Turkey ROCKS!

I never thought that I would want to visit Turkey. Actually after talking with Larry we both never thought about it. Rome, Greece, and Barcelona were always talked about between us and how someday we would visit.

I must say after visiting Turkey we both want to return!!! I actually want our "get away" house to be here. Larry just laughs at me when I talk about it.

It is a beautiful country. We were in Izmir first, which was Sunday. Izmir is actually on the Asia side but still considered Turkey. This surprised me, I thought it was middle east, so we can say we were in Asia for a while. In Izmir the history is unbelievable. We went to Ephesus, which was leveled by an earthquake and has been unburied and continues to be unburied. This city is 3000 years old. We actually stood in the theatre, that was outdoor of course, Where Peter talked about Jesus and who he was and what he meant to them. AMAZING!

We also went to the House of Mary. This house was found up the mountain from Ephesus, hidden away from everyone and close to water. This is believed to be where St. John took Mary to live her last years of her life in safety. They had found St. John's remains by the house but Mary's remains are not found as of now. The city is still 90 percent underground and is still be escavated currently. We would love to come back in a few years and see what else they have discovered!

Yesterday (Monday) and today we are in Istanbul. What a city! This place is crazy but fun. We went to the Grand Bizarre, where we bartered our way through Turkey. Larry and I are now considered the bartering couple. We work very well together and ended up with some lovely things! Yesterday was hot and we did a lot of walking and sweating. Last night was our big party at a Turkish Palace. WOW!!!!!! I cannot describe it any better than that. It was amazing and huge! The firework show alone was great and the fact that they shot off huge fireworks from 3 tugboats, fireworks that Chicago would use barges for, and they were all timed and together. The whole experience made us feel like royalty. UNBELIEVABLE! After the party we went out with our friend Katy and her fiance, who has a friend in Turkey. Her fiance's friend, Tim, is an actor just like him and they met in California for college. After college his friend Tim came back to Turkey and is now a famous film and television star here. So we not only had a royal party but also hung out with a famous star in Turkey. WHAT A NIGHT!!!

Tim took us to a bar that had a Turkish band that played American music. Their english was great and they even sang Sweet Home Chicago. After they would sing in english they would talk in Turkish to the fans in between songs. Crazy! This really is all so surreal. We both today are just staying on the boat and recovering. Laying low, which we should.

Tomorrow is a sailing day and we will make our way to Santorini Greece. I am considering taking the donkey ride up the moutain. We will see what Larry thinks about this idea.:)

We LOVE Greece!!!

Today was amazing! Greece is amazing. We started our day with a tour that took us through Athens and to the Acropolis and Parthenon. After the Parthenon which is mostly getting restored, so a lot of scaffolding, we ditched the tour and walked around downtown Athens. We saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and the guard change. It was cool. Then we went on to the shops and did a lot of bardering, which was FUN!

It is now 5:46 p.m. and we are waiting to depart from this port and move on to Izmir.

It is hot here as well. The sun is much closer now and I am finally get a tan.

Hope all is well back home! :)

Heading to Greece

Hello All!

Well so far we have seen The Vatican in Rome, and we walked all over Messina/Sicily. We have great photos of some Gothic churches from Barcelona and also some photos from churches we stumbled upon in Messina. We ate great pizza and of course had lots of wine while in Italy.

Posting photos is hard because of the Internet issues this ship has. So basically I wait for a computer, which there are 8 total, to get on and blog from time to time. Otherwise, we painfully wait for the Internet to come up in our room and pray that it doesn't kick us off.

Sorry for the lack of blogging and communication through email. We are having a great time and time here seems to not exist. I am sure the jet lag when we return will be HARD!

Today is a Sail day and we are going to head to the pool. It is 10:30a.m. here on Friday which means it is 2:30 a.m. on Friday for you. We were 7 hours apart from home but had to advance an hour ahead last night as we make our way to Greece.

We see Athens tomorrow and then Santorini on Sunday. Then off to Turkey as we make our way back towards Barcelona.

I will try to blog again and hopefully get some photos up as well.

Time for some sun!

Love Katie and Larry

Sorry Internet is not easily accessable

We know we haven't blogged in a long time. The Internet is a pain to get on. So we have a moment before we go explore Rome to say we are alive and having a great time.

Barcelona was our first stop and it was wonderful! We will attach photos later when we have more time.

We had a sail day yesterday. The night before we sailed was a little rough on the open sea and I was married to Dramamine!! It is getting better since we are now among land masses.

Rome is today. We see the Vatican and the Pope is holding mass today. So it should be a crazy day. It takes us an hour to get into Rome from our port so we have to get going to wait in line on the bus.

We promise to write more details later.

Just wanted to say HI and we are alive and enjoying this fabulous trip.

See you later!

We Fly Soon!!!

I thought I would try this blogging thing and keep posted whoever is interested in following our trip overseas. Since I am unloading our camera every night to keep photos safe on my computer I figured I should also do a quick blog so that I can revisit our day of exploring and all of you can see where we have been. By doing this I hope to slow my trip down by reflecting on it instead of just living it.

If you are interested in following through the Mediterranean then subscribe away!

So we leave on Saturday June 20th out of Rockford and we board at 9:15p.m., but we do not fly until 10:15 p.m. We arrive in Barcelona on June 21st at 1:30p.m.

Barcelona is our first city to visit. We have a party to attend that night and we have the whole next day to check out Barcelona before we sail onto Rome.

I will check in with all of you in Barcelona once we have landed and are situated on the ship. Our ship is The Norwegian Gem. Work has provided us with the entire ship for our 1510 person vacation.

We are available through email because the ship provides free wireless. Larry's phone will be the most used if there is a problem back home.

Back to packing!