TravelStream™ news feed for member ahill923 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ahill923 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 25 Dec 2005 21:03:30 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133575260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133575260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133575260/tpod.html Sun, 25 Dec 2005 21:03:30 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Vienna, Austria

What a day. I am exhausted- running on three hours of sleep right now- I am going to bed as soon as I am done writing about today.

We got to Vienna just fine- I slept for about 3 hours on the first train and stayed up and read on the second train. I really wanted to sleep, but Nathan hadn't slept at all, and so I let him sleep while I kept an eye on all of our stuff. We got in around 6 and then freshened, ate breakfast and started the day. It's been a along but enjoyable day.

We began in Vienna by touring the Schöenbrunn Palace- this was Franz Joseph's palace of the Hapsburg dynasty. We had a really neat listening tour of the castle- the whole area was incredible and so beautiful. All the rooms were fully decorated and a lot of them had the original décor. We walked around the Christmas market and the palace grounds. This area would be absolutely beautiful in the spring or summer when it is warmer outside. We went back to the Old Square and planned the rest of the day.

We decided to do an opera tour and the House of Music. The House of Music was amazing. It was a museum all about music and completely interactive. I really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun playing around. We spent like three hours in there going through all the exhibits and playing around. Afterwards, we went to a little bakery and got lunch. We went and did the Opera House tour. This was a lot of fun and interesting- the theater was so pretty and there was a huge crystal chandelier in the middle which was awesome. They were setting up for a performance that evening which was also really neat to see. We walked around the city some more and got hot chocolate again. That is our thing to do- it is nice and relaxing. We went to a city park and walked around there and then rode a metro to the end of the line, and then went back into the city. We went to a lot of odd clothing shops and then went to the train station to head to Florence.

It was a long day but I enjoyed Vienna and am looking forward to Florence and sleep!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133486640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133486640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133486640/tpod.html Sun, 25 Dec 2005 20:33:14 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Prague, Czech Republic

Well, free travel has been going well until now. It is 11:00pm and we are sitting in a train station, having to catch the 12:19 train to some little place and then switching trains for Vienna, Austria and getting there at 6:00am. We were suppose to be able to take a train at 11:05, that would take us directly to Vienna- we got there in plenty of time, found the platform, but we really needed to more information from someone about the train. Trying to find someone who spoke English was the most frustrating thing. We finally found someone who spoke English and discovered that you needed to pay 30€ for a train reservation because it was a couchette train or do what we are now doing. It is so frustrating because we asked this morning and were told that we were fine and then discovered that we weren't. But it could be so much worse- we could hav missed the train, we could have had to pay the 30€ or stay here another night. It really isn't that bad and it makes free travel fun and exciting. We are sitting and just trying to make the best of the situation.

Prague...We got into the city last night and made our way to Sir Toby's hostel. We dropped our stuff on in the room and then headed out to explore the city. We had a rough time figuring out the transportation system at first but got accustomed to it as we went along. We went to the Old Town Square and walked around, enjoying all the Christmas decorations. We ate at a really nice restaurant because everything was so cheap. I had pork sirloin in a cranberry sauce with dumplings- it was amazing. It was a beautiful night and the city was so pretty. We walked to the river and then across the Charles Bridge- the castle was beautiful as it reflected off the water. We went back to the hostel and crashed for the night.

In the morning, we ate breakfast and took our bags to the train station. We started off by touring the Jewish Square. We got a pass to see all seven sites. They were all really interesting- each synagogue had a museum which had a lot of interesting information about the Jews. I really enjoyed the Spanish Synagogue- the decorations were so pretty and the museum documented the Holocaust which was really interesting. We also walked through a really old cemetery- the oldest headstone was from 1439. There were 12,000 headstones- the whole area was so large- it was really neat to see. After seeing all of the places, we grabbed lunch and then headed over to the castle. We walked along the same way we did the previous night, which was neat to see in the day.

We crossed Charles Bridge and started a nice uphill climb to the castle. It was a very tiring walk up there but the view and the castle were worth it. We got a ticket for the castle grounds and to see three of the castle buildings. The castle wasn't what I was hoping for- there weren't any antiques or items inside the castle but it was still pretty. We started at the Cathedral and saw the catacombs underneath which was neat. All the stain glass decorations were really pretty. We went to the Old Royal Palace- this was ok- it was so big and pretty but there were no decorations, so it was very plain. It could have been a lot better if they would have had objects in the rooms. The final area we went to was the Golden Lane- a street of really old houses that have been turned into shops. We went into a medieval torture museum- this was awesome. We saw a lot of old armor and weapons which were really cool. We walked around the castle grounds some more and then saw the changing of the guard. We walked back down the hill and then went to McDonald's to warm up, drink some hot chocolate and relax. We decided to go to the John Lennon wall- a wall that was a protest to communism in graffiti- it was painted over everyday until 1989 when communism fell in the east.

