Back Blogging

So I just rediscovered this blog after what seems like 2 years of neglect. Worry not readers, the blog was not the only thing that has been neglected over the past 2 years...

Anyway, in discussions with Rai and our upcoming trip (New Orleans, if anyone cares) we talked about finishing the current trip, plus "back blogging" (or BB for short) our past trips. We've taken a few so it will take a bit of brain wracking to try to remember all the details and nuances that made the trips so great.

Some of the trips we hope to discuss in the BB process are (in no particular order):

• Jamaica
• Paris
• Washington DC
• New York City (halloween 2009)
• Contiki (Spain, France, Italy)
• London/Edinburgh
• hawaii
• Costa Rica

Hopefully you'll be interested enough or still care enough to meander through our travels.

I'll be honest, it's more of an archive for us, so we freaking remember where we went and what we did. Of course we have photos and memories, but to write all of this down is pretty fun as well. Reading back on the entries, there were so many things we did that I had forgotten, but after reading, I was transported right back to the trip and time. It's pretty great when you think about it.

Anyway, until we meet again.

--Lu (and Rachel :) )

I don't like Vienna Sausages, but I do like Vienna the City!

We spent the morning in Salzburg but we didn't have too long as we were taking the train to Vienna. I never realized how many trains we'd actually be taking. I think the next time I would definitely rent a car (with GPS of course) to tour the Austrian countryside. I think it would probably be much more managable. Plus I could totally go check out the Swarovski place...but I digress.

For our morning in Salzburg we went to the Mozartplatz and had breakfast at Demel. It was a really cute place. I noticed that most of the places we went to in Salzburg were pretty fancy looking. The previous night we were at Carpe Diem and that place was fancy, and then this morning at Demel. We are really classing it up this trip. Anyway, after breakfast we did some quick souvie shopping...there was a group of Euro teens buying beanies at the shop and they kept saying "gangsta, is this gangsta" in European accents. AWESOME.

We boarded the train for Vienna--It was a 4 hour train ride. Luckily there were no stops and so we were just cruising along at a clip pace. It rained almost the entire time on our voyage. When we got in to Vienna we had to split into 2 cabs. The cab driver that Rachel and I had was hilarious. He was super stoked that he was driving some Americans around (that's a rarity in this day and age) and he gave us a bunch of fun facts about the neighborhoods and the city as he drove us to "the Abbey" aka Haus Zamorsky Wien. My favorite part of the ride is when someone jumped out in front of him out of no where and he just started yelling and cussing them out in German. It was sweet.

After getting settled in to the house, we went out for some groceries, flipped on the TV where I discovered VIVA (another music channel that also shows MTV shows...I think it's the equivelent of VH1) and also discovered this magic.

Watch the video link for my German Hip Hop friend Jimi Blue. Prepare to be blown away with pure unabashed awesome.

With that I end this day in Vienna.

The Hills ARE alive with the Sound of Music

Oh Salzburg....the day I had been waiting for. The place I had associated all my Austrian references with.

After our day at Oktoberfest, we came back to Kitzbuhel and prepared our bags for a long leg of our trip, we decided to return to Kitzbuhel from Prague, so we could spend more time with Belli and her family before returning home. This also meant we could leave behind some of our things before heading off! I ended up leaving quite a few things at the house including my dirndl--that thing is bulky man!

We headed off on the train to Salzburg--Dad dropped us off at the train station. Can I just mention how much I love the Zamorsky parentals?? They are so cute. Such a lovely family. I can't say enough pleasant things about them. Seriously. Love. these. people!!

We got to Salzburg in the early afternoon and stowed our bags in a locker. We got outside it was pretty overcast. We walked to the city center where we would meet our tour group. On the way there was this cute restaurant that Tracy had eaten at previously so we went there for some food. I had the Viennese style fried chicken. It was SO good. It came with the traditional potato salad...which I liked--strange because I hate potato salad here. No gracias. They don't use mayo so I think that's where the happiness lies. The restaurant was so cute and the food was delicious. A perfect way to start our next Austrian adventure.

After our meal, we went over to the kiosk to pick up our tickets. They had a sound of music painted bus. Yes!!! I was so excited, they also had this cow statue that had all these images of the Sound of Music movie. It was cool. Of course I had to take pictures of it and with it. However, while I was trying to be all Ansel Adams, this woman on a bicycle nearly took me and herself out. I think she saw me, tried to veer out of the way, overcorrected and then almost wiped out. I got a little shaken and Tracy and Rachel were on the sidelines like what the hell just happened??

We started our tour, and it was totally packed. I guess I didn't expect there to be that many people who would want to do the tour. The tour took us to a bunch of different locations from the movie. Very cool. Also cool, it was indoors and it started raining while we were on our tour, so it was nice to be inside the bus. The tour took us out to the lakes to this little town to see the church where the Von Trapps got married. It was a nice tour, we also saw the headquarters for Red Bull on our way to the lakes. It was a really cool looking campus. Very pretty.

After the tour we went into the gardens to take all our photos to imitate the movie. Good times. I just wish it wasn't raining so I could be all Julie Andrews without my coat or a care in the world.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around looking for this brewery...it was closed. Boo. but then we ended up hanging out at this little lounge then went to a subpar italian restaurant and had some pizza.

We met up with Belli's brother Rupi afterwards and he transported us to his home and put us up for the evening. I think the whole family is saintly...he had just gotten back from a business trip, plus had a business dinner and then hosted 5 girls at his apartment (4 of whom he'd just met). So above and beyond hospitable.

On our way to Rupi's house I saw a Cafe Rangie. I was so excited since that's the nickname I had given Angie's unborn child. Spooky side note--he was born the day I saw the cafe. Very twilight zone.

Anyways, back to our evening, Rupi's place was nice as well. He had this really cool photo wall with all these photos he had taken. We were going to attempt to watch TV but we couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Haha! Foiled!

Oh well, tomorrow would be a new day and we would be heading to Vienna.

Have Jetlag Will Post

Hello Faithful Readers (from your not so faithful writer),

As i sit here at 7 in the morning after already being awake for a couple of hours, I realize I should probably get cracking on the rest of my vacation posts.



