So after our fun time in Austria with Konsti and his friends we were off to Germany. When we first arrived in Munich we immediately set up camp and headed off to see the Glockinspiel clock. It has a little show that goes on inside of the clock, some mechanical statue people turn and dance and twist and it was interesting to see. The entire square paused to watch the ten minute show and then we went out with our Australian friends, Laura and Olivia, to explore the town a bit before we had our German bierhaus dinner. The next day we went to Heidelberg in Germay. On the way we went to St.Goar, a small town that had a few specialty stores- Britt and Margaux bought Birkenstock shoes for a very affordable price, and there was also a Cuckoo clock and beer stein store right across the street. The majority of the day was spent driving but after we stopped in St. Goar we went to camp and set that up. It was pouring the whole time, so much so that our entire group upgraded to the cabins that were available instead of camping. It was Me, Marg and Britt all in one tent and then two other roommates shared a tent right next to us. Two tents were put up instead of the usual 24! The campsite was located right on the edge of a river and was pretty. Because of the rain we gathered in Laura and Olivia’s room and had a goodbye party with them where we just talked and drank. They were leaving the following night and we were sooo sad. We talked and laughed until it was time to sleep in the pouring rain. The tent was soaked by the morning, and we found a few of those huge slugs sliming on the outside of the tent. The next morning we were onto Amsterdam! We drove for several hours and got to our campsite around 4 pm. We rushed and put on our clothes and set up our tents and quickly got back on the bus to go back into the city to see Amsterdam at night…and to see a live sex show! The sex show was self-explanitory. It was several different couples having sex in a bunch of different positions. However graphic it may have been it was actually tastefully done and not dirty or gross as I thought it was going to be. After the show we walked around the Red Light District, famous for its fun and busy night life. There were prostitutes when you walked around the streets, but they were located inside of small rooms and all you could see was them standing behind glass doors illuminated by red lights. They were wearing very little amounts of underwear and had a lot of makeup on and were very smiley at everyone. They would wave at the guys and open their doors slightly to help lure them in.
I personally found Munich so interesting for its traditional cultural influence that seems so old-timey but still exists there. What I mean by this is that people all over, men and women of all ages wear their traditional German lieterhosen and German dresses, complete with extravagant hats and awesome checkered patterns. We all agreed that the people there were especially friendly as well!
After some time looking around the town we went to our bierhaus. I was at the peak of my sickness- having an unpleasant respiratory and sinus infection- made it not that appealing to be drinking beer in a large, loud hall…but somehow I managed to do it anyway ;)
For dinner, Margaux and Britt ordered the traditional food of the area, pork knuckle and chicken schnitzel. It looked amazing, and everyone around us who ordered it all agreed that it was absolutely amazing. After our dinner we went to town on the beer, which was served to us in big liter mugs. Needless to say, after a few of those I was feeling much better- and my sisters felt pretty good as well! After our dinner the bierhaus put on a nice little show for us, some dancing German girls who rang bells and twirled some hoops and things. The show was entertaining but it ended up being more of us talking to our friends rather than watching the show.
The next day we spent in Munich again with Laura and Olivia. We did a lot of shopping where Margaux bought a beautiful Cuckoo clock and I bought a sweet beer stein. We visited some churches and a few other sites, but we all agree that Munich is mostly a place to visit between September and early October when Oktoberfest takes place. The culture and food was awesome and we ate lunch that day at the Hofbrauhaus, the famous bierhaus of the area. In the gift shop we saw a video of Oktoberfest from 2010 and it looked incredible! I definitely am putting that on my bucket list when I go back to Europe one day!
The food at the Hofbrauhaus was very very good. We were all satisfied by the reasonably priced food (especially for Europe’s standards!) and the food was just incredible. I had a very good cream of vegetable soup, baked potato and pretzel, while Britt had a nice macaroni and cheese type thing and Margaux had some kind of German sausage. Laura had another pork knuckle and Olivia had a huge baked potato with a ton of fixings. Food in Germany is good!
