rose and i arrived in nice in the late afternoon and found our way relativelye easily (for us) to our hostel. after chilling for a while we decided to take a walk down the main street. nice is beautiful and so much fun! there were street performers everywhere in the early evening, and it was simultaneously liberating and a little hurtful that there were so many few verbal guys around telling how "sex-ay" we were.
we walked as far as the seafront and appreciated the sun setting over the beautiful mediterranean sea, before returning to the town and looking around some more. the next morning we were up bright and early to visit the beach which was absolutely beautiful and we lazed around there for a few hours; swimming, sleeping and soaking up the beautiful sun before wandering nice again for the day. this time we explored the "old town", winding through all the alleyways of nice and getting thorougly lost before finding ourselves once more! we put off having dinner until quite late and found ourselves searching for a supermarket that was adequately cheap for me as i was living on a very tight budget at this time.
our last day in nice we had to check out at 11am but weren't taking a bus to the airport until 9pm! we explored every square inch of that town; taking a long leisurely lunch as rose was desperate for a proper meal and promised that she would buy it for me because i squarely opposed it. i think we also visited both macdonalds located in the nice town centre to use their free wifi and spent an hour or more reading in the virgin megastore. when we did get to the airport it was to find the entire place shutting down for the night. we scoped out a good spot to try and catch some sleep and after reading for a little while, tried to get some sleep. i read while rose slept first of all, and after she gave up i said i would try and sleep. i was convinced i wouldn't get any rest but fall asleep i did - waking up a few times to see rose crouching in a corner, and then being questioned by airport security. apparently i even laughed out loud in my sleep!
at 5am we roused ourselves and reluctantly joined the queue to board the plane to paris!
once arriving in paris we suddenly remembered - paris is expensive! paying 14 euro to go to our hostel's suburb wasn't a great start but it got worse when we got off the train and found ourselves in what to my sleep deprived eyes, looked like a ghetto. upon later viewing i liked the town but at 11am that day i was exhausted and wanted a 5 star hotel desperately. once arriving at our hostel we found the other guests unfriendly and hurried to our room (we had booked dorm beds but were given a double room for one night - yay!) where rose calmly told me to settle down and have a nap. nap i did and when we emerged to buy food, i felt much better. we spent that day in bed and wandering around the "hostel" that seemed to be more of a sharehouse than anything. so our first day in paris was pretty underwhelming, exhausted, we finally caught up on our sleep after being sleep deprived basically since january!
the next morning i skyped my family and around lunchtime we headed in to paris with plans to see musee d'orsay and notre dame. unfortunately we came out of the metro station on the wrong side of the seine and couldn't get to notre dame easily because of the tour de france coming through paris that day. instead we went to musee d'orsay, appreciated the impressionism and i had intense eye contact with a lovely french boy.
that evening we finally met our hostel mates (a group of 3 girls and a guy from manchester university, a mexican, 2 german girls and 2 danish boys who we didn't meet just yet) and i made friends with the english group!
next next day, rose and i went to...DISNEYLAND! it was such a great day, we were out of the hostel until midnight as we stayed for BOTH parades and took tons of photos and i was adopted by a 7 year old french kid who spoke rapid french that i not only understood but replied to so all in all - succesful day! when we got back to the hostel rose went straight to bed and i decided to stay up a little longer. turns out, great decision right there as i further bonded with the english girls/boy and found myself still awake at 2am discussing music and being recommended danish indie rock by one of the fittest (and i mean that in the literal and english senses of the word) boys i have ever encountered. the next day rose and i decided to make one more attempt at paris and bumped once again into our manchester friends who were doing the same thing before they all left and different times. we saw the louvre and notre dame before polly and sian left, then the remaining two - thomas and bethan; and rose and i tried to decide what to do. we ended up buying food from a cheap shop, sitting near the louvre and gossiping until the sun was going down. then it was just a quick maccas run and back to our hostel with good ol' pierre (a middle aged man who tried to hit on all the girls staying at his hostel and was always awkwardly hovering in the background) where we shared a couple of bottles of wine between the hostel and watched greys anatomy until the early hours of the morning. next day we were meant to leave; rose didn't actually end up leaving until after 2pm as we were too busy having a late breakfast and analysing music videos with the danish boys. when she did eventually leave i hung around awkwardly until pierre asked when my flight was and i explained it wasn't until the next morning. and i MAY have left the end of my sentence hanging awkwardly but he didn't disappoint, not missing a beat before insisting "you stay with me!" i laughed awkwardly and then he rectified it "stay HERE, for free". i accepted and bailed before he could change his mind.
somehow i talked the entire hostel in to staying up with me until 4am when i had to leave for the airport and after tucking them all in to bed i made my way to charles de gaulle where i flew to vienna to meet georgie and janet!
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
september 13 aka i am once again the worst aka summer part 1
july 12 - aisling awoke at 5am and went to the airport. getting there was a battle in itself as chiltern railways kindly messed up my ticket and i had to buy another one and it was a disaster but EVENTUALLY i got there, left rainy england behind and hit florence where it was 2pm and 40 degrees! i somehow navigated the city to the hostel where i met georgie and rose - and then we set off to explore. the hostel was very cool, like a large apartment with separate rooms and we were very glad to have paid for a private room as it seemed quite noisy.
first on our list was visiting the accademia; home to michelangelo's david, and then some dinner.
florence is absolutely beautiful, my favourite part of italy that i saw and i wish i had more time there (a constant refrain over the next few weeks as you will see). we spent our second day in pisa, visited the famous leaning tower and in the evening bought tickets to the first screening of harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 - in english!! an amazing night, i cried my eyes out and swore "i will never be happy again" as we walked home afterwards around 1am. florence was incredibly hot, 40 degrees with no shade or breeze in the slightest and we found it difficult to even sleep at night. my first night i was so tired, having only slept 2 hours the previous night, but we still didn't fall asleep until past 1am because of the heat. i'm sure i drove georgie and rose mad by constantly quoting "facts" from my renaissance history lessons last year - it was amazing seeing il duomo in person, wandering through the piazza della signoria on our way to the cinema.
