Summer 2009

So much to see, so littel time

2009-08-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we intended to started off very early but by the
time we get to the Notre Dame the line to go up to the top is huge. We
end up speading a really long time there waiting, but the view was
cool. I'm so sick of lines!

Afterwards we walked over to the Orsay museum wich was wonderful. It
is really interesting because it us all art from roughly the same
period but the are just do many styles. My favorite part was all the
great impresionist and pointalism. It is weird that on this trip I
have seen the same pieces more than once in diffrent museums like a
few Van Gohs and a rodin statue.

We got a bite to eat before we went to the Orangerie museum to see
Monet's water lilies. It was diffrent than I had expected because they
were four large murals in two oval rooms. It was still really cool.

After this I said good bye to Kevan because he had to go start his
long journy home.

On my own I headed to the Rodin museum and the army museum. I did not
make it to the army museum in time to see the actual museum but I did
get to see napolian's tomb. It was the deffinision of epic.

After this I talked to my parents for a while. Then I grabed a quiche
and croissant for dinner and headed home. Everone in my ten person
room at the hostel is really fun so it has been nice to hang with them
when I get back at night.

Today I started with a walk through and area called Marais. I went to
this really nice court yard and saw locals coming to chill or play
with thier kids. Victor hugos house was in the square so i checked
that out from the outside.

Then, even though kevan wrote that is was closed based on rick's
book updates, and even though the red writing in french on the web
site also made me think it was closed, I decided to go by and check on
the Picasso museum my self. Good thing I did because it was open! It
was half under construction so I'm sure the presentation is not as
good as it will be but it was still great!

Next I went to the Jewish art and history museum. It was good with
lots of really old Jewish artifacts, like manorha's and yads from all
over. The information was a littel more aimed to people who don't know
about jewish stuff so it was a littel hard to pick out the interesting
info.

After grabing a natella creep and a peach as a snack/ lunch I went to
the pompidou center. This is a crazy exoskeleton building with crazy
modern art in side. It was really fun!

When I finished there I went to the deporatation memorial, the
holocaust memorial, and got an Awesome falafel. I ate in a littel park
and then I caught the metro to La Défense area. This is a new
skyscrapper area which is all pedestrian ( the cars go under ground)
and it had modern arc de triomphe (la grande arche) that lines up with
the real one. I really enjoyed walking around thos area.

Lastly I went to the arc de triomphe and walked to the top. I was
there at the perfect time, right during the transtion between seeing
the city in day light and seeing all the buildings, including the
eiffel tower and the arc, turn on thier lights. I am exausted and it
feels so nice to be off my feet back at the hostel.

The city of light

2009-08-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

After a poor night of sleep we got up really early again to catch our
train to Paris.

Upon arival we dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed out. The
theme of our time in Paris thus far has been poor timing. We started
with Rick steves' historic walk around the ile d' France and ended up
at the Notre Dame when the lines where horrendously long the next stop
on the walk, the deportation memorial, was also closed. Hopefully we
will see both of those tomorrow. Part way through the walk we stopped
for our first crepe in France.

After exploring we went to the louvre and saw all the allstar pieces.
The louvre was cool but I think it had too much in it. The building
itself would have been a tourist attraction with out all the art and
there is so much art packed into it that something that is such a
superstar piece is just so over shadowed by the Mona Lisa.

For dinner we went to Chez Agnés. A four table restaurant where the
food is cooked and served by this animated French woman. After a great
dinner (including snails) we went to the eiffel tower and watched it
sparkel.

This morning we got up early, again, to meet Kelsey, my friend from
the program in Spain, to go to Versailles. The transportation got a
little messed up and we ended up getting there at the height of the
crowds. I am very sick of crowds...
Versailles was pretty cool but mostly just for the historical
importance of the the hall of mirrors and the extensive garden. We
went into the town for a crepe lunch midday and I had steak tartare, a
dish with raw meat flavored with mustard.

