Hello South Africa!

                   We have been trying to get some things caught up. We have internet access and are making the most of it. We arrived in the dark continent early Friday morning. From the first time I touched down here 8 1/2 years ago, the country seems to have changed, for the better. Unmistakenly due to the world cup, everything seemed to be glowing. The Airport was bustling and clean, with friendly smiling faces. We picked up our rental car and began our adventure. Driving on the opposite side of the road is always unnerving for the first bit. We made our way to the Johannesburg temple where we spent the night and attended some temple sessions. 

At the temple I met an old missionary friend and he showed us to a nearby mall where we ate and tried to find an internet connection. Free wireless seems to be unheard of here. But we did eat cinnabon.

After attending Church in a township with a friend we hit the road for Durban. 

Cape Aloe, they are everywhere in South Africa and make the landscape quite beautiful.

We found a good deal on this hotel, where we stayed a few days to unwind. It gets dark early this time of year so we watched a lot of movies each evening from our king sized bed.

The view from our hotel. Yes this is Africa.

Dream car

Durban

We went scuba diving in an aquarium with Sharks. Chelsea loved it and remained calm while the stealthy giants swam past.

We drove in on Nelson Mandela's birthday, everybody was pretty excited, they are very proud of Mandela and there are probably only a handful of people in the world who think ill of him.

Thanks for your patience everyone in waiting for these posts.

There is little discernible difference between the DMV and the American embassy

            Our flight to South Africa took us through London again, not that this is a bad thing, we quite like London. Unfortunately, our stay in London was mostly a visit to the American embassy. In the 2 months that we had been travelling we had been doing our laundry by hand, it was cheap and efficient and it met our budget. We found a launderette in Stratford upon Avon next to our hotel and thought before we leave for Africa, it was time to have a good wash, and wash we did. However, in all the excitement of rounding up every last article of clothing available, I foolishly left my passport in my trousers. There were minor damages to the passport but major concerns about whether it would work to get me to South Africa. Rather than risk being turned away at the border we went and inquired at the embassy. 24 hours, a substantial sum of money, and a lot a patience later they gave me a cute little emergency passport, that we are praying will get us to where we need to go. After that fiasco we did some other fun stuff too, let the pictures tell that story.

-Rusty

The Rosetta stone in the British Museum in London. Kind of lame that the Britons stole everything from Egypt, but kind of awesome that  we got to enjoy it for free.

Giant fist from some super giant statue in Egypt.

Chelsea's favorite, one of the Cyclidian statues from the Parthenon. 

Buddha, we like him.

More Buddah, Chelsea is the Scholar on this type of art, this apparently is one of the first Buddah statues ever.

James bonds car, life changing.

Tired of pies, chips, and kebabs. We ventured into a Chinese restaurant where they made homemade noodles. It really warmed us straight to the soul. And it was nice to have our noses start to run from the spiciness. 

We got a new, amazing, lens for our camera, it was on sale in London for a small fortune. But we trade off carrying the camera to look cool, and we do look pretty cool.

After our fun we flew to Tel Aviv, with a plane full of Jewish summer camp kids. Which, believe it or not, was quite loud and stinky. We are starting to loath teenagers, all over the world, they seem to lower the quality of life. Nonetheless, we got to Tel Aviv and found a comfortable spot to lay down for a few hours until our flight connected.

On our way to ZA

A Midsummer Night's Dream......

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Maybe because this was Shakespeare’s old stomping grounds that makes me so fascinated with this place. This old English town is incredible, it’s no wonder he wrote so beautifully. His surroundings must have given him inspiration. I absolutely loved this town, I know that I say for just about every place we have seen, but Stratford has a special place in my heart. The small town feel, with its old thatched roof houses took me back to the 1500s. The cobble stone streets made me feel like I wanted to pull out my fiddle and dance around. When I think about this place I smile, it was both beautiful and relaxing, and our pictures don’t give it justice. Enjoy.

-Chelsea

7am at the Luton-London Airport=me very tired 

This was the day that we arrived back in the UK a few days before we headed to Africa

                          Shakespeare's Home

The main Street

The River

The Church Shakespeare is buried in

These are carved in the seats where the monks/priests stand- it depicts a woman beating a man- showing that women are trouble

One of the First Printed King James Bibles

Shakespeare's Grave

Alive and Well, thank you...