the next next day we headed for rome, boarding a train and spending 2 hours watching the beautiful italian countryside. that day (once we reached rome and found our hostel) was spent getting to know the city and buying food. oh and watching as much dubbed-in-italian MTV as our hearts could handle. this hostel was again, like a strange apartment although this one was very small and in a separate building to the reception! it was here that we had our first taste of dodgy european lifts and hostels being placed in beautiful huge old houses.
we had an early night that night as we were to be up and out early the next day to visit the vatican city. it was a good thing that we were early in the end, the doors to the vatican palace open at 9am and by 7.30 the queue was building steadily! upon first arriving we viisted the basilica where rose was told her dress was too short, but due to my incredible skill as a fashion dresser (and the skirt i had brought with me just in case), got in. the vatican palace was beautiful - predictably - as was seeing the sistine chapel. at least, it was incredible the first time but by the time we had found our way through the palace and out the other side, we had taken a detour through the chapel at least 4 or 5 times, so the novelty wore off somewhat. after that we went to see the trevi fountain and made our wishes. we had planned on finding the spanish steps too but somehow got distracted, probably by the heat and our exhaustion.
that evening janet arrived and we went to visit the colusseum before deciding to see harry potter again.
we took a long walk up...somewhere (that's the problem with being a tourist, i don't know where anything is!) to a park because i was DYING for the loo, and then walked back to the cinema - stopping off for a gelati from the shop across the street.
the next morning (we're now up to the 16th of july for anyone who is wondering), janet and georgie left to join their topdeck tour while rose and i packed our bags and moved hostel's to the misleadingly named "hotel beautiful 2". there was nothing WRONG with it, but it was certainly no more than basic. we spent a good few hours debating what to do before settling on visiting the pantheon. we navigated the metro and accidentally found the spanish steps (hurray for touristing!) before heading off down via del corso - one of the better known shopping streets in rome - stopping at the disney store along the way. as we wandered a winding laneway leading us to the pantheon i got over-excited by a fortune tellers table set out on the street, but rose wouldn't let me get my fortune told so i guess we'll never know what could have happened. outside the pantheon we were waylaid by a beautiful possibly-italian-but-possibly-something-else boy, who worked for a pub crawl company and smiled and complimented his way in to us almost promising to take part in a pubcrawl that night. once we had departed his company however, we saw sense and rose told me that i had to have an early night.
like a good girl, i was in my bed at 7.30, reading my book but we got silly (as we often do when left alone together) and before we knew it, it was almost midnight and we'd been sitting in bed singing and exchanging family stories for 4 hours.
the following morning we arose early and took a train to naples, or the "slum" of italy as we have since named it. naples was wonderful, and really cheap but definitely recognisable as the poorer part of italy. unfortunately we were only there on a sunday and monday - sunday everything was shut and we had dedicated monday to visiting the ruins of pompeii so we didn't actually get to see a lot of naples but what i saw made me really want to go back. our hostel was AMAZING, tucked away down a laneway next to an old church or something. the view from our room was of vespas, people hanging out their clothes on balconies and barefoot children playing near stone buildings and shouting at each other in italian. definitely a "cultural" experience.
seeing pompeii was mindblowing, after studying it and learning all about it for so long - to see the preserved remains of objects, people and even animals really took me aback. unfortunately i had hurt my foot somehow during the night before - doing something that felt like bruising it internally and hurting it so much i was worried it was broken - so i was more than a little grumpy after a few hours of walking. still, rose was patient and the promise of 3 euro pizza for dinner got me through it.
after 2 nights in naples it was back to rome for one more night before going to nice! back at the good ol' "hotel beautiful 2" rose and i were (we think) upgraded to a much nicer room...possibly due to her looking roughly 14 years old and the guy at reception being a little bit pervy. our roommates were nice, a girl who didn't speak much english and a really fabulous guy called jack from chicago who was in italy to brush up on his italian before starting work as a "theatre lackey" as he titled himself.
after a somewhat disturbed nights sleep we headed early morning to the airport to take our flight to nice. of course, we hadn't considered the fact that some airports just dont' cater to people who eat food and so only have one cafe available at any given time. but then, we got on the plane and we chilled for an hour and before we knew it - we were in nice!
sorry guys i'm so tired it's just after 10pm and i'm going to be in bed in 2 minutes. i'll fill in more detail soon - tomorrow or the weekend for sure! xx
first on our list was visiting the accademia; home to michelangelo's david, and then some dinner.
florence is absolutely beautiful, my favourite part of italy that i saw and i wish i had more time there (a constant refrain over the next few weeks as you will see). we spent our second day in pisa, visited the famous leaning tower and in the evening bought tickets to the first screening of harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 - in english!! an amazing night, i cried my eyes out and swore "i will never be happy again" as we walked home afterwards around 1am. florence was incredibly hot, 40 degrees with no shade or breeze in the slightest and we found it difficult to even sleep at night. my first night i was so tired, having only slept 2 hours the previous night, but we still didn't fall asleep until past 1am because of the heat. i'm sure i drove georgie and rose mad by constantly quoting "facts" from my renaissance history lessons last year - it was amazing seeing il duomo in person, wandering through the piazza della signoria on our way to the cinema.
the next next day we headed for rome, boarding a train and spending 2 hours watching the beautiful italian countryside. that day (once we reached rome and found our hostel) was spent getting to know the city and buying food. oh and watching as much dubbed-in-italian MTV as our hearts could handle. this hostel was again, like a strange apartment although this one was very small and in a separate building to the reception! it was here that we had our first taste of dodgy european lifts and hostels being placed in beautiful huge old houses.
we had an early night that night as we were to be up and out early the next day to visit the vatican city. it was a good thing that we were early in the end, the doors to the vatican palace open at 9am and by 7.30 the queue was building steadily! upon first arriving we viisted the basilica where rose was told her dress was too short, but due to my incredible skill as a fashion dresser (and the skirt i had brought with me just in case), got in. the vatican palace was beautiful - predictably - as was seeing the sistine chapel. at least, it was incredible the first time but by the time we had found our way through the palace and out the other side, we had taken a detour through the chapel at least 4 or 5 times, so the novelty wore off somewhat. after that we went to see the trevi fountain and made our wishes. we had planned on finding the spanish steps too but somehow got distracted, probably by the heat and our exhaustion.
that evening janet arrived and we went to visit the colusseum before deciding to see harry potter again.
