Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Ship Life/Shipboard Auction April 15-April 20
Nothing too much happened this week on the ship. Everyone has just been panic with their Global Studies project as well as all the other woke they have to do. I have been hanging with the little kids on the ship a lot. Most of them are just really fun and precious. Specifically my LLC’s children Maddy and Sam, this brother and sister, Lizzie and Andrew Finn, as well as this adorable 4 year old named Silas who I call Huge Chubs
We had a shipboard sale going on this week. It has been a bunch of auctions for anything anyone wants to submit. The Finn’s submitted a trip to their family’s farm in Colorado Springs. This was part of the live auction. First off let me just say that people on this ship must be loaded because the things they bought for obscene amounts of money is unbelievable. Granted all the money goes to Financial Aid/grants so forth for the next voyage but still. Anyway, I really didn’t want to go to the live auction because I knew I would get too into it and end up spending money I didn’t have or something ridiculous. There were some good prizes like raising the flag as we come into port in Fort Lauderdale or reserved railing space to wave to your family as we pull in, and some other great ones like that, but they were just going way to high. The only thing I said I might bid on was the Finn Family Farm…and I did. I couldn’t help it. I ended up giving up to this one girl when she just hit a price I couldn’t afford to beat. It was probably for the best anyhow, I don’ t know when I would have ever made it out to Colorado. The family is just so sweet, however, that when they found out it was me bidding they opened their house to me at any time. Who knows I might just have to take a trip up there one of these days. So we are going to be in Brazil in a day and it’s bittersweet…it’s our last port. I don’t feel like I’ve been on this ship for 3 months at all and while I’m excited to go home I also never want to leave. :)
We had a shipboard sale going on this week. It has been a bunch of auctions for anything anyone wants to submit. The Finn’s submitted a trip to their family’s farm in Colorado Springs. This was part of the live auction. First off let me just say that people on this ship must be loaded because the things they bought for obscene amounts of money is unbelievable. Granted all the money goes to Financial Aid/grants so forth for the next voyage but still. Anyway, I really didn’t want to go to the live auction because I knew I would get too into it and end up spending money I didn’t have or something ridiculous. There were some good prizes like raising the flag as we come into port in Fort Lauderdale or reserved railing space to wave to your family as we pull in, and some other great ones like that, but they were just going way to high. The only thing I said I might bid on was the Finn Family Farm…and I did. I couldn’t help it. I ended up giving up to this one girl when she just hit a price I couldn’t afford to beat. It was probably for the best anyhow, I don’ t know when I would have ever made it out to Colorado. The family is just so sweet, however, that when they found out it was me bidding they opened their house to me at any time. Who knows I might just have to take a trip up there one of these days. So we are going to be in Brazil in a day and it’s bittersweet…it’s our last port. I don’t feel like I’ve been on this ship for 3 months at all and while I’m excited to go home I also never want to leave. :)
Accra, Ghana April 11-April 14 (MY BIRTHDAY)
Ghana time! Well it was definitely much different than any other place we’ve been to. Even in India there was stuff to do and here there really wasn’t too much. We were dock in Tema and were about an hour outside of Accra. Neither city had much to do but Accra had a little bit more. They told us that if you were staying overnight anywhere or had an overnight trip you had to get your passport, yet you couldn’t pick them up until after 12. Austin and I thought that meant we couldn’t get off the ship until then…but we could. We finally figured that out and got off the ship around 10:30 and met up with Kevin and Rebecca. The ship charged us $10 for a shuttle service from Tema to Accra. They supplied 3 shuttles that were supposed to be alternating, two from Tema to Accra and one from Accra to Tema, except all three were left Tema at the same time which means you weren’t waiting an hour in between you were waiting 2. After waiting about an half an hour the 5 of us, Abby, Ausitn, Kevin, Rebecca, Alyssa, and I decided to take the shuttle from the ship to the port gate and grab a taxi to Accra. Once we got to Accra we went to this ice cream/hotel/restaurant place called Frankie’s. We got some ice cream and walked around a bit…noticed that there wasn’t too much to do and that we were hungry. We decided to go to this place that the interport student suggested called Osanka Local. Kevin got Banku, which was this doughy ball that, with your right fingers, picked up and dunked into this soup of meats and whatnot. It looked and smelled interesting. I wanted shrimp but they didn’t have any. So then I wanted chicken but they didn’t have any. So then I was like, fine, I’ll have some fried fish…they didn’t have that either…so I ended up getting French Fries. It took forever to get served. We were there for 2 hours. There were a bunch of other students there with these really cool backpacks. Rebecca and I really wanted them. They told us about this crafts markets and then we booked it there.
This was different from any other outside market we’ve been to yet. In China, Vietnam, and India they were really pushy, but this was absurd. They would try to make friends with you first and then in return ask you to come to their shop and if you didn’t they would get a little upset. They attacked you…worse than the other places because it was both women and men and they would grab your arms and almost drag you to their stand. It was nuts. A few girls came back with “boyfriends” and “married.” Abby got her but grabbed a bit. We bought so much and a few of us wanted more so we left, went to an atm and came back. I got a drum with my name carved in it, that really cool backpack, a wooden carved Mancala set, and a mask. After our shopping we went back to Frankie’s to a have a drink and some food. It was like 6 o’clock and then we met the “free” shuttle and headed back to the ship. Austin and I both had overnight trips the next day and had to be up and ready at 5:30. We opted to not go out and just hang in, eat more food, and relax.
I will also finish this one a little later…plus my 3 day trip in Ghana is a story to be told in person, as well haha...especially how I spent my 21st birthday.
This was different from any other outside market we’ve been to yet. In China, Vietnam, and India they were really pushy, but this was absurd. They would try to make friends with you first and then in return ask you to come to their shop and if you didn’t they would get a little upset. They attacked you…worse than the other places because it was both women and men and they would grab your arms and almost drag you to their stand. It was nuts. A few girls came back with “boyfriends” and “married.” Abby got her but grabbed a bit. We bought so much and a few of us wanted more so we left, went to an atm and came back. I got a drum with my name carved in it, that really cool backpack, a wooden carved Mancala set, and a mask. After our shopping we went back to Frankie’s to a have a drink and some food. It was like 6 o’clock and then we met the “free” shuttle and headed back to the ship. Austin and I both had overnight trips the next day and had to be up and ready at 5:30. We opted to not go out and just hang in, eat more food, and relax.
I will also finish this one a little later…plus my 3 day trip in Ghana is a story to be told in person, as well haha...especially how I spent my 21st birthday.
Cape Town, South Africa March 31-April 4
Cape Town, South Africa! Probably one of my favorite ports overall. I stepped outside and knew in the first 5 minutes that I would love it here. I immediately wanted to move to South Africa. It was just absolutely beautiful. It was also the fist port where I didn’t have a ton of SAS things. I only had one SAS trip and it was the first day. Anyway….
