Besties coming home!

Well we made it out of Athens, and Madrid!  Currently we're sitting in the Chicago airport.

We got to Athens around 5 am and almost all of the flights on the board were canceled.  Luckily ours wasn't! We did have to write our names and emergency contact information in a little notebook at the check-in counter though.  As much as it seemed like a bad idea to get on this flight, we had too because there were many people that would have jumped for our seats!

Our flight from Madrid to Chicago had to go a longer route than normal because the ash forced us to stay south!

Now that we're here, we have had more issues with our flight in Chicago than any of our flights in Europe!  I also realized that the sound on my phone wasn't coming through very clearly - I determined that there was some Dead Sea mud caked into the speaker and after using my earring to clean it out - it seems to work just fine!

Can't wait to see and talk to everyone.  But we're very sad the trip is over.  We tried to get a picture that reflected that feeling.

Athens - Last Day!

Today was our last day and we've just spent our time walking around Athens!

Our ferry got us into Athens around 6 am and we took the Metro back to the hostel.  It was nice that we were staying in the same place because we knew exactly where we were going.  We left our bags in storage and went right to the Acropolis so we were there when it opened.  It was really amazing, and big! But for some reason it didn't quite live up to the pyramids.  Maybe it's just that we've seen so many awesome sites and we're getting spoiled.  Don't get me wrong though, it was still really awesome! :)

After the Acropolis, we were really tired and we came back to get checked into our room and napped.  We then had lunch at a little cafe and did some shopping!

We've been a little nervous about our flight home because almost everything across Europe has been canceled due to the Iceland Volcano.  Now that the ash is moving south, we've seen more airports shutting down.  Last update though - Athens and Madrid are still open! It's a good thing we're not flying back through Amsterdam though, because they are shutdown!

We're getting up in 7 hours (3am) so we can take the bus to the airport for our 7:30 am flight! Wish us luck!

Last Day in Santorini

Today was our last day in Santorini, and it sure was a great one!

We didn't get a great night's sleep because some obnoxious kids were yelling all night.  But we had breakfast and checked out of room in the morning and made the best of our day.  The hostel is letting us store our bags for the day, so we went straight to the Red Sand beach in Akrotiri.

It was a little out there, and you have to hike to get to the beach. But it was beautiful out, and we stayed there until 6!  There weren't many other people at the beach, just an Austrian girl filming her music video.  Haha, Yeah I know - kind of random.  I chatted with her for a bit.  I think she said the name of her song is Miracle of the Lioness - guess I'll have to look that one up when I get home.  :)

When we left, we had the bus drop us off at Santo Wines.  It's a winery just on the outskirts of Fira.  We did a tasting of 6 different wines.  They were all pretty good, but they said they specialize in whites.  We hurried out of there so we could catch the 7:40 bus, but when it was 10 minutes late, we took the first cab that drove by.

We had him drop us off near The Corner so we could have our dessert and say goodbye to Lena and the other people that work there before going back to the hostel.

We had just enough time to change and wait for our transfer to the port.  Our ferry leaves at midnight and we have a sleeping cabin, so it should be pretty nice.

We're both sad to leave Santorini.  We were sad to leave the other places too, but we were always going somewhere new - this time it feels over.  :(

We just heard about the Iceland volcano erupting, and that flights are getting canceled in major European airports- if ours is canceled, we may just come back to Santorini!

We still have one full day in Athens tomorrow, so we'll see what changes with the ash in that time.

Volcano Trip & Donkey Rides

Surprise Surprise! Another fun day on the Greek Island of Santorini!

After a quick little breakfast at the hostel, we made our way down to the Old Port of Santorini.  We had a big old boat pick us up for a day cruise.  The boat looked like a pirate ship!

We first went out to the volcano! It's called Nea Kameni and it's still an active volcano.  The last big eruption was in 1956.  We could look down into the crater and feel the steam and smell the sulfur! Even the soles of our shoes were hot enough to feel the heat on our feet!

We also stopped at another small island created from the volcanic eruptions that had some natural hot springs.  The boat couldn't get close enough to land and we didn't want to swim to them.  Those that did jump in said the initial swim was so cold, but the hot springs felt really nice.  Unfortunately, they had to swim back into the cold part to get back to the boat!

