Sunday, 7 June 2009
Friday, 5 June 2009
Turkish Delight
Ben and I figured that since we're so close to Europe we should check out another country. After much research and much debate (and finding a few good deals) we decided to head to Maramaris, Turkey!
The flight took about 4 hours and we finally arrived at our hotel about 3am. We discovered there were roosters not too far away from where we were staying because they liked to crow at that time. Being so tired though we fell asleep right away.
Our first day out we decided we would walk around the area and find the beach. Come to find out, Maramaris is quite touristy. I guess you could compare it to Cancun or Atlantic City but the thing Ben and I realized quickly was that you couldn't walk more than 15 feet without someone hassling you to come into their shop, restaurant, whatever. Their techniques to get you to notice them were interesting. A lot of times they would ask, "Where are you from?" and then they would go into their spiel about what they had to offer. They would also say, "Yes please" and hold something out to you like a business card for you to take. They even did this at the hotel pool area. It's a lot different from what we're used to.
Once we got used to the hassling things were fine. We explored the area and walked the beach and found some places to eat. Right down the road from us was an a tour place where they had a bunch of different excursions you could choose to do. Some of them were actually quite cheap. Ben and I decided to do 3: Ephesus, Lazy Day Out, and Jeep Safari.
Ephesus is one of the ancient wonders of the world. It's a huge city that is still in the process of excavation. It was amazing to see it! There were huge amphitheaters, a library, they even showed where the public toilets were. There wasn't much privacy in those times because they had them all lined up. It felt surreal being there and seeing such an interesting part of history.
The lazy day consisted of us taking a boat around the Marmaris area and other surrounding towns. You basically lay in the sun all day and visit some new places. We went to a few different beaches, swam, and then went to a market and did some window shopping. Quite relaxing and interesting to see other towns besides Maramaris.
The Jeep Safari was a lot of fun. You drive off road and through water and mud and get completely soaked. There's a group of jeeps that go together and we would have water fights. We also went to some really cool areas. One of the places we saw was called Jesus Beach. There is a sand bar that goes from one end of the shore to almost the other end and you can walk into the middle of the lake. We also went to this waterfall that you could swim in. It was gorgeous.
On the days that we weren't doing an excursion we generally walked to the beach or layed by the pool. The weather was perfect pretty much every day, sunny and 90 degrees. Turkey was definitely an interesting experience. Our last day there we went to the local market and learned how to bargain and haggle with the stand owners. Ben was actually pretty good at it so I left it up to him most of the time.
I would love to see more countries in Europe but our time here is almost up!
The flight took about 4 hours and we finally arrived at our hotel about 3am. We discovered there were roosters not too far away from where we were staying because they liked to crow at that time. Being so tired though we fell asleep right away.
Our first day out we decided we would walk around the area and find the beach. Come to find out, Maramaris is quite touristy. I guess you could compare it to Cancun or Atlantic City but the thing Ben and I realized quickly was that you couldn't walk more than 15 feet without someone hassling you to come into their shop, restaurant, whatever. Their techniques to get you to notice them were interesting. A lot of times they would ask, "Where are you from?" and then they would go into their spiel about what they had to offer. They would also say, "Yes please" and hold something out to you like a business card for you to take. They even did this at the hotel pool area. It's a lot different from what we're used to.
Once we got used to the hassling things were fine. We explored the area and walked the beach and found some places to eat. Right down the road from us was an a tour place where they had a bunch of different excursions you could choose to do. Some of them were actually quite cheap. Ben and I decided to do 3: Ephesus, Lazy Day Out, and Jeep Safari.
Ephesus is one of the ancient wonders of the world. It's a huge city that is still in the process of excavation. It was amazing to see it! There were huge amphitheaters, a library, they even showed where the public toilets were. There wasn't much privacy in those times because they had them all lined up. It felt surreal being there and seeing such an interesting part of history.
The lazy day consisted of us taking a boat around the Marmaris area and other surrounding towns. You basically lay in the sun all day and visit some new places. We went to a few different beaches, swam, and then went to a market and did some window shopping. Quite relaxing and interesting to see other towns besides Maramaris.
The Jeep Safari was a lot of fun. You drive off road and through water and mud and get completely soaked. There's a group of jeeps that go together and we would have water fights. We also went to some really cool areas. One of the places we saw was called Jesus Beach. There is a sand bar that goes from one end of the shore to almost the other end and you can walk into the middle of the lake. We also went to this waterfall that you could swim in. It was gorgeous.
