Turkey

TURKEY....photos only. Full update with stories to come.



Andy washing his hands in the holy water at the house of The Virgin Mary. I smell a Superbowl season! (Too bad he wasn't wearing a Gopher shirt...everyone knows they need more miracle water than the Packers...)




The hills of Turkey.



One of our last dinners on the boat.




Our last night on the ship...the view of Istanbul at dusk.



Our pool and Istanbul in the distance.






About three minutes before the downpour began...we were just sitting down for lunch at a (covered) restaurant under the bridge.



Making our way through the Grand Bazaar.




The Blue Mosque. And yes...I also covered my shoulders before entering...We all were required to remove our shoes to enter and the guys had to cover their knees.



Inside the mosque...the head covering was optional...our concierge told us we needed to. Let's just say, that material doesn't breathe well, but at least we look awesome...it hides a bad hair day, that's for sure.




Hagia Sofia



The Spice Market...and at a kiosk next-door we found....



3M Scotchbrite. Yay!




Final date night, before heading back to reality. Well, I guess reality for Andy...our Tempur-pedic bed, lunch with the girls, and beach for me...for one more month! We ate at a little restaurant on the street tonight. It provided for great people/traffic watching. This evening we witnessed two car mishaps. Both involving permanent road structures and no other vehicles. Great parking/driving people.....but hey, who are we...to judge? ;) I {heart} Ibiza.


Off to the airport soon....I'll post a full Istanbul blog as soon as i get home....including how Andy Moe saved all of the real adventures for after his parents left!! Happy birthday to him tomorrow....love you babe.

Love from Istanbul,

Jen and Andy

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Rhodes, Greece

We walked Rhodes on our own, rather than doing a tour. It was pretty uneventful....The temperature was over 100 with high humidity. It was a really cute town with lots of little shops. Not much to report, as we only stayed a few hours. Although, Andy did get to use some of his negotiating skills pinning T-shirt shop vs. T-shirt shop to get the best deal. The highlight of the day was when I got us a discount on a vase we purchased, because the store owner loved my eyes. Score. Point for Mrs. Moe and I didn't even have to use any 3M negotiation tactics!






We stopped for lunch on a rooftop cafe...here's a shot of Andy waiting for me to come down after lunch. I was enjoying the water misters and shade they had going!



A castle we stumbled upon.



Andy jumped over a guard rail so I could quickly snap this pic.




Oh Oceania....you lovely ship filled with hacking and coughing older people...that got Andy sick, which in turn....now has gotten me sick. We did beat many of those older people to take third place in sports & leisure trivia though, so I guess we are almost even. Team Seventeen Scooters for life!


Love & Memories from Rhodes, Greece

Jenny & Andy

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Cyprus

After Israel we moved onto Cyprus. While Cyprus was beautiful, it was pretty much ancient ruins and a few churches.








In fact it almost would have been classified as boring...almost. Thanks to Tom, that is no longer the case. You see, Tom had been feeling jealous that he had not been featured on the blog. He went to drastic measures in Cyprus to ensure some blog time. I must say, he was successful.

Tom crafted a brilliant plan to be one of the few (if any) tourists that walked among the ancient bath ruins. While taking a picture of the bath, he dropped his cell phone over the ledge where it split into two pieces...one piece bounced out of the area he could grasp from the fenced in walking path....resulting in this.....






Now you can't see our tour guide's face in the picture, but she was not happy...nor was Wendy. Props to Andy for whipping out the camera in time to catch these priceless moments in history. Tom, the man who walked (and laid on his belly) in the ancient bath. This will be in the textbooks, one day.


Love and memories (and really sturdy cell phones) from Cyprus,

Jen, Andy, TOM, and Wendy =)

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Israel: Part 2

Day 2 & 3 in Israel: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Sea of Galilee, and the River of Jordan

Andy and I pulled off an extraordinary feat at the beginning of the trip...we were the very first people to the bus in the morning (remember the bus rules...we dominated) so we had the luxury of sitting in the front row. We soon added to our bus rules...
ADDENDUM: when all else is successful, and given the opportunity to sit in the front row of the tour bus for a ten hour tour, BYPASS that golden right. Instead choose seats in rows two or three, where the tour guide does not talk directly to you...the entire trip. This will give you the opportunity to sleep, which is not granted to the person in the front row, specifically, aisle seat.