After our lunch we spent a little while longer just exploring and looking around, and later met back up with our group to visit Dachau concentration camp. This camp was the first of its kind, and it is the first camp where the Nazis began conducting experiments on the Jewish people regarding the best ways to kill people. The camp was surreal, the pictures provided made it easy to be able to visualize the horrors that went on there. The camp was much bigger than I expected, but to be fair I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. We went inside the housing areas, which were built for 200 people but ended up fitting 2,000. We saw the gas chambers and crematories. All of these things were very sad and had that uncomfortable haunting feel to them.
The next day we left Germany and went into Switzerland. We were all excited for Switzerland because of how beautiful we knew it was going to be. We first arrived in Lucerne on a very rainy day, but regardless it was a cute little Swiss town with an awesome river running through it and huge beautiful swans swimming everywhere. We went to the Swiss watch and army knife store where Britt bought a really nice gray Swiss watch that she is very excited about. We had enough time to shop and do a quick look around before leaving for camp, which looked as if it was straight out of a movie- two waterfalls in the background, a river that ran through it, the greenest grass you will ever see, beautiful flowers, rolling fields, and of course the huge Swiss alps everywhere. It was very rainy when we arrived, and huge slugs were everywhere! The slugs were about as long and wide as a sweet pickle and they were everywhere you could have looked. They were brown with orange bottoms and left a trail of orangeish-yellow slime. After setting up camp a few of us organized a “slug race” and the rest is pretty self-explanitory…haha.
The next day we had the day to ourselves + Laura and Olivia in the Swiss alps. We had the option to take a cable car up to the top of the Alps, which would have been nice. We were very close to Jungfrau, which is the highest peak of the alps and technically the “top of Europe.” Unfortunately it was close to 200 euro to take the cable car, which is about $300 or so dollars. Out of our budget. :( But the pictures that were brought back by the people who went up there look amazing! While in the Alps on our free day we explored the little local town and then went to a secret waterfall that I can’t really explain, you’d just have to see pictures. The waterfall was in a crack of a canyon of the mountain and was pouring out so much water it was ridiculous! We enjoyed a nice nap on a nice hill and frolicked in a field of flowers. We watched people skydive and cliff jump all day, and watched peolpe on parachutes sail down. Switzerland was awesome! We loved it there.
We got to our camp very late that night and woke up early the next day to go see the town of Edam, a very cute and quaint Dutch town. We walked around and enjoyed the windmills and beautiful canals and people watched. After the town we went to see how they make cheese, which was interesting, and then also how they make clogs. Both were very cool to see. After our demonstrations we went back downtown to meet with Evelina. She took us to lunch at a really nice restaurant and afterwards took us to her favorite park in the area. It was really nice because it was an area we would have never known about had she not agreed to meet up with us! After our walk around the park she treated us once more to some Dutch fast food. She shared with us some food that was Aunt April’s favorite when she came to visit Amsterdam with Alex and Claire- I think they were called “Bitter balls”? I had a really good cheese pastry, and it tasted like it was fried.. yuuummmm.. We all enjoyed our time with her and after the Dutch fast food we parted ways with Evelina and went to the Anne Frank museum.
It was the museum that was the actual house that her family moved into after she moved from Germany and her family was forced to go into hiding. We walked through her and her family’s bedrooms, read some pages of her journal, etc. It was interesting because there were real interviews from her father and Miep Gies that were very interesting to see. All and all we were glad we went there.
After the museum it was late and time to meet back up with our tour group. We went back to camp and started to pack up our clothes and organize our suitcases and such, because the next day was an early drive day to get back to the ferry to London.