we took a long walk up...somewhere (that's the problem with being a tourist, i don't know where anything is!) to a park because i was DYING for the loo, and then walked back to the cinema - stopping off for a gelati from the shop across the street.
the next morning (we're now up to the 16th of july for anyone who is wondering), janet and georgie left to join their topdeck tour while rose and i packed our bags and moved hostel's to the misleadingly named "hotel beautiful 2". there was nothing WRONG with it, but it was certainly no more than basic. we spent a good few hours debating what to do before settling on visiting the pantheon. we navigated the metro and accidentally found the spanish steps (hurray for touristing!) before heading off down via del corso - one of the better known shopping streets in rome - stopping at the disney store along the way. as we wandered a winding laneway leading us to the pantheon i got over-excited by a fortune tellers table set out on the street, but rose wouldn't let me get my fortune told so i guess we'll never know what could have happened. outside the pantheon we were waylaid by a beautiful possibly-italian-but-possibly-something-else boy, who worked for a pub crawl company and smiled and complimented his way in to us almost promising to take part in a pubcrawl that night. once we had departed his company however, we saw sense and rose told me that i had to have an early night.
like a good girl, i was in my bed at 7.30, reading my book but we got silly (as we often do when left alone together) and before we knew it, it was almost midnight and we'd been sitting in bed singing and exchanging family stories for 4 hours.
the following morning we arose early and took a train to naples, or the "slum" of italy as we have since named it. naples was wonderful, and really cheap but definitely recognisable as the poorer part of italy. unfortunately we were only there on a sunday and monday - sunday everything was shut and we had dedicated monday to visiting the ruins of pompeii so we didn't actually get to see a lot of naples but what i saw made me really want to go back. our hostel was AMAZING, tucked away down a laneway next to an old church or something. the view from our room was of vespas, people hanging out their clothes on balconies and barefoot children playing near stone buildings and shouting at each other in italian. definitely a "cultural" experience.
seeing pompeii was mindblowing, after studying it and learning all about it for so long - to see the preserved remains of objects, people and even animals really took me aback. unfortunately i had hurt my foot somehow during the night before - doing something that felt like bruising it internally and hurting it so much i was worried it was broken - so i was more than a little grumpy after a few hours of walking. still, rose was patient and the promise of 3 euro pizza for dinner got me through it.
after 2 nights in naples it was back to rome for one more night before going to nice! back at the good ol' "hotel beautiful 2" rose and i were (we think) upgraded to a much nicer room...possibly due to her looking roughly 14 years old and the guy at reception being a little bit pervy. our roommates were nice, a girl who didn't speak much english and a really fabulous guy called jack from chicago who was in italy to brush up on his italian before starting work as a "theatre lackey" as he titled himself.
after a somewhat disturbed nights sleep we headed early morning to the airport to take our flight to nice. of course, we hadn't considered the fact that some airports just dont' cater to people who eat food and so only have one cafe available at any given time. but then, we got on the plane and we chilled for an hour and before we knew it - we were in nice!
sorry guys i'm so tired it's just after 10pm and i'm going to be in bed in 2 minutes. i'll fill in more detail soon - tomorrow or the weekend for sure! xx
Monday, 11 July 2011
june 28
our last half term was at the end of may; i spent a weekend in scotland with becca which was so much fun - i can't wait to see her again next week for t in the park; and then 5 days in dublin with aine again! its crazy that we still get along so well and are so similar after almost 7 years!
during that week in dublin we saw x-men, made brownies, attended a party and talked non-stop the entire time.
the final half of term before summer really flew by. claire and louisa came to visit us and we had such a laugh with them; it was strange seeing people from home when we're not there! same with cole, she stayed for 3 days and it was amazing to have her there - i've really missed her.
work finished up for me last monday; it was the lodge kids last day and they all dressed up so i dutifully donned a main school uniform like i had told them i would and they were suitably amused. tuesday was all speeches and the prize giving for main school; then the staff party at night. on wednesday we helped clean and organise the school before georgie, rose and i went to see darren criss in the evening. what a night...seriously one of my highlights here! thursday was all a rush as everyone was leaving and in a hurry. we all set off, me second to last - heading to scotland for t in the park.
i had a BRILLIANT weekend. totally muddy and exhausting, my hair has never been so matted but i don't think i've ever been so happy. i saw some of my favourite bands, hung out with my friend, ate rubbish food, drank overpriced drinks and was so relaxed and peaceful (despite the huge amount of noise). when the arena got flooded on sunday, causing the previously slightly squidgy mud to turn in to a full scale swamp; i even embraced that! anyone who knows me can probably vouch that i am not averse to mud or dirt and it seems to be attracted to me so i actually really enjoyed dancing in the mud and rain with makeup trailing down my face - after realising that no matter how hard i tried i was inevitably going to get filthy.
now it is 4.56am and i am about to go to gatwick airport and then fly to florence where georgie and rose will meet me and that, dear reader, is where i must leave you for about a month. really it's not too bad, there's about a month between most of my posts anyway so it could be worse...and then next one should be really interesting! here's hoping i don't run out of money too early (i feel like it's inevitable) and don't lose anything too valuable.
during that week in dublin we saw x-men, made brownies, attended a party and talked non-stop the entire time.
the final half of term before summer really flew by. claire and louisa came to visit us and we had such a laugh with them; it was strange seeing people from home when we're not there! same with cole, she stayed for 3 days and it was amazing to have her there - i've really missed her.
work finished up for me last monday; it was the lodge kids last day and they all dressed up so i dutifully donned a main school uniform like i had told them i would and they were suitably amused. tuesday was all speeches and the prize giving for main school; then the staff party at night. on wednesday we helped clean and organise the school before georgie, rose and i went to see darren criss in the evening. what a night...seriously one of my highlights here! thursday was all a rush as everyone was leaving and in a hurry. we all set off, me second to last - heading to scotland for t in the park.
i had a BRILLIANT weekend. totally muddy and exhausting, my hair has never been so matted but i don't think i've ever been so happy. i saw some of my favourite bands, hung out with my friend, ate rubbish food, drank overpriced drinks and was so relaxed and peaceful (despite the huge amount of noise). when the arena got flooded on sunday, causing the previously slightly squidgy mud to turn in to a full scale swamp; i even embraced that! anyone who knows me can probably vouch that i am not averse to mud or dirt and it seems to be attracted to me so i actually really enjoyed dancing in the mud and rain with makeup trailing down my face - after realising that no matter how hard i tried i was inevitably going to get filthy.
