Well it rains a heck of a lot here!
At the moment I am in the land of Spain. First I was in Madrid, then Cordoba and now Seville. Each city has chucked it down with rain but it´s all part of the travel experience, I guess!
Madrid was just incredible. Nothing like I expected it to be - the same goes for Rosie (whom I met up with again for the time in Spain). There was an great culture and to find it all one needed to do was to walk down the back streets! Tapas in small bars or cafes was something I enjoyed - for every drink one has the bar must give a small portion of food - tapas. The back streets are also lined with little shops full of random things - bag shops, jewellery, etc, etc. It is fun just to wander and find things as you walk.
Yesterday we came from Cordoba. What an incredible place! It felt a little like we had come to the Middle East because of the different architecture everywhere. Cordoba has an amazing history - first discovered in 900 BCish and went through Roman, Christian, Muslim and Jewish eras. The main Mosque/Catherdral was an amazing mix of Islamic and Christian architecture. Rosie and I spent about an hour in here just looking an marvelling at the different details in the roof, walls and floors. It was just incredible. It was in Cordoba that Maimonides was born - who was one of my favourite people to study in Religion last year. It was so interesting to learn more about him and his influence on the Jewish way of life. He was a philosopher, a doctor and a Rabbi and wrote many controversial works for Judaism - many of which are used by Jewish people today. Very interesting!
The other interesting thing we have found is that many of the trees lining the roads are orange trees. Everywhere we go there are trees with oranges or mandarins on them. Some of the coutyards which are part of the Cathedrals are named ´The Orange Tree Courtyard´...very creative!
Now we are in Seville, which is bigger than Cordoba and more like a city. It is another nice place - apart from the rain! We are currently on an endeavour to find gumboots (or as the English call them: wellies). There are puddles everywhere and cars tend to splash pedestrians occasionally so the gumboots are kinda needed!
xx
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Europe Trip in Short
I know this blog is a little out of date at the moment - sorry! I will try to add some more photos from my travels and share a few funny stories before I start the next part of the journey...
It was a hectic month full of 3 girls with 3 big bags and moving about every 3 days. And it was great!
BELGIUM
THE NETHERLANDS
GERMANY
I think I briefly wrote about these 3 in my last post. Amsterdam was definitely one of my favourite places!
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague. Was definitely interesting. The Castle was very spectacular and we walked along the river at night to see the castle lit up, which was fantastic! We went on the free 3 hour walking tour and had an Irish tour guide. Whilst on this tour we saw the Clock Tower's hourly show a few times. There were so many people crowded around the here. We were told in the tour that it is the third most disppointing tourist attraction in Europe after the Mona Lisa in Paris and The Glockenspiel in Munich.
AUSTRIA
Vienna. It was definitely a city full of much culture. We experienced two of the main attractions: the opera and apple strudel.
GERMANY (Oktoberfest)
Oktoberfest was held in Munich in the south of Germany, Bavaria. This was seriously amazing. We had such a good time! Starting from the 3 hour parade we watched on the first full day of Oktoberfest. I'm talking horses and people of all ages dressed in their tradtional clothes of drindls (for girls) and laderhosen (for guys). It was great - except our feet hurt for the rest of the day! It was surprisingly hard to find the main beerfield! Eventually we stumbled across it to find it was actually like a massive fair. There were ferris wheels and rides everywhere. Families including the kids were all dressed up in their traditional clothes. It was such a great atmosphere!
We had to have the traditional litre of beer - which took Lily and I 2.5 - 3 hours to finish! Rosie also enjoyed buying half a chicken (yes JUST half a chicken on a plate!)! There were stalls everywhere with Lubkuchen (gingerbread-type-hearts with writing on them) and bratwurst. This was great fun!
ITALY
Venice. After a dodgy trip on a night train we finally arrived in Venice. Our accomodation was camping village with a pool - and after no sleep the night before (because of the train) we accidently got too much sun! Oops! Venice itself was incredible, though. So many tourists everywhere!
Toricella. Was a random little town near Asissi in Umbria.
Cinque Terre. Met Rosie here and we had a great time just chilling out in the 'Five Towns'. These small towns were incredible! Each night we would eat dinner on the rocks and watch the sun set over the water. The colours were just incredible and I felt really blessed to be there with one of my best friends, exploring the world and admiring God's creation!
Rome. Epic. There was so much history here! I was by myself at this stage but I ended up joining forces with 2 girls from Australia - good times!
Ready for the next part of the journey :)
It was a hectic month full of 3 girls with 3 big bags and moving about every 3 days. And it was great!
BELGIUM
THE NETHERLANDS
GERMANY
I think I briefly wrote about these 3 in my last post. Amsterdam was definitely one of my favourite places!
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague. Was definitely interesting. The Castle was very spectacular and we walked along the river at night to see the castle lit up, which was fantastic! We went on the free 3 hour walking tour and had an Irish tour guide. Whilst on this tour we saw the Clock Tower's hourly show a few times. There were so many people crowded around the here. We were told in the tour that it is the third most disppointing tourist attraction in Europe after the Mona Lisa in Paris and The Glockenspiel in Munich.
AUSTRIA
Vienna. It was definitely a city full of much culture. We experienced two of the main attractions: the opera and apple strudel.
GERMANY (Oktoberfest)
Oktoberfest was held in Munich in the south of Germany, Bavaria. This was seriously amazing. We had such a good time! Starting from the 3 hour parade we watched on the first full day of Oktoberfest. I'm talking horses and people of all ages dressed in their tradtional clothes of drindls (for girls) and laderhosen (for guys). It was great - except our feet hurt for the rest of the day! It was surprisingly hard to find the main beerfield! Eventually we stumbled across it to find it was actually like a massive fair. There were ferris wheels and rides everywhere. Families including the kids were all dressed up in their traditional clothes. It was such a great atmosphere!
We had to have the traditional litre of beer - which took Lily and I 2.5 - 3 hours to finish! Rosie also enjoyed buying half a chicken (yes JUST half a chicken on a plate!)! There were stalls everywhere with Lubkuchen (gingerbread-type-hearts with writing on them) and bratwurst. This was great fun!
ITALY
Venice. After a dodgy trip on a night train we finally arrived in Venice. Our accomodation was camping village with a pool - and after no sleep the night before (because of the train) we accidently got too much sun! Oops! Venice itself was incredible, though. So many tourists everywhere!
Toricella. Was a random little town near Asissi in Umbria.
Cinque Terre. Met Rosie here and we had a great time just chilling out in the 'Five Towns'. These small towns were incredible! Each night we would eat dinner on the rocks and watch the sun set over the water. The colours were just incredible and I felt really blessed to be there with one of my best friends, exploring the world and admiring God's creation!
Rome. Epic. There was so much history here! I was by myself at this stage but I ended up joining forces with 2 girls from Australia - good times!
Ready for the next part of the journey :)
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