Photos!

A few catch up photos... I only have a few thousand more to go through!

From the Copeland trek in NZ


Routeburn trek in New Zealand



Another Routeburn, just over the pass




Flying over the Andes, Santiago to Buenos Aires (business class, somehow!)



The Fam in Buenos Aires: me, Brunella, Paula, Franco, and Antonella. The best!

Part of Iguazu Falls in Northern Argentina. That is Brazil on the other side.

More Iguazu

Fitz Roy in El Chalten

Cerro Torre in El Chalten

Successful ice climb in El Chalten

A GIANT condor soaring over my head on a peak above Ushuaia... 6-8´wingspan!

Savoring the sights at the 'end of the earth', Ushuaia

Argentina

Well, A TON has happened since my last post, so I will try to give a quick rundown. I am in El Calafate, Argentina (Patagonia) at the moment, waiting to catch a flight to Ushaia (sp?) in Tierra del Fuego this afternoon (waaaaaaay south- as far as you can go on land anyway). The internet connection speed here is circa 1985 or something so no photos, and no checking spellings of words, sorry! :)
When I got to Buenos Aires, I stayed 2 nights in hostels, toured around and did the skydiving trip. After that I met up with Antonella and Brunella whom I originally ran across in Florence, Italy, and actually met in Thyssonecki, Greece. We travelled together to Istanbul, Turkey back in January (seems like ages ago!), so I took them up on their offer to show me around their hometown (Buenos Aires). Paula (their mother) totally took me in and gave me the royal treatment for 3 days, even on short notice!! It was like being part of their family and they were personal tour guides to the city, the food, the nightlife, language, history and culture of Buenos Aires and Argentina! I had a really fantastic time as it is an amazing city and I really enjoyed those few days with them. I would highly recommend anyone to take a vacation there (well Argentina in general!). Briefly: I was able to see many of the famous monuments and streets, sample the nightlife (local custom is to go out at 12-3 AM to a bar, 3-4AM to a club and stay out until 7,8,9 or whenever you feel like going home - crazy!), had an amazing asado lunch with many of the local foods (including pate and blood sausage), took a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, ate a LOT of delicious homemade food, visited an Argentinian art museum, got the inside scoop and city tour of many local construction projects from Antonella and Brunella's father (he is a Director for a large local construction company so that was really cool!), and spent a lot of time enjoying the generosity, friendliness, and company of everybody! Hopefully someday they can make it to the Idaho to visit so, but its hard with the 3 pesos to 1 dollar ratio!
They insisted that I had to go to Iguazu Falls in the far north of Argentina, and they were so right! I took a 20 hour bus ride (not actually so bad- the seats are like Business or First class on an airplane and lay almost flat, really quite comfortable) and spent 3 days there. The first night I was fortunate to catch a full moon and no clouds and did a moonlight walk to the falls- very impressive!! The mist from the falls rises like a cloud of smoke and is illuminated by the moonlight. Really a unique way to see the falls for the first time! The falls are massive, larger than Niagra and one of the natural wonders of the world. I spent the next two days walking all over the park and took a boat ride under a portion of the falls, that was an experience!
Instead of taking a 68 hour bus ride, I caught a 4 hour flight here to El Calefate in Patagonia. The landscape of the high steppes here is quite barren despite the glacial rivers and lakes running across it. El Calefate used to be a remote outpost town, but has grown greatly with tourism and now reminds me of the touristy side of Jackson Hole... so I left as soon as possible for El Chalten. Part of the road is still unpaved so it still has a very remote feel. Unfortunately paving and constuction work is in progress to develop access and the town, and I can see it being much different in 5 years. As you get closer to El Chalten, the peaks begin to rise higher and higher, similar to the way the Tetons stand out in Wyoming- spectacular is the only way to describe them. The town is nestled under Mt Fitz Roy, and Cerra Torre (along with many other spires and peaks, but those are the 2 big ones) and is still very much a dusty trekker and mountaineer town. I loved the atmosphere!
Antonella and Brunellas cousin, Sofi, lives there, so the first night we hit up the local microbrewery (delicious Bock and Pilsner made with glacial water!) for beers and pizza while she gave me all the local scoop. After some good advice and some sleep, I rented a tent and hiked up to Mount Fitz Roy. Along the way, I met 2 great Irish guys and we ended up camping together and spending a few hours waiting for the clouds to clear from Fitz Roy. Everybody else gave up and hiked back down to camp, but we stayed and were rewarded with solitary views of the peak for the last few hours of the day, fantastic!!
Split with the Irish fellows the following day after promises to drink Guiness in Dublin with them at a later date and spent the day leisurly hiking to another glacial lake before ending up below Cerro Torre to camp again. It was very cold camped below the glacier (its all glacier after the camping areas!) so I had to wear everything I had but I survived. The following day, I met up with a group to go glacier trekking, and we hiked to the glacier. We had to take a zipline over the glacier river (very cool), then don crampons and, after walking over the glacier for an hour or so, climb a 30' vertial wall- iceaxes and all!! Its really quite easy to walk on the ice once you get your balance figured out, and get the gait down. Lots of fun, and I would like to try ice climbing again... more for the todo list!
Closed out El Calafate with a few more bocks and then back here to catch my plane. I am planning on finishing with Ushuai and Bariloche in Argentina before ending up in Santiago to come home. I have booked my return ticket and will be home April 6... so really soon! Looking forward to seeing you all and catching up. Hope you have enjoyed my blog so far, and if I get a better connection I have a TON of great pics, clear back to Australia and New Zealand that I havent posted.