now it is 4.56am and i am about to go to gatwick airport and then fly to florence where georgie and rose will meet me and that, dear reader, is where i must leave you for about a month. really it's not too bad, there's about a month between most of my posts anyway so it could be worse...and then next one should be really interesting! here's hoping i don't run out of money too early (i feel like it's inevitable) and don't lose anything too valuable.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
may 8 - easter continued
on april 21 we spent our morning at the beautiful calcium terraces in pammukale (where my camera sadly died; RIP) and paddled in the hot springs which was an amazing experience. the cliffs gave a really beautiful view of the turkish countryside and the surrounding towns; to sit on the terraces with our feet in hot running water and look out was...wow, amazing.
after pammukale we went to the ancient city of aphrodisias which was beautiful and we took loads of photos including one in a huge ampitheatre. typically, georgie and i got jumping photos and then went on to the beautiful seaside town of kusadasi. my reaction to kusadasi was almost ridiculous; on seeing the beach and the sea my heart skipped a beat, i was so excited. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and then spent an evening on the beach, eating magnums and relaxing before going out for a night with our tour bus, plus two other topdeck buses which were staying at the same hotel.
the next day we went to the ancient city of ephesus (yes, another ancient city - there are two more to come!) which was stunning, one of the highlights of the trip for me. the city has been really well preserved so we could really get a feel of what the city would have been like, including a walk through the "public toilets" where slaves used to have to sit in the winter to warm up the seats before their masters came in to use the loo! we were given free time to explore the ampitheatre in ephesus, and we saw a performance being put on for a norweigan tour group; and took some potentially-disrespectful-to-ancient-monuments photos with "skippy", the inflatable kangaroo we had somehow inherited while out the previous night. we all wound up soaking up the sun in the giant ampitheatre and were then whisked off to lunch where we could pay 15 lira for a buffet or bring our own food. we had decided that morning to bring our own food; so we settled down to a picnic of bread, banana and nutella; and crisp sandwiches washed down with water and juice boxes. after lunch to everyones surprise; the bus took us to a leather warehouse where the owner and his staff then put on a fashion show for us; showcasing the apparently "underappreciated" turkish leather industry. i found it a really uncomfortable experience as we had clearly been brought along as a western tour group expected to spend a lot....but i don't think anyone travelling with topdeck could afford to be spending $300 on a leather jacket that day!
that night we went out again although the night ended pretty early as we were all tired.
on april 23 we started off our day at pergamon; another ancient city which we had to ride a cable car to access. the city was really poorly preserved as the ottoman empire had made a deal with germany in the early 20th/late 19th century and they had thus claimed a large portion of the artefacts found in pergamon. it was very pretty and windy, apparently people used to come to pergamon to be "healed" by the wind. after pergamon we went to the island of junda, slightly off the coast of turkey and so pretty! yve, caitlin, rose, janet and i explored the markets on the seafront and then we were called back to our bus where we carried on to the delightful hotel where we spent the night. after taking a (cold) shower, we went to dinner which was, surprisingly, really nice, and then planned for an early night which didn't really work out too well as our rooms were draughty and even though turkey is warm during the day...it gets down to around 3 degrees at night!
we all rose bright and early on april 24, excited to be heading to gallipoli. on the bus we listened as our beloved tourguide tolga talked (and talked and talked) about the turkish perspective of WW1, which i think we all agreed was important but unfortunately tolga managed to make us all hate the very mention of turkey in WW1 by the end of our tour! before going to gallipoli we first stopped in troy where we took the obligatory photo with a replica of the trojan horse before we carried on to a giant supermarket to stock up on food for the next 24 hours. and stock up we did! georgie and i did well between us, meeting the guy who actually OWNED skippy the kangaroo and was looking desparately for him, and buying enough food to feed a small army. our bus pulled up to the gates of the gallipoli site around 3 in the afternoon and we began to crowd around but the gates themselves didn't open until almost 6pm. getting in to the actual site took a while, there were a couple of security checks that we had to pass through and then we had to collect a "welcome" bag and wristband before finding a place to set up camp. we got really lucky that georgie and kate had pushed way in front of us so they got a good spot which was probably too small for 7 people but we made do. when the sun started to go down it got cold quite quickly and everyone started layering up.
janet and i lay next to each other listening to music for a while before we decided to try and sleep...
the night was passed eating at regular intervals to pass the time and attempting to sleep but as there were performances and presentations every 20-30 minutes which were blasted through the speakers; sleep was hard to come by. at 3am a video presentation of the ANZAC dawn service in many cities around australia was broadcasted, (including townsville but not melbourne) and then at close to 5am; janet, georgie and i descended to closer to the barrier to try and get a good spot for the service itself.
the dawn service was....i can't even express the effect it had on me. everyone was in tears, it was a really powerful, beautiful thing to witness. the only slight irritation were the turkish site staff who had no respect at all for the occasion, talking and laughing loudly throughout the 2 minutes silence. i was blown away by the tragedy and scale of war; especially being on the beach where the ANZACS landed 96 years ago. boys as young as 14 and 15 were displayed on the screen as being killed on april 25, 1915.
after the service ended we began our walk up to lone pine for the australian service. georgie had bailed already, and the others fallen behind so kate and i took our time walking up the (steep) hill to lone pine; calling in at some of the cemetaries along the way and arriving at lone pine just after 9am. as far as i know, it was chosen as the site for the australian service as it was the location of one of the most gruesome battles seen in the entire gallipoli campaign; with 7000 people killed in a space the size of maybe...one and a bit tennis courts.
when the australian service ended georgie, kate and i continued another 3.5km uphill steeply to the new zealand service, but by the time we arrived we decided instead to set up camp on the grass and wait for the rest of our bus to arrive. when we had all gathered we had to wait for our bus number to be called and then it was back on the bus to istanbul! on the ride back we watched eurotrip, took bets on what time we would pull in to our hotel and i think EVERYONE slept for a couple of hours. literally a minute after we had walked in to the hotel we decided to go to bed and took turns showering before getting a good oh...13 hours?
