Where I'm Going: Part II

Okay, so after India, the next stop is Egypt. The ship docks in Alexandria on Halloween, and leaves November 4th. I’m really excited to go to Egypt. Many people have said that I should be scared to go to Egypt since it is an Islamic nation. Personally, I think it should be really interesting to go to a predominately Islamic nation and I’ve always wanted to see Egypt. Also, I’ve heard many times that Egypt is safe for tourists and that the Egyptian government is very concerned with making Egypt safe for tourists since tourism is such a huge part of their economy, so I‘m pretty secure about going there. I know there have been some bombings directed against tourists in Egypt the past few years, but Egypt is still considered to be safe and I really don’t think SAS would send us somewhere where we would be in danger.

As for what I’m going to do in Egypt, I definitely want to check out Cairo. Also, one thing I definitely want to do is ride a camel through the pyramids, I think that would be awesome. And Alexandria should be pretty cool too. Then again, I think everywhere I’m going will be awesome, but I’m really looking forward to Egypt nonetheless.

After Egypt, we go to Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey is our only port of call where I don’t think I will actually leave the city we are docking in. Istanbul is a huge city and is the number one thing I want to see in Turkey, and since we are only there for 5 days, I think I’ll probably want to devote all of my time to Istanbul. Turkey, like Egypt, is also predominately Islamic, but Turkey has a secular constitution and is not as religious as most other (if not all other) Islamic nations. However, the recent elections in Turkey saw the Islamist party win, but apparently most of the country is still against changing the secular constitution.

After Turkey is Croatia. We are docking in Dubrovnik. When I saw the SAS itinerary, I didn’t know what Dubrovnik was, but I looked it up and it looks amazing. It’s a small city, only has 50,000 people or so, but it’s a huge tourist spot (apparently Dubrovnik is horrible in the summer because there are so many tourists that you can barely move through the streets, but it shouldn‘t be so cluttered when we are there) and the whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I also want to go to either Zagreb or Split in Croatia. I’ve been to Europe, but never Eastern Europe, and I’ve heard great things about Croatia in particular, so it should be really good.

Here is a picture of Dubrovnik by the way, so you know what I'm talking about:


















The last country we are going to is Spain. We dock in Cadiz, and I have no idea where I will go in Spain. I really want to go to Barcelona, it is probably second on the list of cities I really want to go to (first being Rio de Janeiro), but it is a 12 hour train ride from Cadiz and Barcelona is a city I should be able to go to easily another time. Instead, I might just go to Madrid or Seville (or both) since they are closer to Cadiz and I really want to go to both of those as well. I definitely have to check out a la liga match when I’m in Spain, I love soccer (and FC Barcelona) so hopefully FC Barcelona is somewhere in southern or central Spain the weekend I am there so I can see them. But if they aren’t, I will definitely have to check out some other match. I personally wouldn’t mind going to the Santiago Bernabeu and seeing Real Madrid….so I can root against them and their overpriced roster. Then after Spain, we go to Miami. We get to Miami on December 7th, and that is when SAS ends. I was hoping that the Dolphins would have a home game the weekend we are there (because if you know me, you know I'm a huge Dolphins fan), but sadly they are on the road that weekend. It's still pathetic that I've never made it to a Dolphins home game, I really need to work on that.
Okay, so that describes all of the countries I’m going to (and I'm obviously stoked to see each one), now I just have to see them.