The first morning I woke up and usually it takes awhile to clear the boat but we literally we allowed off right away. We were docked in a port like Hong Kong where there was literally a shopping mall right there. Abby and I had a trip to one of the many townships. Townships are full of people who were kicked out of their homes during the apartheid. They were moved to this collective “slums.”
Our trip was at one so we had about 3 hours or so to walk around. We were told it was not safe to walk from the harbor to the city and so we decided to stay in the V and A Waterfront and do a little shopping. This place was like Shelter Harbor in Hilton Head. It had some really small cultural shops and a ton of food. The only difference was that it had a huge shopping mall. It had live music in the middle of the streets as well…although not as good as Shannon Tanner of course haha.
At one we met up with our trip and headed to Khayelitsha Township. This is the largest township in South Africa and has about 2 million people. We get there and we are taken to this small stone building and inside there are little knick knacks that the people of the township made. They had some men playing the wooden xylophones greeting us. We were there for less than 5 minutes before the kids started to swarm. I went outside to hang with them. They were adorable and we started dancing to the music. It was great! Ahhh, I love kids. Haha
We got back on the bus and were driving to this other area in the township. We walked into this “courtyard”—and I use that term lightly because it was a small green field with a little playground and some rooms. It was home to the Philani project. We were shown around and we walked into this room with a bunch of looms. These women use old cloth, old shirts and term them into rugs, bags, place mats, etc. We got to she them making these giant rugs. All the money goes to this organization. It was amazing. From there we walked over to the school. There were only about 5 kids there because it was Easter and a lot of parents kept them at home (meaning down the dirt street). I sat down and played with these two boys who were just unbelievably adorable.
From there we headed to Vicky’s B and B. As we walked down the dirt streets and past these houses made of wood and whatever they could find, kids started swarming again. We hung out with them until we were being summoned inside the B and B. Each township has several bed and breakfasts so that travelers can stay and really get the feel of the township. I went back down to play with the kids a little more. The one thing that is the same in every country we’ve been is that children love cameras and love seeing themselves on the screen. They would ask for you o take there picture and then grab a your arms to see it.
From there we left and headed to a different B and B. We walked in and there were some tables set up for us. They served us some snacks. I can’t remember the name of the one type of food but it was essentially deep fried dough. It was amazing and a popular South African food. We also had muffins and these unbelievable apple pastries. YUM. The lady who ran this B and B went on to tell us about how she ended up there. Her story was great. The one thing I always say is that everything leads back to Pittsburgh…and it really does. She was telling us about her life, how she was kicked out of her home and sent to live in a township, and how she went to the U.S. to work with organizations that help South Africa and what not…and of course of the places she worked was in Pittsburgh. Abby and I cracked up. What were the odds? She also worked in Chicago and some other places in the states but ended up coming back and opening a bed and breakfast in the largest township in South Africa. I got her card because Abby and I really wanted to stay over one of the nights because we didn’t really have too much planned.
Along with the delicious snacks they showed us around their section of the township. And of course as soon as we stepped outside the kids swarmed…not that I’m complaining. We walked down the street until we hit this fence where there was this big open field where there were a bunch of kids playing. As we walked around the area the kids were told to stay across the street…did they listen…no haha. They would come running and just jump on your back. One kid brought me to the ground. It was pretty funny.
It was a great day. We headed back to the ship and met up with everyone and headed out to the shopping area to go to a bar. We went to this place called Mitchell’s. We had a few drinks and then everyone wanted to go to this street called Long Street. I wasn’t feeling too well and heard to be carful at night so I went back to the ship.
The next morning Abby and I wanted to Robben Island and to hike Table Mountain. We stopped by the ticket desk the day before and Robben Island tours were sold out until the day we left :(, which kind of sucked. We woke up and got this cab driver named Abi to take us to Table Mountain for what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike. It was the hottest day and I foolishly did not get up for breakfast because I wanted 30 more minutes of sleep. The first 20-30 minutes I was booking it and then all of a sudden I got extremely nauseous, light headed and miserable. I downed a ton of water, which I, of course, didn’t bring enough of. After we stopped once we stopped every minute for like 5 minutes. It took us forever and we were delusional. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do…harder than the Great Wall for sure…and I never thought I’d say that. It was a straight up shot. It was rough. It took us 3 long, hot hours. The funny thing is the day before other friends of ours told us the top was a cold HA. It was hot which made the walk even harder. At one point we took off our shirts and hiked up in our sports bras. Despite the long excruciating hike the view was unbelievable. Absolutely breathtaking. You felt like you were in heaven.
After we took pictures for about 30 minutes we took the gondola back down to the base. We were looking for a place to eat and about 15 minutes away was a beautiful bay/beach area called Camps Bay. There were a ton of restaurants right on beach. We went to this nice restaurant and ate outside. I had some amazing garlic butter prawns. Earlier that day we book this “booze cruise” on a pirate ship. Ya, a pirate ship. It was called the Jolly Roger and the crew was hysterical. Clearly the captain was trying to be like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (the way he talked and moved) except he was super funny and kept cracking really good short jokes. One was…he asked me my name so I told him and he was like “that’s a long name for such a short girl.” We had a glass of champagne and relaxed as we watched the sun set. On the way back to the harbor I got to steer the ship. It was so cool! After that Abby and I went to get some food in the waterfront. We were in Cape Town during a huge Jazz Festival and since we couldn’t get tickets to the thing we thought we would go to this restaurant that had some jazz. There wasn’t much I would eat except prawns so we sat down and I ordered that…not knowing they were out of season…uh oh. I ended up paying about 50-60 dollars for prawns I could have gotten at different restaurant for less. I was a little mad that they didn’t tell me before hand but oh well…I mean they were delicious. After dinner we headed back to the ship to get a good nights rest because in the morning we were…shark cage diving!!!!
Abby, Patty, Mem and I had to be up and ready at 5 to head out to go shark diving. We got picked up a little late and then started driving for 2 hours until we got to the one spot. Everyone passed out in the car. It was about 12 Semester at Sea students and 4 other people in Cape Town on travel. We got there and they gave us a little breakfast, a run down and then we were set to go. We went out on to a 36 foot boat. There were in total about 25 of us and everyone had to get a wet suit, cap, goggles, and booties on. While we were getting ready they threw out the chum to try and lure the sharks near. Then we would get into the cage and hold on. The leader would then tell us to take a deep breath and go under the water to see the shark passing by. The water was freezing…about 56 degrees Fahrenheit. The first group got a really good look at a shark. Each group got to go under a few times. I was in the second group and we probably had the worst luck. We must have been in the water for 45 minutes to an hour and only saw the shark about 1 and a half times. The first time we went under the shark was on our left, which was where I was located in the cage so I got to see it quickly while it turned around and went to the back of the boat. Then we sat for like 30 some minutes until we got to see another. The visibility is really bad and therefore you can barely see the shark until it is really close. The second and last time we got to see the shark it literally came right towards the cage and then turned at the last second. The tailfin almost hit the part of the cage I was situated in. It was so cool. Yet, it happened so fast I only remember a flash of it all. The rest of the groups got really amazing chances to see these sharks…my group, unfortunately, not so much. But you could go to the top and get really fantastic pictures as the shark went after the chum.
