At the request of a few people who feel that I have left my blog open and wonder if I'm going to update anymore I am sorry to say that I am not.  I only wish that my daily life at home was exciting enough for people to want to read about.  And unfortunately now that I'm back home and not hanging at the retirement home abroad anymore, I have a life and no more time to write about my daily activities.  I never said anything about our last week in London, but it was great! My mom and hannah were able to come fly over and meet us there which was so much fun.  We took the chunnel to Paris for a night, where my mom was able to see me speak French to real French people for the first time since sending me to my little French school so many years ago.  Thanks for being interested in my life and giving me a reason to keep up with my travels. 

Barcelona, Spain

We left Barcelona and are in route for three days at sea before reaching our final destination of Southampton. Barcelona was a short day trip where we spent our time on a tour, which highlighted buildings designed by architect Gaudi. We visited one church, which was never finished, and is still under construction.  It should be finished in about 40 years.  I guess I will have to add that to my places to come back and see too. This once in a lifetime trip seems to be making itself a list for a twice in a lifetime trip for sometime in the future.   

Rome, Italy

When in Rome, for only a day, drive around town and take a picture of as many major landmarks as possible.  And that’s exactly what we did.  We saw the Trevi fountain, The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, The Coliseum, The Forum, oh and somewhere in there we managed to stop for lunch and eat.  Having only one day to see all of Rome is just not enough. I had pizza in the true taste of Italy style, at a local Italian Ristorante, and could not stop taking pictures of each street we passed by, trying to capture every inch of the busy city life that was going on down each quaint alley way between buildings. 

Now that I have reached Europe and am visiting places I’m sure most of you have been, I will keep my point of view and opinions to myself and keep you updated only to let you know that I am still alive and well. We had a really great day seeing Rome, but I wish we could have spent more time here. I guess I will add it to my list of places I hope to revisit. 

Athens, Greece

I spent the day today with the best tour guide of my trip so far.  I found out a friend of mine from college, Paige, is living in Athens and she volunteered to spend the day with me while I was there. I was free of fancy tour busses and old folk tours for the day, and was able to see the city from the perspective of a local. We hiked our way up to a viewing place that overlooked the whole city and Acropolis and was completely tourist free. We continued our walk through the busy streets, passing by the merchants who were selling local trinkets, t-shirts, and snacks along the way.  Paige took me to a few shops that were not as easily recognizable by the typical postcard and t-shirt display. I loved getting to see places that I usually would have missed had I been walking with a large tourist group. For lunch, we went to a local favorite of hers, and now mine too.  We sat outside the restaurant along the path of people walking by, bumping into our table as they passed. I stared, feeling clueless, as Paige spoke to our waiter, and ordered for the both of us, in Greek. We had the most amazing Greek salad and kebab with pita that I have ever had.  Ok, it’s the only Greek food I’ve ever had, but I’m sure it will be the best of future experiences as well. 

 

After lunch, I got to experience the real life of the locals, as we took the metro to a coffee shop up towards the part of town where she lives.  Millennium coffee shop is a quaint little place that has couches taking up most of its floor space, and walls covered with a design of black velvet paisley wallpaper.  The iced frappes we had, with a side of powdered sugar nutella filled donuts were the perfect taste to this eclectic little place. If you’ve never had nutella, you need to have some. The chocolate hazelnut peanutbutterish stuff is quite possibly the best thing I have ever tasted.  With about 30 minutes until I had to be back, we went on a desperate mission to find me a jar of nutella to take back on the ship. The local grocery store was closed on Sunday, so it was up to the few neighborhood sales men in the small one room “convenient” stores. After Paige tried describing to him in broken Greek what it was we needed (it’s hard enough describing the stuff in English), the language barrier finally fell and he showed us he had what we were looking for.  After all that, the jar stayed right there on the shelf where we found it, because the guy looked at me like I was crazy when I showed him I was going to pay in dollars. The first time dollars have been denied on my trip, I knew now that I was truly in a local area of town. My second option of a credit card didn’t work either and one guy even examined my card like he had never seen one before.  In the end, I did find a place that was up to date in the world of credit cards and accepted my visa.  Of course though not without a charge of at least 10 Euros.  With about five minutes until I was going to be left behind, Paige, the salesman and I quickly searched the store and we each threw a few things on the counter to help my total. I left with the much needed nutella jar, a pack of gum, and some true Greek olive oil and liquor…it’s a good thing I only have a week left on this ship, or I might find myself alone in my room with an empty bottle of Greek liquor.  Whether it was Greece itself, or the fact that I haven’t hung out with anyone above the age of 12 and under the age of 50 in the past two months, I had such a fun day exploring Athens with Paige.  

