once again! copied from xanga! mwahahaha!
Is an update in order? I think it is.
Where to start?
I've told a few people about Turkey, but for those of you who aren't cool enough to be in HV right now or have trouble listening to me, I shall report. Basically, it was amazing. We saw the shores of Gallipoli, where Austrailian and New Zealanders stormed the beaches of Turkey so that the Allies could gain access to Russia through the Black Sea, the ruins of Troy, Pergamum, and Ephesus, the white calcium cliffs of Pamukkale and Cleopatra's Pool, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We met up with a pretty awesome tour full of Aussies and Kiwis; apparently they come to Turkey a lot. There were a lot of things I didn't realize about Turkey actually. One thing that's amazing about the country is where they are. Location, location, location. Not only is half of their capital city in Europe and half in Asia, but they have Mediterranean cities, Russian influenced cities, border the Middle East, and most of their population is descended from ancient Asian tribes which invaded the country. It makes for an interesting culture. Istanbul was fascinating by itself, and then the rest of the trip (not including the 12 hour overnight bus ride) was even more amazing. I could gush about climbing over ruins that I've read about since I was 7, or seeing places and art I studied in Art History and the awesome availability of fake Ray Bans, but I won't. What was also pretty great was the bus. Like and air conditioned paradise from site to site. Turkey is really beautiful too. The coastal cities are so gorgeous; go look up a picture of Izmir or Kusadasi, I dare you. I would totally learn Turkish and retire there. Also, best candy bars ever: Albeni's. Yum.
Enough of Turkey. There was nothing bad about that entire trip, except for puking on the plane ride home. That did kind of suck....
The semester ended pretty well. *Goes to check grades because have previously forgotten that they are up by now.* It did indeed end well. Maybe this next semester will go just as well. I'll cross my fingers. It was strange packing things up and making sure that whatever fell under the bed or behind the desk wouldn't remain in London forever. The room looked odd all organized and clean. I met my mom at the airport and we flew to Rome and then met up with my Nana and Papa and my Uncle Mark. The cruise ship left from Rome's port city Civitavvechia, but before we boarded, I actually got to see the Spanish steps and ancient ruins and the outside of the Coliseum. I would have loved to go in but we didn't have time to wait in line. My mom eased my disappoint by buying me some pistachio ice cream.
cruise ships are pretty amazing. When I went to Alaska with my family I kind of knew that, because the steward there was really nice and made us animals out of our washcloths, but this stateroom was really nice. My mom and I kind of got tired of each other after two weeks of sharing the same room, but I think my mom has a lot of stress inside of her and it's hard for her to let go. And since I pretty much do whatever I want regardless of how my constant laziness will annoy others, she was ready to nag at me. Probably plans it out while I'm at school, haha. Because the whole semester was full of me planning trips and being the organizer for everyone, I hadn't really paid attention to the cities were were going to on the trip. so everything kind of became a nice surprise. Like I had no idea we would be going to France. Of course, I never realized that Monaco was in the south of France so...there ya go. Our first stop was Monte Carlo, but our bus tour actually took us to St. Paul de Vence, a medieval town up on a hilltop, and Grasse, where we toured a perfumerie and saw how everything is made. Did you know it takes 1 ton of roses for 1 kilo of rose "essence"? And 1 kilo of essence only makes about 8 bottles of perfume. So there are more flowers on earth than I thought. All of the names are goofy things like Isla d'Amour and Belle Nuit, and I got some rub on perfume that's called Papa Cherie, ironically enough. Walking around a medieval city cum artist colony is curious, because there's a studio for every souvenir shop. Makes the souvenirs pretty unique though. After France we headed back to Italy and went to the port of Florence, where Pisa is. We actually went up in the tower, by complete chance, because another tour group and canceled their hard earned tickets. It's way higher than you think and way more...leaning. Scary, actually. After that was Naples and we took a walking tour through Pompeii. Honestly, just look at my pictures of Facebook. It's huge and sprawling and SO close to Vesuvius, which looks deceptively calm. They must have really enjoyed the view...
After Italy we bumped around the Greek islands from Santorini (sunniest place on earth my ass, it rained) and Mykonos, went to Kusadasi and Ephesus in Turkey, where I'd already been, and then back to Athens and Corfu. Greece is pretty amazing, obviously full of mythology and ruins and amphitheatres. Sadly, after our tour in Corfu, my idolized goddess of a camera fell out of my bag! The screen cracked, as did my heart.
The cruise ended in Venice and my mother and I spent a day and a half extra in the city. The Grand Canal is big, for the narrow canals usually associated with Venice, and the place is SO damn expensive. We were spending $50 on lunch for the two of us. And that was at cheap places. But the food was so good. And I'm in love with Greek salads, from Greece, not from home. Although the Greek place we went to last night was pretty good, huh? Feta and olives.....mmmm. Something great about visiting foreign places is that when you watch movies later (like Casino Royale) you can identify where the characters are and marvel at the fact that they're standing where you've stood.
Anyway, my mom and I headed back to London to pick up the rest of my stuff, saw the Phantom of the Opera (!) and then I finally got back to American soil. Sigh.
