Suicide, Moulin Rouge, and Carnival

I wanted to save a few bucks so rather than flying from Berlin to Barcelona, I took two night trains with a "layover" in Paris. Who said you can't see Paris in one day? My train arrived late because a German railworker jumped in front of our train, committing suicide, in the middle of the night. I slept through the whole thing.

I met a guy from Paris and I tried to have a conversation in French but it quickly turned into English because my French is worthless. He told me how to see all of Paris in a day.

I started at the Bastille and walked to the Cathedral de Notre Dame and Hotel De Ville, then to the Louvre (but didnt go in), through the gardens at Touleries (not in season so everything was rather brown and dead), down the Champs d'elysee to go window shopping at Louis Vuitton. Then through the arc de triomphe where I met some crazy fashion and design students from London. Three of the guys were wearing trendy shoes with pointed toe (one guy had gold shoes) and ladies trench coats with cashmere scarfs with very stylish haircuts (basically a side mullet) and carrying HUGE leather handbags. These guys were hilarious! We paid too much money to go up to the top of the Eiffle Tower as it was snowing and cold but awesome views. Then, the strobe lights came on and made the whole tower glitter - totally awesome! Then I had to get back to the train station to go to Barcelona since I nearly missed my night train the night before. Something about hopping right on the train makes me think I can arrived at the departure time whereas on planes you have to get there super early. Another day without a shower wearing the same clothes, oh well.

My sister, Anne, and i are in Barcelona and last night was carnival - crazy party! It starts in Cadiz, Spain and moves up to Barcelona but since the event is so big Barcelona cant host it so they moved it to a small town 20 miles away. We went with a large and noisy group, dressed as flamenco dancers with bright red lipstick. it was a blast! My noise-maker blew out before we got off the train - i felt bad for the other people on the train. "Carnival! Carnival! Carnival! Carnival!" "What are you watch out for?..." Our group (an Italian, a couple brits, canadians, kiwis, and americans) were yelling the whole time.

Well we are off to the outdoor Barcelona zoo and world class aquarium. The weather is beautiful, blue skies and temps in the 60s. Too bad I wont get this weather for a couple months when i get back. Boo! It is refreshing to not wear long johns for the first time in two weeks!

I am off to valencia, seville, madrid, and then amsterdam and home.

Adios!

In a nutshell

Ok so the good and then the bad...

GOOD: Went to short track speedskating, front row, talked to US short track skater JP´s mom and said hi to Apollo Ohno, met the US figure skating pair and the US ice dancing chick and two US short track olympians

BAD: Got on the bus to go back to the hotel and was chatting when I heard my purse zipper open and before I knew it my camera was gone

GOOD: I had switched my 256 MB memory card to a small one 10 photos before so I didn´t lose much

BAD: While filing a report with the Torino police, I missed my train to Milan

GOOD: I met some business people who graduated from Notre Dame and were working with AT&T and bought me a few Jack and coke´s because they felt sorry for me and let me stay in their companies extra hotel room since I was homeless

BAD: Missed another A.M. train to Milan since I stayed up half the night

GOOD: Caught the next train to Milan, then the train to Brig, Switzerland, then the Matterhorn Express train to Zermatt, Switzerland.

BAD: White out conditions for two days

GOOD: Amazing snowboarding in the number one place in all of Europe!!!! One run was over 13 kms, or like 8 miles!

BAD: EXPENSIVE!!! Threw off the budget a bit!

GOOD: Apres Ski!!!!! Little restaurants and bars with live music inside and a DJ and fire pits on the patio, cheap drinks, and lots of fun. I met the nicest couple from San Fran, the only other Americans in the packed house, who were writing the trip off for business and, once again, bought all the drinks. Why don´t I get trips paid for?

BAD: Putting on the boots, gloves, and board three hours later.... haha that was fun!

GOOD: The blue sky that appeared out of nowhere when it was a total white-out on my LAST run of the day. Then, suddenly, to my left was the beautiful, towering, massive, pyramidal KLEIN MATTERHORN rising above all the other mountains while I slalomed for a half hour to the little alpine village of Zermatt, just in time for my train to Berlin, Germany.