Early this morning we woke up and said goodbye to some friends who were flying out of Amsterdam. We packed down our tents and had a quick breakfast before spending the majority of the day driving from Amsterdam through Belgium and back into France. We took the ferry at Calais back to Dover, where it was a two hour drive back to London. We finally reached London and said a sad goodbye to all our friends… after 46 days of being constantly together, it was very strange to think that we may never see (some of) them again! But hopefully we’ll be able to meet our close friends some other time. Now we’re back in London at the same hostel where we started our trip. We have tomorrow to explore London, then a flight to Dublin tomorrow night. The next day we spend in Dublin and on a tour of the Giant’s Causeway. Then the next morning we fly home from Dublin Airport! This will probably be the last post before we come home, but expect lots of pictures once we get back. We’re all very excited to come home and have clean clothes, a roof over our heads, and to finally see our family again!
-Sydney 7/22/11
(this is a rough draft that im posting in a hurry so forgive the “??” haha)
After another long day of driving we finally got to Croatia! What a gorgeous country- most of our drive was along the coast on a scenic highway, with incredible views of the sea on one side and mountains on the other. We got to our campsite where we’d be spending the next 3 nights and set up camp. The next morning started bright and early with a tour of Dubrovnik, a beautiful little city. The Old Town is surrounded by a tall stone wall, and all the buildings inside the walls are made of the same white stone, with green shutters on the windows. The roads are also all paved in similar stone, and no cars are allowed inside the Old Town walls. We were surprised to hear that Croatia was at war with neighboring countries in Eastern Europe as recently as the 1990’s. The entire city was badly damaged by air raids, but thankfully they rebuilt it almost exactly as it once was.
After our city tour we had a few hours to wander around before our Croatian island cruise began. We all got onto a large sailboat-esque ship and the captain drove us to two different islands near Dubrovnik. The first island was a swimming stop, where everyone jumped off the boat into the gorgeously blue and clear (but a little chilly!) water. There was no beach, just a rocky coast covered in sea urchins, so we used the boat as a diving platform. It was really fun to watch everyone doing crazy jumps, flips, and dives into the water! After about an hour we piled back onto the boat and drove to another island, where we had another few hours to explore. The boat pulled up at a dock and we climbed out to grab some lunch. Some people decided to skip lunch and get some more beach time (this island had a real sand beach, which was a treat for us!) but the rest of the group wandered along the coast to one of the many little cafes along the beach. Once our time was up we all got back on the boat and headed back to a port near our campsite, had dinner, and got into bed to rest up for the next day in Dubrovnik.
The next day was a totally free day in Dubrovnik- after breakfast at the campsite everyone was on their own for the rest of the day. Syd, Britt, and I caught a bus into town with our two closest friends on the tour, another pair of sisters from Australia named Laura and Olivia. Laura is 21 and Olivia is 19 so they fit right in with Syd, Britt, and me! We got to town at around 10am and spent a few hours wandering through the Old Town, looking at the cute souvenier shops, old churches, and fountains. After we were all shopped out, we headed to a beach just outside the city walls. It was a gorgeous pebble beach with an amazing view of the city and some neighboring islands. We relaxed at the beach for another few hours until we deecided to go back into the city to get dinner. We ended up at a really cute little restaurant in a skinny little alley, with delicious seafood! Laura and I got the seafood risotto, Britt got a seafood pasta dish, and Syd and Olivia got spaghetti. When we had finished our dinner the sun was just starting to set, so we headed to the harbor to watch the sun go down over the city. After it had gotten completely dark, we took the bus back to our campsite and fell into bed. All in all it was a perfect day- we didn’t have anywhere to be or anything to do, so it was really nice to just relax and enjoy ourselves! We all agreed that Dubrovnik was one of our favorite cities we’ve seen, and we would all love to come back someday.