I need to do a few things still...Like upload my photos, and do my laundry, but that will all come in due time.



Now to get back to the earlier posts I had written while I was train bound without computer...

Oktoberfest Lite

Hello Friends, I am just off the train to Prague and I decided to use my time wisely by writing out my posts.

Here goes...

Upon booking our trip to Europe, I had many visions of what Oktoberfest would hold. Part of my visions came to fruition, but there were others that didn't. I was really excited that we were going to be in a tent...Thanks Fritzi! However, Fritzi put us in a high class wine tent. Which was still awesome, but different from the Oktoberfest in my head. They didn't serve the beer in the big mugs, just in a large pilsner glass. However, the food was tasty, the beer was really good, and they had this random cover band called the Hot Frogs to play some jams. They played California Dreamin'...so random and cool at the same time.

Since we went to the Wiesn on a Wedsnesday afternoon, the crowd was pretty sparse. I was expecting it to be blowing up, but as we were departing the grounds the crowds were starting to come. I guess people go after work or after school?

Anyway, we went to the fest in our Dirndls and had a fun tour of the place. We toured the different tents, and I saw the Oktoberfest in my mind--the crowded tents with the large liter mugs of beer. Good times. I definitely will return, but I need to do a little less high class next time and be one with the people of Germany!

However, for my first Oktoberfest, I had a lovely(albeit tame) time. Unfortunately for you guys, there's no drunk Lu in Germany stories to relay to friends and loved ones. Guess I will just save all those types of stories for Vegas!

Auf Weideresehen!

Posting has been spotty!

Hello Friends,
Sorry posting has been so spotty. We've been on the go for the past few days and I haven't been able to type any posts in. I have some photos to post as well as a bunch of stories, but the internet cafe does not allow for me to get all elaborate on the postings. And we all know what happened the last time I didn't get to log out of the computer...

Right now we're in Vienna and it is really pretty, it hasn't rained most of the day so that has been good.

The past two days were in salzburg which was AMAZING! And of course before that we were at Oktoberfest...which was surprisingly underwhelming. I had imagined mass chaos but it was pretty subdued.

Don't worry, I will fill all this in with details later, but for now that's all I have.

I will try to post again from Prague, but I am currently writing notes to myself so that I can have a more detailed account of all our activities.

Until then...Auf Weideresehen!

Pretty Woman Austria Style

Today we had more adventures in the Austrian countryside. We rode a gondola up the mountain to almost the top of the Kitzbuheler Horn. The weather was not as clear as yesterday but it was still pleasant. There was a slight chill. We had lunch up at the Alpenhaus restaurant and I had some soup with these dumplings Knudel(?) and then this mixed salad with some pickled carrots, radishes and potato salad. It was alright but kinda random.

After returning home we were going to go into town to do a little shopping. The town is really cute. Very picturesque. It has all these different little boutiques and cafes. I heard that it gets really crowded during the winter season.

We had a very Pretty Woman moment today during our shopping. Fritzi called a friend of his to "dress" us for Oktoberfest. We were just planning on going to the Goodwill version of Austria to go buy a second hand outfit. However, with his call, the people in this totally authentic high end shop to just give us outfits. Seriously...these things were like 500 € each which works out roughly to about 750 bucks US....dude....each of us got one. and there were 5 of us. Holy bejesus!!

But the people were super nice, took us upstairs and individually fitted each of us in the traditional Austrian dirndl, apron and blouse. HELLO. I am a St. Pauli Girl come to life. It was SO cool!!!! Mine is light blue with a white blouse and a red apron. It actually kinda looks like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. fantastic really.

Tomorrow we head off to Oktoberfest. We're in the wine tent...don't worry, I will be drinkingbeer!! Wish me luck! I'll be back with stories!!

We have arrived in Europe!!!

Hello Friends,
We have arrived safely in Austria. After many hours on the plane, we got to Germany and travelled to Kitzbühel--it took us about 2 hours to get there in rush hour so it really wasn't too bad. The countryside is amazing here. Looks like something straight out of a postcard. So lovely. It's a fair bit cooler here than it was at home.

on the flight from SFO to DC Tracy and I sat near each other and Rachel was up in the middle of the plane...next to a little girl that kept throwing up and MISSING THE BARF BAG. OOH NO.

On the DC to Munich flight Rachel and I sat near eachother and Tracy sat on the other side. On that flight the girl next to me was really nice except she kept fidgeting the entire flight. bogus...get it together lady.

After arriving at Haus Gita in Kitzbühel, we walked into town and then drove up the Kitzbühler Horn--we're so in the alps right now. You know where we're not? At work! woo hoo!!

We ate lunch outside at this cute little chalet restaurant that is adjacent to the ski slopes and had weinersnitzel...a fried pork cutlet...yummy! We also ate some Austrian desserts--something with blueberries and then this cheesecake mousse thing. Delicious.

We also stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food. It was nice to see the foods of Austria. Milk not in the fridge...strange. Oh wait...I just got breaking news that it was actually refridgerated...that was evaporated milk--crisis averted.


After grocery shopping, we went to pick some apples at Belli's friend Fritz's place...can we just say that it was the Austrian version of Cribs....it was where the magic happens. However I'd now like to discuss a segment which I will call Fritzi's Big Five. Fritz is a serious hunter so when we got into the house...which is ginormous by the way. It was cute from the outside, but didn't look overwhelmingly large...ummm there were 3 subterranean levels and two levels above ground.

The Big Five:
5) Zebra (qty 3 -- different "rugs" in the house)
4) Leopard (qty 1 --mounted on wall near staircase)
3) Crocodile (qty 1 -- mounted next to the tub in the sauna...yes I said sauna)
2) Elephant Tusks (qty 4 -- 8 tusks total. deposited throughout the property)
and the number one big animal in the five...
1) Siberian grizzly bear from Russia (qty 1 --mounted on the wall in the solarium/penthouse)

There were other assorted antlers distributed throughout the house. Don't worry friends. I will post photos upon my return to the mother country. The animals although cool, were a little bit creepy, and some of them made me sad. But I was going around taking photos like I was in the museum. We've got rams, birds, hella deer, and the above mentioned animals...it was like the BBC in Menlo Park, except all the animals were real and caught by Fritzi.

