Finally home

Well that was harder than expected, as it turns out a lot of places in Turkey, Italy and Greece make it really difficult for you to connect to the internet, and with so much going on with the trip I didn't really have time to make regular posts, so I suppose now that i'm at home I should quickly go over everything that happened in Greece and Italy.

After we left Turkey, we flew to Athens and drove to our hotel where we would be staying for two nights, it was a nice place and it had a view of the Acropolis from both the roof where we ate breakfast and from our rooms. The first day was mostly relaxed, we walked up to the Archaeological museum and had a look at the artefacts taken from Tiryns, Mycenae and Pylos, where we would be going in a few days. The day after that we had a long walk around the city where we saw the changing of the guard, Hadrian's Arch and of course, the Acropolis. Now I hadn't quite expected that i'd have to walk all the way up to the Acropolis, so I was a little thankful for all the walking holidays i'd done with mum and dad before, because a lot of the less experienced travellers in the group seemed to take the walk a lot worse than I did. We looked around for a while before we descended and moved on to the Agora, and then to lunch before heading back to the hotel.

The next day we left Athens and met our new tour guide for Greece, Helen. On a long drive down to where we would be staying near Mycenae, at a town called Tolo, we heard a lot about the mythos surrounding the areas we were driving through and about Tiryns, the site we visited on our way to Tolo. After a spectacular night in our very relaxing hotel in Tolo, we drove back to Mycenae and spent a long while looking around the site and the museum, which was quite useful considering it's one of my main topics for the HSC. We then drove for the rest of the day down to Pylos, where we spent the night. Unfortunately we could not see the palace at Pylos because it had been closed, but we did see a medieval fortress which had been built by the Francs and used during the Turkish occupation of Greece, it was right on the ocean and was quite a spectacular site, especially considering it was so well preserved, as it was used for a long time past it's construction.

The rest of the day was mostly spent driving to the port where we would be catching the Superfast ferry over to Italy. Our tour guide Helen had been excellent in providing useful information about the historical facts and Mythos of the sites we visited, and our driver had done a brilliant job of getting us around quickly and safely in somewhat chaotic streets, so Mrs. Costi had me and Erin thank them on behalf of the tour, before we said our goodbyes to them and went to jump on the ferry. The ferry was a great experience mostly, unfortunately however Jake did get sick again here, but he recovered fairly quickly in Italy and was feeling perfect for the rest of the trip. Other than him being sick the ferry was quite enjoyable, a nice relaxing change from most of the running around the rest of the trip offered, even in the morning there wasn't a great deal considering we had to wait until the ship had docked before we could do anything.

When we arrived in Italy, we got off the ferry and jumped onto another bus, this time without a tour guide as we made our way to Naples to visit the archaeological museum, here we saw a number of mosaics and other artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum, the sites we would be visiting in the next couple of days before Rome, and then got back on the bus to make our way to Sorrento, where we would be staying for two nights. After getting relaxed we went out for dinner and as I'd only done so previously close to the border of Italy in Switzerland, I had the chance to try REAL Italian food, and I was certainly not disappointed. After this it was mostly being dragged around while others did shopping before we went back to the hotel to get some rest for Pompeii the next day.

Catching the train the next morning to Pompeii was an interesting experience. The ride was pretty much like any other train ride apart from the spectacular view, it was the buskers that were the most interesting part. Jumping onto the train before it departed, a band of roughly five men began playing loud songs for everyone to hear, and honestly they weren't that bad, some of the people in the group even tipped them before they moved on and began playing on the other side of the train. Arriving at Pompeii I could tell what kind of day it would be from the groans I had become somewhat accustomed to from the others in the group, as had become the catchphrase for our trip; it was leg day, or walking day. For me it was a little different however, as in my group with Mrs. Costi I had been stuck with a map of the site and told to navigate and lead everyone around, it wasn't that difficult as the map was fairly clear, and eventually we made our way to the different sites and finally the amphitheatre for lunch. After this we saw the sites which Mrs. Kerr's group had been looking at before we left and made our way back to Sorrento to rest our (everyone else's) sore feet.

That night in Sorrento was much the same as the previous one, and the next day we set off for Herculaneum, another site which had been destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius, and one that had been buried under roughly 20 meters of ash and lava. For a town placed under that, it was surprisingly well intact, and it was so well preserved there was even second stories of buildings and wood remaining from roughly 79 AD. After looking around the site in small groups and learning about the temples or mosaics on the walls of houses which told different intriguing stories, we headed back to the bus and made our way to Rome, our last stay on the trip. That day in Rome we saw one of the biggest sites to see, the Colosseum. It's something I'd always wanted to see up until this point, but I was still absolutely blown away when we saw it, to me it reminded me that no matter how many times you can look at a place in a picture, there's nothing quite like seeing it with your own eyes, I ended up having that feeling a lot in Rome.