After Versailles we were pretty pooped so when we got back to Paris we
got something to drink and people watched from the street side table.
It was great having Kelsey there but she had to head back to catch the
train to where she is staying.

The rest of the evening was just chill. We basically just went back to
the hostel and found some dinner around there.

Tomorrow is kevan's last day and I have 2/3 days in Paris by myself.

Brussels =Chocolate beer and waffels

2009-08-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last night we ate our last meal in Amsterdam and went to bed early
because we had a really early train. I had a traditional meal, a dutch
croquette and french fries with mayonnaise and peanutbutter (much
better than it sounds). Kevan had shawarma...again. We finished the
meal with a Dutch waffle. This one looked just like a belgian waffel
with chocolate on top but it actually had huge sugar crystals inside.

This morning we got up at 4:45 to check out, walk to the metro, take
the train to the train station (while watching the sun rise) and catch
our train to Brussels. The train ride was about two and a half hours
and I slept for most of it. We finally got to Brussels at 10:15 and
headed over to our hostel. I'm glad we are only staying here for one
night because although it could be much worse, it is far from the best.

After checking in we walked into the center to find lunch. My first
impression of Brussels was thar it was the most american like city we
have been to because there where many modern buildings (hotels).
However the center was much more old school. The center square, grand
place, was surrounded by old guild houses that were rococo dipped in
gold. It was pretty cool.

After lunch we had a belgian chocolate feast! We went to several
chocolate stores (starting with the original godiva store) and tried a
few pieces of chocolate at each. Yum...

Next we walked around and found the oldest shopping mall still in use
and the emblem of Brussels, Manniken Pis, a fountain with a peeing boy.

Then we went to the only real "sight" we enter to see, the EU
parliament. I found it funny how cool it felt to be there even though
the European Union is not even part of my daily life. We were very sad
to find that the audio guides were not avalible because they were
being updated or some other bullshit. We ended up having a guide give
a shpiel to the roughly 80 person tour group. We only got to see the
lobby and the chamber of the parliament but it was well worth it.

Afterwards we went to stroll around the front of the royal palace and
garden near by. We also took a long detour on the way back to grand
place so I could take a picture with the 3 ft smurf outside the comic
book museum.

We found a "cheap" dinner on restaurant row and watched people walk by
as we ate at a street side table. In true belgian style I had a Stella
with dinner and a Belgian waffle for dessert (I was slightly
dissapointed with both)

Although our visit to Brussels did not entail anything super exciting,
it was a good one day stop and makes me appreciate how beautiful the
other cities were.

Last day in cannal city

2009-08-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a much more relaxed day. We started out at the museum of
dutch resistance. It was all about how Dutch people rebelled against
the nazis. One of the things that really suprised me was the large
number of people who went into hiding (Jews and rebels) and the
networks set up to let this happen.

We walked down the road to a Jewish memorial set up in a destroyed
theater that was used as a holding for Jews being sent to camps during
WWII.

Next we walked over to the waterlooplein flea market. We walked around
and grabbed some shawarma/ doner kabab for lunch. We walked by
Rembrandt's on the way to the diamond factory. While waiting for the
free fifteen minute tour I tried the Danish waffle (it is more like a
Ginger bread cookie with a waffle pattern). The tour was quick but
informative and at the end I got to try on a dimond ring worth more
than 18 thousand euro.

After this we wandered through the Jewish quarters. The Jewish
quarters were destroyed at the end of the war because people needed
the wood during the record cold tempuratures and there was no one
living there. 15 years after the war they decided to rebuild the
destroyed area in a really modern style to symbolize the renvination
after the war. Now it just looks incredibly out of place to have funky
colorful chunky sixties architecture mixed in with the otherwise
uniform old school style of Amsterdam.

I felt like I have seen so much of the city and really got a good feel
for it. We got to do everthing we wanted to do and it was a very
sucessful and enjoyable visit!