Now we're reclining in the house trying to get acclimated to the time.

Until tomorrow, may all your hunting expeditions be fruitful.
xoxo.
Lu

Less than 24 til we hit the trail.

Hot damn, we leave TOMORROW!!!
Bag is getting packed...I told you I was a procrastinator.
Camera, check.
Video camera, check.
PASSPORT, CHECK!!!
Tsa-locks, hotel confirmations and travel adapters, check!

I was going to bring my DS to rep work on the road, but I need to travel light. My animal crossing town will have to be neglected for 2 weeks :).

Weather report...check...ooh wait, gotta repack. apparently it's cold in dem there hills.

We just returned from Cinco de Ryan, and it was a blast to see all the peeps. And, I am going to try to bring some food on the plane. Heck yes!

Alright now to finish up the remaining items on the to do list, get about 5 hours of sleep and start this all over again.

I just checked in online and printed my boarding passes and it's go time.

Chat with you in Europe!

Ciao Ciao.
Lu

On the horizon

Hello friends,
The trip is now really on the horizon. I left work about 8 this evening trying to wrap a bunch of things up...I don't know why I always do that to myself...I should do things a bit at a time so I don't have this mad dash at the end. However I think it's how I am wired. Procrastinator to the core. Oh well. Like now, I SHOULD be packing but nope...I am sitting blogging, and doing 5 million other things instead of packing.

I am so excited that the trip is finally here though. Today I thought it would be a good idea to buy a rolling duffle rather than my big suitcase (Big Red) or my little suitcase (little red) I figured that it would be good to have something in btwn both sizes. So I buy this bag, bring it home...only to discover it's somehow larger than Big Red. Um, that's not gonna work. I am taking it back but will do so after the trip. I don't have time to return it tomorrow before we leave.

After all the hiccups getting to this trip...well really just the whole losing the passport thing. It really is great to be finally heading out. It seems like ages ago that we planned the trip and now we're off.

Our first stop is Dulles Airport (Washington DC) and then on to Munich where we'll be heading out to Belli's house in Kitzbuhel...Freaking Austrian village. Can you stand it??

I am going to try to update this on the way, but similar to last trip I won't be able to add in photos until the end of the journey. Buckle up kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Auf Weidersehen.
Lu

It's almost here!

So today I booked our hotel for our last night in Munich. I am a little peeved because United changed our return flight home so now we have a 3 hour layover in LA which sucks because at that point, I just want to go home. Bad enough we have to change flights. sucks.

Hopefully it will change back to a direct flight from Chicago to SFO.

We've got our reservations for our Oktoberfest tent, as well as our hotel for Prague. The only thing we're missing right now are our train tickets. Which we can probably just get there. We should determine that I suppose.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in, and let everyone know the trip is coming up fast and furious.

Mic Check 1-2-1-2

Hey Peeps.
I am resurrecting the travel blog before we head to Germany/Austria.

Currently the agenda includes Rachel, Tracy and I and perhaps Eileen and her friend Emily will be globetrotting with us.

Anyway, not sure if anyone is still out there reading, but maybe you can enjoy the blog ride for our next trip.

Trip begins Sept 28. Be there. Watch this space for updates.

Keep it real.
Lu

The Final Stretch

There really is no place like home. Thanks Gavin, it's good to be back.

So I have been slow as molasses recapping this trip....I do apologize. I have not even sent out the photo album. With all the commotion that occurred upon my return, it's been tough to get some time just to recap what we did while we were away. So luckily I am sitting in a hotel room in Redmond, typing out what I think is the final wrap up of this trip. So funny, I haven't even been back a month yet but it seems like a lifetime ago. Strange how time does that.

The last day of our trip was basically a travel triathalon. I use the term "last day" loosely as the travels covered 2 days and about 4 time zones (and that's just the time zones we stopped in, who knows how many we actually crossed over.)

We started off leaving Istanbul...once again, it was a cloudy sky, and we were oh so happy to be heading home. We had our final breakfast at the Oran, said farewell to our favorite hotel worker--He told us that the weather was bad because Turkey was upset that we were leaving. All over the world we are still loved and adored! haha.

We got to the airport and we were pretty early. Surprisingly they are a lot more lax about the whole carry on liquid thing in Istanbul. They just ask you if you have something larger than 3 ounces. I said no, but then realized I had a bottle of water...however I figured there would be another check point, but there was not! YES! taking it back to the old school with some contraband bottled water.

Rachel and I tried to shop, found out that they would charge us $11 US dollars for an imported copy of People magazine--we declined. But we did stay in the magazine store for quite awhile soaking up some good old fashioned American tabloid trash. We found out that Halle Berry was pregnant and saw some pics of Britney Spears from the VMAs. Awesome.

After boarding the plane we headed to London. We get to London and shop around for a bit. Unfortunately the flight was slightly delayed. It wasn't too bad, but we did manage to squeeze in some time for the Captain.

Finally we got to leave Heathrow, but not before I hear a butchered version of my name being said in a British accent calling me to the counter. What? Um why are you calling me?? Turns out they just wanted to confirm I was on this flight. RANDOM!! The flight to JFK featured a meal of either Indian food or Mincemeat Pie. Jesus...so that for me was like asking if i wanted to cut off either my right foot or my left foot....I didn't want either! However since I was starving I chose the Indian entree called "butter chicken" it didnt taste like butter and I didnt feel so hot after eating it. For once I didnt finish my food. However other than this meal, British Airways had some pretty tasty vittles. I was impressed. They've easily become my favorite international airline.