the next day we visited the grand bazaar again and did some more site seeing; kate eventually took off for her flight back to england and we took it pretty easy for the evening; attempting to go out for a final nights drinks with the other members of our tour, but ended up returning to our hotel pretty early.
rose, georgie and i had one more day in istanbul which we spent really bonding and drinking A LOT of apple tea and eating baklava. our taxi ride out to the airport took a turn for the terrifying when our driver decided to race the other taxis on the road and we could see the speedometer inching over 130km...
still we made it home safely and spent a couple of days together in peace before the other girls got back.
amazing holiday. life changing experience. just wow. just...wow.
after pammukale we went to the ancient city of aphrodisias which was beautiful and we took loads of photos including one in a huge ampitheatre. typically, georgie and i got jumping photos and then went on to the beautiful seaside town of kusadasi. my reaction to kusadasi was almost ridiculous; on seeing the beach and the sea my heart skipped a beat, i was so excited. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and then spent an evening on the beach, eating magnums and relaxing before going out for a night with our tour bus, plus two other topdeck buses which were staying at the same hotel.
the next day we went to the ancient city of ephesus (yes, another ancient city - there are two more to come!) which was stunning, one of the highlights of the trip for me. the city has been really well preserved so we could really get a feel of what the city would have been like, including a walk through the "public toilets" where slaves used to have to sit in the winter to warm up the seats before their masters came in to use the loo! we were given free time to explore the ampitheatre in ephesus, and we saw a performance being put on for a norweigan tour group; and took some potentially-disrespectful-to-ancient-monuments photos with "skippy", the inflatable kangaroo we had somehow inherited while out the previous night. we all wound up soaking up the sun in the giant ampitheatre and were then whisked off to lunch where we could pay 15 lira for a buffet or bring our own food. we had decided that morning to bring our own food; so we settled down to a picnic of bread, banana and nutella; and crisp sandwiches washed down with water and juice boxes. after lunch to everyones surprise; the bus took us to a leather warehouse where the owner and his staff then put on a fashion show for us; showcasing the apparently "underappreciated" turkish leather industry. i found it a really uncomfortable experience as we had clearly been brought along as a western tour group expected to spend a lot....but i don't think anyone travelling with topdeck could afford to be spending $300 on a leather jacket that day!
that night we went out again although the night ended pretty early as we were all tired.
on april 23 we started off our day at pergamon; another ancient city which we had to ride a cable car to access. the city was really poorly preserved as the ottoman empire had made a deal with germany in the early 20th/late 19th century and they had thus claimed a large portion of the artefacts found in pergamon. it was very pretty and windy, apparently people used to come to pergamon to be "healed" by the wind. after pergamon we went to the island of junda, slightly off the coast of turkey and so pretty! yve, caitlin, rose, janet and i explored the markets on the seafront and then we were called back to our bus where we carried on to the delightful hotel where we spent the night. after taking a (cold) shower, we went to dinner which was, surprisingly, really nice, and then planned for an early night which didn't really work out too well as our rooms were draughty and even though turkey is warm during the day...it gets down to around 3 degrees at night!
we all rose bright and early on april 24, excited to be heading to gallipoli. on the bus we listened as our beloved tourguide tolga talked (and talked and talked) about the turkish perspective of WW1, which i think we all agreed was important but unfortunately tolga managed to make us all hate the very mention of turkey in WW1 by the end of our tour! before going to gallipoli we first stopped in troy where we took the obligatory photo with a replica of the trojan horse before we carried on to a giant supermarket to stock up on food for the next 24 hours. and stock up we did! georgie and i did well between us, meeting the guy who actually OWNED skippy the kangaroo and was looking desparately for him, and buying enough food to feed a small army. our bus pulled up to the gates of the gallipoli site around 3 in the afternoon and we began to crowd around but the gates themselves didn't open until almost 6pm. getting in to the actual site took a while, there were a couple of security checks that we had to pass through and then we had to collect a "welcome" bag and wristband before finding a place to set up camp. we got really lucky that georgie and kate had pushed way in front of us so they got a good spot which was probably too small for 7 people but we made do. when the sun started to go down it got cold quite quickly and everyone started layering up.
janet and i lay next to each other listening to music for a while before we decided to try and sleep...
the night was passed eating at regular intervals to pass the time and attempting to sleep but as there were performances and presentations every 20-30 minutes which were blasted through the speakers; sleep was hard to come by. at 3am a video presentation of the ANZAC dawn service in many cities around australia was broadcasted, (including townsville but not melbourne) and then at close to 5am; janet, georgie and i descended to closer to the barrier to try and get a good spot for the service itself.
the dawn service was....i can't even express the effect it had on me. everyone was in tears, it was a really powerful, beautiful thing to witness. the only slight irritation were the turkish site staff who had no respect at all for the occasion, talking and laughing loudly throughout the 2 minutes silence. i was blown away by the tragedy and scale of war; especially being on the beach where the ANZACS landed 96 years ago. boys as young as 14 and 15 were displayed on the screen as being killed on april 25, 1915.
after the service ended we began our walk up to lone pine for the australian service. georgie had bailed already, and the others fallen behind so kate and i took our time walking up the (steep) hill to lone pine; calling in at some of the cemetaries along the way and arriving at lone pine just after 9am. as far as i know, it was chosen as the site for the australian service as it was the location of one of the most gruesome battles seen in the entire gallipoli campaign; with 7000 people killed in a space the size of maybe...one and a bit tennis courts.
when the australian service ended georgie, kate and i continued another 3.5km uphill steeply to the new zealand service, but by the time we arrived we decided instead to set up camp on the grass and wait for the rest of our bus to arrive. when we had all gathered we had to wait for our bus number to be called and then it was back on the bus to istanbul! on the ride back we watched eurotrip, took bets on what time we would pull in to our hotel and i think EVERYONE slept for a couple of hours. literally a minute after we had walked in to the hotel we decided to go to bed and took turns showering before getting a good oh...13 hours?
the next day we visited the grand bazaar again and did some more site seeing; kate eventually took off for her flight back to england and we took it pretty easy for the evening; attempting to go out for a final nights drinks with the other members of our tour, but ended up returning to our hotel pretty early.
