More of Wonderful Turkey

Yayyyyy for Turkey and adventures!!!




Sunset on the beach shot


Like every good EUropean+tourist we joined the masses by having beers on the bus from the airport to the hotel! Efes is the Turkish beer


Ingrained in my brain is one of the first sites of Turkey!!


Of course one of my favorite places to hang out was the table full of desserts.


This portrait of delicious Turkish food could be in a magazine!


Spicy......shout out to Sara Ghent


Saw many many mosques and it was very interesting to hear the call to prayer everyday. Only saw one group of people praying in a market one day.


Saw this allll over


There was no security or protection at these amazing ruins, people were drying clothes on them and just hangin out all over the place


In the old ruins





Beach shot


Yummm we had fresh orange and pomagranate juice from Opa'S stand, so good


Structure on the beach in Side....


Beautiful lights....I wanted to buy one very bad but had no way of getting it home.


This delicious plate of food cost.....75 euro cents. And was delicious followed by turkish tea of course.


One of the days we wandered around neighborhoods in Manavgat, while we ate we watched this guy pray in the park with some friends then he was waiting for something here.....


A cute couple that swam in the cold sea every morning, the hotel had a song that played every morning 'guten morgen, guten morgen, guten morgen sonnenschein'


A castle on the sea in Alanya, I took this picture from a boat.


This is one of the many forms of Kebaps we ate and the drink in his hand is the national drink calles Ayran, I found out it tasted like sour yogurt so the one time I had it I took it like a shot, I had to try it :)

Hey guys! Thanks to everyone for reading my blog!
TURKEY (Türkei for the Germans) was an amazing experience and I could tell you all the details but will try to tell the story in pictures because I took over 200! There was sun, a beach!, great markets, bazaars, great people watching, adventuring, and good food all along. I was glad that I went with a travel budy because I think I would have been a little apprehensive to adventure on my own (and most people there spoke German and not English!)In the end it felt very safe and the people were very nice and often surprised that someone from America was there.
Cities seen- Ocurkalor, Side, Alanya, Manavgat, Antalya
Food eaten- Baklava!! Kebaps, Lots of Tzatiki, cucumbers and cheese!
Favorite memories:singing kareoke, the table full of desserts, walking through a neighborhood and seeing kids playing at a park, drinking turkish tea all the time!, finding the grandma pants and getting a deal on them...(you will soon see them family:)) - finding markets all over the place and wandering around them.
Since it is the down season anytime we would walk around a bazaar everyone would try to entice us into their store by calling Jörn Chef and me angel. (chef means boss in German) quite funny.

I'm going to do two seperate posts to make it easier to post and read!
ENJOY


Turkey- land of the eternal markets and evil eyes


A real market folks....


Patrick needs these for his van



Ataturk was all over the place, the founder of Turkey


Always searching for a good bike shot


Hanging out and drinking some beer and writing postcards...


Jörn got the turkish shave where they use the big blade and flame the ears,it was fun to watch and now that I know how to do it I can flame anyones ears who will let me :)


The waterfalls in Manavgat. I read about them and they sounded quite impressive but they and the tourist trap around them was not. I think the bus ride there was the best part


Beach shot


Yes....the hotel we stayed at had a disco that was open until 2am every night, we did venture down there one night and danced the night away with three other people. Oh the good times :)


The bazaar that was a close walk and where we got acccosted every time we wandered around.

Hey Hamburg

Here are some pictures I have taken of rainy Hamburg :)


Ahhhh I love the colorful bikes all over the place!


Stevo and Joern eating the best burgers in Hamburg, in a bar surrounded by futbol, gotta lvoe it.

Here I go again! I feel less like a tourist this time.......


The delicious Super Bowl food. Tacos and Sloppy Joes, we all stayed up until 5am to watch the game (but mostly the commercials!)


Went to a photo exhibition on a rainy day and this kid was too cute, so excited to be there as well


Lot's of umbrellas my first week in Hamburg, hopefully that will change!


THE MAN

Soooo here I am in Hamburg and it is a much different Europe than when I left in July. I think there have been four straight days of rain and wind, but that is expected as I suppose it is winter time. It is finally clearing up and allowing for more exploring and adventuring.
The last few days I visited Itzehoe, Hoehenlockstedt, Gluckstadt, and some other small cities about an hour away from Hamburg. Joern took me to his hometown where we met Karin and Olaf who made a delicious dinner and were so nice, it worked out well that we had our own translator to help us communicate.
Friday night was party night. Went to a birthday party and then with a big group out to the Reeperbahn. It was a pretty crazy place but brought back memories of Prague and the party atmosphere that is all over the place.

Sunday night there was a super bowl party with a few die hards who all stayed up until 5am! We made tacos and sloppy joes and had some good German beer and the few Fat Tires that I fit into my luggage.
Yesterday was spent walking around the neighborhood and going to four grocery stores i think just to be curious.

