Please visit Wandering Geologist at Blogspot, my new home. This Livejournal will continue to be updated as well, but I recommend the Blogspot site for non-Livejournal users.


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I've moved to Blogspot, at Wandering Geologist because that's an easier site to share with non-livejournal family and friends. I'll still crosspost to here, though, for my LJ friends. But everything over there is in chronological order and everything here will be in WTF order. I've also added regular-size photos to the blog, instead of the tiny photos I was emailing from the ship.

I never finished writing up the last few days of the Palmer trip in Punta Arenas, so here goes.

Oops
April 14, 2008

When we first arrived at the port, I was astonished by the number of boats from Texas. Almost every boat had a Texan flag.



Turns out I need to study my flags.



I think the mistake was understandable.

(Original post at Wandering Geologist.)

6/21/08, Saturday
Dubrovnik

Today was a sleepy day. Dubrovnik is a really popular tourist spot because it has a historic city surrounded by heavily fortified walls. The morning tour was exhausting because of the heat and the crowds, so I spent the afternoon napping.


Dubrovnik. The historic city is to the left, on the water.

We had a guest lecturer who explained some of the Croatia's political history, which was good because I knew nothing before the cruise. Croatia's had it pretty rough. At various points in time, Croatia has been occupied by Greeks, Romans, Venetians, and Austrian-Hungarians. During WWII, Croatia was an "independent state" under Mussolini. After WWII, Croatia was put under Russian protection and united into Yugoslavia (made up of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and other states that have historically hated each other).


An example of the architecture of different Croatian rulers. On the right is a barracks-style Communist Yugoslavian building, in the center is a beautiful Austrian-Hungarian building, and on the left is a Axis WWII building (on the other side of the building, not visible from here, is a balcony from which politicians made speeches and a collection of flags). On the far left is a Roman arch.

Tito, the Communist dictator who ruled Yugoslavia, said he was a native Croatian, but he could barely speak the language. Our lecturer's mother was from the same region of Croatia that Tito was supposed to be from. During WWII she saw a missing person poster for somebody named Tito, but the face was different from the Tito that later rose to power. So, Tito was probably a minor Russian prince who decided he would get more power in Croatia and took the identity of someone who died in WWII.


A church in Dubrovnik.

After Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia didn't have much holding it together, considering the cultural and religious tensions (such as those between the Catholic Croats and the Orthodox Serbs). In 1992, these tensions erupted into civil war, and Yugoslavia broke apart. Dubrovnik's historic city in particular was hit hard during the war because of its cultural importance.


The historic city's harbor.

Sorry for the break in posts, this weekend I was in Santa Cruz for a wedding. Congrats to my friends Anne and Scott. :)

6/20/08, Friday
Split/Hvar

Today has been my favorite day so far. In the morning we went to Split, home of Diocletian's retirement palace. (He actually lived long enough to retire and was one of only 3 emperors not to be murdered.) The palace is more of a fortress than anything because Diocletian was afraid the Christians he persecuted would seek vengeance. A lot of the buildings were torn down when refugees from Salona moved in a few centuries later, but the walls and underground rooms are intact. Diocletian never could use the underground rooms because they flooded, and when the refugees moved in they used the rooms to store garbage. In fact, no one knew the rooms existed until a bomb hit during WWII and petrified garbage came spilling out. Another intact structure is Diocletian's mausoleum. Unfortunately for Diocletian, the Christians threw his body out and converted it to a church.


Diocletian comes out to greet the peasants. Since building materials were expensive, a lot of the shops built later in Split share a wall with the palace.


We also went to Meštrović's house. Meštrović was a famous Croatian sculptor in the twentieth century and his sculptures are ALL OVER Croatia. Croatia's main (and only) claims to fame are inventing ties, their football team, and Meštrović, so they get really excited about these things.

We spent the second half of the day on the resort island of Hvar. After the tour, I went swimming! The water was cold, but it was very relaxing. Friday night was also the day of the huge Croatia vs. Turkey soccer football game in the Eurocup semifinals. I wanted to really experience local culture, so I found an outdoor bar on the main plaza and watched the game with beer and crazy local fans. Unfortunately, I think I was wearing the opposing team's colors... By halftime, no one had scored and I had to go back to the ship since we were leaving port. In the end, Croatia lost. :(


What crazy Croatian fans look like. I didn't take any pictures of my own in Hvar since I didn't want to leave my camera on the beach. :P I did buy my own checkered bandanna so I could show support for my favorite football team.

6/19/08, Thursday
Pula, Croatia

Today we stopped at Pula! Pula is exciting because it has the fifth largest Roman amphitheater (only the one in Rome is called a Colosseum). The amphitheater makes an amazing sight mixed in with all the modern buildings and cars. Most of the stadium seating was taken apart as people used the blocks to build other things, but the underground tunnels, where gladiators or lions would have come out, are intact.


The amphitheater.

6/18/08, Wednesday
Venice

I arrived! Today was a hectic day. The itinerary sent out earlier said we'd have tomorrow in Venice, but we actually leave port tonight. This afternoon was some people's only time in Venice. Alex (the other student on the cruise) and I explored around the main square, San Marco. My main impression of Venice so far is lots of people and very narrow walkways. The food is pretty cool. I had a ham and cheese wrap for lunch, only the wrap part was a pizza slice. I'm glad I'm staying an extra four nights to see Venice later.


A personal water taxi picked us up right from the airport. There aren't any cars in Venice, just boats. Taxis are boats, public transit vehicles are boats, personal vehicles are boats... (Hey look, it's a photo of Lauren in Venice! I'm posting photos of me now because there won't be very many from when I'm in Venice by myself.)


Gelato is a Thing in Venice. Also Croatia. I think I had Gelato every day on my vacation. They have all sorts of flavors - bitter chocolate, pistachio, tiramisu...

The cruise part is wonderful. I like the people a lot - probably because they're Techers - and the food... oh my goodness. I had the best, most tender steak I've ever had. Dinner was a four course meal. I hope they're not all like that or I'll come back really fat. But then we are walking all day. Tomorrow is Croatia. Here I come!


The Monet, our ship.

6/17/08, Tuesday
Between Atlanta, GA and Venice, Italy

I'm traveling to Venice! I had a few hours layover in Atlanta, Georgia, but now I'm on my way. Is Toti someone famous? A guy wearing some sort of soccer jersey came walking through and everyone cheered.

(Update: Totti is a "footballer" for the Roman team. He is "the number one goalscorer and the most capped player" for the Roma club. I don't know what that means but it sounds impressive. I saw someone famous!)


Islands near Venice from the plane window.

Hello, everyone. I'm back! This time I'll be writing about Croatia and Venice. Caltech sent me as a student representative on an alumni cruise to Croatia for about a week, and then I stayed behind in Venice for four nights. The trip's already happened, but I didn't have reliable internet access then, so I'll be posting journal entries retroactively. Everything will be off by two weeks.

(I haven't forgotten about the photos from Chile I promised I'd upload... I'll do that soon.)

Sunday, March 13, 9 PM

I should be able to get on the internet tomorrow. Most importantly, I'm not sure how much longer I can access the ship email. So if you want to send me any email from now on, please copy it to my gmail account, or it might get lost in cyberspace forever. Thanks!