UEA, Turkey, Greece, Italy and France

---

UAE - Dubai

Dubai is an interesting city. There is so much money here it seems they have to find ways to spend it. The society is split into around 3 levels. The locals earn the most money and are gifted a lot (including their first house) from the government. Westerners come in second earning very good money but nowhere near what the locals do. As a westerner though you do not really have any good less than management status. Indians and Pakistanis etc come in third in line earning substantially less than anyone else. There is no tax, however on the flip side everything is very expensive (aside from petrol of course which is dirt cheap). We stayed here for a week which was too long as it would have cost a fortune to do something every day. I think 3 days would have been plenty but unfortunately we were tied by our pre-booked flights. We did explore a little bit - we went to the river and watched the boats coming and going, ventured through the markets (souks) and generally soaked up the atmosphere. We also visited the Global Village which is basically a big market with shops from countries around the world. Mostly here though we found all the shops selling the same thing, regardless of the country they were meant to be from. The best thing we did was a desert safari which involved dune bashing in the desert in 4x4s (careening up and down the sand dunes), a quick camel ride, getting a henna tattoo and a very good bbq in the desert in the evening. We also went up the Burj Kahlifa, the tallest building in the world. This looks out over Dubai and on a good day the view is amazing. This is suituated within the Dubai Mall which includes a fountain display just like the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The mall is something else, it's absolutely massive with lots of top end shops and an ice staking rink among other things.

Turkey - Istanbul and Cappadocia

Istanbul is a lovely city - full of history and friendly people. The first thing we visited was the Blue Mosque which is really something to see. We have photos but unfortunately (like in the big churches) the camera does not capture the beauty of it very well. We also visited an underground basilica cistern which we nearly overlooked. We are glad we made the choice to go inside as it was something totally unexpected. You climb down stairs into a massive cavern where there are numerous pillars all in rows built to support the water supply. There is still water and they have fish living in it. We spent the four days we had here wandering the city, took the ferry across the Bosphorus River to a small island where a fortress had been built and wandered the spice markets and the bazaars.

From Istanbul we flew to a small area in the Cappadocia region called Goreme where they have the fairy chimney houses. These are rock formations which came about from volcanic eruptions and the shape of them have given them their name. People carved rooms in the rocks many many years ago and lived in them - in some areas they are still inhabited. This place is unlike anything you have seen and is just a fabulous spot for spending hours wandering around. We did a couple of day tours as we had limited time to ensure we got to see the best of the area. Aside from the fairy chimneys we also visited some underground cities which were extremely interesting, Not for the claustrophobic as the passages were narrow and winding and often you were nearly bent in two. Once at the bottom (quite deep into the earth) the generators decided to play up often leaving us in the dark which was quite exciting.

Turkey (Istanbul) has a crazy number of cats. These animals are no-ones and everyones. They are feed by the locals but they are not kept as pets. Everywhere you turn, you are being watched by cats.

Greece - Athens

We spent Christmas in Athens which was lovely. There were fairy lights and Christmas decorations everywhere and the church bells and carollers gave it a very festive feel. We had fantastic weather and we spent our days walking the streets visiting the historical sites such as the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora (luckily we got into this before it closed for Christmas). As we were there over Christmas a lot was closed so we could only peer at stuff from the outside but on the plus side it meant plenty of time for a drink at the cafes.

Italy - Rome, Florence and Venice

Of course in Rome we did all the touristy things! We visited St Peters Basilica - this is the church of churches and it really is a wonder to behold. It is absolutely massive and the interior is quite breathtaking. Unfortunately we did not get into the Sistine Chapel as it involved going through the Vatican Museum and one wait in line was enough for us. From St Peters square we wandered across to Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, the Fountain de Trevi, the Pantheon (ugly from the outside, beautiful on the inside), Piazza Navoria and onto Castel Saint Angelo. We got to the Castel Saint Angelo as dark was taking hold and decided to go inside which was a good choice. It was fun to wander around the fortress in the evening and the view over Rome was great. The next day we walked along the river bank to the Colesseum - it is still a bit surreal to be standing in front of these icons of history. We had been warned that Rome was very dirty but we didn't really find it to be this way at all. Just as clean as any of the other cities we have visited.