Needless to say, I was in the aisle seat of the front row. Awesome. I should also mention, I was surrounded by people that were clearly fairly religious. There's nothing wrong with that, but when the tour guide keeps asking me questions about Bible stories, none of which I can answer, it makes me wish the woman sitting behind me...with her bible...were sitting there instead.

A good thing happened though, the tour guide put in a CD of music...a break for me to snooze!!! Or...not...all of a sudden a song comes on and he asks me if I know it...really? I politely say no, and at the same moment the man in the seat next to me starts belting out the words..."Jerusalem, Jerusalem.....Jeruuuuuuusalem" and a bunch more Jerusalems....apparently half the bus knew the song and felt the need to sing along, rather enthusiastically. I'm sure it was just the thing Andy wanted to wake up from his little nap to...



"Jeruuuuuuuusalem!!!!!!!!!!" our first picture stop. Moments after this I caused a scene and was angered more than I ever thought I could be in a holy place. Vendors were standing near our bus...."one dolla, one dolla" selling postcards, as I walked between the two men, one of the reached out and grabbed my chest. Yes, that's right, straight up, grabbed my boob...in freaking Jerusalem! I responded by throwing the guy's hand off me and yelling in his face, "Don't touch me". The other vendor responded with, "Yeah don't touch her" probably trying to get me to buy his postcards.....Mind you, I kept my other hand on my purse the whole time, knowing that was probably his target. It made me miss the Egyptian vendors...much more annoying, but they never touched me. I warned Andy, Tom, and Wendy that if another vendor touched me, they may have to bail me out of prison because I was going to be taking a swing at them. Luckily it didn't come to that. Although that would make for an interesting blog...





One of many, many churches...




Walking Via dela Roso (sp?) I was surprised that some of the stations of the cross are located in people's businesses.

We made our way to the Western (Wailing) Wall. Andy and I both wrote notes and stuck them into the wall...individually, men and women have go go to separate sides. It was an emotional stop, even for the non-religious. Pictures were strictly forbidden...unless you were Mitt Romney, who showed up the next day with a full camera crew. Apparently American politicians can break the rules in other countries as well...



In the church of Bethlehem waiting to go down to see the famous manger...



The manger from the Christmas story, I was shocked it is actually in a cave under the church. My image of the manger and baby Jesus in swaddling clothes (think your typically nativity scene...) has forever been changed, but think it will be cool next Christmas to hear O Little Town of Bethlehem, now that we've been there.



The Jordan River



Jordan River



More ancient ruins...



The Sea of Galilee, which is actually a lake...



If you can't tell, this is a fake, exhausted smile...I was 'churched' out. Another one?? Covering your shoulders in crazy heat and being herded through in silence, dodging oblivious tourists taking photos when they shouldn't, is sometimes just annoying. In this picture, I was done for the day. Good thing I didn't know there would actually be one more church.



A view overlooking the port in Israel where we docked overnight. On the right hand side you can see our cruise ship in the distance.

For the record, Israel is not filled with military carrying machine guns everywhere. In fact, it's beautiful, calm, and feels safe everywhere. Once again, American media creating twisted images.

Love and fond memories from Israel,

Jen & Andy (T & W too)

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Israel: Part 1

We spent three days in Israel and it was a whirlwind! In three days we saw...Jerusalem, Bethlehem, The Sea of Gallilee, the River of Jordan, Tel Aviv, Cesarea, and Jaffa.




On the beach near Cesarea the ruins of the ancient city.



On these tours, sometimes the guides become long-winded. It was clear from the start today would be one of those days...therefore, as soon as we got to a new location, Wendy and I found the shade. I was usually fighting the Asian tourists for the best shaded areas..



