'LOVE'-ly Paris

September 7: Paris!! Today we flew from Venice to Paris via EasyJet.; cheap, no frills, transportation and nothing exciting to report there. We landed, and once again, with email directions in hand and Magellan by my side, we made our way through the Paris public transport system to get to yet another rented apartment via Wimdu. It took us just about an hour to get there but we made it with no issues! This apartment is much smaller than Venice, but it’s in a great location right next to the metro station with is always key when booking a place.

Today was also the day that we were waiting to find out if we had a new niece or nephew so the first thing we did was connect to the internet to find out what was going on with Allison. Poor, sweet Allison was in labor a long time and we were waiting with bated breath all through the night so we both didn’t get much sleep. But I’m ecstatic to report that she delivered a perfectly beautiful baby girl, Claire!!

View from the tower

September 8: Our first full day in Paris and we decided to tour Notre Dame Cathedral first. We waited in line for about 45 minutes for what we thought was the line to get in. Well, rookie mistake, it wasn’t. We were actually in the line to buy tickets for the 400 stair climb to the top of the towers! We had already waited that long, so we bought the tickets and began the climb. Talk about tight spaces! It was the narrowest, most spiraled staircase I had ever been in and we both started feeling a bit queezy looking down and just walking up for so long. But the view was stunning! We saw a panoramic view of all of Paris and got a front row seat to the bell tower that chimed the most beautiful song! We snapped our pictures and then made our decent to what we thought was the sanctuary. Wrong again! Our travel sensors were off today.

Inside Notre Dame

We had to wait in another line to enter the cathedral where morning mass was actually going on. It was yet another stunning European church with gorgeous stained glass windows. So beautiful!

We decided to walk around a bit and found out selves at the Lock bridge. A famous bridge in Paris where lovers write their names on a pad lock, and then throw the key into the river symbolizing their love lasting forever. There were so many locks it was pretty incredible. We didn’t leave one, but we still have a few days! 

We walked a bit more just enjoying the beautiful buildings that line the streets of Paris. Every building is so pretty and historic looking it looks like a bunch of fancy museums everywhere! We made our way to the last stop of the day which was Saint-Chapelle.  Built by orders from King Louis XI between 1242 to 1248, it was to house the relics of the Passion of Christ. It’s not too big but it’s lined with 14 huge, floor to ceiling stained glass windows that depict biblical scenes from creation through the resurrection of Christ. A theme similar to the Sistine Chapel, but instead of paint, it was done in stained glass. Breathtaking!!

Saint-Chapelle

For dinner, we went to Chipotle! Being deprived of it for 13 months, Andrew was so excited when he found out there was one in Paris. So we skipped out on a lavish Parisian dinner and indulged our Mexican food craving by toasting burritos!  Fabulous day in Paris!

September 9: We have been so lucky with weather on this trip that I knew that luck would have to run out sometime. We started our day at the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It honors all those who fought and died for France in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Just beneath the arc lies the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I. You can pay to go up to the top, but we decided against it so we just took some pictures around it.

We then made our way down the famous Champs-Elysees Avenue. It is lined with expensive shops and cafes and is said to be the most famous and one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world! Well, just as we began our window shopping it started to downpour! We immediately took cover in a café, which was a huge mistake. Did I mention it’s one of the most expensive streets in the world?! Ya, we paid entirely too much for two crepes, tea and a hot chocolate, but we enjoyed staying dry.

Arc de Triomphe

When it was time to leave, we bared the sideways rain for a few minutes before ducking into an overhang.  We continued this cycle for about twenty minutes before we decided that it was nuts and took the subway the two stops to the famous Louvre Museum.  EVERYONE else had the same idea, so we had to wait in a line for about 45 minutes to purchase the tickets. As the world’s most visited museum, it houses nearly 35,000 artifacts from prehistory to the 21^st century, and covers more that 60,600 square meters! It’s super overwhelming! We decided to take the Rick Steves downloaded pod cast and walked around for about an hour and a half.  From statues to jewels, to tapestry and paintings, I have never seen so much art! And of course, the finale is the Mona Lisa. Pretty fun to see in person! I wish we would have been able to take some better pictures outside with the glass pyramid because the courtyard to the museum is really beautiful but it was still raining. Boo!

We made our way back to the area of our apartment, grabbed a bite to eat at a local café and called it day.

Inside the Louvre listening to a podcast.

September 10: The sun was out but it was still very chilly. I forgot to mention that Paris has been unusually cold since we got here. We came from sweaty shorts and t-shirts at the beginning of our European adventure and have now been wearing jeans and jackets the whole time. We weren’t quite ready for such a drastic change in temperature.

Anyways, we decided to go back to Champs-Elysees Avenue since we weren’t really able to take it all in yesterday. We just walked around, ventured into a few shops and enjoyed the people watching scene. At about 3:00pm we made our way to the climatic event in Paris; the Eiffel Tower! Scared of the line that awaited us, we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of people! I mean, there were tons of people, but we ended up only waiting about 25 minutes! It was perfect because we had an 18 minute podcast on the history of the tower to listen to.

It was erected in 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair. The French people actually loathed the tower and wanted it to come down after the fair. The French government told the engineer, Gustave Eiffel, that it could stay up for 20 years so that he could make back his investment from the ticket sales. He actually made his money back by the time the fair ended!! Not wanting to see the tower destroyed, Gustave attached a radio tower to the top and sold the idea to the French government who could use it for military purposes. And well, the rest is history! More than 250 million people have ascended to the top!