After we were done they served us some lunch as they showed us the footage the videographer took. I ended up buying the disc and it is pretty awesome. Then they took us back to the ship and Abby, Patty, and I met up with Katie got some food at this Italian restaurant in the waterfront and then we went back to the bars there. We went to Ferryman’s, which was right next to Mictchell’s because they had some live music…and I say that loosely. They were like an overpriced karaoke group. They sounded so bad it was hysterical. On top of that you had these really drunk women dancing and it was sooo funny. We were cracking up. Katie actually tapped the girl and we named her Roxie and her friend Linda. After the bad band was done we went over to Mitchell’s for another drink and some food. The four of us went back to the ship fairly early and passed out. On the first day Abby and I set up a tour of Cape Point and the winelands with a group called Mile by Mile and we had to be up and ready at 9.
Abby and I got up the next morning to prepare for our full day tour of Cape Point. There was a marathon going on until 2 in the afternoon so they had to reverse our schedule and instead of seeing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope first, we went to Stellenbosch—the winelands. First we went to this one winery called Zeven…which was not located in Stellenbosch (which is the main area for wineries and wine tasting). Zeven…was beautiful. We sat down at like 10 and started having some wine. I actually really enjoyed myself. I don’t know if I could drink several glasses of wine but I actually liked most of the whites I had. They had these amazing cheese…oh my god…I inhaled them. After we were done with the tastings of two whites and two reds we got a tour and explanation of the facilities and the process of making wine. I really wanted to buy a ship a bottle home to the parents, you as a thank you for this trip, however because of state alcohol laws the winery couldn’t guarantee that it would actually get to them. They could guarantee that it would make it to the U.S but actually getting it through the state was another question. I bought one of the cheese…this 6 month aged cheddar cheese…so good. From there we went to this place called Spier, which was actually in Stellenbosch. It was also a winery but it wasn’t as good as others. However, it had a cheetah and bird reserve and for just a few rand you could pet and play with them. We only had the time to do one so of course Abby and I decided to pet the cheetahs. It was so cool! They would take you in some cages, have you wash your hands and feet, and then take you to the fenced in areas where the cheetahs were. They would then take pictures of you with the cheetahs. Lastly, we went to this last place called Tokara for one last wine tasting. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first. The first was more welcoming you sat down at a table and they were just nicer. Tokara was set up more like a bar, however I was a lot nicer and had a better view.
After the wine tasting we headed into the town of Stellenbosch. We drove past the university and some of the homes. Here they only speak Afrikaans and some English. We passed a beautiful church and synagogue. The area reminded me of Shadyside in that it had real artsy shops and small food stops as well as some big named places. The town was just absolutely gorgeous. They had some kiosk/stands outside so Abby and I did a little souvenir/gifts for people shopping. We got back into the car around one (with the other couple that was with us) and headed to Cape Point. Once we got back closer to the city we had lunch at this small bay area in Simons Town. It was delicious. After we ate we went to the Penguin Colony. These penguins were pretty much just chilling out on the Boulder’s Beach. They were gated off a bit so they didn’t escape but every now and then you saw a few in the parking lot. You could enter the gate and walk around and get pretty close. At one point I was only about a foot away from one. You did have to be careful because they built their nests in the sand. As we drove to Cape Point we went through these small towns areas like Camps Bay, Clifton Beach, Kalk Bay, and Muizenberg. We got to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We chose not to pay to take the bus up the mountain to the top of Cape Point but it was a gorgeous view either way and you could see the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is the Southern most tip of Africa. Here is where you were supposed to be able to see the baboons. Sadly, I didn’t see them and that is all I really wanted to see :(. We got back into the van and headed back to the ship. We passed by Long Beach, which is the beach and area that had Monkey Houses and the worst tidal waves. It is the most dangerous beach because the tidal waves are so unpredictable. We also got to see Chapman’s Peak, which was amazing. As we drove under it our guide pointed out that they had to carve into the side of the mountain to create enough road space. It was barely held up by these columns. We stopped several times to take pictures; the views were breathtaking, especially the one stop we made to see Hout Bay. Lastly, we drove through Green Market Square and then headed back to the ship. It was a great day and we got to see and do absolutely everything!
We got back to the ship and met up with Austin, Kevin, Tyler, Rebecca and everyone else. Tyler went to bed while everyone else had planned to go out to Long Street. Now, I was avoiding Long Street as much as possible. We were warned about the city at night yet people still wanted to go even though there were perfectly good bars in the waterfront. Each night several people would come back with things stolen. One kids got his hands and knees torn up because he chased after a guy who pick pocketed him. Half the time it was people who weren’t even drunk. Whether or not they stole big things like phone and cameras or small things like money, IDs, and credit cards…it just wasn’t a headache I wanted to deal with. I had overheard Christina, a girl I work with at Pitt who is also on this trip, talking about going to the movies. She had invited me along and I told her I wasn’t sure what I was doing quite yet. And of course I ended up going to the movies. We saw the “Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. It was so awful it was funny. The script and the concept were just terrible but every now and then there was a funny one liner. I didn’t care how good or bad the movie was, it just felt so nice to be back in a theater with some popcorn and a drink. I got back at like 1 and got some stuff done. The rest of my gang who went to Long Street got back at 3. None of them got anything stole but nonetheless I’m glad it was a risk I didn’t take and I ended up having a blast with a different group of people.
The next day we woke up and planned to meet up with Austin and Kevin and all the other people who were back from their three day safaris. Austin, Kevin, Abby, and I did a little present shopping in the waterfront and then headed to this other huge mall called Center City Mall. It was absolutely massive. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary there…just like a normal shopping mall except it was gigantic. We walked around for a little and just hung out and had a good time. We noticed there was a small amusement park outside but we assumed it was closed because we couldn’t hear anything running and it was Easter day, but as we were driving away in our cab we saw that it was. We were kind bummed. As I’ve mentioned before Austin has smoked hookah in every country and he obviously couldn’t find any on his safari so he was determined to find some on the last day. Our driver from the day before told us about this place in Green Square Market called Cubana. We headed there for a few drinks and some hookah. We hung out for about 2 hours…didn’t do anything too special and then headed back to the waterfront because Kevin wanted to buy something else. We shopped around a little more and then got back on the ship in time to do tax refunds. Haha Overall, it was nice relaxing last day in Cape Town.
