Firenze 2006-2007

Monday, March 12, 2007

Spring Break in Egypt

Our Spring Break began after we all finished with Humanities on Thursday at 3:45 pm. We all relaxed for a while after finishing class, some people packing for the trips, but mostly just doing nothing and enjoying the freedom. That day was Alex’s birthday, so like 15 of us went out to dinner at Tiajuana’s a Mexican food restaurant here in Florence. From there it was out to a club and then back home to get some rest before the service project the next day.
Since all of us going to Egypt were around on Friday, we helped out in our house’s project serve. We made food and went to a home for mentally handicapped people and fed them and taught them some English and games while practicing Italian ourselves. It was a pretty fun afternoon, and it was easily the most I’d used Italian outside of the classroom in quite some time. That night I tried to get all of our things together to leave the next day. I packed and double checked that we were all set to take off before getting some dinner and going to bed.
On Saturday morning, I got up and had Café Liberta before doing some last minute errands and things around the villa before we were off to Bologna to catch our flight. We made it to Bologna and from the station to the airport without any trouble at all. When we got to the airport we saw that our flight would be an hour late, so we had plenty of time to go check in and hang around the airport to get some lunch before going through customs and boarding the plane. I slept for almost the entirety of the three and a half hour flight and before I knew it we were landing in Sharm el Shiek. When we got off the plane, I noticed that everyone on our flight was Italian, something that was rare, usually flights in Europe were pretty mixed in terms of nationality but not this one. We got off the plane, found the representative for our travel agent and got our visas taken care of with no problem at all, but then came the customs line. It was a huge line, and as it was after one am local time, there were hardly any people working in the booths so it took so long to get through. We waited in a line of mostly Russians and Italians for a good ninety minutes before finally getting through collecting our baggage and getting on a bus to the hotel. After a short bus ride to the hotel we were there, checked in and off to bed as we were all exhausted from traveling all day long.
I got up pretty early the next morning and went to get breakfast. It was one of the best breakfasts that I’ve had since being in Europe. They had great pastries and omelets so I was content every morning I got up for breakfast. After that I walked around the hotel to check it out as it was dark when we got in the previous night so I hadn’t seen hardly any of it. It was a real nice place. There was a main building with the reception, about 30 rooms and several bars, and then about 15 other smaller buildings- most with rooms, but also the restaurant and other buildings like that. There was an upper pool near our room, a lower pool near the beach and then the beach front with a volleyball court, tables, a bar, another restaurant, and a dock going out past the hundred meters of coral out into the sea. From the beach we could see across the sea to Saudi Arabia. I spent all morning lounging in and around the chair, playing some volleyball, but mostly relaxing. We all went to lunch together and then Alex, West, Liz, Richard, and I went into Naema Bay, Sharm’s downtown area. We took the hotel’s bus that left at about five, spent several hours looking around the very Americanized downtown that included a Hard Rock Café, TGI Friday’s, Baskin Robbins, KFC in one block. Around the corner a Starbucks and Coffee Bean were under construction. Apart from the stuff we recognized, there were hundreds of little cafes that jutted out into the pedestrian walkway with everything from Russian food to Egyptian souvenirs. We looked at all we could handle, met some interesting people, and realized pretty quickly that we were the only Americans that Sharm had seen in quite some time. Most people took us for Russian, so as we walked up to most stores, we were greeted in Russian. At seven or so we took the bus back to the hotel and had dinner. Both the lunches and dinners were pretty good. There was a buffet that had a different theme each meal, and while it was an Egyptian take on whatever they prepared, it was still pretty good for the most part. I ended up eating a ton of fish this week, along with rice, and whatever else I could find that looked halfway decent. That night we all went into Naema Bay which was a blast. Several people wanted to watch a basketball game, but we couldn’t find it on anywhere so we just walked around the downtown area once again and I noticed that it seemed a lot like the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Another thing that struck me was how long everything was open- it was one am before things began to close. We got back in the taxis and headed back to the hotel and bed.