BAD: Night trains

GOOD: Seeing my Macalester roommate Eric Kelsey in Berlin and hanging out in an awesome city for the next week.

Love you all! Keep in touch

Katie

PS there wont be any new photos for a while for obvious reasons. I did buy some cheap cameras so i wont be pictureless :)

Curling and luge and a kick ass party!

Olympic photos (20)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=z6muajd.avszjii1&x=1&y=epb3l2

I woke up this "moring" at 3:30PM. It was a long day!

We woke up early yesterday to go to Pinerolo to see curling. The security to get through was 100 times more strict than the snowboarding half pipe the day before - maybe they think there is a bigger terrorist threat for curlers, who knows. Our seats were next to the families of the curlers - about 50 people - mostly from Minnesota and Wisconsin. They were decked out in patriotic gear - kinda like the 4th of July in February. The US team beat Norway, 11 to 6. I cant really explain the rules but it is like lawn bowling or botche ball but with ice and a lot more strategy and skill. The largest curling club is guess where... St Paul on Selby and Snelling. Who knew?! I'll have to check it out when i get back. We went out to lunch with the group and two of the people had tickets to luge that they werent going to use because the USA mens curling team had another game that night. Anne and I kindly offered to take them off their back. It took two hours to get from the curling venue to the luge and we were NOT properly dressed to stand outside for three hours but we didnt care.

The luge was fascinating. We had to watch most of the race from the jumbotron and then for the split second that the luger sped by your part of the track you could watch them. There were tons of accidents and one US luger went unconscious when she hit on the corner that we were standing at (i had just snapped a photo) and she was like spaghetti flying down the rest of the track - really scary! How would one get interested in luge? Crazy! We took the train back through the mountains down to Torino and ate pizza (a staple, cheap dinner). Anne had to catch the last train back to Milan at 10:50pm and she found a travel partner because we ran into the chick we met at halfpipe from Salt Lake who was also going on the last train.

Paul and I, my friend from Long Island who I met in Florence, went back to the hotel to get ready for the big snowboarding party. The US women took gold and silver earlier that day and the men did the same the day before. We took the metro and waited 25 minutes for a bus before we realized that there werent any running. We started walking and 30 minutes later we stumbled upon John's Garage and the party. It was a very chill party! They had snowboard videos playing on the jumbo projector, a sweet DJ, and good drinks. Atleast half of the people there were related to Danny Kass (the siver medalist) and he was there chillin too. There was only one bathroom - which proved interesting later in the night - but with less than 100 people it was ok. I met Danny and chatted for a while with his brother and cousins. Amazing! Super chill people! My new friends from Berkeley and Seattle that I met at the luge stumbled in at 430am - crazy how you keep running into people! We all took a cab back to the train station near where we are staying at no earlier than 630am.

It is 5 pm now and i still havent had breakfast. I suppose it is a lost cause. I did get on the Today Show around 8 am your time and got a pic of Katie Couric. What a freakin great night!!

Ciao!

Olympics!

Hey folks!
I am at the Torino Olympics (as you probably know) and I went to the men's halfpipe today (look for Anne and I on TV in the stands by a big USA flag and a girl in a pink hat). It was amazing!! Those guys get big air and doing crazy McTwists and 1080 degree spins!

We saw a women's hockey game yesterday (Russia vs Sweden) and tomorrow we are off to curling - anyone know anything about it cuz i don't!

Wednesday, I have an amazing ticket to short track speedskating in the FRONT ROW with a photographer that i met today!!! Not to shabby! I think I am going to scratch my travel plans to the French Riviera and chill in Turin - this press pass is money and the town is bumpin (especially the Bud pyramid/tent parties)!

Love ya, ciao!
Katie

Hockey game

We met some awesome USA Today journalists at the Bud party last night and got tickets to the hockey game, what we thought was the US but rather Sweden vs Russia at 3pm local time. I'll wave to the cameras. Life as a journalist is sweet! Ciao!