On the days that we weren't doing an excursion we generally walked to the beach or layed by the pool. The weather was perfect pretty much every day, sunny and 90 degrees. Turkey was definitely an interesting experience. Our last day there we went to the local market and learned how to bargain and haggle with the stand owners. Ben was actually pretty good at it so I left it up to him most of the time.
I would love to see more countries in Europe but our time here is almost up!
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Warwick Castle
Among our many adventures we also went to Warwick Castle. This castle was different than the one in Wales because they kept the inside furnished. Each section was decorated according to a different time period. I think it went from Medieval times to around the 1930s. Every single room was covered with elaborate pieces of furniture and even the ceilings had ornate carvings in them. It was fantastic to see. The grounds around the castle were amazing as well. The gardens had really nice flowers and perfectly trimmed hedges and there were more peacocks than I've seen in a life time. You could get really close to them too. We also went on a kind of ghost tour but it showed the dungeons and they had actors that pretended to be executioners and torturers. At one point they locked Ben's mom in a cage and wouldn't let her out! The whole thing was pretty fun. There were bird shows and a demonstration with a flaming cannon ball too. It was all really interesting to see and it makes me wish there were more castles in the states.
Monday, 1 June 2009
A Tour of Cambridge
Cambridge is a lovely town to visit. There are a lot of shops to look at, a few museums, the schools are nice to see and of course there's always punting on the river.
We first went to see one of the museums which had a fantastic exhibition of Japanese Art. Ben's mom really likes that type of artwork so she was really excited to go. Then we ate lunch in a nice little tea shop and chatted for awhile. But then it came time for the haggling to start so we could go punting on the river. We left this task up to Kathy who showed us how a real haggler does it and she managed to get us a great deal. I think it came out to be 5 pounds per person when they normally charge 15 pounds!
I suppose I should explain what punting is; well, punting is kind of like what you see in the pictures of Venice and the people in the boats and there's someone pushing it along with a big pole. That's what punting in Cambridge is like but apparently they'll let anyone try it. You don't need to be experienced, you just pay for a boat for a couple of hours and off you go. We opted to pay for someone who was experienced to push the boat around. A lot of times there's collisions between boats because the river can get quite crowded but our tour guide did a fantastic job. He told us some of the history of Cambridge and what the story behind some of the bridges were. You can see in the pics that not all the bridges looked the same. We also got to see exactly what you shouldn't do when your pole gets stuck in the mud. The major thing is not to hold on to it otherwise you'll be holding onto the pole while the boat continues to drift. The end result is someone splashing into the water like the poor girl in the picture. She was fine so don't worry.
We first went to see one of the museums which had a fantastic exhibition of Japanese Art. Ben's mom really likes that type of artwork so she was really excited to go. Then we ate lunch in a nice little tea shop and chatted for awhile. But then it came time for the haggling to start so we could go punting on the river. We left this task up to Kathy who showed us how a real haggler does it and she managed to get us a great deal. I think it came out to be 5 pounds per person when they normally charge 15 pounds!
I suppose I should explain what punting is; well, punting is kind of like what you see in the pictures of Venice and the people in the boats and there's someone pushing it along with a big pole. That's what punting in Cambridge is like but apparently they'll let anyone try it. You don't need to be experienced, you just pay for a boat for a couple of hours and off you go. We opted to pay for someone who was experienced to push the boat around. A lot of times there's collisions between boats because the river can get quite crowded but our tour guide did a fantastic job. He told us some of the history of Cambridge and what the story behind some of the bridges were. You can see in the pics that not all the bridges looked the same. We also got to see exactly what you shouldn't do when your pole gets stuck in the mud. The major thing is not to hold on to it otherwise you'll be holding onto the pole while the boat continues to drift. The end result is someone splashing into the water like the poor girl in the picture. She was fine so don't worry.
Monday, 25 May 2009
The London Experience
We started our adventure to London by riding the train. It took just about an hour but we caught the train that had to stop at each station (they offer trains that go straight through but we missed it). We arrived at King's Cross Station which, if you're interested in Harry Potter, is where they filmed the scene where Harry runs into the wall at the platform 9 3/4. Of course Ben and I had to check it out. We didn't have too much time to look around because we had to catch the tour bus. We did get to see Buckingham Palace and actually ate lunch sitting in front of it. The flag was also flying which means that the Queen is currently at that location so I like to think of it as though we had lunch with the Queen!
