Wow, to look over this blog you'd think I'm sitting around doing nothing and going no where when actually I've been pretty busy in past months....
But finally, something I remembered to take pictures at that is really pretty - I highly recommend a relaxing trip out to a cute town like Jim Thorpe with friends. It's an extra bonus when you can find a really nice hike up to some waterfalls in the woods. A little venture to the great outdoors and then back to town for a decadent dinner with cocktails. lovely! We need to find more "excuses" both big and small to bring us out to do fun things like this.
A family wedding brought us up there (one of Jeff's cousins) and it was a great chance to get to see more family and visit in a relaxed way. The car ride up was easy, the motel was nice, and we got to see the annual balloon festival early Sunday morning. I had been told stories of balloon festivals of years past and how cool they were and I was excited to get to see for myself. Indeed it really was neat to be up early and watching all these hot air balloons be inflated and go up - the traditional ones and the animal-shaped ones. Very fun, especially with a nice cup of hot chocolate to go along as we watched. Next time I want to figure out how to get a ride in one of them. That would be an experience.
We took a quick day trip out to "Amish Country" in Pennsylvania - it was beautiful. The weather was perfect, we got to meander around and check things out, we got to see where a very old religious community lived (the Ephrata Cloister) and their museum, which was really cool. It made us wistful for a simpler, cleaner, more basic life. I think Jeff and I both felt more relaxed after being out in the countryside for a day, even if we did have to return to a heap of obligations at the end of the trip. It's always nice to get away even if for a short time.
well, trying to catch up a little, so I thought I would post something on the trip we made down to visit Lisa in Florida in January 2008 before she moved back to Mass.
We had a great long weekend down there and Jeff got to see Disneyworld and Epcott for the first time - cool! Didn't take too many pictures, but got one or two good ones.
Tulum Mexico.... could I ask for a more idyllic setting for a relaxing, beachy, wonderful honeymoon? Jeff and I had such a nice time - we lounged about, we visited ruins, we lounged more on the beach, we swam with tropical fish, we lazed around, we ate good food, we relaxed. My only complaint was that we didn't have another week to spend there - I would like to send everyone on this trip to recharge their batteries! Maybe we can go back for our 5th anniversary.... I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Marrakech was amazing - as amazing as we'd heard, I think. We got to wander around quite a bit, got to go out of the city to see the ourika valley, and got to meet a wonderful family while there. The toughest part was in figuring out which pictures to try to put up here... Marrakech was such a contrast to Casablanca, I think it would be the perfect place to do a semester abroad or to live for a summer or something. In terms of our short little trip, the foodpoisoning was not the highlight, otherwise all was well - wish I had written about all this sooner, but I got rather caught up in the whole wedding thing.... see next post for more info on that!
Alisa, Sofia, and I headed off to Morocco January first to ring in the new year with some travel. After an afternoon in Madrid, Spain, we had a little time in Casablanca. We landed at night, in the fog, appropriately enough. The drive in the taxi to the city center made us feel like we had landed somewhere very bizarre because so the fog was so thick but no one seemed to find that out of the ordinary.
After a little hotel mix-up (our original hotel had overbooked because alegedly the king was in town...?..?) we ended up at a 4-star, really nice hotel with a super bathroom, a lot of space, and satelite TV. yeah, we were roughing it.
Our visit to Casablanca consisted of walking around the city in the day, eating in cafes, stopping for coffee, and visiting the new-ish Hassan II Mosque that tourists are allowed to go inside (with guided tours) to see the interior. It was amazing and way over the top with all the decoration.
After more walking and more food we were back to the hotel to rest up for a morning departure on the way to Marrakesh.
I thought I would include a photo (more to be found, as always, at shutterfly) and this time... something high-tech.... a video I took with my camera, that is a pretty terrible video but gives a good idea of the size of the Hassan II Mosque's area and the call that goes out at sunrise, noon, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00, (and maybe I missed a time in there somewhere, I can't remember)... all over Moroccan cities... it's the call to prayer and each mosque announces it so you end up with a lot of overlapping competing calls if you're in a city with a bunch of mosques. We hardly even noticed it by the end of the week but at the start of the trip it was pretty cool and kindof haunting to hear it everywhere. I'm still working on editing this and maybe splicing it with another movie clip I have.... we shall see.
We (Alisa, Sofia, and I) have finally planned our trip to Marrakesh which has been in the works for so long! The tickets were bought long ago, we found some riads to stay in... Casablanca and Marrakech here we come! To spark your interest here is one lovely photo I found on the web - everything I've looked like seems to come from such a different color scheme than I'm used to, especially in January!
Iceland's amazing countryside full of natural wonders
The whole island was formed from volcanic activity, with different parts of the land in various stages of the natural process from lava rock to moss covered lava land mass to fertile soil that stays put. Aside from what we could see of this in Reykyavik, we decided to take a day trip out to see a few waterfalls (such as Gullfoss), a volcanic crater, Geysir (and other hotsprings like Strokkur), and Thingvellir (Iceland's ancient parliament right on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). It was a full day, to say the least.
Well, after a day like that how could we stop there? We rented a car - I know... driving in a foreign country... look out!! and went up the west coast to the Snaefellsnes peninsula. It was, of course, beautiful and hard to describe. As Lonely Planet points out, it's no wonder that Jules Verne was inspired by the are for his Journey to the Centre of the Earth. We stayed with a great family at their Guesthouse outside of a little village called Grundarfjorthur - where, coincidentally, they were celebrating a group of French sailboaters' arrival. Funny to see French flags everywhere in preparation for the welcoming festivites, but neat to get to overhear the military band's welcome.