Skydive Lobos, Argentina

Its easy to be cocky on the ground...

but not at 10,000'! second thoughts ???

Just out of the plane

30 seconds of free fall! If you listen closely you can hear me yelling at the top of my lungs!

Something is wrong here... the chute develops a knot and wont open fully. I knew something was wrong after he pulled the parachute and we floated on that for a bit, and all of a sudden we were falling again! He had to ditch it and use the reserve... the only really scary part was falling the second time, because I hadn´t expected it! My guts were definately in my throat!

Coming in for a landing with the backup chute! glad we packed 2... !

Glad to be back on terra firma!

I will try to catch up a bit as my last posts have been cut short by lack of computer time!

Coral (on Stewart Island) was in her late 70´s probably and was super friendly and also very witty and full of humor, and very enjoyable to chat with. Her house has the premier location in the village, as it has the best views of the harbor and the town. I got to watch the sun rising over the bay through a huge single pane window in my bedroom, and that was pretty hard to beat! I planted some plants, pulled some weeds, made myself as useful as possible and let her win at scrabble (yeah right... she whooped up on me! they were using a lot of scottish and irish words that I found questionable... but they were in their ´English´dictionary so I had to allow it!)

Her daughter and son-in-law have a B&B called Jo&Andy´s and they were originally from Idaho so we swapped a lot of stories especially about hunting and the outdoors as Andy used to tramp all over the state. They also took me to have the best fish and chips and then to the local indoor lawn bowling league... I had no idea such a thing existed, but they are all over NZ and I suppose Great Britain as well! Basically 2 teams of 3 or 4 people, each person has 2 balls (like bocce balls, but they are weighted offcenter so they roll in a curve). A small marker ball is rolled out about 20´and then the players take turns trying to get as close as possible. Somewhat like shuffleboard and its quite tricky but a lot of fun! Im not sure I actually scored any points, but I sure did some damage to others balls!

I left on the 11th and the boat ride back wasnt nearly as bad, and I took her advice of eating a whole bag of Ginger snaps and that worked great - no problems! I took the next 2 days to drive up the east coast back to Christchurch, stopping in Dunedin for a bit (where Jamon spent time in University) and generally taking the scenic route. It was quite a nice drive as the land changed from wet, forested hills at Invercargill to flat, farming and much drier land at Christchurch.

Took a plane to Auckland on the 13th, then to Santiago, Chile, then to Buenos Aires where I am now! I flew out of Auckland at 5:30 pm and got to Buenos Aires at 6 pm on the same day! It was pretty cool having the same evening over again, even if I was too tired to really enjoy it. I had a business class seat from Santiago to BA for some reason... not sure how that happened but it was a world of difference, and I didn´t say anything! Had a great view of the Andes - what an amazing mountain range! it only takes about 10 mins to fly over them and it is basically flat on both sides. Incredibly rugged peaks, desolate and much drier than I anticipated. Even Santiago was really dry, as I had assumed it would be wetter and greener being on the west coast...! East from the Andes, it is still dry but it looks somewhat like southern Idaho - towns here and there with irrigated farmland. Closer to the east, the pastureland seems to go on forever. It kept getting greener and it was nearly all pastureland its no wonder they are known for their cattle!