There are two line options when you get to the tower. The first line is for a ticket to take the elevator directly to the top. The second, is to buy tickets to take the elevator from the second floor, a 600 step climb up to the elevator. We chose the latter.

Yes, Andrew and I huffed and puffed and butt burned our way 600 stairs up. Honestly, it didn’t look that high until we started to climb! We took some photos from the second floor platform and then rode to the top. Andrew isn’t the biggest fan of heights, so I was so proud when we decided to join me to the top after some serious contemplation. He even managed to stand on the ledge for a few seconds to take a picture with me! What a good sport! After we walked the circumference of the peak, taking more pictures it began to rain! We made our way down to the enclosed area and waited it out a bit. I wasn’t about to descend 600 metal stairs in the rain. When it finally let up, we rode the elevator to the second floor and then took the stairs the rest of the way.

At the windy top!

Honestly, I got a little emotional when we were at the top. It’s so cheesy I know, but it was just one of those moments that you dream about experiencing, and you never really know if you will. And I was lucky enough to do it with Andrew by my side. Sheesh, life doesn’t get much better!

We walked around for a little while trying to find a reasonable place to eat and kill some time before 9pm and they tower lights up. We found a little café, not really very reasonable but it was good. After we finished we made our way back to the courtyard of the tower, enjoyed a crepe and waited for the sparkly lights to begin. As if the Eiffel Tower isn’t magical enough, the sight of the sparkling lights for five minutes really capped off such a memorable day!

(**For whatever reason, our computer won't load any photos after the daytime Eiffel Tower pictures. We will try to figure out the issue before the next blog. Sorry no gorgeous night pictures of the tower or Versailles. )

September 11: I am sitting on the bed in our rented apartment, drinking cheap and delicious champagne out of an ‘I love Paris’ coffee mug, in denial that this is our last night in the city of  love. These last few days have been so dreamlike, I can’t explain it. Paris has a feeling about it that makes you forget that any other place in the world exists.

For our final day in France, we took the short 30 minute train ride to The Palace of Versailles. We weren’t sure the weather would hold out as it was cloudy, cold, and starting to spit but it was our last day and a ‘must see’ while in Paris.  We hit a little speed bump trying to get there. You see, Paris as two systems; the metro and the RER. The metro is what we used to get around the city, and some metro stations will take you to the RER trains. These trains take commuters further out of the city than the metro. Confused? Ya, we were a little bit too. Especially when you look at the public transport map and all the lines look the same.

Anyways, we made it to the correct RER station and needed to purchase a ticket to Versailles. Well, the ticket machine would not take our credit card (all the other machines had) and didn’t accept cash; only coins. The problem with this is that now we were stuck. There was no place to make change inside this ticket purchasing area and the help desk person was out. Annoyed, I went around asking several people if they could give me coin change for a five Euro bill. FINALLY, after 20 minutes of searching we found someone. It just amazes me that that situation even exists. Why don’t they just put a change machine by the ticket booth? There were several other people while we were there with the same problem…super annoying!

Everyone must have thought the weather was not going to hold out because we waited in absolutely no lines at all! And it wasn't even that crowded. So lucky!The kingdom of Versailles was the center of power in France from 1682 until the royal family was forced back to Pairs in 1789 during the French Revolution. Built by Louis XIV this palace is nothing short of spectacular! The palace itself is gorgeous, but the gardens are just massive and perfectly manicured. I’m sure the site is even more beautiful in the spring and summer when everything is in bloom, but we still got quite the eye full. Too bad it was so chilly and windy. We would have loved to explored more by renting bikes and going all around. But our ears were already too cold that we didn’t really feel up for a bike ride. We spent the whole afternoon on the grounds of the palace. Listening to a pod cast tour, snapping pictures and imagining what it must have been like to live there. Such a fun outing!

We feel so lucky to have toured this beautiful city for four full days. There is so much more to do that someday, we will have to return. Tomorrow we head back east for a quick two day stop in Vienna, Austria. Sausage anyone?

Dreamlike Venice

September 3: Today we left our Roman apartment at 9:15am to catch the train to the main train station in Rome, where we would catch a different train to Venice. We got there in what we thought was plenty of time. Went into the little grocery store to buy some sandwiches, chips, and water for lunch during the six hour train ride and then took a seat. When the board finally showed which platform our train was taking off from, we realized that we were on the total opposite side of the station! With 10 minutes before the train departed, we hustled to the other end trying to find how to get to platform six! The train station was so poorly marked and there was no one to ask for help! With only two minutes to spare, we made it on the train; thank goodness there was a five-minute delay!

The six hour train ride was actually quite pleasant. The seats were comfortable and it was great to get to see a lot of the country out of the windows! We arrived and once again were staying in a rented apartment. With Google translated directions in hand, we walked 20 minutes to the apartment. To our surprise, the place was fantastic! Two bedrooms, large bathroom, living room and a full kitchen all to ourselves! The host was very sweet. She didn’t speak English, so when she was giving us instructions, Andrew and I put our charade skills to use. Italian is pretty similar to Spanish, and with our combined knowledge, we were able to communicate ok. The only downside to this place, no wi-fi. Boo.

She left and we went to the grocery store to buy a few things. We decided to cook dinner because I was craving some protein. I mean, I adore my carbohydrates, but enough is enough! We decided to make a chicken and spinach salad and sip on some $2.00 wine!