The first morning I woke up and usually it takes awhile to clear the boat but we literally we allowed off right away. We were docked in a port like Hong Kong where there was literally a shopping mall right there. Abby and I had a trip to one of the many townships. Townships are full of people who were kicked out of their homes during the apartheid. They were moved to this collective “slums.”
Our trip was at one so we had about 3 hours or so to walk around. We were told it was not safe to walk from the harbor to the city and so we decided to stay in the V and A Waterfront and do a little shopping. This place was like Shelter Harbor in Hilton Head. It had some really small cultural shops and a ton of food. The only difference was that it had a huge shopping mall. It had live music in the middle of the streets as well…although not as good as Shannon Tanner of course haha.
At one we met up with our trip and headed to Khayelitsha Township. This is the largest township in South Africa and has about 2 million people. We get there and we are taken to this small stone building and inside there are little knick knacks that the people of the township made. They had some men playing the wooden xylophones greeting us. We were there for less than 5 minutes before the kids started to swarm. I went outside to hang with them. They were adorable and we started dancing to the music. It was great! Ahhh, I love kids. Haha
We got back on the bus and were driving to this other area in the township. We walked into this “courtyard”—and I use that term lightly because it was a small green field with a little playground and some rooms. It was home to the Philani project. We were shown around and we walked into this room with a bunch of looms. These women use old cloth, old shirts and term them into rugs, bags, place mats, etc. We got to she them making these giant rugs. All the money goes to this organization. It was amazing. From there we walked over to the school. There were only about 5 kids there because it was Easter and a lot of parents kept them at home (meaning down the dirt street). I sat down and played with these two boys who were just unbelievably adorable.
From there we headed to Vicky’s B and B. As we walked down the dirt streets and past these houses made of wood and whatever they could find, kids started swarming again. We hung out with them until we were being summoned inside the B and B. Each township has several bed and breakfasts so that travelers can stay and really get the feel of the township. I went back down to play with the kids a little more. The one thing that is the same in every country we’ve been is that children love cameras and love seeing themselves on the screen. They would ask for you o take there picture and then grab a your arms to see it.
From there we left and headed to a different B and B. We walked in and there were some tables set up for us. They served us some snacks. I can’t remember the name of the one type of food but it was essentially deep fried dough. It was amazing and a popular South African food. We also had muffins and these unbelievable apple pastries. YUM. The lady who ran this B and B went on to tell us about how she ended up there. Her story was great. The one thing I always say is that everything leads back to Pittsburgh…and it really does. She was telling us about her life, how she was kicked out of her home and sent to live in a township, and how she went to the U.S. to work with organizations that help South Africa and what not…and of course of the places she worked was in Pittsburgh. Abby and I cracked up. What were the odds? She also worked in Chicago and some other places in the states but ended up coming back and opening a bed and breakfast in the largest township in South Africa. I got her card because Abby and I really wanted to stay over one of the nights because we didn’t really have too much planned.
Along with the delicious snacks they showed us around their section of the township. And of course as soon as we stepped outside the kids swarmed…not that I’m complaining. We walked down the street until we hit this fence where there was this big open field where there were a bunch of kids playing. As we walked around the area the kids were told to stay across the street…did they listen…no haha. They would come running and just jump on your back. One kid brought me to the ground. It was pretty funny.
It was a great day. We headed back to the ship and met up with everyone and headed out to the shopping area to go to a bar. We went to this place called Mitchell’s. We had a few drinks and then everyone wanted to go to this street called Long Street. I wasn’t feeling too well and heard to be carful at night so I went back to the ship.
The next morning Abby and I wanted to Robben Island and to hike Table Mountain. We stopped by the ticket desk the day before and Robben Island tours were sold out until the day we left :(, which kind of sucked. We woke up and got this cab driver named Abi to take us to Table Mountain for what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike. It was the hottest day and I foolishly did not get up for breakfast because I wanted 30 more minutes of sleep. The first 20-30 minutes I was booking it and then all of a sudden I got extremely nauseous, light headed and miserable. I downed a ton of water, which I, of course, didn’t bring enough of. After we stopped once we stopped every minute for like 5 minutes. It took us forever and we were delusional. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do…harder than the Great Wall for sure…and I never thought I’d say that. It was a straight up shot. It was rough. It took us 3 long, hot hours. The funny thing is the day before other friends of ours told us the top was a cold HA. It was hot which made the walk even harder. At one point we took off our shirts and hiked up in our sports bras. Despite the long excruciating hike the view was unbelievable. Absolutely breathtaking. You felt like you were in heaven.
After we took pictures for about 30 minutes we took the gondola back down to the base. We were looking for a place to eat and about 15 minutes away was a beautiful bay/beach area called Camps Bay. There were a ton of restaurants right on beach. We went to this nice restaurant and ate outside. I had some amazing garlic butter prawns. Earlier that day we book this “booze cruise” on a pirate ship. Ya, a pirate ship. It was called the Jolly Roger and the crew was hysterical. Clearly the captain was trying to be like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (the way he talked and moved) except he was super funny and kept cracking really good short jokes. One was…he asked me my name so I told him and he was like “that’s a long name for such a short girl.” We had a glass of champagne and relaxed as we watched the sun set. On the way back to the harbor I got to steer the ship. It was so cool! After that Abby and I went to get some food in the waterfront. We were in Cape Town during a huge Jazz Festival and since we couldn’t get tickets to the thing we thought we would go to this restaurant that had some jazz. There wasn’t much I would eat except prawns so we sat down and I ordered that…not knowing they were out of season…uh oh. I ended up paying about 50-60 dollars for prawns I could have gotten at different restaurant for less. I was a little mad that they didn’t tell me before hand but oh well…I mean they were delicious. After dinner we headed back to the ship to get a good nights rest because in the morning we were…shark cage diving!!!!
Abby, Patty, Mem and I had to be up and ready at 5 to head out to go shark diving. We got picked up a little late and then started driving for 2 hours until we got to the one spot. Everyone passed out in the car. It was about 12 Semester at Sea students and 4 other people in Cape Town on travel. We got there and they gave us a little breakfast, a run down and then we were set to go. We went out on to a 36 foot boat. There were in total about 25 of us and everyone had to get a wet suit, cap, goggles, and booties on. While we were getting ready they threw out the chum to try and lure the sharks near. Then we would get into the cage and hold on. The leader would then tell us to take a deep breath and go under the water to see the shark passing by. The water was freezing…about 56 degrees Fahrenheit. The first group got a really good look at a shark. Each group got to go under a few times. I was in the second group and we probably had the worst luck. We must have been in the water for 45 minutes to an hour and only saw the shark about 1 and a half times. The first time we went under the shark was on our left, which was where I was located in the cage so I got to see it quickly while it turned around and went to the back of the boat. Then we sat for like 30 some minutes until we got to see another. The visibility is really bad and therefore you can barely see the shark until it is really close. The second and last time we got to see the shark it literally came right towards the cage and then turned at the last second. The tailfin almost hit the part of the cage I was situated in. It was so cool. Yet, it happened so fast I only remember a flash of it all. The rest of the groups got really amazing chances to see these sharks…my group, unfortunately, not so much. But you could go to the top and get really fantastic pictures as the shark went after the chum.
