One more post....

So tomorrow we board the plane that will begin to take us home! Today we made our way to e city centre, Notredame and now are back in the hostel early so that we can pack and get everything sorted for tomorrow. Our room is currently looking very messy :)

Here are some photos from our time in Paris. They have actually been able to upload onto the iPad. Enjoy

xxx
See you all soon

Disney and more

It's been a little while since I've last posted, due mainly to the fact that we have access to very expensive wifi in our hostel and when we do have free wifi it's only for short periods of time (i.e. when we have coffee or food). So now I'm hoping to provide an update of the final days of our trip. The last few days in Paris

On Thursday we went to Disneyland Paris. It was a bit of a wet and miserable day but we still had a really great day. We got to ride the EAC with Crush and Squirt, entered the Twighlight Zone by a 'broken elevator' that dropped down from incredible heights, explored the pirate waters in the Caribbean with Captain Jack Sparrow, were launched into space by a Rocket Launcher, got lost in wonderland after spinning in the mad hatters tea cups and also helped Buzz Lightyear conquer the 'bad toy' who stole all the batteries with our lazer shooters.

After eating dinner in Belle's restaurant (where they played 'Happy Birthday' for Mum at least 3 times), we saw the Disney spectacular show at the main area which was basically a really fascinating show of well choreographed lights, fireworks and sounds.

Over the past few days we haven't done all that much, Jemma isn't feeling to great with a cold so we've been wandering around Paris seeing some of the parks, eating amazing crepes and soaking up as much sun as we can (between the showers of freezing cold rain). Today we found an English speaking church in Paris and are now relaxing and catching up on blogs and what ever else we feel the need to do before listening to another sermon that we have downloaded.

Only a few more days before we get home. It feels like it has been a really long time. But in 2 sleeps from now we will be boarding a plane one more time before landing on home ground. In a place where everyone speaks Australian and we know exactly where we are

xxx

Step by step

So today we climbed the Eiffel Tower. Yes, climbed it. All the steps all the way to the second level which was quite high. Definitely worked of all the food we have eaten for the past few days. After looking around for a bit at the view from there we used the lift to get to the very very top which was very high up. I must say that Jemma wasn't too happy to come to the edge to get a photo with the view but after some convincing she quickly went there for the photo and then back to the safety of closer to the middle (as it would be the photo turned out amazingly bad).

From there we found some food that wasn't too expensive and then wandered around some of the shops near .... (I cant remember the name of the place right now) Now we're sitting and waiting for our washing to finish. The last time we have to pay for our wash in the next little while.

xxx

The city of Paree

So, just in case you hadn't been told yet, we are now in Paris.

It took us a while to get here. There was a public holiday in Geneva yesterday (for Pentecost) which meant that not as many trains were running and little to our knowledge we also had to book the trains direct to Paris well in advance (especially if we had Eurail passes which we do). So we chose the regional train which took us through 9 hours of beautiful french countryside. This would have been much nicer to see if I wasn't suffering from a migraine and sitting next to a (rather large) guy with a very small bladder. Still we made it to Paris and to our hostel safely and without any hassle.

Today, I still wasn't feeling that great so we took it easy. We got lost in Paris (with a map so that we could actually get found again) and had hoped to climb the Eiffel Tower but due to the poor visibility and miserable weather decided to do it another day. Tomorrow's weather is forecast to be nicer so we'll see what happens then.

xxx

In one of the pics you can see the Eiffel Tower through the clouds...

Geneva and the Reformation

So apparently in Switzerland you actually eat meals at reasonable times (unlike everywhere else we have been in Europe). We had noticed this is Bern when we were trying to find something for lunch and only just found a restaurant with the kitchen still open at 1.45. However, it hit us a bit more this morning when we actually had to be downstairs and ready for breakfast before 9am as the kitchen closed then. This did mean that we were out of the hostel earlier on in the day and could see more of Geneva.