Mykonos, Greece

If ever there was a place that looked exactly as it is described it would have to be Mykonos, Greece.  The white buildings on the hills of the Greek Island, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea are incredible. Between the white buildings are a maze of small paths that lead you past local shops, cafes, and restaurants that have small tables with picturesque white table clothes set up over them. Each home or business along the way is marked by blue, green, or turquoise doors, which match with the perfect blue sky that is peeking through between the white walls of the endless buildings.  The nutella crepe that I picked up along the way from one of the local cafes was the perfect thing to have, as I got lost amongst the beautiful white walls and colorful doors. 

Before finding my new favorite vacation spot in Mykonos, we took a trip to a small deserted island called Delos.  It is an ancient city of which other than that, I don’t know much more about, since I spent most of my time here running around, exploring with the kids rather than listening to our tour guide.  Secluded on this island are ancient ruins, which take up enough area worth of a good two-hour hike through fields of wild flowers and overgrown grass.  We found an old theatre, where we made up our own performances, and a water hole full of frogs that could have been heard from a mile away with their loud “ribbit” noises. We ended up at the one and only small café on the island where we met the only resident to this island.  He lives upstairs, and sells a selection of hot chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice, pringles and mentos downstairs.  We contributed a good portion to his yearly sales I’m sure, and then headed back on the ferry. 

This was one of the places I was most excited to visit, and now that I’ve been here, I hope that someday I will get to come back to Mykonos and continue wandering the beautiful streets and eat at some of the local restaurants.     

Istanbul, Turkey

I am quickly running out of adjectives to help me describe these places without sounding repetitive. So, to put it simply, Turkey has been my absolute favorite country.  The mystery that it was to me before I came here, gave me no prior expectations and the ability to thoroughly enjoy everything I saw. Istanbul is unlike any city I have ever seen.  Did know that it is the only city in the world that is part of two continents? There is a large bridge connecting the part that is Europe to Asia. It is a beautiful port city full of life and busy streets to explore. We started off the morning by sitting in slow moving traffic, eventually getting out and walking the rest of the way to our first sight to see which was the blue mosque.  It is the second largest mosque in Istanbul and is beautiful. We walked past the green grass, tall trees, and beautiful spring flowers that surround everything in the city. We removed our shoes and stepped inside to see the large domed ceilings, which were covered with floral blue tile designs.  Hanging from the hundred foot tall ceilings are long cable cords that are used to hold up the low hanging light fixtures only a few feet above your head.  Now, these light fixtures hold bulbs in each one but once were individually lit oil candles. The blue mosque, as well as many others in the city are used for the five daily calls to prayer a day. At any place in the city you can hear the foreign song that calls the Muslims to prayer.  To see people simultaneously stop what they are doing, whether it be walking, driving, working or eating, and go to pray is something that does not go unnoticed, even in this busy city. 

Our day continued as we waked the endless streets that are lined with colorful tulips. Passing by shopping bazaars full of oriental rugs and silks, street vendors who have an appealing selection of roasted chestnuts, corn, and circular shaped sesame breads.  Oh and of course the overwhelming assortments of Turkish Delight, which if you ask me, sound like a magical treat, thanks to the advertising done by Narnia. I will say that, as somewhat of an expert on sweets, it is not magical, but will have to do as a replacement for Easter peeps this year.  I could have wandered these streets for days finding new places to see, I hope someday, I will get the chance to come back.

Kusadasi, Turkey

The green hillsides of Turkey were a breath of fresh air after visiting the continuous desert cities that we have seen for the past few weeks.  The beautiful coastline, hit by turquoise blue waves from the Mediterranean Sea, was a scenic welcome to the country of Turkey, which I could not have guessed to be any more of a unique place.  Even before seeing anything, we were told some interesting facts about Turkey, by our tour guide.  One that of course caught my attention was that one of their main crops is olives.  Stacy and Ali, I think we were meant to live in Turkey, the Thanksgiving olive fingers would be endless here.  And did you know that black and green olives grow on the same tree? In addition to the enthralling facts that I learned, I also saw some amazing ancient ruins.  We visited the Virgin Mary Shrine, Saint John’s Basilica and the most impressive in my opinion, the remains of the city of Ephesus.  The remains of the city of Ephesus are broken and scattered, but to be able to see the small part of what was left was incredible.  The city has been excavated to leave the remains of some of the original streets, marble statues, and buildings that are all engraved with detailed Greek text.  The large theatre that is found in the city is where Paul preached the book of Ephesians to the people here.  Paul found himself preaching to a population of Greeks who believed only in Gods and Goddesses and wanted nothing to do with the idea of a new religion.  His repetitive and unwanted appearances eventually found himself being taken to the local prison and kept there for about a week before being released and sent off.  I have been reading a lot of the stories of the Bible lately, that take place in this region of the world, and to actually be in this city and be able to picture where it was taking place is something I know I will most likely never be able to do again.  To stand in the theatre and know it is where Paul once preached is an experience I will always remember.  I really enjoyed Turkey, and am excited for the one more day we have tomorrow to see one of the bigger cities of Turkey.   