September 4: The apartment is located just outside of Venice. It’s in a quiet, non-touristy neighborhood that makes us really feel like locals! We are only a ten-minute walk from the bus stop and an easy ten-minute bus ride into the heart of Venice.

Our romantic gondola ride!

Venice is just like in the movies! A dreamlike city built around canals. Instead of cars, there are boats and gondolas, and the streets are lined with souvenir shops and cafes. Love, love, love! We had read that Venice is very difficult to navigate even with a map. Well, leave it to Magellan. We had a crappy photocopied map but he got us around just fine. We spent the day just walking around soaking it all in. We hit the famous Piazza San Marco and it’s beautiful Basilica. We ate a real Italian lunch consisting of pizza and lasagna and then of course, we had to have gelato.

When you think of Venice what’s the first thing you think of? A romantic gondola ride through the canals looking up at colorful apartment buildings lined with beautiful flower beds? Well, that’s what we think of too and that’s what we did! For way too much money, we took a wonderful ride through the canals and under the bridges. It was such a beautiful perspective of the city. I wish it would have lasted all day! Such a dream! After the gondola ride finished, we made our way back to the main entrance to catch the bus back to our apartment.  It was truly a beautiful day!

September 5: On our way out of Venice yesterday, we went to the information counter to ask a few questions and we ended up booking a tour for today! For a very reasonable price, we booked a half-day islands tour. It’s important to remember that Venice is actually an island its self surrounded by other little islands! Our 4.5 hour tour began at 2:30pm from San Marco. So we spent the few hours before walking around Venice and eating the most delicious pizza lunch until it was time to disembark. We boarded the boat with about 75 other tourists and headed to our first island of Murano. Murano is home to the famous Venetian glass blowers. We got off the boat and immediately ushered into a glass blowers shop for a demonstration. It’s truly amazing how they heat and cool and shape the glass into

 anything they can imagine. We saw them create a vase as well as a small horse. Sadly, we didn’t end up buying anything as it would be too hard to make the journey and not break. We were then given about 30 minutes to mosey around before having to board the boat again. The next stop on our tour was the island of Torcello. Torcello was actually the first of all the islands to be inhabited and was once the home of more than 20,000 people. Today, it’s home to only 16! Honestly, there was nothing to see on this small little island but I’m sure it was a bustling little town in it’s prime.

The last stop on the tour was Burano. And wow…it looked straight out of a movie set! An adorable little island known for it’s beautiful lace and different, brightly colored homes. We stopped at a specific shop and met with Olga, the owner of the lace shop. We were given a short demonstration and then were given a chance to look around the store. Such beautiful lace pieces (and for those of you who don’t know, I LOVE LACE!) We spent the next 30 minutes walking the movieesque’ island taking in the beautiful site!

Burano!

At the end of the tour, we left Venice and caught the bus back to our little town for a bite to eat before calling it a night!

September 6: A “local day,” is what we called it. We spent our last day in Italy living like the locals. We took advantage of the washing machine in our apartment and did all our laundry. We went to the market and picked up ingredients for a picnic lunch. We sat on sheet in the nearby park eating our lunch and playing cards. It was just what we needed! After almost two weeks of being on the move, we took the time to just have no agenda. It’s important to us to build days like this into our travels. Or else the trip just seems to flash by in the blink of an eye it’s hard to truly appreciate all that we’ve seen and experienced. We ended the day by cooking a delicious dinner and preparing ourselves for what Paris has to offer!

Amor Roma

August 29: We left at 4:30pm from Istanbul to Rome via Turkish Airlines. No wonder they were named the best airline in Europe for two consecutive years; what a great experience. The flight was only two and a half hours, yet we were fed a delicious full course meal and we had individual tv screens. With China Southern, which we flew to Istanbul, for ten hours, we had no entertainment. And I had never experienced such rude flight attendants in all my life!

We landed at about 6:30pm and with a few sentences of instructions, we found the train station and caught the train to Travestere where we would be staying. This would be the first city where we booked an apartment rental through the booking site Wimdu. We have always only stayed in hotels or hostels, but with budget prices, we thought we’d try to live like a local while in Rome.

The apartment is nothing to brag about. It’s very basic and doesn’t even have air conditioning. But the room size is nice and we share a bathroom and kitchen with the other attendants but our paths never crossed. It is about a 2 mile walk, or 30 minutes to the city center, but we don’t mind it. Living in Korea, we walked 2.5 miles homes from school everyday; so this is actually 15 minutes shorter J

August 30: Armed with a Rick Steves guide book and free audio tour pod casts downloaded, we were ready to find our way to the city center! Because we didn’t quite know where we were going, it took us about an hour to get there, but we made it! And our first stop: the infamous Colosseum!!! The Colosseum for me is something so iconic. A place I have always wanted to visit; when we walked up to it, I could not believe I was there! 

Inside the Colosseum

We had read that to skip the long lines, it’s smart to purchase a “Rome Pass.” A pass that gets you into

two sites of your choice for free, and free local transport for three days. Well, when we looked into it, it was 35 Euro. The Colosseum is 12 Euro by itself, and we felt like 35 Euro was a lot to cut the line. The tour guides were trying to get our business by paying for a tour; telling us the line to buy tickets was an hour and a half. Taking our chances in the line proved to be the best decision. We were at the ticket booth in under 30 minutes AND they took our teacher cards which enabled us to buy our tickets for half the price!!!!!