Firenze and Venezia

Ciao! The Ponte Vecchio in Florence was picturesque, especially from the top of the piazzale michelangelo, but not as impressive as Michelangelos famous Davids perfect body! I met tons of new friends, mostly Aussie, at the hostel and we saw the superbowl at an irish pub with tons of other american study abroad kids and i spend the whole first half explaining them how they game is played, it was awful. needless to say we left after halftime because we were all bored.

I decided to go to Venice and it was amazying! Unlike anything you could imagine. The gondolas and the vaporetti get everyone and everything around like clockwork. The beautiful Basilica of Saint Mark has gold tiles and wonderful mosaics, similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, but better.

I arrived in Torino this evening and I just missed the Olympic Torch, but hopefully will see it enter the stadium tomorrow at the Opening Ceremonies (from the outside). We found some cheap one star hotel for 50 euro a night!! We met some people in the press and we are going to go to some practices for cheap and maybe an event or two.

Ciao!

Miss you all!

Katie

Prego!

Ciao! Prego! Pizza! That pretty much sums up my time in Italy so far. I had a long ferry ride and a longer train trip to get to Pompeii (four transfers, but eh, it was cheap). We saw the sights a Pompeii - Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD and covered the place in ash - 25 ft deep so naturally, everyone died by asphyxiation and the city was covered up for 1700 years before someone trying to put in a road accidently found it. The mosaics from the brothels were the highlight but the Villa dei Mysteri also had beautiful frescoes and was totally intact (even with a secret passage). We ran into some high school Italians who were asking us direction and then we spent the next 20 minutes trying to communicate throwing out every foreign word we all knew. It was hilarious - at a pause in the conversation when we were flipping through our phrase books and typing in words to the translator, the Italian guy said "Me, very stupid!" Followed by, "Metal-leek" (and then he started signing a Metalica song - so random)

Rome is not as big as you would think. We walked at least 5 miles the first day alone and saw the Roman and Imperial Forums (aka more ruins), Ampitheater (aka Colosseum) and the beautiful and intact Arch of Constantine, Pantheon, many piazzas and dozens of fountains. Last night we were planning on sleeping on the floor of a hotel that one of the Purdue guys friends is staying at but that did not work out so much and at 11:30pm I was walking the streets with at 40 pound pack trying to find somewhere to stay. I was tempted to go into the only Irish Pub in town (that I happened to wander by where there were lots of American students) but the pack was preventing me from getting through the door.

Today I tried to meet my friends again to see the Vatican but by planning "to meet by the front" was a bad idea considering it is a whole country and it is surprisingly large. However, we managed to run into each other. I met these three guys in Athens, somehow found them in Patras to catch the ferry, left each other to go to Pompeii and found each other the next morning on the sidewalk going to the site, then, separated again so I could see Napoli and met up at a hostel in Rome, then separated last night and ran into each other and climbed to the top of the dome in St. Peter.

The Sistine Chapel was as awesome as they say - over 15,000 people see it each day! The museums were filled with so much stuff that I feel like I never really have to see any more museums again - especially greek and roman statues! The Basilica di San Pietro was the most impressive. Michelangelos masterpiece, Pieta, was the highlight, followed by the 350 step spiral stairs to the top of the dome (magnificent views inside of the mosaics and outside of the whole city). Tonight I am off to the Spanish Steps for a good ol backpacker pub crawl. Good thing the agenda for tomorrow is "count how many fountains there are in Rome." No small task but very relaxing!
Ciao!
Katie

Superfast ferry to Italy

I am sitting at an internet cafe with a couple guys from Purdue, Adam and Cris. We are recovering from our great night on the Superfast ferry from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy (eight and a third bottles of wine gone within 2 hours of leaving the port but it made it really comfortable to sleep on the floor of the lounge because we were too cheap to buy an airseat or a cabin bed). It is fantastic! Cara I have a story for you...

