Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts

Monday, August 7, 2017

Week 24: Whirlwind

Hey!

I know it’s Monday, which means that for the first time since I started this blog, I’m undeniably late. In my defense, I’ve completely lost all sense of time. We’ve been to so many places that the days have begun to blur together.

Okay, that sounds bad to me too. But I’ve been to 4 cities in 3 countries since last Sunday. I’m losing track of it all because so much has happened.

Last Monday, we nearly missed our flight from Istanbul to Sarajevo. We made it, thanks to some lovely travelers who let us cut in front of them in the passport line. It turned out that our bags had not taken the journey with us. Either leg. They were still in Tel Aviv. There was nothing we could do except for continue to the hostel without them. We were fortunate enough to get them the next morning, delivered straight to the hostel without further incident.

That was not the only mishap of the trip so far. On Saturday, we went on a bus from Zadar, Croatia to the Nin lagoon. Due to some unclear signage at a bus stop, we got off in a hurry at the wrong place. In the rush, I dropped my phone. It took a kind restauranteur and a whole lot of phone calls, but we managed to flag down the driver. Of course, I had to wait until we were back at the bus station in Zadar before I could actually get it back.

These incidents have been stressful, but the rest of the trip is incredible. Sarajevo is a fascinating place. We learned about the longest siege in modern history, which was still going on when I was born. Our tour guide told us about the shrapnel collection she had as a kid and showed us “Sarajevo Roses,” indents in the concrete from where a shell had hit. We also went to a few museums and hung around in Old Town Sarajevo.

The Dalmatian Coast of Croatia was a lot more laid back. We went to the beach in Split and then made our way up the coast to Zadar. We walked around the city, which is ancient and full of magnificent old buildings. We swam at the Sea Organ (Google it. Seriously.) and watched the sun set over the Adriatic. Then, we went to Nin, where we had a great afternoon at the beach despite the misadventure with my phone.

Yesterday, we took a bus to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We climbed a pretty big hill to a castle. The view was awesome, but thunder started as soon as we reached the top. It started pouring before we made it back to our hostel. We managed to hide from the worst of it, but that basically ended our night in town. This morning, we got up a bit earlier and went exploring. Ljubljana is a small city, but it’s got charm (and a canal).

And now it’s time for some pictures!!!


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We’re back in Croatia for the afternoon, so I’m gonna go explore with my travel buddy. See you Sunday!
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Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Week 23: Layover

Hey everyone!

 It's been a busy week. I saw family and friends, visited a few more cities in Israel, and saw another movie.

 I'm just going to talk about today. Elana and I woke up before 7 in Tel Aviv. After getting a little bit lost, we took a bus to the train to the airport. I slept through the whole flight.

 The plane touched down in Istanbul at half past noon. We made it through customs quickly, double checked that our bags were checked through to our next destination, and got a taxi to our hotel.

 After checking in and putting our stuff down, we took a bus to a train to another train so we could see the Hagia Sophia. (Elana would say that we crossed between continents, but everyone knows there's no reason to consider Europe and Asia to be 2 continents.)

 I've seen some pretty buildings in my life. Very few of them compare to the awe-inspiring structure that is the Hagia Sophia. The outside of the building is formidable, with an enormous dome and minarets at each corner. The inside gave me chills. It's decorated in mosaics depicting Jesus as well as Islamic art, all old and all beautiful. I'm so lucky to have been able to see it. Here are some pictures (scroll through to see all 3):



 Other than that, we did a little shopping, tried Turkish falafel, and did the same complicated journey in reverse to get back to our hotel. We leave tomorrow morning for our next flight. 

I've never had such a long layover before, but I'm glad we ended up with this one. Turkey is not a country I would have thought to go to and part of me wishes I could see more of it. The rest of me is excited to see the next cities on our list!

See you next week for countries that are entirely within Europe!
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Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Week 22: Lots and Lots of Cats

Hey everyone!

 It's been another unbelievable week this week. I landed in Israel soon after I wrote last week's post. I took a late train from the airport to Haifa, which is my main destination on this trip. At nearly 2 AM, I was reunited with Elana, my friend from Brandeis who has been studying at the Technion. 

 This last week has fluctuated between lazing around and ridiculously busy. I've had days where I didn't leave the building I woke up in.

 On Wednesday and Thursday, I was in Jordan. Elana, her roommate, and I all took a tour to Jerash, Amman, and Petra. We saw some beautiful sights and learned a lot about the history of the region. There were amphitheaters from the Greek and Roman Empires everywhere, a citadel in Amman, and a Nabataean cemetery in Petra.

 After a very long and very delayed ride back to Israel, I came to visit family in both Haifa and Zichron. It's been amazing, save for two important facts:

 1) My Israeli family loves cats and they've all got at least one.

 2) I'm REALLY allergic to cats. Like more than I'm allergic to anything else. 

 So it's been a bit of a struggle. I'm on allergy medication and I've got my inhaler handy for nighttime, but I'm also a sneezy, watery-eyed mess. And the cats are all really sweet, so I can't even resent them for it.

 It's totally worth it to see my relatives. I'm having a great time despite the slight misery. And I'll see you next week when I'm no longer sleeping in the same residence as a cat.

 Here is this week in pictures!





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Location: Haifa, Israel

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Week 21: In Transit

Hello from yet another plane!

This week has been another wild one. I visited Bangkok and saw the new Spider-Man movie (yes, that is what I did with my day in Bangkok). Then, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I’ve never been to a country like Cambodia. It has a recent history of conflict and it lacks a lot of basic infrastructure that I’m used to. The drive from the airport was on mostly unpaved roads, past tiny houses (not the trendy minimalist kind). My hotel, which was on a dirt road, was pretty upscale. I got to enjoy air conditioning, a huge bed, and a good shower.

I also got a private tour of the temples. My tour guide, Bunny, told me all of the expected history about how the temples were built and the monarchs who financed them. I also learned about the soldiers who hid and fought in the temples during the Vietnam War. He pointed out the places they’d carved their names into the wall, presumably so people would know they’d been there should they not return.

Angor Archaeological Park is a World Heritage Site. There are over 250 temples in the complex, as well as palace ruins. The main attraction is Angkor Wat, which is the largest place of worship in the world. I went to see the sun rise over the temple and then climbed a terrifyingly steep wooden staircase to the top. It is the tallest building in the city, so I could see everything from up there.

Bunny also taught me about Hinduism and Buddhism. Many of the temples predate Buddhism and are dedicated to various Hindu gods. Some of them were designed for both Hindu and Buddhist worship, or were divided to accommodate differing practices. The walls were covered in carvings of gods and sacred stories, as well as stories of Khmer life at the times the temples were built. I did not know much about Buddhism before my trip to Southeast Asia, and there are definitely huge gaps in my knowledge, but I feel like I’ve got a much better understanding of one of the world’s major religions.

I’m on my way to Israel now (and I’ll be there by the time this gets posted). This part of the trip will be a sort of break for me – time to relax and visit with friends and family in a familiar place. I’ll tell you about it next week.

Thanks again for reading this blog. It means a lot to me that there are people following my trip, either here or on Instagram. Speaking of, here are a few pictures from the last week:



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Update: I've arrived at my destination. See you soon!
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