The next morning we were sad to leave Dubrovnik, but we packed up the bus and headed on to Zadar. Halfway through the day we stopped at the Croatian city of Split for a few hours. It was very similar to Dubrovnik in that it was another beautiful, old, coastal town. Split is home to the palace of Diocletian, an Ancient Roman emperor. The palace is mostly in ruins now but it was still interesting to see the remains of the once-enormous palace. We got back on the bus and kept driving on to Zadar, where we camped for the evening. The next moring we left Zadar and headed into Hungary. Our tour of the city started early the next morning at the Castle District of Budapest, which is an area with many castles, churches, and palaces on top of one of the hills of the city. We then continued with a driving tour of the rest of the city- we got a great view of some of the bridges that cross the Danube River, as well as Hero’s Square and some beautiful art museums in the city. The bus dropped us off in the shopping district and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We spent quite a bit of time looking through the stores in the area, just wandering around browsing through the souveniers and clothing. We then headed to the Terror Museum, a really interesting museum that described the horrifying events that took place in Budapest during the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Budapest in WWII. The building itself was the site the imprisonment, torture, and execution of hundreds of innocent citizens who were believed to be opposing the occupying forces, making the whole experience very eerie and surreal. They had restored the basement, where much of the violence took place, to what it looked like during the 1940-50’s, which was very creepy. There were jail cells smaller than a closet, where a prisoner couldn’t sit or even move around, cells with 6 inches of water at the bottom, so the prisoner had to sit or stand in water at all times, cells that were too small to stand up straight inside, and special torture and execution rooms. We all agreed that it was an eerie feeling to know that such horrible things had gone on in the same place where you were now standing. After a few hours at the museum we headed towards a park to relax for a while, and then headed back to the main area of Budapest to find a restaurant for dinner. We all had traditional Hungarian dinners- Britt had Goulash, a type of Hungarian stew, Laura, Olivia, and I had Paprika Chicken (YUUUM) and Syd and our other vegetarian friend Shabana had ?????, a vegetarian meal with peppers and tomatoes. We hung out in the restaurant for a while until it was time to meet up with the group again and head back to camp. We had a really great time in Budapest, despite the fact that it was the hottest day there in 70 years! It was definitely in the high 90’s and pretty humid all day- not the best weather for exploring a city. But we still managed to enjoy ourselves!
The next day was a short drive day to Vienna, Austria. We got to camp pretty early in the afternoon, set up camp, and then headed off to Prater Fun Park, an amusment park about 20 minutes away from our campsite. We had four hours to get dinner and ride the rides, but we decided not to go on any rides. Admission to the park was free, but each ride cost between 3 and 7 euros, depending on the ride. None of us were really interested in going on any rides because we have 6 Flags back in Illinois, where the rides are much better and way cheaper! Prater Fun Park reminded me of a permanent Heritage Festival- the rides were similar in style, but they were usually a little larger and there were more of them. They were also selling typical carnival food like hot dogs, cotton candy, caramel apples, and slushies. After our evening there we headed back to the campsite for the night.
The next morning we left for Vienna very early, as our campsite was about 45 minutes outside the city. We had a driving tour around the Ring Road, a road that circles the city and passes most of the main sights in Vienna. After our driving tour, we headed to St Stephen’s Cathedral to look at the gorgeous church and shop around in the surrounding area. We stopped in the Swarovski shop, which was first founded in Vienna, and admired all the gorgeous crystal decorations and jewelry. We then went back to the Cathedral to take a tour of the catacombs. It was very interesting but a little creepy- there were piles of bones in some of the rooms left from the black plague hundreds of years ago. The catacombs were used as a cemetary for the public for many years, so when they started to run out of room they made local prisoners take apart the dead bodies, polish the bones, and stack them like firewood in many of the chambers. It was so eerie to see piles and piles of human bones- some of them were stacked into a wall, studded with skulls. We were all scaring ourselves imagining how creepy it would be if the lights went out!