I had read that some places give reduced entrance fees to youth (under 26), and teachers. All we had to do was go on the ITIC  (International Teachers Identification Card) website, sign up, pay $20 and we got an official card with our photo validating that we were teachers! Had we bought the Rome Pass, or paid for the tour, we would not have been given the discount because I asked them. Chalk that point up to Sarah and Andrew!

Allison and Jordan Gristy (Allison is Andrew’s sister) told us to download the Rick Steves free audio tour guides on our iPhones before we visited sites; saving us the five euro cost of an audio tour at each site. Another fantastic tip! The guides were perfect and make touring these sites so much more meaningful!

Ruins of the Forum

After the Colosseum, included in the ticket price, we visited the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. The Roman Forum was pretty cool. It was the hub of Rome during its prime and reign of Caesar. It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the home of commercial affairs. To think we were walking on the same streets as Julius Caesar really made the history come to life! 

Following the Forum, we walked around and took in the sites of Palatine Hill. Rome has its origins on the Palatine. Get this, some excavations showed that people have lived there since approximately 1000 BC!!!!!! WHAT?!?!? Sure, there isn’t A WHOLE LOT left, but what we saw was that old! I seriously can’t even grasp that. Many affluent Romans of the Republican period (509 BC – 44 BC) had their residences there. During the Empire (27 BC – 476 AD) several emperors resided there.

Day one was a success on so many levels!! MIND BLOWN.

August 31: Today was one of the most amazing days! It was also one of the most physically exhausting. We left the apartment at 9:45am with the intention of taking the train to Vatican City. Once we were at the station, all the ticket booths were automated and there was no one around to help us figure out where we needed to go. So we left and went to the bus stop. Same situation. So, what did we do? We WALKED all the way to the Vatican from our apartment. It took just over an hour. Yeah for a short four mile walk to warm up for an ENTIRE day of walking! I have to give credit where credit is due. From now on, I should refer to Andrew as simply Magellan. He was a rock star when it came to navigating the streets of Rome! 

We arrived at the Vatican and once again were swarmed by tour companies to sign up for a tour. Promises of shorter lines spewed from their lips like broken records. We read that the line to get into the Vatican museum can be pretty brutal, but we took our chances. And guess what?! For whatever reason, there was no line at all!!! Plenty of people, but no line. Andrew and I couldn’t quite figure it out, but we weren’t complaining. Sadly no teacher discounts but that’s ok; we excitedly paid the fee and went in.

One of the many gorgeous ceilings in the Vatican 

 WOW! The place was gorgeous! There was not a wall that was not completely covered with paintings, tapestry, or sculpture masterpieces. Room after room the scenes were truly amazing. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least. After walking around for about and hour and a half it was time for the main event; the Sistine Chapel. The masterpiece and greatest work of Michelangelo. We sat in there for about 30 minutes listening to a Rick Steves audio tour and just trying to take in the God given talent of this artist depicting the events in the Bible from creation to the coming of Jesus. To think that one man, over the course of four years painted the entire thing is mind blowing. What an amazing gift to give to the world. (Pictures were not allowed, so you will have to Google to check it out). Truly the greatest work of art by a single human being in the world….hands down.

St. Peter's Basilica is right behind us

After we left the Vatican, we walked the ten minutes to St. Peter’s square. This giant plaza houses St. Peter’s Basilica, the home of the Pope and a 4,000 year old Egyptian obelisk. We ate some sandwiches under the shade of the giant columns and just tried to take it all in. We then decided to get in line to go inside St. Peter’s Basilica.

Completed in 1626, it’s not only one of the largest churches in the world but it’s regarded as one of the holiest as Peter (one of Jesus’ 12 apostles) is buried there. Remember how I said that the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul left me speechless, well, St. Peter’s Basilica left me breathless. Granted, they were built during very different times, but both are grand in their own right. This Basilica was absolutely STUNNING! No detail went unfinished. From the marbled floors to the painted domes, I felt like I had walked into the gates of heaven.  It was religious experience like nothing else and if something that beautiful exists on earth, I can’t even fathom the site of heaven. THIS IS A MUST SEE for anyone who visits Rome. 

Inside the basilica 

 It was now late afternoon as if we hadn’t already walked enough, we made our way to the Pantheon. One of Rome’s best preserved buildings, it was built in 126AD and is still is use today as a Roman Catholic Church. In fact, when we were there, they were conducting five-o’clock mass. This church is credited with helping to design the Sistine Chapel as well as the Capital building in Washington DC. I just think that it was so neat to see it still being used as it was intended to be when it was constructed so many years ago. The audio tour even said that couples can still get married here! Can you imagine that wait list!? Sheesh!

Still trucking along, we made our way 15 minutes to see the famous Trevi fountain. We fought our way through the crazy crowd to take our picture throwing our coins and making a wish into this magical fountain. It was so fun to just sit down and people watch. Such an iconic site!

Leaving the Trevi fountain, we made our way to the last stop of the day, the Spanish steps. Again, we fought our way, took some photos, then climbed our way up to take a seat and just take in the sites we were so blessed to see that day. At 7pm, we left to start our decent back to find a place to eat and our apartment. Well, we got slightly turned around, and ended up in what some might call the “seedy part of town.” It wasn’t until TWO HOURS later that we found a place to eat and rest our poor legs. The meal was basic but delicious and the wine was even better! Overall, the sites we saw were amazing, and I’m not even exaggerating, we probably walked 20-25 miles. We have got to figure out this bus system or I’m not going to last another six weeks!

At the Trevi Fountain!

