The scariest thing we saw

and this is in a church...creepy no?

Istanbul

I think Istanbul was our best day because we got to hang out with Annie and her friend.
We saw the Blue Mosque and the Bazaar. We drunk apple tea and ate cakes (with pistachios in them!). Annie told us funny Anniestories. There was also a scary tram ride.

Now the creepy

So the (more) creepy military history....

Nazi medals
Weapons
Propaganda
Just generally creepy military stuff

History

So NZ has a pretty pathetic military history. Exhibit: Wrights Hill Fortress - completed after the war and never put to use. A set of tunnels in the Karori hills which housed three (only two were ever actually put there) guns for coastal security.

This housed the number one gun (notice how huge it is), the actual barrel of the gun came out on ground level.

These are the degree markings they used to position the gun, it was able to shoot all points of the compass.

Military lighters

Thinking of something creepy and gothic for Halloween?

Summary

Thursday 02-Oct-08: Left Wellington, discovered my eftpos card no longer worked, panicked and was saved by Bill. Flew from Auckland to Singapore. Singapore Airlines have TV and movies on demand - watched ridiculous amounts

Friday 03-Oct-08: Left Singapore, discovered how huge and weird the airport is. Flew to Rome, was sick on the plane, were driven to our hotel.

Saturday 04-Oct-08: Sightseeing Tour of the Vatican, had to chase a guide to the bus, got dropped off in the freezing rain had to find our way back to our hotel.

Sunday 05-Oct-08: Caught the train to Civitavecchia, managed to get it free. Got on the boat, was confined to my room in case I had the Norovirus.

Monday 06-Oct-08: Drove though Naples to Pompeii, saw ruins.

Wednesday 08-Oct-08: Athens; saw acropolis, shops, were fed and watched dancing.

Friday 10-Oct-08: Istanbul had our best day seeing Annie, ate and went to the Blue Mosque. We had rough seas from here till we left Egypt.

Saturday 11-Oct-08: The sea was too rough to land at Mykonos.

Monday 13-Oct-08: Had an extremely long day trip to dirty Cairo, saw Pyramids, Sphinx and Museum. Had been considering going to markets in Alexandria the next day but decided to not.

17-Oct-08 Friday: Sadly left our boat. Trained back to Rome, went back to our hotel. Saw the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and St Peters (of the chains) Basilica.

18-Oct-08 Saturday: Day trip to Florence. Saw the David, saw a Ucello, saw Massaccio's Trinity.

Sunday 19-Oct-08: Left Rome.

Monday 20-Oct-08: Left Singapore to head home after 14 hours there. Saw a beautiful movie at the airport called August Rush, cried then rushed to plane.

Tuesday 21-Oct-08: Finally got back to NZ, flew Auckland to Wellington and had our bag stolen - got home after two days traveling.

What did the Ancient Egyptians drink?

Water....Milk....Coke?

We can now officially reveal that the Egyptians drunk...

Athens

We had traditional food and watched traditional dancing in multicoloured lights.
Our tour guide told us untruths at the acropolis.
We got bored during the shopping portion.
There was a random picture, almost like a shrine in an alley we walked down.
There were ruins everywhere, one new construction was going to have a glass floor so you could see them.

Pompeii

We drove from Naples to Pompeii. Naples is famous for it's tomatoes - there's an Italian sauce named after ther
Pompeii was much bigger than we expected, lots of ruins, we took a lot of pictures. We sadly did not get to see the brothel but there was a sign (again with the dirty Romans).

Egypt

I just wrote a really long post and it disappeared, I am not impressed so this is likely to be shorter.
Egypt is dirty
There are blocks and blocks of slums
The Sphinx is little and its face is washed off
Don't ever eat or drink anything
Sparkling water = evil
Hawkers are the devil (and as persistent)
We drove in a bus a lot
There were lots of guys with guns

The other post appeared so now there are two :)

Egypt

Our day trip to Cairo changed many peoples minds about further trips and caused the ship to go into sanitary lockdown. Needless to say Egypt was dirty, do not ever eat or drink anything there (apparently you are to starve and dehydrate). Having said that we did eat in a giant ballroom, our Canadian marine engineer friend told us you could play football in there, at the very swanky hotel and have gross sparkling water on the bus.

Sparkling water = evil

We drove 3 and a half hours from Port Said (pronounced how people say west side) to get to Cairo, Gareth wanted to sleep but our guide kept yelling at him.

Security was insane, we had to have our passports (we didn't elsewhere), there were armed escorts on the buses as well as in front, behind and at each side as we drove in convoy. There was also stringent security checks everywhere (and sadly no cameras allowed in the musem).

The pyramids and sphynx were not terribly impressive, the sphynx is tiny and her face is all washed off we did get lots of pictures though. Gareth was going to go into the pyramid but it was tiny, he had to double over to get in. The museum was packed with a lot of the same things most dusty and without plaques which was rather sad. Our crazy guide took us on a speed tour, we had to run each time her high pitched voice stopped.

We were very very glad to get back to the boat at 9.30, which was after it was scheduled to have left, though the pushy hawkers (the worst we'd seen) didn't let up until we were actually on the boat. '$3 million dollars, you use to hit your wife.' Since we had no money at least we weren't tempted though Gareth still managed to get a ride on a camel

Singapore

The Golden Fish!! Seriously it's gold. It's called a koi, they lots of ponds of them.