Where to start?
I've told a few people about Turkey, but for those of you who aren't cool enough to be in HV right now or have trouble listening to me, I shall report. Basically, it was amazing. We saw the shores of Gallipoli, where Austrailian and New Zealanders stormed the beaches of Turkey so that the Allies could gain access to Russia through the Black Sea, the ruins of Troy, Pergamum, and Ephesus, the white calcium cliffs of Pamukkale and Cleopatra's Pool, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We met up with a pretty awesome tour full of Aussies and Kiwis; apparently they come to Turkey a lot. There were a lot of things I didn't realize about Turkey actually. One thing that's amazing about the country is where they are. Location, location, location. Not only is half of their capital city in Europe and half in Asia, but they have Mediterranean cities, Russian influenced cities, border the Middle East, and most of their population is descended from ancient Asian tribes which invaded the country. It makes for an interesting culture. Istanbul was fascinating by itself, and then the rest of the trip (not including the 12 hour overnight bus ride) was even more amazing. I could gush about climbing over ruins that I've read about since I was 7, or seeing places and art I studied in Art History and the awesome availability of fake Ray Bans, but I won't. What was also pretty great was the bus. Like and air conditioned paradise from site to site. Turkey is really beautiful too. The coastal cities are so gorgeous; go look up a picture of Izmir or Kusadasi, I dare you. I would totally learn Turkish and retire there. Also, best candy bars ever: Albeni's. Yum.
Enough of Turkey. There was nothing bad about that entire trip, except for puking on the plane ride home. That did kind of suck....
The semester ended pretty well. *Goes to check grades because have previously forgotten that they are up by now.* It did indeed end well. Maybe this next semester will go just as well. I'll cross my fingers. It was strange packing things up and making sure that whatever fell under the bed or behind the desk wouldn't remain in London forever. The room looked odd all organized and clean. I met my mom at the airport and we flew to Rome and then met up with my Nana and Papa and my Uncle Mark. The cruise ship left from Rome's port city Civitavvechia, but before we boarded, I actually got to see the Spanish steps and ancient ruins and the outside of the Coliseum. I would have loved to go in but we didn't have time to wait in line. My mom eased my disappoint by buying me some pistachio ice cream.
cruise ships are pretty amazing. When I went to Alaska with my family I kind of knew that, because the steward there was really nice and made us animals out of our washcloths, but this stateroom was really nice. My mom and I kind of got tired of each other after two weeks of sharing the same room, but I think my mom has a lot of stress inside of her and it's hard for her to let go. And since I pretty much do whatever I want regardless of how my constant laziness will annoy others, she was ready to nag at me. Probably plans it out while I'm at school, haha. Because the whole semester was full of me planning trips and being the organizer for everyone, I hadn't really paid attention to the cities were were going to on the trip. so everything kind of became a nice surprise. Like I had no idea we would be going to France. Of course, I never realized that Monaco was in the south of France so...there ya go. Our first stop was Monte Carlo, but our bus tour actually took us to St. Paul de Vence, a medieval town up on a hilltop, and Grasse, where we toured a perfumerie and saw how everything is made. Did you know it takes 1 ton of roses for 1 kilo of rose "essence"? And 1 kilo of essence only makes about 8 bottles of perfume. So there are more flowers on earth than I thought. All of the names are goofy things like Isla d'Amour and Belle Nuit, and I got some rub on perfume that's called Papa Cherie, ironically enough. Walking around a medieval city cum artist colony is curious, because there's a studio for every souvenir shop. Makes the souvenirs pretty unique though. After France we headed back to Italy and went to the port of Florence, where Pisa is. We actually went up in the tower, by complete chance, because another tour group and canceled their hard earned tickets. It's way higher than you think and way more...leaning. Scary, actually. After that was Naples and we took a walking tour through Pompeii. Honestly, just look at my pictures of Facebook. It's huge and sprawling and SO close to Vesuvius, which looks deceptively calm. They must have really enjoyed the view...
After Italy we bumped around the Greek islands from Santorini (sunniest place on earth my ass, it rained) and Mykonos, went to Kusadasi and Ephesus in Turkey, where I'd already been, and then back to Athens and Corfu. Greece is pretty amazing, obviously full of mythology and ruins and amphitheatres. Sadly, after our tour in Corfu, my idolized goddess of a camera fell out of my bag! The screen cracked, as did my heart.
The cruise ended in Venice and my mother and I spent a day and a half extra in the city. The Grand Canal is big, for the narrow canals usually associated with Venice, and the place is SO damn expensive. We were spending $50 on lunch for the two of us. And that was at cheap places. But the food was so good. And I'm in love with Greek salads, from Greece, not from home. Although the Greek place we went to last night was pretty good, huh? Feta and olives.....mmmm. Something great about visiting foreign places is that when you watch movies later (like Casino Royale) you can identify where the characters are and marvel at the fact that they're standing where you've stood.
Anyway, my mom and I headed back to London to pick up the rest of my stuff, saw the Phantom of the Opera (!) and then I finally got back to American soil. Sigh.