I am off to Pompeii to see more ruins and then we are going up to Rome. I am relieved to be in a country with a reasonably easy to understand language (well it is similar to French - thank goodness i took eight years). I love hearing overhead messages on airplanes, trains, and ferries that are probably important but they only speak in Greek, or Turkish, or Dutch. Isn't English the common language? Then why don't they say the message in English. Oh well, as long as I know what time to get off. The internet is expensive (1 euro for 15 minutes),

Ciao!
Katie

Pictures of Turkey and Greece on Kodak Gallery

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=z6muajd.96906zf5&x=1&y =-hmd981

Blizzard #2

The two days we had in Arakhova were the only two days that the Mt Parnassos ski resort were closed. We decided to see the sights at Delphi and then head back towards Athens and the Peloponnese (we thought that migrating south would result in warmer weather).

We woke up early expecting to go skiing but learned that it was closed again due to high winds. We headed to see the ancient sight of the Oracle at Delphi. Unfortunately, the site was "too icey" and so we had to settle for a walk through the awesome museum (filled with statues from the pediments of the Temple and gifts to the Oracle) and a beautiful view of the valley.

We tried our luck at another site, the Monastery of St. Loukas, but as we turned off the main roads to the site the snow drifts were insurmountable with our little Renault rental, and obviously not open due to the lack of previous car tracks.

The drive down was exciting as we ran into a blizzard. For the next hour we were the only car without chains on our tires trecking on the main road back to the Nat'l Hwy. We almost made it until we were on the entrance ramp to the hwy when we got stuck and I jumped out to push, snow spraying from the tires in my face. After that we were golden, experienced MN drivers can handle anything! A three hour trip turned into 5.5 hrs but we escaped the thunderous snow storm and are relaxing in the seaside town, Nafplio.

Today, more ruins at Epidavros, a center for medicine in antiquity. The famous Temple of Asklepios, father of medicine and the favorite "bunch of rocks," aka ruins, for my dad. I found the most impressive theater yet (and I've seen A LOT on this trip!) A world-renowned acousitic wonder as it passed the pin-drop test from the center of the orchestra as someone else stood at the very top of the 14,000 capacity theater. WOW!

Next, two hours of rock climbing... well not exactly. We explored every corner and lookout tower of the 18th century Palamidi Fortress with views of the sea, Nafplio, and snow capped mountains. It felt like a setting for some war movie.

Getting lost on the way to the Bavarian Lion, we landed on a dirt road to the Monastery of the Metamorphoses. Again, not much to see at the site but a pleasant drive with the opportunity to see the beautiful Greek countryside with olive groves and goats a plenty. We slowed down to watch the sunset from the swingset on the Bouboulinas, a waterfront promenade. Off to dinner at 10pm,
kali nicta!
Love,
Katie and John

P.S. Shout out to Goff, McLam and Lizzard! Thanks for your emails and when there is dirt to report - not to worry you will be the first to know! (PS i'm traveling with my dad...)

The road to Arakhova, Greece

Heckuva Day! The adventure continues as we left Athens for the beautiful town of Arakhova. The morning started off grim as we overslept our alarm, took forever to get the car rental, got stuck with a stick shift that was parked downhill on a hill (good thing Dad had drivin' one 20+ years ago), nearly ran over a dozen mopeds while battling the horrible (worse than L.A.) traffic in downtown Athens back to the hotel, got lost driving up to the Acropolis and probably should have parked the stupid car and walked up, were nearly blown off the top of the Acropolis by the katabatic winds (but the Temples were impressive and worth the trip and 18 euros), battle traffic again to Hwy. 1, and then we felt like we were home free to Northern Greece. We were wrong!