When we were in Bern, you could see how the cities history had been shaped by the reformation (well the small bit we saw in the museum anyway). Here in Geneva the history has been influenced even more so. Today was a day of Reformation history.

The first thing we did was wander (quite slowly) towards the town centre and the park which contains the Reformation wall. It was quite an impressively big wall in a nice park. The words 'Post Tenebrus Lux' were written across the top of the wall and there were the statues of Farel, Calvin, Beze and Knox in the centre of the wall. On either side there was a bit of a timeline (mainly in French) of the Reformation and separate from the wall there were monuments for Luther and Zwingli.

From there we found some food (which happened to be a whole chicken from the market which we shortly demolished in a very messy manner) and made our way to St. Peter's Cathedral which is the church where Calvin did most of his preaching. It was a pretty impressive church with two towers open for the public. We climbed up to them (and up LOTS of stairs) and enjoyed the view which was really great... in one direction we could see Lake Geneva and in the other direction we could see the mountains.

We also found a museum which was all about the Reformation. Even though it was really full of information it was really interesting to read and learn more about the history of our Church and the history behind what we believe. Most of the museum was dedicated to the 16th and 17th centuries but there was also some of it that contained more recent history.

Tonights a bit of an early night, Jemma has had a headache all day so she's gone to bed nice and early and I'm sitting in the main area so that I have internet and drawing a picture of the alps that we drove through coming into Switzerland.

Thats all for now... photos will come later when we have the connector for the camera

xxx

Wow, just wow

There are some really beautiful parts of God's creation. There are some places that you go to and you are just in awe of what a great God we serve. Switzerland and the alps would be one of them. Yesterday we took the train from Venice to Bern and drove right through the Swiss Alps. It was truly magnificent.

Today we wandered around the city of Bern and looked at some of the sights. We had hoped to go to a nearby little town but when we looked at the prices of transport we realised that it cost a little bit too much in relation to our budget...

Here are some (not very good) photos taken of the view out of the train... it was so so so much more beautiful than this...

Love to you all
xxx

Art and Music

I love Venice. There is so much art, music and all things wonderful here. The only problem is that it is really expensive. Very expensive.

Today was a day filled with art and music and a little bit of shopping. I dragged Jemma along to some art museums (one was closed) and then after dinner we went and listened to some Vivaldi and other Opera performed by a 5 piece orchestra which was really great.

It was a really nice day even if I did pay 9Euro for a glass of wine.

Photos:
1. View from our balcony, sometimes we are even serenaded by good looking men in Gondolas (well we hear them going past anyway).
2. My new sketch pad... real leather and really really cool,
3. deVos was written on one of the 'love locks' on a bridge across the river...
4. Us on the bridge...
5. Street performers... this guy was just tapping on this funny shaped thing to make music, another guy we saw had water glasses. They were both pretty amazing.

Lost in Venice

... with my suitcase ...

So, we've made it to Venice. We hadn't even been there for 1/2 an hour before we go terribly lost in our attempt to find our place of lodging. By terribly lost I mean incredibly, unfathomably, insanely lost that we were the most on track to where we had to be when we first thought that we were lost.

When we finally got there we gave the man our names and the details of our booking, and then when we were told that we could only pay in cash followed another guy to a atm. All the while dragging our suitcases. Apparently we were going to be staying somewhere different than where we first found the hostel. All the while I was thinking the guy we were following was going to grab the cash we just got out and just run for it and making up all sorts of other scenarios in my head. Then when we actually made it to the building we entered a large dark lobby and that was when I thought 'this is when they kill us AND run away with the cash'. I think that was just me being slightly paranoid because now we are relaxing in a nice large dorm room which has a 19th century painting on the ceiling and an amazing view of the canals right out of the window.

Photo's to come later

xxx

The catacombs

We don't really plan that well. Before coming to a city we might have a few ideas about what we want to see or where we want to go, but usually we go to the city and look at a map which tells us what to do and where to go and we plan our day while eating breakfast, OR we just get lost in the city and stumble over some amazing things.