God made the earth, but the Dutch made Holland

2009-08-05T09:44:00.001-07:00

Last night we seccesfully made friends with six australians and two
Brits at the happy hour at the hostel. I'm constantly impressed by the
subtle cultural diffrences you can learn through conversation ( for
example, the aussies find it weird that every house does not have a
tall fence around it in the US)

This morning we got up and headed out to rent bikes. We rode around
Vondelpark, amsterdam's central park, for a while before heading over
to the museum area. The park is SOOO nice! It has weeping wilows
draping into ponds with bikers on a bridge in the background.

The first museum we went to today was Rijksmuseum. It has a variety of
things but it is most known for the Rembrandt collection, including
the milkmaid and the night watch (and many more).

When we left the museum Kevan was starving so we rode over to the
Albert Cuyp market and we ate at a yummy middle eastern restaurant.
The market was a huge street fair with stalls selling all sorts of
random stuff. It was fun to walk around and a good break from the
musuems because we went back to see the Van Gogh musuem.

The Van Gogh musuem was wonderful! They had a bunch of his self
portraits, sunflowers, and the bed room. They also did a great job at
explaining his life in conjunction with the paintings.

After the Van Gogh museum we decided to return the bikes so we would
not have to come back to this area tomorrow. Then we headed up to the
Anne Frank house. After waiting in line for an hour we got to go in.
It was a little unreal being there and realizing that these stairs or
that window are the same ones she was talking about in her diary.
There were also a lot of good videos with Otto frank, miep, and anne's
friend who saw her at the concentraiton camp.

On the way back to our hostel we stopped for Dutch pancakes for
dinner. It was basically like a big crepe and very yummy. Back at the
hotel we freshened up and then happened to run onto the aussies again.
We went with them to the red light district and just walked around and
people watched. After a successful but very busy day we made it an
early night and went home to sleep.

Dachau and the Dutch

2009-08-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Dachau was the most powerful experience so far on the trip. We opted
to do the guided tour instead of the audioguide to get a more vivid
presentation. Seeing the grounds, memorials, crematorium, and
recreated barracks was moving but as a personal FU Hitler I leisurely
ate some challah(ish) bread on the camp grounds.

It started to rain so we headed back into town to see the art museum.
Rick gave alte pinakothek two triangles out of three while the other
art museums got one so we decided to do that (even though I knew it
was a period of art that did not intrest me). It was cool for the fact
that it had a lot of giant paintings and pieces by Raphael, Leonardo,
and Botticelli. Although these painters are famous it is not the kind
of art that gets me going, so luckily the exhibit was short and we
rushed through the rain to the modern art museum for the last half
hour it was open. This is some place I will def have to come back to
because it is exactly what I love. We rushed through the design and
painting galleries so fast that I read all the signs too fast and
thought the title was the painter. I was getting really confused and
frustrated by all the paintings that screamed picasso but were by
other people. haha! Oops!

When we got kicked out of the museum we went back to the train station
to find dinner. We ended up walking all the way back to marienplatz,
the main square, and just having some pasta/pizza.

At 10:30 we boarded the train for the overnight ride to Amsterdam. We
were in a "couchette", basically a TINY little room with two three-
level bunk beds. Of course, kevan and I ended up in the two top beds.
I slept great (though Kevan could not sleep well b/c it got hot).

We arrived to Amsterdam gross and grumpy and had a hard time finding
our hostel. We got spoiled by the amazing public transportation in
Munich because it sucks here. Although not at the most convenient
location, our hostel is very nice. We checked in but could not get to
the room until two so we had to manage with a bird bath.

At this point it was 12:30 and we had not had anything to eat since
dinner the night before. We discovered Febo, the Dutch fast food
place. We had Dutch crochets and French fries with mayonnaise. Then we
went on the free tour with the same company as we did in Munich. Our
guide was crazy but again, it was a nice first taste of the city.
Afterwards we wandered around then got some carry out Thai food to eat
by the canal.