I took today to wander around part of the city and it is really nice! Friendly people so far, probably 70´s, some really nice parks and the sky is a beautiful pale blue, like their flag (Santiago was very smoggy). Tomorrow is skydiving! A bit nervous about that, but I had planned to do it in NZ and ran out of time, so... ! I met 5 people in the hostel that are going, so me too! Also meeting up with 2 local girls I met in Athens, Brunella and Antoinella, tomorrow so that should be fun! Then Im heading south to Tierra del Fuego and whatever else is on the way...thats all Ive got for now, let you know what happens next!

NZ update

Spent only 2 days on the Routeburn and Caples track/loop and ended up finishing much earlier than I expected because there arent many available spots to camp! I hadn't booked with the park service as I was planning on free camping (they allow it if you are 500 meters from the track and out of sight) but I didn't realize they also had no camping restrictions in all the area above the treeline so there wasnt much left that was flat, dry, not rainforest, and far enough away! I ended up hiking to the top of a mountain the first night and actually found a decent spot, but it was 3/4 of the way through the routeburn track so I finished the trak the next day and linked to the Caples track which I hiked most of the way down. I got a ton of great pictures of the area, and it is as beautiful as expected! All in all, under 48 hours to do the trek that I was planning for 4-5 days, so I got to see it all, but just had to hike a lot! My feet were definately sore, so I decided to head to Stewart Island, at the very south tip of New Zealand. My spanish teacher in Boise had given me a contact of a nice older lady there (he had helped remodel her house 15 years ago). The 1 hr ferry ride over was crazy rough - the waves were probably 10' tall, and at times the top of the boat was lower than the wave tops! it was like a roller coaster all the way over and fun for about 10 minutes... then about half of the boat got sick and it that was the end of the joyride! I had almost missed the ferry, and in my haste packing I ended up forgetting my camera which I regretted as soon as i saw the size of the waves but the trip is definately burned in my memory!
The island itself is almost all a nature preserve and the town is only 300 residents or so, so very quiet, quaint and beautiful. Its an old fishing, whaling, Maori village and some of that remains along with lots of B&B's and enough tourism to keep it alive. It was very nice and I did a few walks, spent some time in the fantastic local cafe, and relaxed while trying to avoid the rain. Had a really nice 2 days there and Coral (my hostess) was really great. more on her later.
Gotta run, but now heading back to Christchurch, then to Auckland and to Buenos Aires! will be there on the 14th, so a BIG change coming up.

Cairns and New Zealand

I'm now in New Zealand, and getting heading out for a 5 day trek on the Routeburn/Greenstone track in a little bit. A quick update of what I've been up to:

Just when I think it cant get any better, it does ! I spent 2 days in a classroom and pool learning to dive in Cairns, Queensland, Australia and then had 3 days, 2 nights on a dive boat! So sweet! The 35 people on board were all tons of fun, and we did 9 dives total - the deepest to 30 meters! The fish and coral are just unbelievable! It is just like you have seen in the pictures, except it goes on and on... ! Some highlights - a BIG Morey eel, huge turtle (probably 4' + diameter!), Lionfish, Nemo, a Whitetip shark (on our night dive!), thousands of of other fish, all types of corals, etc. etc... I have a cd with pictures that I have to download if I get time (isn't that always the case?)

The only problem I had was adjusting my ears to the pressure; I was always the last one down, but it got easier as I went on more dives. Once down about 15 meters, it gets really easy to go down further because the relative pressure changes the most in the first 10 meters. Unfortunately, I now have ANOTHER sport I am stoked about, and I have my Open Water and Adventurer certifications, which means I can dive to 30 meters... now, just need more ocean near Idaho... damn!

I rented a 1994 Toyota 4Runner when I got to Christchurch, NZ (actually the rental company owner's hunting rig!) after chatting with they guy for about 2 hours. He has actually been to Idaho, Colorado, Alaska and trekked all over this country and he ended up lending me his tent, sleeping pad, stove, and gave me some good tips! Really swell guy!

I did an overnight, 20 km Cumberland trek on my way here, and got to sit in a great hot springs and watch the stars come out... that was pretty special!

The Routeburn is one of the most famous and popular treks in NZ, but I plan on camping out so hopefully I can avoid most of the people. Its raining and not planning on letting up, so it should be nice and wet for the next few days... ask me in 2 days how much fun I am having!

