At Last

Well, this looks like it will be the last post for this lovely blog. I can't believe 5 months have gone by already! wahhh

So I went to Turkey on June 9th for a week. It was pretty amazing but it would have been better if I had someone to go with. I started in Istanbul with a walking tour of the european side of the city. I was with one other Australian couple, so it was a really small tour.We hit up the Blue Mosque, Hegia Sofya, and the Grand Bazaar. The guide sort of left us there, and so I spent the remainder of the afternoon, or at least the next hour, trying to find my hotel. I literally had no idea where I was in relation to it, so I figure finding it in an hour isn't really that bad at all! But, it was like 38 degrees, so I was pretty dead when I got back to the hotel. I had a shower and a nap and then decided to hunt down some dinner. The men yelling about kebaps on the street scared me, so i decided to go somewhere nice-ish. So I sat down and ordered my salad with chicken, and then the waiter comes back with this huge appy platter "compliments of the restaurant". Sweet, free food. I also got free wine and dessert...I think they felt bad I was eating alone.
The next day I got picked up at 6:30 (BLARG)to drive to Galipoli on the Asian side. This I could have cut out as it was just cemetery after cemetery...and while it was semi interesting, my interest fades in 40 degree heat on the top of some random hill looking at graves. Yeehaw. But, that night I stayed in Canakkale, which was like a bigger version of Koper, so I felt more at home.
The next day I went to Troy, which, while still exciting, was a bit disappointing. All the stuff that's supposed to be there is in other museums in Berlin and Russia. LAME! But i saw some really old stuff and stood on the ground where Hector was killed. I was in greek mythology nerd heaven. The tour guide I had that day was a Turkish version of me basically, so we got along great. Plus there was a super douchy american man on our tour and he kept giving her a hard time, so I helped to reassure her she was doing a great job (because I knew all the myths and things as well). She took us to Pergamon as well, which has the steepest theatre in antiquity. Holy balls was that hard to climb. But totally worth it for the view. We also went to a carpet factory and saw how they make silk and carpets. It was interesting until they trapped me in a room alone and tried to sell me things. I managed to escape, but the man followed me down the hall yelling "Only 200 lira!!" My australian couple helped protect me after that. The next day was my Ephasus tour which began at the Virgin Mary's house. Like her ACTUAL house where she died. It was pretty incredible actually. Then we drove to Ephasus, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. About 6% of the city is uncovered, and it blew my mind. Only my pictures can explain it. Also, it was 42 degrees that day with not a cloud in the sky..that also blew my mind, literally. My tour guide kept 'guiding' me under his umbrella for shade because i am "a ginger, you will die in the sun, and if one of my guests dies, it looks bad on me". There was also an old australian man who offered shade under his umbrella if I should need it. People were nice to me because I am young and I was alone haha. That night, I watched world cup in my little hotel in the middle of nowhere. The old man who owned it was so sweet, he made air blown popcorn for everyone while the game was on. He also chased me up the stairs to tell me that i could eat dinner for "ONLY 5 EUROS!". He then continued to give me a tour of the buffet, highlighting the soup table..."there is a different soup every day. Different..every day. A different soup...every day!"...Man at soup table:"Yes, different every day!!". It seemed to be their main selling point. It was pretty good soup though, I'll give them that.
The next day I had a free day before my night bus back to Istanbul, so I did an extra day trip to Pamukkale (it means cotton castle). It is a mountain with an ass load of calcium deposits which are incredible. I could barely believe my eyes. You can walk in the thermal waters of the calcium deposits all the way down the side of the mountain...it looks like you are swimming in snow! if you are in Turkey ever, GO THERE. Temperatures that day hit an all time high of 46 degrees. And I didn't even burn...eff yes. (mild sun stroke did occur that evening...oops). I made my way back to istanbul for a free day of shopping and a tour on the Bosphorus. It was a great trip, but again, I wish I had had someone there to share it with. OH WELL!

The next week was the week of goodbyes and depression for your dear friend Erin. I have never cried so much in my life. I won't get into details, but lets just say that when two full grown spanish men start to cry BEFORE I did while saying goodbye did not help me hold strong. good lord, i was practically dehydrated from all the tears.

Now I am with fam in Ljubljana. Matic has mostly been helping me with language, but he didn't come to Prek with Stefka, Joze, and I. Poo. It was fun though, just kinda sitting and listening. Ps I forgot my camera in ljubljana, so i don't really have pictures...oops. Tina is 5 months preggers, so that was exciting news! She seems to be doing really well...well enough to play basketball with us haha. Bojan insisted on using a GIANT bouncey ball with antennae instead of a normal ball...that was interesting. The vision of Stefka trying hurl the giant ball into the net will never leave my memory haha. It was pretty chill for the most part, although Minka and Stefan are driving them all insane, apparently. Metka told me a bit about what was going on...let's just say she doesn't even use his name anymore, she just refers to Stefan as "the crazy old man". Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to center and run a few errands, and then pack like mad (and weigh my giant bags) so that everything is ready to go for the airport on Tuesday. See you all soon!!!


Lanterns in the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul


Pamukkale


Pamukkale


Ephasus


Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Title Track: Etta James

We Lost Our Way

Yay Budapest! My favourite city to date, hands down. Turkey has some work to do to beat Buda.