After we were done they served us some lunch as they showed us the footage the videographer took. I ended up buying the disc and it is pretty awesome. Then they took us back to the ship and Abby, Patty, and I met up with Katie got some food at this Italian restaurant in the waterfront and then we went back to the bars there. We went to Ferryman’s, which was right next to Mictchell’s because they had some live music…and I say that loosely. They were like an overpriced karaoke group. They sounded so bad it was hysterical. On top of that you had these really drunk women dancing and it was sooo funny. We were cracking up. Katie actually tapped the girl and we named her Roxie and her friend Linda. After the bad band was done we went over to Mitchell’s for another drink and some food. The four of us went back to the ship fairly early and passed out. On the first day Abby and I set up a tour of Cape Point and the winelands with a group called Mile by Mile and we had to be up and ready at 9.
Abby and I got up the next morning to prepare for our full day tour of Cape Point. There was a marathon going on until 2 in the afternoon so they had to reverse our schedule and instead of seeing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope first, we went to Stellenbosch—the winelands. First we went to this one winery called Zeven…which was not located in Stellenbosch (which is the main area for wineries and wine tasting). Zeven…was beautiful. We sat down at like 10 and started having some wine. I actually really enjoyed myself. I don’t know if I could drink several glasses of wine but I actually liked most of the whites I had. They had these amazing cheese…oh my god…I inhaled them. After we were done with the tastings of two whites and two reds we got a tour and explanation of the facilities and the process of making wine. I really wanted to buy a ship a bottle home to the parents, you as a thank you for this trip, however because of state alcohol laws the winery couldn’t guarantee that it would actually get to them. They could guarantee that it would make it to the U.S but actually getting it through the state was another question. I bought one of the cheese…this 6 month aged cheddar cheese…so good. From there we went to this place called Spier, which was actually in Stellenbosch. It was also a winery but it wasn’t as good as others. However, it had a cheetah and bird reserve and for just a few rand you could pet and play with them. We only had the time to do one so of course Abby and I decided to pet the cheetahs. It was so cool! They would take you in some cages, have you wash your hands and feet, and then take you to the fenced in areas where the cheetahs were. They would then take pictures of you with the cheetahs. Lastly, we went to this last place called Tokara for one last wine tasting. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first. The first was more welcoming you sat down at a table and they were just nicer. Tokara was set up more like a bar, however I was a lot nicer and had a better view.
After the wine tasting we headed into the town of Stellenbosch. We drove past the university and some of the homes. Here they only speak Afrikaans and some English. We passed a beautiful church and synagogue. The area reminded me of Shadyside in that it had real artsy shops and small food stops as well as some big named places. The town was just absolutely gorgeous. They had some kiosk/stands outside so Abby and I did a little souvenir/gifts for people shopping. We got back into the car around one (with the other couple that was with us) and headed to Cape Point. Once we got back closer to the city we had lunch at this small bay area in Simons Town. It was delicious. After we ate we went to the Penguin Colony. These penguins were pretty much just chilling out on the Boulder’s Beach. They were gated off a bit so they didn’t escape but every now and then you saw a few in the parking lot. You could enter the gate and walk around and get pretty close. At one point I was only about a foot away from one. You did have to be careful because they built their nests in the sand. As we drove to Cape Point we went through these small towns areas like Camps Bay, Clifton Beach, Kalk Bay, and Muizenberg. We got to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We chose not to pay to take the bus up the mountain to the top of Cape Point but it was a gorgeous view either way and you could see the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is the Southern most tip of Africa. Here is where you were supposed to be able to see the baboons. Sadly, I didn’t see them and that is all I really wanted to see :(. We got back into the van and headed back to the ship. We passed by Long Beach, which is the beach and area that had Monkey Houses and the worst tidal waves. It is the most dangerous beach because the tidal waves are so unpredictable. We also got to see Chapman’s Peak, which was amazing. As we drove under it our guide pointed out that they had to carve into the side of the mountain to create enough road space. It was barely held up by these columns. We stopped several times to take pictures; the views were breathtaking, especially the one stop we made to see Hout Bay. Lastly, we drove through Green Market Square and then headed back to the ship. It was a great day and we got to see and do absolutely everything!
We got back to the ship and met up with Austin, Kevin, Tyler, Rebecca and everyone else. Tyler went to bed while everyone else had planned to go out to Long Street. Now, I was avoiding Long Street as much as possible. We were warned about the city at night yet people still wanted to go even though there were perfectly good bars in the waterfront. Each night several people would come back with things stolen. One kids got his hands and knees torn up because he chased after a guy who pick pocketed him. Half the time it was people who weren’t even drunk. Whether or not they stole big things like phone and cameras or small things like money, IDs, and credit cards…it just wasn’t a headache I wanted to deal with. I had overheard Christina, a girl I work with at Pitt who is also on this trip, talking about going to the movies. She had invited me along and I told her I wasn’t sure what I was doing quite yet. And of course I ended up going to the movies. We saw the “Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. It was so awful it was funny. The script and the concept were just terrible but every now and then there was a funny one liner. I didn’t care how good or bad the movie was, it just felt so nice to be back in a theater with some popcorn and a drink. I got back at like 1 and got some stuff done. The rest of my gang who went to Long Street got back at 3. None of them got anything stole but nonetheless I’m glad it was a risk I didn’t take and I ended up having a blast with a different group of people.
The next day we woke up and planned to meet up with Austin and Kevin and all the other people who were back from their three day safaris. Austin, Kevin, Abby, and I did a little present shopping in the waterfront and then headed to this other huge mall called Center City Mall. It was absolutely massive. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary there…just like a normal shopping mall except it was gigantic. We walked around for a little and just hung out and had a good time. We noticed there was a small amusement park outside but we assumed it was closed because we couldn’t hear anything running and it was Easter day, but as we were driving away in our cab we saw that it was. We were kind bummed. As I’ve mentioned before Austin has smoked hookah in every country and he obviously couldn’t find any on his safari so he was determined to find some on the last day. Our driver from the day before told us about this place in Green Square Market called Cubana. We headed there for a few drinks and some hookah. We hung out for about 2 hours…didn’t do anything too special and then headed back to the waterfront because Kevin wanted to buy something else. We shopped around a little more and then got back on the ship in time to do tax refunds. Haha Overall, it was nice relaxing last day in Cape Town.