We decided to go to a Mari Antoinette puppet show of Don Giovanni. It was very amusing to me and something fun to see. After the show, we went to Wenceslas Square to find something to eat- we went to a little pizzeria and split a pizza. We had to use up the rest of our krowns, so we found interesting ways to use it. We walked around the square and got these really good cinnamon roll type snacks. We stood in the market listening to Christmas music and talking. We had nothing else to do, so we went back to another McDonalds and used the rest of our money for hot chocolate. We went to the station and the whole fiasco. Overall, Prague was nice but he train goof-up put a damper on the whole day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133397060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133397060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133397060/tpod.html Sun, 25 Dec 2005 19:34:05 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Berlin, Germany

We are on Free Travel!!! It is so exciting and has been so much fun so far. We are on our way to Prague right now. We are on a really nice train and in our own compartment, which is nice. It is so beautiful outside- there is a little bit of snow on the ground and the countryside is so pretty.

We had a great end to the semester yesterday. All of my finals went well and then I finished packing. We also watched Harry Potter III and had one more meal at the Artemis before heading out. It was so sad to leave but the time had come for the semester to be over and I was so excited to leave that it wasn't that bad. I am really going to miss the Myhan's though and all the work they did for us.

The Trip Begins...
We left the Artemis at 7:00pm- all 16 of us leaving crammed into the van and the car with all of our backpacks strapped on top. It was our last drive from Porto Rafti to the airport- we talked about all of our trips and the new adventure we were getting ready to start. We said our last goodbyes and then we were on our own. All of us were flying to Berlin together and then going our separate ways from there. When we got to Berlin, we got our bags and then figured out how to get to the hostel. Nathan, Mandy and I were staying with Jaime, Mallory, Steph, Dani and Laura there. We got into the hostel around 12:30 without any problems thankfully. For a first hostel, it was really nice and a good way to start the trip.
Nathan, Mandy and I got up early and went to the train station to get our extension pass for the Eurail to Prague. We thought the office opened up at 8:30, but really it opened at 9, so we sat around for a while waiting for the office to open. It was so frustrating because the guy was just sitting there, doing nothing but he wouldn't help us. We were able to get everything though and it was easy to do everything which was good. We met up with the others and had about 3 hours of sight seeing before Nathan, Mandy and I headed to Prague.
Our first stop was the tower of victory. It was built by the Prussians to celebrate the victories over France. On the '30s, Hitler moved the statue from in front of the Reichstag to where it is now. Just walking through Berlin was awesome and it was so pretty. It was hard to believe that just 50 years ago it was an area devastated by war and Communism. We then walked through some parks to the Reichstag- we wanted to climb the dome but there was a really long line and we didn't have the time to waste waiting in line. We walked through the Tier Garden again which is what we walked through to get to the Reichstag.
We then went to the Brandenburg Gate- this is the last standing gate out of 14 from the old city. The statue on top of the gate was taken by Napoleon but was then taken back and became a symbol of victory as well as a symbol of a divided nation. It was a huge place to be on November 29, 1989 for the celebration of the Berlin Wall coming down. We then went and saw Check Point Charlie as well as the museum there. Outside the museum, there was the original check station as well as two military men- one dressed in Russian clothing with the Russian flag and the other dressed in an American uniform holding the American flag. The museum was awesome- I could have spent so much time in there, and we weren't able to do everything because we had to catch our train. We saw a lot of pictures and examples of how people escaped from East to West Berlin- there were a lot of awesome and really fascinating stories. The lengths these people went through to escape was incredible. We then walked to a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. I was really surprised to see hoe thin it was. I was expecting a much thicker wall but it was still so cool to see.
We said our goodbyes to the girls and then Nathan, Mandy and I headed to the train station. We plan on going to the hostel and then grabbing some dinner once we get to Prague! Until Prague...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133257500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133257500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133257500/tpod.html Tue, 29 Nov 2005 04:47:09 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Porto Rafti, Greece

Well, today is my last day in Greece. In just a few hours I am on my way to Berlin! We are flying there and then I will spend the next 16days traveling all around Europe! I am so excited for this trip and can't wait to update everyone on my adventure!