Also on the flight, Rachel's seatmate initially was this chick who was wearing a gallon of perfume. Honestly, you are in an enclosed space...have some respect for those around you!! Luckily there was a family that wanted to sit together and so the girl moved so the mom could be close to her kids. That was great in theory until the child starts throwing a full on tantrum. Instead of the dad and mom swapping seats to get the kid to stop wailing, they just kept trying to reason with him and coo to him. Dude, you are NOT helping. Switch seats. But once everyone was settled a good flight overall.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived in NYC. Almost HOME!! However, when we got through customs, I got stopped. The official asked me if I had reported my passport lost or stolen. Como? What? Seriously? So I said no, that I had my passport with me the whole time and it hasn't been lost. Then he sent me to this other room to clear my passport with another customs officer. Rachel was already through security and waiting for our luggage. I had to ask the woman why I had been pulled aside, and she told me that a passport number similar to mine had been reported stolen. So that's why they pulled my passport aside. Randomly, this is the second time on our vacation that I have had someone tell me something about my passport. Started off in NYC when the guy said we were on the watch list, and then now this. Oh well, fortunately everything went fine and they stamped my passport and I was back on US soil. Holla.

Our night was far from over. We had to try and catch the shuttle to our hotel near JFK. Unfortunately I was disoriented and gave them the incorrect terminal number so the people were unable to find us. Mother Christ. After 20 minutes Rachel and I give up and just head to the taxi queue. We get to our hotel, and although they were meager accomodations--it was what we were used to at this point. We ordered nachos and hot wings and watched American TV. It was pretty awesome. I fell asleep to Best Week Ever and then awoke about 4 hours later in order to board our flight.

The Holiday Inn was so shifty--we needed a cab, but for some reason they sent us in a Town Car...which happened to cost more than the taxi. Whatevs....we were just trying to get home at this point.

We get to JFK and they had this scale ready for weighing. WHAT? Wouldnt you know that Rachel and were on the floor at JFK unpacking crap from our suitcases. They were going to charge 50 bucks for any luggage over 50lbs. I needed to take out about 5 lbs of crap to make the grade. So i just put it in a plastic bag and chose to have 2 carry ons. Such a pain to have to unpack though. Then they confiscated my toothpaste that i forgot to put in my 50lb luggage in security. Damn it all, can we just get home already???

Drinking some coffee at the crack of dawn on our final flight of the trip.

After getting through the forcefield of security, we got some coffee from Peet's (begrudgingly....I am not a Peet's fan, however this one was good. BUT there were like 5 workers at the kiosk with only 2 of them actually doing any work.) Fortunately the flight was good and we got home pretty early. However, they did not have a movie for our entire 5 hour flight...AND I slept not at all. It was so long. I was trying to read this book that I procured from the Hermes, but even that wasnt helping make the time go by faster.

However we finally returned to San Francisco, and claimed our luggage while we looked on at a warm welcome from my favorite hottie mayor Gavin Newsom. Thank you Gavin, now let's make out.

As for us, this concludes our Greek and Turkish adventure. I really hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I suppose I can still continue to post here, however the blog title won't be so relevant since the trip is now completed. But I am a slave to the people, so if you want me to write more, just name your topics you'd like to read about and I can write about it.

However, if not. It's been real friends. May you have safe travels yourselves.

Logging out.

--Lu

Our last day abroad, Living the good life in Istanbul

Turkey is so Bazaar. These are the lanterns that haunted my dreams only to let reality kick in and tell me that I would never use them.

So our last day in Turkey started off not too promising...It was rainy and overcast and a little chilly. We sure weren't in Greece anymore.

It was a bummer because today we were going to go to the Asian side of Istanbul as well as take a cruise on the Bosphorus. Not to mention finish up the rest of our shopping and pack to head HOME!

We got onto our tour and we picked up the Spanish ladies from yesterday. Oh no, not again...luckily they were scheduled for a Spanish speaking tour.

We also saw our friend from Georgia and his cousin on our tour.

Speaking of tours...we saw the people from our Gate 1 tour as well today. Gross. We made sure to avoid eye contact. Luckily they were on a different tour company. Thank God we didnt choose to take the tour with them. I would have pulled out all of my hair one strand at a time.

Anyway, today's tour guide was much better than yesterday's. However he was a bit of a tour nazi. He was all about his ground rules, and he actually scared me a little. However, his english was excellent and he was all about telling us historical tidbits, and you know I love that stuff. He had a really deep knowledge of the history of many of the places as well as factoids about famous people and things they have done in Istanbul. Tell me more!

We drove along and stopped at the spice bazaar first. That was actually pretty cool. They had a bunch of bins of spices that you could buy. Usually this would be all up my alley, but since my funds and time were limited, so I just took some photos and looked around. There were some pretty cool things I would have liked to buy. However they were not spices. I really wanted to get these mosaic lanterns. But I know myself. I won't use it. It will sit in it's little turkish box until god knows when. So I just admired them and went along my merry way.

after the spice mkt we went across the water and drove along this kinda richy part of Istanbul. They had all these ridiculous super clubs on the water. It was just reeking with money. It was ridiculous...and awesome. For the record if I ever return to Istanbul, I need to go baller style. None of this shady business I have been doing. Granted the hotel staff was super nice, and it was a decent place, I need to be pampered and go to fancy restaurants next time.

We arrived at the dock and got on our private boat. It was filled with people from our tour and the spanish speaking tour. So all in all probably about 40 people. Not too bad. The bosphorus cruise was really cool. We got to sail on both the European and Asian sides of the bosphorus. There were some incredible houses along the water. However a lot of them were gaudy. Very French Baroque and over the top. I need some modern simplicity in my over the top houses.

After the cruise we went back for lunch and then drove over to the Dolmabace palace. First of all, they told us that we wouldnt be getting back to our hotel until 630, so at that point Rachel and I made the decision to cut out after the palace and take the tram back to the Grand Bazaar so we could get our shopping done before the place closed. We checked out our map of the metro and then figured out that we could walk a few blocks to get to the tram from the palace.