September 1: Today wasn’t nearly as thrilling as yesterday. But I mean, we are in Rome so it’s still fantastic! We decided to make it a lighter day since our feet were still barking due to the miles we put on them yesterday. The plan was to see the renowned National Museum of Rome that we had heard so much about.

We left our apartment at 10:45am and as soon as we stepped outside we noticed a bunch of people and a ton of tents; a flee market!!! We spent what was left of the morning making our way from booth to booth to check everything out. Sadly we didn’t end up buying anything but it was still fun to look.

We then set off for the museum. We did NOT anticipate the two hour walk it took us to get there. Then, following the ‘signs’ we were walking in circles trying to find the entrance to this dang place! After asking several people we finally found it. A three story brick building just caddy-corner from the main train station. I was pumped to see gladiator gear, swords, togas, the crowns of past emperors; you know national museum level artifacts.

Ugh, sadly we were very mistaken. It was three floors of bust and full body sculptures and replicas and one giant display room full of old Roman currency. Oh, and random mummy of an eight year old girl. Where are all of their artifacts?! I want to see those! I know I sound like a brat. And the sculptures were quite amazing, just not what I had expected. (Better manage my expectations huh dad.)

Following the museum, we made our way to St. Mary’s Basilica that used to house Baths of Diocletian. A Roman bath house converted into a beautiful church, strange huh? In addition to being a place of worship this church also contains a meridian line. At the beginning of the eighteenth century Francesco Bianchini built a meridian line, a sort of sundial, within the basilica. Completed in 1702, the pope wanted to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar and to produce a tool to predict Easter exactly. It was also Rome’s official time keeper for several years.

We could walk no more. I told Magellan that we needed to figure out this bus situation. So we made our way to an information booth, bought a ticket and hopped on. We got off a little early, and had a 20 minute walk home, but it sure beat the hour and a half it would had taken. We ate at a delicious pizza place near our apartment and sipped on a $4, pretty dang good bottle of wine and called it a night!

Beautiful Capital building built in 1906

September 2: Today we wanted to go back to the area of the Spanish steps. It’s also the area they refer to as the “Shopping Triangle.” It houses budget to super high-end stores and we wanted to just walk around a bit. We grabbed a sandwich from a local vendor, sat atop the Spanish steps and just people watched. We then just moseyed around going anywhere the wind blew us. After a bit of walking we stopped for some gelato. We’ve only had it three of the four days we’ve been here! We shopped some more and made our way to the area of the Trevi fountain and found a little outdoor café, drank some local wine and enjoyed just being there!

Our last stop of this relaxing day was Capitol Hill; a gorgeous little plaza that we walked around and snapped some photos. It was a very low-key day relative to the last few, but it’s nice to not have an agenda to just enjoy being.

We walked our tails off in Rome. It’s a fantastic city filled with so much history it’s really hard to wrap your head around. One thing that was unexpected that I really enjoyed were all the free water fountains throughout the city.  The water in Rome is just fine to drink. So as long as you carry around a water bottle, you’ll save a lot which is always appreciated! We enjoyed our time so much in this beautiful city. Can’t wait to see what Venice has in store!

Magical Istanbul

The view of old town Istanbul from our balcony!

Istanbul, Turkey has always been some place I wanted to visit ever since my brother went there during his stent in the Peace Corps. After he raved about it, my interest has just grown the more I hear and see things about this city. With a population of roughly 15 million, it is the only city in the world that actually splits two continents; Europe and Asia!

We left for Istanbul at 12:30pm out of Seoul on August 25^th. We then had two different stops in China, and after a kind of miserable 17 hour journey, we arrived to Istanbul at 2:00am. We found the cutest little Bed and Breakfast, Hotel Deniz Houses, located perfectly in Sultanahmet and within a short walking distance to all of Istanbul’s most famous sites and restaurants. It was a great ‘home base’ during our time in this majestic city.

Me outside the Blue Mosque

Andrew in the Mosque

August 26 Being 98% a Muslim nation, we were woken up earlier than expected at 5:00am, by the call to prayer from the mosques; something that is blasted over an intercom system all over the city. After going back to sleep, we woke again at about 8am and decided to get up and start our exploration. Our first stop was the famous Blue Mosque. Constructed between 1609 and 1616, this mosque is still is use today, but it is also one of Istanbul’s most visited sites by tourists.  It gets it’s name because the interior is made up of more than 20,000 handmade ceramic painted tiles that are predominately of different shades of blue. It is a gorgeous work of art. The tiles are stunning and what an amazing, historic place for worship! Being a mosque, when we entered, we had to remove our shoes and women had to cover their knees and heads with scarves., which is why I have one over my head. There were so many people in there trying to take photos that it got ridiculously hot! But it was gorgeous!

Some of the beautiful tile

Our next stop was the Topkapi Palace and Harem. The Topkapi Palace was built in 1478 and was the

 residence of the Sultans for 380 years. Can you even fathom?! It was built in 1478…so crazy to me! The line for tickets was a bit ridiculous, and we had to wait outside for about and hour and ten minutes before even getting in. The wait was worth it. I think I took about 150 pictures of tiles alone! Every quarter we went into the tiles were painted differently. The treasury was unbelievable! Of course pictures were not allowed, but the jewels they had on display were stunning! Emerald, rubies, sapphires, and diamond covered everything from crowns to drinking glasses. That is truly how the ‘other half’ lived.