The next time I had it of course was a little while later on the way to dinner when we visited Trevi fountain, and of course, threw a coin into it. That night we had time to wander about the area around Trevi, taking pictures, shopping and getting gelato if we wished, and this time I actually did some shopping there, picking up a painting for myself along with a few other trinkets. After that we went back to the hotel and slept to get ready for the next day which again would be leg day. Our first stop on our last day was the Vatican, and we had quite a surprise when we got there, we learned that the Basilica, what we'd planned to see, was closed, but we got to see something a little better, the pope. Driving around the square and waving to everyone, we actually ended up rather close, at one point only about ten meters from the pope himself, not quite an experience I figured I'd have when I left on the trip. After this we made our way to Piazza Navona where we ate lunch before we moved on to the Pantheon and back to Trevi for a bit of last minute shopping, then it was back to the hotel for the final preparations to come home.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful in terms of things we saw, it was all the usual routine for me, go to the airport, go through all the checks, jump on a plane to Dubai, get off, get back on, and then the long haul home. I was quite lucky on that flight though to get quite a lot of sleep, and when I made it home I wasn't that tired, which helped with jet lag. Now I've been relaxing at home for a couple of days and it's only starting to sink in that I'm both glad to be home but upset that it's over at the same time. I had such an incredible experience seeing all these places, and the fact that I got to experience all this with friends made it even better, my trip to Turkey, Greece and Italy with school was a fantastic journey, and one I won't forget for a long time.

The Rest of Turkey

After leaving Izmir we began to make our way towards Cannakale, near Gallipoli and our last stop before crossing the dardanelles onto the peninsula. While we were heading there we stopped at Troy, little more than rubble now, both from the fact it's so ancient and from Heinrich Schliemann's terrible excavation. Walking around the site, we were told about the story and what was and wasn't true, and about the many different levels of the city, before taking some silly pictures inside the replica trojan horse, of course. After this we moved back to the bus and got onto it, before this point Jake had been quite sick and vomiting, but he was getting much better now, which was good to see.

Getting to Cannakale, we checked into the hotel a bit later than expected and had dinner at the hotel before we went out for short walk to get some money and to see the Trojan horse used in the movie 'Troy'. After that we made our way back and just settled in for a fairly uncomfortable night's sleep. The next morning we got up and got our luggage down to the lobby, placing it into the bus after breakfast and getting on the ferry over to the peninsula before heading towards the memorial area and Anzac Cove. Seeing the memorials, the cove and cemetaries was a very moving experience, considering I have so much family history with the first world war, and even with Gallipoli. We spent just about all day here and then just drove to Istanbul, where again we would be having two nights.

Our first night in Istanbul was fairly uneventful, just getting settled and going out to have dinner in a nice restaurant, before taking some night-time pictures of the blue mosque, which we would be seeing the next day. After that we went back to the hotel and slept, getting up the next morning and setting off for the Tokapi Palace. We had free roam in the palace and I first went to the Harem apartments with Erin and Lia, it was absolutely spectacular, the walls were all covered with some sort of tile or decoration, and there were many vibrant colours of gold, blue, green and red everywhere. After moving through them slowly and taking in all of it, we continued to look around the palace until we had to move on. Returning to the blue mosque, we took some pictures of it and Hagia Sophia, unable to go inside due to our time, we moved on to the Roman Cistern and looked around inside, again it was quite beautiful, and a nice cool change to the hot weather outside.

After visiting the cistern and having a nice lunch, we came to the big part of the day, the Grand Bazaar. We were split into groups of six or seven and given free reign around the bazaar, with a set meeting point and time two hours after our entry. Being placed in a group with Erin, Kaylee, Lia, Jake, Belinda and Bec, I wasn't sure if i'd really buy anything, but figured I would try considering I wouldn't need any of my TL beyond this point. After looking around and haggling with some of the stall owners (which was really quite fun) I managed to spend all my cash on three items, a journal, a new leather wallet, and of course, a turkish fez. The others brought a number of things, art, clothes, accessories, if you wanted to find something to buy, you could get it at the Grand Bazaar.

