Life after Asia

Guess what, Asia Turkey looks just like Europe Turkey...imagine that.  We ate at restaurant that was built in 1933.  As some of you may know Jody and I are picky eaters...the table was full of historic Turkish food but we had beef stew.  Not sure what part of the cow but it was tasty!  We did try some rice until Harry mentioned that the liver we well with the currents....Jody dropped her fork immediately.  However we did like 3 out of the 5 desserts!  YUM.  Well we are off to the boat now and not sure when we will be back on but will try soon!  Miss all of you.

p.s. we also walked by a lovely fish market, it smelled really delicious...PSYCHE

Lunch

So we are sitting in my Mom's friend Harry and Karen's room and are going with them to lunch in Asia!  Yes, I said Asia people....apparently Asia is a short boat ride away!  Can wait to see what kind of food we eat.  We are being picked up in about 15min to catch the ferry boat.  Once back we will head over to check into the cruise.  You can always go to the Oceania website and see a live cam (the ship name is the Nautica).  I can actually see the boat from Harry's room.  Jody's bag still a no show but at least I have clothes for 2 months so she can borrow. :)  Talk soon! 

day 1

first and foremost, WE MADE IT!!  and are at a gorgeous W Hotel, will send pics later.....but we didn't make it snafu free!  of course, right?!?!  let's see....it started with lauren almost missing her flight Philly to Frankfurt.  luckily, she ran FAST and made it with only 5 minutes to spare.  phew!  i had a tight connection in DC but i made it, can't say the same for my bag though :(  somehow i knew that was going to happen.  good thing i brought a carry on!  next, when lauren and i met in Frankfurt, we had to stand in about 5 different lines and no one wanted to help us.  they have great customer service, lufthansa all the way baby!  after we arrived Istanbul, we then had to wait in ANOTHER very lovely Visa line.  once we arrived the counter, the cute Turkish boy told us we had too many Visa's and sent us yet to ANOTHER line!  AWESOME!  he did tell us though that after we waited in that line, we could come right back up to his counter.  pretty sweet right???  WELL, guess again!  after the lady at the Visa counter had no idea why he sent us over, we went back to his counter while a foreign lady screamed at me pointing at her watch.  she screamed and screamed and we didn't understand one word....but she was MAD!  so the Visa boy said something to us in Turkish and we nodded and said yes and finally got the stamp!  woohoo!  next we come to baggage claim.  lucky lauren found her bags ASAP while i stood there looking for my poop brown bag to roll by.  NO LUCK.  hopefully it will be here before we board the ship or i am SOL.  then we had a roller coaster ride in the "taksi" and almost got in a few accidents.  but we're alive and it's been so worth it just from the hotel we're at!!  i just KNOW we're going to have more great stories for your entertainment!  stay tuned!!

Packing

So….I started to pack yesterday. How does one pack for 2 months??? I basically have laid out enough stuff to move to Europe forever. Lloyd walked in the room and told me that I was crazy and there was no way I would get less than 50lbs in each bag. I accept the challenge. He also reminded me of my shopping skills. Well, it’s only the first round. I need to go through and weed out all the duplicates. For those of you that don’t know…when I like a shirt I buy it in multiple colors. I also believe I won’t need 7 pairs of shoes but I WANT ALL OF THEM ANYWAY! What’s a girl to do?

Purpose

Lauren and I thought this may be a fun way to keep everyone up to date on our European adventures as we leave VERY soon! We figure we won't be able to keep in contact that much with most of our friends and family so this could be a good way to let everyone know what's going on while we are gone. However, if you know both Lauren and I, you know that between the two of us, we are going to have some GREAT stories to make you laugh your hiney off and what better what to do it than with a blog! Lauren has already told me how a co-worker was in Istanbul and her mother was offered 15 camels for her! I'm hoping Lauren and I get offered camels too! What do you think is reasonable? 20??? j/k!

So, I hope everyone will enjoy our blog! Hopefully we will be able to update every day or two on the ship. Stand by for some great stories!