Anyway, all for now, more when I'm back in town!

Photos of Frenchmans Cap trek

Base Camp Tasmania (I had the tent).



So much energy at the start of the trip!

Buttongrass and shrubs on the Loddon Plains

My first view of the Cap... SO FAR AWAY!!!

About 12:00 the first day... hot already

The first hut, which I stayed in on night 3 - as it poured buckets of rain!

Lake by the hut:

Many steps were cut out of logs like this!

In the rainforest from the first lake to Barron Pass

View as I topped out over Barron Pass - incredible!

After Barron pass, my next view of the cap

View back to barron pass from the summit:

Another view from the top

View looking over the cliff- BASE jumpers were heading up when I got back to the road - that would have been a sight! Not sure where they land, though... no bare ground anywhere!

At the top, I had this moon rising on one side,

and this sun setting on the other!

The top section of the trail DOES go straight up this!

The Cap from the lake

Back to Barron Pass, and VERY HOT by now...

Halfway out on the last day, the clouds lifted a little

And SUCCESS! back to the road... that was a great feeling!!!

Frenchmans Cap

Frenchmans Cap was an amazing experience! It is one of the best treks in Tazmania and also one of the most difficult ones. The trek just topped 1000 visitors a year for the first time last year, compared to the famous Overland trek here which allows 60 people per day on it. There were about 6-10 people at each of the campsites while I was up there, so I saw maybe 20 people total in the huts, and rarely while hiking. The two parts of the trek that make it difficult are the Lodden Plains and Barrons Pass (and the infamous local weather, of course!) more about those later. The Cap itself is white quartzite which is in stark contrast to the black rock below. The cap looks snowcovered from the ocean and was a landmark for early sailors. It is shaped somewhat like traditional British golf cap, but is supposedly named for a old French cooks hat.

My backpack isnt really made for trekking, so I had to strap things all over the outside, but it worked well enough :) I packed food for 5 days, rented a tent and few other camping items that I didn't have and was dropped off at the trailhead by Tazmanian Wilderness Adventures... with a hearty 'good luck'!

I was actually quite lucky to get very fabulous weather, and the first 3 days were clear, calm and hot. The weather is very tricky in Tazmania, and can change within an hour. It is really a maritime environment on the west half of the island, and any storms moving across the island build up quickly and dump all their rain - and the Frenchmans Cap track is usually right in the middle of it! The trail was about 18 miles in, so I made the first campsite at about 10 miles the first day. There is quite a nice hut built there, but it was good weather so I camped out. Took a very refreshing swim in the high alpine lake and recovered from an exhausting 6 hr walk in. I actually had it fairly easy because usually about half of the first days trek is in very muddy conditions (knee high is common and waist deep happens!) Fortunately it has been dry, so I didnt get over 8" of mud, which my gaiters took care of. The 'Lodden Plains' (affectionately known as the Sodden Loddens) that the trail crosses are very fragile button grass so they erode very easily, after only 100 walkers or so, and mud tracks are created very quickly. To protect the area wooden paths have been laid across many of the worst areas, but still plenty of mud to get through! There is an immense amount of track work done and I cant imagine how difficult the trail must have been 20 years ago, especially in wet weather! These Tazmanian trails average between $40-100 PER METER to build, so you can imagine how difficult the environment is considering that most of the trail isn't built up.

Day 2 wasn't as bad as I was mostly out of the mud and wet areas. The trail went along the lake, climbed through a beautiful cool rain forest, before breaking through Barron Pass, which is the first real view of the Cap and quite a spectacular point of the trail. It was a lot of vertical up the pass, but it was cool and protected so it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. From there it was 2 hours to traverse along a rocky ridge and high alpine vegetation to the hut. It was a lot of climbing and took about 4.5 hours to reach the upper lake and hut. The upper camp area is only at about 1000 meters elevation, but the trails are constantly up and down - there are very few flat stretches, so it probably climbs double the total elevation gained. I was very happy to see that there was actually a small beach on this lake and after another very much needed dip I made good use of it! It was probably in the 80's and damn hot on the unprotected upper section of the track so it felt SO good to cool off! The upper lake sits right under the dome and is a wonderful place to relax and take in the surrounding views.