We finished our tour of the catacombs and went to see the Spanish Riding School, a training school for Lippannzer stallions. We wanted to watch their practice session but we got there too late and were very disappointed. However, we noticed a small crowd of people surrounding the entrance to the stables and decided to stick around and see what was going on. After a few minutes of waiting, two men on horseback and a man driving a 4-horse carriage left the stable and went into the arena- we were inches away from them as they walked past. A few minutes later, a line of mother horses with their babies walked into the stable. We were so excited to see the beautiful white horses and their adorable little brown babies (they are born brown and turn white as they get older). After that, we weren’t so upset that we missed their practice session!
We left the stables and went to the Sachter??????????????? Hotel, home of the world famous Sachter Torte. We all ordered a slice and loved every bite! The Sachter Torte is a delicious chocolate cake, with some kind of orange filling, chocolate ganache coating, and a dollop of unsweetened cream on the side. It was sooo good! We then got back on the bus to take a tour of the Schnapps Museum. The cute old man whose grandfather started the company gave a very fun and interesting history of his company and the different kinds of alcohol they make. We all loved the Schnapps samples we got at the end of the tour! There were lots of different flavors to try- butterscotch, cherry, lemon (with real gold flakes in the bottle), banana chocolate, and more. When the tour was done we headed over to Schombrunn ??????????????? Palace, a gorgeous palace with incredible gardens. We didn’t have very much time there and were disappointed to leave after about 45 minutes, because the gardens were so enormous that we hadn’t even gotten close to seeing them all.
We then went back to camp for dinner, and then headed back into Vienna to meet up with Konsti, Britt’s friend from high school. Konsti lives in Vienne and went to DGN for 6 months, so Britt was excited to meet up with him again. Konsti, and his friends Liza, Consti, and Lena, were great hosts who were very excited to show us Vienna. We hung out at a bar for a few hours and enjoyed our Austrian beer before we tried to get into a local club. Too bad for us that the line for the club was waay too long, so we just decided to go home. We were very sad to leave our new Austrian friends becase we were having a great time with them, but hopefully we’ll see them again someday!
We left Vienna the next morning, crossed into the Czech Republic, and stopped in the charming mideival town of Cesky Krumlov for lunch. The town was adorable- cobblestone streets with pretty red-roofed houses, a beautiful castle on the hill above town, and a river winding through all of it. We climbed up the hill to the castle and got a great view of the town and the river- gorgeous! Now we’re on our way to Prague, where tonight we’ll go on a pub crawl in downtown Prague and tomorrow we tour the city. We’re getting close to the end of the trip- it seems like we’ve been traveling forever, but at the same time everything is going by so quickly! We have less than 2 weeks until we are back in Illinois… I can’t believe it!
-Margaux 7/18/11
Anonymous asked: Do you see much American culture in countries like Macedonia or Albania? McDonalds restaurants, NBA Labron James posters, Lady Gaga songs on the radio, TV shows from USA???
Love Dad.
I was pleasantly surprised to find so many American flags in Albania! On the fourth of July Margaux reportedly saw “four fireworks!” Other than that, McDonads and Burger king were in some really isolated stops along the Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania area, and we have heard a lot of American pop music, and most people speak English, if not fluent they at least can communicate basic words.
Love you dad!