rose, georgie and i had one more day in istanbul which we spent really bonding and drinking A LOT of apple tea and eating baklava. our taxi ride out to the airport took a turn for the terrifying when our driver decided to race the other taxis on the road and we could see the speedometer inching over 130km...
still we made it home safely and spent a couple of days together in peace before the other girls got back.
amazing holiday. life changing experience. just wow. just...wow.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
may 3
wow it's hard to believe we're in to our 5th month here already...high wycombe looks incredibly different to when we first arrived...crazy.
today was the first day of summer term and all the kids came back looking tall and sun tanned and absolutely adorable in their summer uniform (dresses and boater hats for the girls, the usual shorts and tshirts for boys).
i'm really excited for this term - we have 18 more days of work before half term when i go to scotland and back to dublin for 3 days; all the sports days and exciting things happen now and we finish up for the summer in just over 2 months which is insane! georgie and i are in deep discussions about where we want to go and what we want to do.
for now though; i should catch up on the easter break.
after the last blogpost, georgie, rose and i watched (and sobbed over) romeo and juliet and we then enjoyed a lazy saturday which involved me buying a sleeping bag, mascara and toothpaste; and an early night as we had to be standing outside of godstowe at 6.30am for our taxi. we may have been a little paranoid with getting to the airport on time as we were ready and waiting when the bagdrop opened at 7.30 am and then had a nice 90 minute wait before boarding the plane to istanbul.
during the flight i watched a narnia movie and started my new book - which i am still yet to finish. when we were coming close to landing, georgie got a little nervous as it looked like we were about to land on the sea. istanbul from the air was beautiful and i was suddenly very excited about our trip...
my excitement dispersed somewhat when we realised that getting a visa to enter the country would require queuing for close to 45 minutes but like the good english girls we are becoming, we found the queue not too stressful or long in the end. georgie and i got our visas easily, but rose had some currency trouble. eventually we found ourselves in the line for passport control (yes, another line...well done istanbul airport) and waited. and waited. and waited. we ultimately realised that the reason the passport control queue was going at snailpace was that there were roughly 300 people queuing to get through; and only one booth open. a second booth did open - but of course the line we chose to stay in was controlled by a man in a booth who clearly hated his job, and was stopping every passenger for a 10 minute chat on the way through.
by the time we finally all got through passport control, my backpack had been taken off the carousel and was about to be whisked away to "unclaimed baggage", and we had missed our meet 'n' greet at the airport. luckily georgie had come prepared with the name of our hotel so we made separate arrangements to take a shuttle bus taxi thing to the hotel and with minimum hassle we sped through istanbul to the akgun hotel. sped being the operative word. turkish drivers are definitely up there with vietnamese drivers in terms of disregard for speed limits and all other motorists.
when we walked into the hotel we discovered that the group was halfway through their briefing. luckily, this group was on a 10 day tour and so our briefing wasn't until the next night .we still went out for "welcome" drinks and dinner and got to know them a bit before heading back up to our beautiful triple room for a blissful sleep.
on the morning of the 18th of april, we had been invited to join the 10 day tour on their walking tour of istanbul however after sleeping in we decided to take our time enjoying the delicious buffet breakfast and do some exploring of our own. turns out this was the right decision as literally 30 seconds after leaving the hotel it began to pour with rain so georgie and i ran to the corner store, bought toothpaste and ran back to our hotel room. we spent the day reading, sleeping, "dubbing" turkish soap operas and reading texts-from-last-night. we went down to the lobby in the evening for our tour briefing and then to our second round of welcome-dinner-and-drinks. we met another tour group called "fanatics" and joined them for some karaoke and drinks and then headed back to our hotel.
april 19 began with another buffet breakfast and then a walking tour of istanbul. our turkish tourguide tolga (turkish law says all tour groups must have a native guide) rubbed me up the wrong way immediately and i was proven right! by the end of the tour our entire bus - 45 people plus the topdeck guide - all hated him too. on this first tour he showed us around the blue mosque which was incredibly beautiful; the nearby hippodrome which is thousands of years old and pointed us in the direction of the grand bazaar which i loved. we spent a good 90 minutes wandering through it, admiring the jewellery and i bought a beautiful leather bound notebook. we quickly learned how to haggle and smiled politely at the verbal appreciation we recieved from every single man in the city. " hey spice girls" "australian? aussie aussie oi oi yeah?"
in the afternoon we took a river cruise and then wandered back to our hotel. some of the others took part in a traditional turkish meal with entertainment but georgie, janet and i decided to go the cheap route and scoped out a kebab shop and then bought mcflurrys and chips to smuggle up to our hotel room and eat in bed. georgie and i had planned on going to sleep pretty early but at midnight when kate returned to our room we were still wide awake.
by the morning we regretted this late night as we left the hotel at 6.30am and drove for roughly 10 hours with a few stops for toilet breaks, lunch, to buy snacks etc.
this day was pretty uneventful; we didn't reach our hotel in pammukale until after 8pm and then went straight to dinner and after taking photos with the calcium terraces which were all lit up in the darkness, we went straight to bed.
today was the first day of summer term and all the kids came back looking tall and sun tanned and absolutely adorable in their summer uniform (dresses and boater hats for the girls, the usual shorts and tshirts for boys).
i'm really excited for this term - we have 18 more days of work before half term when i go to scotland and back to dublin for 3 days; all the sports days and exciting things happen now and we finish up for the summer in just over 2 months which is insane! georgie and i are in deep discussions about where we want to go and what we want to do.
for now though; i should catch up on the easter break.
after the last blogpost, georgie, rose and i watched (and sobbed over) romeo and juliet and we then enjoyed a lazy saturday which involved me buying a sleeping bag, mascara and toothpaste; and an early night as we had to be standing outside of godstowe at 6.30am for our taxi. we may have been a little paranoid with getting to the airport on time as we were ready and waiting when the bagdrop opened at 7.30 am and then had a nice 90 minute wait before boarding the plane to istanbul.
during the flight i watched a narnia movie and started my new book - which i am still yet to finish. when we were coming close to landing, georgie got a little nervous as it looked like we were about to land on the sea. istanbul from the air was beautiful and i was suddenly very excited about our trip...