Monday was a lot like Sunday, but without the trips into town. We ate breakfast, lounged around the pool in the morning, in the early afternoon we played volleyball at the beach, ate lunch, and then spent all the afternoon at the beach. We went swimming in the Red Sea, which was real nice, but incredibly salty. We wasted the afternoon away on the beach lying out and then jumping in the sea when we got hot or bored before heading back up to the upper pool when the sun went down. We got some snacks there before getting cleaned up and going to dinner. We relaxed around the hotel as we had an early flight to Cairo the next day. We went to the Coffee bar/club in the hotel where they were doing Karaoke in Italian, Russian, and English. We sang a lot of songs- all in English until I finally tried on in Italian. It was Bella by Jovanotti, a song that I know pretty well, but it was still pretty tough. But at least now I can say that I’ve done Karaoke in another language. We all went to bed pretty early that night.
We were up early, ate a quick breakfast, and then off to the airport on Tuesday. We made it to the check-ins and to our boarding in plenty of time, but like every other flight this trip, it was a bit late, so we had a while to wait before getting on the plane and making the short trip to Cairo. We got to Cairo a bit before midday, met Mustafa, the travel agent Elizabeth had set us up with, and got on our bus to go pick up our guide for the day. As we drove through Cairo, we learned a lot about the city- it has about 18 million people, making it one of the biggest cities in the world, and the biggest that I’ve visited this year beating out Istanbul. We drove through the city, noticing certain things about the city and people, and all realizing that this was our first time on the continent of Africa. We picked up our guide, Frank at the Egyptian Museum and headed out to Giza and the pyramids. On our way out to Giza, Frank told us more about Egypt and its history. It was easy to tell right away that Frank really knew his stuff, and in fact, he turned out to be one of the best guides that we have had all year long. We got out to Giza, and as we drove up to the Pyramids, we had a view of downtown Cairo on one side, and the great Pyramid on the other. We parked our bus and walked out toward the largest pyramid. It was kind of a surreal moment because all of us had seen pictures of the pyramids since we could remember and heard all about them, but none of us had really thought that we would ever be standing in front of them like we were then doing. We walked up and sat at the base of the pyramid while Frank told us all about the area and the history. We then got to climb on the pyramid a bit, take some pictures and then made our way around the biggest pyramid onto the second. At one point in time, all the pyramids had a smooth quartz outside that made them pretty white and brilliant in the sun, and on this second pyramid a bit of the outer layer is still visible on the top. We walked up to the base of this pyramid and heard all about it. If this second pyramid, and second biggest pyramid was built by the father, then the Great Pyramid, the largest was built by the grandfather, and the last which we would see in a few minutes was built by the son. We bought tickets to go inside the pyramid, and took the very short (about 50 inches tall) passage way down into the heart of the pyramid. As we kinda crawled/walked down the passage way we felt the air getting warmer and more stale, we reached one room and went down another passage into the main burial chamber where we saw the place where the king for whom the pyramid was built. After that, we walked back down the passages and got on to the bus heading to the third and much smaller pyramid. We heard about this one and took some pictures before heading down to see the sphinx. We walked through the ruins of the temple that was immediately before the sphinx, and rather suddenly we had a view of the sphinx with all three pyramids in the background. It was quite a bit smaller than I had pictured it, but it was still very impressive. We walked around there, and then down to get a panoramic view of the area before going to lunch at a café near there. If initially seeing the pyramids was a surreal experience for us, then lunch was quite a few steps above that, not because of what we ate, but because of where we were. We ate outside on a patio that overlooked the pyramids, sphinx on our left. On our right was downtown Cairo (although not visible), and behind us was the Sahara desert. It was probably the coolest location in which I’ve ever eaten. After lunch we went to a perfume store where they gave us samples of their products and some Egyptian tea. From there it was off to a bazzar where we found a lot of silver products, papyrus, and other typical Egyptian products. We spent the late afternoon there, and as it approached dinner time, we headed back to the airport. The drive back to the airport took much longer than coming from it did because of traffic, but we still made our flight on time, and even had enough time to get some dinner before hand. We made it back to Sharm safely and were back at the hotel near midnight. I went straight to bed as I was pretty tired after the long day.
The next day was another one at the hotel for the most part. We ate breakfast, lounged around the pool for most of the morning, played soccer and volleyball a bit before lunch, ate, and then headed down to the beach. We got some snorkeling equipment from the hotel and went around in the Red Sea for a good part of the afternoon. Seeing the coral reef was pretty cool, and there were a ton of fish to see. I saw some vibrant blue fish and orange fish that I’d never seen before as well as lots of others. It was pretty cool so see all that stuff, I just wish that I had a wetsuit because after about half an hour, the water began to get to us. We called it quits about mid afternoon, relaxed on the beach for a while and then went to get cleaned up before dinner. We all ate a light dinner as we were planning on going into Naema Bay that evening and to go to the Hard Rock Café as it was dirt cheap. We ate, got on our bus and after waiting at the Hard Rock for a bit got our table. All I got was a milkshake which was great. After a long meal during which we watched some soccer we left the restaurant and went to an Egyptian club that was pretty cool. We didn’t stay all that long as people were sunburned and tired in general, so we headed back to the hotel before it got too late.
