Happy Birthday

It is a while since I have done much craftying, but now that I have got my travels documented and pictures in an album, I can start to play again.

 I made this card for hubby. It was lots of fun and is easy to put together. Essentially you need the card itself and 3 other pieces of card. On the bottom card I stamped themed stamps and in this case fish, rope and compass from a Kaisercraft set called Hunt and Gather. I was really impressed with the image as it came out very clear and had good detail. I then rubbed distress ink colours Broken China,Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans,Peeled Paint and others from my stash, until the desired affect . The next piece of card was stamped with a Tim Holtz expression and lightly coloured with the same blue inks. Finally I stamped the boat on another piece of card and gentally ripped the edge to give it that old vintage look and buffed the image with Faded Jeans and Wild Honey.

Dubai

Well we are really and truely on our way home. We left Rome, destination Dubai and landed here at about midnight what ever day it was. My goodness it was suffocatingly hot. Like you have stepped into an oven or something .
Our first day saw us trawling the malls, but it is very expensive so not too many bargins to be had. The malls are absoluely massive with ice rinks, water falls, aquarium and what ever else.

 We went to the outdoor souks at 6pm,but it was still far too hot to be outside ( 45 degrees) so we caught the train back to the hotel mall and had dinner there. The malls are open until 10pm which was quite handy. The jewellery is overwhelming and I thought I might get something but there was too much noise and too many things to look at so I gave up. I think you would have to have a lot of time to bargin and stick to your guns with these people. As we did not have the time I really could not be bothered.It was very hazy, so we did not go to the top of the worlds tallest building or go further afield as you could not see that much, which was a bit of a shame.
The second day dawned as hot as the first and we did a bit more mall surfing but needed tobe back at the hotel for our desert safari. We drove for about an hour out of the city and stopped at some wee shops where the drivers of the vehicles let some air out of the tires before we went intothe dunes. Then it was a mans thing of racing around the dunes sliding all over the place. Not really my type of fun but the men on board had a great time.
Later on we went to a tribe village/enclosure where we had tradition type food bbq and some dancing , camel rides and the henna painting on hands. All and all interesting,but a country of contradictions.

Home tomorrow..................

Rome

 From Split we sailed to Venice where we disembarked the ship and headed for the airport to fly to Roma. We have 2 1/2 days here before the rest of our journey home.

 The second day we caught the train to the Vatican and descended upon this city with the masses. It was extremely hot and crowded and a very long morning/afternoon. The tour was 4 hours long and by the end of it I was exhausted.

I have visited Rome 10 years ago and wanted to come back and for Nigel to see the Colusseum, Vatican and everything else you can in the time we had.
Again the weather is spectacular and it really is warming up in general. We are heading into the full force of the European summer, but it sure is a change from the weather we would be having at home (Winter).
Our first afternoon we did the colusseum and forum, Trevi fountain, Piazza Novona and the general main area of Rome. We had a delicious pasta dinner up a little side street where the prices were cheaper than down by the touristy spots.

We left the vatican, St Peters Bascilia  etc and headed along the riverbank under the trees and where there was a gentle breeze blowing. Lots of market stalls here and lots of interesting wares to buy. Got some trinkets for my daughter ( and me) and then we wandered back into the center  of Rome to the Pantheon and the Spanish stairs. We had a cup of tea at the Pantheon and I nearly died when we got the bill.... Euro 14 ( $28). Most expensive cup of tea I have every had and probably ever will, but hey you can'tbeat the scenery of ancient Rome.

Split, Coatia

With sadness we are heading to Split in Croatia. Sad because we are coming to the end of our fabulous cruise of a lifetime. Spilt is our last stop before we get off the ship and head home.
This is a lovely wee town. Like the other Croatian sites it is clean and pretty. A busy little town with a fish market right in the centre and lots of locals out and about being a Saturday.

 We climbed to the top of the bell tower ( which nearly killed me as I had a chest infection and thought I was going to expire by the time we got to the top) However the views were spectacular out over the port and city.

We only had a few hours here before we set sail for Venice, so we just wandered around. Sat under the umbrellas  on the waterfront and watched the locals and tourists do their thing and the world go by.

Kusadasi , Turkey

After a wonderful evening ashore at Mykonos, we sailed out heading for Kusadasi, Turkey. It was a gorgeous morning when we arrived and three other cruise ships were in the dock. We all borded buses and headed out of town to the Virgin Marys house. What chaos! There must have been about 50 buses with tourists all come to see the same thing. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and just  all too hot to be standing in the sun for about 2 hours. I am not religious so I am not sure why I elected to do this tour, cause I have to say queing for 2 hours to see a two roomed house was crazy!

After this we headed back down the hill to the ruins of Ephesus. Our guide took us through the ruins and down the streets, into the ( empty) latrines and stadiums to the end of the township. It took about 2 1/2 hours to amble our way through here  (with masses of people again)and boy was it hot!
It was an amazing place and I loved it. There was lots of ruins, carved pieces and structures so you could get a feeling for what was once here. Originally 250,000 people lived here as it was an affluent town due to the river coming right up to it.

One of the impressive remains is the Celsus library which has 4 status in each corner. The library was ruined by fire caused by an earthquake in 262AD and another in the 10th century.

Within the ruins is the carved marble statue of Nike ( which is the symbol for the Nike brand) The carving is shaped like a tick, hence where Nike got their idea for their brand symbol.This was one of the most impressive places we visited.There is still active excavation of ruins being carried out today and the houses on the terrace are all being excavated currently.

The town of Kusadasi is filled with shops and pushy sellers just like Istanbul, however it is not so crowded and a lot less busy. Lanterns for sale in a tree.

Santorini

I think I have died and gone to heaven. Santorini is everything the post cards show it to be. The sun in shining, the sea is a glorious blue, and the sky matches the sea too. The buildings are bright white with blue roofs, just heaven.
We got a coach along the top of the island to Oui and then wandered through the town ship for a couple of hours just drinking in the amasing beautiful views...sounds like a cliche, and it probably is but is it truely gorgeous.

The island is set up for tourists of which there was masses today. It is pretty expensive, but never the less a lovely place to visit and a must for anyone who goes to the Mediterranean. I will be back and perhaps for a bit longer next time.

Nigel insisted on having a donkey ride back down the hill. I couldn't get onto the donkey ( the stirrup was too high and no one thought to put it down for my short legs), so I walked down between the donkey's, donkey do daah, the heat, the people and the rocky uneven gound. My goodness was it hot (bit smelly)work!