April 4, 2010. One year later

We spent 2 days in Egypt.  The first day was spent checking into our hotel (which was the most incredible hotel you can imagine), seeing yet another mosque (we were about "mosqued-out" by this point) and taking a dinner cruise on the Nile River.

This was our hotel in Cairo.  Somehow we lucked out and got a better suite than everyone else.  I don't know how we managed that but we were pretty stoked.

And as nice as our view was from the windows in our room (we had a panoramic view of Cairo and the Nile River), this is the view from the back window.  And this is unfortunately how I will always remember Cairo.  The filth and third-world living conditions will forever be branded in my mind.
















After we checked into our hotel, we had a little bit of time to ourselves to spend however we'd like.  We decided to explore the area around our hotel and I'm telling you, it was like stepping back into time.

This is the mosque we toured.  The inside was actually very beautiful despite what it represented.

And this was the dinner cruise on our first night in Cairo.  The Nile is so pretty if you can allow yourself to look past the crumbling, deteriorating buildings and trash floating in the water...

After the dinner cruise, we went to downtown Cairo to do a little shopping (I finally got the necklace I'd been searching for since Athens)...

...as well as see the Sound & Light show at the Pyraminds.  The Sound & Light show was a bit cliche but is a must-see nonetheless.  It told the story of the Pharaohs and the history of the pyramids.  But it was FREEZING!  They aren't kidding when they say the desert gets cold at night!  We were in Egypt in April and never would have imagined I'd need a jacket.  It was hard for me to enjoy the show bc I was so cold.  But I powered through :)

After the light show, we headed back to the hotel (saw a random camel in a downtown alley which cracked us up) and I relaxed in my robe & slippers and prepared for a busy next day at the pyramids.

April 2, 2010. One year later.

We had officially arrived in Asia, which meant we had been to 4 continents on our trip!  We were both excited to say we had been to Asia :)

We ported (if that's even a word?) in Izmir, Turkey but the sole purpose of our day in Turkey was to visit Ephesus.  Why is Ephesus so important you ask?  Put simply, the apostle Paul was said to have visited Ephesus to win converts to the Christian religion because most people in the town worshiped idols and other gods (namely Artemis). 
Also, the people who lived in Ephesus were called "Ephesians" which most of us know is a crucial book of the Bible (something I had never thought about prior to this trip.)

(I love this picture of David because it's so typical of him.)

(Temple of Nike and David with his Nikes on)

After Ephesus, we visited a place where they make Turkish rugs.  The patience these women must have is beyond me.  It takes one woman MONTHS to finish one single rug!  We were very close to purchasing a rug and shipping it home but because there were so many to choose from and the prices varied so much, we felt pressured and ended up not getting one.  I was a little disappointed but we'd STILL be paying that rug off if we had bought one so I'm okay with it :)

April 1, 2010. One year later

Athens, Greece was a place we can mark off our list.  Much like Morocco, I don't know that we'll ever go back to Athens specifically.  I wouldn't mind visiting the Greek islands (ie. Santorini or Mykonos) but Athens...probably not.  Not that it was a bad place and not that we didn't appreciate all we were able to see.  But the cruise before us had to re-route their trip to Athens because of the economic uproar they were experiencing.  And honestly, the city itself is pretty dirty.  There's a lot of grafitti and trash inside the city.  Nothing like I expected.

With that said, we were able to get some pretty amazing pictures:

For us, it was hard to appreciate Athens when we had seen the incredible architecture in Rome just 2 days earlier.  And as Christians, the landmarks in Rome spoke to us more.  After we left Athens, we found ourselves saying that we had just paid money to see "a bunch of rocks."  Unfortunately, the city just didn't leave a lasting impression on us.  This was pretty disappointing because I had expected so much of Athens.

March 30, 2010. One year later.

We loved Rome.  Period.  We saw so many things in one single day that it's hard to remember even one thing distinctly.  We spent a lot of money to get the most comprehensive tour since our time was so limited.  We had 12 hours  to see everything we could possibly fit in and I'm pretty sure we got darn close to hitting every highlight possible.  Now it's all a blur but we know we want to go back.

Our tour group was small which was wonderful.  This allowed us to move quickly from one site to another and not to waste a lot of time gathering up everyone.  And our tour guide was a 4ft, 8in 85-year-old Italian woman who ran circles around all of us.  She had so much energy and knowledge and we couldn't have asked for a better experience.  It was Holy Week and there were probably 8,000 students waiting to get into all of the touristy places.  Because we purchased the most comprehensive tour, we were treated like royalty.  We were able to bypass thousands of people in line at the Colosseum.  We definitely got what we paid for and were so glad we opted to get the most expensive tour.

We saw so many awesome sites that it's easier if I just explain our day using pictures:

The Arch of Constantine and The Colosseum

We stopped at Trevi Fountain which is beautiful.  We made sure to make a wish in the fountain (they claim if you throw a coin in, you'll return to Rome) and of course had gelato :) )

We headed to the Pantheon, where there is a lot of activity going on.  They were doing construction on the building but it was still very neat to see a building that we've always seen in pictures!








































Next stop was Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica.  Again, thousands of people were in line to get in but surprisingly, it didn't seem like we waited in line that long.  We were able to go inside the Sistine Chapel which is too awesome for words.  (You weren't supposed to take pictures but I managed to snap a few without getting in TOO much trouble.)

(I think this ceiling is amazing bc it looks as if it's textured, right?  Well, it is a completely flat ceiling that was painted to look 3D!)

Below is an actual dead Pope on display inside The Vatican.  At least this Pope was preserved well.  There was another poor fella who hadn't been preserved as well who had turned a nice greenish/gray color.  Talk about creepy.

We had the opportunity to do some sightseeing on our own at lunch time so we of course set out to find an authentic pizza place in Piazza Navona.  The pizza we found was actually all it's cracked up to be!

It was very surreal to see some of Michealangelo's famous statues right in front of you.  To think that someone actually sculpted these with their hands is just too hard to believe.

As you can see, we saw some pretty incredible sights.  But before we headed out, we had to stop and see one more famous person...

















We definitely want to return to Rome.  Rome in a day was exciting and fun but you just need a little more time to really take everything in.  We'd love to take a tour of Italy and see other cities as well.