I slept in on Thursday so I missed breakfast and just got up in time for lunch. After eating we went snorkeling a some more and then headed into Naema Bay to plan some excursions for the next few days. It wasn’t hard to find places that set up trips to Mt. Sinai or dirt biking, so once we found a cheap place that looked reliable, we booked a Quad trip for the next day, and a trip to Mt. Sinai for the next night. After that we went to eat at TGI Friday’s before heading back to the hotel. That night we set up a soccer game in the passage way from the beach to the hotel. It was a long tunnel that was probably fifteen feet wide and about eight feet tall. It made for a cramped and confused game, but it was fun while it lasted. We had our game broken up about half an hour after it started because we were too loud. We then went to the beach and played some capture the flag. After that it was up to wash all the sand and sweat off before going to bed.
I was up early again on Friday, ate breakfast, lounged around until lunch, took a nap and then went on the dirt biking trip. The eight of us who went drove about twenty minutes out into the desert before getting on the quads and heading out into the desert. We were all following our guide and riding single file which was fun, but I got bored and passed people when the opportunity arose. We got the quads up to about 60km/hr, got a little bit of air on the small jumps and terrain that we went over. After about a half hour of riding, we stopped at an echo canyon for a few minutes, made echoes and then went back on our way. We rode back in the direction we came and went down another canyon and made a stop for the bathroom, and a good panoramic view of the desert around us before getting back on the bikes and heading to a Bedouin tent village where we got some tea before heading back to our starting point. It was easily one of the highlights of the trip. Once we got back to the hotel we all ate dinner and got cleaned up before getting on our bus to Mt. Sinai that left Sharm at about eleven pm. We got to the base of the mountain at about 2am and began the hike up the mountain in the dark. There were thousands of people making the hike along with us so the trail was pretty crowded. We had some portable speakers so we had music as we went. We climbed for a good hour before stopping at a place to rest for a bit. The path wasn’t all that tough up to this point, it was just dark and hard to see where we were stepping so we tripped quite a bit on rocks etc. After a short break we continued up and hiked for another hour or so until we came to the base of the stairs that led up to the top of the mountain. We hiked up the 750+ stairs and at about 5:30am we made it to the top of the mountain. We found a nice big rock on the East side of the mountain where we camped out to watch the sunrise. The sun began to rise a little after six and by six thirty, it was fully in view. It was really cool to see the sunrise from the top of the mountain, and see it light up the mountains and valleys as it continued to rise. After it got light on the top of the mountain we began to take pictures of everything up there before heading back down the path we had just climbed. We made it to the bottom once again at about 8:15 and went to get breakfast before going to Saint Katherine’s monastery. The Monastery was pretty cool. The we saw a well that Moses used, the Burning Bush, and the only place in the world that is a Church, Mosque, and Monastery all in one. Our visit at the Monastery was pretty short as none of us had slept the night before and were all dead tired from the 8+ miles that we had hiked that night/morning. After seeing the church and all that the Monastery had to offer we got back on the bus and headed back to Sharm. We all slept a bit on the way back, but it was tough as it was hot and very uncomfortable on the bus. We made it back in time for lunch, all ate and then got cleaned up. Most people took naps, and I tried but was just not tired so I spent my last afternoon around the pool and beach before going to get all my stuff together to leave after dinner. We all ate our last meal at the hotel, got our last things to drink at the bar, said by to the staff and got on our bus to head to the airport. We got checked in with no trouble, made it through customs much faster than we did the last time and spent the last of our Egyptian pounds before getting on the plane, which would turn out to be late like all our other flights on the trip. I was asleep on the plane before it even took off and was out until we were about ten minutes from Bologna. We landed, got through customs and got taxis to the station and were in plenty of time to catch our train at 4:25. We were back in Florence at Campo di Marte at about 5:45 and got back to the villa shortly after 6. I showered and went to Café Liberta before coming back and working a bit, taking a nap, working some more and then writing this. Now it’s almost dinner time and tomorrow back to class.