my excitement dispersed somewhat when we realised that getting a visa to enter the country would require queuing for close to 45 minutes but like the good english girls we are becoming, we found the queue not too stressful or long in the end. georgie and i got our visas easily, but rose had some currency trouble. eventually we found ourselves in the line for passport control (yes, another line...well done istanbul airport) and waited. and waited. and waited. we ultimately realised that the reason the passport control queue was going at snailpace was that there were roughly 300 people queuing to get through; and only one booth open. a second booth did open - but of course the line we chose to stay in was controlled by a man in a booth who clearly hated his job, and was stopping every passenger for a 10 minute chat on the way through.
by the time we finally all got through passport control, my backpack had been taken off the carousel and was about to be whisked away to "unclaimed baggage", and we had missed our meet 'n' greet at the airport. luckily georgie had come prepared with the name of our hotel so we made separate arrangements to take a shuttle bus taxi thing to the hotel and with minimum hassle we sped through istanbul to the akgun hotel. sped being the operative word. turkish drivers are definitely up there with vietnamese drivers in terms of disregard for speed limits and all other motorists.
when we walked into the hotel we discovered that the group was halfway through their briefing. luckily, this group was on a 10 day tour and so our briefing wasn't until the next night .we still went out for "welcome" drinks and dinner and got to know them a bit before heading back up to our beautiful triple room for a blissful sleep.
on the morning of the 18th of april, we had been invited to join the 10 day tour on their walking tour of istanbul however after sleeping in we decided to take our time enjoying the delicious buffet breakfast and do some exploring of our own. turns out this was the right decision as literally 30 seconds after leaving the hotel it began to pour with rain so georgie and i ran to the corner store, bought toothpaste and ran back to our hotel room. we spent the day reading, sleeping, "dubbing" turkish soap operas and reading texts-from-last-night. we went down to the lobby in the evening for our tour briefing and then to our second round of welcome-dinner-and-drinks. we met another tour group called "fanatics" and joined them for some karaoke and drinks and then headed back to our hotel.
april 19 began with another buffet breakfast and then a walking tour of istanbul. our turkish tourguide tolga (turkish law says all tour groups must have a native guide) rubbed me up the wrong way immediately and i was proven right! by the end of the tour our entire bus - 45 people plus the topdeck guide - all hated him too. on this first tour he showed us around the blue mosque which was incredibly beautiful; the nearby hippodrome which is thousands of years old and pointed us in the direction of the grand bazaar which i loved. we spent a good 90 minutes wandering through it, admiring the jewellery and i bought a beautiful leather bound notebook. we quickly learned how to haggle and smiled politely at the verbal appreciation we recieved from every single man in the city. " hey spice girls" "australian? aussie aussie oi oi yeah?"
in the afternoon we took a river cruise and then wandered back to our hotel. some of the others took part in a traditional turkish meal with entertainment but georgie, janet and i decided to go the cheap route and scoped out a kebab shop and then bought mcflurrys and chips to smuggle up to our hotel room and eat in bed. georgie and i had planned on going to sleep pretty early but at midnight when kate returned to our room we were still wide awake.
by the morning we regretted this late night as we left the hotel at 6.30am and drove for roughly 10 hours with a few stops for toilet breaks, lunch, to buy snacks etc.
this day was pretty uneventful; we didn't reach our hotel in pammukale until after 8pm and then went straight to dinner and after taking photos with the calcium terraces which were all lit up in the darkness, we went straight to bed.
Friday, 15 April 2011
dublin!
i have had a brilliant week!
ok get your mind in order aisling, start from the beginning
on tuesday april 5 after my last post i stayed up until 1am skyping mum and making sure i had everything organised. i had a taxi booked to take me down to the bus depot in high wycombe and then a 1 hour bus ride to luton airport. at the airport it all got a bit intense as ryanair are the devil and really strict on size limits. after squashing my bag down i managed to make it small enough to satisfy the people working at the desk and i boarded the flight where i finally realised how exhausted i was! i got excited when ireland loomed on the horizon and i was through customs in a couple of minutes (hurray for having a british passport). my aunt andrea collected me and took me straight to see my granny for breakfast and then we went on to the pavilions in swords, near where i used to live. after visiting the pavilions andrea took me out to the house i had lived in when i was very young and we went to another shopping centre! eventually we headed back to her house, i saw my uncle patrick and put my case away etc. in the evening andrea and i went to see "killing bono" at the cinema which we both thought was great; very funny and very attractive leads.
on thursday i met my granny in town and we had morning tea...lunch...and afternoon tea, while she did some shopping and we had a nice chat. i had to work out how to ride the bus which was scary, but i did it! also while i was standing at the bus stop in dublin waiting to go back to my aunt and uncles house, a drug deal was casually going on beside me. in broad daylight. thanks for moving us away mum and dad!
the in the evening andrea and i attempted to go for a walk...but ended up window shopping again.
friday i met up with angela, my great aunt and she took me out for lunch. again it was very strange to see someone who i had known when i was a kid and now treated me like an adult. i found it weird anyway.
friday evening/night i went out to a pub with my cousin daniel and his friends. it was a good night ,ending quite early around 2am and i then talked to people online for a couple of hours.
saturday i was staying at my granny's house, we saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof performed at the theatre and i had an early night - asleep before midnight for once!
on sunday around 2pm andrea came to get me and drive me out to donabate where i used to live until i was 12 and i was staying with my friend aine. almost immediately after arriving at her house we went for a 2 hour "clifftop walk" around the peninsula that donabate is on; just catching up. aine's parents took us out for dinner and we talked the whole way through dinner like no time at all had passed. we both discovered the other loves the vampire diaries which filled in the next two evenings as we worked our way through her season 1 dvd.
monday morning aine and i went in to trinity college where she is studying, to meet with her boyfriend and go for lunch to a creperie just down the road. after this they discovered that i hadn't had marks & spencers cookies and decided to end this travesty and brought me to the store where we waited around for the fresh bags of cookies to be put out before buying individual portions of milk and going back to the trinity grounds to eat them. it rained on the way so aine's plan of sitting on the grass was thwarted and we ended up in a corner sitting on couches and eating our way into a food coma where we remained for a good hour or so. when we got back to donabate aine studied a bit and i downloaded music, organised my things and generally kept out of the way.