Have a great day and I'll see ya soon...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133078280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133078280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1133078280/tpod.html Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:59:07 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Porto Rafti, Greece

Today was the last trip into Athens. I can't believe that the whole semester is over and that in 48 hours I will be in Berlin. This is so crazy. It was a wonderful trip into the city...the weather was great and just walking around one last time was so nice. We went to Sabbas for one last gyro- this is our favorite gyro place in the city. I walked around with Audra and Mandy- we did a little bit of shopping but a lot of reminiscing of the places there and remembering the first trip into the city. We stopped by all of our favorite stores and said goodbye to all the shop owners we had became friends with over the semester. I am really going to miss being here and the fun atmosphere of Greece, HUG and Athens. The Myhans took all the student workers to Starbucks for one last drink from there- I got a caramel frapachino- it was so good. We all sat around talking about the semester and how much we are going to miss it here. I am ready to go home but I am really going to miss the Myhans and Greece. We walked down to church for the last time and said goodbye to our Athens church family. They have been a great church to attend this semester and very encouraging. They had a pizza party for us and then we came back to the Artemis, for the last time.

Wow, what an amazing semester. God has really blessed me and it was amazing being able to be here. All the memories I have from here are amazing and something I will never forget!

2 more days
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132818780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132818780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132818780/tpod.html Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:55:39 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Porto Rafti, Greece

Today was Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time here in Greece celebrating the holiday. We combined the dinner as our final banquet and show before we leave for free travel and for home. The meal preparations started on Wednesday night- a lot of kids made their favorite dishes from home and some really good desserts. The morning was really relaxing- I slept in and just relaxed watching movies and playing games. We ate around 2:30pm- there was about 65 people here- 31 of us and then family from back home, people from church and some of the people from our travel agency. We had a really nice time and the dinner was delicious. We had salad (with Ranch dressing!!), corn, potatoes, stuffing, turkey and tons of desserts!! It took us so long to get everything cleaned up- since I am on dinner crew, I worked after the meal- it took us almost 2 hours to get all the pots and pans washed, with 7 of us working on it. It was so nice to finally get done, and to be able to sit around and do nothing again.

We had our final show also, this was a talent show- kinda dumb but still fun. Steph and I did the "Oracle of the Artemis" mocking the Oracle of Delphi. We came up with crazy oracles for everyone and had a lot of fun reading them off and being so silly. Then there was a really nice slideshow of the semester. It was so much fun looking back at all the places we have been this semester and the memories that each places has. I am shocked that the semester is almost over. It has been amazing and I loved every minute of being here. I am looking forward to free travel and getting home and showing everyone all of my pictures.

After the show, I called home and got to talk to everyone- it was so good to hear from everyone and talk to the whole family at once. I am really looking forward to seeing them and everyone else when I get home!

5 more days...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132391700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132391700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132391700/tpod.html Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:55:16 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Abu Simbel, Egypt

Today, we left the cruise ship in the morning and went to the airport to fly to Abu Simbel. It was definitely the day of flying- we flew a total of 3 times today. The flight to Abu Simbel was the shortest I have ever been on in my life- only 25 minutes long!

When we got to the temple, we were about an hour from the Sudan boarder. Also, Lake Nasser stretches all the way down here, so that was really neat to see the same lake that we had seen yesterday. This temple was also moved because of the lake- I find the whole process of removing the temples and then reassembling them to be quite fascinating. I explored the two temples there- to Ramses and Nefertti with Dani, Steph, Mandy and Jacob. We had a blast. All of the hieroglyphics and carvings were so cool to see. Some still had color which was also awesome. One of the most amusing things was that there was graffiti on some of the statues that dated back to the 1800's- the only reason I knew this is that the dates were carved into the statues.

We then flew back to Aswan and then waited about 30 minutes and flew to Cairo. It is hard to believe that the trip is almost over- one more full day!

When we got to Cairo, we went to Ozman's house and got to meet his family and help his son celebrate his birthday. It was so much fun and awesome to meet his family. They were all so nice and hospitable- to let 30 kids come into your apartment was so nice.

We went back to the hotel and ate dinner- my first meal in 24 hours- we slept through breakfast on accident and had a goof up with lunch, so this meal tasted great after eating cookies and cake. Mal and I went back to the room, we are staying in the same hotel- we watched some TV, drank tea and got caught up in our journals and then talked. We have had so much fun being roomies- I am so glad that I got to room with her on our last trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132564920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132564920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132564920/tpod.html Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:23:10 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Porto Rafti, Greece

Well, we left Egypt today- this was really a hard thing to do- I had an amazing time and saw so many great things but it was hard to accept the fact that our last trip was over and that the semester is almost finished. I had an amazing time and am looking forward to telling everyone about the trip when I get home. It was great to see the Pyramids and the Nile one last time, the same images I saw when we first came in was the same sight we saw as we left.