(The group in our hotel's lobby)

(All us guys with the pyramid in the background)

(Me on the great pyramid)

(The group infront of the great pyramid)

(West, Alex, and me in the second pyramid)

(Me infront of the Sphinx with the great pyramid in the background)

(The Sphinx with the two larger pyramids)

(The two larger pyramids at sunset)

(A view from our hotel room out onto the pool)

(the entrance of our hotel)

(A sunset in Naema Bay)

(The beach at our hotel)

(Saudi Arabia from the dock at our hotel)

(Me and Alex on the Quads)

(Keith, Brie, Steven, and Lindsay relaxing at the Bedouin village on our bike trip)

(Matt hiking up Mt. Sinai in the dark, the faint lights in the background are other people making it up the trail)

(The sunrise from the top of the mountain)

The little tabernacle at the top fo the mountain)

(Keith and Alex on a ridge of the mountain)

(A view of a canyon from the mountain)

(The Burning Bush at Saint Katherine's moastery)
More pics to come.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Road Trip 2

This last weekend, six of us set out on a road trip in two cars. This was a popular weekend for road trips as Pepperdine kids rented 3 more cars apart from our two. We all set out on Thursday night, each with different destinations. Natalie, Myles, Sean, Conner, Brenden, and I set out for Basel, a city on the Swiss/German border, and some 7 hours from Florence. We left at about 9 and headed up to Milano before getting on small roads, passing through Como and onto the Swiss border. Once in Switzerland we headed to Basel on the highways, and finally got there at about 3:30am. Most everyone had been sleeping in the car, but Brenden and I really hadn’t so we pulled off and slept until about 9 before heading into the Autogrill that we had stopped at for some breakfast before heading on our way to Germany. Once in Germany we got on an Autobahn briefly and then exited to get on a smaller road that would take us through the country and the black forest. I have to say, the black forest was neither black nor all that impressive. It was mostly dead and just not anything like it seems in the fairytales. Once we got off that country road that was a lot of fun to drive, we were back on the Autobahn for a while, so I got to see how fast a Fiat Punto would go. The answer is 190km/hr. After driving for a while on the Autobahn, we got off in a small town to stop at a grocery store and get some stuff for a picnic lunch. We stopped for our lunch that was sandwiches and chips on a dock that jutted out into Lake Konstanz, a popular place for Germans to take their holidays. It was pretty much empty when we were there which was nice. We had our lunch, fed the ducks and were then on our way. We drove to Austria and then down into Liechtenstein just to have a look around. We got there mid-afternoon and didn’t really know what to do with ourselves there because it was kinda like Andorra- a country with not much to see or do. Brenden and I found some fun mountain road to drive on so we did that and got some great views, and eventually ended up completely in the snow at a ski resort. We parked the cars and got out to walk around for a while, and ended up having a snowball fight. It was a lot of fun and another country visited. When it began to get dark and we realized we were cold, it was back to the car and back to Austria. We stopped for the night in Bregenz, and after Brenden, Natalie, Conner, and Sean found a suitable hotel for the night we went out for a traditional Austrian dinner. We all got Wiener schnitzel, potatoes, and beer. When we finished eating it was about 11 so we decided to go to bed. It was a pretty intense day, Natalie pointed out that we were in four countries that day, and we ate breakfast in Switzerland, lunch in Germany, a snack in Liechtenstein, and dinner in Austria. Myles and I headed back to our parking spot and set up camp there, Myles sleeping in the front seat and me in the back. We actually slept really well, I only woke up once during the night, and we were not disturbed at all by anyone or any outside noise.
We both got up at about 9 on Saturday and headed to a café to get some breakfast while we waited for the people in the hotel to finish up eating and getting ready. We ended up leaving at about ten and heading to Fussen, back in Germany. We drove for a while through Bavaria and some beautiful scenery. Once again, we stopped at a grocery store for picnic stuff and then found a pull off on the road where we could eat. After eating and freezing due to the wind, it was off to Fussen and Neuschwenstein, or the Cinderella castle as it is also called. We drove around the town of Fussen before heading up to the castle. It was the first place on the trip that was obviously very touristy. There were several lots for parking, a small town with tons of souvenir shops, and then, the castle upon the hill. We parked in one of the lots at first but then noticed that there was a road up to the castle, so we drove it. We figured out pretty quickly that the road was not for cars, but people and horse drawn carriages, but no one stopped us, so we drove right up to the front gate of the castle, go out to take some pictures and then headed back down. We parked about 200 feet below the castle, and it was then that someone told us that there wasn’t any parking there and that we had to go back down the hill. It was pretty cool, and while we didn’t go inside the castle, we had some fun there and did all we wanted to there. After leaving the castle, it was back to the town of Fussen where we walked around a bit before getting back on the road and heading back to Italy. We drove through Germany, stopped in Austria for a quick dinner, and then finally got to Italy as it began to rain a bit. We stopped in a town called Brixen (the German name, as both German and Italian and spoken in Trento, the region that borders Austria) for the night. The four found a hotel and Myles and I a parking spot before going to bed. We were just as comfortable as the night before, and once again we didn’t have trouble sleeping.
We got up on Sunday morning pretty early, probably because we went to bed at about 10. We started up the car and went in search of breakfast. We had a hard time finding anything so we headed to the train station where we found an open café. We ate there and then went back to the hotel to wait for the others. The plan for that day was to see some of the scenery of the region, including the Val di Fumes, so we drove around a lot up there before getting on the highway and heading back down to Florence via Modena and Bologna. We ate lunch at an Autogrill and got back to Florence at about 4. For the rest of the day we messed around in the car, taking it around Florence and did some homework in preparation for midterms this week.
It’s just 2 days till we leave for Egypt, so this will be my last post until I get back- March 11th or 12th.. Sometime around there anyway.