The Palace was nice, but it was really tacky. They had all these chandeliers....like seriously, chandeliers for days. I just kept thinking of that Scarlett Johannsen SNL skit. Anyway, the one cool thing is that they had the Largest Chandelier in the World in there. No joke. The thing was ginormous. I read about it and it weighs 4.5 tons. They also have this wild staircase where all the things holding up the bannisters are Bacarat Crystal. You better get out with that. Can I put one in my pocket?? Also, they had this racket of paying 6 lira if you wanted to take photos in there. So we paid the 6 lira and I took pics of every flippin chandelier in that joint. However, the castle was warm and like yesterday I was tired, so we were glad to leave the tour and be on our own. The thing about the tours was that they were good in the morning, but then we started to get restless. it's just hard to listen to facts all day long. There's a reason I am not in school right now. My ADD kicks right after lunch.

4.5 tons of crystal ecstasy. Aww yeah.

We headed to the Grand Bazaar and it was a hot mess in there. Everyone hawking their wares while also hitting on you...it was very unnerving. Plus it was a bit crowded. Fortunately not as crowded as the metro or anything but still. And then damn Turkish ATMs only give you 50s so it's a bit ghetto to be all, i only want to pay 10 lira instead of 20. Can you break a 50? However I made it work. I got some really cool mirrored compacts as well as some handmade turkish bowls and a trivet. Also, I got some evil eyes--they have these all over Greece and Turkey--they are these colbolt blue glass circles that have what looks like an eye painted on them. They are supposed to be deflectors of negative energy. If that is the case, it is possible that I might just wear one around my neck for the rest of my days.

I still needed to get a couple of other trinkets so we headed out towards the stores near the blue mosque. (BTW I think the official name of that place is Sultanahmet Mosque, but I can't be positive) I was able to get my magnet and coin purse quota taken care of. Since neither of us wanted to eat at the hotel we went to go get something to eat on one of the well lit streets by the mosque. We ended up at this one little random place. Sadly I can't recall the name at the moment. I know I have the card, but I am too lazy to go look for it. (BTW you should all know that I am just procrastinating on packing for my week in Seattle right now. Crimony. I feel like I have been packing and unpacking for the last month! I am tired!!)

Anyway, we had this dish that was made in a clay pot and then they bring it out and break the clay pot in front of you to get all the food out. It was pretty dope. AND the food was awesome. Just the right amount of spices and the chicken was all tender. Dude it was good. I have photos. OH! It's called the Cozy Pub, I read it on the waiter's shirt in the photo. Holla.

The top photo is mid-break of the clay vase and the bottom photo is the actual food. Tasty.

After that we came back to the hotel and packed our things for our triumphant return to the US. (to NYC at least).

We both had an incredible time on our travels, but we were so happy to be heading home.

I will continue with the end of our saga upon my return from Redmond. Have a lovely week.

Turkish Delights--Our first full day in Istanbul

Rachel and I obeying the rules in the Blue Mosque.

So it's been a minute since i have been able to post on this blog and finish our stories. I guess quitting your job has that affect on the rest of your social engagements. Anyway, now that I am free from work, at least for today, I decided to hurry up and finish these posts.

Our last days on the trip were sort of a whirlwind. We still took lots of photos, but after three weeks of photo ops, we were both a little lackluster on taking a bunch of shots.

Since we were also on tour for the two full days we were in Istanbul, we really didnt have to worry about too much in terms of thinking of logistics.

On our first full day of touring we went on a city tour that had all the major mosques (or moss-kays as the tour guide's thick turkish accent made it sound)

We started off at this random restaurant which we realized that we'd be seeing a lot more of in the next few days. Truthfully I have no idea what the place was even called, but it was a little bit lame since there were these random souvenir sellers inside the restaurant. They were basically street peddlers so that was a bit annoying.

We met our tour guide and he was just wearing some crazy t-shirt that said something about not making friends in his tribe or some randomness... The thing in Turkey is that the guides dont really have uniforms or anything and some of them just look a little suspect.

Our tour group isnt too big but how come there is a group of ladies who should have been with the Spanish Speaking tour group so they are only half understanding what the guy says. I am only half understanding what he says as well since his accent is pretty hefty. Ugh.

Our first stop is the Hagia Sofia and The Blue Mosque. You know there were like 5 gazillion people up in that mix. Damn it. There's like cruise ship tours, regular tours, all hitting at the same time. It's so stupid that we have to wait in line to get into the joint. It's a good thing Rachel and I already went to this place the day before but still.

We also figured out why it wasnt smelling all footy in the mosque. They had just replaced the carpeting for Ramadaan so they had a nice new carpet in the mosque. It was really pretty carpeting too. However it could have easily been in vegas since it was all patterned. Have you ever noticed that the carpets in the vegas are always these loco patterns? Like you can never figure out where you are because the carpet and the tables all look the same throughout the entire damn casino. You have to find your way on the fringes. But I digress...

After we went to the mosque and mini-museum we drove around and headed to a carpet demonstration and the Grand Bazaar. Unfortunately because the carpet demo took so long and they were WAY out of my price range....what? did you say that welcome mat sized one was 400 Euro? Oooh i gotta go. So we haul ass to the bazaar where they tell us we have about 20 minutes to check it out. For those of you not familiar, the Grand Bazaar is kinda like Istanbul's tourist flea market. The wares are all in mini-stalls/storefronts, but there are approximately 4000 of them. Honestly, 20 minutes will not do the job. We decide before we even get there that we will need to go back for our souvenir shopping.

We get to the bazaar and it is totally overwhelming. Every single stall is crammed full of stuff. So we also need to try our hand at bargaining. I have decided that I kinda suck at bargaining. Like i can comparison shop like nobody's business, but that bargaining part just wastes my time and energies. Why don't you just tell me how cheap you will sell me something?? Anyway, we look at about 3 stalls and decide that we need to bounce out. However, we do find a couple of things that we'd like to come back and purchase. We go back to get lunch with our tour.

As usual we have a suspect lunch and we also find out that there everyone at our table only speaks Spanish. That was totally not helping our cause to convince people that we were indeed NOT Mexican. Every single person at the Grand Bazaar asked us 2 questions. 1) Como estas senoritas? and 2) are you sisters? oy vey. We don't even look alike people. Crimony.