From there we continued to Therassia - another island from the volcano.  We had lunch at Captain John's and had some really yummy chicken kabob's and a greek salad.

We made a short stop in Oia, but then made our way back to our port in Fira.  There are about 600 steps from the port up to the main city, but we rode to the top on the donkeys.  It felt very Greek!  We named our donkeys Lady Gaga & Michael Jackson (I'll let you guess who had who) :)

After our MJ and Gaga got us to the top, we did a little shopping.  Greece is the most expensive place we've been, but I love everything here!

We had dinner at a cheap gyro place by our hostel and then made our way to The Corner for our usual icecream.  Although tonight we switched it up and had crepes.  They were so good.  Since this was our 4th night in a row here, we chatted with Lena who was our server and she's recommended some things we may do tomorrow.

Can't wait!

Sun & Fun in Santorini

Hello All!!

Today we took the bus to the black sand beach of Perissa.  It was pretty quiet when we got there, but then we realized it was only 10 am!

We pretty much laid out in the sun until we took the bus back to Fira at 4! It was such a beautiful day and we were happy to just lounge around and soak up the sun!

After we got home we got ready to go out to dinner.  We chose yet another beautiful cafe overlooking the caldera at sunset.  After dinner we went to Franco's bar for a Greek beer (or 2).  You can't walk around Fira without seeing their FRANCO'S sign - so we knew we had to check it out.  They play classical music and have some of the best looking male servers my eyes have ever seen...
(and you expect me to come home??)

This is probably the latest I've been up in Greece.  The sun just wears me out.  But we still had time to stop by our favorite place for some icecream.  It's turning into a ritual.  I think they expect to see us every night too!

We have another fun day planned for tomorrow!
Oh, and I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but we decided to stay in Santorini until Saturday morning.  The ferry schedule wasn't very convenient for going to Mykonos and we knew we wanted to be back in Athens by a certain day.

A Day in Oia!

Wow, we have had a busy day!

Breakfast is included in the hostel, it wasn't much compared to some of our other places, but we still ate something before venturing out for the day around 10 am!

Today we decided to WALK from Fira to Oia along the cliff overlooking the caldera.  It was so beautiful!  Generally, people don't walk from Fira to Oia, but there was a path and it was too pretty to stop.  We estimated that it took us about 3 hours because we kept taking pictures and soaking up our surroundings!

The city of Oia is small and very quaint.  There were times that we wouldn't see anyone for quite a while.  It was really nice to be here during the off season.  We ate at this cute little cafe and walked around taking pictures of all the pretty blue domed churches.

We found the main little castle spot that sits near the edge of the island to watch the sunset.  It was beautiful.
We had such a fun day and it felt so good to soak up all of the sunshine!
We decided to take the bus back to Fira (much faster than walking) and then stopped by this little place for icecream!

Here's hoping that tomorrow is just as gorgeous as it was today!

Santorini = Beautiful

Hi Everyone!!
We've arrived in Santorini!

We got up really early to take the Metro down to the port.  The line was having some work done to it, so we had to get off and take a shuttle around.  Luckily there was a nice man that was pointing us on our way and making sure we were headed to where we needed to go.  We got our tickets for the ferry and hopped aboard! The ferry was so nice! I imagine it is something like a plane/cruise ship mix.  I've never been on a cruise to know for sure though, but it was very nice.

We took the high-speed ferry, and arrived in Santorini a little after noon.  Just a side note - the high-speed ferry still took about 5 hours!

We were so excited to get here.  Mesa was hilarious! We had a van picking us up at the port to bring us to the hostel, but the curvy road went all the way up the hillside and Mesa just kept jumping from one side of the van to the other to videotape out the windows! The whole time the driver was blaring Johnny B. Goode!

After getting checked into our room, we decided to head out and explore the town of Fira.  We walked around everywhere!  We had some great views of the caldera and volcano, and all of the little white buildings along the cliffs! It's everything you imagine a Greek island to look like: beautiful, sunny, blue and white, peaceful, and charming.