(A picture of the Black Forrest, the other car is right infront of us)

(Moving through some of the Southern Germany mountains)

(Lake Konstanz)

(Natalie eating by the lake)

(Sean at the picnic)

(Brenden and Sean, picture taken by me as we passed them at like 120km)

(Sean driving)

(Our two cars, mine is the left)

(Out next picnic at a freezing roadside stop)

(The Cinderella Castle)

(My bed for 3 nights in a row this weekend)

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Turkey Field Trip

Our educational field trip for this semester was to Ephesus and Istanbul, Turkey. So, on Tuesday morning last week we left the villa at 6:00am and got on a bus to Roma to catch our flight to Istanbul. After the flight, passing through customs and getting our visas taken care of we headed to our connecting to Izmir, South of Istanbul. We got there at about 8:00pm local time, after a long day of traveling. We all picked up our bags and were finally on a bus to our hotel. We made it to our hotel in Ephesus, or at least near there at about 9:00, and after setting our stuff down in the rooms we headed immediately to dinner. Dinner that night was great, we had some amazing soup, rice, and different kinds of meats. From there, at about 11, several of us decided to take a walk to see the beach that was about five minutes away. We made it to the shore of the Aegean and found a nice little dock to sit on for a while. We watched lightning strike several times off in the ocean before it started to pour on us so we ran back to the hotel and our warm beds.
The next day, Wednesday, we were out fo the hotel fairly early and on our way to the ancient city of Ephesus. We got there and met our tour guides and began the tour of the old city. The best description I can give of the city is that it is like a smaller, but better preserved version of Pompey. There were several main streets that we walked down, each of them complete with a sewer system underneath. We saw the place where the city was governed, the market, library, amphitheater, and long, shop lined road that led to the ancient port that was the center of the city. The whole tour was pretty interesting and like Corinth, it was weird to think about all the Bible related history that we were walking in the midst of. After touring the ancient city for several hours we headed back to the buses and went to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. It was cool, the scenery around the single column remaining, but the “temple” itself wasn’t all that great anymore. We walked around there a bit before heading to the Basilica of St. John, the remains of a Christian Church that holds St. John the Evangelist’s Tomb. It was neat to see the tomb and walk around the ruins of the rest of the church, but it began to rain as we were walking around on our tour, so we were more than happy when it was time to go to lunch at a nearby hotel. Lunch was pretty good, once again we had rice and soup, and then we had lamb on skewers and chocolate pudding for dessert. After lunch, it was off to an archeological museum in Ephesus that held a lot of the statues and better preserved parts that had been excavated from the ruins of the old city. We saw their exhibits and then were back on the bus and went to see a Turkish Carpet company. We saw how the silk for the highest quality rugs was spun and collected, we saw the process of dying wool with all natural ingredients and then saw how the rugs were designed and actually made by hand. For the highest quality rugs with the most amounts of knots per square inch, a year or more of labor was required, and the cost was anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000+ euro for one of the carpets. We then saw an assortment of finished products, tried Turkish Apple tea, which was amazing, and were then on our way to a pottery company not far away. There we saw how the famous Turkish pottery products were made and decorated. We learned about what each of the decorations and symbols on the tiles mean, and saw the process of making them all. After that, it was back to the airport and our flight back to Istanbul, this time to stay for a few days. The flight to Istanbul was short but a lot of fun. We had some amazing food- a great sandwich and a dessert that was like a moon pie. We got to Istanbul about an hour later and after getting our bags, we were once again on a bus heading to our hotel. After a half hour ride through Istanbul’s traffic we were there, dropped our bags off in the rooms