The overcast skies turned to a drizzle, then rain, then snow and sleet. We should have thought twice when we saw the first car spinning its tires on the ice and snow or the next car the spun around, hit the guard rail and turned around to go home, but no. We, experienced Minnesota drivers, continued up the mountain to our destination. With exactly 13 (unluckly) kms to go, we started spinning the tires and reving the engine, stuggling to get out of second gear on the sheer ice. I hopped out to push while dad attempted to steer us away from oncoming traffic. That failed and we were stuck in the oncoming lane and forced to reverse the car into the shoulder. A kind Greek couple stopped to help and despite the communication barrier, we were able to understand that they would take us to Arakhova and we'd call the tow truck. We passed no less than a dozen other stranded cars on the road and a tow truck - so Dad hopped out to join the tow truck while I continued to our hotel with the nice couple. Three hours later we were reunited.

However, I found out later that dad's adventure continued. Eventually, after many failed attempts to put chains on the tires of the other cars that were stuck, our turn came. The tow truck man had our car on the dolly and was securing it while Dad waited in the truck patiently. Just then, an oncoming car came over the hill a quarter mile away. Dad thought, "He'll slow down, he'll go around us." But then he realized that this car was not slowing down and was not turning to go around the tow truck. Then "CRASH!" the windshield cracked and the car was totaled. Luckily, no one was hurt and our rental car was ok. Another hour passed until they were able to return to the town.

The cost: 200 euros. The memories: priceless! Oh what a night!

Turns out all the roads were closed for the next day and Athens shut down due to snow emergencies (mind you it only snows there every two years). Even the snow resort, Mt Parnassos was closed due to snow - go figure! We scratched our plans and were stranded in our cozy chalet, in the beautiful and quaint town, Arakhova. The end!
Love, Katie

PS Greek Photos:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=z6muajd.45u75tlt&x=1&y=eg53el

Athens

Check out Zach's professional photos of the J-term Turkey trip: http://homepage.mac.com/zacharyteicher/turkey2006/Menu5.html

Athens:
I did not have any problem meeting my dad at the metro station, thankfully, after all my trouble with traveling. The weather was beautiful yesterday (60s) and the forecast rain so we decided to climb Mount Lycavittos to watch the picturesque sunset right away. Better than the view was the Despina bakery on the way down - thank you Elizabeth - it was to die for! Then took a 13 hour nap - so much for an early start. Traveling is tiring.

Our view from the Hotel Cecil is the famous Acropolis but the morning clouds and drizzle were a bit disappointing. The ancient Greek Agora was impressive compared to many of the sights in Asia Minor because there is more effort and money in the reconstruction, namely the Stoa of Attalos, which houses a museum. Overlooking the Agora is the famous Haphasesteion, the best preserved classical temple in the ancient world. I am impressed that democracy started here (marked by another bouletereion, a theater-like structure for the council procedings). Later we visited the Roman Market place, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, and the original 1896 olympic stadium, nestled into the hillside, also known as Killimarmaro.

The rain picked up so we headed to the National Archaelogical Museum, the home of many of the most classical statues and artifacts in greek history. The statues were incredible and they were set up chronologically. My favorite statues were of the infant Eros, son of Aphrodite. My dad preferred the bronze Poseidon throwing his trident (admiring his own physique from his younger days :). Then we wandered down to Syndagma square and the Parliament building where we were entertained by the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - soldiers in colorful shirts, white skirts, and tasseled heels marching around. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel, learning that if we wanted heat, we have to ask the front desk to turn it on - no wonder we were freezing last night!

Tomorrow we will rent a car, drive up to the Acropolis, then drive to the Monastary of St Loukas and stay the night in Arachova. Tuesday we will explore Delphi all day and then ski on Wednesday at Mt. Parnassos. Take care!

Katie and John

Wraping up the Rock N Roll/ Higher than Sophia Turkey Tour

We wrapped up our Rock N Roll (or as Andy Overman likes to say, the Higher than Sophia) Tour on the 19th with a great farewell dinner. The trip included so much that time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to leave.

I spent the last 22 hours on trains from Istanbul to Athens but I finally arrived this morning at 6:30am. Turkey and Greece are surprisingly similar, except Turkey has a stronger Islamic influence (evident by the dozens of domed mosques and minarets along the skyline). Both languages are hard to understand but Greek is easier to read once you learn the letters (thank you organic chemistry). My dad is flying in at 2:30pm today and we will explore the acropolis overlooking Athens for sunset.