We paid the extra money to see the Harem, which literally translates to “a place forbidden.” It was the area of the palace (300 rooms) where the Sultan and his family lived. Once again, more tile pictures! A camera cannot do the beauty justice. Andrew and I were truly in awe of the beauty in the detail.

Our last stop of the day was the Grand Bazaar. Consisting of more than 3,000 shops, it’s one of the largest and oldest covered shopping districts in the world. You can buy pretty much anything there. Items ranging from Turkish souvenirs, to clothing, spices, purses, handbags, shoes, and household goods. We weren’t really in the market for anything other than taking it all in! Much like the Silk Market we experienced in Beijing, but times about five!

Inside Hagia Sophia

 August 27: At 10am we ventured back out to Sultanahmet square to see the famous Hagia Sophia. Are you ready for this...wrap your mind around 537 AD. That was the year this magnificent church was built. 537 AD!!! From 537-1204, it was used as an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral. From 1204-1261, it was used as a Roman Catholic Cathedral. Again, from 1261-1453 it was used as an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral. And then from1453-1931 it was used as an Imperial Mosque. After 1931, it was turned into a museum. I’m sorry to say that I really can’t describe my experience in there. I have never seen anything like it, and I might not ever see anything like it again. The grandeur of this church/mosque is literally indescribable. Much like Egypt’s great pyramids, it’s mind blowing to try to figure out how it was constructed. The detail, the paintings, the pure enormity of this place was unreal. Andrew and I pretty much walked through the whole thing in silence. Truly one of the greatest archeological feats of all time.

At 2:00pm, we booked a half day tour. We were taken to the Rustem Pasha Mosque, and then aboarded a boat for an hour and a half cruise along the Bosphprus; the body of water that splits Istanbul between Europe and Asia. The boat ride was wonderful! Gave us a totally new perspective on Istanbul and the sites were beautiful! Andrew and I could not get over how beautiful and enormous some of the homes and private yachts were…..gorgeous! It was a cool feeling to be on a boat and the scenery on our right is Asia, and on our left was Europe!

After the boat ride, we spent about an hour waling around the Egyptian Spice Market. Similar, but on a smaller scale than the Grand Bazaar, we sampled some Turkish treats and just did some window shopping. The ride back to our B&B took longer than expected due to rush hour traffic, but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed seeing another, less touristy part of the

Cruising the Bosphorus

city. I can’t get over how clean and modern Istanbul is. The city is literally just built up around churches, castles, palaces, aqueducts
 and mosques that are thousands of years old!

August 28: Our first stop of the day was the famous Basilica Cistern. An underground water system built from 527-565 AD. It is 9,800 square meters and has the capacity to hold 100,000 tons of water storage. You enter the Cistern through such a small little building on the site of a busy street. It’s so unassuming to think that just underneath a bustling modern city, there are 336 beautifully carved columns holding up the city streets!

After visiting the Cistern, we decided to do the super touristy double-decker, hop on-hop off, city tour bus! It was such a nice view of the city from the open air deck! We each had head phones so we could listen to the English audio tour guide which enabled us to get so much more out of it than just looking at the beautiful structures. We also got the chance to cross over the main bridge that transports the citizens from the Europe to Asia side! Being on two different continents in a matter of minutes was pretty cool.

We hopped off the bus in Taksim Square. This may sound familiar to you because it’s the area where

Connecting Europe to Asia!

all the Turkish riots were occurring just weeks ago. All has passed now, and it’s a lovely area with a beautiful park, loss of cafes and restaurants, and shopping. We ate lunch and just walked around enjoying the sites and sounds of a different area than where we were staying.

We had a wonderful three full days in Istanbul! The city is so rich with culture and history! It's incredibly clean and we felt very safe. The people were nice and always willing to strike up a conversation. Turkey is a place I would love to return to. There is so much to see here outside of the bustling city of Istanbul and I know we only scratched the surface! 

Inside the entry to Hagia Sophia

On the Bosphorus boat tour

Farewell Korea

I write this reflection sitting at a hotel in Seoul the night before we officially leave Korea for our European adventure. The feeling is bittersweet.  Andrew and I feel that a piece of us will always be in Korea. Between the year we spent in Ulsan and the year in Pohang, we both did so much growing up. We learned about ourselves in ways that only traveling can teach you. The cultural situations we exposed ourselves to helped us to grow professionally, but more importantly, it helped us to grow as human beings and citizens of the world.

I had tears in my eyes as the taxi drove us away from our humble Pohang home, and we both couldn’t help but laugh when we thought about the first night we spent here back in August of 2012. We were literally dropped off to an apartment that had a single bed and nothing else. We had no food, water, toilet paper, bedding….nothing! We were so frustrated and then we were told, “School starts tomorrow, see you in the morning,” That first morning we woke up with kinked necks as we slept on sweatshirts as pillows; and to the sound of our first experience with a typhoon. Remember the whole shower cap thing? Ugh…that was our welcome to Pohang.

As the weeks went by, we grew to love this city and the people we were blessed to have met. We both made some really great friends from all different parts of the world making it that much harder to leave. It’s crazy to think that people from all walks of life are just PEOPLE! We all want the same things and strive for similar goals no matter our backgrounds.