and were at dinner. Dinner there was pretty much what we had come to expect from Turkish food. It was rice, soup and a meat with vegetables and a creamy dessert. The best part of dinner was the fact that it was Valentine’s day. There was a guy playing Spanish guitar in the restaurant, so some people danced, and near the end of the evening, Drew, Myles, and I got up in front of the group and the restaurant and read our Valentine’s poem that we’d written earlier for the group and the occasion. The food was great and the hotel nice, but the best part was probably the view that the restaurant and our room had. Alex and I had a view of the Hagia Sophia, a former Christian Church converted to Mosque and now museum, and in the distance was the Blue Mosque, the main sight in Istanbul. We were five minutes walk from the center of the city and in a real nice place.
Next day we got up, had breakfast in the hotel which was amazing because they had oatmeal, something that I had not had in a long time. After eating we headed out to the Church of the Holy Savior of Chora to see the mosaics that decorated the walls of the Christian Church turned Mosque. They were some pretty cool and amazingly well preserved mosaics, but they were a bit repetitive in my opinion. After touring the place, we headed to the center of the city and the Hippodrome, the ancient racing circle for the Roman times. Today, it is a piazza with four monuments in it that show the history associated with the place. The first was the Fountain of Wilhelm II, marking the entrance to the race track, then an Egyptian obelisk, much like the one seen in the center of St. Peter’s square in Roma, then there was a spiral statue that seemed very much out of place, and the last monument was the Obelisk of Constantine. After looking around all that, we headed just to our left and went inside the Blue Mosque. The Mosque was a pretty strange, but neat place. We had to take our shoes off before entering, as the whole floor was covered in prayer carpets. We went inside and saw the huge candle chandeliers that lit the mosque in the old times, learned the history behind the prayers said five times a day, learned about the decorations of the mosque and looked around. The mosque was pretty big, not quite as big as the duomo in Florence I think, but near there. The decorations were blue tile for the most part, hence the name Blue Mosque, with other tiles all around the walls. After the Mosque, it was across a piazza to the museum of Hagia Sophia. This Christian church, turned Mosque is now a museum that tells some of the history of both religions in the city. It was about as big as the Blue Mosque, but not as well decorated. The interior was much more like a Catholic Cathedral than the Mosque, despite its outward appearance of being distinctly Muslim. The church was pretty neat inside, but nothing like the Blue Mosque, just another look at some Muslim decorations and the chance to learn more about their faith and practices. After that tour, we had an hour for lunch on our own, so we headed off on one of the main streets of that part of the city, got a Kebab for about a euro, and then headed to Starbucks. We got coffee and American desserts there before walking around a bit with the rest of our hour. When the whole group met back up, we went to the Topkapi palace, the place the Sultans lived for years. We toured their living quarters, including their pools, baths, etc. Saw the treasury, gardens, and grounds of the palace, which included some great views of the city before heading to the Grand Bazzar. The Bazzar was incredible. It was like a city of shops with roads and stores that stretched out as far as we could walk in the two hours we were there. We looked around, saw the high quality fakes that they sold, as Turkey apparently doesn’t have any laws forbidding it, looked at some of the typical Turkish products and bargained with some people before heading back to the bus to drop off our purchases and get ready for the Turkish baths. Going into the baths, we had no idea what to expect. When we got there we were given a locker room and towels to change into, so we all did and walked into the bath. The bath was an octagonal room that was probably about 95 degrees and steamy, like a big sauna. There were basins of hot water all over the place, several side rooms and in the middle there was a big marble table for lack of a better word that was heated, come to think of it all of the walls were heated. We sat down in on of the rooms and