We saw a bunch of other mosques during the rest of the tour, but I was pretty over it. The guy was hard to understand and I was getting super tired. However there were these Australian guys with their mom on the tour that were pretty hilarious. We found out they were at our Whirling Dirvish show too. So there's kids everywhere trying to sell you shit--kinda like in Mexico and the kids selling chicklets....anyway, these kids sell crap like these light up spinning tops. so they try to sell things to everyone. The one guy on our tour, although it wasnt right, i was laughing.... So this kid tries to sell the Aussie a top and the guy says no thanks, and he had his little sticker to identify him as part of our tour on his hand. He pats the kid on the back while sticking the sticker on this kid. It was so childish, but I was dying. Sorry, I am still immature. It was hilarious, but reading back, definitely a had to be there moment. Maybe it was just hot so it was funnier? I don't know.

We also met another guy on our tour who was from Georgia but was visiting Turkey with his cousin (who seriously I thought that was his GF...a little too familiar to be family...but maybe that's just me). Anyway, he was cool too. They had been vacationing with the rest of their family in Baku. Yeah I had no idea where it was either...I guess it borders Turkey. The family is from Iran, so there are only certain countries that both of them can visit together and he was military so he had issues getting into Istanbul. Whoa. So many government restrictions.

Oh and also, the rest of the mosques...smelled footy. Doesn't help that there are a ton of people with no shoes. Thinking about it makes me need to get into wide open spaces. Damn sensitive nose.

Finally our tour ended and we had about an hour to relax before we went to the "dinner show" We didn't know what to expect from this thing.

The car picks us up, and I am relieved to find out the place we are going is not the same restaurant that is the tour meeting place. We drive across town to the Taksim district (apparently the business district in Istanbul--apparently lots of places to go out too...but it looked safe and modernized. I love this place.)

So we arrive at the restaurant, and there are like 5 people there to greet us. It seemed a little odd, but we just figured they were friendly. However we walk into the restaurant to find out that we are THE FIRST PEOPLE TO ARRIVE!!! !Dude....seriously, this place is pretty big, how are we the first people here. I felt so lame. So our waiter comes over, brings us our wine and some Turkish apps--it's dark as hell so I have no idea what we are being fed, I am trying to pull the candle on our table as close as possible to my plate to get some idea what we are eating. Since we were first in to the restaurant we had prime seating next to the stage. Fortunately people started to arrive at the restaurant and it got probably around 3/4 full by the time the musicians came out. The show was totally hokey. Think Turkish Luau but not cool like a Hawaiian luau....however it was still pretty fun. Since we were so close to the action we were participants on more than one occasion.

enjoying the turkish dance party

The funniest (ok maybe it was the second funniest) thing that happened that night was that our waiter who was totally sweet asked Rachel if she needed a friend in Turkey. And if so, he wanted to be her friend. He really meant well, but I couldnt help but think that he sounded like Borat. It was like, "I like you, I want to be your friend. Do you want to be my friend?" Totally meant well, but it was pretty funny.

I think the FUNNIEST thing that happened that night was that when we got pulled up to go dance on the stage with a bunch of random people this one guy (photo below) took this as his moment to SHINE...like he was on dancing with the stars or some madness. Dude went off, he was doing like these drop kicks and all sort of belly dancing moves. He was getting his groove on. Rachel and I were dying. Rachel actually snapped him mid dance. Flippin hilarious.

shaking what your mama gave you.

After all the laughs we needed to leave. We tried to go for a walk so that we werent stuck watching more old people dance on stage, since our ride wouldnt be back for another 45 minutes. So when we attempted to leave on our own, they flipped out. We just said we were going to go outside and walk around, and the guy was all, "no. I am sorry, it is not safe" EXCUSE ME??? Whoa. Rachel and I were like this looks safer than where we are staying?! But they wouldnt budge, totally made us sit and have some turkish coffee, which tastes like crap btw, and then they called our driver. Even the driver was like, no you can't go out by yourself over there. not safe for woman. oh dear. I need to go home now. and i mean HOME HOME...take me back to my mean streets of the US. So that was day 2 in Istanbul. Good times

I am still here....

Hello Friends,

Now that I am all settled in from being gone (ok I am still a bit jetlagged, but now I am at least sleeping through the night.) I should probably attempt to finish these posts. Rachel and I have finally uploaded our photos, but with over a 1000 shots, the task of sorting them for a sharable album is a bit daunting. Don't fret...I will soon narrow it all down. In the midst of giving notice and having to fill out all my paperwork for my new job I will get right on that. :)

A couple of photos to share before I send the entire album

Some of you have asked for photos, so I will take time off the actual storytelling to include some photos. I've also added some to the posts from the last day or so.

Enjoy!

You Spin me Right Round Baby Right Round

...like a record baby, right round round round.

Still a bit jetlagged, so again, I post on the blog. at least I only woke up at 530 this morning. I didnt get up until later though.

After a quick nap we left for the whirling dirvish show at 7--because it is Ramadaan it started later, so it didnt start until 745. I need to read up on Ramadaan. I think theres a bunch of food restrictions that the peeps have to follow, but I know there's probably other stuff too. I will look up that stuff and get back to you. Anyhoo--when we got there the place was pretty full, but we were able to find chairs on the side right near the "band." The cool thing was that the performance was being held at Sirkeci Station which is where the Orient Express used to depart from back in the days of luxury train travel. The room is pretty plain, but there are some nice stained glass windows near the ceiling.

The show begins with this sufi band playing all these ancient looking instruments. There are 4 musicians and 2 dudes just hanging out in the second row. I was surprised that they even had a female musician. For some reason, I thought the dirvish order were all men...like most everything else in Turkey. Anyway, they start playing this new agey sounding music and the two dudes in the back start singing. It's all very churchy at this point, and then i realize...duh, the dirvishes are a religious order. Perhaps it would be like that one band...was it Enigma(?) that had all that churchy sounding music? Regardless...finally after like 30 minutes the dirvishes come out. The performance is really just a ceremony, and they tell you to remain silent, but you know i was bursting at the seams to talk about it while it was going on.