We ate dinner at a cafe that over-looked the village and the water. We had gyros and they were so delicious.

We decided to take it pretty easy tonight because we'll be doing a bunch tomorrow!

Hello Athens!

This morning we left Istanbul to fly to Athens, Greece!

We were a little sad to leave Istanbul because we REALLY loved the city, but we've both been so excited for our time in Greece.

The airport security was so much easier to get through compared to Israel, and we landing in Athens and took the Metro straight to Syntagma Square and from there walked to our hostel.

Our room is pretty basic, but we left right away to head to the Acropolis.  Problem was it closed early on Sunday (not mentioned anywhere in our book).  But we walked around the area and had a great view and then walked around Plaka.  We ate kebabs and they were so delicious!  We then watched the sunset up by the Acropolis over-looking the city.

Tomorrow morning we leave early to make our way to Santorini! Can't wait!

Here's the picture of us up near the Acropolis, which is in the background!

Last Day in Istanbul

Today was our last day in Istanbul! :(

We leave tomorrow for Athens, Greece! :)

We are constantly surprised by how fast time is going.

Regardless, we had another fun day! Last night, after dinner, we checked out the Istanbul nightlife.  We were at this amazing place, on the rooftop overlooking the city.  There were two chicks playing electric violins - it was awesome!

Because we were out late, we decided to sleep in a little longer than usual - you know, until about 9 am!  We still enjoyed our free breakfast on the rooftop and we could already tell that it was going to be another beautiful day.  We met up with Louie and TJ for coffee at the highest rooftop in the area so we were sure to have a fantastic view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

After coffee, Mesa and I went to the Basilica Cistern - it's this huge underground water cistern from the 6th century! There are 336 marble columns that support the dome - there are even a few that have a base of Medusa's head and there is definitely still water (and fish) inside!

After the Basilica Cistern, we made our way back to the Grand Bazaar.  The place is gigantic and we barely made a dent in covering it - but it was so overwhelming and if you make too many crazy turns, you'll get lost pretty quickly.  I managed to find a few gifts, and definitely some things for myself.  I enjoy the bartering process! Now all I have to do is hope that nothing breaks on our final leg of the trip!

After shopping, we stopped for icecream on the street.  We've gone past many vendors that do this little icecream show, and it's about a 5 minute process just to receive your cone. But they spin it around, flip it all over the place and fake hand it to you about 10 times.  It's actually quite fun, and is still very tasty!

We're enjoying a late lunch at a cafe in the sun, and plan to just get packed up and ready to go the rest of the night.

The picture is from the inside of the Basilica Cistern.  You can't really tell, but every spot that there is a light is where one of the giant column stands.  We didn't take any other pictures on the phone today - so this was the best we had.  :(

Can't believe we're leaving this amazing city already!

A Day On The Bosphorus!

Today was such a fun day!

We enjoyed our breakfast from the rooftop of our hostel since it was so much nicer out today.
While we were eating, we heard someone yell "MESA!"  When we looked over, there was a guy on the rooftop nearby waving at us - our friend Louie that was on our day tour to the Sea of Galilee back in Israel!  We knew he was in Istanbul, but not that our hostels were right by eachother.

We took a tour up the Bosphorus - the strait separating Europe and Asia - and it was awesome.  Louie and his friend TJ also went and we had a great time.  We went way up, almost to the Black Sea.  We got out on the Asian side and hiked up to this old castle/fortress: Yoros Castle in Anadolu Kavagi. We did some slight rock climbing and got up on the fortress to have this great view!

The picture I've attached today is one from the top!

We also ate lunch in the village below.  We sat right on the water for some yummy fish! I even tried anchovy - not too bad!

After we returned on the ferry, enjoying the warm tea and the sunshine!
We now plan to do a little shopping before meeting up with some new friends for dinner.

Chilly (but fun) day in Istanbul!

We've had a REALLY busy day here in Istanbul! 

We enjoyed our breakfast at the cafe that's part of the hostel, then walked to Topkapi Palace.  The place is huge! We toured the Harem first because we heard that the lines get long. It was incredible.  This is where the Sultan's wives and concubines lived.  The whole grounds are comprised of pavilions and courtyards. We also walked through the treasury that displays the Sultan's collection of treasures and gifts.