were called out to the marble table one by one to get a massage and be washed by the workers there. The massage was so nice, and the wash felt like the deepest one I’d ever had. Sweating that much, getting massaged and then being washed is supposed to be great for the skin and body, so after the massage we sat around for a while longer, enjoyed ourselves in the various warm rooms, and then got cold showers before changing back into our clothes and heading back to the hotel for dinner. Dinner that night wasn’t anything great in my opinion. But it didn’t really matter as we were all so relaxed and in such a good mood from the last few hours that it didn’t matter. It was a pretty early night and a good rest before the next, and last day of touring Turkey.
Next morning I had oatmeal once again was then we were off to see more of Istanbul. Our first stop for the day was to the Egyptian Spice Bazzar, like the Grand Bazzar, but smaller and focusing on food. We walked around the place, most people bought some spices or Turkish delight but for the most part, the Grand Bazzar was so much cooler that this one was just kinda so-so. After the bazzar, we headed off to one of the ports to catch a ferry ride on the Bosphorus, the straight the divides Istanbul into the European and Asian sides. We were on the ferry for about an hour and a half, part of the time outside and at the front of the boat enjoying the views and being outside on the water, but we all retreated inside once we got too cold. After the tour, it was onto a traditional Turkish seafood meal at a restaurant pretty far outside the city on the straight. The lunch was pretty good. I was one of the few people who were excited about eating the seafood, but I think that t turned out that most people liked the meal. For starters we had cous cous, some cucumber spread, anchovies, rice in mussel shells, beans, and a few other things. Then, our main course was some fish with won tons, potatoes and other sides that were all pretty good. Dessert was fruit. On the whole the meal was pretty good and some great seafood, something that we don’t get a ton of around Florence. After lunch, we got back on the buses and headed into the Asian part of the city and to another market, one that the locals go to. The best way I can describe this market is that it is the leather market in Florence, just with the Central Market outside alongside the rest of the shops. We wandered around there, ended up in another Starbucks for a while and were then on our way back into the main part of Istanbul. We then had some free time, some most people headed back to the Grand Bazzar for some more time to wander around the thousands of shops. After several more hours there we headed back to the hotel and then it was onto the Whirling Dervish Ceremony. It was in a room of the train station that was the end stop of the Oriental Express in the old days. The ceremony itself consisted of a band of about 8 members who played traditional Muslim music for a while, then the Whirlers came out. There were five of them, all dressed in white, and after going through some ceremonial procedures, they started their ceremony of whirling to the music. They spun for a good half hour or so and did various rituals during their spinning. It was a weird thing o be watching because I definitely felt like I didn’t belong there and it seemed almost as if I were intruding on someone else’s experience. Overall, I’m glad that I went but it was definitely not something that I would do many more times. After that it was another late dinner, this one, our last in Turkey was amazing. We had some sort of Mexican style crepe and egg rolls, all done in a Turkish fashion. After dinner about twenty of us went out to a bar near the hotel to dance, and we tried water pipes that Turkey is pretty famous for. We smoked flavored tobacco that was very mild and heavily flavored. It was a fun night out on our last night in Turkey.
Early the next morning we had breakfast and were then on our way to the airport to check in for our flight. We got on the plane at about 11 after going through customs and getting a snack, and several hours later we were in Roma. We got our bags and headed to the bus and the three and a half hour trip back to Florence. We slept most of the way back and got back at about 5, in time to shower before dinner. It was a great trip and definitely opened my eyes to a part of the world I’d never seen before and I got to visit a country I’d never really thought I’d make it to.