(as an aside, I am watching the news, and how is it that Jack Bauer got arrested for drunk driving?? Oh Keifer...don't drink and drive. Now they are talking about the Halo 3 Midnight openings....curious. Oh how I've missed my Mornings on 2 news...)

I digress...so the dirvishes emerge in these black robes but you can see their little white gowns peeking out underneath. They have this long ass ceremony...seriously can you just start the spinning. I am impatient. Finally the spinning part starts. Dude, it is weird. Fascinating but weird. And they dont just spin kind of hippie in the field like....they are full speed ahead spinning like tops. There were 5 of them all together....and they each had their own spinning technique. If I were a dirvish, I would definitely keep my eyes closed because the ones who kept their eyes open were just loco looking. They had like crazy eye when they would spin because they were spinning so fast. However they were spinning for quite awhile. It actually made ME a little bit dizzy. So I figured they would just spin and it would be done. But turned out there were actually four spinning sessions, I think each one represented the seasons. I have the pamphlet--i should really bring it out so I can get the facts right, but really...no one cares here, I know that. I am just writing this for my own narcissistic tendencies. And so I will remember what the heck we did on vacation before I attempt to do my scrapbook!

After the show was over, I totally thought there would be a meet and greet photo session....but that was not to be. They came, they spun, they left. And thats pretty much how it went.

Rachel and I got back on the Tram and then headed to our hotel for dinner at the bar. We were the other table there eating. There were some German dudes eating at the only other table that had diners. I ordered tomato soup and some fresh fruit, and it was just mediocre.

After that, we checked the Turkish "office" out. They had a brand new computer that ran Vista, but they had this monitor that was old as dust. It was a huge case with a small screen. Um if you spent the money on the new machine why didnt you get the new monitor??? Splurge a little guys. We tried to log in, but I was having issues since their "i" was some other letter and my email programs were not letting me log in properly. I don't know what was up with the I key this trip. The Hermes in Santorini had a tough time with the I as well. While we were in the office checking our mail, someone went into the adjacent room which was large and totally dark and got his pray on. I dont know if he had a prayer mat, but I did see him bowing towards mecca. Sweet!

Anywho....that's day one of Turkey in a nutshell.

Back soon to talk about days 2 and 3. They are filled with tours, friends and clay shards.

Jive Turkey

Our flight to Istanbul was at the crack of dawn...actually 8 AM but they got us there early, and I swear I think i have had more early early morning flights(either arriving or departing) on this trip then any other trip. Of the flights we took we saw the sun rise on 4 of them. we took 7 flights all together over the course of the trip but actually flew on about 9 planes. Loco I say.

Anyway, the bus picked us up and we got to the airport. One thing we noticed about Greek airports, is that the Greeks are not one for lines. If they are Greek and speak Greek, then they just go to the front....those lines are really just suggestions for them and not requirements.

We got to Istanbul, and it was way more modern than I had originally thought it would be. The airport was super nice, but as usual our Gate 1 person (Gate 1 is the tour co btw, which i would NEVER recommend even to my worst enemy--they were super lame) was dumb and didnt bother to check off people as they checked in with him so we ended up waiting at the airport about half an hour longer than necessary. Also when we loaded the bus up, we told him our hotel, but they didnt put my luggage in until the end, and how come at the first hotel stop (which was not ours) I saw them hauling away Big Red! So I fly out of the bus into the streets to pry it away from the bellman and place it back on the bus. can you people get a system in place for my trip? hellooooo. So we finally get to our hotel and as per usual it is was in a sort of sketchy location. The hotel and staff were super nice, but the hotel was in this weird part of town that was mainly textile stores, so there were all these people pulling hand trucks with these enormous bundles through the streets. They were all about manual labor in Turkey. It was pretty loco.

We checked in and figured that since we were only there for a couple of days we should book up some tours. People had been telling us that Istanbul was not safe for women to be traveling alone at night so at that point we knew we were not going to be roaming the streets.

We booked our tours, including a Whirling Dirvish show which I will write about later, and then figured we should go get our bearings and take the tram so we knew where things were.

Walking out of the hotel was a very surreal experience. I was totally scared because there are mainly men on the streets, and they were all leering at us. It didn't help that there was pure chaos with traffic so with every horn honking i was completely on edge. I was just clutching my purse like a freak and walking at a clip pace. Of course we took a wrong turn on our first foray out, but we didnt stray far, we found the metro pretty quickly, figured out how to get some tokens and then got on the tram.

The Turkish language pretty much looks like ours (for some reason, i thought it would look more arabic) but the sounds are totally different. They have silent g's and those two dots over some of the vowels, and the language when being spoken can sound really aggressive. So of course i didnt know what the hell was going on--are you fighting? are you talking to me? what is happening.

We got onto the tram after we let one pass because it was ass to elbow crowded and then took the train to the stop that the hotel guy told us the whirling dervish show was at--the show wasnt until the evening, but we wanted to make sure we knew where it was. Of course the guy told us the stop AFTER the w.d. stop and blasted all, it was a super crowded sketchy stop. I think the thing that made me the most uneasy was that there was no personal space and that you always had to know where you were at all times other wise you could get run down.

We found the dirvish spot which incidentally is held at the old train station for the Orient Express and talked to someone from the turkish tourism group, who told us he'd been waiting for us all day long. That seemed to be a theme. everyone we met there had been waiting to meet us for the day, their life, etc. Random. After we cased out the joint we got back on the tram and headed to the Blue Mosque.



We got to the mosque and you had to take off your shoes--they provide you with plastic bags as well as a scarf if your shoulders/legs are bare. That includes guys, so of course i took pics of guys that looked like they were wearing skirts. Those were all tourists of course because the actual worshippers in the mosque would know the dress code before they rolled in to the mosque.

the mosque was incredible. It was ginormous and the decor inside was super intricate. The main worship area was just for men, but in the back and upstairs in the balcony women could worship. Ugh. So sexist. Back of the bus women. Make sure you have my dinner cooked and my babies fed. Sigh.