The same was the case when we went to Rome. We didn't really have any idea what we were going to do. When I skyped home on Tuesday (I actually got to talk to everyone for a decent amount of time...) Dad mentioned something about the Appain Way, the oldest road in Rome dating back to the Roman Empire and even the apostle Paul walked along it on his way to Rome. Figuring that we had pretty much seen all of Rome in the wandering and walking and getting lost we had done in the past few days I looked it up this morning and also discovered that the catacombs come right off the road. So that is what we did today.

Unfortunately the road itself it really busy with traffic and there are walls of either side so it wasn't that safe to walk along to road for that long... maybe further along it would have been nicer but we didn't go there (obviously). BUT we went inside the catacombs instead, which was really fascinating. We had a guide (we couldn't go inside without one) and wandered through the tunnels listening to stories about the crypts, people buried in them and what happened there previuosly. It was all very interesting. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside but it was really really interesting hearing about some of the really early christian history also.

xxx

Food glorious food

I have mentioned food enough in all of my previous posts that it is probably about time that I dedicate one whole post on food. In particular italian food.

As it always is, we found a place in Rome today that does gluten free pasta, after we had our lunch of course, and just before we were going to head back to the hostel. It really is hard being in a city where there is so much good food and knowing that you shouldn't eat any of it just because it is full of gluten. And by full, I mean full. I must admit that I have been bad over the past few days, eating pizza, finishing of other peoples pasta (yes, embarrassingly enough I was hungry enough to eat someone else's left overs), and eating bread. But it was all so good.

Of course I have eaten other food, trying to be good and not eat too much gluten and even that has been good. I think I could stay here in Rome much longer even if it is just for the food. Maybe then I could find some other places that do really good gluten free pizza too (and actually eat it as well).

xxx

When in Roma

Do as the Romans do...

Well I'm not really sure what exactly it is that the Romans do but we have been eating lots of good pizza, pasta and ice-cream. All food that Roman (well Italians really) are really good at making. it has been good, although my stomach has been objecting to the amount of gluten I have been giving it and today I had a break from the pizza and pasta. The problem with so much good food is the effect it has on your waistline. Hopefully all the walking we have done around Rome, I will still be able to fit my jeans next time I put them on.

As I mentioned this morning, we went to the Vatican City yesterday (Wednesday) with some friends with had made from our hostel; David, Lemmy and Dayan. It was really impressive to go into some of the churches and chapels there and see all the artwork, carvings and architechture there that was built in adoration of the magnificent and awesome God that we serve. At the same time it was a bit sad to see so many people who go thinking of this as a great pilgrimage and seeing them crying and praying as if what they had done was saving them. From there we wandered through the streets of Rome, and then went to a place where we could dress up as gladiators and get photos taken of us. That was lots of fun!

Today, we went to the Colosseum and then wandered around Rome. The Colosseum was huge and really impressive, there was some information boards and statues that had been found in one part of the Colleseum and then we were also able to wander through the ruins and imagine what an impressive structure it must have been.

From there we wandered through the streets of Rome, ate food, and got a few souvenirs while using our batering skills to get good deals. We got some great personalised t-shirts and a few other things and then also hired segways for 1/2 an hour which was lots of fun.

Have a look at the pics from the last few days and enjoy. For some unknown reason I cant put captions on the photos while on the iPad, so here are the captions (sorry that they aren't up there in the order that they were taken).

1. Us chilling in the hostel... We made it to Roma!
2ff. Modelling ( as inspired by the many Asian tourists we have seen around here)
6. Gigantic 5kg tub of Nutella
7. Fountana di Trevi
8. One of the photos taken of us dressed up as gladiators
9. Us in front of the Colloseum
10. On Segway's ready to take on the world...

Quick update

So now we are in Rome and have been for a few days. Right now I'm waiting for Jemma to finish her shower so that we can be dropped off at the train station to go into Rome for the day.