Ship Life March 25-March 30
Ship life is good as usual. Nothing too different, but like I mentioned before in between ports they always try to do something fun for us and this time it was the Crew Talent Show. This is when members of the crew put on acts. There are four dining staff members who everyone LOVES; Perry, Darwin, Mezrum, and Allen—all Pilipino. People would go crazy…as if they were super stars. Some were more talented than others. There was this one guy who worked below deck and no one really knew him but damn could he sing. It was unbelievable. It was just an amazing and fun night. You had everyone performing from laundry staff, to stewards, to the AV guy, and all the stewards. Being on the ship, as routine as it can get, is always a great time.
Port Lois, Mauritius March 23-March 24
Oh Mauritius. Mauritius was probably my least favorite port. We woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast and then Abby and I had a trip to Adventure Park and to Flic en Flac Beach. Rebecca, Abby, Austin, Kevin, James (from London), Martin and I were all supposed to stay over night at this apartment on Flic en Flac. We all had different schedules and were supposed to meet up there after everyone’s trips.
Anyway, Adventure Park was basically a high ropes course and I love high ropes courses. I had a blast. The first part of the park was more independent. You were in a harness and you hook yourself up to the wires and walk across these really rickety bridges that were just wires and planks of wood. The second part of the course was more high ropes, with nets and zip lines. It was amazing. We were in the middle of the jungle where the mosquitoes were really bad. Everyone put on Deet yet we were getting bit up like crazy. People were covered with 20+ bites. I covered myself with dirt to help keep them off and it seemed to work for the most part. After the park we went to the beach and separated from the tour group to find our apartment. We could not find it for the life of us. Abby and I walked up Coastal Road and couldn’t find the building people kept saying it was ten minutes in the opposite direction we walking. We walked up and down this extremely long road (probably about a mile one way) two-three times each way. We kept asking people and all of which had no idea of this place; they had never heard of it. At one point this lady in a grocery store called the postal office that said the mail from this place kept getting returned and that they didn’t think it existed. Abby and I started to panic. We finally decided to go to the police…which was at the opposite end of this road. They help us out by taking us in their police car and driving us around until we found it. I was miserable. My bad knee was killing me and I was staving. It was about 4:30 and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We finally find the place. We must have walked past it at least 4 times. Abby and I find the place and try to figure out where we check in…and there is no place. There was a number for a security guy and we called it. He comes out and tells us that it is impossible to stay at the apartments for one night; they are apartment complexes that you live in. He also told us that James and Austin had been by earlier. The finally conclusion…we were scammed. Luckily, Rebecca was the only one who put down money so I didn’t loose anything and her mom is figuring it out. It’s unfortunate because it was through Expedia, which seemed legit, yet there wasn’t a phone number, which should have been clue number one that something was weird.
Anyway, Rebecca and Kevin were supposed to meet us there at 6:30 and the current time was about 5. The security man pointed us towards the beach saying that is where Austin and James went. We had run into friends earlier who told us that a bunch of SASers were staying at the Hilton…which was all the way down the opposite side of the street. We decided to look for the boys as we walked along the beach down to the Hilton. As you were looking at the beach the Hilton was all the way down the left side of the beach…so we started walking. But unbeknownst to our knowledge Austin and James were just right of where we started walking and we missed them. Like I said I was beyond miserable. We had been walking for over three hours straight after having a serious work out at the Adventure Park. Every part of my body was aching and I still hadn’t had food. On our way down to the Hilton we ran into one of the older woman on the trip and sat down with her for about 10 minutes to bitch and moan.
Once we hit the Hilton Beach Resort and it was beyond gorgeous. And we found a few of our friends. We decided that our best bet was to squeeze into their room and help lower the cost. (It was a good thing we didn’t because they got kicked out later that night.) We change into our swimsuits and swam for about 10 minutes and then had a drink. We planned on going to dinner with this new group of people when Austin called. He was slightly drunk and decided he’d meet us halfway down the beach. So we picked up our stuff and walked back down the beat…again! Ahhh We ran into the older lady and the dean’s wife and gave up walking and decided to sit down and have another drink and make Austin walk further.
It was the first time we sat down for more than 10 minutes all day and it was about 6:30. As we were sitting there we got a call from Kevin and Rebecca who ran into the same problem we did. I kept saying…we know we got scammed and can’t stay there, let’s just go to the Hilton where we know we can get a room. They insisted we come back to the apartment as opposed to them meeting us at the Hilton. Clearly, I was annoyed. They had just gotten there and didn’t spend half their day walking up and down this street. Despite that, we hopped a cab and went and met them to find that nothing had changed and we were still out of a place to stay. We then hopped a cab back to the Hilton and because we all walked up to the counter they knew we had five people (Martin and James separated from the group) and wouldn’t give us just one room. We would have had to pay $100-$160 and no one wanted to spend that kind of money so we left. I was so unbelievably pissed that I spent the majority of my day and half walking around getting scammed. We decide that we need food. It’s 9 o’clock and I still hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I was being a bitch to say the least and I kept apologizing. I mean I knew it was because I needed food and to just sit, but I was so angry I couldn’t help but snap at people as hard as I tried. We found this restaurant that had food I’d eat, drinks, and hookah. Things were starting to look up. I got my SoCo and Lemonade and some of the best garlic butter shrimp. The food was so good I had to order a second plate.
Before we ate we ran into a friend who had a beach house and had a bunch of alcohol left over and invited us to go. But before we did we wanted to eat and find a place to stay. We ran into different friends earlier who told us where they were staying and were staying there for 200 dollars (for 3 people). The plan was for three of us to go and get the room and sneak the other two in. Well, that didn’t work so well because like the Hilton they wouldn’t put 3 people in one room…so we had to switch and the two others had to go and get the room and the other three snuck in. It was kind of ridiculous because the rooms could fit four comfortably. They were double beds but they were rock hard…no exaggeration.
After we got settled we started walking to try and find our friends beach house and surprise surprise we couldn’t. We just gave up and went to this outside bar, which was in this small complex area. It was actually a lot cooler than I realized now that I look back on it. We sat down and finally had some time to relax. It still wasn’t that much fun because people I was with were now the ones mopping. Luckily, a bunch of SASers showed up and I ended up having a decent time. I even played in a fountain with a bunch of people and accidently dropped my wallet in the water. We finally went to bed around 2 am.
