This post might be a bit oddly phrased as İ am too lazy to investigate certain punctuation and many keys are rearranged. You know what that means... NEW COUNTRY!é!éé''!ŞÖĞŞÇİŞŞÜĞĞPĞĞĞPéÇÇÖ. yeah!
So we arrived in İstanbul yesterday. We decided to stay ın a certain part of town called Sultanahmet. Shortly after we arrived we heard our first call to prayer. İt was a bit mesmerizing really. İ think after this whole trip is said and done, İ will refuse to listen to anythıng but accordians, the call to prayer, and İ'm sure Fado or tribal calls are in my near future.
With all that pointless bit said...
The architecture here is stunning and there are stray cats everywhere... Almost as many cats as business men. That's pretty much it. Oh, and we are going to meet wıth Max's friends Esra and David tonight after we take a walk through the Grand Bazaar and check out a few other things.
This includes modest clothing for the Mid East!
İ'll give a much better update after my first full day of bargaining.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
YR MOM GOES TO ATHENS.
Before we left Krakow we went on another visit to Auschwitz, mainly focusing our time on Auschwitz II - Berkenau. It's quite vast, much larger than I previously thought. It contained five crematoriums + two temporary crematoriums before that. We went to the room where they showered, shaved down, sanitized, clothed and tattooed the incoming prisoners that weren't killed on spot. 75% were killed on spot. The railway led right to the crematorium which was surrounded by trees and flowers as to bring a false sense of security to vulnerable new arrivals. The room contained stories and snapshots of several people. The whole experience was overwhelming but seeing the photos was difficult to bare as it's the easiest connection to making Auschwitz more real for people. We can't go back in time, so it's hard to know what it was like. The current Auschwitz has beautiful trees and green grasses amongst the blocks - probably from all the human ashes spread there. Around one and a half million were killed there.
The next day we tried to catch a bus to Greece, but it didddn't quite work out so we had to wait until Monday and now................
A couple hours ago we got off the bus from Krakow. We're in Athens now as a stopover on the way to Istanbul. We could've made the trip a full 20 or so hours shorter (some time off the bus and the train) by going to Thesseloniki but we opted for being able to see the scenic train route from Athens to Thesseloniki that includes beaches and Mt. Olympus.
Our passports our definitely filling up now. I have over ten stamps...even after not being stamped in Poland or in Rome (after entering, exiting & entering again.)
Our bus crossed quite a few countries. I bought some chips and mushy carrot juice in Yugoslavia and we stalled the bus each time we were at the border as we were the only two Americans on the bus. "Oh, is this your only passport?" "Where is this from?" "Oh, you are Ammmerriicannn."
We met a 17 year old Polish boy on our bus trip named Olof who taught Max Polish and Greek (along with the drunk guy behind him... No, he didn't teach the drunk man, the drunk man was teaching also) and forced all of his food upon us. Mostly sweets. Including these weird blue Polish candies that are probably in the vein of agent orange and we just don't know it yet. I think it's impossible to refuse something if someone pushes it toward you three to four times each time. No really. EAT IT. IT IS MY PLEASURE.
35 hours of bus riding is insane. I am glad we stopped in Athens since our train ride will be another 24...Tomorrow morning.
I got a guide book on the Middle East and it includes the Arabic alphabet, which I think I will practice writing. I was able to find a book store called Massolit in Krakow that has over 25,000 English titles. I wasn't able to find an Arabic language book yet, but I've written down quite a few English language book stores in Istanbul.
Me - "Hey Max, do you want to ad anything?"
Max - "No, it's cool."
Love,
Nancy and Max.
PS: I added a link to my FLICKR account. That means you can see travel photos as we upload them. It will be slow-going at first, but it will pick up speed. Just like this blog.
The next day we tried to catch a bus to Greece, but it didddn't quite work out so we had to wait until Monday and now................
A couple hours ago we got off the bus from Krakow. We're in Athens now as a stopover on the way to Istanbul. We could've made the trip a full 20 or so hours shorter (some time off the bus and the train) by going to Thesseloniki but we opted for being able to see the scenic train route from Athens to Thesseloniki that includes beaches and Mt. Olympus.
Our passports our definitely filling up now. I have over ten stamps...even after not being stamped in Poland or in Rome (after entering, exiting & entering again.)
