the following day, you may return to Naples from your ship, find another restaurant that looks equally appetizing but which is on a more populated street. That would be your first mistake. Your second mistake would be to order without establishing the price. Your third mistake would be to enjoy another bottle of wine, to ask for the check, and then to watch your friend pay two times just because the waiter realized he hadn’t charged you the full price for the meal the first time. After a storm of of waving of hands and a mixture of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, I somehow convinced the manager to give my friend and me two free bottles of wine (without lowering the price), and all parties seemed pleased.

Apart from burning money, most people on the ship agree that Naples was delicious but not as picturesque as Rome. If you’re looking for pretty Italy, try elsewhere.

Gladiator

The rain poured on our way walking to the coliseum, leaving us soaked to the bone and ready to take our bus back to the ship.

St. Peter's Basilica

"In the room the women come and go..."

Talking of vertigo. The rectangular room is shoulder-to-shoulder with people. The only open space is on the ceiling. Flash photography (all photography) and talking are forbidden.

Look Up

Michelangelo's masterpiece took him four years. Contrary to popular opinion, he painted it all vertically (not on his back).

Everywhere you Look, Something Remarkable

Still the Beginning

You see rooms and rooms of this. There is no end to it, and no way to absorb it all in a day's time.