(The main street in Ephesus- from the city to the port)

(People getting the best pic of one of the temples in Ephesus)

(Our whole group infront of the library)

(West, Conner, Me, Alex, and Matt jumping off the stairs at the library)

(The guys posing on coloumns in the amphitheatre)

(The temple of Artemis- a wonder of the ancient world)

(The tomb of St. John)

(Us being shown Turkish rugs)

(A fresco in a church turned mosque turned museum)

(The Blue Mosque)

(Me, Myles, and Drew infront of the Blue Mosque)

(Inside the mosque)

(Some of the tile decoration on the walls of the mosque)

(A view of a palace in Istanbul from the Bosphouos Strait)

(The Whirling Devish Ceremony)

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Soccer Team in the Paper

Our 7 v. 7 soccer team got an article in the Graphic, Pepperdine's newspaper this last week. Here is the link: http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2007/2007-02-22-soccer.htm
We are Pepperdine's first International Club team and as far as we know, the first international club of any kind. We can't officially be a club team at this point because there hasn't even been any need for them to think about it.
We are playing this Wednesday and then will be off for a week or so for our Spring break but then back for 3 or 4 more games before coming back home.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Roma and Venezia

This last week we went to two of the most famous cities in Italy, each for just a day. On Wednesday, the entire group had a field trip to Roma to see the Pope and do several other things off the beaten track. Then, yesterday, what seemed like the whole group made the trek up to Venezia for a taste of the Carnivale.
We left Florence very early on Wednesday, and got on a train to Roma, getting there at about 8:30- the time most people would have usually been getting up on regular days. We then all somehow took the subway to the Vatican without losing anyone. We got instructions for the day, and walked around to the auditorium where our audience with the Pope would be. None of us had any idea what to expect with this audience, so I guess you can say that we weren’t surprised to see that it was an auditorium that seated about 2,000-3,000 people. We got seats and then started to look around the room and saw flags from about 10-12 different countries, and various banners from organizations etc. The audience finally started with a short sermon by the Pope which was then repeated in five other languages, so we heard the thing six times. After that, a priest or someone like that started introducing the groups, and when he said a group they would all stand up and cheer or sing. It was pretty cool, especially when they announced our group. In the end, there was the Lord’s prayer in Latin and that was it. It wasn’t that intimate a setting, but it was pretty coo because we did get to hear the Pope preach and take part in the kind of “pep-rally” that he has every week. After that, it was lunch time so West, Steven, Conner, and I went to find some pizza near our meeting point. We did rather quickly, ate it and were still hungry. Still having an hour or so we walked around some more and got some Chinese food before heading off to the meeting point and our next stop in Roma. We all got on our bus and headed to the Catacombs that are just outside the city. The Catacombs are old, old underground burial sites that the Christians used in the first few centuries A.D. We took a tour of one of them- a good thirty feet below the current street level. This Catacomb was on Via Appia, a road that Paul is sure to have traveled several times in and our of Roma. We took the pretty eerie tour of the underground system of tunnels and tombs. We saw all the major tombs and passage ways before heading to see the burial place of St. Sebastian in a church above the Catacombs. From there, it was onto the Church of the Bones, which strangely enough is on a road in Roma that I know quite well (it’s only like 50 yards from the Hard Rock), but I never knew the church was there. The thing with this Church is that the monks didn’t believe in death, or at least burial it seems because they would use the bones of their fallen brothers to decorate their chapels. It was really weird, but also kinda cool to see. From there, it was back to the station and our train back to Florence. We were back for a late dinner and for me, bed.
Then, yesterday several of us went up to Venezia to see what exactly Carnivale was. We left pretty early as we only intended to stay for the day and wanted all the time we could get, so by noon we were in Venice. We walked through the labyrinth of tiny streets and alleys as well as bridges over canals to get from the St. Lucia station to the Rialto bridge and then St. Mark’s square. We got something to eat just off St. Mark’s square and then headed into the church, I have to say, the church is so much nicer when it isn’t flooded. From there we headed out into the piazza to see what was going on with the Carnivale scene. We ran into several other Pepperdiners who were there for the day as well so we played with the pigeons and talked to them for a while before heading to the water front at the far end of the piazza for some pictures. It was about then that we learned that the Carnivale events would begin at about 4:30 that afternoon, so we got all our return stuff squared away and made sure that we would have as much time as possible to see what was going on. At 4:30 we were in St. Mark’s square and watched as the stage that had been set up started to attract people, and a few minutes later there were some actors that came on stage. They did a short scene introducing the Carnivale and the events before other, smaller stages in the piazza started to attract people as well as there were scenes going on there. We walked around the piazza, looking around when we noticed that there were a ton of people collecting around the waterfront area, so we went to see what was going on. We saw a parade that was starting there, with a marching band and flag twirlers followed by people in costume and then people carrying women to the stage. We learned that the guys carrying the girls to the stages were carrying participants in some sort of a beauty contest, so we picked up one of our girls and tried to get into the parade, but were unsuccessful. We watched the parade and all the other goings on in the piazza before going to get a quick bite to eat before catching our train back to Bologna and then Florence. We ended up getting back at about midnight which was perfect. We all felt like we had got an idea of what Carnivale in Venezia is like and all got to see the city, or at least the main points of interest.
Now we are back in Florence and just around here for the rest of the weekend, recovering and getting ready to leave for Turkey on Tuesday.