Our bus crossed quite a few countries. I bought some chips and mushy carrot juice in Yugoslavia and we stalled the bus each time we were at the border as we were the only two Americans on the bus. "Oh, is this your only passport?" "Where is this from?" "Oh, you are Ammmerriicannn."
We met a 17 year old Polish boy on our bus trip named Olof who taught Max Polish and Greek (along with the drunk guy behind him... No, he didn't teach the drunk man, the drunk man was teaching also) and forced all of his food upon us. Mostly sweets. Including these weird blue Polish candies that are probably in the vein of agent orange and we just don't know it yet. I think it's impossible to refuse something if someone pushes it toward you three to four times each time. No really. EAT IT. IT IS MY PLEASURE.
35 hours of bus riding is insane. I am glad we stopped in Athens since our train ride will be another 24...Tomorrow morning.
I got a guide book on the Middle East and it includes the Arabic alphabet, which I think I will practice writing. I was able to find a book store called Massolit in Krakow that has over 25,000 English titles. I wasn't able to find an Arabic language book yet, but I've written down quite a few English language book stores in Istanbul.
Me - "Hey Max, do you want to ad anything?"
Max - "No, it's cool."
Love,
Nancy and Max.
PS: I added a link to my FLICKR account. That means you can see travel photos as we upload them. It will be slow-going at first, but it will pick up speed. Just like this blog.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
From the beginning, sort of.
I know I've been saying that I'd start a travel blog for a while. The first post is the biggest hurdle so hopefully it'll keep filling up from here. As for photos, for now we have to figure out how to get the usb devices to show up on a Polish Linux OS. I'll insert them into here once we
So far, I've been travelling since May 8th where I lived in an apartment in Rome for about a month and half, visited Manchester and Liverpool for about a week where most of the siteseeing was pretty much set to pubs in Warrington and select movie theaters. Thank you for all your hospitaaality, Pat and Phil (and Greg!) After that I flew back to Rome where I met Max (for anyone who doesn't know, Max is my boyfriend.) About a day or two afterwards, we were crossing the street and got knocked to the ground by a scooter. I ended up being carted away in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. This is definitely the first time I've suffered head trauma so it was a little bit of a crazy experience to feel the back of my head covered in blood. Don't worry, I'M OK. Luckily (and I didn't know it at the time) emergency care in Italy is free. They took a few xrays of my chest and head and cleaned me up. I ended up with some rib bruising, a head wound, a bruise on my hip bigger than a softball, road rash over my left arm. I looked like a wreck walking back to where we were staying. The zipper on my dress had busted, one of the straps broke and I still had a lot of blood in my hair and on my legs.
Since that happened, around a month ago, my chest has finally stopped hurting and the last of liquid stitches (along with a few locks of hair) have found their way off my head.
We stayed in Rome for a couple days longer where we saw all the typical sites plus some stranger (better?) ones like Capuchin Crypt, and spent a night sleeping around the city - including the stone benches surrounding Trevi Fountain.
We decided we wanted to get away from the speed of city life so we headed to The Aolian Islands of Lipari, Salina (where they filmed Il Postino) and Vulcano - Home of radioactive mudpits, sulfur heated waters and the original gate to hell!
From there we went to Milan, but realized it was pretty much just a city for weekend shoppers. It didn't stop us from waiting in line to get into Prada and looking for fanny packs in Louis Vuitton.
From Milan, I think it was mutually decided that we were in a little bored of Western Europe for the time being and so we headed to Prague... Maybe the budget airline had a bit to do with the decision but it was a good entrance into CentralishEasternish Europe. It was pretty laid back. Mostly roamed the streets, read a book by one of the two famous locals (this is obvious, I know you know it,) and ate some pretty cheap vegan food. If you like vegan food, go to Country Life by the Museum. They have a market and a restaurant in the alleyway behind it. Cheap and delicious.
Now I'm in Krakow, which seems to be cheaper than Prague. I like this city the best so far, maybe because it's the city I can most see myself living in from the few select I've visited thus far. I love the main square in Krakow. From accordian players to break dancers. I'm sure I've gotten a few good photos here.
Yesterday we went to Auschwitz I and II - Berkenau and it was pretty wild. We opted to go for a tour, but agreed that it left us feeling rushed. The whole tour experience made me feel like we were going through one large dismissal of everything that happened there. I'm thinking of going back there tomorrow to spend some time wandering and really letting things sink in.