After Topkapi we went to Hagia Sophia. It's more than 1400 years old! The inside is incredibly large.  The whole thing was built over 2 earlier churches and then the Ottoman's converted it into a mosque. It's staggering to see the inside.  The highest dome is 184 feet high!  I'm pretty sure that both Mesa's and my mouths dropped when we entered!

From here we walked across the park to the Blue Mosque.  I've been wanting to see this place in person for so long! It was beautiful.  It gets it's name from the mainly blue Iznik tilework. When it was built (between 1609-1616) it provoked some hostility because it's splendor was considered a sac-religious attempt to rival the architecture of Mecca.

After this stop we walked out to the Hippodrome. This is now a public garden. It was originally the site of a 3rd century stadium that held 100,000 people and was typically used for chariot racing. This is also the site of the bloodiest event in Istanbul's history when rival chariot-racing teams developed into revolt. 30,000 were trapped inside and died.

After a little lunch we walked to the Grand Bazaar. Unfortunately things were closing up so we walked over to the Beyoglu side, by the Galata Tower. We were hoping to go up to the top of it, but you can't unless you have a dinner reservation.  So that was a little disappointing.  Instead we walked up and down Istiklal Street.  It's a beautiful pedestrian street that leads up to Taksim Square.  We had a nice night with all the shops and bars.

Now back at the hostel and calling it a night!

Tel Aviv & off to Istanbul!

Mesa & I had a nice relaxing day today!

We slept in - til about 8:30 - and when we woke up, we went right to the beach.

It wasn't a difficult walk but the roads didn't really have much of a sense to them, so it took us a little longer than it should have.  We basically spent our whole time at the beach.  It was cool and cloudy in the morning, and we even got sprinkled on for about 5 minutes - which has been the worst weather we've had all trip.  After that passed, it was beautiful and we definitely got some sun!  Maybe a little too much.

We left the beach to check out of the hostel and catch our flight to Istanbul.

We had a lot of questions and security stops throughout the airport.  But we caught our plane just fine and the flight was pretty empty.

We just got checked into our hostel.  We even walked past the Blue Mosque since the closest ATM was right near it.

More to come tomorrow!

Bethlehem & Tel Aviv

Hi Everyone, and a special Happy Birthday Head! Hope you're having a great day!

Today has been an interesting day.  We got up early and caught the bus to go into Bethlehem.  It was pretty easy getting there.  Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank and we had to go through checkpoints to enter.  We didn't have any problems!

We then caught a cab to Manger Square and the Church of Nativity.  It was beautiful.  There's the grotto where it's believed Baby Jesus was born.  There was a service being held in the grotto, so we weren't able to go inside to see the star on the ground.  But we did explore the rest of the church.

There is a beautiful newly updated church attached to the main church - which is the one they always show on TV on Christmas Day in Bethlehem.

When we tried to catch the bus back to Jerusalem, we were told at the checkpoint that all tourists had to get off because we couldn't go through that one.  There were 5 of us so we just went back into the main part of Bethlehem and went to the other checkpoint.   Apparently they said there wasn't a way to scan our passports at the original checkpoint, which is just weird since they didn't do anything with them when we entered the city.

The other checkpoint was CRAZY.  We had to wait in this insane line for 2.5 hours where we were crammed together like cattle and everyone was pushing.  It was awful.  When we did finally make it through the security, we only had to walk through the scanner and hold up our passports to the guy in the window - who barely nodded at us.   We were pretty frustrated, but it was nice to get back into Jerusalem.

We decided then to just check out of the hostel and caught another sherut to Tel Aviv!

We got a little lost, and walked quite a bit to find our hostel, but we made it!
We  got checked in and grabbed something to eat.  Probably will take it pretty easy the rest of the night.
Tomorrow we plan to spend the day at the beach - can't wait!

The picture for today is in front of the grotto where Baby Jesus was born inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

Masada & the Dead Sea

Hi Everyone!  

Today we did another group tour. 

