Forgive me for I am writing on eight days of blissful vacation followed by 30 hours of hellish travel. (I am trying to upload a slideshow of pictures to help tell my story)

I embarked on this trip last Saturday with seven fellow classmates studying abroad with me in Ireland. The first destination was Barcelona. After a long day of travel, we arrived at 11:00 p.m. and were blessed with warm weather (at night!), palm trees, sangria, Doner kabobs, a fun hostel, American and Canadian students, and the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona was easy to get used to as all these things happened within a two-hour time frame. It was almost as if the entire city was planning a reception party for our group. The next morning we walked through Barcelona at a strenuous pace, which was to set the precedent for the rest of the trip. The best part was the Sagrada Familia Church. This church began construction in 1882 by the architect Gaudi, and is still under construction, expected to be finished in 2026. As we were walking the streets, I noticed a group of 15-foot high costumes parading down the street accompanied by screeching Spanish music. Our group followed the parade that made its way to the front of the church, where a large crowd had assembled within the hour that we had left it. The group was primarily made up of four groups, each wearing their own color. As we watched the music continued and each group began to bunch together. Slowly one member was lifted up, than another climbed up and on top of the first. This continued until each group was four people high, creating a human representation of the spires of the Sagrada Familia Church directly behind them. After that we continued to explore Barcelona and eventually made our way to the port to board the Norwegian Gem.

The cruise aspect of the trip had both pros and cons.

Pro: All you can eat food. After a month and a half of my pilgrim lifestyle, I ate. Meal after meal was a treat. Food was available 24/7. Every night our entire group would sit down at a "fancy" restaurant and get four-course meals.

Con: The entire aspect of the cruise had a very cheesy aspect about it. For example, the "fancy" restaurant was filled with fake Mahoney and ridiculous chandeliers. The other guests on the cruise (another con: most guests except for two friends we made were experiencing some degree of a midlife crisis) played along with the cheesy aspect of the cruise. They would dress extravagantly, and once a meal the chefs (all foreign) would be sent out to a rousing round of applause. The food was good not amazing, but the cruise staff hyped it up, and everyone bought it. I just ate.

Pro: Every stop we made was unbelievable (Malta, Napoli, Rome, Florence, Cannes). Travel was easy, as I would wake up after a refreshing night of sleep and be in a radically different city. This made it possible to see a variety of different things, not many people can say they have been to Malta, but I can and I loved it.

Con: We did not get to see the nightlife in any city. We would wake up early and see as much as we could see before getting back on the boat. The nightlife on the boat consisted of “cheese” city. The entire staff of the crew was foreign, mostly from Indonesia and Nepal. I have no idea why or how people from Nepal were working on this cruise, they have come along way from Mount Everest to the Mediterranean. Entertainment consisted of Indonesians (sometimes the same ones that had just served me dinner) dressing up with backwards hats or Hawaiian shirts and singing Jimmy Buffet songs or a Nepal native attempting a magic show. It was amazing to watch how the crowd would cheer at each performance. It was corporate American brainwashing at its finest. I only went to the shows the first day when there were no stops, and I was almost prepared to hurl myself into the sea afterwards. The following nights I ate, made new friends (an American guy and Australian girl), read my book and hung out with my friends on the trip. This was much better and complemented our rigorous travel that we would do each day.

Pro: I did not spend much money in any town, as the boat would provide the essentials.

Con: The boat docked in two ports that were an hour away from both Rome and Florence. We had to find our own way in each city or pay a ridiculous charge to go on cruise excursions. This cut drastically into our time, but also added an element of adventure and exploring that is supposed to be part of college traveling. I saw Rome in a day for 14 Euro and was drenched by pouring rains, and it was an absolute blast. The cruise had hidden charges for nearly everything. This is why we got such a cheap ticket. Being aware and poor travelers, we managed to go unscathed by fees. Watching some of the totally unaware tourists we were with, I must have saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

In hindsight I had a fantastic time because I got to see all the cities we stopped at, and I could not have accomplished this any other way besides the cruise. I wouldn't do a cruise again anytime soon, but I was able to do my own thing both on and off the ship so I had a good time.

I also learned some things about myself. I like to travel raw. I enjoy skipping comfort for experience. I love Ireland (I'll get back to that one).

Cities:

Malta was incredible. In terms of weather, color schemes, and architecture it felt like I was in Egypt. Upon docking, our group walked to the main attraction: St. John's Church. We got there and mass had just started so we had to wait two hours and come back for a tour. My friend Thomas Joyce and I asked if we could go to the mass, as it had only just started. We did and the inside of the church was beautiful. We had communion with the Maltenese and then we were back on our way to explore the city. I decided to go back and take a tour of the church, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. Malta is a country straight out of a Dan Brown Novel, as the Knights Templar founded the country. During mass, little did I know that the floor was made up of 400 marked graves of knights from 500 years ago. The rest of the city was perfect (so was the 77 degree f weather). Geckos ran circles around me as I relaxed and explored this slice of exotic paradise.

Napoli was dirty and poor, or at least were the majority of the parts of the city I saw. We walked through neighborhood areas and tried to communicate with Italians. We ended up find back alleys to breathtaking views and lush parks. Jimmy Backus, Thomas Joyce, and I found an old castle on the Mediterranean that was simple, yet one of the best parts of the trip. We were the only ones there and we climbed to the top. See pictures. (Weather: 75 degree f and sunny= perfection)

Rome was a struggle to get to and our time was short there. We ran around in the rain and managed to see most of it. I wasn't too worried because I had already seen Rome. It reminded me of the T.V. show The Amazing Race. It was fun, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see my friends studying abroad there, but all in all it was a blast.

Florence was another struggle to get into to, and there was a threat of a train strike. Only three of us went and it was worth the risk. The city was walkable and scenic. The best part was waiting to see the statue of David by Michelangelo. The line was ridiculous and it was going to take all day to see the statue. We decided to skip it, but walking away I was astounded, no shocked within the point of a heart attack to see my friend Leah Palermo from high school. She is studying abroad in Rome but was traveling around with her family. This meeting boggled my mind; all I can say is that it truly is a small world. We talked for some time and parted ways, as we are hopefully meeting up with some friends in Dublin in a couple of weeks. It was crazy, I loved it.

Cannes was the last stop and the nicest day. Our group explored the city and spent the majority of the day on the beach. Perfect ending of the trip... but it turned out it was not the ending at all, because a rat race ensued trying to get back to Ireland the next day. I'll save this blog for later. Hopefully the pictures will fill in what I missed. Part two of the trip entitled “My Personal Struggle through Inferno” will come soon.