Time to do some school work and finish the last week of school...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132478400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132478400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132478400/tpod.html Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:21:17 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Cairo, Egypt

Today was a bit of a whirl-wind day. The things we did today are usually split into two days, but we had to cram them into one because of flight times.

We started the morning off by going to the land of Goshen- this is where Moses called the children to leave Egypt. This region is mentioned several times in the Old Testament and was really neat to see and to be in. The area was really trashy and there were flies all over the place- this really brought to life the plague of the flies- I can hardly imagine that. There was a cemetery and village ruins found here of Semitic looking people, a very different people then the Egyptians who lived there- the houses were different as well as the features of the tombs found. The houses in the area are still made out of mud brick and do not look very nice or modern. It was sad to see such poverty.

We then drove to the Suez Canal- this was quite the experience for me- to go across the canal was so exciting! We took a ferry over to the other side, so I was in the Asia side of Egypt which was neat to say. We saw a ship go through with a load on which was so cool to see- it was so big and there had to of been hundreds of thousands of creates on the boat. Technically, you aren't supposed to take pictures of the canal but we brought a camera on and with the help of Ozman, got a few pictures.

We went back to Cairo and ate lunch and then attempted to go to Memphis, but we were unable to because of time. We were able to go to Sakara and see the Bent and the Step Pyramid. The step pyramid is the oldest pyramid, so that was awesome to see. We were hoping to be able to go into a pyramid but it was closed, I was sad that we weren't able to do this but we still saw a lot of amazing things.

We ended the day by going to a carpet shop and saw carpets being made. This is a very cool process to watch and the finished product is amazing.

We went back to the hotel for our final night in Egypt...we fly out in the morning, for our final week at school!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132301940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132301940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ahill923/greece_2005/1132301940/tpod.html Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:14:09 -0500 My semester in Greece and traveling all through Europe.

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Aswan, Egypt

Today was definitely one of my days.

We began by touring the city of Aswan and saw the Aswan Dam- which created Lake Nasser, a 350 mile long lake. This was built in 1897 to help regulate the flooding of the Nile. A lot of temples and artifacts were lost in the lake, but some of the temples were moved- we saw two temples that had been in the lake. The dam is good because it provides Egypt with so much electricity but it also takes away a lot of the fertile land. We went to the Temple of Philae, which was one of the temples that were under water. The temple had been moved to an island because of the Lake, but even when the Nile flooded, the temple was submerged in water and people would tour by boats. We took a boat out to the island to explore the temple. To move the temple, it was cut up into 24,000 pieces and then reassembled, a very remarkable process. This was one of the last pagan temples in Egypt and you could really see the Hebrews influence in the temple. This temple was used by Napoleon as an outpost- I find it amusing that armies used the temples to hideout in during times of war. We took the boat back to the bus and then went to a papyrus shop.

This shop was awesome- We got to see how papyrus was made and how to get the papers to be different colors. The process takes several weeks but the finished product is awesome.

We went back to the boat and had lunch and then set off again for the afternoon.

We took a boat ride on the Nile again, to Nubian village. The boat ride was awesome- we got to go up on the roof if we wanted to, for a better view and to take pictures, so I did. It was awesome up there and the whole area was beautiful. When we got to the village, we went into a house and got to hold crocodiles and get Henna tattoos. This was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed holding the crocodile. We then went to a school and learned how to count and say the ABC's in Arabic and Nubian. There was a soccer practice going on which was so cool to see, because it looked like a practice in the States.

Then, we did the most amazing thing...we got to ride CAMELS! This was so much fun. I had a blast doing this. I was at the end of the line and rode next to Robyn and Rebekah. The ride was about 20 minutes and was so much fun. We started off in the village and then ended up in the desert on the banks of the Nile.

We got back onto the boat and sailed back to the cruise ship. I sat on the roof the entire time and had a lot of fun up there, watching the Nile go by. It was a beautiful night and so nice outside. It was amazing to see God's creation here and just wonderful to be in a new place and experience a new culture. This trip has really opened my eyes up to the world around me...what a great experience.

We ate dinner and then Mal and I watched some movies, drank some hot chocolate and packed up our things. We are heading to Abu Simble tomorrow.
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