We caught the train from Rome to Florence. This was a nice easy trip and the country side is very pretty. Florence is relatively small but a very nice city. We spent our first afternoon doing laundry - very exciting. Europe is much like NZ and laundromattes are difficult to find. Mostly you have to pay someone to wash and dry it, it is unusual to find a self service system. This side of travelling was much easier in Canada and USA where laundromattes are everywhere. We went into Florence centre in the evening to meet a friend from NZ who hails from this area and was home for Christmas. I swear nearly all of Florence must have had the same idea as you could barely move for the people. However we managed to find a nice quiet bar and had a couple of drinks with Sandro and his brother and sister in law. The following day was New Year Eve. We spent the day checking out the sites before heading back to the hotel for a rest before the evening (yes getting old). We ventured back into the city centre at around 9pm to find some food and check out the celebrations. We had been warned by Sandro that the locals had the habit of letting off random fireworks in the street and he was not wrong. You would be walking along and all of a sudden there would be a sound like a gunshot behind you - the sound would just about give you heart failure! We found some of the crackers on the ground - think double happies then upsize them by four times. They were enormous. We wandered around for about an hour but after this time the sound of the crackers got old so we retreated back to our hotel room with a small bottle of bubbles to celebrate the new year. Funnily enough the next day was pretty quiet in the morning - we didn't see too many faces out and about until after lunch. We found a little museum that had recreated some of Leonardo DiVincis machines and spent a while checking them out and learning a bit more about such an interesting man.

From Florence we caught the train again, this time to Venice. It was pouring rain but luckily our hotel was a two minute walk from the train station. I hadn't thought much about Venice to the point I hadn't quite realised that there were no roads and you have to walk everywhere so we were lucky about the proximity of our hotel. When out at night you see endless people dragging their suitcases trying to find their hotels in the maze of walkways. It is very easy to get lost here but that is not a bad thing. The first day was a write off really due to the rain but the following day was lovely and we explored Venice with the only requirement being we made it to St Marks square which we did. Another lovely church awaited us and the inside was quite different to what we had seen so far - with it looking like it had been almost completely gold leafed. The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets, checking out the stalls and shops and canals (no gondola rides for us) and of course enjoying some great Italian gelato.

We loved Italy but have to say it is an extremely expensive country to visit.

France - Paris

We had a good time during our two days in Paris. Our first day started at the Eiffel Tower - very industrial looking, almost like an extra large Meccano toy set. At night it is softened by lights and is very pretty. From there we headed onto the Arc de Triumphe and then down Avenue des Champs Elysees, one of the most famous streets in Paris. Here are all the fashion shops and surprisingly car shops - not dealers but showrooms featuring concept cars and some of their most famous models. There was everything from Renault to Mercedes to Toyota of all things.

Today we headed to the Louvre. On our way we happened across an area where Parisians had bought their classic cars for viewing so we spent some time looking at these. Then onto the Louvre to see the famous Monna Lisa, Venus de Milo and other various art pieces. We also looked through Napoleans apartments - very ornate and obviously no expense was spared. We then went onto the Notre Dame Cathedral. This is a beautiful old church which is celebrating 850 years and was quite different to all the churches we had seen so far.

Tonight we fly out to Hong Kong and then on home arriving Tuesday morning. Although we have had pretty good weather while in the European winter the early arrival of darkness each day is not something we are enjoying and the lure of summer at home and friends and family was too much to ignore so we decided to hop on a plane to Auckland. See you all soon!

---

Photos

Walk through one of the local valleys
We were experiencing snow flurries on this day - beautiful 4km walk along the river with a stop for hot drinks half way along