It is another 400 meters or so to the summit, with the first half being steep steps and winding trail and the second just scrambling up the rock cap. I was able to make the summit in 40 minutes with a light pack (felt really good about passing everybody else that was going up- I think my legs are probably in the best walking shape of my life after toting this pack around for 10 weeks!) and spent about 3 hours just enjoying the scenery. The sun started setting in the West and the full moon came up in the East and it was absolutely beautiful! I stayed until almost dark and then started down. It was quite easy in the dark because the moon lit up the white rock brilliantly and made for an easy decent to the bottom. I camped alongside the lake and spent the next morning lounging around, just taking it all in. Finally left early afternoon in time to get back to the first hut near dark, and spent the night inside the hut, as the weather report called for heavy storms. Fortunately I listened to them because a howling wind came up at about 10:00 and torrential rain started at 2 am!

I had to be on the trail no later than 7 to meet my ride at noon, so I was trying to sleep thinking about how much fun the walk out was going to be! Again, I got lucky, because the rain stopped about 6:30 as I was packing up. I put on all the rain gear I had, wrapped everything else in trash bags and took off. Even without rain, after 2 minutes walking down the trail it might as well have been pouring, as I was the first one down the trail through the thick vegetation. It was probably upper 40's F so not too bad and it was comfortable walking in the cool temps. There was water everywhere and you pretty much just wade in and plan on getting water over the tops of your boots... there isn't any other way! Most spots weren't too bad, but across the Loddens (they were sodden this time!) I went up past my knees a few times in mud and nearly lost my boots, too! The water runs down the tracks like a river so I pretty much walked in water all day, so I can see how miserable that would be if it were cold! Arrived safe and sound back at the road just before noon, as the sun came out so I had a little time to remove all my wet outer gear before my ride arrived, and was reflect on how lucky I had been for the good weather, great scenery, and no close snake encounters! Many people trek all the way in there and either cant summit or summit and cant see anything because it is socked in, so I hit it just right.

All in all, quite an experience and I have a ton of pictures and video that I want to upload but for some reason this website wont accept them at the moment. I have posted a few of them on facebook - locate my profile by my email- robbielmiller@gmail.com if you would like. Hopefully the next time I sign in I will be able to download some. Now, its off to Cairns to try scuba diving and hopefully dive on the Great Barrior Reef!

Tazmania

Today I got to the city of Hobart, Tazmania and this island is beautiful! Seems very dry but supposedly it gets some rain because thunderstorms are predicted off and on for the next weeks. I have scheduled a bushwalking trip for 4 days, 3 nights to Frenchmans Cap which is supposed to be impressive so that should be quite an experience. There are 2 sleeping huts if we get to the right spots, and will camp the rest of the time... I am way excited about it!
Next week, I am flying to Cairns in Queenland, Australia and doing a 5 day scuba diving course and get to dive the Great Barrior Reef! So much cool stuff coming up, so I will update when I'm back from the hiking trip!

SA, Singapore and Sydney

I had an absolutely fabulous time in Capetown; it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I met some really cool people and pretty much just relaxed all week. I did manage to take 2 bus tours around the area, climb Table Mountain, and spend a lot of time analyzing the beaches and the effects of global warming. I didn't make it to Kruger park, so no lions :( ... but had to leave something for next time! The 2010 World Cup is in Johannesburg, and a bunch of matches are being played in Capetown, so they are building a sweet new stadium and redoing parts of the city. The backdrop to the city is Table Mountain, which rises just behind it and is a big plateau on top. One of my tours went around the back of the mountain, and it is very lush, cool, beautiful trees, birds and wildlife, and lots of vineyards. There are still remants of pre-apartheid visible in the shanty towns that are still very much in use, across the road from mansions... pretty crazy! Unfortunately, I left my camera at home that day, and Leandro (who I went with) had his stolen, so no photos of the bird park or the trip.
We hiked Table Mountain on my last day, and it rained the whole way up, which was a good thing because it stayed cool. The day before was ike 30C so we lucked out on the temperature, but the view was crappy, so that was too bad. My camera batteries died that day, so I only got like 3 photos to show for it, but it was a really nice hike.
I flew to Johannesburg and then 11 hrs to Singapore the next day. It is the cleanest city I have ever seen! The subway cars from the airport were Spotless, the streets are clean, everybody is very orderly - hardly anyone was talking on the subway, and everybody stood to one side of the escalators... kinda like robots! It was really easy to get around, super safe, and suprisingly cheap. I had heard it was quite expensive, but it is much cheaper than Sydney, and most places in Europe. I only had 10 hours there, so I took a city tour bus, and saw the usual sights- wuite a few really cool builings, an amazing flower garden, a brand new Chinese temple, the good luck fountain etc, etc. People were very nice and most spoke good English, so it was quite a nice day!
Flew overnight to Sydney (7 hrs) and was beat. I had spent the previous 2 nights on airplanes and busy both days, so after I got there, I walked around for a few hours (in the rain) and then crashed! Today I went to see the Opera House (AMAZING!), and Sydney Bridge and walked all over the downtown area. There are tons of parks, memorials, churches, very friendly people and it was sunny and warm. It was quick trip, but tomorrow I head to Tazmania, where I want to do some hiking and spend some time at the beach. let you know how it goes!