After we went to the mosque, we paid tribute to the Istanbul Starbucks and had a cold bev and then headed back to the hotel to rest before the dirvish show.

Our last Triumphant day in Athens--the recap edition

I am still in the running to become Greece's Next Top Tourist. At the Temple of Posseidon

Hello Friends--
Still awake with the jet lag, so I am posting more while I am up.

Our last day in Athens was simply fantastic. It was just a great day overall.

In the morning we just relaxed since we booked an afternoon tour of the Temple of Possideon and that didnt leave our hotel until 2. So the morning we spent lounging and catching up with our German MTV. It felt nice not to have to be on the go from the early morning hour.

We drove the coast to get to the temple. It was really really pretty, but a lot of the seaside towns look the same, and it seems that they are very seasonal, and since we came in at the end of the summer season, the places looked really desolate and dead. I dont even want to think about the kind of crowds the summer season would bring. Plus it would be all hot with all that BO. Ewww...honestly, I just kept wanting to bring out lysol or Fabreeze at every step of my trip. And believe me, I would have been a user as well as a provider. It was hot and sweaty and I am sure I was not up to my freshest, but damn, some people's bo was making my eyes water.

It took about an hour and a half to reach the temple, and when we got there it was crawling with people. Great. However while there, we had lots of people available to take our photos together so that was a nice bonus. Also we saw the girl from the airport who was honeymooning with her husband from Michigan. So we had her take our photo.

After about 10 minutes all of a sudden the temple was empty--most of the buses were going to be leaving so people went to get drinks and use the WC and stuff, so we were able to get a lot of photos without lots of people in the background. So that was cool. What wasnt cool, is that I asked some guy Georges to take our photo and he was great and taking the pics, but he had serious bo, and kept putting his arms around us. Poor Rachel--he put his arm on her and kept it there, and hi, when we got on the bus, her shoulder still smelled like the dude's B.O. It was very Seinfeldian. Luckily i had purell and lotion so she could try to disguise the funk but how gross is that???

Georges rubbing his Bo on Rachel

When we got back from the tour, they let us out at Syntagma Square, and i think we have this impeccable timing with guard changes. It happened while we were in London and also every time we went to the monument in Greece. We would walk up and then like 2 minutes later they would do the guard changing ceremony. However this one was special--they actually changed out the guards from one shift to the next so there were 4 guards rather than 2 and then they did a prolonged ceremony.

After we saw that, we walked a bit in the National Garden which was described in the brochure as a "lung paradise". Sadly we didnt spend too much time there since it was way too close to sunset, and as soon as we got in there we saw a guy peeing---not really the lung paradise I had imagined. there was a random animal menagerie in there that had like cats and dogs and peacocks and chickens, goats and donkeys living together in like 4 cages of Greek harmony.

We were going to call our friends from the tour, but the tour ran a bit late and we needed to finish up some last minute stuff in Athens. Since the tour was picking us up at 5 AM for our flight to Istanbul, we needed to make sure we got it together and finished our shopping.

As we were shopping we encountered some super annoying urban American youth. It was so embarassing--makes me see why people hate Americans sometimes. These guys were a-holes and were walking around with a very sick air of entitlement. I already hate that kind of stuff here, let alone in foreign countries. Can you get it together please American Youth?? Anyway...We got the rest of our souvies and then decided on a place to have dinner. I was so flipping sick of Greek food at that point, and we both wanted pasta, so we walked the streets looking for a place. We stumbled on this one place that looked cute and then we found out the guy who was the person responsible for filling the restaurant with peeps from the street was part filipino. (that info was volunteered by him when he found out where we were from) We ended up not going there at first because their pasta selection was limited, but ended up there anyway since every place had basically the same menu with only like 2 pasta dishes on the menu anyway.

When we first got in there, it was packed. There was one table left with one chair, and so they added another chair and we were in this make shift situation. It turned out to be awesome though. There was a table of old men next to us in this elevated part of the restaurant and they were so adorable. They were having a guys night out or something. So cute. So we listened to the live Greek music they had going on and then they brought the guitar over to the old dudes, and they started belting out the tunes. So hilarious. They were actually really good. There was a Japanese couple at the table next to us, so after the first set of old guy tunes, they clapped and were leaving. As they were leaving, the waiter yells out Domo Arrigato! and then one of the old dudes yells, SAYONARA! super loud. At that point, i just about fell out and lost it. However it gets BETTER....one of the guys gets up and starts doing Traditional Greek Dancing. However, because he was old, the dance was all like slow-mo style and geriatric. I loved it. The waiter also brought us free watermelon for dessert (that seemed to happen a lot...after dinner fruit or apperitifs just appear on the house) and then the old guys shared a glass of wine with us. It was really nice of them. Unfortuntely the wine tasted like Pine Sol. However those dudes were taking it out by the bottle so we drank it since we didnt want to be rude. So back to the dancing guy...Just as he was dancing, Chad's mom walked into the restaurant! So she told us they'd waited for our call. :( sad. We felt like jerks for not calling, but were so excited that they ended up at the same place as us. It really was fate, because there's like 5 gazillion restaurants in that little area, and the place was like all the others, nothing particularly special about it...so it was great that we saw them. As we were talking to Chad's mom, the main old guy asked what our friends name was, so we tell him, and he starts yelling. "Patricia! Come and dance with us!" Dying.

Although not the traditional idea of Greek Hotties, They were super cute!

So she is hanging out and Aunt Linda walks in! We appologize for not calling and the Greek Dancing guy, has Aunt Linda join in the dance festivities. AWESOME. At that point we saw Chad, and he came in too and hung out for a bit. Since we were at the end of our meal, we got our check, paid our bill and took pics with the old guys. We then went outside to talk to Chad and the fam, took pics with them and then took off. we stopped at the Athens Starbucks for nostalgia's sake and enjoyed our last few moments in the Plaka.

All in all, it was a fantastic time in Greece. We really had fun, and were glad that it ended on a high note. Greece in general was tough at times, but it came through in the end with some fantastic memories. Now we had to go back to the hotel and prep ourselves for what was sure to be an adventure in Turkey.