Yesterday we wandered around Rome with some friends we made at the hostel. We went in the big long lines for the Vatican City and then looked at the impressive architecture and artwork that we could find. We then got lost and wandered around Rome for a while looking at some old churches and some other sculptures and bridges.... we also found a wish fountain (I cant remember the name) and took photos dressed up as gladiators.

Anyway, that's all for now... photos will come later today

xxx

All roads lead to Rome

You guessed it, We are now in Rome! After a rather uneventful day of travelling on the ferry and train we made it to Rome, the biggest drama that we really had was waiting for someone from our hostel to pick us up from the train station (they have a free shuttle service where you ring them and they pick you up, we had to ring them twice). Really it was a great, safe day travelling and now we are in ROME!

Looking forward to a good nights sleep (sleeping on the couches in the ferry lounge is not conducive of a great nights sleep) and tomorrow we can seek out the sights of Rome and some great Italian food

xxx

Hahaha

Well, now I can actually say that I have been to Corinth. How? Well, it's a long story that involves a wrong train, lots of different stops and opinions and eventually a hotel 5km from where we had hoped to be well before 6pm.

This morning we took our time checking out as we thought that we didn't have that far to travel to the port where we would take the ferry to Italy. Little did we know that there was a three hour train ride and another 1 hour bus ride before we were to reach our destination. We did leave Athens with plenty of time but happened to get lost along the way, heading on a train going North, instead of west to Patras (due to a misunderstanding and miscommunication between us and the train guards in Athens). Once we were on the right train we hopped off two stops early (as that is what a guard at one of the stations told us to do) and that is how we ended up in Corinth. It was only the train station but we sat there for 50mins with coffee and ice cream and chatted to a fellow Aussie who had been working in Greece for the past 20 years.

After a bus trip to Patras, we looked to see what time the ferries left for Italy and then found a hotel and some food. A whole extra days travel which we hadn't counted on but it definitely taught us to do our research before leaving a place and now we can look back and laugh... Really it was just a way for us to see more of Greece and not leave the country just yet because we had such a great time here:)

xxx

Soaking up the beauty of Creation

Santorini is one of those places where you can really see the hand of God in his creation. It is so amazingly beautiful. Today we are getting ready to leave this island and go back to the mainland before heading off to Rome.

The few days we had on this island we have been able to see pretty much all of it. On Wednesday we hired a quad bike and drove that around the Island taking in the sights and stopping every now and then for food, fuel and if the beaches down below looked good enough for a swim (or if they were accessible).

Then yesterday we went on a tour that took us to some of the other close islands that make up the group of Santorini. The story is that all of the islands (there is 5 of them now) we once one big Island that erupted as a volcano and that this happens again and again every 2000 years or so. It was also the site of a big port and trading stuff before it was again destroyed by a volcanic eruption (this is also where the myth of Atlantis comes from apparently). We went to one of the islands that was pretty much all just volcanic rock and got to see how hot the ground was on our feet and then later swam in some hot springs (again hot from the volcano). It was really great to see more of the islands around and when we got back on the main island we took a donkey up the steps to the city which was funny cause they went so fast. We watched another beautiful sunset before making our way back to the hotel. Again another beautiful day.

Here's some pics

xxx

Sunset on Santorini

Mykonos

...

The historical city of Athens

Here are some of the photos taken during the day we spent wandering around Athens...

Greece

Unfortunately my last post that I wrote about Athens didn't publish for whatever reason. Last Friday night we arrived in Athens and stayed there for 2 nights where we had the opportunity to see some of the wonders of such an ancient and historic city.

This included getting lost, looking at a really interesting archeological museum and then wandering through the ruins of the acropolis and the surrounding archeological sites also. It was really amazing to be standing on the grounds of a building that is so old. The acropolis is even mentioned in the bible, that's how old it is...