Amsterdam is gorgeous! I have never been to a canal city before so it
is a new kind of pretty for me. I really like it so far and I have
been very impressed with the live and let live attitude and the
historical events that demonstrate that (like the strike in 1941 when
ten thousand workers protested against the Nazis' decision to send 450
of their fellow Amsterdamers (Jews) to concentration camps) I'm really
looking forward to our next few days here!

Our hostel does not have free wifi so unfortunatly I can't update the
blog so easily but I'll do my best.

Update

2009-08-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

This morning we are going to Dachau and if we have time we will go tho
the art museum before we take the night train to Amsterdam. I'm not
sure if that hostle has wifi so it may not be as easy for me to post
frequently.

Residenz and Nürnberg

2009-08-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we started the morning at the Deutsches museum. It is a
science and technology type museum that we found a little
disapointing. It was pretty much all in German and was not too
intriguing. The one really cool thing was the german U boat.

We wandered around the city for the next hour or so. We bought German
sausage and fresh fruits for lunch and I bought a durndl!

Next we spent several hours at Residenz, the royal palace and the
treasury. It was a pretty epic place with crazy baroque and rococo.

We decided to head back to the tent with the intention of coming back
to eat dinner and talk to German people. On the way we came across a
big rally about Iran happening in the main square.

As you may have guessed we never made it back to downtown but it was
great because we ate german food and made a German friend at the
hostel. We learned about the mandatory civil service for males and he
was blown away by the fact that very few of our friends smoke
cigarettes. It was a good cultural exchange!

This morning we got up extra early to get on a train to Nürnberg and
headed directly to the Nazi sites. We started at the Nazi
documentation center, a museum in the uncomplicated congress hall
about the Nazi movment and how hitler got so much support. It was a
really well done museum with a great free audioguide but I would have
liked it if it talked more about Hitler's rise to power and less about
the Nazi rallies.

Afterwards we walked around the lake to see the rally grounds, which
is now a really pretty park scattered with Nazi relics and signs
explaining them. I was suprised by how unmaintained the sites were and
how full fledge soccer field were just built in the middle of them.

We headed into the old town where there was also a lot to see. It was
very quant with old style architecture, street market stalls, and
street performers. I loved the atmosphere but it took me a while to
realize that it may have been augmented by the huge music festival we
came across. Wandering around we found at least four stages showing
bands from all over in addition to all the amateurs set up on the
street. I was shocked by how international the food stalls by the
stages were; you would never find Indian food at a pop/folk show in
the US!

Our train back arived at nine and we atempted to go to the chineese
tower in the English garden to have German fish on a stick (I know,
right!) Unfortunately we made it too late and there was no fish and
not much else... A sausage and pretzel later and we were on the tram
ride home.

Pretzels and beer gardens

2009-07-31T00:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we started off the morning intending to see the glockenspiel
and then meet up with the free bike tour. While at the very overrated
glockenspiel we started listening in on this free tour that made good
fun of it (for example, it looks really old and so the very minimal
technology seems accepptable, but air planes were invented four years
before this was built) We ended up following this tour and realy
enjoyed it. Our guide was really enthusiastic about making Munich come
alive and she took us to all the places we were planing on spearing
out over the few days.

After we went to get a cheap beer and all you can eat stew with people
from the tour. I have now learned that even though I'm in Germany, a
beer with lunch is not a good idea. Between the facts that beers here
are half liter, we had just been walking for three hours, sleeping on
the floor was not very successful the night before and I'm used to an
hour and a half siesta after lunch, I needed a nap.

We went back to our hostel to take care of some things before heading
back to the city to do a pub crawl. There were 12 people in the group
from all over the place and we had a great time together. My favorite
convo was explaining to the very curious British girl what the deal is
with Greek life (she watches Greek haha).

In true northwestern fashion we ended the night at BK. (kevan was
hungry and it was the only thing open and near the tram stop). Like
mcdonald's they have different things in each country!

And the adventure begins!

2009-07-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hey!
We made it to Munich!

Kevan came into alicante last night and we had a great last dinner
with my family. I stayed up way too late but I'll hopefully make up
for that with a slow day today.