Cairo, Egypt

We arrived in the Suez Canal early Monday morning to get off for a 2-day, one-night adventure in Egypt. We pulled the kids, and ourselves, out of bed at 3am and were waiting downstairs, along with about 100 other passengers who would be taking this trip with us, to be let off the ship and onto the tenders that would be taking us ashore.  With lethargic looks on all the faces around, and coffee cups in hand, everyone waited patiently for about two hours when they finally announced to us that for weather and wind related reasons, we could not go ashore and they had cancelled our trip. So here we are at 4:30 am, finally awake, wondering what to do with 3 kids who, the night before were drugged at 5pm with Benedryl to help them go to sleep early in preparation for this early morning wake up, and are in effect now ready for the day to begin.  It didn’t take us long to find our newest favorite morning activity of playing hide and go seek amongst the rows of seats and lofted boxes found in the large, dark and empty Royal Court Theatre on the ship.  Here we were, running, screaming and hiding through Cunard’s finest and most elegant theatre at the wee hours of the morning, and no one was around to tell us no.  It was one of our finest moments on the ship so far. 

Round 2 for getting off in Egypt, on Tuesday morning, was a success.  We skipped out on seeing our port city of Alexandria, and chose instead to go to Cairo and visit the Pyramids and Sphinx (what we would have seen had we gotten off the day before).  We were camped out in our usual spot, the long back row of chairs, on our tour bus for a fun filled 3-hour ride to Cairo. And by fun filled, I mean that at one point we had Isabelle filling up the only available plastic bag found on the bus, with her carsickness, Jeanie pinching off the corner of the bag that had a hole in it so that remnants of regurgitated breakfast weren’t leaking onto the bus floor.  During this time, Grisha is on the other side of the bench watching the movie Cars on the hand held DVD player as he’s licking a scoop of peanut butter off of a knife, while, let me remind you, on the very bumpy ride in a moving vehicle.  I’m not sure how we all survived, or how we got so many comments at the end of the day about how well the children were behaved…obviously people aren’t aware of the trick where you put a movie in the kids lap, and stick a knife in his mouth and they shut up.  Needless to say, we all took a deep breath of relief, as we stepped off the bus at the Pyramids of Giza.

You always hear about the famous Pyramids of Egypt, and I remember learning about them in school for years.  They’re one of those places that are found in the book about 1,000 places you have to see before you die.  I realized, that’s just what they are, something to say you’ve seen.  Maybe I’m being a travel snob by saying this, but I really wasn’t as impressed with them as I thought I would be.  Up close, they looked more like loose rock formations slowly falling apart, unlike the much more impressive look they gave from a distance. The coolest part of Cairo to me was when we were driving around the city and amongst the crazy traffic and dirty streets, you would look up and above the rooftops, you could see the tip of the Pyramid, standing out and above, unlike anything else around it.  When we made our way around to the Sphinx, low and behold there were both a Pizza Hut and KFC no more than 50 yards away that we of course had to make a lunch stop at. There’s nothing quite like the experience of looking out the window of a Pizza Hut to a view of the ancient Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza.  Traveling with kids takes on a whole new meaning to “seeing ancient history”.