We returned to Korea to live and work abroad again. The ultimate goal was not to come home with a larger savings account. It was to make the money we needed, to see more of the world. So we took those earnings and experienced amazing things in Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines. We will continue to enjoy learning and immersing ourselves in this grand world as we spend the next seven-weeks traveling around Europe. Look for blog updates along the way. I will do my best to post a blog when we leave each great city. Our path is as follows: Istanbul, Turkey – Rome, Venice, Italy – Paris, France – Vienna, Salzburg, Austria – Augsburg, Munich, Germany – London, England, - Dundee, Edinburgh, Scotland – Dublin, Ireland.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” –Proverbs 16:9

Mehrmann's Meet Korea

*Disclaimer: Please excuse the sweaty nature of all of our pictures. 

Since the first time we moved to Korea, family members have been talking about visiting. But life gets in the way and unfortunately no one was able to visit us while we lived in Ulsan. Luckily we all got a second chance! Andrew’s mom, Becky, and step-dad Brian, made the trek across the pond and booked their tickets to Korea! Aside from forking over the funds and deciding what to pack for 11 days of hellacious heat, their jobs were done. Andrew and I took the liberty of working out all the logistics and creating an itinerary to maximize their visit.

On August 3^rd, Andrew and I woke up and caught a bus from our apartment to the bus terminal. We then caught the 40 minute, 8:10am bus to the Gyeongju KTX station where we would take a two hour train to Seoul. Once we got to Seoul, we took the Subway to get to the hotel we were staying in. We wanted to drop off our bags before going to the airport to pick up the Mehrmann’s! We then  took another bus for about and hour and twenty minutes to Incheon airport where we anxiously awaited their arrival.

It seemed like we timed it out perfectly because we only had to stand at the arrival gate holding our embarrassingly large, neon-green “Welcome to Korea” sign for about twenty minutes. When they FINALLY walked off the plane we couldn’t have been more excited! All the talking and planning was over, it was time for Andrew and I to introduce Becky and Brian to two years of our lives and guide them around the beautiful country that is Korea!

Their exhaustion was replaced with excitement as we talked their ears off all the way to the hotel. We greeted them there with a ‘Korean Survival Pack’ filled with fun Korean gifts and snacks including but not limited to: socks, maps, cookies and of course dried octopus! We took them on their first Seoul subway ride to get some pizza before calling it an early night. We needed them well rested for their ten day adventure!

We spent August 3^rd-6^th hitting the main sites of Korea’s capital. Most of the things we took them to see Andrew and I have seen before and those experiences have already been blogged about from our perspective. So I would just like to include pictures that highlight their visit!

A list of the places and sites we visited included:

August 4^th

• Gyeongbokgung Palace
• The Blue House (where the Korean President lives)
• Changdeokgung Palace and Secret Garden (However, we missed the last English speaking tour by three minutes and they would not let us just join in…so frustrating!)
• Korean Beef restaurant
• Nanta Musical

August 5^th

• Outdoor Korean War Museum
• Itaewon 
• Shinsegae Department Store
• Ate traditional Korean street food for dinner

August 6^th

• DMZ tour
• Seoul Tower
• Hongae area for dinner

Outside Gyeongbokgung Palace

Korean War Museum

Palace Gardens

Enjoying the Seoul Subway

Seoul Tower: Geological Center of Seoul

At the Demilitarized Zone

North Korea in the background

We left Seoul on August 7^th to fly to Jeju Island. Jeju was a place that Andrew and I were very disappointed we didn’t get a chance to visit in our first go-around so we were pumped to get to share this new experience with his parents. Finding a place to stay was a bit tricky as August is the high season for tourists. We settled on the Easy Stay EJ Hotel which came highly recommended from a friend. This would be the first time Becky and Brian would experience a typical Korean style hotel. The location was good relative to the island’s downtown area and airport was it was a bit far from most of the sites.

A little chilly in the lava cave

With Jeju, it’s nearly impossible to get around without a car and since we don’t have an international drivers license we were unable to rent one. So we were at the mercy of taxi drivers. 

We arrived to Jeju about 10:30am after a short 60 minute flight and we left our bags at the hotel since we couldn’t check in until noon. Armed with a map of the island and a free guidebook from the airport, we headed to a coffee shop to map out our two-day game plan.

After checking in, we changed into our exploring clothes, waited on our “English-speaking-taxi-driver” and headed to our first stop which was the Manjanggul Cave. Jeju is much like Hawai’i in that it is the result of an erupted volcano. This cave is the world’s largest known lava cave created by volcanic activity. It was about a 1,000 meters long and SO COLD! The temperature change was welcomed and the first site we had seen on this entire trip where we weren’t just dripping with sweat! It was impressive when you think about how it was formed, but it was just really dark cave. We spent about thirty minutes down there before meeting our hired taxi driver to tell him our next destination.

Our driver spoke no English although advertised it. When I gave him the name of our next stop,

Green Tea Fields

Daheeyeon tea fields, he had no idea what I was talking about. Should have been a red flag. I pointed to it in the guide book, and on the map. He didn’t know. I asked him if he had a Korean map, because maybe he just didn’t recognize the word in English. He didn’t have one. He kept telling us that it would take an hour and twenty minutes to get there, but on the map it looked no more than twenty. I pointed to the map and in my limited Korean told him there was no way. He said my map was a “mistake, mistake.” I even wrote the word out in Korean hoping that it would spark something. Nothing. He then takes his map out. And guess what…. It’s on the same spot as my map!! I pointed to his map, where he said mine was a mistake, and in Korean, said “there, it’s the same!” Ugh….after 20 minutes of this back and forth, we were finally on our way.