From there we went to Mykonos a beautiful Greek island where we could soak up the sun and the wonders of God's creation. A little holiday within our big holiday. The place where we stayed was run by a beautiful Greek lady named Maria who had very limited English in her vocabulary, and looked down over one of the beaches on the island. We could even watch the sunset out of the door of our room as it went down over the sea. It was a beautiful break from everything including technology and the Internet :) (not that I think that Jemma would wholeheartedly agree about the break from Internet :P)

Now we are in Santorini another beautiful island. We got here today so we haven't seen that much apart from an amazing sunset. But it most certainly is beautiful

xxx

Ps. As the iPad doesn't let me give the pictures captions i might upload a few separate posts of photos so you know where they are all from

On the road again...

It's Sunday today. Unfortunately we find ourselves on a ferry travelling to one of the Greek Islands. Not my choice of a way to spend a Sunday but the ferry is quite relaxing and we do have wifi and some sermons to listen to while we are in transit. Jemma organised a tour for us in Greece that takes us through a few of the Islands, its great cause just the transport and accommodation is organised and we can do what we want on the other days. Unfortunately we didn't realise that with the travelling from place to place is that we would be travelling on a Sunday when there is the choice not to... still we can relax with the sea below us. I've been able to get up to date with my journal (properly up to date) and now I am getting everyone reading this up to date too :)

After ANZAC day we had another day with our tour guide who took us all over the battle fields and the sites of Gallipoli. We went to "Brighton Beach", the place of the intended landing of the ANZACs and saw that it was actually possible to get to the high ground with ease especially because the Turks were waiting for landing elsewhere. Then to Anzac cove where we could seethe steep incline and cliff faces that the ANZACs faced during landing. We also visited the different cemeteries from the battles, even saw the grave stone of Simpson (the man with the donkey), at the request of our tour guide I read his story unfortunately substituting the word donkey for monkey providing amusement if nothing else. We went to the location of the battle of Lone pine, the ridge that is in the last scene of the Gallipoli movie where they keep sending more and more men over the top (I cant remember the name of it), the high ground of Tunic Biar, and even saw the remains of the trenches. It was a really beautiful area with all the trees and shrubs that had grown over the top, so hard to imagine all the horrors of the war that went on, yet still you were standing on ground that so many soldiers had died on.

It was a really really great experience. I learnt heaps and it was just really moving to actually be on the site that we think about each year. Following an amazing lunch of fish, we started the 5 hours bus ride back to Istanbul. We had a flight booked for 8.55 to go to Athens, when we asked about getting to the airport our tour guide nicely organised that we would have a private bus ride for half of the trip back and would be dropped off at the airport right on time. That was great. After being on a tour for a few days with the same group of people, you get to know the people in the group. When we left we said goodbye to everyone and I heard someone saying that 'the girls' are going (being the only single young people in the group that obviously became our name :P)

Being so full of Gallipoli and everything that happened there, I found it hard to get into the mind set of Greece. But here we are now. On a ferry to one of the Islands (after spending some time in Athens). I've put up photos from Gallipoli and will write another post on Athens.

xxx

Accents and ANZACs

ANZAC Day. That one day a year when Australians all get up ridiculously early and attend a dawn service somewhere in their area. We attend the service and think back on all the Australians (and New Zealanders) who have fought and died for our country.

In Turkey this wasn't really any different. Only instead of waking up super early, we didn't really sleep and camped out at the sight of the service and some of us had to travel quite far to get to the service. It was cold and really challenging to get any more sleep than that which we got on the bus earlier (it didn't help that there were some really loud snorers right in front of us).

Despite all that, commemorating the ANZAC legend on the very point that it was born is an experience that cant really be put in words. Standing on the site where so many people had fought and died heroically for our country and being surrounded by others from all over Australia is a memorable moment. A moment that makes you proud to be Australian and one that makes you really realise what it means that you are Australian.

It has been amazing to hear the Australian accent. I hadn't realised how much I missed hearing people speak in the right language and now almost everyone you talk to has the same accent. It's amazing to find so many people from your own country gathering together for a significant event on the other side of the world.

xxx