The ancient ruins, along the shore. It wasn't as amazing as Pompeii, but it was pretty cool. (not the temp, that's for sure...)




Tel Aviv is a cosmopolitan area mixed with European charm. Little bistros line the boulevard and people gather to eat or grab coffee. I could move to this city in a heartbeat. Clean, trendy, and a blend of new and old.



The intersection where the newer part of Tel Aviv meets old, Jaffa.




The Tel Aviv skyline from the hills of Jaffa. Another line-up shot, nailed it.



The picture doesn't do this hill justice...but I was slightly winded at the top. Gotta hit the gym more..my calves hurt the next day. Plus, I carry our lives in that bag...water, sunscreen, snacks, sunglasses with cases, passports, wallets....Andy calls me the pack mule....I'm sure in the most loving way possible!



Cute little restaurant we stopped at for lunch. Wendy ordered a fish and it came...full fish form, including the eyeball...yum.



An alleyway in Jaffa...lined with homes and little shops.

Okay, more stories and pictures to come, including what I was most disgusted by on the entire trip....it occurred in Jerusalem. Time to get ready for BINGO and dinner.

Love & memories from Israel,
Jen and Andy

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Egypt expanded on

My blog entry on Egypt definitely needs to be added to...Egypt was pretty mind blowing in many regards. We spent time in Alexandria and Cairo. The first thing I was shocked by (even though I was forewarned) was the amount of trash and garbage everywhere. On our bus ride through Alexandria we saw a horse eating out of a trash bin that was overflowing with garbage. Thank goodness we were in the bus, I can't even imagine what the smell was like. (keep in mind the temperature was 100 degrees plus...)



Apparently Andy got a picture of it through the bus window...sorry Michay, I'm sure you don't like this picture...doesn't make horse racing look too bad eh?



Everyone on the streets of Alexandria was waving to us as our bus drove through. Imagine the coach bus making its way through these crowded streets...No, this guy is not mad, he was waving.




Tomb of the unknown soldier. Beautiful and clean, heading towards the newer part of town. Locals refer to people that live in the new (and slightly cleaner) part of town as Phonies.



A little resort area on the coast.



Representing the Twins...on a very questionable bench...In a somewhat clean area though. I wonder why he chose this bench rather than the other....I'm sure the bench says "one dolla, one dolla" the national saying of Egypt.



The view of Alexandria from the top deck of the ship.


Our drive to Cairo and the pyramids was about three hours. I'm not going to lie, I slept for a lot of it. Our buses all rode in a caravan with police escorts (sometimes) in order to bypass traffic lights which would have made the trip much longer. I didn't feel unsafe at any point during our time in Egypt. The locals were all very happy that tourists were still visiting. The Pyramid area and Cairo are not the areas where tourists need to be constantly worried about being kidnapped....now harassed by vendors, yes.

If that sort of thing bothers you, you would hate Egypt. I had no problem with it. All you do is put your head down, write F-Off on your forehead and plow on through. When that fails, I threw out, "lo siento, no hablo ingles" that always works too, the vendors do not speak spanish. It made it easier that all the old people on out cruise stop and become targets for the vendors. One dolla, one dolla!!!




Driving near the pyramids....within one block we saw kids swimming and a man fishing...note the donkey on the right..... As he was trying to sell donkey rides, the funniest vendor all day said "Egyptian Mercedes....one dolla".









The temperature during our time at the pyramids was 115 degrees. Between the heat, the dust, the garbage, six hours on a bus, and all the camel poop, I was more ready for than I have ever been in my life. I sanitized my hands about a hundred times throughout the day, and after one shower on the ship, wanted to shower again. Puts yoga class sweat into a whole new perspective...


On the drive to Cairo we passed housing developments that would easily rival areas of Orange County...absolutely gorgeous mansions in impeccable neighborhoods...most stood empty, but they are there. Not all areas are filled with camels and garbage....or vendors.

All things considered, I am so glad we came to Egypt. The pyramids and Sphinx were truly amazing. I have never been so mesmerized by a landscape as I was staying in front of the pyramids.

Love and memories of Egypt,
J&A


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