Ok, in the guidebook, this tea field was described as “an organic tea park built inside a natural lava cave. They also had a tea museum and zip-lining “through the mountains with stunning views of mountains and sea.”

I take full blame for the tourist trap I led us to. No wonder the driver had never been there. WHAT A JOKE! We arrived and thought, this can’t be it. We paid our $5 each (which included a green-tea drink) and then walked around. The green tea field was, well, a small field of green-tea plants. The museum was entirely in Korean and consisted of about ten displays and the zip line was four platforms that formed a square barely high enough to maybe see some sea; but definitely didn’t go through any mountains.

Waiting on our tea in the cave

Well, we did pay for a drink so we went into their “Cave Café” which was literally a coffee shop in a cave and picked from a very small menu of all green tea concoctions.  You know when something is just so ridiculous you can’t help but just laugh. And the more inappropriate the location, the harder you have to laugh? Well, this was the case for all of us. We were laughing so hard, trying to drink our tea drinks while choking down some green-tea and broccoli cookies. Oh, the memories.

Jungmun Beach

That was it for our first day on the island. It might not seem like much, but it takes a long time to drive anywhere! We spent way too much time in the cabs. But that was ok with me, as they were air conditioned. I’m not sure I stressed how hot it was. Not just on Jeju, but our entire trip. I’m not sure we have ever sweated so much in our lives!

Day two on Jeju, we decided to check out the famous Jungmun Saekdal Beach and their famous

Jeongbang Waterfall.  We didn’t stay to relax at the beach, we just wanted to check out the views. I was entirely to hot to try to layout on the sand. Yikes! After we leaf the beach area we went to Jeongbang. This is the only waterfall in South Korea where the water falls straight into the sea. It was crowed with tourists but really beautiful. I mean, it’s not everyday you get to see waterfalls!

With the mascot of Jeju

We had worked up quite an appetite by now so we decided to walk the streets for something to eat. Literally, all there were were fish restaurants. Not being in the mood, we finally found a pork place. Long story short, we settled on entirely overpriced Jeju black pig barbeque that wasn’t even very good. So we left unsatisfied and heavy stomachs.

Waterfall

Our last stop of day two was Mt. Hallasan national park. Mt. Hallasan is that tallest mountain in all of Korea so I figured there would be stuff to see all around it since it’s a national park. Not the case. Our driver drove us to the hiker drop off point which was a 15-minute mountain windy mountain drive. For those of you who don’t know, I get incredibly motion sick, so I had my eyes closed the entire time.  Well, we weren’t about to hike the nine-hour round trip trail at 4:30pm, so we looked at the mountain, and left. Bummer.

On August 9th we left Jeju Island at 3:30pm for a 40 minute flight to Busan. Before the flight we decided to take it easy and head for some inside duty free shopping. Sadly, it wasn’t very big but we took advantage of the air-conditioning and looked at every store! The flight was quick and then it took about two hours to reach Pohang by bus. We checked the Mehrmann’s into the Galaxy Hotel which is only a seven minute walk from our apartment and right on the beach. We then went for a late dinner at one of our favorite Vietnamese-Korean fusion restaurants. 

August 10^th was a breather day. We showed them our apartment for the first time, took them downtown for lunch, gave them their first Pohang city bus experience, toured the famous Jukdo fish market, got caught in the rain, took them to HomePlus to buy dinner for the night and then went back to our place. We decided that we had been eating out way to much and Andrew cooked us delicious fajitas.

Bulgulska Temple

August 11^th we boarded the intercity bus heading to Gyeongju. The historic city which was the capital of the country during the Silla Dynasty. There is so much history packed into this little city. Our first stop was the famous and beautiful Bulgulska Temple. We spent a few hours just walking, sweating, and taking in the sites and sounds of a mountain temple. We then took a bus to the City Museum which Andrew and I had always wanted to visit. Unfortunately, we saw a scaled down version of the museum as it was under construction, but it was a good chance to see some ancient Korean artifacts. It’s hard to fathom things from 400 and 500AD! We made it back to Pohang just in time for a delicious green-tea marinated pork BBQ dinner. Yum, yum, yum! 

Delicious pork dinner

August 12^th was of course another scorching hot day. We headed to Ulsan to show them our old stomping grounds. It wasn’t a very long trip but it was nice to show them our old apartment and both our schools. We did a little air-conditioned shopping in their new built downtown area and enjoyed yet another Korean city!

August 13^th (my 27^th birthday) we made it another Pohang day. We started the day with a sweaty walk along the beach. We then headed to our schools where we could take them inside and show them what our school lives were like so that was pretty cool.  After that we went downtown for a street food lunch the relaxed and got ready for my birthday dinner! I was excited that Belle and Juan-Hee were going to join us. It gave Becky and Brian the chance to meet some of our Korean friends and ask they questions about Korea. Belle even brought Becky a traditional Korean wind-chime…so sweet. We headed to Baskin Robins for some birthday ice cream before parting ways.

We woke up early on the 14^th to meet them at their hotel. We wanted to ride with them to the bus station so they could catch their 8:20am bus to Incheon airport. A bus isn’t ideal, but it is the easiest way we could think of to get them to the airport hassle free. We said our goodbyes and waved as they pulled away. It was such a memorable trip filled with awe, fun, unforgettable experiences and so much laughter. The only thing I wish I could have changed was the weather. It was so hot!!! But I guess I’d take super hot days over really rainy.

We were so blessed to take them around and are so thankful they made the trip to see us. We wish we had the chance to take all of our friends and family around this beautiful country!