Home and tired

We are home and I am exhausted. I am trying to get my inner clock reset so I feel like a real person again. Well it's back to work in a few days after all the laundry, unpacking and trying to find a spot for the stuff that I bought. I don't think I have wall space for all the art I bought but i will have to find a place for it eventually.

Becky

On our way home!

We are on our way home, We have to stay up for over 24 hours to reset our clocks I hope we will be OK.

See you all soon!

Becky

Rome day 3

St Peters Square where the Pope gives his weekly address

St Peters Basilica the largest Catholic Church in the World

Me and Mom in front of St Peters Basilica at night.

Today we went to the Vatican. We had to stand in line outside the walls for about an hour before they would let us in. I didn't know what to think about the Vatican. It just reminded me of a lot of over indulgence. I thought about the common people and how deprived they were and that they didn't have anything and yet their church had a huge amount of wealth that they put towards things of the world. Anything you can imagine in gold and marble statues, the tapestries and the furnishings, the paintings and everything was just overdone. This is not to say that the Vatican was not grand, it was. It just was too much I think.

We then went back to the hotel and packed to come home. That was a lot of fun trying to get everything to fit into our bags and not have them overweight. We did OK. We then found out we were going to take a bus ride around Rome at night. That was awesome to see all of the stuff lit up and glowing was so cool! We drove past a movie premier and the president of Italy arrived as we were driving around there were police cars everywhere. It was really kind of cool.

We will be leaving in the morning and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on this awesome trip. I have learned so much and I am excited to plan another trip back to Italy to spent some time at some of the places I thought were cool!

Becky

Rome Day 2

The Pantheon a beautiful church that only took 7 years to build it is amazing to thing with the intricate details of the ceiling that it only took that long to get it built

Today we saw more and more of Rome. We started out walking to the Spanish steps and then to the Trevi fountain. They were great! At the Spanish Steps I ran up to the top twice the first time just to see if I could do it and the second time to get a picture. The steps are amazing and our guide had warned us about pick pockets. There were a lot of them that I saw, but luckily no one in our group had any problems.

At the Trevi fountain we spent about 30 minutes just looking around the fountain. It was more beautiful then I had imagined. I think I could have spent a couple of hours there just walking around and people watching. We got some gelato before moving on to the next site which was the Pantheon. We then saw several of the alblucus that were stolen from the Egyptians during the reign of the Roman Empire. There are 230 of the ablucus's in Rome and only 2 are left in Egypt. I think soon one day the Egyptians are going to call then stolen and demand there return.

Talk to you soon

Becky

Rome Rome Rome

St Paul's outside the walls church.

Rome is so amazing on the first day we were able to see the Forum which was part of an ancient city. It was huge I never realized how large the Forum was until we got there and walked around for a couple of hours.

We then went to the Colosseum and learned all about what happened there on almost a daily basis. Mom and I in the picture have our fist's held up similar to what the emperor would do to let a gladiator live, if they had survived their fight with either a wild animal or another gladiator. We spent about an hour there and one guy from our group got lost so we had to wait and find him.

We then went to St Paul outside the walls church. It was really cool. the interior was great! It was then back on the bus and back to the ship to get ready to get off the ship the next day! We are having an amazing time!

Becky

Olympia Pictures

The statue of Hermes one of 1000's of statues found at the site. The ancient Olympic stadium. Mom and I getting ready to run at the stadium.

Athens pictures

The Corinth canal and mom and I at the ancient city of Corinth where the apostle Paul taught.

The other pictures are Mom and I at the top of the Acropolis in front of the Parthenon and me and the city of Athens

pictures from Istanbul

Istanbul was great this is a sunset during our cruise of the Danyon river. The big building is the Blue Mosque that was really cool to see. We got a great lunch on the balcony of a carpet store.

pictures from Ismir Turkey

Any of these places look familiar? This is the ancient city of Ephesus and it was spectacular. The stadium could hold 50,000 people. It so cool. The last picture is from the Library and I have seen that in my history books from college

Pisa

Sorry I have not posted in several days, we used all of our Internet time and didn't have a connection once we got off the ship.

We went to Pisa and had a great time. I wanted to climb the tower but mom didn't and I didn't want to go by myself so we walked around and saw the baptistery and the church. While in the baptistery a guy sang a short song which in the building sounded like 5 or 6 people were singing. The sound resonated off of the marble it was great. Of course we took the holding up the tower pictures and we had a lot of fun.

We then went through Tuscany to the medieval hill town of San Gimninaughno (I know that it's is spelled wrong but I don't have my book with me to tell me how to spell it). The city was great we got a workout walking up to the main square though. It is built on a hilltop and the buses drop you off at the bottom and you have to walk up. I think you can see the grade on the picture of me and mom. We did some shopping and we found a great watercolor shop and bought some art there. We also went into a leather store and we both bought leather purses. Mine is orange and mom's is black! We had a tremendous time even though we were running for the bus because we were running late due to the shopping.