It was sad saying bye to my amazing host family but is was hard not to
be excited about going backpacking. The trip from alicante to Munich
was easy and it was exciting negociating our way to out awesome hotel.
We are staying at thos place called the tent and it is hard to
describe (check it out online) we are sleeping on mats in huge tent
and there are a whole bunch of students from all over hanging out
around picknick tables and fire pit. I'm so pumped!

Last day in Spain!

2009-07-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

I just took my last final and I'm done! Despite having to study, I had a nice weekend with my familly. We went to the alicante museum which happened to have the famos Greek guy throwing a discus statue. The permanent collection was not that exciting but the presentation was outstanding! This weekend I also learned to make Ali oli and crochets.

Kevan is coming today and going to spend the night with my host familly. Tomorrow we are heading off to Munich! I can't belive this is ACTUALLY happening! After 6 years of talking about it, Kevan and I are finaly going backpacking in Europe!

I'll try to keep this updated as best as I can and now that I figured out how to post from my iPod hopefully it won't be too hard.

Hangn' with the fam

2009-07-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lately i have gotten to do some fun stuff with my host family (mostly b/c i gt a handle on how to deal with classes and kicked butt in the midterms). The other day my host mom taught me how to make tortilla (basically an omelet with potato) ad it turned out great (though it is hard to mess up). She was pretty impressed by my pan flipping skills i gained from all those years of making fried matzah (which was hard to explain in Spanish but i think she got it)

That night we (my host mom, brother, and host brother's girlfriend and friend) stayed but late (for a school night) playing a great card game called "contonental". I really liked this game and am excited to teach people in the US!

Yesterday they took me to Benedorm which is a really pretty beach that is FULL of tourist. We walked around and saw the veiws, peeked in some shops and ate diner before heading home.

Tomorrow I'm going to learn to make crochets and go to the Alicante Museum, both of which I am pumped for.

I can't believe how quick this program went and that it is almost already over! (but I'm looking forward to my adventures with Kevan!)

Exams and Barcelona

2009-07-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last week was rough because I was studying nonstop for my 2 midterms from Sunday morning until Thursday morning. My classes are hard but I felt pretty confident coming out of the test. (And I defiantly felt better about it than other people) I got one back today and got a 90 so my studying totally paid off! Finals are only a week away and because there won’t be as much to study for that, the worst is over!

3 out of the 4 classes had an exam on Thursday and we did not have class on Friday, so there was an excursion planed by the program to snorkel in Tabarca (and island near by). There was not actually anything to see snorkeling, but we were on a Catamaran so the boat ride and swimming was fun. We had a lot of fun jumping off the boat (and taking pictures of this)

The next morning we got up early to get on a train to Barcelona. The ride there was fun because for the first half I read my Rick Steve’s Guidebook and made a plan for the weekend, and for the second half I chatted with the people around me. (Other kids on the program have endearingly nicknamed me “guidebook”)

We stayed in a Marriott by the airport instead of somewhere near the city because one if my friend’s dad could get a free room with accumulated point, and another friends mom works for Marriott so we got a good rate. It took us for ever to get to our hotel the first time and I was kind of upset it was so far away, but that changed when we got to the 5 star hotel and found out we had 24 hour access to free food and drinks in the “elite zone”.

Once settling in at the hotel we went back into the city and went to the Picasso Museum. He is my favorite artist so this made me really happy ☺. Afterwards we found a place to eat and had a really fun dinner because we made friends with our waiter. Next we went to the fountains at Moutjuic (Mt Jew literally though we can’t figure out why it is called that). It was like the Ballagio but 100 times better because it was all around one fountain and you were not so separate from it. For the second show Ben and I went right up to the edge of the fountain to watch. We got soaked but it was an epic view.