Rebecca, Kevin, Abby, Austin and I woke up the next morning around 9. I woke up with my legs covered in bug bites. They almost looked like a rash. Abby had a ton from Adventure Park but her bites showed up right away and there were just about 15-20. I was covered. You couldn’t even begin to count there were so many…several hundred if I had to guess and extremely and unbearably itchy,
Anyway, we had to be on the ship at 6, but they always tell us to get there 2 hours early to avoid lines. By the time we left the hotel it was 9:30. We didn’t want to sit down for breakfast so we went to the grocery store and stocked up on food. I really wanted to go to beach. I had walked it up and down 3 times and never really got to “be” on it. But first we had to go to this piercing place that was in the complex because Austin really wanted to get his nipples pierced…ya I know strange/tacky but if you met this kid it would make complete sense and be funnier than gross. Kevin promised that if Austin got his nipples pierced he would get his ears pierced and Abby had been looking for a place to get her nose pierced. We stopped by and it was closed and were told to stop by again at 12. At this point it was 11:15 and I really wanted to go to the beach. So we went directly across the street and chilled in the water for 45 minutes. I would have liked to have stayed longer but the piercing place was open and that took priority haha. We go in and everyone is getting a piercing but me. They guy who did the piercings spoke very little English and spoke mostly French. Side note: Being on this island made me realize how much French I have forgotten and how much I’ve missed it. So Abby was the first to get hers done, then Rebecca got her third hole, and then Austin, followed by Kevin. After everyone had gone I decided I wanted to get my nose pierced. However, the guy wouldn’t let me because of my legs. He thought I ran a risk of infection because he didn’t know what sort of venom the bugs left. I was really sad. It took me a lot of courage to even decide to do something like this and then I couldn’t even get it done. I was a little disappointed. Flic en Flac Beach was about an hour away from Port Louis where we were docked. Port Louis was supposed to be really nice and had a beautiful shopping area called the Waterfront.
We caught a cab immediately after the piercings at about 2 to head back to Port Louis and walk around. But of course on our way back there was a huge accident so it was a good thing we left when we did because we would have risked being late and getting dock time. Side note…again: dock time occurs if you show up late for on ship time and it basically means once we dock at the next port we get a few hours off our time in the country. It could be the first day, first few hours, or it could mean you have to get back on the boat earlier on the last day in a port. Basically you don’t want to be late…ever. Anyway, we had the best taxi driver and he was really nice and we super helpful and luckily new some back routes that got us to the Waterfront in record time and with about an hour to an hour and a half to spare. We walked around the shopping area and then headed back to the boat.
My legs were so bitten up and swollen that I immediately went to the clinic. I was not the only one with these bites there were about 15-20 girls, all who had gone to Adventure Park. They had no idea what the bug was…all they knew was that it was an inset that was Deet resistant. At first it was just really itchy, but then I noticed at dinner (literally 20 minutes after I got back on the ship) that the bites were spreading to my back and I ran back down to the clinic. I was told to literally scrub down in Purell and then come back. I was almost in tears it was miserable. I went back down and they decided the best course of treatment was Prednisone and Benadryl to help me sleep. The Benadryl did nothing. I was up all night scratching. The Prednisone finally kicked in after awhile, but its been about 2 weeks since and I still have red dots all over my legs :(. They should go away soon though…hopefully.
Overall, my time in Mauritius stunk. Abby and everyone keep saying that they had fun, but when you really break it down it was a terrible day and a half with some glimmer of fun here and there. The second day was definitely better though.
Nothing too much happened between Mauritius and Cape Town. We had another Global Studies exam, which I thought I failed and somehow managed to pull off a 92 with a 4 point curve. Other than that things have become pretty habitual on the ship. I say I’ll wake up for breakfast but I always sleep in. I get up for class…go to class…and spend most of the rest of the day doing stuff for classes and watching tv and movies. No surprise there. Haha Abby, my roommate, and I couldn’t be more perfect for each other. We both love movies and tv, so it’s not just me sitting alone watching stuff all day. And Austin is in our room almost 24/7 haha. It’s funny because at school my room is never the party room and here, and especially lately, there is always someone else in our room at all times. It’s so fun. I’m having a blast.
When you’re in a country for so many days you actually look forward to being on the ship, getting back into your routine. It’s become home and you really do miss it.
Anyway, Adventure Park was basically a high ropes course and I love high ropes courses. I had a blast. The first part of the park was more independent. You were in a harness and you hook yourself up to the wires and walk across these really rickety bridges that were just wires and planks of wood. The second part of the course was more high ropes, with nets and zip lines. It was amazing. We were in the middle of the jungle where the mosquitoes were really bad. Everyone put on Deet yet we were getting bit up like crazy. People were covered with 20+ bites. I covered myself with dirt to help keep them off and it seemed to work for the most part. After the park we went to the beach and separated from the tour group to find our apartment. We could not find it for the life of us. Abby and I walked up Coastal Road and couldn’t find the building people kept saying it was ten minutes in the opposite direction we walking. We walked up and down this extremely long road (probably about a mile one way) two-three times each way. We kept asking people and all of which had no idea of this place; they had never heard of it. At one point this lady in a grocery store called the postal office that said the mail from this place kept getting returned and that they didn’t think it existed. Abby and I started to panic. We finally decided to go to the police…which was at the opposite end of this road. They help us out by taking us in their police car and driving us around until we found it. I was miserable. My bad knee was killing me and I was staving. It was about 4:30 and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We finally find the place. We must have walked past it at least 4 times. Abby and I find the place and try to figure out where we check in…and there is no place. There was a number for a security guy and we called it. He comes out and tells us that it is impossible to stay at the apartments for one night; they are apartment complexes that you live in. He also told us that James and Austin had been by earlier. The finally conclusion…we were scammed. Luckily, Rebecca was the only one who put down money so I didn’t loose anything and her mom is figuring it out. It’s unfortunate because it was through Expedia, which seemed legit, yet there wasn’t a phone number, which should have been clue number one that something was weird.
Anyway, Rebecca and Kevin were supposed to meet us there at 6:30 and the current time was about 5. The security man pointed us towards the beach saying that is where Austin and James went. We had run into friends earlier who told us that a bunch of SASers were staying at the Hilton…which was all the way down the opposite side of the street. We decided to look for the boys as we walked along the beach down to the Hilton. As you were looking at the beach the Hilton was all the way down the left side of the beach…so we started walking. But unbeknownst to our knowledge Austin and James were just right of where we started walking and we missed them. Like I said I was beyond miserable. We had been walking for over three hours straight after having a serious work out at the Adventure Park. Every part of my body was aching and I still hadn’t had food. On our way down to the Hilton we ran into one of the older woman on the trip and sat down with her for about 10 minutes to bitch and moan.
Once we hit the Hilton Beach Resort and it was beyond gorgeous. And we found a few of our friends. We decided that our best bet was to squeeze into their room and help lower the cost. (It was a good thing we didn’t because they got kicked out later that night.) We change into our swimsuits and swam for about 10 minutes and then had a drink. We planned on going to dinner with this new group of people when Austin called. He was slightly drunk and decided he’d meet us halfway down the beach. So we picked up our stuff and walked back down the beat…again! Ahhh We ran into the older lady and the dean’s wife and gave up walking and decided to sit down and have another drink and make Austin walk further.