I have been traveling a lot lately, so let me recap what happened in the last week.

The Macalester group spent four nights in Kusadasi (a resort town in the summer), a night in Hierapolis (water pipe and Efes all night long!), and back to Istanbul for three nights. We visited more Greek and Roman ruins (hence the Rock N Roll tour). Along the way were Priene and Miletos (two cities built on the grid plan with streets that meet at 90 degrees no matter what the incline and both with impressive theaters), Didyma (where we saw the oracle at the Temple of Apollo), Selcuk (the ultimate cultural experience: camel wrestling!), Aphrodisias (center for art in the ancient world), Hierapolis ("resort town" in ancient times because of the cascading hot springs), and Sardis (home to the largest ancient synagogue with beautiful mosaics).

My Favorites:

SITE: Ephesus, because of the preserved facades in front of the library, agora, Temple of Hadrian, and Trajan's Fountain (except the water used to fall three storeys and they didn't restore the pillars to full height), as well as the theater. Some of these entrances were reconstructed but most of the ruins are in great condition.

THEATER: Pergamon, because of the spectacular views.

MUSEUM: Aphrodisias, because it was the center for art in ancient times and I only wish I was that good! The excavations have found dozens of larger than life marble statues and reliefs. The attention to details was amazing!

The integration of Persian, Greek, Roman, Christian, and Ottoman cultures is interesting. For anyone who has played the game Risk, holding/capturing Turkey is hard because it is at a major crossroad in the world. This is evident in the numberous empires that have conquered and established major cities and trade routes in Turkey. It is a country unlike anything I have seen; the whole country is an outdoor museum. They treat their ruins like national parks in the U.S. Their tour guides require extensive training (like going to college) and every tour group is required to have one (a bit of a misunderstanding on our part because our professors have PhD's in the subject; nonetheless we picked up a tour guide).

Thanks for reading! For those of you starting school on Monday, have fun!

Katie

Troy, Pergamon, Smyrta and Epheus

Wow! Turkey is full of cool stuff! We are having an amazing time learning basic Turkish (enough to use the Bayan and order Börek), sightseeing, and drinking fine Turkish wine.

I recently discovered that the Greek (300-30 BCE), Roman (until 4th cent. AD), Byzantine (not sure on dates), and Ottoman (1X00 until 1923) empires flourished all along the coast of Turkey - leaving tons of marble and stone ruins for archaelogists to dig up. Interestingly, they date the buildings and settlements based on the ceramics found at the sites. These empires typically added on to the previous work so a variety of architecture is found among the ruins.

Ephesus was the most impressive - home to one of the seven wonders of the world: Temple of Artemis, goddess of fertility. This temple - now a hole in the ground wıth one reconstructed column - was over 400 ft by 250 ft at the base and had 130 columns at over 60 ft each. The entire thing was made completely out of marble! The ancient town of Ephesus was home to St. John and the Virgin Mary (they both died here and there were large churches built in their honor during the second century AD). The most impressive ruin was the library at Ephesus because its is largely intact from over 2000 years ago (see photos). The large marble streets of Ephesus were lined with fountains and large marble and bronze statues that rested on marble bases with Greek inscriptions. Currently, most of the statues are in museums or were taken for gifts to emperors but the bases remain.

The theater at Pergamon was amazing! This Greek theater (later used by the Romans) was located in the hillside with spectacular views of the countryside and river valley. The capacity was 100,000 people (the theater at Ephesus was similar but less impressive with capacity of a mere 25,000 people).

The weather is nice, 50s, and today I got a bit sunburned. Our hotel overlooks the Greek island of Samos. We are at Kusadasi, a resort town in the summer but rather calm in the off season.