The next morning Beatrice and I got up super early to meet Lee and start our Gaudi day at Sagrada Familla at 9 (when it opens) and I’m so glad we did because it was great being there with out so many other people. The elevator often has a 1-2 hour wait but when we got there we though it was closed b/c there was not line but really there was just no one in front of us! Like the Picasso museum, it made me so happy to be around the work of such an ingenious artist. Next we got some food to eat as a picnic at Gaudi’s Parc Güell. After exploring this we went to the block of discord (a block with a Gaudi house and others of the style) and walked all the way down through Las Ramblas (the main drag in Barcelona with lots of mimes/ street performers, pet shop stands, and flower stands.

The next day we started off early again and wend to the Gothic neighborhood. On Sundays at new they do traditional Catalonian dancing in front of the cathedral so we watched for a little and then I joined in. We did not get to see the entire cathedral because there was mass going on but because it was Sunday we got to go into the very elaborate city hall. We grabbed a quick bit before heading back to the train station.

It was an extremely successful trip and it gave me confidence for traveling after. Now I know I will be able to put together good itineraries and make them happen (except for the fact that I won’t know the language in those countries…)

oops...Epic fail

2009-07-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

So I have totally failed at updating my blog so I'm just going to to a quick catch up and go from here:

After 1 more day in Greece I met up with my study abroad program in Madrid. We spent two days in Madrid before going to Alicante but I did not get to see much aside from the Prado Art Museum and a night tour of the city. We arrived in Alicante on Thursday evening and met up with our host families. By request, I have the same host family that David did when he did this program. They are wonderful!

On Friday we had a fake first day of school with half hour classes and a tour of the University of Alicante Campus. On Monday we actually started classes. I'm in two Spanish History classes both taught entirely in Spanish. One is really interesting but moves very fast and has a lot of hard reading (that I have given up on). The other one is not so hard but less interesting and going to be a lot of memorization. I was not expecting to have as much work as I do! I think I have finally figure out how to manage it and have fun.

The other students are the trip are pretty fun. We are having a good time. The first weekend we pretty much spent at the beach (though on Sunday I stayed in all day trying to do one of the readings..mistake) On Friday and Saturday we went to see the fire works in the city (there was a fireworks competition so every night for 5 days it was a different show)

The second weekend we (but mainly this kid named Lee) planed a trip to Toledo. 19 of us went together and it was a great group dynamic of sticking together and breaking off appropriately. 4th of July was the day we were there but we successful at eating McDonald's and finding some Americans to celebrate with (including a Kappa Delta!) In Toledo we saw the Cathedral and took a tourist tram ride, but the best part was just getting lost in the winding streets.

I just got back from a trip to Granada that was planned by the program. (It was mandatory to prevent any of us from going to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona) Although we were barely there for 24hours, we managed to fit in a lot: the cathedral and royal chapel, watching someone make the classic woodwork, a night tour and a flamingo dance show, obviously the Alhambra, and walking around to get a feel of the city.

This week I have midterms in both my classes and I have a lot of material to review. We don't have class this Friday so we are planning a trip to Barcelona. Now that this is caught up, i;ll try to be better at maintaining it :)

6-19 A new show in the old theater

2009-06-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived back in Athens and left the cruise ship. We got off the boat and onto a buss to a Temple of Poseidon at Sounio. Atop a cliff to the water, this acropolis was way to scenic to adequately capture with pictures. All that was left on the site were a few columns but there use to be two colossal statues there that we then saw at our next stop: the archeological museum.

The archeological museum was great because it was a very extensive collection and all the pieces were organized by their time period. The center part was pre-historic (aka incomprehensibly old). The perimeter of the building was filled with sculptures. Because it was chronological, you can really see the development of the art of sculpture, which is awesome.

After dinner we went to the ancient Greek amphitheater at the Acropolis to see a show. We had no idea what it was going to be when we bought the tickets, and it turned out to be and interesting mix of orchestra, chorus, modern dance, projections, and poetry. Although the performance itself was not so much for us, it was still ridiculous to be sitting watching modern theater in the same place where the ancient Greeks watched the earliest forms of theater.