Laura and I went to Ljubljana the day before to hand in our papers and set an exam time with our prof...we also went to see one of Laura's favourite bands from Canada, Wolf Parade, play at some venue in Ljub. So we met with our prof and then went to get some delicious mexican food and wander around downtown. It was the first time Laura had seen Ljubljana when it wasn't raining! Then we had a nap in the park while Laura tested my Slovenian speaking skills...I did pretty well actually. I took her to Dvor pizzeria for supper...100 different kinds of pizza and they are ALL amazing. Best pizza I've had in Europe thus far. We then wandered our way over to the venue, and luckily bumped into some other hipsters going to the show and they gave us directions. The venue was something comparable to the WECC, but a whole village of it, and on crack. There were statues coming out of walls and weird art everywhere, it was neat. The show was AMAZING, I was thoroughly impressed with Wolf Parade. Matic was nice enough to pick us up at the venue, so we went home with him and stayed the night at Minka's. The next morning we got up and Joe had breakfast all ready for us, so we ate and chatted a bit and then Marie-Eve and Hanna came to pick us up at the house. They, of course, had to come in and be introduced to everyone. It went something like this..

Here is my cousin Matic....and this is Primoz...and this is Joe...and this is his wife Stefka....and this is my Teta Minka...and this is her husband...and oh yah, there is Bina the dog too.

People just kept coming out of the kitchen and my friends eyes just got wider and wider...i don't think they realized that 100 people live in that house haha. Then we had to take pictures with everyone and we were on our way!

The GPS (we call her queeny because she is british) failed us EPICALLY. She did not register that there is a highway DIRECTLY to Budapest from Ljub. So she was directing us all through the country side. Like ALL through it. We went up to Jeruzalem, we went into Prek, we literally drove past Aga's house and through cerensovci, we crossed the border into croatia for some reason, and then proceeded to cross back out 10 minutes later. The border guards actually laughed at us. They said, in Slovene,
"Why are they here?"
"They are going to Budapest"
"Yah, I know, but why the F*** are they HERE?"
"Just leave them, they will find their way...eventually"...this was followed with the second guy throwing his hands in the air and walking away. Did I mention they were ALL eating popsicles at the time? Well, they were. Well screw you second guy, we did find our way! After a couple viewings of storks and 3 extra hours...we drove triumphantly into Budapest! We checked into our glorious hostel and all was right with the world. Our hostel was right near the main tourist street; it was the 5th floor of an old apartment building with the sketchiest elevator I have EVER seen. The people running it were super young and fun, only room for 18 guests, so it was like a little family. At night we would all drink together and go out together...it was really nice. So the first night that's what we did. It was Jan's (german guy who will appear again later) birthday, so we all did a shot of absinthe (blarg) and then went out to this really neat open air bar. Well it was just me and Laura this time, but yah it was still fun. Then we went to a dancey bar, but it was crap so we left. We ran into the two Germans on our way home, and between the four of us we SOMEHOW managed to make it back to the hostel.

Our first day we did a walking tour of both the Pest and Buda sides. We saw St. Stephan's church and the Buda Castle as well as some more hidden things that the tour guides pointed out along the way. Then we ran into two German guys from our hostel and we all went to a Hummus bar for lunch, it was actually super yummy. Also, I had mango juice that was insanely good, just for future reference. Then we met up with a guy we know from Koper who lives in Buda and was back to do his exams. We went for a drink at this outdoor pool bar thing and then he helped us buy Opera tickets. Thats right, we went to the Opera. The tickets only cost 1.40 euro though, so the seats kinda sucked. They were so bad, in fact, that when we asked if there was a dress code, the lady said "yes, but you don't have to worry about it because you must enter through the back door, not the front". It was nice though, something different I guess.

The next day we went to see the bronze shoes by the water; they commemorate the jewish people who, at the end of WWII, were lined up along the river Danube and shot. Very powerful moment. I will post a picture below. Then we did the long walk up to the city park to go to the thermal baths. AMAZING. Saunas, thermal water,healing waters, outdoor pools of different temperatures...so nice. That night we kinda got to know some of the hostely people better via drinks in the kitchen, and then, somehow, we convinced all of them to go out with us. There were two other canadian guys there, so it was nice to talk to someone from home. We went to another open air bar, but it was really neat..you could sit in cars and bathtubs and things. Budapest is weird. Some of us then continued on to a more dancey bar, and by the time we left there, the sun was up. I then proceeded to cook a box of KD for anyone who was awake back at the hostel. Good times.

The next morning we got up after...1 hour of sleep, and went for a very long lunch. Our last stop was the Terror Museum which was all about Hungary when it was occupied by the nazis and then the soviets. Really interesting and intense. Then, I drove out of Budapest (ON THE HIGHWAY)and we made it back to Koper in 5 hours. I turned queeny off because she kept telling me to go to Zagreb when, clearly, there was a large sign saying LJUBLJANA. Stupid Queeny.

Even before this trip though, we went to Bled and Zagreb for a day to see the DJ David Guetta. I have pics on facebook for those who wish. We left Zagreb after the show, at 4 am or so, and drove the three hours back to Koper, slept for 2 hours and then got up to go on a boat trip. 7 hours on a boat, 200 erasmus, open bar. nuff said. I got really really burnt, and everyone was pretty drunk by about 1 pm. My roommate bought a little ceramic seahorse in Piran, but does not remember doing so. When we got back to Koper, everyone jumped off the boat into the sea. Normal people actually gathered around and were taking pictures of the spectacle. Good times.

This week we have already had our girls day in Portoroz with mexican food, cocktails, and beach time. Swimming in the sea kicks ass. And then yesterday, the two germans from the hostel in Budapest came to Koper to see us on their way to Venice. We went for dinner, and they joined a game of pick up soccer with our erasmus boys (and kicked their ass, might I add). Our boys didn't like it very much when we cheered for our German guests. hahahahah we win at life. Then we went out for drinks and things at El Pirata, and it was just a good quiet night. I'm glad they came.

Thats pretty much it for me, TURKEY NEXT WEEK AHHHHH :D











Title Track: Chris Isaak