I uploaded more photos, please sign in to Kodak gallery following the link below to see them. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=z6muajd.4687rrdd&x=1&y=78vgf0

Güle güle,
Katie

Warning Trojan Horse Ahead

We arrived today in Gallipoli, which is about four hours SW from Istanbul. Driving down the Asian coast of Marmara would take longer so we drove west and then crossed the Hellespont by ferry, where Alexander the Great crossed the Marmara on his quest for world domination. The air was brisk and we could taste the exhiliration of victory. However, the ANZAC and Ottoman troops in WWI were not so lucky. Over 110,000 people died here in 1916. This bittersweet strait is deadly, even for Leander and Hera (an old poem that tragically ended when they drowned swimming across the strait). Nonetheless, our trip is cool but it is freeeeeezing cold.

Today it didn't rain, which is a nice change. Earlier we stopped at an ancient Byzantine castle and ran around on the walls and bunkers - it was fun. Two people have gotten sick so far - hopefully it isn't because of the dead chicken heads we were playing with in the streets - haha just kidding. Hopefully the rest of us will stay healthy, but if we don't, our group is essentially a walking pharmacy, so I think we'll be okay. I bought a mosaic lamp and a Turkish rug yesterday -whoops it's a good thing I have a job. So much for traveling on a budget.

We're seeing Troy tomorrow, then on to Pergamum (Bergama), Sardis, Smyrna, Priene, Epheses, and Didyma. I'm excited! Check out the Macalester homepage, my picture is on the front page www.macalester.edu. Bye!

Istanbul Photos

Click the link to see some photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=z6muajd.4687rrdd&x=1&y=78vgf0

thanks

katie

Hey you dropped something... my heart!

Istanbul is filled with vendors and friendly people who want to "Help you spend your money" as one man said today. My other favorite line that we get is, "Hey you dropped something... [look down]... you dropped my heart." Gag me! The men are very friendly (women are not common in our tourist/historic district). We were told that if we smile the men may think that we love them and that we well take them back to America and marry them. AH! Oh well, we always walk around in a group.

The food is great and very filling! Endless bread baskets of all types followed by huge entres of kebabs and pides (bake pita with cheese and meat), which are amazing! After, we have Turkish tea (today it was apple) in little Tukish tea cups (great size for taking shots). I feel like our schedule consists of sleeping, eating, eating, (well, we walk around the looking at really old buildings in between eating), naping, and eat again.

Today we went to the Dolmabahçe Sarayi, a 285 room palace built ın the 1800s for the Ottoman Sultan and his many wives (and mother), as well as administrative and enormous celebration salons/rooms. Later, when Turkey became a state, the president, Ataturk, lived (and died) there and now it is a museum. I have never seen so much crystal - one chandelier weighed over 4.5 TONS!!! The palace was impressive! I wouldn't mind being the Sultan's mother or wife since the palace had dozens of Turkish baths that were entirely made of marble.

Other than the 5am call to prayer, 30 degree weather and constant drizzle, the airplane mishap, oh, and the lack of hot water or water pressure for showers, we are having a great time, honestly! Good night!

Katie

İ made it to Turkey!

İ knew that flying on the cheaper airline was a bad idea. I thought it would be like Sun Country or something but it was not!

The number to call to confirm the reservation was disconnected so i showed up to the airport early just in case. İ discovered that the 9am flight was changed to 745am and i was a mere 5 minutes early. İ was the last one board (but İ got to sit in the first row). The plane was supposed to take 3 hours yet they did not bother to tell me that we had to go to Antilya first (a resort city on the Turkish Riviera on the Med. Sea way south of Istanbul). Then we back tracked to Istanbul, but NOT European Istanbul - Asian Istanbul! İ arrived three hours late but I was fortunate because one of the professors on the trip noticed that i was arriving at a different airport and kindly sent her cousin and a van to pick me up two hours away. İ dont know what i would do with out her. I was frantıcally finding a bus to take me to the other side of Istanbul when I saw a Turkish man with a wirery fro and a sign that said KATIE PASTORIUS, thank God!