Our tour bus was different the traditional red double deckers. We got to go on the Duck Tours. You ride in a vehicle that can actually float in the river. We drove around and saw the London Eye, Big Ben, and other historical sites and then we drove straight into the river and sailed around there for a bit. It was a bit odd at first but very cool.
Once we finished with the tour we headed to Convent Garden. It's a collection of restaurants and shops but people also do different performances as well. Ben and I mainly watched the performances while Kathy and Patty shopped around for a bit. We had a wonderful dinner there and listened to some violinists and an opera singer. Straight after dinner we headed to Queen's Theater to see the play Les Miserables. It was fantastic and really exciting just to see a show in London. Hopefully Ben and I will be heading back to see some of the things we missed.
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Weekend in Wales
Saturday morning we got up at 6 am to head for Wales. It's about a 5 hour drive. Kathy actually rented a mini bus so we could all ride together. In total there was 9 of us plus 2 dogs. The ride was great because Kathy's kids (Jessica and Holly) can be quite funny.
Our first day in Wales we visited Caernarfon Castle. It was really windy that day but Ben and I absolutely had to climb to the top of a watch tower. It was well worth the view despite the wind and very narrow steep staircase. There was an interesting museum inside the castle and I learned that the Welsh troops each had their own goat that served in the army. The lucky person who had the job of taking care of the goat was called the Goat Major and at every dinner the goat had some of the Colonel's champagne. Crazy!
The next day we went to Port Marion. It's a little town with a bit of Italian influence and is best known for the filming of the series The Prisoner. It's such a colorful, impressive town and you can even rent houses there. They do have some full time residents as well. Later on we drove through the countryside and saw Mt. Snowdon (there's a tram that goes up the mountain and you can hike it if you like but we weren't able to do either).
Our last day we weren't able to do as much because we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us but we did get to go on a hike. The landscape was really beautiful and we were pretty much the only people there. At the end of the trail there was an absolutely fantastic waterfall. It was huge and you could get very close to it. I ended up getting soaked just from the mist.
As we headed back to the car from our hike we walked past quite a few fields with sheep in them. Sophie, one of the dogs, was constantly pulling and trying to chase them. She finally pulled hard enough and Kathy ended up dropping the leash and Sophie chased these poor sheep all around the field. Ben threw all of his stuff on the ground and chased after Sophie until he finally got close enough that she gave up. It was really funny and we all had a good laugh about later.
All in all, Wales was a fantastic trip!
Our first day in Wales we visited Caernarfon Castle. It was really windy that day but Ben and I absolutely had to climb to the top of a watch tower. It was well worth the view despite the wind and very narrow steep staircase. There was an interesting museum inside the castle and I learned that the Welsh troops each had their own goat that served in the army. The lucky person who had the job of taking care of the goat was called the Goat Major and at every dinner the goat had some of the Colonel's champagne. Crazy!
The next day we went to Port Marion. It's a little town with a bit of Italian influence and is best known for the filming of the series The Prisoner. It's such a colorful, impressive town and you can even rent houses there. They do have some full time residents as well. Later on we drove through the countryside and saw Mt. Snowdon (there's a tram that goes up the mountain and you can hike it if you like but we weren't able to do either).
Our last day we weren't able to do as much because we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us but we did get to go on a hike. The landscape was really beautiful and we were pretty much the only people there. At the end of the trail there was an absolutely fantastic waterfall. It was huge and you could get very close to it. I ended up getting soaked just from the mist.
As we headed back to the car from our hike we walked past quite a few fields with sheep in them. Sophie, one of the dogs, was constantly pulling and trying to chase them. She finally pulled hard enough and Kathy ended up dropping the leash and Sophie chased these poor sheep all around the field. Ben threw all of his stuff on the ground and chased after Sophie until he finally got close enough that she gave up. It was really funny and we all had a good laugh about later.
All in all, Wales was a fantastic trip!
Friday, 15 May 2009
Upon Arrival
After a long plane ride and sleepless night we finally arrived in England. Despite being exhausted we managed to stay awake the two hour ride to Great Gransden (about 45 minutes outside of Cambridge) and even into the night. Our host, Kathy, has been more than kind. So far she has taken us to see Anglesey Abbey and the oldest manor in England. I think it was dated back to sometime in the 1100's. Anglesey Abbey is a huge mansion with 80 acres of gardens and an incredible collection of art. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in either of the houses but I do have pictures of the gardens which I'll upload (the pictures above are of the buildings but I'll be posting more on facebook and sending the link - top= Anglesey Abbey, bottom= old manor). The towns here are so different than in the States. It almost feels like stepping back in time.
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