-syd 7/6/11
We packed up in Sofia, Bulgaria and got back into a long drive day to Macedonia. The best part of these long drive days is the view out of the coach windows. The huge, lush mountains are so beautiful and serene. I didn’t really have any expectations on what Eastern Europe would be like, but I definitely did not expect to be enjoying such beautiful scenery. I wouldn’t exactly say coach days are my favorite part of this trip, but they’re a necessity to get from place to place so we make the best out of them. We have a few campers with large movie libraries on their laptops so we’ve already watched a handful of movies. It can be a little frustrating due to the fact that our service stops occur every hour and a half to two hours, so finding a movie that fits our time span can be a challenge. It’s happened once or twice that we get to the last fifteen minutes of a movie, sometimes even the last minute, and the bus has to stop. Haha it’s something small but it gets to be annoying when the movie cuts out of the exciting final battle of Avatar or the nail-biting conclusion to The Town. We haven’t found a way to fast forward the movies yet, so when the bus stops, the movie’s over whether we like it or not. When we aren’t watching movies, someone’s ipod is being broadcast over the speakers and you can find most people sleeping uncomfortably in the bus’ seats. It has become a challenge to take a photo of each person in their prime sleeping state. There are some pretty priceless pictures of people with their mouths open, tounges exposed, neck bent awkwardly in their seat. There are even pictures of people with their gum resting on their lip or someone else’s pistaccio shell carefully placed in their mouth. When the seats are almost perfectly upright, finding sleep isn’t pretty but it’s something that all of us manage to find at least once on a drive day. Rest stops usually last 50 minutes and give everyone the opportunity to take a bathroom break or grab a snack at the convenience store or gas station. Some of us play with a soccer ball or a frisbee to pass the time and do something fun while we’re off the bus, while others seek out the free wifi on their iphones. At the end of the break, it’s back on the bus for the next few hours! But anywayyy… When we arrived at our campsite in Macedonia, we were again pleasantly surprised by the amazing views provided by the surrounding mountains and a beautiful lake. The sun was setting so the sky was painted a gorgeous blue-orange. Plenty of pictures were taken, no worries. We all set up camp and had a spaghetti dinner with salad, veggies and garlic bread. Dinner was followed by a dessert which consisted of some Macedonian cakes. These turned out to be some really delicious assorted cookies, similar to a Fig Newtons in taste and consistency. After dinner, some of the guys put together a bonfire and a lot of people called it an early night. The next day we drove to Albania. I was less than impressed with the city, simply for the reason that it looked like it needed another twenty years to get it together. Lots of construction is going on and there are tons of buildings covered in scaffolding, machines waiting to be used. In a decade or two, it will be a beautiful tourist destination but for now, there wasn’t much to do. When we got to our hotel, it was a spectacular hilltop view of the city and the rooms were the biggest and nicest we’ve seen. We were placed in a full apartment, complete with five beds, two bathrooms, one full kitchen, a dining room, a living room and two balconies which overlooked the mountains and city of Tirana, Albania. They served us dinner and then we had the night free. It was the Fourth of July so the six of us Americans that are on the tour got some patriotic pen-drawn tattoos and sang along to some American songs. We were suprised to find that there were some fireworks going off in the city below. I have to admit though that it doesn’t quite feel like the Fourth of July without barbeques, firecrackers and your family and friends!
So now we’re on to Croatia :] We have a tour of the city and an island cruise tomorrow and a free day after that. Can’t wait!
-Brittania 7/5/11
nellabellaboo asked: did any of you get mistaken for Italian pop stars while you were in Rome?
hahaha no we didn’t but there was lots of singing that one Lizzie McGuire song…
yesterday in the Grand Bazaar in Turkey though, right when we walked in a man asks Sydney, “Hello excuse me, are you Shakira?” haha so she was pretty happy about that. Then later another shop keeper said, “Oh my god, it’s the Spice Girls!” And a man on the street asked us, “Hello, what part of Paradise are you from?” hahaha so lots of very friendly men in Turkey!
Any questions or comments?! We miss everyone and would love to hear from you guys!!