Singapore airport (Changi) is immense; Wellington airport could easily fit in one of the three terminals. Singapore airlines gives you a free tour of the city on stopover, we got a "colonial" tour which meant lots of white buildings with columns and this statue of Raffles (looking hilarious) who came to Singapore, was met by a Lion (though there are none) and brought about the name change.

Our tour guide was the best we had; funny and informative though there wasn't really much to the tour. We learnt about buildings in the form of a hand, drunken seafood and the infamous (idiotic) Raffles. There was a snake charmer but unfortunately none of what we'd expect from the movies, just trying to make money by draping a snake around peoples shoulders and charging for pictures. The weather was very muggy, like soup but strangely not very hot.



And this time we went to the Butterfly Garden in the airport.

The Grand Princess

We sailed for 12 days on the Grand Princess around the Mediterranean.
Our official honeymoon movie is Overboard though I question playing a movie so entitled (and worse like Titanic) whilst actually aboard a ship. Because I was sick pretty much the entire trip I spent more time than normal in our bedroom watching TV. (Gareth brought me food, it was great.)
Our room had mirrors at either end which made it seem not so small, and obviously the TV. There was an ensuite and a guy to clean up after us twice a day (he did have his own room, we didn’t store him in the closet).

The boat was huge, there were about 3000 guests as well as staff (numerous) and entertainers.

There were four swimming pools each with two spas, one was covered - all on level 14 which also housed the 24 hour buffet, pizzeria and grill. Among other things there was also a nightclub,

library, five restaurants (at least), computer room, art gallery - which had auctions, we saw one piece for $300,000! (even paintings by piccasso and someone else famous I can't remember), two theatre type things, a casino, lots of bars including a cigar bar, kids areas including a spacies room and a golf range.

These are paintings by a guy called Pino. When I get rich I'll get him to paint my portrait, shame he wasn't one of the artists on ship.

Not for the eyes of children

For those of you that didn't know the Romans were dirty dirty people; check out the markets at PompeiiWinged phalluses for good luck and prosperity. (Big penis, little penis)

And this is a picture of a girl jumping a guy
I actually studied this one, and the next one (there is an inscription, the guy is saying 'stay still')

I don't think I'd like to use these as coasters but then I'm not everyone.
Dayglow and stone age phalluses. Why??

New catch phrases

'Hotel Corot, get out!'
'Your English is so good!'
'Does is snow there?'
'Do they have kangaroos there?'
(In a really bad French accent) 'Les stupid Americans are late because they are so fat.'
'If it's not in the patter it doesn't matter.'
(Shakes head) 'It's never really worked.'
'It's because you're so hot.'
'You like carpet?'
'You buy for me I wear.'

Our hotel rocks

Reasons our hotel rocks:

• Free breakfast
• They speak English (to varying degrees)
• The Roma Termini (train station) is at the end of the street
• Free wireless internet
• It’s named after a French painter of Italian landscapes

Our second stay we got a room on the ground floor right next to the breakfast room. The bathroom was huge, big enough to fit a bed and had the above crazy floor and a bath! I got trapped in the bath and it tried to eat me.

When in Rome

We're back in Rome and glad to be heading homewards.
Summary of our travels, in each place we have found:

• McDonald's
• Pushy vendors/hawkers
• Starbucks
• Ruins
• Roman Influence
• Coca-cola
• Scary driving including kamakazi scooters
• Cobbled streets
• Vodafone
• Le stupid Americans

Our tips for travelling:

• Do not go to Egypt
• Don't pet the Colosseum cats
• Just say no to hawking
• Free transport is possible on both trams and trains (take mace for the former)
• Always, always use tours - no lines!

We would just like to say you all suck for not commenting on our awesome blog. Now we will torture you by making you sit through hours of photos and boring pointless stories.

The entrance to the Vatican

Yes, it actually looks that crappy. Inside doesn't always look so great either, lots of restorations going on.
There is a really long line around the block which we meant to take a picture of but I'm sure you can imagine a brick of people next to a really old brick wall.

Apparently the Romans stole this from the Egyptians. Perhaps we should take it back when we go to Egypt. I'm sure Freud would have some comment about a phallic symbol in an area famous for its desexuality...but then the Pope might punch him (ponders whether they are having his argument on another plane).

The triumph of Christianity over Paganism

This is the central ceiling panel in a room where the Pope used to greet visitors, around the walls are images from the life of Constantine (he was the first Roman emporer to stop killing (and stop others killing) Christians).
It might not be very clear but there is a broken Greco-Roman statue on the floor while a crucifix is triumphant above it. (Lovely perspective in the room isn't there? - the floor and the walls)

The walls of Rome

This is the wall of Rome built by the emperor Aurelius to protect from the Barbarians. Below is the peoples entrance. Pretty awesome photos considering they were taken from the window of a moving bus, they do however look much grander in reality.

Diana

This is a representation of my favourite Greco-Roman Goddess Diana or Artemis. Across the room from her is an older version of her as a fertility Goddess - notice her capacity for breast feeding...those aren't water balloons.