Looking forward...
We're always really open to where we can go next. So far, every move has been a last minute decision. If you have any suggestions of places to go or that can't be missed, let me know. Whether you leave me a comment here or send an email to overseascalls@gmail.com
What we might be doing next...
Next I THINK we're going to Turkey next and then from mid August for a few weeks, we'll be in Slovakia. For the beginning of September until the 22nd, I don't know what will be happening, but I would like to go to the Middle East for Ramadan. I'm looking into trying to find some books or something to practice some Arabic... If anyone can help me out with a good site for language tips or anything like that, let me know.
I miss you all and I spent a ton of time making people angry because they're waiting to use the computer and this browser keeps shutting down so I hope you READ THIS.
So far, I've been travelling since May 8th where I lived in an apartment in Rome for about a month and half, visited Manchester and Liverpool for about a week where most of the siteseeing was pretty much set to pubs in Warrington and select movie theaters. Thank you for all your hospitaaality, Pat and Phil (and Greg!) After that I flew back to Rome where I met Max (for anyone who doesn't know, Max is my boyfriend.) About a day or two afterwards, we were crossing the street and got knocked to the ground by a scooter. I ended up being carted away in an ambulance to the nearest hospital. This is definitely the first time I've suffered head trauma so it was a little bit of a crazy experience to feel the back of my head covered in blood. Don't worry, I'M OK. Luckily (and I didn't know it at the time) emergency care in Italy is free. They took a few xrays of my chest and head and cleaned me up. I ended up with some rib bruising, a head wound, a bruise on my hip bigger than a softball, road rash over my left arm. I looked like a wreck walking back to where we were staying. The zipper on my dress had busted, one of the straps broke and I still had a lot of blood in my hair and on my legs.
Since that happened, around a month ago, my chest has finally stopped hurting and the last of liquid stitches (along with a few locks of hair) have found their way off my head.
We stayed in Rome for a couple days longer where we saw all the typical sites plus some stranger (better?) ones like Capuchin Crypt, and spent a night sleeping around the city - including the stone benches surrounding Trevi Fountain.
We decided we wanted to get away from the speed of city life so we headed to The Aolian Islands of Lipari, Salina (where they filmed Il Postino) and Vulcano - Home of radioactive mudpits, sulfur heated waters and the original gate to hell!
From there we went to Milan, but realized it was pretty much just a city for weekend shoppers. It didn't stop us from waiting in line to get into Prada and looking for fanny packs in Louis Vuitton.
From Milan, I think it was mutually decided that we were in a little bored of Western Europe for the time being and so we headed to Prague... Maybe the budget airline had a bit to do with the decision but it was a good entrance into CentralishEasternish Europe. It was pretty laid back. Mostly roamed the streets, read a book by one of the two famous locals (this is obvious, I know you know it,) and ate some pretty cheap vegan food. If you like vegan food, go to Country Life by the Museum. They have a market and a restaurant in the alleyway behind it. Cheap and delicious.
Now I'm in Krakow, which seems to be cheaper than Prague. I like this city the best so far, maybe because it's the city I can most see myself living in from the few select I've visited thus far. I love the main square in Krakow. From accordian players to break dancers. I'm sure I've gotten a few good photos here.
Yesterday we went to Auschwitz I and II - Berkenau and it was pretty wild. We opted to go for a tour, but agreed that it left us feeling rushed. The whole tour experience made me feel like we were going through one large dismissal of everything that happened there. I'm thinking of going back there tomorrow to spend some time wandering and really letting things sink in.
Looking forward...
We're always really open to where we can go next. So far, every move has been a last minute decision. If you have any suggestions of places to go or that can't be missed, let me know. Whether you leave me a comment here or send an email to overseascalls@gmail.com
What we might be doing next...
Next I THINK we're going to Turkey next and then from mid August for a few weeks, we'll be in Slovakia. For the beginning of September until the 22nd, I don't know what will be happening, but I would like to go to the Middle East for Ramadan. I'm looking into trying to find some books or something to practice some Arabic... If anyone can help me out with a good site for language tips or anything like that, let me know.
I miss you all and I spent a ton of time making people angry because they're waiting to use the computer and this browser keeps shutting down so I hope you READ THIS.
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