See you soon

Becky

Day 14 and Day 15

Yesterday we visited ancient Olympia! Amazing what was still preserved and reconstructed. We got to see the ancient stadium where the men competed NAKED! No women were allowed to attend except the priestess Athena. I also learned that they held games for the women a couple of weeks later after the men's competition and then they posted the women's names on the columns of Athena's temple.

The really cool part was seeing the statues of shame for the cheaters. If you were found to cheat during the games you had to pay for a bronze statue of Zeus that stood in a line next to the entrance to the stadium with your name engraved along the bottom. Totally cool.

Well today we had a relaxing day at sea. Me and mom got up and had breakfast and then went to a talk of Rome and how to get off of the ship, we also bought some new necklaces and bracelets in the jewelry store then we had lunch and I went off to the art auction and mom went out to sit on deck and enjoy the sun. We both met later to got and play 10 games for $10 Bingo and I won $100. I would have won $200 but someone else got Bingo at the same time so we had to split the prize. I then spent that money on the art that I bought at the auction. It was great.

Tomorrow we are getting off and heading to Pisa to see the leaning tower. Still no pictures I am starting to get really mad!

Love you and miss you

Becky

Day 13 Athens

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW

That is all I can say. We had all day but still didn't have enough time to do all of the things that I would have loved to do. OMG the Parthenon was spectacular. Out of this world amazing. Everything we saw was so so so amazing.

Me and mom are having fun but we are starting to get on each others nerves. I think Mom forgets that I truly do like to do things by myself and to have her almost afraid to do things by herself is funny.

Oh by the way Mom spent $10 and played BINGO and won $150! She was so proud of herself it was great. I just wish I would have been there to see the look on her face when she won (I was dozing and watching a movie in the room)!

So we go to Olympia tomorrow so I will sign off and see you all tomorrow.

Oh sorry about the pictures for some reason it is not letting me post them so maybe I will figure it out tomorrow. Funny that I can't call Jay and try to figure it out but that is too expensive.

Love ya

Becky

A Day at Sea

It seems like all I do during my day's at sea is sleep eat and sleep again. Yesterday was no exception other then they had a chocolate extravaganza and so I eat a lot of chocolate. I took some pictures as we sailed through the Aegean Sea it was beautiful and there were a lot of barges.

I think I keep saying a lot but I don't have a Thesaurus so I am sorry

Becky

Day 11 Istanbul Lara was right!

OK LARA if you are following I could spend weeks possibly months in Turkey. I am so glad that you convinced me to go. It has been awesome. Today was no exception.

I can say that I would have to have a driver and a guide because without them I would be totally lost. I thought drivers in the US were bad they are nothing they are great for that matter. Today we had several times that we had to wait for people to return to their cars and move them so we could get through. So someone would stop their car in traffic run in the store purchase something and then come back and go. Craziness, also the pedestrains were just asking to get hit running in and out of traffic and such I can't believe it.

We started at the St Sophia church then went to the Toekapai palace. We then went to a real Turkish rug factory and saw how they were made and had lunch on the terrace. We then hiked up to the Blue Mosque which was amazing. We are here during the holy month of Ramadan and we got to hear the calls to prayer this afternoon. They are beautiful and so heartfelt. It was interesting to see the rituals that they go through before and when they pray.

I thought it was very interesting to see the difference of the beliefs of the people. 90-95% of the people in Turkey are Muslim, yet I only saw a few women in full burikas and then alot of women with their head covered, but then I saw a lot of women without any head dress. So a lot of different cultures in one day.

We finished up the day with a quick shopping trip to the Grand Bazzar and a cruise on the Bospherus. All wonderful things to do. Unfocuntanatley it will still not let me post pictures so tomorrow we have a day at sea and I hope to be able to get everything posted but until then I will see you all tomorrow.

Becky

Turkey Day 10

Today was so cool. We visited the anciet city of Ephesus. They have only uncovered about 15% of the city and it is HUGE! We spenct about 2 hours there walking around and looking at the different sites located there. The Libreary of Celsus which I have seen on programs like National Geographic. I am glad that my knee is doing well because today could have been really bad, but it seems to be holding up as good as could be expected. We walked through the whole city coming at the end to the Ampitheather which could hold 25,000 people. It was huge. The sea use to come up to the city but due to earthquakes and silt depsoits it is now 4 miles from the sea. It is so amazing.

We also visited the House of the Virgin Mary and St John's Bascillcia. They were also really cool. We got to see one of the 7 ancient wonders we saw where the Temple of Artemis use to stand. There is just 1 pillar still standing and the foundation. It was so special.