Tonight is the flight to Side, Turkey. I am super excited and I know I will see a lot more and have some cool photos to share with you. It is winter so less will be going on and I probably will not be sunbathing but I hope to see some villages and some ruins and maybe some whirling dervishes!! And I CANNOT wait for some delicious Turkish food and mountians of Baklava!

Guten Abend!!
Tschuss (See ya!))

New Adventures in Germany

I have arrived :) It was a home alone-esque trip with fights breaking out next to me on the plane and me sprinting through the airport to make the last call for the fight to Hamburg, but it worked out well in the end. I made it to Hamburg at 7 in the morning here which would be 1 in the morning my time and tried to fight it through the day to get over the jet lag. Joern picked me up from the airport and it was quite cold yesterday so we went to the famous IKEA store that has lovely swedish food and lots of stuf I would have bought if I could have brought it home. After that we braved the cold and went for a walk in a big park near his house, saw the obseravatory, played on the cool toys they have here (its like New Zealand a bit where the toys are cool enough and they are not worried anyone will sue them so they have flying foxes and other major swingy things).
It still amazes me that I can be in the US in the morning and Europe in the night time. And I am being reminded of all the litle cool things I had kinda forgotten about EUrope. Like the little shops and stores in every neighborhood and the kind of food they have at the stores and the trains everywhere and the cool style that the Europeans have and the cute little ladies that walk around all dressed up with felted hats and pearl earrings :)
Today we are going to Itzehoe to see Joerns home town, I like little towns so I think it will be fun!!I havent taken any pictures yet but I will get on that.

Zdar....loverly, May 14

Hiya!
After a few action packed weeks of my birthday celebrations and good bye parties I am back in the school library (school is over my computer is just broken :( ) Trying to plan my 20 day adventure, then a 15 day adventure with my mom after that. It is a bit overwhelming and with further flight cancellations and delays with the volcano Ash i am apprehensive to book anything but trying to get all the research done so I have options! Also trying to psych myself up for my solo travel experience. I know it will be great but after travelling for 4 months with amazing people I can see myself getting lonely and being indecisive!

People from my program are leaving daily and it is very sad because some of them I am sure I will not see again. But these memories have been the best and they are not over yet!

This weekend I was able to visit the hometown of Zdar with my friend Hana. It is about 3 hours away from Prague by train. The second largest fun fair festival in the Czech Republic was being held there this weekend. We arrived at the airport and I met her mother.Hana proceeded to be the translator the whole time because her family does not speak English, some of her friends did but it was a small town and i did get started at quite often when i was talking. (Kinda felt like a celebrity!) On the way to her house she said that her dad had dressed up to meet me, and when we walked in she said he was drunk because he was nervous. it felt very odd to make people nervous but they had never had a guest from America before. They were so hospitable the whole time getting me anything I needed. It was honestly so refreshing to be in a house and have a meal at a table and dinner conversation and everything. The fair was very fun, I rode rides and bought typical Czech sweets and the weirdiest gyro I've ever had. Pita, meat, ketchup, mayonnaise, and some spicy sauce. Hana's dad and brother kept offering my shots of SLivoviche, a terrible Czech alcohol that burns all the way down. But it is customary for them to offer and impolite if I refuse :)
I met her grandparents and her grandpa talked to me about cowboys and Indians and sang the only English that he knew :) their house smelled like home baked cookies and he is a carver and gave me a box that he had carved. It really touched my heart!
I can honestly say this is the type of experience I have been looking for here and experienced it when I went to Znojmo with my roommates and one of their Moravian boyfriends. It was so great to get away from the city and see the countryside and how most Czech people live. Most of the students go home EVERY weekend to spend in their villages with their family. the train stations are mob scenes on Fridays and Mondays! I think this inspired me to do trains and ferries for my solo travel because I will be able to see so much more. i wish i had pictures to show you but my computer is broke. just expect 2000 pictures in July when i get home and can upload them :)
I leave Thursday (2 days!) for Ireland. Bought a 1 way ticket. Finding my way home from there. Sometimes in life you have to bite off more than you can chew! Wish me luck and prayers.
Love you all,
Peace
Shanan

A great Spring Break in Munich and Amsterdam!

hello family and friends,
it has been some time now. I had a delicious spring break full of fun, litre beers, and Holland tulips. I am back at school for an intensive course which is four days of 6 hours of class. I spent all day in class thinking about all the papers i have to write, the planning i have to do for after school travels and all the fun activities that are going on for the last two weeks of the program! The class is strategic risk management and today we learned about decision and performance quality and that "paralysis is a consequence of having too many choices" thats kind of how i feel about my travels after school,, i have so many plans and ideas and so many places to go and i am paralyzed and afraid to make certain plans in case other more interesting options arise!! oh the trials and tribulations of being in Europe :)