Eventually we had to come back - again, as with everywhere, wishing we had more time but greatful for having had such a fantastic trip. I wish we could have found a spot to stop along the twisty mountain road on the way back - it was great - I don't know if I could ever get so used to this amazing nature as to take it for granted here... it seems to demand that you pay attention and recognize the control that nature has over mankind even now.
*sigh* eventually it all had to come to an end and we had to travel back to reality.... really a month wouldn't have been long enough for me and I am already mentally planning the next trip....
Reykjavik - the capital of cool with the charm of a fishing town
We really loved Reykjavik - it was nice and sunny with a cool sea breeze each of the days we were there. Although it was pricy (as islands seem to be) it was a great city. It was cool that it was a city in its own right with all the culture of a city but also keeps the feel of a small fishing town. Something like 3/4 of the Icelandic population lives in or around the city of Reykjavik but we never saw it get that crowded. We both wished we had more energy for the nightlife, but after sightseeing all day it was tough.
After spending a few days drinking excellent and strong coffee (or hot chocolate, as the case may be) wandering aound the city and relaxing in the pool or Blue Lagoon spa, we decided to head up the coast and see more of the country side. While we stayed in Reykjavik we took a day trip around to some amazing natural wonders nearby and wanted to sample some more.
July 4th - the Hermitage and Petrodvorets (peterhof)
well maybe everyone already knows the story by now... I'll start at the beginning of the day anyway. It was another perfect morning and we decided to do a little shopping and head over to the Hermitage. The Hermitage museum has five buildings - one of which has 1057 rooms in it - and can still only display 10% of its collection at any one time - what more can be said about that!?! It's a crazy palace with not only art but all kinds of things and the rooms themselves are as interesting as anything in there. It's quite bedazzling.
several of the more over-the-top photos are in the July 4th album on Shutterfly.
After being stunned by the Hermitage and having a little ice cream in a park as a quick snack we decided to splurge and take the Hydrofoil over to Petrodvorets (aka Peterhof), one of Peter the Great's summer palaces and a truly gorgeous place.
Little did I know...
In we went to get some photos of the fabulous fountains, sculpture, and gardens. We walked around for about half an hour and as it was already almost 5pm the fountains were gradually being shut off. The crowds began to thin and we found a noce quiet bench to sit on in front of the dragon waterfalls to relax and enjoy the gardens for a while.
As we're sitting there Jeff reaches into his camera bag and gets up and down on one knee - to propose to me. It was the best setting I can imagine and I totally didn't expect a thing. I guess I was onw of the few who didn't either expect it or actually know Jeff's plans.... it was really a magical moment and couldn't have been done better. The ring is gorgeous and just the type of thing I love, a beautiful Saphire ring with leaves along the side that Jeff had made for me at Halloween in Philly. truly amazing..... oh, yes, even though I was quite speechless, I did say 'yes' obviously.
How can you top a day like that? only later did we realize that it was actually the 4th of July... go figure!
Next we headed to St Petersburg by train. I'll split this bit of the trip up into the city.... the Hermitage.... and Peterhof (Petrodvorets) to get a few extra pictures on this websit but a lot more will be on the Shutterfly site again.... just a sampling since we haven't gotten the real film pictures back yet, only the digital.
So we start with the city itself. It's just as beautiful as it was 5 years ago with maybe a little bit more neon and a few changes in businesses. I love Petersburg and I think Jeff got to see some of its magic on this quick white nights trip.
We stayed at a "minihotel" right off Nevskii which, although it looked humble, was probably the cleanest place we stayed during the whole trip. The women who worked there were very kind and watched over us to make sure all was well. The architecture in this ciry is so far the most amazing I have seen anywhere - quite over the top. Glad it survived so many political changes and upheavals.
We got to see a ton of the city and went almost nonstop most of our stay - those white nights can certainly extend your day! We didn't get to see it all but we did an amazing amount of things. We were especially lucky to get to see the Kirov Ballet company at the Marinskii theatre. Being here makes me miss Moscow and Russia a great deal and makes me wish we had more time here than we do this trip - but I knew that would happen before we came. We got to see most of the city on a surface level and got to go up to the top of St. Issac's cathedral to see the whole city to boot. We'd really need a bit more time to get to explore everything though..... well, we'll be back.
For July 4th we went first to the Hermmitage and then Petrodvorets - both in another post here... talk about a trip I will always remember in detail!
We started in Helsinki for a day and a half or so...
So, we started our trip in Helskinki to catch ourselves up to the time change. This began the beautiful weather we had during the entire trip. We dropped our bags at Hotelli Ava and headed in for a brief start on the city touring - such a calm, nice, managable city. During our stay here we got to see the Tuomiokirkko (Lutheran Cathedral), the Uspenskii Cathedral, and the Temppeliaukio (rock church) - three very different types of churches for sure.
We went to the Kauppatori market for some snacking and some gift buying, saw a great deal of ornate architecture and interesting detail, and got to sample some (I think) traditional Lappish cuisine.
All in all a great start to our trip. You can see more photos on my shutterfly web site.
g no where when actually I've been pretty busy in past months....