A few more pics...

Another random mix of pictures!

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul:

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul:

The Almafi Coast in Southern Italy:

With the crew in Capetown: Lindsay, Leandro, and Sylvia:

This one is obvious! Cairo...

Dubai! The tallest building in the world... 800 meters or so right now, and growing!

The worlds only 7 star hotel, Dubai:

Tiger Woods practicing before winning the Dubai Classic on Sunday:

More Dubai:

South Africa update!

Been all over, so here is a quick rundown. I will embellish more later.
Spent 4 days in Istanbul, Turkey, and it was the most surprising city I have been to so far. Super easy to travel in, friendly people, modern, clean etc etc. I would love to go back and spend time touring around the country because there are some really unique and beautiful parts of Turkey that would take at least a month to explore.
From there, I flew through the Kingdom of Bahrain to Dubai. That city is AMAZING!!! It was everything I hoped it would be - the buildings and infrastructure there are just spectacular! There are something like 5000 multi story buildings under construction right now and I heard 2/3 of the worlds tower cranes. That seems high, but I counted up to 7 tower cranes on 1 building, plus the surface cranes, rooftop mounted concrete pumps, etc, and you get the idea. I have a ton of really cool pictures, just need to post them! Alongside all the construction there are still the traditional souk markets, the ancient wooden dhow boats and the same culture that has existed in the middle east for ever. It is quite a contrast, but it fits well together. Probably the most modern city in the world; the whole city is completely planned out, they are building massive amounts of infrastructure and their goal is 10x the current construction for the city - so another 50000 buildings over the next decades. Also caught the final day of the Dubai golf classic, so I got to see Tiger, Sergio and Ernie Els play which was way cool! I had to leave before the end so I missed the close finish, but it was really neat to see those guys play!
My flight to Johannesburg had a stopover in Cairo, Egypt, so I added 1 day there and did a quick tour of the city. It was very overwhelming especially for just one day. It is quite dirty, crazy busy and a lot people working with the same methods they have for generations - mules, carts, cows, hand labor etc. etc. The pyramids, sphinx and tombs were very impressive - they are just so massive and have been there for so long it is just blew my mind. I think i would have had a better time there if I had stayed longer and gotten used to the flow of the city, but being so quick I didn't adjust very well, so it was a bit nerve racking for me.
Flew to Johannesburg, then to Capetown, South Africa, where I am now. This is another of the most beautiful cities in the world! Great beaches, lots of sun, lots of fun travelers, and a very laid back culture. This is somewhere I could totally get used to traveling to! If it only wasnt so far from Idaho...
Leave Monday for Australia (through Singapore!) so I will have been here a week. It feels like vacation here instead of traveling, so I am really enjoying relaxing on the beach. In fact I am late to meet my friends at the beach, so gotta run! priorities!

Photos 1.30.08

These are a bıt out of order but they are as follows: the entry to the Vatıcan, the entrance to the Sıstıne Chapel, Acropolıs, Olympıc stadıum from 2004, Acropolıs, ınsıde the Roman Coleseum, on our hıke at Cınque Terra, the Coleseum ın Rome, Remaıns of a Roman Facade, statues ın Prague, the Dom ın Cologne, statues ın an exterıor sculpture exhıbıt ın Cologne (Alıce ın Wonderland?) and the Dom ın Mılan. I accıdentally deleted a bunch of pıctures from a few cıtıes, so these are just a samplıng of what I have seen. No pıctures do justıce to the beauty and spectacularıty of the places I have vısıted, but these gıve the general ıdea... I wıll post more soon! 1 more day ın Istanbul, then a few days ın Dubaı, brıef stopover ın Caıro, on to South Afrıca for a week or so and then Australıa!

So