6 -18 The Oldest City

2009-06-23T01:04:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to Crete and visited Knossos, the Minoan palace. The Minoan are considered the first civilization in Europe and the ruines date back to 2500 BC! I’m always blown away by how advanced these old civilizations are. They had theater; They had plaster and made frescos; they had the original sliding doors; and they had three water systems including underground pipes and a flushing toilet! 4500 years ago!

From Crete we sailed to Santorini for an unbelievably short visit. We basically ran around for the 40 min that we had trying to see as much and take as many pictures as possible. It was gorgeous and I wish I could have had more time to soak it in. To get back to the boat I took a terrifying (but fun and scenic) donkey ride down a steep zigzag path. I felt like I was going to fall off and this picture perfectly reflects the way I felt.

6-17 The Old City

2009-06-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

Another early morning and another bad guide (though not as bad). We spend all of today day in Rhodes but the first part we spent in Lindos. Lindos is a great little town and the main sight is the acropolis.

After Lindos we went to the old city of Rhodes and explored on our own. It was realy cool! It’s a fully intact Middleville walled city/fortes that is still a fully alive. There are residences, shops, and restaurants in 500-year-old buildings. I also loved the old city because we had what will probably be the best meal of the trip. We found a restaurant tucked in a beautiful courtyard shaded with and ivy roof and we asked what the waiter recommended. He set us up with huge platter of delicious traditional Greek foods.

Big News: Kevan is going to meet me to backpack Spain!!! We were supposed to do this summer after senior year (and had been “planning” it since 8th grade) but I broke my ankle. Now, he bought a ticket and it is actually going to happen!

6/16 Tuesday in the ruins with Gorge

2009-06-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Today we had an early morning for the scenic tour of Padmos. I really liked Padmos because it was the “real” version of Mykonos. There was a town hall, residence walking around, uneven walls, and even some dirt! We had a great guide who gave us a really informative tour of the town of Hora. St. John wrote the Book of Revelations while he was in exile on this island and that is the theme of the rest of the sites (St. Johns Monastery and the cave, tuned chapel, where he apparently wrote the book) We had some free time in Skala and I got to try a Greek frappe (which surprisingly I liked) and the traditional Padmos pastry.

Our second port of call was Kusadasi in Turkey but the reason for this port of call was to go see Ephesus. Ephesus is supposed to be fascinating but we got gypped and got George, the worst guide ever. Although I learned close to nothing, the rebuild facade of the ancient library was pretty impressive. We had time to explore Kusadasi but there was nothing very interesting at the port either. This turned out to be a pretty disappointing stop.

6/15 De Delos

2009-06-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the famous Mykonos. We started with a tour of the ruins on a small adjacent island called Delos. Delos is the Mythological birthplace of Apollo and Ardemis but it became a major free trading port in 5th century BC. The most impressive thing about Delos was just how intact it was.

We arrived back on Mykonos just in time for some gorgeous light so we spent some time taking photos. The highlight of dinner was watching the sunset over the water. There was a lot of build up for Mykonos (at least in my head) but it felt like being in Disney world instead of the real place. Everything had smooth, perfectly clean white walls and everywhere you looked there was tourists and shopping.

6-14 Istanbul

2009-06-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

We spent today hitting up all the major sites in Istanbul. We started off with Tokapi Palace (the Royal Palace of the early Ottoman Sultans). This was probably my favorite stop of the day because I loved the stories related to the palace and peaceful ambiance of the gardens. The famous attractions in the Palace are the treasury and the relics. I was more impressed with the boxes and thrones that were just totally covered with emeralds, rubies and diamonds than the large spoon maker’s diamond that it is known for. I can see how the relics related to Muhammad could be really powerful for a believer, but if you ask me, they lost all credibility when they displayed a stick that they claimed was Moses’ staff.

Next we went to Ayasofya. Although it is now a museum, Ayasofya was originally a church build in 537 when Istanbul (then Constantinople) was the first Christian city. It was the largest church until the 15th century and it was converted to a Mosque when the Ottoman Empire took over the city.

