Today was such an exciting first day in Dubrovnik. I cant believe how beautiful Dubrovnik is.

The day started off with the Diplomatic briefing which I of course watched in bed. Its really nice to be able to watch that stuff in the comfort of my own room because I can spend the time listening while getting ready for the day.

Once they cleared the ship, Lindsay and I ran off the ship and grabbed a cab to take us to the old city. Its much cheaper and just as easy to take a bus, but can end up taking a lot more time, which was something we did not have.

We got to the Old City which looks like a castle because of the huge walls that go all the way around the city. We took a walk down the main street and around the town. We ran into a drummer leading 2 guards through the city. We followed them for a bit and ended up taking pictures with them once they settled into their positions.

Most of the shops in the old city were tourist shops and just had the standard mugs and postcards and such. There were some clothing shops and some shoes stores as well. We walked what seemed like the whole old city in a mater of 1 hour. Its very small but dense.

We then decided to get some lunch and found a restaurant with a sign labeled "light lunch" I had lasagna Bolognese and Lindsay had some spinach tortellini. They also gave us some of the best bread ever. Its a lot like a very very dense sourdough bread. I thoroughly enjoyed my food. I'm still having a hard time with the stupid rule that you must ask for your bill, they cant just bring it to you. That is something I like about America because sometimes it is almost impossible to get the attention of the waiter.

We then walked around a bit more until we ran into a pirate. This was not a real pirate, but a man dressed as a pirate with a number of parrots with him. He would put them on your shoulder to take pictures with. They all loved sunglasses and would try to steal them from anyone they could. One bird liked me a whole lot and though it would be fun to eat my hair. Then he refused to get off of me. It was pretty interesting to find parrots and a pirate in the middle of the old city in Dubrovnik!

We then decided to make our journey back to the ship because Lindsay had a SAS trip to get to and I had an FDP shortly there afterwards. We chose to walk back to the ship because we had about an hour before we needed to be there. The port was not that far from the old city, and it was an easy walk, but it did take us that whole time. At least its not burning hot in Dubrovnik. Its a lot like California on a nice summer day.

I had about an hour to kill before my FDP so I went back to my room to rest. In that time I decided that I really did not want to go on my FDP. I took a bus back to the old city to get my souvenirs and a ticket for the island tour for tomorrow. The bus ride is really easy and pretty fast. They have pretty well designed busses as well, a whole lot better than in Santa Cruz. They have some seats in the front, lots of standing room in the middle and throughout the bus, and more seats in the back. They also have 3 doors per bus. The door in the front is logically used to let people on, and the one in the middle and the one in the back are meant to let people off. There's not a whole lot of pushing which was nice for a change. They pack people on to the bus just as much as they do in Santa Cruz, but you can actually get off at the stop you want to get off at!

When I got off I decided that I wanted to do the Dubrovnik version of "City Sight-Seeing." They don’t have the double-decker busses that do the city tours here yet, but they have a small company that had a bus that is higher than normal with open sides on it.  I got on for the tour and only 4 other people were on the bus with me. This was nice because I was able to move from one side of the bus to the other with ease. It was a good tour of the city, and made a few 5 minute stops to let us off and take pictures. We went to a mountain above the old city and were able to take pictures of the old city and walls from above. It was one of the most amazing views I have ever seen.

The tour had a lot of interesting information about the city and made you appreciate it even more. I really have a hard time believing that this country was in complete and total war in the 1990's. (It makes me think about the TV show ER because of the Dr. that was from Croatia).

When it was over, I got back into the city and walked around a bit and then I ran into this nice guy from the ship. He had some time to kill before heading back to the bus so we walked around together. I was able to get a painting of Dubrovnik, my island cruise ticket, and my shot glass and postcard. It was a successful jaunt.

I then headed back to the ship but first made a stop at the grocery store just outside of the port. I went in to get some good American junk food, but they did not have ANYTHING American except for Paprika Pringles. (Who eats Paprika Pringles…..freaks!) I got some things that looked like they might be good and when I got outside after paying I saw that there was a line a mile long to get back onto the boat. A SAS trip had just arrived and had taken over. I then sat outside the store with some guys who had just bought some booze to wait for the line to shorten. They told me that they had to drink before dinner and then they were going to drink after dinner.

These boys were a few of the many alcoholics on the ship. They told me about how they have blacked out almost every night that they are in port. They then told me about this "house" they rented in Split that they would be staying at for the next couple of days. There would be about 12 people staying there and they were planning on getting a keg and tons of alcohol for themselves. They also were planning on wearing a helmet cam so that they could watch the movie the following day to see what they did the night before.

I am still in shock after hearing all that from them. I cant believe how much people like to drink on this ship.

Anyways, once the line disappeared, I walked back to the ship and worked my way to dinner. Its nice that I can always come back to the ship at meal time and save my money.

I sat with some people that I had met before. They were all hung over and looked miserable. After I finished, I sat down with some other people that I know and made plans for the night. We, along with half the ship, would be going to club Fuego. It’s a Latin club that doesn’t play Latin music. (Don’t ask me how that works). We decided to meet up at 11pm to go out, so I headed back to my room to take a nap.

We met up right on time and worked our way back to the old city. When we arrived there were about 100 SAS students sitting outside of the club "pre-gaming" (For all you old folk out there reading this, that means getting plastered before going into the club because its cheaper to buy a bottle of liquor and down it rather than buying drinks at the club) Now since I have not drank at all this trip I decided to partake in the fun. There was a mini-mart next to the club, so I went inside (with the people that I was with) and we all got ourselves a mini bottle of liquor and some chaser.

We then went and sat outside with everyone else and drank. Since no one had cups or shot glasses it was a very interesting experience. You would pour as much as you could of the liquor in your mouth before gagging and chase it down with Fanta. Now since I think booze is so gross in the first place, it made this a very difficult task for me. I was only able to do it twice before I decided that it was just to gross. I would rather pay for a pricy mixed drink. So I pawned my $2 miniature bottle of vodka off on to some other SAS student.

We decided to head in at 11:45 because happy hour was until 12, and we could get drinks for half price before then. I went and got myself a pina colada which tasted like candy (and I swear didn’t have real alcohol in it). It took a good 45 minutes of standing around before anyone decided to dance. Me and the girls that I was with got tired to waiting so we started up the dancing. It was a jolly good time. I got one more pina colada during the course of the night.

This club was small, and they seemed to have no capacity in it. When the dancing started it was great and you could move around and do your thing. As time went on more and more people arrived and it became harder and harder to dance. Eventually everyone was dancing like squirming sardines in a tin can. It got way to hot and over crowded so I decided that this was a good time to depart.

I headed outside to of course find some other SAS students, and we shared a cab ride back to the port. After that all I could do was take a shower and pass out for the night.

I would like to point out, I did NOT get drunk like the rest of the students!