Leaving the Bazaar, we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and shower before we went out for dinner again. This time, we were given 100 TL to a group of three and told we could eat anywhere we wanted within a certain area, but again had to meet at a set spot at 9PM. Although we were in groups of three, all of Year 11 decided to eat together, as did Year 10, and it was a really fun and relaxing dinner, quite tasty too. We held off from dessert though, as the whole group got dessert from a nearby place all paid for by Ms. Costi after our meals to share between pairs of us. Once we'd enjoyed that, it was just a relaxing walk back to the hotel where we were told to get some sleep for our flight to Athens in the morning.

Day One - A bunch of cats

After a long and relatively tiring trip on the plane, followed by a rather relaxing stop at the Copthorne Airport Hotel in Dubai and another pair of flights much shorter than the first, we've finally arrived in Izmir, our first proper place to stay on the trip. Arriving at the airport with Mum, Dad and Simon, it didn't take long to find the wall of school students from both year 11 and 10, with the teachers trying desperately to keep track of everyone as they met up and spoke to eachother and their parents. After everyone had shown up and i'd spoken to my friends, I said my goodbye to Mum and Dad as they went to check in, and soon did the same myself, before moving through security. The process was nothing new aside from the fact I was now going through it without my parents, but i'd gone through it so many times it was all just second nature, not that it's really that difficult anyway.

Getting to the gate, we moved off after a short while to get dinner, where I ran into mum before we had to head to the gate to start boarding. Getting onto the plane I saw mum and dad both getting settled, the last time i'll be seeing them this trip unfortunately, as I didn't run into them in Dubai. After the long haul trip, we got off the plane at Dubai and moved through the absolutely colossal airport to a bus which took us all to our hotel. Time there was split between breakfast, swimming in the pool and making sure I hadn't lost anything by checking my bag (Good news is, I hadn't). After our time there was done we moved back to the airport on the same bus and boarded a flight to Istanbul. This was a much shorter trip, only lasting four hours before we arrived and had to move to the domestic terminal to get onto our last flight to Izmir.

The flight was incredibly quick and it was nice to get a short nap in considering how little we'd all slept. Arriving in Izmir, everyone was exhausted as we got our bags and moved outside to our bus. Driving through the city, we got to our hotel and 'enjoyed' the dinner we were given before we had the chance to go up to her rooms properly and pass out in our beds, only to be woken up by a wake up call at around 8. Getting ready and going downstairs much happier than the night before, we had breakfast and then moved onto the bus to head to Ephesus.

When we arrived, we looked around the ruins of the ancient city, and learned about the uses and reasons for different buildings, overall it was a gorgeous place and an incredibly interesting part of the day, despite how much walking around was involved with it all, along with getting acquainted with the huge population of cats living in the site. After leaving Ephesus we moved on to a carpet factory which the previous group had visited, getting there we looked at the process for making Turkish carpets and we tried some Turkish apple tea, which is quite possibly the most delicious drink I have ever had. Ever. Along with the tea, we took off our shoes and stood on a number of different carpets unrolled for us, feeling the varying kinds of carpet that could be made. After this incredibly relaxing part of our day, we returned to the hotel for a quick swim and then dinner.

Tomorrow we are going to Troy, looking forward to it!

Here we go again...

This time last year, I was getting all giddy and excited for a trip with my family to the US, and a massive trip it was, driving all the way across the country in what would (unfortunately) probably be my last holiday with my parents, because this time around, i'm stuck with my fellow students and "friends", yay. Now, sarcasm aside, I am incredibly excited, as are many of my friends going with me to Europe this year as part of the Ancient History trip to Turkey, Greece and Italy (Three new countries for me!). Just tonight, we went to the last meeting and got our tickets, it's almost painful to think that there's still 22 days left, it feels so close, AND so far.

Of course, my parents won't be far away from me on this trip, they always find some way to subtly stalk me. They're going to Italy at the same time, and in fact, will be on the same flight as us from Sydney to Dubai! So of course, there won't be much change from the routine, getting a lift from Simon to the airport with mum and dad three hours before the flight, except i'll be saying my goodbyes right away and going to meet up with Erin, Dan, Kaylee, Jake, Lia, Tram Huong, and everyone else who's just as great!

I could probably go on for hours about everything that I want to see and do while i'm overseas with everyone, but I don't want to bore the hell out of my readers, considering I want you all to come back and stick to reading this blog. So for now, i'll just say that I am incredibly excited, I can't wait to see new places, I can't wait to try new things, and most of all I can't wait to spend every single day of this trip with some of the most fantastic, wonderful people I know and may ever know!

All good things must come to an end

Vegas really has everything, whether it's Jack Sparrow casually checking his phone, or two playboy bunnies taking money for photos, you can see it at Vegas. But both are far from the best thing you could see if you came to town, the best thing you could see is Cirque Du Soleil's "Love". The show is done to the music of The Beatles, and if that didn't convince you, I can easily say that it is the best thing i've seen in the whole holiday, and i've seen a lot in this trip.