Funny story from this morning, my mom and I were eating breakfast in the dining room and the boat made a very fast turn. If you can imagine an 111,000 ton ship making a fast turn, anyway everything on the table leaned with great strain and we heard dishes and such falling in the kitchen. It was quite amazing.

Well I have to be up early tomorrow so I will sign off. It is about 10:30 at night and we have to be off the ship at 9am.

Goodnight

Becky

Turkey is Great!

Ok so I missed yesterday but I had a huge migraine and I could barely see straight. We got to Turkey yesterday and had a great time. We were limited to 5 hours so it was a run and grab kind of day. We landed in Marmaris and they have a beautiful port city. Our guide told us it was popular with the European tourist's.

I have to say that I had a lot of preconceived notions about Turkey. I thought it was mostly a desert but I am wrong it is so green and there are so many trees and so much agriculture. Turkey sustains itself with it's own agriculture and then sells a lot off to Russian and Eastern Europe.

The ruins of Kaunos were amazing. They have such amazing sites it is mind blowing. We took a boat ride up the Daylan River to get to the hike to see Kaunos. I hope the pictures are enough for you to see how wonderful. We got a fresh pomegranate it was great.

It looks like it will not let me upload images maybe in a little bit.

Becky

Hello, from Turkey

We finally have made it out of Italy and we ported at the city of Marmarius Turkey. The port is very hilly all the way down to the water. It is a resort town with a marina full of very large boats.

Our guide todays name was Mulock he said to call him Mike. He took us to the ancient city of Kaunos which was both Roman and Greek. It was a harbor city that is now miles from the sea. The rivers silt has land locked it. Kaunos was on the silk and spice highway coming from the east and did a very busy business until the discovery that the earth was not flat and you could sail to the east much cheaper and faster. Bummer for Kaunos. Turkey is forested and mountainous. The people grow all kinds of citrus fruit and Pomegranates. We ate one on the hike back to the bus. It was very delicious.

A Day at Sea

We finally get a day to rest. We slept in and had breakfast at the main buffet it was great. We then went to a discussion on Turkey and went to an art auction. I fell in love with a painting that was by Salvador Dali (although I didn't know it was his I really thought I might buy it). Yeah right.

I spent some time on the top of the ship and the water is so blue. As blue and the sky and not like the Pacific ocean it's kind of weird but awesome. We are so amazed every morning how blue the water really is. The weather was windy this morning and we walked around the ship like we were all a little drunk walking from one side to the other side of the hall all morning long. We have not gotten sick so that is good.

Tonight was elegant night and me and mom got dressed up and were able to eat a great dinner they had prime rib and lobster and all kinds of yummy yummy food. We then went to the after dinner show which was much better then the show last night.

Well I am going to turn in we have a long day tomorrow in Marmaris Turkey.

See you all later

Becky

Day 7 Sorrento and Pompeii

Yesterday we were in Sorrento and we drove down the Amafali Coast then we went to Pompeii. I wish that we would have had more time in Sorrento it is a great town beautiful and full of life. In Sorrento the people specialize in doing wood inlay and we went to a factory and got to see it done. It was awesome it is a real artist that does this with a hand saw and a very very small pieces. It was totally amazing.

We then went for a drive down the Amafali coast which was terrifying and so beautiful that I don't have words to describe it. I posted some pictures but they don't do it justice. We did have an amazing driver named Vincentzo who was HOT in every sense of the way but he drove the bus around corners and twisted that we thought impossible.

From there we drove over the mountain to Pompeii. In Pompeii they specialize in making Cameo necklaces. We got to go to a cameo shop and see an artist making one it was great. We then went to the ruins of the old city of Pompeii and is was cool to see a city that was buried in 600 BC and was still intact with fresco's and pottery and amazing stuff. The ash preserved it well. We then got back to the ship in record time and had dinner. We had a lot of fun. We were looking forward to sleeping in because of the "Day at sea".

Becky

Day 6

Drive all day and get on the ship.

Today we drove from Florence to the ship. I did OK on the main highway but when we got onto the twisty turny road I thought I was feeling green. We got onto the ship through security and we were ready to go.

After receiving our luggage (my bag by the way had been immersed in water so everything was wet). We walked down for the welcome speech what to do and what not to do. We then went back to our cabin and then to dinner which was real food and delicious. We then just as we were finishing dinner had a mandatory fire drill which was a lot of fun!

We then went to the Internet cafe and we are back and ready to go to bed so we can get up again at 6 am. I don't know how early mornings and late nights are a vacation but hey it's Italy. I can feel all of the movements on the ship so I don't know if I am going to be sick or not I guess we will see in the morning how I feel. Just wanted everyone to know how much fun we are having and that we will write tomorrow when we get back from Sorento and Pompeii.

Becky