Well, Turkey is interesting! There are 16 million people who are mostly Muslim, poor, and unemployed. There are schoolchildren selling tissues, flowers, and cinnastix in the middle of the freeway (where the cars are at a standstill because two million cars cannot drıve on the same road at rushhour - it is nuts!) . However, the food is GREAT! Tons of bread with spicy sauces, doners, and Kebabs - not like at home but roasted lamb, chicken, and beef served with cous-cous and tomatoes (for only 5 dollars!). I am stuffed from dinner and I think I need to walk ıt off. Around the hotel is the historic district - ıncluding the Hagia Sophia, Grand Bazzar, and the Blue Mosque.

No more planes for me (until i fly home)! Have a good day

Katie

Eindoven

Traveling across the world is exhausting! It is 4:45pm local time in Eindoven, Netherlands. I just woke up from a 4 hour "nap"/full night rest. My plane from Minneapolis was delayed due to high winds in Boston. I thought I'd totally miss my flight from Boston to Amsterdam - luckily I wasn't the only one transferring and as soon as we landed they rushed the 11 of us to the front of the plane and we RAN through the Logan Airport to catch the flight - our luggage wasn't as lucky! I couldn't sleep on the plane so I watched Corpse Bride a few times. When I landed in Amsterdam I had to wait two hours for my luggage (along with the other unlucky Minnesotans). Oh well, at least it came!

My advice to you: don't be cheap! For example, I was cheap and bought the cheapest flight to Istanbul. However, I had to leave from Eindoven. Do you know where Eindoven is? I didn't! I hopped a train from Amsterdam at 8:45am and two hours later I arrived in the center of Eindoven - the centrum. The train ride was interesting because it went through mostly poor and industrial areas outside Amsterdam and the countryside where there are LOTS of sheep, green grass, and old, brick rowhouses! It seems that everyone knits and everyone wears hand knit-looking things but I'm yet to find a yarn store. I randomly sat by a nice lady on the train that was from Mpls - her son goes to Mpls Southwest - small world. So far she is the only person I've talked to because I can't understand anyone else. I found a cheap bed and breakfast and I crashed! Tomorrow I'm taking th 6:30am bus to the airport and I'm off to Istanbul. My stomach is growling - probably because I haven't had anything to eat in the last day except a pizza, clementine, and an apple. That's my next mission.

Anyway, Eindoven is crazy! There are bikes EVERYWHERE! Thousands of them parked in bike racks lining the centrum. There are fully functional bike paths/lanes on many roads -more people bike than drive. In addition, there are pedestrian only streets and thousands of shops - Cara you'd be in heaven (and they have and H&M)! In the center are a skating rink and a carousel and tons of little Dutch kids. Take care, thanks for reading

Katie

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again

Hey I'm leaving in a few hours for Boston then Amsterdam then Istanbul. I am excited to get away again because I've been stressed lately. It seems that there is always too much going on and not enough time to do it. Oh well, I'm on vacation now!

It was great to see my old roomies (Lizzard, Mel, Sarah Simrall, and Emmy) at Martins last night - I'll upload the pics for you ladies next week. Happy New Year everyone (no hangover for me, I went to be at 10pm - sweet, NOT (we had to drive home from Colorado at 5am on the first). Have fun and stay in touch!

Katie

Graduation

Wow! "No more teachers, no more books..."I'm done with college (for eight months anyway)!

As a gift to myself to relax and unwind, I am going to Europe. I am going with 25 people from the Macalester Classics Dept. to Turkey on Jan. 3-20, 2006. After which I will go to Greece and meet my Dad, for a 10-day trip. Then, I'll hop a ferry to Italy and wander the streets of Rome, Venice, Florence, and Turin (for the 2006 Winter Olympics). After a few weeks, I plan on taking a train to see my sister in Sevilla, Spain on her study abroad. We will wander around Madrid, Barcelona, Grenada, and possibly Lisbon, Portugal. I will return home via Amsterdam on March 9, 2006.

Please keep me updated on the gossip and if you have any travel advice please post comments.

Have a Happy New Year!

Katie