For all those who follow us,

We are having a ball in South Africa, although we have not had the best luck (and sometimes interest) with internet access. We will post some pictures soonish, just know we are still truckin' and having the time of our lives.

Thanks,

Chelsea and Rusty

...not Constantinople!

Much of our travel is based on price. Where we go, what we do, and how we get there are primarily dictated by the cost of the activity. We found ourselves in Greece at a crossroads; we could either continue eastward into Turkey, head deeper into Eastern Europe, or work our way back to the UK. Entering the peak of tourist season in Europe, prices are nearing extortion, we found train travel to Turkey to be a reasonable price. For under 100 US dollars we procured a lovely little sleeper car for two and began our journey to on of the great capitals of the world, Istanbul.

During the day, the trip from Thessaloniki to Istanbul was beatiful. Our room was pretty cool too, we had two fold down beds, all sorts of privacy and plenty of room to stretch out.

After getting through border control at dawn, we rode past endless fields of sunflowers, all of them pointing toward the rising sun, drinking in its life-giving light. 

We found a hotel in old Istanbul for under $20 a night, where we dropped off our bags and headed to see the sights. We first went to Hagia Sofia, a magnificent and ancient Christian church that costs a small fortune to enter. 

Hagia Sofia

The sweating pillar in Hagia Sofia. The pillar is made of a porous stone that somehow absorbs water from its surroundings. There is a thumb sized hole in the pillar that you can stick your thumb in and attempt to twist your hand a full 360 degrees, while you make a wish. If your thumb comes out wet then  your wish will come true. I impressed all the locals with my hand spinning ability. 

The main hall of Hagia Sofia

One of many incredible mosaics in Hagia Sofia

View of the Blue Mosque from Hagia Sofia

We went into the sultans tomb, where many of the old sultans are buried. We had to take off our shoes and Chelsea had to cover her head. 

The courtyard of the Blue mosque

I had to wear a skirt to cover my bear legs, no shorts allowed in the Mosque. 

The prayer area in the blue mosque. We sat an watched these devote men bow down and pray in humility for quite some time. The women have a separate area in the back where they pray.

We call this picture "Turkish Breakfast" and it is safe to say that this could be called lunch and dinner as well. Tea and cigarettes are a staple, at any hour of the day or night you will find people sitting and drinking tea while casually smoking. Shop owners have standing orders of tea at certain times of the day that are brought to them on shiny platters from local cafe's.

Istanbul is a lovely city, pretty clean, moderns and bustling.

The grand bazaar, an ancient shopping mall, jam packed with people and vendors.

They sell honey comb by the gram in the spice markets. We had never had any so we bought 100g. It tasted like honey...with beeswax...

Tired of the super cheap accommodation we were staying in, we opted for some "cheap" accommodation just up the street. The room was beautiful, with a huge flat screen TV, Kind sized bed, sitting area, and a Jacuzzi. 40 dollars never went as far.

We took a cruise up the Bosphorus ( a river that separates Europe from Asia and connects the Mediterranean with the Black sea) The riverside is beautiful, covered in ruins and palaces.

Bosphorus cruise

Bosphorus

Bosphorus

Bosphorus cruise hair

We found food to be more expensive than hoped for in Istanbul. So our meals were often the traditional local fair of beans and copious amounts of complimentary bread.

The bridge between European Istanbul and Asian Istanbul.

We are not sure where they got this mannequin... 

There are stray dogs roaming all over Istanbul, they are fat, happy, and not at all interested in barking or being any other type of nuisance. It seems like the locals quite like them.

We went to a popular restaurant, where we sat on pillows and ate with our hands. The food was quite good, but we got a little lonely in this room all by ourselves.

They have these loud and pushy ice cream guys all over. Mix the ice cream with a giant metal pole and smear bits of it on a cone. The ice cream is a strange texture, rubbery and cold.

On the Asian side of Istanbul, there is a long street where everybody seems to be found. We walked around for hours looking in shops and people watching, there were a lot of people.

There were a number of second hand shops that we perused. They were packed full of ancient clothing without any real organization or notable methodology.

These amazing mosques dominate the skyline of Istanbul. There are arguably more of these incredible buildings per square mile than Starbucks in any other city.