(there are two boys behind me in the computer lab speaking Norwegian....such an interesting, cool, language)

I feel like after traveling for 10 days and experiencing the volcano and everything i have learned a lot about traveling. I have a list of things I am learning trip by trip:
1. How to dodge the transportation police in various countries
2. How to prioritize what i want to do/see the most because there is never enough time for it all
3. How to use the toilets here...big button for #2. little button for #1
4. How to take a deep breathe and a moment to truly enjoy and appreciate where i am
5. Do not get in the way of the trams, they will not stop.
6. Expect to be kissed on teh cheek when meeting some Europeans
7. How to drink lots of (good) beer!
8. How to speak slower or use different words to be understood, the American accent is hard I guess and we speak really fast!
9. Do not expect good customer service in the Czech Republic

I'm going to have to sum up spring break in a few key points because i have a 5 page paper to write and a nation to nation party to attend later tonight. It is German and Austria party and Germany is one of my favorite countries!!!

MUNICH:
Bused to Munich and went straight to Spring Fest which is a much smaller version of Oktoberfest. The beer gardens were amazing and since it was 4 in the afternoon we just felt the vibe ofr awhile and sipped on a litre beer (ummmmmmm) while admiring the other attendees. There were families and older men sitting around chatting and laughing, the beer garden waitresses (Im sure they have a special name) were often older women who would carry at least 8 litre beers around to the tables. all the servers and lots of the people there wore the traditional leiderhosen and the women had their traditional dress which really accentuated the breastal region :).
Second day in Munich and we went to a large flea market which had great stuff. I got a cool red hat, some religious charms, and some gifts to bring home.
also spent the afternoon at the beer garden (beer garden, flea market, and fair with rides and stuff were all in the same park) we met a groups of about 8 German men that were part of a 16th century war reenactment club. and we beer gardened it up with them. There was polka music playing and giant giant pretzels and bratwurst, everything German you could imagine, it was ggreat!!!

Last day we did a walking tour and rented bikes and rode around. This is the most bike friendly city i have ever seen and even on the roads i felt completely safe because the cars give way to bikes! walkers even give way to bikes. There was a nudist meadow in this large park where we saw some sunbathers....very interesting.
Spent one day in the airport trying to figure out if the volcano would let us continue our spring break. flights were cancelled all over the place and so we were trying our train and bus options as well. I almost gave up and was thinking about going to Austria but they finally opened up the next day.
AMSTERDAM:
Arrived to a beautiful day, went to our hostel in a prime location and started wandering the canals of Amsterdam. Something we would end up doing a lot because they were so confusing and I got lost so much!! We actually had some other friends here at the same time so we found them and went to a coffee shop. Walked quickly through the red light district that night just to check it out and see what all the hub ub was about. It was weird for sure. The next day we went to the Ann Frank house and saw the whole thing, the museum is really cool and is the actual house with pictures still on the wall and everything; very moving. Found some markets, a book market and tulip/flower market along the canals and walked them. Had such beautiful weather here that the next day we went to a large park and hung out there, some friends rented bikes so we traded for about hour. Amsterdam is well known for its bike friendly streets and have separate lanes and everything. the canals were really cool and i felt close to the ocean the whole time but kind of closed in because the narrow streets and tall buildings. bought a picnic from the store and enjoyed our last full day of spring break. the next day we headed home around 5 but not before hitting up one more market. thanks mom for giving me an odd love for flea markets. :) love ya.

Prepare for Spring Break 2010

Yeah for Thursdays!

I had a productive week, went to a soccer game between the town rivals on Monday and almost got beat up on the tram ride home :O. Finished a paper for school and am in the process of booking a trip to Rome over my birthday weekend!

This morning I ate Aloe Vera yoghurt which I thought was blog worthy, I've only ever seen that as a lotion scent. It was not delicious for future reference. I am doing laundry in the sink this morning and preparing for my 10 day trip! The closest thing I've done to true backpacking since I've been here. I am leaving tomorrow morning for 4 days in Munich where Spring Fest is going on. A mini version of Octoberfest with music and the like. I have heard really good things about Munich and I'm also going to try and sneak into a sold out concert of Mumford and Sons; a European band I REALLY like!!
After Munich I fly to Amsterdam with a large number of girls and we will spend four days there, I will probably make a day trip to Belgium or Rotterdam or another place close. I still cannot figure out how I am going to fit everything in my medium sized back pack for 10 days, I'm not sure about Munich but Amsterdam is quite expensive so I will be packing salami and cheese and living of fruit and the like. It may sound funny but random picnic spots with friends are my favorite!
I met a girl studying in Amsterdam last night at Juve (the school pub :)) and she is sending me a list of things to do (and eat!!) while I am there. I love personal recommendations!
Cloudy day in Prague so the perfect weather to get stuff done!

Wish you were here!