Anonymous asked: Are y'all going to Italy? Their food is the best. Actually, I'm curious- lemme know which European country has the best food of all! -Josh Smith
Josh Italy’s food was soooo delish! I really enjoyed the Gelato and of course the Pizza. So far though, I personally have enjoyed something from everywhere. Each place has at least one food that they’re famous for so I’ve tried to sample that food and I can’t think of a time I haven’t enjoyed what I’m eating! I love food too much :]
So here we are, more than halfway through the trip! It’s a really weird feeling. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone that long yet when I think back to our first city on the tour (Paris) it feels like that was forever ago. I’m very excited for this leg of the trip though because I think it will be more of a cultural experience. We’ll be exploring places and seeing things that are so different and that not many people have even heard of- which is really exciting to me :] Leaving beautiful Corfu, Greece was tough but we were all very excited to explore Athens. We had one long driving day in between but when we finally arrived to Athens, we set up camp and prepared for a big sightseeing day in the morning. We met our tour guide at the bottom of the Acropolis (which means “big hill”) and she lead us up to the top where the famous Parthenon is located. It was absolutely amazing to see, simply for its pure size and history. The guide gave us a thorough history on the buildings atop the Acropolis- including Athena’s temple and the Greek Kariatides which are the standing female statues that act like columns on one of their temples. All of this brought me back to my freshman year Global Connections class where we learned about the Greeks and their architechture. My teacher was very enthusiastic about these Kariatides and I was equally enthusiastic to be seeing them among the Parthenon and the other structures on the Acropolis. We learned about Athena’s temple and the Greek’s reasoning for building it there. The guide told us that Athena Nike (pronounced “Nikki”) was the goddess of victory and the Greeks beleved that if they built her temple atop the Acropolis, she would forever watch over them and grant them continued victory. The guide also said this is why the athletic company called “Nike” chose its name. After leaving the Acropolis, we got back on the bus for our city tour past Zeus’ temple, the Olympic Stadium (which is in preparation for the 2011 Summer Special Olympics), saw the Olympic Flame, and lots of other ancient structures and ruins. After the city tour, we started our free day off by heading to the Plaka markets to do some budget shopping with a few of our friends. We grabbed lunch in the Plaka and then explored some side streets until we stumbled upon the temple of Hephaestus and the ancient Agora. So much of the city looks like it could be on a post card. Most of it is anyway! We had an exhausting day of walking all over Athens and ended the night with a farewell dinner for the ten campers that would be leaving in the morning.
The next morning we geared up for another long driving day to Kavala, Greece. Along the way we stopped at the Spartan Thermopylae to see where the movie ‘300’ is based around. We camped in a secluded site for the night and woke up early again to drive into Turkey! We drove into the beautiful yet tragic hills of Gallipoli where we stopped at ANZAC Cove. This is where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) fought the Turkish in an attempt to gain access to the penninsula. It was an incredibly tragic battle fought by young men starting from age sixteen who were unaware of their almost certain death at ANZAC Cove against the Turkish forces. Many people compare the battle at ANZAC Cove to the horror and sadness experienced by the Americans on 9/11. It is a nationally remembered holiday for both Australians and New Zealanders to remember those who fought and died for their countries. We took some time to enjoy the beauty and silent tranquility of the beach of ANZAC Cove as well as the cemetaries, monuments and trenches availible for visitors to pay their respects to the soldiers. The next day we started off with a tour of Troy from a local guide. He told us about the story of the wooden horse and the Trojan civilization as well as its evolution. We didn’t arrive to Istanbul until later so we had just enough time to clean up for dinner at the hotel and then explore a nearby Shisha (also known as Hookah) bar for the rest of the evening. The next day started off with a walking tour of Istanbul and a visit inside the Blue Mosque. It was absolutely stunning and so big! It was a really cool cultural experience to see where the people of Istanbul come to worship. Later that day we observed the call to prayer where citizens are called via loudspeakers all over town to report to a mosque to pray. We spent the day exploring the Grand Bazaar, a seemingly endless market of beautiful shops. They were all so colorful! The shop keepers were selling authentic mosaic lamps, genuine Pashmina scarves, all sorts of