We're staying in the venetian hotel, and we're definitely in the nicest room we've had for the whole holiday, it's large and comfortable, and doesn't smell like smoke like all the other parts of the hotel. The most interesting part of the venetian is the shopping area, where there is an actual canal in the middle, where you can go on gondola rides, and the roof is made to look like the sky, as if you were actually walking through venice. It looks great as you walk along the canal, looking at the shops, and it's a sudden change as you go into any restaurants or clubs, they are all dark with lit up walls and music, much different to the atmosphere outside.

It occurs to me that this is likely the last post that i'll be able to make, seeing this is the last place we are staying, and the last place where I know I will have access to the internet. Although I am quite sad to see such an excellent trip come to an end, I am also glad to be finally coming home, I have been missing my friends, and my family and would love to see them again. This is probably also the last holiday I will go on with my parents, seeing I will be going to Europe with school next year, and then schoolies after that, and once I leave school I won't be going on holidays with them any more, and it really was an enjoyable final trip to go on with them.

Not many people can say they have done what we have this trip, when we reach Los Angeles, we'll have driven over 5000 miles from the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. We've gone from the tropics of the Florida keys, to the swamps of the everglades, to the deserts of Texas and the high mountain forests of Arizona, the scenery and the kinds of people we see have changed again and again as we've gone along, and it really has been a spectacular trip which I will remember for many, many years.

We've still got more to see though, tomorrow we'll be going to the Pawn Shop seen in the TV Show "Pawn Stars" (which if you have not seen it, you should have), and Santa Monica in Los Angeles before we get to the Airport for our flight home, I can't wait to see everyone again and tell them all about this long, fantastic holiday.

Flagstaff Arizona

Today we left Tuscon and began our drive to Flagstaff, a city quite high in the mountains of Arizona, just outside the University of Northern Arizona. Our first stop on the way there was Montezuma Castle, a "town" built in the side of a cliffside by Native Americans back in the Medieval ages, and where the Native Americans lived for a very long time. It was an interesting site, as the buildings were basically modern apartments, but built so long ago and into a cliff.

We also saw the Red Rocks of Arizona as we went toward Flagstaff, the area where these are common has an odd history, again and again it has gone from an area of desert to sea, and then back again, the huge mountains are red sandstone at the base and as they go toward the tip they become limestone, and then even basalt. The site is spectacular and some of the mountains really are beautiful. 

It's a rather large change in Flagstaff, we've gone again from massive deserts to tall forests, and the temperature has been quite low here, which is the exact opposite to the thousand degree heat which we've been getting often on this holiday. Tomorrow we'll be going to Las Vegas, where we'll have the last night of the holiday, drat.

Tuscon

This morning I got to sleep in again, something which I am very happy about on this holiday, considering it has been so rare. I was able to get a good sleep without any distractions in the morning because I am in a separate room to mum and dad, so when they go down to breakfast in the morning, I can remain asleep without being disturbed.

After I eventually did get up and had the breakfast mum and dad brought up to the room for me, we left the hotel and went to the Pima air and space museum nearby, where they have the SR-71 stealth plane, which was used first during the cold war, and went to altitudes so high, that the pilots actually had to wear a space suit.

We looked around the museum at many of the planes they had there, such as the C-130 Hercules and the Air Force One jet used by Kennedy and Johnson. But there weren't just planes, but also helicopters such as the Huey and the UH-60 Black hawk. They had an indoor area known as the "Space gallery" with a few simulators to try and displays.

The highlight of the museum though was the boneyard tour, we got on a bu and were taken to the nearby Air Force base, and then began to drive through the massive storage area for all kinds of planes used by the U.S Air Force, we were told that the boneyard had 4000 planes, and seeing the size of it, that wasn't hard to believe.

After we left the museum we went to the nearby Titan 2 Missile Silo. The Titan 2 is a nuclear missile, and the most powerful one ever deployed by the United States, it could wipe out an entire city. We looked around the facility on a tour, and even got to simulate a launch, I was made the commander and had to launch the missile, though I didn't actually launch one (Next time).

We then went to the Saguaro National Park, which is filled with Saguaro Cacti, these are the cacti which are shaped in the cliche positions, going straight up with slightly curved branches. They have a very long life-span and can grow to up to 50 feet tall, as well as living for over 100 years. We drove around their 5 mile scenic route and took a few photos before heading back to the hotel. It was a long day, but a very enjoyable one.