The local sales people here are just as aggressive as in any other country, eagerly showing you the postcards and small pyramid models they are selling.  But here, they have this creative, and might I add annoying, sales tactic that I of course fell for and gave me a reality check and stupidity slap in the face that I guess was well deserved and needed.  I try to have a good attitude around these people, who swarm you like you’re some movie star the second you step off the bus.  They ask you where you’re from and tell you how grateful they are that you have come to their country, welcoming you with much thanks, as if you’re any different than those other thousands of American people who they see every day.  This one kid comes up to me and shows me some headdress he is selling and I tell him I don’t want it.  “No it’s a gift for you, no money, free,” he says. FYI, nothing is free in Egypt, nothing. Before I can walk away, he has the thing wrapped on my head and is telling me that I need my picture taken in front of the pyramids with the camel.  Gosh, he really knows the way to a tourist’s heart…  Trying to be nice I said fine and walked with him over to the guy selling camel rides and he tells me to get on the camel, “no ride, just sit for free”.  I’m thinking ya right, I know this game, the camel stands up, you run off with my camera and I’m too high off the ground to jump off the camel and chase after you.  I refuse and after his third attempt to get me to sit on the camel, he finally just agrees to take the picture of me standing by it, all the while I’m saying cheese, thinking “I’m not some stupid American who will fall for your trick”. Well, I did. Before I know it I have two guys telling me I owe them money, one for taking my picture and the other for standing in front of his camel.  After trying to tell them I had no money and walking off, the camel guy finally gave up on me, but the other kid (the one who “gave” me the headdress at the beginning) kept following.  Giving me more gifts and then pointing to my pockets, telling me I owed him money.  Somewhere along the line after handing his gifts back several times and then finding them back in my hands a few seconds later, I pulled out five dollars, and he said “I give you change”.  Under his discretion of course as he started adding up all my charges for the picture and the camel and the headdress and the dumb pyramid model.  I impatiently waited for my change, and finally threw his “gifts” at him and ran off annoyed before he could give me back any more than 2 of my 5 dollars.  So basically I paid 3 dollars to be reminded that I’m more of the naïve American tourist than I had believed myself to be.  All in all, this might have had some play on my somewhat negative view of the pyramids.

The dreaded three-hour bus ride back to the ship became closer to a four-hour drive as we moved slowly through the traffic of a wreck.  Driving in Egypt must have very little limitations and I noticed as we were driving around, that lanes don’t really exist here.  The worst wreck I have ever seen in my life was the effect of the wreck less driving that takes place here. At least 15 cars were piled up, scattered across the road, going the opposite direction we were on as we headed into port.  Cars under trucks, squished between cars, and at least 30 people out of their cars in the street trying to pull cars out from under other cars, was the last scene of an already chaotic day in Egypt.

Aqaba, Jordan (The Lost City of Petra)

Our five consecutive days at sea, were filled with April Fools jokes from the crew about there being a glass bottom to the ship for guests to come look through, and the not so joking pirate waters of the Gulf of Aden.  Luckily, no pirates came near our ship as we were escorted through the waters for two days by naval ships and the occasional helicopter.

We finally arrived in Jordan, a city that, unlike Dubai, holds much more true to its culture.  We got off the ship, stepping onto the desert that extends all the way up to the edges of the sea.  Through the city of cookie cutter square buildings of cement slab walls, and small cut out square holes for windows, we traveled the lone highway out of the city towards the lost city of Petra.  My hesitations for liking Petra came with the initial two-hour bus ride, but the irritation from cramped seats and feeling of Closter phobia was gone after seeing how beautiful this place is.

We began our walk down a long dusty, gravel road.  Walking was short lasted with the appeal of a horse ride, and before I knew it a local boy was running along side, pulling the rope of the horse that I was riding past the masses of tourists.  The young horse owners say that they work only for tips, but then of course once you pay them, ask for more tips. After paying, I tried to tell him my tip was “don’t run with scissors in your hand”, but I think the language barrier was too much for my cheesy “dad” joke.  After the short horse ride, we continued our walk down a long narrow way.  Looking up, there are hundred foot high walls of rock on either side, with a sliver of clear blue sky peeking through.  Passing by down below, horses pulling small carriages were running by, their tails grazing my arm as they pass. At the end of the long dusty cobblestone path, there was an opening and the sight of the face of what looked like a building (the view from the picture).  This incredible temple, carved perfectly in the side of a jagged rock face.  In the wide opening, surrounded by the massive rocks and carvings are tourists having their picture taken on a camel ride, buying local treasures, and staring in awe at this incredible sight that could in no way be imagined or pictured perfectly through words.  The walk continued, as did the carvings of buildings into the rocks that surrounded us.  People passing by on camels, donkeys, and horse carriage, in front of the street vendors selling hand made jewelry; there wasn’t a second where my interest wasn’t caught by the busy movement of life amongst this forgotten city.  We found some local teenagers who followed us, persistent on their offer of a donkey ride through the city.  One of them went as far as to offer and ask, how many camels for my hand in marriage. We all laughed, not sure if he was serious or not, and in the end took the offer solely for the donkey ride. I figured my parents wouldn’t be too happy missing my wedding but the even bigger problem was how to get the camels back on the ship. 

Of all the places I have seen so far, Petra was by far the most incredible.  I wish I could fully describe how amazing everything about it was.  Hopefully this will help a little, but by no means do it justice.