We went first to Masada.  A giant fortress built by Herod the Great as a refuge from his enemies and a getaway.  After he died the Jews rebelled against Rome and the Roman Empire had destroyed Jerusalem.  So almost 1000 Jews isolated themselves at Masada.  The Romans built camps around the fortress but couldn't get up.  They eventually built a ramp but the night before they would reach the fortress, the Jews killed themselves - for the belief of "serving no Roman or any other God". 

It was pretty amazing.  They had built dams on the streams and cut holes in the fortress to make water cisterns.  They had food storage rooms and lived up there for 4-5 years! Quite amazing!

From there we went to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth at -410 meters below sea level.  It smelled like sulfur (think Old Faithful x10!)  We went to Ein Gedi Spa and from here could change and walk down to the "beach" (really, it's all salt).  The spa used to be located right at the water, but the sea has evaporated so much that it is now much further back.  So, if you want to ever see the Dead Sea, you better go soon before it's gone for good.  

We started by first getting all muddy! There were these big vats of Dead Sea mud and we smeared it all over our bodies.  It's supposed to have rejuvenating qualities so we made sure we put it all over to keep our youthful figures (and fix all of our imperfections - hey, they said it works miracles).  We washed off in sulfur showers - which burns your eyes! But then rinsed off further in fresh water showers.  We then went down the long path to the water so we could float! The water feels slimy and greasy, but it really is easy to float.  

They had some more fresh water showers on the beach too, but they are freezing compared to the sulfur ones.  We took the trolley back to the mud vats for a 2nd dead sea mud treatment, just for good measure and of course photos!  

Basically you sit in the sun for 10 minutes to get all crusy and mummy-like and then wash off, leaving your skin all smooth!

We took the bus back to Jerusalem and are going to take it pretty easy tonight since we have another busy day tomorrow! 

Sending love from the tiny room in Jerusalem - yeah, we never got moved to a different space.

Happy Easter from Jerusalem!

Good Morning All!

It's actually 2:30 PM here, but it's 6:30 AM Easter Sunday back in Minnesota (and I think in Peru for Christa :))

Today was a great day, we went to the sunrise service at the Garden Tomb.  We got there a little before 6 am and there was a huge line.  But we had good seats.  We couldn't see the band, they were down by the tomb.  But we were in the 3rd row next to the spot where they did all of the readings.  

The service was excellent.  There was a perfect mix of contemporary songs and traditional ones. I'm sure you sang My Redeemer Lives or Thine Be the Glory too. 

The sermon did a great job of tying in the location we were without making it a big spectacle.  He spoke about this book called Dates in History That Changed the World.  In the book it lists Jesus' death, but not the resurrection. When the resurrection should be there because the death of Jesus paid for our sins - but it was God accepting that sacrifice that signed off on that deal with having him rise 3 days later.  

It was a really good service. 

We then went to the Dome of the Rock / Temple Mount.  We hadn't been up close so it was an amazing site.  Very beautiful.  To this day, non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the interior of the building.  But it was still an amazing site.  Muslims believe this to be the site where Mohammad rose to heaven.  Christian tradition identifies the site as where Jesus was tried.  

From here we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel.  Used 2700 years ago to supply the city with water, you can still walk through the water tunnel for about 580 yards - with water still flowing!  We started to do this, but the water was getting up to our knees and they expected it to reach our hips.  So we backed out to take the dry route.  But the 20 feet we did in the water tunnel was pretty cool. 

After that we went to The Room of the Last Supper. The room was quite beautiful, but there wasn't anything inside other than all of the people.  

Afterwards we did Ramparts Walk - which is a narrow walkway on top of the Old City's walls.  We could look out all of the old shooting niches and it really made it easy to feel like what it could have been like back then. 

Now onto a nice evening of eating and shopping!

Happy Easter! 

Nazareth & Galilee

Wow, another busy day in the Holy Land!

We had a tour today that brought us into Lower Galilee.

We stopped in Nazareth and saw the Church of the Annunciation - where Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would have Jesus.  We also saw where Jesus grew up and did his carpentry.