It was the first time we sat down for more than 10 minutes all day and it was about 6:30. As we were sitting there we got a call from Kevin and Rebecca who ran into the same problem we did. I kept saying…we know we got scammed and can’t stay there, let’s just go to the Hilton where we know we can get a room. They insisted we come back to the apartment as opposed to them meeting us at the Hilton. Clearly, I was annoyed. They had just gotten there and didn’t spend half their day walking up and down this street. Despite that, we hopped a cab and went and met them to find that nothing had changed and we were still out of a place to stay. We then hopped a cab back to the Hilton and because we all walked up to the counter they knew we had five people (Martin and James separated from the group) and wouldn’t give us just one room. We would have had to pay $100-$160 and no one wanted to spend that kind of money so we left. I was so unbelievably pissed that I spent the majority of my day and half walking around getting scammed. We decide that we need food. It’s 9 o’clock and I still hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I was being a bitch to say the least and I kept apologizing. I mean I knew it was because I needed food and to just sit, but I was so angry I couldn’t help but snap at people as hard as I tried. We found this restaurant that had food I’d eat, drinks, and hookah. Things were starting to look up. I got my SoCo and Lemonade and some of the best garlic butter shrimp. The food was so good I had to order a second plate.
Before we ate we ran into a friend who had a beach house and had a bunch of alcohol left over and invited us to go. But before we did we wanted to eat and find a place to stay. We ran into different friends earlier who told us where they were staying and were staying there for 200 dollars (for 3 people). The plan was for three of us to go and get the room and sneak the other two in. Well, that didn’t work so well because like the Hilton they wouldn’t put 3 people in one room…so we had to switch and the two others had to go and get the room and the other three snuck in. It was kind of ridiculous because the rooms could fit four comfortably. They were double beds but they were rock hard…no exaggeration.
After we got settled we started walking to try and find our friends beach house and surprise surprise we couldn’t. We just gave up and went to this outside bar, which was in this small complex area. It was actually a lot cooler than I realized now that I look back on it. We sat down and finally had some time to relax. It still wasn’t that much fun because people I was with were now the ones mopping. Luckily, a bunch of SASers showed up and I ended up having a decent time. I even played in a fountain with a bunch of people and accidently dropped my wallet in the water. We finally went to bed around 2 am.
Rebecca, Kevin, Abby, Austin and I woke up the next morning around 9. I woke up with my legs covered in bug bites. They almost looked like a rash. Abby had a ton from Adventure Park but her bites showed up right away and there were just about 15-20. I was covered. You couldn’t even begin to count there were so many…several hundred if I had to guess and extremely and unbearably itchy,
Anyway, we had to be on the ship at 6, but they always tell us to get there 2 hours early to avoid lines. By the time we left the hotel it was 9:30. We didn’t want to sit down for breakfast so we went to the grocery store and stocked up on food. I really wanted to go to beach. I had walked it up and down 3 times and never really got to “be” on it. But first we had to go to this piercing place that was in the complex because Austin really wanted to get his nipples pierced…ya I know strange/tacky but if you met this kid it would make complete sense and be funnier than gross. Kevin promised that if Austin got his nipples pierced he would get his ears pierced and Abby had been looking for a place to get her nose pierced. We stopped by and it was closed and were told to stop by again at 12. At this point it was 11:15 and I really wanted to go to the beach. So we went directly across the street and chilled in the water for 45 minutes. I would have liked to have stayed longer but the piercing place was open and that took priority haha. We go in and everyone is getting a piercing but me. They guy who did the piercings spoke very little English and spoke mostly French. Side note: Being on this island made me realize how much French I have forgotten and how much I’ve missed it. So Abby was the first to get hers done, then Rebecca got her third hole, and then Austin, followed by Kevin. After everyone had gone I decided I wanted to get my nose pierced. However, the guy wouldn’t let me because of my legs. He thought I ran a risk of infection because he didn’t know what sort of venom the bugs left. I was really sad. It took me a lot of courage to even decide to do something like this and then I couldn’t even get it done. I was a little disappointed. Flic en Flac Beach was about an hour away from Port Louis where we were docked. Port Louis was supposed to be really nice and had a beautiful shopping area called the Waterfront.
We caught a cab immediately after the piercings at about 2 to head back to Port Louis and walk around. But of course on our way back there was a huge accident so it was a good thing we left when we did because we would have risked being late and getting dock time. Side note…again: dock time occurs if you show up late for on ship time and it basically means once we dock at the next port we get a few hours off our time in the country. It could be the first day, first few hours, or it could mean you have to get back on the boat earlier on the last day in a port. Basically you don’t want to be late…ever. Anyway, we had the best taxi driver and he was really nice and we super helpful and luckily new some back routes that got us to the Waterfront in record time and with about an hour to an hour and a half to spare. We walked around the shopping area and then headed back to the boat.
My legs were so bitten up and swollen that I immediately went to the clinic. I was not the only one with these bites there were about 15-20 girls, all who had gone to Adventure Park. They had no idea what the bug was…all they knew was that it was an inset that was Deet resistant. At first it was just really itchy, but then I noticed at dinner (literally 20 minutes after I got back on the ship) that the bites were spreading to my back and I ran back down to the clinic. I was told to literally scrub down in Purell and then come back. I was almost in tears it was miserable. I went back down and they decided the best course of treatment was Prednisone and Benadryl to help me sleep. The Benadryl did nothing. I was up all night scratching. The Prednisone finally kicked in after awhile, but its been about 2 weeks since and I still have red dots all over my legs :(. They should go away soon though…hopefully.
Overall, my time in Mauritius stunk. Abby and everyone keep saying that they had fun, but when you really break it down it was a terrible day and a half with some glimmer of fun here and there. The second day was definitely better though.
Nothing too much happened between Mauritius and Cape Town. We had another Global Studies exam, which I thought I failed and somehow managed to pull off a 92 with a 4 point curve. Other than that things have become pretty habitual on the ship. I say I’ll wake up for breakfast but I always sleep in. I get up for class…go to class…and spend most of the rest of the day doing stuff for classes and watching tv and movies. No surprise there. Haha Abby, my roommate, and I couldn’t be more perfect for each other. We both love movies and tv, so it’s not just me sitting alone watching stuff all day. And Austin is in our room almost 24/7 haha. It’s funny because at school my room is never the party room and here, and especially lately, there is always someone else in our room at all times. It’s so fun. I’m having a blast.
When you’re in a country for so many days you actually look forward to being on the ship, getting back into your routine. It’s become home and you really do miss it.
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