After Terkish meatballs for lunch, we continued on to the Sultan Ahmet Masque (the Blue Masque). The huge surprise of the Blue Mosque was running into Kimberly Nelson! (a girls from my sorority) She just happened to be standing about 4 ft away from me in the mosque! What a crazy small world!

Our last “site” was the Basilica Cisterns. This was basically a huge underground room with rows of mismatched columns going through it. (70 x 140m) It had a very cool feeling that reminded me of Luray Caverns.

We had some extra time before we had to be back on the boat so we walked around some areas including Galata, a Jewish area. The security around the synagogues was like nothing I had ever seen. There was a wedding going on at Never Shalom synagogue when we passed it and in addition to other security measures, the road was blocked off and there were 2 security guards at each end of the street wearing bullet proof vests under their suits. We did not get to go in any synagogues because you can only go in any of them if you get special permission in advanced (that includes a background check).

I really enjoyed Istanbul but I know I only scratched the tip of the iceberg. I definitely hope to go back and explore more of Istanbul and the rest of Turkey.

P.S. To all of you who told me to take lots of pictures, don’t worry. I have already taken 476 photos. Also, I ran out of time but more on the way!

6-13 Bazaar Delight

2009-06-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

The excitement of today did not really start until about 3:30 when we pulled into the port in Istanbul. I was struck by the view because of how unbelievably large the city is. The city covered the huge stretch of coastline.

We started off the afternoon in the Grand Bazaar. Although there are 4,000 shops in the grand bazaar, it was hard to get a really good feel for how absolutely massive it was. I was prepared for a packed market filled with aggressive shopkeepers, but thankfully it was not as extreme in these senses as I expected. We also went to the spice market and tried (and bought a lot of) the Turkish specialty candy, Turkish Delight. In the stores at the spice market they will give you a taste of the things they sell.

After a great Meza, Kebab, Turkish baklava, apple tea dinner at a restaurant with an amazing view, we ended the night at one of the best tourist trap dance shows I have ever been to. There were 3 belly dancers (one who is apparently pretty famous in Turkey) and a few examples of folk dances from regions of turkey.

Istanbul is very interesting for me because this is my first time in a big city of a predominantly Muslim state. It is very foreign to me to see minarets (the towers of the mosque) popping up all over the skyline and to hear the call to prayer from every direction as we walked through the streets.

6-12 First day on the go

2009-06-17T06:02:00.001-07:00

Today the main event was the Acropolis. One cool thing I learned is that the Parthenon has no strait lines. Everything is curved to account for perspective so it looks strait. (The columns tilt in & the floors curve down) In addition to impressiveness of the structure itself, thinking about the logistics of designing and building the Parthenon with Bronze Age technology is even more impressive.

David (my brother) met up with us right after we finished exploring the Acropolis and we headed to our cruise boat. This is the first time my family has been on a real cruise so we will see how it suits the Fraga family style.

6-11 And we Arrived

2009-06-17T05:58:00.000-07:00

After a pretty easy journey, my mom and dad, Nancy and Emanuel (our family friends) and I all made it to Athens. The only noteworthy things so far are the amazing view of the Acropolis from our balcony and dinner at a delicious and authentic (aka tourist free) Greek restaurant in the Plaka district.

Coming attractions

2009-06-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Hey!

So I have been writing daily blog posts on my computer, but I'm not able to post them yet because of some silly complications. Bottom line, the trip is awesome and there is lots more info and photos to come.

XOXO
Andrea

Pre-Trip

2009-06-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends!
I set up this blog so we can keep in touch through out my two months abroad. Tonight I leave for Greece where I will probably have more limited access to the Internet, but I will try to keep this updated with what I have been up to. I also want to hear about what you guys are up to so feel free to send me e-mails!
XOXO
Andrea

P.S. I'm sure most of you already expect this, but i appologize a head of time for the frequent missspelling i'm sure you will find in my posts :)