jewelry and so many other vibrant things. Later in the day we ended up going into the underground Cistern which was probably my favorite part of the day. It was so beautifully lit and all the collumns and arches were stunning. The pictures don’t do it any justice. That night, some of us girls headed into Asia for dinner! It was a delicious, filling and veryyy cheap meal (thanks to the conversion to Turkish Lira currency) of lamb kebabs, Turkish pizzas and Turkish salads followed by some warm apple tea. Yum! We said goodbye to Turkey the next morning and had a long day of driving into Bulgaria where we got to explore its quiet capital city, Sofia. At the moment, I’m enjoying our surprisingly lavish hotel room’s air conditioning, free wifi and best of all- real beds and zero bugs :] Tomorrow we’re off to Macedonia! More to come, love you all :] -Brittania
helllooooo family and friends :]
today’s sunday the 26th and im sitting in the open lounge at our campsite waiting for mom to come on skype (cough…mom…) haha. So i believe the last update left off at our first night in Corfu, Greece. The second day in Corfu we all woke up nice and early to catch “George’s boat” a famous Contiki day trip. George, an infamously big bellied, jolly Greek man with a dirty sense of humor picked us up in his boat around 10am. Right off the bat, George got us laughing by playing the song “I’m on a Boat” by the Lonely Island as we sailed to our first stop- Water sports! When we docked at water sports, everyone got off the boat and half of us jumped in the crystal clear water while the others set up towels on the beautiful pebble beach. It was already scorching hot and it was only 10:30am. We got to watch lots of our friends parasail in the perfect blue sky while some of them also paid to knee board and tube in the Greek waters. We had fun for our two hour stop jumping artfully off of the pier and just swimming. The water was the perfect temperature :]
We took two more “swimming stops” at some beautiful secluded beaches and had a delicious lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches and lots of tzatziki sauce and “hot chips” (as the Australian and New Zealand-ers call french fries). It was delicious and everyone ate tonnnssss. Our third swimming stop left us at “Skinny Dippy Island.” We’ll just leave it at that haha…
After one more swimming stop everyone climbed back on to the boat and George called the campers from each country to stand on the front boat platform to sing their national anthem as well as another song representative of their homeland. We saw the Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans, United Kingdom-ers and Koreans belt out their songs with pride. We then learned some traditional Greek dances and finally arrived back at camp. Even after constant reapplications of sun screen it’s safe to say everyone got sunburned from the day on George’s boat.
Our third and final day in Corfu consisted of lounging on the beach and by the pool, napping in the shade, snacking at the beach cafe and just relaxing. This part of the tour is called Contiki’s “Vacation within the vacation.” It was so nice to just kick back and do nothing after almost three weeks of constant “go-go-go” days. That night, we all piled in a shuttle bus and drove to a nearby hotel where the hotel version of our trip was hosting a Toga Party. We all got lessons on tying a toga and had a good time dancing and mingling with the other Contiki tour groups for the night!
Then this morning we woke up bright and early and caught our ferry from Corfu to main land Greece. Some of the other campers have some pretty hilarious pictures of everyone sleeping on the benches and floors of the ferry. Imagine nearly fifty people laying next to and on top of each other, sprawled across benches and tables after a fun night at the toga party. It was quite the sight :] After the ferry, our bus took us on a long day of driving through Greece to Athens where we set up camp, had dinner and prepared for our big free day in Athens tomorrow! I can’t wait to see all of the sites :] apparently Contiki provides us with a ticket that gets us in to see all of the museums and monuments so it should hopefully be a cheap day haha. We’ll try to post some pictures afterwards and I have lotsss of videos on the Flip camera that I’ll try to post on here as well.
Well we say goodbye to the Southern Trailers tomorrow night (who came on the first half of the trip) and we meet the Northern Trekkers the next morning (who will be with us for the second half of the trip). It’ll be a bittersweet goodbye but im confident that we’ll be able to stay in touch thanks to the beauty of Facebook and Blogs :] Love you all, hope everyone is happy and healthy at home! Keep posting comments, it’s great to hear from you all!
xoxo
-Brittania
Anonymous asked: How are the Contiki tour campers in your group? Did it rain at all? Hope not. Miss you lots. Ziggy says hi. He misses all of you. He had a good dream last night yipping in his sleep...love,mom
Most campers are good- as far as people goes I think we have an alright group!
-syd thurs/23