We drove through Cana (the site of His 1st miracle of turning water into wine), Mount Tabor (the site of Jesus' Transfiguration).  We drove through Tiberias (the capital of Galilee in AD 20).  We drove through Tabgha (site of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fish).  We saw the Mount of Beatitudes from a distance (the site of the Sermon on the Mount).  THEN, we arrived in Capernaum, the center of Jesus' ministry.

We saw the house of St. Peter and the old church and synagogue.  Here we also had great views of the Sea of Galilee.  We then came around and stopped at the Jordan River.  This was pretty cook.  We went in the water where the still do baptisms, which was going on when we arrived.

When we got back to Jerusalem, we were pretty tired.  We went and had falafels for dinner again, and then went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  There were less people this time, so we were able to go upstairs and touch the site believed to be the location of Jesus' cross.  We had heard they were having a candlelit service tonight but couldn't find any information on it.  So we decided to call it an early day since tomorrow we're getting up early for the Easter service.

Busy day in Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is AMAZING!  We have done so much today!

We go up early and hiked to the Mount of Olives observation point where you could see the whole city!  It was a beautiful day and it felt great to walk around and not be on one of the big tourist buses.

We also went to Pater Noster Convent that had the Lords Prayer displayed in over 200 languages.  We also went to Dominus Flevit (where Jesus wept), walked past the Church of Mary Magdalene (not open today), went to the Garden of Gethsemane, Church of All Nations, and the Tomb of the Virgin - which was very powerful and quite amazing.

We then walked over to the Garden Tomb, where more Protestant visitors identify as the site of Jesus' burial place.  The tomb was closed because it's Good Friday, but we plan to go back.

We also walked around the exterior of the Old City's wall.  We were up on Mount Zion and then went inside the Old City walls to the Western Wall (or the Wailing Wall).  Men and women have different entrances and sides that they must pray on.  It was pretty unbelievable.  We were there at a time of prayer and there were a lot of people there!

We also walked to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the true site where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. It was UNBELIEVABLE!  There were so many people and it was beautiful.  We touched the Stone of Unction - believed to be where Jesus' body was prepared for burial after he was taken off the cross. And the rotunda under the great dome that encases the tomb itself.

We then did a little shopping inside the Old City and had falafels outside our hostel for dinner.  They were delicious!

We have another busy day tomorrow! Time is going so fast!

Oh, I also met a person from Faribault! Everywhere we walk people ask where we're from and we say "USA".  They sometimes ask where in the US - and we say Minnesota.  But then this guy said "Oh where, Faribault?  I'm living there."  He's Israeli, but has a shop with his family in Faribault.  Small world!

This picture is from the observation point at the Mount of Olives looking out on the city.  You should see the big Dome of the Rock in the background.

Jerusalem!

Well, we had a busy travel day today.

We got up and checked out of our nice beach-side hostel and caught a cab to the bus station.  We took the bus to Taba and from there walked across the border.  I must have been their next random drug check because they routed my passport to a different station and made me pull out my phone and camera...but, no drugs on me! :)

We crossed into no-mans-land until we made it to the Israeli gateway.  It's a lot like the airport and we had no problems.  We then walked into Israel!

Right away we met some Americans - the first we have met in a week since being gone.  They were waiting for a bus to Eilat - which was the same one we needed to take.  We then caught a Sherut (a shared taxi) that brought us to Jerusalem.

We drove past the Dead Sea and smelled the sulfur and saw some people floating.  We're hoping to get that direction later during our stay.

After we were dropped off, we walked to our hostel.  It was crazy there! Apparently a group was supposed to check out and had not done so yet because of a lost passport.  So there were a bunch of people waiting for HOURS to get checked in, even with reservations.  We had to wait about 2 hours, and then they put us in this tiny space in the back of the hostel.  It's seriously a room back by the laundry machines with a piece of paper and the room number written in highlighter taped to the door.  They said that we'll get a new room tomorrow.

Good thing we booked this 5 months ago because for the 5 nights we are staying we paid a little over 900 Sheckels and he said now it is over 2000.  Prices are up because of the Easter holiday.

We were happy that we were prepared.

We walked out for dinner (and dessert) and just got back to the hostel now to plan for our day tomorrow.
Time for bed, more interesting stuff to come!

Love from the Holy Land :)