tuesday morning aine got up early to study so i talked to friends at home until her sister ciara got home from school and we went to the pavilions. again, we spent quite a lot of time hanging around and just talking.
wednesday was quite similar - aine studied and then we went to newbridge park near donabate, played on the playground i used to visit which has changed monumentally and then went home. in the evening another friend of mine - orlaith, came over and we talked for hours and had a couple of drinks before she went home just after midnight.
yesterday alas aine had to leave around 11am to go to a revision lecture - i cleverly timed my visit to dublin to co-incide with the preparation period before uni exams - so i walked her to the train and then finished my packing before her mother took me to the airport. after spending a good 8 hours hanging around for a 1 hour plane ride and quietly checking out the swedish guys sitting near me; i got back to godstowe and went upstairs , jumped on georgie and ate chocolate before going to bed.
we're going to turkey on sunday morning, our flights and tour are booked and paid for, i just booked a taxi to take us to heathrow and then we realised that we have no accommodation booked for our last night in turkey. yay! well done us! it's all under control now but it was a tense few minutes.
ok get your mind in order aisling, start from the beginning
on tuesday april 5 after my last post i stayed up until 1am skyping mum and making sure i had everything organised. i had a taxi booked to take me down to the bus depot in high wycombe and then a 1 hour bus ride to luton airport. at the airport it all got a bit intense as ryanair are the devil and really strict on size limits. after squashing my bag down i managed to make it small enough to satisfy the people working at the desk and i boarded the flight where i finally realised how exhausted i was! i got excited when ireland loomed on the horizon and i was through customs in a couple of minutes (hurray for having a british passport). my aunt andrea collected me and took me straight to see my granny for breakfast and then we went on to the pavilions in swords, near where i used to live. after visiting the pavilions andrea took me out to the house i had lived in when i was very young and we went to another shopping centre! eventually we headed back to her house, i saw my uncle patrick and put my case away etc. in the evening andrea and i went to see "killing bono" at the cinema which we both thought was great; very funny and very attractive leads.
on thursday i met my granny in town and we had morning tea...lunch...and afternoon tea, while she did some shopping and we had a nice chat. i had to work out how to ride the bus which was scary, but i did it! also while i was standing at the bus stop in dublin waiting to go back to my aunt and uncles house, a drug deal was casually going on beside me. in broad daylight. thanks for moving us away mum and dad!
the in the evening andrea and i attempted to go for a walk...but ended up window shopping again.
friday i met up with angela, my great aunt and she took me out for lunch. again it was very strange to see someone who i had known when i was a kid and now treated me like an adult. i found it weird anyway.
friday evening/night i went out to a pub with my cousin daniel and his friends. it was a good night ,ending quite early around 2am and i then talked to people online for a couple of hours.
saturday i was staying at my granny's house, we saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof performed at the theatre and i had an early night - asleep before midnight for once!
on sunday around 2pm andrea came to get me and drive me out to donabate where i used to live until i was 12 and i was staying with my friend aine. almost immediately after arriving at her house we went for a 2 hour "clifftop walk" around the peninsula that donabate is on; just catching up. aine's parents took us out for dinner and we talked the whole way through dinner like no time at all had passed. we both discovered the other loves the vampire diaries which filled in the next two evenings as we worked our way through her season 1 dvd.
monday morning aine and i went in to trinity college where she is studying, to meet with her boyfriend and go for lunch to a creperie just down the road. after this they discovered that i hadn't had marks & spencers cookies and decided to end this travesty and brought me to the store where we waited around for the fresh bags of cookies to be put out before buying individual portions of milk and going back to the trinity grounds to eat them. it rained on the way so aine's plan of sitting on the grass was thwarted and we ended up in a corner sitting on couches and eating our way into a food coma where we remained for a good hour or so. when we got back to donabate aine studied a bit and i downloaded music, organised my things and generally kept out of the way.
tuesday morning aine got up early to study so i talked to friends at home until her sister ciara got home from school and we went to the pavilions. again, we spent quite a lot of time hanging around and just talking.
wednesday was quite similar - aine studied and then we went to newbridge park near donabate, played on the playground i used to visit which has changed monumentally and then went home. in the evening another friend of mine - orlaith, came over and we talked for hours and had a couple of drinks before she went home just after midnight.
yesterday alas aine had to leave around 11am to go to a revision lecture - i cleverly timed my visit to dublin to co-incide with the preparation period before uni exams - so i walked her to the train and then finished my packing before her mother took me to the airport. after spending a good 8 hours hanging around for a 1 hour plane ride and quietly checking out the swedish guys sitting near me; i got back to godstowe and went upstairs , jumped on georgie and ate chocolate before going to bed.
we're going to turkey on sunday morning, our flights and tour are booked and paid for, i just booked a taxi to take us to heathrow and then we realised that we have no accommodation booked for our last night in turkey. yay! well done us! it's all under control now but it was a tense few minutes.
last few weeks of work up to april 5
written april 5//
work has continued being enjoyable although i am getting sick of walking up and down to main school several times a day!
we finished up for easter today and i'm off to dublin in a couple of hours. some of the kids brought us "easter presents" so i have a ton of chocolate to eat now and an egg cup and mug, which are both really lovely.
again there isn't a huge lot to write as work continues to be pretty same-ish day to day.
i stayed at my aunts in kent a couple of weeks ago which was nice to just get away and do something a bit different for a weekend.
anyway i should go finish packing my cases - georgie, rose and i are going to avenue q with some of the teachers tonight and i want to be done packing before we have to go so there wont be too much of a rush when i get home
work has continued being enjoyable although i am getting sick of walking up and down to main school several times a day!
we finished up for easter today and i'm off to dublin in a couple of hours. some of the kids brought us "easter presents" so i have a ton of chocolate to eat now and an egg cup and mug, which are both really lovely.
again there isn't a huge lot to write as work continues to be pretty same-ish day to day.
i stayed at my aunts in kent a couple of weeks ago which was nice to just get away and do something a bit different for a weekend.
anyway i should go finish packing my cases - georgie, rose and i are going to avenue q with some of the teachers tonight and i want to be done packing before we have to go so there wont be too much of a rush when i get home
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